Chapter 512 - Solo Path Forward.
The charging samurais, on horse-back and on their legs were like a lawnmower as they swept across the battlefield.
The enemy troops fell to their feet as the horses run them down, swords and spears cutting slas.h.i.+ng, and impaling the slowest of the bunch. There was no way for them to make a proper stand, the charge was sudden, and they had no tools or barricades set up to defend against it.
The first of the charge was the burly man that was in Dave"s company, he rode on howling to the breaking night, "AVENGE OUR FALLEN GENERALS!"
The samurais behind him roared back in unison and increased their pace. For them, the two generals gave their lives to help them escape, and now it was time to pay the enemy their due.
Dave came down from the corpse mound, hacking at the stragglers, and shouted back, "WE"RE NOT DEAD YET YOU SHLOB! Clear the flanks, get the infantry to slow down, you"ll exhaust them to death."
The burly man was stunned, when he saw the still "living" Dave, also Blaster was no worse. The scariest thing was the mount of corpses that was behind them, just these two were enough to slay their way through an entire army, perhaps the general didn"t send them off because he was afraid they would die, he sent off the company because they were probably gonna just be slowing them down.
But it was still inconceivable, to be able to kill so many of the enemy and not suffer more than a few cuts and minor injuries. Mostly Blaster as the other general was unmarred by the swords of his enemies.
The troops followed Dave"s command, letting the cavalry continue the charge and the infantry to stop and do a clean up of all the wounded and those that survived the preliminary charge.
It took less than half an hour for the troops on Dave"s side to clear and conquer the field. They didn"t pursue the hunt for far long, the hit the enemy troops have just taken was great, they"ll have to fold back and give up on this position.
"It"s nice of you to join us," Ralph said to the burly man.
"Lord general, it was by no means easy. The Shogun had dismissed us when we went in to seek a.s.sistance in aiding you, claiming that the death of two men is better than all of us, especially since we have failed to take the valley."
"Do you see any failure here?" Dave questioned.
"I do not, and because of your selfless sacrifice, we managed to tell the story and the army rallied to our cause, despite the orders of the Shogun."
"d.a.m.n, that"s not good man, you shouldn"t disobey your superiors," Dave said.
"But it was cowardly! The Shogun had reveled in knowing that only you two were left to halt the advance of ten thousand. But when we shared the story of your bravery, the men followed despite the threat of execution."
"That means…" Dave turned to the army and said, "That you"re all Ronin now?"
"Yes, but we do not care. Honor binds us!"
"Dave grinned; the Shogun must be furious."
"Indeed, he is, he has sent word to the Emperor, telling him of our betrayal. He promised the death of our families to the thirteenth generation."
Dave frowned. That was just absurd.
"We do not fear for our lives, nor do we believe our families will think that their deaths are dishonorable, still we wish not for them to suffer the edge of the sword. What are your orders? General?" the burly man asked.
Dave turned to the east and said, "We march to the capital." He grinned.
Yet before the soldiers could even register what Dave had said a man came on horseback toward him.
"It"s a Justiciar!" Spoke the burly man and all men knelt on their feet as if they were meeting with the emperor.
The justiciar was wearing a golden helmet that covered his face entirely, his entire body was wrapped in red silk and gold plating. Even his white horse was armored up in gold.
The justiciar held a banner in his hand that had a circular sigil, the emperor" seal.
"I Bring the word of his majesty! General Oda! General Murasaki! Kneel and receive his word!"
Dave was annoyed, he was about to tell the Justiciar where he could put the Emperor"s word, but his body automatically knelt. It was a game gimmick. He couldn"t even utter a word.
