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Chapter 403: Full Swing Battle
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Because Terrans are warriors who used magic and blades, they aren’t fans of the mechanized arsenal that the humans used to resist the Demon Armada.
The rifle was naturally Dáinsleif. What made it this big was the firing chamber assembly and the large silencer 4m large attached to the muzzle. Its main body itself was 6m or so large.
For a “rifle”, this weapon is actually pretty big for its weapon classification.
At one glance, the entire weapon looked like those hammer head sharks, with the silencer ‘assembly’ a funny shape with two protrusions to the sides.
Space rippled and the sound of something loaded was heard echoing inside the rifle.
The end muzzle pointed at Baal, the latter actually laughed at Siva.
{What can a puny weapon do to my lava body?}
Siva also laughed and coughed, spitting a vial of Red Potion he sneakily drunk earlier.
“Yeah, what could a puny little weapon do to you?”
The rifle wasn’t a normal ‘gun’ since it wasn’t meant to be put on the shoulder and was instead treated like a Nikita Missile launcher; it was supposed to be put on the side like a decoration with only Siva with the Inventory Plus Ultra and the Absolute Domain having the ability to use it.
Something droned from within the weapon and while all of this took time to explain, everything was actually just a matter of three seconds from when Siva and Baal exchanged their words.
“…so just stand there and receive it.”
Siva laughed and then—
Without any warning, something went passed Baal and after a moment, he felt pain from his chest.
He grabbed his chest and coughed up blood. He then looked down, seeing his blood oozing out on a hole just above his heart.
His eyes went wide as he looked at Siva and then used the fire balls in his hands to cast a fire pillar at Siva to finish him.
Siva only laughed at him.
The fire pillar didn’t come and this made Baal roar in more burning fury.
{YOU!!!}
“Yeah, me. Hahahaha…!!”
It was at that moment that the explosion he’s been feeling all this time erupted from underneath them.
The floor bulged and melted as the heat from the facility down below —no— in between the floors of the current floor and the floor below this one had gone into a complete meltdown.
{It’s the life support facility!}
Siva stood up groggily. Baal’s attack earlier had just caused him immense pain that moving just a single strand of muscle felt like an agony.
He was buying time all these while to maximize the effect of the Red Potion.
Explosion erupted around the two of them but they only stared at each other there, measuring one another’s next course of action.
{You can’t fire successively.}
“You can’t summon Mana to explode, can’t you?”
Siva knew very well the weakness of these Devils.
They all have two hearts. One was the Black Heart, their source of power, the useful part in their body, and the other was the ‘heart’ that supports life, just like everyone else.
Baal narrowed his eyes. Siva had just purposefully injured his connection to his Black Heart since he knew that he can’t injure the Black Heart itself to affect his magic casting.
The injury itself wasn’t that severe and although he could have sent that bullet straight at his brain to kill him immediately earlier, Siva still only went and removed his ability to use his Mana —even though it only needed at least an hour to be fixed.
{You want this challenge?}
Siva didn’t deny Baal’s words. That was the exact reason why he chose only to take away Baal’s very troublesome ability to melt his blades. He wanted to be the one to personally end Baal.
He drunk another vial of Red Potion and then used his right hand to store the Dáinsleif back into his inventory.
After that he grabbed his War God Axe.
Baal readied his sword and shield.
They didn’t say any word and rushed to meet each other; one used his left foot as a pivot to swing his axe, the other used to arms to block the attack with his shield and then countered with a swipe of his fiery sword.
{SIVAAAAAAAAAAA!!!}
BANG!!!
A loud explosion rung upon the collision of the axe and the shield and Siva bounced off as Baal thrust his sword at him.
The same move as earlier but he knew that Baal is not going to use the same finisher so Siva twisted his body and used the back hand grip of his axe to parry whatever follow-up move Baal was planning.
And truth enough, just as Baal was preparing to do a sweeping motion, Siva had already blocked the initial motions of the attack so Baal was left with no other choice but to do a stabbing motion.
But Siva was prepared for that.
He completely twisted his body in midair and totally abandoned his axe, his left hand in a grasping sign in empty air.
Just as Baal thought that it was a bluff, the fabrics of space rippled and a fiery red spear appeared on Siva’s hand.
Baal’s rage was ignited upon seeing it.
{My son’s spear…!!}
“Bingo.”
With the force and momentum of his twist, Siva put his weight to smash the blade at the end of the shaft to Baal’s head.
{Aaaahhhh!!!}
Baal used the sword to block, then he pushed and parried. Siva grabbed the axe on his other hand as he left the spear moving like a lever on his left arm that twirled along with the movements of his body.
It distracted Baal that could only block the axe on his left while Siva was still in midair, giving him a seemingly random kick that was just in time for the end-shaft of the Lancet Imperious to be between his legs.
