Hirrus heard Alric’s voice raise in protest behind him.

By then, it was too late.

Emerging from the forest into the clearing put him in plain view of the scattered forces below. Somewhere, a bell started to jangle. The alarm brought all recreation to a stop, and the outpost began to turn into a cohesive fighting force.

Hirrus would have been impressed by their organization and discipline, if he wasn’t about to turn it into their undoing.

They were still about a hundred yards away when he drew up short. X’ruhn’s Balance had a long enough cast time that it was unwieldy in combat, but a long enough duration that starting with it seemed reasonable. He could have piled on BUR and SUP buffs before the Arcana swapped the two physical stats with his magical stats, but as the numbers against him grew, he knew he would need those buffs when the fight came to melee. He didn’t want to deny himself the resources when the fight became more dire.

There were almost forty foes arrayed against him now, and they made the critical error in judgement to allow him the time and space to do what he wanted. They gathered in ranks, and there were scattered sparks and glows as some of them used their own Arcana to prepare for the fight.

Hirrus expected his own preparations to be much more devastating.

The range of the damage component on Ioun Flechette and Resplendent Orb meant that he couldn’t use them, but Logarius Shroud and Eyes On Me gave him that little extra punch, and Mystic Dexterity meant that when he gestured before him, the Arcana that roared out of him came swiftly, too fast for his foes to realize he was attacking before it happened.

Civilization Buster created a huge blue-white beam of raw destructive energy that blasted forth like a wall of raw magic. It streaked across the space between Hirrus and the outpost’s forces, and smashed through them. Even with only a couple of buffs, the Arcana dealt fifteen thousand damage at minimum, with many of the targets taking nearly twenty thousand. Hirrus supposed the wide range of damage values came from some of them being adventurers and others being folk like him who had been freed from their decision trees.

The Arcana obliterated a handful of foes in a single shot. Many of the others were so badly injured they were already moving to break away from the fight. Even those who hadn’t been struck were reacting with fear and surprise.

“Show no fear, men!” someone bellowed from the front. “We outnumber him fifty to one! We charge, and this is over once and for all!”

Hirrus wasn’t sure if it would have helped to argue that fifty to one seemed a large overestimation of their numbers. Especially now.

It didn’t seem to matter as the ranks of enemies started to charge.

Hirrus considered his options briefly. He had the Meditate Arcana to try and recharge Civilization Buster, but the long cooldown on the attack meant they would close the distance far too fast to be able to cast it again. It would be a better use of his time to hurl his other Arcana when they came in range.

As they charged, the army arrayed against him walked unwittingly into danger. First, it was Leer, which only did a few thousand damage, but did it in a huge cone in front of him, softening up their front lines. After that was Melisune’s Eye, which was much more damage, and froze a dozen attackers, turning a swath of enemies into obstacles for the rest to negotiate. Mortal Ray blasted them while they struggled with the wall of petrified adventurers, blowing them back and giving him just enough time to call up Flames of the Apocalypse, searing them for another few thousand damage, but more critically applying the Arcana’s GLE debuff, rendering them more vulnerable to further magical attacks.

And then the first foes were upon him.

Many of the ones who reached him first had obviously used Arcana to speed their approach, whether it was quick mobility tools or a longer physical damage buff. Hirrus slammed his foot into the ground, unleashing his Trembling Arcana. The ability rocked the nearby forces, dealing almost nine thousand damage and stripping them of their Arcana boosts before they could be brought to bear against him.

Some of the masked adventurers who made up the forces of the outpost were dead, dying, or scattered. But there were still at least two dozen foes closing with him. These were likely to be the true threats anyway. Even softened up by his initial volley of Arcana, any one of them could become a nearly-fatal foe with their Merciless transformation.

The first wave of attackers swung their weapons at him. Hirrus did his best to dodge and parry as much as he could, but the way X’ruhn’s Balance reduced his BUR and SUP, he didn’t have the strength or speed to avoid them all. Blows tested his armor, chipping away at his hit points. In retaliation, he reached up for the sky, casting Royal Levin, filling the sky with a dark purple cloud. Energy coalesced in one spot of the cloud quickly, lashing down. It struck the crowd and someone unseen screamed in pain. Hirrus’s Cosmic Barrette restored some of his lost hit points from the successful Arcana strike.

And now that he was in the thick of things, it was time for the barrette to do some heavy lifting.

