Unbound

Yari clutched the pole, his hands bloody from a long day of navigating the Poison Fields. His other hand clung the side of their flatboat as they were tossed by surging, poisonous waves. In the distance, serpents did battle with a monster.

Monsters fighting abominations. We’re doomed.

Someone screamed. A clawed hand latched onto the side of the boat, pulling itself up into the midst of the other prisoners as they scurried away from it.

"No, not all on the same side," Yari warned. "We'll tip over!"

The creature clambered nimbly over the edge of the flatboat, and he found himself staring into the glowing eyes of a horrifying armored skeleton. It…waved at him.

"Hello there. We are saving you. Please keep your hands and legs inside the flatboat at all times."

"What?"

More hands showed up at the back, and a large, thrashing fish bumped against the pole, knocking it out of his bloodied grip.

"Don't be afraid. We are the Risen, and you are safe."

All at once, they shot across the waves, propelled at crazy speed toward the edges of the Poison Fields, toward freedom. Yari looked at the others in disbelief. Many were cowering, but a few others followed his gaze. For the first time, hope returned to their deadened faces.

Behind them, a huge man-beast hit one of the Adamants with a hammer made of ice. It crashed like thunder, no matter that it was thousands of strides away—and the serpents fell, crashing into the water, knocking down several trees in the process.

Yari licked his lips underneath his enchanted mask. "When we hit dry land, we run," he told everyone.

"Now you're getting it!" the skeleton said cheerfully.

There were way more dead in the Poison Fields than Beef had expected. Thankfully, since Hallow's Evolution and Beef's Tier up, they could control more Risen than ever. Hundreds rose from the muck, swarming the Adamants and their serpents. And he clad all of them in chitinous armor.

Hallow Rise is level 78!

Hallow Call is level 80!

Unfortunately, the Adamants and their snakes weren't so easily defeated. A plethora of blue-tinged Skills flew from the knights, exploding corpses into shrapnel and crushing others into the soft, wet earth beneath several feet of water.

The Risen are too weak!

Too many Bodies are Untempered, Hallow said, her voice distant. The armor is helping, but there is a limit.

Within a minute, the first hundred he summoned were ripped asunder by force Mana and smashing tails.

So he raised more.

Hallow Rise is level 79!

Hallow Call is level 81!

They were, all of them, a distraction. That was the plan—but Beef wasn’t going to stop at keeping them busy while his friends did the important work. He was there to win.

That’s why he had monsters.

Hulking Swamp Trolls and Skunk Ogres slammed their garbage can lid-sized fists into diamond-hard scales, bowling over serpents and trying to unseat as many Adamants as they could. Their armor held their putrefied flesh together with bands of spiked chitin and added extra pain to every attack they managed to land.

Adamants screamed, hurling explosive strikes on his Risen again and again. Yet, where the lesser corpses were torn apart by the bursting force Mana, his monsters took the hits and kept on swinging. Adamants went down into the muck, and one serpent was crushed beneath the relentless blows of his Risen.

You Have Killed A Jeweled Servani!

XP Earned!

It was working.

Hallow controlled the beasts, focusing on raising as many as they could, while Beef handled the Multipede himself. That, and his hammer.

Despite the Risen at their heels, snakes flew at him and his mount with a relentless frequency. Bedlam intercepted them, disrupting attacks every once in a while, punctuated by frustrated, knightly screams. Sadly, it wasn't a feature he could count on working all the time, so instead he focused on his Skills.

“Ruinous Rampage!”

Beef channeled the Skill through the Multipede, and they shot forward, driving the enormous insect's head into serpent bodies and tackling them into the water, while Beef leaned forward in the saddle and swung his hammer.

"Deathblow Conduit!"

Necrotic Mana flowed over the battlefield, trailing from armored corpses and Beef's hammer as it smashed into Adamant's. He broke hands and legs and skulls whenever he could.

“Judgment’s Strike!”

The blow came at Beef from his blind side, but a construct of layered chitin erupted from the water, blocking the explosive force from harming Beef too much. Still, it threw him forward in his saddle and left his ears ringing.

You Have Killed A Jeweled Servani (x2)!

XP Earned!

You Have Killed A Knight Adamant (x3)!

XP Earned!

