Battlefield Reclaimer, Ch 58: Final Strike (Patreon)

The figure of the Bloodweaver was clear in Sam’s mind. It had turned toward the explosion just in time to see what was happening as the cores exploded. Somehow, it had survived the blast that had devastated the rest of the cavern. As he kept looking at it, however, he realized it wasn’t moving much.

It looked like the blast had done something to it after all.

He looked around him, checking to make sure that everyone was still intact. They exchanged a few words of planning as they checked on Krana and Lesat. The guard was conscious as he looked around the area, but he seemed to be in shock even though Ayala had already managed to stop the bleeding on his arm. Either he wasn't handling Yeres's death well or the explosion had stunned him.

Krana was still lying on the ground, however, her eyes closed and her face pale. She was barely moving. Sam reached out to check her, touching her face and then her neck to feel for a pulse. He let out a relieved sigh when he saw that she was still breathing. Hopefully, whatever spell was affecting her would fade when the Bloodweaver died.

When he got the nod from his father and Ayala, he clapped his hands in front of him and pulled them apart. The shield separated, peeling back like two halves of an orange as it revealed a wasted expanse of stone in front of them.

The Bloodweaver was thirty feet away, crouching down as it tried to recover. Its body was shaking slightly as tendrils of blood rose up from beneath its cloak. They hovered near its shoulders, trying to form back into a shield, but they were weak and flailed ineffectively in the air.

Whatever it was trying to do, it wasn’t working. It couldn’t have been easy to endure both of the cores exploding. All of the free blood in the area had been scoured away now, so if the Bloodweaver wanted something to use, it would have to use its own.

The lizard had threatened his father, making it an example of what was wrong with the world. Now, his mother and sister’s faces floated into his mind as he studied it too, including Altey’s delighted little laugh whenever something went her way.

The choice was easy.

His sense of morality had developed somewhat in these tunnels, but it still rotated completely around his family. This thing had threatened them and was blocking the way back. Therefore, it was going to die.

After that, maybe he could get back to enchanting.

His expression hardened as he thought about the future and he added a few things to his list of tasks to accomplish. He’d originally wanted to study enchanting just to make interesting items. The magic itself was what interested him. Now, however, there was a driving need to make items that were powerful enough to stop whatever wanted to kill him.

He never wanted something like this to happen again.

He would make himself so skilled and powerful that nothing could threaten his family. He would study the natural runes in the world, pull apart other enchantments, experiment, and craft until he could make whatever he needed. If there were a way to improve the Seal and to block Outsiders from coming through, he would do it.

He hadn’t known Yeres well, and he’d even punched the guard himself once, but that didn't mean he'd deserved to die like this. Essence versus experience...each trying to consume the other, endlessly, for some goal of more power. This was why the world was a battlefield.

Damned lizard.

It had to stop. If the world kept going on this path, the future would always be the same. The two systems would never be reconciled and life for the regular people, like his family and Yeres, would only suffer.

How many towns had been destroyed by monster invasions...how many lives ruined? The world needed another chance, something to repair it and bring it together again. He didn’t know if he was capable of doing that, but he was going to try.

There was no other future for his path. He had to fix the problems in the world if he wanted to make it the right sort of place for his family to live. To fix the battlefield that was Aster Fall and return it to being a peaceful world again. There had to be some way to strengthen the Seal.

But first, they needed to finish off this lizard.

Sam’s knuckles cracked as he turned back and nodded to Ayala. A moment later, her golem started to run forward at the same time as crystal flame surged around him. The stone version of her was infused with a stronger sense of mana than the last time she’d summoned it, showing its advancement.

The golem’s rocky steps thudded into the stone, a basso beat that accompanied the pulse of his heart and the flow of his mind as his thoughts settled onto their new path. If he was supposed to be a town guard for the world, then what was this soul remnant in that perspective?

A bandit that wouldn’t stop attacking people?

In the end, it didn't really matter. It was a threat, one that had killed Yeres and harmed many others. There was no way it had reached its current level without killing a vast number of people.

It was an enemy that he was going to sweep away so he could make the world a slightly better place. Then, he was going to find the thing who’d brought it here and beat them until they stopped.

How long the beating continued and if they were still alive at the end would be dictated by how much damage they had done to the people of Aster Fall and the Seal while they were here. He didn’t have the power to do that yet, but he would grow stronger until he did.

