SoF Ch. 41-50 (Patreon)

Ch. 41 Low-Speed Chase

Everyone was injured in some form or another. Well except for the tentacled manifestation of Corruption which had just finished separating itself with a sucking pop from Titus. That thing seemed completely fine.

The beaten guard and the guard with the hatchet wound in his back stalked toward Tilly, their thick short swords in hand. The third guard shuffled warily toward Titus who was still gasping on the ground in shock. All the while the Steward took in the scene cooly.

The manifestation’s appendages quivered, and several of them honed in on the approaching guard as it stood over the body of its previous host possessively.

“Mr. Evander, I’m not sure this thing is going to let the master go.” He said hesitantly, as more of the appendages tilted toward him at the sound of his voice.

“Shut up Trivus and do your job. You know it cannot survive long outside of a host. Do what you have to end it and retrieve the master.” the steward droned as if giving a particularly boring lecture.

“Easy for you to say, I hate this stuff…” He muttered darkly, even as the other two arrived within range of Tilly and split to either side of him to box him in. He held up his hatchets in what he hoped was an intimidating manner, but his left arm screamed at him in pain as he tried to raise the weapon above shoulder height. The guard on that side smiled and Tilly stirred up his mana prepared to surprise both of them with Flame Expulsion.

They were both 14 levels higher than him and seemed to be free of Corruption, which ironically would have been his only trump card against them. So the best he could come up with was a full frontal assault with the main chunk of his remaining mana, and then make a run for it, hopefully gaining enough time for help to arrive.

“GARRAAGGHH” The sound of the gurgling scream cut through the impending conflict like a knife, and all three combatants turned to an incredibly disturbing scene playing out behind them.

The manifestation had pounced in a burst of speed, and the guard was furiously stabbing at it with his sword. Unfortunately for him, the thing didn't care at all about the grievous wounds being inflicted on its center mass. Rather it was putting all its effort into shoving as much of itself into the openings in the guard's face as possible.

The remaining two were slack-jawed at the horrifying sight, and while it disturbed Tilly as well, he had unfortunately seen far too much of the Corruption’s nature to be thrown off. The steward was also taking advantage of the distraction. Skirting around the two as he made his way over to the now-unconscious Titus.

Tilly knew it was now or never and struck viciously with his good arm at the guard to his right. Even taken completely by surprise, the man’s sword still came up for a block, but just too late to catch the head of the hatchet as it buried itself in his shoulder. The second guard spun back towards the fight even as Tilly followed up his strike by ramming his shoulder into the guard on the right for all he was worth.

Hitting him felt like trying to force open an industrial steel door. Nonetheless, he caused the guard to stumble back two steps, not expecting the ferocity of the attack or the immediacy of the follow-up. The guard attempted a weak thrust from his back foot, and the other tried to grab him from behind, but he was already shooting the gap created by the move, dropping his other hatchet in favor of building up speed. Before they could fully react, he was behind the guard on the right, breaking out into a full run.

“Get him, you idiots!” The steward shouted as he dragged Titus’ body away from the now collapsed guard and the quickly disappearing appendages of the manifestation.

Tilly was several steps ahead, almost at a full sprint as he heard both guards curse and give chase. He thought that with his emphasis on Dexterity, he would have an advantage in a chase, but that idea was quickly put to the sword by the sound of heavy breathing drawing nearer behind him.

Tilly’s shoulder injury ground in jagged pain every other step as he pumped his arms as best he could. The guards were faster than him, but not by much and he was going to make them work for every gained foot. He blindly sprinted down the street in the direction Amelia had gone and desperately hoped he was moving toward his backup, not away from it.

The side street opened up to a main thoroughfare about ninety yards ahead, he could see people moving in mild panic in a single direction, but he wasn't going to make it. The hooved feet of his pursuers were now hitting the cobblestones just behind him in loping rhythms and he could almost feel a strike that was about to land.

He churned up the flame in his chest desperately and reached for the explosive sensation that had accompanied Flame Expulsion the first time he had used this ability against the Shadow Hunters. The flame inside his chest roiled and then compressed to a nova pinprick in his chest, just as he heard a grunt of effort behind him.

The compression reached its bursting point and exploded out of him in a sphere of blue flames. He held his breath just in time as they washed over him in a pleasant heat. The guards behind him were not as prepared. If they had seen the attack coming they probably could have sheltered behind their extremities and gotten away with superficial burns. Especially with their obvious Endurance. But mid-chase? They had suddenly found themselves running into a wall of fire, eyes wide open, gasping in lung fulls of superheated air.

The huge amount of mana leaving him left him feeling even more tired and hollow than he already was, but he pushed on for another ten steps before recalling his hatchets and turning back towards his foes.

Both guards were hunched over covering injured eyes and heaving dry painful sounding coughs. Tilly didn't give them any more time to recover, launching an enflamed hatchet at one with his good arm, and then shifting the second hatchet to his right hand and throwing that as well. They were stationary targets at about 25 feet and Tilly easily scored significant hits on both of them at the base of their necks in the gaps of their armor.

Not waiting to see how they reacted, he spun and continued his flight emerging out into the crowded street a few moments later. The street was choked with citizens all heading deeper into the city and the sound of fighting could be heard in the opposite direction of their flight. Tilly could vaguely see the walls in the distance back the way they came, and the road curved slightly up ahead blocking where they were fleeing to. Not that many of them probably knew. The emergence of a wounded human from the side street seemed to go unnoticed as they continued to push and shove further down the street away from the fighting.

He had lost control again…

This time for longer than a moment. Sometime around Titus revealing Tilly’s infection to Amelia, he had begun to spiral. Then he had blanked out, only coming back to himself at the sound of Cog’s scream. He had returned to a world of pain, chief of which was the scepter thing that had impaled him and was holding him against the wall. He had done everything he could to help Amelia and the boy but, he still burned with shame at the part he had played in his companion's dangers. He had kept making excuses to himself about why he didn't need to tell people, but in the end, it had clearly put them in danger to not know that he was as much a liability as an ally. Part of him wanted to pretend that he had no choice in the matter and that the Corruption’s influence had been what had been an unstoppable internal force... but that just wasn't true.

Asking for help had slowly grown into a no-fly zone over the years and he hated being seen as the one who held back the team. This drive had propelled him into training time after time, as he pushed to make sure he was never the one lagging behind. Now here he was and his plan to somehow fix this himself… well, that turned out to be. a load of bullshit. His steps slowed as he took a few more moments to catch his breath before looking back down the street the way he had come.

There was no way his hasty strikes had finished the meaty pursuers. Thugs like that where born to take hits and keep going. Without the 200% bonus, he simply didn't have the attack power to win out against such powerful opponents. Not to mention they could have a healing potion or something. Thankfully he didn't see them running up yet, he had bought himself some time. He thought for a moment about heading directly towards the center of the city with everyone else but that was probably exactly where they would look for him to head. Plus, the crush of the crowd only got worse the farther they got.

So, reluctantly he turned against the crowd and started moving at a slow jog in the direction of the wall. Those fleeing treated him as another obstacle and flowed around him as he moved at a decent pace for a block or two. Then he spotted another break in the buildings ahead to his right, and he cut through the crowd in that direction. The drive to find a place to lie low in a direction they didn't expect was turning his stomach in knots. Hopefully, the opening he had spotted would lead somewhere good.

Then Tilly’s blood ran cold as he heard shouting intermingled with coughs from behind him.

“Where is he?!”

“Have you seen a Human?”

Tilly continued to make his way toward the alley praying he would not be spotted. He dodged around a large group of confused satyrs wearing the garb of farmers before ducking into the cool darkness of the opening to the alley. The relief Tilly felt shriveled up and died at the sight of the dead end thirty feet into the opening.

There were two doors and Tilly desperately threw himself against one, finding it firmly barred from the inside. The other was the same. The walls were made of crumbling stone and went up three stories on both sides. He had to have picked the two tallest buildings on this street to hide between…

“This Way!”

The shouting sounded closer. Apparently, the sight of an injured human didn't go as unnoticed as he thought. His eyes flicked up to his HUD as he gingerly swung his arms back and forth a few times.

Health: 52%

Mana: 33%

There was no way he could turn and fight. While he still couldn't lift his right arm above his shoulder, the strength in his grip had returned… it would have to do. He moved to a particularly crumbly streak in the stone and mortar wall and reached up to grab hold of a jutting stone just above his head with his right hand. He pulled up and stepped into a crack next to his left knee, thankful, for the first, time that he was wearing mocassins instead of stiff boots which would have made climbing impossible. He awkwardly reached to his left for another crack and bit back a moan as he grabbed it and secured his weight on his left arm, freeing up his right to reach higher up the wall.

He pulled up and wedged his right foot a few feet higher than his left and repeated the agonizing formula again and again. Like climbing the tree to gain vantage in the forest near the Lapin village, Tilly knew what he was doing would have been way past impossible with his old body. His balance and physical control were far beyond what they had been back on Earth. Not that he could particularly enjoy it as every time he secured himself against the wall with his left arm the gaping hole left by that lunatic shot pain through his whole body.

But climb he did, one agonizing inch at a time. He had probably made it two-thirds of the way when he heard the sound he had been dreading.

“Shit, the farmers said he ducked in here. Check the doors.” Tilly froze at the sound of voices at the entrance to the alley. He even did all he could to turn his billowing effort-filled breaths into the silent gas exchanges they were meant to be.

The sound of two booming crashes thundered up from the ground, “They are barred fast. Do you think he made it inside?”

“No you idiot, any door with a working lock has been locked for days. He has to be here somewhere” The second guard growled before the alley was filled with a long pause. The toes on Tilly’s right foot burned wedged into their current crack and he had of course frozen right as he was leaning into his left arm for support again. His whole body trembled with the effort and he slowly, silently tried to shift his weight to another handhold. Then the mortar under his left hand cracked and a stone fell to the ground.

Tilly winced, and then cursed as the sound of an evil chuckle echoed up from the ground,

“Of course, what else would a monkey be doing other than scampering away up a tree? Attus, stay here and make sure he doesn't come down, I'll find another way onto the roof to go meet him.”

The discourse was followed by another thunderous crack against the barred door. Tilly redoubled his effort to reach the roof, he could not afford to get there second. His fingers and toes were far past cramping at the effort, but he shoved them in cracks between the stonework like a fat kid reaching for candy. Two more blows and Tilly heard the door give way.

“I'll see you at the top Monkey Man. You are going to pay for your little tricks back there!” The brutish satyr Elite Guard shouted up mockingly. Tilly’s only answer was to continue gasping for breath as he hoisted himself up inch by inch.

The sound of subsequent doors being destroyed reverberated out into the ally, and Tilly silently thanked God for doors as his mangled right hand finally reached the lip of the building and he heaved himself over the side. He collapsed gasping for air, while scanning the roof for its access point.

There. A warped wooden trap door lay closed at the other end of the flat-topped roof. Tilly hauled himself up to his feet and recalled his hatchets. God, he loved this ability.

Then the door exploded upward and the Guard quickly began to pull himself up through the opening. Tilly immediately threw a hatchet, but quick as a snake, the guard whipped up that cleaver of a short sword and batted it aside.

“Uh uh... I know your tricks now, there will be no more of that for the rest of our little talk.” He said holding up the blade ready to ward off another throw as he smoothly pulled the rest of his body through the opening. Then with far more grace than his hulking form should have been able to exhibit, he advanced toward Tilly.

“Attus, I’ve got ’em. Come on up and join the fun!” The guard shouted triumphantly down to his partner before continuing,

“You are gonna pay for what happened to Trivus.” His false cheerfulness drained away, replaced by fury.

“Seems to me that had more to do with your boss than me,” Tilly responded shifting his eyes to the nearest roof, trying to gauge the possibility of a jump. Unfortunately, the look wasn’t missed by the guard,

“None of that now, can't have you breaking your neck and ending our talk early. Attus! Get your dumb ass up here,” he shouted again and frowned as no response came.

Then Tilly felt hope bloom in his chest, and he lifted his weapon while recalling the other. He did his best to mask his emotion with a scowl of pain at the wound in his shoulder and fixed his eyes firmly on the approaching guard. Making absolutely certain not to give away the long-eared figure silently flowing up and out of the opening in the roof.

Ch. 42 Buying Time

Even in his peripherals, Tilly recognized her as Mochizuki, the female lapin servant they had met a couple of days ago upon entry to the city. But this time she was not dressed as a simple servant. She was dressed in layers of black cloth, cinched tight around her waist and the beginning and end of her extremities. It was reminiscent of a classic ninja outfit, but something about the looser clothing around her torso and extremities made it hard to tell exactly where her body was within the shifting fabric of the outfit. She padded up behind the guard, completely silent, completely focused on her opponent.

“I don't think your friend is going to answer,” Tilly growled, stalling for a few more seconds. Oddly he felt the Blessing tug at his arm, and he took it to mean it wanted him to attack. It hadn’t given him anything useful since the fight, but he had been running for his life anyway.

“What do you-”

Tilly cut off the response by throwing his hatchet with his good hand, which the guard easily batted aside, and then smiled. They both knew Tilly didn't have time to recall and block with the weapon at his current skill level, and the guard squatted slightly, the muscles on his hairy goat legs bunching for a lunge.

Just before he sprung forward, his eyes widened slightly and his head jerked around suddenly sensing something.

It was too little too late.

Kunai had appeared as if from thin air in Mochizuki’s hands and the guard moved too slowly to avoid the double critical strike, as one plunged into his neck and the other was thrust up into his armpit, above the protection of his cuirass.

