As I’ve said a few times, this Game has been unique in many, many ways.
Techs never coordinate. We don’t have to. We just hope we get a good team, a fat bonus, and do our thing.
Hotshots like Mystozagan never get involved. That’s because the participants never have a real shot. No one ever gets worried about any of them winning.
We’ve seen it all a million times. Once the champion is summoned, that first wave slaughters everyone. If a trigger’s used, then the second wave does. No world ever makes it past the second wave.
That’s how it always goes. Always.
The scuttlebutt said a lot of rules were being bent to strengthen the participants working for us.
Dan never leveled up all that much before. He stayed at 41 for months and months. Bob, Az’ga, and I were expecting him to ascend to about low Gold, level 81, for the last area.
The plan was to push Dan over the edge with Bonnie. If that didn’t do the trick, when he entered the Boss area, all the participants working for us would go ham killing everyone else he knew.
Mystozagan scrapped that. We heard some hotshots could’ve been involved in the change of plans too. I’ll tell you why I think the plan changed.
Killing Bonnie had a really detrimental effect on Dan’s mentals, the most movement we’d seen by far, but he was still functioning.
What if killing everyone else he knew didn’t do the trick either?
Mystozagan had one more good chance left to kill Dan. I should say we all did, not just Mystozagan. Our whole side.
The new plan was to ensure Dan died soon after entering the Boss area by an overwhelming show of force he stood no chance against.
I thought that was a mistake. I knew he was close to breaking. He just needed one more good shove.
But I don’t have access to all the information the hotshots do either. If I did, maybe I would’ve made the same call they did.
Rumor had it that our high pantheon had taken a very active role in empowering the participants sworn to them. Going all out. No one wants our perfect track record tarnished.
Supposedly our mortals were strong and prepared for anything. But that had to mean anything within reason. Maybe the bigwigs somehow knew, but no one I talked to was expecting Dan to go from level 41 to level 450. That’s just insanity.
I was very surprised when the techs on the forum didn’t seem worried. How could they not be? Dan was level 450. He was a peak Supreme Chief.
I’ve never even seen a participant hit 6-Stars before. Not from garbage worlds. Not from turd worlds. Dan attained a 7-Star Soul.
And like I told you – I thought 5-Stars and five Orbments was the highest it went for everyone until this Game. The first Crown Orbment at Sovereign, the second at Fiend, the Third at Archfiend.
We just didn’t know what came after. We didn’t even know Archfiend needed a 6-Star Soul.
I’ve never seen or met an Archfiend in real life. I doubt any of us techs have. And now these techs weren’t worried about a participant four tiers higher than Archfiend?
Bob, Az’ga, and I messaged a ton of techs asking for info. They all shut us down.
That’s not normal. We’re assuming they all received a visit. And not from some shithead like Mystozagan. We can message freely about him. I doubt he cares about what we say among ourselves enough to read our private messages or listen to our private conversations. This isn’t Earth.
If these techs weren’t telling us anything, that meant someone with some real clout was behind it. Or someones.
And since the techs weren’t giving us anything, we had no choice but to make some assumptions. And those assumptions made us excited to see exactly what Dan was walking into.
Okay, so Dan summoned Ashen Ruin and activated his Molten Form and hit the entrance.
When a participant enters the Boss area, a succubus spawns. Those bitches are rough. They’re not fully sapient like I heard real ones are, but they’re decently smart and wily. Participants always have a hard time with them.
I know some things don’t scale. For instance, participants at different levels and tiers pull from different Sortilege tables with different caps. Only a few Trials such as the Soul Trial don’t scale at all.
I would’ve bet anything these succubi didn’t have a scaling cap. Now, I’m pretty sure they do.
As I said before, each participant can only spawn something in the same area twice in a day. I was expecting our mortals to enter, exit, and enter again. And I was right since there were about 80 succubi waiting right at the entrance for Dan.
And I mean right there. Like a mob. As soon as Dan appeared, all the succubi blinked forward and completely surrounded him. Every single one in synchronization.
As soon as he was surrounded, he blinked away and did his crazy invocation we call Eruption right under a bunch of them. He was careful not to hit Ashen Ruin.
He killed an absolute shitload of succubi, more than 10 with that one invocation. The rest turned and rushed him.
As soon as there were a bunch in range, Dan ordered Ashen Ruin to freeze in place, invoked Lava Stomp, STORM, Lava Stomp, Lava Stomp, Lava Stomp, sprayed some lava, and there were no more succubi.
That was pretty nuts. He killed them all so easily. I was expecting much more of a fight.
Every Lava Stomp killed a handful of succubi, so Inevitability of Magma and his Crown Orbment Bonus kept resetting Lava Stomp.
These succubi all have the same powerset. They have a mesmerize, a charm, a fear, and they can blink. Once a mortal is under one of their mental effects, they have some sort of drain that turns their victim into a dry husk.
And claws. For physical attacks, they use their claws. Sometimes teeth.
