I burst out of the ground, spearing a champion in the back. We’d been on the run for days and I’d barely had an hour of sleep. I and my other elites had to constantly harry and attack the pursuing army to keep them from catching up with us. The champion had skin like silver with hair that waved like the strands of some coral plant. I hadn’t even analyzed them for their name as they screamed and thrashed on my spear.

  I removed his head and the screaming stopped.

  I dismissed the notification and tossed the limp corpse over my back as I rushed into the ranks of soldiers around me.

  Pandemonium occurred as the army turned around, panicking at the sudden death and attack in their midst. I released a scream like an Aztec death whistle as I used Helheim’s Scream, further increasing the fear and confusion. Exar’kun dropped out of the clouds above, torching the back ranks of the army before rising back into the air out of the reach of their abilities and weapons.

  Guinevere burst out of the ground, her sword ripping through the back of a soldier's neck. A specter rose from their corpse striking at another soldier as Guinevere began cutting through surprised and panicked men and women. Despite the momentary advantage, we couldn’t stick around. Heavy footsteps approached as Arthur in his titanic armor appeared It was echoed by more heavy footsteps as more of the Atlas armor charged towards our location.

  I summoned a horn to my lips and blew, activating Wild Hunt and summoning my hounds to savage and cause more chaos. Guinevere and I took off running, disappearing into the undergrowth of the forest once again. We kept running, heading parallel to where my vassals were fleeing.

  We skidded to stop beside a waterfall, collapsing. I panted heavily and Guinevere leaned against me, removing her helmet.

  “We can’t keep this up,” Guinevere said.

  There were no bags under her eyes, her ethereal beauty untouched by her exhaustion and the days of constant fighting.

  “I know,” I sighed. “But we have no choice. Do you regret coming with me?”

  She took my hand. “Never, even if we lose, we have to fight for a place for our baby. We can’t accept this as the world we give to our children.”

  “I got another ability that fight,” I said.

  I had already upgraded the last ability I’d gotten to max rank.

  This ability could prove one of my most powerful if I had time to properly implement it. That was the problem, I didn’t have time to even sleep right now. I planned on upgrading the ability I had just gotten, but I still had a new ability I’d gained the other day that was on the back burner for being upgraded.

  It was an interesting little ability and a fairly common variety based on what I’d seen when fighting other gifted. I didn’t have time to waste on it just now so I’d have to upgrade it some other day when the lives of so many other people didn’t depend on me.

  I’d gotten another ability as well

  The System had given me the option to merge this ability with Living Stone, but I’d decided to keep them separate. I wasn’t even sure if creating something that was implied had its own sentience but was enslaved to my will was moral. I recognized the hypocrisy given my ability Dominion, but it was still something to think about.

  “System, raise Rampage to rank twenty,” I said.

  I dismissed the usual notifications until I got to my options.

  Looking over the abilities, I picked the second. Backlash was bad, as while I might be able to take it, all my vassals suffering it would be a problem. I didn’t know what Impact would do and would rather weaken my enemies than give my own side some unknown buff.

  I dismissed the ability upgrade and the following ones until I got to the next section.

  The first ability would require me to stay wounded. This was both something to be avoided because it would result in me being close to death and was something that didn’t happen too much thanks to my regeneration, and it would be useful, but I noticed the speed was lowercase, not uppercase implying it wouldn’t be lowering their Speed attribute but just their movement speed. That left the third option, which was good for both me and my vassals since all our attacks would hit harder.

  Dismissing the notification, I moved on through the following notifications until I got the next upgrade section.

  I already had many effective ways of healing, and I didn’t want to focus down even more on my rage as I’d already pushed back on walking more down that path. I took the crit chance since it seemed the safest and most generically useful of the options.

  Glancing over the upgraded ability, I dismissed it and moved on.

  I wasn’t sure what a damage charge was, so I dismissed that option. The same was for the second option, because I didn’t know what Maddened would do. Momentum was fairly self-explanatory, so I picked the third option.

  I stood up, feeling the increase of mana through my veins.

  “Ready to go?” Guinevere asked me.

  “Yeah,” I sighed.

  The upgrade hadn’t even been a real break, but we didn’t have the time for that. Every minute we let Arthur’s army move uncontested, the closer they got to my vassals. We started running again. We skirted around some cliffs and up a ridge. Ducking down, we crawled forwards until I could see the tree’s moving as the hundreds of thousands of troops made their way through them.

  I compressed dozen of boulders and inscribed a quick and dirty enchantment on them. The enchantment was unstable and would explode in a few seconds, but that was plenty of time for me. I launched them with Telekinesis and the enchantments activated. Sonic booms shook the air as they sped up even faster than I could launch them. Trees shattered and toppled as the magical artillery hit the army. Moments later they exploded spraying stone shrapnel shards out.

  The bombardment continued and moved through the tree line to confuse them about where the attacks were coming from. When some foolish soldiers charged me and got within range, I blasted them with lightning which chained through them. They were strong enough not to be killed outright by the lightning, but Guinevere dashed through their midst, the burning halo of her Cursed Crown ability hanging above her head as specters rose from the bodies of the men and women she had killed. The specters rushed towards the army, but it was doubtful they would kill more than a handful of others before they were destroyed. In our battle of attrition though, every kill counted.

  More and more boulders hit the main body of the army and I got another notification from the System.

  The ability would increase my capability, but I already had one summon ability that was better than this, so I didn’t see myself using this much. It was yet another ability to add to the upgrade later pile.

  Heavy armored figures in the Atlas armor move out of the debris clouds. The sounds of thunder echoed as magical cannons and spells were unleashed on our position. Guinevere and I were already running. I’d only taken a shot from one of those cannons once and it had almost ripped my body in half; it wasn’t an experience I wanted to relive anytime soon.

  Guinevere and I hid in a cave. After half-an-hour of brief rest, we headed out again. I never repeated the exact same attack twice; they were always prepared if I tried copying old tricks. Luckily, I wasn’t limited to just my abilities like most champions. I had magic and a tome that could invent more spells than this world even knew.

  I started making new enchantments, burying them through the forest as we moved ahead of the army. After an hour I heard the first explosion. The enchantments wouldn’t kill many, but they would slow them down as they were forced to look for the traps. Right now, just slowing them down was a victory, buying valuable time.

  We were in full retreat for the most part. I wasn’t even sure what or if we had a plan. Sometimes survival is the only plan or goal there is. A fox running from a pack of hounds doesn’t have a plan. It may try to outsmart them but the only thing it’s focused on is survival. That’s how I felt right now, like a fox being pursued by a pack of dogs.

  I didn’t like the feeling. My every instinct screamed at me to rush headlong into that army and not stop fighting till one of us was dead. That was the old me though. I wasn’t ruled by my desire to prove myself or my thirst for blood anymore. What separates a man from an animal is his ability to ignore his instincts. I had to survive, not for my sake, but Guinevere and our baby's. For now, that just meant running.