Chapter XXVII – Day 535 – A Conversation Between Equals

Chapter XXVII – Day 535 – A Conversation Between Equals

Someone was attacking. Ah, it was Champion Michael and a group of people. I knew he would try something like this. That was why I had rested before encamping here. My flying summon monsters easily spotted their approach.

He was throwing something into my camp. Ah crafting crystal bombs, how crude. My metal men were already picking them up and tossing them behind my camp when they exploded, the ground turning to liquid and liquid acid forming in their surroundings.

My forces came over the top of my worms and unleashed attacks on the pitiful summons that had been sent at me. Beams of fire and death easily wiped them out. Such pathetic attempts to copy me. Ah more bombs.

They exploded before I could get to them. I felt the pain through the tethers, but I was used to it by now and could filter some of it out with the Refraction Orb’s ability and redirect some of the pain with the Puppet Master’s abilities. Just a soft ache at worst.

There was energy gathering from the soldiers. Those Radiant Beam attacks. That was why I had my worms to counter them and act as defensive bulwarks with their energy conversion. The beams struck and my summon burst apart from getting too much energy. The beams cut deep into the camp, wounding several of my lesser level 3 hybrids.

I dispatched my were-sword dervishes to kill the soldiers. Champion Michael soared into the sky and killed five of them with his acid attack. My clear hawks swooped in to wound him, but he zipped away out of their range with that movement skill of his.

The rest of my camp had already been forming up during this time, but if that was their opener, I wasn’t worried. I had kept my trump cards in reserve. I didn’t bother to chase them. The real target was Purgatory, not Michael. If the city fell, he could only run for so long.

Those bombs, those soldiers, they were the real threat. Champion Michael was dangerous, but I wasn’t that worried about an individual combatant anymore. He would die eventually, but he was good at escaping. I had to cut off his escape routes and holes one by one, before I would be able to finish him off.

I set off for Purgatory at a good speed, but slower than normal since I had scouts surrounding my main force. Oh, Champion Michael was coming back to fight. He took out a couple of my scouts, but I quickly maneuvered a great worm towards his position. My hybrids on top, unleashing their ranged attacks, forcing him back.

I smiled as he tried to speed up to outpace me, but I matched his speed. I was not going to make it easy for him to return to Purgatory. Go on Michael, run off into the wilderness. I will find you eventually once I crack your home open like an egg.

He kept speeding up. Annoying. The soldiers had run off to the South, also annoying, but not a serious concern. I advanced forward. Flanking and strategy was useless against power. Power that I had in spades.

The sun was just coming up as I looked at the city of Purgatory once more. It had been a long journey, but with crystals of the great worms, it was easy to have a large amount of mass to feed my massive army of hybrids.

I spread out my forces and began my preparations. Time to stall a bit. I had a werewolf approach with a white flag. This would be an interesting diversion.The initial instance of this chapter being available happened at N0v3l.Bin.

Champion Michael jumped down from the wall. Trying to intimidate me was pointless after all the level 4 monsters I had battled and triumphed over. Each one a unique experience, enriching me with knowledge.

“Well, someone wrecked my city. A price must be paid. I don’t expect you to accept, but if you did, it would be quite hilarious,” I said and just toyed with him some more.

“You just wanted to gloat? Or are you moving things into position underground?” Champion Michael asked and I felt surprise that he knew what I was planning. I had enough control not to show that surprise through my monsters.

“Consider it a surprise. I doubt we will speak again. It has been entertaining Champion Michael,” I replied. It would soon be time to act.

“Entertaining. That is a good word. Don’t complain when I skin and salt you,” Champion Michael said. I let him go. Trying to kill him here, would only complicate things. Champion Michael would only die when there was nowhere left to run.

A Radiant Beam attack from multiple skill users struck my troops with only minimal casualties. A minor irritation, but the perfect single to act, now that they had used up their best attack.

One of my worms finally finished tunneling and cut off the escape route. My flying monsters moved in to clear the walls and my troops rushed forward to provide cover for my mental attack hybrids as they closed the distance needed to use their skills.

Arrows flew from the soldiers from the top of the wall. Blasts of force sent my aerial summons and hybrids tumbling and colliding with each other. That was when I felt a titanic energy shift happening beneath my forces at the wall.

The ground liquefied and acid burst out of the ground. More arrows rained down from the wall. Effects exploded among my troops. I couldn’t track them all and they didn’t matter. The mental attacks were shunted away. There was a reason I sent in the useless monsters first and kept the best in reserve.

My ranged units stepped forward. Lances of energy struck the top of the wall. Soldiers melted, decayed, froze. Their dying screams echoed sounded across the battlefield. Ah, Michael was about to finish off my worm. Well time to the repay the favor of crafting crystal bombs. I flicked a mental switch. All the crafting crystals my troops had deposited into the tunnel beneath the wall detonated.

That many crafting crystals would create an annihilation reaction. Massive amounts of raw energy propelled outwards with esoteric effects on the leading edge. The bottom of the wall bulged upwards. The wall cracked on either side of the bulge, despite the impressive weight pushing down.

The effects blasted up and out of the ground. The entire section of the wall cracked and collapsed, towers and all. My plan was perfect. There was no need to engulf the city or cut off the other entrances. They would fight me at the wall. I had my aerial scouts watching the movement of the people.

I wanted them to gather their forces here at this point. I would deal a devastating blow and wipe out the majority of the people who could stand against me.

They were idiots thinking I wouldn’t use bombs. The things were quite powerful. Even if I did not need much in the way of equipment, they were effective shattering an entrenched position.

I moved in more troops towards the breach.