The Ogres and Trolls rose from the muck, mouths roaring as dark ichor poured from their spiked claws. Half had perished, their Bodies too devastated to Rise again, but it was a fair trade for three of his foes.

Only six left.

Four of them closed in on him, lances streaming with blue light.

“Ruinous Rampage! Deathblow Conduit!”

Beef and his mount tore forward, faster than the serpents could slither, and evaded the Judgment Strikes that came for his head. He swung his hammer into the nearest Adamant, throwing their lance wide—their Skill went off, bursting against the armored back of their ally.

Ruinous Rampage is level 79!

Deathblow Conduit is level 83!

Necromantic Mana burned atop his hammer as it smashed into force shields and thick, enchanted armor. The Adamants were no slouches, though—for every strike he took, the Adamants switched, maneuvering their serpents with incredible skill. As one Adamant fell back, another replaced them with frustrating grace, attacking Beef from a new angle. He moved as fast as he could, fighting with all of his Skills pressed to their limits.

Almost all.

He held back Crushwave Surge, his favored weapon against multiple enemies, because the prisoners still needed to escape. Hallow had been guiding the prisoners away as best she could, but the waves of their battle spread high and far. Beef wasn't going to let people die, if he could help it.

"Help!"

Beef heard the cry faintly over the clash of steel and churning waters. There, beyond the farthest Adamant, people were huddled behind a broken tree where their boats had fetched up. They clung there as the waves of the Poison Fields rolled against them ever higher.

An Adamant thrust their lance into his chest point-blank. "Judgment’s Strike!"

The explosion took him, blasting Beef off the Multipede and into the water. He splashed down, eyes open enough to see the Servani tackle his Risen mount to the ground—and then they were both thrashing, trying to find their footing in the thick mud.

He got to his feet just in time to see the remaining Adamants surrounding him. All six of them.

Beef hefted his hammer, the Poison Fields bubbling at his feet where the noxious water tried and failed to eat through his Protean Aegis. Beef tracked them, turning slightly as they slithered around. Most sported wounds from either his hammer or the Risen that had clawed at their hide—but the Risen no longer stood. The monstrous ones that had been giving them so much trouble floated in pieces, and there wasn’t a single corpse within reach that was hale enough to Raise.

Beef spat a taste of poison out of his mouth. “Not gonna make a move? You scared, snake boys?”

“This monster is not worth the breath he draws in,” one snapped.

Beef twisted Bedlam in his grip. “Yeah. Definitely scared.”

The Adamant jolted forward, but another intercepted them, their serpents hissing at one another. “Still yourself, Godrik. He shall see Justice.”

"You care about these wretches?" Godrik, the asshole, gestured at the broken trees beyond their circle.

"Don't you dare," Beef warned.

"Criminals all," the Adamant said, leveling his lance at the prisoners. "They're not worth your pity."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Stop!”

“Judgment’s Strike!”

“Ruinous Rampage!"

Beef tore forward, water parting around his body like the prow of a ship, but he couldn't outpace the Adamant's Skill. The tree exploded, tearing apart the remnants of the flatboat and the prisoners who had clung to its side. Beef floundered to a stop, staring where more bloody ruin had been visited on the Poison Fields.

"Why would you do that?" Beef raged. He gripped his hammer and turned on the Adamant. "Ruinous—”

“Ties That Bind!"

All six Adamants hit him at once, and tethers of force Mana snagged around his arms, shoulders, and legs. Beef fought against it. "Ruinous Ramp—!”

“Judgment’s Strike!”

Hallow's Protean Aegis is level 91!

Six more attacks, all of them exploding against his back and sides. Compressed balls of force Mana howled, tearing up water and earth as it pummeled Beef, and he felt his Skill slip from his grasp, shoved out of him by the sheer punch of their attack. A second salvo fired, and a spray of crystalline chips ripped from his back, and Beef fell to his knees. Bindings dragged him tight, holding him down.

Hallow's Protean Aegis is level 92!

Beef! Hallow cried. He could feel the distant, prisoner-saving Risen falter, Hallow's attention shifting away from them.

Hallow's Protean Aegis is level 93!

Hallow thickened her crystalline hide around Beef, holding him tight even as she felt a terrible, fissuring pain that echoed back into Beef.

Hallow! I don't need this! You're hurt!

Another volley of Judgment’s Strike hit and rocked Beef's head back. He saw stars briefly, and his head fuzzed. Go! Follow the plan!

