Grass ripped under my boots skidding to a halt a few paces from a 9 foot gorilla, its rotting eye socket leaking dark sludge down its face. All around us rampaged numerous undead gorillas, thrashing and tearing through giants and a few humans alike. The other gorillas heights were around 7-foot, still very much larger than myself or our human soldiers. Many of them were missing their jaws, fingers, even entire limbs. All wounds shared the same rotting black pus leaking across their bodies.
Many were slamming and ripping violently at the giants and soldiers still trying to hold the frontline until everyone retreated to the settlement walls. Other zombie gorillas could be seen in the distance dragging away our dead comrades' corpses back into the forest.
"Get the others inside, Steve. We can't afford to lose anyone else."
Steve slipped right by every gorilla untouched, a few even dodging out of his path in fear. Clearly, they judged power based on size, and Steve was top-dig among them now that their Cobra back-up was turned to chopped serpent jerky by Phoebes insanely powerful fire arrow. Every gorilla instead focused on foes smaller than they, exhibiting strange levels of self preservative motive for creatures actively bleeding at all times. Checking the leader, it became clear I may be stuck here for a while.
(Undead Silverback [level 9])
Their powerful undead leader was the first to make a move, launching its large body into the air raising its arms for a wild aerial attack. Its massive muscles ripped through its decayed skin in sections, making its rather forceful Flow movements like reading a pop up book.
I shuffled away from the Silverbacks double handed slam, sliding through the ribs of another gorilla busy ripping a giants arm from its socket along the way. The shorter gorilla whipped around with a palm smack in retaliation, only to have its hand sliced clean off by my countering Flow Strike, the twinblade cutting at its elbow pit. My second blade sliced through its neck like butter as I continued shuffling past, decapitating the undead primate while spinning my attention back to the Silverback.
The utterly grotesque zombified Silverback had the torso of my own dead soldier in its grip, chucking it at me like a fucking blood filled baseball. Sliding to the side, the sound of bones and flesh crashing into the gorilla passing behind me only further bolstered my growing rage for the culmination of beast-bosses cutting through my men. Not only were they stealing their bodies, but using their remains like crude weapons. Showing absolutely zero remorse in desecrating their remains in the process.
My foot stomped hard into the soil, redirecting my sprint toward the nearest group of 'regular' zombified gorillas. Flashes of blue and white light engulfed my blades cutting through one gorilla in a barrage of slashes, starting ant its arm and ending at its head. The next closest primate very easily noticed me dissecting his comrade, lurching forward gnawing its 4 massive rotting teeth. My lead blade lurched upward stepping away in response, piercing through its mouth and into its skull. I made a point to leap off the first gorillas corpse while reengaging with the silverback.
Unaffected by my attempts at pissing off the leading primate by showing the utmost disrespect, the undead silverback gripped the earth with its foot-thumbs, pushing forward and sending its body backwards. Its body flung back at an impressive speed for its size. Its leg stomped hard into the ground, flinging a bundle of earth at me with its foot like a child kicking sand at the beach.
My shoulder got clipped by some of the earthly shrapnel, twisting me around in a full circle before stabilizing. The silverback's knuckles pounded into the ground, leaving two craters behind as it launched itself across the field at me. Shuffling back, using the extra space to impale the falling gorilla, swaying my body away from the silverback.
The hulking undead gorilla looked down at my blade, aggressively gripping it with both hands and yanking it in deeper into its body. Its arm started stretching along the length of it, reaching for my hand. Realizing how fucked I would be getting grappled by a fucking silverback, Lightning surged through my twinblade, channeling the energy through the undead silverback. The gorilla's eyes locked onto mine, its eyebrows raising as it cooed in a cadence similar to human laughter.
My eyes bulged in shock ripping my blade free from its belly, two gorilla fingers falling to the low grass below from trying to steal my weapon. It gave less than a shit for my lightning mana, something I wasn't necessarily accounting for even being a possibility.
The silverback pressed hard onto the offensive, digging into the ground and ripping up chunks of earth to use as projectiles. My counter-attacks were landing where they needed to whenever we entered melee; the jugular, temples, femoral arteries, and heart. Yet nothing proved fatal to something already dead. The silverbacks attacks continued intensifying progressively, roaring sending rancid foamy spittle everywhere, relentlessly flinging itself at me over and over.
