Eric’s heart was pounding with a growing sense of urgency as he tore through the air, racing to the next hot spot, the air filled with the sharp chirps and grinding squeals as he slowed his pace enough to glare down at the scene of absolute devastation below. The once lush primeval forest had been replaced by mangled stumps, rocks, churned topsoil, and thousand upon thousands of locusts.

  Eric gasped with a sharp sense of dread. “FUCK! I shouldn’t have delayed for even a second, staging that fight for Wyrmwood’s benefit! I fought too slowly. Chose too small a cluster to take out. We wasted time!”

  “Relax, Fearless Leader! So you chose to go for the swarm of five hundred and telegraphed your strikes so no one realized just how fast you truly were, or that you don’t have to call out shit! It’s good we let people see you fighting on kiddie mode, without showing off any of your revenants! One day they will come for you, Eric, no matter how many treaties they sign with your sister. And if they’ve mentally imprinted a 100 Quickness Super Punch man taking time to telegraph blows far weaker than you’re truly capable of… and just barely dodging those slow-ass monstrosities, then that’s a precious underestimation that just might save your life!”

  His familiar gave his cheek a reassuring stroke of her ear.

  “Besides, calling out the shots like that? You looked absolutely badass! I, for one, am a fan.”

  Eric grimaced, his familiar’s mental flash of fast-speak doing little to assuage his guilt, but he knew she wasn’t wrong.

  He had looked pretty badass.

  And even if he should have come here to this hot zone first, and never let himself be pulled so far off his target to such a small cluster… what was done was done. All he could do was hit fast and hit hard and NOT waste his reserves with spells he’d love to rank up, but just didn’t have the resources or time. Now, when he had to measure every last bit of his Mana, Qi Pool, and all too mortal resolve, once again having missed sleep for what felt like days of hyper-fast living, save for a single precious hour’s rest, technically a perfect reset in Elly’s arms.

  A girl he could only pray managed to dodge any mantis swarms and get back to her base camp before the Orange territories and New York itself were overrun by those horrid things.

  Things that filled him with a growing sense of dread, no matter how much slower they were than him on an individual level. Becase this present hoard that stunk like a basement full of rotting cockroaches was pinging at five thousand!

  The swarms were growing.

  Growing beyond his ability to manage or control.

  So he did the only thing he could.

  Slamming into the thickest part of their hoard at full speed, he fused Power Strike to Transcendant strike, lashing out with everything he had.

  A blow worthy of taking down a half-step Silver Titan Worm, and grateful as hell that his Crimson Orb had never been so wildly filled with crackling potency as it was right then.

  TRANSCENDANT STRIKE UNLEASHED!

  20 Qi and 13 Soul Reserves Spent!

  You have OBLITERATED 57 Bronze Locusts!

  Shockwave has Critically Struck an additional 217 Locusts!

  You have rammed into your targets at cannonball speed!

  Charge skill mitigates damage!

  316 Physical Resistance has absorbed bone-shattering damage!

  Shock and Awe in full effect!

  Charge is now Rank 10! You may choose the feats Cannonball, Charger, or Champion!

  Eric wasted only an eyeblink to intuitively sense the perks offered. Even greater damage with his charge, near indestructibility at the moment of impact, or a massive morale bonus to his troops upon impact.

  Of course he was choosing Cannonball. Why the hell wouldn’t he want to be even tougher at the moment of impact? Then Bunbun’s silent laughter at her silly master who never was good with adds in game finally caught up with him.

  If he pulled this off, he’d be up another 5000 locusts in addition to the 3000 he already had. He liked to think of himself as a solo badass, but as far as Necromancer Kings were concerned, he was most definitely a general leading his troops.

  In an obliterating flash of transcendent heat, Eric made his choice as he soared up in the air once more while locust bodies were still flying through the air.

  You have chosen the Champion skill enhancement! Troops who charge by your side will enjoy a damage boost based on your charge velocity at the moment of impact, in addition to frenzy bonus!

  He glared down at the stunned heap of his foes, so many dazed, disoriented, or on fire after that single transcendent strike. He howled with a sense of furious glee as he prepared for a follow up charge, though his Power Strike enhanced blows would be enhanced by neither Essence nor tap into his Soul Reserves, and the backlash from the 20 yard radius explosive punches should do minimal damage to his own troops comprised primarily of 3000 flying locusts revenants, all of them glowing a fiery hue with their marks of pristine flame.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “That was EPIC, Fearless Leader!” Bunbun happily screamed as Eric roared and flew right into the densest mass of confused and scattering locusts, filling the air with furious fire as he slammed into fresh prey at what was for him a far safer Mach 1, sending scores of bugs flying through the air like a race car smashing into a china shop.

  “And your 3000 Locusts are now frenzying like mad!”

  Eric grimaced, surprised by the hot spike of potency he sensed jolting through all of his revenants. Because if a knight boosted the resolve of his men-at-arms charging into enemy lines at 30 miles per hour, and Eric was crashing into enemy lines at 25 times that speed.

  With a skill he had effectively forged channeling his own furious desperation, stubbornness and the wild potency of an entire world.

