Hi, I play on playstation 4 elden ring, and I love this game so much. One of my favorite things to do, is 'invade' as a recusent finger. My name is "friendly knight" and I will do everything in my power to not fight, I'll just hang around, follow around, or just stand watch somewhere even fight off other invaders for the host if they haven't already nuked me and trust me enough. I only hela when a hunter or a player is just attacking without A second thought. I walk everywhere I don't run when I've invaded. And I use a pole torch as my way to show I'm friendly since I couldn't really hurt anyone with that thing.
It's so enjoyable when I just find a session of people that are just chill as hell, one guy and I ran around altus area throwing down the glow stones and just emoting around, he even sent home hunters who attacked me. Unfortunately one got the drop of us and nuked me immediately then acted like it was a massive victory.
If you're on PS4 and ever see me say hi! I wear gelmir knight armor and use the gilded great shield and zwiehander when I don't have the torch pole equipped. Sometimes I'll drop random weapons and armor sets for people ^{^} even duel if they want, and I won't ever pull out anything overpowered or unfair, just a sword and a greatshield.
I'm glad I've been able to play this game and tell my small tale here

Reddit gang, dropping this here so you can prepare for Necrom Chapter and Arcanist class when it drops on June 5th for PC and June 20th for consoles. I hope this helps you get prepared!
Written Guide: https://deltiasgaming.com/eso-necrom-chapter-essential-tips-to-prepare-for-the-arcanist-class/
Video Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZMoO6vKeWo
ESO Builds: Update 38 - https://deltiasgaming.com/best-eso-builds-update-38-necrom-chapte
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ESO Necrom Chapter: Essential Tips to Prepare for the Arcanist Class

ESO Necrom Chapter is just around the corner, so prepare for Arcanist Class with our Top 15 Essential Tips and level up quickly!
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The Necrom chapter launches on June 5th and June 20th, so you have very little time to prepare everything for the new class. In our guide, we included tips and pieces of advice we learned after countless hours and multiple characters leveled in ESO.

ESO Necrom Chapter: Essential Tips to Prepare for the Arcanist Class

In ESO, levelling a new character can be costly, long, and complex. Only the base game offers multiple skill lines, champion points, and guilds. You may be lost quickly if you are a beginner or play eso occasionally. What is the best race? How do you level up so that when you hit max level (50 and 160cp), you can jump straight to end-game content and feel powerful? We have answers to all those questions and more in our 15 simple essential tips to prepare for the new Necrom Chapter and the Arcanist Class in ESO.

Select Playstyle

Arcanist Class has many skills to enhance a unique, never seen in ESO before playstyle. As a result, in the Builds, we try to enhance the class identity. The following list explains shortly all you need to know about the new ESO class:

• Arcanist class identity is built around tomes and ancient knowledge.
• Class possesses complete tools within all three skill trees to fulfil all group roles and solo playstyles.
• The class possesses a unique, strong damage debuff, the Abyssal Impact, which increases your damage to targets hit.
• Arcanist’s rotation is based on Cruxes generation, debuffing enemies and channel damage.
• Tanks and healers will enjoy this class due to the active combo system.

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The Arcanist uses abilities to create and consume Cruxes, small triangular glyphs floating around the character (3 max). You will use specific skills to generate Cruxes and additional abilities that consume them, amplifying abilities and triggering important class passives.
Crux consumption could provide more damage, longer duration, cheaper resource cost, and more healing. Additionally, it generates and activates important passives. For example, Crux-consumption can give you more weapon/spell or critical damage. The more you use Cruxes, the better.
The following brief guide explains the combat with the ESO Arcanist class in builds:

• Use one primary skill as a tank, damage dealer, or healer to generate Crux.
• Consume that Crux with one or two skills for better damage, healing, and defenses.
• Start building Crux again to use the other skill for another in-combat advantage.
• In between combing Crux, maintain your buffs, healing, and damage over time skills.
• Your build wants to find the sweet spot of constantly generating Crux and consuming it for bonuses.
• You don’t want your build to have zero Crux or constantly three without a “dump” skill.

Now that you have an idea about the basics of the class, what should you play and why?

