I took a little while to look around and take in the enemy placements from above. Slowly turning in the air. They were set about fifty yards back from the walls of the fort and for the most part they were in a uniform ring of four tents deep.

There were three areas where that ring expanded to about eight tents deep, with a large tent in the centre that I took to be command tents.

There was a shout so I had to move before my surprise attack would lose its potency. Moving away from the shout, I approached the command tent area to the north building an ethereal blast, but not condensing it yet, so it didn’t become visible as I moved into position.

Once I was ready, I pulled on the energy structure I held in my hand and sent it down toward the unsuspecting tent. I built a second one straight after and sent that one down then flew off building a third to the next more command tent. Shouting had rung up now, and I kept one eye on the sky around me for Portals.

It didn’t take long for one to appear, which I pushed away before it was fully formed. Then threw the energy ball down toward the next command tent. I had time for one more blast into the tents around it as the soldiers poured out of the tents like a kicked ant's nest.

Not just those tents though the entire encamped army was awake and angry now. Those who had the power to fire at me did so and Archers launched blue and green coloured volleys from below. It was time for me to make an exit. I had no idea how many I’d killed, but it would have to be enough for tonight’s excursion.

I flew up higher first to get out of the range of the phenomenally accurate archers. While trying to keep an eye out for portals opening up around me. Pushing on the ones I could with Singularity to dismantle them. Though not all were close enough to do that and Paladins began to appear in greater numbers around me. None of them were close to what I’d face in Delosha. Whilst carrying out my evasive maneuvers, I didn’t see one above level 100.

There were however a lot of them and unlike that mad dash I wasn’t trying to escape as such. I was trying to get between them and back into the fort.

Sania and Danivra would kill me if I didn’t make it back. As I soared higher, accepting that I hadn’t gone about this in the best way, I threw out a great number of the smaller Ethereal bullets around at my pursuers.

They were wild attacks but when they connected, that was the end of my targets. Of the portals I closed, two of them had a paladin at some point of passing through too, which ended both in a bloody mess and the body count piling up. No amount of Constitution helped you against a disappearing portal. You were simply divided.

Before long, they stopped coming at me through portals again. Clearly the message not to portal near me hadn’t gotten through to all of Justice yet. They also kept their distance so they could avoid, or at least have a chance at avoiding my Ethereal bullets.

While they continued to fire up at me, it was still about as perfect as I could have asked for in the situation as they left a wide gap between them all.

Hell yeah it would be risky as hell, but it was my best option before even more Paladins appeared to attack me.

“Sania, get Melandrac ready to open the shield. I’ll be coming in hot, aiming for the center of the dome. You might want to make sure everyone is inside, too.”

“Done,” she replied after a brief moment.

“Alrighty then. Here goes nothing,”

I sent out a flurry of blasts as quickly as I could in all directions, then dove. Flying fast downward was always difficult as there was nothing to push against. I continued my assault as I essentially dove toward the fort, jerking left and right erratically to avoid their attacks as much as possible.

I wasn’t entirely successful, buffeted from all size by painful blasts, my poor hemp clothing completely trashed in seconds of my mad descent.

More paladins from below flying to intercept me making the success of this dive more and more unlikely by the second.

Full sized Nephilim were now waiting on the ground firing huge blasts at me. They were easy to avoid for the most part, but I also re-entered the archers range and they were merciless with the amount of Arrows they sent in my direction.

So intent on trying to defend myself, returning fire was no longer an option. Battering energy blasts continuously with my Immortal shell arm.

There were hundreds of them, and I was starting to take serious damage as flesh was stripped from my bones. Yet still I descended spinning wildly now, out of control, but my trajectory was good, to hit the dome. Unable to defend myself in spilling free fall, I opted for firing again. As long as none of them were aimed down at my own people and the fort, then it was like shooting fish in a barrel as they came for me. Then I smashed into the shield over the fort with a thud. Took half a dozen more shots to the chest, then fell into the fort properly.

Sania caught what was left of me and the onslaught suddenly cut off as the shield cut off.

She touched down and I was instantly surrounded by people. Danivra and Alial, our Dokalfar healer, were over me first trying to heal me.

I could barely see from the damage to my face, and I guessed that would be a good thing. I knew I would be okay, though. I confidently told Sania as much over the bond.

“I have no doubt. You were worse after the fight with Natom, and you were far less powerful then.”

I was distracted half way though her words as notifications began to fill my vision.

Even though I knew I’d killed a lot of people and justified it to myself with various excellent reasons, the sheer length of the list that had appeared still made me feel extremely queasy. I didn’t even attempt to read it flicking past what must have been hundreds of notifications each with multiple deaths attached to them.

I ignored all of the information and focused on the last section of information.

Total 20,450XP.

Congratulations! You have reached level 69

Congratulations! You have reached level 70

Congratulations! You have reached level 71

Congratulations! You have reached level 72

You have risen 6 levels. Progress to Level 74 is unavailable until evolutionary path choices have been made.

Progress to Ascension Tier 5: Baatazu Level 72

The Baatazu tier of Demonkind allows for:

Higher Maximum level across all stats.

Increase in Spiritual Utility +20%

+5 to all Physical Stats.

1) Cursed ground.

Cast a field of energy around you, which drains the

Stamina of all antagonistic forces within the area of effect by 50%.

Duration: 10 minutes. Increase area of effect by 1 foot every level above the base Pit Demon Rank. Every 10 levels provides a 10-minute duration increase.

Path of Defense:

Gives 1 second of Indestructibility per level above Baatazu base rank.

