As much as he would have liked to go after the Warlord, Arthur knew it wasn’t in the best interest of his kingdom. If he saw him, he’d kill him, but he couldn’t waste his time tracking one man down. He was here to get stronger and that meant increasing his faction’s score. When they did find the Warlord, he was ready for him. He pulled up the description of his Divine ability.
With this ability he could face nearly any creature of his rank, fighting creature of higher tiers than himself was always risky, this effect wasn’t like an enchantment that boosted your attributes. Every time he used this ability it was like ranking up, without the pain at least, but it meant that if his attributes went beyond what they should be for his rank he would suffer. Also, when the duel ended all that excess strength disappeared leaving him in a crashed state, which was why he needed a party to watch his back after duels.
He and a group of four others he’d put together were racing across the battlefield now, he wasn’t exactly sure if he trusted them all to watch his back, but he had picked them for other reasons. His breath heaved as he plowed forward, while he had excellent Endurance It was times like this where Arthur really wanted a summons for a mount. They reached a point that their scout had marked with one of their abilities. They reached the capture point and looked down at a smooth black crater.
“What happened?” the scout asked, she was an archer and the Champion of Meresha, the goddess of Seers and Oracles. “This was a hill half an hour ago, it had the ruins of a stone tower on it.”
“You can destroy capture points?” Hornar asked.
“Apparently,” Arthur said grinding his teeth.
“But who would do that?” Hornar asked.
“The Warlord,” Ammerila said. “I’ve seen him shift stone like this before, he’s just one man and knows that. He can’t hold all these capture points, but he can stop us from doing so too.”
Arthur looked at the Assassin, she was as deadly as she was beautiful, and he knew it. He had taken her into his party for one reason, she wanted to kill the Warlord. While he didn’t trust her, he did trust that. They would be enemies again when this Event was over but for now, they had a common enemy. He looked away from the pale skin of her face and gentle smirk that curved her lips. It was hard to believe that the living embodiment of murder could have such a gentle face, but he had to keep reminding himself of that.
“What do we do now?” Kay asked.
Kay was the only one in the party that Arthur had full confidence in.
“We keep going,” Arthur said. “Either we find a capture point, or we run into the Warlord; I’ll consider either outcome a victory.”
---
I lowered my hand for the hundredth time as I finished destroying another capture point.
Teleporting into the air I oriented myself, spinning around in a circle as I fell back to the earth but not before catching sight of another likely capture point. I wasn’t sure how many of these things there were, but based on what I’d seen so far there were no more than two or three per square mile. I’d started as close as I could to the side I’d entered the Event, Arthur wouldn’t be finding any capture points near him.
Hitting the ground hard I rolled to disperse the force of my impact, it still rattled my body, but my body was supernaturally reinforced. I still had a third of the battlefield left to go over, it had been two hours and though I hadn’t seen anyone else yet, I was sure I would soon. Some of these capture points would be occupied and it would be up to me to evict their current tenants.
Reaching the next capture point I raised my hand. “Hell-Dragon’s Armory,” I said.
It took me less than a minute to destroy the capture point.
My work done I was off again teleporting into the air to find my next target. I spotted one and dropped to the ground. I thought I’d caught a glimpse of movement; I might have my first fight for the day soon.
Racing across the ground I teleported to the side as something whizzed past my head. It wasn’t an arrow, too small for that. I kept moving and my Foresight warned me of another attack. Rolling, it went over my head, but my enhanced perception caught a glimpse of the bullet.
“Who brings a gun into a fantasy setting?” I asked.
Springing forward I continued to close the distance twisting to the side as another bullet brushed past my torso.
“I mean it’s not like they’re more powerful than any other weapon,” I said rolling forward again. “And we have spells that can far exceed what even the US military could do.”
Are you talking to us? Karnen asked.
I think he was just musing aloud, Aries said, while instead he should be focusing on the fight. How many of them do you sense Voidra?
Just five, Voidra said. They’re pretty calm right now, they have no idea what’s about to him them.
Teleporting forward I was at the top of the hill. A spear thrust forward and spun to the side letting it pass me. Another bullet shot at me from point blank range, Clarent was out in a heartbeat the stands of lightning catching the bullet turning it into molten slag and then flinging it up into the air.
“Your lightning sword is impressive,” a gruff voice said.
I focused on the speaker; he carried a shield and a heavy warhammer its shaft made of blue crystal. He wore dark silver chainmail and Nordic style helmet and fur mantle around his shoulders. He would have looked very human accept for the dark raven wings that emerged from his back. Our battle paused for a moment as we surveyed eachother and his party organized themselves better to face me. I analyzed the man, reading his description.
