Ring - 1st
Realm - SOL
A hammer to the head had not been enough to end the creature. Two hammers to the head had shaken it. Three had dazed it. Thorin was certain the fourth blow would atleast knock it out. The other creatures were not so agreeable to the plan. Even as it took blows and dished out slashes from and to Mera the other creature with its body and armored body used its long reptilian tail with a round club at the end to attack Thorin. The strike sent out an echo into the air and Thorin's feet dug into the ground.
The armoured beast seeing stars tried to lash out. A golden red-blue tore past and the creature was sent staggering back. Thorin smirked, his eyes leaving the blue and turning back to his adversary. The whipped club struck out again but chains shot out of the ground and seized the appendage.
"Focus here". Mera jabbed out with her left fist and then shot low. With her foe standing inches above her, it was easy to move and get within its space. Her fists lashed upwards, gauntlets soaked in fire striking with cracks like a whip. The explosion of flame and force of the punch dragged the thing off its limbs and into the air. Thorin took the chance, spinning on his feet bringing the hammer into an overhead strike and then down on his foe.
The ground rattled and cracked. The monster lay dead and a cry ripped through the sky again. The beating of wings echoed in his ears and he glared up. Just in time to watch large chains come in from the west and east. Like cleaver blades, they scythed through the air and straight for the winged beast with a blade's beak.
Thorin ignored that one and looked to his left finding the other. He grimaced at the sight. Of all of their battles, Hellion's was the toughest. Less due to his foe's strength and more edge to its physique and nature. A tiny core or ball made the nucleus of this creature. From all angles and corners, the ball jutted out sharp and long spikes covering every inch of the ball. The spikes were long, slim, and sharp. Each one resembling a longsword fused to a core. It was this monstrosity that Hellion had to fend off with little to no experience.
The hundreds of tiny cuts leaking golden blood was a hint of how difficult it was. And yet Thorin got the sense that Hellion was getting better. Just like Blaze was getting faster and more accurate at laughing his chains. Just like his hammer strikes are getting better at angling, absorbing, and delivering hits. Just like Mera was learning how to duck, weave and punch. And Stryder how to get in and out, distract and obstruct.
"It's like bloody practice". He muttered. A soft whine and snarl came from his feet and with a huff poured in more essence into his pretty hammer and hefted it up. IT came down with force crushing the thing's head finally.
**Embercrawler Slain**
**Essence Orb gained**
"Stryder!". His voice boomed across the field and he was already throwing the orb into the air. A blast of hot wind crashed into him as the golden-red blur blazed past him.
Stryder came to a halt feet skidding across the fiery ground. Her boots burned and blazed from friction and her solar light and flames. Her chest heaved up and down as she focused on drawing in the energy from the orb.
Her sigh was audible and yet filled with relief. "It's a Fledgeling!". She announced and then she was gone. The little essence units of the orb were enough to top up her dwindling essence. If push came to shove then she knew she'd just use the reward Essence Orb.
Reality blurred, slowed, and yet sped up. It was a conundrum of immense heights. Everyone around her was a statue, frozen. memories of a battle she was fighting in the next blink they were gone and she was blazing past a meager distance her foe already waiting for her.
She dropped, sliding below the lanky arms of the monster, and then kicked to her feet behind it. Turning mid-air she swung pouring essence, visualizing that speed and force, the inertia she had within her body flowing into her knuckles. She struck and as expected the monster was thrown to the ground scraping through it. For a mere second, she turned to find Hellion.
His fight was the most worrying of them all and even she could find no opening through the blade monster he fought. At the start it was very evident that he liked the rest of them were useless with the weapons they had. It was worse for Stryder and Hellion though as their weapons needed skill. It was why she had opted to punch this thing especially since her speed worked more with fists.
Hellion didn't have that luck though and it showed. Still, she could see a difference. His moves were less useless and more beginner. His evasion and dodges were more of instincts and less of nerves. Blocks and parries were becoming easier for him and yet the fight remained difficult. He didn't escape each clash unscathed.
She watched him block an overhead slash with his blade and then tilt his head to the side with wide eyes as a blade impaled air, his left hand left his right to hold his sword and caught another blade stabbing for his chest. He pushed off with both hands ignoring the gash on his left palm. He was not quick enough to escape the stab to his leg.
