CHAPTER 4 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 0 AoC

They started moving again a few minutes later. Richter didn’t want his men to fully cool down and cramp. After a nod to Caulder, the sergeant was barking at them. His particular brand of harsh love had them up in a nonce, and soon, the warband was running again. While they moved, Richter decided how to allocate his War Leader points. 

  (Table doesn't work in formatting.  Attached at bottom)

Total War Points Remaining: 1001.

The thousand and one War Points opened up a good deal of options for him. The first thing on his mind was that Yoshi had told him that he was a fool for not having invested in defense or attack. With the points he had to spend now, he could buy up to the fifth rank in melee or ranged badges. That would translate to +25% attack or defense for himself and for anyone in his war party. Nothing to sneeze at. It could keep a sword blade from penetrating a breastplate, or help his people claim an enemy’s life. 

Some of his other badges were still locked until he reached his next rank in War Leader so those were out. Favored Enemy II drew his eye again though. The next rank was expensive at five hundred points, but the bonuses really stacked up. The fact that they would apply to anyone within his Sphere of Influence, and not just to the eleven that he could include in his own war party, was also a big selling point. He thought about it for another few seconds, before shaking his head though. Richter had more enemies than just goblins. He decided to hold off on purchasing another rank.

Trainer and Power Level were always good, but he decided what he really wanted was greater mobility. His domain was about three hundred square miles. History had always shown that empires that could travel quickly were able to achieve great things. It was an open badge, so it could help him immediately, unlike closed badges that he’d have to wait a full day to be useful. He made his decision.

Congratulations! You have purchased the War Badge: Movement Speed III. The movement speed of any friendlies within you Sphere of Influence is increased by 30%. 

Total War Points Remaining: 601.

The warband’s speed picked up immediately. Richter’s steps through the underbrush felt more sure, and the thickets they had to run through suddenly seemed less dense. He would have bought the next rank as well if possible, but he was almost a hundred points shy. It was tempting to spend the rest of the points now, but he decided to hold off. There was always time to buy more later.

At the speed they were moving at, the war party had to pause several more times. Stamina depletion was a real danger. Richter’s stats weren’t built for prolonged battles like a Professed Warrior, but his high level still meant his Endurance was higher than almost any of the village guards. He railed internally at the delay, but his people would be slaughtered if a monster attacked while they were exhausted. Richter just focused on the task at hand. 

As the hours passed, they moved deeper into forest. Richter had almost started to think that they would reach the army unmolested, when a horrible clacking split the silence of the mists. Caulder heard the noise at the same time, and barked out command, “Form up! Fort formation! Shields front! I said form up! Move faster!  Banished gods, I’ll find you another job that involves touching shit with your hands! More your asses!”

The training the guards had received showed. There were no polished special ops team, but with a minimal amount of shoving and bungling, they got into formation. Richter gritted his teeth.  Even though they were performing well, it didn’t change the fact that his men equipped for speed, not battle. Few of them had shields, and the only long weapons they had were eight simple spears. Still, they were ready for battle, and Richter would stand with them. 

The twenty melee guards formed a square, four men to a side. Each scanned the forest, their hearts thudding in their chests. Richter, two bowmen and a biomage were on the inside of the formation. Before the last man was set, the chaos seed had an arrow knocked to his bow. A golden glow sprung into existence, but he minimized had surrounded. Another loud roar split the forest. The sound of breaking branches could clearly be heard coming from the southwest., and it was getting louder. 

Richter reached for the spot in his mind that held his mental connection to Alma. She was too far away for him to speak with her, but he could still call upon her power. His Enhanced Imbue Arrow skill did not require his familiar to be close by, just that they were bonded.  Blue-white crackles began to dance across the golden aura of his imbued arrow. Black streaks had appeared on the golden aura in the next second. Two seconds after that, the beasts came into view. Richter’s teeth bared in a snarl as he saw what they were facing

There were four of them in all. Each was on four legs and moved like a hunting cat. Their faces were also reminiscent of a lion, but their lower jaw protruded like a bulldog’s. Two large tusks extended up for ten inches on either side of their mouths. They were four and a half feet tall at the neck, and their shoulders had hardened bone over them as armor. Two large bone horns protruded from their shoulder blades and curved forward to either side of their heads like ramming spikes. 

