Verdant exhaled, coming back to himself. Opening his eyes, he saw the underside of the staircase he’d come down earlier. ‘Damn, I feel like I’ve slept for twelve hours. What the heck… Is this circulation skill a replacement for sleep?’
He briefly examined the skill panel for Aesir Circulation to check and noted that it didn’t mention anything about sleep replacement. ‘Maybe it’s a hidden effect… it didn’t get a level either… oh well’
Closing the panel he glanced at his crucible quest timer, noting that it had been almost sixteen hours since he’d begun this wave. ‘I’m almost done, I need to get back out there and take care of this so I can get back to Bolva, I’ve got more questions than I’m comfortable with right now.’
He got to his feet, dusting off the ectoplasmic material of the floor he’d been seated on. Climbing the stairs and exiting the building once more, Verdant looked to the North and felt a pit open in his stomach.
The barrier he had noticed earlier was bigger, more complete. But he could see from here that it had begun to crack with pieces falling out and beyond; the glowing green light seemed more erratic than before. Like it was anticipating the failure of the barrier protecting the perimeter wall.
The street was quiet, there were no soldiers or apparitions. The only sound was the ever-present howling of the souls in the vortex above. Verdant looked up, feeling apprehension. The sky had become even darker, and the vortex twisted in an ever tighter spiral. The extra souls appeared to have agitated it further.
‘I need to go; my resources are topped off now and the exhaustion I felt from channelling so much mana at once seems to have faded. I need to be mindful in future that a bloodline unique version of a skill is worlds beyond its normal counterpart.’ He stepped off the stoop of the glowing inn and set off towards the most challenging fight he’d had to date.
He approached the field he’d destroyed the soldiers in earlier and was awed by the sheer destruction his magic had called down upon the earth. The crater he’d created had stopped burning now, though he spotted some glowing coals smouldering at the epicentre.
‘Fucking hell, that’s insane. I need to try harder to understand what I’m capable of. I haven’t just gained an incomprehensible number of stats. My skills and magic have grown in ways I don’t fully understand, and I don’t feel good about that.’ Verdant skirted the edge of the crater and continued towards the wall. He was at some of the closest fields to the settlement right now and it would take several minutes to close the distance to the wall and figure out what’s going on.
‘I’m just happy there hasn’t been any more quest updates since my break.’ He felt within himself, for the feeling he had come to associate with his intuition. The pull came shortly after, dragging him directly north. ‘Yeah, just like I thought, they’re all right by the hole I walked in through’
He could see them now. Eighteen figures, facing away from him, split up in groups of six. It appeared that the [Elite] enemies he’d encountered earlier flanked either side of a central figure. ‘Yep, there it is, the last [Elite]’
Verdant approached, prepared to attack if they became hostile. ‘They’re not even looking at me. What is that?’ Beyond the wall, he spotted smooth bone-white domes reflecting the light of the glowing barrier. Siege towers stood further back, and he could see a forest of spearheads.
‘There has to be an entire legion out there. They’re not just fighting me; they’re fending off an invasion. All that stands between me and that legion is the barrier created by the [Elite] undead. Why are they trying to keep out the undead? They’re allies, aren’t they?’
In that moment, Verdant made a realisation. ‘This whole thing is some macabre reenactment of the battle that destroyed this settlement. This is how they died.’
The figures stood with their arms raised, a blue energy leaving their hands in streams, connecting to the barrier and reinforcing it. While the new [Elite] spoke in a commanding tone, in a familiar language that he didn’t recall hearing before.
‘Wait is that the (Archaic) version of the common tongue I was given? Shit, I’d almost forgotten that was a thing.’ Assess.
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---{Freyja [Stormflame Magi] Level 32 {Corrupted})---
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She was once a candidate to join the ranks of the Aesir. A prodigious mage, renowned for creating the ‘Stormflame’ elemental combination and obtaining a Unique class for her efforts.
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Primary Abilities
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Stormveil: Creates a barrier of crackling flames and lightning around her, damaging anyone who gets too close.
