Chapter 182 (Patreon)

Chapter 182

Jestus was a tall, greater vampire, and like so many others of the Rippenvire faction he preferred a tophat and suit jacket with coat tails as his primary attire.  Gold trimmings laced a vest underneath with a pocket watch, a pocket protector, and two ornate pirate-styled pistols holstered under either arm.  He wore tall black boots up to his knees, dark baggy trousers, and his red eyes glowed slightly brighter than all the lesser vampires he lorded over on this harvesting expedition.  One thing the vampires always faced as an initial trial on these world-conquering invasion missions was a lack of food - because unlike other factions that could just bring their food with them, vampires also required mortal blood.  That gave Rippenvire two options - either decrease the amount of vampiric soldiers they could bring with them to conquer a planet in order to bring cattle, or bring as many vampires as they could and just kill or enslave the local population to feed on.  Rippenvire always chose the latter, often settling on a mass execution of anything and anyone around their initial breach point to secure their borders and have a reserve supply of blood without needing to use other more basic but still valuable food supplies other than blood to feed the slaves.  After Rippenvire secured a foothold they’d then start enslaving rather than just mass slaughtering for blood.  They simply didn’t have the early resources for keeping a large supply of slaves or cattle just yet.

“Those merfolk really didn’t like it when we came and harvested that outpost of theirs, did they?” Jestus Bloodrain said with a chuckle, swirling the red wine of his goblet while casually observing the battle over the ocean underneath his flagship.  “Truly pesky little things.”

His lieutenant nodded, staring over the flagship’s steel rails at a kraken that’d been tamed by the natives while its limbs reached skywards to try and pluck at their airships.  “We could always pull our fleet over to the city in its entirety to avoid a double-sided battle, your excellency.”

“Nonsense.  More merpeople means more bodies we can harvest from the sea - and they are quite terrible at attempting to kill us.  Wouldn’t you agree?” Jestus snorted and sipped at his wine as the bowl-like undersides of the flesh-metal hybrid airships continued to carpet bomb the merpeople ruthlessly while they in turn did their best to use various water-based magics to strike out at the vampiric fleet.  “In fact, I do believe-”

An ominous feeling of dread spread over Jestus right before an explosion echoed across the battlefield from across the besieged city; and a pulse wave of power crashed into the enormous flagship.  Alarms immediately began ringing and he was nearly thrown off over the rail into the sea before a nearby soldier latched onto his ankle.  The sky turned into an ominous red and black as crimson snow tore into the fleet, and dozens of the domed airships of metal and flesh were tipped over entirely - spilling many of their crew into the waiting hands of the merpeople far below.

“WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS HAPPENING!?” Jestus roared over a torrent of power that even now continued to push down on him, making him feel small and almost helpless in a way he’d never experienced in real battle before.  Red eyes wide and holding onto the railing for dear life, the flagship slowly tipped back to right itself as a black cloud dispersed overhead to blanket the sun.

Normally that would be a welcome sight, but not this time.  The teal, flaming eye of some unknown god opened up to reveal itself through hundreds of large spatial tears in the masmic cloud - glaring down on the besieged city and everything around it to judge the unworthy.

Jestus screamed, his body began to tear apart in dozens of places right before the defensive shields of the ship sprang to life.  He abruptly hit the deck, gasping and spitting blood while leaking fluid from numerous wounds as the shields flared in response to some kind of death-attuned attack.

He didn’t even have time to question it as his eyes lifted to see another of the airships with its turtle shell-like bottom, cannons still blasting, rocket towards the large flagship with half its hull missing.  He watched in real time when a torrent of red and black lances ripped through the ship moments later, then felt the jarring impact of similar lances crash into the shields right before the allied airship did with the sound of snapping ligaments and tearing metal.

*CRASH*

The allied airship had been caught completely unaware, not having had time to activate their own shields which left it only as a heaping chunk of metal and muscle that crunched and sagged against the unholy barrier surrounding Jestus and his men.

He watched as soldiers on the other ship who’d somehow miraculously survived until this point were smashed up against those same shields, watched their bodies splatter, and he hastily made his way back into the inner command chamber while other officers scrambled and alarms continued to blare across other ships of the fleet.

“Your excellency!” One of his underling officers called out, pulling up a 3D image of the battlefield, which was now in complete chaos when compared to the rather controlled scenario he’d had under his thumb only twenty seconds ago.  “Two enormous mana signatures are on the northern end of the city’s edge!  OH GODS!  THE ENTIRE GROUND FORCE HAS BEEN WIPED OUT, THEY’RE ALL JUST GONE!  ALL GONE!  AND WE HAVE INCOMING!”