The guard let out a choking gasp and his legs gave out, as Mochizuki led him to the ground almost gently, before ripping out her knives and wiping them on his armor padding. She gracefully rose to her feet, and flicked the blades out, making them disappear into the folds of her robes.

Level 13 Household Servant

His Identify insistently confirmed for him over her head. At this point, it seemed more like a joke, than helpful information. Clearly, his level 17 skill was far from infallible.

“Gaijin.” She said in greeting, meeting his eyes with a serious expression only allowing a hint of satisfaction to dance in her eyes.

"I sure as hell am glad you are on my side. That was intense.” Tilly breathed in relief, before recalling his other hatchet and looping both of them on his belt.

“Yes, well things are going very poorly for the city, and by extension Lord Hiro's plans. They are here too early and our escape will be contested every step of the way.” She said, gesturing towards the wall. As if her motion somehow turned up the volume on the battle in the distance, the roar of the fighting and dying washed over Tilly’s senses. In the rush of his personal danger, he hadn't yet taken in the view that this vantage provided.

Tilly could not see the battle happening on the other side of the wall, but he saw the battlements flanking either side of the gates crowded with soldier-like figures. Flashes of some sort of large-scale magics were occasionally flashing forth like beacons from over the wall, but there were no signs of enemies in the city as of yet.

“Look closely at those atop the wall...” Mochizuki instructed as she moved up to his side and took in the view. He squinted, just barely able to make out that most directly over the gate wore the matching uniforms of the city guard, while the rest of the force on the walls was formed from different units wearing all sorts of armor. This was true for the whole rest of the wall actually, but the forces were especially crowded near the battle.

“What will happen to the forces outside the wall?” Tilly asked quietly, fairly sure he already understood the answer.

“They are the last two Phalanxes left in the ‘Thousand Phalanx Empire.’ One of which had to be bolstered by any veterans in the city guard. They will assuredly die. All to buy us time. Unfortunately, not as much time as they had hoped.” She said with a deep frown.

“What makes you say-”

Then before his eyes, he watched as the unified guard standing watch on the wall suddenly collapsed in on itself in infighting, Satyr against Satyr. The private forces on both sides suddenly attacked the last few hundred guards manning battlements above the gate.

“Those sons of bitches!... Wait, you knew this was going to happen? Why aren’t you doing anything?!” He whipped his head around in mounting fury at the betrayal of the people those guards were supposed to protect.

She returned his freshly stoked anger with hard eyes and some of the heat drained from his expression.

“I paid a heavy price to obtain this intelligence, I passed it off to my superiors, who shared it with their counterparts last night. What follows is their best attempt to salvage an unsalvageable situation.” Then she looked him up and down before reaching into the folds of her flowing robe and pulling out a familiar red potion.

“We have precious few of these left for the coming battle, but you will need it.” She said, calmly handing it over to him.

He took it and knocked it back quickly, scowling at the feeling of sinew and muscle knitting back together at a hyper-accelerated rate. He eyed the battlements again and saw that the guards were holding remarkably well for a group that had been ‘surprised’. They had almost instantly formed disciplined ranks against the lateral attack.

"Didn't you say all the veterans had joined the phalanxes?" Tilly asked in confusion.

"I did... It seems there was a mix-up. The private forces of the houses will use their position to force open the gates, ending the siege before it begins, but not so easily as they had planned." She said, a sad smile tugging at the edge of her mouth.

He looked back towards the road where refugees were still rushing towards the center of the city in a procession of panic.

“How long until the Honu can get a stable portal up?”

“That entirely depends on if they can proceed uninterrupted. Without interference, they will be done in the next hour. But you can be sure the bones of our plan have also been discovered, and the enemy would be foolish to allow us a back door. There are contingencies in place that have even been kept from me for operational security. But I have a part to play, as do you if you choose to take it. We must do all we can to delay the enemy and safeguard our escape.”

Tilly took in his HUD as he swung his arms back and forth, not quite trusting the numbers.

Health: 100%

Mana: 34%

Corruptions Influence: 22%

“Yeah, Im willing to do whatever I can to help, although I don't see how much of a difference I can make…” Tillys said, trying not to let his low Mana and growing Corruption drown any remaining hope he had for the situation in the city.

She nodded as if expecting the answer, before pulling out a small metal sphere covered in arcane writings, “This arrived from the palace along with a few other treasures from the imperial vault. It looks like the Ancient Sovereign is actually planning some sort of last stand, and he wants to bleed the enemy as much as possible.”

Tilly took the item and looked down at it in curiosity. Under his gaze, he felt some of the fire in his chest kindle, and the symbols marking the sphere started to take on a blue glow.

Artificial Endless Path Microcosm - Level too low to see details.

As his Identify pinged, the warmth from his center reached down through his outstretched arm to touch the item and he felt it begin to… resonate.

“Not yet!” She said snatching the sphere out of his hand, she then juggled it back and forth between her hands as if it was a hot potato.

“If you channel any mana-based ability while holding this sphere, it will cause a multiplicable feedback loop… or something, that is what Shuji said anyway.” She said before handing it back to him gingerly, the arcane glow having diminished as soon as it left his hand.

“So with this, I empower one of my abilities?” Tilly said as he tucked it carefully into his fantasy fanny pack.

“Not exactly. I am told it had no upper limit of input and is extremely dangerous to use. Lord Hiro seemed to think you were suited for such an item. Something about having unusually resistant pathways. It will continue to recirculate the Mana back through your channels increasing every time until you lose control of the circuit. Then it will release the ability at whatever multiple you are able to withstand.”

“So what, I'm supposed to become like a magical bomb or something?”

“Yes. The Empire’s Bastions will reveal themselves when the gates are breached, and you are to join up with them and deploy your ability at the optimum time to disrupt the enemy's momentum. It seems that they are content to sit back and throw their fodder at us, so we will not risk escalating the fight any earlier than we have to. We will meet each threat with our bare minimum of force so we can delay the deployment of their Aces for as long as possible. Once the real fight begins, very few of us will be able to leave unscathed.”

“So, magical bomb, but not until we absolutely have to. Got it. What will you do?” Tilly asked, a self-deprecating grin on his face.

“They have been infiltrating the city for hours with advanced units to destabilize our escape plan. I am to search and destroy any of these elements I can find before they reach our base of operations or our people.” She said, moving casually back a few steps from the ledge.

Then she looked at him, and he felt a previously unnoticed pressure release on his mind. His Identify pinged, and the words over her head shifted to an entirely new level and class.

Level 32 Ninja Infiltrator

She winked at him, and before he could say anything at the awesome reveal, she sprang forward and leaped the twenty-foot gap between buildings, before blurring away across the rooftop. Her form was startlingly difficult to track, even in broad daylight.

That was one hell of an exit. If he was going to stay around this place, he had to figure out how to do that… He shook his head and headed for the trap door, leaving the body of the guard behind. He doubted the guy had another healing potion on him, having obviously used one to continue the chase.

Tilly followed the trail of destruction back down through the building and emerged to find the second guard dead on his knees with a shocked expression forever frozen on his features…

“Yeah, really glad she is on our side.” He muttered to himself before heading toward the exit of the alley at a jog. The street was entirely clear at this point, everyone has gotten the word that some sort of last-ditch effort was being made at the center of the city as far as he could tell, but he hesitated for a moment at the mouth anyway.

He really didn't want to be jumped again. He didn't feel any tug from the blessing and hoped it would warn him again if there was another trap laid somewhere up ahead… He pulled up his notification log up to see what he had to work with.

He scrolled backward, confirming that he had not gained an actual level from the fights he had participated in, although he has picked up a couple of skill levels.

Congratulations! Your skill Beginner Hatchet has leveled up. Now Level 11.

Congratulations! Your skill Duel-Wielding (Hatchets) has leveled up. Now Level 3.

Congratulations! Your skill Ax Throwing has leveled up. Now Level 10.

He continued to scroll up and…Shit, that's right!

He had lost [Resolute] due to the stat gains in the Temple. While he had gained another title called [Scarred Heart] it didn't seem like it would be much help in the next hour. The same was true for the sweet improvement he had gotten to his Flame’s Renewal ability, although that did explain how it was able to ruin Titus’ day so thoroughly. No, the only real choice for Operation Magical Bomb was his Flame Expulsion.

He had begun chewing on a truly stupid idea, but one that, if it worked, would be a legendary cheat on the game mechanics of this world. But if it was going to work he absolutely needed that title back. Which meant he had to gain at least one level before activating the Microcosm. All while somehow getting up to the required 50% Mana for his ability. He double-checked his Character Sheet to make sure he wasn't missing anything.

Jonathan Luke Tillman

Level: 12 (2000 Exp to next level)

Display Name: Tilly

Race: Human

Class: Son of Flame

Stats:

Constitution: 13

Endurance: 71 (78.1)

Dexterity: 29 (31.9)

Strength: 11(12.1)

Wisdom: 16(13.6)

Intelligence: 13

Status Effects:

Minor Corruption [Hidden] -15% wisdom +10% strength, Potion Toxicity: 3 hours remaining All alchemical items are 50% less effective, Mana Exhaustion: 7 hours ({Partially Resisted}, {Localized}) remaining

Titles: [Harbinger], [Resolute], [Origin’s Champion], [Corruption’s Host],[Trusted Gaijin],[Hostile Environment],[Scarred Heart].

Equipment

Origin’s primitive stone hatchets: +10% to Dexterity. (Legendary, growth type)

+Imbued Ability Recall.

Origin’s primitive leather armor: +10% to Endurance. (Legendary, growth type)

+Imbued Form Sun Salamander leather.

Skills:

-Forestcraft level 12. -Identify level 17 -Cooking level 12. -Beginner Hatchet level 11. -Animal Processing level 9

-Stealth level 7 -Herb Lore Level 1 -Ax Throwing Level 10 -Duel-Wielding (Hatchets) Level 3

Abilities:

-[Blue] Flame Strike, [Blue] Flame Expulsion, [Blue] Flame’s Renewal+.

Tilly cursed inwardly as he recounted his total non-Endurance stats. They were sitting at 82 to his Endurance’s 71! That meant he had to gain two freaking levels before he would gain the title back. This was going to suck…

A dark thought caused him to chuckle to himself as he started to jog toward the main gates of the city. He was practically a ticking time bomb with this Seed inside of him, and they had sent him to be a literal bomb against the enemy.

Alanis Morissette would be so proud.

Ch. 43 Band of Goat-Brothers

Johnathan Tillman

On his way to the front gates, he saw a couple of faces furtively peaking out of windows, and one brave drunk who seemed to have chosen to meet the invasion head-on with a stuttering song. Aside from them, it seemed like everyone had gotten the news and was getting as far away from the attack as possible.

Twenty min of jogging through the city towards the point he had seen from the roof resulted in him finally emerging from a side street onto the extremely long promenade that started at the front gate and cut a straight line all the way to the Teleportation Hub at the center. Tilly had emerged just a few blocks from the gates and saw that the battle for the gatehouse was almost over.

Tilly turned back towards the center of the city and could just barely make out the crowds in the distance, which would be massed like sitting ducks around the platforms until the spell was complete. Far beyond them at the other end of the promenade was the imperial palace, which seemed aloof, somehow removed from the eminent destruction of its seat of power.

“Human! Get out of the street.” Came a whispered shout from the shadowed doorway of a building across the street.

Tilly squinted at the origin of the voice. It was one of the extremely muscular and scarred guards Tilly had seen at the steps of the Cura. He was standing half hidden in the door of this building with a great vantage of the fight on the top of the wall. Tilly's Identify pinged.

Level 44 Empire’s Bastion

“I’m here to help, Lord Hiro sent me!” Tilly called back, suddenly aware of possible watchers from the top of the wall. He ducked back around the corner, keeping his line of sight with the soldier, but losing sight of the top of the wall.

The soldier gave a hard nod of acknowledgment and then gestured sharply towards the door he was standing in. Tilly took this as permission to enter and sprinted from his cover until he arrived across the wide street and ducked into the large doorway.

The soldier moved to the side to let him pass and he entered into a large stone atrium with booths at the other end, that could have been used for customs or taxes for traders entering the city. Tilly's eyes were immediately drawn to the group that had claimed this as their base of operations. The entire room was filled with soldiers in different states of readiness. Some sharpening their already sharp swords, others playing dice and a few actually napping. Each had a torso-sized shield close to hand and a spear within reach. A few glanced his way curiously as he entered, but none seemed concerned, trusting the man at the door to not let anyone in that was a threat.

There was an air of confident menace that permeated this group. Looking over the room, Tilly got the impression that he might be amongst the last and greatest fighters the empire had to offer. He hadn't thought to ask but he was sure that they didn't just hand out the class 'Empires Bastion' to anyone who asked. Off to the right of the door, Tilly spotted Linus speaking to a few other older especially grizzled-looking Satyrs. Tilly headed over to report for duty, and the small group around Linus parted at his approach, all hard men, giving him apathetic looks.

“Jonathan Tillman, This is about to become a very dangerous place. If you have a message, give it quickly.” Linus snapped, obviously short on time and patience. Tilly was suddenly so nervous he almost replied, “Danger? Danger is my middle name.”

Instead, he coughed and looked around again. He had been in the room with hardened firemen when a rookie walked in for his first day. Hell, he remembered his first day as a rookie. There was nothing like the divide between those who had been in the shit and those who hadn’t. Even with everything he had seen and endured the last week, he immediately knew he had not been in it like these men. This was a family forged in sweat and blood and he was interrupting their long-formed prebattle rituals.

“I… Um. I'm here to help.” He said to the group in worn, well-maintained armor. The hatchets on his belt suddenly felt like play toys, and he wished his voice had been a little more sure as he answered the question.

