My mind was in a daze as the notifications piled up. The Tungsten Golem Calvary were fast and strong, mowing down confused nightmares with their lances faster than each monster could react. I saw it. From how they were uncoordinated and confused – they had never experienced a sudden, unexpected attack of this nature before. None of them had. They did not know how to handle golems on horseback, and those who did have the swiftness of mind to try and attack back would find their strikes doing very little to hurt my troops.
Without warning. the earth began to rumble. Heavy, shaking thuds reminiscent to that of something large and something monstrous began to approach my way. An ear-splitting roar tore through the Fort, and a giant club struck the heart of my Calvary’s charge. The creature, with thick purple skin, a necklace of bones and skulls, and a club fashioned out of a thick deciduous tree approached. Its singular giant eye locked down on my position.
Cyclops
[Guard Dog of Erzili]
Lv. ?
“Infantry! Forward!” I commanded. “Artillery, aim!”
The cyclops roared again, heavy footsteps shattering and cratering the earth as it charged forward. The Infantry, on foot, with their obsidian swords, rushed to intercept. It swung its club haphazardly, batting away the infantry as if they were nothing but bothersome flies.
“Copper Golem Artillery… ready!”
The spirals on the arms of the copper golems began to charge and crackle, as perfectly spherical chunks of magnetite spun around them at several hundred thousand rotations per minute, the metallic balls in the hands of the golem raising into the air.
The cyclops broke through the infantry and cavalry, charging straight for me with a slobbering mess of a mouth, and its right hand bringing down its club.
“Fire!”
The air thundered with the release of one-hundred ferromagnetic projectiles. Spherical balls tore into and through the Cyclops, littering the giant one-eyed monster with holes from skull to feet. The creature cried out, stumbling, blindly from the projectiles that blinded it, before it succumbed, felling like an ancient tree.
The impact shook the earth, raising dust and particles of sand that obscured the vision of most monsters. Once the dust settled, the Cyclops lay still and unmoving, and the monsters of Fort Zyvar stared in silent disbelief.
[You have slayed a Cyclops!]
[750,796 Experience Points Gained!]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
The title [Genocidal] has come into effect for the Species: [Cyclops].
[25 Genocide Points Earned]
“Copper Golem Artillery, reload!”
The mechanism of a coilgun was something anyone with the appropriate physics knowledge could create. Some coils of copper wire, a capacitor bank, a transformer, a DC power source, a method of releasing the energy in the capacitors through the coil, and a projectile. With my ability to effortlessly manipulate the earth, I could shorten the process and let my Copper Golems, generate an obscene amount of electricity with the aid of magnetite, a naturally occurring magnet.
“Infantry, regroup!”
The Copper Golems reloaded their rounds as I ordered the Tungsten Golem Infantry to move back into formation. Felling the cyclops was a major success, and there was no doubt in my mind that the next enemy that would appear would be –
[Sixth Sense – DANGER DETECTED!]
A red beam tore through the air, aimed straight at my forehead. My neck tilted to the side on instinct, the heat of the beam tearing past me and flying off into the horizon. I followed the laser’s trail, confirming indeed that it originated from the creature with the man’s face and the lion’s body. Sniffles, as Arol had once named it. Sniffles fires lasers from his eyes.
No names or titles were floating above the Sphinx’s head. In a sense, it was a non-being, a machine or thing similar to my golems. It was not a monster, which meant killing or destroying it would not net me any experience points, nor would it net me any special abilities.
“You are intruding upon Fort Zyvar,” Sniffles said. “Leave this place at once or be destroyed.”
Its eyes regained their red glow, indicating that another laser was coming. I was curious as to the ability of it to fire lasers. Were they like the holy lasers in the Sacrosanct Arms used by the Alhamis empire? If so, did that mean that, like those lasers, these could be reflected?
“Infantry,” I called to the Tungsten Infantry. “Shields up. Take down the Guardian.”
“Calvary, forward. Finish the stragglers.”
“Artillery, fire on the Guardian.”
Things were proceeding better than expected. Yet, I knew the real challenges lay ahead. The Lieutenants had yet to show up. The true nightmares of the Fort had yet to join in the fray. I was not sure why. Erzili did not strike me as the type of person that would run away when attacked.
So, why had they not yet –
[Mask of Janus: Flanking Immunity Activated]
My body jerked into motion without my consent. Reflex involuntary, just as one made when blinking at an object flying in front of their gaze or moving their hands to catch an object slipping off a table. I spun full three-hundred-and-sixty degrees off my mount, my left-hand firing in a vicious straight that connected with the something. Someone.
She crashed into the earth as if she were solid, the impact sending dust and debris into the air that shook the fort. I remembered that with the [Herculean Strength] I possessed, my punches were more than capable of effortlessly shattering trees and making holes in reinforced