Every so often I could steal a glimpse at our soldiers, who were almost fully retreated into the pylon settlement walls. A fair share of gorillas and Hippocerotidae followed in tow, their much larger boss showering the grounds with mud, clearly amplifying their speeds exponentially.
This just didn't make sense. Every other beast had proven perishable. Both bosses I'd fought were resilient by their own respects, but they died after enough damage. This fucking zombie primate on the other hand, viewed physical damage like an itchy nose, an annoyance only to be dealt with when it was convenient. My hand pushed off the ground dodging over multiples volleyed clumps of crumbling earth, barely avoiding its largest chunks.
The silverback threw another cluster of the ground, and followed it with a leaping chomp attack through the puff of soil slamming onto the grass. Twisting my shoulders hard, my heel rose around my planted leg blasting a spin kick into its jaw. A sickening crack echoed from the end of my foot, a pair of the Silverbacks teeth falling to the ground right after.
This Silverbacks head snapped unnaturally to the side, forcing it to stop and twist it back forward. The monster had little problem taking damage, appearing to embrace my attack if it resulted in an opening for its own attack. The other gorillas meanwhile could be slain, rather handily at that.
…fuck it.
My head ducked under the undead Silverbacks swinging fist, dashing below its arm toward the zombified gorillas that were actively stealing more corpses. My legs never stopped pumping as my blades flourished through the air, slashing and stabbing between the undead gorillas. Ny heart pounded hard in my chest ripping through the primates, sludge and dismembered limbs peppering the grass behind me.
The silverback chasing behind tried throwing more body parts at me, however my movement patterns were too sporadic for it to predict my path. Most of the corpses just bounced off the grass. I'd brutally diced through 4 more without breaking stride before the Silverback abandoned its pursuit behind.
Its fists beat upon its newly inflated chest roaring into the sky, black spittle flying from its rotten maw. The collective gorillas all turned their attention toward their leader, roaring and pounding their own chests in response. Its remaining index finger pointed directly toward me, another roar and drummer solo of the chest to top it off.
The entirety of the zombified gorillas in attendance bellowed furiously sprinting on all fours toward me from all directions, completely abandoning all of their fights at the front gate and prized corpses. Some even exiting the settlement, climbing over humans and beasts alike.
Rather than any concern at the unfavorable predicament, an intense warmth overcame my chest. It worked its way through my spine, sending roots of energy through my mind. It was no mana I was moving, at least not intentionally, this was a sensation I felt a level of kinship to. A familiarity I couldn't quite put my finger on, however it was certainly one I'd experienced to a degree at some point. My heart raced as my hands stilled, slowly breathing a deep inhale, awaiting the first raging gorilla.
My teeth clenched hard, a rush of rage surging through me at the sight of my fallen soldiers behind the charging gorillas. They'd died for our cause, with promise of strength and the freedom to pursue it for themselves someday. My arms and legs still ached after the Cobra fight, however looking over the battlefield and seeing how close we actually were, that soreness quickly washed away.
There weren't any mantis left, only the Hippocerotidae and undead gorillas remained. Now, with all of the gorillas closing in on me, our remaining coalition was filing into the settlement walls leaving most of the first 15 Druids with Cassi, Barry and Steve handling the boss Hippocerotidae. A smile crept across my face seeing the opening I'd provided our soldiers, dodging and impaling another leaping gorilla through its spine gleefully.
Another swung with hammer fists wildly as it engaged, forcing me to retreat step over and over until it over committed. Another joined the fight from the side, jumping head first toward me. My shoulder rolled towards it, a Flow Strike slashing off half of its skull. My hips continued twisting around, a spinning heel kick smacking into the first gorilla's snapping jaw.
I planted off my kicking leg after it found soil, bursting forward with an upward stab through the same gorilla's neck. My blade twisted ripping free from its throat, leaving the gorilla lifeless on the grass. A massive pile of stone smashed apart in front of me, spraying massive sharp stones in its wake.
My hands barely guarded my face from the shards of rock dispersing, blocking my vision nearly long enough for the silverback to catch me fully off guard with a leaping slam. It was already in the air, rapidly descending toward me from above. It was too late to dodge the attack, even if a parry would be borderline impossible against something so much stronger.
My lungs slowly expanded a deep exhale as my blades cut into the silverback's forearm, stopping at the bone. My feet shuffled to the same side as its arm slid down my blade over my head. Piercing my blade deep into its gut, the Silverbacks hand snatching my wrist before I could pull it out.
