Serpentlord (Rise To Omniscience Book 9), page 29
Cost - 500 RP per construct
Duration - Until dismissed
Earth Mastery - The element of Earth and all minerals and materials within bend to your will. You may infuse your body with their strength and power or summon mighty storms of raging sand.
Cost - 250 RP per second
Expanse - Create expansive or narrow pockets of air, which can be controlled, sustained, or unleashed all at once. The element of air is as limitless as the expanse of space itself.
Cost - 500 RP
Sustained Cost - 75 RP per second
Rift - You may travel through space at will, covering vast distances over short periods of time or moving within the space of your spatial control instantaneously. Opening rifts to store items, create tunnels, or carry passengers, is now well within your power.
Cost - 75 RP per second
Blink Cost - 100 RP
Rift Cost - 300 RP
Spatial Control - 100-yard radius
Superior:
Light Star - Summon a sphere of dense gravity, pulling all light into a single point. The power of pure light is unleashed when it ruptures, burning all caught within its radius of destruction.
Cost - 6,500 RP
AOE - 200 Ft
Cooldown - 4 hours
Infernal Star - Summon a sphere of dense gravity, pulling all darkness into a single point. The power of the infernal is unleashed when it ruptures, disintegrating all caught within its radius of destruction.
Cost - 6,500 RP
AOE - 200 Ft
Cooldown - 4 hours
Meteoric Downfall - A rift opens in the sky, raining down fiery destruction from above.
Cost - 7,000 RP
AOE - 350 Ft
Cooldown - 12 hours
Continental Collapse - Split the ground with a bestial burst of power, detonating the very earth itself. This skill can cause the eventual collapse of an entire continent, so use with caution.
Cost - 9,000 RP
AOE - 100 square miles
Cooldown - 24 hours
Soulstream - Channel your inner power, calling forth the beast of your past and enhancing your body tenfold. Your injuries all continually heal, and your RP regenerates at ten times the normal speed.
Cost - 9,500 RP
Duration - 15 minutes
Cooldown - 24 hours
Ultimate:
Eternity Beam - Call upon the power gained from bathing in the Wells of Eternity. The skies open up and rain a beam of destruction down upon the world, rendering the area barren and unlivable for years to come.
Cost - 15,000 RP
Duration - Instant
AOE - 1 ft - 500 miles
Cooldown - 1 week
Sunscorch - Embody the power of the sun, embracing its might and infusing it within your very soul. You cannot be killed while this skill is active.
Cost - 15,000 RP
Duration - 5 minutes
Cooldown - 48 hours
Morgan closed his status as a light buzzing began to fill the air and small currents of electricity started running over the frame of the portal. It seemed like the test run was underway. If it were successful – and he didn’t doubt it would be – the civilian gnomes would begin heading through to Aster.
There, they would meet up with the other civilians from the five races of Faeland and make for the docks, where Le’vine’s ships would be pulling in in just a few hours.
Morgan watched as the light at the center of the portal flickered a few times, then burst to life, shimmering with all sorts of colors. One of the gnomish engineers walked straight through without hesitating.
A few moments of tense silence passed, with all eyes on the portal. The surface rippled then, and a loud cheer rang out as the gnome stepped back through. The exodus could now get underway, and Morgan reached down to the pendant around his neck to make the report.
44
“Come on. Stop being so stubborn!” Grace snapped at the still dozing gnome.
She’d been trying to rouse him for several hours now and knew they were nearly out of time. Lumia had just fluttered back in and informed her of everything that was going on. A large group of gnomes had come through to join the civilians heading their way, along with a small contingent of their own soldiers.
Additionally, Lumia had headed out to sea and already sighted the first ships. They were perhaps an hour and a half out, and the civilian group was only an hour away, maybe even less.
The jailbreak would be happening very soon, and with the guards as sleepy as could be, they were nearing the perfect time to act. However, the gnome was still being uncooperative. By that point, Grace was beginning to wonder if she should try concocting another plan, something that would involve some guards chasing her. Maybe she could lead them out if she escaped.
However, that wouldn’t guarantee all the guards would come, not like a riot of the most powerful prisoners working together to shove them out into the open.
“I don’t want to leave. Why is that so hard to understand?”
“What I don’t understand is why you’re so insistent on staying!” Grace snapped. “You want to die so badly, fine, I’ll kill you myself when this is all over. But I refuse to allow your stubbornness to cost the nearly thirty-thousand people here their lives!”
The gnome let out a low huff but finally turned to face her, one of his stark, green eyes shining from his dirty and smudged face.
“I refuse to leave because this is all my fault,” the gnome said again. “I will atone for my sins by going down when Faeland returns to the sea.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?!” Grace snapped, finally losing it. “You sure seem to have a high opinion of yourself if you think you caused this entire war! I- ow!”
Grace let out a little yelp as Lumia nipped her ankle. It hadn’t actually hurt all that much, but it had definitely gotten her attention. When she glared down at the drake, Lumia tilted her head to the guards, who had begun to stir at her outburst. Grace realized that she’d been yelling just a bit too loudly then and apologized to the small drake sheepishly.