"Do you think yourself a hero, Minotaur?" Godrick said to him. "You? How could a monster be a hero? The Weight of Mercy!"

Beef fell over, pressing the shaft of Bedlam into the soft muck beneath the water as he was pulled to all fours.

"You should have been killed at birth," Godrik snarled. "Instead, you've been allowed to grow. Your Strength must have confused you."

A serpent drew close, leaning its massive head almost level with Beef. He grimaced as its tongue slithered against his face. "You are not worthy of your rage."

A black blur tore from Beef's shoulder, shrieking toward the serpent at impressive speeds.

"Fafnir! Heel!"

A spray of necromanic breath preceded the little monster, forcing the Adamant to haul back on his reins. Fafnir clawed at the serpent's snout, digging her talons in deep.

"Fafnir! Hallow, get her back!”

I'm trying!

The Servani serpent yanked its head back, dislodging the Risen Hatchling in a single movement before snapping its jaws. Fafnir cried out as a sword-length fang pierced through her little chest.

"No!" Beef whispered.

Hallow screamed, her pain more visceral than ever before. The serpent twisted its head and threw Fafnir's limp body into the Poison Fields; she sank under the water.

Beef pressed himself up, his entire Body trembling under the strain. Some of the Adamants hissed in surprise, or perhaps it was their snakes. Bedlam’s shaft flexed beneath the pressure, but he didn’t relent.

Beef! Hallow panted, her thoughts far more scattered than normal. The…the last flatboat has made it to the jungle line!

Hope surged in his chest, tiny though it was, and he glared at the adversary before him.

"I'm going to kill you.”

Godrik smirked. "Of course. That is what you are, murderer. It is right that you've come to this prison, after all.” He leveled his lance at Beef, and the five others followed suit. “This will be your grave."

"You first,” Beef snarled, lifting his hammer. “Crushwave Surge!"

He dropped Bedlam, and a ripple of earth Mana tore through the ground, exploding the water up into the air and hurling all six serpents backward. Gaping wounds opened across their bellies where the volatile Mana had burst against them, and they screeched in pain as the Adamants fought for control.

Crushwave Surge is level 88!

Godrik twisting sideways, flinching from Beef’s power—he hadn’t noticed the hammer until it dropped.

“Monster—!”

Then he noticed nothing more.

Deathblow Conduit is level 84!

You Have Killed Knight Adamant Godrik!

XP Earned!

The Adamant toppled into a bloody ruin atop his saddle, and his snake keened in despair as it smelled its master's death. It screeched and lunged for Beef, maw open wide.

"Entropic Paradigm!”

He grasped the entropic energy as it burned from the Adamant's splattered corpse and hurled its power into the snake he’d ridden. Chitin burst, a thorned crown that latched onto the serpent's head before driving its vicious spikes through its skull.

You Have Killed A Jeweled Servani!

XP Earned!

Entropic Paradigm is level 87!

…

Entropic Paradigm is level 92!

“Just gotta push a bit more." Beef spat a glob of blood into the water. It sizzled like batter in a deep fryer. "Good thing I got plenty of targets. Entropic paradigm!"

He solidified his constructs, adding supports and braces to the flat, sharpened planes of his creations. They thrust upward, stabbing into the serpents from behind. They slithered away, the Adamants summoning shields that weren't punctured by his chitin…and Beef lifted Bedlam into the air with both hands and brought it crashing down into the water.

"Crushwave Surge!"

A titanic wave tore from him, the soft earth rising beneath it in a ripple thirty feet tall. He ran behind it, hooves turning among the drying mud faster than he'd ever moved before. The wave smashed into the Adamants and exploded, driving their serpents back, right onto the chitinous spikes.

Crushwave Surge is level 89!

Entropic Paradigm is level 93!

"Ruinous Rampage!"

Beef rushed forward at the last instant, hammer already swinging as he met the first Adamant. He crushed their chest. The Multipede surged from the waters, mandibles clamping onto a jeweled neck that gurgled into the poisoned waters.

"Deathblow Conduit!"

Beef brought his hammer down on the dead Adamant's mount, pasting the back of its skull before he leaped off, flaring Ruinous Rampage once again. The Adamant threw up his arms, and blue Mana solidified above him.

"Shield of Justice!"

