“Kill them!” A brutish player roared as Karla shattered his head with a single kick, blitzing past the dozen others between them.
Not a second of time was given to the underlings as a similar fate of death was handed out to all. Arrows from Basem found their mark dead center with ease. Mujin shifted fiercely through the enemies to impale each with a single deft strike. Throwing knives from Dante that curved impossibly through the chaos to hit the right targets. Laughter came from empty air as nameless players had their throats slit one by one.
Behind the fighting, Shin hopped between each body to loot, unconcerned with the carnage taking place. Half of the party wasn’t participating either. Even if they wanted to, their was little opportunity to get involved, the difference in ability between them and their latest targets simply too great.
Shin glanced through several bags and tossed them aside. They had next to no need for rare tier items and that was the extent that any of the fallen had. Such had been the prevalent case these past seven days of raiding. Shin knelt next to another dead body, his stats available for all to see, and it breathed fire at him.
An intense stream of flames crashed against Shin long enough to turn any person to ash. The flames surged and drained away as if consumed. The man jumped to his feet alert but had time only for his face to start to fall in shock as Shin’s arm flickered to take his head. He calmly pulled the spatial bag form his belt as the man now truly dead fell to the floor, glancing through it before throwing it too at the floor of the body.
[Mana Absorption has reached lvl. 3]
Training outside of the stages was truly slow, Shin felt as he checked his status.
[Human Invoker (legendary) - Greater Lord]
Strength - 200 (260)
Agility - 600 (780)
Constitution - 50 (65)
Vitality - 115 (149)
Dexterity - 33 (43)
Perception - 300 (390)
Force - 24 (31)
Spirit - 700 [1050] (1365)
Control - 150 [225] (292)
Willpower - 100 [150] (195)
Skills:
Heal lvl. 10, Greater Mystic Protection lvl. 10, Summon Sorcerous Kitsune Guardian lvl. 10, Supreme Martial Combat lvl. 3, Greater Rapid lvl. 10, Befriend Spirit lvl. 10, Greater Mana Meditation lvl. 10, Invigoration lvl. 10, Harvest Soul lvl. 2, Greater Invoke lvl. 10, Quake lvl. 10, Channelling lvl. 10, Spirit Gyro lvl. 10, Greater Ward lvl. 10, Soul Fusion lvl. 1, Lambast lvl. 10, Greater See Through Spirits lvl. 10, Invoke Skill lvl. 5, Overshadow lvl. 10, Mana Absorption lvl. 3, Yin lvl. 2, Yang lvl. 2,
Traits:
Body Supremacy, Eyes of the Spirit King, Ethereal Soul, Spiritkeeper, Survival State, Regeneration, Hawkeye, Blindsight, Summoner, Great Control, Great Spirit, Great Willpower,
A shade under 2750 but he needed that space for the third stage, the party having come to a shared deduction that a Great Attribute would be rewarded at the end, hence why their patrons had told them to keep their totals as low as possible even after the festival.
Looking at his status, the biggest change, besides the seven new traits and skill, were of course his stats. Force was next to irrelevant unless he was invoking and Control and Willpower had a noticeable but moderate improvement. The most important was his Spirit, now close to 1400 more factoring in his blessing.
He wasn’t the only with impressive numbers. Ashley had a similar Agility to his Spirit. He was still faster while invoking Inari but that was largely because of his legendary tier greater swiftness item. Once she upgraded the skills he suspected her to have, she’d be the fastest in the party, but for now that title laid with Karla.
Yen boasted a peak of 1560 Force and beyond even that, Kamala held a staggering 1755 Spirit. With their enhanced builds and greater blessings, non apostles had become irrelevant against them, let alone non rankers. Even as the standard for ‘goons’ as Yen called them raised to Monarch rank with greater stats.
Donny slammed the lone remaining player into the wall and circled near, his shield side facing towards the man who seemed to be the leader, fat, olive skinned with a thick beard. “Look, we don’t have to kill you, so don’t give us a reason. Just open the safe, yeah?”
The man said nothing, which was something of a problem as the party had encountered something they hadn’t before, a legendary tier safe. Too small for anyone to blink into, too durable for anyone to break, at least in short time, and too high tier for Jean to unlock.
“Where’d you get this anyway?” The man remained silent but for a brief moment, he glanced in Jean’s direction.
Donny stared at him for a minute, then glanced between him and Jean. “Oi, why’re you looking at Scout? Something about him interest you?”
Silence returned yet again, and then a yell of pain as Donny chopped off the leader’s arm. The man clutched his bleeding severed forearm with suppressed groans.
“I ain’t asking again.”
“...the puppeteer killed Viktor.”
“Oh, Viktor.” Donny knocked out half the man’s teeth with the edge of his shield, dropping him to the floor. “I need a little more information than that, mate.”
“My opponent for Great Control.” Jean informed.
“Your old boss?” Donny knelt down as he questioned. “He was the big man around here, then?”
