Chapter 300 - Sacrifice (Patreon)

Zeke was conflicted.

After spending more than a week trudging through the caverns, caves, and tunnels on his way back to the First City, he was absolutely exhausted. Physically, he was mostly fine; he could keep going almost indefinitely, so long as he kept [Metallurgical Repair] going. Even without it, his attunement passively drew some energy from his surroundings, keeping him fresh and well-rested. However, that did little for his mental state, which had already grown ragged even before he’d set out.

It had been nearly three weeks since he’d finished building his skill, and though he’d used that time to tie up some of the loose ends – the skill was remarkably pliable, even after the structure of the runes had been completed – he still lamented the loss of so much time. At first, he’d wanted to rush out and test things as soon as possible. But that just wasn’t in the cards. For one, he was still a pit fighter, and he was expected to frequently play his role. If he didn’t, there would be consequences.

The dwarves weren’t the strictest masters, but that would only remain true so long as they got what they wanted. For instance, Zeke had seen a particularly poor week down in the mines, and the dwarves had reacted by clamping down on any freedom or privileges enjoyed by the slaved miners. That had lasted until production rose to an acceptable level, after which time the dwarves returned to their apathetic baseline.

The same would happen if he stopped showing up for his fights.

So, Zeke had been forced to wait until the current crop of monstrous opponents had been thinned enough that the gladiatorial battles had been put on temporary hold until the dwarves could replenish the stock. Once that day had come, Zeke had slipped down into the mines and resumed his old pattern of behavior.

It really wasn’t abnormal. Most of the time, pit fighters were kept separated from the other slaves. However, when there was a lull in the fighting, many slaves took that opportunity to supplement their income of contribution points by gathering valuable ore. Of course, Zeke couldn’t have cared less about points. All he wanted was to test his newest skill, but to do so, he needed isolation.

“Remarkable,” muttered Jasper.

Zeke sighed. He hadn’t really wanted to bring Jasper along. Truly, he liked the dark elf, even going so far as to consider him a friend. But there were some things Zeke just wanted to do alone. Jasper was having none of it, though, and he’d practically begged Zeke to allow him to tag along.

“It is,” he agreed.

He’d told Jasper the story of the dwarven brothers, but Zeke was aware that the dark elf hadn’t really believed it. Not fully, at least. But now? Seeing a massive, albeit ruined, city stretched out in the cavern before them, it was much more difficult to disbelieve.

Not that Zeke cared much about that. In a perfect world, his friend would take him at his word, but it didn’t really affect his mindset when Jasper had reacted to his story with poorly disguised skepticism. Of course, that hadn’t kept the man from coming along, so perhaps Zeke wasn’t seeing things as clearly as he thought. Either way, they’d had to wait a few days before they had a chance to slip away, and then it had taken quite some time to reach the ruined city.

Perhaps he was being a bit too cautious, but Zeke had no intention of revealing his ability to bypass the restrictions of his bindings. If the dwarves found out what he could do, they would fit him with a new, far stronger collar, and in that event, there was no guarantee he could understand the underlying runes, much less bend them to his will. After all, the dwarves had thousands of years of history and innovation behind them. Sure, they’d stagnated after opening the portal to the demon realm, but Zeke would have been a fool to underestimate their capabilities.

More than that, he knew he’d been fitted with the least secure bindings, probably due to his comparatively low level. If they’d known his real strength, the dwarves would have been far more cautious. So, he’d spent his last few fights in the pits trying to manipulate the perception of his power in such a way that the dwarves continued to underestimate him.

It hadn’t been easy, holding back like that. But he was certain it was necessary.

So, despite his fatigue, his descent into the depths of the mountain came with considerable relief as well. On top of that, Zeke was practically giddy with excitement over testing his new skill. Going so long without doing so had been a special kind of torture, and he was eager to see the skill’s power.

Not for the first time, he re-read the skill’s description:

[Colossal Legion] (E) – You have conquered an army of powerful golems and tied them to your will. Summon a legion of golems to do your bidding. The legion’s power is dependent on skill grade, summoner’s level, and strength of attunement. Upgradeable.

