Okay, this is fine. Just don't run into Korbin and the rest of our squad. This is fine.
i desperately replayed soothing mantras in my head, charging alongside Phanthu and his army as they ravaged through the Khotunn settlement. There was hardly any resistance, as the majority of their Khotunn soldiers had congregated by a large stone wall, getting caught up behind the sea of panicking stone-citizens flocking from the residential area. Waves of deathly water skills crashed into the crowds by the dozens as they attempted to flee, leaving Khotunn corpses sprawled across the stone floor in their wake.
This is fine, it's not real. Everything is fine.
Screams filled the caverns as Phanthu's soldiers continued mowing through their citizens and soldiers alike, with only a few Lonni-sized Khotunn holding their own in the back of the settlement. My staring at the massacre before me was quickly cut short as Phanthu suddenly slowed to a gallant walk as soldiers rushed past us making me bump into his back. With a graceful turn that made the blood covering his armor splatter across the dirt Phanthu met my eyes smiling like a tyrannical despot. Within them were the purest part of his soul that only something like overwhelming victory in war could bring out.
"I knew it, I fucking knew it would be done! Haha, they all told me it was only a matter of time until our destruction for years, those wrinkled fools!" Phanthu gripped my collar excitedly as the metallic clang of shattering shields, crashing waves, and the harrowing screams of hundreds of Khotunn magnified while the fighting escalated in earnest around us. Phanthu's bright blue unblinking eyes reflected the pain of a lost child, while the smile contorted across his face gave that of an utter maniac. A spark of familiarity at his deranged rambling invaded my thoughts,
as I came to realize what the future god clasping onto my collar in joy truly was.
A lost, deeply flawed human being.
Letting go while throwing his arms to the sky, Phanthu laughed joyously arching his head to the cavern ceiling, turning his front line of mages into a frenzy at the sight of their leader's elation. Breathing heavily, his head shot down looking at me expectantly.
"Today is the dawn of a new legacy for Xernilia! No longer will our people suffer the sins of our greedy fathers. Today is our rebirth, with only us at the forefront." He exclaimed, balling his fist and pointing at the both of us.
"Of course of course, hey you're certain there's only Khotunn here? I'd hate for innocent human captives to be caught in the crossfire." I asked, hoping to buy Korbin and everyone else some time to get out of here. Phanthu chuckled, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Yes, I'm sure, Tom. Our information was good on the mines, as was their army's measly numbers." Phanthu happily replied, gesturing at his mage army charging across the settlement. blasting deathwater over crowds of fleeing and fighting Khotunn alike.
"Wait, what information? From who?" I asked, recalling seeing very little 'spy' types training amongst his soldiers. Phanthu shook his head with a grin.
"Don't worry about it, my friend. I've spent too many years planning this night for a single detail to be out of place." Phanthu reassured, trotting backwards towards the carnage.
"Come on, Andolis's elite forces are marooned at the entrance. Let's have a little fun before that filthy lithomancer can weasel his way out of here!" He called excitedly, turning hips and weaving between his men heading towards the only competent Khotunn soldiers in the settlement. Jogging behind him, I turned back one more time trying to understand why Phanthu soldiers were crowding a wall. As I focused, a faint purple flash illuminated the sea of soldiers, giving me all the context I needed.
"Damn you're slow?!" I yelled back to Phanthu sprinting past him, hoping to get him as far away from my squad as possible. His eyes lit up like a child being released to recess as he began striding atop a path of deathly water he casted in front of every step. Truly, if it wasn't for his passion for slaying these Khotunn, I could see us genuinely being friends. Well that, and the fact neither he nor the humanoid race of rock people he so passionately slaughtered were even real.
My eyes struggled not to look down at the bodies strewn across the settlement as I weaved through the crowds of fleeing or fighting Khotunn being ripped through by Phanthu's bloodthirsty deathwater mages. Stone corpses lay rapidly rotting on the ground, the remnant death energies eating through their stone skin. One of the corpses was especially small, not standing at more than 4 feet tall with a hunk of rock carved in the shape of a bear laying beside them.
