Invent ~ 24!

The Dwarves began cheering, and Joe dropped to the ground panting as the attackers fled into the single remaining volcanic shaft that led back to Elven territory. Only moments later, dozens of tiny reputation gain notices appeared in his vision, and he allowed a slightly cocky grin to appear on his face. “Oooh, looks like they chose to try to escape down the super-deadly, over-trapped path. That was a bold move, let's see how it plays out for them.”

“Joe!” Jaxon called as he ran over and swept the human up in a hug. “I beat Backattack! Sure, he’s a shadow of his former self, apparently believing all of the hype  his people are putting out as propaganda, but it is still a big win for me! I was thinking we should-”

*Crack*.

Joe was dropped to the ground as Jaxon spun in place, blood flowing freely from his head.

*Crack. Crack*. Twice more, rounds impacted the man before he fell far enough to be back below the shimmering barrier.

“Jaxon!” Joe cried out as he caught the man and slapped a heal onto him. It didn’t take, and Joe knew exactly what that meant.

“Ah, I missed.” Herr Trigger’s voice echoed out of the tunnel that Joe hadn’t bothered to secure. “Still, that one has quite the bounty on his… head. Ohh-hoo-hoo-hoo!”

“He's laughing at his own jokes after killing my…!” Joe was seeing red, but he still set Jaxon gently on the floor before turning to the mouth of the tunnel.

He took a single step before his arm was roughly gripped by Major Cleave. “Sir, chasing after an unknown number of enemies, especially as they are taunting you directly, would be the height of foolishness.”

“Major. Stand down.” Joe spoke calmly, turning back to face his fallen friend. He took a deep breath and began making the necessary motions, slowly, ever so terribly slowly finishing the somatic components of his spell by breathing out, “Resurrection.”

Skill increase: Resurrection (Novice VIII).

“Celestial Feces, you’re a cleric under all that mess you call a magical class?” Cleave winced backward as a portal opened above Jaxon’s body, and the man stepped out a moment later. His corpse disintegrated, and Jaxon cracked his neck twice as he got used to his new body.

“Thanks for the too-late heal, Joe!” Jaxon’s words popped Joe’s tension like a balloon. “Hey, is that kinda what necromancers do? Just heal really late?”

The Ritualist shouted at the air for a moment, then started chuckling. After a momentary breather, he looked at Major Cleave with a wide smile. “I order you to not follow me into that tunnel.”

“Major-General!” Cleave bellowed in shock as Joe vaulted away from the small group, reaching the tunnel entrance only seconds later. He slapped his hand against the mouth of the tunnel, and moments later a barrier covered the egress in its entirety. “Sir! You can’t do this! You’re going to die!”

“Most likely!” Joe grinned as a notification popped up, then he turned and jauntily waved at them. “Back soon, one way or another!”

“What can you possibly hope to achieve?” Cleave shouted as she slammed her axe into the barrier. “You get back here this instant!”

“There are some rituals in here that need a personal touch to use properly, Cleave!” Joe shook off her concerns like a duck ignoring rain. “Besides… you know as well as I do that it’s already started.”

Cleave paused, and Joe knew that she was seeing the same notification that he had just a moment ago.

Major-General Pyrrhic’s fuse has been lit! The countdown to victory or death has begun! For the next ten minutes, all allied troops in a 100-foot radius of Major-General Pyrrhic gain 100% increased damage!

“Ehh. Glad I'm testing this out without putting my own people at risk.” Joe winced as he noticed bloody footprints that he could follow even if he were half blind. “Not a huge fan of losing half my people just so I can hit a little harder.”

He hurried after the fleeing forces, knowing that there was only one direction they could be moving. Joe contemplated his choices, wincing as he realized that he should leave this one intact so that he could make it extra deadly for the next time they tried to pull something like this. He knew that there would be another attempt, and even knowing that the tunnel was trapped, more people would want to attack through an easy access point instead of needing to dig out their own entryway through a volcano. “That takes total meltdown off the menu…”

You have gone more than 100 feet from at least half of the people that had been boosted by your title! Damage received will increase by 100%!

“Forgot about that little disaster waiting to happen,” Joe winced as he vaulted along. It wasn’t long before Joe found the ragtag rear scouts, a bloodied group that had clearly been left behind to ‘guard’, they definitely hadn't been abandoned so that the others could move faster. Once again, Joe was very happy that he had Darkvision. He had his Orb float out of his bandolier, a bloodthirsty grin on his face as he finally found the perfect opportunity to test out his newly upgraded weapon. He willed the ‘Orb’ to attack, narrowing his eyes in surprise when it didn’t instantly fly away.

