Chapter Five Hundred And Twenty Five – 525
Dodge is level 75!
Adept Tier!
You Gain:
+20 DEX
+20 AGL
+30 PER
Felix dodged the High Guards weapon, feeling the edge of a whirlwind flow in its path as System energy flooded him. The increase was relatively minor for him, but in the heat of the moment, his muscles loosened, and his joints bent a fraction of an inch more as the colors around him crept toward unknown shades.
He could see the sweat dangling from Maces squashed, freckled nose, count the faint, downy hairs on her cheeks, and even perceive the prismatic light as it filtered through her frustrated spittle as it caught the last glimmers of the setting sun. You move well, usurper.
Dodge is level 76!
Too well, she growled. Titans Ward!
A thrumming half-sphere of metal and earth formed before her, releasing a sudden sonic blast that sent Felix skidding backward through mud and water. He held his feet, the force of it not enough to knock him over, even if it did shave five percent of his Health away. That all you got, lady?
Mace smirked, now well over thirty feet away. Hardly.
FOOD, his Hunger rumbled.
What? Felix asked, a heartbeat before a riot of golden violence landed where he stood.
Dodge is level 77!
Armored Skin is level 84!
Blind Fighting is level 69!
Mana Cannon! his Mind screamed at him, moments too late. Thankfully, his Body had been forged in the crucible of a thousand life-or-death battles. As the beam of gold, orange, and yellow Mana tore into the battlefield, Felix just barely evaded its strike.
Garment half-burnt, he was panting as he came to a rest just feet from what was now a glowing pit of molten stone. The waters rushed in, hissing like ten thousand angry geese while steam billowed like land-borne clouds. He looked up just in time to see the second Manaship train its cannon directly at him.
Its like that, is it? Felix asked, flexing his grip on the two blades he held. Inheritors Will and Skyslaines Riposte felt light as feathers, but Mana swirled around them like wind. Fine.
He thrust his Riposte out, feeding the weapon an absolute torrent of Mana. The daggers blade lengthened rapidly, blasting forward for an incredible distance straight toward the Hierocratic shipand the tip crashed with resounding force against a shell of multi-colored energy.
A fancy dagger, Nevarre, but its not gonna penetrate those wards, Mace said. She spun her weapon casually, but her eyes never left his figure.
And your cannon wont catch me, Felix shot back.
True. Mace scratched her jaw. But can you say the same for everyone else?
As if waiting for her words, the nearest ship pivoted its huge Mana Cannon as energies gathered in its blossom-like barrel. It locked into place with a distant crash, aimed now at the struggling soldiers on Felixs side. The two others followed suit, slowly turning toward targets down the line.
Dont turn your back on me!
Maces words vanished as Felix exploded from his stancenot toward the High Guard, but sideways, into the fray.
Relentless Resolution!
Adamant Discord!
The earth cratered beneath him with each step. Stone and dirt, mud and water flung into the air as he passed, and lightning spun around his limbs.
The first cannon fired.
Stone Shaping!
Rime Shaping!
Green Shaping!
Cardinal Flame!
Felix thrust Mana from his feet as he flashed through the battlefield, his Willpower guiding it as his Intent shaped it all together into a familiar form. Curving ramparts of blue-black stone erupted from the earth, startling both sides as their confrontations were stymiedbut not so surprising as when the first massive beam hit. A concussive wave followed Felix as he ran, earth and water and stone transmuting beneath his heavy tread, as golden light and terrifying heat washed across the far side of his construction.
The second and third cannons fired, and Felix was there to meet them. Red-veined ramparts rose like breaching whales, water and mud erupting in every direction, only to be met by the evaporating might of the magic cannon. Everything shookeven Felixs stride was thrown off as he slid to a crashing halt and looked back.
Smoke and fires filled the center of the field, but that soon fadedleaving only a thirty-foot wall of unbroken stone.
Manifestation of the Coronach is level 78!
Manifestation of the Coronach is level 80!
Rallying Cry Is Active!
Double Regenerations For All Allies In Range for 50 Seconds, Reduce Chance Of Frightened Status By 60%
Willpower Check Successful!
