by A P Gore
Only Jon survived in that ten-yard radius.
Global System Announcement:
World Event Initiated.
Player Jonathan has encountered the first Abomination, Belphegor. Humanity’s first trial begins. All the heroes near Chinari will be teleported to the location of the fight. After 30 seconds, all players in a 100 mile radius and not in battle will be given a chance to resurrect/teleport at the world event location.
Fight begins in 2 minutes.
Jon stared at the black figure walking out of the dark portal. He tried to cast perception, but it failed with a -2 Intelligence debuff.
Garbed in black, the figure exuded a thick black aura too, nearly as thick as a solid object.
Quickly, Jon drank a drop of Water of Darkness. Though he didn’t think it would be all that useful, something was different about this figure, and he felt the need to gather all his powers.
“What... what did you bring into my guild house?” Kurush screamed.
The black-hooded figure raised a sharp claw-like finger and pointed at the communication crystal. A dark beam shot from his finger and entered the crystal and struck Kurush. Before the crystal exploded, Jon saw Kurush’s face pale as blood oozed out of his nostrils.
“Jonathan.” A deep voice boomed in Jon’s ears. “A level 12 immortal, and you dared to initiate the trial of Soul Society? What an atrocious act.” The black figure snorted.
Jon stepped back—out of the dark abomination’s aura. Though Jon seemed to be invulnerable, he would be the first to perish once the fight started.
Zapp!
A figure landed next to him.
The giant earth elemental glared at Jon before turning his face to stare at Belphegor. It was Gargarth the Golem. As Gargarth appeared, the remainder of the guild hall turned to dust. All the rooms that remained standing after Belphegor appeared vanished.
Jon could only watch as the guild players screamed while the guild ceiling crashed down on them.
He had truly invited something he shouldn’t have. But it carried out his purpose, didn’t it? But an abomination? Really? He’d expected a demon or a level forty or fifty creature to do some damage to the guild house and give him a chance to escape.
But this?
Zapp!
Miraha appeared. Dressed in blue, her beauty lit up his mood despite the gloomy atmosphere, but it withered in the face of her angry glare.
Then the old man from the tailor shop landed. “What the heck, kid? What did you do?” He too glared at Jon before facing the sky and shouting loud. “Come on man! I’m retired. Why do I need to fight?”
A red eye—the eye of Gargarth’s split personality—appeared next to Jon, and Gargarth’s main body resized into a five-yard-tall earth elemental. “Human, what did you do? You dared to summon an Abomination. Really? Your ancestors died to protect this continent, and you’re bringing one after another trouble to it. If we survive this fight, I want to see you face trial in the Court of Heaven and Hell.”
“Gargarth, sir, you see...” Jon rubbed his forehead. Sweat rolled down his back. As if all this wasn’t bad enough, the stupid system announced his name to the world once again. Why the heck did it do that? People would start noticing him now, and he hated that. It was like shouting in the enemy’s house, “I’m a spy!”
“My friend, Jon. Did you summon this monster here?” Miraha turned to face him, her soft lips stretched into an irritated expression.
“Actually...”
“Do you even know what level this monster is? I can’t use my perception,” Miraha said, creases all over her forehead.
“He’s concealed his levels and stuff.” The old tailor said, looking worried. “Does anyone have an Eye of God? Even my Eye of Truth is not working.”
Gargarth and Miraha shook their heads.
“Intrinsic Vision.”
Belphegor
Abomination
Level: 80
HP: 2000000/2000000
Embodiment of evil and darkness. Born from the blood of first Abomination—the deity of death. Has a strong darkness attack. Vulnerable to Light Magic.
Jon shared the properties with the others.
The tailor arched his brows. “Kid, you have an Eye of God?”
“No, I have Intrinsic Vision,” Jon said. What was the point of hiding it now?
“Got it,” the tailor said. “This thing is level 80, but it has a ton of life. What’s the best light attack you can cast?” He glanced at the other two.
