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The burning sands that shifted beneath my feet with each step.
Half-buried weapons, bones, fistful of hair that lay strewn around the field.
The acidic stench of blood, piss and shit that stung my nose.
People that chanted, screamed and roared meaningless, incoherent words.
As I stepped out into the arena, my senses were forcibly awakened like someone had splashed cold water on me. I was alert and painfully too aware of how bright the Sun shone in the sky, almost failing to step aside in time as they carried the body out on the stretcher. The previous contestant. I hadn’t been watching so I didn’t know whether he (or she) was alive or dead.
Neither of that mattered.
“-Dorocian Kojisan! Of the Turina Empire!”
I’d missed my own introduction but heard Dorothy’s clearly. She padded into the arena, a confident smile on her face. The athletic woman waved, dressed in light leather armor tinted with hues of black and blue, the same color as her hair. I saw rows of six sheathed daggers lining each of her thighs and no doubt more weapons lay concealed beneath the armor. Her blue eyes finally met mine, a friendly tilt to her head.
I had no ill-will towards her.
This was just business. Nothing personal.
Something in the way I held myself, perhaps because I refused to smile, made Dorothy reconsider her own stance. I saw her eyes go flat and her entire demeanor changed. Her legs bent slightly at the knee, almost imperceptibly but the Royal Oni’s battle instincts started to come to life. The angle of her hands, the distance from fingers to daggers were all potential dangers.
So I did the same.
My legs bending beneath me and slowly, ever so slowly, I drew my Jagged Katana.
I thought the crowd would be going livid, the way we were drawing out our battle.
But they weren’t. Strangely, they were silent. As if they were holding their breath.
The battle began without warning, without signal and without an official beginning. One moment we were just circling each other, drawing lines in the sand and the next we both exploded into a fury of motion.
Dorothy immediately summoned her Three Wolves, they split off on either side with the gray one heading straight towards me. Taking out my [Lunar Shield], I threw it in the air where it promptly levitated right above my head and then swung downwards, blocking the first of the bites.
｢ Lock Slaveborn casts [King’s Guard] ｣
[King’s Guard], an ability compatible only with shields, I could make my Shield protect any designated target, even myself. An Auto-Guard of sorts. The speed of the shield as well as the probability of a successful block depended on my [Physical] stat.
There were pros and cons to wielding a sword and shield. Yes, my strikes were weaker but it was simply so versatile. I could defend and attack at the same time, I could slam into things with my shield and knock them out. More ways to attack. More ways to defend. Sure, a two-handed strike might carry more weight but in my opinion, the pros of the shield and sword far outweighed the cons.
But I didn’t have to choose between the two anymore, thanks to the [Royal Oni] Core. I could simply do both. Even more ways to attack and even more ways to defend.
More ways to kill.
｢ Dorocian Kojisan casts [Pack Hunter] ｣
The wolves were blindingly fast, almost impossible to follow with my eyes. I saw a streak of black emerge from my right side and the [Lunar Shield] moved automatically. The Black Wolf’s claws would have shredded me but they simply grated against the shield and the wolf darted away before I could punish the mistake. Before I could fully process what happened, my arms reacted on reflex, moving the katana towards my left and behind. I didn’t have time to think about what I was doing, but I followed through regardless, trusting in my training.
The gray-aura-covered Kanata sliced through the White Wolf’s forelegs.
The Wolf’s snarl turned into a yelp of pain, dozens of whining sounds accompanying its fall. The monster had too much momentum, it fell face forward into the ground in front of me and tumbled, trying to get back up. But without its forelimbs it was impossible. The creature didn’t bleed, it was a summon. Instead, the stumps where its legs had been attached to were covered in a sinuous black ink, like a painter had taken an ink brush and splattered all over it.
The Royal Oni’s passive, [Artisan of Battle].
All those that I wounded were marked by the Oni’s Ink, giving me additional damage.
Moving forward, intending to behead the creature, I brought my sword down with dispassionate certainty. As soon as my Katana touched the White Wolf’s neck, however, it turned ethereal.
But the ink wasn’t just for show. My katana moved through the creature’s neck harmlessly, –the [Aura] making the smallest of cuts– but the ink stains on its front limbs rearranged themselves into the shape of tree branches with wicked pointed ends. Then the ink branches skewered the creature, coming out through the other side.
