WVKWnovel 154 (II) Weapon
154 (II) Weapon
154 (II)Weapon
Shiv replied. Still. Something about Valor’s apprehension had Shiv feeling a little paranoid as well. Shiv followed one of the beams back to its firing position nearby.
Less than 500 meters away, Shiv caught sight of a still-standing section of a wide road on top of concrete pillars. On top of it was a Necrotech artillery unit. There were sixty figures standing atop the bridge, and most of them were magi—Necromancers, specifically. They channeled their corrosive mana together, forming massive spikes of Necromancy that they loaded into strange, ringed launchers.
Their artillery platforms resembled four-legged insects with a series of U-shaped arches traveling along their bodies, rather than an actual carapace. Pulsing tunnels of Dimensionality were channeled out from the corrosion screen, and the Necromantic spikes were loaded in. The arches tugged on the corrosive constructs and shaped them into long, narrow beams that surged forward.
Just as Shiv prepared to launch himself at the enemy, something moved in the corner of his eye. His head snapped down at an angle, and he discovered what Adam had been doing earlier with his Hydromancy wand. A few hundred Veilpiercers punctured the flesh of existence and returned to reality from all directions. From the dimensional pathways they left open, followed jets of hyper-pressurized water. They cleaved out as slashing geysers, moving so fast that they split through the bases of already compromised structures. The Necromancer artillerists on the bridge that Shiv was looking at fell along with their crumbling edifice, and all across the city, more jets of water speared out. Buildings were hewed and toppled like a forest of trees greeted with a tide of axes. Fountains of water exploded up into the air, unmaking several buildings from the inside. It was like an ocean was trying to erupt from just beneath Lost Angeles.
And then, the signs of return fire greeted Shiv. A fist of flame exploded a hundred meters away from him. He punched through its unfurling blast and spared himself from the swelling heat. Nearby, Adam's clones bust into existence, firing their Veilpiercers before vanishing again. More of Roland’s arrows kissed the ground and shattered the earth. Blinding blasts cleaved the land asunder, but Shiv spiked down to avoid a salvo of corrosive missiles that came seeking his death.
Chaos erupted all around him. Shiv tried to find a trace of the original Adam or one of the orcs—
Inertial Overdrive 118 > 119
Through a dense wall of haze came a flicker of light, and pure instinct spared Shiv from harm. He swung his mage breaker right as a beam crashed toward him. A forking bolt of electricity infused with the foul miasma of Necromancy struck his hand, but his Magebreaker rejected it, and his Frictionless Vector sent it spearing into the earth instead.
Frictionless Vector 69 > 70
He activated Outside Context Problem, froze time, and threw his dagger in the direction of his enemy. He teleported to his blade and tried to track where the attacker was, but he found himself drenched in a veil of smoke. And it was magical smoke at that. It was unnaturally thick and dense, and Shiv couldn’t see shit.
Yet, he still felt a feeling of static in the air. More importantly, he had a sense of improved smell. He let his Pheromonic Cipher guide him where his sight failed.
Awareness 42 > 43
He spiked himself 40 times in quick succession, drawing closer and closer to his target. Holes disintegrated before him. He hammered through magical wards as well. Finally, when he could practically taste the Necrotech upon his tongue, he discharged all the inertia he had been building up, and an explosion ripped out from his body. His Voidmantid armor suffered some damage, but then he reverted time back two seconds. Shiv’s armor returned to a relatively healthy state.
As Shiv prepared to reorient himself and find Adam or a corrosion screen to attack, a series of clenching pressures gripped his body and stole away his attention. Someone was teleporting near him. Three massive cylinders burst out from billowing clouds of Dimensionality nearby. They rippled with oscillations of golden mana, and their shapes began to fissure apart as the magic contained within began to spear out in curving streams of light.
Shiv's eyes widened as he guessed what they were.
He got his confirmation when they went off. Three waves of gold came at him. Shiv parried one of the explosions, but his Magebreaker rattled violently from the effort, and there was so much force behind the bomb that Shiv was launched back. The other two blasts ended up smashing into him while he was reeling. The first left a deep slash along his temporal shell. The second broke it open.
Gravitic Wrestler 148 > 149
Strider of the Unbending Path 139 >work of mycelia: everything that broke in it hurt you.
But Shiv was fine with pain. Pain was just a feeling.
He pulled on his gravitic field and shot up into the air once more. He slammed his fist together and discharged his sheath. The fog didn’t clear, but he did catch sight of a corrosion screen nearby. It pulsated with an unceasing glow of green, and Shiv activated his Chameleon, Creeping Void, and Minor Illusion abilities in tandem and as he cast himself at the enemy.
They weren’t prepared for him. He sent his twelve mana hydras spearing ahead as he tore into the enemy with steel and spell. His Aegis of Assimilation shattered resistances and supped the flesh out of armor. The ones that survived Shiv’s Biomancy were then greeted by a magnified Skysplitter. His blade turned the Necrotechs into puffs of red and spraying pieces of sparking metal. He dragged his dagger across the ground and detonated his sheath as he passed over the corrosion screen artillery platform. It broke apart into pieces as Shiv lobbed himself higher into the air.
He followed his sense of smell again. Spells tore through the air—but they came nowhere near hitting him. His Creeping Void and other stealth supplements were serving their purpose.
The Creeping Void 113 > 114
Just then, he passed through the dense haze of magical smoke and found himself just a kilometer or so away from Blackedge. He realized he could easily reach the town with his Biomancy field now if he so desired. And that made things simple when he saw twenty or so beams of Necromancy shooting up into the air around the town. They were all spread apart, but Shiv didn’t need to attack them in person. Instead, he struck out with his biokinetic hydras. He attacked with one hydra after another as they all shared the same field, but it extended from his person with ease.
Blasts of red blossomed across the ruins of Lost Angeles. Shiv assimilated every piece of organic architecture he could. What he couldn’t break, he struck and smashed using a newly forged chain of cancer flails. A nightmarish cord of tissue curved and then ripped through buildings and people alike. Entire blocks collapsed as Shiv swung his kilometer long flail left and right, scything across Lost Angeles and silencing Necrotech projection sites one after another.
He spiked the heavy end of his flail down on the ground over and over as it traveled. Shockwaves spread in increments as blocks crumbled into the soil. A beam of Necromancy tore through the air, trying to sever the leash connecting him to his cancer flail. Shiv simply assimilated the biomass in an instant, converting the flail into a spell rendering. The beam missed. He threw his blade and teleported.
After he repositioned himself, he resumed his reign of terror, swinging his flail across the land.
His magic only got stronger when chains of fear speared through his person from all across the world. They knew he was here now, and the survivors were terrified. Good. It was only going to get worse.
Aegis of Assimilation 105 > 106
Shape of Monstrosity 107 > 108
A team of Necrotech Pathbearers dove into Shiv’s Creeping Void. They launched a barrage of explosive spells that shook the world, and he passed through the attack with a pulse of Outside Context Problem.
Outside Context Problem 64 > 65
Shiv rematerialized as he swung an extended cord of cancerous flesh against their bodies. Arms and legs snapped. Magical Resistances shattered, exposing vulnerable flesh. And the cancer flail only grew.
Whip Proficiency 10 > 12