The kick sent a force strong enough to do a sweep of the blade towards Baal and in his frantic attempt to pull his head back to dodge it Siva’s axe actually followed it with a downward smash.
“Die.”
{I will not die here!}
Baal actually bent his body back, backing for just a bit, letting the two blades passed through and him retreating in defeat of this round.
He didn’t get unscathed, though… there was a thin line on his neck, a few of his magma skin chipped because of the sweep of the Lancet Imperious.
The weapon was a Legendary Item and its material was the same hard material used in the entire walls of the central chamber.
The explosions in the ship continued and the holes on the floor not too far away from them continued to spew flames that could melt even the Fireflame Beasts whose alignment to the fire element was the best of any race.
Siva laughed at the lull between the two of them.
“Your ship is sinking.”
{My Supreme Commanders are still out there. If the ship falls, then you can be assured that this will be the end of your planet.}
Siva weighed the cons and pros of this statement.
“Not if I kill you first.”
{With your weak self, how can you?}
Siva laughed, “And who was the one who retreated between the two of us just now?”
Baal didn’t like being looked down upon and so he gave a roar of defiance as he put his shield in front of him and charged out for a kill.
He may not be able to use Mana for the next hour but his body was still as resilient as a Supreme’s in his peak condition.
Even though he could only use 10% of his peak power, he was still physically strong if compared to these Terrans.
Siva met the charge with three steps. The third was a pivotal step in, a left foot, his left toe carrying the entirety of his weight as he sent a diagonal rising slash from the axe on his right hand.
There was an opening, Baal took that bait. Cleverly.
He changed the form of his shield wielding and used the edge of the shield to stab and ruin Siva’s posture, but Siva flicked his fingers on his left hand as if anticipating this move and a friable bomb exploded on the shield, followed by lightning.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
It blinded Baal momentarily and Siva slid in under his shield. Baal saw this and fear hugged his very lungs as he gasped for air.
{No!}
“This is your end!”
Siva roared but in the next moment, the floor he was stepping on suddenly bulged and broke his balance, the two of them tumbled as an explosion of fire erupted underneath their feet.
They stepped back to make distance, escaping the fiery pillar that erupted between the two.
From each side of the pillar, Siva and Baal glared at each other with Siva clicking his tongue at the lost opportunity to kill the Devil God.
Baal laughed at him, {Hahaha! At least, I still have a Devil’s Luck!}
“You won’t be lucky next time!”
Another explosion burst around the two, deafening Siva and giving Baal a chance to create distance as to properly get his footing.
“What, you’re running cowardly again, Baal?”
Baal turned deaf to his provocations and continued to rush towards a certain direction.
{I need to get my equipment!}
He was still an Inventor in the end and Baal’s forte wasn’t in fighting but using alien to do the fighting in his stead.
“You won’t run away from me!”
Siva circled his way through the collapsing ceilings and floors, the scorching heat only increased the BMA’s consumption of PSS-Grenade to maintain a blue smoke domain.
Siva appeared from the right side with a slash of an absolute might.
{Hah!}
Baal swung his fiery sword and met the axe’s blade and because he couldn’t exert any Mana, his earlier melting sword had also vanished and is now just a fiery sword that could scald but not melt the materials that made the BMA.
He was still stronger than Siva and so defended his attack and pushed him back for 10m but Siva used this chance to spread his domain wide which ate at Baal’s personal 3m wide territory.
Because he can’t exert his Mana, he also can’t do his ‘burst’ to drive away this menacing blue smoke domain.
Xiu! Xiu! Xiu! Blades materialized one after another, assaulting Baal like a tidal beast along with the blue smoke domain.
{Run!}
He was stronger than the current Siva but he can’t win against hundreds of small blades that had the might of 1/8 of Siva’s full momentum attack.
In addition, he still got his earlier wounds from the clash with Siva and unlike Siva and the rest of the Terrans who had ‘Red Potions’ and ‘Blue Potions’, the Demon Armada doesn’t have any magical tools and chemical formulas that can compete with these potions’ recovery abilities.
Baal swung his sword and shield, destroying the blades when they hit, blunting some, and even reflected some back at Siva.
Siva relied on the Absolute Domain to stop those blades before they hit him and spread his ‘domain’ to encompass the area around Baal.
While explosions continued to rung around them, Siva constantly spread the blue smoke domain and let it seep through in every direction.
The ever increasing heat wave around Siva only put more strain to his consumption. The longer he stayed in the central region of the mothership, the faster his stocks of PSS-Grenade depletes.
And yet he couldn’t stop here not when Baal was on his last legs and was only relying on his luck to keep his scummy life.
Siva was also in a hurry.
If the ship’s meltdown gets him, it wouldn’t matter if he killed Baal or not since if he dies, Baron would also lose all his lifelines along with him.