One was larger than the others and Richter identified it as the pack leader. While he poured his mana into his arrow as quickly as he could, he spared five MP to use Analyze.

Name: Alpha   Dreemar Disposition: Irritable
An Alpha Dreemar leads its pack. The territorial animals are aggressive, but   normally keep to themselves. The   hardened bone armor and large tusks speak to its favored attack of ramming   opponents and then goring them once one the ground. The Alpha can drive the other members of the   pack into a rage greatly increasing their attack and decreasing their   response to pain.
Level: 19
Health: 610 Mana: 30 Stamina:   740
  Strength: 49
  Agility: 17
  Dexterity: 14
  Constitution: 61
  Endurance: 74
  Intelligence: 3
  Wisdom: 2
  Charisma: 3
  Luck: 10

Richter’s eyes widened as he saw its high Strength and even higher Constitution. The things would knock his men over like bowling pins! Struggling not to lose concentration as more than four hundred and fifty mana was now being contained in the gold and black aura around his arrow, he gave a terse command. “Break the formation! Don’t meet the charge!”

He could spare no more words. The aura around the arrow had taken on the barbershop pole appearance of gold swirled with black and the blue white psychic energy crackled ominously across the surface. It shook on the string in an imitation of life, eager to fulfill its destiny and kill. Since evolving his Imbue Arrow skill Richter could channel the mana with much greater ease, but the possibility of losing control still existed. 

Caulder looked at his lord in askance after the order, for only for a moment. Years of service had taught the sergeant the importance of following orders in combat. The look of intense concentration on Richter’s face all spoke volumes.

“You heard his lordship! Break into strike teams! Do not let these things charge right at you. Use the trees for cover! If you die, you’re on latrine duty for a month!”

The formation immediately split apart. The guards formed into five man groups and scattered to the right and left. The charging dreemar barely noticed. They apparently took a bright shining light as a challenge. On the one hand, that meant his people could get out of the way, which was wonderful. On the other, all five were charging right at Richter, and his imbued arrow, which is his opinion fucking sucked! 

The hooves of the beasts churned the forest floor as they stayed tight in formation. Several tons of flesh bore down on Richter who watched his mana drop at a prodigious rate, placing all of his faith into the first magical attack he had ever learned. With his newly improved Intelligence, he was able to pour more mana into his shot than he’d ever used before. He silently counted how much.

561 mana… 597 mana… What the fuck am I doing? 614 mana… 

The dreemar were close enough that he could see their nostrils flaring. The only thing that kept his ass from already being run over, was that the powerful creatures had a low Agility and Dexterity. Still, he decided he’d probably done invested enough

Richter’s teeth were bared in defiance as he finally released. He had maximizedd the secondary effects of his Enhanced Imbue Arrow skill after only two hundred mana. The extra six hundred were for stopping power. The arrow held so much magic that it had been bucking on the string like a vibrator on PCP. When he released the alpha dreemar was only twenty yards away. The arrow shot forward like a coiled snake, crossing the space in the blink of an eye. Everyone heard the BOOM of the exploding arrow a moment before they felt the compression wave. Richter was rocked back, but the effect on the dreemar was much more profound. 

Alpha Dreemar suffers from Mind Fog.

Alpha Dreemar is Stunned.

Alpha Dreemar suffers from Psi Crystallization. 

Richter strikes Alpha Dreemar with Enhanced Imbue Arrow for 909 points of varied damage (Piercing=40/Magical Force=263): {[(+16 Recurve Bow of the Wood Sprite + 8 Moonstone Arrow – 5 Armor) + 34% for level 17 Archery + 76% for 38 points of Dexterity)] + [(614 Mana/5 -5 Armor) + 85% for level 17 Imbue Arrow + 38% familiar level] x 3 Critical Hit for Pierced Lung. 6-foot radius AoE Damage (not including modifiers): 263.

Richter has slain Alpha Dreemar!

The arrow struck it directly in the face scoring a critical hit! Richter had no idea about tall the complex calculations that went into the blow, he just knew he’d fucked that thing up! His bow had a max critical damage of x3 unless an arrow struck something incredibly vital like a brain or a heart, but it still definitely got the job done! His moonstone arrow, coupled with the already respectable damage range of his Recurve Bow of the Wood Sprite had serious stopping power. That was nothing compared to the magical force damage from imbuing the arrow. The sprite’s racial skill was costly, the shot having drained almost his entire mana pool, so it couldn’t be repeated, but for a one-off attack, you couldn’t do better!

