Jamis blocked the strike of the ogre as Torvin rode in from the left on his horse, his lance shining with golden light. Felrick guarded Helen and Mira as they provided ranged healing and attacks as the seven gifted ogres assaulted the head of the army. Rocks flew through the air as the clan of ungifted ogres threw stones from the ridges down at the procession as their clan leaders fought the champions. The other champions were at the rear, defending against a similar attack.
Oktas, Yendri Clan Leader, Gifted- giant/ogre, Mortal, Rank: 92
Guinevere stayed back with her team. She was the highest-ranked member of the army and could have easily taken on the ogres, but they were a grade below her, so they would offer little reward, and it was better than others got the benefit of fighting them.
Felrick blocked the strike from a club as long as he was tall and stabbed upward into the wrist of the hand wielding the club, his sword flashing.
“Severing Strike!” he shouted, activating his ability.
The hand of the ogre had its tendons and bone cut through as the blades passed through in one clean stroke. The club fell to the ground; the severed hand still gripped around its hilt.
Mira let loose an arrow piercing through the eye of the ogre Felrick had just wounded, and it staggered back before collapsing dead. Torvin’s lance struck Oktas exploding on contact tossing the ogre around and blasting a hole the size of a dinner plate through its torso. Jamis leaped on the clan leader while he was dazed, his claws ripping into his neck as he tore his head from his shoulders. An axe from one of the other ogres buried itself a few inches into Jamis’ back, although it struggled to get through his armored hair, which acted like a lair of chainmail.
Jamis fell back, roaring in pain; Felrick stepped in, deflecting the next strike with his shield.
“Healing Light of the Moon!” Helen cried out, and the axe popped out of Jamis’ shoulder.
Light surrounded Jamis in a nimbus as the wound in his back and all the scrapes along his body were healed, leaving no trace of their presence. Mira raised her bow to the sky.
“Raining Falcons!” she cried out.
She shot an arrow into the sky, which descended, transforming into a flock of hawks and falcons that clawed at the faces of the remaining ogres gouging at their eyes. Torvin used the distraction to get off another charge with his mount his lance aiming for the back of one of the ogres.
“Righteous Charge!’ he called out, the lance tip shining like the sun.
When the lance hit, the ogres froze as the light began to shine from inside them. Then in the next moment, their body crumbled to ash, blackened bones falling to the ground. Jamis pounced forward, his bear form crushing one of the ogres beneath it as he bit down.
“Crushing Bite!” he snarled, his voice distorted by his snout and beast form.
The champions continued to cycle through their special attacks one by one killing the gifted ogres. When they were done, they turned on the ogre clan. Seeing their leaders dead, they scattered as the champions, and the faster army units chased them down and butchered them.
“Why did they attack us?” Jamis asked.
“We must have gone through their territory,” Torvin said. “Ogres are very territorial.”
“This isn’t their territory,” Felrick said. “This land belongs to Lunara.”
Guinevere coughed. “Technically, this land is contested and doesn’t belong to anyone.”
“I’m sorry,” Felrick said. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Oh, stop teasing him,” Helen scolded her cousin. “We all know that Drancia and Camelot also have a claim to this land. It’s why no one has dealt with the problems in the forest yet.”
“Don’t worry,” Felrick said. “We’ll sort out these woods properly before we leave.”
“There are beasts in this woods that even me and my party would die too,” Guinevere said. “They are the real reason this forest is contested and not part of any realm.”
“What creatures?” Mira asked.
“The Hell Dragon,” Felrick said, awe and fear in his voice.
“The Hell Dragon?” Jamis asked. “What is that?”
“Who not what,” Guinevere corrected. “Exar’kun is the dragon’s name. He is the only living descendant of the last champion of Thanadar, God of Destruction and Greed. Nearly four-hundred and fifty years ago, Seerilia, Thanadar’s champion, a black dragon, fought against Ashkar, champion of Miratha, Goddess of Nobility and Stars. Seerilia was pregnant with her consort’s children. Her consort was a hell knight, a lord of the Realm of Fire. She had come here, laid her clutch, and made her lair somewhere in the swamps. When Ashkar found her, the two fought for hours before Ashkar altered the course of a comet above. It struck Seerilia with a mortal blow, and Ashkar finished her off. The comet, however, had desolated the land, and he was forced to flee as the comet emitted an energy that poisoned and altered the land and creatures for miles around it, and the dust from its impact poisoned the land for many leagues. The eggs of Seerilia’s nest were poisoned, and one by one, every hatched only for the hatchling to be born horribly disfigured and mutated by the energy. They were abominations, some too mutated to even survive. Exar’kun was the last to hatch; the mutation did not outwardly affect him. He killed his siblings and gained power. His breath emits the same energy as the comet’s, earning him the unique title, of Star-fallen Lord. He has spent the last two centuries slowly growing in power as he hunted the rare few beasts to be born or created with the gift.”
