The massive torrent of transdent light tio gush from the giant portal, inundating the rainbow glow of the maion. The adventurers surrounding the phenomenon looked on as monsters swarmed out, thick as is, despite the smallest being the size of a bread van. Most were silver rank, with one in a hundred being gold.

  Even the smaller, silver-rank monsters were hulking things. Each had a body shaped like a spider but the hairy, muscled flesh of a goril. Massive i wings buzzed in a blur, carrying them ponderously through the air as eight thick, hairy limbs danglih them.

  The gold-rank monsters stood thirty metres tall. Like ed, oversized messengers, they had three sets of wings, six arms and three faces spaced around a single head. They were naked but sexless, with the smooth features of an androgynous ken doll.

  “That’s a relief,” Jason said as he rose from Danielle’s shadow as if riding up aor. “It would make some fronting news footage if the eight-storey monsters were meat-and-two-veg to the wind.”

  Hundreds of monsters had emerged by that point, with no sign of stopping. Many of the adventurers were already moving into the fray, while others held back at Danielle’s dire. She ignored Jason for the moment as she coordihe group through a bination of voice chat, text chat, maps and overys. The System ied with various abilities, especially Jason’s, and was able to share them across the group.

  “I’m going to start by probing them for capabilities,” she told him. “With this many, we’re not going to tain them here. Rejoin your team guarding the barrage until we know how hard they’re going to press that way. I’ll likely have you moving on outliers ter.”

  “Catg the loose ones and dosing them with afflis so they kick it before reag anywhere with people?”

  “Precisely. For now, try and build up a butterfly cloud on any who e your team’s way. Along with Rufus’ abilities, it’s probably our best shot at clearing his rge. Perhaps Humphrey, depending on how the dice fall.”

  “I’m on it.”

  “Oh, and Jason?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Did you just stop this thing from bsting a hole in the side of the universe?”

  “It would have been a transformation zone, probably. It’ll still be a few years before the astral bridge stabilises the dimensional membrane enough to stop something like this without intervention.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  “More of a dimensional ulcer than a big old hole, but kind of.”

  “Good job.”

  ***

  Marie Finnegan sensed a preseside her chalet, moved to the door and ope. A chill wind blew ihe snow-cround.

  “I thought needing to be invited in was a fi,” she said.

  “Most things are, when you really look at them,” Elizabeth said. “Civilisation; morals; money. Politeness. Yet they all have their pce. May I e in?”

  Marie looked her up and down. The vampire wore a long red coat with fluffy white trim.

  “You look like Mrs Cus.”

  “Nichos wasn’t that lucky.”

  Marie smirked aured an invitation. Elizabeth entered and Marie closed the door behind her. She took Elizabeth’s coat and hung it on a rack.

  “The cold affects you?” Marie asked.

  “It’s not dangerous, but we e life force faster. Something we ill-afford with the Asano aggressively attag our blood farms. I don’t suppose you’ve dealt with that issue?”

  “We’ll see. The unications room is up the stairs and to the left.”

  They went upstairs to where four monitors were dispying various feeds from the drones in Pakistan.

  “The first pn didn’t work, then,” Elizabeth said.

  “We’ve successfully geed multiple transformation zones from silver-rank maions. It should have been even more effective with a gold-rank one, but—”

  “Asano did something?”

  “Yes.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know. Simon will have to analyse the data, but I’m hiding him and the entire project, even from my own branch. They’re twitchy enough about w with vampires.”

  “They aren’t w where the reality cores are ing from?”

  “They don’t know about the reality cores. I don’t trust them not to cave under pressure, and after today, the other fas will know that someone is maniputing the grid. They’re going to throw a wet fit over that. We have to be more careful than ever.”

  “We will o be bold, soon enough.”

  “I will be putting that off as long as possible, but I suspect you’re right.”

  Marie grabbed a ptop she could use to trol the feeds and they both sat in armchairs to watch.

  “That is a great many monsters,” Elizabeth observed. “Is this a monster wave? The kind that took pce before I reawakened?”

  “It seems so,” Marie said. “This one is accelerated, and more powerful, though. There was only one gold-rank monster breach, ba the day, and even that was nothing like this. How Asano turhe transformation zoo this, I have no idea. That n of light looks like—”

  “The wrath of god.”

