“I got point, watch above and my back,” I said to Naran.

“Might be better if I engage, since I am faster,” Naran said.

“No, we don’t want to get caught up. Once we reach the stonelands, it will be too difficult for the Ritualist to chase us. Also I want to use up my energy and regenerate it,” I replied.

“Ah, and I would get tired,” Naran added as we raced through the East Bastion towards the West gate.

“Yes. I have no doubt he will try to slow us down and swarm us. We go around and keep running. If he used consumption, which appears to be the case, he can outlast us,” I bitterly said. I had been hoping the Ritualist had not discovered consumption, but I was wrong.

Now, only Naran exceeded his possible stats, but only in Body. I could probably kill twenty level 3 hybrids and Naran could do half of that, even with the Ritualist’s control. But I was worried about the hundred more he had behind those. With the assembly line of consumption, I had seen and dealt with, I had no doubt he would have a prodigious army, since he wouldn’t have any upkeep costs.

We kept racing through the city, since I didn’t want to be stuck at the gate. “Up and over, or through the gate?” Naran asked.

“Right through. Hopefully he didn’t put something big to block the exit,” I replied.

“That would be annoying, almost there,” Naran said. I nodded at that, not saying anything in reply. It was time to focus all my attention on the battle to come.

The wall was just ahead and there was the tunnel through it. I took the lead and there were no monsters. Nothing registering to my danger sense. We exited into the grasslands West of the East Bastion. To the Northwest I saw several massive pulsing red worms plowing across the ground and monsters on top of them.

Apparently, the Ritualist was a fan of the classics. I angled slightly to the South as the horde moved to intercept us and it truly was a horde. I counted at least 2,000 monsters, probably 3,000, if any were hanging in the back. I was kicking off low to the ground, with little time to count them all up.

I needed to move as fast as possible, which meant no midair spins like I had done against the golems. I had to constantly kick my legs and feet down to propel me forward with minimal loss in speed. It was going to be close.

“Above us. Clear hawks, blend in with the sky,” Naran replied. He had it easier with his much higher Body stat. Dammit, I should have invested into it more. But I had never through 500 in Body would not be enough with the rest of my stats and skills.

I spared a quick glance upwards for a brief moment. There were at least five of the clear hawks, almost translucent in appearance. What was the type? The type dammit? Naran wouldn’t know the answer. I didn’t have my notebook with me to look through, since it was back in the cart with Fethee and Heba.

The monsters were less than a mile, about a kilometer away. We had a couple of minutes left before we reached the interception point. I altered my trajectory to turn more South, but kept the main direction to the West. If we didn’t escape, the Ritualist would be able to hound us to death and we would die of exhaustion.

To get through the level 3 zones, we need all our strength. “Want me to delay them?” Naran asked.

“No,” I quickly said. “Watch. Above. Intercept,” I replied with one word answers between each breath.

“Got it,” Naran replied.

“Air Burst.” I prepared the skill for the critical interception point. The mental attacks were easy to ignore, but could I escape? It was all so pointless? I clenched my jaw as the thoughts tried to worm their way into my head.

“Whirlwind!” Naran yelled out as he leapt into the air, making sure to keep his forward momentum. His massive buster stick swinging around. Four of the clear hawks that had been swooping down were smashed and turned into dust. Metal men leapt off the nearest worm and raced across the ground towards me in a sprint.

Acid Shot x5. Air Burst. I sailed past them as my acid attack struck them. It did little damage, but they stumbled and slowed down. Several hybrids with massive purple eyes instead of heads began to glow and I felt a vibration. Beams of fire lanced out from red crystal hybrids.

“Air Burst. Air Burst.” I used the skill two times in a row to propel myself forward and out of their range. Naran landed next to me as we escaped the interception. That had been a bit too close for comfort. “Air Burst. Air Burst.” I used the skill two more times to put more distance between me and the horde, Naran easily keeping up. We entered the level 2 zone, and the army of the Ritualist was still right on our tails.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Still have those clear hawks above us, but they are keeping their distance for now. Our speed is about even without using your skill,” Naran told me. “You think he will keep chasing us?”

Naran, my friend. That was a very dumb question. But I could understand why he asked it. Still, it was super dumb. Clearly the mind stat was not imbuing people with intelligence. “Yes,” I replied. The Ritualist and I had a bond. A bond of death. He had me in a tight spot and I had no doubt he would leverage this for everything he could.

