Chapter 157: Totally Not A Cult
After Bee finally finished her immediately pressing work, she stood upright and stretched. She finally had a minute to check the notification waiting for her.
LEVEL 45 REACHED. CHOOSE A SKILL: SCOURING STRIKE, CULT LEADERSHIP, HERD THE FLOCK
It had been quite a while since she had last gained a skill. Well, by her standards a least. That she had taken less than a decade between level 40 and level 45 would have already been considered fast by all reasonable metrics. By following her master, she had gained power and unheard-of leveling rates outside of everything but the wildest myths.
More importantly, she was finally getting offered a skill she might want too. For far too long, everything had been cleaning or order related, and she had never got the kind of flashy skill that she had always wanted. A signature, one that didn’t have to involve a broom.
Looking at the options, she still hesitated. She couldn't believe she wasn't immediately choosing Scouring Strike. It was the first real combat skill she might be able to take.
But as much as she insisted they weren't a cult, in the privacy of her head, she could admit there might have been the slightest resemblance there. So being good at cult leadership might be useful enough that she should bury her pride and take the skill. It almost could convince her, but not quite.
The last still was also interesting, but it was hard to tell what the system meant. If it was about literally herding a flock of sheep, then it would be very disappointing. But if it was more related to Void's cryptic command to find lost sheep, then it would be like the cult option without the “cult” connotation. Sadly, it was too much of a risk to choose it. She would only level so many more times, and wasting one of her supposedly trump skill slots on a sheep-based skill just seemed like a wool-brained thing to do.
Was she just trying to justify picking Scouring Strike? Maybe. But when she looked around, her situation seemed to warrant the extra firepower. While the other skills might only supplement her natural ability to run the church of the cleansing void. If she made it through this.
With a smile, Bee accepted her first real combat skill. Looking around for an enemy to try it out on, she saw that the soldiers had wisely kept the triage station clear of the undead.
The wall of the shields and bodies the soldiers had put in place of the gate was holding for now. They were rotating members of the wall in and out for regular breaks, and as the mop-up efforts of the few zombies that had managed to get past her completed, more and more soldiers joined the reserves.
Just when she was thinking about going to find the commander, a horrifying screech echoed over the city. Not a familiar screech, either. It seemed to bypass the hands that she threw up to cover her ears and piece directly into her brain. Suddenly, it cut off. She opened her eyes to see the soldiers in disarray. Many had lowered their shields in distraction; the only saving grace to the situation was that the zombies seemed equally affected.
Shouting came from behind her. Looking over her shoulder, an older level 41 man ran by, glowing greenish-yellow to her senses and yelling at everyone. Wherever he got near, officers and men snapped to alertness, and they started bellowing too. Soon everything was back in order, and the shield wall was marching forward, taking advantage of the undead's distraction.
Who was that man? He certainly seemed impressive. Level 40 was no joke. Seeing how he commanded everyone around him, it wasn't too hard to figure out he was in charge. At the moment, he seemed a little too busy to talk to her, so she followed him at a distance waiting for things to settle back down so she could approach without disturbing everyone.
The issue was that he never stopped moving, never stopped issuing commands, even if his yelling did cease once things were back under control. Soon the extra soldiers were no longer just waiting for their turn to rotate into battle. They were clearing the roads of rubble, and some inspected the wall to see if it would collapse if they sent people back up on it.
A few seconds later, a few scouts ran back up the wall. As soon as they reached the top, they yelled in alarm.
Apparently, the commander's bellowing before represented his inside voice. Now though, his shout rang over the battle noise, clearly audible to even those up on the wall. "SCOUTS REPORT!"
It took a couple seconds before they yelled back. It was a lot harder to make out what they were saying. "There… there’s a tornado, sir! It’s, ah, it’s centered around a black spot with a gold ring. And it’s got sparks shooting out everywhere. I don't know what it is, sir!"
The second one leaned over the inside of the wall. "He's not crazy sir! I think you need to see this for yourself. It, uh, it looks like something is attacking the undead. And making short work of them, too."
Bee heard the commander mutter something to himself but wasn't able to make out what it precisely was. He jogged over to the wall and made his way up.
She was almost entirely certain that what they were describing was Void; she had seen it battle before. Still, she wanted to see this as well, so she followed up to the top of the wall. Sure enough, her master was chewing through the mass of the undead at an alarming rate.