“Twenty thousand. This is difficult.” Miraha rubbed her forehead. “We don’t have a pure Light Mage with us. Our damage won’t hurt him, and one hit from him will be enough to take half our life.”
“We can’t even get out of here, as we are bound here,” the tailor barked.
“Let’s die fighting, then.” Miraha stomped her great staff and rose in the air. Golden light encapsulated her, forming a cocoon of light. A split second later, it broke, and a sexy, ferocious Miraha stepped out of it.
Clothed in the bare minimum clothes, Miraha looked like a goddess of nature. Vines swirled around her body, and her eyes emitted green light. Two shoulder-high wolves appeared next to her.
Wow! She looked damn sexy, and Jon itched to drop to one knee and pledge his allegiance to this goddess.
What the f-k!
“A high priestess.” The tailor sighed. “Even at this level, I feel like kneeling in front of her. I too must change into something nice.” He pulled heaps of metal armor, a golden dagger, and a finger-thick silver needle out of his bag and wielded it all.
Gargarth stared at the two who’d changed. “I don’t need a change. I’m strong.”
Jon swallowed hard. He had nothing to change into. “I guess I should leave the fighting to you guys.”
The tailor chuckled. “Where are you going? You triggered the event, so you have to fight—and die—in this fight. For each death, you’ll lose one level, and the fight won’t be over until everyone dies.”
What? He would get zero-leveled. Damn! He would see his level 0 soon then.
Chapter 62
The countdown finished.
Boom!
Gargarth charged forward with his huge body, sending dust everywhere. Each step he took left inches-deep impressions in the ground. It seemed Mayor Mason would incur a massive cost to rebuild it.
Gargarth’s two hands expanded into two rock hammers, smashing down on Belphegor.
Belphegor sneered and raised his left hand in the air. A black shield, thick as an elephant’s ass, appeared on his hand and defended against Gargarth’s attack. His other hand shot ten dark bolts toward the remaining three.
“Darkness Bolt! Save yourself,” Miraha shouted, waving her staff and conjuring a shield of light in front of her.
Too late. One of the bolts pierced through Jon’s gut and -2000 appeared over his head.
For a second, Jon appeared in his respawn room but was pulled back to the fight right away. Just like that, he dropped a level. He was level 11 now, and his stats were all messed up.
F-k. At this rate, Belphegor would wipe out all of his levels in his next 11 attacks. He couldn’t get hit by another attack. It had been only a few seconds, and the other three were pushed to their limits.
Belphegor held himself against the giant Gargarth with his shield hand while his right hand shot various darkness spells at Old Gavin and Miraha. Both of them were using everything they had to hold their ground.
That didn’t seem good. Not at all.
Jon ducked, avoiding a darkness bold aimed at him.
With a thought, he activated his light clone and sent it charging at Belphegor. A wicked smile appeared on Belphegor’s face as one of his darkness spells hit the light clone.
But contrary to his expectations, the dark clone exploded before the bolt hit him, spreading a wave of healing aura around.
The aura washed over Belphegor, dealing -100 damage to him, but a peculiar thing also happened. Belphegor’
s face twisted in pain as the wave of light healing hit him. It was like he felt something more, despite the explosion doing only 100 damage.
What if he planted his Vine of Light next to Belphegor?
“Vine Rain,” Miraha shouted, and hundreds of vines shot from the tip of her staff and entered the ground, reappearing right below Belphegor and engulfing him.
Belphegor struggled. For the first time, his fearless face changed.
His left-hand shield slammed forward, hitting Gargarth and sending the big golem flying backward. Holding both of his hands closer to his chest, he muttered something.
“Danger!” Miraha shouted, grabbed Jon by his shoulders, and flew up.
Old Gavin and Gargarth jumped in the air too. They smelled something fishy.
