My boots landed atop the palace steps the lighting wreathing my body ending as I dropped down. Jeriah lowered his sword as he realized it was me.
“That’s a neat ability,” he said.
“Had to kill the champion of the storm god to get it,” I said.
“You killed the Storm?” Jeriah asked. “Impressive.”
“What is it with you people and giving champions these titles, THE Warlord, THE Duelist, THE Assassin,” I said emphasizing each the.
“It’s because that is what you represent to us,” Jeriah said shrugging. “No one else on this planet can match your abilities to field armies, no can fight in one-on-one combat like the duelist, and no can raise as many minions from the dead like the Necromancer.”
“Anything happen while I was gone?” I asked.
“No, but I thought you were going to be gone longer. What happened?” Jeriah asked.
“There was no one left to continue the Event for the whole seven days,” I said. “I’m going to be….”
A horn blared across the skies, I could feel resonating it in my bones. A light flashed in the sky and a meteor crashed to the ground outside the city. I jumped into the air and focused my vision on it. I wasn’t a meteor but a giant hourglass with sand slowly trickling down.
Every other Pantheon have agreed to pool their collective influence and resources to send you a Challenge to prove your worth as a champion. In thirty minutes, a Raid will begin on your forces and will continue for the next twenty-four hours led by a boss. If the boss is not defeated than all the forces of that raid will be added to the next and will double its difficulty.
Each of the four waves will represent one of the Pantheons and will be accompanied by a representing World Boss. These bosses will provide the same amount of rank points to anyone who contributes at least 1% of damage to their destruction and survives the battle.
Prepare yourself champion.
Well, that couldn’t be good. One raid had been bad with a Hero ranked boss showing up, four waves of raids non-stop had to be a lot worse.
As these actions by the gods have gone against the spirit of non-intervention by them with other champions you are being given a list of blessings to pick from to permanently alter your status.
Ghost Path: Just like in an event, gods will be unable to scry or view you at any time and you will appear as just a normal mortal to them.
Steel Path: Your ability to craft has been taken note of; any weapons you create will deal damage two stages higher than normal, armor you create will grant one stage of damage resistance.
War Path: Your capacity for slaughter and the number of your enemies has been noted by your patron and they have spent influence to give you this option, your abilities will deal damage two stages higher.
At least I would get something out of this. The System didn’t like anyone interfering with the game and its rules whether that be me or the other gods. Kalesa had spent influence to give me the third ability and it looked good I had to admit. My abilities like Chain Lighting, Voice of the Chasm, Hell’s Talons, and Phantom Form would all do higher damage. However, my goal was always in my mind, and I selected the first option.
You have been granted the blessing, Ghost Path.
I couldn’t have gods tattling to their champion on where I was or giving them hints about what I was up too. Plus, information was a powerful weapon and denying it to your enemy was always worth it.
I dropped down to the ground.
“I saw the notification,” Jeriah said. “We should pull everyone back to the palace to defend against these waves.”
“No,” I said. “That would sacrifice the entire city, have everyone move out onto the plains.”
“We don’t have any defenses there,” Jeriah argued.
“I’ll make some,” I growled.
“We only have thirty minutes,” Jeriah said, and I could tell he was starting to panic.
“Have I ever let you down?” I asked.
“No,” Jeriah said taking a deep breath.
“Than do as I said, we will make it through this,” I promised him. “Get anyone who’s my vassal, no matter their age or gender out there. Anyone who is under my dominion will be a target and will draw monsters towards them.”
He nodded and turned around, beginning to shout orders. I shot into the air and hit the plains next to the hourglass. A dark shape on the horizon took form as I heard a sonic boom in the distance. Exar’kun came closer and closer traveling at the speed of a bullet. He hit the ground tearing a trench into the ground as his talons dug in as he came to a stop.
“I’m gone for a few hours, and it all goes to shit,” he growled. “What do you need from me?”
“We’re going to be hit by a bunch of massive raids, so just do your thing,” I said kneeling on the ground placing both hands on the dirt. “Hell-dragons Armory.”
The dirt began to compress hardening into flat dark stone and spreading out as I constructed a massive fallout shelter under the ground.
What’s your plan? Ares asked me.
I’m going to construct a multi-tiered fortress here, I said. We’ll put the non-combatants underground. They’ll defend themselves here while I take on the bosses. The stone continued to harden and compress in a widening radius around us as we talked.
