“It’s the Warlord!” Mira called out.
“He’s alive?” Felrick asked in shock and horror. “I thought he died with Guinevere.”
“They’re both alive,” Mira said the words giving her a mixed feeling in her stomach.
“We don’t have time to talk,” Helen said reaching into a pocket on her robes. “Everyone put on your amulets if you don’t have them on already. We can’t risk anyone being dominated by him.”
Her party geared up to face the Warlord, now the dying dragon before them being ignored for now in the face of the greater threat to their world. The Warlord didn’t move, merely crossing his arms a black bar tipped with red visible to Mira who continued to watch him for any sign that he would strike.
They slowly descended the sides of the crater fanning out to encircle the Warlord.
“You don’t have to do this,” Guinevere said.
“We do,” Helen said. “I don’t know what spell he has you under, but we will free you of it.”
“She was actually talking to me,” Mordred said. “As a favor to Guinevere I will give you this one opportunity for all of you to leave with your lives.”
“There are six of us,” Jamis said. “And some of us outrank you this time.”
“For now,” Mordred said the black bar tipped with crystal held out before him. “You have until one of you makes an attack against me or the dragon.”
“We will not suffer a Champion of Chaos to live,” Torvin spat and charged forward on his mount.
“So be it,” Mordred sighed. “Guinevere, I do not require you to keep to our pact and fight with me. I’ve got this.”
A blade of crimson lightning appeared in his hand, and he disappeared the instant before Torvin’s lance would have hit him. The shock of the weapons’ appearance momentarily stunned the champions, it was instantly broken as he reappeared behind Mira and brought the lighting blade down in a two-handed grip.
--
Mira rolled on instinct the attack only grazing her but that was enough to send streams of agony through her as the searing blade burned through the leather of her armor scorching and cooking her flesh. I blocked two bolts of silver light that shot from Helen’s staff. I had used the time we were talking to analyze and learn the names and ranks of all my opponents. Some of them were forty or thirty ranks over me but none of them were below me.
I wasn’t sure if the old me before I fell into the pit could have taken out this party. They were each prodigies chosen by a god. Guinevere could beat them one on one still I was sure, but I wasn’t sure she could take on the entire party. That was the difference between a champion and someone who just had abilities our blessings and divine and custom abilities and artifacts gave us a serious advantage over any enemy not also blessed by a god. We could outlast people with our regeneration rates and the unique advantages our divine abilities gave us. Of course, that was for others, I barely used my own divine ability.
The Warlord wasn’t meant to fight like I did, they were meant to lead armies and come up with clever tactical plans. That’s not how I operated and would never be, even with all my training I had received from Guinevere I was still a berserker if a much more skilled one.
The three martial champions surrounded me along with a member of their party who wasn’t a champion. They struck at me with their respective weapons, I stood there as Guinevere had shown me and blocked, parried and reposted. Clarent’s rumble would turn into a scream when I swung him through the air. The champions were good and blocked my attacks, but my own defenses were holding against them.
“Bear Form,” Jamis snarled. His body began to twist and grow hairier as he swelled in size. He struck me in the chest and knocked me a dozen feet back but freeing me from the encirclement.
“If we’re bringing out our abilities then let me show you a neat trick,” I said extending my hand towards them.
Red lightning burst from my fingertips. The color was changed by my sword, and I no longer even needed to say the activation phrase to use it. I had excluded Guinevere and Exar’kun from the spell’s effects, so the lighting converged on the party. Their tank jumped forwards using some ability to draw most of the lightning towards him. The red forks struck his shield, and he was catapulted backwards into the side of the crater.
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“Wow,” I said impressed by the extra power Clarent had provided to Chain Lighting.
Black mist began to rise from my skin as the damage I inflicted from each of my attacks gained me six instances of Black Rage. Mira was in the air again, her wings keeping her aloft as she loosed shot after shot at me with the speed of a machine gun. Concentrating only on her for a minute I deflected every arrow she sent towards me. Clarent screamed with every twist and slash through the air and Mira landed back down her torrent of arrows ended and looking winded.
As soon as her attack ended another began. Atrel lunged for me his spear a dancing blur. I blocked a series of spear strikes from Atrel his face twisted in anger. “You killed my father!” he snarled.
“Your father?” I asked analyzing his facial features instead of just his description. “Ah, your Astrel’s son, you need to let that go. If you sit upon a throne you need to be ready for people to pull you off.”
An attack that didn’t show up in my Foresight hit me in the back and a lance appeared through my stomach piercing through my diamond hard skin. “Maybe you should learn that lesson yourself,” Torvin said.