All Enemies In Range Are Affected By A Crisis of Faith for 5 Seconds!
Willpower Is Reduced By 60%!
Holy shit, that worked. Something unclenched in his chest, and he exhaled deeply. There were still cracks in the ramparts, but those were fixable. The battle had halted, whether from surprise that the cannons had fired or from the surprise arrival of his walls, Felix was unsure. Either way, it was an opportunity.
He channeled his power, forcing more Mana down into the earth and toward the interconnected walls hed crafted. His Mana dropped, but it was nothing to his regeneration, after all. Stairs and crenelations formed, arrow slits and murder holes above barred gates.
Everyone! To the ramparts! he shouted, and the battlefield came alive again.
In the distance, Felixs call was taken up by Reed and Harn, and he could even see Evie and a score of Frost Giants rush to the cover of his new fortifications. Figures in robes hustled to the tops and began hurling spells from on high, blasting back the Inquisitors and Paladins that were scrambling to recover.
SKREEAH! Pit cried out, rushing above the battlements. A cloud of flashing Mana vapor poured from him with that cry, a mingling of life, air, and light that sank into the bodies of every warrior and mage. Men and women straightened up, weapons lifted as new vigor shone from their eyes.
Pits Breath of the Wild is level 2!
Keep at it, bud.
Farther down the line, the great bulk of the Dragon suddenly and gloriously ignited. Like a second sun had risen, the battlefield was briefly transformed into midday before it vanishedtaking Yintarion along with it.
Damn it, Felix cursed. A wave of potent emotions surged through the Spirits around him, lifting the already chaotic atmosphere to greater heights. Hope you took some with you, Yintarion.
HOORRAAAAAAH! another familiar voice bellowed, followed by the sound of shearing metal and rumbling earth. Keratin Conception!
Titans Ward!
Shit! Felix shot forward, flaring his movement Skill to all but fly down the line. Hierocratic soldiers tried to take pot shots at him, but Felix didnt even dodge them. Those that actually hit did nothing to pierce his Armored Skin, let alone the scales along his arms and legs.
Form up! Fire! shouted a man with a vibrant plume atop his helmet. Three dozen Paladins gathered before him, each one leveling their flaming blades at Felixs oncoming form.
Bad idea! he shouted.
Adamant Discord!
He rammed through the clustered Paladins, scattering them into a bloody scrap heap as lightning leaped between his outstretched hand and a young Minotaur. He pulled, and the thick connection turned to steel as the world whipped past his ears.
Ahead, he saw Mace charging down a wounded Beef as he and Hallow tried to desperately fend off her attacks. She was too strong, batting away his maul with a contemptuous swipe of her own weapon.
Youre a child playing at war! Ill teach you the only lesson you will ever need. Mace smashed the Multipede into the mud and batted the Homunculus crystalline darts away. She lifted her orichalcum mace in both hands. The lesson of true strength.
Felix blasted into her, feet first. A jolt of galvanizing lightning tore through her, but more than that, her precious armor crumpled before she was hurled bodily into the distance. He landed lightly, his momentum all but absorbed by the High Guard that tumbled helplessly through water, mud, and her own soldiers.
Beef. Hallow. You both okay?
Unf. Yeah. Beef leveraged himself up, clambering from his knees to his hoofed feet. Hallow?
F-fine. The Homunculus was clinging to Beefs shoulder armor, which was hanging by a thin leather strap. I have not regained my former strength.
It isdisconcerting, the Multipede said, the feminine voice deeper and laced with echoes. Water streamed from its rounded skull as blackened green lights blinked through its carapace. And that woman is not yet dead, Felix.
I know. Felix unsheathed his Inheritors Will and Skyslains Riposte again, the latter back in the form of a large parrying dagger. He looked up. Shes not even my main problem.
The cannons had repositioned once again and were gathering energy. The hum was faint but growing stronger. All three were aimed at a single point of his newly-built wall. Together, they were sure to punch through it; not even his shaped fortifications could withstand that much firepower.
I could use my chitin to Beef started to say, but Felix waved him down.