Flame Surge: A wave of fire fired in a single direction across the ground.
Lightning Chain: A lightning bolt that arcs between multiple targets.
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She has long awaited your arrival. Release her Verdant.
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‘Of course, the [Elite] levels have gone up too, I can’t say I’m too surprised.’ Verdant threw off a couple more assesses and confirmed that Aesgir and Rimulf had both increased in level as well.
‘Oh, that’s interesting. First time I’ve seen these mage class soldiers. I guess it makes sense if they’re all here doing something with the barrier.’ The mage classed undead formed triangular formations around each elite.
‘Well… If you guys are going to give me a free shot at your back, I’m going to take it. One each should be enough, right?’ Verdant closed his eyes and reached within his wyrd heart prodding Sowelo, willing it to activate.
Mana began to move, through his channels and into his wyrd heart before exiting once more and coming to pool in his hands. ‘Now that I can do this without urgency, it feels more natural than before, like the energy wants to follow my will. It feels wild, but it wants to be used.’
He opened his eyes and raised his hands in front of him. Electricity arced between his fingers, ready to be used. Reaching down, Verdant grabbed Frost Breaker from his hip and raising it to eye level. The energy in his hands ran up the handle and found a home in the head of the weapon. Energy sparked across the face of his warpick. ‘It feels less erratic, more focussed than before. So, it can help me to channel the power of my attacks. It’s nice to know for sure, I guess.’
He smiled as he pointed the head of his weapon towards his enemies. ‘Go.’
Electricity shot across the intervening space before branching out, on course to strike dead on each target.
An instant before hitting home, bright blue barriers sprung up around Freyja, her mages and the other two elites; But their supporting mages remained unprotected.
Verdant wasn’t sure how to feel as half of his attack was deflected into the dirt, turning streaks of the sandy earth, red hot and molten, stopping it dead. He found some measure of comfort in the fact that the unprotected mages exploded in a brilliant light, lightning arcing between them.
Tinkling chimes rang through Verdant’s mind as he confirmed their deaths. ‘Huh, I guess I didn’t use enough this time, there’s still bodies over there… Damn, now I still have to loot them.’
He watched as Rimulf lowered his hands and turned towards him. The skeletal Jotnar’s bones still looked charred from their earlier encounter. ‘Oh look, the big boy is grumpy.’
The charred giant in front of him bellowed to the sky before running towards him, his feet thudding heavily across the ground, leaving indentations in the soil behind him.
Verdant braced his stance and waited for the [Elite] to close the distance.
He swung in a two-handed overhead strike, contacting the barrier around Rimulf before rebounding off. ‘Shit!’
Diving to the side, the warrior barrelled past him. ‘So that barrier blocks physical damage too, Do I need more power?’
Verdant got to his feet and sprinted after the juggernaut careening across the fields. Activating Bloods Wrath he closed the distance just as the warrior was coming to a stop. He leaped through the air, a familiar force guided his hand lining up to a point in the shield that was slightly darker in colour, a fault in the framework of the spell.
In an instant he twisted Frost breaker, lining up the wicked spike with the darker patch of shield.
He felt within himself and called on his power once more imbuing fifty points of mana into his weapon. ‘I think he’s using a berserking skill, he should be vulnerable to damage now if I can just get through that barrier.’
Electricity screamed on the spike, striking down and piercing the barrier before discharging against the warrior inside. Lightning exploded from within him, it tried to chain to another target, striking the barrier and returning to strike Rimulf once more, and again.
Verdant looked on as the creature became locked in place, howling an unearthly cry as electricity ravaged its form.
The barrier exploded in a shower of sparks and glowing shards and Rimulf fell to his knees howling his rage to the sky above.
He stood back, watching the berserker. He hadn’t made any move to get off the ground. ‘Wait. His bones are still black, that can’t just be cosmetic, I almost killed him last time. Is his health depleted? Mana exhaustion causes you to lose consciousness, maybe health depletion causes your body to lock up.’
