Overpowered Wizard

Zarian caught sight of Ezda in her giant hyena form. She was running over the edge of the citadel pit with whirlwind speed, and the spider scouts up there weren’t able to signal for her to stop in time.

Descending into the cavernous pit, Ezda had on a big goofy smile as foul air and drafts of warp energy flowed past her. She was heading straight toward one of the ward triggers.

The idiot, Zarian thought wearily.

He was in too deep with the finishing touches for his massive spell array. He couldn’t stop Ezda himself. Naomi tried to intervene, raising a hand and sending a careful pulse of psychic force to catch Ezda.

Unfortunately, Naomi remained an example of why combat prowess at the sacrifice of flexibility and utility could sometimes be detrimental. Naomi couldn’t get to Ezda in time. The gnoll elder’s giant beast body collided with an invisible piece of the wards hovering in the air.

The collision led to a moderate-sized but potent explosion of foul magic. Blood energy, warp energy, and necrotic energy tore at Ezda’s body.

The gnoll howled in surprise as her body redirected away from Naomi’s psychic grab. Ezda hurtled down toward the blood river while the fiendish energies attacked her toughness, vitality, and life energy.

Naomi was going to attempt another psychic grab, but a mental warning from Para turned her attention to something more dire. A deadly attack was flying straight at her back.

Naomi spun around fast and swung her arm. The Rumble Psion deflected a giant spear that was twenty feet long. The impact rocked the bridge and forced Naomi to stumble backward.

The giant spear flipped through the air, stopped, then flew back to its handler … the Deathless Warden. The solemn monster had appeared from nowhere on top of the rubble on the citadel’s dome. He stood like a tall and mighty man encased in black, heavy armor. Red orbs looked out from the eye holes on the face of his big metal helmet.

Meanwhile, multiple blood pools flashed with sinister red light behind Zarian and Naomi. Five nearly translucent Blood Simulacrums rose from the pools.

On the other side of the bridge near the rusted gate, tons and tons of squirming, half-alive bodies rose out of the river. They combined into three towering Flesh Golems.

Last, but not least, the magic doomsday device activated. The warp field grew more violent. The maze of wards lit up with green, orange, and black lights that flickered hauntingly. A caustic and wild cage settled over the sunken citadel, leaving no means of escape.

In just a few minutes, the entire area would explode with such force it would kill Zarian, Naomi, and Ezda. Only the Floridians would come back alive because of the divine medallions in their souls.

But Ezda would remain dead afterward.

I won’t allow it, Zarian thought wrathfully as the darkness inside of his soul quivered against the seals. Ezda’s an idiot. But she’s my idiot. Nobody will take what’s MINE!

The Overwhelming Darkness quivered again.

Zarian felt very, very hungry suddenly.

This hunger differed from the hunger he felt from the Parasite Cloak +2. This was cosmic hunger. The type of hunger that could eat worlds and galaxies, universes and multiverses.

The seals struggled. The pools of darkness around the sunken citadel whirled. Zarian let out a heavy huff and leaned into Para’s consciousness for her help. He stayed on task.

“Naomi,” Zarian grunted. “I need another minute.”

Zarian maintained his meditative hover and focused on his first task, eliminating the doomsday device. Naomi would have to fight eight Level 100s and a Master Ranker without him for the time being.

<Blood Simulacrums, Monsters, Level 102 Blood Sorcerers (Legendary). Best Alpha Skill: Blood Surge Conjuration +3 (Level 59). Best Trait: Blood Magic Mastery (Legendary). Best Stat: 589 Mysticism.>

<Blood Simulacrums, Expanded Details: These blood imitations of ancient kings, grand wizards, and priests of great power are not ghosts. They are magical blood copies with very rudimentary thought processes that evil magic corrupted and turned monstrous and sorcerous. Expect legendary blood magic. They’re also very hard to hit mundanely.>

…

<Flesh Golems, Monsters, Level 105 Hulk Warriors (Legendary). Best Alpha Skill: Flesh Force +3 (Level 63). Best Trait: Relentless Flesh Anatomy (Legendary). Best Stat: 612 Strength.>

<Flesh Golems, Expanded Details: The golems want more and more flesh from strong opponents. If you’re strong, they’ll come after you to add your flesh to their growing bodies.>

…

<Deathless Warden, Monster, Level 107 Lair Knight Master (Legendary). Best Alpha Skill: Dark Battle Force +3 (Level 76). Best Trait: Determination Titan (Legendary). Best Stat: 707 Willpower.>