Stepping up next to the commander and scouts, she finally got the man's attention. He just looked at her passively for a second before returning his gaze to Void.
"Void is… quite something. If that is in fact who that is? I wasn't sure I understood my interaction with him earlier." Turning to Bee, he continued. "I take it you are the healer who held the gates?"
When she nodded, he continued. "General Arthur of the northern army. I appreciate the help, but would you mind filling me in on what is going on? I don't like not knowing everything that is going on on my battlefield."
"I am High Priestess Bee." She answered in as formal a manner as she could. "I would be happy to fill you in. Void and I came to assist Caleb, when we received word of its state from some scout that made it to our church."
Arthur looked her up and down with an appraising glance that reminded her of her father's. "You seem young to be a High Priestess. Of what church do you represent?"
"The Church of the Cleansing Void." Bee said with a little smile.
"I can't say that I have ever heard of that before."
"We are new." her smile grew.
"There hasn't been a new god fo-" Arthur cut off mid-sentence. "Wait, did you say Cleansing Void?"
"Yes. And before you ask, it is the same."
Arthur looked over the wall and then back to Bee. "I just might be able to believe that."
They stood there in silence, watching Void mop up the bulk of the undead forces. The moment didn't last very long. A cry reminiscent of the ones that staggered everyone in the area rang out again. This was different, though. Instead of piercing desperation, it contained an anger that was hard for Bee to describe.
This time, there was only one cry instead of an overlapping cacophony. She found it was easier to resist because of that. Even though the strength of this call vastly overpowered the ones before, the lack of echoes helped her stand through it.
This was clearly not the case for everyone, as the scouts on the wall sagged and shouts rose from below. Looking out, it seemed this attack was more targeted as well. The same being Bee saw taking down the gates was almost to the shield wall. And the men down there were not ready for it.
Before she thought too much, Bee was vaulting over the wall and plummeting down. The wind flung her hair everywhere, and she was momentarily grateful for flying with her master. If not for that, she would never have had the courage to jump from such a height.
She bent her knees as she landed and didn't have to roll to absorb the shock of the impact. A ring of dust flew up around her, and she imagined if she had landed near someone, they would have felt the ground shake. Still trying to remain professional, she let a small smile creep onto her face. No one would see her enjoying how awesome that felt. She must have looked very impressive. It was too bad the undead didn't feel fear.
Less than a second later, she did feel the ground shake. Looking over to the side, she saw that Commander Arthur had followed her down. His armor had added to his weight, and the cloud of dust kicked up was proportionally larger.
She frowned internally. He didn't have to go and upstage her like that.
Forcing herself to focus on the approaching threat, Bee looked forward again. The shadowy humanoid had more depth to it than the ones that she had been attacked by earlier. Its shape shifted slightly, details blurring and changing. The most common appearance it held was that of an aristocrat. The formal clothes and fancy tall hat meshed with a flickering monocle. Sometimes more casual attire would get into the mix, and the shifting outfit would look out of place.
"That wraith has been plugging us for weeks. I don't know why it decided to attack now when it had been content to wait for so long." Arthur said as he rubbed something along his sword blade.
"If it is a wraith, I'm surprised it waited at all. From what I have read they are more aggressive than that." Bee responded.
"Nothing about this campaign makes any sense." Arthur muttered in response. "I don't think we can kill it. We need to hold it out of the city until mage support can arrive."
Bee nodded her agreement. She had some undead countermeasures with her, but they weren't designed for the more rare and powerful variants, so she didn't have too much hope for success. Still, she grabbed a vial as she readied her broom. This might be a good time to test out her new power.
Without waiting, she flung the potion at the wraith from a distance. Instead of aiming for it directly, she sent the vial at its ghostly feet. The potion splashed up, and where it contacted the wraith, it lit up as if the droplets were made of embers.
The only reaction the wraith gave was to float a few feet higher. The weapon might not be the most effective, though it was nice to see they could hurt it at least. Maybe if she was able to deal a larger dose… she would have to look for openings.
Suddenly, the wraith charged. Arthur stepped forward to meet the wraith's advance. But before it got to him, it ran square into Bee's holy aura. It didn't stop, but its form began to flicker more rapidly. She heard a hissing voice worm into her mind. "Such power from one so young. A pity it is not enough."
Then it moved into her aura fully, and Arthur swung his sword at it.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l