Men always had an affinity for shoes, and the ones Tetsu had his eyes on were no exception. With these, size was not a concern; the pair of sneakers Tetsu pilfered, although larger, expanded or contracted to fit his feet perfectly, providing both comfort and a sense of magic, allowing ample room for toe movement while snugly embracing the foot.
“Where does everyone find such treasures?” wondered Tetsu, his inner dragon urging him to hoard more valuables, even though he didn’t want or couldn’t use them. “Ah! This must be every dragon’s problem. All of them are Artificers and love stuff like I do, but are doomed and locked away by the system never to wield any.”
The cameraman was faster than Tetsu’s expectations. Too swift for Tetsu to outmaneuver, flank, trick, or catch. Amidst the chaos, Tetsu encountered a worthy adversary for the first time. A Jack of all trades, he had to steer clear of speed-based fighters more than the rest. Until now, Tetsu had leveraged his mental attributes and diverted the opponents’ flow while manipulating the terrain and their fortune to keep his foes at bay.
This encounter forced Tetsu to recognize the vulnerability of facing a high-level opponent who excelled in two to four attributes. The cameraman, fixated on a single attribute, posed a formidable challenge in his first master-versus-Jack showdown.
Tetsu used the three armies to flank the cameraman as runes locked his every step. The battlefield worked against him. Tetsu also made him the prime target of four armies by placing several ‘Quantum Harvest’ bubbles on and around him. Yet as no one laid their dirty paws at Tetsu, none of them could breach the one-meter barrier surrounding the cameraman.
During their chase, a pebble graced his barrier, and since then, the cameraman’s speed had increased tenfold. Throughout their little dance, he never missed capturing various facets of the war, with Tetsu remaining as the primary focus.
“Overpowered cameraman,” Tetsu whistles, shifting tactics to pin him down before fleeing.
Like the others, even this tactic failed, and Tetsu conceded defeat, opting to reduce his speed to conserve stamina.
———<>|*|<>———
Seated upon a macabre throne crafted from the remains of fallen foes, the [Horr’er] groaned with discomfort. Amidst the undead creatures, these held a unique position. Unlike typical undead, who succumbed to the death affinity after dying, entities attuned to death affinity rose Horr’ers.
While the [Risen] lacked the invulnerability of the undead, their heightened intellect made them more formidable. Among them, the Horr’ers occupied a higher echelon. Proficient in dark creation, they could raise unique beings akin to liches, withstand tampering to their core, and most horrifically, establish various bonds.
“Shall we pursue more flesh-based lifeforms, my lord?” A lich beside the undead leader bowed, seeking permission.
Mor, abbreviated from Morboraith, stood as one of the mightiest liches dispatched to the tutorial grounds to claim the new world and all its rewards. Their forefather, Rot, spared no expense in fortifying the undead’s chances of success.
Proud of his power, Mor harbored ambitions of leading, but these dreams of grandeur shattered when he witnessed the true might of a Horr’er, his lord, Valthraxis Necro Drou.
No two Horr’er are made the same, and ‘Valthraxis Necro Drou’ is rumored to be a creature crafted specifically for this tutorial by the forefather himself. Some whispered that a fragment of their forefather’s soul resided within him, providing ample reason for the undead forces to bow in reverence.
“It’s not that. I lost connection with one of the draugr.” Val frowned.
“That... is impossible. We shouldn’t have encountered any enemies this far, my lord.”
“He was weak.” Val, short for Valthraxis, waved dismissively.
Mor averted his gaze, receiving a transmission. “We have two armies approaching from our right, my lord.”
“They are working together? It figures based on our standing, but that is absurd here, on this ground.”
“Eh... the scene is more ludicrous than one can imagine.” Mor gaped at the sight, sharing the vision of his fellow liches, who hovered closer to the chaos.
“A... Human is leading the Claytron and Ant army toward us. He...” Mor squinted to clarify. “Has a cameraman who is documenting it all?” He stared at Val, his mind reeling from the bizarre sight.
“An illusion spell?” Val rose from the throne, his towering height dwarfing the seat he had lounged upon for so long.
It seemed as though Val had shrunk to adjust himself on the throne. His spine audibly cracked under the immense weight, yet Val only smiled and dug his claw-like hands into his back.
With a snap, he breaks and extracts two sections of his spine, shrinking in the process. Val revealed two hand axes, no larger than his palm. After the weapons were drawn, flesh melded at astonishing speeds, leaving no trace of rupture behind.