<Deathless Warden, Expanded Details: He was once a noble knight on a quest for vengeance after a regressor wiped out the villages and homes of his noble family. The noble knight fought bravely against many foes and monsters, growing his power, cementing the purpose of his crusade. He promised himself to ascend to the God Land, to the Ascended Heavens, and even to the Throne of the Adventurer King so he could prevent regressors from hurting the weak. It was here at the Chimera Tyrant Lair his crusade died and revived to serve a new undying purpose for his monstrous master.>

Naomi knew what she was facing. Zarian had already informed her of the primary dangers that she should be wary of. Other adventurers would’ve found all of this too shocking, but Naomi wasn’t the type to turn down a challenge.

“Aye, sir,” Naomi said, triggering the First Stage of Aura Ignition.

Naomi’s body erupted with a large greenish blue bonfire. A thunderous shockwave blasted from her body and bounced off the walls from every direction, which nearly broke Zarian’s concentration.

Her first stage was vastly stronger and vastly crazier than before. It was to where the aura implosion and aura backwash disturbed everything highly magical.

The doomsday device, the warded cage, and Zarian’s giant gravity array got scrambled shortly by Naomi’s Aura Ignition, which both horrified and intrigued Zarian.

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Hell, the Blood Simulacrums lost their basic functions and moved about erratically. One simulacrum fired a blood beam down the length of the bridge and into a Flesh Golem, taking a chunk off its chest, even.

Despite the brief ignition jamming, the enemy’s ancient doomsday spell device remained active and running. Zarian refocused and kept building his countermeasure while under the clock.

Naomi braced herself to brawl like a savage Super Saiyan, but the odds were still against her. Then the odds equalized a little more when Para hurled out three dozen skeletons from the pocket dimension and raised them to fight. Meanwhile, Ezda stood out of the blood river and looked brutally ravaged while also … larger.

Way, way larger. And way angrier.

A small part of Zarian wondered what was going through Ezda’s head after her latest folly. Could she actually help for once?

***

Ezda of the Blood Prairie Savages believed Zarian Darkrun was the One True God of Absolute Killing. She’d convinced some of the other elders to follow her belief, change to the freedom alignment, and reject Evil God Killall, who was a stupid and puny god compared to the One True God.

Zarian’s godly power was hidden in the flesh of a dark human form. But even that human form was quite wild and impressive, so it was fitting to call him the alpha when he acted as a gnoll would, but more humanized.

She wanted to lead him through the proper blood rites of the central clan, the original clan that took over all the others to form the Blood Prairie Savages many years ago. Ezda was a descendant of the first gnolls who stood above all gnolls on the Walled Continent.

She knew the rites by heart.

But how could she lead the rites for the One True God of Absolute Killing when she constantly made a fool of herself?

It was hard to understand herself now that she was free evil +1. She could feel more emotions that traditional evil would’ve suppressed.

She regretted how she’d disrespected her hidden god when he first appeared on a throne in the forest. Instead of killing her for her foolishness, he’d disciplined her with his dark and mighty rod.

That was the first time she’d felt a hint of his true power before the Darkrun Apocalypse revealed the truth.

She regretted how she’d revealed more of her foolishness by having low Willpower while up against corrupted creatures, which had her petrified like a weakling. That had been an extremely embarrassing experience for her.

Now down in the heart of the deadliest lair of the Blood Prairies, she felt embarrassed for having triggered a trap and making things harder for Alpha Elder Zarian and Sigma Elder Naomi.

Ezda desperately wanted to impress her alpha.

But now all Ezda could feel was hatred for herself.

She wanted her alpha and sigma to flay the flesh and fur off her body to punish her for her constant foolishness. But they were kinder than most gnoll elders. She knew they would forgive her even if she couldn’t forgive herself.

Thus, Ezda did the next best thing that came to mind. She pushed past the pain of her fall. She ignored how patches of her flesh sloughed off her while her joints grew stiffer from necrosis.

She engorged on the blood and flesh from the river. She empowered her class and abilities as a Level 92 and epic Blood Brute.

She grew and grew until she was big and weighty, her shoulders eighty feet tall from leveled ground. And she still kept her bestial form going, which made her super strong and quick down a straight line, even at the cost of lateral nimbleness.

Her giant head rose above the bridge. She towered over the smaller forms of her sigma, alpha, and their squad of skeletons. She dared not look down upon them without respect, for they were doing mighty work.