The already magnified damage from the arrow crumbled its face inward leaving a bloody ruin. A horn broke with a snap that was consumed by the concussive boom of the imbued arrow. It plowed into the ground face first, its back legs finishing a final push before the body registered that the brain had been destroyed. 

The AoE of Richter’s Enhanced Imbue Arrow had been greatly increased since the skill had evolved. It was now determined by the power of his familiar. As Alma’s vaunted level of thirty-eight, the range of his shot was now a staggering six feet. It meant that his imbued arrows could wreck serious havoc upon grouped enemies. Despite his powerful attack, the damage he could cause was still subject to physics. The force of the blast was greatly absorbed by the heavy body of the alpha dreemar, and the fact that the animals had been charging in a loose wedge formation. The magical force pulverized muscle, internal organs and even cracked its reinforced bone, but, in death, the alpha performed one last service for its pack. The bulky meat of its body protected them from the worst damage of Richter’s strike. 

Its physical body did nothing to protect the pack from the secondary effects of Richter’s enhanced attack, however. His connection with Alma let him channel the Deep Magic of Thought into his strikes. These effects were also tied to the level of his familiar and had three tiers.  Mind Fog, Stun and Psi Crystalization. The remaining three dreemar were all affected by Mind Fog causing them to become disoriented and unable to focus. One of them was also Stunned and it crashed to the ground. The third effect was what Richter had truly been hoping for, however.

The stunned dreemar and one of the others now had blue-white crystals floating near their heads. Psi Crystalization summoned the glowing jewels, which made any afflicted creature more susceptible to psychic attacks and Thought magic. Without Alma around, that did not mean much in the here and now, but the jewels had a secondary effect. If a creature was killed before the gems disappeared, the crystal would capture its mental energy. That could lead to some interesting possibilities down the road.

With the alpha dead and another stunned, that just left two beasts on their feet. They were both bellowing in anger and confusion. Richter did not give them time to recover. Despite the mana headache that was making the edges of his vision blurry, the chaos seed shouldered his bow. He downed two mana potions and rushed forward.  The chaos seed hated wasting two potions on this minor battle, but he was already running on fumes and night would fall soon. He needed to end this battle as soon as possible and get to his people. 

Richter ran at the dreemar, needing to get much closer to be within the effective range of the spell he wished to cast. While he did so, the strike teams moved forward to attack the beasts with their liege. Before they could get too close the chaos seed told them to hold back, though. Caulder’s nostrils flared, unhappy with the order but he and the other guards obeyed. 

One of the disoriented dreemar saw Richter approaching and decided that was a good enough reason to attack. Before it could even get going however, he got off his spell. A green glow surrounded the fingers on one of his hands, and a ten foot wide circle of grease appeared under the dreemar. Both promptly fell to the ground with a crash and a squeal of protest. His headache started causing actual pain as his mana bar dropped again. The mana potion restored one hundred and ninety-seven MP, but it was like taxing a system that had already been in the red. His jaw tightened as he fought against the sensation.

Part of Richter wanted to tame one of the beasts. He felt strangely naked since sacrificing his shale adder to the Dungeon, but he reminded himself that he still had men and women out in the forest that he had to escort home. Also, the psi crystals needed to be harvested, and that could not be done if he left the creatures alive. He watched the monsters slipping and roaring in the grease while his mana bar recharged. A few seconds later, it had regenerated enough for his purposes. Silently cursing against the pain he was about to feel, he began. Green light suffused his hands as he dual cast Weak Rending Talons. 

He'd been right. It didn’t feel good, but it had also been worth it. A swirling storm of claws, nails and talons appeared around the three beasts. The scratch of any one hook didn’t do much damage, but the spell reached every bit of bare flesh. Soon, blood was flying through the air and the confused beasts panicked completely. One began goring the stunned dreemar while the other completely panicked. It fell again and again multiple times trying to escape the AoE of Richter’s Grease spell. 

