Sam tore through the nearby weakened Legion members, finishing off what he had not done the first time around. They fell like wheat before the scythe of his hammer, turning into splatters of gore. These were some of the weakest enemies that he had faced in a long time, but as he killed more and more of them, he was eventually met with a better challenge.
One of the Legion commanders leaped over the heads of his men, and landed in front of Sam, holding a massive warhammer in both hands. He roared in rage, and brought the hammer down, imbuing it with dark energy. The ground cracked beneath the blow, and Sam was sent flying backwards by a wave of power, causing him to skid to a halt some fifty feet away. He was unharmed, but he knew that he was in for a real fight now.
Sam held his hammer with both hands, sending his power into it in preparation. The Legion commander struck without any preamble, racing towards Sam with his greathammer held high. Sam waited until the last moment, and then dodged to the side, using his hammer as a counterbalance. The hammer swung directly into the Legion commander’s leg, knocking him over. Sam whirled around, with his eyes half closed, and began to harass the other man with a flurry of blows from his hammer, each of which was aimed at precisely the right spot to land. The blows lacked real power, but they pushed his opponent back, and soon he had the man exactly where he wanted him.
Sam pretended to fumble with his hammer, and his opponent’s eyes lit up, sensing an opening. He raised his greathammer, getting ready to strike, but Sam suddenly rose up, and swung as hard as he could, discharging his stores of energy into his enemy. The man was blasted backwards, his gray skin smoking as he flew. Sam raced alongside him, and readied another strike, his new talents allowing him to judge the precise trajectory that he should swing at.
As the Legion commander came down, Sam swung, cratering the man’s head and splattering gray gore over the ground. With one final overhand smash, he crushed his enemy into the ground. That entire exchange had taken less than a minute, and with only a small advantage in terms of stats as compared to last time he had fought one of those creatures, he had absolutely demolished the Legion commander. His hammer was a far greater asset than he had originally thought, it seemed.
The rest of the Legion turned towards him, prompted by the death of their commander to rush him en masse. Attacks from the city walls landed amidst them, but they ignored the attacks like the hive mind that they were. Sam readied his hammer, and ran towards the horde, roaring at the top of his lungs as he did so.
What ensued over the next few minutes was nothing less than utter carnage. Sam tore through their number like they weren't even here, his hammer completely atomizing anything that it touched. His weapon energy, or whatever it was called, was like acid, eating away at anything that was weaker than itself. Sam saw multiple enemies die to their wounds far more rapidly than they should have, even if he had only landed a glancing blow. And, to be fair, his glancing blows tore off arms and limbs. However, there was a limit to his stamina, and it eventually ran out just as he had killed his 3 thousandth enemy.
Sam panted as the monsters attacked him, letting their strikes ricochet off his armor. A few minutes later, he continued. He really was unfairly powerful for his level. Sam continued for the next thirty minutes, and by the time that he was done, his armor was utterly covered in gore, and the ground was slick with gray blood. He had almost single handedly taken out an army of over ten thousand soldiers, even if they were quite weak compared to him, without suffering a single injury. Raising one fist towards the heavens, he saluted the defenders on the city walls, before running back towards home.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Twenty minutes later, his armor was washed off, and he was sitting with his captains at the meeting room of the city hall. All of his captains sat there, staring at him in amazement of what they had witnessed, some for different reasons than the others.
“So, Sam, what exactly was that power you were using out there?” Eduardo asked, a man who was attuned enough to his weapon to recognize the talent of another in that area.
“It was from the next stage of Weapon Mastery. Apparently I had been on the cusp of it for a while, but just didn’t know it. Here, I’ll show you the notification.” Sam quickly opened it up, and let everyone read over it.
You have upgraded your Weapon Mastery to Brotherhood Stage 1!
You have transcended the mortal limitations of weapon mastery, created a mystical bond with maces and other blunt weapons of all shapes and sizes. This ability allows you to access a store of martial energy that can be used to empower your strikes, your body, or to damage incorporeal threats. In addition to this, your body will now be able to use your chosen weapon in a more instinctual way, as the weapon will alter its trajectory slightly to accommodate your intentions.
+10 to Strength, +5 to Dexterity, +3 to Constitution and Resilience
Eduardo looked up a moment later, a smile on his face.
“So this is what I was missing this entire time. I am at stage 9 of my Weapon Mastery, at the Novice tier. I should probably try to further my knowledge as much as I can, if this is the reward.”
“Yeah. I would like it for everyone here to be able to achieve that level eventually. It only gives a relatively small boost to your stats, but the other bonuses are substantial. It makes you far better at using your weapon, to the point where I would say it was equal to about ten levels of power, if not more. In fact, should we not focus on this now? We don't have time for leveling up before the Legion comes, but we can further our weapon mastery.”
Addas raised his hand, and Sam pointed at him, signaling for him to speak.
“What if we don’t have any sort of weapon? I have a different sort of path to weaponry.”
“I see. You rely solely on your magic, right? How exactly does that work?” Lao asked the man, intrigued.
“I have a similar system to you all, but it merely measures my prowess in effectively using my magical abilities in battle. I suspect that the bonuses would be the same should I rank it up.”
“Well then. It seems like we can all benefit from this,” Sam replied. “How about we get in some last minute training before the Legion comes?”
Everyone nodded in agreement, and with that, they began.
A half hour later, they were all standing in the middle of a deserted arena, waiting for their training to begin. Sam had requested that Sarge come along for this, as the robot had the ability to mimic any fighting style and use any weapon. It would be helpful to say the least.
The priority for now was getting Eduardo to the next rank, but the other captains were to be helped as well. Sam had gone around, and it seemed like the average level of the captains with their weapon mastery was about the mid stage of the rank. It would take a while for them to rank up, unless they were able to do the same thing that Sam did.