Hirrus reached out, not even looking. As soon as he made contact with someone, he unleashed Fire’s Arcana, Hopsworth’s Rending. It was touch range, but the absurd multiplier made it a natural choice now that range was not a factor. His victim shrieked in pain as they were blasted away, flipping end over end as the force of seventeen thousand damage rocketed into their chest.

Someone was stabbing repeatedly at Hirrus’s kidneys, and so he whirled and unleashed another Arcana. TK Bullet did a paltry few thousand damage, but sent the attacker bowling backwards through the ranks of those who were moving to surround him.

Hirrus realized that if he allowed the crowd to envelop him, their numbers might overwhelm him. He had the tools to deal with that threat, though. He started with Chilling Howl, blasting his surroundings for only about four thousand damage, but afflicting them with Fearful Chill, slowing them down and negating any positive move speed bonus they might use to catch back up to him.

Following that with the Split Second Arcana, he dashed out of the tide of foes before it could fully engulf him.

Hirrus felt like he had spent all of his worthwhile multi-target options, and it was going to be a little while before they started to come back off cooldown. And while he’d thinned the enemy forces considerably, he found himself still staring down a huge army. They were battered, but Hirrus had to ask himself if the amount of damage he’d output would have put a dent in his own hit points. If these foes were even half as powerful as he was, there was still a long way to go.

Royal Levin crashed another bolt down into the crowd, striking one of the forerunners as they approached Hirrus. It dealt less than three thousand damage, and didn’t even slow them down.

Hirrus only had enough time to activate some valuable defensive options: Shining Sprocket and Penitent Shell increased his TEN and GLE, and would help him absorb some of the damage to come. And then they were on him, and he was retreating, being driven into the ruins of Shemil.

He couldn’t allow himself to get surrounded, but his foe was not any one person. When one enemy stepped up to face him directly, he struck them down, slapping them away with Leer, TK Bullets, or one of his myriad beam spells. They fell back, and another jumped up to fill the breach. When he tried to use a burned-out husk of a building to put his back to a wall, the wall itself was battered down, crumbling to lumps of charcoal as the mob moved to encircle him.

He only had so many tools to escape, and they were fast running out.

There was only so long that he could keep blasting them with Mortal Ray and using Rapid Rip simply to escape through the forces against him.

“He’s on the ropes!” someone bellowed from the crowd. “Look at him run!”

“Stand and fight!” someone else barked as Hirrus darted away.

“Take him down!” another voice called. “Show no mercy! For Rumi!”

Hirrus felt X’ruhn’s Balance run out. It was one of his most potent tools, and it was over. It had melted away all the ordinary adventurers like fat rendered off a roast, but now he was left with the meat of Rumi’s defenders. And they seemed to be barely tenderized.

They were too close, right on his heels. He needed space so that he could ready himself for the next phase of the fight. If he couldn’t activate his physical buffs, he was going to get overrun before he could mount a proper attack.

“Let’s show him the real thing!” someone yelled. “Let’s put the same fear in him that he put into all those adventurers!”

Hirrus was confused, as the voice wasn’t coming from the crowd. It came from a ruined building nearby.

“Yeah,” someone else joined in, “it’s time to show him our transformation! Make him know how useless it is to resist!”

That voice, also, was coming from the wrong direction. It was ahead of him, where the crowd hadn’t yet reached. Just the same, it seemed Hirrus was the only one who noticed, as a roar of agreement went up in the crowd.

As one, the whole crowd’s cheers turned to screams. The agony of transformation overtook them, and Hirrus was able to get just a few yards between him and the enemy. It was just enough space that he could slam on his buff Arcana. He rattled through the ones that were always in the front of his mind, and then added his new toys to the mix. Going Ape. Iron Typhoon. Pumped Kicks. Terminus Grip. Fleetness of Tonner. The Ravening Burn.

All together, his attack speed with his two weapons would be blazing fast, with a dramatic increase in both critical hit rate and damage, double strike chance, and move speed. On top of that, his attacks would apply a potent DoT, and his BUR and SUP were boosted by a tremendous amount.

For all that would help, as dozens of slit-pupil reptilian eyes focused on him as his enemies finished their transformations. He stood against a tide of Merciless, each one potentially his equal in combat.

He was glad he hadn’t disputed their claim that they outnumbered him fifty to one. At this moment, from this perspective, the difference seemed pedantic.