She then turned back to the gnome, who had shoved himself into a sitting position for once, the stained clothes showing through his tattered robes and revealing a frame so skeletal that Grace was shocked he was still alive. She’d met gnomes and knew they weren’t particularly tall, but this one couldn’t have been more than two feet at best.
“But this is all my fault,” the gnome said, his voice rasping out.
“No, it isn’t,” Grace insisted. “This is the combined faults of that greedy bastard, Shedra, and the World Beast, Strangler. Last I checked, you weren’t a massive serpent, and Shedra is currently preparing to get his ass handed to him by the allied forces, who are over fifty miles away.”
“Well, a part of me is there; that much is true,” the gnome said with a dark chuckle. “But I can assure you that I am very much the gnome responsible for this war. My name is Shedra, and I used to be the Speaker of the Council of Five.”
***
“Are we all in?” Elyssa asked as Katherine stepped through a portal before her.
“Close,” she replied. “Two or three more minutes and the last of our forces should be inside the pinch point.”
The elf queen nodded, looking to her right and seeing the tall, conical hills hemming them in, then to her left, to the large lake that would prevent them from escaping in that direction as well. They would have more room to fight than they had in the gorge but had the enemy succeeded in pulling off their plan, they would have been well and truly screwed.
“I want to know the second we’re in,” Elyssa said. “Sarah…” She looked up as a series of small, sparkling flakes of ice came drifting down right before the woman landed before her.
“Yes?” Sarah asked, not retracting her beautiful wings.
“Send word to the front to prepare Ivaldi’s shields, as well as the cannons,” Elyssa ordered. “I don’t want a single casualty from those things, understand?”
Sarah flashed her a grin, then took off, the wind buffeting her as she did.
“How confident are you in that dwarf’s inventions?” Katherine asked, watching her go.
“I don’t really know much about him,” Elyssa said. “But Ragnar trusts him, and I trust Ragnar. Besides, if you need an example of his work, look no further than that spear Morgan carries around.”
Katherine nodded, finally looking away from Sarah as she began to dip near the front of their forces. Extending a hand to the side, she opened another portal.
“I’ll report as soon as we’re in, then,” she said, already stepping in.
“Anything from Morgan?” Elyssa asked, halting her halfway through the portal.
“Nothing has changed,” Katherine said, then gave her a nod and stepped in.
Elyssa let out a long, shaky breath, trying to steady her nerves. Morgan’s last report had said that the civilians were all through and headed for Aster. Grace was preparing on her side, and Lumia and Shul would make sure they succeeded no matter what.
Even if they lost there today, her people, those who would carry on their legacy, would escape. Yes, she was still going to do her best to win, but the fact that her people were almost guaranteed to escape took a massive weight off her shoulders.
At that moment, she felt a slight buzzing from the pendant around her neck, and a second later, Katherine’s voice sounded in her mind.
“They’re all in,” she reported.
Sure enough, just seconds after Katherine’s report came in, a loud horn went up from the enemy’s side. The battle had begun.
***
Shedra stood near the back of his forces, in the place that he deemed was the safest. It wasn’t that he was a coward or anything, but commanders needed to remain protected, so they could concentrate on giving orders and winning battles. Dying heroically was for morons and fools. People like him were the real heroes of these wars, as they got to remain alive after all was said and done to reap the benefits. In a war such as this, they would be plentiful!
“Your majesty, our scouts report that the last of the soldiers have entered the kill zone!”
Shedra smiled as his new second-in-command, Kaizel, ran up to give his report. He still had yet to hear anything of Tagar’s force attacking, but with their permanent portals having been restarted, they should be mounting an attack from the rear at any moment.
“Sound the horns, then,” Shedra said, already imagining the devastation they would unleash. “I want to see them burn!”
Kaizel gave him a quick nod, then dashed off to carry out his orders. In the meantime, Shedra walked over to one of his beasts and leaped onto its back. A platform had been constructed there, one that would give him a good view of the entire battle.
Even as he landed, he heard the horns sounding, signaling the start of their attack. He could see the enemy from his perch. See their front lines, pitifully weak as they faced down his forty-odd Advanced beasts, all sent by Strangler to assure his victory.
He could sense her presence, even now as she drew closer along with all the other World Beasts. She’d made plenty of assurances that the battle would be over soon. Even as he was victorious in his own war against the ones who would tear his rightful throne from him, she too would succeed in bringing the other World Beasts to heel, either killing them or bending them to her will.
Shedra watched the enemy line stop as the order to fire rang out all along his lines. His grin grew wider as the cannons, mounted on wagons between the beasts, began glowing, preparing to carve openings for his beasts to charge into. He could already see how the attack would play out in his mind’s eye, and Shedra waited with anticipation as the cannons finished charging up.
“Fire!”