“No illusion can deceive my eyes, my lord,” Mor dismissed the notion.
“Two hives working in tandem. I’ve never heard of such...” Val stuttered, at a loss for words. “Where is my army?”
“We split them into groups at your command, my lord. Each heading toward the treasure.”
Val emitted a high-pitched screech, the signature battle cry of the Horr’er races. The hand axes extended into two massive axes, their blades two meters wide with four-meter-long handles.
“Rise,” Val commanded as he shrank, dropping the right axe.
Bones and muscles sprouted from the land below, forming a hand that caught the axe and rose from beneath the soil.
“Veru ney nis-kul,” Val chanted a spell and released the left axe, summoning another Horr’er that joined the first. Both grew twice the size of Val as he slumped back onto the throne, concealing his exhausted state.
“Converge and create a main summons coffin in the middle of the base,” Val signaled, and the [Animated Horr’ers] roared into action. “They can’t stall an army for long.” He glared at Mor, his second in command. “If they want war, we shall give them one.” He grinned. “Undead battle forms.” Another skill took charge, whipping the lazy undead nearby into formations.
Four squads moved to flank, while the rest split into two groups. One stayed to defend the base, while the other charged with reckless abandon.
Liches positioned themselves between the charging squad, building up their spells to raise the undead once the armies fell. After all, the longer the battle and higher the causality rate, the stronger the undead army grows.
The animated Horr’er movements were sluggish, prompting the Liches to cast acceleration spells on them to maintain their speed with the rest of the undead army. For better protection, the liches positioned themselves behind the Horr’ers. This way they can cast spells without worrying about defense.
“Ah, naturally, another army awaits our arrival,” Tetsu opens his eyes with a heavy sigh and returns to rummaging through the backpack.
The backpack housed an expansive spatial storage within its confines, much larger than his pouch. Yet no mental shelf opened up in Tetsu’s head, nor could he infuse mana and make the backpack his. Two side pockets at the bottom allowed easy access, but the items exiting were random to the point that they were useless.
With neither time nor patience to spare, Tetsu began extracting items one after another, using them as projectiles. Some items were locked, while others were too complex to decipher. Attempting to open the top zipper resulted in items being sucked in like a powerful vacuum, with no discernible limit to its capacity. The bag showed no discrimination in terms of size, weight, or origin of the items it stored. Although it resisted releasing anything from its main compartment, any attempt to force it open risked being devoured along with its contents.
“How do you decide what to take out?” Tetsu blinked, observing the Cameraman.
In search of better angles, Tetsu positioned the [Eye of providence] on the camera lens, turning the Cameraman into his invaluable ally. He directed the purple alien to capture optimal angles and utilized runes without hesitation, as enemies perceived the cameraman as the caster.
A Zeech, propelled by two Xome, closed the distance between itself and Tetsu in a single, mad dash.
“That’s new.” Tetsu activates Runes around the zeech, but its arms twist in unpredictable angles, and when he tries to pin-down its entire body, new limbs sprout from various locations on its uneven body to keep pushing it forward.
Tetsu also had to keep a vigilant eye on his allies, who could literally throw a hand to assist the Zeech, which the creature never seemed to return afterward. The Zeech traversed the final stretch with a gravity-defying leap. Tetsu harbored a desire to smash the bizarre creature’s brains if it had any, and a club materialized in his hand from the backpack’s side pocket.
“Oh, that’s how you work.” Tetsu swung, hitting a home run and sending splatters of Zeech flesh flying. “God, this is disgusting.” He fought off a gag reflex before redirecting the undead toward the cameraman.
The club bore an eerie resemblance to the one Tetsu witnessed the armament ants wield. “Scavengers?” he wondered aloud, noting the cameraman’s face, whose frown spoke volumes. “He has a keen sense of hearing too?”
*!Blink!*
“No Tweeds nearby? Just my luck.”
The cameraman twitched, eliciting a smile from Tetsu as another theory was confirmed. As Tetsu advanced, he threw cubes of clay at the Claytron and assorted weapons at the ants, who caught and used them to combat the undead. “Oops! Sorry.” He grinned and made his escape.
*!Blink!*
Tetsu skidded and rolled behind a tree. “I can see you, you know!” He spoke to an empty gap between two hordes of zombies. Although his eyes caught nothing, the [Eye of Providence], affixed to a [Raptor] soaring high above, caught sight of the lich amidst them.
“How?” the Lich growled, canceling the skill.
“It’s a long story. How much time have you got?”
═─┈─{═E═}─┈─═
