Sundiata

  A Nation Boss. It wasn’t what he’d expected the next tier of monster to be called, but he’d known about that fact before today due to one of his new subjects having managed to link to something called the “internet.”

  The young man had then claimed to simply be a “hobbyist,” an ordinary man with rather ordinary knowledge of “Information Technology,” but that wasn’t how Sundiata saw it. Even if there were others who could have done the same, even if every other person present, save Sundiata himself, could have created this connection to all the world’s knowledge, they had failed to do so.

  One specific person had made this achievement, and regardless of how many others could have done the same, it had nevertheless been his. And therefore, so was the reward.

  A [Courtly Promotion], specifically to the [Keeper of Wisdom], which granted a handful of innate Traits related to knowledge, memory, and learning while also, supposedly, improving the quality of future Classes. A grand boon, with the only “downsides” being whatever duties Sundiata himself chose to impose.

  Which were none, in this case. None, save the fact that the internet connection had to be maintained, which he’d clearly already been planning to do anyway.

  In hindsight, the reward had been far too small. The forewarning Zerzura’s new connection had provided had saved the lives of everyone outside the walls of the city, both the humans and the almost a thousand lions his [King of Lions] Skill had drawn to him, all pulled back inside for shelter.

  However, simply knowing that the monster was done did very little to ensure it wound up dead.

  The Nation Boss loomed on the horizon, its nameplate taller than the city walls and wider than several buildings put together to remain legible at this distance, a one hundred and fifty meters tall beast made of a silvery-grey metal streaked with gold and the occasional crystal that could either be salt or diamond, he genuinely could not tell at this distance.

  [Resource Survey] triggered as he observed the monster, and Sundiata could feel his heart drop as he received more information. It wasn’t just any kind of metal, but lead.

  Lead.

  In his first lifetime, he’d rarely seen it used, it was too soft for most applications.

  In his second, however … in his second he’d learned just how dangerous it truly was, a toxin that would stain the ground forever and doom generations to come to suffer numerous illnesses.

  Even in death, this monster would never cease to be a threat. And even before that, he had to kill it. According to information he wasn’t entirely sure he was glad to have informed him of the fact that no one had brought down its like alone, every previous Nation Boss had been brought down by an entire group of people just like him. And they normally had had a higher level than their foe.

  He could win. But even in victory, he would likely have to sacrifice most of the city and his people. How could he defeat this beast …

  [Bane of the Supernatural] confirmed what the internet had already said, the monster had multiple cores that had to be destroyed, and they were deeply rooted in its flesh, where he would be hard-pressed to reach them.

  Modern heavy weapons were unlikely to work, and he didn’t even have access to them in the first place. He was the strongest person here, fifteen Levels below the highest-tier monster anyone had ever seen. And as far as he knew, the city had no tricks available either.

  Yet none of that would stop him. Ever.

  “Man the walls, spread out, ensure you have multiple routes to reach street level in case of damage,” he ordered. “Aim for the joints, use rifles to check their durability, then use explosives. [Royal Guard], protect those who hold the explosives.”

  His [Royal Guard] could employ a defensive shield to protect his subjects or property once a week, and considering that heavy weapons would be their best chance, they would have to be protected.

  “And anyone who cannot fight, take cover in the anomalous tower.”

  With a thought, he sent the lions along as well. Even empowered by his Skill, they would not be able to hurt the monster bearing down on them, and these noble creatures had become too rare to hurl into this kind of battle without even the remotest chance of it achieving anything.

  Sundiata leaped down off the wall and slowly began to stride towards the distant monster, his staff in hand, as above him, the guns began to roar, accompanied by the occasional flash of magic as Skills were used, pockmarking the monster’s flesh with small craters.

  The beast did not even deign to acknowledge him, simply continuing to stride towards Zerzura. It was tall enough to get across the wall in a single step, he had to be like an ant in its sight. It would regret not paying attention to him.

  It had to be an almost comical sight, a human with a stick marching to face a monster so immense he didn’t even reach its ankle.

  Yet when he struck its leg, it absolutely noticed him, raising the now-dented limb above Sundiata and stomping down … so he let it, reinforcing his body using [Spirit over Flesh] while weakening the soil below with [Mind Over Matter].

  All the force the monster could exert through its sheer weight alone passed onto him and planted Mali’s emperor in the ground like a tent pole. Yet when its foot slammed into the ground a split-second later, it was spread out across a vastly larger area, completely unable to reach him. Well, the monster weighed hundreds of tons, it did sink in quite a bit, but however deep it went, it pushed him deeper.