When it was close enough, the rocky golem dived at the Bloodweaver, its arms outstretched as it slammed into it. The exhausted lizard barely moved as several hundred pounds of magically-enhanced stone knocked it over and pinned it to the stone. The flickering shield around it disappeared in a ripple of fading, golden light.

Only the blood tendrils near its shoulders were left behind, which flailed around as they tried to latch on to the golem, searching for blood in its body to drain. A weak hiss came from the lizard as it tried to lash out, but it didn't have much strength left.

It clawed at the golem, its hand shining with a red light, but its claws only scraped along the golem's stone skin. There was no blood in the golem to react with the spell. At the same time, the golem’s fists thudded into its body, smashing into it over and over again.

It was the safest way to finish the thing off. Sam had no intention of allowing it to get any more blood to boost itself. As the golem worked on it, he stood at a distance, surrounded by an increasing spiral of crystal flame. He didn't have a lot of essence left, but he had enough for this.

As it turned out, he didn’t need to waste the effort. Each blow from the golem was a crushing weight with hundreds of pounds of force behind it, as if the lizard were being hit by battering rams. Whatever strength it had left, it wasn't enough to resist it.

There was a shrill hiss from the Bloodweaver as it was crushed down, its Constitution unable to stand up to the damage it was receiving. It also didn’t have the strength to push the construct aside. Its mana must have been drained in shielding itself from the explosion, leaving it a shell of its former self.

Sam’s spear appeared in his hand and the crystal flame around him intensified as he closed the rest of the distance. He raised the spear high, looking down into the lizard’s eyes. The slit-pupils there reminded him of his own transformation and his hand tightened on the haft.

Everything came back to the Outsider invasions, whether it was the history of the world or his family’s problems. Without their interference, his family’s class wouldn’t have been broken, his father wouldn’t have nearly died from the gnomes, and the Seal wouldn’t be under threat.

The Bloodweaver had no more strength to resist as the golem continued to pummel it. Sam’s spear burned with the most intense crystal flame he could summon as he slammed it down into the monster’s chest.

At the last moment, the bloody tendrils writhed around the lizard, hissing as they sped upwards to Sam and tried to curl around the spear, but they were only able to leave a slashing wound across his wrist before the spear point drove home.

The point exploded through the lizard’s chest in an eruption of crystal blue flames that scoured its skin and burned straight through its body, flaring out on the opposite side with enough force that it caused the Bloodweaver and the golem holding it to rise up a foot off the stone before they crashed down again.

The lizard’s eyes dimmed, the hazy energy in them disappearing. Its body went limp, curling in on itself. As the last bit of its life fled, the Guardian Star on Sam’s hand pulsed, its half-warning falling silent.

A moment later, notifications rang out in his mind, followed by the chime of silver stars. He ignored them as he turned back to his father and the others, making sure they were still alright.

He left Ayala’s golem holding down the Bloodweaver’s corpse as he walked back to the protective circle. His father and Ayala looked fine, so his attention turned to Krana. The Seer had treated him well and was quickly becoming a friend he relied on.

Fortunately, a moment after he arrived back at the circle, Krana's eyes opened. The color also started to return to her skin. Whatever curse the lizard had used, it had faded with the thing’s death.

“It’s dead,” he said quietly as he sat down between her and his dad. “So is everything else.”

He glanced around the area before he shook his head and looked back at her again. The cavern around them was a shattered ruin, especially where the Grey Shards had been. The remains of the maze had been blasted backward by the exploding cores and the opening to the outside tunnel was blocked by a large pile of rubble.

They could move that, but it would be easier to see if the escape route was still there. Fortunately, the cavern hadn’t collapsed.

It had been necessary, but all of the destruction left him tired. He could have done many better things with those two cores, rather than just making them blow up. Even with the job to protect the Seal, he wasn’t a mindless warrior who wanted to run out and fight everything he saw.

He was a crafter.

He was going to spend most of his time working on that, even if he did have to go seal Flaws once in a while.

Krana reached up and touched her shoulder where the spell had hit. She let out a relieved sigh as she saw there was nothing there, not even a mark on her skin. Her eyes shaded to silver as she looked around the area and took stock of what had happened.

“We should clean up and rest,” Jeric suggested, reaching out to pat Sam on the shoulder. “Good work, son. Let’s gather what we can from here and make the most of this mess.”

