Elsewhere

Baslin was more than happy to supply Duke with his latest batch of bombs. “Let me know how these do? If they work as well, I can make these a whole lot faster than the previous batch.”

Duke’s grin broadened. “Oh, I will be sure to give you a full BDA. I have some more ideas I want to try on the travelling horde since they don’t seem to notice my presence even when I’m bombing them.”

“Be careful that they are not trying to lure you into a trap.” Baslin cautioned.

“What kind of trap could they possibly make that could hold me?” Duke scoffed.

“You know, if Elaine were here, she would bust you on making such a foolishly prophetic statement. So, I guess it’s up to me, Duke. You are not unstoppable. Yes, you are tough to put down, but that’s the thing. If enough is thrown your way, it’s going to take you out of the air and then they can swarm you with numbers. Be smart, and careful, not so arrogant that you take foolish chances. There. How did I do with my mentor lecture?”

Duke nodded, seeing Baslin’s point. “As mentor lectures go, that was a solid B, so good job but you can do better.”

“Do I really need to? You get my point, and that’s what matters, right?”

“Indeed it is, Baslin. Now show me the bombs so I can get to dropping them on the enemy.”

An hour later, Duke was on his way out to scout the enemy but was intercepted by Elaine. “Duke, I’ve been scouting the area around us with my team and have found the lead refugees are getting close. They are heading out in all directions but there is a solid group that is headed our way like sheep being herded. I wonder if that is one of the things the horde is doing.”

“How long before any of them come in range of our defenses?” Duke asked.

“In range of our defenses? Do you mean to attack them?” Concern and confusion weighed heavy in her voice.

“Of course not. But once they are within our defensive range, we have to do something with them. Either let them in or direct them elsewhere. What I am concerned with is spies from the kingdom. It’s hard to believe that there would be, but as Baslin just pointed out, I need to be smarter about these things and stop just automatically trusting that I…we…can handle anything thrown our way. Sabotage from inside our walls will hurt us more than a strong enemy outside them.”

Elaine’s face relaxed in relief. “That is actually smart. Maybe we let them in but keep them contained in a separate area in the Inn where they can’t leave or otherwise cause trouble until after the horde is destroyed.”

“I like that proposal. Ask Sam to set it up with a separate entrance to the Inn so we don’t intermingle with them. And make sure Grat knows as well. We don’t want to inadvertently start blasting them the moment they arrive.” Duke paused for a moment in thought. “That brings up another issue. We have to make sure there is enough distance between the end of the refugees and the beginning of the horde. Otherwise, we are going to have to close the entrance before they all get here. Let’s discuss that with everyone at dinner tonight. Thanks for the heads-up Elaine. I’m going out to slow down the horde yet again.”

“Good luck, Duke.” Elaine responded moments before Duke vanished.

Many kilometers away, Duke flashed into existence. Again, he was behind where the horde had passed and the devastation was hard to miss. The very soil looked tainted with the dead and blackened vegetation churned into it. He growled under his breath, determined to stop this scourge. With this renewed determination, Duke flew towards the black cloud again.

He took a slightly different approach than he did the last time, spending a full hour flying over the horde hidden in their own obscuring cloud with his DUNGEON SENSE cranked up. This time, he was able to see where the leadership of the horde was moving along. They were located near the center of the mass and Duke decided to target them directly.

Duke flew in an inward spiral, dropping his payload the whole way. The leadership were ringed in by his spiral and the bombs quickly closed in on them. When he watched the last dozen impact the area the horde’s leadership stood within, he saw a glowing green shield ward off most of the multiple bomb’s effects. It did, however, collapse as the last bomb struck. Burning gel spread over them all but was quickly extinguished by some magical means.

Duke cursed and could feel rage boiling just below the surface. I have killed countless creatures of this horde and it just keep coming. Even the leaders of this abomination seem to survive everything I throw at them. Maybe it’s time to throw something more raw and primal at them – my rage!

He moved to vent his frustration on the horde. He flew about 500 meters off the ground, a full 300 meters above the base of the cloud. From there, he employed his REMOTE CASTING to launch LIGHTNING strikes charged with 1,000 Mana down at the army from random locations within 100 meters of his location. This way, if anything targeted the origin of the LIGHTNING strikes, he was at least 100 meters away and likely safe. With his Mana regen having grown to over 3,000 a second, he was able to maintain his FLIGHT with the offensive spellcasting nearly continuously without really tapping into his Mana pool. He lost himself in the glory of the destruction.

“You want to travel under a cloud? Enjoy the fucking thunderstorm, assholes!” Duke continued to travel throughout the cloud, raining electric destruction down on the horde for as long as his blind fury held. Eventually, he just needed a break and ceased casting, feeling a headache that he had not realized was blazing begin to abate. His throat had that strange feeling of being freshly healed but he couldn’t figure out when he had injured it.

He flew above the cloud to rest and was startled by a lone figure standing in the air staring contemplatively at him. Duke stopped ten meters from the figure. It was a man, with short, curly blonde hair who was very heavily muscled. His chest was bare but he wore what appeared to be tight black leather pants and a pair of simple black boots. This man radiated an aura of power in such a way that Duke immediately became cautious.

“Don’t stop on my account. I am enjoying the show.” The figure spoke with a voice weighty with depth and age.

Duke responded. “I kinda burned out my rage and frustration, so I came up for air. But I definitely did not expect someone to be calmly waiting for me up here. I’m Duke. Who might you be?”

