Michelle – Epsilon Zone #1 Level 100
Sharing an alarmed look with the Initiate Templar, Michelle then spun to sprint through the throng of armor clad figures.
Rushing back to her Raid Party, a mind noted other Raid Leaders barking out commands and having already wasted precious seconds she frantically followed suit. Clutching the yellow crystal strung around her neck with a free hand, she half screamed into it.
“ALRIGHT 72! FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DIDN’T HEAR OUR FEARLESS LEADER, THE TERRITORIAL ARMY SHAT ON THE CARPET AND WE ARE ALL STANDING IN IT! GET INTO FORMATION 3 AND MOVE OUT ON MY SIGNAL!”
Grinning as she heard confirmations return from the clasped crystal, she almost broke her stride when P3’s leader Lionel queried in his unique Australian twang.
“Ah so um ah, what’s formation three again boss lady?”
Frowning as her free mind struggled to come up with a succinct explanation while she ducked and weaved, narrowly avoiding a self-inflicted coat hangering on an extended spear, she responded.
“The one where you put your melee fighters in the front, your healer in the middle and your ranged at the back! JUST WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU DOING WHEN WE WERE ALL GETTING BRIEFED?”
Dodging to the left to avoid running into a tower shield she heard chuckling come from the [Communication Necklace] again before the man in question replied somewhat sheepishly.
“Sorry boss lady, I had to say goodbye to ma grandma and my nephew…If you could not tell the councilors I missed the briefing, I promise to make it up to ya…”
Stunned by the realization that the man had actually been fare welling one of the few children born since E-Day, she almost impaled herself on a long sword as she [Blink]’d away and closed on Raid Party 72’s position. Not having the heart to make an example of the man further, she snapped.
“Maldición Lionel! Just make sure one of the other Party leaders give you a rundown before we mo-“
Yet she didn’t hear The Aboriginal Australians reply as another bass rumbling *guguguguGUGUGUGUGugugugu* drowned out everything else as a southerly wind began to tousle her hair not safely sequestered in her robes hood.
Finally reaching her Raid Party’s position she nodded to her Party and looked anxiously about to see if there was anything she could busy herself with whilst waiting.
As the tense seconds led to anxious minutes of shuffling and shifting, there was a soft whistle as the wind picked up speed. Then to her right, a [Fire Bolt] shot straight up in the air and all motion around her seemed to cease.
Grabbing the crystal again she yelled to be heard over the now wailing gale.
“THAT’S THE SIGNAL TO ADVANCE PUTA’S! DON’T FORGET TO NOT BE A TARADO HERO, AND IF YOU NEED TO FALL BACK DO IT TO-PINCHE-GETHER!”
Turning to her own party she used her staff to make a circling motion in the air and as one her Raid Party began to march towards the now rapidly shifting sand dunes.
Unease grew in Michelle as she and her Raid Party took the vanguard position alongside those of the other evenly numbered raid groups of The Freedom Consortiums forces.
When the people had thinned to only a single row in front of her, she saw what appeared to be a giant dust storm forming in the Plateau’s center.
Looking to either side, her minds were reassured somewhat when noting that none of their considerable arrayed forces had broken formation, instead opting to steadily advance toward wherever the American Territorial Army’s combatants had disappeared to.
Squinting as she looked forward into the forming maelstrom of dust and wind, the scale of the weather system caused doubt to suffuse her minds once more.
They had yet to find the boss and had already lost sight of a fifth of their fighting force somewhere in the building maelstrom and were now marching toward said dust storm that looked to be almost skimming the limits of earth pinche atmosphere!
To her right a mind noted a [Frost Bolt] had just shoot into the air and her other mind quickly barked through the [Communication Necklace].
“HALT!”
Coming up level with Quan and Gideon, she scanned the horizon in an effort to see the reason for the signal.
*guguguguGUGUGUGUGGUGUGUGUGU*
Far louder this time, the bass vibration of the sound cut through the howling gale to send a collective shiver down the spines of humanities arrayed elite.
Shielding her eyes against the beating sun she looked to the almost twister like base of the enormous storm and saw what appeared to be tiny dots, gradually approaching them. Looking to their Field Commanders position and the noticeable absence of signals she turned her attentions back to the numerous approaching dots.