He had already gotten a tacit understanding with AG and are sure that he wouldn’t interfere with his actions, but that didn’t mean that he could buy just another avatar for himself nor could he buy himself an Insurance Policy.
—because everything he had right now was unique to ‘this’ game avatar… [Siva].
Adding his greatest worry, what if after he dies, he also dies in the real world or slightly worse, he then forgets everything?
—I have to survive!
That’s why he had to kill Baal as fast as possible.
But he also wanted to end Baal himself. It was one huge contradictory but he won’t compromise on this one goal of his.
He could have ended Baal with the Dáinsleif earlier but he chose not to. Because he wanted Baal to be able to remember how he will die in his hands.
—I have to forget about enjoying this fight for now!
“Fuck your luck!”
Now, Siva was becoming very aware how so very troublesome ‘luck’ could be.
A pillar of fire rose once again from where he was standing and Siva had to jump sideways to dodge it or he would burn indefinitely.
Baal used this chance to escape Siva’s blue smoke domain and run away towards a corridor.
Just as Siva was about to follow him, the ceiling on top of him collapsed and a flor of magma of melted metal materials poured that Siva practically had to run for his life or he would have been burned.
[Sir, the meltdown from the life support facility had disrupted the stability of the ship and is affecting the density of plasma particles. A grand explosion is imminent. Escaping from the ship is advised.]
Siva clicked his tongue. ‘Advise our allies to get out of the ship ASAP.’
[Message Sent. All puppets have received 48% to 64% damage from the Supremes. My Battle Logs have been updated. Issuing retreat orders… Sir, all the Supreme Commanders have also dissolved our deadlock and are assumed to be coming over our direction to support the Belphegor.]
Siva’s blue smoke domain was melted along with the magmatic metal. And along within that area that got burnt were over 150 of his blades.
It was such a tragic loss.
‘Where the hell is that bastard?’
Siva went on to pursue the centaur.
*****
The ship’s central area’s destruction quickly spread to the rest of the mothership as the life support system that provide ‘air’ to these aliens began to thin out rapidly.
Only the Demon Pawn Commanders and the three Supreme Commanders were the ones that are able to steadily advance without significant damage. But the rest of their forces have begun to choke and so they wore masks that had limited ‘air’ to them.
Those moments became openings and the players and NPCs in the ship took over a few battle zones and advanced further inside the ship.
But after they entered the central region and saw the spreading chaos and the increased heat along with the melting walls and ceiling, they realized that the cause of the openings earlier was because the ship was about to explode.
News of it began to spread quickly online, local and real world.
Throngs upon throngs of people began to escape and run but outside the ship, what awaited them were the frenzied Aviators who observed that their ship was in the midst of destruction.
The Aviators inside their Mobile Suits roared in a fit of rage, agony, and despair, going into an attacking spree that abandoned all restraint and only focused on the destruction of their enemies.
Viewed differently, the spectators relaxedly saw the entire event back in the comfort of their homes while those on site couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of the quickly shifting battle field.
Especially those that currently held ‘The Box’ on their side; that was the one with the quickest shift in terms of intermittent changes in the battle zones.
At one moment, [The Box] was in the hands of the Allied Defense Forces but after just a few minutes, a new wave of Mobile Suits will come and destroy the defensive formations created by the players and NPCs.
The Mobile Suits’ attacks became more scattered and recklessly suicidal as the minutes ticked by.
To these Aviators, one additional Supreme was an enormous addition to their chances of survival in this wretched lands of the Terrans —the enemies.
For the Players, the greater the importance of an item to these ‘game enemies’, the greater their rewards will be later.
As such, ‘factions’ of players and NPCs began to form below in Jeremiah before they joined the very lively battlefield in the skies.
It was obvious that they didn’t care about the giant ship above them. What they cared was [The Box] which has been identified by many to be an integral part of Siva’s Grand Quest.
They were planning to rob Siva of this trophy and perhaps it may even be a quest item.
What surprised the unknowing players, those who had been in this ‘party’ since its first inception and were busy and focused in the battle, unaware of all the recent events happening in the real world, is the continuing flow of reinforcements.
*****
The squares around Jeremiah continued to light up with the continued arrival of players and NPCs.
“Hey look!”
“That’s the Hydra Society!”
“Look! That’s the Vice-Guild Master of the Hydra Society directly from The West, Macros!”
“…and he brought in his own platoon of elites!”
“Huh? Isn’t that Kladis? Hey look! That’s Kladis!”
“Right! That certainly is The Conqueror Kladis! The Blue Card Legion have also come to join the fray!”
“Look at those women!”
“Man, I bet he always gets to rape those women each night.”
“Look at those jiggling puffs.”
“Whoa! Angels! They didn’t even disarm those pair of wings on their backs!”
“Fuck this. I’m jealous of him!”
