At the same time as they shot forward, I fired. They all scattered apart from Grimstrom who was distracted by the sudden appearance of his feet being encased in rock. While he broke free easily enough from Sania’s rather random attack, it wasn’t nearly fast enough to avoid my Ethereal blast, which left a black and bloody crater in his chest. It healed up immediately and he kept coming. The next one would need to be more powerful.

The other dwarves fired multifaceted black balls of power back at Sania and me and they hurt way more than I would have expected. Sania, in her human form, and Olata were able to navigate the attacks, avoiding them all. 

As we retreated from their rapid onslaught, Danivra and Ewan came up to join us. Their flight power reset and the Nidarak’s focus being solely on me, they were able to throw a lot of power at the super charged Dwarves. And that power did a grand total of fuck all damage. It didn't take a genius to work out we were in serious trouble. In our defense, we weren’t exactly getting our arses kicked either, but there was no opening to exploit. As long as we could keep it that way, we’d be okay, I hoped.

“I can boost three soldiers up by a maximum of two hundred points. That is the maximum any god can achieve, but as Darkness is stronger, he has been able to boost five,” Devotion said across our bond, giving me yet another shock.

“For cryin’ out loud Devotion. A bit of warning wouldn’t go amiss before you speak to me. Maybe clear your throat or something? Your voice is pretty intense, and I don’t have too many pairs of trousers.”

“This is a mental projection of my voice and I have no throat to clear Clive. Now listen. Through pure chance, we have some of the strongest soldiers in the Malatian empire here and I will choose three of our strongest to assist you in this battle.”

“Wait! Two soldiers from here, and choose Mal at Far Reach!” I said firmly. Then added please.

“That is foolish Clive. He is among the weakest of all of my Paladins, and he cannot even assist in this fight?”

“If for my Sphere of Influence to work in Far Reach we need it all but cleared as soon as we go through the Portal, we need it cleared, right? These wankers are going to follow us one way or another, and it won’t take them long to focus on Far Reach. So give Mal the power. I know that arsehole better than anyone. Give him the power and he’ll get the job done.” I expected resistance. Possibly even flat refusal, but Devotion surprised me.

“An unexpected but well-reasoned argument to bless someone within Far Reach and while Mal is still not the best choice, if you are willing to choose him over the other possibilities, then you must have a good reason. I know you wouldn’t put your town in unnecessary danger.  

“With enough power, I trust him.”

“Then it shall be as you say. And remember, Clive. If you lose here, we are all finished.” She said it with such finality I felt a shiver down my demon spine.

“We can do it. We just need to survive, and get everyone through the portal.”

“Very well,” came her emotionless reply, making it very hard to tell if I’d upset her. Nothing new there then, I mused to myself.  

She ended the communication and my two best friends in the whole world, Egard and Grimstrom chose that moment to charge me with the next level scary bastard, Ekstrom following behind them with malice in his growing red eyes.

As the two attacked, Olata zipped by Egard, scoring a slash just above his eye. It was an inspired move, as the wound healed immediately, but the blood that had escaped in the brief moment it had been open was enough to blind him in one eye. That distraction allowed Danivra to follow up with a blast of purple flame inspiring me to throw my own attack while he reeled from the onslaught. Scoring a damaging hit to his face, he lost control of his flight and went spiraling down toward the ground. I’d always wanted to do that to Egard, and it felt as satisfying as I’d hoped. Though it would have been better if I’d had a longer moment to enjoy it.

Sania had attacked Grimstom in the meantime, expertly encasing his head in rock, if only briefly as he broke it straight off with a crack of his axe. He ignored her completely, staying focused on me, and hacked deep into my left arm with his sword made entirely of dark Neuma, before Ekstrom fired a point-blank ball of multi-hued Darkness into my face. It was obvious that the power contained in the blast was directly from Darkness himself, from the damage it did to my chest. My face and head remained unaffected, having now been encased in Immortal Shell, but I’d still been momentarily blinded by the energy. I didn’t let it distract me too much and swung my cleaver on instinct to where I knew Grimstrom was. The cleaver cut deeply into something and Grimstrom growled. While I feared his follow up shot, it never came. As my vision cleared, I was just in time to see:

 

Karius. Level 294, Paladin of Devotion, Captain of the Thisthal, Blessed of Devotion. Nephilim (Human III)

 

He swung his blue glowing Gisarme around, smashing Grimstrom with a beauty of  a shot, square on the sniffer, sending him hurtling backwards in a big wet cloud of  blood.

While Grimstrom had left the dance for a brief period, Egard was back, joining Ekstrom as he kept coming forward. The other two Nidarak were fighting Wind of the Wild, Danivra and Olata, trying to keep them busy while they killed me. Unfortunately for those two, Harle, the other Blessed of Devotion, had joined the fight and things were looking more promising for us. I quickly revived a dozen or so  followers below, then returned my full focus to Egard and Ekstrom.

“If I manage nothing else before we leave Egard, I hope it’s killing you,”

Ekstrom threw a blast of power at me, which I battered away. Egard grinned. “For me, killing Sania will be enough. I’ll let Grimstrom and Ekstrom finish you.” He charged Sania as soon as he spoke, neuma blade and axe in hands. While Ekstrom attacked me. Sania was fully coated in energy again and deflected all of Egard’s attacks, though that was all she was able to do under the onslaught. Luckily for her, Karius was there to provide the damage. Leaving me to deal with Ekstrom who threw a hefty ball of power at me.

