Bacon Macleod
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B3? Chapter 278: Freedom, pt. 1
🕑 Added 2025-05-05 21:30:01 +0000 UTCIt seemed that in the same stroke he had taken Conte’s arm, Kaius had broken the compound's spirit.
As he turned from the site of his duel to join his team in their dash for freedom, he saw a sea of white faces—full of fear. No one moved to stop him—focusing instead on securing their own lives in the face of an endless swarm of beasts.
Even that was flagging as the men fell to despondency. They fought with a frantic desperation that had been absent only moments ago—hurried blows and desperate parries leading to an ever increasing number of mistakes that saw Kaius watch men torn to shreds beneath the unnatural ire of the beasts.
He pushed their fates out of his mind. Regardless of the disquiet he felt at the screams of the dying, they were no innocents, and he had little sympathy in his heart for their plight.
As they rushed forwards, their captors all but fell out of their way.
Porkchop took the lead, bowling through the final remaining beasts that barred their path, and they finally reached the stairs.
Racing upwards two at a time, Kaius held the rear—ready to defend against anything that might try to halt them.
Up ahead, he watched as a stag charged straight down towards his brother—tines of its antlers glowing a sickening purple.
Porkchop simply roared, one oversized paw smashing the beast to the side—sending it tumbling over the unfenced edge of the stairs. It bleated, flailing wildly as it fell to the floor below.
Then the same thing happened again.
It seemed, with the guards leaving them to their fates, that the prospect of an isolated group became too much for the enraged creatures to bear. Every few moments, another would hurl themselves down the stairs, only to meet their fate shortly after as Porkchop’s unyielding advance sent them falling like rain to the guards below.
“Are they really just going to let us go?” Ianmus asked as he eyed the men at the top of the stairs pulling back step by step, giving them room—and kept Porkchop’s health topped off with a Ray of Tender Recovery.
“Seems like it,” Kaius replied with a frown. It felt…off. Not so much the guards' reactions—losing their strongest fighters would kill any force’s morale—but in the actions of the second tiers themselves.
It felt wrong, that they had fled so easily. Even with the grevious wound he had dealt, the battle had been nowhere near finished.
“I don’t like it,” he continued. “It feels off. You’d think between losing the vault and us escaping, they’d be in enough trouble with their boss to push us a little harder.”
“Who cares!” Kenva replied, snapping off a shot to finish a beast that leapt straight at them from the battlements above. Its body hit the stairs next to Kaius, bones cracking. “We’re this close to freedom—we can think about it later.”
Kaius grunted, but let the conversation die at that. She was right—there would be time to plan and worry in the future.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Kaius almost slammed into Ianmus’s tall form when Porkchop skidded to a sudden halt at the front of the line. Stepping onto the battlements, he immediately saw what had frozen his brother solid.
Below them lay a legion of beasts. Thousands, milling up on every side of the wall he could see, with more racing in from the trees by the second. His gut clenched looking at the numbers, eyes roving as he drank in the sight.
They had some luck, of a sort. Most of the massing creatures streamed around the compound—either the illusory formation they had heard of was hiding its presence, or there was some grander reason that sent the creatures racing towards the south-west.
That, and from what he could see from Truesight, most of the beasts were weak—only a rare few breached level eighty.
The gathered forces were still enough to crush the compound a dozen times over. Conte had been right—this place was doomed.
As a groaning bellow sounded through the air, Kaius felt the wall shudder violently beneath his feet. He snapped his eyes to the source of the sound, cursing as he saw a behemoth of a creature hammering the wall.
Nearly the size of a drake, it almost looked like a cow—though covered in overly shaggy fur, lacking in hooves, and with a singular titanic horn at the end of its snout. A twin of the small snapshot he’d seen of the creature trying to batter down the compound’s gate.
Wooly Hrinean - Level 145
Beast, Vanguard
Kaius cursed as he saw the creature’s level. With that amount of mass and simple bodily might, the beast would be able to leverage an enormous amount of power with even meagre stats.
It was a shocking sight, one that left him momentarily rooted to the spot.
This wasn’t some unnatural swarm. It was a fucking army.
And it was one they would have to somehow bypass.
