Chapter 109 - The Tides Shift (Patreon)

“There’s got to be well over three million of them now. It’s only been a few hours, how are there so many?” Jiran held his hand over his eyes to block the First Father’s rays as they clung to the horizon.

“Nobody knows. Maybe some of the upper class do but they sure haven’t bothered to tell us lowborn.”

Jiran purposefully ignored her shot at the empire's nobility. After meeting Olive and Cameron, he wasn’t so sure they all deserved such unremitting, broad vitriol. “Aren't there two more invasions in other parts of the empire? Are they as large as this one? I would think they would eventually starve out.”

“I know they eat the filth. As for how there’s enough of the stuff to go around, I have no clue.”

They stood in a thin copse of trees a hundred meters before the primary mass of Graymin Pawns. The beasts were tightly packed for nearly three kilometers and completely surrounded the city on all sides. To the north, the throng stayed thick much further, filling Jiran with an instinctive queasiness.

There shouldn’t be so many beasts anywhere, let alone all working together like this. It’s just so… wrong.

He shook off the feeling and gently elbowed Niya in the arm. “Ready?”

“Yes, I’ve been ready all morning. You’re the one who keeps dragging his feet!”

Not waiting for a response, she set off toward the horde and he bounded after her. He pushed mana from his skin, sliding it across his aura to form a bubble of Coating large enough to surround them. The sphere was only two meters in diameter, forcing Jiran to hunch while Niya had to press into his side. Jiran’s Light Manipulation slid across the coating, forming a layer of light-bending distortion that would hopefully hide them from the beasts.

When they practiced it earlier, Niya said it looked like there was a strange phenomenon in the air, though she couldn’t see through it. Jiran knew it wouldn’t be possible to see through it without an aura or manasight, so unless they ran into a Graymin with either, he assumed they would be fine.

Their first target was a rook nearly a kilometer into the thick of the horde. Not being confident he could kill it at that distance, they were forced to find a way closer without drawing attention to themselves, giving the rook a chance to attack first.

When they were only a meter away from the front line, Niya nodded silently and raised her fist, which was glowing crimson. Seeing she was ready, Jiran reached out with his aura and gently rested it against a few Graymin directly in front of them. If they noticed the subtle pressure, they gave no indication. The beasts continued to mindlessly shuffle back and forth from one foot to the other.

They seem pretty passive until they see something to kill. Probably to save on energy since there are too many of them to feed.

Jiran applied a little more pressure with his aura, gently pushing the tier three and four pawns aside. When there was a gap a little wider than his bubble of light, they pushed forward through the crowd.

Being pressed amongst them, Jiran was able to examine their behavior more closely. They would hold their breath for dozens of seconds at a time before inhaling sharply as if coming awake from a dream, only to return to slumber a moment later. He was surprised to notice they gave off no smell and made almost no sounds—other than the shuffling of their feet and the occasional raspy intake of breath.

Interesting that I’m not nervous at all. There are so many of them but they’re all tier three and four. These pawns are too weak that even if all three million of them dog-piled me, I would eventually get out with my aura alone. The real issue is the rooks. If they noticed a bunch of pawns piling on top of something, they might start throwing rocks, friendly fire be damned. Definitely easier to use a bit of stealth.

It’s pretty awesome that Light Manipulation is so much more efficient after I tiered up. Concentration is a broken attribute for sure. I could do this all day and even if I couldn’t, I’m surrounded by a few million bags of mana.

Thirty minutes later, they were within two-hundred meters and Jiran activated Identify on a rook for the first time. The beast seemed to notice him as its head swiveled back and forth a few times, looking for whatever had alerted it.

Makes sense it would have high perception considering its purpose.

Easily five meters tall, its large form was covered with sharp spines. Veins of power spread across its thick hide like cracked rock, pulsing with the beating of its heart. The beast had additional reinforced plates over its chest and overgrown shoulders. One of its arms was significantly larger than the other, bulging with rippling muscles. Its upper body twisted, scanning the skies, its feet planted firmly within the ground.