Fuck, too real, too fucking real.
Averting my gaze from anywhere below my own chest height, a window-sized square gap a couple floors up one of the stone buildings caught my attention. Raising my forearm up, the prongs on my grapple hook couldn't latch onto the stone faster as I pulled myself above the utter carnage. The momentum lifted me over the crowd, kicking off the stone building towards the elite Khotunn soldiers holding their own at the assumed front of the settlement. I quickly ran an Identify on their squad, hoping to size up how much I'll need to ignore Phanthu. As useful as he's proven, I can't risk letting him out of my sight for too long. Not until I could confirm Korbin and the crew were ready.
[Khotunn (Level 8)]
[Khotunn (Level 10)]
[Khotunn (Level 9)]
[Khotunn (Level 8)]
While their levels were relatively high, the majority of them only wielded large tan-glowing stone shields made of a jagged, dark crystalline rock I didn't recognize. Each of their shields were covered in strange runic symbols, vaguely resembling the ones on Derrick's halberd. The strongest of the squad however was much shorter and slimmer than the rest, who's grey stone forearms were shaped into lances. One of Phanthu's soldiers tried to get the drop on the smaller elite Khotunn before I reached them, gliding along the deathly water that covered the ground.
The Khotunn elite rolled away from the deathwater mages attack, raising his stone lance arm and firing it into the mages chest killing him instantly. The Khotunn elite placed their hand onto the stone floor, emitting a glowing tan hue that pumped up and across their body. Then, another rock lance manifested out from its elbow, replacing the one still plunged through the mage's blood-spilling midsection.
Landing amidst the carnage, one of the towering Khotunn elites bashed his shield into a deathwater mage, launching a blast of mana repulsing Phanthu's soldier into a stone building. The stone cracked around the mage's body, wedging his bloodied body in the wall. The Khotunn's head snapped around, raising their glowing rune-covered shield and charging at me.
Multiple crashing waves and sharpened strings of deathly water mana ricocheted off of the Khotunn's shield, the edges colliding into combatants of either side as he sprinted past. I began sprinting to meet him head on, my eyes glancing at both his sides making sure I had a clearing. A pulse of tan mana bursted from the front of their shield as the Khotunn barreled towards me. Water Step launched my body diagonally before sliding across the dark wet stone, firing my grappling hook to the side as I passed by the Khotunn's legs.
Digging my heel into the stone, I rose up to my feet behind the Khotunn who struggled to halt their forward momentum. My free hand snagged around his hip as I leapt around his body while retracting my grappling hook. The rope wrapped around their legs trying to catch up with me spiraling around his body, snagging the prongs into a crease in the back of his jagged stone knee. The Khotunn's hips twisted to face me before flailing his arms at his sides, hopping on his feet to stay balanced with my grapple wrapped tightly around his legs. Seeing him properly restrained, I stabbed at the back of his neck.
*TINK*
Tiny rocks chipped from the Khotunn's neck as my blade clanked off. I quickly swiped at his neck in a frenzy as he reached down, unhooking the grapple hooks prong from behind his knee. The soldier yanked hard onto the rope, pulling closer by my forearm while leaning forward for another shield bash.
Seeing no means of escape, my leg slammed into the center of his glowing-tan shield, activating Flow Inverse in hopes to mitigate how badly this was about to hurt. As our Flows clashed, a translucent eggshell ball of energy exploded between us, momentarily blinding me from the flashes intensity. The bright oblong shapes blurring vision quickly dissolved, finding myself flipping backwards through the air.
Looking down, the much smaller level 10 Khotunn had a stone lance arm burrowed through a mage's back, lifting him up like a human kabob. The dark shadows under its stony brow locked onto my falling figure, raising his second lance-arm at me. Lifting my leg up for a downward heel kick, my body suddenly twisted to the side feeling a powerful yank at my arm. The top of my cowl grazed the stone floor before slamming to the floor on my side.
