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Duskbound 3- Chapter 92
🕑 Added 2025-08-25 11:12:36 +0000 UTCFor fourteen hours, thousands of defenders had stood on Ashala’s walls and exhausted themselves driving the hordes back. Jensen had joined early on and killed several thousand monsters between level 3 and level 30 scattered randomly across the open plains surrounding the city. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to their placement, which was something of a mixed blessing.
On the one hand, the stronger monsters never clumped together and overwhelmed any single portion of the wall, something they could have undoubtedly done if they’d been organized by something intelligent. On the other hand, the human defenders had to spread out their high levels to cover miles of wall because they never knew where the next big monster was going to pop up, and a single one would trample over a knot of defenders that barely averaged level 15.
They were working in shifts now, twelve hours on and twelve off. Jensen was nearing the end of his time, which was good because even with his relatively high physical, magical gear, and a fortune to waste on system store pick-me-ups, he was still exhausted. Three times now, he’d been forced into melee range as monsters successfully scaled the walls and had to be repelled, and a healing potion didn’t replace time spent at rest.
“Good gods, what is that?” the woman next to him whispered. Jensen’s eyes snapped over to follow her gaze, where a monster seemingly made out of living steel was tearing its way across the field. It was at least twelve feet tall, had four thick, straight blades for limbs, a spinning core of serrated ridges where its torso should be, and a dozen curved scythe blades spread out behind it like a pair of outstretched wings. Something that looked like an overlong crown grew out of the torso where its head should have been.
Any monster that got in its way was shredded as it burst through it without so much as slowing down. It glided across the ground, mere inches above the dirt and moving faster than Jensen could run even if he were fresh. He estimated less than a minute before it reached the walls, maybe even sooner if it could fly, which seemed like a safe bet.
“Fuck,” someone else swore. He was a grizzled old hunter, a retired gold-ranker, from what Jensen understood, who held a brace of javelins that he hurled with uncanny accuracy, only for them to reappear moments after striking a monster. “That’s a godsdamned steel surger, and a big one.”
“Elite?” Jensen asked.
“Probably, knowing my luck. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s level 50.”
No. It couldn’t be that strong. Nothing out here’s been over level 40, and there’s only been three of those since this started.
Still, the way the surger was tearing across the plains, it killed more monsters in half a minute than some of the defenders had in hours. Jensen knew a lot of those monsters, too. Some of them didn’t go down easily, but it ripped them apart in a spray of blood and gore like they were worgs or skinder newts.
He started firing off arrows the instant the monster was in range, but every single one of them struck steel without so much as scratching it. Admittedly, [Vault Seeker] wasn’t a pure damage class, but he was level 28! He should have been able to do something, but the shots that weren’t deflected got chewed apart by the rotating mess of serrated blades in its core before flashing into a puff of mana.
A second later, it got within range of the javelin-thrower. He imbued his first shot with a penetration skill Jensen had seen him use to great effect, one time skewering no less than four monsters in a single throw. It struck the steel surger right on its ‘face’ and snapped its head back before shattering into a hail of wood splinters.
Jensen noticed that, for the first time, the javelin didn’t reappear in the brace. The thrower also seemed to notice that, based on the scowl stamped on his face. “We’re in trouble,” he muttered. “That thing is coming straight at us.”
“There’s another one!” the woman called out, pointing off to the right. That one was even bigger and looked like it was aiming to hit the wall a thousand feet down. If it tore through the stone like it did monsters, it’d punch a hole straight into the city.
“There’s got to be someone here who can take that thing down,” Jensen muttered, but he couldn’t think of any true powerhouses that had been manning the walls. The hordes here had been relatively low level and the gold-rankers had been called away to defend places that couldn’t save themselves, but he had to assume they’d kept at least one person in reserve, even if they were still stationed at the royal palace.