  “Yes. I would have preferred more time for testing, but events in Australia forced my hand. Did you prod the Australian Prime Minister into ag?”

  “No, he came by his stupidity holy. I also would have liked more time, to get the blood oaks more trolble.”

  “Perhaps this will be enough,” Marie suggested. “If we force a loss out of Asano here, and we demonstrate enough power, the faight be vio ally against him.”

  “Still the optimist, Marie? I gave up on that pn the moment he reached out from another universe to annihite my collected rivals. His power is not to be doubted. Aher, it seems, is that of his panions.”

  ***

  Standing on the dam o a circle of powdered bone, Humphrey rolled three twelve-sided dito the circle.

  “I always liked D12s, bro,” Taika said as he looked on. “Feels kier than a D20, but still kind of round. Big thumbs down on D8s and D10s.”

  “Do you have any idea what he’s talking about?” Sophie asked Farrah, who had returo the team.

  “It’s a game thing, I think.”

  “It is,” Rufus firmed. “Also, there’s just something iic about a fist full of D6s.”

  “I hear that, bro.”

  “We should leave,” Neil said. “I think there’s something about this phat does things to people. This whole journey may have been a trap.”

  “Wait until you try jelly beans,” Rufus said. “It makes it all worth it. If you get the right jelly beans.”

  Humphrey ighem, watg his summoner’s dice as they stopped rolling. From one, an illusion of a brown blob rose from the face-up side.

  “Mud,” Humphrey said. “I would have preferred air or water, but it’s not bad for a river enviro.”

  Another die projected an image, this one of a frog.

  “Mud frog,” Humphrey said. “I work with that.”

  The st die, instead of projeg an image, rolled itself again.

  “Bizarre,” Humphrey said. “Lucky.”

  “Bizarre?” Rufus asked.

  “It’ll roll itself twid take both results,” Humphrey expined.

  The die stopped and an image of a frog appeared, before expanding to be much rger. The illusion lingered as the dice rolled again, this time produg an image of disembodied arms, bound together like a bouquet of flowers.

  “Giant ara limbs,” Humphrey said. “We might want to step back.”

  He held out his hand and the dice flew into them as he took his own advid backed off. The others did the same as mud started seeping into the bone circle from the middle, as if bubbling up through a cra the crete. It soon filled the circle and expanded beyond it, spreading rapidly. The moment it stopped, something rose up from the mud, pulling itself out as if it were a deep pool, apanied by a wet sug noise.

  It was a toad the size of a small cottage, but made of thick, cyish mud. Parts of a skeleton jutted from body, but rather than frog bohey looked like those of a ically ht dragon, curved and bulbous. As they watched, blue and gold armour shimmered ience around the toad’s body, the armour’s ornate gleam ingruous on the disgusting creature. It opes mouth impossibly wide to let out a hideous, rumbling belch. As it did, no fewer than ongues shout out, each dozens of metres long. They filed as if caught on the wind of the extended belch before snapping bato the creature’s mouth.

  “Bro, that’s pretty gross.”

  The toad leapt off the dam and into the river, dispg massive amounts of water. A sed toad appeared from the mud and did the same, others following at a much greater pace.

  “How many of these will there be?” Taika asked.

  “Not sure,” Humphrey told him. “The dice affect my summoning, but the more powerful the result, the fewer the summons. Without the dice, I get a hundred dragon bone soldiers. The size of these will soak up some power, but the frogs don’t look to have particurly potent abilities. I’d guess we’ll see somewhere between forty and sixty.”

  “I’ll take those odds,” Belinda said. “I have a good feeling about those frogs. I’ll bet a box of Pastry Stash biscuits that there’ll be thirty.”

  “Oh, I love that bakery,” Clive said. “I have a tray of Jason’s sandwiches in my ste space. I’ll bet them on fifty frogs.”

  “I have sandwiches too,” Neil said, “but I’m keeping them. .”

  “This is our first proper battle on this p,” Humphrey said. “Could we please act with de, just this once?”

  Wind washed over then as Sophie appeared in a blur of motion.

  “Forty frogs,” she said.

  “Really?” Humphrey pined.

  “What’s the ante?” Belinda asked.

  “Jam and cream donuts,” Sophie replied.

  “They were meant for us to…” Humphrey began before stopping himself aing out a sigh. The admonishing gre he levelled at his team was u by the loud slurping as one frog after another pulled itself out of the mud pool.

