The commander’s voice cut through the chaos, “Ranged units four and five, target the rear! Mages, keep that barrier up!”
Marie watched as the commander’s words motivate the troops, but the feeling of impending doom could be seen on every face. Her eyes scanned the battlefield, noting the exhaustion of the mages. Despite their efforts, she knew they were at their limit. The horde’s spells splashed across the barrier, draining more and more mana from the assault team. Their reserves were almost depleted, forcing many to switch to rifles and join the barrage against the relentless horde.
Marie watched the formation turn into a disaster with the imminent threat of death near. The commander was doing all he could, but everyone was exhausted. Only her own people were still managing, barely. She knew this entire situation could easily be solved, but wasn’t sure it was time for her intervention. The group needed to embed this moment into their lives, to never forget this moment.
She glanced at the solution to the problem, wondering if she should give him a command. The haunted look on Derek’s face said otherwise, as his rage began to boil. Her eyes watered as she had seen that look in her visions and hoped it wouldn’t be as bad as she expected. The thought of stepping in gnawed at her conscience. Before the mission, she had a plan and that plan needed sacrifices for the city to live. It was cruel for her to choose a few so that the majority might have a path for survival.
The commander glanced around at everything, his eyes scanning the rapidly deteriorating situation. Swallowing down his fear, he tried to think of this as another one of his MMO raids. “Everyone, hold your ground! We’re not losing to this horde!” His voice was a rallying cry, attempting to instill the last dregs of courage and resolve in the exhausted troops. He needed to be the rock his troops could anchor to, even if he felt like crumbling inside.
From his position, Derek watched the rapidly deteriorating situation, driving an orc’s spear into the head of a troll, preventing its ascent. In the brief moments that followed, he observed the fighters who had successfully cleared a path. They had scrambled into the backs of the trucks, which then accelerated, disappearing around a bend. The sight of their flight left a simmering rage within Derek. He sought Marie’s reaction, and although she was clearly watching the retreat, she didn’t meet his gaze.
Their abandonment of the assault team was the equivalence of leaving them to die. They couldn’t form a proper retreat without significant casualties. Now they were missing half of the raid team, their some sixty members were down to thirty. Mauro had taken fifteen people with them and the other missing fifteen were either dead or severely wounded. The mages and healers were on their back foot without resources to support the raid and had moved to gunner positions, so they were productive.
Even with Phil’s song providing the raid with a regenerative boost, they weren’t making any headway, only losing ground. Their family could only do so much, and this horde was far beyond what they could handle. He could feel his passivity turning to irritation, turning to frustration, turning to anger, turning to rage as those bastards were probably back at their base drinking beer and laughing. Those fucking bastards. How dare they abandon the team, fucking cowards!
A visceral roar erupted from Derek, signaling the release of pent-up emotions. Memories of past abandonment and isolation surged forth, overwhelming him. The realization hit hard: Mauro had forsaken them. The scene unfolding before him was eerily familiar, reminiscent of friends from his youth distancing themselves without explanation. He was transported to a moment when a friend had left his apartment, never to return. The current betrayal, amplified by the heat of battle, felt like a raw, exposed wound. Every instance of treachery he’d experienced over the past three decades converged, fueling his fury.
Suddenly, a switch flipped within him. He surrendered wholly to his emotions, discarding any thoughts of the future, self-preservation, or even his own life. His singular focus became unleashing the pain of over twenty years upon the monstrous horde before him.
A wave of bloodlust so intense it rippled through the battlefield, causing the fighting to momentarily halt. Derek’s body surged with power as he felt Ravager’s Fury ignite within, amplifying his rage and strength. An aura of flaming lightning crackling around him as Elemental Rage activated. Draconic Reflex sharpened his movements, turning wild swings into deadly strikes. The Divine Dragon’s Celestial Mantle enveloped him, a shimmering barrier that pulsed with elemental energy. Elemental Infusion and Elemental Impact merged, infusing his attacks with raw elemental force.
With a swift motion, Derek’s shield and spear fell from his hands, replaced by his gauntleted fist which he drove through an orc’s chest. The impact exploded in the chest, sending bone and organs flying in every direction. His roar, primal and incomprehensible, forced those nearby to recoil in alarm. From seemingly nowhere, a colossal sword materialized in his grip. A trophy from a previous battle with a minotaur, it was designed for a creature of immense size to wield with both hands. Its sheer magnitude was awe-inspiring.
In that moment, Derek was entirely consumed by his emotions. The weight of over two dozen years of betrayal and pain propelled him forward, driving him to confront the monsters that now stood as symbols of every wound he had ever endured.
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From the wall, Derek leapt into the horde below, every cell in his body blazing with the intensity rivaling the sun. His feet crushed a hapless hobgoblin beneath him as an explosion of fire magic surged around him. The tempest of fire and lightning surged from every pore like a blast furnace, scorching any monster unfortunate enough to be nearby.
