Owen was more than grateful Briar was on their team as it tore through enemies faster than either Myra or Owen could keep up. Golden mist poured out of Briar's body as it raced through the enemy soldiers, weakening them enough that they were of little consequence against the might Owen and Myra brought to bare.
Combinations of electrical, ice and thorn attacks rained down on all of the enemies and Owen felt his mana begin to drain at an even faster pace. It took him less than a second to realize that while Briar was carrying most of the fight at the moment, as soon as Owen's mana was out, Briar would have to resort to normal fighting. He moved to try and signal Briar, but it seemed to have already noticed as it began ripping through enemies with claws made of thorns. Enemies tried dodging, but each time it looked like they would escape from the attacks path, a large gust of wind would come in from nowhere, pushing them back into the attacks path.
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Myra had started pushing herself further than ever before as she watched Briar effortlessly kill enemies in single strike attacks that were taking her more than a couple well placed hits. She began pushing empowered body even further as the energy in her axe slowing began to glow green as the blue aura from empowered body fade away. A red energy seemed to come from nowhere replacing the previous blue color and caused her axes edge's to turn a dark black color. A fury beyond anything she had ever experienced seem to power her now and she looked at another group of enemies getting ready to ambush Owen.
She moved faster than she thought possible, intercepting the surprise strike the leader of the group had made towards Owen's backside. His eyes opened wide in surprise and his eyes seemed worried as they met her own, but she smiled and gestured him to get back to what he had been doing. The enemies before her had felt the diminished energy for a moment and thought they had a chance, but as she turned back towards them the full force of her killing intent bore down on them.
Their levels were in the late 30s but she didn't feel an ounce of fear as she turned towards them, they hadn't been weakened by Briar yet, so this would be as close to a fair fight as possible, but she knew they wouldn't see it that way. "Ivar's fated blow," she said in almost a whisper and swung her axes toward 2 of the 5 soldiers. Heads fell from soldiers and she launched herself forward their leader manage to intercept several of her attacks and began to push her back, she forced herself to reidentify him and was shocked.
*Human General Level 45*
His level kept ticking up and a quick glance around at the nearby soldiers, it looked like each of them were being drained and she watched a soldiers level drop more than 10 levels in less than a second. Her eyes opened in shocked as the General's level had jumped up again.
*Human General Level 52*
HIs strength began to feel like a presence all on it's own as more and more power surged into him and each strike sent her to her knees. She kept backing away from the one on one encounter. The red energy dispersing almost immediately. She saw a figure race past her towards the general and she was shocked to see it was the lower leveled general on their side. She didn't get a chance to see what General Advika did, but she had stabbed the opposing general with something and the power she felt began deflating rapidly.
His level had dropped back down to 40 but she didn't have the power to fight him alone anymore and she looked at her HP and MP bars disappointed.
*You have 150 out of 2000 health points. You have 96 out of 1300 mana points.*
She grimaced as she knew it would take her a while to regenerate her resources enough to use that power again. She struck her braces together to regenerate some of the energy she had lost. Owen ran up to her and shouted at her, pulling her focus back together. "Prepare a fated blow, I'm going to need it." He shouted as he charged the enemy general. She shook her head as she prepared the strike. He was so much more courageous than her, despite constantly facing odds against his favor, he had always did his best. She couldn't help but smile wryly at her friend as she poured as much energy into her strike as possible.
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Owen raced towards the enemy general, not wanting to give him even a second to breathe. "Fawn what are you doing, this is treason, the royal family must stay on the throne at all costs." the general roared at Advika. She just shook her head as they both seemed to be clashing weapons half heartedly. "They have brought both ruin and despair and I have yet to see the good they bring. The masses suffer while the royal family holds their wealth and resources for themselves as their citizens die in droves."
"They are not fit to lead a kingdom, I will put a stop to it and bring about peace and equality. We will rebuild and won't need the broken noble system, we will thrive." General Advika roared. The two sides continued to clash as Owen slipped into the background slowly charging up the dregs of his many, purposefully using his arm with the stars unlocked. More energy than he thought possible poured into the spear as they fought. He could tell the enemy was still going easy on Advika as their clashes seemed even despite the 15 level difference.
In a split second he saw the opening he had been waiting for, the enemy had grabbed Advika and swung his sword down to split her in half. He had a pained look on his face, but Owen didn't care as he blasted forwards his spear planting itself firmly into the enemy's chest. He staggered back and Owen twisted and pulled his spear back before moving into a flurry of attacks pushing the generals weapon further and further away from being able to block. Finally Owen began to tire and the general had started to seem more recovered, but Owen thrust a final time causing the general to overextend. Instead of trying to run away, Owen ran forwards past the weapons range and with all of the energy he could muster kicked the general as hard as he could in the balls.
The whole arena that had been made by their clashing powers grew silent in that moment as the scream of pain from the general led most to thinking he had fallen. He staggered back struggling to breathe and Owen threw himself to the ground. The strike he had had Myra hold since the beginning of the fight was released and the general's unguarded chest split from shoulder to hip. Everyone who had already been paying attention saw the death of the general and several dropped their weapons. They had won the first battle, but they still had some royals to overthrow.
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Owen was feeling proud of himself as most of the battling where he was, had died down entirely, a smack against the back of his head brought him from his reverie. "Was your plan the whole time to kick him in the balls or was that just a garnish of the fight?" Myra asked, though Owen could see her trying to hide her amusement. "No it hadn't been a part of the plan until I realized despite every advantage I had tried to give myself, he was still recovering, leaving him still well protected." Owen then shrugged with a smug grin on his face. "This gate had gone by a lot faster than I expected, if we just consider the fighting." Myra said.