It was precisely the skill he’d hoped to build. Of course, that it had turned out like it had wasn’t really a surprise. The Framework had provided him with a basic foundation; he’d only had to build from there and attach the skill to the golems he’d defeated. Still, seeing that it had worked out – at least according to the description – was a source of immense relief. Now, he only needed to see it in action before he could make his plans around the skill.

Which was why he had returned to the ruined First City of the dwarves.

Zeke stepped down from the slightly elevated mouth of the tunnel and continued on toward the familiar city. He’d already spent weeks fighting within its bounds, so he knew the area like the back of his hand. Jasper wasn’t nearly so cavalier in his approach – not least because Zeke hadn’t deigned to remove the restrictions of his bindings – and he kept a watchful eye out for any threats.

So, it made sense that Jasper saw the threat before Zeke did.

Reaching out, the dark elf gripped Zeke’s shoulder, bringing him to a halt just in time to avoid a lancing beam of white light that tore into one of the crumbling buildings, cutting the weakened wall in half and sending the remainder tumbling to the ground with a loud crash.

It only took an instant for Zeke to recover from the ambush, and he whipped around to search for the attacker. It wasn’t long – maybe a second or two – before his eyes settled on a hulking kobold legionnaire concealed in one of the alleys.

And it wasn’t alone, either. It had brought a dozen of its fellows. All legionnaires, though none so large as the one who’d initiated the attack.

The moment Zeke saw the forces arrayed before them, he grabbed Jasper and dragged him out of the way of the next legionnaire’s beam of light. Even as he pulled the dark elf to safety, he summoned Vorimir and embraced [Metallurgical Repair]; doing so didn’t provide any immediate benefits, but it might save a precious second in the event he took a lethal wound. Meanwhile, Zeke pushed his awareness into Jasper’s bindings, and with a practiced execution of Will from his runecrafting path, severed the connection between a pair of glyphs.

Immediately, the binding enchantment lost cohesion, freeing Jasper to utilize his skills. For his part, the dark elf was instantly aware of the change, and Zeke felt the mana tremble as Jasper embraced a skill. Then another. And another after that. At the same time, his fingers tapped out a staccato rhythm on his hip while a barely audible hum filled the air.

Power surged through Zeke’s body, and suddenly, he felt faster. Stronger. Braver.

It was the power of a {Troubadour}.

Since meeting Jasper months before, Zeke had gathered a little information on the dark elf’s class, and everything pointed to it being equipped with powerful support abilities. Alone, Jasper wasn’t an overwhelmingly powerful combatant, but that was never the point of the class. Instead, it was intended to supplement the potency of frontline fighters like Zeke. And it only grew more powerful the more people it affected.

With new strength flooding through him, Zeke yanked a pair of weapons from his storage space and tossed them to the dark elf. Deftly, Jasper caught both hilts – one belonged to a rapier, while the other was a parrying dagger. Thus armed, the dark elf took up a fighting stance that suggested he knew precisely what he was going.

For his part, Zeke turned to face the kobolds. As he did so, he couldn’t help but mutter, “A legion for a legion…”

Then, he activated his newest skill, [Colossal Legion].

When he did so, a line of mana split the air beside him, and after only a moment, it expanded into a tall portal, through which stepped the first member of Zeke’s legion. Then another followed. And another after that. Disappointingly, the portal closed after the third golem stepped through.

Zeke could only hope it would be enough.

The golems themselves had been transformed. They were still made of bronze, but the oxidation that had marred their forms was completely gone, leaving only shiny metal in its wake. More, their forms had changed as well. No longer did they look like enormous women. Now, they were armored and genderless warriors, each armed with a hammer that vaguely resembled Voromir.

But there was something else there. A power that hadn’t been present in the golems when he’d fought them before. It didn’t take Zeke long to recognize the hint of something demonic within them.

Not surprising, really. They were a reflection of his nature, after all.

“Attack,” he ordered, though he sensed that verbal commands weren’t really necessary. A mere thought would have probably sufficed, but Zeke didn’t want to take any chances.

