by Dakota Krout
Havoc chuckled at a thought before saying it aloud, “if you aren't making it yourself, and you are going to requisition it, I would highly recommend Ghost Silver with a High Steel core instead. You would be able to throw a Core in there up to the Artifact rank and keep it going pretty much permanently. What am I looking at?”
“It’s a Ritual of Enchanting, mana-battery specific. I forget the proper name for it off the top of my head,” Joe absentmindedly answered the Dwarf. “It allows me to directly enchant Cores and turn them into mana batteries. You know, so that I don't blow myself up when I am making a defensive building?”
“Hey. If we could do it, we would do it. I could make this, sans the ritual part, but it would take a ton of my time for each individual Core. Is it worth it? Can I really make a difference with just a few?” Havoc shrugged at the diagram carefully, clearly understanding almost all parts of it, but still disregarding it. “Clever workarounds are what we do best. We’ve also got metal to spare, one of the benefits of mining like we do. You want me to requisition enough metal for you to make this? Does it need to be shaped like this, able to move… hey, when this expands, is it a gyroscope?”
“It is.” Joe was completely unsurprised that the Dwarf understood the intention of the metal frame. “It has to be able to enchant a Core from all sides. Also, yes, if you can get someone else to make that, I'll be able to focus on just completing my rituals. If we can delegate this, it would save me a lot of time. Actually… the metals you mentioned? I think I would need a higher blacksmithing level before I could even heat them properly.”
“It'll take a week or two, but I'll get it done.” Havoc lazily glanced to the side as an alarm sounded. His eyes sharpened as he recognized what the klaxon call was shrieking about. “Well, human… looks like you will get a chance to show off your fancy magical device. We just lost a fort. I’ll make them hold off on the counterattack and claim the assault in your name. That means that the success is yours, but the failure would be as well. We don’t have to worry about that, though, do we?”
“I… t-this is only a prototype! I’ve done no testing! If we just charge in-” Joe stuttered as Havoc started tapping at something only he could see. He gave Joe a thumbs-up and shut him down with a simple sentence.
“It’s done; you have twelve hours to get this ritual up and running.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Legion was on the move, and a frantic Joe was jogging along with them and trying to triple-check his diagrams at the same time. Not a single person gave his muttering a second thought; hundreds of Dwarves were marching in time, their heavily armored boots striking stone at a grating frequency. Wherever they went, they created an instant trail. Fields and underbrush were trampled into packed earth; green landscapes churned into mud.
Walking alongside the Legion were huge automatons that released huge bursts of steam with every few steps they took, likely thanks to the ‘liquid cooling’ Havoc had told Joe about. They were powerful and agile attackers and defenders, and seemed to have their own form of built-in intelligence. Based on their appearance and functions, Joe had a sneaking suspicion that they were based off the juggernauts and defenders of various places of power. For the first time, he started to understand how the Dwarves were able to fight back against the Elves, even though they did not have direct magical support. “Havoc, quick question for you. Why haven’t I seen any places dedicated to deities? These look a lot like Juggernauts.”
Joe was clearly referencing the metal behemoths, but even so, Havoc made him sweat a little bit before deciding to answer. “Suppose it doesn't hurt to let you know; I’m gonna be shouting about this when we get there, anyway. You have a brain in your head, so you’d figure this all out from context even if I tried to keep it from you. The Elves are a theocracy. There has been a large push to get rid of all the so-called ‘minor gods’ from this Zone, and we managed to make it happen for our people.”
“What do you have against the deities?” Joe was surprised by the mentality. “I’m a Chosen of Tatum; the benefits have been really helpful, and he doesn't pretend to be anything other than a powerful faction leader.”
“Success is its own reward,” Havoc muttered bitterly, bristling at Joe’s words. “Working for them is just a different type of warlock contract, isn’t it? Getting power you haven’t earned from a powerful entity, just not demons or cursed objects? I prefer our creations. No ‘divine energy’ powering our defenders and keeping us safe. Water and Cores go in, steam and Elf-death comes out. Much safer, in my opinion.”