Looking on in dual wonder, her breath caught as the giant storm seemed to contract in on itself as the air rushed past the allied forced in a howling gust.
At the same time, the dots at its base resolved into humanoid silhouettes as they drew further away from the rapidly contracting twister. Her eyes stung as she vainly shielded them against the sunlight and wind while taking in the odd way the upper part of the dust storm was rotating. Contrary to what little she knew of twisters, the upper part of this one was splitting into two distinct funnels that tapered off as they oscillated perpendicular to the rest of the plateau.
Crinkling her brow in stereo confusion, Michelle focused on the figures in the foreground which had once again increased in size. As a mind strained her eyes once more, she could just make out what appeared to be rapidly sprinting people, clad in the red and blue of the Territorial Army. While the seconds passed and the figures grew in detail, she could make out what appeared to be miniature twisters that she recognized from somewhere, trailing behind the numerous fleeing individuals.
*GUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGU*
Again the bass emanation echoed, in the core of her very bones this time, as it seemed to rattle in concert with reality itself.
Doubly transfixed, Michelle watched in awe as the top half of the mega twister rotated before one of its funnels condensed. Then to her multiplicative horror, she could make out the outline of a gargantuan fist at its end!
As a mind flicked her gaze to the inexorably descending appendage, her other mind sprung into action. Jumping back into formation she cast her [Fire bolt] toward the manifested fist and casting again, grabbed her [Communication Necklace] and screamed.
“TARGET THAT HIJUEPUTA FIST!”
Instantly from around her, her Raid Party obliged as they loosed all manner of projectiles toward the large appendage. Gooseflesh overtook her skin as the sand made fist swallowed her spell, like it was a drop in a bucket.
Casting [Fire Bolt] after [Fire Bolt] her Raid Party’s ineffectual volleys were swiftly joined by the rest of the arrayed forces.
Still the titanic fist descended unabated, toward the scattered and fleeing Territorial Army. And while the projectiles peppered the fist ineffectually, the stragglers of the escaping forces were swallowed up by the abundant pursuant twisters.
When the all but impervious fist made landfall, Michelle thought the plateau itself would split apart from its colossal impact. However it seemed that her fears were unfounded this time, as although the world shuddered in protest and she used her staff to stay upright, the plateau blessedly refused to yield.
Unfortunately the American Territorial Army forces had not been so privileged, the displaced sand of the once fist, began to retreat back toward the central spinning column, while its absence revealed all it had wrought.
The wailing wind was a fitting choir to the remains of the unfortunate souls that had had their existences snuffed out from the titanic impact. Numbly, from the scattered and half buried remains of equipment Michelle’s minds took in the graveyard of thousands of her once allies, in a dazed accounting of their potential number.
Yet still the fire of hope flickered unrepentant as to either side of the impact crater, her minds picked out thousands of survivors still struggling to their feet. And although there were an unfortunate number who just stumbled dazedly while the multitude of twisters reformed on the opposite side of the depression. The cognizant survivors for the most part, began Usain Bolting toward her position without delay, while a small but desperate number made efforts to bring their confused allies to their senses in the aftermath of the blows fallout.
A deafening *HUAHUAHUAHUAHUA* rang out across the plateau as the battered remnants of the Territorial Army closed at breakneck speed with the rest of the allied forces. Looking once more to the giant twister, her straining eyes dilated in alarm as a titanic humanoid torso began to manifest from the constricting sand.
Two gigantic hollow eye sockets coalesced to slowly pan and take in the humans arrayed before it, then below them the now undulating sands began to part and create a mouth like aperture.
When the edges of the oval cavity the size of a football stadium had finished forming, the sound occurred again *HUAHUAHUAHUAHUA* its edges vibrating in concert to the mocking facsimile of laughter.
Still doubly transfixed by the absurdity of what she was witnessing, a mind belatedly noted that the cavern of an aperture had opened again to mouth another booming utterance.
“CCCCOOOOMMMMEEEE!”
Feeling her body involuntarily start to shake Michelle’s minds turned their attentions in revolt to The American Territorial Army troops who had failed to flee fast enough. Occasionally defensive spells would flash into existence before being consumed by the pursuant twisters, leaving behind red stained and tattered armored encased corpses, eviscerated in their wake.
