Unbound

Beef walked carefully on the dark edge of the jungle where dry ground met sudden, noxious wetland. He'd taken his time, moving as quietly as possible through the underbrush as the sun's rosy hue faded slowly into early morning blue.

Harn is asking if you are in position.

Tell him to hold on.

He stopped at the foot of a rocky cliff where the ground looked to have once slid down into the swamp, leaving a number of tall trees leaning slantwise over the foul water. Ahead, the Poison Fields opened up before him. A few flatboats were in the periphery, but none were too close. That was good. He didn't need them getting in the way.

Beyond the watery field, the tower of the Overlord loomed. Even from his low vantage, Beef could see the guilders guarding the edges of the small, rocky island. All of them were wearing heavy armor that glinted with enchantments. They didn't concern Beef too much, even if there were dozens just from this angle.

They weren't his targets.

Closer by far, two Adamants on their giant, colorful snakes slid by, floating atop the water like it was solid ground. The serpents wore barding, just like the one they met in Morva, and in addition to having a shimmer of metallic blue surrounding them, the knights astride them were clad in heavy plate armor.

Force shields, likely hard to penetrate.

They looked bored. Beef aimed to change that.

He dug his hands into the jungle floor, tearing up one mossy boulder among many. The ground tore, roots stretching and snapping like tiny gunshots. It was loud, so Beef moved fast. He hefted the boulder, easily bigger than himself, and braced against his back leg.

"Get smashed, idiot!"

He hurled the boulder into the Poison Fields. It flew out fast, propelled by his immense Strength, before crashing into the nearest snake head-on and slamming it into the water. Spray erupted all around it, and the serpent hissed angrily as it came back up among the bubbling spew.

"Attack!" the Adamant on its back spluttered. He was covered in sizzling water and shaking out his limbs. "Attack from the south!"

The words had barely left his mouth when the second boulder hit. The Adamant was fully hurled from the saddle by the impact, metallic blue flashing as he was driven into the water along with his serpent.

"Fight me, snake boys!" Beef strode from the cover of hanging moss and vines. Though his arms and legs were clad with gleaming, silver-red arcanite, he wore nothing else above his battle skirt save the broad slabs of his own furry muscles.

The first Adamant stumbled to his feet, poisoned water streaming from his pauldrons and vambraces. "Defiler!"

The Adamant beside him laughed and loosened the straps on his tall lance. "Brother, one seems to have challenged you this day.”

“Judgment must be called upon him!" the wet one spat, and his serpent leaned down to let him hoist himself back into the saddle.

"Let us grant him Mercy, then."

As one, they raised their hands. "The Weight of Mercy!”

A plane of blue force Mana slammed from the sky, flattening trees and hurling water in vile waves as it smashed directly onto Beef's head. He grunted and flexed his knees.

“I guess that kinda hurts.” From the ground at his side, he lifted Bedlam, the massive war hammer made of stone, metal, and a massive chunk of enchanted ice. He twisted the handle. The ice block hammerhead crashed into the plane of force, and its special disruption ability activated.

The spell flashed and fell apart. The Adamants jerked their hands back as if burned, sharing a brief look of confusion.

Beef hoisted Bedlam onto his shoulder. "What else you got?"

"A foe beyond Mercy," the dripping one said.

"Then we deliver Justice to him without Mercy's grace," his companion said.

The Adamants charged, serpents racing over the churning waters and lances now leveled at Beef's naked chest. He stood stock still as they charged, a wave of water streaming behind them and another rushing ahead as if heralding their imminent violence. ř

"No fair," he said. "You've got snakes in armor."

Beef stepped out into the poisoned fields and felt the foul liquid sizzle against his greaves. It didn't even hurt. The water boiled around him.

"How about I even out the playing field?"

A crystalline golem leapt from the jungle and slammed into Beef's back, enveloping him in faceted blackened green armor just as the Poison Field exploded beneath him. A blinding spray of poisoned water shrouded all three of them as the Adamants struck.

“What—?”

The Adamants tried jerking their lances free, but they were caught. Spray fallen, they gazed into the face of Beef clad in Graven Aegis, and the glowing eyes of the Multipede beneath him. Their lances were held fast in a crystalline fist and the crushing mandibles of the Risen monstrosity. Beef, atop its back, grinned into the faces of the shocked knights.

"Let's dance, assholes."

The Adamants yanked their weapons free, but before the shocked Adamants could re-engage with him, Beef thrust his Will and Mana outward into the earth. "Entropic Paradigm!"

Spears of chitin burst from the muck and drove both Adamants back. Their points skittered off the diamond-hard hide of the serpents, breaking off under their weight as the creatures retreated from the sudden attack.

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Damn. Not structured enough.

"Lock him down!" an Adamant cried. "Ties That Bind!"

Power snagged Beef's limbs, yanking on them so that his elbows and knees bent, nearly sending him toppling from the Multipede. Hallow reacted immediately, adjusting the creature to keep him seated.

"Judgment's Strike!"

The wet Adamant thrust his lance at Beef's chest, but not before the minotaur flexed, shattering through the binding Skill with a Herculean effort, and brought his hammer to bear. Ice met mithril, and the explosion rocked them both. Multipede and serpent fell back, crashing into the water.

Beef shook his head, trying and failing to clear the ringing from his ears.

The dry Adamant came at him, his own lance brimming with metallic blue Mana as his serpent lunged, fanged maw open wide.

"Judgment's Strike!”

Razorhail!

Footlong needles of crystal spat from Beef's chest, a few stabbing into the serpent's delicate mouth. It screeched in pain, hauling back and throwing the Adamant’s strike wide.

Good shot, Hallow.