“Incoming!?” Jestus spluttered, his dead heart beating fast in his chest as he stared slack-jawed at the two mana signatures on the hologram.  They were both enormous, with even the weaker signatures being leagues above anything he’d seen anyone at his level of 80 perform before.  The sensors of the flagship were comparing one of these readings to fluctuate around 1400, while the other was now even surpassing a power level of 3000… and it was continuing to RISE.  “IMPOSSIBLE!  CAPTAIN, SEND WORD FOR REINFORCEMENTS IMMEDIATELY AND ROUTE ALL POWER INTO SHIELDS!  GET US ABOVE THOSE DAMNABLE FISH AND WITHDRAW THE FLEET-”

*CRASH*

The flagship shuddered - sending Jestus sprawling onto the floor as another volley of SOMETHING blasted into its shields.  A wave of heat along with infernal mana bathed the shields that began flickering as one by one: airships on the hologram began to melt away and dissolve amidst a burning cloud of hellfire.

Orders were sent out over the communication as he picked himself up, and soon the engines started upticking while cannonfire from the main guns continued to blare.

“FIND OUT WHO OR WHAT THOSE MANA SIGNATURES ARE!” Jestus screamed while officers yelled over encrypted lines to the main base - calling in for backup.  His eyes then shifted to the ‘incoming’ dots racing towards his fleet.  First it was five, then twelve, then twenty - and the number just kept growing.  “AND ACTIVATE THOSE GODS DAMNED TOTEMS - WHATEVER IT IS ATTACKING US ISN’T PLAYING AROUND AND WE’RE GOING ALL OUT!”

***

The combined storm of death, blood and shadow energies Allie and Riven wove together was astronomically devastating.  The entire ground force of Rippenvire on this side of the city had been wiped cleanly off the face of the planet within twenty seconds, all of their defensive barriers and talismans having been oriented the opposite direction from where the two Thane siblings stood.  It’d been like taking candy from a baby, and now their combined storm was focused on the fleet on the opposite side of the city.

Allie’s unholy obelisk sang overhead, the teal eye of some foreign behemoth laser-focusing all enemies with a crushing wave of oppression.  Crimson ice spun with crackling arcs of lightning that shattered machine and flesh alike.  Airships warped and tore, bodies began falling into the sea and the entire harvesting strike force of the invaders was upended in a violent display of power.  Massive amounts of weaker enemies were quite easy for area of effect mages to deal with, they were essentially just XP fruits for the picking - so this kind of battle with the enemy backs turned in closely knit formations was exactly the kind of scenario both she and Riven would excel at.

Riven stood in full gluttony-attuned plate armor at the central eye of the storm, atop a mound of corpses to look over the field of death; his black weapon flaring with streams of blood magic as he cradled the sobbing young girl in his arms.  She still held her teddy bear close, but was beginning to calm down while answering Riven’s questions and even asking some of her own as she became more comfortable with the idea that she was safe.

Allie cackled as the level increases raced in, squaring her shoulders and typing furiously into her laptop while hovering a few feet in the air cross-legged - communicating with the approaching squadrons as officers one by one checked in.

“Alpha team on lock.”

“Bravo team on lock.”

“Charlie team on lock.  Now that our two walking tactical nukes have done their deeds - I hear these so called invaders have a good amount of oil to plunder, and that they could use some good old fashioned freedom!  Aint that right, my lady!?”

“FUCKING RIGHT!  I want these motherfuckers liberated with some red, white and blue!” Allie crowed over chat, having had this conversation with the squadron leaders before on other raids against the elves.  Laughter from the fighter pilots echoed across the comms channels, and the modified F-35 fighter jets were soon seen on the horizon in seven V formations.  81 of these things had been produced with shield upgrades, radar upgrades, and weapon boosts since integration had begun - and each of them was a terror of the skies.  If Earth had been lacking in magic, it’d more than made up for it when finding ways to kill each other using technology.  This was only emphasized even more since the system had come into play.  “We’ll take the storm down a notch right when you arrive, go guns blazing gentlemen and do the necropolis proud.  No risky moves, we want you all to level up your piloting classes and we can’t have you die on us early.  Gain your XP, bail or eject if you have to, and give them hell.  Good luck ladies!”

“For the necropolis!” Came the simultaneous call over the main comms before each squadron separated into their own respective chat channels.  Allie watched them spread out overhead in the sky.

Riven had turned around and casually walked to stop near his sister, looking down at her with a crimson glare under his feathered helm as the storm thundered around them.  “This little girl’s name is Sara.  I’m going to drop her and her teddy off with Tyranus, then we’re heading in for the big kahuna.”