24-hour cooldown

Path of Dark Flame:

Cast a field of cleansing fire in a ten feet radius around you, causing 10 damage to all within its range. Ineffective against Dark aligned targets. 80 percent reduction to Neutral opponents.

Duration: 10 minutes. Increases area of effect by 1 foot every level above the base Baatazu Rank. Every 10 levels provides a 10-minute duration increase.

“You all might want to stand back,” I groaned through my still mangled mouth.

“Do as he says. Move back.” I heard Danivra say.

“What’s happening?” Sania asked.

“Next evolution, Baatazu,” I replied and quickly told her the options.

“We’ve not seen a Baatazu use Path of Flame yet,” she rightly noted.

“It’s ineffective against anything but light aligned. So maybe they haven’t because we haven't been light aligned or they don’t choose it.”

“It seems the best option,” Danivra agreed.

“I agree also,” Grigor said. “You certainly do not appear to need indestructibility.”

“Okay, thanks guys,”

“You might want to hurry too, Clive. Justice are not happy at your attack and they seem to be throwing everything at the shield now,” Sania said.

“Damn, sorry guys, one minute.”

I chose the path of the Dark Flame and felt my body begin to change immediately. It was surreal and uncomfortable, but necessary in the long run and had the added bonus of repairing my body from the battle. I also reflected that my hemp clothing wouldn’t withstand this growth. More notifications flashed up:

Congratulations! You have reached level 73

Congratulations! You have reached level 74

I dismissed them more concerned immediately with my soon to be giant naked ass on show to the entire watching fort. With that in mind, I quickly got my hands down to cover my unmentionables as the remains of my rags tore free.

“Er, blanket anyone?” I asked, surprising myself with how deep my voice came out.

Someone was already there, throwing a rough woven blanket over me. It was still only big enough to cover the front of my now enormous waist. As I sat up, I found myself towering above all but the Woltar and the Nystiobek still. I’d essentially doubled in size, and I’d already been huge.

“That is terrifying.” I heard Melandrac say. “Is he… safe still?”

“He’s the same Clive as before,” Sania replied with a little heat in her voice.

“I’m fine,” I said looking up at where the shield was under massive assault, made more visual because of the darkness. It pointed out the need to allocate my 60 stat points immediately. I ran through the options. It seemed there were still only two real choices. . I didn’t feel like Constitution was necessary at the minute, and necessary at the minute, though I was still tempted by agility and perception. I also needed to ensure I could keep going in the days to come. With that in mind, I put 15 in Internal Connection. 15 into Speed and 9 into agility bringing them all up to 90. The final 21 points I put into Intelligence which was always the safest bet.

Physical statistics:

Strength: 75

The capacity to exert and resist force.

Dexterity: 33

Skill and ease in hand-based activity.

Agility: 90

How effectively the body can move into a range of different positions.

Speed: 90

Rate at which the body can move.

Stamina: 63

Period over which the body can effectively sustain prolonged activity.

Constitution: 223

The ability to withstand physical punishment.

Mental Statistics:

Intelligence: 86

Knowledge and its application

Charisma: 38

Charm, coerce, inspire.

Perception: 66

Awareness of surroundings

Spiritual Statistics:

Ethereal Awareness: 0

Attunement with the Gods and spirits of Gulithea. (Necessary for Ethereally supplied magical ability.)

Internal Connection: 75

Attunement with oneself. (Necessary for cultivation of one’s own inner power)

Singularity: 37

Innate understanding of universal essence (Neuma). Will increase with personal level. (Cannot be leveled by other means.)

World sense: 8.22% Knowledge of Gulithea.

Experience Points to next level: 2603/3800

With that done, I stood, getting to my feet with a litheness that surprised everyone, including me. The people of the fort all moved back quickly as I tried to hold my blanket in place.

“Guys! We’ve got an army trying their damndest to get in here and kill you all,” I boomed. “So instead of gaping at my massive if well-proportioned arse, can someone please sort something out for me to wear so I can fight?”

Danivra began quickly ordering people about on a more detailed level, thankfully. I smiled down at Sania. Who looked up with wide eyed wonder. “You need to hurry up and reach level eight, Clive, and pray you can reduce in size because this isn’t going to work.”

“I know. I’ve been worried about this day for a long time. Hopefully, it will help us get home.”

She looked doubtful. “I don’t think it will, from what Ewan said. But we’ll try.”

“Did he say something else?”

“Just that there was more than just that one army moving over the mountains. That was just the biggest. He said with Natom gone they don’t need to worry about their border with Knuntang. Seems they’re focusing here first and will then return to take Knuntang.”

“Shit, so it’s gonna be a real bad run then.”

“For those who must travel over the surface, it will be near impossible.”

I nodded thoughtfully. I could feel my newly increased intelligence working on the problem. A kind of a solution played around in my mind.

“I might have an idea,” I said to Danivra, Sania and Grigor. “IT’s a bit of a shitty one, but it might make this impossible situation somewhat possible.

“You are not going out there alone again, Clive. It is too great a risk,” Sania said firmly.

“I am in agreement with Sania. It is not that I do not trust your abilities, I believe with your Ethereal powers and lack of Limitation on your Neuma, you are as strong as Natom now, despite what your relatively low level would imply. However, you can be caught and as foolish as Justice have been prior to this, they are not stupid and they will be learning from your actions so far.”

“Settle down. It’s nothing like that. Well, unless my current plan doesn’t work.”

“We are listening,” Grigor said somewhat impatiently.

“Ask Justice to let us go,” I said simply.