The chaos seed desperately wanted to light the grease on fire. Weak Flame and Grease was pretty much his favorite spell combo, but he hadn’t forgotten the last time he had used Fire magic indiscriminately in the forest. It had taken several mages summoning rainstorms the better part of an hour to put out the fires. Instead, he cast a final attack spell, Weak Cloying Darkness. A cone of pure darkness shot from his hand and bathed all three dreemar. Casting the spell in the day decreased its power somewhat, but the heavy tree canopy preserved much of the effect. The Dark magic bathed the creatures, causing no damage, but decreasing their attack and movement speed by 20%. 

Richter called out to his men, “Let my spell do its work, but if they escape the grease, kill them quickly.”

The strike teams moved to surround the ring of grease and talons, but stayed a healthy distance back from the actual AoE. As if Richter’s words were prophetic though, one of the dreemar broke free. It dashed away, squealing and bleeding. It dodged between two of the five man squads and thankfully, none of the guards were foolish enough to try and stand in its path. Two did managed to spear it though, as it moved past. With a curse, Richter realized it was one of the dreemar with a psi crystal. 

“Kill it!” he called out. Ten of his people rushed after it, and one of the archers managed to sink an arrow in its back leg. The limb went lame and it crashed into nearby brush, disappearing from site. Richter could still hear the fading sound of breaking branches, so he knew it remained on its feet. His guards gave chase and soon, they were also hidden by the trees. 

The biomancer cast Soul Trap on both dreemar. The Stun debuff had worn off on one of them when it had been attacked by the other. The two animals were now locked in a brutal fight completely ignoring anything else. From the outside, they just looked like a ball of fur, claws, horns and blood. The chaos was worsened by Richter’s Weak Rending Talons spell that was still siphoning health from both of them at a steady rate. 

The strike teams stood ready in case the animals broke out of the spell fields, but they stayed focused on one another. The two archers nocked arrows, but waited when Richter motioned for them to be still. His mana had risen above one hundred points. Not enough for what he wanted to do, but luckily, he was the Master of the Mist Village. He set a Sprite Arrow of Nature to the string and began imbuing. Pulling on the village mana pool, he invested the required two hundred mana needed to maximize the Psi Crystalization effect of his skill and released. 

A second BOOM shook the forest and the two weakened creatures collapsed dead. Twin swirls of rainbow light rose into the air. The lights mirrored each other like mating dragonflies, gracefully weaving through the trees until they circled back and disappeared into Richter’s Bag of Holding. 

You have trapped the soul of a Dreemar! Soul level: Common. x 2

Richter dismissed both the Grease and Weak Rending Talons spells. The second one especially was just making a mess as it continued to score against the dead bodies. Even though he had come to enjoy battle, cutting up dead bodies over and over was just… gross and unnecessary. He heard a final squeal of pain off to the left as his strike teams ended the life of the last dreemar. It sounded like the beast had made it at least another hundred yards before they’d taken it down. Caulder was with them, though, and Richter was confident his sergeant would bring back the psi crystal. His men should have killed the beast well before the Psi Crystallization effect faded.  

The chaos seed planned to summon a few mist workers to take the carry the dreemar carcasses back to the village just as soon as his mana replenished. As it was he had a slight headache from almost completely depleting his pool. Richter could have simply used the village mana again, but he’d already used a hundred MP. The village only regenerated forty-two man per hour. Drawing from that reservoir of magic was not something he did lightly ever since his poor judgement had allowed bugbears to attack his village. The deaths of that night still weighed heavily upon him. It was better to wait a few minutes until his own mana pool refilled. Besides, he had psi crystals to find! 

The bodies of the two dreemar were somewhat messy, but Richter was able to recover the glowing blue-white crystals without difficulty. His second imbued shot had gotten the job done, and the stunned dreemar had developed a crystal a scant moment before death. Richter reached into his bag and pulled out a skin of water. After pouring some down his parched throat, he rinsed the crystals off and looked at them with immense satisfaction. 

You have found: 

Psi Crystal

Durability: 10/10

Item Class: Scarce

Level: 14

Weight: 0.9 kg.

Traits: This   crystal is the captured psychic energy of a level 14 Dreemar. This   energy can be utilized by Mental creatures to boost their growth and   stats. The energy may also be used by   anyone with access to Mental magic to greatly augment their spells. It can also be used by Mental creatures to   augment their capabilities for a short time. Any usage will consume the energy all at once. Further uses of this energy may be possible   and will have to be discovered. 

