130 (II)
Breach
The Vulteg shot toward him, jumping into the air with a twirl of his body. Shiv flung himself off the ground. As he did, he extended ropes of Vitaemancy, trying to secure the Vulteg. However, the Vulteg danced between the lashing limbs of red and white. He drifted toward Shiv as a patch of blackness, and the Deathless awaited the coming of his enemy. A Woundeater flared along Shiv's right arm, and crystallized laceration spells flooded its insides.
The Vulteg had substantial Magical Resistance. Not nearly as much as Confriga, but still substantial. Shiv guessed it would take at least ten more spells to crack the Vulteg open.
Problem is getting him to stay still long enough, Shiv thought. Between his stupid Toughness and his ability to turn into a gust of mist, he's kind of a pain in the ass.
Of course, the Vulteg wasn't the only one that could be a pain in the ass. Shiv immediately activated his Chameleon enchantment again, but also projected a Minor Illusion just a few meters away from himself. To Shiv's satisfaction, the Vulteg went for the Minor Illusion, materializing to unleash a spinning kick that tore right through the Illusion and cleaved a deep slash into the surrounding walls.
Three Woundeaters slammed into the Vulteg right after. A detonation of mana consumed everyone within 50 meters.
The Vulteg staggered back, and Shiv blasted into him, carrying them high into the air and away from the others. Before the Vulteg could respond, Shiv stopped time again. The enemy reactivated his Chronomancy Skill as well. Once more Shiv's temporal armor fractured apart, but this time the Vulteg's time mana was reduced to torn tatters, trailing dissipating tassels of gold from the broken field. The Vulteg's oscillating mana field split in half entirely.
The Vulteg cried out again—and went still.
Yeah, sorry, friend, Shiv thought. System’s a piece of shit, and you ran into the wrong Pathbearer.
He launched another Woundeater into the Vulteg one after another as he drained him of vitality. Then, he spiked himself a dozen times, and then a dozen more. He dragged the Vulteg high into the air before he discharged his Inertial Overdrive.
Shiv let time resume. A beat passed. Shiv smashed down like a meteor, crushing a Vulteg under his boot as chunks of the slain brawler rained down with the falling dollops of molten metal. Before the other Vultegs could respond, the Inertial Overdrive discharge washed over them. The weaker ones burst into bloody mist. The stronger were flung off their feet. Only the greatest stayed standing.
And just then, it seemed like the Vultegs were going to be pushed back.
Well, not much of a fight, are you guys? Shiv thought. He stared at the shattered barrier, at the unstable pulses of Dimensionality spewing out more Vultegs, and frowned. Alright, Challenger. Let’s get this shit over with. I’ll do the damned ritual. Connect your Tutorial to this gate.
At that, a notification appeared before his eyes, and with it came the Challenger’s laughter.
Ritual Invoked: Bloodrites of the Vaketh-Insul - Slay enemies of an appropriate quantity and tier to gain an equivalent in orc recruits from the Lone Star Orchestra
Ritual Conditions: Slay [44/50,000 Vultegs] to align the Dimensional frequency of the Vulketh Gateway to the Tutorial.
Shiv blinked. “Fifty-felling-what?”
Just then, another bombardment of spells crashed into the dimensional rift.
Ritual Conditions: Slay [51/50,000 Vultegs] to align the Dimensional frequency of the Vulketh Gateway to the Tutorial.
The Deathless breathed and gripped his Skysplitter tighter. “Well, this is gonna take a while. We should still push them back. Better to keep them contained if we can.”
The orcs were doing a good job keeping the Vultegs boxed in. Between Whisper's rain of gleaming blades, Mortar's bombardment, and all the dimensionals Band was summoning, something of a stalemate had formed. An impasse that the Umbrals and Weaveresses were trying to exploit. New Dimensionality spells were forming around the compromised gateway. A massive ring of static blackness swirled around Shiv. It expanded wider, running for around a hundred meters before a second layer of rings was constructed.
The spell patterns ran counter to each other, and Shiv noticed how each of the rings was connected along singular bridges. The amount of coordination required to shape such a large spell left him staggered. And he realized he didn't really know that much about magic, aside from what he could use and shape with his intent.
