I have been thinking lately, and my build is a big mess, to say it gently. Sure, I have a lot of skills, but no matter how hard I try to master them all, it's impossible, and not often does each of the skills shine. They are all pretty situational and often countered by stronger or more skilled opponents.
Sure, I'm extremely versatile, and I can switch up the way I fight, but at least to me, it feels lacking. Currently, I would say I'm at my strongest against multitudes of weaker opponents. The amount of mana and multiple skills I can use are good for bombardment and large-scale damage.
When it comes to fighting a single, strong opponent, they can almost always pull off some kind of counter, forcing me to try to either surprise my opponent or overwhelm them with the sheer amount of bullshit I can throw at them.
It's not bad, not really. I did it all with the future in mind. I'm building a strong base to build upon, picking my own unique way. But until then, it will be a pain in the ass at times.
I dodge a slash from a Hell difficulty man called Swordmaster, and his next attack slips across my armor while he blocks my swing.
He jumps back a few times, and AnotherOneHere does something that changes gravity; causing it to pull me up toward the ceiling, rather than the ground.
Surrounding myself with a barrier made of [Regalia], I tank a barrage of ranged attacks launched by people from Hard and Normal difficulty, as I take a moment to examine the skill disrupting my relative gravity before disrupting it.
I fire off three projectiles in quick succession, each tied to an anchor, and teleport to one as they land.
My ax burrows into the leg of a man who attacked me with a bothersome form of shadow magic. Taking care not to kill him, I absorb some of his mana through the ax, allowing the weapon to strengthen me.
I teleport again leaving a thermal orb in my place, the orb explodes, reducing the injured man into particles and wounding Swordmaster in the process, who quickly changes direction and rushes me again.
Before AnotherOneHere's gravity skill can slow me down again, I disrupt it and burrow the ax into another man. Then I teleport again leaving another thermal orb in my place. This time it doesn't manage to explode before being covered by a shield of rock emerging from the floor.
Making distance between us, I send a small tri-colored orb through the anchor, allowing it to explode within the room, the explosion strengthened by its confinement. Dust and rocks fall from the ceiling, shaking the walls and pieces crumble down while the men and women shout.
Four more people from Hard and Normal die, leaving 7 people.
I set up another barrier, deflecting a barrage of attacks that move much quicker thanks to a liberal application of gravity magic by AnotherOneHere.
When I teleport back inside the room, Swordmaster is already there, with a strange form of mana surrounding an epic sword that he holds with the confidence of an expert.
It pierces through my armor and stops only after I add [Resonance] to the mix. His movement accelerates, the same weird mana moves to his feet as he kicks at me, causing the same kind of damage to my armor.
He dodges a projectile I send his way, quickening his movements even more before burrowing his knee into my chest plate and then jumps back, tilting his head to avoid a cone of kinetic energy.
Swordmaster's sword cuts through my flames, and even without armor, his body resists the heat as he attacks me.
When I teleport, he locates me surprisingly quickly, getting used to my style.
I feel a pull on my body, as gravity changes once more in an attempt to slow me down and he seizes the opportunity, as his sword shines even brighter as he slashes towards my neck.
My [Redistribution] at full power stops him for a moment. The pulse of disrupting mana makes him stagger in surprise as his enhancements disappear, and a sudden blast of kinetic energy tears a large chunk out of his arm. Yet the man still manages to avoid the worst of it.
Before I can follow up, the rock I’m standing on turns into mud, imprisoning my feet, as a golem-like creature as tall as me climbs up from the ground, reaching toward me.
When the golem grabs my armor, I find myself unable to teleport, the last anchor disrupted. I’m honestly surprised it took them so long to get around to that.
More mana radiates from my body, the armor around me expanding and surrounding me leaving me twice my normal height and towering over the golem.
With a single kick, I send the golem flying toward its creator, before returning to my normal size and teleporting to an anchor I left on the golem. A few teleports and kinetic blasts later, only two men from Hell difficulty remain, as my body is strengthened by the effect of the ax.
“Noname, you're on the 6th floor, right?” AnotherOneHere asks as I face the remaining duo.
Seeing no reason to be rude, I nod; the man has been rather polite in the Community.
Swordmaster, with his sword on his shoulder, gives me a look before shrugging and nodding towards his group member, “We always knew group 4 wasn’t exactly normal.”
“It's still disappointing to see such a difference between people from Hell.” Finishing his preparations, AnotherOneHere raises his hands and claps.
The sides of the room I'm standing in tear apart, huge pieces of rock heading towards me in an attempt to crush me between them.
They expect me to teleport, so I create an anchor and activate it halfway. Then, instead of teleporting, I send a tricolored orb that I’ve been forming in my mouth. It explodes the moment Swordmaster reaches the anchor.
I, meanwhile, create a barrier around myself, mitigating any damage from the rocks and the explosion that takes out Swordmaster. The poor guy was too incompatible with my fighting style and my skills made countering him simple enough.
AnotherOneHere uses his gravity skill, slightly compressing a portion of the explosion and redirecting it. Wounded and exhausted he rests against the wall, breathing heavily.
When my axe cuts into his leg, he looks up at me, “That's cold as fuck,” he breathes out as the axe starts absorbing his mana to strengthen my body.
“There are a few more people not that far over us. I will go after them right away, so I need to save a bit of mana,” I respond.
He laughs unbelievably and shakes his head, "Well, good luck then."
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
I nod, "Thank you."
A few moments later, he turns into particles when the system judges that he’s started to die.
Only then do I allow myself to crack my mask and breathe out in a long, shaky breath. Then I concentrate and examine a few of the smaller wounds Swordmaster managed to inflict that are still healing at a slower rate than they should. These guys did have quite a few decent skills; they weren't Hell difficulty for nothing.