A dark wave emerged from Belphegor body and swept across a one-mile-wide. Every bystander, guard, and building standing in that area vanished in thin air. The ground flattened and turned dark, like nothing had ever existed there.
Woosh.
All four of them landed on the ground, and Miraha spit out a lot of blood. A quick glance at the team menu told Jon she had lost 30% life.
System: Warning, a darkness debuff has been applied to you. Your stats decrease by 30%.
So, along with the burst damage that spell decreased their stats too.
Damn! Too strong of a spell.
Pulling his Vine of Light out, Jon planted it in the ground. A healing aura spread out, removing the debuff from everyone in ten seconds’ time.
But that healing effect wasn’t enough to help Miraha. She had lost 40000 life in one hit. What kind of damage did that spell do?
Miraha pulled out a big bottle of health potion from her bag and gulped down. “My control spell failed. Does anyone have any other spells?”
The other two shook their heads.
Jon pondered for a moment.
“Underground Forked Vines.”
Three vines appeared in front of him. “Do you hear me?” He sent a mental note, hoping his talk with plants skill would work here.
Two of them nodded.
Jon pulled out four flags, two Lock and two Hurricane formation flags, and stuffed them in the listening vines’ mouths, and commanded them to reach two corners behind Belphegor. Then he commanded the remaining one to attack Belphegor.
He dropped the other flags at two corners himself and waited for his vines to do their work.
Meanwhile, Old Gavin had attacked. With his dagger and needle he had appeared behind Belphegor and attacked him while Gargarth charged from the front.
Miraha too called more vines, fewer in number this time, and directed them toward Belphegor.
“Lock! Hurricane!”
Jon shouted as Belphegor paused for a moment.
Gargarth and Old Gavin used that moment and attacked Belphegor. Before his action resumed, the duo had dealt their attack, dealing 10000+ damage each. But it was like a needle in the sea. Belphegor’s life dropped a little and refilled again.
The hurricane also hit Belphegor, dealing a measly 100-200 damage. Yet Belphegor struggled with that measly damage.
“This is not good. He has too much life with him.” Miraha’s desperate voice echoed in his mind. “If only we had a supreme or forbidden light spell or a level 60+ light mage, we might have had a chance.”
Hopelessness crept inside Jon’s mind. What could he do? He had nothing.
Maybe he should give up and run, but how could he leave the others behind? It was his fault they were here to begin with.
Wasn’t there anything he could do?
Every player who died from Belphegor’s spell had been locked out of the game because of the soul damage.
Was it worth it?
Chapter 63
Dark Spider Elite—Corpi’s Mantle—charged forward, raising one of its front legs in the air. The surrounding air turned foggy, and black lightning surged around the leg.
“Quick, everyone hide!” Rob shouted, commanding his remaining six hundred players to hide behind the pillars in the large ruined hall. Almost all his tanks had died in the last elite fight, so no one could take this charge damage head on.
The spider stomped its charging leg on the paved ground, and lightning surged around the whole hall. A couple of players who’d failed to run away from the main hall died on the spot, leaving nothing behind.
“Fools!” Rob wiped sweat from his forehead and drank a stamina potion. A bitter taste lingered on his tongue as he scratched his butt. Due to lightning in the air, their stamina decreased a lot, even for simple actions like running, rolling, etc. This dungeon was tough even on normal difficulty. Not only did it have darkness monsters, it had elites roaming every other room.
Four hundred players had died so far, and it stuck in Rob’s craw. Not only this, but he also lost Jonathan because of that crazy NPC. But how did that low-level player strike up a friendship with that NPC? NPCs didn’t make friends with players that easily, unless he had done something big for the NPC. But what could a level 12 player do for an NPC?
Guild Leader would be pissed off about his performance. Damn!
“Boss, we should have got that light...”
Global System Announcement:
World Event Initiated.
Player Jonathan has encountered the first Abomination, Belphegor. Humanity’s first trial begins. All the heroes near Chinari will be teleported to the location of the fight. After 30 seconds, all players in a 100-mile radius and not in battle will be given a chance to resurrect/teleport at the world event location.
