The Power of Ten

Chapter 9-278: Just Winging it a Bit

Okay, that raised a lot of eyebrows, as going with an ink-dark bat theme seemed rather edgy, even if they were all glinting silver at the edges, and shining silver Symbols were glowing on them. I blissfully ignored the startled eyes, while Sama sat down on the Disk next to the shrunken Mick and Amaretta.

“Okay, we’re flying overland for sixty miles,” I informed everyone. “That is going to get you all to the nearest area to where Cultivators have been spotted. Some of the native Taiwanese fighters are going to be working with you if you meet any locals, who won’t have learned The Human Tongue yet.

“They’ve been advised of your presence, they know the reason why, and they are totally cool with paying you in the blood of dead Cultivators. Knock yourselves out.” High-pitched cheers and calls came from all the little people. “Alright, I’m going to be flying there.” My wings arched up, the silver Symbols glowing like liquid moonlight as I turned around, waving to establish a Ward Wall around the tight-packed Disks to protect them all from the wind. “Should have you all in the right area in twenty minutes or so!”

I didn’t flap my Wings, as I already had a flying spell up and was floating above the ground. I just tilted over, spread them wide, and began to pick up speed.

No damn way the things could support me, anyways. Magic was the thrusting power, the wings were just for control.

A narrow profile of Disks stacked atop one another three high and two wide so as to minimize the area I needed to cover with a Wind Wall followed behind me like a jetsilver snake as I slowly picked up speed and began to rise into the air, trailing them behind me.

-You going to have any problems getting back to the Chinese?- I /asked Sama.

-No. I’ve started powering up Teleports for Tremble. I’ve got one a day already, just adding more Karma every day,- she /replied. -I’ll hit the ground and ‘port back to Fuzzy. We’ve been doing a lot of weaponsmithing the last few days, making Gear for the Chinese.- She held out her hand, and Amaretta handed over the Masspack, which blossomed to full size as it left the doll-sized Blooded woman’s hand. A thought-blurb identified it as mostly ingots for making Weapons for the two of them, along with hafts for glaives or axes.

I looked over the ground below, completely empty of any people despite the many roads and houses there. Some of the buildings were smoldering ruins, obviously not from too long ago, but in most cases the only thing moving about was some birds, and in other cases cats and dogs.

Nothing bigger. There were riotous swathes in the oddest places, too, as if the greenery had erupted overnight.

Vivus, feeding the land, accelerating the reclamation of the landscape.

“If you’re wondering, all those blasts of green in odd spots are where corpses were made into vivus,” I informed everyone in my best chirpy stewardess voice. “The Daoists killed every man, woman, child, and cattle in this area, and for a swathe of land over three hundred miles long, if not longer. This section has been cleared, and the Chinese have been sweeping up the Shroudzone slowly.” All the little heads turned to the southwest, where the dark clouds were brooding. “They’ve got millions more undead to kill, of course, but they are taking it slowly... so that they have the strength to come join you.”

There were rumbles and nodding heads at that, the grim words serving their purpose. The Chinese weren’t slacking, but they were weak right now... but oh, not for long, not for long...

“When you gather enough blood, make sure it is Itemized. I can Teleport it all back home, to be registered and stored safely. Just make sure to freaking Arcane Mark what is yours!” I called back to them, and heads nodded urgently, having no wish to lose track of their gains.

“And remember, NO SURVIVORS!” They all shivered and nodded their heads again.

Absolute mercilessness. I sped over the silent, abandoned lands not far below us, not a single human being visible, and let it sink into them on why as they studied the silence, the bursts of green, and the wreckage and ruin.

Those things had no mercy for civilians, and even less for Powered; there would definitely be none for them!

----------

It was easy to see where the Cultivators and the more dangerous Chinese were fighting, as the flash and flare of Qi powers against Chi powers was pretty visible in the distance.

There were plenty of my Blessed among them, so I knew what was going on. Teams of Cultivators were roving about, trying to ambush the Powered, and annoyingly having to deal with all the damn Warlocks and human Primos at the same time. It really pissed them off to have to deal with those feebs, although they DEFINITELY didn’t like it when Shvaughn/Windwise came popping in to get their attention with a monstrously crackling Sword to the face.

The Cherokee were going to be famous in China forever, courtesy of her.

I left the Disks to them, as they would last a good four days, and definitely wouldn’t have any weight issues. They could stow all their loot and gear on them without a problem.

The Chinese naturally cheered to see me coming... and the arcing of Chain Greater Weapons coming down on their gear, followed by Force Armor to a bunch of them... and then dozens of Cultivators abruptly exploded to get me back some ki.

I also still had Commune with Nature up, and promptly nailed down the locations of every single Cultivator within ninety miles and fed the locations to them.

------

“All yours, Lord Mick,” I told him, and he just nodded, taking over with ease. He wasn’t a Warlord; that was what Sama was here for, to put an eye on all these people and get an idea of what they were capable of, so she could give directions through the Blessed and the Marked.

Everyone had disembarked, and I’d gotten rid of the Shrinking magic, restoring everyone to full size.

It was the first time a lot of the Chinese had seen the Tomb Clans up close. They sort of blinked, and got over it. After the last week of their lives, someone that looked like undead just wasn’t going to faze them, and these strange people spoke Human, and didn’t move or act like undead at all, talking and chatting like everyone else.

The Mick began to divide hunting groups up with Blessed and Marked among them, The Map right there for them to follow, and the locations of the Cultivators also pretty obvious as they were moving around.

-I want to be a Twenty, popping around The Map, killing every single thing there,- Sama /complained.