[Graymin Rook - Heaver] (Tier 6) (24680/24680) Long-range variant of the Graymin Rook capable of injuring targets above its tier.

Considering it’s two tiers above me, that’s a decent bit of information. Usually I would just get question marks. Still, it would be nice to know more about its weaknesses. There’s no way it doesn’t have any with the firepower to hit above its tier. Probably sacrifices mobility or something. Nearly twenty-five thousand HP. The most I’ve ever hit a tier five for was six thousand. With this thing’s much higher tier six defenses…

Well, nothing to do but try. If it doesn't die in one hit, I’m pretty sure I can block its counter with a few layers of ice and my aura. So long as we don’t get attacked by more than one of them at a time, we should be okay.

Jiran sighed, and for a split second, considered turning back.

Am I really doing this? Will killing a tier six on my own restart the timer? Markhiss helped me with the two in the temple so they didn’t count. I just can’t shake the feeling that starting the timer for killing a tier six makes no sense. I'm stronger than a tier five already, so for a true challenge, I should have to kill sevens.

It doesn't matter. It's worth it. I'm going to save this city. What’s the point of ascending if I can’t help anyone? Besides, Mayalyn, Olive, and Cameron are in there waiting for me.

Jiran snuck a glance at Niya out of the corner of his eye. She stared right back at him with an expression that screamed ‘Get on with it!’ He couldn’t blame her. Being pressed into a crowd of deadly beasts wasn’t nearly as exciting as he originally imagined it would be.

He gave her their agreed-upon signal—a tap on the shoulder, before lowering his stance with spread legs for stability. Niya took up position behind him, both her fists now glowing. Spikes of Coating shot as deep into the ground as he could drill them, giving him a sturdy brace. With one palm out and the other grasping his wrist, he took a deep breath and called on his mana.

Emotions connected with his manapool, drawing out thirty percent of his mana and flooding it through the channel in his chest. Mana was converted to elemental energy and then condensed as it spun in a circle, rotating faster and faster. A slight whining sound began to tickle the edges of his hearing. The nearby Graymin noticed it too. They shuffled a little faster and breathed more evenly, clearly on alert now and searching for the source of the sound.

That noise is new. Is it because the mana is moving faster, or because it’s thicker now after my concentration doubled?

The whine changed pitch to a deep thrum that vibrated his entire body as the power circling within him reached blistering speeds. Only having two types of papules within the channel was working wonders to decrease the amount of time it took to charge his attack. In less than two seconds, his mana was converted into fire, condensed, and sped to the point he didn’t feel he could contain it anymore.

My first real attack at tier four. Here goes nothing!

Elemental magma raged within as he released it from the circle in his chest. The energy churned through the new channel in his shoulder before charging down his arm and exploding from his palm. Jiran lost track of the mana the moment it left the confines of his skin. Its speed increased so much at the moment of release that each molecule was stretched away from its brethren and traveled outside the range of his aura before his brain could even process its passing.

Stretched particles formed a dazzling beam of purest scarlet that melded into and through all the Graymin between Jiran and the rook. Any beast unlucky enough to be grazed by the omnipotent ray of light ceased to exist, not even a stain of blood or smoking remains could be found. One second they were there, the next, they were gone.

A horrific detonation erupted around the space the beam passed through, blasting Graymin thirty meters through the air. A hurricane of rushing wind howled as oxygen raced to fill the void. Jiran’s jaw dropped as his brain struggled to understand what he was seeing; an enormous trench brimming with roiling lava, a full eight meters wide, stretched all the way to the rook and far, far beyond it.

Of the Rook he came to kill, only a floating number in his interface remained, -44230.

EXP + 116

EXP 200/200

The Graymin army held its breath for a single second as a random thought tumbled through Jiran’s mind.