  And then, the foot lifted again and Sundiata exploded from the ground, staff swinging, adding another dent to the monster’s leg. It froze, briefly, then whirled around with shocking speed for something too huge and slammed its fist into the spot where he’d been standing a split second earlier.

  So he smacked the misshapen lump it called a hand, leaving a crater the size of a barrel … on a monster that made most buildings look tiny.

  This was going to take a long time.

  Sundiata ran between the monster’s legs while striking out at the same ankle he’d already been attacking once more. If he could just rip off one leg, he could unbalance the beast, and then … then, things would get marginally easier as the monster tried to balance itself with legs of different lengths. Hours from now.

  And his body was already aching.

  A human would have had to turn around at this point to be able to target him again, but the monster simply leaned the other way and continued pounding the ground like a “man” possessed, leaving behind craters that would become literal lakes the next time it rained. Craters, much like what he was leaving in its leg.

  Yet after the ground had been reduced to powder and the air filled with dust, the Boss seemed to lose interest and began striding back in the direction of Zerzura.

  Sundiata glared after it. Was it really disregarding him as a threat so entirely?

  He exerted his will upon the quicksand-like ground ahead, solidifying it, and started to run after the monster, which was now coming under fire from the city itself.

  Guns were achieving very little, as far as he could tell. The monster wasn’t absorbing the lead, which had been a possibility thrown around earlier, but the fact that it wasn’t outright counterproductive was hardly a ringing endorsement of this tactic.

  Though if it had been a bad thing, [Bane of the Supernatural] would have warned him.

  Sundiata finally reached the monster and resumed his attack upon the leg, which now had a wedge almost two meters deep taken out of it. A good start, but nowhere near enough.

  Their “duel” resumed after he struck it twice, but after the ground had once more been obliterated, reduced to powder, the monster once again began to march towards the city.

  What would it take to hold this monster’s attention?

  This time, however, it was moving far more quickly than before, and would likely reach the walls of Zerzura before he could engage it once more …

  That was when a titanic spear flew past Sundiata and hammered into the beast’s shoulder with enough force that it staggered slightly.

  Moving almost in sync, both he and his foe stared out into the desert, where another dust cloud was rising into the air, at the heels of a small group of riders, shooting across the desert on oddly small horses at speeds Sundiata was only used to seeing from the few cars he’d encountered in the modern times.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Who still had cavalry in a world of steel and electricity?

  Someone with the Skills to make it work anyway.

  The group might be too far to identify by sight alone, but Sundiata was fairly certain he knew who they were regardless. After all, while the sheer amount of information held by the internet might be more than a man could absorb in a thousand lifetimes, focussing on a specific topic such as his fellow ancients had made things far more manageable.

  Which would make his new, potentially temporary, ally Genghis Khan. Or at least some of his men. Armed with bows and arrows in an age of bullets and bombs, though unless he was mistaken, several of them also had rocket launchers strapped to their saddles.

  For a brief moment, the monster froze, then began marching the other way, not even bothering to turn around, its legs nauseatingly twisted to face the other way and it began to march towards the reinforcements.

  This time, Sundiata saw how Genghis Khan attacked, the man simply leaned over in his saddle until his hand brushed the ground, causing dirt to coalesce into a massive spear. Then, the old conqueror yanked himself upright by the rains of his steed, an action that somehow neither harmed nor toppled over the horse, and unleashed the projectile in the same motion, blasting a small but noticeable chunk out of the monster’s shoulder. The same shoulder he’d targetted with his first attack.

  Ripping apart that monster bit by bit seemed to be how this would have to go.

  The horsemen charged past, unleashing missiles, glowing bullets that left trails in the air, shining arrows from bows that shone like the sun, and then, they were off, opening the distance once again, heading for Sundiata himself.

  “I’d advise you disengage,” Genghis Khan announced and pulled back on the reins as he closed with Sundiata. “Once at a sufficient distance, you will receive an appropriate reward from the System to wield against this beast.”

  But Sundiata couldn’t afford to be seen running, even if the power gained was beyond his imagination, it could not possibly outweigh the loss of morale his retreat would cause. That had been his promise, that we would protect his new subjects, and running, even for a good reason, would make it look as though he were breaking it. So he shook his head.

  “I understand,” Genghis Khan replied, and suddenly, the world flickered. In an instant, Zerzura had moved from nearly a kilometer away to him practically touching its walls, the monster changed poses as it attempted to smash the little horsemen harrying it.