“Ha! We would love to have you, little man!” Boomed a voice just beyond the leadership huddle that had formed around Linus. Tilly couldn’t keep his jaw from dropping as an absolutely huge muscled physique detached himself from the wall. Tilly was sure he was a Satyr like the others, but he didn't share the goat-legged feature many of the soldiers shared. A large almost entirely goat head sat atop a humanoid body. Well, it would be humanoid if humans grew to be 14 feet tall. This guy could give the minotaurs a run for their money.

“Maybe when the press gets thick we can throw you over the line as a snack to the enemy as a distraction!” He guffawed, His goat mouth somehow forming human words in an oddly fascinating display of dexterity.

Tilly’s mouth got ahead of his brain and he spoke without thinking, “Actually Gigantor, that is exactly what I was thinking.” He snarked back.

Linus’s frown deepened at Tilly's pithy reply, “Explain yourself, Human. Time is short and this is no place for humor.” He said, completely ignoring the fact that the goat/giant was the one who had started the joking.

“Look, I know this is a one-way mission for you guys, and I am sure you are more than capable of completing it. But I have been given something from the Imperial treasury. It has the ability to greatly magnify one of my abilities. When paired with my unique effectiveness against the kind of enemy coming through that gate, I have the potential to eliminate a significant amount of combatants in one go.” Tilly got out, almost without taking a breath.

Like any good commander, Linus weighed the risk versus the reward of making a change to the plan at such a late hour, “As soon as the final guards fall, the gate will be opened. The enemy is holding back and hoping to flood the streets with these Corrupted without losing any other resources. Our directive is simple. Form up in the center of the gate and hold for as long as possible. If you really believe you can aid us in our task, then very well. What do you need to activate this item of yours?”

The disturbingly beady eyes of the giant/goat man drilled into him from over the commander's shoulder and Tilly had a hard time telling if he was smiling or snarling as he respectfully waited for the commander to finish the discussion.

“Well, it should be simple once I have enough mana, but I need to gain two levels before I can activate it to its full potential. As for your plan, I can work from behind the front line and use my ranged attack, which is my best anyway. Once I am ready, I'll charge the ability as much as I can, but I need some way to get as far behind the enemy's lines as possible before releasing it. It is an area of effect that has me as its center.”

The Commander nodded thoughtfully, “Alright, Gorock. You are on babysitting duty. Keep him alive and behind our lines. Then, when he is ready, toss him. Just like you wanted.”

“But Sir!” The giant recoiled as if struck.

“Shut your big mouth Gorock!” one of the Grizzled Vice-Commanders snarled. The Goat Man still looked like he was going to object.

“You will do as I command, and on top of that, if he does manage to live after this half-baked plan, you are to retrieve him at all costs and get him back to our people in the center of the city.”

“Sir… You can't take this from me. I will die with you... I cannot run like a coward.” He pleaded, in a surprisingly high-pitched whine.

“There is plenty of dying to be had today, I'm sure you won't miss your chance." He said sadly looking out over his unit.

"I have seen what he can do against this new enemy. If we can keep this resource available to our remaining citizens, then we will.” He finished, his voice hard.

“Sir!” Called the Soldier watching the gates, “They are breaking into the mechanism room now! You want me to activate it?”

“No.” He called back, brushing past Gorock and Tilly, the matter settled in his mind.

“Wait until the gate is a quarter open, then break it. We want them drawn to our choke point."

Then he turned to the room, and bellowed out, “All right boys, this is it! Form up on me!” As if by magic, every soldier in the room was rising to their feet, shield in hand, like they hadn't actually been relaxing at all.

Commander Linus turned through the doorway and jogged out, followed by the 70 or so soldiers that made up the Empire’s Bastion Unit. Their movements were quick and disciplined, showing no hesitance or confusion at the orders.

“Come on little man,” Gorock sighed, as he hefted his door-sized shield, and brought up the rear of the leaving soldiers. Tilly looked down at some abandoned dice on the floor, withdrew his hatchets, and took a deep steadying breath. He was suddenly nauseous and thirsty all at once, but it was time to go. This was the place where he could absolutely make the most impact for the fleeing refugees deeper in the city.

He shut off his mind and moved, catching up with the giant goat-man as he left through the doorway. Fighting fire had been one of the few things in life that he excelled at. He was decisive under pressure and could read a change in the environment even as fire raged all around him. But none of that really set him apart from the crowd. The thing that made him different, was his ability to lean completely into his training and gut and operate completely out of that place. Once he entered a burning building, everything else faded away until only muscle memory and instinct were left. The past faded and the future narrowed down to a razor edge of clarity. Just take another step and do what you were trained to do.

Of course, he had never been trained to fight on the line with ancient weaponry against a charging horde of enemies…

Then the shouting voice of the commander broke through the din of fighting on and beyond the wall, “First rank shield Up! Second rank, spear at ready! Third rank filter in as needed. If you see a brother go down, pull him back and fill the gap!” He never stopped advancing to the gate which was just beginning to open. The sound of men screaming and the inhuman gurgling roars of the Corrupted pierced through the fresh opening like a knife through sutures, reminding Tilly that many men had already fought and died today.

The gate continued to open outwardly and the Soldier’s in front of him flowed unhurriedly into formation three deep. They might as well have been on the parade ground for all the concern they showed.

“Now Threstus!” Linus called to the soldier that had kept out of formation. The Satyr held a large conch shell at the ready above his head. At the command, he broke it against the wall, and suddenly the sound of crashing waves drowned out the tumult of battle. Blue symbols raced up the wall from the point of the break and the private guards began to call and point out the Bastion’s activity to their superiors.

When the arcane symbols hit the top of the wall, the whole section above the gate lit up in glowing blue markings, and the sound of crashing waves turned into a roar that reminded Tilly of a waterfall. The traitorous guards above shouted in alarm, backing away from the edge of the wall and the brilliant azure glow emanating from the stone.

Then the deafening sound suddenly cut off for a long second of silence before water exploded like a geyser from the top of the wall, knocking all of those above off at an outward angle. Tilly realized this must be some sort of fail-safe embedded in the magic of the walls to repel an attack if the section of the wall was lost. Apparently, no one had told the noble houses something like that existed, even though they were the ones who were supposed to ‘hold the wall’.

Screams of confusion and terror emerged from the battlefield beyond the wall as the private guards of the noble houses who hoped to sit out the rest of the battle, suddenly found themselves amongst thousands of mindless Corrupted, who happily fell upon the new enemy.

Even through the ten-foot opening, Tilly saw many of the guards take the three-story fall unscathed, only to be set upon by Corrupted that had been caught up in the scraps left over from what remained of the two full Phalanxes arrayed against them. These guards may have been assholes, but they weren’t cowards. Many grouped up in twos and threes to take out ten or twenty of the creatures before going down themselves. Tilly was starting to see just how well-designed this plan had been. Let the enemy proceed with their plan as much as possible while delaying and frustrating them every step of the way.

“Our enemy believes us to be weak.” Linus bellowed, drawing attention to the now open gate. Corrupted turned from the recent distraction, and fixed their dead, all-black orbs on the new prey.

“They think they know what it is to face a true Phalanx!” Linus shouted at them again, allowing anger to crack through his commanding voice. He eyed the horde of tens of thousands of corrupted creatures that had once been citizens of the empire he was sworn to protect. Tilly saw rage there, but also deep sorrow as all they had lost. None of that kept him from performing his duty.

“BASTIONS! SHIELDS UP! HOLD THE LINE!” His voice rang out in several octaves at once, and Tilly realized that he was using an ability. In one motion, the front rank locked their shields with a thunderous clang, and a golden light showed in an almost opaque barrier of radiance about a foot in front of the first rank.

The Corrupted seemed to understand that some sort of challenge had been issued, and howled in fury, before charging toward the open gate.

The Commander’s voice again rose up exploding in several octaves at once, “DON’T GIVE THEM AN INCH!” The golden radiance intensified and filtered back washing over all the ranks. It even shone on Tilly who had positioned himself about five feet behind the last rank next to Gorock who wore a melancholy expression. Or at least that's what Tilly thought it was. It was hard to tell on a goat’s face.

“Our glorious last stand and I'm stuck next to the baby-man…” He growled to himself, just loud enough to hear over the din of the coming charge of Corrupted.

Tilly was barely paying attention, instead watching as three Buffs appeared on his HUD. He quickly pulled up his notification log to make sure he knew exactly what he was working with before he got caught up in the heat of battle.

Ch. 44 Thermopile Monopoly

You have been accepted into the formation of the Empire’s Bastion. While in formation, you are affected by ‘Shields Up’, ‘Don't Give an Inch’, and ‘Hold the Line’.

Shields Up: Any offensive attack ability is reduced by 25% in effectiveness while formation is held.

Don’t Give an Inch: All enemy knockback abilities are negated as long as the formation is held.

Hold the Line: All passive regeneration rates are doubled while in formation.

That last one was a game-changer! That would boost his Mana Regen up to almost 3% per minute. That was still pitifully low, but it felt huge. He set his mental floor at 40% Mana so that he would never be more than 3 min from activating Flame Expulsion. He flicked closed the log and checked his Mana and Health.

Mana: 55%

Health:100%

He inflamed his hatchets just in time for the First of the enemy’s ranks to reach the line. Gorock looked over and snorted at his small forearm-sized weapons, while Tilly watched as the tide of Corrupted crashed against a golden wall projecting from the shields. As soon as they hit they slowed significantly and crashed into the seemingly unmoveable secondary wall of shields, momentarily stunned. Then, as if they were a single entity with many arms. The spears struck against the hoard of Corrupted citizens, followed closely by business-like chopping sword strikes from the front line behind their shields. The soldiers showed incredible discipline in their positioning, The first rank never broke the wall and the second rank continued to pull back and strike with terrible thrusts over the shoulders of their brothers. Tilly even saw one second-ranker strike through the neck of a Corrupted minotaur mid-attack as it bent down to try and gore the satyr in front of him holding the shield wall.

Very quickly the initial wave of attackers that had stormed over to the opening in the gate had been churned into a gory paste by the economical yet brutal strikes of the shoulder-to-shoulder fighters of the Empire’s Bastions.

Tilly nervously rotated the hafts of his hatchets as he watched the rest of the horde of Corrupted be drawn towards the noise of the new battle. Tens of thousands of black orbs had fixed on the conflict playing out between the gates and had started to shift this way. He hefted one of his hatchets and threw it, feeling like a kid tossing rocks into the ocean. Tilly didn't even have to aim, he just kept throwing, enflaming every attack he could until he had dropped to 36% Mana. He was rewarded with a Level up notification a few seconds later, as the blue flame from his strikes finished eating through its target. He mentally dropped all the points into Endurance and realized, he must have been pretty close to leveling after his part in the fight with the guards.

By this time, the wave was almost upon the front ranks and Tilly dropped his arms and breathed deeply trying to recover as much Mana as possible. The second, much larger wave hit the shield wall, and this time, it flexed in response to the crushing weight of thousands of bodies. Commander Linus stepped forward, waiting until it seemed like the formation was about to be forced back by the unbelievable weight,

“BASTIONS, PUSH THEM BACK!” He shouted in that same multi-octave voice, that seemed to be linked to the Unit magic these soldiers were so proficient in. The aura around the unit intensified, and the second and third rank ducked low and rammed their shoulders into the body of the satyr in front of them. It almost looked like a scrum from rugby, and the unit collectively yelled as it pushed forward.

At first, it was just one step, then it was two, the radiance building with each step until it flashed and an explosive wumph sounded from the front ranks as the collective force of both opposing sides suddenly rebounded back towards the enemy, sending bodies flying twenty feet into the air. Tilly watched in awe as the unit took advantage of the breathing room to reset, with the first rank rotating back to the third, and the other two moving forward one position. Tilly saw that all of them were injured in some way, but took up their new positions stoically, trusting in the improved Regen to get them right before their next rotation up front. Gorock looked on like a child forced to watch as his siblings ate all the dessert on the table.

“It feels like you guys will be able to hold forever,” Tilly said wondering if his plan was even necessary.

Gororck bared his square goat teeth in what could have been a grin, or a sneer but didn’t say anything. Surprisingly he heard Linus speak up from ten yards away. Supervising the carnage as if he were a butcher, trying to decide how he wanted to divide up a side of beef, “Yes, at our levels, in group warfare, we were unmatched for a millennia. But this is not group warfare. This is slaughter. And while we can endure for longer than any traditional foot soldier, not even we can hold out for more than ten or fifteen minutes as things stand.”

As if responding to his words, the horde gathered itself back together and surged forward again. Tilly had only regained about 5%, but he enflamed his axes and launched them at the biggest approaching targets anyway.

“How much longer?” Linus asked. His voice was flinty, but calm. Tilly recalled his hatchets and eyed his glacial Mana Regen.

“I don't know exactly, but I only have one Level left, and it looks like these guys range from ten to twenty levels above me. No matter what I will activate before you are overwhelmed.” Linus nodded at that, then squinted up toward the top of the wall,

“Threstus, what is the enemy's disposition? Any elites moving forward?” He called up. Tilly whipped his head up and saw that at some point the same Satyr who had broken the shell had scaled the wall and was now positioned near the gatehouse looking out over the enemy.

“No Sir!” He shouted down.

“But the creatures in the center of the press have begun to cannibalize each other. Some seem to be growing in size.”

Linus nodded at the news as if the lookout had just told him the weather, and turned back to Tilly.

