Prime simply saluted, and a moment later Allistor saw a few dozen droids trotting in both directions along the outer wall.
“Alright, everybody… on three, hit them with all you’ve got. Remember, shamans and other casters are priority targets. I want at least three from every group with long-range weapons watching for them and taking them down. If you can’t do it quickly, call for help. And there has to be a boss down here somewhere, so keep an eye out.”
He checked to make sure everyone was in place. To his left and his right, groups of forty raiders with their droid tanks were eyeing their targets. He could see several snipers had taken up position atop stone buildings, stretched out in prone positions to make themselves smaller targets and keep their weapons steady.
“One… two…three!” He brought down a Flame Shot just behind the nearest barricade, the column of fire a clear signal to his people. Spells rained down upon the goblins hiding behind their stone and metal barriers. Fire from above, spikes from below. Several goblins off to Allistor’s left began to scream as Andrea’s Dissolve spell ate away at them.
Allistor spotted a shaman waving its hands and moving its lips. He cast Restraint, then Levitate on the little monster, raising it up so that his people could see it clearly. Two seconds later, at least three snipers hit it. One round caused its head to explode.
Screams to his right told him another shaman had managed to get a spell off. Searching that side of the line, he spotted a feather sticking up from behind an ore cart. The shaman was smart enough to hide in between casts. But its pride, its need to decorate itself, was its undoing. He channeled a Flame Shot for three seconds, calling it down as a pillar of fire right atop the feather. The shaman screamed and jumped away, revealing itself. Allistor cast Mind Spike, causing it to drop its staff and stagger around in the open. The snipers took it down seconds later.
For ten minutes, the air was filled with the lights and sounds of battle. Spells flew back and forth, as well as lead and plasma rounds, and crossbow bolts, arrows, and spears. Goblins died by the dozen, the humans coordinating their targets and getting some insta-kills by combining dps.
Here and there, humans were hit, too. The healers did their best to keep up, cooperating across groups when they could. Still, there were twenty or so grey icons now. Allistor growled as he saw Bagwell’s icon was one of them. The man who had captained the boat when they’d taken down the sea monster was now gone, forever.
Even as he watched, two of George’s people from Luther’s Landing went grey at the same time, and George himself dropped to just a sliver of health. Almost immediately, a flood of heals brought him back up, but it had been a very close thing. He could hear the man cursing off to his left somewhere.
Allistor was doing his best to ignore the casualties and stay in the fight. The grey icons shook him, the responsibility for those deaths landing squarely on his shoulders. This wasn’t a defense of their homes or families. This was an aggressive action, one that had been his decision to undertake. Now he was beginning to question whether his people had been ready for this.
Anger building up inside him, he shook his head and focused. From the front of the large building emerged a half dozen goblins. Five of them were much larger than the others, and the sixth, standing in the rear, wore a full set of matching leather armor, dyed crimson much like Allistor’s own. He Examined a couple of them.
Goblin Chief’s Guard
Elite
Level 45
Health: 35,000/35,000
Goblin Chief Borzgl
Planetary Emperor
Level 55
Health: 60,000/60,000
The five guards formed up in a rough V formation in front of the chief and began to walk forward. As he followed, the chief was shouting an incantation and moving his hands.
“Shit! Get the chief! Snipers! Hit him!”
Allistor tried to cast Mind Spike on the chief, but he was too far back. Even as several rifle shots rang out, Allistor saw some kind of shield appear in front of the guards. One round hit the chief in the shoulder, knocking him down. The other rounds either hit guards, or came in too late and bounced off the newly formed shield.
“Fuzzy, stay here!” Allistor cast Fade and began to race forward, ducking behind huts or whatever cover he could find, trying to get within spell range of the chief. A quick glance in that direction showed the goblin back on its feet, already starting another chant. Rifle rounds pinged off the shield bubble, startling the guards, who had their shields raised just in case.
One last sprint toward what looked like a smithy, and Allistor dove behind a large chest next to an anvil. Peeking around the side of the box, he began to channel Storm. While he was waiting for the cloud to form and start dropping lightning bolts, the chief finished his cast. Just like at Rhonda’s Stronghold, the remaining goblins, including the chief’s guards, became enraged and began to increase in size.
Allistor heard his people shouting warnings behind him, but continued to focus on his spell. The lightning began to crash down, turning the shield bubble a bright red with every strike. Over and over, the bolts crashed into the barrier. The chief and his guards initially ducked down, frightened by the intensity of the attack. After a few seconds, the guards had the presence of mind to huddle up close around the chief and raise their shields overhead. Allistor just grinned. If the bubble broke, the metal shields weren’t going to help them.
He watched as more and more bolts impacted the shield. When it finally popped, the guards began to seize up, the current from the bolts passing through their shields into their bodies. Sniper rounds began to knock them down, and the chief was exposed. Allistor cut the Storm spell, down to twenty percent of his mana, and cast Mind Spike at the chief.
The spell failed.
He tried Restraint even as the guard between him and the chief began to recover and get back to his feet. This time the spell worked, and the chief froze mid-cast. Whatever he’d been planning backfired, knocking him and all the guards around him off their feet.