I deflected it with the cleaver, feeling the incredible power as it passed close by.

“I am pleased that our first meeting will be our last,” he said with a surprisingly well-spoken voice that didn’t meet my expectation. “Quivering in my fucking boots, mate,” I said, snapping out an ethereal bullet to punctuate my slightly less articulate response.

He turned to the side like he had all the time in the world and the bullet missed him. He returned fire, which I batted and sent two rapid-fire Ethereal bullets back at him before charging forward.

He dodged the first one and battered away the second, which he couldn’t avoid, the bullet shattering his axe.

I struck at his extended wrist, but he was too fast, pulling back his arm and slashing at me with his dark blade.

My Immortal shell was up to the challenge of deflecting that, but I knew how dangerous it was to be cut by. Similarly, my ethereal cleaver was now buried deep in his ribs. It cut fairly deep but didn’t slow him at all as he punched me in the chest with a punch that felt like King Oblitifist’s Pulverize power, but I suspected it was just his normal punch. I went flying backward, Cleaver still in Ekstrom’s ribs. He glared at me across the distance while pulling out my weapon and tossing it down. I summoned it to my hand, and took a brief moment to check on my friends.

They were all surviving, despite the best efforts of the Nidarak Dwarves. With the addition of the two Blessed we were looking fairly well matched. The battle below wasn’t going so well, and I caught an area where our defensive line on that lonely hilltop was starting to buckle. I didn’t have time for the act as Ekstrom was coming at me again, but I fired down an Ethereal blast behind that line killing a good number and helping the warriors there reclaim our footing, while I slowly backed off Ekstrom.

What I hadn’t seen, be it through distraction or very good stealth, was that Grimstrom had been able to sneak around and get an attack off against my back with his pure neuma blade. It ripped straight through my insides, jutting from my abdomen, skewering me like a piece of meat on a kebab. The blade was not only powerful, but I could feel the direct link to Darkness’s own power.

“Got you now. You awkward, bastard,” he growled in my ear. As Ekstrom approached from the front. My more immediate concern was that I could feel the blade drawing energy from me into it. I tried to hold on, but the energy was drawn along the blade and into Grimstrom toward his core. Panic suddenly hit me. The fucker was attempting to bond me forcefully. As I realized this, I attempted to wriggle free of the blade. Ekstrom hit me with his dark blade from the other side. And gripped my throat with an insanely strong grip. I was level 100 strong. That was pitiful against level 300 strength as I discovered.

But I couldn’t deal with Ekstrom at all while I was trying to pull my Dark Neuma from my core. Which was also futile. I would have to add Ethereal energy to the dark to hopefully reign it back in that way.

Whatever Darkness had none to Grimstrom however, allowed him to handle the Ethereal energy far better than he should have been able to. I feared Darkness had prepared for this eventuality.

Grimstrom groaned in pain as I added the extra power, but it didn’t stop the passage of my core.

Ekstrom had begun punching me repeatedly with crushing blows, everywhere but my impervious head and arm. I was essentially trapped by these two powerhouses, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it myself.

“Sania! Anyone. I need help here.” I yelled across my bonds as my energy approached Grimstrom’s core. Ekstrom was suddenly encased in rock, which he broke free of, only to be then hooked around the neck by the glowing guisarme and yanked viciously away from me. I felt Grimstrom’s panic rise as he attempted to pull the last few inches to his core. I tried to pull free of the blade, but I was stuck with its power. Grimstrom was so physically strong I couldn’t turn, either.

Karius fought against Ekstrom and Egard alone while Sania tried to deal with Grimstrom, now in her giant Amarok form. With her Ethereal shield active, her attacks were causing some decent damage. But I could feel Grimstrom’s resolve and determination to not let this opportunity pass.

“Can you not bond him?” Came Grigor’s surprise voice through our bond. “In the way you pulled my energy from my Claw from me once upon a time?”

“I’ve tried dude. It’s inaccessible because of its link with Darkness.” His words did give me one more idea, though.

While holding back on the draw of my Dark Neuma, I let my ethereal energy flow back into me and Instead brought a protected tendril of Light Neuma from the hidden core I had. With that, I wrapped it around the dark blade. Whatever additional power was in Grimstrom’s Neuma now seemed to neutralize most of my ethereal power. However, it couldn’t neutralize the pure light energy. With the two aspects of ethereal power seeming to cancel each other out, it became a battle of the light within me and the Dark from Grimstrom, in my body. The light began to convert the dark severing it from my Dark core and cutting off the flow.

Grimstrom grunted in surprise and then panic as I yanked the energy down to my light core. I had it trapped and the tables had turned in a heartbeat and now Grimstrom fought desperately. It was of no use. I pulled it into my light core and without overthinking it, bonded the asshole as a bonded servant.

 

< Congratulations >

You have created a bonded serva…

 

I dismissed the notification to deal with the fallout but received another notification.

 

< Warning >

You have severed and stolen the bond between a god and their Follower and earned the eternal enmity of that god. Release the stolen bond within ten seconds to appease said god.

 

“What have you done!” Grimstrom screamed.

“Shut the fuck up and fight,” I snapped. “Pointing at Ekstrom.”

“How is this possible!” he screamed again, as he went to attack Ekstrom against his will.

Realizing my instructions had wriggle room I shouted at him again. “And you need to kill the bastard.”