His mind raced. The numbers at the base of the wall were too many to fight through, but they were densely packed—milling in a growing savage fury as tensions grew high.
If they could create some distance, land near the edges where it was only the disparate movement of creatures racing ever forwards, they might have a chance.
“What now, Kaius?” Porkchop asked, a hard edge to his words.
Kaius flicked his eyes around quickly. They would have to abandon their original plan—the nearby left corner of the wall was aligned almost directly with the approaching beasts, trying to make a break for it would force them against the tide. It would be suicide.
However…if they cut north? They would be moving tangential to the flow. If they could create enough distance, it would be a lot easier to escape the crush.
That didn’t mean it would be easy. Looking up to the treeline, he could see the constant rustle of moving branches and flashing blurs of fur and scales. Beasts, all the way up the hillside. Less concentrated, perhaps, but still there.
He grit his teeth, delaying his answer to Porkchop’s question.
It was an impossible choice. Their chances of breaking free with no injuries, or worse, losses, was slim to none. They had little other option. Staying here, surrounded by anxious enemies, where the current of beasts ran strongest, would leave them with even worse odds.
He made up his mind.
“This way,” he called, tightening his grip on his sword as he led their charge along the wall.
Open and exposed, more than one creature took a swipe at him—furious howls spilling across the air as they leapt in with claws and fangs outstretched.
A Father’s Gift danced in his hand—leaving monsters bloody and broken in his wake. Even with the reprieve from his earlier battle, Kaius could still feel the latent heat of Corporus building within him.
He attuned himself to its resonance—pushing himself to trim the fat, and learn from every engagement. With every improvement, more chimes of his skills leveling joined the chorus that had sounded in his mind since the start of the battle.
The guards, for all he hated them, made no move to stop him—pallid faces watching with wide eyes and forced scowls as squads hurriedly backed up as much as they were able, happy to let them deal with the beasts that harried them.
Approaching the edge of the wall where they planned to jump, Kaius turned his attention to his team.
“We jump here,” he said, before he focused on Ianmus and Kenva. “Do either of you need help to clear about thirty long-strides? If you land in the mob at the base of the walls, you’re dead.”
Kenva shook her head. “I’ve got a movement skill, I'll be fine.”
Ianmus, on the other hand, gave him an awkward half smile. “Nothing I'm confident in—my new skill might make the distance, but I’m not sure how well I'd stick the landing with my Constitution.”
He gave the mage a confident grin. “Stay close then, Princess. I’ll help you get down.”
“Alright then, we run.” he continued, addressing his team.
They broke into a full sprint, Porkchop pulling ahead as his armour vanished with a pop.
His brother reached the edge of the wall first, muscles rippling with power as he launched himself into the air—a whooping chirp escaping his muzzle.
Kaius grinned at his excitement. Ducking down, he wrapped his arms around Ianmus’s waist—ignoring his yelp of surprise as he tossed the mage over his shoulder.
He kicked off—an Expedient Shunt detonating behind him with a crack. Letting lose a wild laugh, he watched Kenva shoot past him at a flat angle, her legs wrapped in a dense coil of vines.
As Ianmus let out a startled yell, Kaius chained another cast of his spell, catching up to and then overtaking the falling forms of his party.
Right before they hit the ground, mana flashed around his brother as Porkchop summoned his armour once more.
Heavy as a boulder, Porkchop hit the ground first—his arrival on the field of battle announced by the desperate screams of a mottled green bear being crushed under foot.
Close behind him, Kaius bled off the speed of his approach by tapping into the remnant force of his Shunt, a second burst of force slowing him enough that could absorb the rest of the shock of his landing by bending his knees. Still slightly frazzled, Kaius set Ianmus down firmly, grasping his friend's shoulders and giving him a light push towards Porkchop — keeping him safe between them.
They moved, racing forwards, as Kenva landed ahead of them—swords already in hand as the vines wrapping her legs unspooled to pull her safely to the earth.
Seeing the aen hack at an oversized mole creature, Kaius dove in, his blade flashing as he cut deep into the black furred creature's spine. Kenva gave him a nod of thanks—falling to his flank. She kept her twin blades drawn, the press around too close for her bow.
