Langa swayed unsteadily and opened his eyes as a bitter cold wind brushed against his face. He looked around. His heart sank when he realised he wasn't standing on solid ground, instead, he was standing on a small, tattered, wooden boat and the vast, endless ocean surrounded him.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered in disbelief, after all, he couldn't swim.
The boat rocked with the moving water, pushing Langa uncomfortably around. Steadying himself, he equipped his Avatar title and tried to sense any life around him. It was fascinating because through his title he could feel the life of the ocean itself overwhelming his senses. Everything inside the water felt alive.
Less than a second later, he had to dodge to the edge of the boat, barely managing to keep his balance, as a fucking tentacle emerged from the water, trying to grab him. Langa peered down and saw a large squid-like creature trying to ram into his boat, its tentacles stretched out towards him.
Lesser Kraken
Level 11
HP: 664/664
He didn't want it to sink his already falling apart boat with its weight, so he thrust Tonare into its eye, and the squid howled in pain, as he lifted the glaive again and sliced off one of its tentacles. It screamed, falling back into the water.
Langa hastily picked up the oars and started rowing the boat away from where the lesser kraken had emerged. The map on his comcer indicated that his team’s shrine was not too far away. A large wild wave approached him from behind, and he rowed even faster, narrowly escaping with only a spray of cold seawater. Before he could relax, however, his title alerted him to the fact that something had jumped into his boat. He instinctively swung Tonare towards the life he sensed, only to feel the hot, piercing strike of a Flame Spike on his shoulder.
"What the fuck?" he cursed, turning around to find Synn, her Fire Ring surrounding her as she stood, her white robes soaking wet. "Why did you attack me?"
She snorted, giving him an annoyed look. "First of all, if I wanted to attack you, you wouldn't still be standing. And second, you swung at me first."
"You jumped onto my boat," Langa protested as the boat swayed again. "What happened to you?"
She grimaced, using the flames to dry herself. "I got dropped off inside the fucking ocean. I almost got eaten by a shark. Do you know how hard it is to use fire when you're in the water?" she said, teeth chattering as she warmed herself up. "Thankfully, I spotted this boat and decided to steal it from whoever was in it."
Langa could not help but shiver. If he had landed in the ocean, he'd be dead already. That would be embarrassing. "Are you cold? Do you want my jacket? It's just for aesthetics, it doesn't have any defensive properties," he offered.
She shook her head, moving the Fire Ring up and down around her body. "It's fine, I'm almost dry."
At that moment, Langa's system interface lit up, showing him the party menu with a message there from Vos.
> @vosthesecond:
>
> Come to the shrine both of you. Follow the green light.
"Did no one ever teach him to say please? Who does that boy think he is?" Synn muttered as a flashing green light appeared from the lighthouse in the distance.
"Our team captain," Langa said, handing her one of the oars. "Let's go before our opponents see the light and follow it."
They were close to land, so the waves were low, and the light that Vos was sending kept changing direction so that they moved away from the lesser krakens.
The lesser krakens became more numerous as they neared land, and they could not avoid all of them even with Vos guiding them. Langa infused mana into his glaive and thrust it into a lesser kraken's head, the lightning numbing it as it died. He felt a small amount of backlash shaking his hands as lightning damage was applied to them because of the high-density water mana in this place.
The lighthouse was located on a tiny, crescent-shaped strip of land, that could not be more than 500m2 in size. It made Langa wonder how the massive ocean did not overrun it since it was so small.
They saw Vos dispatching a lesser kraken by cutting off its head with his scythe. A white wisp came out of the fallen creature's body and Vos instantly absorbed it into himself before turning to face Synn and Langa. "That boat won't work, it's too small compared to what the Hlazis are piloting," he said when the two of them stepped off the boat.
Two lesser krakens jumped from the water, their tentacles extending out to grab Synn and Langa, but Vos raised his scythe and the krakens were pushed back, seemingly stopped by a transparent barrier. They fell back into the water.
"We need karma points if we are going to win, you realise that., right? We have to fight," Synn told him.
"I do," Vos said, walking towards the lighthouse. "You will satisfy your hunger for blood in due time, once we have a plan."
Langa resisted the urge to groan. It wasn't that he wanted to fight against the unknown with no plan, but jumping in headfirst was half the fun. He wanted to finish the celestial clash as quickly as possible, win and be named the Celestial. He was itching to test his power against his peers, who were closer in strength to him.