“Perhaps,” I agreed stepping clear of the weapon inside me and letting my flesh knit itself back together. “Or maybe I’m just a bit rusty.”
Torvin and Atrel charged me at the same time. Gripping them with telekinesis, a mental struggle that I did my best not to show, I tossed them backwards. Felrick charged me his body a blur of motion. I blocked with Clarent sliding back across the ground as I met his charge.
“Phantom Form,” I said under my breath.
Passing through his body which stumbled after losing the resistance he’d been pushing through. I whirled around and slashed across his back dealing soul damage to him. A trio of silver beams of light struck my immaterial form. They hurt a lot but I’d taken away my vulnerability to them, so it was just regular damage instead.
Rematerializing, I took an arrow to the chest. It exploded after burying itself in and blew a hole through my right side. Spinning from the impact I took a cut across the thigh from Felrick as he capitalized on my disorientation. Before I could reorient myself a swarm of hawks descended on me. Their beaks and claws were somehow able to cut through my skin and began ripping in and tearing out chunks of flesh. A sword slashed across my stomach and claws racked my back as a spear jammed into my thigh.
My opponents were spamming through all their abilities to boost and deal damage as they began to shred my flesh down to the bone. I blocked one attack only for another to strike me, having superhuman speed was fine if you weren’t fighting people who were also superhuman. For every two or three attacks I blocked one managed to hit me in a direction I couldn’t defend from. My teleportation was on cooldown and Phantom Form wouldn’t make me immune to these weapons.
I let loose a scream that tore the ground around me apart. The scream was a combination of both Helheim’s Scream and Voice-of-the-Chasm. The blast sent my enemies flying or stumbling backwards. The otherworldly sound sent shivers down their spines as the debuffs began to be applied to them. The archer turned and started to run as the fear overcame her. Felrick was staggered and I drove my sword into his gut, the molten metal from his breastplate dripping down into the charred wound I left behind as I ripped it out.
Torvin charged me again, but I roared unleashing Voice of the Chasm sending him backwards. Their healer was doing her best to cleanse the debuffs I’d inflicted as well as to heal their tank. Jamis hit me from behind the man turned bear bowling me over and savaging me with his teeth and claws. He left dozens of scratches, but my skin was up to the job of resisting his natural weapons. Kicking up with my legs I knocked him back long enough for me to teleport away.
Atrel appeared beside me using some ability or item to teleport. His spear slashed and cut at me, my sword blocked the edges of his double bladed metal spear. They turned red as it rapidly heated up whenever they made contact with Clarent. He never kept his weapon against mine long enough for it to be cut through, but it was obvious that his spear was not an artifact and was taking damage from touching mine.
“You know,” I said. “You’re a much better fighter than your father was.”
“I remember watching you fight against Guinevere,” Atrel said. “you’re just a brutal barbarian. You rely on overwhelming your opponent.”
“That was about a year ago,” I responded blocking his strike and stepping forward hooking his leg with my foot and yanking out his leg from under him. “I think you’ll find that I am not the same now.”
Torvin tried to charge me on his mount again no matter that the trick hadn’t worked on me the first two times he tried it. I didn’t even turn my attention to him, just letting the Spirit Cannon on my shoulder turn and fire and evaporate the summoned mount from under him. I raised my sword to finish of Atrel on the ground, my foot stomping on his wrist to keep his spear pinned.
Jamis jumped over the fallen Atrel, his fur catching fire as I brought Clarent down on his back. He was on fire now, but his side was surprisingly resistant to Clarent’s lightning edge. He swiped forward with his paw, and I blocked it but was thrown a dozen paces back. I spun midair and landed on my feet again, the claw wounds I had just taken already closing up.
Raising my left hand, I unleashed another torrent of lighting from my hands. This time Felrick wasn’t in any shape to try and tank it as the bolts struck home. Atrel managed to deflect and ground the current of electricity into the ground with his spear. Helen created a golden barrier around her that shattered but dispersed the lightning. Letting loose another blast of lighting I watched as Mira and Felrick went unconscious. Jamis came at me again, his form that of a human again.
A spiked gauntlet sped towards my face. Raising my left hand, I caught his wrist holding him in place as he strained against me. My strength was much higher than his with all my instances of Black Rage I had stacked up. I pulled him forward as rotated my body to increase the power of my next strike; Clarent stabbed forward ramming through his bare chest. The smell of roasted flesh filled the air as he let out a gasp then collapsed.