“Cores again? I thought that was just a mounted cannon issue.” Joe shook his head. “How often do these go boom?”
“Not as often as you might think.” Havoc waved at the closest one just as it was hidden behind a gout of steam. It made for an impressive sight as it stepped forward heavily. “At least, not outside of battle. We put in low-ranked Cores during travel so that there is a smaller chance of overload; then we switch them out with higher-ranked ones when we are ready for them to fight. They move around pretty good like this, but just wait until you see them zipping around at full power.”
Joe was suitably impressed; he had already been complimenting their abilities in his mind, and this was only travel mode? Havoc broke his train of thought. “Let's go over this one more time. How close do you need to be to take out the Guardian?”
The Reductionist considered his ritual, trying to put together a comprehensive answer for his… mentor.
Ritual of Withering Mana (Apprentice). This ritual is designed to wither not only plants, but anything or anyone that actively uses magic within the area of effect. With enough outside power, this ritual becomes self-sustaining and will only end when mana is no longer supplied to it for a set amount of time.
Area of effect: 50-meter radius.
Mana input required for self-sustainment: 110 mana/second.
“The model shows that the basic forts’ walls are at least twelve meters thick.” Joe ran the numbers in his head as he explained. “Since these ones are not upgraded, from the interior wall to the other side of the fort—the total diameter—should be only about seventy-five meters. We need to get through the wall and at least halfway to the Guardian in order for this ritual to have the greatest effect. Otherwise, we are just going to be guessing and hoping that the Guardian is closer than the exact center.”
“Walk me through that process again; how are we getting through the wall?” Havoc grinned as he lit up a cigar.
“I have a ritual that can tear down any building. Walls are considered buildings.” Joe chortled along with Havoc at the thought. “I know that a ritual can only work once against Elves, or at least you think so, but I highly doubt that a more advanced fortification wouldn't have someone that could stop the ritual anyway. That’s why I’m willing to throw this away against such a small target. Havoc… a lot of this is based on the assumption that they haven't sent any real powerhouses to the border, at least not in the amount of time that they've controlled this territory.”
Havoc nodded along with Joe’s answer. “Pretty standard practice; takes about a week for an area to get stabilized. If there is someone here that is outside the scope of what you can handle, I’ll take over.”
“You? You’ll go directly into combat?” Joe stared at the Dwarf, who was practically a steampunk mad scientist, and shrugged at the toothy smile he got in reply. The man was pretty wild, but Joe had no indication of how powerful he actually could be. He seemed confident, and anyone who knew about him seemed to be slightly on edge, so Joe simply needed to trust that he could get the job done. “How long do we have until we lose all the Dwarves that were sent to respawn?”
“We'll burn that bridge when we cross it.” Havoc smoothly moved on even as Joe's eyes twitched at the terrible metaphor. “Get ready to go.”
The barrier wall surrounding the Fortress came into view in the distance. The glare coming off of the surface gave Joe pause; weren't the walls supposed to be… st
one? Havoc cleared up the confusion in an instant. “Abyss, they’re working fast. A hundred reputation says that they are gonna to be doing a big push for the major fort if they’ve already upgraded their walls to steel-coated stone.”
“If it makes you feel better, when I raze a building, we get all of the building materials that went into it.” Joe’s eyes glittered as brightly as the sun-reflecting wall. “I wonder if we can exploit this? Can we just start getting a huge amount of materials by taking down a wall and having it rebuild within a day?”
Havoc took that happy dream from him immediately, “No, the fortress will only rebuild itself to the basic form if it changes hands. We’ll not be able to strike a deal with the Elves to give a fortress back and forth between us. Certainly not for stone, which is what it reverts back to if we destroy it. Just focus on doing your job, and be greedy when it won’t impact the mission!”