[Artisan of Battle], a passive of the Royal Oni that marked the target with Ink on the first strike and triggered an instance of magic damage on the second.
Physical Damage from my Sword. Magic Damage from the [Artisan of Battle] and True Damage from my [Aura].
With every slash of my katana, three-types of damage hit the wolf at once.
The White Wolf faded into nothingness.
Ting
Ting Ting Ting
Meanwhile, Dorothy was throwing her weapons at me but the [Lunar Shield] continued to rotate, spinning like a top and blocking everything. Either she didn’t know about the [Lunar Shield]’s buffing properties or she didn’t care; I felt the [Attack] buffs from the shield continue to flow into me as the Scion charged up my shield. The remaining wolves, Black and Gray, lunged from either side.
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I slashed sideways, wide and slow, and the two wolves skipped out of reach; wary of meeting the same fate as their deceased sibling.
｢ Dorocian Kojisan casts [Pack Hunter] ｣
｢ Dorocian Kojisan casts [Alpha Mutation] ｣
The gray wolf grew larger and fiercer before my eyes, its fur falling off in droves like it was diseased. In its place grew a chitinous shell covering the entire beast like some shelled canine, sleek from head to toe. Even its eyes disappeared, covered by the carapace. It let out a sharp bark, high-pitched and multilayered vibrating sounds grating against one another.
Perfect.
What I needed wasn’t mob monsters that were weak. I had needed Dorothy to pull out an ace card, something that would impress the audience. The wolf looked the part; it had grown larger and its hunched shoulders reached around ten feet high, even more when it straightened its legs. The Black Wolf now looked like a puppy, growling at me and prowling underneath its alien sibling’s paws.
The alien-wolf darted at me, jaws filled with fangs the size of my forearm and serrated to boot. The Black Wolf curled around it, acting like a familiar and nipping at my arms.
But it didn't matter how strong the summon was.
Discharging the [Lunar Shield] of all its charges, I cast [Tidal Force]; pulling Dorothy in between me and the Wolves. Acting quickly, I cast [Share the Load], a manacle clasping around my wrist and an identical one wrapping around Dorthy’s.
Before, the Lunar Shield had been charging up stack by stack, the buffs flowing into me slowly. It was like shifting gears on a makeshift car, my body getting steadily stronger. But this time, I had stacked the debuffs into one moment and my [Arcane Masochism] went wild.
｢ Lock Slaveborn casts [Lunar Shield: Tidal Force] ｣
｢ [Arcane Masochism] cancels [Lunar Shield] ｣ x8!
｢ [Arcane Masochism] cancels [Share the Load] ｣
…
｢ [Arcane Masochism] increases [Attack] ｣
The nine buffs came into me so fast that I had no sense of what stats increased; all I knew was that it felt like a rush of blood. I could hear the blood whooshing from my heart to my fingers, toes and even the top of my head. Time slowed as Dorothy’s eyes met mine, sheer panic as she used [Ethereal Body] on herself. But her summons had tried to avoid her too, leaping up to try and avoid her.
Ducking low and raising my katana straight up, I lacerated all three of them.
Dorothy’s last second decision making saved her, she only suffered wounds from the [Aura]. But the Black Wolf had been positively gutted and it tumbled over and over on the ground. I heard it yelp, blue light leaking out of its stomach, its entire body faded to nothingness. The Alien-Wolf landed with significant weight, throwing up a curtain of sand. But before it took cover under the dust, I saw that the carapace on its underbelly was cut.
Both Dorothy and the Alpha had ink markings swirling around their stomachs.
｢ Lock casts [Hateful Wound] ｣
One of my skills that almost never got to see use, simply because there had been almost no chance for me to chain it with anything else. It also had no Synergy with any of my other abilities… until now.
Dorothy was no longer ethereal and my ability tore into her like an invisible scythe, the small cut on her stomach widening and starting to leak blood onto the sands. The damage triggered [Artisan of Battle] and the ink coiled like needles, stabbing into her stomach. The Alien Wolf, which had suffered a much larger wound, screamed. A horrible sound, long and mournful as its carapaces fell to the floor and the Ink Tree bore into its stomach.
