The portal spat them out in the same spot where the array had been removed, the white sands now tinged pink with the flecks of blood that littered the landscape. Immediately commander Zortes threw a construct on the sand as a shimmering large ship began to take shape, towering over them all. Made of brown wood that had been polished to perfection, it looked more like a war ship than a luxurious one, ushering everyone aboard the ship, Moyo and Ashira moved to the main deck.
Watching as everyone gathered together with the exception of commander Zortes who went below deck to key in the coordinates given to him. Moyo and Ashira surveyed the arranged team, noticing the glances that were shot at them,
“you’d think they haven’t seen a member of house Kairos” Ashira muttered,
“Something doesn’t feel right about this, why did he reveal your identity?” Moyo muttered,
“Probably to draw all attention to me, make it seem like he had the blessings of house Kairos, not sure, but whatever it is, it’s none of my business” she replied,
“I’m more concerned about the gold ranked dungeons that are about to break open and the fact that we haven’t seen any of the other two kingdoms”
Moyo turned from her to look at the sprawling dessert, that was indeed suspicious,
“Maybe they are attacking from another location?” he said,
Ashira shook her head,
“can’t be possible, the gold ranked dungeons are here alone, plus all battles happened here, in this same field, why would the gold rank battles be any different?” she said,
Moyo nodded and turned to look at the dungeons below, glowing blue as they began to pulse faster,
“it’s almost time” he said,
Mantle locked on his body, dominion in his hand and his core churning intent through his body with his realm ready to be unleashed, he turned to the king who clapped to get their attention. They gathered round the king,
“The plan is simple, the silver rankers will be deployed first against the gold tier dungeons, with the help of one gold ranker from the guilds” he started,
“Haran, gold ranker of the weeping wind guild had volunteered to oversee your protection against the gold rankers of the other kingdom. By silver rankers, I mean our esteemed guests, Ashira Kairos and her companion” the king said,
Moyo ignored the subtle jibe on his identity, he could care less If the king had no idea who he was, the plan was beginning to sound ludicrous,
“You expect two silver rankers and a gold ranker to handle more than two gold tier dungeons?” he said,
The king nodded,
“The gold ranked dungeons are duds, in actuality they are meant for the elite silver rankers of the kingdoms, the gold rankers could care less about the dungeons, they need the diamond tier dungeon to break over to diamond. Every gold ranker you see here are at the peak of their ranks, gold tier dungeons would do nothing”
Funny, Moyo didn’t feel the same overwhelming and malevolent aura he had felt from Kenuran from them,
“So, we would be going up against peak silver rankers and their gold ranked guardians?” Ashira asked,
“Indeed, lady Ashira, the silver guardians are needed by my side to quickly race to wherever the diamond tier dungeon is revealed, commander Zortes and the two other guild gold rankers would cover us defensively while also picking you up to rendezvous at the diamond ranked dungeon” the king finished explaining,
“The ship will be safe in my care my lord, have no fear” Zortes said, his voice booming as he reappeared from below deck,
The king nodded and motioned to talk when a loud gong sounded and a loud voice spoke all around them, revibrating with all the power of a master, Moyo just didn’t know what master it was,
“BEGIN”
Moyo drew dominion up as the dungeons below shattered open like glass, he was about to jump overboard when he felt a presence reveal itself above them and without thinking twice, he threw his realm over himself and Ashira who had done the same. Above them was a golden ship that appeared out of nowhere and began raining explosives down on them with concussive damage, flashes of power blasted around as Moyo saw commander Zortes surrounded by a wall of sand that reflected the explosives from the already smoking ship.
The gold rankers had moved as quickly as the attacks came, flying towards the gold rankers that were dropping from the ship above,
“Glowing sun!” Ashira shouted,
“Where are the black swords?” Moyo shouted back over the noise of the explosives,
He saw Haran the gold ranker point at them and shouted at them to jump over, when a man in black appeared like midst and sliced his head off his shoulder. Without a second thought to the apparent death of their guardian, Moyo grabbed Ashira and tumbled off the smoking ship. His mind racing through what had just happened, the glowing sun and black sword kingdoms had formed an alliance to take down the red dust kingdom.
