RinoZ
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Chapter 1504 - The Templar Fight
🕑 Added 2024-12-06 01:00:04 +0000 UTCAs the hours tick by, the field of blue mana begins to shrink back, retreating slowly towards the fortress as the energy is better contained and directed. Along with closer proximity to the fifth’s natural environment comes the inevitable tide of monsters. I stand at the front, alongside the thousands of ants, militia and my few templar, watching as they throw themselves into the field of blue, using their bodies and all the goop they can stuff inside themselves to chew through the cleansed energy as fast as they can.
It doesn’t take long for bubbling and hissing piles of slime to start running over the ground, evaporating into a nasty smog that hangs like a cloud until it’s finally burned away. With all of this action and no active pushback from the Colony, it doesn’t take long until the monsters are pushing right up against the edges of the platform, which is when we can finally get to action.
The ants move into position well before the monsters are in range, the militia and priests moving alongside them like a well oiled machine. Which they should be! After the hundreds of hours of drills and even more live combat, none of this is new to anyone. The only thing that’s different here is the scale.
The platform is enormous by necessity, giving a large enough surface area for more intakes to the mana channels, but by design that means we will be all but surrounded when fighting out here. Monsters can come from our left, right or in front, only our business district is defended by the massive fortress wall behind us.
Things are going to get hairy.
As soon as monsters step into range, the battalions get busy. Firing projectiles at targets outside the safe-zone, using Skills that extend their range to slash at unsafe targets, using hooks and crooks and ropes and cannons to latch onto monsters and drag them closer, anything they can do to limit the damage to the structure and maximise it to their enemies.
I watch as the fighting starts. I’m not really needed, not yet at least, which means I get to see as an important milestone takes place. All around us the toxic mana of the fifth presses in until, finally, the first of the massive intakes shudders to life.
Lacking any mechanical components, it isn’t as if great wheels or fans start to turn, or machinery begins to spin. The intakes are fancy bits of enchanting that draw in mana, specifically the toxic mana, and feed it into the channels. I think of them as like energy vacuum cleaners.
When the toxic energy finally gets close enough, the first of the intakes powers up for the first time, the enchantments activating and emitting bright light as the panels come to life. Slowly at first, then with increasing speed, the mana is sucked in and fed to the channels beneath us. I watch happily as the massive conduits receive energy for the first time, drawing it away and feeding it into the fortress where it will be distributed to the various wuffer stations about the place.
As time passes, the channels fill with more and more mana, a trickle turning into a stream which will soon become a flood.
But of course, by the time that happens, we will be completely surrounded by monsters and fighting a never ending battle. Good times.
[Alright, Templars. Obviously I don’t want anyone to get hurt, but if you get a chance, I want to see what you can do. I don’t really know what you guys are supposed to do, or are supposed to protect me from, but hopefully we can work it out here together. Alis and Jern, you’re first.]
Alis doesn’t appear at all happy about this announcement, looking out into the surrounding Dungeon with apprehension. Jern, on the other hand, is as unruffled as a hospital bed sheet. He just hoists his axe onto his shoulder and walks forward like he’s on a Sunday stroll, Alis running to catch up with his longer strides.
I watch with interest, though I make sure I’m in position to intervene should things go wrong. I don’t know what the deal is with these guys, but I certainly don’t want any of them to croak trying to help me out! With my new Dash Skill, I can cover absurd distances when empowering it, so I can make it over to them in a jiffy should the need arise.
The organised ranks of the battalions part to allow them through with surprisingly little resistance. Perhaps people are already aware of who and what they are? It wouldn’t surprise me, I’m sure Beyn and his followers have been ranting and raving about them for a long time, and the Colony takes an interest in this sort of stuff.
Alis is more of a magic-type person, but she also moves into this battle with a bared blade, some sort of short sword by the looks of it. I wonder how well they can use them? It’s not like the Torpor Police are expert fighters or anything, but I’m sure they were able to work something out so they can at least defend themselves.
If they’re useful, that would be–HOLY MOLY!
Before my thousand-lensed-eyes, the two of them flicker and disappear, then reappear on either side of a monster the ants had managed to drag into the safe-zone. Another flicker, and I can’t even tell… oh snap! They changed places, as if they dashed straight through the… they did! The head just fell off?! What the heck am I even looking at?!
For the next ten minutes I watch as the two hop about the battlefield, dispensing sweet, inevitable justice to the monsters of the fifth. Jern is like a dervish, his axe always in motion, chopping, slicing, deflecting everything that comes his way. Alis deploys a more mixed style. Sometimes she unleashes powerful flames, other times she lashes out with her blade. The two of them slip from shadow to shadow, becoming almost impossible to track. Or they charge straight in, using the straightest line to move from enemy to enemy.
As I watch it all unfold, I start to realise the full implications of what I might have done. If the Nameless can train someone to be a super-battle-ninja… then can’t they do the same for themselves?
My heart goes out to the Colony. I’m sorry, my siblings. I didn’t realise what I was doing.