Groans and labored breath turned to slight laughter, and a defiantly accepting smile. “You will kill me anyway. So I give you nothing.”
Ashley appeared before him without warning, her invisibility dispersing to reveal a hooded cloak over her rogue’s attire, and captured the man’s gaze, his proud expression slumping into a trance, lost in her swirling polychrome eyes. “Who’s Viktor?”
“...the boss of Behemoth…”
“This is Behemoth?”
“A branch…”
“Then where’s the main one?”
The man pointed right, towards the orange hue of dusk.
“Ask him where he got the safe.” Donny told Ashley.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Viktor…” The man answered directly, and Ashley just smiled at Donny.
“What’s inside?” Donny asked, now knowing he’d be answered.
“I don’t know…”
“Open it.”
“Can’t… Only Viktor can…”
Donny glanced at the safe. “How many in the main base?”
“Hundreds…”
“Any apostles?” Ashley asked.
“Yes…”
“Thanks~” The reaper put a dagger through the man’s skull.
“I had a few more questions.” Donny directed at Ashley, though he was hardly too bothered.
“My bad~”
“Alright…” Donny turned to the others. “Everyone agree to head over?”
“Sure.”
“Yeah~”
“Maybe we can actually get something useful this time.” Yen said.
“We could have got whatever we wanted.” Basem glared at Shin, who was utterly unoffended.
“We’ve been over this. Would’ve shown our hand too early and had a harder time in the later rounds.” Donny explained to the kid. That wasn’t Shin’s reason, he knew, but the end result was the same.
“Alright, let’s go then.”
“What about the safe?” Yen asked.
“We can’t open it so it don’t matter. I don’t trust it anyway.” Donny smashed a hole in the wall of the building and started in the direction pointed out to them. The rest of Chariot followed after, with Shin pausing to glance at the safe before continuing on.
---
Chariot stood in the early hours of the morning overlooking the main base of Behemoth from a cliff in the distance. Large stone walls, taller than the wooden ones they were used to, encircled a wide medley of buildings and people. A glance revealed several thousand people at least, two or three villages’ worth, but rather than a place of commerce and residence it appeared more like the headquarters of a criminal organization, a mess of security and idle hands with little to do.
“Another city…” Mujin gazed out upon the settlement.
“No, it’s a small medieval town at best…”
“It has great walls and lots of people. This is clearly a city, you fool.”
Yen was speechless, half out of annoyance, half trying the process the nonsense she just heard.
“Donkey.” Basem cursed him lightly without a shred of respect.
“Huh?!” A spear appeared in Mujin’s hand and Basem nocked an arrow without hesitation.
“Knock it off!” Yen snapped at the two aggressive fools, before looking back at the others with half a sigh. “So, what’s the plan? Looks like just enemies down there, so I could just blow some stuff up. Everyone storms in and sweeps them in the chaos.”
“That is reckless.” Kamala objected.
“It’s realistic.” Yen stressed. “How many people are even a threat to us at this point?”
“Many.”
“Have to agree. Let’s be smart about this, yeah?” Donny brought everyone’s attention to him with ease, having the bearing of someone with something to say. “Let’s scout out the place first, see what we’re dealing with. We’re all famous so we can’t just walk in. You got invisibility?” He asked Dante.
“Illusions and disguises.”
“Even better. Shin knows how to do this, so put a disguise on him-”
“No.” Shin’s tone was as casual as always but something about it seemed adamant.
“...alright, then Dante, Jean and Ashley-”
“Don’t feel like it~”
“Monk and Scout then, fucksake. You two sneak around, find out what we’re dealing with. Any problems we take them out first then run off the rest.”
“Boring.” Dante objected, his expression reflecting his words.
“Got something in mind?”
Dante smiled.
---
Jean and Dante walked through the streets of the enemy base, plain as day, Jean’s passively sullen face contrasting Dante’s wide smile. The puppeteer subtly glanced around at the people they passed by. Some didn’t seem to recognize or care, but most did, doing a poor job of watching the two discreetly with guarded eyes or slinking away.
“Look. Every place has a character. Doesn’t take long to feel it.”
Jean glanced at the charlatan. His proposal had been to just walk around undisguised and see how the Behemoth reacts, to get a sense for how they operate and just how capable they are. A crude plan to say the least but one that had some reason behind it. Though if Jean had any complaints he cared enough to voice, it would be that they were moving targets just waiting to be attacked.
“Why you look so down? This is what life is all about.”
“Being bait?”
“Truth.” Dante opened his arms, speaking with upbeat conviction. “Living in the moment. It’s only times like this that reveal exactly who you are.”
Jean glanced at him.
[Human Scout (rare) - Greater Lord]
A thoroughly enigmatic person. That was about all Jean could surmise of Dante from the week spent in Chariot. The remainder was that he had some screws loose underneath the bouts of strange intelligence. Although ‘crazy’ applied to just about everyone else in the party.