Vos shared a roughly drawn map from his system interface with the two of them. “This is as far as my Sight can see,” he said.
Langa was impressed with the map as it showed various land masses scattered around the sea, black dots that signified ships and red dots signifying enemies.
“Your Perception must be insane,” Synn commented. “How many kilometres is this?”
“Please focus, SynnForessa, that is neither here nor there," Vos said calmly. "Now, when I was scouting around the area, I saw three types of monsters in this dungeon. The lesser krakens are mainly stationed close to land; they vary in level from 10 to 12. There are also the Hlazinis that travel in ships, some of which have ice assault weapons. They can easily destroy that tiny boat of yours," he paused. "The final monsters are flying types, but I could not get a clear look at them, so watch out for those as well."
The light of a massive vicomcer flashed above them, and knowing that this was being watched closely by both guilds and other players, Langa wanted it to look like he was contributing to the conversation even though he wasn't one for plans, so he said the simplest thing he could. "Okay, so one of us has to take on the role of the Sentinel and stay here to protect the shrine. We need a Flighter to carry the Sovorb and a Striker to go after the enemy's sovorb, right? Who's going to play what?"
Synn raised her hand. "I'll stay. I have an AOE skill that would be good for slowing down any enemies that may try to breach the shrine."
"Do you have any large-scale shield-type spells? What if they decide to overrun the shrine with monsters? Can you protect the building and prevent our opponents from taking it over?" Vos asked, and Synn shook her head.
He turned to Langa questioningly, but he shrugged since he did not have any defensive skills. Well, in its description, his Lightning Lance skill stated that it could be used for defence as well, but he had not tried that yet.
"I will stay. I will enact a defensive barrier around the shrine and stay here to protect it," Vos said. "I'll kill whoever tries to take it from us."
"What about your perception skill? Won't it be better if you're out there in the ocean, scouting?" Langa asked.
"My skills are not the best for large-scale offensive combat, the two of you are more suited to that," Vos said with a concerned frown. "Coraloa may be able to attack us from beneath the water, and Vavuciadsforenkka can fly, so his range of perception is far more exceptional than mine."
"Please," Synn snorted. "He won't be able to see far with those tiny, pathetic wings of his."
"While I agree that the size of his wings is quite pitiful, especially in comparison to his pride and arrogance, none of us has air power, so we must be careful," Vos said. The way the two of them spoke made Langa curious about the wings in question. Vavuciadsforenkka had kept them folded in the tavern. "Anyway, the biggest problem, naturally, is Liv'Kungsadu. From what I've seen on the Dent, he is an all-rounder. Maybe we can make him burn out his stamina so he can't power his aura."
Langa frowned, shaking his head. "That sounds good on paper, but I don't think Liv has a limit. Even when we were fighting the maestril boss in the tutorial, I never saw him tired or low on stamina. Besides, he's half dragonkin, so he has a lot of mana that he can convert to stamina too," he said. "The best way to strike at Liv is to do it from a distance. We should instakill him with a divine skill or something. Once he gets close to you, it's over. Trust me, I have the emotional scars to prove it from the multiple times I sparred with him."
Vos stared at the map furiously and said, "That's not good. He's a Paladin now, which means he must have some defensive or self-healing skills. Wasting mana on a massive divine attack only for it to fail would be a huge blow to us. Rather get him to expend his mana and get his defensive skills on cool-down first before finishing him off with a divine skill. How's your mana control?"
"Terrible," Langa said honestly. He did not have a mana core, so he had to circulate the mana himself manually.
"Mine's decent. I guess that means I'll handle Liv'Kungsadu," Synn said. When she saw Langa's frown, she rolled her eyes. "I'm not first in our tutorial batch's Mage rankings for nothing, you know."
“Good. There are only three Temporary Blessings available for our team to purchase, and they require 100 karma points,” Vos said. “Let’s decide who will take which Blessing so we don’t have problems later.”
”Why agonise over it? I’m sure our patron deities put a Blessing that each of us needs, so let’s just each buy what our patron deity offered,” Synn suggested.
Langa checked on his interface to see what Blessings were available for purchase and frowned when the effects of the Blessings were not explained adequately. “What the hell is up with these descriptions?”