Comments
Roombot
LITERALLY UNREST — ants not resting 🤣
Michael Edwards
We had that fun chapter where the Torpor police chased her a long time ago, but I don’t think it’s possible for them to catch her anymore. They have to dedicate themselves to all that silence/torpor/etc nonsense. Vibrant is dedicated to one thing, and one thing only - SPEED Doesn’t matter I guess, since in 1357 we find out she now needs to nap in between each word to be understood.
S10NN4CH
I think maybe both? But also, with how big her following is, some of the nameless are probably part of the rank and file at this point.
TheLostGolem
Eight hours of sleep. Six legs. Death to termites and centipedes. This is the way.
RinoZ
I was really proud of this one. This is what being an author is all about.
alt31415
Anthony 200 chapters in: "Look guys, it's important to get 8 hours of sleep a day." Anthony now:
TheLostGolem
Except that for the most part, the nameless are busy fighting unrest in the colony... (granted, the unrest is Ants trying to get out of sleep to continue working) I feel like someone is going to attack a nest, and then find out the hard way that every nest has twice as many Ants as they thought it did, and several of them will wake up in well furnished prison cells feeling like they just had the best sleep of their lives.
evyatar
Earth’s radius is 6400 km I think? Wasn’t the dungeon and the world said to be 10000 km? Maybe I’m mistaken and remember incorrectly
Greyg
Templars need some saiyan gravity training next
Colin C
After reading this chapter im getting serious Zatoichi or Lu-Tze (from the Diskworld) vibes from the new Templar guy Bertran.
Nathan Quitugua
What im curious about is just how big the actual world is. The Dungeon goes down entire stratums with even the 3rd having massive columns bigger then mountains. Gravity exists so going down so far has to have major implications on just how strong the gravity gets as you go down further. People die down there due to mana sickness but i wonder how many die due to decompression sickness/overwhelming gravity pressure or if the actual dungeon isnt all that big and its all just layers of self-contained dimensional spaces layered over the core of the planet with the spaces being just a mile wide but being thousands of miles wide on the inside
Nathan Quitugua
Possibly...but I think they might rethink their stance if they knew about Anthony's specific evolution with a Nave and an Altar. Granin practically went catatonic when he found out and became somewhat delirious. I think the Altar is quite possibly the #1 prerequisite needed to become an Ancient and they each have their own respective templars. My pet theory right now with the whole thing is that all 19 current ancients are biding thier time and waiting for the 20th so they can finally eat each other and whoever is left standing at the end of the battle royale ancient slug fest will finally be able to reach the last tier and evolve into what would effectively be a god.
Nathan Quitugua
not likely...she probably has her own set of torpor police evolved and mutated specifically to keep up with her and take her down...Unless her doing her micro nap thing consistently counts as torpor enough to where they dont bother her anymore
Gopard
Alternatively Anthony could just rise up to become the 20th Ancient and nothing happens... Then the big wave starts and everyone collaborates against the ancients the colony saves the day and things end rather unceremoniously lmao
The-Nowhere-Man
How did Anthony not realise that was what the torpor police were like?
Runaway_Cactuar
At this point, the only being that could evade the torpor police is Vibrant? Those poor poor bastards lol
evyatar
Yes it would require Antony to stand up to an ancient protecting the colony to prove point B to be nulled, and for point A to be nulled Morelia needs to rise up the ranks until she got enough stop targeting the colony, the realistic thing is a collaborative attack of the colony and legion to kill an ancient but they won’t fight together before the colony is proven as being safe
Preston Murphy
😮💨 so wrong here. One must have 8 hours of sleep as that's the perfect number.
alt31415
Except thats not going to make them rethink it either, because their whole belief is A) A 20th ancient would destroy the world and kill everyone and B) An Ancient could mind control the entire colony. It does'nt matter how strong, or kind, or merciful the ants prove themselves. As long as either of those two beliefs remain, the Legion will never show the Colony peace.
Ibuks5
Those are final boss level characters. When Anthony gets to a level that he can do that to them, the colony would be more than secure.
Ruwa
I just realized if the nameless can do that then....no one is safe from the torpor police
Grey Knight Lord
Eight fold is for eight hours of sleep.
alt31415
EIGHT?! The clearly perfect number is SIX, like the number of legs!
BelligerentGnu
My money is on the templars having access to some of Anthony's skills.
Kiongku
Now if they have some turtle or rat folks to join the ninja ranks…
Ian Jones
I think it could take Anthony going head to head with a high tier legionary like Morelias parents, and winning without killing them, for the Legion to rethink their goals
Enzo Elacqua
Solant might pressgang the Nameless into training more people. The revolution of the eightfold path is inevitable!
strainge guy1
Unruffled as a hospital bedsheet is a great simile
Buck
I’ll bet a training collaboration between the Nameless and Odin would lead to the creation of some top tier assassins. 😂
Roombot
Hahahah the poor siblings 😝
CentaureHeart
This story is just Anthony realising the consequences of his own actions in a perpetual cycle. Love it
DrDankness
Oh no. The battle ninjas have finally been released and the first two templars are actually capable of fighting in the 5th layer. Holy shit the colony is slowly hitting the point where they can challenge the legion.
Brudog2
Great chapter as always
