The Veilstriders stared in disbelief as the metal men crept forward, floating over the ground with fury blazing from their eye sockets. It was one thing to describe a human torso made completely out of iron. It was something else to see for yourself. There were no creaking joints or gaps where each limb socketed into place. Just metal moving as fluid as water once essence brought it to life.
In the end, Hannah broke them out of their stupor, a simple arrow whistling through the silence before pinging off the leader's shoulder, barely leaving a mark. Undeterred, she nocked a second that began to glow faintly as she pulled the bowstring and released it through the tangle of Buttercup’s antlers. They’d debated bringing the Buck down here, but Hannah was adamant that wherever she went, he would follow.
The elemental retaliated by picking up a small stone that morphed into a jagged spike before hurtling back at her. Buttercup’s antlers flared, a bolt of condensed force shooting out to meet the spike to divert it into the wall behind her, where it fractured into shrapnel. The crash of exploding stone was the bell announcing the start of the fight, and both sides charged.
Julian’s body erupted in flames as he grew to twice his original size. His essence-infused armor grew with him as his skill flooded the metal, but his infantry sword got relegated to a dagger in his massive hands. A deep, guttural shout bellowed through the cave as he leapt into the air, a plume of fire billowing out when he landed before the first elemental.
The charge stopped as quickly as it began, Veilstriders ducking to the floor to avoid the flames.
“His skills won’t burn you! Mine will, but I’ll make sure nobody gets caught up in the blast! Give me some room!” Harvey shouted. It didn’t take long to realize that even a massive cavern like this was too small for a large-scale battle now that the system had arrived. A single soul could create explosions, clouds of poison gas, or freezing winds that would fill a huge chunk of the battlefield. Established armies probably made sure their warriors had similar skills so they could defend themselves from a particular element or at least have an idea of what their comrades were doing, but Veils End was a hodgepodge of whatever mad science experiments the Veilstriders could think of. He barely understood Hannah’s skills, so how was he supposed to know what Carla’s were?
Running ahead of the stunned Veilstriders who had never seen Julian fight, Harvey flooded Booster with essence that he released from his feet. Forgefire scorched the rock as he soared into the air, flying above Julian just as his massive left arm sent a comically large shield plummeting towards the F Grade’s head. The wrought iron dented its face as its body shuddered violently. Leaving it no time to recover, Julian sent a flaming foot into the man’s chest, knocking the heavy torso off the dervish of metal keeping it afloat as the sound of jagged crystals carving into iron filled the air.
He’d already been so strong, but Julian was a new beast now that he’d evolved. Harvey wanted to display the same power, but was too busy flailing through the air as his first attempt at flight went haywire.
He planned to soar over the army while dropping fireballs on their heads like bombs from a jet before slamming down a massive spectral hammer on the farthest elemental with Innovator’s Arsenal. Instead, his lackluster body control sent him spinning through the air, the jets of flame still bursting from each foot turning him into a magnificent firework. With his scream echoing off the cavern walls, he sounded like one, too.
Frantically redirecting Booster from his feet to his back, he managed to slow his fall just enough before crashing into the middle of the pack. His vision still spinning, a gang of elementals appeared looming over him. Whether it was confusion, anger, or disbelief on their faces, he couldn’t tell, but they didn’t hesitate to start pummeling. The eyes of two shone brilliantly, the same blue light of the essence crystals flaring as he felt the ground go soft beneath him.
Not again. He swore, trying desperately to sit up as he flailed his death-gripped warhammer to keep the others at bay, ineffectually hitting one while the other placed a firm hand on his chest to push him deeper into the ground. The putty-like stone went rigid once more, his back glued to the ground, and an essence crystal in the floor poking into his neck.
“Help! I’m stuck!” Harvey screamed, but the clangor of iron hitting iron was deafening. Nobody was going to hear him. Instead, he covered his front with fangurner and did his best to endure the beating coming his way. His evolved skill was exponentially more durable than his old one, but it was still not enough to block more than one punch from a motivated elemental. Gouts of forgefire burst into the air each time the stony barrier manifested over his armor cracked, roasting the elemental while another shield sprang into place. Harvey could see the light in their eyes dim just a little every time they were engulfed in flame, but there were four of them. He knew whose essence would run out first.
