The backpack loses momentum mid-flight as Tetsu advances to the front.
"I didn't see this one." Draugr recoils, adjusting his stance and lifting his sword to strike. A Rune on the sword's hilt pushes it higher, while another under the draugr's feet causes him to stumble forward. From a striking pose, the draugr transitions into an awkward face plant.
Adding insult to injury, the backpack somehow replaces the ground beneath him, and a firm kick to the butt sends him tumbling in.
"Less talk, more action," Tetsu snorts, sporting the backpack midair.
"You!" A lich points its staff, only to lose its staff, which the backpack promptly swallows. The lich flees with Tetsu now calling it out. "You!"
———<>|*|<>———
"The chest is closed," a scout informs Krovath.
"What? How?" He finds a cameraman filming from atop the closed chest, who had closed it seeking a better angle.
"Damn, they are... resourceful," Krovath mutters.
"Technician team, target all backpacks," Tarah orders, her hate palpable. "Apologies for the language," she adds, bowing to her king before focusing on shifting the battle's dynamics with strategic placements.
"We have orders to retreat," Lala informs the animated Horr'ers.
"What about them?" It gestures toward the castle.
"Without backup, we're just offering ourselves as free XP. We have orders," Lala explains.
"Why didn't you lead with that?" the Horr'er questions.
"What part of 'ordered' didn't you understand?" Lala hisses. 'These battle-crazed undead will be the death of me someday,' she grumbles to herself and commands the undead to fall back. "I need control over the corpse lords." She sends a telepathic signal to Mor. After some back-and-forth yelling, she gets permission.
"Follow my order," Lala raises another battle zone, her war lines superimposed over Tarah's.
"A strategist!" Tarah exclaims.
"Double classes? These undead have way too many tricks up their sleeves," Krovath clenches his fist, cracking the balcony railing. "War song." He activates a skill, and the castle hums to life.
———<>|*|<>———
"Our armies are moving too far away," the Prime Elementor and Ant Queen demanded answers from their second-in-command.
"The human," the commanders complained.
———<>|*|<>———
"CHEW!" Tetsu sneezed. "Cold? Mana-based? Nah..." He ignored the ominous sensation boiling in his gut, hoping such minute creatures never made it to their new world. Imagine conquering the world just to die of the common cold! Tetsu shuddered at the mere thought, even more so than the nasty ghoul he had to shove into the backpack.
———<>|*|<>———
"Why haven't we caught the human yet?"
Ant Queen demanded answers from General Ant, while Val made a similar, much harsher demand to Mor.
"He dead and CLAY..." Ant General yelled.
"He is dispersing our forces and has two armies backing him. I can't figure out his plan," Mor replied, burying his face into the crystal atop the staff, hoping to discern the human's secret pattern.
———<>|*|<>———
"Ponky," Tetsu smiled as the lucky draw picked an easy zombie this time. "Come to Daddy." He sets off in a new direction.
———<>|*|<>———
"The undead have appeared between the battlefields," Strategist Ant clarified the general's ramble.
"What do you mean, appeared? They don't have such instant transfer skills. At least not at these levels."
"I..." The battle sounds drowned out the connection.
"Liches," the Queen rose, her mandibles clicking in irritation. "HuuMaan!"
———<>|*|<>———
"Stop unleashing the undead, cadet!" General Krantz yelled in vain at the teenager who ran amok, pulling one dead after the other from her backpack.
"Why are they in mine?" She wailed, running around the battlefield.
The undead pounced from the shadows as soon as they were released from her backpack, not even once considering their bizarre circumstances. Their assault continued, oblivious and uncaring of their changed surroundings. Smarter Liches were forced to manage the undead to aid in their own escape.
"Where is the backup?" A Draugr yelled.
"How should I know... they are here? How?" a Lich gawks to its right, undead pouncing out of the shadows. "Charge?!" It joined the brainless zombies in their frenzied assault.
———<>|*|<>———
Two mountains rose between the ant and undead quadrants, creating a new height of chaos as they forced the smaller battlefields apart.
Tetsu stuffed another draugr and eyed the spectacle. "Round three?" His fangs descended, warding off Val's and Mor's supreme aura.
"What—"
"How did he—"
Tetsu was already running away before they had time to adjust.
"Come back here. You—"
The cameraman stepped on Val's head before vanishing into the chaos, hot on Tetsu's heels.
"Another one! Who are all of you?" Val barked.
"Lord," Mor interjected.
"Shut up and follow." Val took off, tracking Tetsu as he lost track of the cameraman.
"No, wait! Even the undead can't outnumber an ant hive."
Mor's words fell on deaf ears, for the thread of defiance stirred up chaos, and no plan or foresight could save them now.
———<>|*|<>———
The queen's orders were absolute, and the ants surged to the surface, no longer on standby.
A single command circulated within the hive: Kill.
A single word to claim dominance.