"The lord emperor has received word of your bravery, standing against the enemy of the nation, two men against an army, and hereby, elated your ranks from Generals to Daimyo Oda, Daimyo Murasaki of the Eastern Army and Western Army respectfully. It has come to our knowledge, that former Shogun Tokugawa has been plotting against his majesty and purposefully sending troops to their death with a little beneficial impact on our cause. We have judged and condemned him to death and all of the thirteen generations of his family. The emperor has also lifted the Ronin ban upon all of your armies, and are hereby compensated for their brave task to go against the traitor and save our honor, by increasing their wage ten times! The Emperor may he live long and prosper has given you all his blessing, may you conquer and triumph!"
The justiciar"s word ended and with it came the elated shout of all of the army behind Dave.
"BANZAIII!"
A notification appeared in front of Dave,
***
You have completed your task. Rating S
You have unlocked the remaining virtues, Compa.s.sion, Heroic Courage, Integrity, Duty.
Second Phase of the Legacy of the Fu Temple has been unlocked and is now accessible.
Continue forward!
***
Dave and Ralph were teleported back to the dojo.
"Guess that went better than expected. d.a.m.n I even leveled up once". Ralph said.
"I barely got a fraction of my exp bar up, anyway what"s the next task?"
"We"ll need to ring the bell again," Ralph said and went toward the large bra.s.s bell. He struck it with his pommel and the two found themselves in another area.
It was s.p.a.ce, the outer s.p.a.ce, there was no ground under them, but they felt like they stepped on solid soil. The skies were decorated in stars like candles. And from where they stood, they could see a hundred Tengu sitting in the lotus position.
The closest Tengu opened his eyes, looked at Dave, and said, "You"re not welcome here. Begone," he uttered and with a wave of his hand, Dave was teleported back to the temple"s entrance to where they fought the Naandlous.h.i.+. The ma.s.sive temple"s gates closed up, the ruined atmosphere around it began reshaping itself, the broken walls repaired themselves and for just a moment the great temple was restored to its former glorious self, then it disappeared from the place.
"Where are you, bro?" Ralph asked.
"Out, he kicked me out, and I have no clue how to leave this place, only you know the exact path out. s.h.i.+t, I"ll be stuck here, I can"t even use a teleportation scroll."
"d.a.m.n man, I"ll try and clear this up, it seems that from here onwards all the quests will be solo."
"It"s cool, I"ll wait for you."
"There is no need," Albert spoke to Dave.
The AI appeared out of nowhere and gave Dave a slight jumpscare.
"What are you doing here? I didn"t call for you."
"I know, but your actions did, the quest script required the two of you to die, but as an Undead, you had a great advantage in the legacy quest and if you aided your friend too much, his legacy rank will drop because he didn"t work hard for it."
"I didn"t know it worked like that."
"Yes, the harder the endeavors, the more powerful the legacy. For your exit, you can follow this path," Albert said and a blue line appeared in the forest, curving around trees going side to side then disappearing through the trees.
"Follow it and you"ll find yourself out of this spatial enclosure."
"Thanks a lot," Dave said.
"You have defeated one of the Calamities."
"Yes, I did. Shouldn"t I have?"
"On the contrary, it was a good thing, now one of them is not going to harm the people of this world. But you know what this means right?"
"I think I do, that the calamities will not patiently wait until the day they"re set free. Or, some of them, have already survived the last culling of the G.o.ds, and managed to hide in wait."
"Yes, a handful of them is still here in this world, if you could find and kill them before the rest are released it will be a good boon to your survival."
"Is it okay to tell me all of this though?"
"It is, it is but information that will soon be understood by many of this world"s players. Your kind is not dumb. They"ll figure it out eventually. For now, leave you still have much to do." Alfred said and disappeared from in front of Dave.
Dave turned back, sent his friend a message wis.h.i.+ng him good luck in his legacy, and followed the blue line out of the spatial inclusion.
**** Please Make sure to read this story on .com, if you are reading Rise of the Undead legion anywhere else then you are on a pirating website, do not accept to offer any kinds of payment to such people as they are non-repsecting of author"s right and I, as the writer am not benefiting from their schemes in any way possible.****