His dad also looked a little tired, but there was a steady determination in his posture that said he would keep going as long as he needed to. Sam looked at him and, for the first time, reached out and patted his dad on the shoulder too.

He was glad that he was alive.

Sam held out his hand and helped pull Krana to her feet. After a moment, he did the same for Lesat. The guard’s balance was a bit off because of his missing arm and there was a dull look in his eyes that suggested his view of the world had suffered a blow, but he took Sam's hand and struggled to his feet.

They ignored the devastation around them as they searched through the area, gathering the experience and anything else they could find. The entrance to the cavern was blocked for now, but even if something passed by the cavern while they were here, if it saw what the inside looked like, it would probably run in the other direction as fast as possible.

The Bloodweaver had said it was the ruler of this area. It might have held some forces in reserve, but they shouldn’t be close by. As long as they didn’t run into the entire Grey Shard tribe on the way out, there wouldn’t be much else down here that could give them any trouble.

They scavenged through what remained of the area, collecting resources and experience. Sam also pulled out the auras from the Grey Shards and the Horned Water Lizards as he went by, tossing them into his storage. He got most of them for once and it pushed his stock of auras back to a reasonable level.

By the time he was done, he had 12 Auras of Reclusive Tide from the lizards and 22 Auras of Shifting Shadow. It would be enough to craft for a little while.

As for the experience that he was gathering, something strange was happening to that. Instead of flowing into his body immediately, it was building up around him, surrounding him in layers of silver light. When he looked around, he could see the same light on the others.

He wasn't sure what was happening yet, but he was sure it would be clear in a minute. There was more left over in the cavern than he’d expected, including half a dozen cores from Grey Shard Seekers to replace the ones he'd just lost. He even managed to extract a special core from the Dark Chryso Bloodweaver, one that gleamed with a dull, golden light.

He tried to get the aura from it as well, but it dissolved in his hands.

When everything was divided and he’d collected the experience from the Bloodweaver and some of the others, they flopped back down where Ayala’s protective circle had been and started to meditate. Halos of silver light surrounded all of them.

As soon as Sam sat down, the notifications began to chime in his mind, demanding his attention, along with a building pressure from the layers of experience that had gathered. It felt like the tide was about to crash down on top of him.

Now that he was still, the experience began to pour into his body, moving in a way that Sam had never felt before. As it bubbled through his blood with a quickly building pressure, it made him finally look at the notifications he’d received.

They came in a tide that was nearly as overwhelming as the experience.

Congratulations, Battlefield Reclaimer. You have used your Class skills to slay a Level 55 Soul Remnant.

You and the others in your party are granted bonus experience for slaying this enemy.

You gain 500,000 Class experience.

For destroying this enemy of Aster Fall, you also receive a special reward. The World Law grants you some of the power that the remnant stole from the world, to help you to continue your mission.

You gain the Trait: Soul Echo.

[Soul Echo: +4 to all attributes.]

The Trait Dauntless has improved.

[Dauntless: Increases by +2 Con, +2 Cha.]

You may choose one ability to upgrade to Advanced.

Make your choice of ability now. All other experience will be granted after you make your choice.

The notifications stopped there, followed by the rippling sensation of his body changing as the attributes from the new traits settled into him. A moment later, he made the choice the World Law was waiting for, choosing to upgrade Essence Shield.

The ability had been integral to their survival. He had thought it might upgrade by itself when he figured out Crystal Field, but it hadn’t, and he wasn’t sure how long it would take him to train it up normally.

He could have chosen to upgrade Reclaim Aura, but as long as he had the ability to defend himself, there would always be more auras to practice with.

As soon as he made the choice, he felt the familiar whirlwind of power settling into his body, as well as an intensifying flow of energy that helped him to feel the crystalline structure of his flames better than ever.

A moment later, that feeling was dwarfed by the continued flow of experience. As he looked at the halos of light, he could tell that the 500,000 experience from the Bloodweaver was only the first layer around him.

There was more past that.

He looked toward the corpse of the Bloodweaver and shook his head. It had been Level 55...and based on his calculations, the thing must have had around five and a half million total experience. Of the five of them still alive, they each must have received 500k.

It showed exactly what it took to get to that level. The bonus experience from it was about half of that, divided amongst all of them in five parts. From the looks on everyone’s faces, he was sure that they had received the same amount.