“Mr. Tillman, you and Gorock are going to join Threstus on the wall. Disrupt as many of these things from forming and reaching the line as possible. This will probably be better for your level gain and the elevation will be advantageous for your throwing plan as well.” He stated dryly as if it hurt him to be depending on such a juvenile strategy.

“Yes Sir!” Gorock growled, apparently excited to get closer to the action any way he could. Before Tilly could respond, he felt the giant grab him by the back of his jacket and his waste band,

“Hey, Wha-AAAHH” Tilly screamed as he was launched thirty feet in the air, his arms pinwheeling as he crashed into the side of the crenellations and urgently clung to them as Threstus reached over and hauled him over the side.

“What the Fu-” TIlly started, but as he caught Threstus’s grin, and clamped his mouth shut. He had come up with the projectile bomb plan, and he realized Gorock had wanted to see how he handled a smaller throw.

Tilly cleared his throat and straightened his jacket, before moving to the opposite edge of the wall to get a better picture of what Threstus had seen. On his way over, he saw numerous piles of javelins and a large ballista set and loaded about ten feet away. He was again struck by a pang of fury at the thought of the hundreds of soldiers up here that could have been manning the defenses if not for the selfishness of a few.

Threstus called down behind him, “He flies just fine Gorock. Get your big naked legs up here and give us a hand!”

Tilly arrived at the other side of the wall and saw what was happening in the center of the horde. The Corrupted there were being pressed in from behind, but were unable to move forward and had begun to fight amongst themselves. This would have normally been awesome, but unfortunately, eldritch tentacles had started to reach between the raging creatures and draw them together, fusing them into amalgamations of black ooze and twisted flesh.

Level 32 Corrupted Amalgam

Tilly shivered and felt Threstus step up next to him, “Gods that’s disgusting… bet I kill more than you, Mr. Magic-Fire-Man.” He snarked before pulling one of the nearby bundles of javelins over to his feet and picking one up.

Mana: 38%

Tilly shrugged and enflamed his hatchets. Threstus heaved a shockingly powerful throw and Tilly followed him, throwing his weapons one after another at the largest Amalgam of the ones he could see forming. It had begun to wade through its twisted brethren like an adult at the shallow end of the pool, but then Tilly’s axes thunked into its torso formed of melded bodies.

The flames ate hungrily at the flesh, and the creature tried to brush off the tiny-looking weapons but only managed to press them deeper and spread the flames to its arms, which threw it into a frenzy.

Threstus’ throw blew another’s head clean off, although it just kept walking like nothing had happened. Threstus clucked in annoyance as he saw Tilly’s target start to flail in pain, spreading the fire in its hands to the Corrupted it was wading through.

Threstus quickly kicked up two more javelins into his hands and launched them at his target, hitting the points where its legs connected to the rest of its body. Both strikes were extremely effective, erasing the joints as if they had never existed. The creature collapsed to the ground, crushing some other creatures.

Threstus looked over smiling, only to see Tilly recalling his hatchets from a charred circle of bodies, the blue flame having done its work. He frowned and muttered something about “cheating magic users” under his breath.

“I may be super effective against these things, but I can't do that again for another couple of minutes, and it looks like we don't have that kind of time,” Tilly said in a hollow voice, as the rush of his triumph bled away. The rest of the Amalgams had started to move forward, and with at least 15 targets still to go, Tilly started rethinking his 35% rule. The sound of shouting and occasional commands rang out from below and the men down there continued to grind against the endless numbers trying to press their way into the city.

“Don’t worry,” Threstus said, launching another couple of terrifyingly powerful throws. If this guy could do this with javelins, what could a high-level bow user do?

“We have one or two more tricks before we are out.” He continued, crippling another Amalgam, before hoisting another couple of Javilins, as Tilly just lamely watched his Mana tick back up.

“What have I missed?!” Gorock huffed, pulling himself over the side of the wall.

“Not much, Forward Knees.” Threstus quipped as he launched the weapons in his hands.

“Just aim for the big guys. Whoever has the most knockdowns wins!” He said cheerfully as he watched another Amalgam fall. The rest were halfway to the wall by now. Gorock just grunted in acknowledgment and moved over to the nearby ballista.

“I thought it was 'kills'. I don’t remember you saying anything about knockdowns.” Tilly called, as he saw his Mana finally tick up another five points. He was able to launch another pair of enflamed hatchets at the next closest Amalgam. The exact same scenario played out, netting Tilly 12 kills for the price of one.

“You Humans…” Gorock said as he hefted one of the tree trunk ballista bolts above his shoulders.

“Always seem to find something to complain about.” he finished with a grunt as he lobbed the bolt in a perfect spiral that arced through the air until piercing through an Amalgam and biting deep into the hard ground beyond. The creature tried to pull free but was stuck at a forty-five-degree angle with no leverage to move forward or back along the body of the bolt.

“Yes, Yes. You are very strong. Congratulations.” Threstus muttered dryly, before turning Tilly and winking.

Then he threw again, hitting his target perfectly. These guys were machines! Yet as Tilly looked over the seemingly endless enemies, sorrow welled up in his gut for the hopelessness of their position. Less than a hundred against tens of thousands.

Tilly flicked up his Character Sheet, checking to see just how much Exp was left before he regained [Resolute]. Deadly or not, he would activate the Microcosm before he regained it if it came down to it. He couldn’t just watch them die.

Level: 13 (45,000 Exp to next level)

He quickly followed up with his battle log, querying how much he was getting per Amalgam and normal Corrupted. It looked like 7,000 for a big guy and 200 for the normal Corrupted on average.

Shit, that meant he still had a ways to go and they were almost out of time. Both Gorock and Threstus took out another Amalgam, while Tilly tried to decide if he should just try and activate Flame Expulsion even without the Mana or Title.

“Guys, I'm holding back, trying to conserve Mana for the big move… but things aren't looking good. Should I go for it?” Tilly called, reaching into his fantasy fanny pack for the magical orb. The Amalgams were almost at the gate now, and Tilly ground his teeth in indecision.

CH. 45 Soldiers of the Line

Tilly felt a restraining touch against his forearm as he reached for the Microcosm, “Commanders, not done in yet.” Threstus said, watching the approach of the Amalgams with hard eyes, a javelin ready in his other hand.

Just as the Amalgams reached the shield wall, Tilly heard the commander's voice explode from down below, “BASTIONS, PUSH THEM BACK!” A concerted yell of effort followed and then the same concussive result followed, which looked even more spectacular from above. Once again bodies of Corrupted went flying back as if hit by a freight train.

“Third Rank, ON ME!” followed the shout of Commander Linus, before the bodies had even finished landing in the distance. The Amalgams had all been knocked down or at least put off balance. Tilly quickly counted nine laying supine or on all fours, barely out of reach of the first rank.

The first rank stood ready while the third rank leaped out from behind the first two, in an extraordinary feat of coordinated athleticism. Tilly saw that they were each suffused with the same unit magic that had empowered the other commands, their speed and grace having practically doubled.

The radiant warriors fell upon the twisted creatures still trying to get off the ground. The Amalgams’ builds heavily favored Strength and their ponderous movements to get their unnaturally formed bodies back off the ground were far too slow to avoid the countercharge.

The Satyrs flowed over the hulking downed forms, hacking at limbs until they were severed from the main body, and then quickly moving on to the next. The repelled group of regular Corrupted was already back on its feet and moving back into the fight, but not before the third rank had completely dismembered seven of the Amalgams.

“FALL BACK” Linus shouted from the midst of the glowing squad. They all turned and ran, the tide of Corrupted close behind. Tilly saw the magic wink out one by one, as fled back toward their lines and the shield wall.

Tilly had pulled his hands away from the Orb and was itching to throw his hatchets. Threstus and Gorock were both doing their best to provide cover fire for the retreating unit. The first rank split neatly, every second shield turned on its axis to allow room for the incoming members of the unit to dive through the openings.

Even with all of this, Tilly saw first one, then two soldiers taken down by the manic tide of Corrupted following at their hooves. Gorock pinned one of the last two Amalgams to the ground with another ballista bolt and Threstus furiously rained down projectiles while the third rank made it back through the line and the shields crashed shut behind them.

Tilly tried to crush the bone handles of his weapons with strength alone, anger and frustration warring for supremacy in his mind. The desperate backward chops of those whom the returning tide of Corrupted had caught had felt like they were hitting Tilly in the gut. Should he have done something? Was he right to be saving his mana like this?

Just then a bastion on the first rank was yanked forward by a particularly large Corrupted and was torn apart before his brothers could free him from the mob grabbing at the momentary weak point in the line.

“PUSH THEM BACK!” the command rang in response, and another explosion of supernatural force gave the line yards of breathing room to rotate ranks, putting the most rested second-rankers in front to take the next crashing charge. Tilly watched his Mana tick above 40% again and he enflamed and threw his hatchets at the last Amalgam that was trying to regain its feet after receiving another blow of concussive force.

It and everything around it died in a blaze of hungry blue flame. Recalling the weapons brought him back down to 35% and he once again chafed at his terrible Wisdom. Not that he would do anything about it and give up the disgustingly useful Title [Resolute]. The whole plan revolved around him overloading himself and the Microcosm, and he wouldn’t be able to do that without dying too early to really pack a punch.

“Eyes up boys,” Threstus called, gesturing with a javelin back towards the middle of the horde. There another bubbling soup of conflict and grotesque creation was brewing.

“How many times can you guys push and countercharge like that?” Tilly ground out through gritted teeth as he internally cursed his own stupidity at not keeping up with his own stats. Why hadn’t he noticed the imbalance earlier? Now his mistake was costing lives. Each minute progressed tortuously as more soldiers fought and died below him at the gates.

“We probably have two or three push rotations left,” Threstus answered off to the side as he hunted in vain for another pile of javelins.

“We will save them for high-value opportunities, otherwise we will keep the rotation piecemeal based on injuries or casualties. We will hold them for as long as possible. Every minute here is one more minute for our charges to escape,” he continued, unable to mask the grim note that had slipped into his light tone.

Eventually, Tilly’s Mana ticked back up past 40% and he enflamed and sent his hatchets hurtling through the air again, hurling them to near the limit of his range, to disrupt some of the disturbing fusion happening at the center of the horde. He allowed himself a grim smile as the two Amalgams trying to fuse both caught fire and collapsed onto the crowd of creatures below.

“How close are you, little man?” Gorock's gravelly baritone interjected from nearest the ballista as he threw the last of the bolts over the wall horizontally to log roll and crush at least ten of the Corrupted.

“I need about two more of the big guys and then about three minutes to regen what I need for the ability,” Tilly snapped urgently as he watched his Mana tick back up slowly. His eyes flicked to the center of the Horde, where he saw the giant horror snatch a few more of the recently formed Amalgams and pop them into its recently formed maw. The thing's mouth was the size of a full wagon, crammed with a mix of jagged bone and flesh.

Level 55 Corrupted Colossus

“Yeah, I don't think we have that long…” Threstus snarled, then his eyes snapped away from the Colossus and focused in on Tilly with an almost feverish brightness, “Is the main problem mana conservation?”

“Affirmative, I can take them out but not fast enough if I save Mana for the bomb. Or if I burn through to get the last level I need, I won't be able to overload and explode afterward.” Tilly answered quickly. Threstus blinked a couple of times at the wording before a death’s head grin broke out across his face.

“Melee it is! Gorock, make a hole buddy. If we are going to die, it's not going to be up here on a wall. We are soldiers of the Line!”

Tilly barely had time to compute that insane string of sentences when Gorock bellowed, “Finally, some action!” Before crouching down and leaping over the wall crenellations in a standing jump. Tilly watched his flight down slacked jawed. Mid-flight the warrior pulled his XL-sized spear from behind his back and unsheathed his short sword. He landed with a boom about ten yards in front of the gate entrance, and bellowed again, this time making a sound somewhat resembling a bleat… if it was about 5 octaves lower than a normal goat.

He crushed several Corrupted to paste with his landing, and his bellow did something to those around him, causing them to stagger. He followed up the effect with huge sweeping strikes with his spear that clearly was much heavier than it appeared in his hands. It mowed through the enemy like a scythe through grain.

Threstus jabbed him in the side with an elbow, having drawn two of the roman style short swords at some point, “You better hurry human, we have some Powerleveling to do and not much time to do it in.” Then he too leaped over the side of the wall, having the gall to actually add a swan dive into his fall, before landing on a few of the enemy crushing or stabbing several before rolling to his feet. Then they were back to back, sowing death and dismemberment in equal measures and somehow managing to not get swamped in the tide of battle.

Holy Shit…

It was one thing to recognize that his old human limits were meaningless. It was another to realize that pretty much the whole battle plan now hinged on him jumping down three stories from the top of the wall into a whole crowd of Corrupted.

Then a sound so deep it actually shook the wall blasted forth from almost formed Colossus, and Tilly’s mind blanked. That familiar switch flicked inside of him and he just decided to believe what he needed to in order to keep moving. Just like he had trusted his equipment a thousand times in a fire, even when every human instinct screamed at him to run. He just knew his gear could take as much punishment as it needed to for him to do his job. Now, in the same way, he just knew his body could take something like this and keep going. He had monstrous Endurance for his level, and while he was probably going to die today, it wasn't going to be from falling.

He blinked and then the wind was rushing past him and his stomach was up in his throat. He didn't remember jumping, but there he was. In a second he was in the air, he managed to be glad that he had at least kept his body feet first. An absurd image of him belly-flopping in the lake when he was fifteen almost caused him to smile until he hit the ground.

It came up punishingly fast and struck the soles of his feet like the world's biggest hammer. He didn't lock his legs but did resist as they collapsed, trying to capture as much of his momentum as possible, before slamming down into his shoulder and rolling several feet like a rag doll.