If that was the case, that person wasn’t making a move to save anyone. They were on their own, and if these steel surgers were representative of what was to come, he didn’t see the city surviving the night. They were besieged from all sides, with their defenders slowly exhausting themselves when they weren’t killed by a lucky shot from a monster with magical capabilities.
The sky fell down.
One second, the weather was clear, the sliver of moon shining brightly overhead and the stars bathing the plains in plenty of light to see the monsters crawling across them. The next, what appeared to be rain made of black ink swept across Jensen’s vision. He shivered involuntarily as a sudden cold filled the air, and then his jaw fell open.
“What… But… How?” he sputtered.
“I need pants,” a familiar voice said from behind him.
Jensen whirled in place to see Velik standing there, completely fucking naked, because of course he was, looking impatient and annoyed. “Velik! You’re alive!”
“Did you do this?” the javelin thrower asked.
“They were a distraction,” Velik said simply. “I removed them.”
“Good gods, boy, what level are you?”
Velik tilted his head. “I do not know. I no longer have system access. Perhaps 200? 250? It is hard to estimate at this point.”
“What are you on about?” the javelin thrower demanded. “That’s impossible.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” Jensen said. “You were level 50 barely a month ago. That was impressive enough.”
“The system… It is not what you think it is. It lifts us up at first, but then it steals everything from us later. Those with the ability to kill high level monsters support everyone else. Remove that yoke, and power is simple to grab.”
The gold-ranker was looking at Velik like he was crazy. “Man, what even the fuck are you talking about?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jensen said. “You wiped out the hordes here. Can you do it again.”
“Of course,” Velik said. “I would like my clothes first.”
“They’re back at my estate,” Jensen told him. “We stored everything in a locked chest. You can probably get there faster than me. It’s on the second flo—Whoa!”
Velik grabbed Jensen, wrapping one arm around his waist, then leaped straight up. Jensen was carried like a piece of luggage as his friend bounded through the sky, every step throwing him forward a hundred feet and coming down on thin air.
He had a vague recollection of one of Velik’s enchantments doing this, but it was only good for two or three steps. Velik took dozens in seconds—a slightly nauseating experience—and showed no signs of stopping. In less than a minute, they landed in front of Jensen’s home.
Velik helped steady him on his feet and said, “Show me.”
*
Velik stood in Jensen’s study, which looked like an army of small children had been let loose in it and decided to spend their time knocking things to the floor. Tremors were passing through the city every few minutes now, and getting stronger with each one. According to Jensen, there’d been a few hours where things had quieted down and they’d dared hope the disaster was nearing its end, only for the quakes’ intensity to come back with a vengeance.
“The push and pull of the essence is causing it,” he explained as he pulled on a pair of pants. He’d tried to equip his old gear, only to find that it didn’t function without system access. Instead, he’d rifled through his possessions to find a plain, well-made outfit.
“Can… Can essence do that?” Jensen asked.
“I’m not an expert, but apparently it can.”
“Can you make it stop?”
Velik paused in the act of pulling his shirt over his head. “I don’t know. If I kill the source, maybe.”
But that might make things worse. If this thing is what the system was built on, what happens when it dies? It would be nice to get a little guidance from up above on what exactly I’m supposed to do besides kill monsters.
“There’s a source?” Jensen asked.
“A divine beast kept imprisoned here as some sort of hostage scenario by the gods to keep them from breaking their deals with each other,” Velik explained. “I guess it’s waking up now, or breaking free, or something. The monster gods determined the human gods were cheating by sending me out there to kill their divine beasts, so this is retribution.”
Jensen was silent while Velik finished getting dressed. Finally, he asked, “What can I do to help?”
“I need Sildra to talk to Morgus for me. Do you know where she is?”
“Yeah… Yeah, I can point you in the right direction. But is that really all you need?”
“It’s enough,” Velik told him.
Comments
James Painter
This is fucking insane. Peak writing.
Etez
Just please don't rush it too much dear author... U can make 25 out of the 15-20, if needs to be >=>
Etez
Thx for the chapter :D this SoOo good