"I think the only surprise is when the boss had broken level 50, which makes me think that's why it said to lead rather than just assassinate. I'm not sure what that lady general had done, but it seemed to bring him back to the realm of possibility." She continued and Owen agreed. "It's a lot more story focused as well, heard them arguing for a while before it looked like he was going to kill her." Owen added. The rest of their group slowly gathered as they got ready to storm the castle interior.
Owen was still surprised how it had been built. He had expected an open area where people were selling products and had housing inside of the castle walls, but the first sign of the opposite had been when they had arrived and had passed what looked like several small towns on the march over. The inside of the castle was finely decorated and seemed to have little inside of it's outer walls. There were some shops, but they had clearly been made for the upper class as most of what Owen saw had been expensive clothes and jewelry.
The castle itself almost looked like a specific wizardry school, though its material was made out of a mixture of what looked like obsidian and polished stone. He kept his eyes scanning around the area and was slightly disappointed there wasn't more to the castle town, even if there might be more inside of the castle.
He moved with the rest of the group as the began to search the castle interior in earnest. Owen was appreciative of the short rest from fighting as he had pushed himself to his limits and it looked like Myra had as well. He turned to her and they wander through the castle interior to see her grinning wildly. "I finally upgraded empowered body!" She cheered. She shared the notification and Owen opened his eyes wide in shock.
*You have upgraded you Empowered Body into the skill Asura's Domain.
Your Fury turned into strength and your desires turned to truth. Create a zone of death around you that drains enemies HP to maintain skill. Increases all stats by 30% up to 50% depending on HP absorbed. If there are no enemies nearby, drains the user's HP to keep this skill active. *
Owen couldn't help it, he started laughing and Myra laughed with him. "There is just no way I am going to be able to keep up is there?" he said laughing and Myra shook her head. "No way, you'll keep up, I can already tell you are a stronger than Peggy and I'm certain with the way you are, you'll eventually surpass even me." Owen made eye contact as something seemed off with the tone in how she said it, but she just smiled at him before turning her attention back to the decorations that were being looted.
Owen looked around as well and sighed. The inside of the castle when they had entered was a richly furnished palace and dozens of artworks, sculptures and vases had been on pedestals. The walls had been decorated with precious metals and gems and Owen couldn't help but compare it to the Bower family's mansion back in the real world. Deciding it wasn't really important as they followed a group through the halls towards the throne room, he began pulling up his notification.
*You have slain Human soldier x21
12,854 experience gained, 6,427 experience consumed by your second grade soul
You have gained a level, you have 2 unallocated stat point(s).*
*Congratulations, you have leveled up to level 25, you have already unlocked the title system.
Choose 1 of 3 possible alternative rewards
Gain 1 level and 1 class level
Gain a class skill
Increase Soul Temper Grade*
He felt overwhelmed and shared the notifications with Myra who just gaped at him. "What was I just saying about catching up in no time." She said though she looked slightly annoyed now. "What should I pick?" Owen asked no one in particular. He could choose to get a 1st grade soul temper, but he wasn't sure if the experience drain would be worth it. He had been trying to get a class skill for a while, but he wasn't sure if it would even be something useful to him. The extra level and class level would be good, but he was pretty sure he was close to another class level anyways.
Myra didn't seem interested in offering advice, but just gave him a double thumbs up when he looked to her for answers again. It was things like this that made him wish he had people to ask what would help him most in the long term. His understandings of tempers was limited, but if he had understood correctly they generally would last him past level 100 if they were first grade. Which was the most helpful long term. He moved back to try and get answers from Lucas, but he could only repeat what Xerxes had originally told him.
Feeling defeated, he picked the third option and sighed as the menu closed.
*Congratulations, you have selected to increase the quality of your soul temper by one grade.*
Electricity lanced through his body and sent waves of hot violent energy through his entire being. He could feel the energy race through the constellation of meridians inside of his body and eventually meeting together as an orb next to his core. Within a second of reaching his core, it was absorbed and a new message appeared as Owen panted on the floor covered in a sheen of sweat.
*You have unlocked a 1st grade soul temper. Congratulations, you have earned the title, Built to Last, for having a 1st grade body temper and a 1st grade soul temper before Level 50. This title grants a +3 to all stats and +10% all stats*
He just stared at his stats slack jawed, forcing himself to stay calm, he had Myra continue to guide him as he checked out his core. It looked much the same as before, so he began absorbing the excess experience that had collected around his core. It seemed to flake off of his core even faster than before as his core greedily absorbed it. He felt a shiver run through his body as the dark green color of his core grew slightly lighter in shade.
Ignoring that for now when he opened his eyes, he felt like it was Halloween and he was a kid again, as the effort of absorbing the excess experience had grown easier, but it had still been enough for him to gain the last couple stats points he could earn as mana points. With his new bonuses increasing his overall mana to one point below the required fifty for his skills. He tried putting one of his free points into it, forgetting that mana was the one stat that wasn't possible to place stats in. Groaning he forced himself to just looked forward to his next class level up when he would gain the last mana point he needed.
Thankfully, the timing worked out perfectly, as he finally finished looking through his menus right as their group had reached the entrance to the throne room. He clenched his fists in anticipation and remembered that Myra had been leading him while he had been inside of his core. His hand had squeezed down tightly on hers and when he looked up at her he saw the most evil grin. Despite all of his stats gains and extra titles, she still had a higher strength stat as she began crushing his hand in response.
She only released when the doors to the room opened up and saw what they could only assume was the royal family sitting in a collection of thrones set at different levels in a semi circle around a table, leaving the king's throne on the highest platform at the far back of the room looking down at those seated at the table.
A deep voice echoed through the hall as the king spoke then. "Welcome home Fawn, it is unfortunate that this is how things must end, but know that you are only unleashing your own destruction."