Unbound

Chapter Eight Hundred – 800

Beef walked carefully on the dark edge of the jungle where dry ground met sudden, noxious wetland. He'd taken his time, moving as quietly as possible through the underbrush as the sun's rosy hue faded slowly into early morning blue.

Harn is asking if you are in position.

Tell him to hold on.

He stopped at the foot of a rocky cliff where the ground looked to have once slid down into the swamp, leaving a number of tall trees leaning slantwise over the foul water. Ahead, the Poison Fields opened up before him. A few flatboats were in the periphery, but none were too close. That was good. He didn't need them getting in the way.

Beyond the watery field, the tower of the Overlord loomed. Even from his low vantage, Beef could see the guilders guarding the edges of the small, rocky island. All of them were wearing heavy armor that glinted with enchantments. They didn't concern Beef too much, even if there were dozens just from this angle.

They weren't his targets.

Closer by far, two Adamants on their giant, colorful snakes slid by, floating atop the water like it was solid ground. The serpents wore barding, just like the one they met in Morva, and in addition to having a shimmer of metallic blue surrounding them, the knights astride them were clad in heavy plate armor.

Force shields, likely hard to penetrate.

They looked bored. Beef aimed to change that.

I'm in position now, starting my attack.

He dug his hands into the jungle floor, tearing up one mossy boulder among many. The ground tore, roots stretching and snapping like tiny gunshots. It was loud, so Beef moved fast. He hefted the boulder, easily bigger than himself, and braced against his back leg.

"Get smashed, idiot!"

He hurled the boulder into the Poison Fields. It flew out fast, propelled by his immense Strength, before crashing into the nearest snake head-on and slamming it into the water. Spray erupted all around it, and the serpent hissed angrily as it came back up among the bubbling spew.

"Attack!" the Adamant on its back spluttered. He was covered in sizzling water and shaking out his limbs. "Attack from the south!"

The words had barely left his mouth when the second boulder hit. The Adamant was fully hurled from the saddle by the impact, metallic blue flashing as he was driven into the water along with his serpent.

"Fight me, snake boys!" Beef strode from the cover of hanging moss and vines. Though his arms and legs were clad with gleaming, silver-red arcanite, he wore nothing else above his battle skirt save the broad slabs of his own furry muscles.

The first Adamant stumbled to his feet, poisoned water streaming from his pauldrons and vambraces. "Defiler!"

The Adamant beside him laughed and loosened the straps on his tall lance. "Brother, one seems to have challenged you this day.”

“Judgment must be called upon him!" the wet one spat, and his serpent leaned down to let him hoist himself back into the saddle.

"Let us grant him Mercy, then."

As one, they raised their hands. "The Weight of Mercy!”

A plane of blue force Mana slammed from the sky, flattening trees and hurling water in vile waves as it smashed directly onto Beef's head. He grunted and flexed his knees.

“I guess that kinda hurts.” From the ground at his side, he lifted Bedlam, the massive war hammer made of stone, metal, and a massive chunk of enchanted ice. He twisted the handle. The ice block hammerhead crashed into the plane of force, and its special disruption ability activated.

The spell flashed and fell apart. The Adamants jerked their hands back as if burned, sharing a brief look of confusion.

Beef hoisted Bedlam onto his shoulder. "What else you got?"

"A foe beyond Mercy," the dripping one said.

"Then we deliver Justice to him without Mercy's grace," his companion said.

The Adamants charged, serpents racing over the churning waters and lances now leveled at Beef's naked chest. He stood stock still as they charged, a wave of water streaming behind them and another rushing ahead as if heralding their imminent violence. ř

"No fair," he said. "You've got snakes in armor."

Beef stepped out into the poisoned fields and felt the foul liquid sizzle against his greaves. It didn't even hurt. The water boiled around him.

"How about I even out the playing field?"

A crystalline golem leapt from the jungle and slammed into Beef's back, enveloping him in faceted blackened green armor just as the Poison Field exploded beneath him. A blinding spray of poisoned water shrouded all three of them as the Adamants struck.

“What—?”

He swung Bedlam, fending them off, but a third attack found purchase lower on the Multipede's Body. The serpent screeched and released it with a hiss, and Beef grinned.

The armor works!

The serpents tried again, but it was like gnawing a spiked stone. The chitinous armor surrounding the Multipede was too much for the serpents’ stomach.

Still, the Adamants rushed him one after the other, their lances gleaming with metallic blue power. Hallow dodged, the Multipede slithering down and around the explosive hits as they struck. Beef swung Bedlam, channeling Deathblow Conduit whenever he could. But the Adamants had learned. Their snakes swerved from his hammer blows over and over. Then their hits began to land.

Warning!Your Health Has Dropped Below 75%!

Too many Adamants crowding his space, their combined might started to wear at Hallow and Beef. They caught him from the side and from the back, breaking parts of the Multipede's armor and forcing Hallow to pivot across the water. Weight of Mercy crushed trees and the Poison Fields themselves, fouling Hallow's step and slowing her movements. Explosive strikes came in the wake of her hobbling, one after the other, each Adamant wielding their lance with incredible precision.

Beef knocked them aside again and again, dissipating some with his hammer's special feature, but it couldn't activate every time. Sometimes, he just took it head-on.

"Lay down your weapons, warrior," one of the Adamants proclaimed. There was no gloating in their voice, only a haughty arrogance. "Bow before Justice!"

"No," Beef spat out a tooth. He didn't need that one, anyway.

"If this is all you have, warrior, then you are solely outmatched."

They're in position, Beef.

"Ha!" Beef grunted through another burst of force Mana, this one nearly unseating him. But his armor held steady. "You ain't seen nothing yet. Hallow Rise!"

From beneath them, in the water, skeletons rose from the muck. Eyes glowing with necromantic energy, they clawed at the serpents, forcing the creatures to rear back, hissing in fear and disgust.

"Foul undead!”

“Necromancy!"

“Crush them!” the Adamants cried out. "The Weight of Mercy!"

The skeletons were smashed back into the water, and for a moment, all went still.

"Entropic Paradigm," Beef said through a wide grin.

Necromantic Mana surged beneath the water like blackened green spotlights, and the skeletons rose back up. This time, they wore heavy plate armor made from chitin...and they shoved relentlessly past the Weight of Mercy.

Entropic Paradigm is level 81!

...

Entropic Paradigm is level 86!

"What? How?” one Adamant shouted. “What foul magic is this?”

The dead in the swamp climbed out, stabbing clawed gauntlets into the scales of the giant snakes, finding crevices to latch onto. The serpents hissed, throwing their bodies to the side in attempts to dislodge their persistent attackers, while the Adamants bashed them away with their long lances.

"This is nothing, Necromancer!" Dry shouted.

"Then let me ramp it up," Beef said through a bloody grimace. "Hallow Rise! Hallow Call!"

In the distance, the cages around the Overlord's Manor groaned as they filled with a blazing necromantic light. Blackened green energy pulsated, shattering the black iron. Hulking beasts fell into the fetid Poison Fields, sending waves rushing across the terrain as their broken Bodies were rapidly stitched together by necromantic energy, and spiked, chitinous armor covered them in thick plates of impenetrable defense.

Hallow Rise is level 77!

Hallow Call is level 79!

Harn’s on the move, Beef.

It's about time.

His new Risen roared wordlessly into the sky and charged. Beef joined them.