Just then, a Vulteg burst into existence beside one of the Umbrals. This enemy held a crossbow, and its tip glistened with Pyromantic energy. However, they teleported again just as Tequila blinked into existence across from them, flinging a spell from a Dynamancy wand. As the ambushing Vulteg vanished, so too did Tequila, using his temporal magic to keep up with his enemy’s Portomancy.
Good thing we have our own skirmisher, Shiv realized.
A crash of thunder and a flash of lightning drew his attention. Overhead, a chain of electricity descended upon the emerging Vultegs. As the chain crashed down, Shiv's eyes widened as he realized each section of the chain was focused around a metal quill. It sank into a Vulteg Pyromancer trying to cast a spell. And she died with a scream as the thunderstorm erupted out from her body. The other quills detonated as well, consuming patches of space and burying the emerging Vultegs beneath the condensing tempest. Blackened clouds rose from the smoldering remains of the invaders. They condensed in the sky above, blotting the mana core’s brightness from sight. Not only that, it proved a functional barricade against the spraying molten metal as well.
Lightning whipped down, slashing at any Vultegs that emerged through the dimensional rift. Above the cloud, Shiv saw a Weaveress. Her body flickered with static electricity, and behind her, two air dimensionals channeled more lightning into the metal quills running down her limbs.
Shiv blinked. Is that Null Mont? he thought to himself. He shook that thought from his head as he dispatched a new Vitae Golem. However, he did something differently this time. Previously, he installed Gravitic Wrestler, Chronomancy, and Inertial Overdrive within the Golem. Now he added something special: Vitality Drain.
“Let's see if this makes you self-sufficient,” Shiv muttered to the Golem. As it ripped free from his body in a splash of red and white, he felt a rush of enervation sweep through him. And so, his anticipation rose as he yearned to see what this golem could do. "Go get the bastards. Cross through the rift, fight as long as you can. Burst yourself when you're about to break or run out of vitality."
The golem shot forward. It moved just like the last golem did, spiking high into the air before stabbing down. A bolt of lightning accompanied its path on the way down, and as it slammed through the breach, several Vultegs were shredded apart from its sheer acceleration. Yet, before the Vitae Golem could pass through entirely, something crashed into it, knocking it aside. A group of Vultegs descended on the downed Vitae Golem with spell and steel.
Meanwhile, a new group of enemies entered the fray.
They arrived as a trio. The head Vulteg’s eye gleamed like an orb of golden fire, so brilliant it stood apart from all the chaos and carnage. His armor ran in crenulated scales, each section glistening with gold, further enchanted with Chronomancy.
Behind, two other Vultegs followed. One held a colossal blade, while their body was shrouded in dense chunks of shuffling stone. Another, smaller Vulteg, skipped into battle behind them, bearing a sphere of oceanic blue. The sphere that reshaped itself into a spear, just as they glistened with dense Hydromancy.
All three of them were Master-Tier mages at the very least. Shiv could feel that from the mana fields they exuded. The first was a Chronomancer, and their golden armor formed a twenty-meter-wide sphere of radiant mana around them. Shiv wasn't sure what kind of Chronomancy they had, but he suspected his temporal shell would take more than a little damage once he passed into this threshold of their pocket. The second, Shiv suspected, was a Geomancer from the moving landslide they wore as armor. The third was a Hydromancer, and that one's power reached far and wide, spreading for well over a full kilometer—beyond Shiv’s ability to observe.
A series of spells came at them. Lightning-infused quills of metal descended from above, bolts of Dynamancy curved through the air to strike the trio. The sphere of golden mana pulsed bright around the enemy Chronomancer. Every attack froze just as it splashed against the first Vulteg's Chronomantic threshold. And there the spells and projectiles stayed as the three Vultegs walked past them without a care.
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Shiv glared. This'll be interesting.
As the battle raged in the backdrop, the leading Vulteg looked upon Shiv, and his gleaming eye flared brighter. "You are the Corpse Shedder. You wear the visage of death."