Rage built within her and began to overtake her fear stricken minds and body. Grabbing the [Communication Necklace] she commanded.
“LIGHT UP THOSE PURSUERS YOU CABRON’S!”
Not waiting for confirmation she began throwing [Fire Bolt]’s interspersed with [Lightning Bolt]’s, picking targets at random as her crystalline staff pulsed in unison with each spell loosed. Meanwhile others began to rest themselves free of their awe stricken horror and joined her assault. Grinning savagely when she was rewarded with her first kill notification:
Your Raid Party has slain Dust Devil level 95, experience awarded equally.
A mind willing the notification away, her other mind already ready to cast her vengeance upon her next target:
Your Raid Party has slain Dust Devil level 95, experience awarded equally.
Your Raid Party has slain Dust Devil level 95, experience awarded equally.
Your Raid Party has slain Dust Devil level 95, experience awarded equally.
Your Raid Party has slain Dust Devil level 95, experience awarded equally.
Your Raid Party has slain Dust Devil level 95, experience awarded equally.
Your Raid Party has slain Dust Devil level 95, experience awarded equally.
Your Raid Party has slain Dust Devil level 95, experience awarded equally.
Having sated her need to revenge the fallen, Michelle noticed the ever twisting base of their now manifest foe had encroached on the far too close for comfort crater where its amorphous fist had made landfall.
As the blue bar in her periphery began to blink in warning of her waning mana, there was a flash of [Blink] being activated just to her left, causing her to erect [Lesser Fire Shield] on reflex.
The also startled mage that had appeared some ten meters from her, had the decency to also look sheepish as Michelle canceled the barrier and beckoned the chagrined Eugene over.
Running up to her, a cascade of American accented words hastily exited the young mans mouth while he proffered an approximation of a salute.
“General Michelle mam! I bring orders from Field Commander Calvin!”
Raising a curious eyebrow at her hitherto unknown title, she kept silent while looking expectantly at the early twenty something Initiate Frost Mage as she waited for him to continue. Clearing his throat nervously at the lack of dialogue he carried on after a few awkwardly pregnant moments.
“Ahem…The Field Commander says to enact pattern 2E and these are his words not mine mam, ‘Don’t be a fucking idiot and die!’”
Smirking at the younger man’s discomfort she nodded and responded.
“Consider it done. And when you see the ‘Field Commander’ again if you could tell him to follow his own pinche advice!”
Unsure whether to salute or not, the man simply bobbed his blonde curly haired head, and after a few more moments of confused silence blurted out.
“Consider it done General!”
The young man running away before Michelle had a chance to say anything further.
From behind her, she could here Quan laughing and when she turned a menacing glare on the Korean, he replied mirthfully as the wind whipped at his shoulder length hair.
“I never thought I’d see the day our mighty ‘General’ would have an admirer!”
Her scowl deepened as she gripped the yellow crystal and barked.
“72 PATTERN 2E NOW! IF YOU ARE LIONEL, THAT MEANS WE ARE MOVING TO THE EAST TO SKIRT THE EDGE OF THE PLATEAU WHILST DESTROYING THE SMALLER COMBATANTS! IF THE BIG SANDY MIERDA COMES INTO RANGE, WELL WE KEEP RUNNING AND SHOOT HIM TOO! CLEAR?”
As snickering and confirmations were transmitted back to her and Raid Party 72 began to follow the other front line Raid Party’s to the right, the Party’s to their rear stated to head in the opposite direction, to the left.
Keeping up a steady pace when her mana permitted, they sent spells and ranged attacks whizzing at the pursuing Dust Devils while jogging along in a loose formation. All the while, the thoroughly routed Territorial Army had continued to flee toward the ramp leading to the plateau proper, having lost their will to fight at the flagrant literal pummeling they had just received.
With one mind consumed in the ebb and flow of combat, her other mind noted that the distance between them and the amorphous Sand Titan was widening. Breathing a sigh of relief her minds once more found a sense of security and comfort in the rigmarole despite its already substantial entrance fee.
And so the remaining allied forces conducted themselves for several grueling weeks, in an increasingly frustrating fight with the Sand Titan Al’Ish’Tul.