The sigma was using her Aura Ignition, which was even more powerful than the last time Ezda had seen it. The sigma threw herself like a flaming comet at an armored undead and three fleshy giants standing at the other side of the bridge.

The alpha was covering the cavern walls with giant arrays of spider webs and powerful runic spell craft. Maybe he was going to do something about the deadly traps of the lair. Nothing seemed to bother him while he sat in the air with his legs crossed like a wizened monk.

Both the sigma and alpha were conducting themselves with great mystical power. Ezda could feel some of this vaguely because of her investment in one of her three favorite stats, Mysticism.

But her abilities weren’t magical, like a magician. She was more of a magic brawler. She needed to hit something directly to be effective.

Ezda searched for a chance to help so she could finally atone for her many misdeeds. She hesitated a little when she felt the power of the monsters. They were above her level. Most likely in the Level 100s. Maybe even Master Ranked.

It was better to fight many, many creatures that were close to an equal level or a little above for growth. Or it was better to fight weaklings for fun. Facing powerful challenges like these would’ve normally scared Ezda into running away.

But that wasn’t the case anymore.

Her Willpower was better now because of the sigma’s brutal mental training from the past couple weeks. Ezda even had a new mental trait and a few achievements that added more stats to her Willpower. She was braver now.

The horror and dread rolled off of her mostly. The pain and embarrassment were an afterthought. When she felt a little nervous, Ezda grew angrier and more motivated.

There! I found where I can help! Ezda thought.

The skeletons were struggling against the ghost-like blood monsters that were based vaguely on ancient humans. Many of the skeletons were kobolds, even, and they fought savagely with lightning strikes, flame strikes, and wind strikes. They swung enchanted swords and used other unique elemental abilities based on the runes placed on their bones.

But the ghostly blood monsters howled and zipped around with dizzying speed and dodged the skeletons’ attacks. The monsters struck back with beams, bolts, crescents, and even bombs of blood that smacked the skeletons down. As magician types, the monsters wanted to attack from afar, and their attacks were getting close to hitting the alpha in the back.

Para, the mighty man-eating cloak, formed into a thick and heavy shield to defend the alpha’s back. A powerful blood beam struck and tore off a piece from the starry and hard shield, damaging Para at the price of keeping the alpha safe. But that was still too close, and Ezda couldn’t wait any longer for a perfect opportunity to strike.

Then the Infinita Star System and the spirits of her ancestors blessed her when the monsters arranged themselves to where she had a perfect straight shot at them. Ezda lunged out of the blood river. The first blood monster swooped up while preparing a powerful blood beam meant for Ezda’s head.

She got to it just in time before the monster finished.

Ezda slammed down her fore paw and used her Blood Hammer Blow +3, her years of practice and skill growth coming to fruition. The ghostly blood monster collapsed under the mega-sized hammerhead formed around her paw.

The hammer blow shook the entire area. All the skeletons fell over. Many ended up crushed under her bulk as Ezda ran down the other blood monsters while using two other skills, Blood Drain +3 and Blood Dash +2.

The first skill absorbed blood rapidly. Since the monsters were made of blood, the creatures ended up stuck to her paws while being drained. The second skill sped her up while it sacrificed excess blood inside and outside of her body.

There was so much blood, Ezda could fly hard and fast while catching the other blood monsters off guard. They had mistakenly stayed in line for her, letting her slam down and snatch them up as she kept using Blood Hammer Blow +3 to brutalize them.

Of course, the blood monsters resisted. They tried to reabsorb the blood back from her using their own magic.

They were powerful, as Level 100s should be. But Ezda was angry and motivated, and she was a giant Blood Brute with little blood monsters stuck to her paws.

They were at her mercy.

Ezda slammed her bloody hammer paws down again and again. She used pure might and ferocity to crush the monsters. She demolished the rock shelf under her and created deep craters.

Most creatures would’ve died by now.

The blood monsters, however, remained somewhat functional, even if they couldn’t attack back. She was lucky she could hold them close. Otherwise, they would’ve obliterated her from afar.

Ezda kept hammering them.

Blood Hammer Blow +3 was magical enough to deliver actual damage, hence why she invested in Mysticism. The Blood Prairies had many wild and magical monsters like these that were hard to hit without Wonder or Mysticism.

Of course, Wonder did more damage. But Mysticism let Ezda’s skills hit repeatedly and helped her recover aura faster.

So she slammed and crushed the little Level 100 monsters again and again until she finally wiped them out for good.