”Oh, that’s just The Arbiter of Games being funny. He doesn’t explain what the Blessings do, so most deities are just literal with the Blessing names,” Synn said with a shrug.
Temporary Blessing Effects Cost Deity Flying Mount If at first you don’t succeed, fly, fly, fly again! 100 KP Adtonifulmin: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm OverMana When I attack, I overflow and my mana is on overload. 100 KP Jiǔwěihú: The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox God Soul Assimilation
One man's soul is another man's dinner
100KP Mictlantecuhtli: The Demon King of The Thousand Undead Knights
Langa didn't know what type of flying mount he'd get but he was excited to try it. If only it was permanent. Now he just needed to kill some monsters to earn karma points so he could buy the Blessing.
Vos produced a small, glowing blue sphere from his robes and handed it to Langa. "You're the fastest, so you'll be the Flighter. Make sure they don't get their hands on our sovorb. It contains the essences of our three gods, all very powerful, very proud, and very wrathful. I don't have to tell you the hefty punishment you will get should you lose it."
Langa took the orb from him and felt the three separate energies flowing freely inside it. "I will guard it with my life."
"Let me show you what you need to do," Vos said, leading him towards the shrine inside their lighthouse.
The shrine was a large room whose walls were empty except for three paintings, a fox, a lightning bolt and a skeleton. In the centre of the room was an obelisk, and on top of that obelisk was an orb identical to the sovorb Langa was carrying. Synn went and stood in front of the painting with the fox and closed her eyes.
"So when I get to Team Liv's shrine, I just remove the orb from their obelisk and place ours, right?" he asked.
"Yes," Vos nodded. "Don't forget to infuse it with your mana first to begin the assimilation."
"Got it," he said, looking around. Below the obelisk were three level 12 mana cores. One was a lightning mana core, the second was a fire mana core, and the third was a death mana core. "Hey, can I-?"
"No," Vos said sharply. "The mana cores help connect the shrine to the essences of the three deities. Do not let your greed ruin this clash for us."
"I was just asking," Langa mumbled. Because of the clash's restrictions, he had one lightning mana core with him, and he would have liked one more to ensure he could use Lightning Lance at least twice in this clash. "Can I take the ones from our opponents' shrine?"
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"Do as you please. It would weaken their shrine's connection to the deities," he said.
"Hold on, there will be three cores. We must share them. I call dibs on the sunstone," Synn said greedily.
"I'm the one risking my life to go into their shrine. I decide who, if anyone, gets which core," Langa told her. He hoped at least one of them was compatible with his lightning mana. "Let's go, Synn."
*
Following the guidance of Langa's Avatar title and Vos' map, Langa and Synn rowed their boat against the thrashing waves, towards a large ship carrying monsters. They alternated rowing and fighting the lesser krakens that came for them. They had a close call when a large green shark rammed into their pitiful vessel, but they took it down easily with the two of them.
"There it is," Langa said when the ship he'd been sensing finally came into view. Synn used her Slumbering Smoke to obscure them from being detected as they rowed closer.
"We need to board them, but we don't have any ladder or rope," Langa said, looking around.
He could probably jump up there easily using his boots' Jumper skill, but Synn would struggle, and there was no way he could take the ship on his own. The sheer number of breaths of life he could sense was more than thirty, and his title wasn't 100% accurate, which meant there were probably more of them that he couldn't sense.
Synn looked thoughtful, and then she grinned. "We need to improvise. Carve out the shark's teeth for me, and I'll show you something interesting," she said.
While Langa wanted to protest, there was no time for that because they were taking in water. He took out his dagger and had to infuse it with lightning in order to break through the shark's skin, but he managed to pull out the teeth. It was disgusting and reminded him of an animated series that Khaya used to watch where one of the villains was a shark, and the protagonist used his teeth as a weapon.
Synn, however, thankfully did not put the teeth in her mouth as the protagonist in that series had done. Instead, she used her fire to carefully mould the teeth into a hook shape. She pulled out a long red whip from inside her robes. She also took Langa's dagger and tied it together with the teeth. Then she tied the tip of her whip around them like a rope.
"You made a grappling hook with a dagger and shark teeth?" Langa said in disbelief.
"The dagger will help with the grip, and I will burn the teeth slightly so they melt into the wood, making it easier for us to climb up."
"I should have said this before you did all that, I can jump up there and throw the whip down for you. You use fire, can't you use it to propel yourself upwards like a rocket?" Langa asked curiously.