Quickly inspecting my arm, the rope from my grapple hook was damn-near fully extended, the prongs snagged onto one of the larger Khotunn's corpses. Hopping to my feet, a sharp stone cone flew under my face before slamming into the back of another Khotunn's stone leg, crippling them instantly. My head leaned back before I could locate the ranged Khotunn avoiding another stone lance whizzing by my ear.
The constant resistance tugging from the grappling hook's fully extended rope being kicked by passing soldiers of either faction sent a spark of frustration through my veins.
Fuck it, try to track me.
Wind whistled around my ears sprinting towards the dead Khotunn laying on my hook's prong, serpentining my route to avoid crashing waves of dark water and opportunistic Khotunn trying to shield bash me as I passed. I reached within just 6 feet of the body when a massive wave rushed past, pulling away the dead Khotunn in its wake.
Shit.
The muscles in my shoulder screamed trying to withstand the sudden violent rip towards the dead Khotunn currently washing away. I struggled willing the prong to reel back, pulling my body faster through the air towards the corpse keeping my prong hostage. The hook finally ripped loose as I flew over the body, slamming my shoulder into the smooth stone wall the Khotunn elites began their last stand. One of my prongs smacked into my nose as it finished retracting into my forearm. I grabbed my face, glancing around the inducing carnage. Phanthu was surrounded by two of the Rune shielded Khotunn, with the shorter ranged one firing lances while sprinting around him.
Alright, FINE!
A newfound hatred for these Khotunn fighters stirred in my mind, realizing my blades offered very little in the way of actually damaging their hard bodies. If these fuckers are going to fight off their back heel and hide behind their shields and range, I'll just make them engage.
Screams of lesser Khotunn soldiers and Phanthu's death mages alike filled the battlefield as I sprinted towards the three elites ganging up on the future god, being sure to line up my approach to keep all of them directly in my path. Flashing tan energies fizzled under Phanthu's rushing waves of deathly water that contorted in shape and density with every crash.
Every step forward glided weightlessly across the stone floor, as the blue crackling energy writhing along my twinblades dissipated. The first Khotunn in my path suffered a ball of dark water shaped like a cannonball to his stony midsection just before I arrived. Water droplets flung from the length of my blade slicing cleanly through the Khotunn's thick jagged neck. Stone shrapnel shattered under his chin, sending a stream of red blood splattering from the wound as I continued riding Tidal Flurry's forward momentum.
The second shielded Khotunn thrusted his shield forward, launching a wave of tan energy in the shape of his shield towards me. A rush of water manifested along my rising blade before cutting through the hurtling block of energy, severing it and bursting to the side of the shielded Khotunn. Spinning my arm behind me, another large water formation accrued along the steel of my blade cutting through the back of his neck much cleaner than the previous.
Not caring whether they'd lived or not, I continued shuffling along the invisible wave surrounding my body. A massive block of condensed deathwater slammed onto the head of the third shielded Khotunn elite as Khotunn glided past riding a far more visible wave of his own. Roughly 15 feet past his crumpled corpse stood the ranged level 10 Khotunn, who fired his stone lances in both directions. Each foot merged and separated with the stone underfoot, absorbing some sort of dark tan energy that channeled into his newly grown forearms with every shot.
Noticing my twirling approach, the Khotunn pointed both arms in my direction, firing both its stone lances consecutively. Puddles of clear blue water splashed around my blades as they sliced through each lance as the Khotunn continued absorbing energy and shooting his own forearms at me. Finally nearing striking distance, my blade lifted from my side as I focused on timing my contorting steps with a slash. Suddenly, one of his feet extended from his knee, launching his body clear from my path.
Knowing Tidal Flurry deactivates after deviating from its linear path, my arm extended behind me between spins, firing my hook at the ledge of a stone building. The prong latched onto the corner, swinging me out of the invisible runaway wave back towards the Khotunn. His leg was still reforming when the back of my heel smashed into his rock-hard head, sending a shooting pain throughout my foot as he hobbled back. Ignoring the pain, I lunged forward hoping to catch him off balance with a Flow Strike.