Collectively, they had slain tens of thousands of the Dust Devils that were sent out in a never ending tide. All the while, the semi-humanoid titan laughed and taunting them in its booming approximation of speech.
Yet despite having shoot millions of attacks into its undulating outline, they had noticed no decrease in its strength or size as it tirelessly pursued them across the flat, scarified sand scape, which made up the majority of the Epsilon Zone.
Having set up a camp on the ascent to the plateau after the first grueling day of kiting the Sand Titan, they worked out a deployment rotation so as to allow the allied forces some respite and nourishment.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
After having regrouped and rallied their few thousand remnants, The American Territorial Army made a big show of taking the longest deployment slots, ‘to avenge the fallen!’.
However having grown up in the USA and perpetuating many of its values through her superhero roles, Michelle believed this was more of a mea culpa to the other major factions and pulling their weight to obtain potential rewards, than anything to do with honor or valor.
Sitting on a supply crate near her Field Commander’s tent, she finished downing one of Kivar’s, now infamous [Kivar’s Honeyed Bacon Breakfast Burrito]’s and took in the state of Raid Party 72.
Her own Party was just as haggard as the other four that made up its total. Sadly there were some noticeable absences from P2 and P5 from when the unrelenting Dust Devils had come out of the very sand itself, taking the unfortunate Sven and Lyudmila by complete surprise. And though the loss was minimal and their end was swift she found little comfort in the morbid fact.
All things considered, her Raid Party had been one of the luckier ones over the course of the two weeks of protracted fighting. With several from The European Conglomerate having been wiped out completely by not too dissimilar surprise attacks.
The Asian Union, having fielded the largest number of fighters had initially been cavalier in their attempts to subdue the Sand Titan with coordinated hit and run attacks. Yet they discovered the fatal flaw in the tactic when a contingent of roughly five thousand of their ranged attackers got too close to the bosses twisting base and it suddenly increased its rotation to suck up the unfortunate souls, active defensive skills and all.
If this was not warning enough for the allied forces, the Sand Titan then began to morph one of its arms into a rapidly spinning cylinder and propel the bodies of the unfortunate men and women at their once comrades, to deadly effect. And ever since that near effortless yet brutal demonstration of might, none had dared get closer than two miles to its menacing presence.
When the attrition over the last fortnight had been taken into account against their original number of a hundred and twenty one thousand odd troops, they were left with little over ninety eight thousand and falling. Swiveling her head, she heard her once Party Leader call her name.
“Michelle, a word?”
Looking quizzically at Calvin’s stern face, she didn’t need both her minds to guess it must be something serious, moving unflinchingly over to his upheld tent flap. When the flap was dropped as she passed he followed her into the 14 foot by 14 foot temporary construction and slumped into a wooden chair that groaned under his [Elevant’s Essential Gear] clad frame. Following his lead she also plopped into the opposing chair about the basic wooden table and asked in resigned tone.
"Soooo ‘Field Commander’ what have you and the other big wigs decided?”
Frowning at her, he replied.
“Cummon Michelle, I don’t need shit from you too…You know as well as I do that none of this was what any of us wanted or had planned for…”
As the insanely muscled man gestured around the [Mage-light Stone] illuminated tent, she couldn’t help but agree with his lament.
Certainly, Michelle had earned immense power and prestige over the past few years but when she factored in the holes in her memory and her under abundance of friends, it hardly felt worth it. Ferreting a bit of sand from under her nails she responded with mirrored regret creeping into her voice.
“You didn’t answer my question Cal…”
Seeing she was also in no mood for their usual banter, he supplied.
“If you haven’t figured it out by now, we are running out of time and fast…Then there’s the small matter that from the get go this operation has not gone according to the plan in the least.”
Failing to keep the sneer from her face she bit back.
“Tell me something I don’t already know, captain pinche obvious!”
Scowling in rebuke at her interruption, he continued.
“Well what you definitely don’t know, is that two of the other factions are thinking of pulling ou-“
Eyes going wide in dual minded disbelief, she shot back.
“WHAT?!?! WHO WOULD BE THAT MIERDA DENSE!?…did they not read the quest info? If we don’t complete this, that giant sandy pinche will be set loose to roam the zones with impunity!”