The command rang out, and a split-second later, over a dozen blasts of red energy lanced out toward the enemy line…
Shedra, who’d been expecting the enemy line to buckle and be torn apart, faced a very nasty surprise when the enemy managed to block his cannons. The twisted gnome’s jaw dropped as the front line of dwarves pulled cylindrical tubes of metal from their belts and held them up before them, their comrades, standing behind, bracing them.
The cannon blasts hit — or at least they appeared to, but some sort of invisible barrier had stopped them. Not diverted. Stopped.
Shedra’s eyes widened as he watched the blasts of power simply vanish as they slammed into the front line of dwarves, the enemy not taking so much as a single casualty.
What the hell’s going on?
“Fire again!” he roared.
It had to be a fluke.
The order rang out and the cannons were charged once more. The air vibrated, and the wagon platforms buckled as the cannons were unleashed for a second time. However, just like the first, the beams of energy vanished into thin air, swallowed by those strange cylindrical poles.
They must have some sort of way to block them, Shedra thought, his knuckles tightening around the rail of his platform.
“Not a problem,” he muttered. “Break their lines with the beasts!” he roared, his voice echoing over the battlefield. “Kill those bastards at the front, and the cannons will work just fine!”
His order was carried out swiftly, and almost as one, the beasts at the front charged. Shedra smiled smugly as he watched the dwarves all seem to panic, trying to turn and run, but only they were only able to move to the sides as there was no avenue of retreat. The gnome’s smugness vanished a moment later as the gleaming barrels of five of their cannons peeked through the enemy lines.
Shedra’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to call his beasts back, but it was too late. The air vibrated as five shots blasted from the enemy cannons. Unlike Morgan and his army, he didn’t have anything prepared to defend against them, and as a result, his beasts were torn to shreds.
Blood and bodily matter sprayed in the air as the cannons lanced out, ripping through beast after beast as they were turned on a swivel. A couple of the beasts tried to dodge or swerve out of the way, only to slam into each other and make it that much easier for the cannons to take them out.
The first set of blasts was over in just a handful of seconds, and by the time it was, his entire beast contingent had been heavily depleted. Several were still alive, though not a single one had escaped uninjured.
“Fire, fire!” he yelled, seeing an opening in the enemy lines.
His beast contingent was gone, so he didn’t really care if the few who were still alive were caught in the crossfire.
His cannons buzzed as they went off, ripping through his beasts – both alive and dead. However, the defensive dwarves were back in place, their metal polls held up, and managed to block his cannons once again.
Shedra ground his teeth together, wondering if he should just call a charge. A lot of them would die to those cannons, but if the enemy opened their lines, he could just fire the second they did.
He was still debating this when screams of pain began to come up from the very rear of his army. Whirling in place, Shedra received the shock of his life as gnomes, which were supposed to be in his forces, came charging around the side of one of the hills led by Tagar, the man he’d left in charge of Gnomia. In the same moment, the enemy began moving forward, the dwarves holding the poles at their head.
Shedra ground his teeth together as he realized he’d been outmaneuvered and betrayed. He’d tried to set an ambush and had become the victim of his own ambitious plans. Shedra wasn’t one to just lie down and give up, though. He’d worked too long and too hard to allow himself to be defeated here. He’d been taken off guard, but he could still win this.
All he had to do was hold them here until Strangler arrived. She had promised them her aid, and right now, she was literally their only hope.
“Circle in!” he yelled, pulling his beast and directing it deeper into his own lines. “Shields out and weapons at the ready. Mages, to your cannons! We won’t let these bastards break us!”
45
Morgan came out through the stable portal, about a quarter of a mile behind Shedra’s lines. He could already hear the first sounds of battle and see the distortion in the air as Shedra’s cannons went off. However, the gnome didn’t seem to be doing any damage, which meant that they had found a way of counteracting those things, which was good.
He was one of the last through the portal, which meant that the only ones coming out after him were the rearguard. Tagar was already speaking to his forces, which had organized and were preparing for a quick march to encircle the enemy.
“I realize that we’ll be attacking our allies, comrades, friends. Do not hesitate to kill them. For the survival of our race, we cannot afford to be merciful. Still, there is a good chance that our countrymen will surrender or outright defect to our side after they see us rebelling against the man who overthrew our government and seized power for himself. If they give up, let them. If they wish to fight against Shedra, let them. We are all gnomes, after all, and a monster like that will not bring us to ruin.
“The cultists will not surrender, though. Kill them without mercy. Give no quarter. Now, forward, double time. For the Arcane Kingdom!”
A roar went up from the gnomes as the charge was called, and they began swiftly moving around the side of the hill.
Morgan floated up into the air, drifting along as he followed the gnome soldiers. He could see the back of Fortuna’s head as she roared her orders, getting the gnomes to move faster. While Tagar took the lead, standing at the head of his own forces, she stood near the middle, keeping the soldiers moving.
They came around the bend to see the back of Shedra’s forces. Morgan spotted the gnome almost immediately, the twisted, hulking creature standing on a constructed platform on the back of a beast bearing the mark of Strangler. Around him stood a large group of cultists, and across their forces, still trapped inside the natural funnel, stood their own armies.