“I am Itzal, the Champion of Hundar, the god of Storms and Lightning,” Itzal said.
“I am Mordred, the Champion of Kelesa, the goddess of War and Conquest,” I said, this seemed like some sort of ritual we had to do even if we could read the others description.
“Ah!” Itzal said seeming excited. “You’re the Warlord I have heard so much about?”
“I didn’t realize I was famous,” I said shrugging.
“Perhaps not you but your legend of what you can become,” Itzal alleged. “It is my comrades honor to fight you, I apologize if we won’t hold back.”
“Apology accepted, please accept mine in return,” I said readying myself.
“Excellent,” Itzal said.
A torrent of gunshots rang out, the champion who held the gun had turned it from a sniper rifle into a machine gun. A dozen spears stabbed up from the earth and a lightning bolt fell down from the heavens. I was already incorporeal, the bullets and spears passing through me harmlessly and the lightning only stinging me slightly.
Rushing forward the spectral version of Clarent screamed like a banshee as I brought it down in heavy swing. The spear wielding champion made the mistake of trying to block instead of dodge and the phantom blade passed through his weapon and he screamed as the soul damage ravaged his spirit.
The gunslinger ejected his magazine.
“Spectral rounds,” he said sliding in a replacement and unleashing another salvo of bullets into me.
These bullet did real damage punching holes through my spectral frame. I materialized and teleported away. Appearing behind the groups support I grabbed the startled man by the shoulder and rammed Clarent through his back twisting and slicing up along his spine. He collapsed to the ground as a burning corpse, and I spun blocking another spear strike aimed for my chest. The healer had gone down easy but that was to be expected, it was the fault I had found with this world’s away of doing things. Sure, the holy trinity of healer, tank and dps worked in games but we were all combatants trying to reach the top. If you couldn’t do all three yourself than you had already admitted, you were never going to win.
The spear wielder blocked a retaliatory strike from me stepping back to gain space as he stabbed at the unarmored sections of my body. The bullets continued to ping off my armor and dig into my skin. They burned like burning balls of plasma as they connected with my skin, but I barely noticed the pain. Foresight warned me and I rolled to the side as Itzal plunged down his hammer hitting the ground sending out a shockwave. He and the spear wielder flanked me gripping Clarent in both hands I extended its other blade. Catching the spear with one side I ducked a strike from the hammer twisting to striking towards Itzal’s chest.
“Your fast,” Itzal said. “But let’s see if you can outpace lightning. Storm Strike.”
A bolt of lightning hit me from the sky, nearly driving me to my knees.
The spear wielder lunged forward activating an ability of his own. “Ignore armor,” he snapped out.
The head of the spear rammed through the left side of my chest through my heart. He yanked it out with a pleased look on his face. The stun wore off and I still stood there, my body smoking with Black Rage and burning flesh from the lightning bolt.
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“That the best you got?” I asked, spitting out the blood from my lungs. “Let me show you what a real storm looks like.”
Red lightning races across the hilltop, Itzal was unfazed by it, but his campions were not. The gunslinger and spear wielder were not aside the gunslinger shuddered as he was affected by the stun effect. Thanks to Clarent I didn’t have to say the activation phrase freeing me up to unleash another ability instead. A howling scream tore from my throat as I unleashed Helheim’s Scream.
The torrent of bullets had stopped, and the spear wielder was running as he failed to resist the Panic effect. Itzal’s hammer came at me in a fast series of attacks as he pressed forward seeming to have resisted most if not all of the effects. I switched Clarent from its double-bladed form back to a single blade as I blocked and dodged the strikes from the hammer.
Despite its greater weight the hammer moved incredibly fast, with every swing a jet of electricity shot out from the back of the hammer propelling it forward faster. The strikes seemed to grow faster and faster with each subsequent attack. Clarent slashed across his chainmail heating up the links to a bright red, but he gave no reaction as the electricity arced across his body.
Gunfire sounded off again as bullets tore into me like a swarm of hornets. Iztal’s hammer swung down onto empty air as appeared before the gunslinger. He blocked Clarent with the barrel of his riffle, but my attacks came thick and fast and he quickly fell back under them. Itzal rushed into assist his party member the hammer swinging down for the back of my head. I spun to the side grabbing the gunslinger by the front of his armor yanking him forward directly into the path of the hammer.
A heavy thud sounded as the side of the gunslinger’s helmet was dented in. I didn’t get a notification for rank points, so he was still alive, but not for much longer as he collapsed unconscious to the ground. I extended Clarent’s blade into its greatsword form and brought it down. The gunslinger, unlike Itzal, was not immune to lightning and the blade split him at his midsection.