DPS:

As a damage dealer (DPS), The Arcanist excels in stamina DPS. Primarily due to a variety of factors like medium armor passives, dual wield passives and medium armor choices that carry damage. Can you do well as a magicka based Arcanist damage dealer? Yes, but in group settings, medium armor excels due to its passive critical damage vs light armor penetration passive. If you want optimal, high end DPS, we recommend stamina based Arcanist as of the making of this guide.

Tank:

Tanking on the Arcanist is exception with crowd control, unique buffs and debuffs. The fact that you have a built in class taunt along with built in major and minor breach means you can use different gear and weapon choices. The Arcanist also has Minor Courage passive which is exceptional for group play. Consider them one of the best tanks in PvE or PvP at launch.

Healer:

Similar to tanking, the Arcanist healing is exception due to the buffs and passives. While the main burst heal, or lack thereof is weak, it makes up for it with huge buffs and debuffs that every team wants. Current, the Arcanist is an exceptional healer, just use Restoration Staff abilities for burst healing rather than in class skills.
Player Vs Player: In PvP, the Arcanist is quite weak compared to other classes. It lacks a burst heal, or delayed burst damage skill, and the class really wants you to use the Fatecarver skill “beam.” This is fine in PvE where enemies rarely stun or disrupt you, but in PvP, this isn’t the case. The class does have strong passives, and ultimate selections and with either a proc heavy loadout in melee, or a ranged beam build you can make it work.
Opinion: we recommend playing the Arcanist a stamina-based damage dealer for both PvE and PvP.

Race Choice

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Does Race Matter in ESO? In general, no, you may get a maximum of 8% increased DPS going from an Argonian (weakest) to Khajiit/Dunmer (strongest). Most players won’t feel this unless they are trying to do bleeding-edge content. However, we do have some strong choices and recommendations for those looking to mid-max their Arcanist.

• Stamina DPS

1. Khajiit
2. Dark Elf

• Magicka DPS

1. High Elf
2. Dark Elf

• Healer

1. Breton
2. Argonian

• Tank

1. Imperial
2. Nord

Khajiit is the recommended Stamina Damage Dealer choice. With a unique 12% critical damage and balanced stats, and resource regeneration, Khajiit is all around the best choice. Only weakness is ESO’s 125% critical damage cap. Only in situations like trials parse dummies (21 million health) or fully min-maxed trials groups does this become an issue.
Dark Elf is a great secondary choice. What makes Dunmer’s (Dark Elves) great as damage dealers is balanced weapon/spell damage and max stamina and magicka pools. Major downside is the lack of any resource sustain or health.
High Elf is the recommended choice for magicka damage dealer Arcanist. The reason why, High Elf has a unique 5% damage reduction while channeling. This helps take less damage using your main channel as a damage dealer or a healer. The racial choice also has great passives for damage and resource sustain.
Dark Elf is also a great choice for magicka damage dealers for the same reasons its great on stamina.
Breton is the recommended racial choice for healing. With strong resource sustain, max stats, you will always be able to cast your skills when you need them.
Argonian also makes a great healer and is usually an optimal choice for PvP.
I would recommend an Imperial for reduced ultimate cost and cost of your abilities as a Tank.
Nord Race has a quick ultimate generation.
Don't freak out about the race you can always change with the race change token, and you must love your character.

Picking Faction

There are fantastic players in every faction, which doesn't matter in PvE unless you plan to play PvP with your friends in Imperial City, Cyrodiil or Battlegrounds. For maximum potential builds in PvP "Any race, any alliance" feature, available from the crown store, will allow you to pick any race regardless of your alliance. It's a one-time purchase and of the most useful purchases in ESO.
Also, you can change Alliance with another very expensive token from the crown store.

Storage Space

Get storage boxes in your house for supplies, including gear, potions, food, etc., everything you are going to need to start leveling your new Arcanist character. When Necrom Chapter goes live, you can equip it and enjoy the class.
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You can buy storage chests from Writs Vandor, located in each faction's main City (Grahtwood, Stormhaven, Ebonheart) with master crafting writ vouchers. Boxes are also available for Tel Var Stones in Imperial City Vendors or from the Crown store. Each player can own up to 4 large (60 slots) and 4 small (30 slots) chests. There are 360 slots available in total.