“Wait,” Jamis interrupted. “Creatures created with the gift are rare?”
“When the god’s competition is over,” Helen said. “The system goes into stasis of sorts, and only a few monsters and beasts are created by it. It’s why controlling a dungeon is so important since it’s the only way to farm for rank points reliably. It’s why my mother, the queen of an entire country, is only Exarch rank.”
“It will get worse, too,” Guinevere said. “The longer the gods game goes on, the more powerful you champions become, and the more powerful beasts and monsters the system will spawn.”
“A good chance to become powerful,” Torvin said, smiling.
“Not when you’re a farmer and his family; in the past of hero ranked monsters would wipe out entire towns and villages,” Guinevere said, looking at him, her gaze cold. “The system exists to provide for you champions; it cares nothing about any other gifted or nongifted.”
No one said anything about this. The army slowly reassembled into ranks to continue their march after the chaos spawn.
---
I stood in the middle of a blizzard. The icy wind bit at me, and lightning lit up the sky, silhouetting a massive bird in the sky. Electric talons flashed at me. I dodged to the side, counterattacking. Lighting struck me, and I was flung into the air; another bolt of lightning hit me, and I was sent flying again. I hung in the air for a moment before falling. I passed through wet clouds, then plummeted over the side of a mountain towards the forest floor, the edge of a cliff flying by me. The ground came towards me faster and faster as my body was still stunned by the electric current going through me.
I sat up, the shock of falling in my sleep jolting me awake. I got up, splashing water on my face, another dream showing my death.
Hmmm, that fear is delicious, the voidling said, and I suddenly got the mental image of stretch.
“Shut up; I’m not afraid of anything,” I snapped at the spirit.
You can’t lie to me, the voidling giggled. I’m in your head.
“And as soon as I can find out how to give you an eviction notice, you won’t be,” I said. “Now shut up. I need to think.” Luckily my one-sided verbal conversation didn’t seem to have woken anyone up.
I thought back on the dream. Considering the last one, I would need to think this one over in depth. I refused to run from death, but perhaps I could do something to change what I had seen. What good was knowing the future if you couldn’t alter it? Sure, I could not try and fight the Lightning Pheonix, and I was sure that was what it had been, but that would prevent me from completing my quest and show a lack of faith in myself and my abilities.
“I am not a failure,” I said to myself.
Your anger is always a delicious breakfast, the voidling said.
I ignored it, pushing its voice to the back of my thoughts.
I put on my armor and left the room. Thanks to my storage pouch, I didn’t really have anything to pack, so I was already ready to go. Tobias waited in the throne room. His armor was laid out on the table, along with some weapons. His brothers stood by their armor and weapons also laid out.
I ate breakfast first, then walked over to the sets of thick plate armor. I was taking out the orbs of uncommon metal from my storage pouch I set to work. I stepped back when I was all done surveying my work. I had thinned the armor but still left it a little under a quarter inch in thickness. The armor sets weren’t magical but were practically indestructible for most creatures.
Tobias picked up his breastplate; it had gained two pounds in weight, but with his Might attribute, the extra weight was laughable.
“This is incredible,” Tobias said. “Acquiring armor like this would have been worth swearing fealty to you all on its own.”
“Here,” I said, taking out the maul I had been carrying with me since I first got it from Quinn after my first battle. “This is a proper weapon; I’ve put more effort into it than any other, and it will suit your families’ abilities well, I think.”
Tobias took the maul from my hand, hefting the several hundred-pound weapons in his hands. “Thank you, I feel as if I could slay a dragon with one hit from this.”
His emotions are too complicated, the voidling gagged. It’s like someone mixed salt, sugar and cinnamon, and cilantro together. Why can’t you make him feel something simple like lust, anger, or ambition?
“Maybe a mortal-ranked dragon,” I said, ignoring my inner psychopath. “But Exar’kun is mine to fight.”
“Of course, Warlord,” Tobias said, bowing his head.