She rolled her eyes. "Do you have any idea how much mana it would take for Fire Ring to propel me forward? Or maybe I could use Incinerate and send my highest damage skill into cooldown as I land on a ship full of hostiles? This is better," she said. "But you're going to jump what ten or fifteen metres in the air into hostile enemy territory?"
"I'll be quiet. Give me the whip, I'll anchor it just in case I get overrun before you can climb up, cool?" he said.
She shook her head. "I've thought this before from all my days travelling with you, but Langa, you love gambling with your life, don't you?"
"Anything for a little excitement," he said, taking the whip and activating Jumper, feeling his mana drain rapidly as he jumped into the air. He made sure to choose the side with the lowest concentration of breaths of life.
Langa landed quietly on the ship's deck, thanks to the extra effect from his boots. He pulled himself up and surveyed his surroundings. The ship had odd metal structures and dark green lanterns placed around the deck by the scaly-skinned hlazinis who were busy placing the lanterns around the deck, and there were only five of them up here.
Fledgling Hlazini
Level 10
HP: 596/596
The hlazinis were strange little humanoid creatures standing about a metre tall. They looked like lizards, with jagged teeth and sharp nails. Their scales were a dark green colour. They looked disproportionate because they had no tails and had squiggly feet that made it hard for them to walk.
The nauseating smell of brine clogged Langa's nose, and the sound of waves crashing against the ship filled his ears as he quietly crept along the deck, careful to avoid the patrolling monsters. He knew he had to move quickly to find a safe place to pull Synn up before alerting the monsters to his presence. He moved towards an emptier side of the deck and quickly tied the whip to a pole.
He sent a message directing Synn to that area on the party menu. Once she confirmed she was there, he threw down the length of the whip. Synn grabbed onto it and Langa pulled hard as the leather burned his hands, even with the gloves he'd gotten from Nitract’s Ravine.
He wished he had put more points into strength, but he wasn't stupid enough to tell a woman that she was heavy. Finally, her hand grasped his and he pulled her up. Her landing was less graceful than his, and the noise caused the monsters to turn their attention towards the intruders, their claws sharp in the fading light.
Synn removed the shark teeth from her whip and twirled it in a circle, flames licking the edges of the weapon as she channelled her magic through it. She lashed out at the nearest hlazini, the flames searing through its scaly skin. The monster let out a screech of pain, stumbling back as Synn's Flame Spikes filled the air.
Meanwhile, Langa sprang into motion, as he moved between the monsters, dealing quick stabs. This was easy work for him and Tonare, he made no mistakes, not after the Legacy’s gruelling spearmanship training. He struck quickly as he sent his lightning mana through the weapon to incapacitate the monsters as he dodged the swipes of the sharp claws. He tolerated the pain as he moved his mana through his nerves, even though he wanted to scream.
The deck of the ship became a battlefield, but they managed to protect themselves. "Langa, I felt a surge of mana below. Go check it out," Synn told him. "It might be a magic weapon."
"What about these-"
"I'll take care of them," she said, gesturing to the remaining hlazinis. "Trust me, the mana I feel is violent. It could be dangerous if we leave it alone."
He hesitated for a moment but decided to leave her to it. There were still more hlazinis down there, he could sense them.
Langa listened intently for any signs of movement. Breaths of life overwhelmed his senses, and he used that to avoid the monsters, but it was making it hard to think. Slipping through the hatch, Langa found himself in a dark corridor, lined with doors on either side. He could hear muffled voices coming from one of the rooms and cautiously approached, pressing his ear to the door. Through the crack, he saw several monsters standing around a table, infusing mana into a large spell scroll. They spoke in screeches, a language he didn't understand. He had no idea what spell it was, all he knew was that he had to stop it.
Langa smiled, Tonare in his hands and attacked. As he fought against them, their sharp claws were raised in alarm as they scratched him. Thinking quickly, Langa drew his glaive and swung it in a wide semi-circular arc at the hlazinis' feet, knocking the monsters off balance.
Unfortunately, the scroll had already lit up, producing a large cannon from thin air. Three hlazinis remaining alive infused mana into it. An ice cannon ball flew towards Langa and he dove down to avoid it. He had terrible water resistance after all. Enough was enough, he thought and used Flash Step to appear behind the hlazinis stabbing two of them in the back with Tonare.