XP Boosters

If it's your first time playing ESO. I would not recommend the fast grind method, play slow and enjoy the game, though you can likewise use all XP boosters. However, if you're like me and have leveled multiple characters, you can start saving XP boosters now for an optimal way to rush to the end game.
The fastest way to level is to kill mobs with ESO XP boosters. You want to maximise the number of killed enemies per second. The Blackrose Prison Arena and Skyreach Catacombs are my preferred grinding spots. Here’s how you can maximize your XP gains if you’re in a rush to the end game:

• 10% from the Training trait for each armor & weapon piece (purple quality)
• 10% from ESO Plus Membership
• 10% from the Ring of Mara equipped (if you are married to another player and grind with a partner)
• 10% for being in a group of two
• 1x Drink or XP Scroll Booster
  • 50% from Psijic Ambrosia Drink or 50% Experience Scroll
  • 100% from Aetherial Ambrosia Drink or 100% Experience Scroll
  • 150% from Mythic Aetherial Ambrosia Drink or 150% Experience Scroll
• 100% from in-game Events (Witches & New Life Festival etc.)

The easiest way to level quickly are cost-effective 100% XP boosters, grinding with a partner, having all training gear, purple quality or better. For example, I highly recommended Heartland Conqueror Set, which gives your training trait 100 more effectiveness. Order’s Wrath, Daedric Trickery, Oblivion's Foe and Wretched Vitality are other good setups for damage, defences and resources, craftable and easy to obtain.
To make the process even faster, you can make multiple sets of training armor (for levels 3, 10, 20, 30, 40 etc.) to make sure you stay powerful as you grind your way to 50. So that's when the storage boxes come in handy. Store all gear sets there and be ready for the grind.

PvP Boosters

Leveling PvP skill lines are important due to the passives and active abilities that everyone uses, even if you play PvE. For example, Reviving Barrier is an extremely useful ultimate skill in PvP and PvE for tanks, healers and, sometimes, damage dealers. Also, reaching support rank 9 grants Magicka Aid and increases your Magicka Recovery by 10% for each Support ability slotted.
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Once you hit Level 10, you'll receive the invitation to Cyrodiil and start the introduction to PvP Quest. Upon completion, you'll get an alliance rank three, and two skill points. It's a good start, so you should never skip it.
Nextly, you can level alliance skill lines quickly on a new character if you use a Colovian War Torte and play low-level battlegrounds. Colovian War Torte is a craftable consumable that grants a 50% alliance point boost for 30 minutes. It is affected by the Connoisseur and Brewer passives from the Provisioning skill line. Despite being categorized as a food when crafting, the tortes can be consumed at the same time as regular foods and drinks. The 30-minute duration pauses if you log out and can be used as early as level 10.
The Molten War Torte and White-Gold War Torte are more powerful versions which grant 100% and 150% experience boosts, respectively. Note that while these items do provide a bonus to gains towards your Alliance War rank and skill lines, this bonus does not apply to leaderboard scores.

Gold for Inventory

The next essential tip on how to prepare for the Arcanist class and ESO Necrom Chapter is crucial Inventory Space. Save gold to max out your new Arcanist character carrying capacity. Each character that you create in The Elder Scrolls Online will start with 60 slots. You can increase the characters' inventory space by buying Pack Merchant upgrades up to 140 in total inventory Upgrades from Pack Merchant cost 179 700 Gold. Also, train your horse in the stable master to increase it by extra 60 slots to reach 200 inventory spaces in total. If you own a guild, you can also use its Bank for extra 500 item slots. Lastly, special pets from Crown Store can increase the inventory capacity by additional 20 slots.

Mount Speed

Like mentioned above, you can buy an upgrade for your mount at any stablemaster in towns. Each point in carry capacity will permanently increase your characters' inventory space by 1. You can only upgrade one of the thee mount perks every 20 hours.
However, you can speed up the process of horse upgrades if you own any riding lessons. Sometimes those upgrade items are part of daily login rewards or can be bought from the crown store. So check up on your stored daily rewards. This can give you a nice early start on your new arcanist.
As mentioned before leveling your PVP skills is essential, the Continuous Attack passive will give you a 30% mount speed boost and unlocks at Assault Rank 3.

