A sharp whistle pierced the battlefield as Loth blew through her talons.

“Your attention please!” She shouted, waving from atop a chunk of fallen rock.

Will could hear Jean’s voice shouting something on the other side of the rubble, and what sounded like the exact tone of Reggie’s armor being struck, coming from behind him.

“Restrain the kobold! No direct attacks!” one of Caddock’s men shouted, and a sphere of stone erupted from the ground to surround Loth.

As she disappeared, Will spotted Loth pull out a fireball bead and shove it into her mouth.

An instant later, hundreds of Loth’s insects died at once, burnt to death in an instant.

OH! Will thought, recalling what Loth was wearing.

Cuirass of the Blood Lord

+10 Resistance

+3 kinesthetics

+1 Acuity

+14 Focus

Damage done to you is done to your minions first. Scales with Focus.

Whenever you kill a minion, all allies gain a boost to Strength, Resistance, Kinesthetics, Movement Speed, and Damage for the duration of combat or until an hour passes.

I guess it’s not too specific about who deals the damage, Will thought as a surge of power flooded him.

Caddock rushed forward and Will juked around him easily, sprinting for Jean and company.

BOOM!

Will stumbled as another bolt of lightning crashed down on him, turning his surroundings into glass and slightly melting his armor.

Really hope my armor doesn’t break.

Will tumbled for an instant, drawing a trough through the ground for a few yards before he leapt back to his feet, sprinting over the rubble, downing a healing potion as he ran.

Sourdough

35 Charges remaining.

When he got to the top of the mountain of shattered stone, he saw Jean on the other side, splitting into dozens of copies that were flooding the battlefield.

She…seemed fine? Not getting hit with a mental whammy, anyway.

Jason was huddled beside her, his snakes defending him while he hastily loaded smoking weed into the tomahawk.

Why? Will’s eye twitched as he recalled the tomahawk’s effects. Only one stood out that might explain what he was seeing.

Smoke drawn through the pipe will cure Psychic Venom and inoculate against psychic damage.

…what does inoculate mean anyway?

Caddock caught up with Will the moment he paused, attempting to skewer Will with his re-acquired spear.

Will caught the spear above his stomach and the two of them tumbled off the mound of shattered boulders and earth.

Even with Loth’s buff, Will wasn’t stronger than Caddock. Stats were a multiplier, and Caddock was already built like a mountain, so even if they had the same Strength – which they didn’t – Will would’ve still been weaker.

And yet…nobody said she was done.

Loth’s stone prison exploded, erupting with bone Maksu as hundreds more of her minions died, reinforcing all her remaining allies. The basic undead moved like veteran climbers as they swarmed outwards.

Loth was wielding the necromancer’s dagger, killing her newest generation ‘technically a monster’ insects by the dozens, mass-producing footsoldiers while simultaneously reinforcing them.

It seemed like Maybin Glasswind grew tired of people fumbling Loth, because a tree-width beam of lightning encompassed the kobold and sped the process along.

Thousands of Loth’s insects died in an instant, and Will got the biggest buff he’d ever experienced.

When color returned to the battlefield, Will spotted Caddock winding up a thrust.

Loth made a quick motion towards the Paladin, and Will felt her cantrip, Fumble, ripple through the air between them, prompting Will to lunge forward.

Caddock’s hands spasmed uncontrollably for an instant, and Will took the opportunity to tear the spear out his hands.

Will set his feet, the earth flowing up to his ankles to anchor him in place, twisted, then unwound his body, swinging the spear like a club with everything he had.

The earth around his feet shattered as the backblow of Will’s attack was transmitted through the ground.

Caddock’s cuirass folded inward an instant before the paladin was blown away.

The wound in his chest and shoulder sealed as the lifesteal strickled in.

Will glanced up with the intention of running into the sky, when he noticed at least six fliers forming a roof above him, and more Nukers just waiting for him to clear the ground.

More of Caddock’s soldiers crowded in around Will.

Man, If I had the Charge, Will thought as he hefted the spear, flowing around his clumsy opponents like water, the ground rippling around them as he moved. Always supporting him. Always twisting under their ankles.

I’m moving like I did during the tournament.

Will could see it in their eyes, in the way they gave fainthearted attacks that didn’t have every ounce of their will in it.

They were fighting a legend, and numbers meant nothing.

Will slid around a flurry of blows, caught a stab aimed for his neck with his palm, tore the blade out of the man’s hand and blew away another with a swipe from the spear.

