Forged Legacy

Chapter 128 - Out of the Frying Pan

“Finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot!” Steve yelled.

“I was!” Tyler retorted.

“You shot your brother!”

“I’m fine. Now focus!” Harvey shouted.

Utter carnage was taking place just outside their window. Despite the creatures being conjured from divine or eternal essence, pools of blood and viscera stained the battlefield where beasts ripped each other to shreds. It was clear that heaven’s array of lions, rams, stags, eagles, and giants was generally stronger than their opponents, but the sea of hellhounds and Nahashim serpents was endless.

The redoubt shuddered as something heavy crashed into it. Claws skittered over steel until a large black head appeared in the narrow window. Acrid smoke bellowed from its mouth as the hellhound barked wildly, and Harvey could see strings of bloody saliva stretching between stained teeth.

“Shoot it!” Harvey urged.

Two loud bangs echoed off the walls as his father shot the flailing head, followed by a spurt of black blood. The hound fell out of view, but Harvey could still hear it writhing in pain.

“Did you get a kill notification?” Harvey snapped.

“What?” his dad quivered.

“They’ve never seen one before,” Cash explained between firing shots at another dog in the distance. “You’ll feel the System nudging your mind with a screen saying you killed the hellhound.”

“No, I don’t think so!”

“I’ll get it!” Tyler shouted, angling his rifle out of the window before blindly shooting the ground.

“Wait!” Harvey urged, just as the weapon was wrenched from his grasp. Tyler screamed in agony as claws carved long, bloody gashes down his arm. Soon, the hound was back, struggling to stick its head and bloodied paw into the cramped room.

“It got me! It got me!” Tyler hyperventilated. Harvey quickly infused the bunker with his Guardian of the Gilded Return Imprint, and a large crystal embedded in the ceiling began releasing golden light.

“You’re ok! Don’t worry, we got you,” Harvey urged while pulling his brother back towards the door. He could feel his skill slowly healing the wounds, but it wasn’t fast enough. The infusion of his Imprint had an effect similar to Julian’s old skill, where allies in his aura kept recovering as long as he fought. It wasn’t as miraculous as drinking a health potion, but it was great for prolonged fights. Tyler would be fine even without any healing in the short term, but Harvey was worried the sight alone would cause him to panic.

“Do you need a healing potion?”

“Let me,” Cash said, slowly stepping backwards while continuing to fire out the window. When his gun clicked empty, he quickly knelt and placed a hand on Tyler’s arm. Divine light closed the wounds in an instant thanks to the same skill Cash used to heal himself after suffering multiple gunshot wounds.

“I…” Tyler gasped. “I’m ok.”

Harvey retrieved another gun from his spatial ring and handed it to his brother, not letting go until Tyler met his gaze. “Slow down. You need to fight smart.”

The hound was still struggling to worm its way inside, only managing to fill the air with its unholy smoke. The smell was almost a mental attack, and he imagined it would eventually make it hard for lower-level humans to breathe. Luckily, the healing light of his Imprint-infused skill seemed to be enough for his father to mostly ignore the smoke. Steve shot the hound again, but rage seemed to overcome any survival instinct the creature might have. Seeing bullets weren’t enough, Harvey retrieved the Sentinel’s Arcblade from his ring and stabbed it into the hound’s gaping maw, baking its innards with a burst of flame from Flamestrike and lightning from the longsword’s arrays.

You have slain Level 22 - Hellhound. Essence Gained. 1121 Merit Earned.

“Got the notification!” his father said.

“Good. Keep shooting, but stay away from the windows.”

Gunshots raged from the bunker, all three unloading into the horde. Despite their numbers, heaven’s army was steadily securing the advantage. The dozens of angels lined up on either side had yet to enter the fray, clearly content to let their conjured creatures die in their stead. Whenever a pack threatened to break the line, Harvey tossed an orb of supercharged lightning ink infused with Architect of the Veils End. Constantly infusing the bunker and his Inkbound Ordnance would completely drain his mental energy before the fight was over, so he cut the connection to his bunker until something started pounding on it.

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“I’m down to my last mag!” Steve announced, carefully reloading his rifle.

“Save it! You don’t want to be empty-handed if something breaks in here.”

The Legacy’s Redoubt was proving extremely durable, especially since Harvey could make minor repairs to the bunker by infusing more essence into the sigil on his back. Doing so forced him to drink one of his F Grade essence potions, but he had plenty after his actions in the first trial rewarded him with plenty of merit. A few more hounds tried their luck writhing through the window, but they all met the same fate as the first.

“Hellhounds are all dumber than rocks. It’s the snakes we need to worry about,” Cash said. As if manifesting their arrival, a scaled, triangular head peered down from the top corner of a side window, fiery drops already dripping from its mouth. Unlike its simpler brethren, the serpents had silently wriggled atop the bunker, aiming to strike unseen.