‘Alright then, let’s make damn sure you don’t cause me a problem later.’ Verdant raised his warpick and swung towards Rimulf’s roaring face shattering the orbital bone into a thousand pieces before reaching out and touching his shoulder to loot the remains. ‘That’s right, your prick of a friend didn’t interrupt me this t…’ “AH FUCK!!”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He dove to the ground, trying to escape the agony radiating between his shoulder blades, transitioning into a roll and turning to face the attack. Verdant’s eyes widened as he spotted a second arrow flying towards him, across the field.
He flared the power of Bloods Wrath increasing his physical stats by one hundred and seventy-five percent. The arrow slowed in his perception, moving like molasses through the air.
Approaching within centimetres of his face, his hand snatched the wooden shaft from the air. ‘Too slow you prick.’
Launching off his left foot, he accelerated towards the bowman.
Closing the distance, Verdant dodged past several more projectiles as they passed sluggishly through the air. ‘It doesn’t look like he’s got a barrier up… guess they don’t want a repeat of what I did to Rimulf. Ha!’
He prepared his warpick, wound by his side ready for a side strike. ‘I’ve got you now you prick, you fucked with me earlier. I’m not the same as I was before. You’re mine!’
Verdant’s swing passed through Aesgir… He stood in shock for a moment as the image of the crafty assassin disappeared in a whisp of dark magic. ‘Shit… he baited me into a kill zone.’
All around him, He heard a howling cry. In a circle around him, arrows floated in the air, twisting and throwing off a fel light. ‘FUCK he’s got abilities, how the hell did I forget about that?’
He didn’t have time to think. How he reacted now making the difference between life and death.
Reaching for his wyrd heart, he willed it to act, to do something. ‘If I eat this hit, I’ll be in a fucking bad way.’
Power flooded out of his core, racing through his body and lighting up every inch of his being. Electricity arced across his body in a sparking skin.
The arrows flew and slammed into his body. Or rather, they slammed into the barrier of crackling energy created by the fulmination of power, expelled from his channels.
Verdant glanced at his resource bars as the power left his skin and returned to his body and noted he’d lost ten percent of his health in that single strike which cost him around fifty points of mana, it was hard to say exactly how much was used as he had recovered some after the attack. ‘It’s not great, but that could have been so much worse.’
Looking around, he failed to locate the archer. “AHH.” He shouted in pain as another arrow sprouted from his shoulder.
Spinning in place, he couldn’t see the enemy.
A shaft grazed his ear as he spun once more. ‘The prick is just going to hide and whittle me down.’
Calling on his wyrd heart once more, he pulled a further two hundred mana through his channels and gathered it to his chest.
‘Fuck I hope this works’ He willed the mana the form a barrier over his skin again. ‘I’ve used four times as much as before; I hope it doesn’t blow up or anything.’
Flinging his arms out to the sides he willed all of the gathered power to radiate in a wave from his body.
Electricity shot out searing lines in the dirt. Power wrapped around a camouflaged figure, shocking it and ripping away the illusion.
Verdant moved quickly, flaring Bloods Wrath once more and swinging his pick back like a bat.
Aesgir lifted his arms, using his bow as a shield to deflect the strike.
With a crunch, Verdant’s warpick continued unimpeded, breaking through the ancient bow and connecting with the side of Aesgir’s skull. Throwing shards of bone against the glowing wall.
Verdant heard a chime as a soul glowing with the darkest light, erupted from the remains and flew, screaming into the vortex above.
He bent over to loot Aesgir and snorted derisively. ‘Not so clever with a lightning bolt running through you, huh?’
In the next moment, he remembered that this man was once a defender of this settlement and he felt a deep shame settle within him. He bowed his head and offered his apologies to the warrior before him. “Sorry mate, rest now. I’ll take it from here.”
He took a moment to straighten up the remains, laying it flat and crossing its arms across its chest before stepping back and selecting yes on the loot prompt.
‘One to go. Then I’ll lay you all to rest.’
Verdant turned to look at the last [Elite]. Freyja stood facing the barrier protecting the wall, her minions supported her from the sides all of them had their arms up pouring their energy into the protective spell.
