Lights flashed as a sharp crack echoed through the massive chambers. Air rushed past and then there was a heavy thud. “Ow.” Dren groaned into the stone floor of the boss chamber before pushing himself up and dismissing the resisted stun notification. On his back, two sets of overlapping leathery wings shifted. They weren’t items equipped, but neither were they permanent. Consuming the Dragon Fruit had given him a new ability, Wings of the Dragon Knight. They consumed a relatively large amount of stamina and flying ate through stamina like mad. But Dren knew they would be worth it. Just as soon as he got flying down. Using them hadn’t been hard, the skill came with the knowledge of how to move them. But it did not come with the knowledge of how to fly, which was annoying.
After fifteen minutes of trying he had managed to get himself hovering with enough skill he started to feel confident. Rising up a good twenty meters he had hovered, his control over the beating wings becoming more fluid as he grew used to them. Reassured that he had things under control he had given a mighty beat of his wings intent on moving forward. With a thunderous boom, he had blasted upwards to smash face-first into the chamber’s ceiling.
Resisting the urge to sit and wallow in the pain of his throbbing head, Dren forced himself up and started working on hovering, again. He only had one hour of usage with a six hour cooldown, so he needed to make the most of this first hour. Before it ended he wanted to at least be able to fly around the room somewhat. The wing's speed scaled with both his agility and strength. While they were summoned and out, they were considered part of his body meaning he would take damage if they were struck. Luckily they scaled well with his toughness, very well actually. While the thin membrane looked delicate in truth they were tougher than imbued steel. His daggers had barely been able to scratch them so he wasn’t too worried about them becoming a weakness. In fact, they were practically living shields he could manipulate at will while out. In a melee fight, they would prove a great defensive asset.
And he would be putting them to use soon enough. His Proclamation skill had come off cooldown earlier that day, normally he used it during any monster surge. But it was good to keep them guessing. Besides, Little Garden’s main dungeoneering group had apparently made it to this boss already. There was no way he was going to pass up a Prime reward. Now that he had it, he was even more determined to hoard all the Prime rewards for himself. With a smaller beat of his wings, he soared across the room. This time he was able to react before smashing into the wall, beating his wings fiercely to halt his careening into the wall. Well, he tried. This time he struck with only enough force for it to hurt, not almost brain himself. Ren and Meg stood watching him with neutral faces. He was glad Kitty wasn’t here, unlike the two with him she would have never stayed quiet as he careened around the room into one wall or another.
By the time his hour was up, he had mostly gotten the hang of flying. But only slowly. It would be a while before he could put his plan together. Every week he attacked the Necropolis to use his Proclamation skill. But each time it was a little harder as the defenders grew in strength as well. The seal that prevented unauthorized teleportation had remained on continuously. Meaning he had to cross the no man’s land around the Haven on foot. Skeleton mages now lined the walls at all times making up for the greatly reduced number of native defenders. This was particularly bad for Dren as the skeletons felt nothing so couldn’t feed the Fetish of Dark Energies. This wasn’t the only change that had been a problem, the walls were now taller and thicker than before. With greater toughness meaning he wasn’t able to blast through them like before. Well not as easily. Because of this, he had been forced to do more and more vague proclamations. They gave far smaller rewards than his initial one and twice now he had almost failed.
But all of that was about to change. He could already see himself flying up and over the walls. Dropping enchanted knives and his Lightning Orbs all over the defenders on the wall. It was about time he stopped farming the Necropolis for points anyway. A timer had appeared on the third quest in his Invader chain. Counting down just two weeks until the invasion started in full and he would automatically fail his head start chain.
Invasion Conquest (Head Start) Part Three.
Capture a Haven Pylon.
Status: 0/1
*****
A bony hand smashed repeatedly into the wooden table top. “Where is he? Did that coward know we had prepared a trap for them? Did they? HOW? WHY? I had a speech ready for when he died! This is unfair. Not fair! NOT FAIR!” Richard shrieked in rage. Maria sat across the table just watching the unstable Skeletal Lord. Stress had left her looking like she aged years in the last few months. It had been beyond draining to try and keep things together in the wake of that night's failed battle. For it could only be considered a failure. The invader boy had proved far more powerful than she imagined. How he had survived all that was thrown at him was still a mystery. The fact that he continued to show such might week after week had only made things worse.
Richard’s actions had firmly turned most of the people of the Necropolis against him. Even before the news of them holding the girl from Little Garden had spread. Their souring relationship with the nearby Haven had become another sore point. It had been tiny in comparison before. But between the people they gained and the Necropolis lost. Both were roughly the same size now. Still, power spoke volumes and Richard with his army of skeletons was powerful. There were still people loyal to him and the Necropolis was still a force to be reckoned with. But not enough, Richard’s profession had turned from Noble to Fallen Noble. It had reset his profession level to one and locked out all his existing skills. Until his Fallen Noble class reached where his Noble class had been he would get nothing from leveling up.
Even then he would only unlock a few of his previous skills and the stat gains going forward for a Fallen Noble was just one single Spirit. He only had a year to regain double the number of loyal followers it had taken him to reach the Noble status. After that, the amount needed would double again every year going forward. All but ensuring he lost any chance of regaining the power his rare profession had given him. They were making some progress on bringing his number of loyal followers up. But it was slow and by rather unsavory means. Most of those who had remained behind did so either out of fear or because they cared little about what Richard had done. In turn, the Necropolis had turned into an open haven for the worst of the worst. Those who had skirted around in the shadows now walked freely, just so long as they were loyal enough for the quest to count them.