“Get up little man! Not the time for a nap.” Gorock shouted, somehow already standing over him warding back the enemy with wide-sweeping strikes. Tilly groaned but was already pushing up from the ground, finding nothing broken. In fact, the only pain he really had was a throbbing in the bottoms of both feet and his left shoulder.

Health: 89%

Before he could celebrate his first, ‘almost superhero landing’ a Corrupted Satyr in guard’s armor was on him, trying to bite down on his neck. Before Tilly could even yell in shock, its weight was suddenly gone, and Threstus was above him pulling him up.

“Come on man, we are here to get you Experience. You need to get in the fight!” He shouted as if Tilly was confused about their purpose here in this endless sea of enemies.

“PUSH THEM BACK!” Came the shout from somewhere behind them, accompanied a second later by another huge boom and the flying of bodies. Tilly found his hatchets in his hand, not really sure how they got there, and he started hacking wildly at anything that came close. Gorok was everywhere, keeping most of the enemies on his side at bay with his spear and finishing any that came close with that huge meat cleaver of a sword that only looked normal in his hand due to his huge proportions.

Threstus was equally impressive, whirling around with incredible grace, somehow holding down most of his side without ever staying in one place. Not that they could cover all 360 degrees of the surrounding enemies. Tilly was almost immediately breathing extremely heavily as he did everything in his power to keep enemies from piling in on him. They didn't so much fight as throw their body weight at him, trying to bog him down. He was shoving back the ones who got through as much as he was hitting them with any sort of blade.

“BASTIONS, ON ME!” Came the multi-octave shout from behind him. Then, battered and wounded Satyrs were all around him glowing with golden intensity as they mowed through the surrounding enemy like grass.

“Threstus, You better have a good reason for breaking formation.” Commander Linus’s voice cracked out like a whip suddenly next to the trio.

“That's the last of our unit magic.” He finished in a lower voice looking around at the men fighting all around him sadly. Then he called out in an authoritative, but unenhanced voice, “Bastion, Form Up. True square, Eight by Eight!”

The glow sputtered out all around them as the men suddenly broke off their charge and quickly formed a square with the commander at the center. Threstus saluted and reported in a much more businesslike voice than he had used atop the wall, “Sir, the human stated that he could not make the current time frame while using mana-burning abilities. So I made the call to go full melee and see if we could help him make time-”

His words were cut off by a deafening roar from the Colossus and the crash of a new tide of Corrupted against the new formation. The worn soldiers were still holding back the onslaught, though it was a close thing. Tilly noted, between gasping breaths, that the only men left in reserve in the third rank were his trio and the commander. The rest were needed for a thin second rank and a full first. There would be no more rotating out.

Linus just nodded, rolling with the shift in a battle that he could do nothing to change,

“Take the leading right edge. I'll take the left.” He commanded, moving to take his self-given position. Then he stopped and turned back around, finding Tilly's eyes with an intense look, “Tillman, get it done.” Then he turned and was in the midst of the soldiers on the left front.

Threstus’ eyes were flint as turned away from the commander to Tilly, “Time to learn what the Line is all about.”

Gorock simply bellowed before rushing to his assigned position, with Threstus behind. Something in Tilly roared in approval at the courage and honor the soldiers around him showed in doing their duty in the face of such hopeless odds. He found his fear quashed beneath the weight of expectation he had seen in Linus’ eyes. He was almost certainly going to die, but at least he would be shoulder to shoulder with others bent towards the same purpose.

He rushed in behind Threstus and Gorock to fight on the Line.

The enemy was going to pay for every step.

CH. 46 Bombs Away

Jonathan Tillman Level 13 Son of Flame

“What do I do?” Tilly shouted from his newly received position in the Bastion formation.

“Stand behind the guy with a shield and hit as many enemies as you can. You don't have to kill them, just participate. You’ll see!” Threstus shouted over the melee, already thrusting over a combatant's shoulder to impale two separate corrupted like a macabre shishkabob.

Gorock had already unslung the huge shield from his back and jumped the line, swinging his sword in punishing arcs as he cleared the area directly in front of the right corner of the formation. He acted as a tide breaker against the enemy, trusting the men behind him to take out anything coming for his flank.

Tilly added his attacks to the rhythm of butchery being played out in front of him. Any time an enemy flung itself onto the shield wall or reached through to attempt a grab or swipe, Tilly was there. His weapons bit through corrupted flesh and bone alike. Then the ground trembled with a deep crashing reverberation.

Tilly threw his head back and looked up,

and up,

and up.

There, towering seventy feet in the air was the Colossus. It had gained its feet and released a booming roar that sounded like a fog horn the size of a bus. It looked to have been formed from thousands of bodies, and while it didn't have eyes, Tilly felt it when the protrusion that seemed to be its head turned towards their dwindling formation blocking the gate.

That was it.

They were out of time. Bile rose in Tilly’s throat as he realized he had failed. Even if he activated now, he doubted he would be able to make a dent in that thing without being able to overcharge the ability far past his limits. He roared in frustration, furiously redoubling his hacking, taking swipes and bites as his pace became more reckless.

He had given these men hope…

He had lied to them.

Tears started free-flowing down his face as he viciously hacked at every enemy in reach. Fuck this second chance. It was just another way he had failed. He railed against the unfairness of it all, flailing almost wildly over the shoulders of the sheildbearers in front of him.

Then he felt the mental ping that indicated a level-up notification. His icon was blinking, but that couldn’t be right. He had only done a fraction of the work that should have been involved to get the last chunk of experience. He gave the command to place all of his free points into Endurance and pulled up his log.

Congratulations! You have Regained a lost Title, [Resolute]

Threstus noticed him stepping back from the line in confusion and yelled over. “It's the Line. We all share in the experience as we fight! Is it time?”

In wonder, Tilly looked over at him, and gave him a thumbs up, before reaching into his fantasy fanny pack for the Microcosm. Threstus narrowed his eyes in confusion at the unfamiliar gesture before yelling over to Commander Linus, “Commander! He is ready!”

Another earthshattering footstep sounded out through the battlefield, as the Collusus lumbered forward.

“Collapse the Square! Four by Four!” The blood-covered commander shouted. Exhausted Bastions threw off the weight of the tide one last time, and stepped back smartly, covering each other with thrusts and stabs as they collapsed the square to half its former size. This exposed open portions of the gate to the enemy, and some began to slip in past the much smaller formation.

Tilly saw none of this as he watched his Mana tick up to 50%.

It was go time.

He held the orb in front of him and activated his Flame Expulsion ability. With his newly developed internal awareness, he saw his mana pathways light up with a blue fiery glow, as they sent energy to his core, and his core itself began to condense building pressure to forcefully expel the condensed energy. Time around him slowed as the magic of the orb activated.

It began to burn in his hand and the markings across its surface began to shine and whirl. He felt its magic entering his body, and race along his pathways, creating a shadow network of the ones already activated by his skill. Just as he reached the point of full compaction at his core, something happened, and all of the energy drained into the shadow pathways much more rapidly than it had compacted.

“Wait, wha-” He began to exclaim in disbelief before his mana suddenly pounded back into his activated pathways, twice as dense as it had been before. It reentered his pathways with an almost physical blow to his body and he flinched as his ability began to activate again, this time struggling with twice its normal load. It was uncomfortable, but not impossible to handle and his awareness of the outer world dimmed as his inward focus grew brighter.

“Gorock, I think it's your moment Big Guy!” Threstus shouted as another step from the Colossus shook the ground.

Tilly gritted his teeth and pushed the newly condensed mana back through his pathways to the center where the ability took over and began to condense it. As it reached its climax, the mana drained away into the shadow pathways, leaving Tilly feeling like a husk.

Then the Mana crashed into his pathways again, this time doubling him over. It was now four times as dense. He screamed as he forced it down along his pathways to his core. The ability took over again and condensed it, and the Orb now shone like a miniature star, burning the skin on Tilly’s hand. He knew he would have to let go of it if he wanted to stop the feedback.

The Colossus took another step towards the formation, its movement deceptively slow as it lifted its tower-sized leg and slammed it down just twenty yards away.

Tilly’s Mana drained into the shadow pathways superimposed over his own and the weight of its density momentarily lifted from internal form. In that moment of aching emptiness, Tilly activated [Resolute].

Gorock had, at some point, arrived beside him as the Bastions fought on with grim efficiency.

As [Resolute] slid into place, Tilly understood many things at once. He was about to get hit with Mana eight times denser than he had ever experienced, and while he was sure [Resolute] would protect him from the effects of such an overload, he was not confident in his ability to control such power. Even as he had this thought, he felt the burning orb in his hand begin to turn to slag, and the enchanted metal began to melt in between his fingers.

“Throw me, NOW!” He suddenly shouted, his eyes flying open. The now liquified Mana flooded back into his pathways which would have ruptured except for the intervention of some sort of many-hued energy. The rainbow coalescence coated the insides of his pathways, guiding the destructive force all the way to his core where it began to compact once again.

Gorock lifted him with ease and reared back before launching him into the air with terrifying speed and a scream tore itself from Tilly’s lips. He was mid-air flying directly towards the chest of the Colossus when time stopped.

Tilly’s awareness expanded, once again frozen within a moment in time. He could still think, but it was not a linear experience, instead different aspects of his situation bloomed in his consciousness at once and he processed them one at a time.

First, something had gone terribly wrong with the feedback loop of the Microcosm. He assumed that almost any foreseen use of the item had not factored in the presence of a title such as [Resolute] and thus it had failed when pushed past a third feedback loop. The Mana had returned to him at the appropriate density, but the item had melted to his hand, leaving him unable to drop it and break the connection.

But something else was happening, as it had melted, the enchanted hyper-imbued metal had made contact with his sleeve and a notification had appeared on his log. One that he was able to comprehend instantaneously once he understood it existed.

Congratulations! You have been subjected to an extreme environment while wearing Origin’s primitive leather armor, activating a hidden growth prerequisite. You are currently caught in an infinite mana feedback loop and have provided your armor with an enchanted material to pattern a new form. When in Mana Overdrive, your armor will take on characteristics of the Nullspider hide. The enchantment found on the item sacrificed to your armor will be overlaid on the Nullspider hide in this form allowing a full Experience to Mana conversion at 100 Exp - 1%. Conversion will continue until Mana usage or Experience flow ceases.

His leather armor had turned matte black all over with silvery metal inlays that looked suspiciously like a mix between the surface of a computer chip and the nerve-like pathways of his mana channels. These newly carved paths had taken the place of the Mircrocosm in the feedback loop and were still pushing extremely dense mana through his battered, but thankfully protected mana channels.

Finally, his was not the only hidden surge of mana on the field of battle. Tilly was able to sense a steady but dense flow of red respected mana flowing from the front lines of the battle back toward the ranks of the Cult's true army. There, they had set up some sort of large ritual and it was feeding off the deaths of this conflict.

These realities settled into his consciousness and then time hiccuped forward, like a CD skipping. The Colossus’ foot was lifted to its apex, ready to slam down and crush the entire Bastion formation, while Tilly flew past in an arc that would have him hitting the creature center mass. All of this as his Flame Expulsion finally reached its pressure limit and his world exploded in blue flames.

Some distant part of him noted the feeling of impact upon a solid perpendicular surface, but most of him was consumed with the raw terror of being a conduit for impossible amounts of energy. As the initial wave of his ability released at eight times its normal magnitude, the lines on the new form of his armor lit up and began to receive an influx of… Experience. It was taking this source of energy and converting it to raw mana that continued to power a channeled version of Flame Expulsion. Until the ability ran out of enemies to consume, he was trapt frozen in a vortex of influx and output.

To make matters worse, [resolute] had stopped protecting his pathways after the initial wave and they were being put under extreme pressure from continuously casting his strongest ability. He tried to scream, but there was no oxygen, his flames had consumed it all. He persisted there in this confluence of power and agony until suddenly the influx stopped and he began to fall, his unconscious form limp as it crashed to the ground.

Threstus Marcellus level 41 Empire’s Bastion Subcommander.

Two minutes earlier.

Threstus wasn’t sure what was going to happen when Gorock tossed the human at the disgusting monstrosity. He knew that the man had been gathering mana for something he referred to as a bomb, but he didn't really know how effective it would be against this creature. This was where they would make their end.

Gods, how had it come to this?

At least he could die here with his brothers and do his duty one last time, making some small atonement for the incredible debt his family now owed the empire and all of its citizens. To think they would stoop so low for the favor of such a power was horrendous. Thinking about his past as the previous heir to that death trap of a family was one of the few things that could darken his otherwise cheerful demeanor.

He was about to continue to fight on the line, to hold for a few minutes more when the unthinkable happened. The human's attack exploded into the form of a blue shooting star, hitting the Colossus in its center and then releasing an expanding mass of blue flame. The creature let out a much higher pitch call of distress before stumbling back. All the while the flames continued to grow into a miniature sun.

“Commander!” Threstus shouted looking over.

“I see it. Bastions, PROTECT!” The last of the collective Unit Reserve Mana washed over the formation and they all withdrew even tighter into the square with supernatural grace. The second rank unslung shields and held them above their heads while the first rank continued to guard against outward pressures. A golden aegis much more potent than the slowing effect of the shield wall was projected in all directions and the entire unit hunkered down under extremely dense layers of protection.

This formation had been developed hundreds of years ago to protect against large-scale destructive attacks that could sometimes be unleashed by an enemy. They had pulled it up just in time, as flame began to rain down all around them. None of them felt a particularly intense pressure on their collective magical shield, but outside their formation, they could hear thousands of the creatures release a collective screech of panic.

