Death is near
The beast was riddled with unbearable pain as it's flesh began igniting, it's strongest defense had become its greatest weakness as a man now held a blade inside the very same wound he had delivered upon it mere minutes prior. The blade was sinister in its methods as it had began melting the beast from within, charging its organs and growing stronger by the minute as it consumed more and more of the beasts flesh.
It's organs turned into goo and began pouring out of its orifices, the beast knew it had very little time left as the only organ intact was its brain. The beasts dense skull was the only thing keeping it safe, but even that could only last a bit longer.
The creature now only had on last card to play, it's pack was long since dead and it would join them soon. The creature raised it head to the sky and a mind splitting screech pierced the world.
With a loud booming sound the beast impacted the ground succumbing to death. A sigh of relief echoed across the battlefield, the raid captain leaned against his sword to keep his body standing even with his severe exhaustion. No one except John caught this detail, even with that said mere moments later a small black flame had gathered into front of him as the snakes body had withered into nothingness. The flame coated the man refilling his reserves and seemingly advancing his realm.
Sadly that was the last moment of calmness in that clearing. Hell descended upon earth as all the land for the eye to see suddenly collapsed in on its self and the men were descended into darkness.
When they came to, they were thousands of feet underground in and expansive cave system with intricate interconnected passages. What they saw terrified each and every one of them, hundreds of thousands of snakes surrounded them. An endless sea of death poured out of a massive ivory gate, that seemingly connected two dimensions together.
A new era had begun, an era of death and despair as the gods wrath descend onto mankind, only the strong will survive while the weak will become food.
Despair filled the men as before them stood an insurmountable challenge before them. There was no possible path of escape laid out before them and they would inevitably be the first few deaths in this desolate era.
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"How is the plan progressing, stage three should have begun by now".
A man obscured by the shadowy ghastly aura emitting from himself asked while sitting upon his outrageously lavish throne with a legion of servants at his sides, they mostly had his consumables and beverages while others seamed to just be standing at attention waiting for their orders.
Before his throne kneeled a brigade of his most powerful and loyal generals and soldiers of various ranks. The strongest of them stood and took it upon herself to answer their supreme commander.
"The mission is progressing smoothly, the gates have been opened and the perfect battlefield has been selected. That world has the largest and most powerful army stationed at it. The demonic towers of trials have been aligned properly on each continent and will draw in the best warriors that puny race has to offer". Once done with her report she rejoined her comrades in their kneeling position.
"Good, proceed as planned". He spoke as he motioned for them to go about the rest of their duties. He then lounged back and popped a cherry into his mouth, a wide toothy smirk plastered upon his face.
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Back to John, he felt the same instinctual fear as the rest, but his attention was soon drawn away from the beasts. He cringed inside while the oh so feared ding echoed through the edges of his mind. He knew that no good would come of the new notification, he sighed and begrudgingly read it anyways.
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'[Entrance mission]'
•The world you knew is no longer, death creeps around every corner. The only chance of survival is to enter the tower, lest you be consumed by the endless hoard.
•You must survive the hoard for three minutes to meet the requirements and progress.
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After reading through its contents he looked around and noticed that everyone else also had their attention locked on an empty space before them.
[3:00]
The timer remained still for quite a while and due to the severe anxiousness racking his soul. John began preparing every possible method of attack and counter measure he could. Even the skeletal figure of his new servant appeared behind John as he stopped holding back.
It wasn't until the massive metal spears began to appear in the air around John that everyone was finally drawn from their stupors and followed example.
And then all hell broke loose.
[2:59]
The creatures no longer remained still, they pounced towards the intruders within their domain. Attacks exploded into the surrounding area as everyone released their strongest attacks on the first round of attackers.
[2:48]
Explosions rang out as spears punctured beast after beast, numerous elemental attacks exploded creatures or at least did damage to them, destroying limbs and breaking bones. After culling the majority of the first wave, they ran attempting to reach the exit no matter the speed.
[2:32]
A loud pop was heard followed by a muffled scream as the first of the raid party fell. As John looked back he noticed they picked of the weakest among them, the newer recruit he only just truly met was named Ramon, he was a nice guy just weak. A large harpoon pierce through him and so he died face down with no dignity, that's how it had always been. The weak fail while the strong are the weak who overcame the adversity and managed to succeed.
[2:25]
They had barely moved in the massive cave system and the second wave crashed upon them in like a tidal wave. The guards energy levels began to dip as they barely held back the onslaught. The weaker members stood on the edges of their formation while the heavy damage dealers released attack after attack from the center.
