Some of the more ambitious souls muttered about how they were at a stalemate, and how even the cunning of Commander Briggs couldn’t deal with so many numbers. They never, ever said it within earshot of him, however, because everyone had seen the Hammer Time Runs.
Commander Briggs would, in the middle of a battle, take up his Hammer Endure and then proceed to charge the enemy. He would crash into their lines, every Undead thing within reach of him would explode, and then he would go charging off through the enemy lines like a madman.
They could see him coming. They tried to close on him, tried to swamp him in bodies, in mass, in strength, in magic.
None of it worked. He tore a path through the heart of the Pharaonic forces despite everything that got in his way, and that included the Sphinx itself when it dared to pounce at him. It had come out of that fight missing half its jaw and with its front leg broken and scarred by the impact of his Hammer, and the mighty Guardian Beast of the Great Pyramid had barely slowed Briggs down.
There was no Sage that dared what he did, that could walk through the magic they unloaded upon him, killing the Undead all around him as he ignored or crashed through everything they attempted. If the Pharaohs or their lieutenants came too close, they fell out of the sky, and he diverted course to make their final acquaintance.
Over the course of the last month, twelve Pharaonic undead half-Sages or Sages had perished forever under his Hammer, underestimating his speed, power, and sheer brutal desire to kill them!
It was more than the entire rest of the Undead Hunting army combined. Those same mages whispering about him realized it could be THEM he was pounding into white dust, and so never dared say such things to his face. Unbeknownst to many of them, they were laughed at behind their backs for not believing in him.
Briggs caromed through the entire Undead army like a bulldozer at the speed of a race car, only deliberate in his course when he could strike at a Pharaoh or one of the Nobles supporting one, otherwise just acting like he was romping around having fun bullying them.
In the Markspace and Allegiance, it was totally a different story, of course. There was nothing playful at work there, only murderous intensity as he continued to manage the assault of the Undead Hunters. With a cold, clinical precision, he charted his course through the Pharaonic armies with seemingly careless abandon and playful recklessness that only infuriated the Pharaohs who could not stop him the more.
Likewise, the KIA force commanders and SAR reserve commanders were completely uncaring of how long this fight was taking, addressing every battle with focus and zeal, harvesting as many undead as possible for their soldiers, making sure their mages lived to profit from the experience, examples of behavior and deeds to keep their morale up.
Those who had been there since the beginning just looked at the confident faces of those commanders and shook their heads, wondering what was up, what scheme and plan Commander Briggs had up his hairy sleeves. They watched like everyone else when he came striding out of the mass of the undead army like an ancient warrior god, untouched and ready for more!
There were over fifty thousand of the Undead Hunters now, all but the very newest clutching Disrupting Scepters. The least of them were half-Mages now, the most tempered and hardened fighting force in the world, and it was said that a dozen Mages were born anew every day, all of them doing so after going to see the Golden Hag when she showed up and accepting some strange offer given to them.
Whatever it was, it broke open their path to Magery without needing the expensive boosts the wealthy used, soldiers gathering in Formations to boost their brothers and sisters to the next level without hesitation or reservation.
There were many, many wealthy and powerful individuals who stared at the accumulation of power Briggs had assembled, and realized he commanded the most powerful army, pound for pound, in the entire world. What would those men do, when the fighting was over, if they won? Would they follow Briggs, or return home and put their strength to work in their homelands, changing the balance of power there?
What if they did both?
-----
Briggs slammed two Shade Blademasters out of his way, Endure caving in their grandiose armor and Disrupting vivus blowing through them, the empty shells flying apart as those within were consumed, weapons shattering along with their plate mail in flying shards.
The nearest Shades scrambled back in shock and awe to give him room, but he wasn’t going to be taking their cuts at his backside. Endure released meteoric Shardings in brutal arcs of force, smashing completely through the lesser Shades and blowing them apart, plowing through long lines of the packed creatures as Briggs strode away from them.
He stepped across the border of the Pyramid Domain as a thousand Disrupting spells arced over and past him, plowing into and through the lines of Undead there, and a chiming voice inside his head said, -It’s done.-
Briggs grunted, slowing to a halt and turning around to glare at the Undead behind him, now being obliterated in a walking wall of Chaos-doubled Disruptive magic that was blasting through them like wheat before a scythe.
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It was the only time he’d bothered to look back after one of his Hammer Time runs.
“All forces, disengage and pull back. Prepare for new deployment orders.”
As if cut by a knife, the bombardment of the Undead stopped, and the mages ahead of him turned and trotted away in good order, those flying or atop Disks keeping watch for any attacks from behind.
But they were outside the Pyramid Domain that blocked the power of the sun, and the Undead could not pursue them, only launch a few ineffectual spells that were smoothly blocked before the living were out of range.
------
The next day dawned cold and slightly breezy. An unusual amount of clouds boiled in the air and behind them, seemingly threatening a sandstorm, but nothing materialized from there.