You can’t fight a World Boss by yourself, Ares said.
You doubt my capabilities? I asked as the ground began to rise around us as I raised the structure slowly.
You are powerful, Ares said. More powerful than I was at your rank, but you’ve never faced a World Boss; I have. Just one challenged me and my army, only a quarter of them survived that fight and they numbered ten-thousand strong, and we had favorable ground.
Are they really that powerful? I asked.
Picture Exar’kun in your mind, Ares said. How comfortable do you feel about fighting him a straight up fight?
That gave me some pause, I wasn’t sure my chances against Exar’kun were in a straight-out fight, he was a lot like me in his abilities and he didn’t need any party to support in me. Maybe I could kill him, but it would definitely be one of those fights that ended with me almost dead.
So, they’re as bad as Exar’kun? I asked.
No, multiply Exar’kun by ten and now you’ve got an idea of what a World Boss is like, Ares said. You’re going to need your heaviest hitters to even have a chance against them. Gather all your strongest vassals into a team, you’re going to need them all.
I thought about his words, it galled my pride. I’d just come back from an Event victorious over every other Champion in it, but… If dying to Arthur again and again had taught me anything it was that I wasn’t invincible, there were abilities out there that were so strong that clever tricks didn’t matter, there were abilities that perfectly countered my own.
“Fine,” I said aloud. Closing my eyes, I contacted Jeriah with the use of the Helm of Ares.
“Jeriah, gather all your brothers, I’m putting together a strike force for the World Boss and you’re all on it,” I said, I cut the connection with him before he could respond and opened up a line with Korsis, leader of the Wolf Clan.
“Korsis meet me at the fortress outside the city, your part of the strike force I’m putting together, if you have any other Hero’s in your clan bring them as well,” I told him then cut the communication line again.
“Kas’tu,” I said talking to the leader of the Ursine Clan now. “Meet me in the fortress outside the city, bring any Hero rank gifted in your clan I’m putting together a task force.”
Dropping the line, I called up Remara, the Dragon Clan’s shaman and the closest thing they had to a chief right now. “Remara, your Hero rank I take it that means you can fight correct, or are you to old or just some healer?” I asked, I had no time for polite beating around the bush.
“I can fight,” she said dryly. “You haven’t spoken to me a while we really should…”
“No time for that right now,” I said. “Putting together a strike force to take on the World Bosses your on it now, if any of your Clan have made it to Hero rank bring them with you and meet me outside the city.”
My next contact was a bit different. “Tigris are you here?” I asked.
Yes, Was the giant Etter Queen’s response like hissing whisper in my head.
“I forgot how creepy that was and why I don’t talk to you,” I said. “Bring all your offspring and meet me outside the city, what rank are you?”
Hero Rank, the giant spider said her words short and clipped.
I considered adding her to my squad but stopped, spiders were more about luring things in than going out and running things down. Tigris would be better suited defending the base instead of rushing out onto the battlefield. Euphrates could still be used for that role if I needed it.
“Start building a massive web around the fortress I’m constructing,” I told her. “Work as fast as you can, I don’t know what we’ll be facing but if there are an aerial attackers, I want them wrapped up like flies.”
The whole time I had been contacting my vassals the fortress continued to grow wider and taller.
My vassals began pouring out of the city gates arriving. At the fortress, the bunker was complete even if the fortification wasn’t and the women and children began filing inside it. I looked at the giant hourglass, the sand quickly reaching the first mark on it. The fort wasn’t going to be complete in time and the noncombatants wouldn’t all be inside when this started.
Ares, I need you to do your thing with Dominion, I said. You were like a military genius start directing troops, we need to protect those women and children until they get underground, and I finish building this fortress.
Got it, Ares said.
The change in my troops was practically instantaneous, their heads snapped up, suddenly alert. They filed into perfect rows creating a funnel. My strike force arrived standing on the stone platform beside me as we rose into the air as the walls of the tower grew. This wouldn’t be as large as the one I had built in the Event, I didn’t have the time for that, but it would be big enough for archers and Gifted with ranged abilities to get a good line of sight for their attacks.
Everything stopped for moment as a horn blew out across the skies very similar to the one that would signal the end of the day in the Event. The ground rumbled in distance the tremors felt all the way from where we were. The ground of the plains burst apart as a massive figure pushed itself out of the dirt.