The world exploded, his vision turning pink as his mind began to spin once more. The elementals were gone, and it felt like he was floating in a cloud of cotton candy. Out of nowhere, a middle-aged Brit wearing tanned leather armor appeared with his hand outstretched.
“Grab on!” he yelled.
Harvey could barely make heads or tails of what he was seeing, the cotton candy constantly trying to draw his attention away. The smell of pink lemonade assaulted his nose as children’s laughter filled his ears. It didn’t take long for his massive pool of Wisdom and Willpower to win out, breaking him free from the spell just in time to see four dazed elementals standing around them.
“Hurry!” Nigel urged.
Harvey grabbed his hand while pushing Booster to the max, bathing his own back in forgefire as he tried desperately to free himself from his stone tomb. Just as he worried his armor would get hot enough to bend out of shape, he popped free like an exploding popcorn kernel. Before his skill could pull him into the air again, the world shifted, and he was lying on the ground next to Buttercup.
“Thanks, Nigel!” Hannah shouted, her arrows vibrating ominously as she sat atop the Buck. “Harvey! How’d your test flight go?”
“It hurt,” he groaned, pushing himself to his feet. “Did I look cool at least?” Free of the haze, he felt his brain working overtime to digest everything that happened. Nigel was the stage magician with those marbles that made him invisible. He’d used it to distract the elementals before extracting Harvey with some sort of teleportation skill.
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“No, you looked like a lava sprinkler.” Hannah chuckled, the crystal arrow of her critical mass skill superimposing over her arrow. The construct was equally deadly and beautiful, his heart lurching as he stared at the runes shuddering to contain the momentum built up after over a dozen consecutive hits. She could choose how much power to infuse into the skill, but judging by the massive strain he could see her body feeling, this explosion was going to be a big one.
The world froze as the devastating arrow was released, sailing high over the clash before embedding in the chest of an elemental whose eyes shone with the telltale signs of earth magic. Harvey was shocked to see the arrow penetrate the metal at all, yet it somehow sank a few inches into its body.
“Boom,” Hannah whispered, just as a terrifying explosion detonated. Chunks of elemental flew in every direction, the essence crystals at the victim's feet bursting into plumes of angry blue light that surged into the surrounding elementals.
Harvey forgot to breathe. The explosive force of her fully charged skill was too much for his mind to comprehend. How could an F Grade Veilstrider unleash that much power? Sure, it took 20 hits in a row to let her use it, but he’d expected an RPG and not a missile.
Buttercup huffed with concern as Hannah collapsed, her body slumping onto his neck as her arms hung limply at his side. Panic flooded through him until he saw her weakly pull herself upright in the saddle.
“That was… awesome,” she groaned.
Relief flooded through Harvey, his body finally releasing the breath it had been holding since laying eyes on that arrow. She was a spent force, but didn’t need Harvey watching over her when Buttercup was more than capable of keeping her out of harm's way. Instead, he hefted his hammer and charged back into the fray.
All around him, Veilstriders struggled against evolved elementals. There were no G Grades in sight. It seemed they’d all been corralled deeper into the mines, their evolved brothers keeping them out of harm's way until their bodies were complete.
Hyrum faced off against a metal man like a boxer, trading haymakers that left imprints of his fists in the iron. The bones in his hand would’ve broken by now without his boosting skills, but Harvey could feel vast quantities of potential burning within the man’s weave as he pushed his body beyond the limits of the G Grade. A brutal uppercut knocked the elemental off its balance just in time for a spectral hammer to come crashing down on it.
It was his first time using Innovator’s Arsenal in combat, and he marveled at the ghostly weapon looming three times larger than the hammer it copied. The projection mirrored the swing of his real hammer, increasing both the range and weight of the swing without altering his weapon at all. He couldn’t imbue the construct with Flamestrike, but the crushing weight of his strength was more than enough to pile drive his foe into the stone beneath. Releasing the projection, he flooded his hammer full of forgefire before viciously swinging towards its core. The gout of flame ravaged its body, the metal beneath going soft as his flames ate their way towards the core.
