Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

Hours of pitched battle upon the plains of a long forgotten world had finally given it some character. Instead of endless, dead and barren flatlands, the general vicinity at least looked a lot more interesting. With the craters and shattered firmament spanning dozens of kilometres at this point, the resilience of our opposition was getting tired.

It wasn’t the only thing. “Aghhh! Just stop for a minute, would you?” Naea had reached the pleading phase of the attrition battle and it was all I could do to shore up her confidence with my own. We still weren’t taking damage, at least. I smashed a particularly large revenant which had entered my range. As with every attack for the last three hours, it was ineffectual against anything but the rock beneath the spirit’s half-formed feet.

More than the expenditure of mana and the strain of using our Dao, which we were well equipped to deal with, the stamina cost of the marathon we had been forced into was the real danger. “Agreed, but for now, you just hop in here.” The only magical equipment I had, armour-wise, was my Adept’s Bottoms, but they helped in keeping my other clothes from being destroyed due to their regenerative effects extending to other items at the cost of mana. The mana regeneration effect it gave to myself was negligible at this point, but I would remain forever fond of the self-repairing trousers.

Naea hesitated for a moment but gave in and rested her wings inside my jacket pocket. We had considered a sling of sorts, but it made me feel like I was carrying a baby, which in turn completely threw off my ability to move around. A jacket pocket was better than clinging around my neck, and I was more than capable of keeping my familiar safe in this scenario. However, without her interference, the flying lumps of mana began to descend towards me.

Monster - Flying Revenant of Badaila - Level 05

Swooping like bats, dozens of level four and five flying revenants dive bombed me. Unlike the larger, landlocked ghosts of black mana, these fast variants were impossible to fully keep away with just my staff. A began lacing Mana Bolts with the Dao of Tempests, giving them the punch needed to dissipate the fluttering remnants of hate. The mana then at least needed to spend some time reforming.

I still had two skills I hadn’t used in this scenario. I saw no outcome where punching out with my conflux skill right now would be the right choice, but there was a chance that my remaining ability would serve here. “Naea.”

“Yeah?”

“You got me if this goes wrong?”

“Always.” I nodded and took a breath. She knew the plan, because it was the only option left. A deep one, not worrying about the mana in the air. I felt my mana channels start to become chalky but it was about to get way worse. With an Infusion-boosted sprint, I cleared some space between myself and the encroaching mana. “That is a lot of ancient, furious magic right there.”

Despite its voidblack nature, the black mana held beauty of its own. To my Stormborn eyes, each revenant was their own nebula of violent mana. Each particle of voidlike energy in the air carried the faintest parcel of intent, and while separate weren’t dangerous. With a target drawing them together, the anger acted as a binding agent and created the revenants. Once enough gathered, a visible set of mana circuits appeared in the form, gaining definition as more and more hate-filled mana found a home.

A home, is it? Come on then.

I held up my hand as the first flying revenants caught up to Naea and I. The fairy in my pocket tensed, activating Battle Bond and sharing all of the power and confidence she could muster. This would be a piece of cake with her here, surely. I smiled even as I activated Drain.

Skill - Drain (Dragon/Absorption)

The greed of the dragons is legendary. Like every race, each dragon is different but all possess the ability to take without return.

“Uh oh…” I murmured. The creature hadn’t even reached me, but the ambient stink in the air wasted no time. The traditional effects of Drain were still there, as well. A burst of power, a new energy to control within and not much time to do so as the revenant ran directly into my hand. I didn’t have time to consider whether it was worrying that the mana wanted to be absorbed before it was happening.

My hand, then whole arm, froze from the inside. The skin literally cracked on my fingers, blood forced out from the inside. I grit my teeth and tried to thank Naea for healing me. I found that I couldn’t unclench my jaw to do so, but her look of understanding cleared my mind slightly. I can do this, I told myself.

No, you can’t, the world of Badaila replied with force. For a moment, I wasn’t me. I had never been Grant Kaeron, actually, but a denizen of Badaila’s capital city. I stood upon what used to be its grounds, even now. As quickly as the flash of memory took me, it vanished, leaving me with an alien nostalgia for a world which wasn’t my own.

“Okay, that wasn’t so bad…” The revenant which I had drained was destroyed, confirmed by a morsel of experience entering my spirit. It was almost invisible amongst the taint that came with it. I gathered some distance while expelling the dark, sticky energy as best I could. I released a thin stream of mana from my hands to wash the nasty mana from my channels and give the stuff an avenue to leave my body.