A rush of opaque water blasted into the Khotunn's side, dousing it in Phanthu's dark, deathly fluid. My feet slid across the slick stone floor just short of the stone warrior, watching as its stone skin quickly began rotting away. Feint gargling screams squeaked out of its mouth as it slowly fell to the floor. Not willing to lose my hard earned experience points, I stabbed into its neck with two consecutive stabs breaking through its grey stone chest.
*ding*
My head whipped around in search of another Khotunn elite, only to find a sea of bodies strewn behind me. Phanthu's mages patrolled the prone Khotunn, a few ripping through the survivors with their deathly water magic. None of them discriminated between soldiers and citizens, as faint screams from the residential area echoed through the settlement caverns. One of them sounded far too high pitched to be…
Two hard pats on my back shook my vision as Phanthu strolled around me, wearing a big smile at the corner of peripherals. I didn't dare take my eyes off the bodies, trying to convince myself it didn't matter because they didn't really exist.
"Excellent work, Tom! I was a bit worried seeing you get tossed around like that, but you've certainly proven yourself a fine wielder wa-"
"So many." I muttered under my breath as one stray thought out of the hundreds raging through my mind slipped, feeling my throat tightening under the weight of every meaningless apology I yearned to scream down at the helpless citizens sprawled around me. Countless Khotunn slaughtered, at the hands of a faction I assisted and accepted praise from like a fucking god.
For what? Fucking 'Bonus Points'?!
"What was that, Tom?" Phanthu asked, placing his hand around my neck with a wide grin. Lightning began surging around my blades, switching my stance to ensure my strike would peirce straight through this tyrant's skull. Before I could even begin my lunge however, the ground between us started crumbling apart, ripping open a green-glowing fissure that forced me to retreat further into the settlement towards what looked like mines. Phanthu and many of his soldiers backpedaled toward the residential section on the other side, staring wide eyed at the Khotunn bodies plummeting into the steaming green abyss.
As a soldier leaned over the edge, dozens of skinny, dark spiraling strings forming one long tendril wrapped around Phanthu's curious mage. His screams quickly faded, being ripped into the fissure. Dozens of shriveled, dark green monsters that resembled moldy, shriveled peppers emerged from the tear in the ground at both sides. I barely had time to fry one with an uncharged Lightning Bolt when several tendrils made of smaller, sickly strings wrapped together clamped on the sides of the fissure, crushing Khotunn corpses and a few of the weird green things crawling out.
From the center of the dark, stringy tendrils emerged a massive dark green creature with several snapping heads. Its greasy, corpulent body looked ready to burst, leaking a viscous dark fluid. Its 3 snapping maws extended out from its head and where shoulders ought to be, each with swarms of bugs entirely too small to make out circling their long-toothed jaws.
Smaller clumps of dark string tendrils clasped along the outsides of the fissure, as similar large creatures with rotten mushroom caps for heads in place of jaws emerged. On their heads stood dark green creatures that shared the three headed maws and fat bellies traits, only using two thick roots to waddle off their rotten-capped allies. The largest beast that emerged behind the countless shriveled creatures turned around to face Phanthu and his men on that side, revealing a man wrapped in hundreds of skinny dark strings on its back. The man slowly emerged out from its back, standing on a platform of countless tiny strings.
"Now Phanthu, how could you forget about your dear pal Hyphaelius when y-" in a blink, a massive dark cloud shot in, engulfing the man's figure in a cloud of smoke. After a few seconds, the self proclaimed Hyphaelius flung out from the cloud, crashing down to the cavern floor surrounded by the creatures he arrived with. Atop his largest abomination of a companion formed a cloaked figure from the dark cloud, wielding a pair of long daggers in his hands. His hooded head slowly scanned the settlement before raspily bellowing out onto the crowd.
"Brothers of Nights Bulwark, It is time!"
Without missing a beat, Phanthu's men retreating behind me turned on one another, slaughtering their brothers while many stared in disbelief. Glaring back up at the figure, his newly acquired monstrosity of a mount began slamming its twisting tendrils into the smaller rotten mushrooms around it.
…it's not real. It's just a simulation. It's fine.