Alchemy Mats

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The alchemy skill line is necessary to level up on each character because of the Medicinal Use Passive that makes resulting effects last 30% longer and is a key to better combat performance. As a result, if you're using potions, you get more Recovery Weapon or Spell damage or whatever potion buff you have. Consuming potions in ESO has a 45-second cooldown, and with the Medicinal Use Passive, they last 47.5 seconds, which essentially gives you 100% uptime in combat, assuming you're consuming them on cooldown.
So, buy enough alchemy items to max out the alchemy skill, cheap ingredients, in guide traders, like buying and mixing wormwood or spider eggs with scrib jelly will get you from 1 to 50 quickly. Change out your solvent, you can start with Ichor, and as you level up, finish with Alkahest. Take advantage of this potion passive right away. Trust me, at the end-game, it really helps your survivability with resource sustain and running Buffs on cooldown.

Consumables

The best food to prepare is the one that works at all levels, for example, Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl, Candied Jester's Coins etc. you can get those recipes just by playing during in-game events, collecting rewards or from guild traders.

Jewels of Misrule

During leveling, I highly recommend Jewels of Misrule for beginning players without a lot of champion points because it gives max health and extra recovery and really carries your survivability. Additionally, it’s cheap.

Witchmother's Potent Brew

For magic users, Witchmother's Potent Brew it's going to give you Max Magicka, Max Health and Magicka Recovery.

Dubious Camoran Throne

Stamina-based users can use Dubious Camoran Throne similar to Whitchmoder purple food but increases your Max Stamina Stats.
You can make potions yourself, buy them from Crown Store or from daily rewards. You can also use the Endeavors system to buy some consumables. Another good option is Alliance potions for Alliance Points if you play PvP. You can buy them from Alliance Siege Merchants in Cyrodiil main gates or Battleground vendors in any major city. Alliance potions give these really important Buffs, and it'll help increase your damage and survivability.
Start collecting those consumables and put them in your bank or storage chest so you can have them available right away for your Arcanist.

Repair Kits/Soul Gems

Stock up on repair kits and Soulgems, especially if you’re grinding monsters. The normal repair kits you can get from Crafting writs or buying from guild traders. Additionally, you can obtain the special group repair kit for tickets from Impresario Vendor, who can be found in every big city.

Master Writs

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For those that want to max your arcanist fast without grinding, is by using Master Crafting writs. Master writs are the fastest way, making you capable of reaching level 50 within 30 minutes. With a 150% xp boost from food and eso+, you only need 215 total alchemy or enchanting writs to reach level 50. Here is what to do if you want to level up quickly in eso by using Master Writs:

1. Stock up on Master Writs. You can get them from Daily Writs Rewards. The more motifs and traits your character knows, the higher your chance of receiving a master writ. You can also buy writs from guild traders.

• Alchemy and enchanting writs are the most optimal since they can be power leveled almost instantly and are fairly cheap to craft.

1. Get writs certified with a new character. Find Danel Telano and Milenith in the main starter city of your faction: Daggerfall, Davon’s Watch, or Vulkhel Guard.
2. Level up your crafting skill to max (of 50), and take the passives.
3. Use your XP boosts
4. Consume Master Crafting writ (you can have one type active at the same time)
5. Craft the required items.
6. Turn the crafted items to the master writ vendor. A good City to do master writs is Ebonhart in Deshaan, where crafting stations are close to the master writs vendor so that you can complete them quickly.
7. Complete Master Crafting Writs on your new Arcanist character until you reach level 50.

This is one of many reasons why crafting writs and crafting in eso is so useful.

Transmutes

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Stock up on transmute stones by doing daily random dungeons, Battlegrounds or reaching tier 1 rewards in the Cyrodiil campaign on all your characters. Reaching tier 1 rewards can be completed by simply preparing the walls in Keeps, no PvP is required. Buy stone repair kits from Siege merchant, place them in your quick slot menu and repair damaged keep walls. You'll reach tier one quickly.
New sets are coming with ESO Necrom Chapter, and some of them will surely be used for the arcanist class, so it's an essential tip to be prepared and stacked up on transmutes.