He began approaching Freyja, looking to the wall as he moved. If he listened closely, he could hear the clattering of an unknown number of undead as they prepared to rush the wall, all they needed was an opening.
As he drew closer, the support mages dropped their arms and started to throw elemental bolts at him.
Flexing his will Verdant willed his lightning aegis to appear, coating him and protecting him from the projectiles. They struck his barrier, one after the other. ‘Seems like only physical attacks are partially blocked. This is really effective at blocking magic strikes…’
The initial fifty mana to activate the barrier was bearable, but the cost began to rise as each strike absorbed an additional five mana. Calling his shield to his left hand he raised it to mitigate some of the cost.
The mages fired at a rapid pace; ice, water, earth, fire and electricity. Each one struck his wooden shield or arcing barrier to similar effect. Though, the mages seemed to have some level of control over their elemental bolts, because only a quarter of them hit his upraised shield, while the rest struck the barrier, consuming a further five mana.
By the time Verdant approached the mages he had absorbed more than thirty strikes costing him a further hundred and fifty mana in all. ‘Seems like Bloods Wrath would have cost me less if I’d approached at speed. Whatever, it’s good to get a feel for new abilities.’
Just beyond striking distance, the mages stopped and tried to close and attack Verdant in melee range. ‘What, why would they close like that, have they run out of mana? Wait, that explains why they didn’t use any more powerful spells.’
Compared to Aesgir and Rimulf, there mages were laughably easy to dispatch. He’d simply wait for a clumsy strike, step out of reach and swing Frost Breaker around to crush them.
The souls escaped the fallen remains as he looted them. He looked up at the vortex, feeling a deep sadness for all the souls trapped within.
‘I’m almost done, then I’ll find some way to help you move on. Whatever it takes.’
Verdant took a deep breath and exhaled before turning to face Freyja, she was still focussed on reinforcing the barrier and didn’t acknowledge him as he approached.
He stepped up next to her when she spoke. “If you step any closer, I’ll be compelled to attack you. Stay there.”
He was shocked. None of the other undead had said a single word, let alone spoken to him directly in a complete sentence. “Why can you speak? None of the others even tried. What makes you so special.”
“I was on the cusp of becoming something more—our people’s first real hope of an Aesir ascension since the fall. But my life was cut short before I could take that final step. My stats are well above the threshold needed to resist this foul magic, though not enough to break free. I can still be forced to act against my will, but as long as I am careful, I can bend the rules a little.” She turned her head and looked him in the eyes.
Verdant was shocked to see fire and electricity burning in her sockets. “How can I save you Freyja, how do I save them?” He gestured vaguely at the vortex above them.
“One of the Aesir could do something, but they were long gone, even in my time. I am unsure how long has passed but I am certain that they have not made a resurgence. I am sure I would feel it.”
‘I can’t tell her about my bloodline, she could be connected to the incursion leader. You don’t just make a phone call to the enemy leader and spill your secrets, right?’ “How do we handle this then; I’m guessing you can’t just lay down and die?”
Freyja made what Verdant would guess was a smile or as close as a bare skull could get to a smile and lowered her arms. “I’ve got exactly one point of mana left. I couldn’t put up a fight against you if I wanted to.”
“So, what, you want me to just kill you? I feel kind of weird about doing that to someone who’s talking calmy to me and hasn’t tried to kill me.”
She laughed, a beautiful sound combined with the jarring clack of her teeth as her jaws cracked together. “I don’t want you to kill me yet. I need you to promise to do something for me.” Freyja reached into her ribcage and pulled out a desiccated sphere. “This is my wyrd heart, the vessel for my cultivation. I can sense that you tread a similar path to my own. Take it, perhaps it can help you in some small way… perhaps a small part of me will be able to live on through you…”
Verdant took the object from her skeletal hand, cool bone brushed against his skin as he willed the orb into his storage. “Thank you Freyja, I will use it well.”
Awkward silence stretched out between them as he tried to decide what to do next. “Now what do we do?”
