DakotaKrout

CC5 ~ 24!

~ 24 ~

The Dwarves had made a tactical retreat in preparation of charging, and the Elven defenders were frantically attempting to destroy whatever was obliterating their walls. Since the ritual diagram had literally been buried inside the very walls that it was destroying, they were having no luck disrupting the source. Every few minutes, another ten feet of wall was returned to its component state, forming neat stacks of stone and metal outside of the fortress so that the Elves could...

CC5 ~ 23!

~ 23 ~

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 D...

CC5 ~ 22!

~ 22 ~

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 hu...

CC5 ~ 21!

~ 21 ~

“It’s been three days, human,” Havoc whispered into Joe’s ear, the deep voice buzzing unpleasantly. That, combined with the surprise visit, caused Joe to slap out in shock. He missed by a wide margin, and Havoc waved at him to hurry. “Time to step up to the plate and grab the bull by the horns.”

Joe frowned at the Dwarf with slight disgust. “Where did that come from?”

Havoc looked surprisingly proud about his terrible mixed metaphor. “I to...

CC5 ~ 20!

~ 20 ~

“What are we doing?” Joe finally broke down and asked the question. He was standing in an empty room with Havoc staring at him; the only thing that had moved in the last five minutes as they watched each other was a long line of smoke that lifted into the air above the Dwarf.

“We are doing nothing. You are about to impress me.” Havoc's words were not a guarantee, nor were they a plea; they were a demand. “I let you go into one of the most highl...

CC5 ~ 19!

19

Joe didn't go over the majority of his experience with Havoc, but the details were certainly on his mind. He had learned a few interesting things while he'd been in the landfill, and while the hidden Guardian was certainly the most interesting, it certainly wasn't the only information he had found.

At one point, he had nearly died because he tried to rely on an old gaming trope he had heard about over and over. He cast ‘Mend’ on a zombie as it was coming at him, ...

CC5 ~ 18!

18

Havoc paused from tinkering with his new super weapon, a mana-magnetic meteor mitigator. He tapped one large finger against his lab table, wondering what was bothering him. “Those Elves have been using meteors as their main weapon for the past six months; this needs to be my main focus. If I can use their blasted spells against them, we won't have to worry about them taking out large contingents of our troops. Oh?”

He was getting a notification? Someone had compl...

CC5 ~ 17!

17

“Almost a full week now.” Joe stood atop a section of the landfill that was especially tall, looking between the various ‘mountain peaks’ that he had visited over the last few days. Seven redesigned rituals had been placed on the peaks: Acid Spray rituals at the Beginner ranks. The main reason he had needed to redesign the rituals wasn’t for more potent acid, but so that he could include a time delay in their construction. They would still only be able to damage items at ...

CC5 ~ 16!

16

“Cone of Cold!” Joe directed the freezing blast at the two-headed vole that had burrowed out of the trash and jumped at him. He had been attempting to stay away from fire or electrical-based attacks, since he was hoping to avoid blowing himself up again. The vole took the final attack and fell, so Joe walked over to its body and stomped heavily at the base of its necks, breaking the frozen portion open and retrieving a single Trash Core.

He had learned something interesti...

CC5 ~ 15!

15

Joe started toward the sound, which vanished as soon as he opened his eyes. “Huh… seems like there’s just too much sensory overload. Can’t focus on it.”

Eyes tightly closed, he tried to pinpoint the sound, then opened his eyes and followed the direction it had come from as he picked his way through the garbage. He repeated this process until the sound of ‘something Rare’ was coming from directly below him, then waited for the gunk beneath his feet to be atomized...

CC5 ~ 14!

14

Major General Havoc absolutely abused the ability to transfer between major forts. Every time someone tried to call him out on it, he would just point at Joe and mutter ‘Candidate rights’. Every time they needed to walk from one area to another, the Dwarf would loudly talk about the area, as if he was trying to prepare Joe for a mission. Not a single person dared to actually stop them, which was what Joe assumed the point was. Act confident, like you belong there, and ...

CC5 ~ 13!

13

One of the greatest benefits of having his Legendary codpiece was that Joe could bring things out of it to any part of his body whenever he wanted. It was time to show Havoc what he had learned, and Joe knew better than to hold back. With a thought and a handful of mana, Joe grasped forward and called forth an aspect of Trash.

The dark grey wispy fire appeared and was immediately surrounded by his light blue mana. Joe didn't bother to put much effort into the design, making a...

CC5 ~ 12!

12

The world around Joe faded into a dense fog immediately. He wasn't entirely certain if he had been moved from his position, or if he were in the same spot but completely zoned out. Joe was standing in a world of mist, but the condensation began to visibly coalesce in front of his amazed eyes. Joe flinched as the shifting world began speaking to him in a powerful voice. Every word from this unknown being burned itself into his brain, making it nearly impossible to forget.

...