Cursing as they tumbled through the air before stabilizing, Ashira nodded her thanks to him and the bow she had been gifted by Mr. A appeared in her hands. Taking aim at one of the silver rankers coming for them, she drew the string back as a green arrow that felt toxic appeared on the bow. Moyo blasted forwards to meet the over ten silvers that were coming down on him. Eyes blazing purple, he brought dominion crashing down on a silver with a war axe that trailed silver energy.
The force of his strength completely cleaved the weapon in two, continuing its trail to slice the silver from shoulder to waist, the wide-eyed silver was dead before his body touched the ground. Aether and essence pouring into his body, Moyo dodged a spear going for his throat, grabbed it, broke it and threw the spear tipped edge filled with intent at another silver coming from behind him all in the space of a few seconds.
A silver exploded as it came in contact with the green arrow of Ashira, turning to putrefied mucor that rained down to the sands below in anguish. Back-to-back they stood, surrounded by silvers that ranged from mages to warriors and swordsmen. They wore the colors of the glowing sun and black blade kingdoms,
“Surrender and your deaths will be swift!” one of them shouted,
Moyo snorted,
“Real ascenders you are, ganging up on two silvers” Moyo replied,
“The victors decide the story” another replied as Moyo felt a myriad of realms slam down on him and Ashira as they winced.
Moyo growled,
“you’d have to do better than that” he shouted and with pure control of his Ashe, slammed his realm of Olorun over them in turn,
Their realms shattered one by one with ease, the backlash sending lances of agony through their minds as they shouted. In that minute of distraction, dominion sang with the intent of the titan blade, slicing heads off before being stopped by the shield of a silver ranker that was blasted backwards, Ashira switched from her poison state to the golden feline state, her blade a shining golden beacon of pure arrogance that tore into the silvers, leaving scorching burnt marks all over them.
Deep down Moyo realized the silvers weren’t weak, he and Ashira were just better than them. Perhaps due to being trained by masters on his part and her heritage, but he was grateful for whatever the reason. The silvers began to combine attacks, blasting them with whatever their paths gave them, Moyo took the brunt of the attack, his mantle shedding the attacks like water off the body of a duck, Ashira switched from her blade to the bow and placed three perfectly toxic arrows through three silvers, watching as they fell from the skies.
Glancing back at the ship of the red dust kingdom which by some miracle still floated up in the air, they attempted to move when a realm greater than their rank slammed into them, halting them in place. Wide eyed Moyo watched a gold ranker fly towards them with what looked like a golden javelin in her hands, only to come crashing into Haran again,
Moyo had no time to wonder how the gold ranker was still alive, Ashira had grabbed his collar and dragged him towards the ground, the clash of the gold rankers above rocking the air with booms. Turning to her, they shot to the ground together and into the horde of grotesque looking creatures that poured from the gold ranked dungeon.
Moyo released his realm over the creatures, Ashira following suit as they channeled their commands,
“HOLD”
“MELT”
The gold monsters caught in the two realms slowed down and began to sizzle as Ashira and his command took effect, the rest of the hordes honed in on them and left the silver rankers of the other kingdoms fighting them. Together Moyo and Ashira passed through a spatial pathway he opened up and appeared behind the creatures that were rampaging towards their former location.
With his mantle and sword Moyo delved into the midst of the creatures, his step of Ogun, dance of Sango and greed of Esu working in tandem as he began to hack at the creatures while draining them of their endurance and health. He neither noticed when he was torn, when his leg was shattered or when he was gored by the creatures. Lost in the rage of the battle he fought the creatures one at a time.
Ashira providing aerial support as she rained down arrows on the creatures, the other silvers from the other kingdoms gave them a wide berth seeing the maniacal and savagery they used as they tore into the beasts. Soon the numbers of the monsters began to diminish, Moyo wobbling on his feet as the fatigue threatened to knock him out. With a growl he shook his head, seeing a silver ranker from the glowing sun pointing a staff at him only to lose his head as Ashira literally ripped t off his shoulders with her hand that sported gleaming golden metal claws,
“woah” he said weakly,
“Gold rank” she said grinning,
“Huh?”
