(Book 2 Complete!) Tales of the Endless Empire [LitRPG Apocalypse]

"Let's fucking smash them all!" Kargul roared, his aura erupting like a volcanic blast, almost rivaling Thalion's own as he surged forward, war mace gripped tightly in one massive hand.

A genuine smile curled beneath Thalion's mask as he looked to his sides. Kaldrek, Kargul, Evelyn, Vorlok, Josh, Jack, even Maike stood beside him in a loose but unified line. The whole crew had assembled, shoulder to shoulder, ready to clash with the undead tide. For a moment, something warm flickered in Thalion's chest, an almost nostalgic sense of camaraderie. Perhaps this strange new life wasn't so bad after all. Maybe, just maybe, they'd all ascend to godhood together and share moments like this over drinks and laughter echoing across the divine realms. It was a long road, but one Thalion would gladly walk.

Other Elite warriors had taken position nearby as well. Among them stood a monk, calm and silent, and a fire mage who looked more than a little confused as his flames shifted from orange to a bloody crimson. Thalion suppressed a smirk while watching the mage repeatedly extinguish and reignite his spell, bewildered by the unnatural color.

As Kargul charged ahead, Josh, Jack, Kaldrek, Vorlok, and the others quickly followed suit. Evelyn and Maike stayed back, unsurprising. Thalion still wasn't entirely sure what Maike's role in battle truly was, but she now carried a windblade, likely for self-defense. From what little he understood of her class, she seemed more like a support type, disrupting enemy movements and deflecting strikes at critical moments. He was curious to see her in action.

But he couldn't just sit back and let the others handle the heavy lifting. Not when the leader of the Orrathi still loomed at the center of the enemy formation, his aura heavier and more refined than even Kargul's. It was time.

Thalion surged forward, chaining his Telekinetic Dash multiple times, the ground cracking beneath him as he shot past his allies. He really needed to upgrade that skill, there'd be time after the palace raid. Two weeks of training would be perfect to refine his core techniques. Evolution to E-grade would demand more than raw power and high-rarity skills would be a good assistance.

As he closed in, the sword of the blooded templar materialized in his hand, and with a single leap, Thalion soared into the sky. Crimson flames flared around him, crackling with intensity. The air vibrated with power, the desert winds momentarily silenced by his presence.

"Haha! You're all so screwed!" Jack laughed, his voice ringing out as Thalion brought his blade down in a devastating arc, releasing a scything crimson slash toward the Orrathi leader and several undead caught behind him.

The stone warrior stood firm, a massive spear clenched in his hands. He swung into the attack with no hesitation, no fear. Through the whispers of his title, Thalion sensed the man's hidden surprise. That title had paid off more than once, and this moment was no exception.

A dense, earthen aura surrounded the spear just before it collided with Thalion's slash. The resulting impact cracked like thunder, the shockwave rippling through the sand. Thalion narrowed his eyes. The slash had been destroyed, effortlessly. The Orrathi was pushed back a step, but likely more due to poor footing in the sand than the strength of Thalion's strike. The spear… was it made to disrupt mana-based attacks?

The question lingered for only a second before Thalion tested the theory. He activated Blood Harvest and focused on the enemy, but felt only the faintest pull. The warrior's blood barely responded. Not just the weapon, then. His entire body was resistant. Stone, through and through.

Could Thalion skin the man and graft the stone flesh onto himself? A rhetorical thought. He actually liked his crimson skin, and it likely wouldn't mesh well with the Virethorn's nature anyway.

With magic proving ineffective, Thalion launched a blood spear. If noone had been watching, he might've transformed into the crippled Eclipsari to brutally overwhelm the warrior. But for now, he remained human.

While the blood spear screamed through the air, Thalion shifted into mist, reforming just in front of the Orrathi. He had hoped to bait the spear strike, open the man's guard, but instead, the enemy stomped hard on the sand. Earth and grit erupted upward, intercepting the blood spear, while the stone warrior slashed downward in the same motion.

Fighting a spear with a sword wasThalion's least favorite matchup. He had loathed it in the Golden Palace. Spear users controlled the distance. Even in close quarters, they were dangerous. As a swordsman, he had to stay within striking range or risk getting whittled down.

He twisted sideways, avoiding the strike, but the Orrathi retreated a step with practiced ease, keeping the exact spacing needed to exploit his weapon's superior reach. He was disciplined, no doubt trained in real war, not just dungeon skirmishes.

And yet, the fire in Thalion's chest only burned hotter.

"How utterly irritating," Thalion thought, briefly toying with the idea of using his bloodline ability to teleport behind the Orrathi and unleash one of his devastating flame blades. It was, after all, his most concentrated attack, a conflagration of pure destruction. But too many eyes were watching. Killing the commander here and now would be unnecessary. No, this was an opportunity to sharpen his edge. There were still two monstrous opponents roaming the tutorial. Enemies he would have to face very soon. And oddly enough, he looked forward to it. The danger would be immense, but so too would be the rewards. Victory over such foes might allow an even greater evolution, when reaching level 80.

Thalion took a cautious step back, slipping just out of the spear's reach, then invoked his Crimson Garden. The general had begun to accelerate now, and a flood of undead surged forward behind him. Thalion wanted to keep an eye on his comrades, but his opponent allowed him no such luxury. The Orrathi's pressure was relentless.

His concern focused mostly on Maike. She had never faced vampires before and they were swift, cunning predators, possibly a direct counter to her class. Hopefully, she remained behind Kaldrek in relative safety. Okay, Kaldrek too might end up in trouble but Evelyn was nearby, and she'd always been reliable in combat. The others didn't worry him. Jack and Josh were too wild and too ambitious to fall easily, and Kargul the "Master Smash" of the group wasn't going anywhere. His weapon and brutal fighting style were practically tailored to crush those stone-skinned enemies.