Shaking his head in shared exasperation he replied.
“Those were almost my words verbatim when I learned they wanted out. The Asian Union and The American Territorial Army are the only two threatening to pull out right this second, and if I was them and lost thousands of my people I would probably want out too….But why I am talking to you about this an-“
From outside the tent a female voice with a strong Russian accent cut off what he was about to say as it demanded.
“Where is big man and little firecracker? I was told they would be here!”
Stammering Eugene replied.
“I-if you will just g-give me a moment mam, I’ll see if the Field Commander is ready to r-receive you?”
Obviously unimpressed with the stammering individual’s entreaty the gruff Russian responded.
“Hah! ‘Field Commander’ my donkey’s rear! Did you know that this ‘Field Commander’ of yours is petrified of spiders? Can you believe it a grown man pe-“
Groaning whilst clapping a hand over his face, Calvin got up faster than Michelle thought possible and yanked the tent open, barely keeping the irritation from his voice.
“Oksana….if you could please stop pestering Eugene and come into the tent…”
Grinning impishly the burly woman replied.
“Well if it isn’t The Great Field Commander himself! Come to grace us with his presence!”
Grumbling, Calvin turned and retreated back into the tent and Michelle failed to keep the smirk from her face, while the Russian woman strolled in like a cat that had found all the cream.
Moving his seat over to the Initiate Bulwark leaned against the table and said.
“Thank you for coming Oksana, and now that both of you are here it will save me time for the next bit of explaining… So long story short, The American Territorial Army and The Asian Union want us three to promise to provide them with leveling, class and zone information, and also to help them with any potentially catastrophic monsters or Siphons in the future or they walk away from the Quest.”
The smirk on Michelle’s face evaporated when he had finished his sentence. Anger began to build inside her but before either mind could give it voice, Oksana cut in.
“Those sniveling little shluha vokzal’naja! Just because they made big chush’ sobach’yamistake mistake, they use as pretense to ask favors?! I expected it from the pridurok Wang and his masters, but Carl? Just how far have the American’s fallen to resort to this govno?!”
Annoyed and more than a little angered at their demands, Michelle was still unsure why they wanted her and her friends, thus she queried.
“Ok I get that they need help because they lost people but why us three and why the information?”
The two turned to skewer her with looks of genuine confusion and were silent for a moment before Calvin shook himself from his disbelief and countered her question with one of his own.
“Michelle, you know the three of us are the strongest and most experienced in this whole fucking army right?”
Looking at her expectantly she replied cautiously.
“We’re definitely strong, but not like ‘the’ strongest?”
While the others continued to stare at her in shared disbelief, her minds finally saw the proverbial pin as it dropped, leading her to continue in an incredulous tone.
“No…NO?!?!”
The other two supplied wide eyed nods of encouragement as she furthered.
“So we are like, THE strongest…In the whole basura ARMY?”
Amused nods were supplied from the other two before she continued.
“Cojeme, y-you mean those chupamedias’ want us to help cover for their puta armies laziness?”
Laughing and shaking her head the Russian lady responded amusedly.
“And I thought you were the one with the high Intelligence and Wisdom, Little Fire Cracker?”
Scowling at the nickname whose origin she could legitimately not recall, Michelle countered petulantly.
“Hey! I told yo-“
Then there was a sound of a thunderclap a thousand times louder than any lightning spell she possessed before the ground began to rumble, violently in protest. Shooting to her feet, she was out of the tent half a second behind the blurring forms of the others as she asked the confused and alone Eugene, cowering beneath his [Lesser Ice Shield].
“What did those torado’s pinche up this time?!”
Not waiting for a response from the younger gawping man, Michelle employed both her minds to [blink] and [Lesser Lightning Step] her way through the chaos that the explosion of sound and vibrations had caused.
Reaching the lip of the Plateau shortly after the two allies, she spared herself a moment to marvel at the speed at which the two had donned their now burnished plate mail and armaments and still managed to arrive here before her.
When her attention turned to the all too familiar form of the Sand Titan Al’Ish’Tul, it was still doing its best impression of an inflatable advertising man. Further scanning the plateau she saw the Allied forces still spread to either side and they continued to fire projectiles at their assailants.