“I’m gold!” she repeated again,
It finally sank through his head as his mantle fell of his body,
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Great, h- “he said as he felt something tear through his back and coming out through the front,
Ashira shouted in anguish as the rod that had been thrown at him stuck out through his chest, blood dripping through his mouth, he faintly noticed Ashira grabbing the black sword silver who had somehow snuck up on them and stabbed him through his eyes, impaling his skull. With his mind shutting down he grabbed the rod and pulled it out with pain rippling through his very being, he felt Ashira open his mouth and pour an elixir into it before grabbing him and blasting off the ground.
Still groggy with pain, he managed to snap his realm faintly around them as they flew back towards the ship in the sky. A hum filled the air as a bar of black and starry light filled the air, coming from a spot in the distance, the diamond ranked dungeon had been revealed,
“go” he groaned,
“What?” Ashira sked,
“Go!” he shouted weakly before his sight became blurry,
With no hesitation Ashira blasted towards the direction of the light with full speed, Moyo had come close to perishing on this forsaken planet and he’d be damned if he would let it stop him from going through the diamond ranked dungeon,
“This is insanity!” Ashira shouted at him as he chuckled weakly,
With strength returning to his limbs and mind, he brought up his HUD, realizing he had gotten to level 350 and with 900 points to allocate, he automatically dumped it all into his constitution, raising it from 3200 to 4100. Groaning as his flesh knitted and left a smooth unblemished skin, he was feeling better enough to fly on his own,
“Jumped to 350 from 325” he said to her darkly,
“Killing ascenders has its perks” she replied,
Coupled with the gold ranked monsters he had torn through, his level had seen a surge unseen before at a go, a part of him was uncomfortable with the ascenders that had died by his hands. He crushed that part of him, they had come after him with the intention to kill and he had repaid them back in blood.
Even as they neared the column of dark energy, the amount of gold ranked auras that filled the air had him grinding to a halt in pure wariness. Ashira grabbed him again and flew towards the ground, he dimly realized they were as close to the coast of the continent as possible.
“What in the archailects name were you doing stopping like that?” she hissed at him in annoyance,
“Gold ranked auras” he replied,
She nodded,
“they’re converging” she replied,
Overhead the ship of the king passed, battling two ships that flew besides them and shot explosives at each other. King Biyo fought two men that traded blows between each other, Moyo grimly saw the body of Mira impaled on the mast of the ship, her head impaled on a rod beside her, Heron fought another gold ranker that utilized two blades and danced around the wind user who fought with all his attention.
Ashira glanced at him,
“Should we go help?” she asked,
Moyo eyed the ship and nodded, they had no choice, the ship was meant to had waited for them, Moyo was sure it didn’t. Grabbing unto Ashira who used her gold ranked speed to shoot them towards the ship, she switched to her bronze mode, her sword morphing into the form that had two horns on its hilt and her mantle becoming a fur covered armor on her body. she crashed into the gold fighting Heron, caving his skull in as Moyo flipped with the force of the collision, his blade slicing the head of the already critically injured ascender in two.
Landing on the ship, he rolled and brought his blade to block a hammer from another silver ranker on the ship, the force of the attack pushing the silver back. While muttering another prayer of appreciation to the powers that be for his evolved stats, he activated his step of Ogun, appearing behind the silver and driving his blade through his heart, reversing his grip as he opened the ascender from chest to skull in a spray of blood.
