Summoned Again?

When I went back to the temple and stored my armor while going into the main room, I was surprised to find Anthony, Ksenya, and Farrah with happy faces and they wore full cleric robes.

“He did it!” Farrah said and held up her hands to show me that she wore thick brass knuckles and she did several punches at the air. “Twenty percent mana boost and regeneration, too!”

I thought something was a little fishy and stepped close to look at them. They weren't actual brass knuckles and were only rings stuck together with metal hammered around them.

“Those aren't going to last.” I warned her and she laughed.

“Oh, they will.” Farrah said and cast a spell to make her fists glow.

____

You have learned the spell Force Barrier. This spell increases your punches and kicks by 200% while also reinforcing and protecting your hands and feet from impacts. Lasts: 10 minutes.

____

“I assume that's a last resort?” I asked.

Farrah nodded. “I'm never letting anything touch me.”

I smiled and looked at Ksenya, who had something that looked like a long curved blade. “I don't have to guess what that is.”

Ksenya laughed. “The hammer will be done in a few minutes.”

“Paired weapons?” I asked and she nodded.

“He said it will give me an attack bonus, whatever that is.” Ksenya said.

“You'll find out when you get the hammer.” Anthony said and I glanced over him. “No, I don't have a special weapon. I'm not really a fighter.”

“Armor?” I asked.

Anthony smiled as he moved part of the robes aside to reveal a heavy metal plate that covered his chest. “It took him an hour to make this and it's only tied with rope; but, I'll be damned if it doesn't have great defensive capabilities.”

My auto-identifier told me it had an auto shield that ran on its own charge and didn't tax the wearer. I knew he got a lot more from my chest plate than just the main enchantments. I thought with a smile. “What about you two?” I asked. “Small protective plates?”

Ksenya and Farrah nodded and revealed much smaller plates covering their hearts, kidneys, abdomen, and spine.

“Then I think we're almost ready.” I said.

“We want to come with you.” A woman's voice said and I turned to see Lady Matricia and eleven clerics. “If this is the big push to get to the source of the scourge, we can help.”

I held in my sigh. “I appreciate the offer...”

“We're outfitted and can handle ourselves.” One of the men said.

“That's not the point.” I said. “I don't think some of you are ready.”

“You haven't see us fight.” A woman said.

“I don't have to. I know you can handle a dozen, maybe two dozen undead each, probably triple that with the new spell. The only thing is, there's going to be a thousand times that... maybe even a million times that... where we're going.”

Farrah and Ksenya gasped and Anthony cursed.

“You can't be serious.” Farrah said. “I don't think we're ready for that yet.”

I turned back to her. “It's all right. We've got this.” I said and put a hand on her shoulder. “My armor's repaired and I'm back to full fighting strength.”

“I don't see how that's going to help us against twelve to twenty four million undead creatures.” Anthony said, then he gave the other two a look. “If we keep to our normal draw and slaughter technique and don't rush things, our expanded spells and mana capacities should keep us safe from being overrun.”

“That's the spirit.” I said and the enchanter came over to us. He pushed a little cart and on it was a hammer the size of my head. “You made it to scale with her blade?” I asked, surprised.

“That's what she ordered from the blacksmith.” The enchanter said with a shrug. “I just enchanted it.”

“Oooo, give it to me.” Ksenya made a grabbing motion with her hands.

“It's all yours, hero.” The enchanter said as she picked it up with glee and he turned to me. “Pay up.”

“What?” I looked at him with confusion and at the other three heroes. They turned away and wouldn't meet my gaze.

“They said you'd take care of the bill.” The enchanter said and held his hand out. “Come on, I don't have all day to waste.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” I said with a sigh and looked at the enchanter. “What do you want?”

“Anything new you've got.” The enchanter said and made the same grabbing motion with his hands that Ksenya did to get the hammer.

“Ten seconds.” I said and he nodded several times. I took out my enchanted sword and the enchanter seemed to freeze in place. I stored the sword after ten seconds and the man started breathing again.

“I didn't... that... how...”

“It was enchanted by the world's best enchanters. A guild of them, actually.” I said.

The enchanter took in a sharp breath. “A... a guild... a whole guild... creating enchantments.”

“It works best in conjunction with my fully functioning armor.” I said and he caught his breath. “You understand what that means.”

The enchanter nodded. “Complimentary enchantment effects for both attacking and defending.” He said and dug into his pockets. “I made these as a test and I want you to have them.”

I took the handful of little rectangles. “Are these...”

“My new triple layered storage technique.” The enchanter said. “After seeing that sword...” He smiled. “I think you can put them to good use on the battlefield.”

I looked at the handful of rectangles and back at him.

“Just a touch of mana and they'll expand for you, then a touch and they'll retract.” The enchanter said. “You told me to have fun having fun, so I did. Now it's your turn.”

I stored them and chuckled. “I'll let you know how well they work.”

“I know they'll work great. I made them.” The enchanter said and brought the cart over to the head cleric. “Here you go. Fifty rings, fifty pendants, fifty bracelets, and fifty amulets, all with ten percent mana boost and ten percent mana regeneration.”

“So quickly?” Lady Matricia asked, surprised.

“I did them between doing other things while I waited for the enchantments to settle.” The enchanter said with a shrug. “Pay up.”