  And the voice of the System rang out, informing him of a new Level.

  [Class Evolution: Indomitable Empire Builder Lv. 50 -> Emperor of the Dimensional City Lv. 51]

  [Skill gained: Dimensional Shift]

  ***

  Genghis Khan

  That had been exceedingly close.

  Nation Bosses targetted cities, not ancients, but as near as he could tell, the African Emperor’s bond with the phantom oasis allowed him to take its place as far as targetting priorities went.

  But Temujin’s own [Striking Figure] had managed to pick up the slack when [Inevitable Conclusion] sent the man away.

  It was simple, the emperor couldn’t be perceived as “fleeing,” it would shatter morale, however, covering it with a Skill would only make a hash of the Malian formation as though it had been broken. Unacceptable, if they’d been directly engaged in combat at the moment, but as it stood, them suddenly finding themselves on the streets rather than the walls had a minimal impact. They simply had nothing on Temujin’s own elite fighting force.

  With Levels around forty, they weren’t quite on par with the twins, whom his [Appraisal] pegged as being close to or even at fifty, however, that put them at nearly double most of the world’s population.

  Speaking of, [Appraisal] might be fantastic at judging groups of people, but it was limited against individuals such as Sundiata Keita. All Temujin had been able to tell was that he was around fifty, maybe slightly higher than that, though as per usual, as an ancient, his Class appeared to be absurdly powerful.

  Though for now, all Temujin had to do was duel this damn metal behemoth until his fellow ancient returned.

  ***

  Sundiata, one hour later

  The monster’s immense fist came out once again, more on-target this time, and Sundiata’s dodge only carried him to the edge of the impact zone, until [Dimensional Shift] engaged, warping space the way Zerzura did to make itself fit to put himself next to the immense metal fist, positioning himself so that the shockwave flung him straight at the leg they’d been hammering at the entire time.

  His baobab branch, the improvised weapon that had taken him so incredibly far, slammed home … and blasted straight through, gouging a huge chunk of the limb.

  Yet that was not where it ended, as with a terrible, ear-piercing metallic screech, the remaining breadth of the leg proved itself incapable of holding up the immense weight of the being attached to it.

  The Consequences of Greed, Nation Boss of Metal, fell, toppling over and gathering momentum with every passing second.

  Sundiata ran as behind him, it sounded as though the world were ending in a thunderous clangor of breaking rock and torn metal. And in an instant, he spun on his heels, charging in the direction of the fallen monster.

  Well, more specifically, the one, single, point that his [Bane of Sorcerers] was all but screaming at him to hit right that second.

  The monster was spread out across the ground before him like a misshapen lump of bread, dropped onto the dirt by a careless baker, metallic body deformed and melded into the ground.

  And one of its cores was exposed … until Sundiata’s staff came down it and the orb shattered like glass.

  Then, he immediately began an assault on the damaged shoulder, only for the beast to begin to rise.

  Perhaps now was a good time to level again? Before it was back on its feet, so he might attack it with fresh power?

  But this time, the misshapen metal titan began to totter its way toward the city, completely ignoring the ancients that ripped into its side.

  “Can you use your Skill again?” Sundiata called out, but the horse lord shook his head.

  “All it would achieve is nullifying the damage we could do on the way. Wait here if you want your Levels.”

  That directly explained very little beyond revealing that the Skill that had appeared to be some manner of time-consuming teleport was, in fact, something entirely else.

  So Sundiata stopped where he was, reached out towards Zerzura, and exerted his will.

  Suddenly, the wall began to sink back, deeper into the perimeter, while other buildings, small and uninhabited, were thrown into the monster’s path, and the tower containing the civilians was banished to the furthest reaches of the city.

  His people were out of the way, the horses would have space to maneuver, and the monster had targets that would not cost lives should they be destroyed.

  And if his people assumed the reason he was not advancing just was because of exhaustion, rather than something more dangerous to their morale, then all the better.

  The System seemed to finally regard him as being out of combat as the first building exploded into a shower of dust and gravel beneath the monster’s foot.

  [Emperor of the Dimensional City Lv. 51 -> Emperor of the Dimensional City Lv. 53]

  [Skill Boost gained]

  [Skill gained: Weight of Responsibility]

  A Skill that allowed him to create a gravity field around himself, or imbue the effect into a weapon, with its power “scaling” to the burden on his shoulders. A raw increase in his ability to hurt his foes, one that would only grow stronger as time passed.

