“Can you?” Tetsu chuckled, and a tremendous *thud* vibrated through the mist, the connection between Val and Mor severing alongside the impact. “Guess not,” he smiled, pointing up.
Val dodged two clay boulders but got pinned down by the third, fourth, and fifth. “Thank you for the offer. Undead sounds cool, but I already have parents, and they will kill me if I change sides.”
Tetsu knew clay boulders wouldn’t be enough to end the undead and used the time to sprint with all the speed his sneakers could provide. Pulling the boulder this far from their normal radius almost drained him, and there were no more boulders or living creatures around for him to use as fodder for his stamina.
The undead used a weird black goo-like aura instead of mana, making it harder to reclaim the lost mana. Their presence also drained life from their surroundings, giving them the terrain advantage, so Tetsu used the terrain to head away from their domain.
Devour worked overtime, converting the opposite energy edible. He made a mental note to concentrate more on the basics and blinked to find the cameraman. As expected, the invincible cameraman moved, unrestricted by the terrain or the million obstacles in his path.
“I need to catch him for some advice,” Tetsu pants, waving in the cameraman’s direction.
He slows down to a jog to catch his breath. To pass the boring jog, he keeps a constant eye on the cameraman for some pointers. Their footwork was worlds apart, and the best way to learn the art is to mimic the best, so switching it to easy mode, Tetsu slowed down to a crawl and mimicked the cameraman’s walk before he switched the phase back up to a jog, and later a sprint.
The results were instantaneous; he felt lighter than before while covering more ground. Impressed, he next mimics his stature, albeit adjusting it, as he had no camera. The cameraman falls back, and Tetsu frowns, assuming he doesn’t like Tetsu learning their techniques. Tetsu slows down even further to stay closer, but the cameramen keep increasing their distance to a point where their roles reverse.
Tetsu takes the positives, learning the cameraman’s technique better, darting around the clashing armies. Yet his frown grows deeper once the camera isn’t facing in his direction. Their damn race was up to something, and Tetsu had a sinking sensation to what that was; based on his bad luck, they were going to blow up all of his hard work.
Tetsu slips the backpack off his back and confirms his suspicions of the cameraman’s expression. Out of greed, Tetsu tries to pull out more spatial pouches, but none comes out. In a rush, he pulls and stores a clay cube, some herbs, a weird credit card, and a sleek black sword.
A rune activates on the backpack, and Tetsu flings it with all his might, the rune and a cloud bird above carrying the bag to greater distances, without their knowledge, of course.
“Farewell,” Tetsu sheds a fake tear and wishes to encounter the Krantz next, having to return a sword that belonged in the leader’s back.
“Where did he toss the bag?” Val squints yet missed the backpack’s trajectory. The mist blocked their view, and the backpack had no life energy to track.
“I can’t trance it either. It has anti-tracking enchantment.”
“Damn those Krantz.”
*BOOM-BOOM. BOOM-BOOM!*
Sets of explosions turn the tide of battle, one more prominent than the rest as it explodes inside the largest summoning tomb of the undead, cutting off their reinforcement.
“Lord!” Mor exclaims.
“That was their plan all along. Va’silek,” Val curses, his throat twisting and gurgling the sound out. “After the human.”
The undead tide churns, the flow breaking and swirling toward the human heading straight for the Krantz castle.
———<>|*|<>———
“The undead are moving away.”
“We follow,” the Ant Queen commands.
———<>|*|<>———
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An orb of clay lands beside the Prime Elementor, and with a nod, the mountain takes its first step.
———<>|*|<>———
The Castle bombarded the undead army, their defenses proving superior to the undead assault. Even the animated Horr’er were whittled down to their bones, unable to stop the many cannons.
“I told you—” A cannonball blasts Lala into wisps of light, and the Krantz’s cheer heartful, winning the battle on their last straws.
“My game,” Tarah chuckles and falls back on her chair, exhausted, yet her legs crossed and back straight, filled with pride.
“We are not done yet,” she squanders the cheers. “We still have loot,” she adds, and the crowd goes wild.
The troops rush out of the castle and strip the battlefield clean; nothing is a waste in their eyes. They scavenge the bodies, the weapons, and remnants of spells that linger around while the injured chug down potions to top up their resources, preparing to retreat.
Conducting a final round of inspection before dismissing her skill, Tarah finds a discrepancy on the map. “No, it’s a trap...”
Tarah wants to curse her king, but he has never been so wrong until today. For a former god to go wrong... the heavens must be working against her king.
“The human?” She squashes the thought before it grows. “Ridiculous. A human can’t... can he?” An emergency screen pops up, blocking her vision and the budding suspicion.