A narrow bubble of force burst off the tip of Dry's outflung lance, rocketing into the treeline and exploding hard enough to shatter trunks.

To your right!

Beef swung his hammer at Hallow's warning, bringing it crashing down on Wet's face. Bedlam paused for only an instant as it encountered the man's shimmering, supposedly Divine shield, before it plowed straight through. Wet gave a gurgling gasp of surprise as his face was caved in.

"No more explosions for you!" Beef snarled.

A horn sounded, and Beef spun toward Dry as he bellowed with all the force of his high Adept body. "Faithful down! Brothers, to arms!"

More Adamants came rushing across the fields, serpents moving as fast as any speedboat. Nine in total, they rushed toward Beef and his mount. He grinned with a measure of relief.

That’s all of them.

They tore across the water, their wake smashing against the dead, dried out trees and sending a number of flatboats careening into them, snapping some in half while capsizing the rest. The prisoners within went down screaming.

"No!" Beef hissed. "Entropic Paradigm!"

Structures shot upward in the distance, with the prisoners gasping and choking in the water. A platform appeared, rooted into the shallow lake bed and thick as Beef could make it at such a distance. It lifted up, catching the majority of the prisoners and lifting them free of the Poison Field's muck. That, however, was all he had time for before the first of the Adamants were on him.

The Multipede reared back, and Beef felt Hallow grasping at his Skills. Entropic energy rolled through the giant Risen insect, and massive, snub-nosed battering rams shot upward at an angle directly into the nearest serpent's paths. They plowed into them, some leaping, some coiling sideways across the obstruction, while others took it full on in their slithering chests. Adamants jerked, holding tight to their reins as they were nearly unseated.

Beef struck first. "Deathblow Conduit!"

Necromantic energy rolled through Bedlam as he swung, meeting the first of the serpents as it lunged for him. He caught it in the jaw, shattering the creature's face in a spray of gore that sent it careening to the side.

Deathblow Conduit is level 82!

Razorhail!

Hallow's Razorhail is level 85!

More crystalline darts stabbed into the hide of the fallen serpent as well as the next that dared come at Beef's left flank. It screeched in pain as it drew near, but there wasn't time to revel in victory. More were coming. Serpents bared fangs the size of swords, lunging for the Multipede's neck and Beef atop it.

He swung Bedlam, fending them off, but a third attack found purchase lower on the Multipede's Body. The serpent screeched and released it with a hiss, and Beef grinned.

The armor works!

The serpents tried again, but it was like gnawing a spiked stone. The chitinous armor surrounding the Multipede was too much for the serpents’ stomach.

Still, the Adamants rushed him one after the other, their lances gleaming with metallic blue power. Hallow dodged, the Multipede slithering down and around the explosive hits as they struck. Beef swung Bedlam, channeling Deathblow Conduit whenever he could. But the Adamants had learned. Their snakes swerved from his hammer blows over and over. Then their hits began to land.

Warning!Your Health Has Dropped Below 75%!

Too many Adamants crowding his space, their combined might started to wear at Hallow and Beef. They caught him from the side and from the back, breaking parts of the Multipede's armor and forcing Hallow to pivot across the water. Weight of Mercy crushed trees and the Poison Fields themselves, fouling Hallow's step and slowing her movements. Explosive strikes came in the wake of her hobbling, one after the other, each Adamant wielding their lance with incredible precision.

Beef knocked them aside again and again, dissipating some with his hammer's special feature, but it couldn't activate every time. Sometimes, he just took it head-on.

"Lay down your weapons, warrior," one of the Adamants proclaimed. There was no gloating in their voice, only a haughty arrogance. "Bow before Justice!"

"No," Beef spat out a tooth. He didn't need that one, anyway.

"If this is all you have, warrior, then you are solely outmatched."

They're in position, Beef.

"Ha!" Beef grunted through another burst of force Mana, this one nearly unseating him. But his armor held steady. "You ain't seen nothing yet. Hallow Rise!"

From beneath them, in the water, skeletons rose from the muck. Eyes glowing with necromantic energy, they clawed at the serpents, forcing the creatures to rear back, hissing in fear and disgust.

"Foul undead!”

“Necromancy!"

“Crush them!” the Adamants cried out. "The Weight of Mercy!"

The skeletons were smashed back into the water, and for a moment, all went still.

"Entropic Paradigm," Beef said through a wide grin.

Necromantic Mana surged beneath the water like blackened green spotlights, and the skeletons rose back up. This time, they wore heavy plate armor made from chitin…and they shoved relentlessly past the Weight of Mercy.

Entropic Paradigm is level 81!

…

Entropic Paradigm is level 86!

"What? How?” one Adamant shouted. “What foul magic is this?”

The dead in the swamp climbed out, stabbing clawed gauntlets into the scales of the giant snakes, finding crevices to latch onto. The serpents hissed, throwing their bodies to the side in attempts to dislodge their persistent attackers, while the Adamants bashed them away with their long lances.

"This is nothing, Necromancer!" Dry shouted.

"Then let me ramp it up," Beef said through a bloody grimace. "Hallow Rise! Hallow Call!"

In the distance, the cages around the Overlord's Manor groaned as they filled with a blazing necromantic light. Blackened green energy pulsated, shattering the black iron. Hulking beasts fell into the fetid Poison Fields, sending waves rushing across the terrain as their broken Bodies were rapidly stitched together by necromantic energy, and spiked, chitinous armor covered them in thick plates of impenetrable defense.

Hallow Rise is level 77!

Hallow Call is level 79!

Harn’s on the move, Beef.

It's about time.

His new Risen roared wordlessly into the sky and charged. Beef joined them.