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Nero Walker, Book 3 Ch.94 (209)
🕑 Added 2024-07-31 22:30:01 +0000 UTCHovering above the battlefield, the evaluators followed Lord Walker as he made his way through the troops. They watched as he occasionally used his clever interpretation of an ‘earthen wall’ spell to raise himself up so he could adjust his course.
“Why doesn’t he just do a quick scry? He knows how right?” asked Scholar Idrius.
Academian Quincy snorted in amusement. “You know he does. But, considering the fact that he’s probably powering all his spells with the soul remnants in the ether, I don’t think it occurred to him. He’s probably also still too used to seeing with his eyes,” he replied.
Over the private connection he and the evaluators shared, Academian Quincy felt their agreement.
Scholar Vaxas remarked, “It will be amusing to see him overpowering the siege wyrms defenses with the raw power he’s able to bring to bear.”
No one felt the need to argue as they could all imagine how powerful a spell form Lord Walker should be able to manage using his weird technique. Theoretically, with enough time and available soul remnants, he should be able to bring down anything capable of existing in this type of environment. With how thin the essence was here, nothing should be able to stand against his overpowered spells.
They continued to watch patiently, hidden from view, while occasionally debating Lord Walker’s potential and talents. Each evaluator offered their thoughts and opinions on their young charge. Yet, one thing they all agreed on was that the young man had practically limitless potential and an inspiring drive to innovate and push boundaries.
Each and every one of them was looking forward to seeing what he would become. It was reassuring to see their faith in the young man rewarded by seeing him in action. Already they’d gained more experience in the last few days than they had in years.
Almost in unison, they paused and looked over at the sight of the siege wyrm destroying one of the support pillars. Bodies and rubble fell like rain as screams of terror echoed throughout the chamber. Thousands died, kobald and human alike. And despite all they’d seen in their many years of life, it was still an awe-inspiring sight.
Almost in a whisper, Scholar Yarbarrow said, “How is that possible? Ritual-built constructs of this magnitude shouldn’t be that easy to take down.”
Choosing to answer the rhetorical question, Academian Quincy replied, “They are called siege wyrms for a reason. Their essence fields are disproportionately strong and therefore tend to ignore reinforcement enchantments. To a beast like that, the material world is what is being reinforced, not the ethereal. To it, the stone column is simply stone, nothing more.”
Agreeing, Scholar Idrius added, “How else do you expect the siege wyrms to take down Dorchester’s walls? They are bred specifically for- “ Cutting herself off, her tone became panicked as she shouted, “What is he doing?!?”
The evaluators all watched as Lord Walker abandoned all reason and charged the kobald lines as if he’d lost his mind.
Academian Quincy could feel the unasked question on all their minds. After taking a good thirty seconds to think it over, he ordered, “We’ll stay close and recover his body if he falls. We can always bring him back and I want to see what his plan is.”
Nervous agreements filled the connection while they all watched on in silence.
—--
Rushing through the kobald defenses, Nero began to get a better sense of how the kobalds had set up their encampment. He saw plenty of buildings arrayed in circular patterns along with open areas filled with ritual casting positions for their shamans and casters. Everything was built crudely, but efficiently. Even their supplies and cooking fires were organized in recurring patterns.
While he couldn’t exactly ‘see’ everything, he began to get a feel for how the little buggers thought. Everything was repetition, a copy of a copy of a copy. And as a result, everything began to blend together as he felt like he was continually suffering from deja vu.
Throughout the ether, he could feel the growing hatred and desire for his death growing all around him. And It was spreading further and faster the longer his chase went on. ‘I’m pulling one hell of an aggro train,’ he giggled to himself.
Although the concept of an ‘aggro train’ was a computer gaming term for when a player caught the attention of a massive amount of enemies, he found the idea oddly appropriate for what he was doing.
With his continual spray of sticky flames and his occasional barrage of spell shells, he was leaving hilariously exaggerated levels of destruction in his wake. The only thing he regretted was how little of it he was actually able to witness. But, it couldn’t be helped. If he stopped to appreciate the sights, he’d end up getting swarmed.
It wasn’t all bad though. He had finally been able to get close enough to the other siege wyrm to fire off a few volleys of spell shells and grab its attention. So, he was still pretty happy with himself.