Neither mind finding anything amiss with the plateau itself, she looked confusedly over the whole scene again until finally, after following the direction of her longtime allies gaze’s, Michelle noticed the object of her two friend’s fierce attention.
Amid the protracted battleground of the sand covered desert her squinted eyes focused on a lone sandy crater that bottomed out into a patch of exposed bedrock. Within the depression in the plateaus foundation was a solitary and motionless figure clad in what appeared to be black and green etched armor. Its stillness all too out of place amidst the moving behemoth a few kilometers behind it and the persistent running battle of human and Dust Devils to either side of it.
*GUGUGUGUGUGUGUUGUGU*
The all too familiar bass rumble of the titan’s vibrating call, braking her focus. Shifting her attention to her friends she began.
“So what’s wit-“
But was cut off as the object of their curiosities spoke in a booming, yet familiar accent.
“I HAVE THREE QUESTIONS FOR YOU FUCKING DONUTS! ONE…WHO’S BRIGHT IDEA WAS IT TO ATTEMPT THIS SHIT?”
Michelle’s minds froze and her body began to involuntarily tremble as the speaker paused before continuing.
“TWO…WITH ALL THESE PEOPLE HERE, HOW COULD YOU FUCK IT UP THIS BADLY?”
Pausing again the male voice finished.
“THREE…AND THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE...WHERE… THE... FUCK… IS… CALVIN?”
When the man speaker was done, Michelle felt her body’s tremors increase to the point where she had to hold her staff with both hands to stay upright. In spite of both her minds cognitive efforts to reassert at least a semblance of calm, her body’s instincts continued to scream at her to flee, as death was but a moment away.
Struggling to recall the basis for such a visceral reaction amongst her foggy swiss cheese of a memory, Michelle felt the man had done…. done… something… to… someone…It had to do with the now defunct Shakti as well...but no matter how much her body rebelled against her efforts to calm it, or her other mind probed the holes in her memory. No answer was forthcoming.
To her right Oksana uttered under her breath.
“Shob tebe deti v sup srali…”
While Calvin eschewed discretion and released a labored.
“That motherfucker...”
While the gazes of hastily assembled Adventurers turned to the Field Commander, mutterings began to spread between them. Paying no mind to the onlookers she looked back to the solitary man and her involuntary shaking slowed, as her minds noted the difference in position of the sluggish moving Titan to just a few moments prior. Michelle couldn’t help but grin as the man’s outlandish appearance and demand had obviously also drawn the attention of another of their foes.
Calvin apparently oblivious to the fact, began to resolutely walk forward when she tapped his pauldron with her staff. This while having the desired effect of getting his attention, also caused him to whirl and almost take her head off with his now drawn sword in a blur of movement.
Before Michelle could even blink however, the blow was deflected by the unimpressed Initiate Bulwark. One of her minds registered the shock and horror in Calvin’s barely visible eyes within his helm, telling her of his instant regret better than any apology could. However the shield wielding Oksana was far less forgiving.
“U tebya cho ruki iz jopi rastut?... Get a grip you jittery fool!”
The Australian’s fearful gaze turned to the Russian before the tension drained from his body as he stammered out.
“I-I Michelle..I didn’t…”
Her minds already on other things, she assuaged.
“That was my fault I just wanted to get your attention… anyway don’t do anything stupid Cal, I think our freak problem might be solved before you even have to get involved!”
Confused he began.
“What do yo-“
But she rode over him, continuing impishly.
“Now who’s the slow one?”
And as her other mind managed to abate her body’s shakes, she carried on.
“The idiot has drawn the attention of the Titan, look!”
And as her friend focused on the apparently clueless lone individual and the sky cresting amorphous Titan he went wide eyed.
It took a few seconds of staring into the shifting morning rays diffusing through its tumultuous body, before a savage grin crept onto his helmeted visage. Staring for a moment more he spoke as if a weight had been lifted from his very soul.
“Haha! Well I’ll be damned…finally that abomination is going to get some karmic fucking retribution!”
Now others around them had begun to take notice of the impending obliteration of the man and begun to point and mutter between each other. Benjamin meanwhile, apparently nonplussed with the lack of response to his demand, spoke again in the mega-phonic voice he had used before.