Tarah takes a deeper breath, her chest inflating twice the normal size. “Get ready for battle!” she screams, the air gushing out like a tidal wave, her voice further amplified by the speakers.
Her voice jolts the Krantz into action, no one questioning the orders.
It was the human all along! How did she miss such a simple explanation? Perhaps she missed it because of the simplicity or stupidity? Only winning since they entered the tutorial grounds had made them complacent. Who wouldn’t be when a god sat beside them, predicting every event before it happened and to the last minute detail? If he couldn’t predict the human, how could she?
Tarah slaps herself out of the useless line of questions. All she can do now is fight, and only she can save the Krantz from impending doom. This wasn’t the time to question a former god. She glances at the screen showcasing the human heading toward their base with the undead army letting him lead the charge. Tarah wishes nothing more than to squash the human, but before that, she wants to rush down and clarify one nagging doubt to concentrate better on the battle ahead.
“Why is the undead working with the living, a human nonetheless?”
Would her king even know the answer to this unpredictable man’s past or their unpredictable future?
The invisible veil dissipates, revealing a group of undead: two intact animated Horr’ers, and Lala. Had she not gained access to the Horr’ers from Mor, they would have perished, and consequently, so would she.
“Dumb brutes,” hisses Lala as she leads the Horr’ers in a curve to intercept the approaching army, while sending the rest of the undead forward to act as shields. “The games have barely begun, brat,” she snickers at Tarah.
“Risen fields of dread,” all the Liches activate a similar skill. Anchoring themselves as focal points, invisible lines overlay the battlefield. The subtle shift in Tarah’s domain pulls her out of the multitude of doubts gnawing at her. Unable to pinpoint the commanders, she designates the Liches as prime targets for victory. “Hold your ground,” Krovath overrides Tarah’s command. Following orders, the retreating soldiers adjust their course to face the undead army.
———<>|*|<>———
Elsewhere, a Claytron atop the clay mountain signals the shift in battle, prompting the Prime Elementor to send several orbs, instructing everyone to converge at the mountain and altering the trajectory of every Claytron.
The sky wars descend to engage with land creatures, securing easy XP points from ants and Claytrons while utilizing them as both shields and distractions. Though their interference is minor, it disrupts the momentum of the two armies.
*!Blink!*
“Good, two taken care of,” Tetsu observes as he spots the undead army flanking his path, blinking to confirm the situation further ahead. “How did they end up here?” he mutters, peering behind to find the Horr’er gaining on him. “Skill? Teleportation?” he scowls at them.
Back within the range of the meteor shower, Tetsu places runes to gradually nudge them to his desired spot. “There.” he marks a spot for the next meteor shower and times his entrance into the area. “Domain,” he chants, attempting yet again to gain a domain skill, to no avail. “Ah, well,” he shrugs and blinks.
As runes activate over the undead soldiers, their sudden glowing confuses and diverts them, allowing Tetsu to breach their lines more easily.
“Behind you,” the Liches convey Tetsu’s location to the faster undead zeeches. They turn to face a smiling human and attempt to imitate the crazed expression, only succeeding in making it more horrifying than smug.
“What’s so funny...” before a cannonball blasts the lichis into smithereens, and Tetsu exploits the confusion to slip within their ranks. “That,” he snickers.
“What are you doing?” Val growls at Lala.
“Sorry, my lord, I will—”
“—don’t bother. Aim for the castle.”
“Castle?” Mor squints harder, unable to spot the castle. “Where?” he asks, gaining access to Lala’s vision, only then spotting the castle in the distance.
The Krantz held their ground, their preparations providing enough breathing room until the moving castle engulfed them. “Unit 43, move to Delta 4-dash-9,” Tarah orders while manipulating ethereal pieces on her holographic map. “Unit 24, deploy traps at delta 3-dash-7, 8, 9, and 10.”
A group armed with laser guns aims and shoots down tiny flags marking the designated areas as the entire section collapses. “Take that,” a shooter grins, but his smile fades when he notices an eye blink above his comrade’s forehead. Panic sets in, and Tarah receives a flurry of strange reports.
“Liches?”
“Human,” Krovath confirms. “Seems to be a scouting skill.”
“What kind of power is that?”
“I’m guessing it’s a scouting skill. Proceed as planned; it’s not an offensive ability,” Krovath assures.
Tarah’s entire battle map vibrates with conflicts erupting out of nowhere. Despite being at war, the map had never trembled with such ferocity before.
“Are you sure?” Tarah glances at a monitor focused on the only human on the battlefield.
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