“You think you're clever hiding up there where we can’t reach you? It’s a coward's trick and it won’t work,” Fusselbraker shouted up. Evidently unimpressed with my avoidance tactics.

“I’m trying not to kill you assholes, if I can help it. Believe it or not I’m still hoping for a peaceful resolution to this shitstorm. Now will you just go and get someone to clear this up?”

“Oh, I dare say we can clear this up nice and neat, like,” he said with an unexpected grin. It took a split second to realise what was about to happen as he raised his axe. I was too slow to intervene as he buried it into the dearest Dokalfar’s skull with a gleeful expression.

“Kill ‘em all! Lads,” he screamed in a battle roar.

As I formed an Ethereal blast in my hand to kill the lunging soldiers, time seemed to slow down. Devotion's voice thundered in my head, causing my brain to vibrate.

“DON’T DO IT CLIVE!”

“Speak to Darkness. Get him to stop this,” I replied. Time still moving in slow motion.

“I can’t or he will know of our bond!”

“Then this has to be done. If it was Malatian people, your followers. Would you tell me not to do this?”

She sighed. “Very well. Then I shall make efforts to prepare for the backlash from this.” She disappeared from my mind the moment she finished speaking, triggering the world’s return to a normal speed.

There was no knee jerk reaction now, as I consciously released a quick fire Ethereal blast into the back of the crowd below. It struck the back of their line, killing around ten, but they continued their attack on the shackled defenseless Dokalfar, so I struck again. I could have made it a hell of a lot bigger, but I wanted to avoid wholesale massacre of the dwarves and Aragites, not to mention there was a chance I’d kill Dokalfar as well.

Fusselbraker and his soldiers, acutely aware of the blinding damage I was causing, stopped their attack to look around at the carnage.

“I warned you, you piece of shit,” I said, dropping slightly lower. “I tried to let you sort this out amicably, but you had to push. You think I came here and confronted you all without the knowledge that I could kill you all?”

His face paled as he took in the bodies of his men. Looking about to speak, he instead activated his ascension weapon, his axe suddenly expanding and radiating Dark energy. Wasting no time, he hurled it at my head.

Raising my hand, I re summoned my Cleaver, infusing it with Ethereal energy to harmlessly deflect his axe away. Then I responded in kind, a heady combination of irritation and instinct prompting a Cleaver throw. The damn thing was close to Fusselbraker in size now, and the white glowing blade hit his forehead and kept on keeping on. Fusselbraker was quite literally cleaved in twain.

Seeing this, his remaining troops lost whatever interest they had in this fight and bolted away, back toward Helvien.

Relieved that they’d run, I tried to suppress the definite concern I felt about killing so many of Darkness’s warriors. If he wasn’t pissed, I knew damn well that the dwarves of Agorak and Nuinaer were going to be pissed. A swath of notifications distracted me for a moment. Thirty-eight kills with levels ranging from the mid-twenties up to the early sixties, gave me:

Total Experience points: 13,500

You have gained 4 levels.

Congratulations: Level seventy-eight reached. 40 points available

Before I could make a decision on where to place them, Sania contacted me. “You’ve calmed down. Is everything okay now?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna need you to veer toward Helvien. These guys are gonna need the Multi-Fits and we’re gonna need to pick up the pace. I pretty much just started a war with the Nideland.”

“I’m sure there was no other choice other than to let our people die, Clive. You did the right thing.”

I smiled in spite of myself. “What a perfect answer, Sania. You don’t know how much I needed to hear that.”

“You should tell Danivra. She is confused and worried and I didn’t know what you would have me say.”

“That’s fair. Can you just tell her what I told you? I need to speak with these Dokalfar prisoners. They’re really not in good shape.”

“Okay. See you soon,” she replied, with a light relaxed tone that put me at ease despite the mess I was in.

Breaking off from the conversation I turned my eyes to truly take in the sorry mess in front of me. Around eighty of the five hundred Dokalfar had been killed in the short attack on them. I smiled as gently as I could, about to ask if they were okay, as a matter of habit. Thankfully, I managed to reign in the stupid ass question at the last minute. It was abundantly obvious that they were not okay.

“I’m going to try to lead you to safety, but I won’t lie. It’s gonna be a big ask. Not helped with me killing those soldiers. But your lives are worth it and you don’t deserve this,” I explained, as I began cutting the tight linked chains that held their manacles together with my cleaver.

“Did I hear you right earlier?” One of the Dokalfar asked. “You’re questing to free all the neutrals of Kalabri?” It came across like a sneer, but his mouth was so badly mangled I suspected I was jumping to conclusions. I took his identifier in and was subtly impressed.

Kolo: Level 89 Helvien Reaver Lead. Dokalfera (Dokalfar II)

“Yep, it’s pretty shitty up here, gotta help those we can. Now come on let’s get moving to the rest of my people. We have a little food and there are other Dokalfar with us. You’ll be right at home.”

“Lead the way,” Kolo said, acting as the impromptu leader among them.

“So how come you were all kept alive? I’d heard everyone left in Helvien was dead.”

Kolo sucked his at his gums, eyeing me with lively eyes. “Where'd You hear that?”

I looked back at the other Dokalfar watched also watched me keenly. Gone was the fearful murmuring. I was impressed with their resilience, considering what they must have been through.