“Yup.  So much for the stealthy approach, we’re all in now.  Whatever happens by the way - this is your fault.”  Allie gave a thumbs up, still looking at the screen and sending private messages to different squadron leaders.  Priority targets had already been selected by drones sent by engineers who were currently piloting them from Brightsville.  There were a few heavy-hitting artillery flesh golems on the enemy side that had built in siege cannons along their arms or chests, and these were for the mostpart actually located within the city after the outer perimeter had been wiped clean.  They would be a problem and a danger for her jets and the drones were currently pinging well over twenty of their locations even now - with some other very fast and agile vampiric rogues that’d already been seen wiping out skybound human-made missiles from the defenders of this Earth-originating city on the coast.  If these melee fighters were fast enough to take out missiles mid flight by slicing at them with daggers while acrobatically flipping around in mid air, as ridiculous as it was they’d likely be dangerous if the jets got too close to the ground.

It was just something to keep in mind concerning warfare with how the system worked now.  Though it may seem to be stupid not to solely use long-range spells or weapons fire during a fight, she’d already seen numerous instances of classers who were built around sturdiness both in this battle and battles against the elves - they’d often been able to just blow off explosions, bullets, cannon fire, magical blasts, or other ranged onslaughts entirely if they were high enough level.  She’d seen her own flesh golems or bone giants charge into a swarm of elvish magic-infused arrows or wind storms without so much as a blink, and she’d seen elvish griffons tank bombs with barely a scratch before tearing off the heads of her ghouls.  It was why she was creating a front line legion of death knights back at the capital, as they’d be used as line breakers and shock troops in the future for quarantined siege situations exactly like this one had been.

Before Riven got back, Allie sent a final declaration over the laptop for the drones to redistribute across all Machine-pillar related communication lines.  “The Thane Necropolis has claimed this city as part of its empire, starting now.  Should Rippenvire give an immediate unconditional surrender and lay down its arms, we will spare you.  Otherwise, prepare to meet the afterlife.  Veni Vidi Vici motherfuckers.  - Signed Allie Thane, Queen of the Thane Necropolis and Princess of the Blood Moon Requiem.”

***

[Jackal (Ascended Legendary Weapon. Type: Vampiric Artifact, Sin Artifact, Sorcerer’s Spear-Staff): 894 average damage on strike with each physical strike dealing additional shadow damage.  Each physical strike steals health from the enemy and heals you and repairs this item.  Mana regeneration is increased by 305%.  Stamina regeneration increased by 8%.  All Shadow and Blood abilities cost 10% less mana while dealing 36% additional damage.  This item has an abnormally high endurance and is hard to destroy.  Requires Vampiric Heritage and a piece of Gluttony’s Original Sin to wield.

• Sacrificial Kill:  Killing strong opponents has a chance to imbue this weapon with additional attributes, stats, or bonuses.
• Gluttony’s Riptide: Passively builds up an elongated blade of sin energy that can extend by swinging this weapon in an arc. Recharge rate and damage output depend on control and insight concerning Gluttony.
• Black Lightning: This staff can passively build up charges of black lightning.  Power of black lightning depends on the amount of charge emitted.
• Jackal’s Lunge: Point this weapon in any direction and activate this innate and unique martial art, charging the blade with blood mana to create the visage of a jackal’s maw and blasting forward.  When your blade strikes an enemy, the red jackal will close down on them to deal additional blood and sin damage.
• Portal Master: This weapon can sync to any stabilized portal you permission to use by the maker and master.  Current locations available for access:  Dungeon Negrada, Riven’s Eye Wormhole.  Takes 1 week of channeling in the same place to use this ability.
• Beastform: This weapon can turn into a shadow jackal.  This form is not offensively compatible, but is a way for the weapon to experience the world around it outside of combat - matching the will of the blade.]

Space split apart and Riven tore through a portal, exiting out the other side to clear the distance instantaneously before the other vampire even knew what’d hit him.  Blood frost bloomed in the air all around, and black lightning thundered along Riven’s curved blade as his spear staff blurred ahead with the roar of a thousand storms.

The ground shuddered.

*BOOM*

The city buildings around the two combatants exploded as the Rippenvire officer’s legs snapped under Riven’s strike.  His weapon barely held, blocking the blow just as another Rippenvire rogue came in from the side to slip a dagger into the underside of Riven’s armor where the platemail was gone and only bloodsilk remained.

Yet the stamina-infused dagger strike didn’t pierce even that, sliding off of ‘Messenger’ with sparks flying before Riven’s armored elbow crashed into the rogue’s face - snapping his jaw 90 degrees to the left in a clean break with teeth flying everywhere.

“I fucking HATE ROGUES!” Riven snarled, blurring left to slice through the stunned man’s torso and backflipping over a mana attack similar to his own blood lance.  Quickly identifying the two vampire mages that’d targeted him, he swung his spear staff and activated Gluttony’s Riptide.