Beef shot downward, a comet of solid muscle and pure, unfiltered rage. His hammer gleamed with necromantic Mana, and it met the Adamant's shield. It broke. And so did the knight.

You Have Killed A Knight Adamant!

XP Earned!

Ruinous Rampage is level 80!

…

Ruinous Rampage is level 83!

A serpent lunged at him, stabbing into his chest with its massive fangs before hauling back. Beef was pulled up into the air, suspended between its jaws.

I have you!

Beef's left arm jerked out of his control and pointed down into the serpent's throat before sprouting dozens of crystalline spikes.

Razorhail!

The blades erupted, tearing its insides to shreds.

Hallow's Razorhail is level 86!

…

Hallow's Razorhail is level 90!

He fell back into the water, but swiftly rolled to his feet, dripping sizzling acid and poison from his limbs. The Adamants closed ranks, once more dropping the Weight of Mercy on him, this time from four separate sources. He dropped to a knee as the water around him exploded outward, so much force Mana that the mud flattened into hard-packed earth, water squeezed out of it entirely.

"You tried this already," Beef said, clenching his teeth against the pressure. "It won't hold me!

Hallow's Protean Aegis is level 94!

Razorhail!

Beef spun, Hallow firing her crystalline projectiles in a wild circle around them. Each one found a fleshy target, though armor and scales kept them from running the bastards through. The pressure dropped from him as the Adamants pulled back.

"Ties That Bind!”

More binding lashes struck Beef, but he yanked them apart before more than one could lash onto him.

Ruinous Rampage is level 84!

Energy streamed off of him, and the water boiled away from his feet as he slammed his horns into the nearest Servani. It screeched, writhing from the pain of his orichalcum horns as it toppled over, splashing down hard.

"Cease your villainy!" an Adamant cried. They came for Beef, crushing him down beneath the thick coils of their serpent mount. Beef was taken off his feet once again.

Razorhail!

Crystalline spears stabbed upward, driven hard into the serpent's scales, but they didn't have enough space. The thing was crushing him into the mud as water, and muck rolled over his face.

Hallow! I can't—I can't breathe!

I know, I—! Beef! Something is happening!

The serpent pulled off of him suddenly, and he surged upward, gasping for air once his head cleared the poisoned water. Eyes stinging from foul water, he stared in confusion, his brain unable to comprehend the scene before him.

A dog-sized creature had leapt atop the jewel-scaled serpent. It was wreathed in a swirling, necromantic energy and wore spiked armor made entirely of chitin. Massive, oversized chitin jaws framed her head, and they tore viciously into the serpent's throat.

"Fafnir?!"

The serpent went wild, trying to free itself, but the little Hatchling held on.

Hallow Rise is level 80!

…

Hallow Rise is level 85!

Hallow Call is level 82!

…

Hallow Call is level 87!

Fafnir, Risen Hatchling, Has Learned A Skill!

Death’s Hide (Epic), Level 1!

Seize the energy of death and decay to wreathe your form in its power. Forms armor and jaws around your Body to protect and defend against those who seek your end.

Death’s Hide is level 2!

…

Death’s Hide is level 15!

The Adamant splashed at his feet. Lance had lost, but his fingers gleamed with blue Mana.

“No you don’t, you piece of—” With all his Strength, Beef spun and hurled Bedlam.

It crashed into the knight's face, crumpling his helmet in a spray of blood. He fell, and the serpent beside them ceased its struggle.

You Have Killed A Knight Adamant!

XP Earned!

You Have Killed A Jeweled Servani!

XP Earned!

Death’s Hide is level 15!

…

Death’s Hide is level 38!

Apprentice Tier!

She Gains:

+15 STR

+15 END

+12 WIL

Fafnir flapped her wings and skidded across the water's surface before pouncing on another serpent. It hissed and tried to fling her away, but Beef was there, trapping its tail in a cage of chitin. The not-so-little Hatchling sank her teeth into its diamond-hard scales.

"Mercy!" cried one of the Adamants.

"Deathblow Conduit!" Beef answered back, dropping his hammer onto the man's chest. Shield and plate armor exploded with a burst of necromantic Mana and savage Strength.

Deathblow Conduit is 83!

You Have Killed A Knight Adamant!

XP Earned!

He pulled Bedlam up to his shoulder. “No more mercy."

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