The first mountain exploded as the ants swarmed the area, and seconds later, the second mountain shook to life, the Claytron forming a humongous clay mountain by melding several clay golems together.
A single order to unite them all.
———<>|*|<>———
The Raptors found a bigger target to test their firepower on, while the Cloud Glades descended to feed upon the swarm of ants.
As the heavens met earth, the underworld roared for blood.
The army of undead gushed out of the tomb with no order or goal in mind.
They didn't have a single command, yet they rushed to snuff out life, which was their creed since the very beginning of death.
———<>|*|<>———
"We did it..." the scout informs Tarah.
"Now." She sent a mental nudge, and the castle jolts into action.
It ascended five meters above the ground, and arcane wheels propelled the massive castle forward. The Krantz hurried into the castle, flinging their gear in side rooms before rushing to their stations. Cannons, rifles, and various squads assembled around the elongated balcony, with Tarah positioned at its center.
"Starboard," Tarah signaled, and the castle pivots.
At its heart, Krovath lounged on his majestic throne, savoring sips of Tulsung tea amidst the futile battle cries attempting to breach his chambers. If the system engineers knew the true value of this exquisite tea, they would have charged him twice the amount of his collection of tombs.
"Need more sugar," Krovath remarked, glancing at the only exit. "Note to self. Must add a shelf in here." He returned his focus to his tea; venturing outside meant interruptions to his precious tea time.
———<>|*|<>———
"Why is he advancing toward our stronghold? He lacks the army to breach our defenses," Val bellowed above the clamor of undead war cries, his words lost amidst the chaos. "How is he managing it?"
"Get back here!" Tetsu shouted, his voice drowned out by the battle cries and explosions, though he could still hear the curses of the zombie he pursued.
"Impressive lung capacity. I need to preserve this one... for research purposes, of course," Tetsu remarked, a mischievous glint in his eye spurring the zombie to move faster than ever.
"Mine!" Val's voice echoed in the distance.
Tetsu spared the undead leader a glance. Val stumbles and then gets trampled by his own army. "I belong to no one," he pouts and refocuses on the chase.
In the brief moment of Tetsu shifting his gaze, he confuses one zombie for another and shifts targets alongside his trajectory once more.
"Not so fast, human," Mor began to chant a spell, raising his staff, but before he could cast a spell, the ground erupted, and an army of ants surged into his rare, converging on Tetsu.
Ignoring the ant army, Mor ascended higher to target the humans. Ric cast a brief glance before Mor's staff slipped and was swept away in the stampede. To worsen matters, massive clay boulders rained down on the battlefield, burying the staff deeper.
Tetsu's eyes darted, assessing the situation.
The Claytron mountain erupted in chunks because of the Raptor's suicidal assault, but the Prime Elementor expected this and turned the rubble to their advantage.
Meteors of rubble caused widespread damage while providing more clay for the Claytron to absorb and grow stronger. Some meteors even contained Claytron units, further bolstering their efforts to hunt down Tetsu.
The Claytron meteors formed clay traps, hindering the army's movements as they awaited reinforcements.
Tetsu inscribed a [Eye] rune on the meteor, using it as a vantage point to establish a network of eyes, marking the meteors requiring attention while designating the Claytron mountains as his focal point.
Several [Eyes of Providence] runes illuminated the Claytron mountain's chest in a circular formation, conjuring an ethereal moon crest that captured everyone's attention and became their primary target.
———<>|*|<>———
Tetsu stumbled upon an ant tunnel, surrounded by adversaries. Drawing out an orb that erupted into blinding light, he disoriented the ants and swiftly kicked one out of the tunnel, then burrowed into its wall.
The ants, lacking sight, closed their eyes and blindly hacked through everything in their path. Upon regaining sight, half ascended to the surface, following the Ant Tetsu ejected, while the remainder tunneled toward the side orifice he created in pursuit of their target.
The tunnel emptied in a split second as the ants dug with remarkable speed, surpassing Tetsu's capabilities. Tetsu exploited the original ant tunnel to escape from the initial digging spot. "Can't outsmart those ants," he chuckles and creates two more deceptive pits for added safety, then digs a proper tunnel to seek refuge in.
But how could fate allow him to rest while chaos brewed ever so high?
A tremor that shook the entire battlefield interrupted Tetsu's efforts. "Damn! I forgot about the big guy," he grimaced, gulping down another stamina potion.
After a brief respite to mitigate the inevitable fatigue, the battlefield erupted with resource bubbles. The undead became distracted, allowing the living to capitalize on their confusion, despite their own state of disarray.
———<>|*|<>———
"They're too formidable," the General lamented.
"What do you expect from the undead elite?" Tarah countered.
The animated Horr'er shrugged off a cannon blast to the chest, laughing as debris fell around him.
"Don't become complacent," Lala admonished. "Continue like this, and I'll run out of mana. Then you can kiss your invincibility goodbye," she scoffed, recasting the spell. "Damage transfer."
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