All around them beasts raged.
Lights burst from behind him—beam after beam of burning heat snapping into existence to draw clean lines from Ianmus to the holes he bored in lesser beast’s skulls.
Porkchop charged, his shield floating behind them to cover their rear as he took the position of vanguard, a quickly summoned Shardwall opening up their path.
Kaius followed his movements—spinning his blade like a dervish as he cut through the creatures that slipped past his brother's fury.
There were many, and each stride was hard earned, but slowly they crept their way to freedom.
In the press, it was impossible to avoid all injuries. Crushing swipes, cutting rakes, and bites galore rained down upon him, their foes too numerous for his full manoeuvrability to be brought to the fore.
He was still by far the beasts’ superior. The lesser blows glanced off his armour, enhanced as it was by his skills. Those lucky few that landed on flesh found him tougher than wood, and his bones stronger than steel—light punctures barely weeping before the rampaging fire of his Health sealed them tight.
Trapped in the middle of a raging storm, Kaius was forced to adapt on the fly. Brute strength, speed, and grace wasn’t enough.
Fluidity is where he found his saviour.
For every creature that pressed him, he became more liquid—flowing from parry, to cut, to thrust in an endless dance that forced him to pick exactly where and when he would get hit, and hit in turn.
His Toolkit screamed at the throbbing arteries and vulnerable organs that were presented to him—encouraging him to spend each move striking only where his foes were most vulnerable.
It pushed him to the edge, wrung him of every drop of control and mastery he had. A crucible that forged him stronger with every moment—far more than the occasional ding of a skill increasing would suggest.
A refinement of his style, of his very being, where each clash left him lessons on where to next improve, heightened further by the visceral awareness of his Glass Mind.
With his stats, and Mentis, his thoughts raced far faster than his body. He could process everything, but it only brought frustration when his awareness of when and how he should move ran straight into the ironclad limitations of his body.
He struggled. To match the precision he demanded of himself. To move in the ways he must.
He forced himself to do it anyway—joints aching and muscles burning as he reaped death, leaning on every Skill he had forged in the fires of the Depths to see him to its doors once again.
A spine of chitin fired explosively from a quilled creature. He swatted the projectile out of the air with a clang, lunging in to lance the point of his sword through its overly large ear canal.
*Ding! level 95 Quilbeast - Crackshot Hunter slain - Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying a foe of Insignificant Strength!*
Realisation bubbled. If he was to ever reach the heights he sought, he strived for, control had to be his focus. He already felt the imbalance—his mind too fast, and his body too slow.
It wasn’t so much his raw capabilities that held him back now—not with his ever growing strength. Instead, it was his ability to apply them granularly, to use only what was needed to achieve what he must.
An endless path, one he would never finish. A pursuit of perfection, one that would better him for all he failed to attain it.
Climbing without end didn’t scare him, not when every step was a reward in its own right. Not when the journey itself brought him so much.
He would change, he would grow, and he would always demand more from himself. Even if he reached so high that all others were lost to the mists of distance below, he would still wonder.
If he just refined himself a little more, could he claw himself a hair higher?
Deep within him, Corporus chimed with an almost visceral sigh of satisfaction. A joy that he finally understood.
No matter what came in his future, he would rise to meet the occasion.
His soul burned.
*Ding! Pillar of Self Discovered, Corporus Ignited. Would you like to initiate Aspect Formation?*
Kaius grinned, and fought on. Already, the dense tide of beasts was stemming. They were breaking free—all that was left was a final race to the first safe harbour they could find.
Risking a single look back, Kaius drank in the rising walls of the compound—already wavering like a mirage as they got far enough away for the illusory formations to battle against his Truesight.
A litany of errors had landed him in its painful embrace.
He didn’t intend to repeat them.
With this many beasts, the Depths were their safest bet. This time? He intended to stay down there until he was strong enough that he was far too much of a threat to even consider capturing.
Comments
Joey McGowan
I quite enjoyed the breakthrough. Wonder if there's an honour for being the first to ignite 2 pillars?
Irgendwer Irgendwo
The Corporus reveal is really cool and reaching it when fighting for survival instead of revenge is neat.
Joshua Little
Thanks for the chapter.