His sphere of Chronomancy drew closer toward Shiv, but it stopped five meters away from the Deathless.
“Oh,” Shiv said. “Finally noticed I’m a Chrono too.”
“We knew. You slew Shatterhand. Thus, I, Squadhead Kastiglier, have been dispatched to eliminate you.”
“How did you assholes manage to get in, anyway?” Shiv asked.
“As if we would speak such secrets to an enemy," the Vulteg Hydromancer hissed. Her voice was sibilant, but there was also a reverberating quality to it, as if she were speaking underwater. “Now, we come to claim your life. Yours and Adam Arrow’s. We come for you. And we come for him. And we will please Lord Scorn with your heads.”
“Yeah, about that, do you know if I can get the Quest rewards if I kill myself?” Shiv asked.
All three Vultegs fell silent. Their eyes widened as one. The rock-clad Vulteg looked at the two others. "Did he just promise to kill himself for the Quest rewards? Does that work?"
"It does—"
As the Chronomancer Vulteg spoke, Shiv formed his temporal shell once more.
Time halted.
The Chronomancer continued speaking. "—n't. Wait. He's activated his Chronomancy skill." He pointed at Shiv, and to his surprise, the three Vultegs held within the Chronomantic sphere were unaffected by his time stop. Stranger still was how the sphere gnawed hard against Shiv's temporal shell. It didn't break his Chronomancy field immediately, but it felt like a layer of abrasion was being emitted from the lead Vulteg's Chronomancy.
And that's when Shiv realized that the sphere wasn't actually a sphere. Rather, it was like an inner field, and from it emerged an outer, weaker layer that slowed the outside world to some extent before it impacted the inner layer.
Felling weird ass Skill Evolutions, Shiv thought to himself.
Shiv dashed to his left, and then he went right as he triggered his Minor Illusion alongside Chameleon again. However, while the Chronomancer and Hydromancer Vultegs were fooled, the rock-armored Vulteg continued following Shiv, his single eye gleaming purple.
Oh great, a Diviner, Shiv thought to himself. Looks like you're dying first. Shiv increased his chaotic tactics. He flung a body at the Vultegs, launching it out from his cape. As it sailed, he began to construct a new Vitae Golem. He infused his Gravitic Wrestler Skill in the golem at first, and then winced as he watched the Hydromancer drive a spike of water clean through the head of his corpse
Broken Moon, she packs a punch. She put a clean hole through adamantine.
Yet, as she did that, something slammed into the Chronomantic sphere protecting the Vultegs from behind. It arrived as a flash of white, red, and gold, and all three Vultegs pitched forward as the unknown enemy clawed at their final threshold of protection. Shiv had to do a double-take as he realized just who came to his aid. Holy shit, Shiv thought, that was my last Vitae Golem.
Parts of its red and white shell were cracked. Even so, it still seemed bright with vitality. It had four skills inside its body, and it constantly turned through Vitae. It should have vanished sooner than any other Golem, but it was still fighting, still active. Shiv's face widened into a joyful grin. Holy shit, Vitality Drain worked! I got self-sustaining golems! I think… And then he refocused himself and began constructing a new golem to support his first.
The golden shell preserving his Golem shattered apart as it entered the inner Chronomantic field guarding the three Vultegs. But the inner field was also ripped asunder by the sheer magical abrasion inflicted by the golem's approach. Shiv's first Vitae golem became as if a dagger breaking itself to pierce armor.
The Hydromancer responded immediately. She whipped out with her spear, and to Shiv's astonishment, he watched as she took a significant chunk out of the golem's skull. A wound three centimeters long opened a slit along the right side of the golem's face. Broken chips of red and white sprayed through the air. And still, the Hydromancer wasn't done. She swiped her spear three more times, each time the blow cleaved harder, deeper, truer. Her weapon flowed around the golem, wrapping and slicing at its body, opening up a dozen wounds in mere moments. Shiv thought.
"Spike yourselves! Explode!" Shiv called out to his golems. Both of them responded without hesitation. Their gravitic fields pulsed violently, and their inertial sheaths responded in kind. A shroud of rippling violence built as the last fragments of their temporal shells finally broke away.