It seemed my promise of power and my gifts to him had eased the hostility he felt towards me and earned some loyalty.
“One last thing,” I said and placed a hand on Tobias’s shoulder. “System grant Tobias Foresight and designate him as one of my generals.”
You have granted Tobias Dragonbreaker with your ability Foresight and designated him as one of your generals with authority over your vassals.
Tobias’ face went blank as he read over his own notifications from the system. His eyes went wide, and he knelt before me.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“thank you, Warlord; I will not let down your faith in me,” he said.
This is a new emotion, the voidling said. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted it before; I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.
“Good,” I said. “Jeriah, are you ready to go?”
“Yes,” Jeriah said. “Who else are you bringing with you?”
“Syvia, of course,” I said. “I’m also going to bring Kathleen. She serves as my advisor, and her healing might be useful to you and the others.”
“I would also like to bring my sister Katlyn along,” Jeriah said.
Good, then maybe your clan finally get laid, the voidling said. I can feel all their desires for you, all that sexual tension in one group, hmm, like a dessert buffet.
“Sure,” I said with a shrug blocking out the disturbing background commentary. “But it will be your responsibility to watch out for her.”
I placed a hand on Jeriah as well. “Grant Jeriah Foresight,” I told the system.
You have granted Jeriah Dragonbreaker with your ability, Foresight.
Jeriah read over the notifications from the system and then knelt before me as Tobias had. “This ability is beyond the strength of any I have ever seen before; I will strive to prove my family’s and my worthiness of it from now on,” he swore to me.
“You’ll get your chance to do that soon,” I said and turned to leave them behind to find Syvia and head out. “Karnen, can you figure out any way to keep her quiet?”
She’s getting harder and harder to deal with, Karnen growled. I’m trying to figure out how she feeds on others’ emotions; I can only take in the raw spirit essence you eat; if you go find some creatures to drain the essence from, I might be powerful enough to get rid of her.
“Not trying to fight fire with fire here,” I sighed. “Have you tried draining any of the stuff she’s eating? She’s a spirit too; it must be something similar to what you eat.”
Hey! The voidling protested. That stuff’s mine; I need all of it to grow strong.
“Yeah, try to drain as much of it as you can from her,” I told Karnen.
--
We moved on foot Tigris and Euphrates were busy, and the forest was not a good place for horses. Syvia led us into the forest. I had to slow down for the others thanks to my Heightened Speed, Jeriah kept up mostly, but Syvia struggled to stay ahead and guide the way. Kathleen and Katlyn lagged behind their low rank evident as they forced us to wait up for them.
It was rough going in the forest. This was not flat terrain and was filled with rises and falls and sheer cliffs to navigate around. Despite this and some of my companion’s common attributes, we were still making good time, and we all settled into a rhythm. Katlyn talked with Kathleen the two-woman seemed to get along. Jeriah marched stoically, untiring despite his heavy plate. I used the time to practice my spells; unlike my abilities, these would take work to get good at. I threw phantom spears at wildlife, occasionally hitting them and stopping while Syvia skinned my prey to gather choice cuts of meat for later. I cast my exploding skull spell; sadly, this didn’t leave anything to harvest.
Syvia cast her spells, the one that let her detect the presence of gifted, and told me of a large group of gifted close to the route we would need to take to get to her clan. We angled that way and continued to press on.
I also grabbed interesting rocks as we went compressing them down as small as I could until they were the size of a billiard ball, then put them in my storage pouch. We kept moving until we finally broke into a large meadow, a spire of rock in the center of the field. Syvia cast her spell again, then gestured to the spire of rock jutting out of the meadow’s center. The voidling grew increasingly annoying as she and Karnen fought inside me. It was like going on a family road trip and having two kids trying to murder each other in the backseat.
We crouched down and watched a stag walked up the stone spire, looking around the meadow. It let out a bellow, and doe joined it at its side. Appearing out of the long grass, a herd of deer appeared. They weren’t a species I recognized, but they were around the size of elk. The two deer on the rock were the size of moose, the male had pure white fur with blue markings, and its antlers appeared to be made of sapphire. I focused on the stag and doe until a message popped up.
Yevere, Prince of the Forest; Gifted- Beast/Storm-stag, Veteran, Rank 185
Millra, Herd Mother; Gifted- Beast/Cloud-doe, Veteran Rank 175
I looked over the rest of the herd.
Rain-doe; Gifted- Beast/rain-doe, Mortal, Rank: 7
Looking over the rest of the herd, their ranks didn’t change too much, never going higher than ten or lower than five.