You have slain, Level 26 - Iron Elemental. Essence Gained. 2123 Merit Earned
“Thanks!” Hyrum gasped, already moving towards the next elemental. The man fought well, but ultimately didn’t have the best skillset for taking on foes like these. Harvey would struggle fighting the evolved ones, too, without his forgefire, but some people were well-suited for these kinds of fights.
Emily, the young farmer from Nebraska, was using vicious thorns to tie up the elementals before wriggling vines pushed their way into their chest. Harvey knew tree roots could fight their way through concrete if there were water on the other side, but that took months. These thorny whips bore through metal before his very eyes, desperately searching for the burning core of essence below.
The power of Veils End was on display for all to see, and even as more elementals emerged from side tunnels all around the cavern, it was clear who was going to win in the end. The surging hope of Julian’s aura filled his weave, the healing effect of Emberheart’s Breath slowly melting away the pain of his crash landing. It didn’t take long to figure out who could handle a one-on-one fight and who would need some help, so Harvey began weaving through the crowd, assisting anyone who started to falter. Nigel appeared whenever someone’s injuries got too severe, confusing the elementals before teleporting the Veilstrider to Dr. Amara for healing.
It was hard to see who needed help through the flailing limbs and spectacular skills, so he followed the sound of screams and metal fists beating into armor. Navigating the battlefield was difficult with countless earth spears appearing from the ground or flying through the air, trying to impale him, but he urgently pushed his way toward a man begging for his life.
Far ahead, he saw Christian held high in the air, a metal hand wrapped around his throat as his limbs flailed. His sword was nowhere to be seen, and it appeared he didn’t have any skills that could free him from the elemental’s grasp. He was surrounded by a trio of defenders, preventing anyone from getting close enough to free him.
“Christian! Julian, we need help!” Harvey screamed, swinging his hammer at the closest defender who conjured a wall of stone to block. He watched Christian’s body going limp as the metal helmet crushed inward, his arms struggling to pull the metal hand away from his throat as he gasped for breath. Harvey could do nothing without getting in close to the elemental. There was no way he could hurt it without catching Christian in the crossfire. Fireball would scorch him, and the elemental would use him as a meat shield if he swung a conjured hammer. Just as Harvey feared the worst, a meteor came crashing down on them.
Julian, covered in healing flame, punched the elemental choking Christian before snatching the man out of the air and leaping away. Free to fight without restraints, Harvey conjured a massive Fireball in his left hand. Despite being left behind at G Grade, there was still a qualitative difference in his skill after evolving. It was like the threads that embedded themselves in his weave changed the flavor of the essence he fed into his skill, his Fireball sharing the distinct hue of forgefire that the rest of his skills used. With an infuriated scream, he launched the ball into the center of the four elementals. Billowing heat exploded outward, softening them up just in time for a massive hammer to come crashing down. He couldn’t forge their metal bodies while they were still alive, but he would try.
One by one, the elementals fell. There were plenty of close calls, caused mainly by the Veilstriders having to hold back for fear of injuring their allies with their skills. Most had never fought outside their small hunting parties, and their lack of knowledge of one another was manifesting as needless mistakes. Stumbling around each other might be enough for a few dozen elementals, but they’d need to refine their cohesion before facing hundreds of undead.
Kill notifications appeared one after another until the cavern finally grew silent, the light leaving the eyes of the final F Grade elemental. As it did, a new radiant glow surpassing that of Harvey’s light inscriptions filled the air as dozens of Veilstriders leveled up simultaneously.
You have slain, Level 26 - Iron Elemental. Essence Gained. 2123 Merit Earned X3
You have slain, Level 27 - Iron Elemental. Essence Gained. 2201 Merit Earned X2
You have slain, Level 29 - Iron Elemental. Essence Gained. 2349 Merit Earned
Your class, Forgefire Arsenalist, has reached Level 26. +4 Vitality, +4 Endurance, +16 Wisdom, +6 Willpower, +6 Free Points
Your race, Veilstrider, has reached Level 26. +2 to all stats