John ended up surprisingly near the center, even though he was a lower realm the others recognized his prowess enough to give him such treatment. He chuckled to himself and continued his spear launching, his death knight joined the others at the edge, every slash ruthless and calculated.
[2:15]
More and more of the party were falling even though the second wave was nearing its end. The continued use of his stronger laws began weighing on John's mind, his mental sea had already started to dip below half. He decided that his best bet would be to move towards the edges and begin to show his physical prowess.
Even though they were entrenched in battle most of the guards notice the man now dawning a pitch black draconic armor, his steps thudding against the ground, a similar black spear swinging by his side, the blade nearly theee feet long and ridged with a thick black handle making up the remaining five feet.
The beasts his eyes met trembled slightly as his influence was almost stronger than its masters orders. He took advantage of it momentary hesitation to preform a simple masterful thrust, puncturing its throat easily.
A claw descended, slamming forcefully into his side. John seemed to fly to the side, his spear ripped from the beasts neck. Mid flight he vanished, a hole ripped in the void. Then his spear descended upon the beast and with it came death.
The front lines began to clear as the guards now had a hidden assistant instantly lowering the difficulty. The second wave ended as soon as fast as it had begun.
[1:53]
A large amount of the guards had began to tire due to the onslaught, they had lost a few more of the younger guards and they still had a lot of time left to survive. As the guards rested in between the waves they took pills and elixir from space rings or bags they had on them.
Coldness spread through John's chest as he felt fragments of the beasts souls enter his chest. The black heart bested faster as his muscles swelled and his centers advanced slightly. The armor shined a bit more in the dim light of the cave, and his spear gained a slight swirling pattern on its shaft.
Even so the third wave began soon after, the beasts fiercer and stronger they swarmed from every side trapping them in the center. Every one felt refreshed due to their decision that continued running would do little to help with their distance, they instead refresh their energy stores and healed with their medicines.
[1:45]
The time passed slowly as fear grasped their hearts still they could only fight or give in and die so they chose to fight. Once more they launched their stronger attacks into the hoards, there was a lessened effect but they still had hope on their side.
John rampaged through the hoard doing his best to lessen the strain on his comrades, he knew that he wasn't strong enough to hold them on his own so he had to rely on them if he ever hoped to make it out alive. He had fought far too many and for too long to give in right as he was finally climbing up in the world.
He felt as if his mind was splitting all of a sudden, as he looked in side his mental sphere he was shocked to see the image of his death knight becoming more and more prominent and precise. John opened his eyes in and saw the creature standing for a pile of corpses. Blood coated it's body and it's bones cracked and separated as it began glowing a sinister red hue.
The corpses exploded as the glowing and cracking intensified a puddle of flesh purée crept along the skeletons body, infusing it with power.
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'[Your level 1 death knight has leveled up. Class requirements met.]'
•Option one: warrior
+Attack, Defense, and Speed
-Mana, and Magic affinities
Skills:
Weapon affinity: Increased expertise with weapons.
Call of the warrior: Increase to all stats when the situation is more dangerous.
•Option two: shaman
+Mana, Magic affinities, and Intelligence
-Attack, Defense, and Speed
Skills:
Mage mind: The ability to learn weak elemental spells.
Supporter: the ability to cast supporting spells such as strength and speed enhancement.
•Option three: general
+Attack, Intelligence, and Mana
-Defense, and Speed
Skills:
Leadership: The innate ability to lead and strategize.
Army management: Increased knowledge on tactics and battles, the ability to train and manage an army.
All three sounded viable to John, but it struck him odd that there would be two normal enough classes and then a more specialized and rare class. It seemed like he was being influenced down a certain designated path and he didn't like it one bit.
Nevertheless it seemed like quite a powerful class, and the fact that it appeared at that exact moment designated with him. His mouth was suddenly dry as his made up his choice.
'[General class selected]'
When nothing happened for a minute he felt that his choice had been wrong after all and that he had read too far into the situation. Then the usual dreaded ding echoed through his mind again.
'[The skill "Depths of one's soul" and the skill "Undead legion" have been learned]'
Depths of one's soul: Within the recesses of your being there lays an oasis and training ground from your army of undead.
Undead legion: The ability to give army specific sub-classes to your undead soldiers and gain access to leadership skills and knowledge.
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The power boost to the death knight was noticeable as it began picking up the slack left by the now mostly dead frontline. Now having a reliable soldier on the frontline to protect his precious weapons gave John a little relief.
[1:10]
It was time for him to get back to killing as he had just paused while the advancement had begun. The third wave was mostly down to stragglers, but looking at the time left he knew a fourth wave was approaching fast.
The last hurdle lay just out of reach and they all feared it the most. Death was near and if they weren't careful, then they would join the fallen quite soon.