  Then his mind focused on more immediate concerns, like avoiding the mandibles suddenly IN HIS FACE as a full fifty Bronze-tier locusts clustered around him, his ears bleeding with their close-ranged sonic shrieks, BunBun screaming in sudden pain because he was such a cocky idiot and—

  “Fire Fist, motherfucker!” The air flashed with the furious flame as Power Strike obliterated half a score of locusts before he spun around with an elbow that blew out the thorax of the bug trying to snip off his mithril-covered arm, forelimbs doing absolutely nothing against his legendary-tier curiass and then he was moving and lashing out so fast that the entire swarm of bugs slowed to a crawl as Eric roared and snarled and struck with everything he had.

  You have successfully obliterated an additional 567 Swarming Locusts in melee combat!

  Backlash has destroyed 2 of your own locusts!

  Your revenants have successfully slaughered 2500 additional locusts!

  Eric flashed a fierce, hungry smile, taking a ragged breath before belting out the words that would change absolutely everything.

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat, Tibi!”

  He laughed with dark glee as an additional 500 Mana was ripped from his reserves, just the smallest fraction of the Mana he now called his own as a full 1600 shattered and burned locust carapaces began to twitch and squirm, blazing with icy blue fire as crimson sigils blazed upon carapaces far stronger than they had ever been in life, not a single one resisting the call as 3000 furiously fighting revenants became 4600.

  And then 1467 more as Eric belted out the words a second time, happily embracing Call To Battle Twice, as 6067 Locusts plus 70 elite head-snipping Mantises tore into the remaining two thousand enemy bugs in record time while Eric laughed like a madman, reveling in the sweet RUSH of power trembling through his body and soul as the killing fields rapidly topped up his Mana, Spiritual Energy, and the handful of Soul Reserves he had spent as he drank deep of the sweet crimson champagne of enlightenment, feeling a connection to his undead legion as Master Necromancer reached Level 41.

  “You did it, Master!” Bunbun crowed, flipping on his shoulder with unbridled glee as Eric trembled with the sheer wonder of his own ascension, his one unspent class perk flowing in the only place it could go as he said the words he must and embraced the transformation destined to happen.

  “Surge Centuria! Imperator Imperat Tibi!”

  Eric’s eyes lit with wild glee as the final batch of 2000 locusts crumbled to dust, consumed by fiery blue flame while his other 6000 sentinels stood stoic witness.

  His familiar frowned. “Um… Fearless Leader?”

  “Just watch, Bunbun.”

  Lilly’s worried look became one of wide-eyed awe as a cluster of razor sharp bronze spear points poked out of the ground. Before growing into twenty five foot long sarissa held in the hands of massive humanoid soldiers who looked so much like Eric’s former revenants, save that their bronze armor covered every inch of their body, effectively serving as their carapace, and each and every last one had a pair of wings.

  Bunbun whistled. “Can those fuckers actually fly?”

  Eric shrugged, showing Bunbun his most recent class evolution.

  Requirements met! You have chosen Undying Phalanx II! Now you can forge any fallen soldier to rise into eternal service as Sarissophoroi ready to race across the battlefield as fast as any cavalry ever has on Earth! And the fastest cavalry there has ever been is technically YOUR OWN! Your targets no longer need to be humanoid! Any denizen of the animal kingdom may now be sworn into your eternal service, even arthropods!

  Bunbun frowned. “Okay, you know what you need to do.”

  Eric’s heady euphoria faded with a sigh. “I know.”

  He gave his thousands of disciplined soldiers below a fierce smile of approval before glaring at the pair of locusts thinking to scurry away.

  “Sanguis Fulmen, Suckers!” Bunbun hissed, crimson lightning popping them from a distance. Eric nodded with solemn approval, feeling a renewed sense of gratitude for his DI Map, so that not even one locust could escape without him spotting the blinking red light, knowing damn well the perils of logarithmic growth, if even one was allowed to escape unchecked.

  “Men, move out!” Eric roared, the air immediately filling with the roaring drone of a full six thousand locusts and seventy odd mantises effortlessly becoming airborne and flying in loose formation around him… and 2000 heavily armored humanoid hybrid sentinels whose buzzing wings did little more than lift them on their tippy toes.

  Eric winced under his familiar’s look. “But they can match my speed on the ground. When it comes to the charge… they’ll be fucking legendary.”

  Bunbun gave a solemn nod. “And that’s why you only transformed the final 2000 with your level-up.”

  Eric chuckled ruefully. “Exactly.”

  “But stored in your ring, dropped on the periphery, then summoned right to you when you smash into the heart of enemy formations… they’re top speed will match your own.”

  Eric’s rueful grin turned smug as the drone of endless wings fanned the flames below to a roaring blaze. “Exactly! Well, within reason. Air resistance is still a thing for them so… maybe 400 miles per hour, max? If I’m not finding some other backdoor way to boost the fuck out of that?”

  Bunbun nodded. “As if those fuckers with their rune-enhanced armor and weapons charging at 13 times a knight’s top speed wouldn’t tear through just about anything. Now we just have how many hot spots left to clear?”

  Eric’s triumphant grin faded to a desperate grimace. “Fuck. We’re in so much trouble, aren’t we, Bunbun?”

  Bunbun solemnly nodded. “Come on, hero. We got seven million souls counting on us to not fuck this up. Let’s go.”