It silently stood there, examining our preparations and taking our group into account. It was obvious our coming battle was imminent.

It was clear that we still had a few moments before the battle started. I began to survey our assembled force, and I could tell that there was still quite a bit of uncertainty among many of those who gathered. As such, I made a decision, and I took the opportunity to address the members of our community.

I walked forward and moved my way in between both Alex and my Father. They looked at me curiously as I progressed to the front of our group, and stood upon the turned-over cars that would serve as my impromptu platform.

"Frankly," I began quietly, just enough for those further away to hear, "I'm not much for inspirational speeches, but if anything, I figured now would be as good of a time as any to make one."

"I'll be honest. This battle may be completely over our heads, and we might just get ourselves killed." I paused, and then looked up, "but I'll be damned if I let some walking corpses, monsters who have no right to still be alive, take our new home away from us. I understand that perhaps it may be ideal to run, to try and hide from the coming conflict. However, I know, and I know that you know, that if we were to turn out backs and run, how would we ever convince ourselves to stand up and fight again?" I asked them as I began to raise my voice.

"The odds are stacked immensely against us, but we've been fighting the undead periodically for nearly a week now, and if there's one thing I learned, it's that they're pathetic! So even if it looks like we are incredibly outnumbered, I'll say again, that I will be damned if we let these walking dead take our home away from us! We won't go down without a fight, and we're sure as hell going to make sure that every damn one of them will regret ever even thinking of doing just that!" I exclaimed as my voice began to reach a crescendo.

"This is our home!" I exclaimed as I pointed my finger aggressively towards the ground, accenting my words, "Even if it hasn't been long, we've had to face more dangers together than I'm sure many of you have had to face your entire lives! We are a Community," I then paused, and then said with resounding conviction, "We are a family."

Looking into each of their eyes, I continued, "This battle is going to be tough, and I won't sugarcoat this and say nobody will get hurt, and we may possibly even die, but victory is sometimes impossible without any measure of sacrifice," I said resoundingly.

"Perhaps some of you have lived in this area your entire lives, or others have only come here more recently," I said, as I glanced at Rachel, "But, I will say this. The blood of freedom, of tenacity, of liberty, runs through these lands, and they run through our veins! So, even as the forbearers of what was once our united nation fought, despite being greatly outnumbered and outgunned, against tyranny. So as them, do we now fight for the right to have our own home, to not be pushed back by the whims of this new world we have found ourselves in!" I exclaimed.

I then stepped forward, and with determination, I yelled, "So, as they once proclaimed, so now will I; give me liberty, or give me death!" I cried.

I immediately felt my Charisma activate and my leadership skill take effect, as a rousing cry was let out from the dozen or so individuals gathered in front of me. We raised our arms and chanted, "Liberty!" repeatedly, as I turned back around to face our resident Lich.

"Come at us you little Shit!" I screamed out.

As if on cue, the Lich's army of undead began to move forward, albeit at barely a walking pace. It would probably take a few minutes before the first of the undead were upon us, which gave us quite the advantage. Then, suddenly:

Oh? That was surprising. Plus, Durward Warphoner, huh? That's a strange name. Regardless, I quickly checked my status.

My stats had grown pretty dramatically over the past few days. In fact, as evidenced by the point that my mana was now nearly twice as large as it was just a number of days ago. Whereas perhaps a while back I would've been unsure of the battle to come, Now at the very least I felt that my role in the battle would mainly consist of me and Kevin attempting to wipe out the higher-tiered undead, as well as to kill the lich. Most of the small-fry undead were going to have to be dealt with by the other members of our defensive force. Even if I was sure Kevin and I could take them out fairly easily, despite how many there were, It was a good idea to allow the other community members to have their shot to gain some experience. Even if our numbers were comparatively smaller, we certainly didn't lack commitment in the coming battle, or strength in skills for that matter.

As the undead began their dreary procession, I myself found I was renewed with a dramatic sense of vigor.

"Let's show them true regret!" I yelled out.

Taking the liberty of being at the forefront of our force of motley force of defenders, I began conjuring up a spell using one of my most potent elemental affinities, my fire mana. Despite my efforts the past few days to raise my proficiency in the other elemental affinities, it was simply clear to me that my fire mana was wholly attuned to the conflicts we had been facing up to this point. It also helped that any immediate threat we had to worry about also tended to be weaker to fire. As such, I focused on its development with a lot more fervor as compared to the other mana types. Predictably, I made a number of increased breakthroughs in accordance with my efforts.