He yelled and stumbled back just as a cleave for his head came. The blade in his leg hooked as he fell back and Hellion screamed even more. He stabbed the ground with his sword and pushed himself upright stopping the blade from hooking into his bone or whatever they had inside them. The next blade stabbed and he grabbed it with his still bleeding left hand.
"Fuck off". With a snarl, as all his thinking left the room he dropped his sword grabbed another blade, and spun. Putting balance on his left uninjured leg and threw the thing up into the sky. Both hands were now bleeding.
Hellion didn't seem to care. He looked pissed. Probably from the pain, he grabbed the sword and Stryder could see waves of essence pour into the blade turning it smoldering red. His eyes locked on her.
"Watch out". He jerked in shock his body trying to move and I turned in a jumping motion to see the langy armed beasts airborne, dropping on me with its claws extended and about to cleave me in five parts.
Stryder's eyes widened, her body blazed without her acting on it and all she did was take a single step back. It froze. She blinked then turned. Hellion was still looking wide-eyed his body bent in a limp and unmoving. Up where he threw it the bladed creature was frozen. She turned back to her foe and took another step to the right. The flames and light poured from her as she rushed round it placing herself on its back Then she jumped.
Essence powered her skills, it poured through her to create the effects she wanted. Depending on which effect she created Stryder already figured that essence could get cut off from the other skills. Hanging up there from her jump she cursed out the fact that there was nothing like a passive.
'Or could I create a passive? Most of these skills are of an active natures'. It was a curiosity and for the moment I had to her head. First, she had a foe to end. Stryder visualized the next skill. She found it was always best to imagine the skull more than reading it. Sometimes when she imagined something else or knew that affected the skill to a degree it created a new skill and grouped it under a base skill. She could already sense the notifications for another alert.
She found it funny that everyone was frozen as she ran past and then poured her essence into her fist to use the next skill. Everything moved instantly. The roars and screeches she hadn't even realized had stopped erupted back. She saw the moment her foe found she was gone. At the same time, she saw the golden-red flame and light trail that followed her and snapped into her body. The creature hit the ground and spun on its back, three beady yellow eyes flashed around and then up to the sky where it locked on her right as she hit it with all the power she could bring to bear.
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Light flashed, heat boiled and flame roared. The creature screeched in pain and shook as its body was tortured in split seconds. The sound of blades leaving scabbards lost to it, the light of flames and the world sucked away as the black of twin Shortblades flashed down and stabbed at two of its eyes. One missed and stabbed into fur or leather. The other sunk in deep as the eye burst. The creature thrashed and tried to toss her off. Stryder poured in essence into her blade and visualized Hellion's burning sword.
The creature's tortured cries increased in volume and she dragged the blade up and put the tip of the skull.
**Emberclimber Slain**
**Essence Orb gained**
She vanished in a blast of flame and light reappearing next to Thorin who was still guarding Blaze as his chains chased the flying creature.
"Thanks". I think I'll hold onto it for now, Blaze can time his skill uses enough that he's not had to use them wastefully. Hellion might need it but he looks so focused on that creature". Thorin eyed the orb and then looked worriedly at the bleeding Hellion clashing with the creature with his blazing sword. His moves had gotten better, and he had begun using skills too.
For a split moment, he vanished in a burst of light and reappeared behind the thing swinging out wildly and releasing a fiery slash of light. Several blades from the monster got cleaved in half.
"Got you!". Blaze suddenly roared and Thorin looked up just in time to see the left or was it the right chain strike the bird. It cawed in pain and frustration as a flash of energy was released. Then there was nothing but ash that travelled with the wind.
**Emberflier Slain**
**Essence Orb gained**
"Got me one of those". The Titan forgot about his chains as they fell back to the ground. Thorin watched ready to jump as they dropped only for both to reel in like a chord and then slap into the Titan who owned them.
"That leaves...".
BOOM!!!!!
An explosion of fire and heat mixed with the cry of a beast. Something rolled through the ground for a second and stopped. It tried moving limbs jerking and body shaking when something crashed into it from above in a crouch. There was fire and heat and then the thing stopped moving.
