Ank

The 7th Guild Master mumbled something, and shot his shinny arrow upwards, which exploded in a small sun, properly illuminating the battlefield, and once that I knew the thin and frail wood palisade would offer little protection, if any at all, against the incoming army, so my sister and I jumped from our spots and clashed against the first lines of creatures before they could overwhelm the small town:

“[Rule Bender]”, not carrying exactly about being economic when a late action could result in the death of thousands of people behind me, I spent half of my remaining energy conjuring a few dozen of [Level: 30] creatures in my own line of monsters to combat the zombies.

My creatures were an average of 10 [Levels] stronger than the common zombies, so, even overwhelmed, they managed to hold back the wave of monsters which stumbled and crawled over one another just to have their limbs torn off, broken, and exploded.

“Hu”, as I jumped over my own line of monsters, and forced my way through the small fries with my bare fists; my [Strength] alone being more than enough to shatter and erase the weaklings; I was amused. “overwhelmed, hu?”, it has been some time since I was the one facing a never-ending flux of monsters, and not my opponents.

Finally, after splitting a creature cleanly in half with an ascending kick, I came out from the back of the first undead offensive line of the necromantic bandits. Knowing all those things would fall down once the necromancer who was controlling them died, I aimed straight to the owl-man. But, of course, his underlings wouldn’t make things easier.

“Now the fun really begins!”, one of the invaders screamed, and I was immediately received by an attack from one of the crawling giants.

The twisted fist of the thing slammed on the spot where I was just a second ago, splashing mud and the rainwater everywhere, while I managed to dodge the attack.

“[Summon: Skiron Armor, Weapon, Acidic]”, I covered my body with the dark gray metal, and made myself a long spear that continuously dripped with black acid, and slashed at the giant’s ugly fist, causing significant damage, after all, if the last [God] my sister and I killed was a problem with just about 100 more [Levels] than us, once I had more than double that [Uinic] thing power, that shouldn’t be really a problem.

But it was. There were many of the creatures, after all: a single slash was all the damage I managed to inflict before being forced to jump away from another attack, and then another, and then yet one more; in an instant, there was half a dozen of the monsters surrounding me; and, I saw, separating Hunah from me, the other half of those [Uinic] encircling and trying to stomp on my twin sister too.

“Graaaaw!”, a common zombie jumped on my back, as I was concentrated on the bigger dangers.

I didn’t even bother with the putrid thing trying to bite me, as all it managed to do was destroy its won teeth trying to pierce through my armor; but soon, as I continuously sidestepped the giant’s hits, more and more of the weaklings jumped on me, slowing me down, even if just a little bit.

A little bit was enough, however: after avoiding five consecutive attacks, I was a second too late to the sixth, and a back slap sent me flying upwards; I took some damage, but not exactly enough to be too concerned. And yet, I was, for the 7th Guild Master was faithful to his strategy of sparing energy, and I wasn’t exactly a tank, to fully ignore the damage those stronger undead could inflict, and exchange much of my [HP] to kill them when I didn’t even know how much more energy their leader necromancer still had.

After all, he had that “+” symbol, he was using sacrificial energy somehow, and a great amount of it; was there a [God] behind that, or had the necromancer discovered how to use their magic somehow? Either way, bad news.

“I can’t even use my electrical powers so close to the town…”, I didn’t want to risk setting everything on fire.

As I fell down back to the ground, I had no choice but to bare the damage, then: the bandits of the back of one of the monsters shot arrows at me, and one of the [Uinic] got on its “hinder legs”, gulping me down.

[HP: 2703/3005]

I could still hear the laugh of the invaders, as I made my way though the digestive system of the monster. They didn’t find it so funny when, with a twist of my spear, I split the monster in half: in a second I freed myself, and the bandits fell down from the monster’s corpse. Before any of the four outlaws touched the ground, I had separated their arms and legs from their torsos, so the necromancer couldn’t make them into useful zombies.

The next monster attacked with disregard, and I replied in the same manner: instead of dodging the incoming paw, I used its own weight to increase the damage of my piercing strike; I got nailed to the mud up to my knees, and in waves of pain, I felt my [Health Points] decrease as my summoned armor had a few new dents, but the forelimb of the creature was completely destroyed, its blood mixing with the rain of increasing intensity.

Before I could pull myself free, the other four giant monsters charged at once, striking from every possible direction.

“BOOOOM!”, mud, rocks, and water raised high upwards, as I was forcibly completely hidden beneath the earth by the strikes.

[HP:1999/3005]

I still was good to go, however, and I broke free from the asphyxiating underground, spreading cracks through the earth as I shattered the stone around my arms and legs, turning the ground beneath the four giant and heavy monsters unstable, sinking them. I dashed in between the creatures, and with my spear becoming a blur, I sliced, amputated, and covered the creatures in acid.

Five of the [Uinics] defeated, the sixth showed back again, and with only one arm remaining, the monster pushed me down, and pinned me against the ground, using all of its weight and [Strength] points to keep me still. Then, the surviving bandits came down their dead mounts, and, smiling, raised their weapons over their heads, surrounding my helpless self.

Fuck, should I un-summon the creatures protecting the city and re-summon them back there, to finish those bastards? I could defeat them, but the town would, surely, be destroyed, once the 7th Guild Master didn’t seem to give a fuck to its people…

“SWUSH!”, A gush of wind blew by in a second, and in the next instant, the weight over my body disappeared, and I escaped the attacks from the bandits.

“Thanks.”

“Finish this, Ank”, Hunah said, her sword dripping with the putrid blood from the hand she cut off the [Uinic] which was keeping me down. She proceeded to grab the back of my cloak, and threw me over the circle of enemies around us, and straight against their boss.

The cloaked own-man flinched, and in a clear desperate attempt to save his own life, he did something to his “+50 levels”, which suddenly decreased quickly, as he pushed a palm over the head of his undead dinosaur mount.

Whatever he was doing, it was too late: without the giants to stop me, and still propelled by Hunah’s push, I reached the leader necromancer in the blink of an eye, readied my spear, and struck.

Then my arm came off.

“Wha…?”, my eyes went wide, as I heard a laugh coming from beneath the hood, from my target.

The monster beneath the necromancer had its form changed, the flesh and bones of the monster being moved as if it had been melted, before solidifying again, and becoming a wall of spikes protecting the necromancer, and easily destroying my spear and separating my dominating arm from my body.

As the laugh of the bandit leader grew louder, to full blown out shouts of joy, I saw the wall of bones and flesh deforming, turning into some kind spear thrower and projectile, accumulating tension, eager to be shot.

The spell from the [Level: 350] necromancer had proved strong enough; I knew for sure that, if that thing pierced me, I’d be killed.

But, what could I do?

After all I’ve gone through, after finally starting to smell my revenge approaching, after finally getting out off that hellhole of a jungle around Taffy’s house, becoming an adventurer and attaining varied resources, I’d die to a bandit?

No. Not until every temple crumbles to dust, not until every deity perish miserably.

I reached my good hand, bearing all the pain, and used one of the tricks I learned thanks to the magic books I bought:

“[Ma- Make Undead]”, I conjured a spell on a body piece.

My own body piece, the cut-off arm that was falling behind the enemy.

The amputated dead hand grasped the head of the enemy. And just closed all of its fingers, easily making through the skull of the necromancer, who should have invested all of his points in [Magic].

As I fell down, I heard the entire undead army coming to a sudden stop, hundreds of bodies falling down at once.

I expected the [God] who was patronizing the necromancer to show up, yet, that didn’t happen. What really caught my attention was a single and strange [System Notification]:

[Secret Spell Unlocked: Summon Embodiment]