The secondary siege wyrm had been decimating the human lines while they struggled to keep it away from the support columns holding up their side of the chamber. Even from the distance he was at, Nero could feel the fear and desperation clinging to the humans like a dense miasma.
Muttering to himself, he said, “Fear not brothers and sisters of the human faction. I, the great Lord Walker shall lead the beast away. Yea though I run away from the shadow of death, I shall fear no stupid lizards…”
Part of Nero’s consciousness knew he was beginning to lose it. He could feel the neurons in his brain reaching their limit. Considering the numerous spells and magical techniques he was maintaining, Nero was well aware that he couldn’t keep this up forever. Not to mention all the running… dear god in heaven… so much running.
With his perception field, he noticed another group of kobalds attempting to hide their ambush under another damned illusion. ‘Nope!’ he thought with a smile before turning on his heel and sprinting off between two mud huts.
At the edge of his essence field, he could sense the two giant blobs he’d come to associate with the siege wyrms stubbornly following him along. Although he had trouble seeing through their essence fields, he could tell that they were causing all kinds of havoc for the poor little kobalds under their feet. The ether was practically filled to the brim with soul stuff just begging for him to repurpose it into something useful.
Deciding that it was time to figure out his endgame, Nero wracked his brain for what he could do to get himself out of the mess he was in. He had no problem ignoring the fact that this was all his fault, and instead focused on what options he had available to him.
Suddenly, the edge of his essence field brushed against a significant disturbance. Interested, he altered his course, running past a confused group of grunts who apparently hadn’t gotten the memo about his presence. Tossing them a lighthearted wave as he ran past before spraying them down with fire and death, he raced toward the disturbance as if he were being chased by… well, exactly what he was being chased by.
Fiddling with his field, he was able to pierce the kobald illusion and saw what looked like a five or six-story platform filled to the brim with kobalds. They were arranged in circles surrounding singular shamans. He recognized immediately what he was looking at. It was a ranged casting position for artillery spells, just on a much grander scale than anything he’d seen before.
Figuring he might as well take advantage of the opportunity, he charged forward fearlessly.
At the base of the ramps, he could see a few of the larger kobalds ordering the little ones around, acting all high and mighty like the assholes they were.
Emerging from the alleyway he was using, he pulled out his trusty shield and barreled past them like a battering ram. The screeches of surprise and anger he left in his wake contrasted beautifully with his mocking laughter. After spraying them down with some sticky flames, he paused his flamethrower and ducked under the ramp’s awning to hopefully disappear into the chaos.
The empty ramp was like one of the switchback ones he was used to seeing at professional stadiums. Both wide and empty, he had no problems running up it. ‘Thank god the kobalds are so damn slow… and stupid, can’t forget stupid,’ he thought to himself in amusement while picturing the kobalds with their little legs chasing after him.
Reaching the top, he realized that his little detour had wasted more time than he’d thought. His essence field gave him just enough warning to brace himself as the siege wyrms caught up with him. Since they didn’t need to use the ramps, they were more than capable of propping themselves up on their back legs and attempting to climb up onto the massive platform.
All around him, he could see the kobald casters panicking. Like idiots, he could see many of them already shooting the siege wyrms with whatever spells they had available. Like he’d hoped, with all the chaos he was causing, he was practically ignored. Although, compared to a siege wyrm, he had to admit his presence wasn’t all that attention-grabbing.
Ducking behind a poorly built wagon that smelled disturbing like beef stew, Nero took a moment to catch his breath.
Using his essence field to keep track of what was happening, he was delighted to see the siege wyrms freaking the hell out. They racked their massive claws across the platform, ripping apart kobalds by the dozens and cracking the edge of the platform. Well and truly in a rampage, they were completely uncaring about WHO they were killing. In response, more and more kobalds were attacking them in retaliation.
Peaking over the wagon, he was surprised to see the siege wyrms covered in small kobalds. All over their backs and even on top of their heads, he could see little lizards stabbing and biting at whatever they could, each one looking bound and determined to bring down the great beast below them.
Unfortunately, the siege wyrms didn’t seem to mind the kobalds’ attentions all that much, aside from looking rather annoyed at the audacity their little cousins were displaying.