-You mean like me and Master Fred are?- I had to /ask. The Commune was more than sufficient to get a target lock for Teleport VII, no chance of going high, low, or off-target, and it put us right on top of our targets in no time at all.

They couldn’t run, they couldn’t hide. All I had to do was keep finding some so I could recharge, and we could just go and go and go.

Of course, Teleporting chopped up my Lived-line something fierce, and we always had to return to the main line to continue it. But, yeah, see Formation, ‘port to Formation, kill Formation. If it had defenders, it was for free.

It was why when the Buddhists were running away from the cities, they hadn’t escaped me. I’d Teleport within Shard range and simply wipe them without mercy.

-Stop making me envious.- Her teams were already splitting up to find the Cultivator prey waiting for them, while a few were exsanguinating the dead with great enthusiasm. The Blooded and Gluttons along were particularly adept at the task, and their Alchemists were moving with great speed and efficiency to harvest the valuable red-black-gold stuff.

How they worked out payment was on them. Sure, the mercs wouldn’t be moving too fast, but I knew The Mick could bleed a whole stack of corpses at once if he was of a mind to. It was among the spells I gave him.

He and the Marked were also noting to the Chinese that the faster the dead got bled, the faster the mercs got back to hunting for more of them. The Mick had already taken out ammo for the shooters among the Chinese, and certainly wasn’t above trading more supplies for some quick hauling of dead corpses together to get drained, and the Chinese weren’t too proud to treat Cultivator corpses that way, either.

I did Teleport ten miles to a location with over a hundred Cultivators lying in ambush, appearing right in the middle of them, to their astonishment.

Six seconds later, the screaming stopped, and they were all dead.

I bled them all dry, swirling the blood up into a large urn for The Mick to come and collect, noting the location on The Map, and stacked up the quasi-magical Gear for them to claim and Burn away to make something productive with.

I didn’t have a Lived-line to this place, but one of my tracks was within easy hop range. I informed them that I was available for emergencies, but the best thing they could do is handle things themselves, and get stronger by doing so. If they saw a huge force of the enemy, well, I was two spells away. That was a mere twelve seconds if someone could get an Energized Focus up.josei

The Mick pulled out one he’d had pre-made... no, he pulled out twenty of them. I smirked as he distributed them among the hunting teams, and they moved out for their targets, lamenting that I was leaving and couldn’t continue spotting for all of them.

Then they heard what I was doing and shut the Hell up, even as they considered the sheer amount of blood going to waste when I slaughtered everything. I didn’t have time to harvest it.

That was totally intentional. The blood they were harvesting wasn’t going back to the Land, and I definitely wanted that to happen. Saving a few thousand gallons for some decadent Blooded or their undead elders to feed on was somewhere below the soles of my feet on the priority scale.

But night was coming. The Tomb Clans did very well at night...

-------------

The next four days were filled with levels of massacre I hadn’t ever wanted to have to inflict on anything living... but Cultivators were an exception. Even after personally slaughtering over three million of them by now, I felt no sympathy or mercy for them whatsoever.

Back on Terra-Luna, a Harsite Priest Communed every single damn day, asking questions of the Ivory King. One of those questions was always “Are there Cultivators alive on our world?”

If the answer was yes, Tens were mobilized to deal with them instantly. There was no hesitation whatsoever.

They’d shown us what they were; we’d learned where they came from and what they intended. We simply could not exist in the same world as them, an absolute clash over territory that could not be resolved amicably.

That Powered were walking Cultivation resources to them, and they were excellent Karma for us, didn’t make matters better at all.

As I returned to the location I’d left Master Fred at, dusk fluttered by on an evening wind and a whispered Salute; my magical day reset, and quiet pings announced themselves.

Pact Theurge/5 had completed itself three nights ago. Monk/5 had ticked over two nights ago. Melee/5 had happened last night. Tonight, Vizard/5 ticked into place.

Five confident dings announced that the Shroud was pretty happy about what it was giving me. I looked them over.

Mind Over Matter: A Wizard Discovery as a Feat. Get Intellect bonus instead of strength on Combat Maneuvers and Defense, and Breaking or Lifting chances. Combined with Imbue Staff, basically replaced Strength with a telekinetic equivalent.

So, my 29 Strength was basically for show now, which was amusing. Oh, right, carrying stuff... if I didn’t just dump it on a Disk.

Magic Strike: As a Swift action, imbue my Weapon for +1 damage, +1/5 Caster Levels, for six seconds. Well, if I never needed to use the Swift action, which I most certainly would if at all possible, I suppose it wasn’t bad... and me just wanting to jump into Melee combat, mm mmm...

Eldritch Tapestry/1 & 2. Okay, War Weaving was somewhat okay... but, sheesh, I had Chain/Mass Spell now, and Reach Spell and everything... The key thing was being able to store the spells and just kind of drop them all at once, which, if I wanted to Buff up myself and a bunch of allies with some killer spells all at once, I had to admit was pretty nice.

I suppose that meant I should be fighting with allies I could Buff up more often? Ah, it was for those Emergency Situations and Boss Fights I might find myself in...

And lastly, Way Mastery/3, adding the Moon Dragon to Sun and Shadow, allowing me to use all their techniques concurrently if need be. Oh, with +1 ki.

I had four more Classes to take, all non-Casting, before my Mandatory Mastery Choices Run would probably hit, so they were probably going to be focused on ki-based techniques to get my Pool up, like Melee and Monk had been. There was nothing wrong with that, of course. I appreciated a big Pool, as it gave me lots of spellcasting flexibility with a quick recharge.