The merry bubbles of power were thundering more strongly than he had ever felt before, stressing his body as he tried to absorb them. It was a surging torrent of energy that was burning through every muscle, delighting in destruction and growth as it chimed like celestial bells in his mind.

The World Law continued to speak to him, the notifications coming in a flood of information, and he realized that the process wasn’t done yet. Now, the other layers of experience started to pour into his blood.

There had been around thirty of the Grey Shards and at least a dozen Horned Water Lizards. It was the largest group of opponents that he had ever faced, and the total experience from them had to be close to what the Bloodweaver had held, if not more.

There had been no indication of level gain yet, which meant that the World Law was totalling up everything for him, waiting to deliver it all at once. He could feel it making a judgment on how to allot it. If it let him have it…he wasn’t sure what the total would be, but he knew it would be a lot.

Finally, it completed its assessment and spoke.

Due to your battle against a powerful enemy of Aster Fall, the experience limit from these monsters is temporarily rescinded.

The experience has been split among your party based on your contribution. You receive 67% of the available experience.

You gain 1,427,000 Class experience.

As a reward for your efforts, the World Core will assist you in absorbing it, along with the bonus experience from the Soul Remnant.

An even more enormous flood of experience started to pour into his blood as all of the layers collapsed toward him, making it feel like his body was about to split apart. At the same time, he could feel the bubbles fusing into him, applying pressure against themselves as they pulled him back together again.

You have gained 1,927,000 Class experience.

You have gained nine Levels in your Class.

You are now a Level 42 Battlefield Reclaimer.

Total Experience: 2,539,640 / 2,680,500

You have gained nine General Levels.

You are now Level 42.

Total Experience: 2,548,380 / 2,680,500

You gain +9 Aura, +9 Intelligence, and have 27 free status points to assign.

Congratulations, Battlefield Reclaimer. You have reached the Expert tier.

You may choose one Class ability and one Subclass Ability to upgrade by a tier (to a maximum of Expert).

You may also choose one ability for your Class from the following list.

Transfer Aura

Shatter Aura

Assume Aura

Make your choice now.

The flood of power was so intense that it was clear why the World Law didn’t grant so much experience at once. He had to wonder how much of the remaining experience from the monsters was used in helping him to absorb it.

His mind was struggling and his thoughts were barely coherent, but somehow the information still came to him. The World Law was helping him to deal with it, giving him a moment to make his choices before the full weight of all that experience landed on him.

He had to choose quickly.

His choice of abilities to upgrade were the same as they had been when he reached 20. As soon as he made his choice, he felt the whirl of power from the world surging into his body again, advancing his understanding of Aura of Crystal Flame and Flame Strike both to Expert.

When he’d chosen those two abilities before, it had been because he needed a stronger attack to save their lives. His reason for choosing them this time was the same. If he was going to be a town guard, then he needed a way to deal with problems.

If things had been more peaceful, he would have chosen to focus on his enchanting abilities or on reclaiming auras, but those would come on their own in time. Right now, he wanted to make sure he had the strongest attack possible to clear enemies out of his way.

As for the new ability, he chose Assume Aura, under the theory that it might be more powerful than the other two. It hadn’t been offered before.

As he looked at his status sheet, he saw that the attributes from the new traits had already been added. He didn't hesitate as he dealt with the free points, placing four of them into Constitution, which brought it up to 40, and one into Agility, taking it to 20.

That left him with 22 points and after a moment he placed two into Charisma, taking it to 30, and seven each in Intelligence and Aura, taking them to 83. The last six went into Wisdom, taking it up to 41.

When his choices were made, he felt the layers of silver experience exploding through his veins, combined with the equally suppressive power of the World Law. Its cold calculation was present in every moment, forcing the experience back into a safe pattern to help him absorb it.

The two forces swept through him, twisting him apart into a thousand fragments that exploded like burning suns at the same time as they put him back together again, reweaving all the threads of his existence back together into a stronger form.

The process was so intense that his consciousness rang beneath the weight of it and the world turned black.

The blackness was deep and boundless, a curl of ebony ink swirling away into the distance. It hung there in front him, receding as he reached for it, stretching away into the night.

It was a scroll of eternity, unfurling as it turned into an endless expanse dotted with silver stars and misty spirals of light.