“Living in the moment…” Jean mused. He could say with some certainty that he had never done such a thing in his entire life. He glanced to the left at growing rustles of suspicion activity. “They’ll try something soo-”
A swordsman’s lunge impaled Jean through the chest, driving him back at the speed of the wind. A cruel smile spread across the attacker’s face that quickly faded to shock as a wooden featureless face took the place of his victim’s. Two pairs of arms snapped around the man locking him against the puppet tight enough that he could barely breathe.
“You shouldn’t move.” Jean told the struggling man as a squared mouth opened up in the puppet’s face, revealing a bolt dripping with poison.
Up on a rooftop above the commotion, an invisible woman turned to flee at the sight of the attacker’s failure, and three kunai struck her limbs, a paralyzing force instantly affecting her body as she slumped down in a spasm.
“Shouldn’t ever underestimate a scout. They lead dangerous lives.” Dante stepped towards the poisoned woman and knelt down with a deep glint in his eyes. “So… why does this town feel like demons?”
The woman started to open her mouth, but stopped just as quickly. Her eyes went wide, rolling to the back of her head, and she self destructed, the entire building of wood and stone blasted to pieces. The man trapped by Jean fell into a panicked frenzy at the sight, struggling against his constraints.
“I didn’t say anything! I won’t-”
Light flashed from his body and a powerful explosion followed. Among the smoke and debris, Jean stood out behind a puppet with shield hands, unharmed. Dante dropped down next to him.
“Yours too?”
“Yeah…” Jean glanced at the burnt hole in the stone street and dirt below, not a trace of his puppet remaining, and then at the damaged hands of the shield puppet he recently repaired, slightly annoyed.
Yells from the wall erupted, followed by a calamitous explosion turning the gate and its guards into nothing but ash and rubble. In moments, the rest of Chariot reunited with the two.
“Learn anything?”
“They explode.”
“Someone here has demonic magic.” Dante added.
“Good, more of those.” Donny quipped. “Jean up front with me, Dante and Baz watch our backs, let’s go kill these people.”
“It’s Basem, you dog.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Donny sped off and the party followed as directed.
Players and groups sprang up from the town all around them as they moved and were cut down just as fast. Spells shattered and dispelled. Arrows dodged or blocked away. Shin decapitated a man the moment he burst through the wall near him. Basem sunk an arrow right between the eyes of an invisible archer.
Chariot cut a path of carnage and entered the town square before the giant manor, immediately beset by a horde of players at either side. Karla blitzes off left and Ashley looked left, slipping away invisible with a short giggle.
“Oi!” Donny yelled but his attention was demanded at the third horde rushing at them from the front, this one of players with maddened faces and black veins. “Shin left, Dante right. Mujin up with me, Jean watch the casters’ backs.”
Yen floated up, a firebolt of immense heat concentrating in the palm of her hand. It shot out, sundering the wind faster than most could react, a massive explosion of flames decimated the demonic horde. The wave of aftershock powerful enough to knock her back a step, rubble rattling against her Greater Armament. Donny blocked his share by shield and Mujin twirled his spear rapidly. The little that came through were blocked by thick wings hard as armor and shaped like steel feathered kite shields and Jean’s giant hand puppet.
A demonic human burst out of the ground beneath them, reaching straight for Yen, and was locked in air. Basem put two arrows in its head and a dagger from the shadows reach for him, severed by a puppet with blades for arms. Donny darted in front of Kamala, and a large metal ball crashed against his shield, force ripping the out the stone tiles beneath him.
“Kill the giant!” Donny yelled at Mujin as a massive demonic human in the back of the surviving horde raised another ball.
Mujin sprinted forward, cutting down several demonic humans in his path before a dozen sharp roots shot out of the ground and speared through the ones in his way. With blocking his path, he flashed forward like lightning, aura surging over his spear as he thrust it clean through the armored giant’s skull. The player staggered and shrunk down to normal size in an instant as he slumped to the ground. Mujin took a measured glance around before dashing back to the party along with the others leaving behind a mass of corpses in their direction.
“Stick with the same teams. Get the boss before he decides to run.” Donny wasted no time rushing towards the manor at the vanguard and none had any hesitation in following after.
---
Amir watched the illusory projection with a sour look. The town in ruins, hundreds of his best soldiers dead, and the attackers charging into his estate this very second, ripping through the guards and golems like paper. A mere party of ten, not even so much as wounded, though he could only expect as much given the faces among them he recognized.
A beautiful woman with rose red hair in an elegant silk dress wrapped her arms around him from the side. “There’s no need to worry. You can’t lose.”
Amir’s face steeled. With Viktor’s death, it was by her help that he managed to take control of Behemoth above all other rivals. Rivals that now served him one way or the other. He rose out of her soft embrace, black scythe appearing in his hand as he walked to the stairs, two dozen oni following behind.