Maxing Crafting

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If you are interested in maxing out all the crafting lines on your arcanist, then you can pre-purchase intricate items from guild traders to deconstruct. Let them sit in your mailbox, and loot the mail on your arcanist to get a leg up in crafting quickly. Be sure to unlock the green CP "Inspiration boost" to make this even faster.
Gear pieces with the intricate trait can drop from any monster or crafting writs so hold on to them and place them in your storage chest or bank and be ready to level crafting on your new Arcanist character.

End Game Sets

There are just a ton of great sets that I use in my builds but here is a list of all great End-Game sets that are worth collecting for your Arcanist:

Damage Dealers:

• Deadly Strike
  • Obtainable in Cyrodiil or Guild Traders
  • It increases your damage for channels and damage over time which equals pretty much everything The Arcanist does.
• Soulshine
  • Obtainable in Reapers March Zone, Overland Set
  • Easy to get, base game, good damage set and is beginner-friendly. It grants you 369 weapon or spell damage for five seconds, and you'll be able to keep a high up-time on it.
• Coral Riptide
  • Obtainable from Dreadsail Reef Trial, High Isle Chapter
  • For more advanced players with stamina builds. You lower your stamina, which increases your weapon and spell damage up to 740. Hart to maintain but very powerful option.
• Whorl of the Depths
  • Obtainable from Dreadsail Reef Trial, High Isle Chapter
  • Excellent"proc" set that does really really good damage and comes in light armor
• Pillar of Nirn
  • Obtainable from Falkreth Hold Dungeon, Horns of the Reach DLC
  • Another fantastic "proc" set that also does great damage and will be meta when Arcanist launches
• Sul-Xan's Torment
  • Obtainable from Rockgrove Trial, Blackwood Chapter
• Ansuul's Torment
  • Obtainable from Sanity's Edge Trial, Necrom Chapter
  • I'll be using it with The Arcanist as its five-piece bonus fits perfectly with the stationary Arcanist playstyle in PvE.

Healers:

• Spell Power Cure
• Master Architect
• Powerful Assault
• Jorvuld’s Guidance
• Roaring Opportunist

Tanks:

• Turning Tide
• Crimson Oath
• Pearlescent Ward
• Powerful Assault
• Vestment of Olorime
• Saxhleel Champion

PvP:

• Mara’s Balm
• Plaguebreak
• Essence Thief
• Rallying Cry
• Daedric Trickery
• Hist Sap

ESO had hundreds of sets, and this list is also long, so what to focus on? If you’re reading this, We're assuming you want to get powerful quickly and reach end-game content, so that’s what we will gear for.
Also, here are some essential tips for Leveling skill lines to max out skill points, skill lines and morphs and be ready for anything in-game:

• Unlock Skill Lines (mages guild, fighter and undaunted)
• Level all Armor (light, medium and heavy)
• Unlock ALL Weapon Choices (dual wield, two-handed, bow etc.)
• Setup Skill Bars with dead skills to level the maximum amount of them at once.
• Level and change out skills and morph to level them all.

ESO Articles, Guides, and Builds

Thank you for reading the ESO Necrom Chapter: Essential Tips to Prepare for the Arcanist Class Guide! Also, consider watching me on Twitch. Feel free to ask me questions about my builds and the games I play, or check out my YouTube Channel.

• Complete Beginners Guide
• Skill Points Guide
• Champion Point System Guide
• PvP Beginner Guide
• How to farm Alliance Points (AP)
• How to farm Tel Var Stones
• Addons, UI, and Keybinds Guide for ESO
• Tales of Tribute Guide

