CC 9: Tenacity ~ Twenty-Seven

As the ritual began, Joe could tell immediately that it was something different than almost anything he'd made before. To start with, instead of the clear blue-white coloration that his ritual circles typically took, this one was alternatively green or purple. Watching it spin up put imagery in his mind of what it would be able to accomplish; namely, the death and destruction of those who activated it.

The Ritualist felt slightly sick to his stomach as he realized what memories this ritual was dredging up. “It feels like that tainted war ritual that got me banished from Midgard… or that twisted ritual I used to put an eye on the back of my head, the one that backfired and killed a bunch of Dwarves. Not a great association.”

He was already reconsidering the use of this powerful magic, but there were three things stopping him from backing down. One, the most important, was the fact that he needed to slay a thousand creatures with this ritual in order to progress his class quest. Two, he needed to create the most potent defenses that he could for the city. Three, least important but still hard to let go of, was the fact that he'd already invested all of the materials into its creation. Lips set in a firm line, he powered on as the ritual finished drawing out all of the energies it required.

Congratulations! You have completed the War Ritual: Ritual of Slaughter for the first time! As this is a Journeyman ranked ritual, you gain 400 Reductionist class experience. Don’t forget to take all the parts and set them up correctly!

The notification washed over him, but Joe's eyes were on the ritual itself, which had begun to shift and pull apart. The smallest circle, the Novice rank, embedded itself on a small Ritual Tile, followed by each of the others in turn. When it was the turn of the fifth circle, the Journeyman rank, it hovered closer to Joe while remaining free floating. He dashed over to the tiles, scooping them up and carefully storing them away. Then, using the mental powers that he'd honed with his Somatic Ritual Casting skill, he took control of the floating portion and slowly started moving it.

With every step he took, it moved incrementally faster, until he and the swirling energy were walking along at a rapid pace. Many eyes turned his way as he moved, and anyone in his path quickly cleared room for him to pass. The small crowd of people that had helped him create this impressive piece of magical artwork followed along, their numbers swiftly growing as he approached the Town Hall. The murmurs of confusion shifted to alarm as the circle didn’t stop, moving on a collision course with the building.

As it touched the stone work over the door, the power was sucked into the building and a small ring of glowing energy began swirling above the entryway, almost as if it were an LED sign from before Earth fell to monsters. Making sure that piece was in place, Joe turned to the people that had followed along and addressed them grandly, striking a heroic pose. “Thank you all for witnessing this glorious event! Now we should all run away as quickly as possible before the council gets annoyed that I ignored them and put magical protections in place!”

So saying, he swiftly Omnivaulted away even as the metal barrier separating indoor and outdoor for the Town Hall was slammed open almost hard enough to deal damage to the building itself. He wasn't sure which of the Masters it was, but whoever it was… they were displeased. “Joe! We told you to leave this building out of whatever you’re doing!”

“Muhuhahah.” Joe laughed as he rubbed his hands together in midair, pleased that his diabolical plan was moving toward fruition. “Now I just need to get the other four tiles set up, and we’ll be rocking and rolling.”

For this first version, he was planning to follow Socar’s advice, putting the plates together to create the formation that’d be most effective against a large number of weak enemies. If the Mage was correct, the unaspected magical damage would instead be converted to fire damage, and be significantly more threatening to a large group of icy beasts.

As he approached the walls, a warning horn was blown. Shouting immediately followed that sound, then Joe could hear the rushing liquid sound of his ritual bubbles being filled with acid, then launched. “They’re already at the walls? How? We were supposed to have hours!”

The answer came in the wind the next moment, “Camouflaged beasts are leading the way! Everyone, prepare for combat!”

“Well, that’d do it.” Joe grumbled to himself with great annoyance. “On the plus side, my rituals don’t have eyes, and won't be fooled by something so simple as ‘blending in’. I love it when my work speaks for itself.”

He didn’t pause in his movement, though he did adjust his plans on the fly. Joe knew that he would have to somewhat shift his plans for the Ritual of Slaughter, as the Ritual Tiles had been planned for placement near the entrance to the walls. With creatures already in there, he didn’t particularly care to risk his neck by jumping into their midst and carefully, accurately, methodically placing the tiles. That was basically begging to be frozen and casually torn to shreds as enormous monsters wandered past him.