“Should we assassinate him?”
“That’s suicide. Kladis is not only handsome, he’s also supposed to be incredibly strong too or else, how could he command such an enormous legion of players and NPCs?”
“Pweh! What’s so good about him? Didn’t Siva put a plug on the guy’s mouth in Alexandria?”
“Ssshh… I heard Kladis is still angry about his loss from Siva. Shut your mouth or we’ll go down with you because of your dimwitted mouth.”
*****
In another part of the city…
“Hot news! Hot news!”
“““What! Hot news?”””
“A Player Division wearing the emblem of the Red Dragon Flag Knight Order from The North have also arrived in Jeremiah!”
“Whoa! That’s definitely some hot news in there!”
“I heard the people from The North are all unlawful ones that even goes robbing players everywhere?”
“Those Northern players does have the ability to do so because all of them are strong.”
“I’ve been to The North and that place is a frozen hell filled with oversized monsters. You’d be lucky to even find an A-Ranked Monster there. Almost all monsters there are S-Ranked.”
“Scary…”
“These guys are definitely strong.”
“Who else from The North are coming?”
“I heard from the west side that the Hydra Society had also sent people to reinforce the defense.”
“Rather than reinforce the defense effort, they’re here to steal from Siva’s Grand Quest rewards and was just exploiting the bounty from Panorama.”
“Right. Right.”
“BURNING NEWS!!!”
“““WHAT?!!”””
“It’s not only hot, it’s actually burning?!!”
“What kind of news is actually burning this time?”
“Flagship Kannada of Haven Dust Company from the Southern Isles have come through a Hyper Jump in the southern quadrant of the city!!!”
“Holy cockroach with golden jeweled crown! Even the newly rising Haven Dust Company is joining the battle this time?!!”
“What’s happening, why are they entering the battle this late?”
“EXTRA! EXTRA!”
“““Now here’s an extra!”””
“Panorama Company had actually issued a bounty in defense of Jeremiah. Siva is here in the city!”
“““WE ALREADY KNOW!!!”””
“Aye! No time to waste!”
“I’m joining this party!”
“Siva is playing the Grand Quest… this invasion is part of the Grand Quest!”
“Let’s steal his glory!”
“Ambush him after the event!”
Many news and things happened at the same time in all sides of the city. Jeremiah is the center of this time’s burning storm and Siva is just a speck in it.
*****
{It’s here!}
Baal arrived at his armoury and didn’t waste time, pulling out an armor and wearing it.
It only took a single tap on his body and the armor crawled its way from his chest to his centaur body, protecting him completely.
Then he reached towards another stack and was just about to touch it when he heard an irritating sound of something shattering, like a piece of rock that crumbled on his hand, that came from his right flank.
He tuned to look and he saw the blade of the War God Axe descending along with the expansion of Siva’s Blue Smoke Domain.
{SIVAAAAAAAAAAA!!!}
Baal was really irritated at his persistent narking.
Siva always had that timing that always disrupts him whenever he was about to do something.
He brandished the fiery sword and met the attack, the force of their attacks parted the two of them but Siva soundly laughed instead of following up with another attack.
{What are you…}
Baal didn’t continued when he noticed the reason why Siva laughed. The entire armory of weapons and inventions around him… had vanished.
{YOU…!!}
“Haha! Thanks for the gift.”
Siva took a heavy left step of his foot forward and delivered a full horizontal swing of his Axe. The blue smoke domain pated like water and gave way to his blow. Baal roared furiously and met it with a shield bash while his right hands cross-armed with his shield-wielding hands to deliver a chop to Siva’s head.
It was an unexpected counter and Siva desperately tuned his head at the last moment, killing his entire pose and disrupting his swing midway.
His outbalance helped him out and the sword tip chipped part of his helm, in his left eye.
{Give them back to me!}
Baal roared and brandished his sword again at his head. Siva gave his own roaring reply, a warcry of his own sorts, parrying the sword with an upward swing of his axe.
A loud clanging noise rung and the two of them broke each other’s poses, their eyes, however, were glaring furiously at each other.
{I kill you myself!}
“No. I’ll kill you myself!”
Siva forced his body to move and shifted his entire weight to his right foot the upward broken position became a starting position for a downward slash.
Baal didn’t waste movements either. His four sturdy legs made sure that all his swing carried weight and maximum speed and so fixing his posture was a bit faster than Siva.
He blocked the strike with his shield which broke their stances but he still had open sword arms that swung the fiery magma sword straight at Siva’s open chest.
Space rippled and a red metallic spear-sword came into Siva’s hand which the tip was pointed towards the Belphegor’s orcish face.
“Hehe…”
Baal panicked and quickly shifted his body. He also broke his swinging posture in order to get away.
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A wild fight inside a burning space ship…
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Next chapter: EXPLOOOOOSION!!!