Thrusting my hands forward, I channeled my internal mana through the fire mana 'portal' inside of my mana core, and subsequently willing it to rush through the mana networks and into my outstretched hands. Conjuring the fire mana had become relatively routine after having used it so much. However, I had also realized in the process, that the flexibility of unstructured spells allowed for a multitude of paths to diverge on the casting of magic.

My current inspiration was derived from that same flexibility. I immediately dumped a hundred and fifty points worth of mana into the ball of fire expanding in front of me until it was nearly a foot in diameter. In only a matter of seconds, I reached that threshold and began to compress it, and force the mana to vibrate quicker, and quicker, until finally, a noticeable change in the spell occurred. In several moments the fire mana shifted from a menacing red color to a warmer orange, and finally the transformation I was aiming for - a glowing yellow. The shift marked a massive increase in temperature, nearly double the heat of its first red inception.

I grinned, as this wasn't the final step to the unstructured spell I was casting. No, even though I was already straining to hold the spell in place, I went even further, pushing my intelligence and wisdom to its limits. I began to split the spell into three smaller, yet identically sized balls of fire. Even though they were only half a foot large each, the power contained in them was astronomical compared to the similar-sized spells I had cast back when I was first beginning to experiment with unstructured magic. Each of these globes had the potential to decimate entire groups of these weak undead in their explosive power.

I found myself shaking in my efforts to control the spell, already I had expended a total of 170 points of mana. It was worth it, however, as the spell was done. I took half a second to appreciate the orbiting balls of fire, and then with a shove of my hands, I let them loose.

-Vwhoosh-

Nearly identical to the sound of a strong wind blowing through the air, the trio balls of fire flew towards the mass of undead nearly a hundred feet away. The impacts ranged from varying sides as I attempted to ensure that they would impact throughout each side of the battlefield. Every consecutive blast only brought a smile to my face. The spell's explosions resulted in marvelous pinpoints of light that erupted in the midst of the undead, and even though the explosions weren't as large as I could have hoped, they definitely had an impact.

The explosions instantly burned the flesh off of the dozen or so undead near each impact site, and the kinetic shock blew apart their skeletons. The fallen bodies of their comrades then had the added use of acting as shrapnel as it eviscerated their confederates that had wandered too close. In all, nearly fifty of the low-level undead were wiped out in my single attack.

The amount of experience I gained was absolutely bonkers.

At least, compared to what I normally get. Of course with the rising experience cost of each level I've gained, I predicted that the potential gains from destroying hordes of undead en masse could pretty quickly become marginal.

My attack resulted in several large holes within the formations of the enemy line. Plus, when 10% of your army just got instantly annihilated by an enemy spell, I'm sure anyone would be mad. As evidenced by the fact that the Lich was currently throwing its arms around in apparent frustration. We made eye contact, and I could feel the glare from all the way where I stood.

The Lich pointed forward, and the five large undead behemoths seemingly took that as a sign to began charging forward.

The behemoths were located towards the middle of the horde of undead mass and were forced to shove many of their lesser counterparts out of the way as they began to charge forward.

I activated my appraisal.

I sighed in relative relief. Unfortunately, it was a unique undead, and it had quite a lot of health. Granted, I was pretty positive that was simply a result of attributes being streamlined towards both Strength and Constitution. Fortunately, all of them were only around level 9. Even if it was bound to pose quite the challenge for the lower-leveled members of the Community, both Kevin and I should be able to take them on easily enough. Its agility couldn't be too high, and as such I could infer almost immediately that the lumbering giant would simply be just that. Lumbering. Likely massive and strong, but if you're quick enough it's an easily avoidable threat. It would likely tear down our walls though and would need to be dealt with swiftly.

Luckily enough, it seemed that my opening spell enraged the lich enough to the point where it seemed to send its heavy-hitters in front of its horde. Despite my worries about the lich's intelligence, it was clearly still a monster and lacked a measure of strategic thinking. Perhaps it thought we would be easy prey? Regardless, I doubted it was a good idea to send your stronger forces first. After all, if we survived, that left the peons exposed.

I laughed internally as I began to change my stance in preparation for the battle. Standing atop the pile of cars that formed our makeshift barrier, I activated my [Leadership] skill and felt as those around me took their own slightly stronger stances in order to compose themselves.

Just as I thought this, however, I suddenly heard a shriek, and a bellowing yell from behind me. I just barely began to turn around to find its source when I saw a white streak rush forward, jumping on top of the car and throwing its hands up in the air.

It took barely a moment before I realized who it was, 'Apinya!?' I yelled out internally, and in utter bafflement. "What the hell!?" I yelled out, just as he threw out his own battle cry.

"Damnation to the devil's followers!" Apinya shrieked.

Suddenly Apinya was enveloped in a massive pillar of golden light. That was when all hell broke loose.

Rykurock

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