  ***

  The silver-rank flying goril spiders were not as ungainly as they appeared, able to move in sudden bursts of speed. If there were anything other thae gold-rank adveo fight, they might well have posed an individual danger. As it was, the true threat they posed was numerical, either in swarming adventurers until they exhausted their mana or esg to reach poputiores.

  By the time the monster t had reached two thousand, Danielle had split the teams up, refiguring the group to make the most effective respohe area specialists were trating their attacks around the pilr of light still spewing out monsters as it burned off the magic of the maion. The pilr itself was only visible as a glow within the ing storm called up by Zara. The gold-rank force of the storm battered and ya the monsters, trying to pull them apart like a feer making taffy. Jets of water and bdes of wind sliced apart silver-rank flesh like industrial tools.

  Into the storm, other area attacker were firing off abilities with little care for where they nded. Hannah Adeah shot arrows in blindly, their explosions ing the wind and water of the storm even more. It once again served to remind Rick Geller of the dangers in marrying the most votile and aggressive member of his team.

  Above and below the storm, forests of giant staves, the size of architectural ns, had been jured by Emir. They shot up and down like the hammers inside a piano, smming into one another and crushing monsters between them. So dense were the goril spiders that, even used blindly, the staves rarely missed.

  The creatures were tough, even for silver-rankers. Their seemingly fragile wings holding up surprisingly well against the storm, although many were still ripped off, sending monsters plunging into the river below. Others flew out of the storm, surviving by their numbers being dense enough that their fellows became shields.

  Outside of Zara’s cye was the sed line of battle, where Danielle had stationed most of the other adventurers. Those able to sustain attacks worked on ing up the silver-rank monsters who, even ting summons and familiars, still wildly outnumbered the adventurers.

  Giant mud toads were gathered in the river below, half submerged in water whipped to a frenzy by the artificial storm. They were snatg monsters out of the air with their tongue clusters that were something like ailed whips made of tentacles. They yahe goril-spiders out of the air and swallowed them whole. The monsters were quickly digested, reduced to rainbow smoke that sprayed out of orifices c the mud toads like warts.

  The summoner of the toads swept through the air on wings, enag staggering violeh a huge fming sword and fiery breath. Oack would carve off half a monster’s legs off and a third of its body. The would make one explode, releasing a wave of force that hammered the monsters behind it. bodies were shattered and limbs smashed to paste. His fire breath burned away wings, dropping monsters into the waiting mouths of the toad swarms.

  “Are you sure you didn’t just stop summoning those toads when it got to forty?” Clive asked through voice chat.

  “Yes, he’s sure,” Sophie said.

  This was Humphrey in his element, the quintessential adventurer. Fighting monsters, proteg people, pretending he had a normal team. His pave him more impact than most, and a bination of carefully selected equipment and the support of his team allowed him to keep up the pressure when others would fg. Aura buffs, mana-regeing items and the occasional swig of very expeio his onsught opped.

  Humphrey was far from alone in his endeavour, with no she of moo go around. Rufus and Gabriel fought together for the first time as equals, two master swordsmen using the well-refieiques of a family who, as had been occasionally mentioned, ran a school. Both had been trained by arguably the greatest swordsman alive, and both had diverged from those teags, promising pure swordsmanship with more magical abilities.

  Like Jason, both Gabriel and Rufus mixed afflis onto their attacks. Gabriel wielded fire, while Rufus’ sun and moon afflis were more exotilike Jason, they both had plenty of power behind the initial attacks as well. They may not have matched Humphrey’s punch, but they still carved through silver-rank monsters, quickly rag up kill tallies. Gabriel’s attacks left many monsters cripples, and the fmes he left behind fihe job. His victims fell from the sky, plucked from the air by toads or spshing into the water. That was not enough to extinguish the fires, which set the water to boiling.

  “You’re falling behind, son,” Gabriel’s voied as he flew past Rufus, trailing fire.

  Rufus was the textbook Vitesse adventurer, with an eclectic mix of powers. In the hands of a lesser adventurer, he would have been the jack of all trades that Rimaros adventurers like to mock. But with his exteraining and raw talent, Rufus turned his versatile power set into a series of force multipliers.

  Rufus’ afflis were less effective than his father’s, at least until he turhe sky dark. The sun was eclipsed, turning day into night, and every affli Rufus had left behind exploded violently. Almost every active silver-rank monster from the current wave died on the spot, more than two hu ohen, a massive beam of transdent light shot from the sky.