Mera rose to her full height and groaned. Smoke escaped her lips and then she turned to them. Her eyes were even brighter than before and her black skin was wreathed by the fiery cloak that enveloped her and her attire.
Sunfire Skin. The skill she'd gotten when attempting to mimic Thorin's defensive skill. The Titaness moved like a model her eyes locked on the last remaining battle. The Pantheon could agree that the fight had been so and so. It wasn't exactly hard and it wasn't exactly easy. Experience had been their bane here. Their lack of it. The monsters were weak and while they were yet to push or gain a single point in their meager double attributes all knew that if they had proper training in their skills power would have mattered not.
They were just that strong. Blaze was watching Hellion fight but his thoughts were not present. Instead, he was imagining several skills, and how they would work. Theorizing how the domains would help or how their features would affect them. It was already clear to him and his friends that it would not take just killing to get a level.
'Hmmh. Friends'. Blaze eyed the trio to his side then back to the fighting swordsman. He mentally chuckled. The fairies had already told them to increase their essence threshold they needed to break past it by using essence.
'Sounds like cultivation to me'. His eyes narrowed as he went through his records once more halting at the threshold. It was barely down. His use of fewer skills and their cost being meager had simply pushed him low by 39 points. It said a lot about how powerful Stryder's skills had to be for her to need extra essence so fast.
Blaze wondered though. If the threshold was just like a bottleneck that needed to be broken passed how else would it be similar to cultivation? 'Those Xianxia tales and games usually describe cultivation as more than just reaching for the heavens. It was gaining enlightenment and taking the power of the earth and heavens for self. But we are gods...Titans. What heavens do we seek now? Level-up is okay but honestly, I love this game as it so much I wouldn't mind a lack of progression parameters. Still, it exists'.
"You okay Blaze?" He turned to see Thorin eyeing him with curiosity. Pointing to his head he spoke.
"Thinking". Then he was back in his mind. 'Cultivators usually used Qi or something to strengthen their bodies. And they also usually learned techniques to use their qi with. Our essence is our Qi and our skills are our techniques. It's similar but not strange enough to make me think there is cultivation, but then we have the threshold. Normal level-ups should just happen without a need to break a threshold. It sounds more like cultivation than level ups'.
"Man. You'll kill the wind with your focus. What's bothering you?". It was Mera this time. The flames cloaking her were long gone. He stared at her for a moment till she tilted her head in confusion.
"What's wrong Blaze?" Stryder asked too and he turned to her and then Thorin who gave him a frown and then turned back to eye Hellion's fight.
"I...think this game has a cultivation theme". There was a rumble and then a detonation. Everyone turned to find Hellion in a stumble his sword cooling as the flames around it were sucked back into the cracks. The Blade Monster lay on the ground writhing and spasming, the majority of its blades cut and its menacing aura and presence dimmed.
Everyone was half frozen. The sight before them and Blaze's words rang in mind and sight. Hellion staggered towards the slowly rolling-bladed monster his sword already emitting intense light and fire. Then he brought it up like an executioner's blade. The monster attempted a last gambit. A blade jutting out of its body and pushing it off the ground straight at Hellion like a pack of arrows. All the blades that were already broken or cut vanished into the tiny ball that was its nucleus. Then a singular blade popped out. Aimed straight for Hellion's throat.
"Hellion watch-". Stryder's body blazed with light as feet rose, fire surged all over Mera and rolled down to her fists. The sound of chains clinking rang out as Blaze tugged at them and Thorin's hands were already set hammer ready to be thrown. It was in this half-action state that all four froze.
Hellion vanished in a similar blur of energy as Stryder nothing but a mirage left in his former position that the blade cut through. The sword cleaved down and Sunfire surged from it in a wave of fury.
**Bladeheart Slain**
**Essence Orb gained**
Hellion dropped to the ground like a starfish. His sword was still in his grasp as he stared up at the red-rust skies. Four heads poked into his vision and he smirked. "That, was epic. Let's do it again".
