“Eric, there are too many of them!”

  Eric snarled his hate for the massive swarm of locusts below. A swarm so vast that his heart had lurched the moment he saw the mile wide devastation as multiple paths demarcated by wreckage and massive stumps had coalesced, less than five miles from the border between ascending Black and the paradise he had made for his sister and so many lost souls.

  A paradise about to face dire peril as Eric and his familiar raced above the massive swarm of rampant destruction below.

  Eric’s stomach twisted in horrified despair, gazing at the thousands upon thousands of ravenous locusts devouring absolutely everything insight.

  He didn’t need his interface screaming about 20,000 locusts to know that he was in deep shit.

  All he needed was to gaze northward with his 685 Perception to spot the quiet hamlet just a mile beyond the boarder between territories.

  One of hundreds… no. One of thousands of happy little communities who had no reason to expect anything, save for the most peaceful of existences.

  No reason at all.

  Eric’s heart pounded as he choked back a scream.

  “Bunbun, warn Elonia. She has to evacuate everyone away from the boarder, as many miles as they can get, as far away as they can get… NOW!”

  “We have a problem! Nothing’s getting through, fearless leader!”

  Eric swallowed the taste of panic in the back of his throat, glaring down at the sight below. His lips stretched in a furious rictus. “It’s time, Bunbun.”

  “Damn right it is!” His familiar said with a desperate laugh. Her ears flapping in the wind from half a mile up. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get this party started!”

  Eric clenched his fist, instantly summoning his hoard. A surge of will and his two thousand spearmen were in position all around him, his six thousand winged locusts just behind as he began his charge.

  Straight down.

  “Charge, motherfuckers!” Bunbun squealed as Eric roared and raced straight for his target below, Speed Racer so gloriously warped and transformed by stat boosts and pressure and his own furious will that it was nothing for him to race straight DOWN at just under the speed of sound. His 2000 winged Sarissophoroi might not be able to carry their own weight, yet, but Death March worked just fine in a death spiral, and Mixed Unit tactics meant that every last one of his two thousand men had picked their target in the seconds it took them to spread out, all of them glowing with heat they were immune to as Eric howled his defiance and embraced Battletime to the point that reality itself seemed to stretch and slow just a split second before impact.

  Because it was just as his character sheet said. His 316 Physical resistance left him immune to everything up to and including 18th century artillery shells, but that was nothing compared to the power of Battletime at its utmost. Where Kinetic Energy equaled ? mass times velocity squared… when his perception of time increased, the kinetic energy lashing back at him would effectively be a minute fraction what it would otherwise be. It was the difference between someone throwing a bullet at him, and shooting it at him.

  Or at least that was the theory which he was putting to the ultimate test as he gazed right at the giant twenty foot long locust that had just popped up from the massive army of ravenous sentinels, emitting a high pitched scream that would have ruptured any mortal’s eardrums as its compound eyes seemed to lock RIGHT AT HI—

  You have CRITICALLY STRUCK Mantis Queen for CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE!

  Mantis Queen has EXPLODED ON IMPACT!

  Catastrophic damage YOU have suffered has been mitigated to 1 Medium Wound, thanks to Physical Resistance and synergistic use of Battletime and Charge!

  You have twisted your ankle and are suffering mild pain!

  Eric’s world was one of superheated liquids roaring in his ears as they splashed away in an explosion of gore, wincing only momentarily as his effective Mach 2 Heel Stomp left his ankle spiked with the same pain he once got from leaping from a second story window.

  Pain he only allowed himself a split second distraction with, as his eyes took in the spray of Mantis Queen and dirt washing over the field for scores of yards from the crater his impact had formed.

  Thousands… tends of thousands of mantises squealed their outrage, turning to face the impact sight of their obliterated queen. All eyes were on a coldly smiling Eric for the split second needed before the air blackened with two thousand massive and perfectly coordinated sarissophoroi to ram into their targets spear point first. Slamming into their targets at a speed that was a hell of lot faster than 400 miles per hour, and that was a helluva good thing as Eric’s madly flaring combat records made clear.

  Your Sarissophoroi have critically struck 1792 Locusts!

  ALL locusts struck (and 274 additional locusts in close periphery) have perished!

  Mark of Resilience Mitigates damage!

  Revenant status mitigates damage! (Entire destruction of thorax needed to assure death, and your phalanx enjoys rune-reinforced carapaces!)

  Vampiric Restoration has successfully restored 1500 to fully functional status!

  400 Sarissophoroi are partially or fully impaired!

  100 Sarissophoroi have been obliterated.

  Eric wasted no time, immediately belting out the words that would make all the difference as near twenty thousand Bronze-tier locusts charged for his person.

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  Just a heartbeat before an additional six thousand locusts slammed into their counterparts at far more sane speeds, the air ringing with the simultaneous cracks of thousands of more unenhanced carapaces shattering as Eric’s Revenant Locusts began to feed.

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Impirat Tibi!”

  Eric glared at the battlefield of shattered carapaces, torn earth, and an entire forest worth of shredded trees littered the ground as thousands of mangled corpses twitched to fresh life in the soupy swamp of fallen foes spattered with gore.

  Call to Battle has revived an additional 1600 troops to fight under your banner!

  Eric shivered at the momentary dip of 500 Mana as he recalled his 1900 surviving Sarissophoroi inside his ring and raced for the clouds once more as his now 7600 enhanced locusts kept the main body of ravaging insects busy.

  But with numbers this massive, it was a slow grind more than an instant sweep, so while those massive swarms swirled and fought like opposing currents of life and death, Eric kept his eyes out as overwatch, reserve troops to aim like an arrow to strike… there!