Ch. 47 Fighting Retreat

Linus Level 62 Bastion of the Empire, Commander

Blinded Justice!

The human had actually come through. At first, he humored the plan because it required little to no change to their assignment. They were to create an irresistible opening for the horde so that they wouldn’t swamp the wall and the city. Then hold them there as long as possible. They were to be a shield that delayed the enemy for as long as possible.

These orders had come from the emperor himself, and Linus still held out hope that the notoriously slippery patriarch had one or two tricks up his sleeve. He had not hesitated to lead his men to this duty, and they had followed, one and all. Even the Marcellus hadn’t balked at the one-way mission. They had all known what it meant when they took the vows. Access to the empire's most coveted class, but bound to a sacred and strict code. Every soldier here had long since left any other life behind.

When the human had come, claiming he could make a significant dent in the enemy's numbers, it had taken Linus all of two seconds to decide to risk a little for a possibly huge payout in extended time for their operation. Fewer enemies meant less pressure on the line, which could buy them a few more minutes. He had repurposed Gorock, who wasn't much for line fighting anyway, and then thrown the Marcellus in on the scheme because if that brat wasn't given something to play with, he always became trouble. Subcommander or not.

They had of course forced Him to remanuver from the most favorable ground, but at that point, it had not mattered, all of their careful planning about to be demolished by the newly formed Colossus.

So he had chosen to advance the formation and protect the human, as he finished whatever endgame casting scheme he had been gifted by the emperor. After a minute of vicious fighting on the line, he was ready and Gorock had thrown him right into the pathway of the approaching Colossus. Linus watched with a critical eye, judging if he would have to leave the men and fight this creature himself using his final trump card. Yet his eyes widened in surprise as the ability unfolded into an absolutely devastating attack.

It.

Was.

Glorious.

Not only had the human's flames proven to be extremely effective against this type of combatant, but they just kept coming. They seemed to be emerging endlessly from a fiery fount of destruction. The Marcellus yelled over to him, and Linus finally realized that the flames were actually going to blanket the whole battlefield.

"Commander!"

“I see it. Bastions, PROTECT!” He Commanded pulling on the dregs of the unit reserves to activate one of the most famous of the phalanxes formations. One augmented by layers of magical and physical protections.

With his Battle Sight Linus saw the endless horde of creatures turned into a smoldering field of charred remains in a matter of minutes. Then the epicenter of the flaming attack flickered out and he noted the human falling from his position in the sky above the field. He had obviously given everything in the attack and hit the ground like a rag doll. From what he could tell, the human was still intact and Linus wasn't about to lose a possible strategic resource like that!

“Formation LOOSE! Gorock, Threstus, Retrieve our human! I don't care if he is in pieces, I want every one of them back in the middle of this formation NOW.” He commanded. The formation lost its supernatural composure, and exhausted men stumbled and fell where they stood, far past the point of exhaustion. The line was never meant to hold in such conditions, and he had been forced to burn through every bit of their reserves to survive this long.

“On it Sir!” Replied Threstus as he and Gorock sprinted from the line through the field of still-smoldering corpses.

As they made their way through, Linus’ Battle Sight drew his attention towards some sort of haze flowing back to the enemy's lines. He watched as even the smoke from the flame was drawn by an invisible stream of energy toward the Cult's forces.

He frowned as he realized another ace had been revealed. The Scale-bellies were using this battle and its deaths for a large-scale ritual of some kind. His eyes narrowed in consideration.

Gods he hated blood magic. He would take an honest Fireball any day of the week over that vile form of power. It asked a steep price and its practitioners were always looking for new customers to pay.

Now that he was looking for it, he could see trails of black-and-red blood weaving through the sea of corpses back towards the Naga front lines.

He was no wizard, but he would bet his pension that whatever they were doing with the blood of tens of thousands of creatures would not be good for the city or its citizens…

“Rom. Get over here.” He called to the youngest surviving member of the unit.

“Sir!” He replied after stumbling over to Linus' position, covered in viscera and gore. The young, but impressive, soldier looked like he had nothing left to give, and swayed on his hooves before his commanding officer. In fact, he looked exactly like Liunus felt, not that he would ever show it to the men. Bastions were always ready to serve and they did their best work when all others had given up and quit.

“You look a little tired soldier, should I give this assignment to someone else?” Linus barked, loud enough for the others to hear.

“No Sir!” He said straightening, there was a fire of defiance in his eyes as several of the older members snickered nearby.

“Good man! I need a runner. Find Lord Hiro at the Hub and let him know that the Scalebellies are probably summoning their God. There is a cataclysm ranked ritual underway, and without a significant counter, our delay tactics will be for naught.”

“It would be my pleasure, Sir! I'll get it done and head back to continue the fight immediately after!” He shouted, now ramrod straight.

“Dismissed! Oh and Rom, more than a thousand made it through, but do not engage with the corrupted! I need this message there ASAP. Am I clear? Aside from the Subcommander, you have the highest Dexterity in the unit, and I expect you to use it!”

“Sir, Yes Sir!” He replied, saluting and then jogging through the men, back towards the gates.

“What's the new plan, Sir?” One of the men called, slouched over his shield. Linus noted with some satisfaction, that even now, the man held a good grip on his gladius.

“Well men, we are going to double time back to the refugee front. We will destroy any of the creatures we come across en route and reconvene with the rest of our forces facilitating the evacuation of the city. Our delay tactic here was a success…” He finished, making sure to make eye contact with the 46 soldiers left alive after the brutal fighting.

“Good job men. When people whisper our name in hushed honor, you will be the one they think of. I have never been more proud to call myself an Empire’s Bastion.” He finished gravely, a glint of fierce pride showing in his eyes.

“AAHHOO!” They shouted in unison, climbing back to their feet, many of them slowly being knit back together by passive regen.

“Commander!” Shouted the Marcellus brat as he jogged back towards their lines, followed closely by Gorock, cradling the human in his arms as if it was his infant.

“Would you believe this idiot is still alive? A few broken bones and unconscious, but that's it!” Threstus crooned in glee.

Good, they still had the human, as an asset. The bastions weren’t done yet, not by a long shot.

“Copy that. Bastions move out!” He called, turning to lead the column. He prayed to whoever would listen that the emperor had one more trick up his sleeve. The Cult was summoning their god, and the empire had run out of those a long time ago.

Jonathan Tillman Level 14 Son of Flame.

Something was seriously wrong.

Tilly’s perspective was doubled as his psyche warred against the feeling of being in two places at once.

Part of him was being carried somewhere. His mana pathways had been cut to ribbons by the endless flow of power, and the Corruption within him wriggled hungrily now that it was not boxed in by the network of blue flame-aspected mana flowing within him. Tilly realized he wasn't going to die, but he doubted he would ever be able to cast again if left in this state.

If this had been his only perspective, he would have stayed blissfully unconscious, but simultaneously as he was lying unconscious in that broken state, he was also floating above the battlefield in the same location where he had unleashed his eight-fold Flame Expulsion. He could see the transparent outline of his ghost-like form and watched as streams of sanguine energy were pulled in the direction of the Cult’s army and funneled into a giant ritual circle there.

Two threads of multi-hued energy tugged at the core of his incorporeal form. One, he knew, went all the way to his physical body, it continuously relayed the agony of his broken state back to him. The other was also pulling on him, but not in any direction that he could tell. He focused on trying to understand just where it was leading but to no avail. He knew it was there, could feel it, but could not discern where it led. It was like having a constant itch that could not be scratched. He cursed in frustration, his ghostly form making no sound as he decided to turn and fly back to his body, ignoring the other thread for now.

Suddenly, his form was buffeted by waves of malevolent energy building from within the ritual circle, and he felt himself start to tear apart under spiritual pressure. Whatever he was doing to be in this form, it clearly wasn't stable, and he panicked as the faint lines of his form started to blur and fade.

What would it mean for his normal self if this form of his was destroyed? He tried to shoot back toward the city, but let out a soundless scream as he realized he could only move at a sedate float. His awareness began to slip as he saw motes of himself separated from his body and carried away on the waves of spiritual pressure emanating from the ritual.

The second thread, the one he couldn’t follow tugged on him again, even more insistently. In a panic, Tilly grabbed at the thread with his will like a drowning man snatching a lifeline. Instead of trying to follow it, he mentally pulled on it as hard as he could, hoping he could pull himself away fast enough to survive the onslaught of energy.

His diminishing self suddenly felt like it was trying to squeeze through the eye of a needle, but Tilly kept pulling, desperate to get away from the creeping annihilation promised by the proximity of the ritual.

POP

He was through and in the exact same place as where he had been a moment ago…

But now everything around him was frozen in time. Even the waves of energy had stopped in their tracks and before him floating in the sky were two ethereal trees, whose canopies touched each other forming a natural arc. Between the two trunks was a spinning vortex of many-hued light, and his now visible second thread was leading right into the portal.

Tilly tried to find his first thread and discovered that while he could still feel its tug, it no longer seemed to lead anywhere.

Well… that wasn't right. It led somewhere, but right now he was somewhen…

His head hurt. He had always loved time travel movies, but no matter which theory you chose, it never ended in a simple logical bow.

Anyway. He could either enter the mysterious portal or pop back through the needle-sized hole in time-space and be destroyed by the raging sea of energy.

He shrugged, beggars can’t be choosers…

He followed the thread until he was engulfed by the whirling many-hued energy. As he entered the portal, he was struck by the thought that this energy looked exactly like the energy that had held his pathways together after he activated [Resolute].

Ch. 48 A Glimpse Past the Vale

Tilly felt like he should have stumbled as he was hurled through the portal. Instead, his momentum immediately arrested as he arrived on the other end, in the middle of a shady calm grove of trees with a moss-strewn stone path leading forward. He was still in his ghostly form, hovering a few inches off the ground.

He looked down at the thread of rainbow-like energy pulling him deeper into the woods with gentle insistence. He shrugged to himself and hoped that whatever this was, it would help him get out of the mess he had found himself in on the other side of the time/space aperture.

He looked up to check his log and realized it was gone! In fact, his whole HUD was gone and he realized they must not work outside of time. He tried to pull up any of his stats with mental commands, and none responded...

He could lose access to his System interface? He didn’t like how panic-inducing it felt to be cut off from something that he had to admit, had become an emotional crutch. Most of the time it seemed like he was losing the game without knowing the rules and the Log had been the one thing that seemed to be constant and unbiased. Tilly let out a long silent sigh and floated forward. Wherever he was going, he would understand even less than usual.

Tilly moved forward at a sedate pace, finding the forest to be oddly soothing, even if it was frozen in time. Dappled sunlight shone through gaps in the foliage above and he smiled as he continued to float forward like a segway cop in the park. The trees became more sparse and patches of grass and wildflowers started to spring up more frequently.

Then he heard it, something just on the edge of his comprehension. At first, it sounded like the tinkling of bells, and he wondered if he was imagining it. But the farther in he went down the trail the louder it got, until he was sure it was an actual sound. When juxtaposed with the almost non-stop, fight-for-your-life, environments he had been moving through his whole time in Nephesh so far, the peace he was beginning to feel stood out like a strange beacon. The cynical voice in his mind insisted that there might be some sort of enchantment or glamour at work, but the feelings he was beginning to feel did not avoid the mental scrutiny. He felt totally in control of his thoughts, even as some of the ever-present, low-grade panic that lived under the surface of his mind started to drain away.

Soft light harmonies began to accompany the bells, followed by gentle chirps. He had never been the biggest music guy, but what he was hearing now was moving him deeply. This wasn't music, its ebb and flow spoke to something much deeper than a melody ever could. He realized that if he was in his actual body, he might have been unable to move farther forward without crying.

At this point, the forest had almost completely opened up and the path led him up a gentle hill set at the beginning of a valley. Now that there were no trees blocking the horizon, he could see that he was at the heart of what seemed to be impassable mountains on all sides. This place would be an absolute nightmare to reach in real life. If it was even a real place...

Well, he wasn't sure he even knew what that last sentence meant anymore.

He continued his leisurely float, not really noticing as the lines that made up his incorporeal form became more defined and present. There was something in this environment that was enriching his soul. It didn't just feel good. It felt right, like some part of himself that he didn't know was missing was slowly being restored to him.

He crested the hill and let out a silent gasp. The mountains, the valley, and even the ground beneath his floating feet faded away in contrast to what was clearly the source of this extraordinary environment. The camera lens of Tilly’s awareness rotated, throwing everything else out of focus as his whole being feasted on the epicenter of this song.

There at the center of the small valley, swaying gently in an absent breeze was a blue flower. Those words ‘blue’ and ‘flower’ were pale, empty things compared to the reality unfolding before Tilly. Describing what he saw as a ‘blue flower’ felt like trying to describe the ocean to a person who had lived in the desert their whole life. There was a gap there that nothing but experience could ever fill.

The flower swayed in time to the music, and the longer Tilly watched, the more he was able to discern. Dancing faintly all around the flower, were ribbons of color, slowly being woven into the very fabric of reality and fading away.

No that wasn't right, the ribbons were not fading. Tilly could almost make out the pattern they continued to form as they augmented everything aro-

“That's enough little brother.” The voice struck Tilly like a slap and he tore his eyes from the flower.

The voice had been firm, but kind in its interruption of Tilly’s gaze as if the speaker understood deeply what Tilly had discovered, and understood the price he asked Tilly to pay by putting his attention elsewhere.

