Chapter 1114 – Horde and Boss
The limited numbers, the power differentials, and the confined space of battlefields in the Abyss usually meant that warfare in the magical world took place between a dozen or maybe a few hundred individuals at once. To date, the only battle with thousands involved that John had partaken in had been during the Five Days War against a faction whose doctrine was uniquely focused on large, decently equipped numbers. Since then, the largest gathered army he had seen had been that of the Golden Rose, although the invasion force of the Lake Alliance may have been similar in its overall capacity.
Therefore, seeing about a thousand guards in ten square formations was still an impressive sight to John. Sure, them being NPCs with the intellect of an average house fly made it less intimidating, but an army was an army and the order, if nothing else, was awe-inspiring. Although the armour they wore was fundamentally the same as that of the guard that had jailed them, their variety of helmets covered the entire head. All of them were the exact same size and build. It was the peak of lazy set design. It also helped cement the organized feeling of an army.
“What level are we looking at?” Metra asked, while she and John stood at the top of the hill. They hadn’t entered the aggro range of the army yet and so the NPCs just stood there like pillars, waiting for something to set them off.
“Exactly 50, universally,” the Gamer responded. What would have been the strongest army in the real world was just another dungeon encounter for them. “Looks like a good place to let loose, Miss Breaker of Armies. Maybe you can finally show me that Entropy Arena.”
“Do you want me to be out of commission for two weeks?” she asked and looked around. “Plus, there is no salt water around.”
“Maybe you won’t need it anymore? That was an aspect of Tiamat, after all.”
Metra hesitated, her face turning blank. “Could be that I can’t even use it anymore,” she realized. “That power was granted by Mother Chaos.” Pleadingly, she looked at John. “Can you get Undine over here?”
Nodding, the Gamer reached out to his abysstide elemental. A short mental conversation ensued, ending with Undine suddenly appearing next to him. Metra raised an eyebrow. “We are doing nothing unusual for the next three days, the teleport cooldown doesn’t matter,” he explained. Realistically, there was actually something on Monday that his paranoia demanded he kept the cooldowns ready for. Soothing an antsy Metra was of a much higher priority than his overinflated sense of caution.
Creating a puddle of saltwater for the ancient weapon to stand in only took about two minutes of digging and conjuring. It didn’t have to be deep or large, which made John wonder what exactly the delineating requirements for the Stat boost of Tiamat’s Scale had been. At which level of salinity did the water count as salt water?
John had no time to consider this and other questions. Instead, he watched Metra’s expression go from blank, to concentrated, to desperate, in the span of several seconds. “Yeah, no, it’s gone,” she finally exclaimed with a long sigh.
He hated that one of the first things he thought when hearing that was: ‘So I’ll never get to see that power in action. Annoying.’ The tactless curiosity was swiftly pushed aside by the concerned lover. “You doing fine?”
“Honestly, it should bother me the least of these changes,” the First or Wrath said and reached up to her ears. “I rarely needed to use that power. It just... feels like I cut something out of my life.” She swung the halberd back on her shoulder and stepped out of the puddle. “No use crying about it. Ultimately, I needed to separate myself from Mother, right?”
“Yeah,” John agreed in an unhappy tone.
Metra punched him on the shoulder and smiled. “Don’t get sad for me, misery ain’t my style. Plus...,” she directed her eyes back to the army, “...I got a lot of opportunities to work through this.”
With those words, the ancient weapon began her march down the hill. Undine and John stood still where they were, only watching as the Astrotium plates surfaced on Metra’s skin. The clothes she wore were automatically transported to John’s inventory before they could be torn by the transformation.
Segment for segment, the lead-like metal appeared, covering every bit of her in an armour whose appearance instinctively invoked a malicious feeling. Red lines appeared all over the dark grey metal, interrupting the tiny gaps between the individual segments. Spikes, large enough to be a deterrent to any grappling attempts, appeared over her joints. Especially pronounced were those on her shoulders, transforming any tackle into a deadly skewer. Previously, such thorns would also have appeared on her head, but only a stylized encasing of her new wolf ears was visible there now. Her tail turned from gold into a plain grey, the fur consolidating into several thick strands. The claws of her gauntlets were more pronounced than before. The red additions and modular design gave the armour an almost futuristic look.