  “You ready for another round, Bunbun?”

  “Since my health pool is attached to yours… you know it, fearless leader! Let’s pound those fucks to dust!”

  That was Eric needed to hear as he focused on densest packed cluster of locusts rapidly racing for Elonia’s sanctuary… before nearly two thousand additional locusts were speared and crushed underneath Eric’s spear-wielding revenants.

  Again, Eric roared the words that just might spell the difference between salvation and damnation for all that Eric held dear.

  “Surge Centuria! Rise, motherfuckers! Rise and fight for me NOW!”

  And they did.

  Nearly two thousand fresh bronze age pikemen lifting themselves free of the forest loam. Far from the most ideal shape of taking on the locusts about to swarm them in unison, before every last intact soldier was swept inside Eric’s ring.

  He flashed the surviving three thousand or so locusts a furious smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll be right back, assholes. Just you WAIT FOR IT!”

  And all the locusts could do was chitter furiously as Eric, limping only slightly now, raced for the clouds. And this time, the three thousand remaining locusts took to the skies on their wings. Chittering their fury at the laughing fool who rapidly became a pinpoint in the growing gloom… before racing down at such shocking speeds that the crack and boom of his shockwave tore countless wings free.

  Just a heartbeat before the entire host was speared midair with such force that their bodies exploded, Eric laughing like a madman as they all came crashing down once more.

  “Surge Centuria! Wake up and fight!”

  Eric shivered with exultation as his familiar squealed with delight and he glowed with the sweet sweet rush of yet another level-up in the best of all classes, and now when he raised a fresh three thousand sarissophoroi that looked like bronze humanoid statues with compound eyes and wings… he no longer needed to gather them up in his ring.

  For they could now charge at all angles, even the air itself, just as well as he.

  Congratulations! You have achieved Level 42 as a Master Necromancer!

  You have chosen the Necromancer Perk: Death March II! Your legions might still be effected by air resistance, but now they can race along any terrain just as well as you… even through the sky!

  Eric’s manic laughter filled the air, Bunbun’s furious lightning bolts obliterating the single locust that thought it could escape their purge as their now truly mobile Sarissophoroi, all 6800 of them, raced back into the heart of the battle.

  Eric’s fierce smile turned to a pained grimace as he beheld the devastation once more, thousands of locusts fighting and tearing at each other with furious abandon that a frowning Eric realized that he could do little good with quick-slamming strikes. As it stood… he and his men would have to assemble in pike formation upon one side and slowly press in and tear through their foes with a five man deep spear wall formation as his own locusts pulled free.

  And that, of course, was when he got the message he dreaded above all others.

  ES – Ernest! Are you there? Please help us! Swarms of locusts have crossed the boarder! We’re about to be overrun!

  Eric froze with dismay, his worst fears realized, as he knew they eventually would be.

  He glared despairingly down at the massive melee as one singular truth manifested that gave him definite comfort.

  Fighting locusts were not procreating locusts. No fresh spawns were appearing as if by magic, as they were too busy fighting to consume any more ferns or anything else. And of the thousand plus that had fallen to their furious struggles, the majority by far were the living, not the dead.

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!” Eric roared the words one final time. All he dared as a thousand fresh spear men emerged from the ground and raced through the air to get to his side as if they ran up an uphill slope.

  He then traded guises with his solemn-faced familiar.

  “Bunbun?”

  She smiled fondly, patting his cheek. “Remember when we split forces back before Greed snapped that collar around your neck? The sacrifice you made for me? The role you chose?”

  Eric swallowed the lump in his throat, dipping his head.

  “Well fear not, fearless leader. I haven’t forgotten a single trick.”

  Eric’s eyes widened. “Wait, you mean…”

  She nodded. “I’ll take over here. I don’t have all of your abilities, not quite, but any locusts that fall I’ll have fighting by our side, so long as you can cover the Mana Drain. And don’t you worry, Fearless Leader,” she said as one of the free mantis sentinels below flew up to Eric’s side, Bunbun immediately hopping off to assume her overwatch perch.

  “I got this covered!”

  Eric grinned. “I know you do. But seriously. If things get hot…”

  “Yeah, I know. These fuckers are slow for Bronze, but tough and deadly and most important, voracious enough that they could flood the world. But for the moment, I’m still faster. I can hop out of the way and bugger out, should shit hit the fan.”

  Eric forced a nod, stroking his familiar’s ears one last time. “Be safe, Bunbun… and thank you.”

  She flashed an impish grin. “Least I can do for my baby’s daddy! And don’t worry, fearless leader. Even if I pull an Eric and end up getting a limb or two snipped off… I’ll pop awake by our daughter’s side, the moment that happens!”

  Eric laughed at that. Because even if their daughter was effectively her resurrected clone infused with a good bit of Eric’s own genes, and he had only known her for weeks… she was still his daughter. “If that happens, give her my love, Bunz.”

  “I will! And you should definitely visit… just as soon as you finish saving Earth, ha ha. And that could be a fucking long while!”

  Eric nodded even as he raced away on howling winds, savoring the comforting feeling of some 8400 Soldiers easily able to race at 300+ MPH no problem by his side.

  But he needed to go faster. Much faster as he held up his ring, that sacred gift from Grim that had made such a difference in his own chosen path, able to store any number of undead of any given type, storing as many types as he had levels. And even if it worked a bit less efficiently for some, that was EXACTLY how it worked for him as he reclaimed all 8400 of his racing revenants and began sprinting faster than the wind, desperate to reach his sister’s side. Because of course she was determined to be in the thick of it, to rendering what aid she could... before it was too late.

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