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The World Boss Forge has spawned
Forge is the World Boss of this raid and represents the Skafotheon. As long as the boss is alive every one of its minions on the field will be stronger and will spawn in greater numbers, kill the boss to reduce the difficulty of this wave.
My six pupils narrowed as I telescoped my vision on the figure. It was built like a humanoid, and it stood at least a hundred feet tall and was made of dark metal plates, gears, wires, and tubing. In-between its articulated plated joints a red glow like magma glowed reminding me of the Fire Knight I had fought in my first Event. Long metal tubes rose from its back like smokestacks. One hand carried a long, massive hammer, its ends glowing red hot and the other carried a massive six-cylinder barreled machine that I assumed was some sort of gatling gun. I studied the creature until a notification popped up in my vision.
Forge, Gifted- Hero, Iron-golem/Construct (World Boss), Rank: 500
“Well, that doesn’t seem so bad,” I said relaxing when I saw its ranks wasn’t that higher than my own and even lower than Exar’kun’s.
The golem bent over the barrels on its back facing towards us. There was a sound like thunder and six missiles shot out arcing towards us.
“Perhaps I spoke to soon,” I amended my previous statement. “That seems pretty bad.”
Other creatures began crawling out of the hole it had emerged from; they were more automatons by the looks of them; beasts and humanoids all made of metal. Exar’kun darted out the sky, his breath hitting the missiles causing them to explode midair before they reached us. The blast wave from the explosions hit the dragon sending him into a tail-spin. The golem raised its gatling gun training it on the dragon before it corrected its flight and letting rip with a thunderous salvo, the bullets each had to be size of a mini-fridge and Exar’kun dropped out of the air.
I didn’t think he was dead just yet, but he couldn’t be doing good.
“Go help him!” I shouted at the shocked group of Heroes around me. “I can’t deal with that and finish this fortress, so you need to hold it off until I’m done.”
“Ha,” Jeriah said summoning his bravado. “You hurry up or we might have it finished before you get there.” Turning to face the World Boss, he slammed a gauntlet against his fist. “Iron Man,” he said.
I glanced at him from the corner of his eyes to see if his armor would change to some sort of power armor but it had just gained a brilliant silver gleam.
Redoubling my focus on the fortress I poured mana into the stone. The area was staggered like a massive ziggurat but with parapets and a stone canopy to protect from ranged and areal attacks. I continued to raise the tower and ziggurat, I only had room for about half my army to take up position right now.
Those who could were already taking up positions on the walls. Drums began to beat in time like the beating heart of a massive beast. Spells, abilities, and arrows shot out striking the much faster smaller automatons that raced across the field. More and more were digging themselves out of the dirt rushing towards us. They used different strategies depending on what type of automaton they were, the ones like beasts just raced towards us as fast as they could while the humanoid ones formed into lines raising shields and moving towards us in a steadily growing formation.
The minutes ticked by, and I could hear the thunderous boom, boom, boom of the golem’s heavy cannons and gatling gun. By now it was surrounded in battle haze of smoke and dust kicked up blocking a clear vision of anything that was happening. I gave one last push with my ability and stood up from where I had been kneeling with my hands on the ground. It was finished. There was a spiked trench around the fortress and five tiers of defense all surrounding a high tower.
My soldiers moved with purpose under the orders of Ares, while I wouldn’t want some ancient ghost shouting orders in my head at me, the clear instruction seemed to give them some calm. Lighting wreathed my body as I shot out of the tower towards the golem. I cleared the cloud of dirt and smoke and got a good view of the battle. Exar’kun had been healed, by himself or someone else I didn’t know, point was he was back in the fight.
With over thirty Hero ranked gifted attacking it you would expect the Golem to be going down pretty quick, but I couldn’t even tell if it had taken damage. One of Jeriah’s brothers rolled to the side as the massive blade of the golem swept through them the ground trembled under the force of the strike. One of the fighters, a Hero from the Wolf Clan, didn’t move fast enough. There wasn’t even a body to try and heal when the golem raised its sword back up.
Exar’kun zipped around the golem as it spun its gatling gun emitting a never-ending stream of bullets as it tried to track the dragon’s erratic maneuvers. Forge caught sight of me and swiveled its body to aim at me instead of the dragon. The bullets whizzed my way, and I was suddenly in a flight for my life zigzagging between the bullets as I made a straight line for its head.