The third one had been infusing mana into the ice cannon and when Langa struck it, the spell backfired, creating an explosion of ice that sent Langa flying through the roof, breaking wood and shooting up until he used his Jumper skill again, jumping onto what was left of the deck, groaning in pain from the water damage. The hlazini died from the explosion.
[-79 HP]
"Where'd you come from?" Synn asked. He looked around, whatever was left intact on the deck was filled with the charred remains of dead hlazinis.
Synn had cleaned up a lot of the monsters, and he was about to compliment her on the good work, but at that moment, a dark shadow swooped down at her from the sky. If not for Langa’s speed, the creature would have bitten her neck. As it was, Langa used Flash Step to cross the distance between them, using the extra damage from the skill when he stabbed the monster’s eye.
The shark fell onto the deck and straightened itself up.
“A shark with wings,” he said. “I've seen it all.”
Flying Shark
Level 11
HP: 537/675
The creature opened its mouth and a stream of hot water vapour emerged from it and sprayed all over the place. Langa ducked but the steam caught him in the shoulder and scorching hot pain filled his shoulder. His lack of water resistance did not help him any. He Flash Stepped away before its sharp teeth could sink into him. A Flame Spike from Synn struck the shark, sending it flying back into the water.
"Okay, go into the water, push the shark out, and I'll toast it," Synn instructed, looking down into the sea.
Langa scratched his head. "Um, that's a really great idea, Synn, except I can't swim,” he said.
“What?” She turned to him, bewildered. “Why the hell can't you swim?”
“I'm black,” he told her with a shrug.
“I have no idea what that means.” More hlazinis poured onto the deck from the destroyed interior of the ship.
“It's a race of humans that can't swim," he said, lying through his teeth.
"I've never heard that before." She stared at him incredulously as she wrapped her whip around a level 11 Hlazini, pulling and setting the whip on fire so that it cut the creature in half. "Why the hell can't you swim?"
"Because I'm scared of the water, obviously. Even the best swimmers can drown. I find it best not to tempt fate like that. The ocean is dangerous, why would I go in there willingly?" he asked, taking a step back, causing his Hlazini to lose lance before he slashed it across the chest with Tonare.
That was half the answer, though, seeing as he had almost drowned while locked inside the car during the accident that killed his father. Water triggered his claustrophobia as well.
"It's important to know how to swim. What if you find yourself stranded in a massive body of water with nowhere else to go?" She asked, activating her Fire Ring again as more than ten Hlazinis approached them from below deck with their ice and water guns.
Langa stepped in front of her, taking the defensive stance of Legacy of The Tonare Thunderbird Spearmanship. "Life isn't going to just drop me in a body of water." He spun the glaive as fast as he possibly could to create enough wind and force to stop a few bullets. The wind made Synn's Fire Ring burn even brighter, melting the ice bullets quickly.
"What if you're in a flying carriage and lose control, falling into the sea, what then?" She asked him pointedly.
"Then I'll just die quickly instead of struggling to survive only to die later," he shrugged. He sped into the middle of the huddle of Hlazinis and painfully infused his lightning mana into Tonare. The glaive was humming contentedly today, and he had a sinking suspicion that it was because of Synn. He used it to sweep the creatures' feet by turning it in a semi-circle as he pivoted. At intermediate rank, this was easy for him.
He leapt out of the way as Synn shouted, "Incinerate!" and two large red balls of angry fire materialised from her Fire Ring and scorched the poor creatures as their screams filled the air.
"You're an idiot. What are you going to do about dungeons and gates that are water-based like this one?" Synn asked, plopping down onto the deck to recover her mana, while Langa went around stabbing any hlazinis that had not perished from her attack.
"After this, I'm going to research all known water-type dungeons and gates and stay the hell away from them."
"Instead of just learning how to swim?" she asked incredulously.
"How many times must I repeat that I'm scared of water?" he repeated.
She shook her head, eyes closed, as she absorbed lucents from the air into her mana core. "The 10th Floor is made entirely of a massive ocean in the sky, with less than 100 small islands in the entire world. How are you going to survive that?"
Langa grinned. "I will live by the grace of The Lackadaisical Herald." She shook her head at him again and stood up.