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The Orrathi commander read Thalion's retreat instantly and lunged, spear aimed straight for his heart. But the air around Thalion was already shimmering with crimson fire, and thorned vines began to writhe up from the sand. He sidestepped with effortless grace, narrowly evading the thrust. Sword versus spear, always a headache.

"Let's see how your spear fares against a thousand blades of blood and thorn," Thalion thought with a grin, unleashing the full power of his domain.

The Crimson Garden bloomed around him in an explosive wave of motion. Thalion concentrated its growth forward, careful not to let it spread too wide and risk harming his allies. As he withdrew further, the vines twisted and surged with unnatural vitality, each one a living whip of thorns and fury.

The Orrathi tried to keep up, but soon had to retreat, dodging and weaving as the vines lunged for him. From time to time, he deflected an attack or countered with earthen skills, but they weren't enough. Thalion's domain was too strong. Earth couldn't snuff out blood, not anymore. Fire had once been the best counter, but with his divine skill, even that had lost its bite. Funny how, unintentionally, he had eliminated one of the greatest threats to his own power.

As the stone commander danced through the crimson storm, Thalion drew his bow. He nocked an arrow and began charging an attack. The undead beasts and stone soldiers kept their distance from his domain, giving him ample time to focus. Flames surged around him, buffing his strength and cloaking him in a shimmering haze.

With a deep breath, he loosed the arrow. It screamed through the air like a bullet, a bolt of pure annihilation aimed at the leader.

The shot struck true.

A thunderous explosion rocked the battlefield. Smoke and flame consumed the target's position. When the dust settled, the Orrathi was kneeling, body battered and scorched. Crimson fire danced along his right arm. He must have activated a powerful defensive skill to survive a direct hit. Impressive but also expected.

The synergy between Thalion's blood magic and the stolen bow was proving formidable. When he finally unlocked the meaning of those strange runes and learned how to apply them to his sword and armor he'd become exponentially more dangerous. Why stop at weapons? Could the runes be carved into his very skin?

A question for another day.

The commander was still caught in the garden, now besieged alongside the undead and Orrathi who had lagged behind. The vines didn't choose they lashed at all who approached.

Thalion took the moment to survey the battlefield. Kargul was a force of nature, his mace crushing everything in reach. The ground shook with every impact. As expected, he was the ideal counter to the slow-moving stone warriors.

The vampires, on the other hand, were differen but that's where Evelyn shone. She conjured barriers and illusions that disoriented the swift bloodsuckers, giving Kargul the window to finish them off with brutal efficiency.

Above, Vorlok pursued a lone vampire through the sky. The creature flapped his wings desperately, either out of breath or drained from wasting too much blood on ineffective attacks. Either way, the hunt was nearing its end. Vorlok paddled through the air like an unstoppable machine, his turtle mouth opening and snapping shut in anticipation, imagining the taste of vampire flesh.

The sharp snap-snap-snap of Vorlok's jaws echoed through the air, a nightmarish rhythm that made the fleeing vampire's panic deepen. His wings flailed erratically as he tried to escape, the sound alone was enough to make his heart stutter with dread. Below, the battle raged and Thalion took a moment to assess his comrades' positions.

As expected, Josh and Jack were in their element. Josh carved through the enemy ranks with savage grace, engaging vampires and stone warriors alike in visceral close-quarters combat. Blood and fragments of flesh scattered with every strike. Jack, meanwhile, kept to the rear, teleporting in and out of the fray like a phantom. His telekinetic bursts struck with lethal precision, often eliminating multiple foes in a single, concussive wave.

Kaldrek was holding his ground but he wasn't alone. Maike and the monk flanked him, providing critical support. Maike used swift footwork and strategic gusts of wind to disrupt enemy attacks, giving Kaldrek space to recover between strikes. The monk, in stark contrast, dove directly into the chaos, his fists and elbows slamming into foes with bone-crunching force. Thalion wouldn't have thought barehanded combat would be so effective against stone-skinned warriors and agile vampires, but the monk moved with fluid precision. Every strike had purpose. It was a testament to how deeply the system had reshaped humanity, turning what were once fragile creatures into weapons capable of holding their own against apex predators.

Some enemies were still dangerous, of course, but none among this current wave posed a threat Thalion feared. His confidence was unshaken.

All of that stood in contrast to the stone general.

The towering warrior stood out of reach, unmoving. His expression was strained, and despite his stoic demeanor, his eyes betrayed the truth: fear. He knew that neither he nor any of his troops could defeat Thalion. And Thalion? He met it with calm assurance as he conjured another arrow, nocked it, and pulled the string taut.

One after another, he loosed arrows into the mass of enemies. Vampires and stone soldiers exploded on impact, their limbs flung high into the air like discarded dolls. Each arrow detonated in a fiery crimson burst, not only obliterating its target but also ensuring that no blood remained for the vampires to consume, no nourishment, no strength to steal. Only a faint red mist lingered in the air after each blast.

The other elite warriors were pushing forward as well, steadily overwhelming the enemy. The skyships provided critical support from above, laying down suppressive fire and keeping pressure off the ground team. Whenever an elite needed to fall back, the ships offered a brief moment of sanctuary, just enough time to catch their breath and regroup.

It was a luxury the enemy lacked.

Their retreat began, disciplined but desperate. Lines broke and fell back toward the elevated fortress above the catacomb's entrance, where their command base waited. But even that final stronghold was now in danger.

Above, eight colossal circles of light had formed high in the sky, each one humming with barely-contained power. They pulsed with radiant pressure, preparing to unleash devastation upon the enemy base.