Hero of Rome

As Maximus happily plants his flag in the New World, Caesar methodically starves the remaining Gauls under Vercingetorix into submission, reminding them that revolting against Rome is a slow and painful way to learn about dieting.

“I think he’s wanting to fight you alone, imperator,” Lucius said as Tadodaho stepped forth from his men and pointed at me with his serpent-tongued obsidian spear. Tadodaho then said something in his tongue that was completely indiscernible to us. He did not do this in my visions when I surveyed the futures before. The war chief began screaming, angrily pointing at us with his spear and looking back at his men. The other warriors roared with fury as he provoked them.

I sighed. This would be an excellent time for a translator. I had been putting off asking for a blessing from the only deity that could give us translation skills.

Fors Fortuna, the Goddess of Luck, was capable of gifting us with special enchantments if and only if we survived a crazy reenactment of history. I had endured the destruction of Pompeii and the Great Fire of Rome to increase my Historical Insight and my reading speed to god-like levels. Unfortunately, I had to twist my words with the goddess to trick her into giving me stronger gifts. If I were to ask for translation skills today, she would surely put me through the ringer.

System Message: “Ah, such wonderful insight, Emperor Maximus. Fors Fortuna has not stopped whining about that, you know. But you should ask! It will give you the insight you need for this situation.”

Here’s a better idea, I thought, why don’t you tell me what’s going on? You see all things, right? If you are so wise, why not prove it?

System Message: *System chuckles. “Oh Maximus, you have so much to learn. I cannot tell you that. Such intervention would be seen as favoritism.”

Tadodaho was screaming now, taking a bow from one of his men and shooting it at me to provoke me. Before the arrow could pierce me, I leapt over the wall and landed gracefully on the other side of the ditch.

“Do not intervene!” I called out to my men.

I frowned in frustration as I hoisted my Barnacle Shield in front of me and approached the war chief. In a display of awesome power, I summoned my Pilum of Mars. The golden pilum glowing with red, godly energy appeared in my hands from thin air. Tadodaho smiled earnestly at my show of force, twirling his snake-spear that seemed to writhe in his hand. I knew from the futures in which the entire tribe fought us that one hit from his spear would paralyze and poison me. I would have to be careful.

System, you deliberately helped me overthrow the Cult of Eternal Night. Why not do the same here, since I am the only reason why you are still the overlord of Antiquitus?

System Message: “Maximus, I am no longer worried about my rule, thanks to you. So, in the interest of fairness, and because that cult is destroyed, I will simply be a passive god. Think of the Voltaire’s Deism idea: I am only the clockmaker, and now I will watch my clock tick forward into the future without my intervention!”

“That is such a lazy excuse,” I said, this time outloud. The real reason, of which I was most sure, was because the System enjoyed watching his world fight. We were like his own personal UFC show that never ended, only getting better with each brawl.

Well, he was going to get what he asked for today.

“Tadodaho,” I said, raising my pilum and shield to show I meant no harm. “Can we—”

Something sharp bit my legs, strangling them. A quick look down revealed the grass was weaving around my feet, chaining me to the ground.

The chief was going to do his favorite combo.

I ducked just as Tadodaho threw his snake spear at me. In haste, I dropped my pilum and hacked at the grass with my Gladius of Caesar. It cut just like a lawnmower, freeing me just as Tadodaho fired off three arrows. I rolled forward just in time and effortlessly leaped high into the air with my blessings of Jupiter, keeping me afloat with my Boots of Mercury that flapped with wings for thirty seconds.

It looks like I’m going to have to make an example out of you, I thought. As much as I didn’t want to do this, Tadodaho was the most problematic of all of the Iroquois Confederacy. Perhaps Caesar was right.

Power respected only power.

In a breath, I activated two very powerful abilities before throwing my pilum. The first was my Chain Lightning skill, which I had unlocked for eight skill points after becoming emperor.

Chain Lightning

Description: Upon impact, the pilum releases a chain of lightning that jumps to nearby enemies.

Effect: Deals lightning 100% stamina and 50% health damage to the initial target and then jumps to up to 3 additional enemies within a 5-meter radius, dealing 100% stamina and 30% health damage.

Cost: 8 Skill Points

Stamina: 50

Cooldown: 25 seconds

The second was my Piercing Rain ability, which split my first pilum into three, all of which were equally charged by the lightning bolt that shot from the sky to activate the chain lightning. In a flash, Tadodaho and nine other warriors flew backwards from the electric force, their weapons flying out of their hands as a result.

Stamina: 120/190

Strength (+80): lvl 24 (160/250)

Glory (+240): 5,190

Level: 54 (330/560)

Tadodaho struggled to rise, groaning in pain as his animal skins singed from the lightning bolt. He was alive, barely.

At once, the entire native army erupted with war chants and ran towards the heavily fortified walls.

“Lightning!” I commanded, still in the air.