“Like I said. “We have people with my main group that escaped from Helvien when it fell.”

“Escaped did they. Good for them,” he replied with a bitter laugh.

“Not really. Most died from what I gathered. I don’t think anyone’s had it good.”

“Better than us, I don’t doubt,” he said, trudging after me. At first I gave him the benefit of the doubt. But the more I spoke to him the more I felt ill at ease with his general attitude.

“Clive!” Danivra’s voice came through the bond. “Sania has just told me of what you’ve done.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about Darkness though we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. The main thing is your people, our people are safe,” I replied, trying not to let my pride at the achievement come through. Considering the excitable queen kept trying to interrupt my declaration of awesomeness it wasn’t so hard.

“You are in extreme danger. The only people left in Helvien when we escaped were the absolute worst of the Dokalfar prisoners from across Kalabri!”

“Fuck, shit, double fuck,” I replied, looking around warily. They seemed harmless at the minute. “You mean to say I’ve just started a fucking war with Darkness for a bunch of damn psychos?”

“Exactly that, yes. I wish you had spoken to me before dashing to their rescue.”

“Well, how the hell was I supposed to know?”

“There is no fault or blame, merely an unfortunate sequence of events. Do they know I travel with you?”

“Not yet, no,” I grumbled.

“Good, do not tell them. Is Kolo among them?”

“Oh yes, we’re talking now.”

“Kill him, quickly. I am coming.”

“Kill him? What the hell did he…”

I was hit by a cloud of dark back and purple.

You have been affected by Dokeclipse

You are surrounded by a cloud of impenetrable fog and will not be able to move or see until the spell has lapsed.

Time to spell lapse: 59:58

The Dokeclipse was followed by a barrage of other attacks, physical and magical. Turns out shooting into the air like a goddamn pencil didn’t count as moving, as I literally didn’t move a muscle in the process. Bloody Dokeclipse followed me though, clinging to me like a curry fart.

Regaining my composure quickly I used Singularity to cast away the clouds of dark purple power around me. Now I could see again. I took in the set of bastards far below. They were throwing everything they had at me.

Why the hell they didn’t just run? I couldn’t figure out. But I was more than happy to return the favor, building a good-sized Ethereal blast in my hand. As soon as they saw I was free and about to ruin their day in a big way, they fled. I still hurled the blast at the shitheads, but as they cleverly spread out, I only managed to kill three outright, injuring four more.

As the rest bolted for the mountains in the north, avoiding both Helvien and the grassy plains I finished off the injured ones around me with tiny Ethereal bullets to their heads, making short work of their desperate struggles.

Once finished, I went after the others. I was pissed, and they were going to pay. More for attacking me after I freed them than any crimes they may have committed in the past.

As they moved a certain distance from me, despite their obvious frailties and injuries, they seemed to blend into the mountains with the natural stealth abilities of their race. I grinned, or grimaced. It was hard to tell even for me. Their abilities would be no match for my singularity sight.

As soon as I overlaid the ability of my natural sight, faint purple signatures of the energy they used, showed up as they cowered in shadowy areas.

As the first two dropped to well-aimed ethereal bullets, the others got on their bikes again. And they were very lucky they did as I had bigger fish to fry.

Darkness’s troops had arrived on the Horizon, and I had no choice but to let them go so I could contact Sania and Danivra before they arrived.

“Don't come near here. The Dokalfar are gone and more of Darkness’s troops are on their way. I’m staying to talk to them, and try to placate them. With any luck, I’ll be able to stop this clusterfuck from spilling over any further that it already has.”

“Is that wise?” Danivra asked. “They will be aggrieved.”

“If they play hard ball, I’ll just activate the return on my protectorate transport skill. They won’t be able to stop me.”

“And what should we do?” Sania asked.

“Stay far away from here. Just focus on traveling south again. I can catch up from here or if I have to return to my original departure point it won’t take long.”

“We will do that,” Danivra said. “Did you kill Kolo?”

“I honestly don't know, Danivra. I’m due some notifications, so I’ll check if I have a juicy Level 89 asshole on the list. Speak soon.”

As I let go of the connection, I was greeted with the notifications from the Dokalfar. Sadly, there was no level 89 Dokalfar, and even more sadly, I let them go when I did, as one more decent kill would have elevated me to level 80 and my Nephilim evolution.

Congratulations: You have reached level 79

You have 50 Stat Points to assign

I brought both Intelligence and Internal Constitution up to a hundred, then pumped the remaining 17 points into Constitution. Immortal Shell be damned. There was a good chance I was going to need some Constitution in the next ten minutes.

Physical statistics:

Strength: 72

The capacity to exert and resist force.

Dexterity: 37

Skill and ease in hand-based activity.

Agility: 87

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

Speed: 87

Rate at which the body can move.

Stamina: 73

Period over which the body can effectively sustain prolonged activity.

Constitution: 237

The ability to withstand physical punishment.

Mental Statistics:

Intelligence: 100

Knowledge and its application

Charisma: 35

Charm, coerce, inspire.

Perception: 63

Awareness of surroundings

Spiritual Statistics:

Ethereal Awareness: 0

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

Internal Connection: 100

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

Singularity: 40

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

World sense: 8.9% Knowledge of Gulithea.

Experience Points to next level: 310/3700