Jean fused three medium blood fruit together and ate it whole, the product of their fourth lair after an entire night of repelling orc tribes. The shift system was working fine, even more so now with the extra boost to performance some of them enjoyed and none among them had Vitality so low they were suffering fatigue on merely their second day. Still, it was only the second day.
“What is it now?” Yen asked.
“Sixth Sense. Instinctively sense any type of danger-” Jean’s face twitched as he blurred away just barely avoiding the edge of Ashley’s scythe.
“Oh, it works~” The reaper seemed amused and not entirely unsurprised.
“That’s the two priorities sorted.” Donny moved on, none among the party overly concerned with the playful murder attempt. “How do we divide up the fruit now?”
“Three at a time gives the most efficient increase…” Jean posited.
“In what order?” Yen followed up.
“Rock Paper Scissors.” Shin gave a pleasant suggestion.
“So you fast eye speed fucks can cheat? Not a chance.” The mage shot that down immediately. “Same goes for flipping coins, dice, and any other dexterity exploits.”
“Fights~” Karla offered her idea.
“No.”
“Poker.”
“Shut up.”
“We can do rock paper scissors.” Dante said as three illusory cards appeared before him, red, yellow, and blue with the symbols of each. The charlatan sat atop a boulder far heavier than it should be pinning down the Lair Chief bereft of its four limbs. “Round robin! Order is based on number of wins, tie breakers for people with the same amount.”
“Works well enough, let’s go with that.” Several among them could see through illusions but not yet the legendary tier ones Dante’s Greater Major Illusion could produce.
A set of three cards appeared before pairs at random, each selecting a card at the same time for it to turn around to reveal the result. Pairings continued until a winner emerged, and they found new opponents. The charlatan himself knew where his opponent’s cards were ordered, but that was easily circumvented by having him choose first.
The games continued for a short while but with Karla’s tie breaker victory over Jean, the order was set. Ashley, Shin, Karla, Jean, Donny, Kamala, Dante, Mujin, Basem, Yen. Yen stood deeply irritated, the only one to have lost all nine times, even more so that she racked her brain trying to predict her opponent while the undefeated pine green psycho hadn’t shown a single care in the world. Ashley noticed Yen’s glare and returned a slightly smug look of comfortable superiority to the mage’s further annoyance.
With that settled, Basem put the lair boss out of its misery with a single arrow and the party headed out. Shin passed through the portal and ducked under the rapid thrust of a sword. White robes draped his body as he raised an arm at the same time and blasted the attacker away with quake. A wall of greater ward blocked the hail of arrows from the jungle but it shattered as a bolt of lightning streaked through and crashed on their priestess’ mystic shield.
Chariot burst into action. Ashley crossed attacks with another assassin, both weapons passing through their intangible forms. They turned and the enemy met Ashley’s opalescence eyes. The reaper’s hypnotism dulling his mind for only a split second, but that was enough to take his head. The jungle raged and the mage and archer hiding within ceased with wretched screams. Out of it burst a heavily armored man with rageful golden eyes aimed directed at Shin.
[Human Sacred Shielder (legendary) - Greater Lord]
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Shin spat a grasping hand of foxfire but a burst of golden aura dispelled it away. The Atreus paladin raised his flanged mace, but a blast of chaotic noise struck his mind and paralysis gripped his limbs through the invoker’s fox eyed star. Shin blinked behind, green mana wrapping around his hand and struck, but Shin felt no feedback from the attack on his enemies soul.
Shin kicked off the armored paladin, dodging the heavy swing of his mace. Shin glanced to the right and the paladin charged without falling for the cheap feint. And Karla appeared on the left side. Her kick shattered the paladin’s fortress and sent him crashing away across the ground. The amazon sped after the opponent she deemed the strongest, so Shin turned his attention to the rest of the fight.