"Un-fucking-believeable!" Synn said, and jumped into the water. She disappeared under the sea
Water bubbled under the surface, as Langa watched, alert. He couldn’t help goosebumps from running up his skin, even though he knew Synn was unlikely to drown. A jet of water shot up into the air, bringing the injured shark with it. Langa stepped back and threw the lightning-infused Tonare at the shark without wasting a second. It pieced its head, killing it instantly just as Synn’s head emerged from the water.
“Be a dear and retrieve my spear for me,” he called to her with a smile. She glared at him. “Please?”
She dove back into the water, and when he used her whip to pull her back into the ship, she had the glaive with her.
The two of them explored the ship as they headed towards the area on the map where Vos suspected Team Liv's shrine was located. There were no useful weapons on the ship, in fact, the only good thing from the encounter was that he had found an empty spell scroll on one of the dead hlazinis. Langa checked his karma points but he was at 33 karma points. He needed to kill more hlazinis before he could afford to buy a Blessing.
While Synn was figuring out the helm and how to move the ship forward, Langa felt something coming their way “Living beings! hundreds of them,” Langa shouted, warning Synn. He pointed, and both of them turned in that direction. A massive wave hurtled towards them, carrying five ships of Hlazinis.
“Flee! Hard to port!” he screamed at her. That wave was going to swallow them.
“I'm trying!” she snapped back, and she tried turning the ship's lucent helm, but before she could, the wave stopped unnaturally a bit of a distance from them, completely dissipating before it should have reached them.
What the hell?
“Dammit. It's Cora,” Synn said, squinting. "She must have run out of mana before reaching us."
Langa saw that one of the ships was moving towards them while the rest were moving slower but trying to catch up to the leading ship. The leading ship was moving unnaturally fast and not along with the wind.
"I don't think so," Langa said.
The ship stopped a few metres ahead of them. Inside it, he could see Liv, sword in hand, standing on the deck. A mermaid emerged out of the water, jumping into the ship, her tail disappearing in the air, giving way to beautifully toned legs that landed on the ship's deck. A red leather outfit draped itself over her, drops of water dripping down her legs. She looked so good during that transformation that Langa whistled.
"Seriously?" Synn glanced at him. "That is not the head you should be using for thinking right now."
How did she expect him to ignore a sight like that? “Well, excuse me. I’m just looking. I’m a simple man, she may not be my type, but she’s a beautiful woman,” he said defensively. “Anyway, I was caught off guard. I've never seen a full beastkin transformation like hers before.”
“What are you talking about? You literally saw me grow a tail when we were fighting Sasani,” Synn told him in exasperation.
“You don't have your tail now?” he asked, glancing at her backside.
“No. Beastkin can choose their appearance post Tier 1. You know, if you were a smarter man, I'd suspect that you were using that as an excuse to check out my ass.” She shook her head. “Control your desires, it’s gross.”
“Excuse me? I’m just being myself. You know, I know a woman who can sense people’s feelings and stuff, and she told me that I have beautiful emotions,” he said smugly.
Synn rolled her eyes. “Well, I hope you’re not dating that woman.”
“Why not?”
“If she’s an empath,” she said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Then she’ll always know when you’re lying. Wait, why are we talking about this right now? Our opponents are almost upon us!”
What? Her statement made Langa pause. Did that mean Liberty knew he was lying about Amalgam’s key? But then why didn’t she make her goons kill him? He shook his head. He’d think about that later. Right now, he had a fight to prepare for.
“You say that as if them being here is a bad thing. It's better to face them now, isn't it?" Langa said. He smiled brightly and waved at Liv’s ship. "Hey Liv, have you come to receive the arse-whooping I promised you?!!” he shouted.
Liv raised his eyebrows. “Langa, SynnForessa. Hand over the sovorb and I'll let you live,” he called.
“Sure thing, oh heavenly demigod! Why don't you jump into our lowly ship and get it?” Synn said with a devious smile, activating her Fire Ring again.
“I'll take that as a no. I guess we just have to set those hlazinis in the ships behind us out on you and wait until you're out of mana and stamina,” he smiled.
Taking over one ship of level 10 weak monsters with Synn was one thing, but even with both of them, there was no way they could defeat four ships filled with at least 70 hlazinis each and fight Liv at the same time. It was just impractical.
“Hold on, Liv. Kindaro isn't with them,” Coraloa said. “What's the plan?”