The sharpest-eyed soldiers hissed when they saw what was gathered on the horizon: hundreds, if not thousands, of Commander-class Beasts, assembled around the towering forms of Rulers of their kind.
All of them standing on the sands there, not moving, watching the armies of Humans assemble.
Their officers reminded the Hunters in clipped voices that the Beasts wanted the Undead gone as much as they, and not to worry about them. Still, something in their eyes started raising whispers among the men, especially as they deployed.
In wedge formations, and atop Disks, meaning that this time, they were going for speed!
To the right side, Commander Mick sat atop Hopper, a full Storm Runner King of his kind, the other Tempest Runners and various Ostriches assembled in a flying wing about him. To his right, Big John was atop Lord Quake, and the Golden Sun Fire Titan Little John had been joined by half a dozen other Titans and Dragon Contract Beasts.
On the left side of the Formation, Sage Obai, the new Tusk Guardian Sage, sat atop his Diamond Tusk Elephant Kola-Nose, while the Rhinos, Elephants, Hippos, Bulls, and Saurials of the Summoners of Africa led the way.
In the middle, a Portal opened and the Great Reynard, the Nine-Tailed Golden Winged Fox, emerged in the exact center like an auspicious blessing upon all of them. Riding atop him was the silver-furred Little Turk, already taller than a human and clutching his thick Staff, a Monkey Sage who could already wield four Elements!
To Reynard’s right side, another Portal opened, and the mighty figure of the golden-furred, crystal-tipped King One-Eye, a Golden Diamondhide half-Emperor Wolverine over twice the size of the golden Fox, emerged. Even the hardened troops of the Undead Hunters trembled to see him, feeling the incipient violence around him ready to explode, as deadly as an avalanche and as sharp as a falling axe!
The army murmured behind them as Briggs strode out, Sage Healer Fae and the Golden Hag behind him. He halted a quarter-mile away from the Undead packed there, no indication that there had been any fighting at all the day before, a packed wall of elbow-to-elbow Undead that no living force could actually make it through to the Pyramids visible behind them, miles away.
“We go all the way today.”
He didn’t raise his Voice in the slightest, but all the troops heard, an electric surge lighting up in them.
“Sages, light it up,” he pointed with Endure.
Healer Fae flitted past him to a certain point on the ground. She set foot on it, and out of nowhere a bright white Rune Circle rose up out of the ground.
The Sages of Africa, spread out around the Domain of the Great Pyramid with their personal escorts, did the same. Sixteen different Circles lit up as one.
“Feed them to the Land! Fae, ignite!” Briggs ordered coldly.
The Sages had been told to dump an entire Element’s worth of Mana into their Circles, a stupendous amount of energy, but they complied without hesitation at the command. Raw Elemental power seethed in the Circles, and then exploded out in lines of arcane fury towards the Undead, who just watched it come without emotion.
Fae’s was brilliant, pure white, and reached the edge of the Domain first. As fast as lightning, the vivic fire flashed right and left before heading in and onwards, blowing underneath and through the Undead as it did so.
The slash of vivic fire cut across the paths of the incoming Sage energy dumps before they got to the Domain, and as they crossed, ignited the raw Elemental powers into more vivus.
Vivus that followed the erratic, uneven course of a prior vivic saturation laid down by a certain Ancient Source caroming freely through packed Undead.
Arcing, winding paths Burned across the miles towards the Pyramids in the distance, converging with miles-eating speed and suddenness, reaching the center and bending to follow paths around those Pyramids where Briggs had chased his victims, the vivic Burns flaring at each point of death of an Undead Noble, and then they crossed.
The Burning, explosive progress of the swathes of vivic energy suddenly became a completed Pattern, and dimmed to a glowing, humming carpet of power, ready, waiting...
Waiting for one hundred and sixty-eight million points of Mana to be dumped into it.
A few of the Pharaohs screeched something about stopping it, breaking the Pattern once they realized it was a Pattern, unable to realize where it came from and how it had been constructed, but it was much, much too late for that.
Sheets of unwhite fire rose into the sky for hundreds of feet, even cutting through most of the flying creatures there as they did. They were solid walls of true unwhite, no mixture of colors there, but shot through with hints of Gold, Silver, and Rainbow, Holy magicks that stabbed at the dead eyes of the Undead looking at them.
And then they exploded.
---
The Mick watched the whole edge of the domain rise in vivic fire, and then explode forwards into the Undead.
All the fighting, harvesting, Casting? A distraction, training, tempering, nothing serious, exploiting a resource while it was there, not meant to really accomplish anything but forcing the Pharaohs to replace the slain, and make what Briggs was doing just a boastful taunt, an ego play, nothing of value as long as the important Undead were smart enough to keep their distance.
Scribing a Pattern with the vivus of the slain Undead, path by path, day by day. Setting them up for right now, today, and their true deaths!