None of their invocations did shit to Dan. I don’t even think he shrugged the attacks off. They just didn’t work on him.
This could’ve meant all the guys working for us were way lower tier than Dan, but I don’t think that can explain it.
If there was no scaling cap for these succubi, at least the one Dan spawned would’ve had a tier and 10 levels on him. These bitches don’t go down easily, so that one would’ve put up a fight. Nope.
Ashen Ruin killed two succubi, one with Incinerate and another with a smash attack, but it didn’t kill the one Dan spawned.
The succubi must have a scaling cap, and Dan way out-tiered them all, even the one he spawned himself.
Well, anyway, that was that. The first part of the new plan went right down the shitter.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
There were no mortals in visible range. Not that I could see. Dan didn’t seem worried, so I don’t think SIXTH SENSE was picking up on anything.
Instead of running, he walked carefully up the center of the area, heading towards the summoning circle, Ashen Ruin following.
It was good for us that he was walking. When he moved quickly, we couldn’t really see him.
This is when I saw my first vrock. Do you know what vrocks are?
[Of course. Many fight in the war. Doughty creatures.]
Do you know what layer they come from?
[I believe the weakest come from the fifth layer.]
Thanks. We weren’t sure. We know Belgar and Momfor live in the seventh layer, but not much else about them.
As soon as Dan spotted the vrocks, three dead byca appeared around him.
After the fight, we had to watch everything in slow motion to see what happened. It was a long fight, so we only watched important parts closely. Three byca dying at once didn’t make the cut.
Dan didn’t blink to the vrocks, but when he sprinted to them, it looked basically the same to us.
Vrocks are sapient, so I expected a lot more from such powerful creatures I’ve heard so many stories about.
Even in slow motion, we couldn’t really tell all the invocations being cast. Some were easy, like the little pellets. The vrocks are immune to heat effects, but Dan’s magma pellets could still penetrate their skin.
There were five vrocks, and they seemed to fight well together as a group, but it looked more like a bar brawl with colorful fireworks exploding all around than a real fight between powerful cultivators.
Ashen Ruin arrived when three were already dead. He got one while Dan was finishing off the other.
Then a tariaksuq corpse appeared behind Dan. Four other living tariaksuqs appeared at various distances away from Dan. I don’t know why they all appeared after the first one was killed, but I’ve never seen more than one of those at a time. Maybe they share some sort of group stealth ability?
Dan invoked Void Blast and killed the furthest away tariaksuq. He got two more with mana pellets. The last one was pretty close to him and got a lava-dagger under the chin.
That’s when Bob, Az’ga, and I first spotted the rest of the Sortilege creatures making their way to Dan. He didn’t charge at them. He just closed his eyes and waited.
Dan was standing there still and silent with his eyes closed one moment, then there was a big crater in the ground right where he was a second before. We recognized the Orbment that created it – BOMBARDMENT.
Dan safely ran out of the area of effect and charged at the mortal that had cast it. The guy was surrounded by light-green flames and had glowing green eyes. We lost sight of him almost immediately as he entered stealth and disappeared from view.
Dan blinked to a spot nowhere near where that guy had been when he entered stealth and stabbed the air with a lava dagger.
The mortal appeared as he ducked the dagger and stabbed his own towards Dan’s left side, but Dan caught the arm. The guy screamed in pain as his arm sizzled where Dan grabbed it.
Then, with Dan still gripping the arm, the mortal flipped over Dan and his knees whacked hard into Dan’s back. Dan didn’t even budge.
The guy started invoking something, but Dan, still gripping that arm, slammed the guy on the ground and stomped on his head once while lashing some strange missiles we think were from a modified STRIKE Orbment out of the air with a cord of lava.
Instead of going for the guy that sent those missiles, a cord of lava wrapped around someone else stealthing towards him.
We couldn’t see that mortal either until that cord wrapped around her neck. Dan yanked and a headless corpse fell to the ground.
Then he ran at the guy that invoked STRIKE. That mortal blinked away towards the direction of the big group of Sortilege creatures, but a magma pellet blew his chest out as he reappeared.
Dan went back to standing there with his eyes closed, waiting. Ashen Ruin caught up with him, and he ordered it to stand about 20 meters behind him and off to the side.
And Dan continued to wait. Not for long though.
Some sort of giant creature was leading the pack of Sortilege monsters. Dan didn’t move until that creature’s massive jaws almost closed around him.
Then he sidestepped, and as the creature moved by, Dan grabbed its tail and swung the beast over him like a gigantic club. Its body smashed down into a big group of creatures, most of which I had never seen before. Blood and guts exploded everywhere.
Watching him fight the bulk of Sortilege spawns in slow motion was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. If you ever visit my terminal, remind me and I’ll show you it in full. There’s bits and pieces of it on the forum I can access here, but you really need to see the whole thing in one go.
Dan was far more of a monster than the things he was fighting. I thought he would give himself over to the rage again, but he was calm as a cucumber.
