Verdant’s resources were finally full, he stopped rotating the vortex in his wyrd heart. It had gotten fuller since he had started. It seems that the regeneration components of wyrd goes straight to the body while the remainder is left behind here until it is required for a permanent modification. ‘I’m going to need to ask Bolva about this.’
He looked up to the wall of his heart where his first rune was engraved, glowing a deep electric blue and throwing out arcs of electricity. Where the arcs reached down and touched the liquid below, it changed, seeming to absorb the electricity and take on its properties for a short period, before returning to normal. ‘Interesting… I don’t have time to investigate it right now.’
Verdant willed his mind back to his physical body and stood from the floor where he had fallen earlier.
Placing his warpick in storage he crossed the room and touched the barrel of ethereal water he had placed earlier to block the door. No matter how he willed it or physically tried to put it in the pouch, it refused to register as a storable item, assess didn’t even return any results. ‘That’s inconvenient, I’d have liked to experiment on something like this when I had the time.’
He moved the barrel out of the way and opened the trapdoor before climbing down and leaving through the entrance he’d come through earlier.
Stepping through the door, he was immediately assaulted by the sounds of the howling souls in the sky above. The air around him had begun to blow with a harsh breeze and the smell of rot and decay invaded his nostrils.
Feeling within himself, he couldn’t sense any undead nearby, in fact, he could only very faintly feel a pull to the north. Where his self-dubbed North Road lay.
‘I feel like days have passed since I walked into that tower but, logically, I know it has only been a few hours. All my stats have more than doubled and my health and mana are five times what they were before.’
He took a deep breath, feeling his chest expand. Clenching his fists, power rippled through his entire body.
Verdant looked to the north, a brighter green glow illuminated the sky above the buildings over there. ‘That does not look good.’
He took off across the fields, making a beeline for the light in the north. He noticed immediately that he was running at an incredible pace into the wind, he felt a noticeable drag on his body but still moved much faster than before. Though, the wind blowing in his face filled his ears with noise, almost drowning out the howling vortex far above.
Within minutes he cleared the fields and reached the edge of the city. Approaching the western road, he stepped onto quarried stone and continued up the wide street.
He looked around, much like the buildings surrounding the southern road, these were larger and more ostentatious than those he’d seen in the north and the east. ‘There was clearly some kind of hierarchy in place here at some point. I don’t know if they were separated by wealth or social standing, but the difference is pretty damn clear.’
Verdant stayed on the Western Road, all the way to the central hill. Not once did he see a single skeletal soldier or life of any kind. ‘It certainly seems like they all went North. I don’t think I’m going to like what I see when I get over there.’
He circled the hill before reaching the Northern Road and starting off again. The light in the distance had only become brighter and more visible. The souls continued to screech in the vortex above, the wind had abated as his pace slowed; but the cacophony of souls had returned and kept him company in the otherwise dead silent surrounds. Even the sound of his feet against the road beneath him was oddly muted.
‘It’s like the whole world is holding its breath, waiting for… something.’
He reached near the end of the road and hopped behind a low wall in front of the last building before the fields started. Peering over the top of the wall, Verdant was horrified to see many more undead present than what was listed on his quest progress.
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Quest.
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Home is where the monsters won’t hurt you (1/3) {Corrupted}
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The second wave has arrived. Destroy the {Corrupted} with impunity. 93/150 0/3 (2/3 waves)
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Pay attention and you may learn something.
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‘What the hell? It says one hundred and fifty, just like earlier. There is clearly more than that out there!!’
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Alert!
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Quest Updated!
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Due to external influences, this quest has become [Dynamic] and may change at any time to accommodate the challenger’s rising strength.
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The enemy has organised. Enemy forces have increased and Superior Undead now comprise their entirety. Fight! 93/300 0/3 (2/3 waves)
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‘FUCK.’ Verdant lightly punched the glowing stone wall he was peering over and was shocked when his strike caused a section of the wall to collapse.
He looked up and made eye contact with the glowing sockets of a small patrol passing by. Clearly armed and armoured, he threw off assess and noted he was dealing with the classed superior undead soldiers he had encountered earlier, except this time, he didn’t have the advantage of ambushing or charging up an attack with more than ninety percent of his mana reserves.