Instead, the icicle-shaped Ritual Orb spun in place for one full second like a drill bit on a power tool, then blasted away easily three times as fast as Joe had ever managed to make his weapons fly. It impacted his target, an archer that was staring into the pitch-black tunnel with sharp eyes. The Orb went through his chest armor, delivering the damage practically directly to the man’s heart and literally nailing him to the stone wall.

Critical Damage dealt: 356 Piercing Cold damage! (Base 100 + 37 physical damage, modifier + 30% critical damage increase) Damaged doubled due to Pyrrhic bonus!

The fact that the man was still alive was a testament to the massively boosted stats of anyone that had made it to this world. Before the man could do more than gasp in shock, Joe activated the final use of Cone of Cold that the weapon had charged, dealing an additional… he gasped as he looked at the damage output. “Give me the full breakdown!”

Overkill!

Critical Spell Damage dealt: 2,683 Cold damage! (Base 225 + 38 magic damage modifier, + 460% critical spell damage increase) Damaged doubled due to Pyrrhic bonus!

“Wow.” Joe looked at the frozen corpse of the man that he knew would vanish within an hour if no one was able to revive him. “Looks like I really am a… cold-hearted killer.”

“We’re under attack!” Someone bellowed as they felt the wash of cold air in the dark area. “Someone cast some lights out there!”

Joe tried to order his Orb back to him, but it appeared to be frozen to the corpse, and he couldn’t manage to get it to budge. He snarled as he pulled out another basic Orb and sent it flying at a Mage that already had glowing hands. The weapon bounced off a gem-shaped shell of mana around the man, alerting Joe to the fact that he should have used his main weapon on this guy first.

A warrior with blood slowly streaming down his face ran at Joe, bellowing a war cry. The tunnel was fairly empty, and Joe knew that taking on a close-combat focused warrior head-to-head was asking for a rapid death. When no other options presented themselves, Joe panic-jumped away, flipping in midair to land against the ceiling. As his knees bent to absorb the momentum, he realized that he may have just found how to use one of his highest-level skills in combat.

“Dark Lightning Strike!” Joe snapped out, dropping power onto the Mage and blocking his view for a precious moment. His hands pointed down at the warrior, and he devoted mana to Acid Spray as he started to fall. Just before he was in open air, he vaulted off the ceiling and shot through the air over the mage; trailing acid the entire way.

A thick mana bolt just barely missed him, impacting the wall of the tunnel and sending shards of stone pinging off Joe’s Exquisite Shell. With one of his mainstay combat spells locked in his currently unusable Ritual Orb, Joe was down to lightning, acid, or battering his opponents to death with his Orbs. As he tossed out another Dark Lightning Strike, he hissed, “I need to get more personal combat rituals up and going!”

Joe decided that the best course of action was to ignore these two and continue on the hunt for Herr Trigger. He turned and ran down the tunnel as his two shocked opponents bellowed at him to stand and fight. As Joe entered into a section of the shaft that curved, he paused and touched the wall where a light gray light was shining through the ash that he had spread over the hidden ritual.

Activate Ritual of Proximity (Wind Blades)? Yes / No.

“Yes.”

Defensive charges used: 0/500.

“That should hold those two in here until I can get back here and clean them up.” Joe wanted to let out an evil laugh, but he also didn’t want to warn his opponents about the trap. Instead, he simply ran down the tunnel as fast as he could, only letting out a tiny chuckle when he heard a scream of wind followed by a bellow of rage echoing along after him.

“Now all I need to do is follow the smell of gunpowder, but I’m not willing to drop my Neutrality Aura to make that happen… I hope they haven’t made it out yet.” Joe thought about the tunnel that he had left open when he set the earthquakes up. This one should be an unholy long tunnel with a ton of switchbacks and traps that he had seeded, but there was always the possibility that the collapse had impacted this tunnel more than planned, either opening a new escape, closing this one off entirely, or simply rendering his rituals useless by putting too much rubble in the way if the tunnels only partially collapsed.

“Next time, all of these get a remote activation tied to them.” He grumbled as he started needing to gasp for air. Even with all his boosted stats, running was still often a mental game, and pushing through that mental blockage was needed if he wanted to force his body to keep moving. “Mind over matter was right, I guess.”

As Joe vaulted around the next corner like a rubber cannonball bouncing through the enclosed space, he found where the attackers had retreated. They were all waiting for him.

“He actually did it! He came by himself! Trigger warning, Joe.” Still in midair, Joe’s eyes flicked over to Herr Trigger, who was dropping his left hand in a harsh chopping motion as he shouted an order. “All troops… fire!”