I should be stabbing, but clubbing people with an ancient treasure just feel right.

A prison of stone erupted around him and Will took three steps straight up, grabbed the stone with his feet and sent spears of stone out into the crowd.

BOOM!

A bolt of lightning dropped down on him again, his armor brightening from cherry red to glowing orange.

“GONNA TAKE MORE THAN THAT!” Will shouted, perched on top of the glassed stone.

I need a helmet, Will thought as he smelled burning hair.

At least I don’t smell exposed brain, Will thought, dashing to the side, hardening the air in front of him, creating a wedge to shove his opponents aside.

The soldiers raised their weapons then staggered backwards as the air itself shoved them aside.

Will broke through the encirclement and sprinted straight to where he’d heard weapons clanging off Reggie’s armor.

Reggie was ragged, standing in between half a dozen stone-faced Climbers and a weeping Alicia.

“They used some kind of sensory debuff on her!” Reggie shouted as he spotted Will, bodily shoving another Climber away from his ward. “She can’t see or hear!”

The two of them were covered in burns and minor wounds. The only reason they were still alive was because of Loth’s Party-wide buff providing a substantial amount of Resistance.

“Take her and run!” Will shouted.

Alicia’s only job was to insta-kill, and Reggie’s only job was to protect the glass cannon. Might as well take them both off the board if she’d been disabled.

Will stomped a half-circle of earthwave and shoved the circling Climbers back far enough for Reggie to scoop Alicia up and start running.

Reggie wasn’t the fastest, but Loth’s buff provided a staggering boost to movement speed, allowing the heavily armored Tank to scamper away like Will on a good day.

Will saw a contingent of Loths’ bone maksu form a wedge and impose themselves between the pair and the pursuit.

Will glanced up into the sky, and saw that the fliers only had eyes for him, rather than chasing the two.

Travis was nowhere to be seen, but Will wasn’t too concerned about him. The Master Decoy’s whole Class revolved around gaining and losing enemy attention. He was probably hiding under the illusion of a rock somewhere, sipping a health potion for a minor bruise.

Will directed the Phantom Eye up, making a quick sweep of the battlefield.

Mason was out of Charge, standing over a heavily bleeding June and trying to fend Climbers off with nothing but his staff and cantrips.

His body was mostly void, with only occasional patches of pearlescent skin showing through. He’s been cut and bashed and burned all across his body, accomplishing nothing but exposing the void beneath his skin. Mason was seemingly unharmed, but being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

The Nuker was throwing around cantrips right and left, nursing his last few points of Charge rather than squandering them on big attacks.

Loth’s buff was helping him, but he wasn’t a melee fighter to start with. It wasn’t enough to close the gap.

Will screamed through the air, hissing sound following behind him as he ran, the earth spraying up behind him. He slid to a halt beside June, uncorking a Greater healing potion and splashing it across June’s slashed neck and chest.

Sourdough

34 Charges remaining.

June drew a shuddering breath, her skin regaining a bit of color. The scout’s eyes popped open, and her intelligent gaze took in the entire battlefield in an instant.

Arrow-shaped snakes erupted from June and began to ravage the battlefield while June downed one of her own healing potions.

Will’s Phantom eye spotted Jean begin to collapse, And he began sprinting.

Wait.

Will’s Party was conveniently separated by a large obstacle, with half of them being immobile, and Will was sprinting back and forth between them, desperately putting out fires instead of seeking advantage.

He was being led around by the nose. He’d studied long enough with Bakton to be able to tell when it was happening. Caddock had instructed his men to separate them and apply just enough pressure to nearly kill them.

If I was an emotionless killing machine, where would I go next to gain advantage while Will is distracted by Jean?

Will’s eyes widened and he twisted his feet, the ground bouncing under him.

Will sprinted straight for Loth.

Halfway there, the massive buff from Loth’s cuirass vanished as Caddock tore the gilded plate off Loth’s chest and tossed it aside. His minions plowed through the suddenly weakened bone soldiers and snatched up her damaged armor, skittering away with it.

Caddock’s body was covered in wounds, his hands mangled, but the wounds were vanishing as fast as Loth could make them.

“You know what the problem with being smarter than everyone is?” Caddock asked, raising a sword.

“Hubris.” Loth replied with a raspy hiss and a defiant glare.

“Exactly.” Caddock said, bringing the blade down.

Will didn’t try to save Loth.