“That stinks,” Naea gagged, referring to the scent of my mana, “it’s like rotten mana and Dao.” Despite her nose wrinkling, she didn’t cease using Battle Bond, adding her Dao of Rivers to my cleaning efforts and making them run smoother. Together, we should be able to handle this fairly easily. We repeated the process with another three revenants to ensure we had the process down.

Each time, I fought harder to keep my mental faculties as memories which weren’t my own tried to force their way into my mind. I was a baker, experimenting with new recipes, except no, I was Grant Kaeron. Then, I became a guardsman, depended upon to stand on the walls and keep away the darkness. Something which I couldn’t do. “No,” I spat, speaking the words aloud, “I am Grant Kaeron. I command the power of both dragons and tempests.”

My words were an affirmation of the self, the version of me that I had decided to become within the dungeon which had been my entry to the System. However… “I don’t think they liked that, Grant!” Naea’s panic was infectious but I forced it away. The mass of revenants and the ebony mist which clung to them ceased their shambling. The entire army began to sprint.

“Tempests and rivers, right, Nae? We weather and endure, right?” Attempting to inspire confidence in the face of an intimidating force, I began stamping my feet in preparation. The Alternating Armament became a tower shield and I slammed it hard into the ground before me. The open wastes of Badaila lay behind me, its revenants bearing down from the front. “We won’t be stopped here!”

Naea roared, bringing her mana and Dao forward like a dam. I howled and added my own strength to hers, our powers multiplicative. I pushed out with Dao, and moulded mana alongside it. A dome of power, mana running like a thousand rivers from my body and forming a dense cloud of defensive magic against the revenants. Not a skill as far as the System was concerned, but by far the most complex working of magic I had performed.

A tidal wave of pitch dark hate descended upon our little igloo of defiance and tried everything in its considerable might to wash us away. The weight of this empty world pressed down, as heavy as if a mountain had dropped on top of us. I felt Naea take as much of the burden as she could, but a flare of pride ignited inside of me and I stood even stronger than before. Maybe even more than the magic we shared, our confidence in each other kept us from buckling.

Somehow, though it felt impossible, the growing pressure reached a peak. I groaned along with my aching bones but held firm. My mana channels felt charred and raw, no doubt Naea wasn’t feeling much better. At least for her, the work was basically done. Holding up the sky was no easy feat, but now that we had, it was only going to get easier. “You know,” I said with as much humour as possible, “still not sure this is a great idea.”

Before Naea could fully register what I’d said, I began to activate Drain. The broken world of Badaila needed to share its pain, and damn it, wasn’t I supposed to be a therapist at one point? “I should have one of those leather chairs,” I growled. Never thought to find one and put it in my inventory. Surely, Newtown had one around. Seeing Naea’s confusion, I shrugged against the pain. “It would have been a good bit.”

It was then that my consciousness faded to a pinprick in response to the legion of voices which had just exploded into my head. It was so much information, and once upon a time, this amount would have easily knocked me out. With an effective Mental attribute of over one thousand, I was able to keep myself sane and standing, though I could barely form a thought.

Revenant after revenant, trauma after trauma, I absorbed the wounded soul of Badaila. I felt the loss of the world more and more, until I was distraught and weeping for the planet I had never been able to know. I began to cherish the memories of Gera City, a wondrous place of magic and abundance, although I had never, and would never see the place.

Mounting dread filled my throat. Rising through all of the somewhat pleasant memories was the idea that this was all being shown to me to make it hurt more. Whatever had happened to Badaila was important in knowing how to break the cursed bindings on these poor souls. The concept that a dungeon might not be a real place had long since disappeared from my mind. I barely knew what a dungeon at this point.

I only stopped using Drain when Naea slapped the back of my hand. I still wasn’t completely myself, but I trusted her enough to know to stop. I must have looked rough because Naea said nothing, just getting immediately to work. “Grant? You need to cycle your mana, Grant.”

Smart use of my name. Did I teach her that? Slowly, my consciousness floated back to the front of my mind as Naea and I purged the tainted black energy from my system. The fairy continued talking about absolutely anything as she brought be back from a strangely alluring brink. How easy it would be if I simply…

“God damn. That stuff doesn’t mess around. Potent.” I spat out blood and tongued the inside of my cheek which I had bitten clean through. I’d be fine after a bit of healing energy, but there wasn’t time.

Wave Two - Start