“He must be guarding their shrine,” Liv told her. "I'll kill these two here. You go take over the shrine."
Coraloa hesitated. “Are you sure? There are two of them, plus those hlazinis I dragged with my Vibration Wave will reach here soon. Will you be okay?" she asked.
“Don't worry, Coraloa. I can take both of them in my sleep,” Liv said with a smirk.
Langa’s blood boiled as Synn scoffed at the disrespect. Coraloa jumped into the water again, and a large wave rose from her, causing the four ships filled with hlazinis to be propelled towards Langa and Synn’s ship, putting them between theirs and Liv’s. Coraloa disappeared under the water as she started swimming away.
“Go after her,” Synn said, struggling with the helm as the wave jostled their ship about. "I'll take him."
"Do I have to repeat that I can't swim?" Langa asked. "Besides, in case you haven't noticed, Vavuciadsforenkka's not here. Vos can deal with her, let him pull his weight. We need to defeat Liv and Vavuciadsforenkka, then take over their shrine."
A loud noise caused the two of them to face forward as the hlazini raiders jumped onto their ship and a new battle began. Surprisingly, two of the ships set their attacks on Liv.
A wave crashed against the sides of the ship as Langa and Synn battled the monsters on the unstable deck of their vessel. One of the enemy's ships was firing ice cannons at them from a distance.
“Look, I can see the hunger in your eyes, I know you want to fight Liv'Kungsadu, but you need to get our sovorb into their shrine. If it means that much to you,” she said. “I’ll take the sovorb while you remain here and hold him down, but at the end of the day, I’m not that fast.”
“I know, there will be plenty of time to challenge Liv,” Langa said with a nod, even though his nerves burned to test his strength against the demigod. “I’m not losing this clash, too much is riding on it.”
The Magistrate of Tishiba’s Peak was watching, which meant that the High Commissioner was too. If Langa wanted answers regarding the Brand, he needed to impress him in this clash. This was his first venture as The Avatar of Adtonifulmin, and he wanted to show him that he'd made the right choice.
“Liv is occupied right now, and we can't let him get all the karma points from killing the hlazinis. Let’s take down a ship each, get 100 karma points and purchase our Blessings,” he said.
Synn was way ahead of him, having already cast Incinerate. The large red ball of fire struck the nearest ship of hlazinis as Langa used his Jumper skill in conjunction with Flash Step to board the ship.
He needed to carve a path for Synn towards Liv while raising his karma points. The hlazinis’ ugly faces twisted maliciously as they manned the ice cannons, firing relentlessly at Langa as he dodged and slashed through them.
Once he and Synn cleared the first ship, Langa saw that Liv was almost done tearing through one ship and knew he had to act fast.
The water rose, and a ship full of hlazinis was blown into smithereens as Synn unexpectedly used her divine meteor to take down the second ship, which left only one more. The scent of burning wood smoke mingled with the heat from steaming water, misting up the entire area.
It seemed to take all her mana and she doubled back to their ship and knelt down to recover. Langa was sure she had enough karma points to buy a Blessing now. Liv was done with his ship, and he jumped into last one. Langa made a bold decision to use his divine skill as well so he could raise his karma points. He knew it wouldn’t be enough to take Liv down, but it should make things easier for Synn.
Langa ran over to the ship’s cannon and plastered the spell scroll on top of it, quickly drawing the magic circle. He infused mana into the magic circle and, at the same time, launched the ice cannon.
He felt a surge of raw electricity coursing through his nerves. The air buzzed with electricity as dark storm clouds gathered overhead, and a massive spear of lightning came down from the heavens. Langa swayed as the mana exhaustion filled him.
“Crap!” Liv said, and suddenly a massive dome-like force field emitting golden light surrounded him.
The lightning bolt struck the last ship with a roar, splitting the sky as it descended. Streaks of lightning flickered, illuminating the horrified faces of the hlazinis as it tore through their ship with an alarming fury. The inverse damage of the ice cannon mixed with lightning fuelled the screams of the hlazinis as the ship was torn to shreds.
“Don’t let him win,” Langa shouted to Synn, even as his headache started to subside as his mana regenerated.
He bought the Flying Mount Blessing from the Clash store, and to his surprise, a large flying shark descended from the sky above, landing in the water in front of him.
"Awesome!" He took a deep breath, hoping he wouldn’t fall, and climbed onto the shark.