Blaze snorted and dropped to the ground so he was above Hellion's head. Thorin laughed and followed to his left. Both girls looked at each other and shrugged dropping to Hellion's right and Blaze's left. All five Titans had their heads at the center as they stared up at the sky.
And they stayed like that for a moment. Hellion felt his injuries fade away. He had to admit that fighting in this realm was a cheat for them. Then he remembered the monsters and scoffed mentally. 'That equalizes it all'.
"You know, there won't ever be night here". Stryder murmured. No one spoke for a while then Thorin grunted.
"Then we'll go sightseeing on the realms that have night. And then we'll see it". Mera bobbed her head and then realizing no one was seeing her spoke up.
"I'm in".
"Hehe". Stryder giggled. Blaze snorted again.
"Hey, you sure about what you said, Blaze?". Thorin asked suddenly. The girls turned to look at the chain holder and Hellion sat up confused.
"Blaze thinks we'll be cultivating in this game". Stryder filled him in. They turned to look at the Titan as he sat up as well. His eyes went from one to the other before he spoke.
"Level-ups don't have a bottleneck or threshold that needs to be broken". It was clear that was as much as he wanted to say but they didn't leave him be. Seeing their stares he sighed.
"It's not a conclusion yet".
"Depends on how we use the essence to cross to the next threshold".
" It doesn't matter now. If it's truly cultivation then we'll only find out when we try to level up or if the game alerts us somehow". Hellion pointed out.
The Titans lay back. The fight while easy had been just as difficult. But they had used and tested their skills. They now had a bit of experience. None more than Hellion. If anything it was clear he'd gotten better in the use of this sword. Thorin cast an eye on each member of his Pantheon.
He could see it in their eyes. The excitement and the sense of fulfillment. They would win the next altercation too. He just knew it.
****
Ring - 7th
Realm - Rock of Life
Rackel's POV
How had I entered this mess? From waking across the plains to butting into an affair that didn't concern me. Given, that the dragon had requested my help with the quest. Still, it was annoying now I thought of it. I was not ready for such a fight. If anything was a clue it was how my arm shattered after a single use of Almighty Fist. Wizard Fire empowered it, Incendiary simply shook it around. There was nothing I could do or could use that had actively damaged this Behemoth.
So why in the realms had I pushed on and gotten myself here? What exactly had I planned to do here? Absolutely nothing. And now I'd get my game over simply due to my rashness and desire to help.
"Heroes die!" He mumbled.
The Behemoth was just like that other demon player. Taking stuff that wasn't theirs without the care of whom they hurt. For the Behemoth, it made less sense considering it would be in a position to see everything as its realm. But yet it also made sense. It was a predator in a realm where prey was abundant.
'Hmmh". I scoffed. Calling dragons prey sounded crazy but it was the truth of what I'd seen. The dragon had not shown why the Behemoth would want to eat or destroy dragon eggs. 'Was it to curb the growth of its enemies?'. It made sense too.
'Still, it is Ascendant and so is the dragon though the numbers are not adding up well enough'. It was a question of how Behemoths would kill their fellow Behemoths with all the capabilities they possessed. I could see how a dragon could kill its peer but for the Behemoth, it seemed crazy.
Beating its chest for the core would be hard due to the metallic contraption that was the protector around its chest. 'Why would it need a core protector?'.
Security was only needed for something valuable. Curious I eyed the core ignoring the blinding light and heat that had leaked along the two seconds of mind berating.
**Core of the Arcane Behemoth**
The Core within an Arcane Behemoth's chest absorbs essence from its surroundings, regulating the body's essence and providing vital energy to its body. It draws in elemental attacks, repurposing them for its own needs, and powerful elemental defense. This Core regulates and controls the Behemoth's ?????? through the absorption of Akashic essence.
"It's like a mega essence orb". I chuckled. "Wait. Essence Orb ". My mind lit up with an idea. Taking steps forward I set my palm close to the orb and winced as the first pain of heat came and then faded into an annoying pressure. I drew closer, the pain registering on my body and then fading to pressure too.
I was close enough and felt the orb on my hand. The Behemoth quaked. My feet lost balance. Landing on my butt, the entire place shook violently.
"Ah. Of course it would sense a presence close to its core". This place was important, very important to it