  Realm of the Infinite Eclipse was one of the most powerful attacks avaible to any essence. Despite that, it was extremely rare, not for how hard it was to unlock, but for how hard it was to use. It required tens of enemies for even the most basic version, and huo reach full effectiveness. It also required more time than most battles took to set up. Finally, it required not just a rge horde of enemies, but also powerful singur oo be worth targeting.

  It ell of war, almost unusable at low ranks, making it famously hard to rank up. If not for the Builder Cult war, the grand monster surge and being able to hunt the outer reaches of Jason’s astral spaces, Rufus might well have been nguishing at silver-rank, or even bronze.

  The reward for decades of dedication and training ower that dwarfed almost anything else an essence user could produce. Even Farrah and her limit breaking powers could not equal the single moment of all-ing annihition that Rufus could produce, given the right circumstances and enough time.

  The eclipse beam of transdent light walked across the battlefield at Rufus’ dire. It settled on one gold-rank mohen a sed and a third before the power was finally expended. Not a scrap of the monsters remained, and for a strange moment, everything fell still and silent. Zara’s storm had faded, and even the animalistic spider-gorils stopped, staring in shock.

  Even amongst the experienced adventurers present, none had seen power on that level from anyone below diamond rank. Many of them cast their minds back to the Builder War, and Dawn wiping out a city with one spell. It wasn’t a match for that event, but that was what it felt like, ing from a gold-rahe ambient mana sizzled against supernatural senses, as if Rufus had scorched it with the raw power of his dispy.

  Then the moment passed, and flict resumed. Zara recast her storm and Danielle directed their forces to face the hundreds of monsters still streaming out of Jason’s light n. For the many gold-rank mohat remained, Danielle followed Rufus’ example. No one else could match that power alone, but the adventurers with the heaviest burst damage could recreate it in the aggregate with focus fire. Some even managed solo kills, with Farrah taking the speed record after Rufus. By overcharging her abilities and dumping her entire mana pool in short order, she could turn two gold-rank monsters into glowing piles of sg before needing to stop a. What was left of the monsters fell into the river, letting off ugly brown smoke as they cooled.

  While letting the stacked group buffs replenish her mana, Farrah didn’t waste her downtime. Resting up in Onslow’s shell, she made use of tools borrowed from Clive to examining the ongoing maion. The grid was somehow sustaining the maion, allowing it to keep produg monsters. If that wasn’t cut off, the maion would keep going until the adventurers were too exhausted to fight or the dimensional membrane ripped, triggering a transformation zone or worse.

  Most of Team Biscuit were in the main fight now, except for Jason chasing down mohat slipped the cordon, and Sophie, back at the dam. She and Prince Valdis were tasked with proteg the barrage, using their absurd speed to cover its two kilometre length. For any mohat came that way, Sophie set it up and Valdis cut it down.

  Danielle had assigned herself to the gold-rank killing group. At silver, her kill-speed had been below average, but ranking up had ged that drastically. She could, if she pushed it, do a passable imitation of Farrah’s approach, including the hefty recovery time. She arrived in Onslow’s shell to rest and take stock of the overall battle.

  “How is it going?” she asked Farrah. “Got anything?”

  “I have,” Farrah said. “I wasn’t optimistic about a quick solution—”

  “That’s all anyone ever wants on this team,” Clive called out as he bsted beams and bolts from his rod and staff ons.

  “Nht now, please Clive,” Danielle said.

  “No one ever says that to Jason,” Clive pined.

  “That’s because he’s not going to listen,” Farrah said.

  “Sure,” Clive said, “let’s only be o Clive when we need him to practically i a new branagi the wenty-seven minutes or aire civilisatios wiped out.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think he listeher,” Farrah loudly fided to Danielle.

  “You were saying you had something?” Danielle asked pointedly.

  “Yes, sorry. This is kind of how Team Biscuit operates.”

  “I’ve noticed.”

  “Anyway, I’ve been looking at what’s happening to the grid, and I reise some of the patterns here. I think I know who developed the magic that what we’re seeing here was based on.”

  “Who?” Danielle asked.

  “Me.”

  Annou

  As a reminder, I'll be off cav with other litRPG authors week, and no chapters will be released.