He sighed heavily, before standing and moving back along the North Road. ‘If I’m going to fight these things, I’m not going to risk drawing more of them over, hopefully they’re stupid enough to not notice this group disappearing.’
The patrol entered the road and continued to follow him as he moved along the road.
Verdant stopped, some hundred meters from the end of the road and waited for the soldiers to reach him. He called Frost Breaker from his inventory into his right hand, the soft leather under his palm was comforting.
The patrol moved out, forming a half circle with the bowmen behind the melee attackers.
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‘They’re all classed, it’s pretty fucking clear they’re not hampered in the same way as the weaker undead from earlier. Was Eirikr limited in some way? Why was he slow and clumsy like the unclassed undead I saw earlier?’ Verdant threw out his assess skill across the front row.
‘Three with spears and three dual wielding swords, [Horned Assaulter] huh? Same class as the ones from earlier. Then the two with the shields will be the [Ash-Sworn Defender] class I saw… yep… that’s them. I’d be willing to bet my worthless money those four in the back have the [Ashen Marksmen] class then.’
He tried to see pass the front row and get a clear view of the archers, failing; he tried to use assess anyway.
‘Can’t seem to get a response with assess on them, must need a clear line of sight for it to kick in.’ He tried once more with no success. ‘Oh well, I’m pretty sure that’s what they are.’
Verdant snapped from his ruminations as four arrows flew over the formation. Too slow to react he roared in pain as one of the arrows took him below the collar bone on his right side. The others missed him, clattering against the road behind him.
‘Fuuuuuuck. Why did I just stand here when I knew there was archers back there. And why the hell didn’t my stats protect me? I’m supposed to have over three thousand health points now, doesn’t that come with some kind of damage res…’
He was already moving as the next volley of arrows interrupted his thoughts. Sailing past his dodging form and clattering against the road once more.
‘Damage resist. Wait… I got a Poison Resist skill. Don’t tell me that I have to get resistance skills to be protected from attacks. When I think of it like that, it seems really friggin’ obvious. I’ve got a shield, but I never use the damn thing, of course I’m going to take damage if I’m not blocking it in some way… I just thought that these stats would protect me more…’
Verdant kept moving and had changed directions so that he was veering towards the right side of the formation. ‘I think I’d rather hit the sword users first, maybe I can get past them to the archers if I’m quick.’
On approach, he wound back Frost Breaker for an upper cut on the rightmost soldier.
The soldier had its weapon ready and was moving a shield across its body to block the blow.
Verdant changed the trajectory of his weapon, lifting the head of the weapon and putting it in a side swing instead. The blow landed and shattered the shield, the arm beneath and impacted against the soldier’s breastplate, lifting it of the ground and throwing it against the formation next to it. Downing three further skeletons.
‘There wasn’t any resistance at all… they’re like paper.’
He stepped forward, over the downed soldiers and stomped down on the nearest skull. It collapsed with a satisfying crunch and a notification informed Verdant of its demise.
He looked towards the other downed skeletons, a predatory grin spreading across his face.
“You are so screwed.” He laughed as he stomped on another slowly turning skull, and another. Before winding up a kick and sending the white orb off the rising defender’s shoulders and tens of meters down the road.
“FUCK!” Verdant hopped on one foot as a light glowed briefly from the boot he held between his hands. ‘Did I just break my fucking toe? Right… super strong but vulnerable to damage. A real glass tank. Fuck me.’
Turning to look at the bowmen, he realised he still had an arrow poking out of his chest. Reaching up, he grabbed the shaft of the arrow as close to the wound as possible and tugged, removing it from his body with a horrid squelch. The wound glowed before closing without a trace. ‘Of course, the arrow would hit centimetres above the armour I designed specifically to block shit. Great.’
He looked to the resource bars in his periphery and was pleased to note that his health had hardly moved from full. If he had to guess he’d say neither resource was down even a full percent yet.
‘Oh right… I haven’t used any mana yet… I don’t really need to, but should I practice some skills? I don’t want to waste the mana in case I need it later…’ Verdant argued with himself for a moment until an arrow deflected off the hard chitin of his breastplate.
‘FUCK! You’re not immortal you dumb fuck. Think later, move now!’ He reacted in time to move back from the formation, dodging the other three arrows by a narrow margin and moving out of range of a sword strike that would have caught him across the hand.