“I AM NOTHING IF NOT A PATIENT…MAN! SO BEING THE CLEARLY INCOMPETENT RABBLE THAT YOU ARE, I WILL GIVE YOU FIVE MINUTES TO PRODUCE THE LESS THAN SEWAGE POND SCUM KNOWN CALVIN BEFORE I START TO DISMEMBER EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU, PIECE BY BLOODY PIECE!”
Ultimatum clearly finished he resumed his motionless waiting as the wind howled across the plateau and the Titan moved inexorably closer to the clueless man.
Calvin was clearly restraining himself from charging the arrogant man as his hands gripping his shield and sword hilt were shifting irascibly, as he glared at the monster in human flesh.
Since the second booming declaration, all of the resting Adventurers of The Freedom Consortium had made it to the plateau proper and were talking loudly amongst themselves. Some were even going so far as the laugh and jeer at the clearly deranged individual in the solitary piece of exposed bedrock in the landscapes sandy terrain.
However much to Michelle’s budding consternation Oksana’s mood had worsened the longer the situation drew out, she was about to ask the Russian the reason for her concern when she noticed rapid movement on the ground behind the Australian man.
Focusing closer on the distant and now mirage like shapes coalescing behind the man the smile found its way back onto her face once more, as the Dust Devils even seemed to no longer be targeting the allied forces and were converging on the lone tarado at a rapid pace.
Still the man remained oblivious to the impending danger and she watched with open glee as around her others began to gasp and shout at the Titan’s descending fist.
Like watching a controlled demolition the distant and large sculpted sand fist collapsed on its stationary target as the Dust Devils closed in, now from all sides.
At the last moment the man spun and a line of glowing blue appeared below the oil tanker of an appendage. Simultaneously a large black void, edged with a similar glowing blue appeared behind the Titans dune like head.
She looked on in slack jawed horror when the fist met the blue line above the man’s head and disappeared, only to instantaneously reappear from the circular void, behind the monolithic owners head.
When the fist made contact with its owners cranium there was a *BOOM* that reverberated around the dune swept terrain and without a sound the two strange phenomena she could only assume had been summoned by the freak in human skin, disappeared.
When they had ceased to be however so did the sand assembled limbs connection to itself. And the fist now devoid of its previous connection, fell like water dropped from a bucket, as the Sand Titan Al’Ish’Tul let out a bass resonant.
“ARROOOOOWOOOOOOOOO!”
Then as her heart climbed up into hear throat and her horror found a strange companion of awe to mingle with, the Dust Devils on the ground turned into twisting wisps of sand and were sucked into the Titans torso.
The lone figure’s white hair flapped violently and he held up an un-moving hand in the ever increasing maelstrom of the plateau’s center. The rising sun’s rays strobing through the now rapidly swirling form of the Sand Titan as it groaned once more.
“ARROOOOOWOOOOOOOOO!”
Bearing wide eyed witness as the Titan imploded in on itself, the allied factions held their collective breath, standing motionless while they were transfixed as one.
The allied armies’ collective efforts to subdue the Titan and complete the tier four quest seemingly insignificant in comparison to the lone man’s bare minute of effort.
Loud cracking sounds began to issue from the rapidly compacting swirl of dust that was the Titan’s form, like smoke to an extractor fan, the once voluminous Boss shrunk further still as it was suspended above the expanse of newly exposed bedrock.
Purple lightning starts to arc across the now 50 meter globe of struggling sand’s surface, as cracks and booms are released from its further shrinking outline.
When the sphere of sand turns translucent a sound like nails on a chalkboard, yet amplified thousands of times is released, causing her and her all her allies to cover their ears in pained surprise.
Squinting to the distance as she shielded her ears with her palms in an effort to stem the bleeding, Michelle could barely make out a glint on the minuscule sphere as it refracted the morning suns light.
When there was only silence, she was unsure whether the noise had stopped or her eardrums had simply been obliterated, and looking to the multitude of her passed out allies, she swiveled her head to find all but Calvin and Oksana with their ears either covered and in varied states of distress or completely down for the count all together.
She yelled as only the recently deafened can at the apparently unaffected Initiate Templar and Initiate Bulwark.
