Bloodstained Blade-Chapter 75 - Fighting for Survival

Just after sunset, while the army was milling about, Var’gar rushed the gate alone. As he did so, the Ebon Blade purchased Amplify Blade 3 and 4. That cost it 1500 Life Force, bringing it down to 2417/9600 Life Force, which was more than enough to regenerate any suffering that its wielder was likely to endure at the gate.

The blade had chosen not to get this upgrade for a long time with Ivarr, lest the boy waste more Life Force in a battle than necessary. Then, when Var’gar had claimed it, it had no need to hit things harder. Its wielder already swung it so hard that even the strongest armor rarely lasted more than a few blows.

Now, it cared little if its wielder wasted a little Life Force with every strike. It had more power than it could hope to use in most situations.

Tonight, though, the target was not a man or even a piece of armor. It was the defenses of an entire city, and though the blade was sure that the orc could hack through anything with it already, given enough time, it did not wish for its wielder to linger. The longer he loitered alone at the gates, the more chance that some mage or hero would have to spring a terrible trap upon it.

Amplify Blade 2: This ability focuses the magic of the blade for a single moment, though not without cost. Use up to 2 Life Force to increase the power of an attack by 15% per life force spent.

Amplify Blade 3: This ability focuses the magic of the blade for a single moment, though not without cost. Use up to 3 Life Force to increase the power of an attack by 20% per life force spent.

Increasing the strength of its current wielder’s blows by 30% was a frightening thought. With an amplified blow, Var’Gar would be able to slice steel and shatter stone. Compared to that, hacking through the foot-thick gates of Stefan’s Ford wouldn’t present much of a challenge at all.

While the weapon worried about its powers and the city’s defenses, its wielder ran forward, and a great cry rose up from his army then, but unlike so many of his men, he carried no torch, so he was lost in the dark almost until he reached the walls. A cry of alarm went out then, and a flurry of arrows. Some of them even reached their target, but they were little more than an annoyance to the hulking orc.

-27 Life Force.

When he reached the gate, they did not attempt to dump hot tar on him immediately. That only happened when he’d started hacking huge chunks of wood out of the place where the doors met in an effort to reach the bar that held them closed. The Ebon Blade didn’t let itself be distracted by the distasteful feeling of slicing through wood instead of flesh, though. It was ready for that countermeasure more than any other, and it watched the soldiers as they tilted the cauldrons and let black death rain down on the area.

-11 Life Force.

Even before it reached its wielder, though, it threw Var’gar out of the path of molten fluid. While the orc could deal with fire and blades, acid had recently proven that its healing had trouble with some sorts of wounds, and the last thing that the blade wanted was for its wielder to be hamstrung for hours or days as intractable wounds drained all of its strength.

-14 Life Force.

After that, the door didn’t last much longer. How could it when its wielder was landing blow after seismic blow, and the planks around the growing rift between the gates started to come loose?

Even when some mage on the walls cast a lightning bolt that stopped the orc’s heart for a few seconds and set the tar around his feet ablaze, it only slowed Var’gar down for a moment. Then the orc went back to attacking the wood while the blade latched onto the mage’s soul and began to drain him of his precious Life Force.

-68 Life Force.

As tall and thick as those gates were, it took less than two dozen strikes before the heavy oaken bar that held the massive gates shut cracked. After that, he reached down to the horn that hung around his neck from a thong and blew a long, low note that carried over the shouts of alarm and the twang of bowstrings, and the orcish army surged forward in a charge with a roar that was deafening.

-29 Life Force.

The blade ignored all of this and focused on the gate. Despite the fact that the bar was broken, and its wielder had superhuman strength, it was only barely moving as it tried to overcome not just the weight of the thirty-foot tall wooden slab but the defenders pushing on it from the other side. They fought with a hysterical strength, but it was a losing fight. While Var’gar could only move the thing inches by himself, when the rest of his army joined him and the forerunners smashed against the gates, they crashed open, crushing dozens of men as they were slammed aside.

-18 Life Force.

+9 Life Force.

+24 Human Souls.

It was a violent moment, and though there was no true battle for the blade to enjoy, it feasted on the deaths anyway. Its trade-off with range had paid off, and in those first desperate minutes of fighting, it was already getting dozens of souls while its Path of Blood counter raced.

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+202 Life Force.

+38 Human Souls.