The three golems advanced, their steps far smoother than they’d been before. And when the kobold legionnaires charged from the alley, they nearly stumbled at the sight of three enormous and powerful bronze golems barring their path. Panicked, the big one extended its spear and shot a beam of destructive light at the centermost golem. It took the attack in the chest, but it never broke stride. And when the strike petered out, Zeke saw that it had sheered straight through the thick bronze.

However, the golem didn’t even seem to notice.

Moreover, Zeke felt something through his connection with his legion, and it only took him a moment to recognize what it was.

“Oh, that’s helpful,” he breathed, embracing his attunement and dragging a stream of earthen energy from the ground. However, he didn’t let it suffuse his body or join his mana channels; instead, he sent it straight to the runes associated with [Colossal Legion]. The complex webwork of glyphs and symbols greedily drank the energy, directing it to the injured golem. In seconds, the wounded golem’s bronze chest began to mend.

That’s when the kobolds panicked. Zeke couldn’t help but think that they were right to do so.

Before the golems could reach the clustered group of humanoid lizards, they scattered. A few turned and sprinted away, but the leader wasn’t so quick to give up. With a roar, it screamed and leapt high into the air. The golems tried to react, but the creature was far too quick, and it sailed over their heads. As it descended, the kobold brought its spear to bear, aiming it directly at Zeke’s chest.

But that was fine.

In fact, Zeke welcomed it. If there was one thing Zeke had learned about himself since being reborn, it was that he had no interest in sitting on the sidelines and letting someone else fight for him. Certainly, it would be incredibly helpful to have his [Colossal Legion] by his side, but at the end of the day, he was a hands-on sort of warrior. So, it was fitting that he’d get to fight the biggest enemy of the bunch.

As the kobold legionnaire rocketed toward him, Zeke’s grip tightened on the haft of his hammer. He set his feet and tensed as the creature seemed to hang in mid-air.  Then, as if a spell had been broken, the descent accelerated.

But the split-second before the spear would have run him through, Zeke stepped to the side. As the spear’s blade bit into the ground, Zeke hefted Voromir and executed a sledgehammer strike that took the overgrown kobold in the shoulder. The sound of crunching bone filled the air, and it was soon joined by the creature’s hissing scream. But to its credit, the kobold ignored the grievous wound and dove out of range of Zeke’s follow-up attack.

That’s when Zeke heard the thundering footsteps of a trio of a golems closing in. That gave Zeke the presence of mind to adjust his plan, and he bellowed, “Capture.”

The golems were an extension of his will, so none of them even hesitated before diving onto the kobold and clamping down on its arms and legs. It resisted, but the might of the golems was insurmountable.

It highlighted the fact that they were incredibly strong, decently durable, and, most importantly, easily regenerated, but those advantages didn’t come without weaknesses – chiefly that their stats seemed to be a reflection of his own. That meant that their agility and dexterity would lag far behind their other stats.

They also took a considerable amount of mana to maintain, judging by his rapidly diminishing reservoir of available energy. He could keep them going for a while, but not indefinitely. It would take a lot of testing to figure it all out, but that was where the Hunting Grounds would come in.

“Well, that was a trifle disappointing,” remarked Jasper, his eyes roving around as he searched for the escaped kobolds. Zeke didn’t expect them to return – not without an army behind them – but he couldn’t argue with the dark elf’s vigilance. “Anticlimactic, you might say.”

“Didn’t take you for a battle junkie,” Zeke said.

“Oh, I most assuredly am not,” Jasper responded. “But when I get my blood up, I no more immune to the call of action than the next warrior.”

“Fair enough,” Zeke said. “Now – let’s head to the plaza at the center of the city. I have something I want to show you.”

“What about our new friend?” asked Jasper.

“It’s coming with us,” Zeke said, giving his golems a mental command to lift the kobold from the ground. It struggled, hissing as it tried to break free, but the golem’s grip was intractable.

“I think ‘he’ would be a more appropriate pronoun,” Jasper said. “However, I am anything but a kobold expert.”

“Noted,” Zeke said. “Hopefully, he’ll tell us himself. Now, c’mon. The tower awaits.”