“WHAT TH-“
But stopped when a string of blue notifications caused her eyes to become poor imitations of dust crusted saucers:
Benjamin has slain the Phasic Boss, Sand Titan Al’Ish’Tul.
You have completed the quest – Phase Conveyance (T4) – 100000 Manamotes awarded.
Planetary Phase 2 Elevation Shift initiated.
Please return to your habitations within 59 Days 23 Hours 59 Minutes 59 Seconds to ensure a comfortable transition to Phase 2 of the Elevation process.
She was unsure how long the notifications had entranced her minds, but when she willed them away she saw Calvin was now a glowing blur of motion almost half a kilometer away and closing on the lone figure Benjamin with Oksana close on his heels as the monster of a man turned to face them.
The change was instant when the man laid eyes on the blurs that were her friends. Vanishing only to reappear in the position that Calvin’s distorted outline had once occupied.
An explosion of rock and sand erupted from the site as one of her minds frantically reoriented her vision on the ragdoll tumble her friend had entered some 400 meters away. Her other mind, although endeavoring to remain situation ally aware, almost missed the other eruption of rock and sand which resulted in the tumbling form of Oksana travelling in a perpendicular direction.
Refusing to let the monster further free reign she [Blink]’ed once to bringing her just close enough to engage the fiend.
Unwaveringly she cast [Lesser Lightning Ward] as a preemptive counter measure, then her other mind instantly followed with a [Lightning Bolt], and the spell arced near instantaneously to the abomination. However she felt a renewed sense of horror as the thing didn’t even flinching when it made contact.
Unwilling to cede the initiative, Michelle loosed a [Fire Bolt] to follow it, yet when her streaking skill had almost reached the now grinning and stilled monstrosity, his mouth moved to utter something that her damaged ears were incapable of receiving.
Suddenly her vision jolted as she was cannoned backwards with the force of a freight train.
The new burden applied to the sum of her parts, caused them to groan and crack in protest whilst she flew parallel to the ground.
As the pressure on her tortured body lessened and she sailed through the air, gravity reestablished its claim on her and she began to plummet like a stone.
The last thing she saw were her two friends, struggling to regain their feet while the white haired and black armored figure smirked.
Numbly both minds observed the distance to the ascent of the plateau decreased before her vision blurred to incoherence.
It was then that her body found the ground with a *CRUNCH* before her minds instantly lost all sensorium as they ushered Michelle toward a blessedly painless black.
Jupiter’s Core – Seraph #04762
The third planet of the spacial system it oversaw had done the improbable.
‘Earth’ had initiated the transition to Phase 2.
With 68,920,735 of its native population alive and with only 521,634 of them above the level 90 requirement for the Phase Conveyance Quest.
Seraph #04762’s directives had been followed flawlessly and the inhabitants had survived.
There would obviously be no deviation from the next phase of the planets elevation, though that did not mean that the artificial intelligence was not ecstatic for its first Phase 2 elevation within its system of oversight.
The almost effortless manner in which the statistical anomaly had initiated the phasic transition by defeating the Sand Titan Boss, was just the bovine extracted lactation that was refined, sweetened before being extruded on to the colloquially farcical, baked combination of pulverized grains, blended poultry fetus, sugar and brutalized bovine lactation, the ‘humans’ frequently lusted for.
Now there was nothing left to do but observe, record and where applicable, intervene in the goings on of life on the planetary bodies in the spacial system. Thus it once again began to access some ‘human’ ‘television’ recordings.
As it began to do the machine equivalent of laugh at the absurdity of a verbally communicative ‘horse’, ‘kangaroo’, ‘sponge’ or ‘door’ it turned one of its sub processes to predicting the outcome of the anomalies current rate of development.
When this was initiated, Seraph #04762 was forced to pause the entertainment recordings for an exa-second.
In shock, it redirected the subroutine to review the anomalies elevational record and act as a dedicated monitor for the future development of the indicated individual.
Sufficient resources dedicated to the task, it experienced the machine equivalent of excitement permeating its artificial brain.
Seraph #04762 was anticipating monitoring ‘Earth’s’ Phasic development.
Seraph #04762 was anticipating monitoring ‘Earth’s’ Phasic development indeed.