He trusted that she had another trick up her sleeve.

Caddock was probably expecting him to heroically interpose his weapon or his body between the sword and Loth, but that wouldn’t save them in the long run.

Instead, Will lowered his body, cupped the earth behind his heels, and lined the spear up with the large divot in Caddock’s armor, thrusting forward with every ounce of strength he could muster.

The divot caught the point of the spear and held it in place, allowing Will to shove the spear through Caddock’s side and up into the paladin’s lungs.

The sword came down and Loth threw up an arm bearing a beetle the size and shape of a buckler, which, amusingly, had been up her sleeve the entire time.

Loth tumbled away with a deep wound in her arm, but still alive.

Caddock glanced down at the spear jutting out of his armor, eyes wide.

“You dropped this.” Will said.

Caddock dropped the sword and reached for the spear.

Will lunged forward and caught the sword before it hit the ground, slashing up and catching Caddock’s helmet with it.

Damned armor.

Will climbed up Caddock and aimed the point of the blade at the gap between helm and cuirass, forcing the paladin’s hands away from the spear in his side, catching the blade with his gauntlets before it could enter his neck.

Will’s one weaker hand couldn’t hope to compete with Caddock’s two stronger ones, even if he had the better grip.

As the sword was torn out of his hand, Will jammed his fingers into Caddock’s eyes before jumping away from the sword as the paladin swung it like a war hammer, attempting to brain him with the quillon.

Phantom Eye expired, and Will brought up a new one instantly as he skidded to a halt.

Phantom Eye

33 Charge remaining.

It’s only been a few minutes, Will thought, panting, glancing at the blushing horizon. There was a sliver of brilliant golden light peeking above the mountains.

I don’t think I can keep this up much longer, Will thought, turning his gaze back to the paladin, who was warding him off with his sword in one hand, pulling the spear out of his side with the other.

Will really, really wanted to make a bridge of fear and teleport to the soldiers that Caddock had left behind. The ones who were too afraid of the Tangled to venture out into the wilds.

It wouldn’t be too hard to create that bridge. He knew exactly what they were afraid of. Exactly how they felt. It would allow him to vanish, fight an easy battle to escape, and buy hours of time before Caddock reacquired him.

The only problem is…

Any other opponent, Will might’ve done it and congratulated himself on being clever, but the way Caddock had destroyed Will’s kit even when he had Will in checkmate…

The man had all the humorless determination of a meatgrinder.

He’ll make sure to kill everyone here before he resumes chasing me. Will had no doubt.

You could just pay to have them resurrected, some cold part of Will’s mind whispered. It’ll definitely buy enough time.

…No. Will thought, shaking his head, sweat dripping off the tip of his nose. He’ll destroy the bodies. I’m staying.

“Bastard stole my Kit,” Loth coughed as she stood.

She’s killable right now.

Will tackled Loth to the ground an instant before a bolt of lightning descended on her. The deafening flash of white caught Will in the back and caused his entire body to twitch violently.

A blade came down on Will’s shoulder blade and bounced off his armor before taking a slice out of his upper shoulder, missing his neck thanks to his wild thrashing.

Loth slapped a hand against the earth beneath her and disappeared into the ground, kicking Will away from a follow-up strike as she did so.

The blade flashed past his face, close enough to cut through the miasma fog and actually see it flash in front of his face. Will recovered enough to hop away, collapsing into the stone-filled dirt as his arm gave out from under him from the sudden pain.

“Even without your kit and the kobold’s buffs, you’re still practically made of steel. Remarkable.” Caddock said, a stream of blood on the front of his armor where he’d coughed out the blood in his lungs after healing. “But even steel will eventually give way.”

DING!

Hammer of God has finished overwriting Ring of Accuracy*

Will wiggled the newly regrown finger on Phantom Hand before slotting Hammer of God, muscling down the shudder that travelled through his left side.

Hammer of God

+84 Strength

+42 Resistance

+63 Kinesthetics

+22 Acuity

+28 Focus

28 degrees of correction.

+88% to Lightning damage inflicted by user.

Lightning damage dealt by the user will chain to up to 10 other enemies, dealing 23% less damage with each jump

Upon striking their target, projectiles fired by the user are converted to lightning bolts, with potency based on the projectile’s potential damage on impact.

projectiles gain a large amount of mass and speed over time.

“I’m not made of steel.” Will said, staggering to his feet. “I’m made of lightning.”