The first golem discharged, and a cleaving flash of light swept through the world. A blast of fire consumed the inner sphere created by the Vulteg Chronomancer. The trio of Vultegs vanished into the light. And then came a shockwave of force that flung the three Vultegs out from the flames.
The second golem's detonation followed, and that shattered the Chronomantic sphere entirely.
Strider of the Unbending Path 135 > 136
Inerital Overdrive 113 > 115
Vitaemancy 59 > 61
Vitality Drain 54 > 55
Shiv felt his time armor nearly crumble, and he dismissed his Chronomancy before he lost his magic entirely. He did it just as the massive blast swept through the area. The Geomancer Vulteg was flung back through the dimensional chasm, splattering some of his allies as he crashed through them. The Chronomancer was nowhere to be seen, but a second later, a leg slammed into Shiv's chest—a smoking leg glistening with gold.
Poor bastard, Shiv thought to himself. Needed more Toughness—
A spear of water slashed wide across the air. He barely dodged in time, ducking his head as it split clean through the top of his helmet.
Dodge 14 > 15
The Hydromancer dove out from the jet of water, uninjured but furious. She let out a snarl as she shaped a Hydromancy spell, drawing all the moisture in her surroundings to her. Her field was vast. Her magic was powerful.
He felt the moisture in the air condense—felt her pulling at the very water within his body. And he heard her scream and shudder as he broke the spell forming in his hand with a punch from his Magebreaker. As the spell exploded, the Hydromancer's back arched. And as she screamed, Shiv reached out and gripped her by the neck before he slammed his Skysplitter into her gut and dragged it up. He got two centimeters before she seized his grip with both her hands. Blood sprayed from her mouth. She collapsed against him as they struggled.
In the backdrop, more spells crashed down on her allies, and a massive tentacle exploded out from the gateway, reaching high into the air.
Shiv ignored that for now. Instead, he grasped the Hydromancer by the back of her head-tentacles with his free hand, trying to pull her up. As the Vulteg looked up at him, she let out a rasping groan, then breathed hissing poison in his face. A rush of toxins flooded Shiv's body, and she continued spewing corrosive acid at him. Shiv blinked in surprise at first. He felt some of his skin itch and burn from the substance. His insides tingled as well. It was like he was shedding the flesh on his face.
Then, his Plaguefueled triggered, and Shiv's armor began to break around him as he grew larger and larger. Soon, he loomed three meters tall, holding the Vulteg Hydromancer as if she were a doll in his hands. His armor hung off him in tatters. Shiv just grinned, indifferent to the broken pieces falling from his body. The Vulteg’s eye widened. She looked on in abject horror as Shiv began drawing out pieces of bone from within his cape to rebuild the parts of his armor that had just broken.
"Now that was an unfortunate mistake," Shiv muttered to the Hydromancer. "But I do thank you for feeding me. Got any more?"
“I—you—” The Hydromancy tried to shape another spell, but Shiv ripped his knife out from her. She shrieked. But before she could finish, he grabbed her by her legs and pulled in two directions. “NO—”
Those were her final words as her body came apart along her midsection.
Dread Aura 94 > 96
A rush of terror washed into him. His Dread Aura rose by two levels just as he noticed how all the surviving Vultegs were stumbling back, flinching away from him in fear. Their formations were battered but holding. They had created their own barricades to advance, and now they were hiding behind them, gawking at the Corpse Shedder’s brutality. But before they could even consider retreating, a huge, looming eye rose behind them. A purple eye. An eye that glistened with Psychomancy and baleful ire. The angular head of a Jealousy pushed free from the gate, and the rest of its body materialized in a pulse of psionic energy.
"Corpse Shredder," the Jealousy cried. Its voice was deeper than the jealousy Shiv had killed before. "Come for you. Come for Adam Arrow. Lord Scorn will be pleased. Lord Scorn reward Mrpegia.”
Shiv just laughed as he magnified the size of his Skysplitter in response. "Oh, look. The meat’s starting to deliver itself!”