The image of Gluttony’s maw roared behind him, paralyzing his targets with fright as dark sin magics flashed forward - instantly ripping apart the two men and the buildings behind them for many blocks.

The docked Rippenvire transports were continually being downed by Necropolis F-35 jets, being priority targets that were marked by drone pilots whenever they did manage to get off the ground - and the remaining Rippenvire forces that’d entered the city were now scrambling in a panic.  Allie and Riven, along with Azmoth and a legion of undead who’d been summoned not long ago to help guard from any would-be assassins, were quickly tearing through the poorly entrenched vampires after their frontline gains across the city had been bulldozed.  The swarming undead were kept in the back surrounding Allie and chasing down any nearby enemies while she focused on cleaning up ships in the sky to support the fighter jet squadrons, and Riven took the very front with Azmoth as a spear-head effort to break any enemy lines that tried to form a defensive hold.

So far, Riven could honestly say that these Rippenvire vampires weren’t pushovers.

They were certainly not a match for him and Allie combined, at least not here and now, but if this was just a part of their invading army - which he assumed to be the case - the Thane Necropolis would have a hard time beating them should they muster their true forces.  Already he’d met multiple level 80 vampires that’d put up real fights against him even despite being lower level by a good amount.  True, he was focusing on honing his close-combat abilities and was also utilizing his magics and aura to rip into the fleet above as a distraction - but he was still surprised with the quality of these enemies nevertheless.  As usual the rogues and stealthy types were the ones that gave him the most issue - but there were a few heavily armored knights wielding claymores that he’d also come to respect.

They had regeneration abilities similar to his own, were completely covered in very thick mechanical body-suits, and were massive - obviously somehow augmented by both blood and armament subpillars.  How this was possible he didn’t know, but he intended to find out - and it was five of these Azmoth-sized vampiric beings that now stood in front of him with large claymores drawn.  They glared out at him, suits sparking with electricity and unholy miasma, unblinking in the sunset as the fleets overhead crashed into one another amidst a storm of  magic.  They were some of Rippenvire’s elites, and Riven’s eyes narrowed as he read their descriptions.

[Greater Vampire, Bloodborg Paladin, Level 85]

[Greater Vampire, Bloodborg Paladin, Level 81]

[Greater Vampire, Bloodborg Paladin, Level 78]

[Greater Vampire, Bloodborg Paladin, Level 80]

[Greater Vampire, Bloodborg Paladin, Level 86]

Azmoth snapped the neck of another enemy, cackled, and stomped over to settle in beside his master while giving a demonic smile towards the five large enemies ahead of them.  “Azmoth take two.  Riven take three.  Deal?”

Riven grinned underneath his helm, and his aura of malice exploded forward like a physical entity that caused the five brave warriors ahead of him to stumble.  The crowds of fleeing vampires boarding transport ships simultaneously stutter stepped or fell over completely, and a sign on one of the buildings with Chinese lettering snapped off entirely to crash to the ground.

“Deal.”

Azmoth launched himself forward with his ‘Propulsion’ martial art, sending flames behind him in the dash as he slammed into both of his marks with a heavy four-handed swing of his giant stone maul.

Riven on the other hand launched a dozen storm-razor balls at his enemies and rift-walked to teleport along their side, smashing magics into his three marks before activating ‘Jackal’s Lunge’.  His curved blade shimmered with sin energy, and the red maw of a fanged jackal roared ahead of his weapon when he pointed it towards the lined-up targets who’d braced against his initial magic strike.

The jackal’s maw snapped and he blasted forward - hitting all three at the same exact time his red and black storm-razor balls collided against the enemy vampires.

The first body tore apart effortlessly, but the second and third heavy frontliners turned with amazing speed to almost match his own.  The first claymore he came into contact with blocked and paired his strike using a defensive shielding ability, but sent the man stumbling to the left just as his comrade activated his own martial art - claymore glowing red with blood magic that left a red ribbon in its wake and crashed into Riven’s large pauldron.

Riven was sent rolling, crashing through a concrete wall only to whirl about to catch an incoming sword strike that clipped his staff.  He snarled at the oncoming paladins, striking back in a flurry of blows as his weapon collided with the other two claymores in a blur of metal, sparks, blood magic and black lightning.  The building around them was blown apart under the furious assault, and Riven soon found himself locked into a melee combat of epic proportions.  Concrete shattered and explosions of power sent debris flying as the three combatants went at it - with Riven beginning to smile from underneath his visored helmet.

Should he dismiss the storm overhead to deal with these two?

No.  That would leave the squadrons at a disadvantage and cost lives.

And he’d almost forgotten what it was like to struggle.  This was kind of fun.