It wasn’t the only thing racing. Var’gar surged ahead, charging through and past his opposition rather than stopping to fight anyone. He had no choice. He had thousands of orcs charging into the city behind him, and the only choices were to move forward or be trampled by them.

Still, not all of the defenders got that message and ran. Some tried to fight with swords and pikes. They sometimes even managed to take an orc with them before they were crushed by the weight of their enemy. The blade didn’t even have time to enjoy those moments or to quiz the soldiers about what might lay ahead. There were too many souls pouring into it for any of that. All it could do was devour the dead, feast on their energy, and choose some ability to upgrade before that cycle started all over again.

+188 Life Force.

+31 Human Souls.

Primary Powers:

Amplify Blade 3: 2000 Life Force

Accelerate Wielder 2: 800 Life Force

Bolt 1: 1000 Life Force

Disrupt 3: 1200 Life Force

Amplify Wielder 3: 1500 Life Force

Increase Connection 4: 1250 Life Force

Lesser Life Reserves 5: 8000 Life Force

Lesser Soul Reserves 5: 8000 Life Force

Increase Control 4: 3000 Life Force

Empower Blade 3: 4000 Life Force - not currently accessible

Repair Soul 5: 5000 Life Force

Improved Siphon 10: 10000 Life Force

Secondary Powers:

False Image 2: 250 Life Force

Giant’s Strength 2: 400 Life Force

Speed of the Shadows 2: 500 Life Force

Improved Siphon 10 was well beyond its current reach. It needed to increase Lesser Life Reserves to 5 for that, but right now it wanted more direct upgrades. It had played the long game for too long, and its brush with the Witchhunters had increased its sense of urgency.

Instead, it selected Increase Connection 4, Increase Control 4. That cost 4,250 Life Force, but the blade had almost gained that much in the ten minutes since it had breached the city walls. Those upgrades were a long time coming, and though it was first to understand the brute that wielded it more than ever, its control over him was basically absolute.

+196 Life Force.

+29 Human Souls.

After that, as its energy reserves rapidly replenished themselves, it chose a number of smaller upgrades, as much to better understand them as to fight harder. First it selected its three secondary abilities, one after the other. That was only 1150 Life Force, but it was less interested in the expense than it what they might mutate into with a little attention.

False Image 2: The appearance of both wielder and weapon are blurred at the cost of 2 Life Force a minute or one can be focused and made almost invisible. Striking or being struck in combat will nullify this power for several seconds.

Giant’s Strength 2: +2 strength. This bonus is tripled when facing an enemy that is more than a foot larger than you.

Speed of the Shadows 2: +2 agility, +15% speed in dim or darker conditions. Wielder is harder to see in dark conditions, and the glow from the Ebon Blade’s runes can be suppressed by spending 1 Life Force per minute.

One of the things it hoped to accomplish in the city, once the fight was done, was to probe whatever treasury that the duke who ruled this city might have, as well as the bodies of the mages and the generals for their own magical items. It hoped to find hex blades that way, of course, but more than that, it knew it might find more secondary powers, and if it chose to keep one, then it would have to get rid of one of its existing powers. Since it had so little experience with them, though, it had no idea whether any of them might be good and worth keeping.

+241 Life Force.

+21 Human Souls.

None of the level 2 abilities struck it as particularly interesting, and that was almost disappointing enough for the blade to allow itself to get lost in the bloody battle going on around it. However, only the note about the nature of False Image 3 stopped it in its tracks. For a moment, even the din of battle around it disappeared as it read the ability it could buy and the unexpected twist that it offered.

False Image 3: Both weapon and wielder are made invisible for up to ten seconds at a time, appearing as no more than a heat shimmer at the cost of 5 Life Force a minute or one can be focused and made almost invisible. Alternatively, minor changes can be affected on the wielder or the weapon, making them appear different. These are blurry and instinct, and major alterations will be noticed on closer inspection. Striking or being struck in combat will nullify this power for several seconds.

It hadn’t purchased the power yet. Still, the idea that it was evolving into some wider power and operating much like the elf’s cloak had intrigued it. Invisibility and deception are both useful traits, the blade decided immediately. It doubted that such a power would hide it from something like a mage’s ability to see beyond the physical and spot it, but it was still worth exploring and improving. The weapon had not decided if either of its other secondary abilities were keepers, but this one at least definitely was.