Chapter One Hundred and Ninety Five - 195The Revenants rushed forward, and Felix unsheathed his club.
Name: Inscribed Femur of the Envoy
Type: Weapon (Enchanted)
Lore: Taken from the Body of a mad construct, this club is inscribed with the foul magic that had animated it. Due to preponderance of Profane Sigaldry, it relies on Essence to function rather than Mana.
Durable VII - Profane Sigaldry has engendered an etheric durability in the bone.
Self-Repair X - Profane Sigaldry heals the bone like flesh, over time.
The bludgeoning weapon had shrunk shortly after receiving it, no more than twelve inches, too short to be a useful weapon. Rafny hadn't been able to do much more than wrap some leather around the narrower end of the blue, metallic bone. It had been beyond her Skill Tier. She couldn't even alter them in minor ways, or budge the inscriptions on them, let alone tell that they didn't take Mana as a normal enchantment might. Felix didn't spare the time to explain. It didn't take Mana at all. It took Essence.
The monsters charged into view and Felix fed out a measure of their own Essence into the club, and swung. The Femur shot out until it was over six feet in length, and swept through an entire row of oncoming Revenants.
Territorial Quest Alert!
You Have Gained Contribution!
"HA!" Felix crowed. Every time they'd killed the Revenants, they gained a mysterious amount of contribution. He'd earned some already, but there wasn't a leader board or a little bar that filled up. "Focus fire on the ones I drop. Evie, Vess, handle the flanks. Thangle, protection for the Tin Ranks! Go!"
Arrow of Perdition!
Arrow of Perdition!
Felix slammed the bolts of blue-gold light into the nearest Revenants, right into their cores, and the both of them stumbled to the ground, screaming. He could feel something shatter within them both, the piercing noise of tensioned wires suddenly cut off. His Mana dropped precipitously to less than a third of his maximum. Painful. He'd not used it since upgrading his core; the Arrows hit hard but they ate up so much Mana.
Spears of silver and orbs of flame blasted the monsters to either side of Felix as he advanced, ducking beneath the swinging arm of another. Cutting off the flow of Essence to his club, it shrunk quickly back down to a foot-long baton which he used to brain the nearest Primordial spawn. The club was greedy though and had eaten up a large chunk of his stored Essence, so Felix caught the near-dead Revenant and breathed in sharply.
Ravenous Tithe!
Ripped into greasy smoke and down Felix's gullet, the smog barely cleared when another three monsters were atop him.
Hmm, no, Felix frowned as he fended off their claws with his blue metal baton. I'll kill too many at this rate.
Ravenous Tithe!
This time, Felix focused on the air itself, claiming it. Ambient Mana and Primordial energy flowed into him like water, and the entire horde faltered. Confusion pulsed through them for a moment, and that was enough. Felix tore through those closest like a farmer reaping wheat. Others he hamstrung with his claws and sent stumbling toward his group. They needed to learn to fight even more than he did, after all. Felix spared a glance back.
Territorial Quest Alert!
You Have Gained Contribution!
Things were going to plan.
Vess was front and center, knocking back more of the Revenants than she killed, but her exploding projectiles weren't exactly surgical. Wild storms of air Mana burst and faded around him, shredding those monsters caught within. Atar's Sparkbolts kept on, hurled from the magical crown that hovered above his head. He was far more precise, but also considerably more potent than before. His power had grown since the Domain, despite his recent illness. He felt...different. More raw, maybe, but his fire had turned a bit more red than before.
Felix made a note to keep an eye on him. Just in case.
The Tin Ranks were clustered near the back, with Evie and Thangle providing defense and support to them. Evie's chain lashed about, striking the swimming Revenants in the water, dunking them with the force of her augmented weapon. Thangle was...well, nowhere to be seen, but that was his thing. When several of the beats climbed up the river wall, they were immediately struck by some a purple haze, and started lashing out against the empty air. As they'd discussed, the Tin Ranks rushed in to take them out.
"Rolling Boulder!" Stellis wielded her new mace with less grace and Strength than most, but a haze of dusty-brown vapor enveloped the flanged head as it hit hard enough to send a Revenant stumbling. She'd improved significantly since he'd last seen her fight, and Apprentice Tier weapons were no joke.
"Smoldering Lash!" A line of compressed fire Mana whipped outward, a small mirror to Evie's chain, and Heva wrapped it around the same Revenant's neck. The sizzling, even from this distance, was gruesome. The creature was knocked free of the purple Mana's illusion, but it had no time to scream or retaliate, because a bright, green-gold sigil the size of a melon slammed into its chest and ripped open its skin with a similar, but different sort of sizzle.
"Got em!" Merk shouted, thrusting her inscription stylus into the air in triumph.
A large sword flashed and lopped off the monsters head in a single stroke, felling the beast. Cade growled. "Don't get cocky!"
More monsters came for them, but they were in good hands. Felix turned back to his enemies, just now regaining their feet. Time to earn some Contribution.
The fight went predictably after that. Felix mopped up those that came within reach, though those that fled were typically dispatched by Atar or Evie. Contribution went up, but still he had no idea how much, and he worried at their lack of progress. How far had the Inquisition gotten? Cal had scouts keeping an eye out, but there were only so many with the right Skills, and one of them was Cal herself. And she was busy running the camp.
All reports were that the redcloaks were steadily making their way inward. Securing the Sunrise Quarter as they went. That couldn't possibly be good.
Felix briefly asked Zara why she didn't just...destroy them all and claim the Authority. She claimed she could not. Zara could kill the Revenants, but not without demolishing the city, and even then, credit for the kill wouldn't go to her. As a Chanter, she was apparently isolated from the System, to an extent. Authority could not rest on her shoulders, not System given, anyway. Once, those who delved into the mysteries of the Grand Harmony were revered; but the Pathless changed all that somehow. Now, they were all but excluded from the System itself.
Ultimately, that meant she was relegated to support. To teaching them her ways, and strengthening their people. Otherwise she risked her involvement fouling the Quest completely.
"Wait, so that means won't I be a problem? Or Vess and Evie?" Felix had asked.
"You're all too new to the Chant to have garnered much Significance," Zara had waved away the concern. "Being Unbound also means you in particular are free of many restrictions. It's why your kind is so dangerous."
Dangerous. Felix reflected as the last of the Revenants fell beneath his club. He'd take whatever advantage he could. Life on the Continent wasn't easy and seemed to be getting harder.
"REEEEAAAAAARRRKKK!"
Case in point.
Across the bridge, a half-demolished building collapsed. From the rubble emerged a massive monster. It was easily twice the size of a normal Revenant, perhaps thirteen feet tall if it stood straight, though it was still built in the same vein. Two arms, two legs, both built like tree trunks.
Voracious Eye!
Name: Manawarped Ghoul
Type: Primordial Spawn
Level: 42
HP: 3045/3045
SP: 1818/1864
MP: 34876/0
Lore: An evolved version of a Manawarped Revenant, a Ghoul has supped upon the Primordial Essence and used it to advance itself.
Strength: Strength and Endurance are exceptionally high