“I know who you are, Duke.” Duke’s sense of danger flashed as the figure continued to speak. “You may call me Orgath. Your power is significant for someone so new to this world so I thought I would come and see what has my brothers and sisters all buzzing.”

“Your brothers and sisters?” Duke asked, trying to get a handle on the situation and finding himself well out of his depth.

“Oh yes, I don’t know what you did, but Vithshrek really hates you, so I suggest you stay away from anyone swinging a sword. Gaiathia is rather pleased with you though so that’s something. But I do not want to delay you any more than is necessary. The LIGHTNING you are using is too weak to kill the bigger undead below. Since even Ghastul is angry with the horde below, let’s just amp that up a bit.”

The figure waved and Duke received a ping in his notifications with a golden hue. He looked back at the figure, but he was gone, disappearing in the momentary distraction of the notification. Duke decided to read this special notification written in gold.

*** You have received Orgath’s blessing. Your Ability, LIGHTNING, has been enhanced, raising it a full rank to Practiced 25. ***

The text of the notification changed to normal for the rest of the message.

*** OK, we’ll allow this because it’s cool, but don’t expect us to let you get outside help like this all the time. ***

Duke checked his info and discovered that the jump in rank had increased the damage output of his Ability ten-fold. The cost had gone up, but not by as significant an amount. He smiled and dove back down into the cloud, his energy renewed, and headache gone.

As he descended back into the cloud, Duke unleashed his newly upgraded LIGHTNING into the horde across a wide swath of the army’s leading front, cutting their numbers and pace back even further. Skeletons exploded, zombies burned to charred corpses, and other, stronger types of undead fell under the barrage. The occasional returned spell or Ability was sent back Duke’s way, but none came close to hitting him as he kept himself offset from his LIGHTNING’s origins. He wasn’t sure if the undead were just incapable of fighting a ranged battle or if something else was going on. It made him extra cautious and concerned which only served to piss him off more.

He was halfway through the dark cloud before he pulled himself up short. He wanted to go down and destroy the entire horde right now but he also knew that was not the smart move. Still, he decided to leave a parting shot worth remembering. He moved down until he could see what he had identified as the leadership group below him with his DUNGEON SENSE. He prepared himself and dipped below the cloud.

The glowing shield was back in place and Duke decided to amp up a 10,000 Mana blast. This was ten times what he had been using and would be a good gauge of the difference. He aimed it straight on towards the shield and let loose. The blast was as large as his waist and struck the shield, savagely blasting a path right through it and the undead mage generating the shield. The skeletal mage collapsed, cut into two charred pieces by the blast. Duke smiled and returned home.

Once there, he saw that his group were waiting for him outside the Inn. He greeted them. “Hi everyone. Did I miss a meeting invite, or are you all just here to yell at me?”

Elaine began to speak but Aurelia beat her to the punch. “The refugees have started to arrive, Your Grace. They are being escorted to their rooms in the Inn by my troops on outdoor rotation.”

“That’s good news. Anything else worth noting before we get into things?”

“We have our first tier two soldiers.” Aurelia beamed. “They are part of my command group, but the rest of our soldiers should get there in the next two or three days.”

“More good news. Anyone else?” Duke asked.

After receiving shrugs from the others, he asked, “Anyone familiar with Orgath?”

“The God of Storms?” Baslin replied.

“Is that what he’s called?” Duke asked.

“He is one of the Seven Ancient Gods.” Aurelia added.

“He is also a really cool guy who gave me a small blessing.” Duke responded, smiling.

“He what?” The group collectively asked him.

“Perhaps you should explain in some more detail, Duke.” Baslin added.

“Sure, sure, sure. You see, I was flying around and just saturating the horde with LIGHTNING bolts because I was just so tired of this coming fight hanging over our heads. I was wiping out swaths of the lesser undead that were anywhere near where the LIGHTNING was striking. I kept this up for a while. I’m not really sure how long, but probably a few hours. When I stopped and floated above their artificial cloud, Orgath was waiting for me. We had a brief, but nice chat and he blessed my LIGHTNING Ability, bumping it up an entire rank.”

“That’s not something that I have ever heard of happening.” Baslin responded. “Anyone else?” He was greeted with headshakes.

“If the gods are taking notice, this is big. I don’t know how big, but big.” Elaine added.

Duke nodded in agreement. ”Let’s all keep this to ourselves, right?” He received nods. “We need to get the refugees inside our walls as soon as we can. I have slowed the horde down, but they are still coming and I really want to engage them heavily before they even get to our walls. What I have been doing hasn’t really thinned them out all that much so I might have to step things up and really hammer them.”

“What do you have in mind, Duke?” Baslin asked.

“Well, so far, I haven’t hit them with anything more than a 10,000 Mana blast. And that was just once. Most of the blast was absorbed by some sort of shielding around what I think are the leaders but it did penetrate and cut one in half. I want to see what happens when I really cut loose and hit them with a the majority of my Mana – a 400,000 Mana blast.”

Concerned looks circulated around the group. Baslin was the first to respond. “Duke, I wouldn’t do that anywhere within ten kilometers of our walls. There’s no telling what that blast would be like. And can your Mana channels even handle that much pouring through at once? I’m not sure even mine could.”

“Well, there’s one way to find out.” Duke replied. “Get all the refugees inside tomorrow if you can. Send troops out to escort them. I’ll help with TELEPORTING them in groups. As Baslin says, we need to clear the field so we can hit them with the heavy artillery.”

Soon after that, the group broke up and called it a night.