The original siege wyrm he’d collected, the one who’d brought down thousands of his fellow humans, wasn’t looking too good. Now that he had the opportunity to actually LOOK at the damn thing, he could see how badly his spell shells had damaged it. One of its eyes was a complete ruin along with half of its face. Great chunks of its body had been blasted open and he could see broken scales falling off the exposed muscles. The fact that it was still standing was a testament to its endurance and frankly ridiculous levels of might.
On the other hand, the other wyrm looked practically fresh as a daisy. Whatever few spell shells he’d been able to lob at it didn’t look to have done all that much damage. ‘Well, that’s disappointing,’ he thought to himself.
Glancing around, he saw that none of the kobalds were paying attention to him. In fact, considering how hidden he was, along with the kobalds' apparent fixation on the siege wyrms, the little bastards seemed to have forgotten all about him for the moment.
The edges of the platform were already being broken down under the siege wyrm’s assault, and the kobald shamans were frantically attempting to coordinate their little spell circles into an organized counterattack.
Nero realized this would be an ideal time for him to run away. The siege wyrms were occupied with casters that could actually hurt them, and the kobald horde was busy supporting them.
But, what then? What if the kobalds managed to bring them down? Or, worse yet, bring them back under their control?
“Fuck it,” he mumbled before adding in an amused grumble, “I needed a distraction anyway.”
Dismissing the ‘sticky flamethrower’ spell form which he had paused at the bottom of the ramp, he took a moment to refresh his collected essence. Checking on his mage armor, he was happy to see it still pulling in essence by the boatload and reinforcing itself. The amount of soul stuff he’d shoved into it was making the entire film practically ‘hum’ against his skin. In the small section of his mind dedicated to maintaining it, he could sense the technique’s purpose burning itself constantly into the material world.
He probably took longer than he should have to appreciate the sight of the mage armor overpowering reality, but he couldn’t tear his senses away from it.
Shaking his head to dismiss the errant distraction, he firmed his will and focused on what he intended to do. He could feel his center burning with potential. His very flesh and bones were chock-full of essence just begging to be let loose.
Closing his eyes, he took a few deep breaths and carefully carved the spell form for an updated turret into the ether. Unlike the turret spell forms he’d done before, this one needed to be larger, more dangerous. Like a mad scientist, uncaring about his safety, he added whatever damaging essence constructs he could to the part of the spell form responsible for the shell’s creation. Acid, fire, cold, sticky, compression, ball, explode… everything he could think of he attached. By the time he was done, the damn thing looked even more like a patchwork puzzle that he had forced together.
All the while, he was continually forcing more and more soul stuff into the pattern, certain that if he didn’t, it would have exploded in his face. The soul stuff was potential waiting to be used, so he figured that with enough potential, anything was possible… even stabilizing his disturbingly unbalanced spell form.
With his senses, he watched as the hovering spell form struggled to maintain itself before finally convincing reality that it wasn’t worth rejecting.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Nero muttered, “OK. Step one… make the damn thing. Step two… fire the damn thing.”
Carefully adjusting the spell form, he manually slid it through the ether before confirming its placement.
Peaking over the cart, he made the mistake of looking down and seeing what was in it. Nearly gagging, he turned away from the ‘tubs’ of chunky slop. Luckily, his concentration on the spell form hadn’t wavered enough to cause a miscast.
Ignoring the sad excuse for what passed for kobald cuisine, Nero narrowed his eyes and aimed his spell.
The kobald casters were currently pelting the siege wyrms with their artillery spells cast from their spell circles. Melee kobalds big and small were harassing the siege wyrms with their spears and blades. In response, the siege wyrms were clinging stubbornly to the platform and killing whatever kobald caught their eye.
Nero took a deep breath and readied himself. He honestly wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Glancing up at the spell form he’d created, he could see it glowing in the ether like a miniature sun. The damn thing hadn’t even started gathering essence, and it already was powerful enough to disrupt the local essence flows. ‘Maybe I used too much soul stuff?’ he wondered for a moment before shrugging off his concerns.
Firming his resolve, he muttered, “There is no kill like overkill. Kill them all and let god sort them out. Also, other cliche sayings that I ought to say before doing something dangerous and arguably unnecessary.”