He saw something in her stance, resembling… sadness. “Yes… forgive me. Even after all these years I fear the oblivion beyond. While at the same time, I long for release from this cursed existence. I am going to use the last of my mana now, at which point I will become inert. Please… finish this, set me free.”
She placed a boney hand to her lips and blew out a whisp of blue light in a kiss, the light in her eyes turned dull, before she collapsed in a heap.
Verdant struggled with himself. Until now he had fought monsters and what he had assumed were unthinking undead. To kill something that could clearly think, and talk crossed a line for him, one he wasn’t sure he could come back from.
‘She wanted this, she has been imprisoned for millennia in that horrific form. Do it. Give her peace.’
He knelt down before the fallen mage.
Verdant cradled Freyja’s skeletal form across his knees, holding her as gently as he would a wounded friend. Her body had long since turned to bone, yet in this moment, she felt no less real than any living soul.
"You were meant for more than this." His voice was quiet, raw with something unspoken. "You walked the same path I do now. You should have stood among the Aesir, not fallen to this... this mockery."
Freyja’s skull rested against his chest, hollow sockets staring at something only she could see.
"This could have been me." The thought struck harder than he expected, sinking into his bones like ice. "If I fail, if I fall, will I end up like you? Trapped. Twisted. Forced to fight against everything I once stood for?"
The weight of it settled over him, an iron truth pressing against his ribs.
"I don''t know if there''s an afterlife, but if there is, I hope you find your place there. No more chains. No more duty. No more war."
He swallowed, his grip tightening ever so slightly.
"Rest well, Freyja. I will remember you."
With a final breath, he reached behind her head and, as gently as he could, severed her spine at the base of the skull.
Verdant stood, allowing the dust to dissipate on its own.
He glanced at his quest, pleased to see that it was now marked as complete.
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Alert!
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Quest Updated!
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Home is where the monsters won’t hurt you (2/3) [Dynamic] {Corrupted}
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The enemy has organised. Enemy forces have increased and Superior Undead now comprise their entirety. Fight! 300/300 3/3 (2/3 waves) -Complete-
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Alert!
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Home is where the monsters won’t hurt you (2/3) [Dynamic] {Corrupted}
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The anchor powering the barrier around the settlement has been destroyed. With it’s imminent collapse, the third wave will begin.
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Alert!
Third Wave starts in 27 Seconds.
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Verdant noted that there were dozens of other notifications waiting for him before willing them aside. ‘I need to get out of here. I don’t know how many undead are beyond the wall, but I really don’t want to find out from this position.’
He turned from the wall and began to run, activating Bloods Wrath.
He made it back to the crater he’d carved into the earth just as the timer hit zero. A resounding crack split the air, rattling through the fields like the first strike of a war drum.
A deep, rhythmic impact.
A pause.
Again.
Then another.
Each strike sent a tremor through the ground, a relentless cadence of destruction.
Then the fortification gave way—not in an instant, but in a slow, crumbling collapse. Shards of glowing brick fractured and splintered outward, scattered like the broken ribs of a corpse. Dust billowed into the night air, thick and heavy with the death of something ancient.
Verdant slowed, heart pounding as two grotesque behemoths forced their way through the breach. Their bodies sagged with bloated, unnatural flesh, each step a sickening quiver of bulk barely restrained by bone. Behind them, the horde followed, spilling through the opening in an unbroken tide.
Humans and Raeskir clad in rusted, timeworn armour marched forward, their movements too orderly, too deliberate for mindless undead. Then came the J?tnar, towering figures wreathed in the same corrupted glow as the souls above.
A deep chill settled in Verdant’s gut.
‘So this is how it happened. The beginning of the end.’
His mind raced. He could run back into the streets, lose himself in the winding alleys of the settlement.
But it wouldn’t matter.
They would find him.
He exhaled sharply, gripping Frost Breaker until his knuckles ached. His breath misted in the air, and for the first time since arriving in this cursed place—
He felt hunted.
‘How the hell am I going to get out of this?’