That killing strike had cost me as Itzal’s hammer hit me full on in the chest and I heard and dimly felt several ribs crack from the force of it. I flew back a dozen yards rolling down the hill. Itzal flew after me his raven wings spreading out as he landed over me. I was dazed as he reached down grabbing me by the front of my pauldrons and then launching us both into the air.
My hands grabbed him around the throat as he flew higher and higher until we were both struggling to breathe with how thin the air was, and he struggled to breath as I tried to choke the life out of him. He headbutted me knocking me back enough to loosen my grip on his throat but not enough to dislodge me and send me falling to the ground below. The clouds around us began to darken and thicken swirling around us.
“You will taste the wrath of the storm,” Itzal promised me.
“I’ve already eaten one storm,” I retorted beckoning him forward with one hand. “Bring it Thor wannabe.”
Lighting struck us both, you could see my bones through my skin as the electricity passed through us both. Itzal was mostly unaffected by it apart from his clothes beginning to burn. I managed to pass the Toughness check to resist being stunned by it but my body was not having a good time. Another bolt hit me and then another. I wanted to rip him apart with my claws, but I was having a hard enough time maintaining a grip as at it was. He headbutted me and I snapped my head back and hit him in turn our helmets colliding over and over sending a ringing through my ears.
“Just die,” Itzal growled.
He began swooping and diving through the storm trying to throw me off as we struck by bolt after bolt of lightning. The storm seemed to be a construct of his rather than a natural phenomenon since I got no mana increases, I was struck by lightning bolt after lightning bolt. I held on for dear life as he bucked and struck at me with his hammer trying to throw me off. My left hand slipped, and I nearly went fly but rotated my body around. I got one leg around his neck and clamped down.
Itzal began to choke and wheeze, his movements becoming more and more frantic as he struggled to throw me off. I didn’t relent squeezing with my leg more and more until at last I heard a crunch as I broke his trachea.
My enemy was dead, but I was still several miles in the air. My cape flared back as I and Itzal’s corpse plummeted down through the air. I needed a solution to survive, and I needed it five minutes ago.
“Raise Storm Fall to rank twenty and do it now!” I snapped at the system.
My mind began to go dark as I was overloaded as my Mind attribute began to increase faster than was safe.
While the other effects were good, I needed the third one; I selected it immediately. I opened my eyes and saw the ground coming in closer and closer, I maybe had seconds before I would hit if this ability didn’t finish its upgrade in time.
Dust and dirt billowed out around me, and I lost over three-hundred points of mana. I climbed out of the crater I had formed spitting out a wad of dirt from my mouth. A spear lunged towards my face, I grabbed it yanking him forward and cut off his hands with Clarent. Then I swung from the hip and took off his head letting it roll off into the grass as I tossed the body into the crater behind me.
The battle had been rough, and I’d survived mostly by luck, but I wasn’t done with my work for the day. I dismissed the next few notifications as if I finished ranking up this ability.
The first ability had potential letting me do damage to all attackers near and far. The second one wasn’t a bad effect but I wasn’t having trouble moving faster so I dismissed it for now. The third ability was the game changer, not only would this ability let me ignore fall damage but it would also let me fly, I could teleport and move faster than a supercar but flight was something I didn’t have access to and I needed it.
While I could teleport farther than this ability would let me move, I had a cooldown on that and not on this. Teleportation was also locked out whenever I was in contact with another living creature.
The first ability was out, I already had a ranged lighting attack, and this ability wasn’t devoted to this effect so this one wouldn’t even be that powerful. The second one had more potential, I didn’t intend on it happening, but a lot of my battles ended with me grappling with my opponent so dealing more damage when that happened would be useful. The third option made the second one the only good choice, I already had a title that let me reduce lighting damage, that stacked with this ability would make me immune to the damage type, so I didn’t need to increase it further.
The upgrade said spells not abilities so I didn’t think it would affect Chain Lighting. I didn’t often have need of spells, but I guess the option was good. I dismissed the next few notifications getting to the upgrade options for the next effect.
These options were all good but the first one like resisting fall damage was the one I needed. While I was immune to lighting damage stun effects were not something I could ignore. Troll Hide reduced the duration of such effects but even five seconds of not being able to defend myself in a fight was a death sentence.
I flexed my hands activating the ability and watching as arc of electricity traveled across my body. I smiled under my helmet as I looked to the sky and launched myself through the air my body seeming to transform into a bolt of lighting as I flew through the air. I had more control points to destroy. Hitting the ground atop the hill I’d been battling for control of I sent out a cloud of dust and dirt.
“Hell-Dragon’s Armory,” I said.
Leaving behind another crater I took to the skies. I intended to win this event and I had work to do.