Jumping off of the ground, I reached her and kneed her in the stomach.
She didn’t make a sound as the breath was knocked out of her but I saw panic on her face. She couldn’t cast [Ethereal Body].
Of course not. My [Shadow Mimic Wolf] Core had stolen it with [Sadistic Kleptomaniac].
I watched as she controlled her roll, gaining distance from me. Her monster nightmare wolf loped over, getting in between us and snarling at me, green ichor flowing from its snout instead of white foam. The woman was gasping for breath, trying to stop the bleeding in her stomach.
“I… I can’t use my ability. What the hell did you do?” She glared at me, getting to her feet.
“You should yield.” I whispered.
Dorothy didn’t reply.
“There’s nothing for you in this fight. For me, I already knew coming in that this wouldn’t be an entertaining fight. It wouldn’t be close. I saw you fight in the Dungeon and even if you had something hidden up your sleeve, I knew that you’d be no match for me.”
She could have been a match for me. If she had chosen different Cores. Instead she’d spread out her precious Core slots on something like [Pack Tactic] and [Alpha Mutation]. Both were abilities that you could build around, but they shouldn’t coexist. Even [Ethereal Body] wasn’t a good match for her fighting style, it would’ve been better if she was a close-ranged fighter.
Then there was the fact that she had no items that could rival mine. The most precious thing she had were those daggers that returned to her hands after being thrown.
Gear.
Core.
Skill.
…And I was just better.
As my words reached her, I saw the tilt of her head. The way her eyes gleamed with embarrassment, humiliation and white, hot anger. Her mouth opened to speak but even before her voice reached the air, her Alien-Wolf –synchronized with the summoner’s emotions– sped towards me; jaws threatening to swallow me whole.
Using [Ethereal Body], I slipped past its body and stopped in front of Dorothy. Like I said, a summon means nothing if the summoner herself was weak.
Her eyes were wide with shock, no doubt trying to work out how I’d used [Ethereal Body]. It was impossible for someone to absorb a Core from a monster twice, even if they were the different color. She’d seen me absorb the Red Core of the [Tortured Spirit] and the manacle connecting both of us was too blatant to consider it had been a trick.
[Aura] covering my Katana, I let it rest on the base of her throat.
“Yield.” I whispered.
Silence reigned.
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Arione leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, watching the fight.
“Scarlet?” He asked his apprentice, their faces hidden underneath their cowls.
“...I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“Too many things are going on, Master. He… there’s a lot of magic surging in and out of him, being twisted. I can’t tell how many Blessings and Curses are being exchanged.”
“He definitely has the [Ujo] Core.” Arione bit into his thumb, chewing it. “[Shadow Mimic Wolf]... maybe. Some kind of variant of it. It has to be. That last one was the [Tortured Spirit]... then I think that was the [Royal Oni].”
He peered at L’teya who was smiling.
Arione suddenly wanted to wipe that smile off of her face.
“Maybe I should grab some poor guy, down on his luck and start taking him around, yeah? Feed him all the same Cores that Lock has?” His smile was crooked, eyes wide with sick joy. “Then when we finally face him-”
“It’s not just the Cores. It’s the [Aura].” Clover whispered.
“I thought he had nothing going for him except for his desire to survive… so I thought he’d slow down after becoming free. But he’s become even more...” Clover met the eyes of her only friend in this party. “You were right, Lety. He’s become stronger.”
“Ha! That’s Slaveborn. I was right.” Lety said, a trace of her old self coming back. But Arione’s ‘humph’ reminded her of where she was and who she was currently with. Her eyes looked strange, too bright to be hidden by shadow, as she studied her old friend.
She wondered what would happen once they met.
“We shouldn’t dawdle.” Baran advised. He was the only one who hadn’t paid attention to the fight, keeping his attention around them.
“Shut your mouth.” Arione snapped. “I say when we move.”
Baran opened his mouth to argue, then shrugged.
L’teya ignored the two as Lock spared the Scion, sheathing his sword. The levitating shield stopped rotating around him and the former-slave snapped it out of the air and put it on his back. His armor was a mixture of black and gray, well-cared for and equally well-used. The Lock she knew had been similar to Baran, always wary and on guard. A rogue rather than a warrior.