Instead of fighting its yank, I leapt with the momentum increasing my speed toward the primate. My rear blade glowed a white hue slashing across its arm with a Flow Strike. Its bone made a snapping noise in its arm as my blade cut through the skin and muscle, though it still stopped the steel from cutting through completely.
Regardless, the undead silverback reserved itself to using one arm, letting go of my own to block with the functioning one. Both blades slashed against its sludge-oozing forearm twice before slicing its midsection. An organ too covered in black guck fell dropping from its gut wound. The silverback looked down frustratedly, rearing its barely functioning arm back when a bright red explosion 15 feet away made us both flinch and cover our faces. Then another rang out, blasting into a group of undead gorillas. And another.
My head low, I ran toward the walls for cover, the next series of thunderous blasts growing louder as I approached the gate. Cassi was mounted on Steve slithering into the settlement, Barry still holding back the heavily wounded and bite mark-ridden boss Hippocerotidae alone. Looking atop the wall, a series of giant fiery ballistas lined the settlement. Their giant flaming bolts of shaped molten flame swirled through the air, launching multiple whistling shots exploding on impact into several smaller Hippocerotidae.
Explosions rang out from the ground about 16 feet in front of the settlement entrance, as apparent mine traps triggered under fleeing gorillas and the maneuvering Hippocerotidae that remained.
At this point my legs started showing signs of defiance to my commands, forcing me to persistently remain in Flow to delay the effects of exhaustion. By now, I was dangerously low on mana, over half of my health was slowly depleting, with more than half of my stamina blown through. All of those non-mana infused attacks and movements had clearly begun adding up.
Health: 80/158
Mana:18/75
Stamina: 124/474
"TOM! I need your assistance brother!" Barry called out between crescendoing whistles and explosions blasting in succession. My eyebrows furrowed looking back toward the Silverback, finding they and the other gorillas' back turned to me running on all fours toward the corpses closer to the forest tree-line. My first instinct was to pounce on the sick ducks when a pair grabbed onto one of our wounded recruits, concaving his skull with their fists before dragging him away.
My third falling step along my pursuit of the beasts through my rage-filled heart was interrupted by Barry's vitriolic shout.
"SELFISH HUMAN! You bear NO HONOR, you RAT!" Barry bellowed in my direction, struggling to hold back the rather offensive boss Hippocerotidae. Its body was half sunken and sliding across its own mud puddles toward Barry, its massive maw opened wide enough to bite me head to toe. Barry's arms trembled, holding his cleaver between the boss's bite and himself.
The FUCK did you just call me?
A whole new level of all consuming rage engulfed my stomach, a concentrated surge of heat zigzagging in massive assembly through the very blood circulating my veins. Even my eyeballs felt like burning hot webs of energy were begging to explode from the whites of my eyes.
It was already enough to lose allies, and another to lose my own soldiers so brutally. Cassi being pushed all the way back into the settlement due to me not having rendezvoused with her in time, the sheer quantity of powerful enemies being completely disproportionate. Even Steve decided to fuck around, showing he's still feeble to intimidation. All of that welling pressure I'd been burying under a wave of discipline compounded, and was finally rising to the surface of my mind.
My legs already launched my body toward Barry and the boss Hippocerotidae before I could even finish processing the scorching spikes of hatred coursing through my veins. Now this fucking oversized clown was calling me a rat? Me? How fucking DARE he, after I spared him. After all we've sacrificed f-
My senses returned to me all at once with a sudden jolt from my hands, finding myself stood directly behind Barry. My rear blade sizzling brightly with glowing white and blue mana was positioned to pierce through his spine for having the unbelievable audacity to utter such an insult. But…who the fuck was I? Some insecure, egomaniacle, power mongering fucking king or something?
No.
All at once, the unbridled rage that had literally blinded my rational mind subsided, yet the energy swaying and crackling along my entire body from the internal outburst remained. My foot stomped hard, extending and shooting me over the giant's shoulder. The boss Hippocerotidae sunk unnaturally fast into its self produced mud puddle, sliding out of range of my stab.
My hatred finally finding a target, lightning mana irrupted from my blades, arms, and body. Water mana vacuumed into my body from the mud surrounded, crashing into my system like an internal tsunami while I pierced my twinblade into the puddle. With every shred of willpower I had remaining, I began focusing on channeling every ounce of energy I had at my disposal. Mana and Flow alike funneled into a powerful surge of amplified lightning energy through the mud.