Fight begins in 2 minutes.
What? Rob’s eyes spanned wider than naturally possible. Wasn’t this...
“Boss, is that the same mage we met outside?” Jemini, a team leader in his punishment division stepped closer, her soft breasts pressed against his elbow.
“Yes,” he said, enjoying the softness. For many days, Jemini had making advances toward him because of the opening of a new position in the guild. But he wouldn’t let sex determine who got the position. He needed talent. Sex, he could have with anyone he liked. What’s so special about that? Yet he didn’t step away from the soft feeling.
“Let’s charge,” he shouted as the lightning stopped surging around main hall ground. “We’ve got to kill that monster.”
“Boss, wait.” Another guild leader, Kapil, stopped him.
Rob groaned. “What?”
“We should take part in the world event. This is the first boss from the continent. We have a numbers advantage. If we kill the boss, won’t we gain fame, reputation, and more loot? Did you forget what White Knight guild got last time when they killed a boss in a world event?”
Rob stopped. Kapil had a point. White Knight had received Scaling items last time. What was a scaling item? An item that guilds would go to war over. Right now, only his team and Silver Wolf’s team were the only groups in a hundred-mile radius of Chinari. All the super-guilds were off in faraway lands, waiting for the greater teleporter to be built in Chinari.
Suddenly, he felt the glaring gaze of Silver Wolf falling on him.
“We team up and divide the profit, or else we will go alone,” Silver Wolf said in a cold tone.
Silver Wolf had six hundred players, but Rob too had around the same. One hundred players and two hundred beasts were charging at Epic village. He could order them to accept the invitation from the system too.
“Yes, let’s do that.” And then he sent a message to the team fighting in Epic village. Apparently, they were facing Demolition Tower attacks and having difficulty capturing the town with brute force.
“But the summons will only come for dead and not-in-battle players,” Kapil said, his face gloomy.
“Then we die.” A smug smile covered Rob’s mouth. He wondered how Jon would feel when he saw Death March killing the boss and taking the loot.
THE BEAST HORDE PRESSED forward, striking the shield that covered the area of wall they targeted. Hundreds of spells smashed on the same
shield, immensely pressuring Maggie’s mana consumption. One after another, she chucked down potions to support her Divine Blessing shield, but with every passing second the mana consumption increased. The Sentient skill provided her invulnerability from all magic, but it required too much mana to maintain it. And soon the five-minute timer would end, and she would be in danger again.
This was her Sentient skill that she used rarely because of its ten-day cooldown, but facing hundreds of level 25 beasts and dozens of players, she had no other choice.
“Vice-lord, we are running out of mana,” three players cried.
Taking a few mana potions out, she tossed them toward the players. “Just hold on. We can’t let them enter the town. The tower is about to complete.”
When the players and beasts charged, she had no choice but to use her second Sentient skill, Builder’s Foresight, to build the third tower without enough BP. It could be only used once per two months, but it let her build any building with requirements met. Then she used the Insta-Build scroll to bring it to eighty percent completion. This defending had cost her too much, but it was for Lord Jon, so how could she complain? Instead, she would give everything to protect this village.
Her heart surged with complex emotions as she gulped one more mana potion.
“Yes, vice-lord.” The players nodded and gulped the mana potions to activate their formations again. With the help of Lock formations, two demolition towers, and her defensive skills, they had made sure that no beast or player sneaked inside the village. But their efforts were flagging, and the walls on the east side were on the verge of collapse.
Global System Announcement:
World Event Initiated.
Player Jonathan has encountered the first Abomination, Belphegor. Humanity’s first trial begins. All the heroes near Chinari will be teleported to the location of the fight. After 30 seconds, all players in a one hundred-mile radius and not in battle will be given a chance to resurrect/teleport at the world event location.