To think that he would just change his mind and go back to his city was a fairy tale. The man would pursue us, me more than Naran, relentlessly to the ends of the Systemic Lands. I knew this since I had done exactly the same thing tracking him all the way out here. I didn’t regret it, at least I knew the threat he posed now.

Purgatory would have to marshal everything it had to face this threat. Even with a barrage of Radiant Beams that would not be enough. The City Shield, which would have been a great equalizer, was something the Ritualist already knew about. It would be stupid to think he didn’t know after taking over a city that had one.

How could we even begin to fight such a ridiculously sized army? It would come down to a battle of attrition. Bunkering down would be a losing strategy long term. We would have to maximize the number of shots each skill user of Radiant Beam could get off. That meant the first battle would have to occur outside Purgatory.

Say ten beams hit, that would be ten monsters down. The worms should be the target. But the Ritualist had to know that since they were big and I didn’t know what pulsing red meant in terms of type. They also weren’t hybrids, since they had no human features. They were clearly meant as mobile transports and siege weapons.

The best target would be the mental attack type monsters. Level 3 hybrids with mental attacks could easily sweep the walls clean. There would be very few people with the Mind stat needed to resist such attacks. The big hope would be on Clarissa’s secret death squad she was forming up.

I hadn’t seen them in Heaven and they clearly kept their heads down, but I had no doubt they were out there doing things. Also, mental attacks should work as well. That was a critical weakness of summoners. I didn’t think it would do that much against the Ritualist, but every bit was needed.

“They are matching our pace,” Naran said.

“Makes sense. They aren’t faster than us. But they are close enough in speed they can keep up. The real issue will be those metal floating spheres in the stonelands we have to get by. We can’t afford to take it slow, but we have no idea what attack they will use,” I replied.

“We might be able to run by them. They don’t float that fast and their type seems to negate skills. We run by them and let the Ritualist deal with the mess if he keeps chasing us,” Naran said.

“It is our only option unfortunately,” I replied, hating being backed into a corner. But we had no choice. The Ritualist had grown insanely powerful, too powerful for me to confront his horde of hybrids and summons alone.

It wasn’t any one monster, or even a group. It was the entire horde all at once. The mental attacks. The vibrational attacks. The beams of fire. The skill resistant hybrids. The flying monsters. Well that was what bombs were for.

I noted that several of his hybrids were carrying spears and shields. If I had to guess he had dabbled in enchanting but hadn’t plumed its depth like Purgatory had and learned to weaponize crafting crystals. Anything that couldn’t be solved with an explosion, just required a bigger explosion.

I would need to get a large bomb, prime it, then activate it. A large force bomb would be perfect. I could kill a bunch of monsters and then create distance to escape. Large attacks, impacting multiple monsters should strain the Ritualist’s concentration. That was why he to be carrying most of his army on his worms.

If he had to manually control each and every monster, not even a god gamer could have that kind of actions per minute, or APM. I knew what it was like to control a summon and hybrids were similar enough to have the same issue. It used up a lot of focus and that was another weakness the Ritualist had that hopefully we could exploit.

“How many did you count?” I asked Naran.

“With eight great worms, carrying around hybrids in rows of six by forty on their back, I would say around 2,000. But I noticed a reserve force as well. Probably the Ritualist’s physical body,” Naran answered.

“Ah, you saw that. There was a super worm of some kind, twice as big as the others, and lots of other combination hybrids on it. One off experiments most likely,” I said heavily.

“Call it 2,500 easy. All level 3 monsters. You take half, I got the other,” Naran said and I cracked a smile at that.

“Half, you want half. Pfft, I can take two thirds of that, you can take the other third from the kindness of my heart,” I replied.

“Got a plan?” Naran asked seriously.

“Yeah. First, we need to get back to Purgatory. Then launch raid attacks with Radiant Beam and massive force bombs to create distance and confusion. More bombs the better. Also using a mass charge of summons to cover our retreat and wound his monsters. He can’t heal them, so attrition is key,” I replied.

“But he will reach Purgatory,” Naran said.

“No doubt. We give up on the wall and force him to commit to the city while we launch counter attacks to draw him in. Once inside or a good chunk of his forces, we activate the City Shield and wipe out a large portion of his army. I doubt we can catch him like that,” I explained.

“A good plan. But I doubt he will play by our rules and pull something out of his ass like always,” Naran replied.

“He pulled an army out of his ass. Quantity has a quality all on its own. We are definitely going to have to earn our paychecks this time,” I said.

“We have paychecks?” Naran asked me.

“Clarissa is going to paying out to us, for her food ventures. Well if they survive this upcoming war.”