I struck the golem and dove in through the slit of its visor into the mesh of gears, wires and pipes that made up its interior. I slashed out with Clarent severing a pipe and blasting myself with steam, if I wasn’t resistant to fire damage, I probably would have been cooked by it. I kept going but no matter how much I destroyed nothing seemed to slow down the golem. Little drone machines swarmed behind me in my wake repairing the damage I caused as quickly as I made it.
A whirring sound grew louder and louder withing the machine. A force gripped me and a hatch in the side of the golem opened up. Like the seal of an airplane or spaceship being opened I was violently ejected from inside the golem. I tumbled end over end, my body moving so fast if felt as if I’d been shot by a cannon. I hit the ground so hard I made a crater as I sunk into the ground weakened by the network of tunnels that had been made under it by the spawning raid creatures. The rubble collapsed in around me trapping me a pitch-black suffocating hole.
--
Exar’kun dodged the constant stream of projectiles from the golem’s gun. His Speed Attribute and his ability, Shooting Star were the only things letting him stay ahead of the boulder sized bullets. He wasn’t able to attack but he was able to keep fire off the rest of the strike force. He watched as Mordred got launched out of the golem hitting the ground and disappearing. He couldn’t spare a second to worry about him as he rolled and dropped before shooting forward as more bullets followed after him. He darted into the sky up into atmosphere where clouds were starting gather and darken above the battlefield. The bullets continued to chase him even up here punching holes through the gathered water vapor.
The attacks of his allies on the ground were doing basically nothing against the colossal golem. The damage they did inflict repaired itself. If only he could get a few seconds. When he had been given the Ability Tokens as part of his rewards for ranking up he had known exactly the ability to pick, it was one he had from his birth and the one that given him his infamy.
Wrath of the Stars, (Rank 50, Max Rank): Your breath weapon deals Divine Fire and Curse damage in a 2,500ft cone and inflicts the condition *Star Plague.
Reduces the hardness of uncommon, rare, epic & mythical armor enchanted or otherwise except for Artifact, by 1 for every 5 seconds it is damaged by your breath weapon.
Enemies hit by your fire have a chance of being inflicted with *Star Curse.
Reduces damage resistances by 1 for every 5 seconds a creature is in the effect of your breath weapon.
Targets hit by your fire are outlined shining light taking 25% more damage from all sources for the next 15 minutes.
Ground hit by the fire become irradiated dealing Moderate Radiation damage for the next ten minutes to any creature that walks over it.
You can exclude a creature from your breath weapon even if they are in its effect for the cost of 50 mana for each creature.
*Star Plague: Body begins to break down taking Major Radiation damage per second.
*Star Curse: Damage reduction abilities and titles of the afflicted reduced by 3, lasts for 1 minute, if affliction remains for 1 minute target gains another consecutive stack of star curse.
Max Rank Bonus: Enemies killed by your fire will come back as a Star-fire Elemental, lasting for 5 minutes and attacking anything you designate.
Cost:
35 stamina & mana per second
Cast Time:
10 second build up
Every rank up increases range and damage of your breath weapon. Every rank of this ability increases your Power & Spirit by 2.
Being able to deal Divine stage damage was basically unheard of without half a dozen titles and enchantments boosting that specific weapon type or element. Finally, the golem tired of trying to hit him and turned its weapon towards the ground.
Not missing his chance Exar’kun turned hovering in the air as his head curled back. A deep electric humming grew inside him as he built up the fire in his throat. It exploded out striking the creatures rotating artillery projector, he held the breath, one second, two, five, ten, fifteen, twenty! The weapon began glowing a white-hot parts of it sagging and the barrels stopped spinning. The golem turned back to him leaning forward the barrels on its back firing.
He rolled as the explosive shells whizzed past him. He didn’t make the mistake of trying to destroy them midair again. The weapon was destroyed, and triumphant roar sounded from Exar’kun’s throat. The golem raised the barrels before it. Exar’kun’s triumph faded as he watched the barrels cool and begin to straighten once again. Even his rank fifty ability wouldn’t be able to keep down this World Boss for long.
--
I burst from the ground as I compressed a tunnel back to the surface. The golem was still up no surprise, but its gun had stopped shooting. I could see it repairing itself now from whatever damage it had taken.
“I’ve got an idea,” I said. “But its probably a bad one, remember when you helped me destroy that Artifact?”
You want to try using Hell-dragon Armory on that? Karnen asked not disdainfully, but I could hear the doubt in his voice. I don’t think it will work on an operational construct.