Derek’s muscles swollen and energy was seemingly endless as Ravager’s Fury turned him into an unkillable tyrant. His reflexes were maximized as Draconic Reflex took hold changing his wild swings into effective cleaves. A celestial barrier appeared around him, rhythmically bursting with elemental energy, wreaking havoc on his foes. With his body enhanced, he slaughtered his way through monsters with each swing of his giant-sized sword, carving through the horde with reckless abandon.
Derek felt indifferent about the carnage he caused. The sight of dozens, then hundreds of slaughtered monsters, their blood and viscera covering him, left him unfazed. Despite their desperate attempts, the monsters failed to harm him. Their weapons shattered against his armor, their claws found no purchase, and the celestial aura around him crushed any resistance.
With a fierce bellow, he let out a warcry. Captivated by the force of his presence, all eyes turned to him just before the onslaught intensified. Like a whirlpool, he drew them in, snuffing out their lives as if they were mere driftwood. Neither the might of minotaur nor the resilience of trolls could challenge his wrath. The release of decades of pent-up rage and anguish consumed him entirely. There was no regard for life in Derek’s rage. None were safe. His rage allowed no mercy as the horde’s perception changed from hunger to fear. They tried to turn and flee, but there was no stopping him. There was no release from the unstoppable rampage.
“You cowards!” He bellowed, mid-swing, forcing all to look at him. “Face me!”
Magic poured off him. His armor, weakened from the fire magic, started letting blows through. He didn’t care; he wanted the pain. It strengthened him. His rage was fueled by the cowardice of humans and monsters alike. The weakness of both. Why couldn’t they be strong? Why couldn’t they face reality?
An explosion of magic vanquished all life around him in a hundred and fifty foot radius. It wasn’t his magic either and the spell didn’t exclude him. The pain further fueled his Ravager’s Fury turning it into strength as the spell turned his pain into power. The spell turned the battlefield into a wasteland of fire and ash. Bodies littered the ground, and the air was thick with the acrid smell of burning flesh. Derek’s eyes locked onto a group of retreating enemies, and with renewed determination, he charged forward unleashing another warcry. Nothing could stop him. The fury at all of existence for their weakness further increased his rage.
“Fucking weaklings!” He bellowed at all of existence.
Rage. Rage consumed him. He lost himself in it. Years and years of the pain, continuously reinforced over the decades. Constant disappointment shrouded his perception of those around him until he stopped caring if people disappointed him. He stopped trying to care. People ended up being more effort than they were worth. They were always a disappointment, no matter how low the expectations, until he expected people to disappoint him. That was more infuriating than anything. How he expected all of humanity to disappoint him, and how they lived up to that expectation.
More. More. More. The thought drove him, an insatiable hunger for destruction. Now he was free. Free to release his deepest emotions. Liberated from the consequences of his actions. Unburdened by the constraints and expectations of society. In this moment of violent freedom, every roar, every swing, was a cathartic release of decades of suppressed rage. The surge of freedom burned with a searing intensity that removed away all hesitation. His heart thundered with unbridled rage, each beat resounding his defiance against the world’s injustices. In this moment of primal release, he was truly free.
Marie watched as Derek leapt off the wall, with the power of his rage and fury roiling. His bloodlust covered the battlefield in an aura so thick it could practically be seen radiating off him. He had activated every single one of his abilities as he lept from the wall. The intensity of his emotions was as obvious as a wildfire consuming a dry forest. Every hostile creature surged towards Derek, causing the fighting at the wall to cease completely, leaving the assault team as mere spectators.
Tears streamed down Marie’s face as she watched Derek lose himself to madness. This was a tipping point she couldn’t avoid. She knew that she had set these events in motion by recommending Derek’s class. At the time, she didn’t realize it, but that didn’t free her from the guilt. The magnitude of her decision haunted her. At least when it was a vision, she didn’t smell and feel the impact. It was like watching a movie. Except now, she was here, feeling the emotions, smelling and tasting the blood in the air, witnessing the destructive force Derek had become. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she had created a monster.
“This is all my fault,” she muttered, watching the devastation unfold. “If I hadn’t pushed him towards this path…”
Everyone else watched in horror as the monsters turned toward the storm of death that Derek had become. All they saw was someone they had heard called The Ravager. Now, he was living up to that reputation. The magical projectile wall vanished as Derek moved through the horde’s mages, not even realizing when hundreds of spells slammed into him. Only Marie truly saw the terrifying transformation in Derek. It wasn’t just his armor disintegrating piece-by-piece under his own power or his eyes glowing bright red from a spell. His descent into madness and rage was clear to the entire assault team as fighting completely ceased as a stronger threat appeared.
“James.” Marie said.
“Yeah?” He responded, his gaze still fixed on the destruction.
“Hit Derek with the largest spell you can build.”
James looked up at her with confusion.
“He’s using Ravager’s Fury. Nothing can hurt him.”
“Oh… understood. Mages, on me!” James shouted, snapping them out of their trance. The assault team’s barrier faded, since there wasn’t any need for it. “I need as much mana as you have.”