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The Primeval Apocalypse by Alex Raizman and Robert Keene
Start here (Prologue) Previous
Rachel and her front line were able to scramble clear as the entelodont charged, barely before they were trampled underfoot. I had the brief option to stand with Rachel and her crew, but I cast that plan aside to stick with the giant boarlike monster as it barrelled towards the Mandrill queen.
The whole plan had revolved around flipping the most fearsome fighter on the field to our side. The last thing I wanted was to let that investment be wasted.
With the beast joining the fight, Rachel’s crew took the upper hand in combat once more .The Mandrills weren’t all breaking and running, but their morale had been badly damaged by the sight of their celebrated secret weapon turning against them.
It would have to be enough. The entelodont only had eyes for the queen, and it was not going to be swayed from that course. The best way to help them was going to be to help the beast to eliminate her and her forces.
The giant monster smashed through the wood-and-stone wall of the animal pen between it and the queen. Despite the opening of their potential path to freedom—or to the fight—all the animals being kept within fled the other direction, too terrified of the massive beast to do anything else.
I heard the queen let out a bellowing hoot of challenge at the beast’s approach, and when I peeked around the monster’s flank, I saw that she was activating an ability that caused a red glow to suffuse her arms.
The entelodont learned what that meant before I did. When it slammed into her, she held her ground, grabbing its face with her hands to stop it from biting her. Its momentum sent her sliding back, but she managed to avoid being bowled over as she held her ground.
The small army of guards with her scattered and scrambled back, too terrified to attack yet. But she held.
And that’s when I circled around.
With her whole ability-enhanced strength turned to the task of keeping those massive square teeth from chomping down on her, there wasn’t anything she could do about me. I rushed up on her and slammed both axes into her at once with reckless abandon, one in her back and the other at her elbow, hoping to break her hold. The giant gashes I left behind didn’t stop her, and the entelodont’s rage hadn’t subsided in the slightest. The contest of strength persisted.
I wanted to keep beating up on her, but the initial shock of the monster’s charge was wearing off.
The small army with the queen charged in at me, and I suddenly felt very alone.
My best attempt to tip the scales was to launch a quick kick into the queen’s gut, hitting her with Skull Bash to stun her. Where I hadn’t broken her grapple with the entelodont with damage, the stun did it. Her grip failed and the entelodont bowled her over, its charge carrying it through as it overran a bunch of her guards while it bull rushed her away from me.
More Mandrills rushed in at me from every other side. I still had a bit of time left on my buffs, but I feared I was in over my head here. It had been a long time since I used my Defensive Stance toggle, but this was the time for it. The achievement-granted ability boosted my parry skill, while reducing my weapon skill. Combined with the skill boosts from Rachel’s shouts, it was the best way to survive against dozens of foes at once.
Weapons whipped at me from every angle, but leaning hard on the system to save me paid off. My own axes became a protective dome of blades. My Beast Hunter awareness let me keep ahead of even foes attacking from behind me, my Parrying skill controlling my limbs to block those attacks.
Even still, more than a few broke through my defenses. My Dodge skill let me slip under and around a few of those, but not everything. A sword sliced across my cheek. The spiked butt of a poleaxe smashed into my leg. The side of a spearhead left a shallow cut on my forearm. And all around me were enraged hooting Mandrill faces, each one more intent than the last to be the one to kill me.
A strange sound was coming from somewhere nearby. Too rhythmic and patterned to be random background noise. Too close to be anything from outside the fight. It took me a minute to place it. It was me.
I was laughing.
Somehow, in the middle of this dire struggle for my life, I realized the truth: I was having fun.
The damage that snuck through my defenses was small. With all these foes working so hard, I had still taken more damage from the entelodont’s swipe than I was here.
My growing level had surpassed the power of an army of Mandrills. It was possible that the alpha or the queen might be a serious challenge for me one-on-one, but here? Against a bunch of low-level guards?
I was the apex predator now.
I left Defensive Stance active. The last thing I wanted was a lucky hit to take me out. But after activating a charge of Second Wind for some healing, I shifted my focus, lashing out against the foes around me.
My axe ripped through flimsy leather armor. A Mandrill screamed, falling away with a near-mortal wound. My next strike was faster, and I unleashed Maul with it, a blast of crimson energy emanating from the attack and opening deep bleeding wounds on every Mandrill around me. I bared my teeth in a rictus grin at the army around me, and reveled in the sensation of power it gave me to see them flinch.