Once the helmet closed completely, the green of her eyes turned into a light that flowed behind her movements, its brightness showcasing that her powers were active. Any attempt from any ally to help would now deactivate them, leaving her without her anger-fuelled Stat boosts.
One punch sunk deeper than the others, the arm that was aimed at the ground appearing next to the still lodged halberd, causing the monstrosity to punch itself. While a limb was far from a vital spot, especially on an undead, it bought Metra enough time to shoot out of her disadvantageous position and punch the enraged zombie in the jaw.
Too angry to spend any time confused, the undead grabbed Metra by the leg as his head was flying backwards. Immediately he smashed her down on the floor. Equally furious, Metra did what, given the size relations involved, boggled the mind and pulled back her lower body with such force that she lifted up the zombie hulk. One backwards roll was all she needed to slam the abomination on his own back.
The zombie let go. Metra jumped on her feet faster than he did. Tearing Rex Magnar out of his arm, she distanced herself to strike with the long weapon. An arm swiping in her direction forced her to jump. Halfway on his feet, the zombie tried to tackle her while she was still in the air. Tearing a hole in the air under her, she managed to kick through, delivering a stomp to the undead’s shoulder that both elevated her higher and brought his charge to a stumbling stop.
Metra landed on the broad back of the blue-skinned hulk. With the scream of a furious warlord, the undead warrior threw her off, straightening his back. All of the gashes across his body and his eyes intensified in their crimson glow.
On her feet a couple metres away, Metra waited as the glowing warrior turned to her. There was a moment of silence and respect between them.
‘Is that actually just another NPC?’ John wondered at this point. ‘If it is, Gaia put way more work into it than the rest... Observe doesn’t imply anything else.’
The opponents got into battle stances. Both took one step. Then the fury of their souls translated into the raw aggression of carnage and they went at each other. Brutality and elegance found a terrifying equilibrium in the exchange of blows between the two veterans of war. Physically they were equally matched, wrath elevating them, and the hulk’s size eliminated the range disadvantage from a lack of weaponry.
However, Rex Magnar’s material and enchantment gave Metra a clear advantage. The prismatic weapon cut through the undead flesh, adding gashes to ancient scars. When Metra realized the full width of the weapon''s advantage, she threw it away.
The sound of drums and shredding guitars was raw jubilation, underlining the fight continuing as a flurry of clashing fists. Knuckles crashing, armour segments rattling, flesh tearing, bones creaking, ground trembling, mouths screaming, pushing their tireless bodies to the very edge of their capability.
Then the zombie’s body broke.
The plated fist of Metra slammed into the much larger one of the undead warrior; the shock of the impact rippled up the arm and blasted the bone out of the shoulder socket. The battle of endurance decided, Metra gathered the last of her mana to reach through space once more and grab Rex Magnar by the hilt.
A dislodged arm did not mean that the undead could no longer move his arm, but it did slow him enough that one side was now open enough for Metra to prepare a devastating swing. John could see the weight of the weapon increasing via its enchantments, while plasma and lightning crackled out from the spiked side of the head. Within a fraction of a second, the crackling ramped up to a propelling burst of energy, working along Metra’s swing.
The zombie launched himself at Metra one last time, trying to deliver a punch with his good arm. Mere centimetres before he could succeed, Rex Magnar severed the head from his shoulders. The dismembered skull went flying. The weapon slammed into the ground with such force that the battle-scarred graveyard turned into a crater of upturned soil.
John almost lost his balance from the tremors. Undine’s presence did not help. Massively distracting as it was after the intense battle, watching a slime girl in an earth quake was equally amusing and erotic. Her entire body jiggled, especially her large tits, and it just made for an all-around unusual sight.
When the tremors ended and the dust settled, John saw one silent Metra stand over the disintegrating corpse of the zombie hulk. Segments of her armour had been twisted and shoved out of their proper place, many gaps filled up with dirt that fell to the ground as she returned to her every day form, completely naked. Green eyes filled with various emotions, all of them positive, immediately found John, while the Kingdom around them dissolved like the corpse had.
“Worked through your problems?” John shouted over.
“We are fucking - now,” she screamed back and charged at him.