Lady Matricia nodded and pulled out a sack of gold coins and handed them over.

“Thank you, my lady.” The enchanter said and bowed to her. “I'll be taking the rest of the day off.”

“Of course. You did excellent work. Thank you.” Lady Matricia said and waved the clerics to the cart. The eleven of them took one each of the items on the second shelf of the cart.

The enchanter gave me a wink and then pulled out a wooden box from a drawer in the cart. “I almost forgot. Damon asked me to make these for you.”

“What?” Lady Matricia asked as her hand reached for one of the rings on the cart.

“He told me you could handle them.” The enchanter said and gave her the box. “I hope he was right.”

Lady Matricia took the wooden box and looked over at me. I gave her a nod and she opened the box. She gasped and quickly closed it before the other clerics saw what she had.

“Now I think your people are ready to come along.” I said.

“Damon, I... I don't know what to say.” Lady Matricia said and hugged the box.

“You don't have to say anything. If you're ready, let's go.” I waved at the entryway. “Everyone to the main entrance.”

“Ooo, are you going to fly with all of us?” Ksenya asked. “Did you make a big bench or something?”

“Something like that.” I said and we left the enchanter in the main room as we all went down the main entrance. I took out the large cart I had used on the other world and there was plenty of room for everyone inside. I didn't have to change how the harness was attached to the cart, so I hooked myself up to it. “Hold on.”

Unlike the other times I had taken off, straight up to the right height and then off into the right direction, this time I started flying parallel to the ground and pulled the cart behind me, as if I was a plane on take-off. I covered it in a magical shield and then flew up into the air like a plane, then flew fast once I was above the trees.

I went directly to the next closest undead horde and instead of hitting it from the side, I landed in front of it. It had already destroyed several towns and communities and couldn't be allowed to continue. Everyone climbed off the cart and I stored it.

“All right, this is it. The first collaborative mission. Is everyone ready?” I asked.

Lady Matricia wore the decorated ring, pendant, amulet and bracelet that each gave her a 20% boost to both her mana capacity and her mana regeneration. She put her hand over the amulet and nodded to me.

“Okay, I've formed a temporary party with everyone for this battle. We'll share the experience and the bonuses...”

“YES!” Ksenya yelled and a couple of the clerics laughed.

“The heroes will deploy in the main area to head the undead off. I suggest the clerics split up to either side and add their collective firepower when the undead are close enough.” I looked at Lady Matricia. “What do you think?”

“I agree, except the more powerful should be deployed closer to the undead and the weaker closer to the heroes.”

“Good thinking. We can support more effectively that way.” I said and she looked pleased. “Stay within two hundred feet of me or you're going to miss out.”

“Is that the party range?” Anthony asked and I nodded. “Good to know.”

“Let's do this!” Farrah said, psyching herself up. She kind of did the boxer dance to limber up, then she planted her feet. The clerics moved off to the sides with Lady Matricia in the lead, then everyone signalled that they were in position.

“Here they come.” I said as the edge of the forest nearby seemed to wilt and then the trees turned grey and toppled over to reveal a horde that was twice the size of any we had faced before. “Excuse me for a minute. I need to thin them out a little.” I equipped my armor and flew up into the air.

“Oh! This is the awesome part.” Ksenya said. “He's like a dragon when he does his flame breath thingy!”

You're going to be surprised. I thought and took out my enchanted sword as I activated all of the enchantments on my armor and the sword. My armor and sword glowed and I touched the sword to my chest plate as I cast the armor's main attack spell and held it. I focused it all forward instead of in a circle as thousands of one foot long miniature swords appeared around me.

There were a few gasps as I built the spell up and thousands upon thousands of more blades appeared around me. They expanded out and out, casting a darkened shadow over the people below me. When I thought there was enough, I cast Holy Cleanse on the attack and the blades all changed to glowing white.

“Oh, my god!” The clerics from the temple exclaimed, just as I let the spell go.

The blades shot like lightning into the horde in a continuous stream and sounded like machine gun fire as the blades cut through tens of undead each. The blades kept firing and burying deeper and deeper into the horde, cutting down and killing the undead by the thousands.

If I had left the spell normal and shot out in a circle, they all would have gone off at once. Since i focused the attack, only so many could move through the space at a time, so the attack actually came out staggered. That was fine, because it killed a lot more undead that way.

After about ten seconds, all of the glowing white blades had been let loose and the entire middle column of the undead was just... gone.

“By the grace of god, what did we just see?” One of the clerics asked.

“Divine intervention.” The woman I had slept with said and looked up at me with reverence and thanks. “Thank you, Damon.”

“You should have an easier time now.” I said to her and floated back down to hover just behind the other three heroes. “Get ready, everyone.”

“Do you even need us?” Anthony asked and started chanting.

“You don't see me casting that again, do you?” I asked and he stopped chanting to look at me.

“You didn't burn yourself out, did you? That would be stupid.”

I chuckled. “No, I just pumped more mana than I should have into it, to make sure the enchantment held.” I waved forward. “Ignore me and start chanting, my friend.”

Anthony nodded and focused froward as he started chanting under his breath. The undead walked forward, undisturbed that they had lost over 75% of their number, and then the clerics and heroes unleashed their attacks.

After ten short minutes, all of the undead were gone, the ground was cleaned up, and the rotting trees were disintegrated.