Book 8, Chapter 42 (1/2)

Dizmason, Destruction

Richard’s followers climbed a cloned brain and crossed the barbarians’ line of defence, attacking them from behind. Tiramisu jumped down from the sky and crashed right into the middle of their formation, his momentum creating a huge crater and flattening a few barbarians nearby.

Dark fog covered one section of the battlefield as Zendrall finished his summoning array, undead knights walking out one after the other. There were more than a hundred at level 16, a force that was much more impactful than a single grand mage. The knights got into formation and stabbed into the left flank, leaving Richard and the broodmother to take care of the right.

The broodmother constantly sprayed out a dark green mist from her body, the corrosive fog causing the barbarians caught within to howl in pain as they collapsed. Those clinging to her body fell off as well, their hands melted down to the bone until they couldn’t hold onto their weapons anymore while their faces had been reduced to drooping meat.

Richard moved right through the fog while remaining completely unaffected, a thin barrier around him deflecting the acid that even heavy swings from the barbarians could do nothing to. This was another advantage that came from having shared their souls; just like his flames didn’t hurt the broodmother too much, he understood the properties of her mist and could push it away easily. Even if he wasn’t pushing it away, he would still barely feel an itch.

The broodmother turned around in a circle, a simple move that caused enormous ripples all around. Every obstacle in her way was flattened in an instant by her unparalleled mass, two metres of the earth being gouged out in the process.

“CAREFUL!” Richard shouted at her as he flashed to the skies; even with his powerful body, he wouldn’t dare to take on a physical attack from her. At the same time as taking out hundreds of barbarians, she had also squashed some winter soldiers and arrowbeasts as well. She never really cared about her own drones during battle, and that sentiment extended to Richard’s warriors as well. Outside of Richard himself and the few followers who had made an impression on her, everyone else was expendable.

He floated above the battlefield and lava surged in his eyes, a short chant forming a barrage of lava fireballs that rained down on the barbarians below. Numerous explosions rang out as flames covered the battlefield, all connecting to each other and spreading outward with Richard at the centre. The earth beneath his feet had already melted, the searing flames spreading wider and wider to engulf the barbarian warriors.

On the outer edge, Richard’s rune knights were done with their gunpowder javelins and had picked up their weapons for melee battle. They were slowly wrapping around the enemy, pushing in and forcing the barbarians into Richard’s world of flames.

Blocked by a powerful melee force on one side and an impassable mountain of a creature on the other, the barbarian warriors maintained their aggression even amidst the flames. Green light surrounded them as they tried to stay alive, attacking the rune knights or just jumping onto the broodmother and peeling off her armour as much as they could.

The battle soon reached a stalemate, but Richard wouldn’t have that. He suddenly pointed a finger at the sky and activated the power of Dizmason for the first time since he had become a legend, astral fireballs the size of a fist gathering together and absorbing an endless amount of energy from the sky. They quickly turned blue as they expanded rapidly, going from a metre in diameter all the way up to twenty!

Space itself was starting to be affected, sections of darkness appearing in the middle of the sky as it folded in on itself from the sheer amount of energy nearby. The rune knights on the outer flanks were ordered to run as far away as they could, something they would have done even without a command. Although they didn’t know what spell Richard was using, they could sense its sheer power.

“Master!” the broodmother shouted from down below, trying her best to curl up as she shouted furiously, “You’re being petty!”