The Titans would arise any day now, and start their devastating march across the world. He took the comment about the weapon in stride. It would be revealed when it was time.
“You wish to fight them?” Jeffrey asked, raising one eyebrow. Sam simply nodded. “They are at the border of the canyon. Thousands of our soldiers and automatons are stationed there right now. If you want to join them, you only need to make your way there.”
“Very well. Come with me then. I want to see how much progress you’ve made.”
Before Jeffrey could protest, Sam lifted him up and started running, leaving the city hall in a matter of moments. At his full speed, he reached the city walls in a matter of minutes, tugging Jeffrey along for the ride. Pausing for a moment, he bunched his muscles and then expelled Dao energy as he leaped, propelling himself over the walls. Landing on the other side, he dropped Jeffrey.
“I’m going to be pulling out all the stops here, so find a way to keep up,” he said, before teleporting as far as he could.
He spotted Jeffrey racing towards a nearby plane as he did so. Without another thought, he started to leap across the land, using his skill to shoot him forwards a hundred feet at a time. He noticed that the traces of the nuclear bombs that Hugo Mar had used against the city were gone now.
As he moved, he concentrated on readying himself for battle. Sometimes the pace of action in the world was glacial, and sometimes it was far too fast for comfort. If he had been the old Sam, this would have given him whiplash. However, with his level, it felt like he was moving at a normal pace through things. Whenever his Dao energy ran out, he simply ran, relying on his dual Fragments to pick up the slack of regeneration. In this manner, he flashed across the world, heading towards his target like an arrow.
Some time later, he heard the noise of battle coming from ahead, and slowed down. Where the canyon bisected the trees, there was a line of defenders desperately heading off the advances of thousands of undead. They came in all shapes and sizes, from humanoids to beasts. Far more terrifying however was the towering figure on the other side of the canyon. Although it was many miles away, it was still visible from here.
A giant, indeed, a Titan, stood there, made out of bleached bone. A vortex of dark energy swirled around its head, and from its feet came the hordes that beset the land. It was still unable to move, seemingly rooted there by the will of the System, but it was quickly breaking free.
That was the Corpse Titan, the nearest threat to the faction. It looked almost impossibly large, standing multiple miles in height. Each of its hands was the size of a large hill, and the crushing aura that it gave off was palpable, even from there. With a battle cry, empowered by his Dao, Sam charged, letting his aura fly out. Mantle of the Arbiter activated, filling his allies with new strength, and his enemies with fear. He leaped into the air at the last moment, seeming to hover there for a moment.
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Teleporting upwards until he was a mile in the air, he began to pump power into his hammer. Not anywhere near the amount contained in his final skill, but enough to cause some serious damage. As he fell, he arched his back, holding his hammer high. Mjolnir started to crackle with lightning as he plummeted, and by the time he was nearing the ground, a dark thunderhead had gathered around it. With a wordless cry, he brought it down, straight onto the head of a massive, rotting cyclops.
The creature was reduced to a splatter of putrid gore in the blink of an eye, and a rolling shockwave of power raced outwards from the epicenter. The ground cracked and shook as Sam’s will was made manifest, and the nearest monsters were blasted away, their bones breaking and flesh tearing. He landed softly in the middle of the fray, and then threw himself forwards, ready for carnage. He was not here to defeat the Corpse Titan, as that was beyond his ability alone, even with all of his boosts. He would need the full support of the faction for that. However, he was more than capable of fighting off these weaker enemies.
He roared as he fought, breaking apart rotting undead with every strike of his hammer. Mjolnir was like a streak of silvery lightning as he fought, and he soon was pushing back the hordes. All around him, his allies cheered, piling in behind Sam’s advance. The tide of the battle was rapidly changing.
Sam closed his eyes, gathering his power for an advanced application of his teleportation ability. Over the next second, he teleported a dozen times, each time striking one of the higher level monsters. In what looked like a sudden spray of clotted blood and gore, some of the largest creatures on the battlefield met their end. Essence rushed into Sam like a tide, but it was too little to bring his level up. Before he had left, this sort of carnage would have fueled his growth significantly, but now it was barely a drop in the bucket of what he needed to level up.
As he fought, he kept an eye on Jeffrey, eager to see how much his closest friend had progressed in the time since he had left. He was not disappointed. Every shot from the man’s new weapon, something that looked like a miniature artillery piece made out of steel, looked like a small star. It was empowered by Jeffrey’s Dao and his mana, meaning that every strike claimed a life. His accuracy was almost perfect, allowing him to hit enemies miles away from him. He seemed to specialize in taking out larger opponents, but he was almost as adept at fighting the fodder as well, where he would switch weapons to something that looked like a gatling gun. A storm of arcane shards would whip across the battlefield when he used it, tearing apart the weaker enemies like they were going through a meat grinder. However, Sam clearly stole the show. For a melee fighter to keep up with, and indeed, surpass the kills of a ranged one was incredible.