“What if you help me?” I asked. “If we use Ethereal on it…”
I let the implication of my words hang in the air.
We might as well try, Voidra said. None of us can say for sure if it will even work, but just be warned, the System might get mad again.
“What else is new,” I said launching myself back into the air towards the golem.
The golem had never stopped moving, and though we had slowed it it was much too close to the fortress for my liking. Time to put a stop to that. I didn’t aim for its face this time but its left knee, I hit the metal and latched on.
“Hell-dragon’s Armory,” I said.
The metal of the golem resisted me, it was just like when I had tried this on an Artifact. I didn’t have the desperation of trying to save Guinevere’s life this time, but I still had my anger, and I had something else too. I pushed with the Ethereal energy that remained unused inside me, it resisted but Voidra and Karnen were there to help it along its way. The energy flowed through my palm hitting the wall of resistance, like a caustic acid it eroded the resistance. My will and intent continued to press in against it as I poured mana into the ability, with a sudden pop the effect took hold The metal began to flow and compress together. The golem staggered suddenly, nearly throwing me off it as it stumbled.
I kept my grip and continued to alter and shape the metal, their was a grinding as the golem tried to take another step but its knee locked in place. Drones were trying to repair the damage I caused but this was very different that patching a hole or reconnecting pipes wires or replacing a gear. Those wires, pipes and gears were all one singular mass now. The golem’s head turned as it looked down to see me and realized the source of its predicament.
Its sword sliced at me, but I rolled swinging behind its knee cap. It swung again but was thrown off by the lack of use from its left knee. It stumbled backwards trying to catch its balance. I wasn’t alone in this fight, Exar’kun hit it in the head like the stone from David’s sling felling the giant Goliath. The golem’s arms pinwheeled but by allies on the ground though small had abilities of their own and yanked the one remaining leg out from under it.
With a crash that caused a localized earthquake the golem crashed to the ground spending up a cloud of dust.
Try to get as many of your vassals to attack it as possible now, Ares told me. Many are still Mortal; the they get credit for its death they’ll get the full five-hundred points for killing an enemy so high above their rank.
“They’re kind of busy,” I said looking back at the fortress under siege by hundreds or robotic automatons.
This raid is going to last for the next twenty-three hours, its only going to get harder from here, Ares said. They will need all the strength they can get.
“Fine, you can see them better than I can, any you think can survive sallying out of the fort have them meet us here,” I said.
Forge was trying to push itself back up with its arms. Oh no you don’t, I thought blasting towards it. I landed beside its neck and a massive thump sounded behind me as Exar’kun landed as well.
“What’s your plan?” he asked.
“We need to do more damage than it can repair,” I said. “I’m trying to think of a way to take its head off.”
“I can soften its armor and damage resistances,” Exar’kun offered. “But I don’t have anything to take its head off in one strike.”
“I don’t have anything either,” I admitted. Then I spotted the golem’s sword where it had dropped it during its fall. “But it does.”
-
Moments later I was flying above the fallen golem as lifted up its sword which was just on the limit of what I could levitate at a time, and it was a strain just to keep it in the air. Jeriah, and his brothers were using various abilities to chain the Golem down. More and more of my vassals were swarming over it crawling over its surface fighting off the army of automatons and the golem’s drones as they drove their weapons into the cracks of its armored plating prying open holes. Exar’kun was beside its neck blasting a non-stop stream of fire over it. Remara was using her own abilities to channel her own mana and stamina into the dragon to supply him with the fuel for his ability.
I raised the sword higher and higher than let it drop. It plummeted down six-hundred feet, Exar’kun jumped out of the way as everyone got clear. The golem made one final attempt to break free but couldn’t move faster than the falling sword. With a crunch its edge went through the weakened armor of its neck, its edge slicing through the metal and then into the dirt. The head rolled away, and the body of the golem went still along; it began to glow brighter and brighter with a brilliant heat.
Everyone ran for cover as a wave of fire burst from the fallen World Boss like one last fuck you. I don’t know how many people it killed with that, but it was dead now.
250 rank points gained.
You have defeated the World Boss, Forge, reducing the number of spawns for the rest of this wave.
Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 20,480 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 4,700 out of 20,480. When you complete this quest, you will gain 4096 Rank Points, and the next quest will require double the amount to be completed but will award double the rank points.
A cheer ran through my army, but the battle wasn’t over yet, we may have defeated the general, but his army still remained, and we still had five more to fight after this. No rest for the wicked.