Luckily, he knew where Socar was going to be, and knew that he could count on the Mage to help him adjust the placement on the fly. He found the man in the next few seconds, landing next to him, scooping him up in his arms as the Mage let out a yelp of surprise, then launching both of them upward. Joe kicked off his ritual orb of Strength, gaining the height he needed to land safely on top of the wall. Socar smacked him on the chest as Joe let him down, “Give me warning next time, you brute! Wait a second, why are you a brute? Aren't you a mage?”

“I have fairly well balanced Characteristics.” Joe waved off any further questions, pulling out the not very detailed map of the walls. “I have four Ritual Tiles to place, and our original plan isn't going to work with the creatures getting here ahead of schedule. Where else can I put these so that I can achieve the same effect?”

By the end of his question, his counterpart was already shaking his head. “I've already given you the ideal placement for creating that formation, anything else is going to be subpar at best.”

“Then let's do subpar! We can always change it later, but I’d rather have something in place than nothing at all.” Joe's assertion was punctuated by a long, warbling scream as someone was caught by a camouflaged monster and, by the sound of it, stomped flat. Without any further complaints, the two of them quickly sketched out the placement and positioning. As soon as the last mark had been made on the page, Joe pushed off the ground, completing a backflip Omnivault as he plunged into the pathway between walls.

Approaching the ground rapidly, he punched the ground upon landing, converting his momentum into a small shock wave that would knock away anything that was around him. His title, ‘Superhero Lander’ only converted half of the terrain damage that he would typically take, but the passive effects of Omnivault negated the rest of it. Everything around him was still, as the residents of the village had evacuated as soon as the horn had been blown. “Yet another reason we should take the time to put bunkers throughout the walls.”

Grumbling quietly to himself to make sure that he could hear any creatures creeping up on him, Joe rushed along the empty walkway until he found the spot that Socar had designated for him. “This goes on the west wall, facing east, at a twenty-two degree angle. Abyss it, Socar! Who carries a protractor around with them?”

Eyeballing it as best as he could, Joe placed the Ritual Tile and started sprinting through the open area. Approaching the wall, he Omnivaulted upward, kicked off to go the opposite direction and then hopped atop the wall. “That's the east side done, let's go do the south.”

As the entrance to the walls was on the north side of the city, Joe was able to place the second and third tiles without issue. As he rushed to the north, the ground beneath him began shaking and the air was filled with the sound of screams, the scent of blood, and a dense energy from the spells of the defenders and the spell-like abilities of the creatures assaulting the village. Knowing that he was rushing into a fight, Joe focused on where he needed to go and shoved off the ground.

He was coming from the westernmost position, and as he took a sharp right to get in the open area of the walls just north of the village, he pushed off the wall once, twice, then rocketed through the air above what looked like a mostly empty area which was shimmering like a mirage from the unbearable cold. It was a reverse heat haze, as warmer air came out of the village and reached the aura of frost exuded by whatever creature was hidden beneath the camouflage.

Even at this close range, Joe couldn’t tell exactly what was attacking. He could tell that the walls were starting to take severe damage, the frost penetrating deeply into the stone and causing cracks to form. “Abyss, abyss, abyss that’s bad.”

His target was in sight, the center-most position, exactly halfway along the wall where east met west. Preparing himself for pain, he leaned forward and dove directly at the wall. Just before impact, he twisted his body so that he met the stone with a meaty *slap*, distributing the force across his entire body instead of only his face. Then he slid down the rime-coated stone, the exposed flesh of his body only failing to fuse to the deadly cold rock due to the thin barrier generated by his Exquisite Shell.

Joe was breathing heavily as he landed, already feeling the strain of his magics attempting to hold off the area damage. With shaking fingers, he placed the final Ritual Tile and lightly brushed against his orb with the recaptured Essence Cycle. An indistinct pyramid had been formed, with the outer Ritual Tiles creating a base, and the centermost ritual imbued into the Town Hall being above them by an appropriate amount. “I-its g-gonna have to be enough.”

Teeth chattering so hard that they felt like they were going to shatter, Joe invested a single point of mana into the ritual to have it begin working to mark each of the creatures that it would exert influence on. He flinched away as the activation shattered the Ritual Tile that the circle had been stuck to, panicking for a moment as he thought that it had failed. Closer inspection revealed a tiny swirling circle attached to the wall at the exact angle the tile had been placed.

Releasing a sharp exhale of relief, Joe attempted to Omnivault up and away, to safety. Blinking in surprise, he realized that his legs hadn't moved. Looking down, he saw the issue: his legs were frozen solid just above the knee, and down to his feet. A blast of cold air coated his head as a creature hissed directly next to his ear, and the world went white.