However, there wasn’t much of a fight to be found. Basem blinked to the side of a duel wielding swordsman and fired, his arrow exploding into countless buckshot that shredded through the man. Terrible screams erupted from a player as Yen in full fire form burned him alive. Donny and Mujin dismantled their opponents with conflicting brutality and grace while Dante stood by watching over the others, his opponent crushed beneath him next to a headless woman, Karla’s initially foe.
Only Jean’s opponent remained, locked in a tense struggle. The halberdier burst forward, his weapon clashing against the epic tier shields of a densely built puppet. The axe blade slid up and hooked the edge of shield, pulling the puppet away. But the man darted back from sword arms of a puppet made for speed and leant back from he rapid lash of a blade tipped tail. Jean narrowed his eyes at the failed sneak attack, his opponent’s demeanor changed as he glanced at the state of the fight.
“This isn’t what you said!” The halberdier roared at the paladin in the distance and fled into the jungle. He blitzed through the dense brush, not even sensing an silent arrow curved through every obstacle and nail him through the back of the head.
Chariot rushed over to the thunderous crashes of the final remaining fight. Karla landed vicious blow after vicious blow, blocking, feinting, deflecting, disrupting. The paladin struggled with all his might to fight back but it was useful before their sheer gap in skill. That none of her strikes damaged the man at all did nothing to slow her assault, and her enthusiasm only grew. Fortress covered his shield as she reached her hand only to grab hold and pull it away as she landed another punch to his face.
Frustration racked the paladin’s face as he stomped a wave of holy energy around him. Karla held her arms up in a guard and tanked the surge, half off it eaten away and her lightly damaged flesh healing. A flying knee rocketed him into the air and Karla blurred before him, a spinning kick sending him crashing back down into the hard base of the cliff.
A force locked the paladin in place as vines broke through the ground to wrap around his throat, Chariot standing around patiently for the man to die. But with an expression veering now into crazed, the paladin’s body turned into light and vanished into the distance in the blink of an eye.
“Dogs.” Basem cursed him and his slain comrades all.
“Why did they even try~?” Ashley asked with a trace of casual mockery.
“We go way back.” Donny answered. “Gold fucker and his brother attacked us in the second stage. We killed the brother, so he’s probably being a sore loser about that.”
Shin noticed Karla thinking to herself silently amidst the talking. “What’s wrong?”
Karla looked back with the same cheerful smile and eyes somewhere between normal and the glint she gets in a fight. “It’s fine.”
“Okay.”
Chariot already started looting, Jean and Basem heading back from the plunder within the jungle. Mujin lifted the spear from his opponent, comparing it with his before storing the old weapon away.
“They got some fruit. Six total, might as well start the order now.” Three small blood fruits each were thrown to Ashley and Shin. The reaper fused and ate her immediately but Shin stored his.
“Tribe.”
Donny caught a lunging blood orc on his shield, sliding back a few yards. He raised his axe and Mujin thrust his new spear through the orc’s skull clean. Donny smiled and pushed the orc off, rushing to meet the swarming orcs at the vanguard.
---
Chariot stepped back onto the beach, not an hour before nightfall. Twenty lairs in total they had managed to find and clear, the only thing slowly them down was the occasional rest needed between the constant fighting. Still, they had made great gains. Shin himself had six fruit in his bag and his turn was next. Only one more lair needed to upgrade a legendary tier trait.
“Hey.” Mujin directed their attention to the left, out in the ocean. Half a party of players rowing a crudely build raft as fast as they could away from the island.
“Idiots…” Yen muttered.
Chariot watched the party row in silence. Suddenly a massive creature burst up from the water swallowing the party and raft whole. A monstrous serpent towering above lingered for only a moment before descending back into the depths of the sea. There was no safety to be found on this cursed island and no way to escape, but none among Chariot showed much concern if any at all. Shin walked to a spot near the tide and took out two blood orc souls, resuming his training.
[Soul Fusion has reached level lvl. 7.]
It wouldn’t be long now until he could evolve Mara and Kong.