You have found: 

Psi Crystal

Durability: 10/10

Item Class: Scarce

Level: 18

Weight: 0.9 kg.

Traits: … 

He knew a dragonling that would absolutely love to get her hands on these. Richter slipped them both into his bag and waited for his men to return. He was about to summon a mist worker when he heard a large amount of shouting coming from the direction the dreemar had run in. There was a shout of pain, but it was tinged with anger, not the fury of battle. In fact, what it really sounded like was like was a cry of intense frustration and irritation. Still, everyone hefted their weapons and prepared for the worse. Then Richter heard Caulder’s voice, “Get that slippery bastard! He took it!”

A figure burst through the underbrush. Moments later, the two strike teams that had gone after the dreemar emerged from the trees as well, looking mad as hell. Richter watched the small man they were chasing, both confused and bemused. The figure was only four and a half feet tall, and his build was that of a fourteen year old boy’s. While his face was youthful though, Richter could still tell that he was no child. Though flushed, the man’s skin was fair. Slightly overlarge ears tapered up to a soft point on either side of his head, and his chestnut hair was pulled back in a pony tail that bounced behind him as he ran. 

The strike teams that had stayed with Richter moved to intercept the small man. A blue-white flash of light caught the chaos seed’s eyes and he realized what had happened. Whoever this was, he had stolen the psi crystal from Caulder! Then another thought struck him, that should have occurred to him first, and was much more concerning. How the hell was this guy able to see in the mists?

Alarm racing through him, Richter reached out a hand and shouted “Hey!”

Barely slowing, the man drew a slingshot from his belt and fired. Richter tried to move, but only twenty feet separated them. A small hard object hit Ricther directly between the eyes.

“Ah… Arghhhh!” Richter cried out. One leg buckled from the pain and then he collapsed unceremoniously onto his ass. The fact that he landed on a relatively sharp rock that bruised his tailbone didn’t help. The still fading pain of the mana headache was magnified twenty fold by the attack, and yet he lost only a few points of health. Richter had never been struck in the face by a gummy bear traveling at the speed of sound, but he imagined that this what it must feel like. “Owwwww!” he groaned, holding his head in both hands.

What followed over the next minute was a massive amount of shouting and yelling. “Get him! How did he… Don’t you hit me with… I have him! Fuck, I lost him!”

Richer shouted once, “I want him alive,” then ignored everything else happening around him. He had faith that his men would catch the thief, and unfortunately, no healing magic he possessed could get rid of a migraine as big as a giant’s menstrual cramps. A self-deprecating part of him felt like the pain was the Universe reminding him of a few things. One, that only a dumbass let himself get shot in the face. Two, if he was ever dumb enough to let it happened again, he wouldn’t have any feelings at all. On account of the death and all. Finally, it told him to be humble. Despite his vaunted power and high level, he could still be brought low in an instant. 

The part of him that realized all of this was quite small though, and was shrinking with every second that his head throbbed. The larger part of himself was not troubled by such existential concerns. It just had one thought that played on a loop while he sat there suffering. What the fuck had that guy shot him with?

 

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 I hope ya’ll enjoyed Chapter 4! 

I wanted Book 7 out at the end of the month, but life and work intervened.   

I'm happy to tell you Book 7 will be my LONGEST book by a good margin :)

Though, as usual, I hope you love it so much that it FEELS crazy short lol

That's relativity folks!

I'm hoping and praying to have it out by the end of the month

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Stuff you might want to know, I'm doing a SMITE, Paladins, Clash of Clans and League of Legends giveaway this month. 

If you're interested you can find it here

https://www.litrpg.com/litrpg-contest/

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Again PLEASE take a second and vote lol

If you have just THIRTY SECONDS, please vote!

t's the beige "vote for this book" button under the title, NOT the green "Want to Read" button on the right

It has to be done on a computer not a phone

it's #4 and I only need 15 votes to get to #1!!!! :0)

Have a great one ya'll!  Will be putting up Chapter 5 up this week!

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/84042.Kindle_Unlimited_Fantasy_and_SciFi_Favorites?page=1 

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