Together, my three hundred Jupiter-blessed summoned lightning from the stormy air and unleashed devastation upon the front lines of the natives. With such cohesion, they obliterated the entire first two ranks. Chaos consumed them as they barreled into one another. Perhaps like the future visions I foresaw days ago, Tadodaho would have been incinerated

I was thankful that Lucius and Tiberius would be commanding the rest of the men as the Onondaga managed to surpass their fallen brothers. A majority of the warriors would be busy trying to scale the ditches and wooden walls while being shot at. As for me, since I destroyed their war chief, all of the hundreds of spirit animals came after me.

Great, I thought, propelling myself higher into the stormy sky. Dozens of arrows zipped past spectral bears, wolves, and eagles as I flew to the heavens. There was only one way to kill these invincible spirit animals, and thankfully, their masters were easy to find, having to be stationary while controlling them. My men knew exactly what to look for since I had prepped them on this earlier this week for the coming battle.

“Now!” I yelled, just as my Boots of Mercury gave out, throwing me into a freefall. I would have been mauled to death had I not seized a lightning bolt and launched even further into the sky. As soon as I embraced the storm’s shadows, I activated my Shadowmail, which allowed me to take zero damage in exchange for losing a drop of health every second.

The spirit animals only followed me to the dark clouds above, much to their folly. The Onondaga had moved so far to our walls and ditch that they had left a visible opening in the back where the spirit guides were just beneath the trees. It was an easy shot for a skilled Jupiter-blessed.

The back of their army received the same treatment that the first two lines did. Like a flipped light switch, all of the spirit animals snapped out of existence, their hosts fried. It made me sad to watch as I fell back down to the ground. I had gotten to interact with many of those spirits they summoned, all divine blessings from their gods. These in particular were Tawiskaron-blessed, and they could summon them for several minutes once per day. It crushed my heart to have to destroy them.

Below me, light burst from hundreds of warriors on the front lines. From what I could tell, they were Hahgwehdiyu-blessed, providing healing to the wounded around them. I only knew so much about them because I had scoured thousands of futures where I mercilessly interrogated one of their men to tell me about their gods. All I could get from those possible talks was the name of their god and hand signals about what they could do. I knew they had some System-like variation of blessings and curses like we did in Rome, but it would be impossible to nail down specifics until we could speak their language.

It was looking more and more likely now that I would have to confront Fors Fortuna.

Thunder growled just behind me as I fell back down to the battlefield. To my relief, my Shadowmail was still on, letting the lightning fly through me without harm.

From the hundreds of times I had seen a battle like this playing out in my Historical Insight, I wasn’t afraid of losing or dying. However, it was still unnerving to go in somewhat blind to the exact scenario. I could reset my power. Only, it would leave me with half of my health and stamina until I slept again. No, that was too risky.

Was it the vaccine that was causing all of this? I would have to investigate when we were through with the Onondaga.

Reaching the battle, I summoned another blast of lightning and threw it directly into the thickest part of the sieging warriors.

Strength (+50): lvl 24 (210/250)

Glory (+150): 5,340

Level: 54 (480/560)

This time, however, I didn’t plan to decimate everyone as I did when fighting the Praetorian Guards before conquering Elagabalus. We did enough damage to their men that they would flee with just a little more pressure.

I became a whirlwind of pain as I repeatedly summoned my pilum through the arms and legs of the Onondaga. Occasionally I would pierce a man’s bare chest, only for it to be non-fatal by design. I didn’t want to kill needlessly. Because of my enhanced speed from Jupiter, I was untouchable to them as I sifted through their lines, dodging both their attacks and the unintentional blows from my men above. Only twice did I have to summon a Lightning Pilum to disarm a terrifying warrior who was moments from hitting me. My electrical aura electrocuting those around me also helped as I lightning dashed through them. If ever there were too many in my way, I would simply leap over fifteen feet above them, kicking them in the face along the way before taking down another behind them.

I didn’t care if I didn’t receive as much glory for this. The Onondaga, despite whatever reason they were fighting me for, were probably only doing this to defend their families. I would do the same in their shoes.

Before I knew it, the Onondaga began running away. I was completely soaked in blood, yet, not a scratch could be found on my armor nor my Barnacle Shield. Rome was an unstoppable force to be reckoned with.

Tiberius barked an order to not let them take survivors, but I interejected.

“Let them!” I said, stopping a barrage of pila from decimating the remaining Onondaga who tried to drag their wounded friends away. It was as they limped away that I noticed Tadodaho did not move before our ditch. As I approached the war chief, not even the black snakes he had for hair or the ones on his spear moved. All was still with the fearsome Native American legend.

But as I drew near to his singed corpse, I couldn’t help but notice his skin. The sight of it sent revulsion and fear into my soul, greater than I had felt in a long time.

Tadodaho was completely covered in smallpox. And not just the warchief, but every other Onondaga left behind.