The Dwarf stepped forward and seemed to transform into a different person, reminding Joe that he was not just a crazy old coot in a top hat; he was also a powerful and authoritative Major General. “All troops, prepare for battle! Artificers, exchange automaton Cores from travel… to combat! Engineers, set up defensive encampments! Healers, get ready; this is the most rested you get to be all day long!”
The walls of the fortress came closer and closer. Havoc touched his throat and shouted, the words powerfully magnified. “Elven invader scum! You have one minute and five seconds to abandon this post. After that, not a single one of you will survive! The Lord of Slaughter marches against you!”
“Your mother wears a green hat, ya chowderhead!” was the only verbal response. A cloud of arrows took flight, followed closely by various glowing effects. The Legion barked a thundering ‘Huoh’. In an instant, Joe and all of his allies had gained a combat buff.
Anti-Elven Phalanx formation (Small). You are part of a group of at least three hundred people with a unified goal. -5% damage from projectiles. -5% damage from spells. 3% chance to pierce illusions.
“I like that,” Joe muttered excitedly, his skin tingling from the protections that came into effect. “Is this a raid buff?”
“Nah.” Havoc nudged him with his elbow, in the best mood that Joe had ever seen him. “This is a raid buff. Time’s up, Elves! I am the Lord of Slaughter! Legion of Steel, on the order of Candidate Joe, take that fort!”
The Lord of Slaughter stands with you! -30% sensation of pain. 25% bonus damage dealt with melee weapons. 10% reduced damage taken from all sources.
“What… is that?” Joe gazed at the buff in awe as all sensation seemed to vanish, the tingling a distant memory. “Is that a spell? An item? How do you do that?”
“It’s a title, and I’m a noble.” Havoc casually pulled a small sphere out of his pocket. “By the way, looks like there is a bigshot here, or those Elves woulda messed themselves, not called out an insult. You’re gonna have your work cut out for you. Get up to the wall; I'll keep them busy.”
The Dwarf held up his hand containing the sphere, and a dense field of power left a shockwave in the air as it traveled upward. As it reached roughly a hundred feet above their heads, a ball of flaming light dropped out of the sky and twisted around… whatever it was that Havoc had just set up. Instead of landing in the center of their formations, the streak of light impacted hundreds of feet away on the open ground.
A mushroom cloud of dust, dirt, and fire crossed the distance between the epicenter and over to where they were standing in less than a second. The Dwarves didn’t flinch, instead taking the cover provided to charge forward at the wall ahead. Havoc sneered up at the structure an instant before it was hidden by the debris, locking eyes with an Elf in particularly regal clothing.
“Pah. You always like to open with a meteor, Francine. At this point, it’s practically boring. We’ll fix that soon.” Havoc’s face was filled with dark joy as he stared at the shining Elf maiden standing in the air above the minor fort. “Can’t believe they’d risk you out here, so something big must be about to go down. Still… can’t wait to have you back on our side.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Havoc’s battle with his Elven rival wasn't something that Joe could participate in, but frankly he didn’t even know that it was happening at this moment. His entire focus was on the walls ahead of him, specifically the need to destroy them utterly. Joe had been on this Zone for almost a couple months now, and he felt like he had accomplished nothing of note.
Now he was running along with a river of shining metal and steam, while fire and dust tried to choke him. The Dwarves were chanting their war cries, the automatons were rumbling alongside them, shaking the ground with every step. Spells and arrows were impacting the ground around them with the force of artillery shells; the blasts made sense for the spells, but Joe could only assume that each individual arrow was heavily enchanted. “This is a lightly guarded fortress?”