Allistor immediately tried Mind Spike again, and between the Restraint and the backlash damage, the chief was apparently weakened enough for it to work. The goblin boss rolled around on the ground, screaming.
Allistor pulled a mana potion from his inventory and gulped it down. He keyed his mic, and said, “I’m gonna do something stupid. Cover me if you can!”
Emerging from behind his box, he cast Barrier in front of himself and charged toward the barricade. A dozen or more enraged goblins spotted him and began a charge of their own. Whatever spell had buffed them had also made them forget about their weapons, raising claws and baring teeth while charging toward their prey. It became a race.
Allistor picked up speed. He needed to get within one hundred feet of the boss. Which was nearly all the way to the barricades. As he sprinted forward, his people fired on the goblins headed toward him. One after another went down, most only wounded. By the time Allistor got within smelling distance of the monsters, there were only two still standing. He cast Restraint at one, even as he drew his sword, Peacemaker. The second roared at him, its enlarged body giving it a much more threatening tone.
As it reached out a long, bony arm to claw at his face, Allistor dropped into a baseball slide. Passing between its legs, he stabbed upward into its thigh, then ripped the blade across with all his strength. Not even looking to see if he’d killed the monster, he pushed himself back to his feet and continued his sprint. A wounded goblin warrior managed to reach up and grab hold of his right ankle, tripping him up. Allistor hacked off the mob’s hand with his sword, then scrambled back to his feet.
He could see the chief was back on his own feet, along with two of his guards. The chief was hiding behind them, already chanting again. Between them, several more goblins had noticed Allistor and were charging in from both sides to intercept him.
They were too slow.
Allistor leapt up onto the barricade, pushing off and leaping again, launchi
ng himself a good ten feet above the ground and out of the reach of the goblins below. Mid-air, he cast Dimensional Step on himself, and appeared behind the goblin boss. Unfortunately, his momentum made him stumble into the boss’s back. It was enough to interrupt the chant, but took away any chance of a backstab or surprise attack critical hit.
Still, Allistor cast Mind Spike again, quickly stabbing the screaming and incapacitated boss in the gut. He tried to angle his blade up into the goblin’s heart, but missed.
Even as the two guards, who’d been taking sniper fire for their boss, turned toward him, Allistor yanked his blade free and drove it into the chief’s throat. He shoved as hard as he could, feeling the tip lodge in the spine, then push through.
The chief’s health bar dropped to zero, and Allistor fell forward as the chief fell back. Even as he hit the ground, he felt a blade slide into his own back, and his health bar dropped by half. He cast a heal on himself, then looked up and cast Mind Spike on the guard above him, poised to drive his blade into Allistor a second time.
The two guards quickly grew smaller as the chief’s buff magic was canceled. The one that wasn’t screaming looked exhausted, dropping its shield to use both hands on its short sword. Raising the sword high, it stepped toward Allistor.
A sniper round pinged off its metal helmet, knocking it off balance and distracting it for a moment. Allistor rolled away and waved his sword at it, attempting to keep it back. At the same time, he cast Erupt right beneath it. The stone spike shot up through the guard’s knee and deep into its thigh. Roaring in pain, the goblin dropped its weapon and grabbed the mutilated leg.
Allistor turned to see the other one recovering from the Mind Spike. Behind it, several dozen of the remaining goblins were running toward him, with his own people right behind them casting spells and firing weapons in a panic. If the remainder of the horde reached him, he was done.
“Stay back! Grab cover and fire!” he shouted into his radio loudly enough that those running toward him would hear it directly, whether they had a radio or not. He pushed by the recovering guard, waited long enough to see his people begin to slow down, then picked a spot on the other side of the barricade.
Allistor ran half a dozen steps toward the oncoming mobs, then cast Dimensional Step again. The charging goblins all looked confused when their hated enemy simply disappeared. Allistor arrived behind the barricade and let himself drop to the ground. He could hear his people calling out targets and burning down the remaining goblins, but didn’t raise his head to look.
After taking a few moments to catch his breath and let his mana recharge a bit, he popped up to see what he could do to help. There were only a very few goblins left, and they were taking hits from every direction. Allistor turned his attention to his own wounded, using the last of his mana to heal those who needed it most.
Eventually, a message appeared on his interface.
Congratulations! You have captured an enemy Stronghold!
Would you like to claim this Stronghold? Yes/No
He quickly selected Yes and took a seat atop the barricade. There were ragged cheers from his group as the area around them went transparent, signaling their victory. Allistor didn’t bother with any amenities, simply accepting the structure as it was. When the golden light cleared, he quickly scanned his notifications.
Level up! You are now Level 44! You have received two Attribute Points.
Level up! You are now Level 45! You have received two Attribute Points.
Level up! You are now Level 46! You have received two Attribute Points.
Nearly a thousand goblins at his level or higher, even with the experience shared among several hundred raiders, had earned him three levels. The next notification surprised him.
Congratulations!
You have defeated a Planetary Emperor in mortal combat! You have earned the right to claim the planet, and the Noble Title of Planetary Emperor.