I lift Swordmaster’s sword from the ground. An epic item with the effect of making wounds slower to heal the more mana is used to power it while increasing its cutting force as well.
I decide to keep it along with my ax and proceed to look for the second epic item. It is a small ring that served as a consumable type of item, bearing three activations that would heal its bearer. All uses were probably gone even before the fight.
In the future, I will have to get cooking with Lily and create my own version of an item with a similar effect as the ring.
----------------------------------------
When two hours remain, the weather changes again. The snow disappears, and earthquakes ravage the area while the barrier shrinks again, evaporating anything that touches it.
Moving to the middle of the Survival Domain, I fight more people.
I encounter a group from Easy difficulty that has somehow managed to survive until now, though they quickly surrender.
Another is a group from Normal difficulty that tries to fight back only to be flabbergasted even as I use the slightest amount of the mana generated by my body. Their attacks can’t even reach me, and most of the time, just the strength of my body boosted by the ax’s effect is enough to do the job.
People from Hard are a bit more difficult to deal with and always move in bigger groups, sometimes they even travel with one or two remaining members of Hell difficulty. Fights against them are always enjoyable. Their skills are better, their stats higher, and their traits are more interesting. I examine them and take note of the way they make use of their skills, but in the end, even they find themselves defeated with a blend of skills that always surprise them.
I, like a few others, have been through Beyond trials. Even if others could've gone, they have decided to not use the upgrade token that way or failed to fulfill the other requirements. So there’s as much difference between me and a person from Hard difficulty as there is between me and most other people from Hell.
I still haven’t touched my Mana Reservoir containing three times the mana produced by my body, so I tap it to increase my speed towards the middle of the domain.
----------------------------------------
One hour remains, and the barrier is slowly and surely shrinking from the size of a large city to who knows what ending point.
In the distance, I see the lightning flicker and the terrifying sound of Tess's projectiles and then a new notification.
Tacita (Hell, 4th) ⟶ Sset (Hell, 4th)
I feel a disturbing gray mana move to my right, an explosion of it, and another notification.
Savant (Hell, 4th) ⟶ Grumpy (Hell, 5th)
Savant (Hell, 4th) ⟶ FoodFood (Hell, 6th)
That already makes me the last remaining survivor from group 4 other than Sophie, who is God knows where. I can only feel the ghost of her presence in the web of mana constructs she’s left behind.
6 / 2357
We have a much smaller leaderboard now.
1st (431 pts) - Noname
2nd (375 pts) - Savant
3rd (333 pts) - Tacita
4th (256 pts) - Soph
5th (167 pts) - Bard
6th (1 pts) - Adam
A man with black hair tied into a ponytail and green eyes jumps up and lands on the roof opposite mine. He’s wearing a simple-looking glove over his right hand that radiates an extraordinary amount of strength, even when not in use.
“I guess you found the arcane item?” I ask him.
“Yes, I had hoped to find it earlier and get more points, but even so, the timing is fitting. It uses a lot of mana, so you would probably like it better, though,” he answers.
Interrupting our conversation, a man stumbles to the top of the roof.
Bard (Hell, 5th)
He’s missing an arm and he does something to his body to keep himself from bleeding out. Just looking at his state, I guess he won’t be able to last much longer.
Looking at me and Savant he staggers and stops. Then he sighs, “Fucking corgi, tore my arm off. He was so goddamn cute…”
Before he can say more, Tacita appears behind his back at a speed unique to her, epic dagger in her hand slashing down and turning the man into particles. Tacita then stands there and sweeps her messy brown hair from her eyes. Her lively eyes meet mine and Savant's.
Tacita (Hell, 4th) ⟶ Bard (Hell, 5th)
Other than Sophie, one last man remains. The one with a single point. A member of Gareth’s group. He walks up the stairs to the top of the building and reaches the roof after opening the creaking iron door.
Adam (Hell, 5th)
The blonde sixty year old looking man with long wavy hair is in a pristine state, wearing something akin to a suit. He holds no weapon and there isn’t a single mark on his body. Either he’s avoided fighting or he’s just been hiding up until now. But it's clear that he’s barely used any stamina or mana, unlike the rest of us.
The man in the suit turns to Savant, “Hey youngster, wanna get rid of that glove and make things fair?”
“No.”
“Understandable.”
A silence ensues and all of us stand there nearly feeling awkward, no one wanting to be the first to face the arcane item.
“Hey, really, let's get rid of that…” I try to say as well.
“No.”
Damn it, “Do you not want to fight properly? Using an arcane item is cheap as fuck.”
“I will fight one versus one during the duels. I know you would gladly use the glove as well.”
Well, he is not wrong. Unlike him, I would’ve probably used it a minute ago.
“So why don’t you attack?” I ask him.
“Your friend is still sneaking around. She keeps trying to get into my mind and the glove requires a lot of concentration.”
This time the man in the suit asks, sensing an opportunity “So you can't defend against her and use the glove at the same time?”
“There is only one way for you to find out.” Then his expression changes and his mana flows into the glove, “Found you,” he says simply and moves his hand as if swatting away a fly.
The part of the city he gestured towards explodes in a single yet impressive show of telekinesis, destroying multiple buildings and a big part of the street.
Savant (Hell, 4th) ⟶ Soph (Hell, 5th)
The moment Sophie dies, the web and constructs that she’s been planting all over the place all head for Savant, in a last act of revenge.
Tacita disappears.
A purple circle forms behind Adam's back.
And I reach into my Mana Reservoir, as all that mana floods my body. There is no more hesitation, no more conserving mana, and with an ax and a sword in my hands, black mana seeps into my body and my eyes activate.
Less than thirty minutes remain, but I don’t think I will be able to last more than a minute before the system judges I'm dead.
Should be enough.