Tilly was shocked to see an orc the size of a small building smiling down at him. Next to him was a hammer that literally hurt to look at. He even felt some of his form bending and twisting toward the weapon as he gave it any attention and he quickly glanced back at the Orc. The impossibly muscular warrior had the gall to actually look sheepish, and nudged the hammer behind his huge form with his foot, obviously endeavoring to make Tilly more comfortable.

“Welcome to Memory’s Womb little brother.” He said smiling, his large yellowish tusks doing nothing to take away from his genuine warmth. Without thinking Tilly asked the first question that came to mind, mouthing the words, but producing no sound. "Please, can you tell me what that is?"

Even as he asked, he struggled not to turn back to the flower and its song, starving for an answer that might ease some of the ache that had emerged in his soul. The fact that he couldn't audibly produce words didn’t seem to faze the giant orc at all. He smiled and nodded as if he had been waiting for me to ask.

“That is the anchor point for all Beauty. From it, hope, joy, and courage flow, working themselves into the great weave of the hearts of men. I believe you would be most comfortable calling it Origin’s Bloom.” His smile cracked even wider obviously ecstatic to have someone to talk to.

Origin again…

The music around him grew fainter and the jarring pain radiating from his second thread, the one that drew him back to time, back to reality, made itself known. Another mystery, another demand on Tilly even though he had already given all he had. Even here he could feel the Seed of Corruption straining against him, trying to dig deeper into his body. Obviously, he had been brought here because they wanted something more from him. But he had nothing left.

Tilly felt tired. Tired of always giving, and getting shit on in return.

The Orc’s beaming smile slowly sank into a frown, somehow watching the internal war play out within the ghostly form of Tilly’s soul, “You carry too much weight little brother… Some things must be laid down if we are to realize our purpose.” He grumbled.

Yeah, well it's been a hard life. Im doing whatever I can to prevent a fucking genocide and even if we somehow get out, I will probably turn into another monster. Something just as dangerous to the people I am trying to save. Whatever Origin wants, I'm not interested.

The words emerged from the center of his being, brimming with spite and bitterness. He felt stuck, and he wished he could see a way out. Whatever Origin was, he seemed to be indifferent at best, and cruel at worst. Tilly was so done being forced to do someone else's dirty work. He had done his part.

The writhing pain present in his physical body radiated through the thread and up into his psyche, like nails on a chalkboard. The song soared around him, and a ripple of melody and wind wound its way through the valley. The song met the silence of his agony and blanketed it in peace. Tilly remembered the little girl and her sad smile of hope. One that spoke of a courageous choice, even when faced with terrible pain. The choice to believe in something good that only a child could make.

“Look again little brother, but not too long. You are here in spirit now, but the weight of this sight would sever your connection to your mortal form at its current level.” The Orc insisted, looking back wistfully at the center of the valley. Tilly found himself following the orc’s gaze before he had even consciously made the choice to do so.

There the flower stood. It did not glow, nor did the music it produce overwhelm Tilly. In fact, it did not demand attention at all.

Nonetheless, it was absolutely captivating. The pain waiting for him at the other end of his other thread continued to clamor, making its dreadful promise of future suffering and unavoidable failure. But here, now, Tilly felt a small portion of the deep pain he carried around his heart melt. Maybe, just maybe, there was a purpose beyond it all. Some greater drive to move forward than the fear of failure that had kept him running from pain his whole life. He felt a small portion of the song actually enter his being and radiate back through his thread, somehow reaching all the way to his physical body.

“You are beginning to see little brother.” The Orc said, smiling once again.

Tilly turned toward the orc and grimaced at the return of his delighted grin.

"Who are you anyway, and why do you call me little brother?"

“You are a Guardian of one of the Great Secrets, and so am I. I was called Thunder’s Descent once... You have found the Flame in life and I have guarded the Bloom in death.” He said, still smiling. The last word hit Tilly like a ton of bricks. Tilly’s attention was immediately drawn to the faint insubstantial nature of the Orc’s outline. It was barely perceptible, but Tilly realized that the Orc… Thunder’s Descent didn’t have a physical body either. Although his form was almost completely substantial despite his disembodied state.

"Why me?" Tilly mouthed, his eyes once again drawn to the second thread, the one that still pulled him to the Bloom.

“Yes, Good question! My vigil here is almost done, but we will see each other again before its end, I think. It was good to meet you, little brother. Come find us when you are ready to lay down this darkness you think you must carry.” At his words, Tilly felt the tug from his time-bound thread grow more substantial, pulling him back toward the treeline. He stubbornly resisted, attempting to anchor his form with his will.

"But I gave up the chance to lose this thing when I chose to cleanse the corruption from the Temple." Tilly mouthed frowning in confusion as he fought to stay in place.

"Not easy, Simple. You cling to control and because of this, you are losing the very thing you fight so hard to keep. We are all slaves to something, our only freedom is to choose what we will serve." He urged, his eyes imploring Tilly to understand even as his tusk-filled smile remained easygoing.

The force of the pull redoubled and Tilly began to move against his will,

"Wait! I'm tired of being left in the dark! What is Origin? What is Corruption, and how am I supposed to do anything about it? " He silently screamed in frustration, furious that he was once again being yanked around without any answers.

“We may not know all the words little brother, but that shouldn’t stop us from joining the dance!” Thunder’s Descent called as Tilly built up speed. Annoyingly, he even accompanied farewell with a little shimmy and a wink.

The peaceful forest path flew by in a blur and Tilly felt like a fish on the line by the time he was pulled through the portal. Before he could get a handle on what was happening, he was at the time-space needle hole, being pulled through. He felt like the last bit of toothpaste getting forced from the tube. The aperture had grown smaller, and he realized that it had been slowly closing the whole time he was in the valley. It felt like his entire form was squeezing through an opening the size of a molecule, moving at a ridiculous speed to make it in time.

Then, just before he escaped the shrinking hole, he felt something vibrating down the thread that led him to the flower.

One last thing little brother, you might find yourself a little changed after your visit to our valley. The Great Secrets do not need anything from you, rather, they seek to give to all. Good Providence Guardian of the Flame. May your path be straight, and your eyes full of light.

Pop.

He was back through the other side, and again he was assaulted by buffeting waves of malevolent energy emerging from the ritual. Tilly immediately curled into a ball trying to protect as much of his essence as possible from the onslaught of foreign energy.

But… The onslaught never came. Well, that wasn’t true. The waves continued to crash against him, but he no longer felt that ghastly ripping at the edges of his form, as if every wave was pulling away a little more of who he was.

He looked down at his ghostly hand in wonder, noting that it was far more defined and detailed. While he still felt the energy flowing all around him, it could no longer destabilize him on a spiritual level. Hell yeah! +1 to the magical flower of destiny! He felt around for that second thread and noted that it was gone, cut off as the aperture closed. A surprising amount of sadness accompanied the realization, and he shoved down the strong emotional response.

The Orc had said that he had to find them again in order to get rid of the Seed of Corruption that had taken up residence in his body. How he was going to do that… He had no clue, but that was a problem for future Tilly. A man who managed to survive whatever shitstorm was building up at the other end of the battlefield.

He needed to get back and warn the others. He started moving through the air at double his previous speed, which while nice, still put him at a fast walk…

This was going to be frustrating. But while he couldn’t do anything to move faster, he could at least review his Notification Log and try and figure out what had just happened to him.

Ch. 49 Back In The Fight

Tilly pulled up his notification log to try and get a hold of exactly what had just happened. He scanned over the events since he took down the Colossus, trying to pull the most important updates so he could get a quick feel for where he actually was after what was no doubt some premium magical bullshit. The more he thought about it the more he realized that events had been nudged by some sort of higher power.

He scowled at the thought of being yanked around even if the intervention had resulted in something positive this time around. His eyes ran through the list of Log entries trying to pull out the essentials before he made it back to the Bastions.

Through your actions, you have created a Mana--Experience loop, This has not been seen on Nephesh since the third Epoch. This experience has indelibly marked your soul and imparted you with the ability Mana Overdrive. You may perform abilities without paying the Mana cost in exchange for unused Experience stored in the subspace of your soul at a rate of 100:1. Your Character sheet has been modified to reflect such.

You have defeated a Corrupted Collosus! You have been awarded 539,000 exp. Level up!

Congratulations! You are now level 15.

You have earned 5 stat points to distribute plus 2 points in Endurance and 1 in Dexterity from the class Son of Flame.

Congratulations! You are now level 16…

Congratulations! You are now level 17. 20,000/340,000 exp until the next level.

You have earned 5 stat points to distribute plus 2 points in Endurance and 1 in Dexterity from the class Son of Flame.

You have activated Mana Overdrive. All experience you earn through the use of continuous Mana-based abilities will convert to Mana at a 100:1 ratio until the flow of Experience stops.

Experience consumed by Mana Overdrive: 3,234,907.

Congratulations! By attacking and defeating an opponent more than 4x your level with a suicidal frontal assault, you have earned the title: [A Divine Wind]. When you attack an opponent more than double your level while holding their full attention, you gain a 25% bonus to your attack power.

Warning! Your soul has been reforged in the flow of immense amounts of mana and the trauma of this event has temporarily torn your spirit and body asunder.

Congratulations! You have learned a new skill, Spirit Walk

Spirit Walk Level 1

Your Spirit Man has entered into an incredibly rich soul environment and has been strengthened by the primordial energies suffusing your form.

Spirit Walk Level 2.

Level 3…

Level 7

He immediately tried to assign the stat points from his levels but found that he was unable to. Freaking ghost form…

Well, now he had a pretty good idea of his strategy going forward. He didn't want to lose [Resolute] again, especially after watching soldiers die unnecessarily because of his negligence. That meant that at least half of all points gained would have to go to Endurance. It was a pain, but it was essential if he was going to keep punching above his weight class. The majority of the rest, he would dump in Constitution. He needed to get back in the fight as soon as possible.

Mana Overdrive was insane. The experience price was steep, but the fact that he had the option to keep in the fight even after he was stuck relying on his pitiful Mana Regen was a godsend. Gaining levels was essential, but not as essential as staying alive. With this, he always had an emergency fund of Mana if he was desperate.

This ability in combination with [Resolute] and [Divine Wind] was going to be the ace of his build. He didn't love it, but it looked like his days as a DPS/Tank were only just beginning. He just had to hope that his reckless min/maxing in Endurance paid off and kept him alive in the aftermath of whatever his next laughably unfair matchup was.

The Spirit Walking was super interesting although he had no clue how it would be useful in the near future. So a couple of levels, a new, hopefully game-breaking combo of titles and abilities, and one none-combat skill that would hopefully be useful in the future.

Overall he had advanced pretty well over the last day, but it did nothing to shake the feeling that he was falling behind in a race that he could never win. So much for starting areas…

He minimized the Log and found that he was already moving over the promenade. He allowed himself a smile of dark satisfaction at the trail of destruction left by the moving engine of blades and shields that was the remaining core of the Empire’s Bastions.

Even at his slow pace, he was gaining on them as they dispatched the milling groups of Corrupted who seemed to be pulled in a thousand different directions by the new environment. Many were drawn into the conflict playing before moving formation, who continued their relentless march down the promenade, but many more had moved to rove side streets, breaking into seemingly empty buildings to find more prey.

Tilly’s ghostly form did nothing to dampen the horrible symphony of screams that emerged from the chaos unfolding all through the city. The Corrupted, even at greatly reduced numbers were still sowing chaos where ever they went. If they had not already concentrated the remaining people at the center, Tilly knew it would have been an absolute disaster for the city’s defense.

He scanned ahead and saw the line of armed refugees holding back the most forward element of the Corrupted. They continued to hold against a thin but constant stream of enemies, and it would only be a few more minutes until the formation reached their lines. Tilly looked back and saw the energy over the enemy lines slowly coalescing into a physical shape.

A silent growl of frustration rumbled through his form at his slow progress and he pushed forward with his will, trying to pull on the thread that lead to his body like he had to find the time/space aperture. He felt his pace pick up slightly, and he snarled in defiance, narrowing all of his focus to the task of reaching the moving formation.

The gap between him and the soldiers closed and he got a better look at how bad of shape the Bastions were in. The forward line was made up of the least injured of the unit, which meant that they had all their limbs and were not bleeding profusely. The center of the line was anchored on the commander who was absolutely covered in filth, limping forward with a clipped but efficient gait. Not that his obvious injuries seemed to be any sort of handicap. Like the soldiers to his right and left, he continued to cut down the enemy and ram them out of the way as the formation moved inexorably forward.

The rear was almost entirely being held down by Threstus who tirelessly dispatched flanking Corrupted. The rest of the grizzled unit was moderately to severely injured and seemed to be stumbling forward on spite alone. There in the middle of it all, was Gorock with Tilly’s body thrown over his shoulder like a sack of flour going to market.

He hated feeling like a burden and strained forward with all that he was, eeking out another bit of speed as he passed the rear ranks. Finally, he was floating amongst the shambling soldiers. None of them looked up or noticed his presence, confirming his hunch that he was probably invisible in this form. As soon as he reached Gorock at the center of the formation he reached out to touch his physical body.

Immediately his vision doubled and he was looking through two pairs of eyes at once, one perspective looking down at his slumped form, the other flaring open and looking at Gorocks ridiculously shapely hamstrings. Then both perspectives blurred and merged in a nauseating multidirectional movement.

“Uuuhhhggg” He gasped, choking back some bile at the sensation of returning back to his physical form. The muted physical sensations of his injuries hit him full force as he returned fully to his body. He immediately put 6 points in Endurance 5 in Constitution, and 2 each in Wisdom and Strength. Bringing his non- Endurance stat total to 96 and his Endurance to 97. His ribs were still cracked and there were probably hairline fractures in several other sets of bones, but all of them were in the process of healing. The almost 50% increase in his Constitution would be a huge help in speeding that process up.