One more deep breath while he pulled out his shield to add another layer between him and what was coming. A final glance at his doomsday spell form.
In a whisper, he declared, “Chick, Chick…” while activating the spell form.
The ether around him swelled. The amount of potential he’d injected into the spell form immediately overrode the essence control of the kobalds on the platform. Like a growing storm, the essence flows began to swirl strongly enough to affect the air around him.
Every single kobald and siege wyrm paused what they were doing, unsure of what exactly was happening. With his essence field, Nero could see the spell form swelling while struggling to channel all the essence his alterations demanded.
In the center of the turret mechanism, he watched as a shell of unparalleled destruction injected itself into the material plane. It wasn’t just a construct. It was too solid, too real to be called a construct. It burned so bright that he couldn’t look directly at it. He couldn’t be sure, but he felt like reality itself was buckling under the pressure the thing was giving off.
The moment the shell finished its formation, Nero felt it. Reality snapped back into focus, and he could see it hovering in the air like a kaleidoscopic monstrosity.
His wide, awestruck eyes beheld his masterpiece with pride. The grin stretched across his face as he declared, “Boom…”
Like a bolt of multicolored lightning, the shell shot out of his turret toward its target. He’d chosen to aim it at the healthiest siege wyrm’s chest, figuring that he might as well do a little damage to the one he hadn’t given enough attention to just yet.
Then, his world exploded.
He honestly had no idea what was happening anymore. Gravity disappeared as he felt his feet leave the ground. Bright white light and shadow swirled around him along with every other color in the spectrum. There was heat and cold and conflicting feelings of distance and pressure.
His essence field was a solid block of confusion, and his senses told him nothing more than his eyes did.
Perhaps he blacked out, or maybe reality decided to push the reset button. Either way, the sudden reappearance of his senses nearly blue-screened his brain box.
Stumbling to his feet, Nero looked around in confusion. All around him were ethereal clouds of dust dissipating into the air like the monsters he’d watched come apart. Looking down, he saw that “The Wall 2.0” was nothing more than a foot-square hunk of twisted metal strapped to his arm… and it was still smoking.
After a second or two of feeling regret, he sent it back into his personal space so that he could bury it later.
Raising his head, he looked around in awe at what he’d accomplished. He couldn’t see all that far with all the smoke, but from what he could see, the destruction was absolute. There were no kobald bodies or even any ruins from their defenses. It was all just ash and dirt. The smoke was heavy enough to blot out the light, and he wondered for a moment if he’d been transported into the barren desert of some afterlife.
His mind struggled to understand what his senses were telling him. There was nothing in his essence field that hinted at anything living. Even the essence flows looked subdued and lethargic. Delicately reaching out, he carefully attempted to refresh his essence collection.
The ether around him shook, and he backed off. Then, he realized that the essence he’d already collected was gone as well… and so was his super-awesome soul-charged absolute-defense mage-armor of awesomeness. He was utterly and completely naked… in the ethereal sense, that is.
Patting down his clothes, he didn’t see any problems. Aside from the blood-covered armor he was wearing, the massive headache he was suffering, along with the feeling of strain that affected every inch of his body… he felt perfectly fine.
‘Huh… so that worked. I think I’m on step three now. That’s profit, right?’ he congratulated himself.
All in all, things seemed to have worked out alright for him. Just as that thought occurred to him, he felt his essence field alert him of an approaching group of humans.
Turning his head, he watched as they cautiously emerged from the dissipating dust, their weapons ready. He could feel their fear and reluctance. With how clear, calm, and empty his thoughts were, he couldn’t understand what their problem was.
Yelling loudly enough to cover the distance, he shouted, “Hey, you all can calm down now. The kobalds around here are all dead.” Before looking around and muttering, “Or at least I think they are… probably.”
Emerging from the smoke, Nero’s eyes locked on to the group of awestruck humans. At first glance, they looked like they were unwilling to subject him to their presence. They all looked like they’d been through hell. Ripped and torn bits of armor hung off them in strips, while scrapes and dried bits of blood covered their faces and exposed skin.
The lady in the front stepped forward awkwardly and said, “My lord, the um… Commander Dahl I mean.. He… well… he would like to see you… if you don’t mind that is.”