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Maria at first thought to fall back on her second option. But the group from Charleston including that arrogant man it was named after and his insane healer weren’t in the Necropolis anymore. Something she could only blame herself for. She had let them know that the Haven called Thunderdome to the south would have an invader appear. It hadn’t been a lie. Another of these early invaders was going to show up. The moment they walked into the Haven its lord and everyone there would be notified. Something that should have happened when Dren entered the Necropolis but was stopped by some skill he had. She had only wanted them out of the way until she could solidify things after Richard evolved his class. But they hadn’t returned.
She knew they were still alive, but she was unable to get a good read on either of them. Frustration filled her at that thought. As she had leveled her ability to predict the futures of others had grown until she thought there was nothing she could not see. Even now, if she picked out any normal person walking around she could accurately predict weeks even months into the future. But anyone with a rare class was harder to predict. With each level, they earned making it even harder. What good was being a Seer if she could only predict the future around the weak? At least if they sometimes allowed her to see future events when they were to interact with those she couldn’t read directly. But it was annoyingly difficult, made worse as her class leveled slow now that she was a Royal Seer without a Noble to serve under. It didn’t ruin her class as it had Richard’s profession. But she took a massive experience penalty.
“It is all falling apart.” Maria whispered, ignored by Richard. All the hope, joy, power, and most of all control she had felt from the day this whole integration had happened was slipping through her fingers. At this rate, she was likely to end up just like before things changed. A victim of fate with no control over anything. Shaking her head she gritted her teeth and looked at the ranting skeleton. She had sworn not to allow anyone or anything to dictate her fate again. If this mad bag of bones was her only tool left. If she had to help build a city of the worst of the worst it didn’t matter. So long as she was at the top and had control over her own fate then that was all that mattered. As her resolve solidified, new options appeared. Unrestrained by thoughts of right or wrong nor bound by a sense of morality, she could now see countless paths that had been hidden from her before. A smile bearing a hint of madness spread across her tired face.
*****
Stretching to get used to the unfamiliar armor they winced some as the metal breastplate pinched them under the arm. Struggling they loosened some straps and tightened others. Made only more difficult by the poorly fitted helm, but soon enough they had things situated well enough. Satisfied the armor was on properly, or at least enough they could fight they picked up the heavy two handed sword in its scabbard. Slinging it over their shoulder they belted it in place then drew it from its sheath. Normally the giant sword would have been impossible to draw in this manner. But the minor enchantment on the scabbard allowed the blade to pass through it when drawn. With a slight grunt, they hefted the sword in both hands before them.
“Feel like a real soldier now?” Their head snapped over to see the sergeant watching them and gave them a goofy smile in response.
“I do!” Their moves were stiff but they managed to get the sword back in its scabbard before sloppily saluting the older man.
“Yeah yeah stop that nonsense.” With a wave of their hand, they entered the room and sat down on one of the empty bunks with a groan.
“Just trying my best at the soldier thing.” The armored man stood there, still saluting.
“That so? Then should I dish out some sort of punishment for all your sass then boy?” Glaring up at them the older man’s face was a mask of sternness.
“Uh… I mean. You don’t really have to.” Dropping the salute he dropped down heavily into a bunk, the thin mattress doing little to cushion their heavy drop. “Ow.”
Sucking in a deep breath the older man let out a sigh. “So are you sure about this? I really can’t talk you out of it?”
Pulling off the helmet the younger man shook out his hair. “Nope.”
Grumbling under his breath the old man cursed the foolishness of youth before speaking up. “I never should have let you talk me into bringing you along. You know why they bring people as low level as you right? There is a total level cap on invasion forces and a minimum number of troops they need. If they fill up the slots with people like yourself who have barely any levels. It allows them to bring a few stronger elite. They are gaming the system. You are being brought along as little more than fodder. At your current level, you will die.”
Playing with the metal bracer at their wrist the younger man looked up. “Eh, don’t you level like crazy fast on a newly integrated world? I’m sure I’ll gain a ton of levels in no time.” He could see the annoyance in the older man’s face at his flippant attitude so stopped messing with his armor and gave them a serious look. “I know it is dangerous. But the potential rewards are worth it. All I have to do is keep my head down, soak up some easy levels, and then I can really do it. I can change the future for my entire family. Something that honestly, I never thought would be possible. No matter how many times I boosted I’d do just that.”
Pursing his lips the older man worked on coming up with a good argument. He really liked the young man who had convinced him to tutor him to unlock his class. It was also he who had been recruited to be part of the invasion forces. Then the brat had managed to convince him to get him a slot. Just as he finally put together a good argument his apprentice, no his friend spoke up.
“Look. My little brother is sick. Really sick. So I have to do something crazy if I want to help him out.” They flashed a smile. “Plus, they are way into stories about system integration events. When they find out I actually got to take part in one, their head is likely to explode. I can’t wait to see that happen. Or to see them up and out of bed. Healthy.” He paused then spoke softly but with resolve. “So, while I appreciate what you are trying to do Geth. I am doing this.”
Sucking in another deep breath the old warrior Geth let the breath blow out through his nose. “Fine Aler. Just don’t make me regret it.”
Grinning brightly Aler spoke up. “Don’t worry. I won’t. Besides, my brother’s birthday is the same day the invasion starts. That has to be a good sign right?”