“Watch out!” Harvey shouted. His shield was already moving to cover the open window, but the serpent was faster. A ball of sticky flame shot between its fangs, headed right towards Cash’s head. White wings turned solid gold, catching the lava before metal feathers sliced it in two.

“Ahh!” Steve screamed. Harvey turned to see a second snake dangling between his father's neck and the open window like a clothesline. Black smoke rose where molten fangs instantly cauterized blood. Harvey lurched forward as his father hit the floor, desperately trying to rip the fangs from his neck before the Nahashim could inject more of its white-hot venom. None of Harvey’s skills or weapons were delicate, leaving ripping the snake from his body as the only decent option.

Gripping the head in his palm, Harvey squeezed as hard as he could, hoping to ease the crushing force and let him yank the fangs out cleanly. It worked, but pain still welled in his chest as he heard his father screaming. In a flash, he banged the snake's head against the wall before pulling out Aftershock and crushing it like iron on an anvil.

You have slain Level 19 - Nahashim. Essence Gained. 1429 Merit Earned.

Cash was already fast at work healing his father, and Harvey was relieved to see him breathing heavily. Seeing neither his dad nor his brother was in any state to fight, he began infusing Legacy’s Redoubt with his Tempered Heart. Doing so would increase the bunker’s durability while blasting forgefire towards anything trying to break through. For a moment, he wished he could close the windows completely, and was surprised to find the skill easily bent to his will. All light from outside disappeared, and only the crystal embedded in the ceiling provided a fiery red glow.

“Dad! Dad, look at me. Are you ok?” Harvey asked.

He was sweating profusely, the skin around two deep holes in his neck swollen and covered in blisters despite Cash’s ministrations. His eyes were alert at least, meaning the pain still hadn’t completely overwhelmed his mind. “I’ll be fine,” he said through gritted teeth.

“His Vitality is too low. Healing skills still rely on the wounded’s vitality to direct the essence,” Cash said.

“Would a potion help?” Harvey asked nervously.

Cash just shook his head. “That would have the same problem. He’s fine, it’s just going to take a minute.”

“We’ve got time,” Harvey assured.

The ceiling caved inwards as something massive crashed down on the bunker. Steel bowed and creaked ominously as a deafening roar accompanied the air growing noticeably hotter.

“Oh come on!” Harvey complained.

The dragon didn’t move, happy to use their bunker as a perch where it could rain hellfire down on their army. Their hideout would collapse any moment, and it took a staggering amount of essence channeled into the sigil to keep it from crumbling back to pure essence.

“I can’t hold it!” Harvey warned.

“If you can buy me some time, I’ll get them to safety!” Cash offered.

Before either could protest, Harvey exchanged his Tempered Heart for the Architect of the Veils End. He desperately infused as much mental energy as the crystal above his head could take, turning their bunker into a bomb that sent shards of steel hurtling into the dragon’s meaty underbelly.

Grooaah!

Luckily, the startled dragon took to the skies rather than collapsing on his head, giving Cash enough time to grab his father and brother by their shirts and sprint away. With his attributes and impressive stature, Cash could easily carry both like they were burned and bloodied teddy bears.

The eruption of his dome had killed any snakes and hellhounds close by, and the dragon’s indiscriminate flames had taken care of the rest of the creatures within a 20-meter radius. The nearby angels had fled at the sight of the dragon, leaving him alone in the eye of a storm of destruction with an angry dragon right above his head.

[You want to run or fight?]

I’ll strike while the iron’s hot, but we’re getting out of here if the angels don’t back us up.

In a flash, the hammer in his hand was replaced by his sword. A 5-meter copy grew from the blade, conjured with Innovator’s Arsenal and infused by his Tempered Heart. Using Booster, Harvey turned himself into a rocket-propelled lance that impaled the beast's right wing. It roared and thrashed in outrage, but his movement skill had already pushed him out of reach.

The dragon was losing altitude, and Harvey wanted to help its descent. Holding his sword with both hands, he sent an overhead swing crashing towards the head. Forgefire and Lightning combined in a brilliant burst, but he froze when the conjured blade only cut halfway through its obsidian skull. Black blood poured from the wound, but the hate in its eyes proved he hadn’t hit the brain. The projection crumbled, and Harvey scrambled to curl as much of his body as possible behind his inscribed shield before his surroundings were bathed in fire and brimstone.

The flames sent him hurtling through the air like a human cannonball, somehow sticking to his armor even after escaping the dragon’s reach. His weave screamed as the tendrils embedded in his armor were consumed, forcing him to desperately sever the connection with Soul Forge as the daylight faded to black.