Nero tilted his head and looked at her in confusion. Scratching his head, he replied, “Yeah, OK. Just let me find my wackos first. After the battle is over, I’ll find Commander Daryll and see what he wants. You wouldn’t happen to know which way Cathleen Averett or Captain Angleton is, would you?”
The woman exchanged confused and nervous glances with the rest of her part before replying, “Um… My lord, the battle is over. What few kobalds were left after… well… they retreated back under the mountain. They sealed the tunnel behind them, sacrificing themselves by the hundreds to ensure we couldn’t go after them. As for Ms. Averett and Captain Angleton, I’d have to check with my superior. I’m sorry… but I don’t have a connection to the command web.”
Snapping his fingers, Nero exclaimed, “Right! The command web!”
Reaching out, Nero tried to locate the group-like connection covering the chamber. Finding it quickly, he sent out a broad request for a connection.
The resulting reply felt like a thousand heads turning toward him all at once, every one of them paying close attention to him. He felt the connection slide into place so strongly that his head snapped back in pain.
On instinct, he pushed the connection to the mental equivalent of an arm's distance. “Back the fuck up a second. God damn people, intrusive much?!? Anyway, I didn’t want to bother you all while you're busy commanding or whatever, but can anyone give me directions to my unit? I was serving under… I mean WITH Captain Angleton and Cathleen Averett.”
The connection felt incredibly odd, as it was like a thousand people all standing right next to him… paying close attention while not saying anything. He then felt one presence ‘step’ forward.
“This is Commander Dahl. Lord Walker, your adherents and followers are to your northeast. However, if you don’t mind, I’d respectfully like to ask you what it was you did to end the battle so decisively. None of my mages or advisors have ever heard of anything like it. Are you alright, or do you need any medical aid?”
Nero, his brain still feeling a little muddled, had stopped listening to everything after ‘northeast’. Somehow knowing exactly where the man was indicating, turned his head in that direction and tried to sense what he could.
Unsurprisingly, there was nothing.
A familiar presence at the edges of the connection grew stronger while the commander was speaking. “Apologies for the interruption, Commander. But, we’re over here, my lord. Lord Verena has requested to speak to you as well.”
Recognizing Cathleen’s presence, he wondered why she seemed so emotionally far away. It felt like she was… scared of him? No, not scared… wary maybe? His brain tried over and over again to find the right word to describe what her presence was telling him.
Commander Dahl’s voice interrupted his thoughts, “Lord Walker? Are you unwell? Do you require aid?”
Returning his attention to the conversation, Nero replied, “Huh? No, I’m good. Thanks. I’ll go check in with my team and get back to you. Don’t mind me.”
Cutting off the connection so the thousand-plus presences would stop staring at him through the ether, Nero started walking toward his wackos.
Glancing over his shoulder, he said to the weirdly acting team that had found him, “Thanks for the help. You guys can return to whatever it was you were doing. But, just so you know, I don’t think you’ll find whatever it is you’re looking for here. This cloud of dust and crap is about all there is around here as far as I can tell. But, I could be wrong… so, whatever. You do you… Good luck!”
Without another look, he walked off into the dust cloud, muttering, “I should call that a chaos bomb… or maybe the obliteration shell? Boom baby? No! The Final Solution! No… too edgy. I’ll have to workshop it. Either way… that was freaking awesome. God I could use a shower and some coffee. I wonder if they have any donuts… or maybe the fantasy equivalent of a mocha espresso.”
Rubbing his temples, he thought to himself, ‘I feel like I’m suffering from one of those rare hangovers where you can’t seem to think straight, but you can’t bring yourself to care enough to worry about it. After I find Cathleen, I’m definitely taking a nap before Nick can explain to me what I did… I’m not even remotely up for a lecture right now, that’s for sure.’
Comments
BlaueFeder
Nero went nuclear.
HereForHFY
Why not go with a classic, and just call it the BFG.
Eli Loeb
Heck yeah!
dicloniuslord
Mozart’s Dies Irae was definitely a good choice for him using the doom cannon
Jamie Idle
I can barely wait for the commentary from his watchers after that. I love reading reactions to MC antics