“Katlyn, Kathleen, and Syvia, you take the main herd. Jeriah, you protect them, and if you get a chance, try to get a hit on the Cloud-doe; I’m going to take the stage. No one else fights it,” I instructed, my voice barely audible.
The herd stirred even at my nearly silent command, but it was already too late as I was already in motion. The stag jerked its head as I went from zero to over a hundred miles an hour, jumping and clearing the herd as I sailed toward him. The stag snorted and, to my surprise, turned and ran.
The entire herd began to scatter, but I wouldn’t let my prey escape that easily. I landed on the spire and took off again after the stag. Our speeds soon became evident as I quickly began to outpace him. My club lashed out, scoring a scratch along his foreleg. Black smoke poured out of my skin, covering me in a black obscuring mist even as my veins began to glow like a river of lava.
The stag turned on a dime, its antlers sweeping toward my chest. The moose-sized deer was fast, but my ability let me multiply my speed, and I ducked under the sweeping antlers slashing at its neck where its artery should be. A blast of lightning scored my body, my body tensing as electricity coursed through them, stunning me for a second. The stag had disappeared, transforming into raw lighting as it passed through me, appearing a dozen yards away.
Yevere lowered, pawed at the ground, snorted, and black storm clouds expelled from his nostrils. It lowered its head, and I prepared for the charge, but instead, bolts of lightning shot out from the tips of its antlers.
My Foresight was a fantastic skill and had saved me hundreds of times; I could see nearly half a minute into the future. If you didn’t have the skill, you might think this would let me make the perfect move every time, but that wasn’t the case. The future is constantly changing; even the slightest alteration will change your possible future. Say I move my foot just two inches to my right. That just created ten different possible futures; I pick one, and hundreds of possibilities end, and others are born. I also have to try and make the best choice within a millisecond and another choice right after that, each one compounding, destroying, and creating different possible outcomes.
To put it succinctly, though, sometimes there are no good choices. I activated Phantom Form, but the lighting still struck me; I didn’t appear to be vulnerable to lightning damage, but I also, unfortunately, wasn’t immune. I did take less damage than I would have if I were physical, and I avoided the stun effect.
I sped forward in my incorporeal form and activated the eruption effect from Magma Heart(s), spending a sixteenth of my maximum stamina to deal double damage for the next twenty seconds. The stag bellowed as my phantom weapons bit into its form. It transformed into lightning again, escaping to another location a few dozen yards away. I teleported next to it and attacked again. I was going nova burning through my mana, but thanks to Magma Heart(s), my stamina was actually going up as both it and Black-rage benefited from every hit I landed, even in Phantom Form.
I became physical again. The stag tried to gore me, but I grabbed its antlers and held it in place. I felt immensely heavy as my Might had gone up by twenty-four points. I pushed back on the stag, and it skidded along the dirt and grass-plowing furrows as it tried to resist me.
My palms sizzled as the stag tried to turn to lightning again, but it appeared that contact with another creature prevented it. It did not prevent the arcs of lightning from going through my body, and I felt my hearts spasm. I could smell the scoring as the skin along my palms blackened and burned from electrical burns.
My body was immobile, but my mind was not. I gripped the stag with Telekinesis and crushed its body inwards as I held its head in place. At this point, I couldn’t let go even if I wanted to, my body locked in place with a current of lighting running through me, cooking me from the inside. The stag bucked as my telekinesis crushed its body inwards, but neither of us could move now.
Troll Hide kept me alive barely as the regeneration fought against the damage of the lightning. Finally, the stag bucked wildly one last time before going limp.
92 rank points gained.
Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 10,240 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 151 out of 10,240. When you complete this quest, you will gain 2,048 Rank Points, and the next quest will require double the amount to be completed but will award double the rank points.
You have completed a hidden objective and earned a title. Objective, survive a lethal amount of lightning damage for over ten seconds; reward: Lightning Resistance.
*Lightning Resistance: Your body is becoming increasingly resistant to Lightning the more you are subjected to it. Lightning damage deals one less damage stage against you, making it so larger lightning attacks are required to damage and kill you.
I had to grab my own body with telekinesis to push me back from the stag’s body, lighting still coursing from its antlers and flooding my body. I collapsed onto the ground, twitching; I lay there for a minute before sitting up; I was drenched in sweat and dirt and took out my cleaning cloth, spending the mana to wipe my body and clothes clean.