My body burned from the inside out, smoke rising from my mouth and twitching nostrils. I paid little mind to my current state, being far more concerned with exerting much deserved agony on something deserving. The brown mud began boiling, a multitude of white and blue streaks crackling across the water mana within the large mud puddle. The final Hippocerotidae convulsed violently, its body almost fully submerged in the mud.
For 4 whole torturous seconds we sat in a pool of electrified mud. Numerous massive electric currents cycled through the both of us as we sat engulfed in its paralyzing crackling grasp. The skin on my hands slowly charred, the smell of my own singing flesh invading my pallet.
Every fiber of my being begged myself to let it go, to stop this self destructive attack and collapse. It was my gut that pushed me this far, and my mind overwrote my body's feeble attempts at abandoning its own psychotic idea. No, more than that, my spirit refused to stop until every last danger to me and my people was completely eradicated. It wasn't until the familiar *ding* sounded in my head did I free myself from the self induced torment, the electric energy subsiding all around me.
"You did it brother! You've slain the b-" my twinblade dropped into the mud, my body still crackling with lightning. My legs launched me launched up, slamming my fist under Barry's jaw, sending him flying through the air and crashing to the dirt unconscious. All at once, a terrible weakness washed over my body and mind, a pair of ding's sounding further and further away while I slowly faded from consciousness.
Maybe throwing that last uppercut at Barry for calling me a rat was the straw that broke the camel's back, or maybe it was exerting every morsel of energy I had left into that last attack in the first place had already pushed me overboard. Whatever the culprit may be, a final thought rang through my mind as I collapsed to the grass;
Worth it.
…
——————————————————————
"FINALLY?! This fucking mortal took this long to finish the wave?!" Perunious angrily bellowed, watching his newest chosen crumble to the mud. He'd been watching the entire wave defense, as it served as a coincidental test of the humans wrath. His combative prowess was nothing short of extraordinary for his grade, however that was a minimum prerequisite to Perunious.
What Tom had also shown, rather consistently now, was this sniveling, stubborn restraint. Patience and hedonistic virtues constantly conflicting with our shared furious austereness, exhibiting an apparent unwillingness to exert his wrath unapologetically. Even to go so far as to deny himself the very urge for vengeance that had empowered him. What's more, the attack he'd used to finish the last beast was…familiar.
"Jeez, he won didn't he? That areas like, top 5 on the planet for fucked up beast spawns. You were right, he's got some serious potential, I'll give credit where it's due." The familiar effeminate voice said with intrigue, her red and black projection hovering behind Perunious. Of course his Chosen had to embarrass him in front of a valued guest, no less.
"His might isn't my concern…" Perunious rubbed between his bright glowing eyes, annoyed having nearly revealed his gripes for his Chosen, something far too personal for her.
"Indeed, maybe I grow spoiled at seeing his swift victories." Perunious finally concluded, hoping to save face. In his mind, the question wasn't Tom's power, nor his potential to further grow. It was whether he'd surmised correctly in Tom's path. More importantly, how similar theirs had actually been.
And that twinblade…the energies it emitted, and the movements Tom made while wielding them. His exhibition of restrained fury, and calculated indignation. His infatuation with fucking meditation that annoyed Perunious to no end, especially with the passive legacy skills for resource pool regeneration he should've been offered by now. All of it was wrong.
He'd at first written it off as the tethers of his mortal Chosen's pre-integration morality leaked into his development. However, the patterns were too obvious and consistent to bury under Tom's success in battle since nearly a week ago. It was all traits that Perunious was far too familiar with not to pick up on…
"Well, if you no longer require my presence, I suppose I shall be going", The voice stated, sounding eager to leave after an awkward silence while Perunious pondered.
"No. This was merely to display the folly in having doubted my Chosens'…" Perunious nearly trailed off in thought once again, "regardless, it was not the purpose of my summoning you." Perunious stumbled over the conflicting suspicions of his powerful young Chosens nature as his fist clenched in a ball of violet lightning hotter than several suns, before realigning his mind to his far more pressing aspirations.
"Oh? And what was the purpose of your calling?" The voice asked through flirtatious curiosity.
"Nothing like that, my infernal friend. No, I'm in need of some assistance. It would appear one of my few acts of mercy has bitten the hand that feeds her."