Huh, guess I’m maxed on exp for this tier…

Then the world rumbled as a million beasts roared their outrage. Jiran’s bubble of coating fluctuated dangerously at the onslaught of sound. If not for his spikes of coating in the ground, the resounding bass would have knocked him on his ass. Obvious ripples spread across the surface of his obfuscation and thousands of nearby Graymin moved en masse, leaping to snuff out the threat.

Niya screamed her own challenge as her fists fluctuated between multiple elements, all stacked on top of each other. Her punch tore a hole in the ranks of the Graymin behind them. Together, they dashed toward safety as the ground quaked under the feet of a million furious beasts.

. . .

Lieutenant Higginess was not having a great day.

Lt. Colonel Alase hadn’t directly blamed him for the lapse in attention which caused Duchess Ravenna to suffer several horrible injuries, but his triple watch duty was telling enough. His entire platoon had already taken bets on how long it would take for his demotion to come through. He made a mental note to triple their next round of endurance training. After all, fair is fair.

In Higginess’s opinion, the whole situation was completely absurd. It was the Duke’s own son who was supposed to be watching that section of the wall for reinforcements. Instead, the useless waif was off whoring or dicing or whatever nonsense he usually got up to. Higginess just so happened to be doing an extra patrol—going above and beyond—when he spotted the woman’s insane attempt to fly over the wall. When she failed and was injured, Higginess himself had pulled her through the wall, likely saving her life in the process.

So why was he to blame? Because the entire army was as unreasonable as a swamp witch’s curvy backside, that's why!

And all this was only the most recent fruit in his bushel of terrible luck. Being assigned to the Markobal outpost had been his first kiss from Doom's Prophet. Somehow, he managed to survive that siege, only to fall back to Terekorn with the scattered remnants of his brigade a season later. He watched most of his friends die there, only living due to an injury seeing him withdrawn a day before the bastion fell. Now, he was here in Mortan, once more surrounded by the plague of the empire.

At least he had earned a promotion, for being lucky, they said. Likely the only good thing to ever happen in his life. Not that he would live long enough to spend the extra pay, though maybe it would make it back to his family. He brushed a finger over the letter in his pocket for the thousandth time. He was a father. He had a daughter. One he would never meet. His eyes swept over the horde as a snarl of deep, unfathomable hatred tore out of his mouth at the thought that his precious child would likely not survive him by long.

Suddenly, a cut appeared in the mass of squirming monstrosities below. A shining ruby light three kilometers long sheared through their ranks with deplorable ease. It only lasted a second, and when the light faded, all that remained was a trench so clean and straight, his drill sergeant would have shed tears of blood.

Higginess had no clue what became of the countless Graymin that light touched, but since they simply weren’t there anymore, he surmised they were one less problem for the Imperial Army. As were the thousands of beasts being ripped to shreds and blown through the air on either side of the trench.

His eyes were drawn to a distortion in the air from where that light sprouted. He could see something moving. No, not something, two people. They dashed for the edge of the horde, incinerating huge swaths of the beasts with every step they took closer to their freedom.

Higginess heard a sound that called to his soul, rousing him from the slumber of long moons of resigned depression. He had no idea who started it, but he joined in the second he heard that first scream of victory. So lost was he in his joyous exultation that he nearly pumped a fist in the air above the nearby battlement—a sure way to get beheaded by a rook.

A few minutes later, a second swath of death was carved out of the detestable Graymin army and every single trooper on every layer of battlements lost their collective minds.

For the first time in three seasons, Higginess had a reason to celebrate, and celebrate he did. Whoever those two saviors were down there clearing out the vile shitstains threatening his homeland, he would buy them a drink if it was the last thing he ever did. As his voice grew hoarse and his throat scratchy, a dam burst and tears flooded down his cheeks.

Things were changing, he could feel it in his soul. Maybe he would get to meet his daughter after all.