That was amazing; the voidling gasped as if she was out of breath. Your passion and fury, I’ve never felt anything like it. Is that what you feel like every time you fight?
I got some of it, too, Karnen purred. You can’t get away from me forever.
I blocked out the rest of the conversation as the two psychopaths screamed and fought inside my spirit.
I stood up and walked over to where Jeriah panted heavily, standing over the body of the cloud doe, blood ran from his eyes, nose, and ears, and his sword was buried nearly to the hilt in the doe’s chest. I wordlessly took out my cleansing cloth again and cleaned him off. I wandered over to the girls and found Syvia leading two of the does by makeshift halters. Katlyn and Kathleen sat on the does. I looked past them to see a few dozen of the lesser does killed, but the majority of the herd looked to have escaped.
“What’s with the deer?” I asked Syvia.
“I used Calm Beasts on it,” Syvia said. “We can make faster time now.”
“It’s your rank points,” I said. “If you’d rather ride them than get the experience, that’s up to you.”
Jeriah shrugged, not caring either way, and we set up camp by the rock spire. Syvia penned in the rain-does making sure they couldn’t and wouldn’t run away during the night. Next, she skinned the storm-stag and cloud-doe for me, adding its pristine pelt to our current pile of untanned hides in my storage pouch. I took the two crystal antlers; my compress earth ability told me they counted as a mineral sort of but were also an organic material, so they weren’t compatible with my ability.
Storm Antler: Rarity: Rare, Hardness 14. Taken from the body of Storm Stag, this antler is imbued with the energy of a storm; it will deal major lightning damage on contact with any living creature. Weapons can only damage it with a hardness of 14 or higher.
Storm Pelt: Rarity: Rare, Hardness 8. Taken from the body of a Storm Stag, this hide is resistant to lightning and electrical attacks. It can only be damaged by weapons with hardness 8 or higher.
Cloud Pelt: Rarity: Rare, Hardness 8. Taken from the body of a Cloud Doe, this hide has camouflaging properties and will shift to match its environment when in dense underbrush; when not, it will turn to an alabaster color.
The pelts from the rain-does had no special properties, although they were of very high quality. I put the antlers in my storage pouch alongside the pelts.
“I got my ability for my Power Attribute,” Jeriah said as he grilled some steaks for us. “I just need an ability for Endurance and one more for Power, and I can progress to Hero Rank.”
“I’m still not sure why you weren’t already at Hero rank,” I said. “The forest is thick with gifted. You can’t go for a day without bumping into one of them.”
“You’ve only been here for a few months at most,” Jeriah said. “The number of gifted creatures you see is not normal. We could tell the god’s game had begun again when the number of gifted creatures exploded in the forest. The system barely spawns anything after one of the champions wins the game, but during the contest, the world is besieged by them. My family being so powerful is the result of years of hard work and surviving powerful enemies of ours coming to kill us.”
“So, your saying I won’t have to worry about the king of a country being demi-god rank or anything?” I asked.
“Not for a while,” Jeriah said. “All gifted will use the time during the contest to increase in power. This increase in monster spawns will typically last a few decades. Everyone will use the time to advance, but the system bases the strength of the creatures it spawns off the closest champion. If I had to guess, that stag and cloud doe hadn’t been in this forest long, maybe a day at most; they were spawned in at Veteran rank because of you.”
“So, you’re saying my presence makes the world more dangerous?” I asked.
“Not just you but every champion,” Syvia said. “It’s why we despise the champions of law so much.”
“Why is that?” Kathleen asked. “Because they protect civilization from clans like yours?”
This is good stuff; let them fight, the voidling said, her commentary breaking into my thoughts again.
“Because they say they protect their people but put them in danger by being around them,” Syvia snapped back. “The more champions are in one place, the more beasts and monsters the system spawns in that area. A group of powerful champions spending a night in a town could cause it to come under siege by a wave of beasts spawned by the system.”
“And your different?” Kathleen asked.
“The champions of chaos are few and never bond together,” Syvia said with a shrug. “And we as a clan are strong enough to fend for ourselves. Unlike your cities, not one member of our clan is without the gift.”
“That’s enough politics and philosophy for one night,” I said, resting against the rocky spire. “How many more days of travel, Syvia?”
“If we can move faster than we did today, we could reach them in two days,” Syvia said.
“Good,” I said. “Then rest up. We’ll be going as fast as we can tomorrow.”