“Is Baby Man Awake?” Gorock rumbled, his basso voice vibrating through Tilly’s body from his position on the warrior's shoulder, causing his ribs to grind together painfully.

“Guh… Yeah I am, I think I can walk big guy.” Tilly gasped out between painful breaths, trying and failing to take some pressure off his mending ribs. Gorock hefted him up and then set him on his feet, surprisingly gently. They had to continue moving to keep up with the pace of the formation, but Tilly found he was able to adopt the same stumbling, exhausted gait being used by most of the members of the unit. He notices a slight lag in his perceptions following his movement, almost like he was slightly drunk.

A few of the nearby soldiers looked over at him and nodded. No cheering or thanks. Just a silent nod of acceptance. Tilly knew from experience that the respect of such men was much more precious than praise, and he nodded back.

“You did good Human. I especially liked when you exploded. I would like to see you do that again.” Gorock said very seriously, looking over at him with another scowl/smile on his goat head.

“Don’t think I have any more of those in me for a while…” Tilly mumbled, splitting his attention between keeping up the march and trying to get a handle on what was happening to him internally.

He focused in on himself and could feel the shattered state of his mana pathways, causing the normal flow of mana through his body to slosh out and pool in different places. This seemed to be wildly inefficient and resulted in painful pressure on the shattered areas as Tilly tried to recall his hatchets from wherever they had gotten to.

But something was off. Instead of blinding pain, his pathways seemed to be blanketed in a sort of coolness that gave him the impression that they were being repaired somehow.

Tilly attempted to achieve his semi-meditative state while moving, needing to know more than the vague impressions he had been able to pick up so far. His concentration flickered in and out as he tried to get the hang of observing his internal structures while on the move, but eventually, he was able to fall into a rhythm and turn his attention fully inward to the flow of Mana within his body.

There he found his whole network of pathways suffused by a slowly fading cool blue substance, and he watched as this strange energy was slowly being consumed by his body to reknit his pathways. Then it clicked, this energy was the same color as his ghostly form when he Spirit Walked. Then in that form, he had absorbed some of the energy from the Origin Bloom causing a huge increase in the strength of his Spirit. It was these gains that his physical body was processing and the excess energy was being used to restore the metaphysical network that made up his Mana pathways.

The spiritual energy was slowly breaking down, and rejoining with his integrated self, fueling the highly accelerated regeneration he was observing. He wondered just how long this process would have taken without the probably exceedingly rare energy he had encountered in the hidden valley.

“Formation Halt!” Shouted commander Linus from the front.

The sound of battle had become almost white noise to Tilly as he had found his meditative rhythm. But the sudden call to halt jolted him from his inward-facing state and he found the Bastions finishing the last of the Corrupted between their formation and the ragged but determined line of refugee militia.

They had made it to the Hub.

Ch. 50 Trouble Magnet

The line of volunteer fighters was about three deep in most places and seemed to have been successful in holding back the Corrupted so far. Many of the refugee militia were obviously tradespeople or farmers holding makeshift weapons, but they spanned the promenade in a protective line about fifty feet in front of the mass of refugees. Behind them, there must have been over 100,000 people pressed in as close as possible to the Teleportation Hub.

“Who commands here?” Linus called,

“That would be me,” stated a decrepit old satyr woman with a bloodied gladius in her hand.

Level 28 Guard Captain (retired)

“They said they needed someone with experience, and I had plenty of that. Plus it's been a few decades since Lick here has tasted any blood.” She stated with a ghastly smile showing missing teeth.

“Yes. Well, you have done admirably considering the circumstances,” complimented the commander, not at all phased by her almost ghoulish smile of glee.

"I need to find Lord Hiro and my men need a few minutes to rest and recover,” Linus said curtly, wiping his sword off on a rag he produced from somewhere before sheathing it.

“Alright, you Slugs! You heard the youngster. Part in the middle, then reform! No lingering! We will maintain Line Discipline or I will personally give you a Lickin you will never forget.” She snarled in an impressively loud voice.

Not surprisingly, many of the volunteers moved almost immediately, nervously looking over at the ancient guard captain with actual fear. What had she done to inspire such obedience in an untrained group so quickly?

The line of refugee militia before the Bastion formation parted, many of them showing relief at the appearance of some actual soldiers. The faces in the line displayed a mixture between grim determination and barely controlled panic. But they were maintaining discipline well enough under the command of the guard captain. Of course, there was no guarantee that they would still be holding if they knew what was coming.

That would change with the support of the Bastions. No matter how beaten and exhausted they were, each Bastion maintained a look of stoic indifference as they moved through the gap in the line. The severely injured in the center of the formation with Tilly seemed to be playing a game centered around who could ignore the greatest injury. A Satyr a few paces ahead of Tilly was missing most of his right arm, but walked on his own through the gap, still carrying his shield and spear on his back and his sword in the remaining hand. He wore a stoic expression as some of the Militia muttered and pointed at him. Tilly was sure that even without an arm, he was still worth about 50 of the volunteers.

As they all filtered through, Linus started barking orders, “Alright, I want you to set up against that building over there. Rations and Water! Severely injured are to take a Soldier's Rest. Subcommander, I’m leaving you to it.”

The gap closed just as quickly as it had opened, just as the loose mob of Corrupted trailing the formation sped up at the sign of new prey. The volunteers were uncoordinated and disorganized, but they moved quickly enough to fill in the line in what Tilly was beginning to understand was the chief tactic of these people.

“Weapons up, you Fat Pieces of Aroch Shit. They bite! So don't let their heads close!” The Guard Captian shouted, turning her watchful eyes over the loose defensive formation they had set up. They took the loose charge of the scattered Corrupted with only one or two losses.

Tilly turned from the fighting and hurried over to the commander who was re-wrapping a blood-soaked bandage around his almost healed quad.

“Commander, I saw something while I was up there in the air,” Tilly reported simply, deciding he didn't need to go into story time.

“Mr. Tillman, it's good to see you up. Come with me. We need to find Hiro.” He said, moving away from the men, and gesturing for Tilly to follow. Like almost everything else they did, as Tilly turned from the Bastions' position, they uniformly collapsed into sitting or laying positions. Tilly grinned briefly. If these men were anything like the boys back in the department, they would be able to sleep standing up if they needed to. He hurried to move up beside the injured Commander who was making his way toward the crowd with a quick limp.

“Sir, I think I know why the main bulk of the Cult’s army has hung back instead of capitalizing on our depleted numbers. They are using the deaths of the battle somehow, collecting the energy for something big, although I don't know what.” Tilly huffed out, the reality of the odds against them settling down on his awareness and smothering his brief smile of familiarity.

“It's been noted and I sent a runner. The way I see it, we only face two true possibilities. The emperor, may justice preserve him, hopefully, has some sort of last counter prepared for something like this, or whatever they are bringing to the battlefield will crush us. Either way, it's above our pay grade. In times like these, you learn to do what you can, and not worry about the rest.” He remarked stoically as they moved. Tilly followed a step behind, trying not to breathe too deeply as his ribs finished knitting and the bones in his legs fused back together.

He couldn’t help but be impressed by the commander's even-keeled demeanor. He must have been absolutely dead on his feet at this point, but he let none of it show. He simply carried on, back erect and eyes level. Tilly could almost feel his purpose reverberating through every step, undampened by the near loss of all he had sworn to protect.

Tilly had led men. He knew that on some level it was always an act – one that you maintained for the rank and file, giving them something to depend on even when their world was falling apart. When it came to good leadership, this all registered as par for the course in Tilly's mind. But something about Linus’ courage and fidelity to his cause still touched Tilly in a way he could not quantify. He found his shoulders relaxing slightly as he followed the satyr towards what would undoubtedly be more conflict. The weight he was carrying became fractionally lighter as he began to understand that as dark as things would get, he wouldn't be facing them alone.

For some reason, that made all the difference.

The crowd ahead was mostly facing forward, clamoring for a spot closer to the Hub and hopefully salvation. The closest of the crowd however were more focused on observing the thin line of militia holding back the Corrupted than adding to the press that was clearly not making progress forward.

This created a growing murmur of awareness as Commander Linus approached with a strange fur-and-leather-covered human in tow. They parted respectfully as the pair neared, but only as a little way into the crowd. Once they got to the true press, everyone was facing away toward the Hub still hundreds of feet forward. Tilly was above average height in the crowd of shorter-statured satyrs and could see that each road leading to the hub was similarly packed, with a barrier of magic holding them back. Past the barrier and the honu maintaining it, were only a few other figures in the large opening.

Tilly could just see the imperial palace in the distance and noted a silvery haze rising from the building, like heat off asphalt on a summer day.

“I think I can see Hiro ahead in the Hub past the barriers. We just have to find a way through.”

“Make way in the name of the Emperor!” Bellowed Linus in his commander's voice. Many almost automatically pushed to the right and left to part the crowd just enough, but not all were so accommodating.

“The Emperor? Why would you evoke such a weak name at a time like this?” hissed someone to their right. Tilly turned to look in confusion, thinking that the voice sounded a little off when Linus flashed by him, blade already out.

Before Tilly had even registered what was happening, Linus was exchanging lighting strike blows with a Naga wielding two scimitars.

Level 45 Shadow Hunter.

The surrounding crowd screamed and scattered as four other figures shed their draping cloaks and enchantments fuzzed out around them, revealing four other shadow hunters ranging from Levels 25-29.

Tilly’s stomach clenched in tension as two more surged toward Linus whose blade had already found his attacker's guts. The other two were already facing him and struck like the coiled serpents they were.

Tilly's pathways screamed as he forced his Mana to respond in desperation and recall his hatchets, bringing them up in a crossblock just in time to check the spear thrust of one of the serpents. Unfortunately, he was no master of close combat and the best he could do to mitigate the horizontal strike of the second attacker was to step into the blow and lower his shoulder, hoping to not lose his arm in the process. He felt his healing Mana pathways shudder protest and strain at the usage in their injured state.

The blade of the second spear sheared through his armor and parted his flesh until meeting the top of his humerus, jarring his right arm with its impact. All three warriors looked at the point of impact in surprise. Despite the full swing, it had not gone deeper than an inch.

Looks like 97 in Endurance wasn’t just for blowing smoke up his ass.

Tilly capitalized on their shock and hooked the first attacker's spear shaft with the bearded head of one of his hatchets. Simultaneously, he yanked for all he was worth and dropped his second weapon to bend his pinned arm at just the right angle to grab the length of the second attacker's spear.

Both attackers attempted to pull their weapons free and Tilly resisted for only a moment, screaming in defiance at the trauma of once again having a weapon piercing his body. As soon as they shifted their weight and leaned back, Tilly felt himself losing purchase with his moccasins at their far superior strength. Instead of continuing to pull, he suddenly kicked off the ground, adding his weight to their leverage and launching himself at their bodies.

He crashed into them in a tangle of limbs, all technique forgotten as he devolved the fight into a desperate brawl. He chopped with his remaining weapon at one and hooked an arm around the neck of the other. In turn, the one he was choking immediately locked down his legs with its long snake tail and began to squeeze in retaliation. The other dropped her spear as the hatchet impacted her shoulder with a cleaving thunk. She produced a knife with her free hand and thrusted it right at his abdomen with a wild glee shining in her abyssal eyes.

The thrust pierced into his stomach but caught on his abdominal muscles, digging in painfully, if shallowly. In the press of bodies, Tilly did the only thing he could think of and rallied his barely functional pathways to gasp out one more Flame’s Renewal into the faces of each of his opponents. They, like the others Tilly had encountered, were covered in black tattoos bleeding dark ink all over their bodies, and at Tilly’s ability, their skin immediately began to bubble.

Both screamed in fury and agony, and the one wrapping Tilly squeezed even harder around his legs, causing his bones to creak. The second ripped out the tip of her knife to thrust it again, mad with rage.

“That is enough of that.” Linus snarled in disgust as his gladius whirled overhead and then smoothly cut through both of the Naga's heads at once. The doubled decapitation was truly epic, or so Tilly would have thought if he hadn’t been suddenly showered in blood darkened by Corruption.

He pushed himself free from the slack appendages and sputtered as he tried to wipe the clotting mess from his eyes.

“Apologies,” came the sound of Linus’ voice as Tilly felt a cloth press into his hand, which he desperately began using to wipe the viscous liquid from his eyes, spitting all the while.

“I thought the situation called for speed over cleanliness,” he continued drily.

“No, you made the right- BLLAAARRRGGGG” Tilly vomited, his body forcefully ejecting any of the foreign bodily fluid from his system. Along with the pain of his recently won wounds, he also felt a stinging prickly sensation building around the bleeding opening. Amidst all of the horrible new sensations he was experiencing, he was glad to feel the flame at the center of his chest kindle and begin to warm his whole body.

“I think… their blades… are poisoned.” He gasped out between a few lingering dry heaves.

“What is your status? Can you continue?” Linus demanded, looking back toward the Hub.

“Yeah, I'm good. Fucking up stuff that tries to get inside me is becoming my micropower.” He said shakily as he straightened up,

Health : 56%*

Mana : 82%*

He was sure that the system had all sorts of details and caveats on those numbers, but he didn't care. His [Hostile Environment] title would have to step up and take care of the poison, and his Mana Pathways would just have to suck it up along with him. This wasn't a fun day for anybody and his complaining pathways were just going to have to get with the program.

He used the cloth to try and mop off the blood beginning to mat in his short beard and hair.

As it dried, the stuff all over his face was going to smell, he just knew it.