Haran was suddenly at his side,
“Your brutality rings across the field” the gold ranker said darkly,
“As long as I don’t get my head sliced off my shoulder like you, I’m fine” Moyo retorted,
The gold ranker narrowed his eyes before blurring away to join another fight, Moyo threw dominion in the air, his fists clashing with a body aura user that came for him. Together they traded blows before he dopped a feint punch to the left, catching dominion with his right and bringing it down on the mantle of the silver that came in the form of metal orbs which floated around his body. Slicing an orb that became two, Moyo activated his realm,
“HOLD” he ordered,
“NO” the silver replied, fighting the command desperately,
The best he could do was slow down the silver, but it was enough to kick the ascender off the ship with his force ability ingrained into the attack. The force of a blow delivered by king Biyo blasted him backwards, tumbling till he crashed into the side of the ship, he saw the kings were the only three left battling it out. The kings came to the realization also as they snarled and vanished immediately,
“Zortes, quickly!, into the dungeon!” king Biyo shouted,
The ship groaned and faced the direction of the overly large dungeon hole that looked oddly like the final dungeon of his crisis event. Moyo glanced at Ashira,
“he’s crashing a whole ship through the dungeon?’ he asked incredulously,
“Look behind!” she shouted,
He did and saw the king fending off attacks from the two ships along with the remaining two gold rankers from the guild, it seemed all the kingdoms had the same crazy idea to crash their ships through the dungeon. As the ship bent, its nose bending into a dive, Moyo slid towards Ashira and grabbed her. As they touched, she saw the grim look on his face and understood,
“Jump?” she shouted,
“Jump!” he replied,
As the nose of the ship passed through the dungeon, they jumped together, gripping each other tightly as space bent and warped around them before dumping them face down into the ground. Groaning they looked up to find themselves on a floating chain of islands linked by green vines. Getting up he looked around,
“This is one odd dungeon” he muttered,
“Not as odd as what’s coming from over there” Ashira said pointing towards the north,
Moyo squinted and widened his eyes,
“Is that a bird?” he asked astonished,
“run” Ashira whispered,
He glanced at her puzzled before he felt it, the diamond ranked aura of the bird crashing into him. Tearing a spatial pathway open, he grabbed Ashira and jumped through, just in time for the bird to release a searing cry that shattered his mantle like fragile glass and pulverized his insides. Dizzy, the spatial pathway spat them out on another island that floated in the air, Moyo groaned as his body began to heal. Ashira had fared better due to her gold ranked status, simply gripping her head in pain.
He rolled over, spat out a wad of blood and spoke,
“that’s a diamond ranked monster?” he croaked,
Ashira winced as she nodded slightly,
“a low leveled one at that” she replied,
Moyo began to chuckle weakly,
“I’m in danger” he whispered to himself,
Ashira overhead and broke out in laughter,
“Why Mr. titan blade, that’s the first time I’ve heard you say such” she said,
He sat up, opening his vault and grabbing containers of water they had brought along. After quenching his thirst, he went through the notification that appeared on his HUD
Notice: you have entered a level 500 dungeon, dungeon creatures are level 500-550,
* You have 7 dungeon days to clear this dungeon or risk the exit vanishing,
* Monsters are sonic avian beasts
* There are 1000 sonic avian beasts in this dungeon, all must be cleared to exit the dungeon
* Due to your rank, rate of loot drop has been increased,
* Due to your rank, rarity of loot drop had been shifted to a baseline of rare/ legendary (legendary drop rate 5%)
Moyo whistled in astonishment,
“Ashira, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” he said,
“Level 500 dungeon, chance of rare loot, yh” she said,
He glanced at her,
“Yours doesn’t tell you about the legendary loot possibility?” he asked,
“What?” she said, eyes wide,
He shared his screen with her,
“Must be because you’re silver, no silver in their right minds would go into a diamond ranked dungeon” she said,
Moyo stared at the screen as his gaze darkened, his mind piecing the dots together,
“I see” he said,
“See what?” she asked,
“Those bastards” he cursed,
“Who?”
He turned to her,
“Bear with me, so the diamond ranked dungeon was created for peak gold rankers who want to cross over to diamond, right?” he said as she nodded,
“Now, if an all-gold squad enters, it means they get high end rare loots and relics, right?” he said as she nodded,
“What happens if they take a silver or two along with them?” he asked,
Ashira paused, then spoke, slowly coming to the same conclusion,
“The silver rankers, if by some absurd stroke of fate, strike the final blow to monsters could get a legendary relic or loot” she said,
He nodded and continued,
“now what if they take a whole team of silvers?, lets say 3 silver guardians and two unaffiliated silver rankers along?”
“They solidify the probability of acquiring a set of legendary relics” she finished,
“It wasn’t about us being great ascenders, or even your house, it was always about the loots or relics they could squeeze out of the dungeon. Plus, if anything happened to you, they could blame it on our supposed greed at trying to acquire legendary relics” Moyo said,
Ashira swore so hard Moyo winced, nodding along he got up and surveyed their surroundings. The islands were shaped like an inverted pyramid with their bottoms up, forming the land on which they stood. The islands were seemingly held together by thick and heavy vines that ran from one island to another, Moyo could count as much as twenty islands from where he stood with more on the horizon, curiously each glowed, albeit with different levels of energies.
