The Power of Ten

Chapter 10-321: Just Rewards

I was not the one who killed the most undead the fastest. Commander Haru’Ara and Briggs lifted up the anchor rods of my nice big thousand-foot Wall of Fire from the ground, got up in the air - one flying, the other walking on air – and turned that Wall upside down, so there was a twenty-foot Wall of Fire forming a straight line between them.

And then, the two lads began to race ahead.

It was a classic Firewall Sweep, and the undead had no way to deal with it or them, nor did the Cultivators who were looking on. The boys chose the arc closest to the Dome, since it had the most undead, and ran on ahead of us as the aghast Cultivators still standing guard could only watch, Briggs snickering as he ran by them, waving as he did.

That Wall of Fire was Cast at Fifty. 2-16+50 base damage, doubled against undead. Even without any of the Kickers clinging to it, it was still able to wipe out just about everything.

Cruising forwards faster than a man could sprint, the two of them blew a thousand-foot swathe of annihilation through the hapless Dead March below them. Anything that might have had a fart’s chance of stopping them was inside playing Qi furnace. The undead out here had no guiding intelligence but instinct, no idea of what was coming, and could only look and watch it come... and die as it raged past and devoured them.

The Purgers complained good-naturedly, following after me as I shredded the lines of the undead trying to get to them. Breaking up their presses and massive numbers allowed teamwork and multiple attacks on single undead, needed since most of the Purgers were generally at the two-hit limit on these enhanced basic undead.

I paced ahead of them, the Old Steed moving from point to point to maximize my Pyroclasms, two thoughtsteams working full time on targeting Shard volleys for maximum effect. Each Shard volley was basically 160,000 or so square feet of space wiped, in whatever pattern I wanted to make it, so shattering the incoming undead wasn’t difficult at all. I could annihilate them faster than they could advance on a specific area, especially as my Pyroclasms were tearing out the thickest centers of them.

The Purgers were cheering and whooping as they followed me, hacking and shooting down the scattered, disjointed undead left behind. The Mick knew that I was actually taking things slow and leaving stuff for them to do, instead of just obliterating everything in a steady advance, but nobody was complaining about me not killing EVERYTHING.

By the time Briggs and Commander Haru’Ara completely circled the Inner Dome, the Outer Dome had collapsed. There were too few undead left to keep it powered, and streams of vivus were now burning over the Inner Dome in hungry wisps of unwhite, feeding on the blackness seething inside it.

There was no further need for the Wall of Fire except kill-stealing, so Briggs clasped the rods together before stowing them, and he and the Commander went on overwatch, actively starting to direct the killing effort in swathes and sweeps. Shooters opened up paths, Melees formed walls and finished off any stragglers, the fastest and most skilled moving this way and that to reinforce any section of the line that couldn’t just pound through their enemies.

It was a lot of ground. It was a lot of undead.

This was what fighting a Dead March was like. You didn’t stop, because the undead didn’t.

The Shroudzone naturally shrank with the undead’s numbers, and they also had no shelter from the sun, even if we didn’t kill them. We were actually racing the moon to kill everything, shooters up on Disks now, Melees trotting if possible, and my choice of targets getting more meticulous and measured as Briggs gave me targeting areas to hit so that the momentum wouldn’t slow down.

It was a lot of slaughter, an outright massacre, but the undead earned no less. They and a lot of Death Qi were Fed to the Land, and I’m sure it loved the meal.

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I blew a last Shard volley through the final cluster of undead.Shining Chains spread out from it in an exploding flower of Sacred, Elemental, and Force energies, tearing the cluster apart. The Purgers moved in instantly, collapsing on the last ones to survive between the Bursts.

The lesser undead of this Dead March would be gone within minutes.

“Five minutes to spare,” Briggs grinned, standing up there next to Commander Haru’Ara. The planetar was still in his human form, but he did have two white wings out, glowing softly as he hovered there next to Briggs.

“Good timing,” I congratulated him, as he’d Warlorded to give the people below us as much Karma as he could while still making sure we were done on time. It helped that there was basically no looting to do and so distract anyone, keeping everyone on the job and focused.

The more distant elements of the Purgers were making their way towards us quickly, because we expected Shit To Happen, and it was undoubtedly going to be safer closer to us. There was no problem with illumination, because the ground was glowing white with vivus, which was also crawling all over the Dome there, adding to the woes of maintaining it.

“They are consuming massive amounts of Death Qi,” Haru’Ara stated with grim satisfaction, glancing at the soldiers below finishing up and hurrying to get behind them in formation, The Mick cursing them and shooing them into proper places, shooters and Casters elevated, melee-types in front. Those who had Shields had honor of first place, the things resting on the ground as everyone lined up behind them, watching the show ahead.

There was a pulse at the Veil, and my eyes narrowed sharply. Briggs huffed, and Haru’Ara just frowned.josei

The whorl in the sky over there seemed to invert itself, negative energy howling as it tore at time and space.

Something was being allowed to come through. I had the distinct impression it chose to come... which made me smirk even harder.