But now, he looked like one of those Human Knights of the Turina Empire. It was partly the Cores that Arione had mentioned, Lock’s abilities no longer something that L’teya herself understood. But it was more than that. The Lock as of now looked like he had purpose, purpose other than just making sure he himself was alive. She was unsure when it happened, but Lock Slaveborn had changed. His wildness lurked beneath the surface, focused with unsettling intensity.
Maybe he’d already changed when they escaped Samak City. L’teya had just not been awake to see it. Old bitterness that she’d buried deep within threatened to emerge and her fingers wrapped around the battle axes hanging on her waist.
If those orcs hadn’t-
“Are you ok, Lety?” Clover put a hand on L’teya’s forearms.
L’teya looked down at her friend. “I’m fine.” She whispered, not unkindly, and let go of the axes.
“Come on then.” Arione muttered. “Let’s go look for that Orc guy. What’d you say his name was, Clover?”
Clover’s bovine eyes shone from underneath her hood.
“Arrosh.” She began.
“Arrosh Bloodedge. The Goddess orders us to find him.”
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“What build is that?” A human dressed in rags, wearing the head of a Horse. Not a helmet made in the likeness of one, he wore the Horse like a second skin over his own head.
“...Can you take that off?” A dwarf woman with orange pigtails; a large shield next to her. She snapped in annoyance at the goblin man. “That’s only cool when you’re playing the game, not when you’re living in it.”
“Some kind of Knight build. [Ujo], [Shadow Mimic Wolf]... I think. [Tortured Spirit] and [Royal Oni] for sure.” A balding elf answered the first question. His head was swirling with purple and blue ink; stretching and moving, forming different shapes.
“You think?” Another voice said sarcastically. Another elf, but this time, a familiar face.
Elrien.
“He’s changed a lot since I last saw him.” Elrien muttered. “Didn’t think it was possible for us [Players] to unlock [Aura]. I think he might be the first one.”
“Well I’ll be the next then.” The horse-head man stopped lounging on the couch and sat up, twiddling his thumbs. “Now we know that it doesn’t matter if you’re a [Player] or not. You can still use [Aura].”
“We knew that was possible from the first place, idiot. No one else has any trouble using their own Racial Traits. It’s just that [Aura] was stupid; it requires you to actually learn it.” The dwarf woman grabbed a cup of wine and downed it. She faced the back of another person in the room with them. “We have to recruit him. If he goes over to those fucking-”
“He won’t go over to them… and I doubt they even know about him. Yet.” Elrien muttered, most of his body hidden in shadow. “I met him. He wants to get stronger and that’s his number one goal.”
A beastman roused from the floor that he had been sleeping on. He was huge, nearly twice the width of any man there. He had antlers on his head, thicker than most men's biceps. He yawned and stretched, fixing his Cervidae eyes on the last person in the room. “Well? What do you want to do?”
The last person in the room, the only known [Player], in their organization at least, to have been born as the hidden secret 6th race: Nephilim.
With bronze skin and golden eyes, wings that looked like someone had taken clouds and molded them in the fashion of a dove sprouted from the man’s back. His eyes were glued to the retreating figure: Lock Slaveborn.
“Nothing.” He whispered.
“Nothing?!” The horse-man got to his feet. “He’s a fucking [Aura] user, and the only [Player]-”
“Surely he’s not the only one. Just the first that we know of.” The dwarf muttered drly.
“Well that has value in and of itself! We should go down there and-”
“Too impatient.” Elrien interjected. “Just let Nathan speak.”
With Elrien’s words, everyone looked to Nathan –the Nephilim– again.
“...Elrien. What happened to that orc you kidnapped?”
“The Sword Saint’s Apprentice? He’s locked up, like you ordered.” Elrien frowned. “You don’t think-”
“A [Player] who started as a slave in the Samak Desert awakened [Aura]. The same time that an orc who was the Sword Saint’s apprentice finally makes his appearance. Not only that… the said human is good. Much too good for someone who’s been here less than a year.” Nathan grinned.
“I was that good when I first got here too.” The horse-man said petulantly, lips sticking out in false hurt.
“Bring the orc here.” Nathan finished. “I have some questions for him.”
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