Once he was surrounded, he stomped towards one area, invoked STORM facing another, and did Eruption on the next. Three invocations took out about a third of what he was facing.
Then he got to work. I hate to say it, but credit where credit is due. The guy was fighting like a champ. He came close to replacing Lincoln Hawke as my hero.
Dan rarely lost one of his Beads of Interception. He would slightly move his head to avoid an invocation or tentacle, spray lava at a group, shoot pellets as he spun, force creatures to group and then Lava Stomp and invoke Eruption.
With his Crown Orbment Bonus, he was using Lava Stomp way more than he ever could previously.
The rest of the participants working for us held back until about only a quarter of the Sortilege spawns were left. Then Dan narrowly avoided another BOMBARDMENT.
That invocation was like a signal telling all our mortals to rush in and attack at the same time.
----------------------------------------
Dan couldn’t get his head in the game. He just couldn’t focus on this fight like he should be. What he did to Bonnie was tearing him up inside. No matter how hard he tried to focus on this battle, his mind would force him to think of that.
Even when he could focus, it was impossible not to see Bonnie among his entourage of ghosts. He tried to tune out what she was saying, but he couldn’t. He purposefully killed a child.
He knew all his friends hated him now. His brother hated him now. And he knew they were right to do so. If anything, they didn’t hate him enough.
He couldn’t take much more. But he had to. He swore to himself he wouldn’t let Bonnie’s death be for nothing.
If so, that meant getting his head in the game. But his head just wouldn’t commit. It kept forcing him to think of Bonnie. He was surprised that he hadn’t made a big mistake yet.
Many Beads of Interception still flew around him, but some hits had still gotten through. The over-heal from Inevitability of Magma caused his Enduring Trait to stack absorb-shields that handled those few hits.
Still, he needed to be a lot more careful. I can’t let them win, he thought. Pay attention.
Dan was certain that once he saw Hector, he’d be able to focus. He hoped he’d be able to feel enough anger to lose himself in it too.
Anger was so much better than what he was feeling. It was hard to tell that he had the Enraged effect going permanently. He wished the effect was stronger. Much stronger.
Well, it ain’t, so stop whining. You can’t fail. Not now. Not after what you just done. You can’t let Bonnie’s death be for nothing.
By force of will, Dan focused his mind on the fight He began invoking Void Blast at something strange he had never seen before when he felt the itching on his scalp.
That let him know he was being targeted with BOMBARDMENT a second before SIXTH SENSE warned him of the danger.
Void Blast blew the chest out of the thing it hit. Dan waited another second before running out of BOMBARDMENT’s area of effect.
SIXTH SENSE began warning him of a ton of attacks. The rest of the traitors were making their move. There were a lot of them, and unlike the ones with stealth Classes he faced earlier, these were coordinating.
Dan waited until the first invocations were about to land before blinking the max distance away.
Not towards safety. He blinked towards where he sensed most of the traitors. Then he began running forward as fast as he could.
A Teleport portal opened in front of him. He had that Orbment slotted for a very long time. He could feel the portal before his eyes registered it. He could feel where it went. Just a short distance away. Right where Teleport portals to this area always went. Right where Sortileges spawned. Right near the summoning circle.
The traitors were hoping Dan didn’t have time to stop himself and would run into the portal, and when it deposited him right among them, they’d tear him apart.
Dan could easily avoid the portal. He didn’t. He ran into it. He purposefully hadn’t invoked STORM in a while, ensuring it was available when the traitors pulled whatever stunt they were planning.
No one knew the ins and outs of Teleport portals like Dan did. Before he even entered the portal, he turned so he’d be facing the way he wanted when he exited.
Just before entering the portal, he began invoking STORM. It was instant cast, but with his current Speed and Reaction Stats, the lag between when he began an instant cast invocation and when it actually cast was very noticeable.
As soon he exited the portal, STORM took out at least four Traitors. Dan twisted and rolled away from incoming invocations, and while sliding on his knees, stomped the ground.
Those caught within Lava Stomp’s area of effect now being trapped for 2 seconds made that aspect of it a lot more useful. It sent out a lot more lava clumps too, so did more damage, which increased the chance of it killing something and resetting its own cooldown.
Dan caught three traitors with Lava Stomp. Only one of them died. His old Void Barrage Crown Orbment sent a ton of lava exploding up from the ground, killing three more traitors.
Momentum kept Dan sliding on his knees. His foot slammed down again, invoking Lava Stomp at another group of enemies right before he entangled a cord of lava round a traitor’s body, the second traitor that he noticed was covered in a strange green flame, and yanked.
The yank was supposed to completely end the momentum propelling Dan along. It did that, but it was also supposed to kill the lady he wrapped the lava cord around. It didn’t do that.
These traitors are a lot tougher and higher tier than they should be, he thought. That’s fine. I need the practice. I just need to be careful and save Hector for last. I’m going to take my time killing that son of bitch.