  It made for a suitable target for the new Boost.

  ***

  Night had fallen, and the Mongolians had begun to rest in shifts and his men were all but useless by now, yet Sundiata was continuing the fight.

  In this case, he was scaling the beast’s cratered hide to finish the arm that had been mauled earlier.

  Half the cores were already shattered, but while one arm was being used to freely attack with, the monster had apparently realized that the second one was too badly damaged, a few dozen more punches, and it would tear right off. So it was covering the two cores they’d somehow managed to unearth earlier.

  Hammering away at the cleft with one arm while holding tight with the second was difficult, both in terms of balance and ensuring that the metal did not deform beneath his fingers to the point where he lost his grip.

  With every impact, metal deformed, lead shards flew through the sky, and the ground below trembled simply from the monster walking.

  The only reason its every step was not causing significant damage was the city’s malleability, Sundiata taking advantage of his bond to shuffle around houses and make as many stomps as possible landed on already destroyed houses. Or at least inhabited ones.

  Yet only half his mind could be devoted to this task, he had a limb to remove. Until he finally tore through and even as the massive limb began to fall, reality flashed once more, leaving Sundiata standing in the middle of a reshuffled city, the Nation Boss a few hundred meters distant and being engaged by the Mongolian emperor.

  And the voice of the System made its proclamation.

  [Emperor of the Dimensional City Lv. 53 -> Emperor of the Dimensional City Lv. 54]

  [Skill Boost gained]

  A simple Boost, destined for a foundational Skill. [Spirit over Flesh].

  And with that, he once again charged at his foe, staff swinging.

  ***

  They had been tearing at the monster’s leg for hours, to the point where the sun was already rising again in the east.

  Targeting the limb at the top, just below the tip, rather than going for the much lower ankle, had been costly. Yet it had worked, and as the beast toppled onto the ground, crushing half a district beneath its bulk and shattering twice that through quakes and flying debris, it proved to have been the correct choice.

  It flattened even more than it had after the first impact, and this time, it struggled to get up. Two cores left, one exposed, the second … the second was somewhere under its body.

  BOOM!

  A hurled spear by Genghis Khan blew apart the target, and the nameplate hovering above the living slab of toxic metal vanished.

  … Apparently, the impact had shattered the other one.

  [Emperor of the Dimensional City Lv. 54 -> Emperor of the Dimensional City Lv. 56]

  [Skill gained: Extradimensional Gardens]

  [Skill Boost gained]

  A Skill that would, in time, fix their food situation, and a Skill Boost destined for that very same ability. With his likely allies, alleviating it in the short term should be doable, but in the long term? Zerzura, and whatever it grew into, would need its own source. More than one, preferably.

  Sundiata gazed around the city.

  Or rather, what was left of it. With the constant reshuffling, he’d managed to limit the damage to the smaller buildings, which would be easy to repair or, if necessary, replace, but a good third of Zerzura was now rubble. More than he could have realistically hoped to save, but it was much, much worse than he’d expected to lose to his first real challenge.

  He turned as he heard footsteps behind himself and saw his erstwhile ally approach, helmet cradled under one arm, horse calmly trotting behind the man.

  “Do you know why I came?” Genghis Khan asked, tone even, expression neutral.

  Sundiata eyed him with a mixture of gratitude and well-hidden distrust. Was that a genuine question? It sounded like a veiled request for payment, however, that sort of thing required said payment to be obvious, and he couldn’t see anyhting that fit the bill save the city itself, which he would not give up, even if he’d been in a position to transfer the link.

  However, before he could come up with a suitable reply, the Mongolian ruler continued.

  “It’s because we have a common enemy. All of humanity. Territory gain, political influence, religious disagreements … none of that matters if we fail to survive this year. I am a part of an alliance to fight the strongest that the System can produce. I believe you are more than aware of why cooperation is necessary there. What happens after we have conquered the challenges, that remains to be seen.

  “However, in the future, Mongolia will likely be focussing on helping its allies before anyone else.”

  The unspoken question of “will you be one of them” hung in the air for a long moment, before Sundiata sighed internally.

  Most of the time, diplomacy was required, but sometimes, a blunt delivery of the facts was more effective than all the pretty arguments in the world.

  “What are the terms?”

  They turned out to be rather reasonable, in fact … until Genghis Khan revealed that a World Boss would rise soon, according to the alliance’s prophet. And as a new ally, Sundiata would be required to participate.