Dont waste your strength. He eyed the distance between the ships and adjusted his footing. Orange, yellow, and golden Mana gathered at the three separate barrels like radiant eggs, ready to hatch their destruction at any second. I have to take this fight to them. Step back, I
Without warning, the cannon to the far right exploded in an eruption of incandescent flame. Blue force Mana rippled across the incendiary cloud, ripping through metal and stone like hot knives through butter, as smaller explosions followed the first.
Holy balls! Beef cried out. What was that?
Felix spun back to Haarwatch, and his eyes immediately landed on a construction of steel and stone and complicated sigaldry that was at least fifteen feet talland two robed individuals at its base. A crown of magma hung in the air around the entire construction while bright blue pillars rose and fell like the pistons of some huge machine. Son of a bitch. He got it working.
What? Who?
Frenetic orders were coming from the field as the Hierocratic forces surged toward Felixs fortifications, just as the far right ship began to tilt and fall. Fire was consuming it at a rapid pace, the sigiladry once hidden within it now taken to flame as Mana backed up and burst across its many, many arrays.
The Mana Cannons on the other two were also moving, pivoting toward the new threat when a second shot blasted out of Alisters creation. Fire and force mingled into a white-hot beam that was far smaller than the Mana Cannons, but it punched through the Manaships shields like they werent even there.
Another cannon was engulfed in a firestorm.
Impudent children! bellowed a figure in stocky white armor. Mace was back up on her feet, but instead of charging Felix, she headed toward Alister, Atar, and the giant magic ballista.
Oh, no you dont! Felix kicked forward, scattering water and mud behind him as he raced to catch up. Within his core, he sounded the patterns of a spell he used too infrequently.
Shadow Whip!
A flexible tendril of darkness surged from his right palm and immediately tangled with Maces trailing leg.
Adamant Discord!
Alongside it, the wrist-thick cord of connection between him and the High Guard flared into life, becoming steel in his left hand as Felix was dragged forward several yards before planting himself and hauling back.
Get over here!
A wordless shout of alarm and dismay cut through the air as Felixs power proved too much for the Master Tier to handle, and Mace was pulled backward into the soupy remains of Yintarions last and greatest attack.
Felix!
He turned, disengaging his two Skills as Beef called for him. The flagship, the last craft still standing above the forest, fired its Mana Cannon.
Relentless Resolution!
Cloudstep!
Adamant Discord!
Felix leaped through the sky, flying up Cloudsteps that shattered beneath blurring feet, as lightning danced along his every nerve ending. His Link to Atar shone, thicker than his entire body and made of white speared with bloody crimson, but it was drowned out by the screaming approach of the Mana Cannons beam.
Chthonic Tribute!
Gold, orange, and yellow Manajust inches away from his outstretched handsboiled and buckled, turning in on itself as its incredible momentum was snatched away. The beam turned, and slammed right into Felixs open maw.
Fire! Atar screamed in a panic, but Felix didnt hear him as he was slammed into the soggy earth beneath the tumult of a momentous fusillade. The stone burst and broke, heated to molten slag while the water steamed into invisible vapor.
All he felt was the energy that raged in his channels and core space, filling him with such immense heat that it felt as if his blood were boiling. The urge to form his Pillars became an all-encompassing need, as the potency forced his Skills to spin faster and faster. The cannons discharge wasnt a straw, but a lead weight upon the camels back, forcing the wild combination of Mana, Essence, and stolen Divinity into an inevitable conflagration. Ribbons of light spooled inward, roots of crystalline might thrust down, through the dark and the flames as his dual cores ground out their unique song.
All he heard was the roar of his Hunger, the vast black hole that seized the flood of power and claimed it, blunting the edge of what he had to dobut it changed little. Too much swirled within him, compacting into a density that even his Hunger couldnt take apart. To refuse the call againhe knew he wouldnt survive. The time had come to form the rest of his Pillars.
I am on the way, Felix! Pit sent to him. I am coming to help!
He couldnt wait. There, at the bottom of a crater of molten stone and steaming earth, Felix began.
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