Through my bond with Noaich, I sensed his approach. He’d pulled himself from the wreckage of the building the alpha had chucked him through, and was charging to my rescue, keeping low to the ground to ambush the first foe he could reach. I wanted to instruct him to fall back—to help Rachel and her people instead—but so long as the queen’s forces were here with me, they weren’t over there making that fight harder. And I couldn’t refuse his help if I wanted to come out of this fight victorious.
My initial burst of offense had given me some breathing room.
No, that wasn’t accurate.
The Mandrills were the ones reclaiming breathing room. I couldn’t have that.
I looked around the group until I made eye contact with one of them. It was a juvenile male, with a sword and a crude square wooden shield. I swept my axe at him and activated Mistral Reach, launching a blast of energy at him.
As soon as it left my weapon, I charged after it.
The blast of energy sent his hastily-raised shield smashing into his chest, stunning him briefly while I smashed my axe into his shoulder, hurling him down onto the ground.
I flung myself at the Mandrill that was standing beside the downed juvenile. My axes flew, ripping through her defenses and sending her scrambling back, fleeing before my damage output combined with the bleed effect from Maul spelled her doom.
It’s a monster! one of the Mandrills behind me shouted. Too much for us!
We are twenty of the best-trained fighters in SongLight, another crowed from nearby. And there’s only one of it! Just kill it!
I turned and found the one who’d spoken with such hubris. It was another juvenile male, trying to lead the older, more experienced guards around him at my back.
I grinned and lunged towards him.
To his credit, he parried my first strike. But the second axe right behind it split his nose in half diagonally, sending him flailing wildly. I kicked one of his feet out from under him and as he fell I hacked a deep gash into his side, feeling the scrape of his ribs against the blade through the iron weapon.
“Come on, then,” I said, flashing a big grin at the Mandrills who had been rallying behind the now-downed would-be hero. “Throw yourselves at me. I’m just a monster, aren’t I? What are you so afraid of?”
They had apparently been told to expect to hear me speak intelligibly, as none of them were surprised. The survivor who was huddled in the camp to the northeast had likely told them what to expect from me. But my words and actions clearly rattled them.
I didn’t wait for them to recover, launching myself at the next Mandrill, hacking into its armored arm to send a poleaxe clattering to the ground. I let out a cackling laugh as I hacked into the Mandrill’s chest, sending blood spraying. I didn’t even wait for that one to hit the ground before slashing at the next, sending her scrambling back, dropping her sword and shoving at the wall of guards around me to try and escape.
She pushed her way out of the ring of guards, and ran face-first into death itself.
Noaich pounced, snapping his jaws closed around her arm and twisting away with terrible destructive force. I thought she was going to get blended in his death roll, but she wasn’t sturdy enough even for that. Her arm broke off at the elbow, sending a spray of blood and sharpening her screams as she bolted away from the fight in a state of shocked panic.
That seemed to break the morale of the remaining fighters. Only about a third of the Mandrills around me broke at first, backing off. But when the numbers around me thinned, the morale of those who were uncertain failed as well. And the seven or eight who remained confident recognized the shift in the situation, backing off and screaming for the cowards to return and fight.
Well within my radius, I could see that Rachel’s group had been mobbed by more and more Mandrills, but were fighting them off now. The tide was turning and Rachel was leading the charge, jumping from line to line on all sides to support her team and keep them going despite the odds.
To the south, I could see the alpha abandoning the fight. He was heading east, but circling southwards around Rachel’s line. Was he seeking reinforcements? Or was there a secret weapon he was going to attack with after his guards bought enough time?
As the Mandrills around me scattered, though, there was one thing remaining that consumed my attention.
The entelodont was fighting the queen and her few remaining guards. The Mandrills were losing. Badly. The queen was now fighting with a giant claymore with a wavy edge, and though the blade was coated in blood and gore, the giant beast looked unharmed. As I watched, a giant gash along one shoulder knitted closed before my eyes.
I suddenly remembered that the cerebtyrannus had lost access to its telekinetic abilities while under the effects of the herbs.
A cold finger ran down my spine.
What had I actually unleashed?
The Queen and her forces were wounded. Several mortally. She had to realize that this was not going to end her way so long as The Big One was a neutral entity in this fight.
Herbs! she demanded with a blood-curdling monkey shriek. Someone get the herbs!
“Rachel!” I bellowed in response. “Now!”
I felt like it was a minor miracle that she heard me over the din of battle. But when she yelled her response, it was loud. I was convinced that she’d gotten a passive from her Barbarian subclass that let her put some inhuman volume behind her words.
“PETER!” she roared. “NOW!”