The remaining [Ash-Sworn Defender] and the [Horned Assaulter]’s had recovered and were moving to attack him.
Side-stepping a second sword strike from the defender moved him closer to the marksmen. Turning on his heel, Verdant activated Bloods Wrath, giving him an effective strength over eleven hundred. Power coursed through him, and he felt a red haze fall over his mind.
He launched himself, moving the ten steps between him and the bowmen in a couple of seconds.
The whole world seemed to slow down when he moved like this. His physical stats were so high with this skill activated; his mental stats struggled to keep up.
He moved on instinct more than anything, swinging his weapon with all his might, staving in armour and turning bones to powder. In a moment all four bowmen were unrecognisable heaps of bone and twisted metal on the ground.
Deactivating Bloods Wrath Verdant noted his resources had indeed gone down, though the bars indicated that very little of either resource had been used. ‘If I get creative with the timing, I could use this skill in small bursts without losing myself to it and without using too much health or mana.’
He turned to face the remainder of the patrol, willing his shield into his left hand. ‘Time to crack some skulls.’
Verdant approached at a more sedate pace than before, suddenly, he launched off his left leg, slamming his shield against an assaulter’s chest, lifting it off the ground, and bringing his warpick across to crush the shield and chest cavity of the remaining defender. Two dings informed him of their demise as he swung his weapon once more turning one of the assaulters to powder with his swing and catching the other in the head on the back swing. Souls escaped the defeated soldiers, shooting off to join the brethren in the sky above.
He was rather pleased with himself, he had used a fraction of the resources and taken out a larger patrol than was with the [Elite] earlier. ‘Maybe I really can do this… These soldiers were pretty intimidating before. Now they’re like fighting a bunch of angry toddlers…’
Reaching down, he looted the remains in front of him and walked around to loot the rest before pushing the notifications to the side and walking back to the fields. ‘If I can pull them one patrol at a time, I can whittle them down before attacking the main force. It doesn’t matter how strong I am if I’m not smart about this, I could still die.’
Verdant reached the end of the road and crouched behind a section of the wall he hadn’t already collapsed with his newly monstrous strength.
He felt within himself, trying to feel out the enemies with his intuition. ‘The two elites I fought earlier are definitely at the wall, this feeling inside me recognises them like a familiar scent to my nose.’
Looking over the low wall to see with his physical sight, he noted that their signals came from the area where he had entered the settlement the first time. ‘Of course, the wall is in perfect condition, still got that green glow here though. Could all of this be some kind of facsimile of the battle that occurred here, some kind of siege?’
He observed the movements of the troops more closely. They moved between training fields in platoons of twelve and they all appeared to follow the same route. Waiting for another patrol to come close to his hiding spot, he rose from his position, spectral stone from the wall in hand. Throwing the glowing rock, with considerable force, it sailed through the air in a smooth arc before connecting with the head of the lead defender, knocking it to the ground in a heap.
The patrol turned to look at him with the same wyrd-lit sockets and closed the distance at their top undead speed. Their assaulted defender trailing behind them after rising from its shame.
Verdant stepped back, moving quickly to a side street a couple of blocks back and waiting for the patrol to reach his position.
The heavy thud of armoured feet approached his hiding spot, looking up he observed the front-line pass by and waited thirty seconds longer before seeing four bowmen following the front line, maintaining an unhurried pace.
He stepped from the shadow of the street and focussed on that core of power in his chest. Feeling around mentally, he probed the rune engraved on his wyrd heart and willed it to do something. The familiar energy of his body responded, racing from all over his body and into his core, before leaving once more, touched by the rune held within.
His energy was transformed, without his weapon as a catalyst, it felt different. Wilder, more his own.
Verdant laughed out loud, firing thin ropes of electricity into the air. “By the power of Greyskull!!”
‘Oh shit, dude, don’t waste that stuff’ Sharpening his focus, he willed the escaped lightning to shoot down from above, thickening with power and raining down on the slowly turning patrol in front of him.
Several bolts struck at once, jumping between undead, conducting through all their metal equipment as a deafening boom roared through the street.
Their armour and weapons glowed red hot as their bones began to smoke. With a resounding crack, twelve glowing spirits burst from their charred prisons howling into the night as they flew away.