If you could see the thaumaspectrum, it was like a black star, materializing out of the tip of the pitch-black Hellcloud. Death Qi began to converge on it, visible streaks upon the Inner Dome... which suddenly collapsed, the power maintaining it finally expended, and a massive FWOOSH of vivus blazed into the sky all around the fallen city ahead of us. The shadows of the many destroyed buildings, torn apart and crushed to make way for broader streets, occasional new edifices and pagodas replete with skulls and bones to conduct death Qi, were now clearly visible.

The Forbidden City was probably the only area truly left intact, as well as Tiananmen Square, and even they had... additions. Mounds of skulls and bones, mostly, helping that Death Qi settle in nicely.

The Shroud roiled above as that dark power gathered, and I grinned wider, making sure Sama was watching this in the distance. The clouds above suddenly blazed with hate lightning... that suddenly went all purple as the incoming entity asserted its mastery over the power of the death, and the Shroud went, ALL RIGHTY!

“<WHAT?!>”

The force of the word blew past us, carrying a stench even more foul than Death Qi, forcing everyone to put vivic Weapons in front of themselves to burn the odor away. The clouds above rumbled and danced in happy acknowledgment about finding another sucker to enslave.

That bastard was at least five miles away, and even with Raised Eagle Eyes, there was too much crap in the air to see clearly what was going on.

“What do you think they are doing now? Screaming for mercy and understanding?” Briggs asked loudly, drawing some laughs from the men below, who’d naturally been alerted to what was going on.

I felt the tug on the Qi, and we all watched the Shroud suddenly pull down towards that dark figure in the distance. There were distant screams carrying on the wind with supernatural speed as a silent explosion went off over yonderbouts, and suddenly a great black sphere of pure negative energy blossomed forth, gaining in height and vanishing into the Shroud as it exploded like an overdone black Pyroclasm.

Briggs and Commander Haru’Ara grabbed a rod each, and separated instantly, the Wall of Fire, laced with vivus and holy energies, igniting and raging forth between them, right in front of the assembled men.

Yes, it was indeed safer behind the two of them.

I looked at the incoming wave, watched its true area of effect hit, and then the remnant energies raged forth, devouring earth and sky. It turned the Hellcloud above purple and red and black, sucking out more death energy, as it came howling for us.

Just a negative energy wave, nnn, 20d6. Completely handled by Death Ward, and out-powered by the Wall.

It blew past us, the vivus on the ground first igniting, flaring with too much fuel, and then extinguishing, painting the ground a pasty black as it did. I saw buildings crumble, stones shatter, and everything natural in the area was pretty much wiped away instantly.

The Wall burned even brighter, and my personal Death Ward kept it away without difficulty. The Old Steed wasn’t affected by this at all, of course; Briggs just ignored it, and the planetar was immune to negative energy attacks.

The Wall was burning twice as intensely as normal for the full six seconds the wind howled past us, the men watching the show up above and to the sides, and glad the Wall was there.

They were a long way from all of them being able to afford Death Ward Amulets, after all, or having Vajras at 40.

Briggs glanced over at me, completely unruffled, his Vajra keeping him untouched by bone grit or necrotic shit. “Well?” he asked me rhetorically.

“Legendary-level effect, ultra-specialized necromantic ability.” I squinted, hands on my temples as Clavus floated beside me. Using ultra-high magnification Eagle Eyes took great concentration, as even a heartbeat made your view jump around. The difference between a Transmutation spell supercharging your eyes and a Divination spell Scrying over there, as it were. “Not an Eternal, but touching it, kind of like using a Wish or Miracle, except he tapped the Shroud to do it.” My eyebrows rose as I caught my first sight of the Cultivators over there, heads suddenly shiny bone and their eyes glowing purple-green. “Yeah, the twat just necrofied the lot of them.”

Broad grins broke out of the fighters below as the three of us drifted down to a lower position, the Wall falling with us and letting them view what was far ahead of us. The black star of that incoming Daoist pulled the eye-

I felt the divinatory effect of a powerful Divine Sense sweep over us. I promptly reached out and broke it, and felt a very surprised jolt out there in the distance as the new Shroudlord ate the feedback damage.

Don’t try to Scry someone who used to be part of a Diviner Spec, sheesh!

“So, he’s got the Dark Clergy, the Congregants, and the Cultivators here to work with,” Briggs rumbled. “Can we handle them?”

“From a certain standpoint, they made themselves easier to handle.” The Purgers all grinned and nodded, holding up Baneskulls and Tokens and Baned Weapons and the like. They were all good at fighting undead, much better than fighting Daoists, who could have all sorts of unpredictable abilities. Even if they just became untiring life-sucking killing machines, they’d actually be easier to fight!

“The Dark Congregants and Clergy have lost almost all their power with the supporting undead exterminated. They are basically just enhanced combat undead. The Cultivators will be more dangerous, as they’ll keep most of their ability with Death Qi, and there will be hundreds of them.” I glanced at the Purgers. “I don’t trust their Nulls and Sources to carry them through yet.”

“Well, then,” Briggs smiled, “It sounds like we should take out the Cultivators first, and let the lads handle everyone else. I think we should go get some help for that job.”

I had to agree with him. Time to gather some muscle!