Do you wish to claim the planet and Title of Planetary Emperor at this time? Yes/No
Allistor had thought he’d need to kill every goblin on the planet in order to claim it. Apparently, killing the big boss made you the big boss. But a quick check of his quest log showed he still had the quest to kill the rest of the clan. Which made sense, since if he left any of them alive, they’d just come at him again.
He paused before accepting the planet and the title. Instead, he put in a call to Kira. “Any sightings up there?”
“None, boss. And I took the liberty of doing fly-overs on the other big settlements. There are no colony ships parked there that I can see.”
“Thanks, Kira. Hang loose up there for a little while longer, and report any changes.”
Next he called Gralen. “Hey, Gralen? What’s the status on the surface group?”
“All the goblins on the surface have been eliminated, Sire. The support teams are… looting. I feel I should report that some of them are upset, Sire.”
“Upset?”
“The group that tried to flee to the ships. About half of them were females and younglings, Sire.”
Allistor grimaced. Eliminating the young could not have been easy for Gralen’s beastkin. Though he was pretty sure Harmon’s orcanin didn’t mind. He wondered if young goblin was similar to veal for the orcanin, the thought making him slightly ill.
“Is Harmon near you? He doesn’t have a radio, and I’d like to speak with you both.”
“Right here, Sire.” Gralen replied. “One moment.” Allistor heard a clicking sound as Gralen disconnected his earpiece so that Harmon could hear as well. “Go ahead, Sire.”
“First, thank you for your efforts up there. I’m sorry that it became necessary for you to get so directly involved.”
“It was our duty, Sire.” Gralen’s voice was neutral, no emotion either way. Harmon just grunted.
“So, we killed the Emperor down here, and I now have the chance to claim the planet and his title. Before I do so, I wanted to check with the two of you. Any reason you can think of that I shouldn’t?”
Harmon spoke first this time. “It will likely create a system-wide announcement. And there will be much talk among the factions. So if someone were inclined to attack, it might speed things up. On the other hand, you’re being watched now anyway. So it’s not as if the news won’t spread soon on its own.”
Gralen added, “I agree, Sire. At least if you make the claim now, you will have possession of one Stronghold, should you need to defend this place before the satellites arrive.”
It would take two more days for Harmon to deliver the satellites, and another two for them to be fully deployed. And based on the battle they’d just fought, it might take that long just to clear the planet.
Opening his interface back up, he selected Yes. A message came up asking if he would like to choose a new designation for Planet UCP 135. He thought about it for a moment, then typed in a name before hitting the [Accept] button. As expected, trumpets sounded, and a gong rang out, so deep and loud that it literally shook the planet.
System Alert!
Planetary Prince Allistor of Earth has defeated Planetary Emperor Borzgl in mortal combat! He has claimed the title of Emperor of the newly designated planet Orion!
May he rule long and wisely!
Level up! You are now Level 47! You have received two Attribute Points.
Level up! You are now Level 48! You have received two Attribute Points.
Allistor took a moment to pull up his stat sheet, assigning twenty-four of the twenty-six attribute points he now had saved up. He thought about having to do more melee fighting and spell casting, as well as his desire to raise his smithing skills. With that in mind, he added four points each to Intelligence and Will Power. Then one went into Adaptability, and three into Constitution to increase his health pool. Two went into Stamina, three points into Strength, and one into Agility for those melee fight situations. Then he put four into Dexterity, hoping it would help him wield his hammer better, thus improving his Weaponsmi
thing skills more quickly, and allowing him to craft higher quality items. Or so he hoped. He added three points to Charisma, because he had a feeling as both a Prince and an Emperor, he was going to need it. Lastly, he dumped a point into Luck, because why not?
Designation: Emperor Allistor, Giant Killer
Level: 48
Experience: 5,100,000/17,550,000
Planet of Origin: UCP 382, Orion
Health: 48,000/48,000
Class: Battlemage
Attribute Pts Available: 2
Mana: 15,000/15,000
Intelligence: 24 (28)
Strength: 10 (18)
Charisma: 10 (14)
Adaptability: 8 (10)
Stamina: 12 (19)
Luck: 6 (12)
Constitution: 19 (24)
Agility: 11 (17)
Health Regen:1,400/m
Will Power: 24 (32)
Dexterity: 7 (11)
Mana Regen:1,100/m
Chapter 25
Allistor checked to make sure his people had taken care of the wounded, and the dead. Many of the battle droids that had taken up rear guard at the tunnel exits were now carrying a body bag as they headed for the surface. Allistor fought to keep the guilt of those deaths from overwhelming him.
The raiders were looting the goblin corpses, and McCoy called out to Allistor from inside the large building. Stepping past the chief, Allistor bent down to retrieve his sword and loot the boss. He didn’t even look at the notifications as he entered the building, finding a long, wide room with a throne near the back.
“There are several loot chests here.” McCoy pointed to the area behind the throne. Lined up in a row were three large chests.
“So loot them?” Allistor looked at the airmen.
“We… uhh… thought they might be trapped.” McCoy suggested, looking apologetic. “None of the tanks wanted to risk it.”
Shadow Sun Rebellion Page 42