The one they stood on pulsed dimly, but ten islands to his front pulsed a bit brighter than the previous nine, apparently there was a method to the dungeon and Moyo was curious to uncover it. He turned back to Ashira who had the bow in her hand,
“Range weapon this time?” he asked,
“we’re dealing with birds, I’ll keep it distracted and do whatever gold rank damage i can do to a diamond ranked beast, you do your suicidal attack thingy” she replied,
He raised one eyebrow,
“Suicidal attack thingy?” he asked with a grumble,
Ashira turned to him, sighing as if about to explain something so simple to a petulant child,
“Moyo, tell me the minute we see a bird, you’re not going to slap on your mantle, draw your blade and run directly into it’s line of attack like initiates swinging at each other in a duel” she said,
Moyo opened his mouth, then paused as he realized that in essence was his entire plan. He closed his mouth and with his remaining dignity, turned around and playfully stomped away towards the island proper as Ashira laughed. So what he preferred a straight on attack?, swordsmen don’t run from fights,
“Except when they go against overwhelming odds, stop being an idiot” the imaginary voice of master Killian pleaded in his head,
“onward my faithful disciple!, show those monsters what true swordsmen are made of!” the voice of master Ajax goaded him on in his mind,
He chuckled out loud at the thought of the two masters bickering, Ashira caught up to him, holding him as she squinted into the tall green trees. She pointed at the trees and indicated they mover from above not below, he nodded and the two of them flew to the branches of the trees. Landing softly, they froze and surveyed the area, seeing no signs of danger, they began hopping from tree to tree.
Moyo considered it simply luck to had noticed the creature when he did, its skin blending perfectly with the green trunks of the trees. He gripped Ashira who froze at such strength, looking at him with a puzzled expression, he pointed at the next tree where a large green serpentine creature had wrapped itself around the tree from the roots below to the branches above and froze. He felt Ashira quake a little, his HUD bringing up its name,
Diamond ranked poison Savar serpent
Level 500
Moyo loved a good challenge, but he wasn’t about to test his wrath of Oya skill on a level 500 monster. He and Ashira froze, indecision battling them at how to engage the beast, Moyo slowly sat on the trunk as Ashira did likewise, he texted her through his HUD, not wanting to risk the attention of the creature,
How to proceed?
We run like hell
He bit back a snort at her reply, Ashira biting back a chuckle. Even in the face of death it had caught him off guard,
We run? He asked,
Do you see us killing such creature? She asked again,
You’re level 400 plus if I’m right,
405, your point?
That you can probably do some damage to the creature he replied,
Debatable, are you willing to risk it? She asked,
He nodded,
It’s level 500, we won’t get a better chance than this to try and level up, albeit in a suicidal way
Ashira shook her head at his choice of words.
Fine then, but if I die, you’re explaining to my parents about this she replied,
What makes you think I’d survive?, in any case, Eogan is much scarier than the thought of your parents he said,
Oh, you poor poor man, you have no idea what my parents can do she said took aim with the bow and drew the string,
Moyo shelved that topic for later, focusing on the beast,
It’s eyes, doubt its skin could be pierced he said as she nodded,
I’ll distract it, once you get a shot take it
Again, she nodded and drew the string back as the green toxic arrow formed on it, Moyo drew in a deep breath and drew his sword. Focusing his aura, he shot it at the serpent who moved and faced them, yellow slit eyes snapping open,
“Now!” he shouted and activated his step of Ogun,
The arrow screamed through the air and pierced the serpent in one eye as it let our a shrill hiss, spitting poison in the air towards the position of Ashira who had jumped clear of it. Moyo appeared in the air over the eye that had been pierced and without a second thought, drove dominion into it as well. The beast threw him aside in agony as the eye exploded from the intent he poured into it, he slammed into a tree, Ashira catching him as he staggered.
The creature turned to them, one eye bleeding as it reared up,
“Oh crap” he muttered,
Ashira stared,
“What do we do?” she asked,
“We beat a strategic retreat” Moyo replied,
“Run?” she said,
“Run!” he replied and the two ascenders scampered off with a serpent on their tails.