A ballista bolt tore directly through an automaton, the well-placed projectile managing to damage and expose the internal Core to the open air. The light around the construction dimmed as the Core itself seemed to suck in everything around it. Joe pounded the ground with his feet, trying to get away from the blast zone. However, it seemed that the Dwarves were used to this occurrence. Instead of fleeing, two of the other automatons grabbed at their falling comrade. One stabilized the machine, while the other pulled out the Core mechanism and threw it like a fastball over the wall in front of them. The explosion it generated shook the air, but more importantly, it slowed down the attacks raining down on them for a few precious seconds.
“Shields up!” a squad leader called out. Smoothly, gracefully, every Dwarf that was carrying a shield lifted it at the same time. An artillery spell landed directly above them, detonating in the air to inflict the most amount of damage as an attempt to scatter the unit. The well-timed order caused the mana of the attack to be reflected, the powerful wind spell turned into a simple breeze by the dense and interconnected enchantments on the shields.
Joe marveled at the efficient movements the Dwarves were showcasing. Back on Midgard, if he had been able to get his guild to move like this, they would have been untouchable, even during the mass incursion by the other Noble Guilds. Another order rang out. “Let's knock on the door, Legion-style!”
Contrary to what the order actually stated, no one went near the gates of the small fort. Joe wasn't entirely certain if it was because they knew it would be more heavily trapped, or if everyone was truly focused on the fact that he was going to take down the wall. Or, perhaps, this was their standard tactic? The only reason Joe thought that might be the case was the fact that the automaton running alongside them shifted into a low configuration as they reached the metal-clad stone of the walls. Their fists came together, their arms and back locking into the form of a gigantic battering ram.
The feet of the automatons dug into the ground, providing a stabilizing platform. With a discharge of power, one of the newly-conjoined battering rams rocketed forward, retracting almost as quickly once it dug into the wall. A second attack landed at the same spot a moment later as another got into position.
*Slam. Bang. Slam.*
In just a few seconds, the two battering rams had hit the wall five times, six… and there was already a hole in the defense that was as deep as the length from Joe’s knuckles to his elbows. They kept going, and to cover them, the Dwarves pulled out grenades, of all things. Joe shook that thought out of his head; they weren't grenades as he knew them. They were round, enchanted consumable items that would release all of their power in one burst to destroy themselves; all so the enemy could not use them against the Dwarves in return. Fire, force, electricity… there were even a few sleeping spells snuck in among the others. Were they back on Midgard, Joe would liken this to throwing fistfuls of gold at the enemy and hoping it held them back just a few seconds longer.
Mainly because the—he was just going to go ahead and call them grenades—were not actually effective weapons against the Elves
. If they did do damage, it was only because the affected Elf was unprepared. Every single one of their enemies had some form of shield, shell, barrier… something that stopped the actual damage from getting through to them. The concussive force was merely throwing off their spells, their aim, and possibly pushing the lighter foes off the wall or away from an advantageous attacking position.
It did make Joe wonder what kind of enchanting force the Dwarves could muster. Enchantments, even single-use ones like this, were expensive and hard to create. He knew that much. In fact, he was almost positive that they would get a better weapon if they made a similar thing with alchemy, though Havoc had explicitly stated that there was apparently only one decent Alchemist in the entire Dwarven Oligarchy. Still, if they could make something that would get in the air, it would likely go right through whatever protections the Elves were using to shield themselves from the blasts. He jotted that down in his mental notebook, “I should actually keep that in mind.”
Even with all the protective measures that they could put in place, the Dwarves were no match for an entrenched force. Spells were starting to come down thick and fast, flaming oil was being poured over the wall, and large stones were being dropped on them. One of the squad leaders grabbed Joe and shoved him forward as the left automaton was pancaked into the soft earth by a boulder four times larger than Joe. “Magic Bro! Get up there and break that wall, bro! We’re all counting on you; we believe in you! You can do it!”
The Dwarves around him cheered as Joe raced forward and embraced the scant protection hugging the wall provided, trying to put as much of his body as possible into the freshly dug hole. A ritual diagram appeared in his hand, the prepared Ritual of Raze that he activated as soon as he could target the wall itself.
