“Bear witness. To the rise of the Ninth Champion.”
Shin found himself on the large stone tiled stage before he knew it, surrounded by a roaring crowd of countless and facing a single man. Aged with long white hair, his pale face gaunt and stern but his eyes deeply vain, dismissing all before his gaze. Pointed ears too long to hide behind his locks of hair and his height obvious even from his hunched back. Black and green robes covered him near whole adorned with a mantle of grim feathers and a belt of bones bearing a single skull at the side.
[Elf Necromancer (legendary) - Greater Lord]
The masked being just outside the platform raised an arm. “Begin!”
“Death.”
Shin beheaded the man the moment he spoke with a blade of white and black. As his feet touched the ground, the necromancer’s falling head and swaying body both burst into golden flames, and Shin turned with prismatic eyes. Whatever curse had afflicted him through the bulk of the third trial was dispelled with the end of the stage and the damage to his soul restored. Though it ached fiercely now, a product of whatever spell the elf had use.
Shin watched him burn, waiting for the retaliation, but once again found himself back at the starting position, fully restored and facing a new opponent. A towering figure, limbs as thick as trees, he wore the leather and fur attire of a savage viking warrior. Long curled brown hair around a broad face bearing an eager mocking smile through an iron mask.
[Goliath Berserker (legendary) - Greater Monarch]
“Begin!”
A flash of light carved along with berserker’s body drawing a gush of blood from the deep wound. The man’s face slowly fell into stunned shock and Shin unleashed a flurry carving and slicing away. Grievous wounds lined the goliath’s body but that was all. Shin had meant to sever, not cut.
A thunderous stomp forced Shin to dart away and the man roared. Aura surged with tremendous intensity, filling his body with power. A hand swiped down at Shin as the ground where the man had just stood shattered apart, just barely missing him as he blinked away. No sooner had Shin reappeared that another massive hand greeted him. He blinked away in quick succession, each time narrowing avoiding the charging berserker’s arms.
Shin took to the air way up high as he assessed the raging opponent below. The berserker possessed a considerable amount of stats, evident by the fact he was twice as fast even invoking the legendary elite Inari and using everything he had. The rage he used seemed deeper and more powerful than Donny’s Greater Rage and each attack surged with the same crackling aura as Karla’s Dynamic.
The enraged berserker crouched down low with tensing vigor and Shin blinked to the side as the man shot past where he had just been. Shin needed only glance at the flailing man through the air to know his plan had worked. He blitzed through the air towards the rocketing berserker.
Realization jolted through the goliath’s face as Shin drew near enough, and he swung wildly. Blasts of wind left each strike as Shin flickered around them. The berserker raised a hand and Shin’s glare paralyzed his body just long enough to land a prismatic fist of white and black. The goliath roared in pain and another strike silenced him. The surging aura faded away as the man fell, and Shin found himself back at the stage.
A gruff dwarf in craftsman’s attire stared him down. Copper skin and black hair with a thick beard, the man stood about four feet tall with a stout build.
[Dwarf Golemancer (legendary) - Greater Monarch]
“Begin!”
Shin blinked behind before the giant golems rising at the dwarf’s side could fully form, striking with a prismatic fist. The dwarf sneered as stone arms bloomed from his back grasping at Shin as a sphere of mana fell over them, a skill that prevented teleportation. But Shin did not stop, a wave of Greater Quake cascaded through the arms, shattering them whole as he slammed his fist into his back, destroying the golemancer’s soul.
The dwarf hardly had the time to hit the ground before Shin reset again. Before him was a fat man with short curly blond hair. Everything from his weight to his shallow arrogance to the egregious amount of jewelry adorned his body spoke to the boundless hedonism of his character.
[Human King (legendary) - Greater Monarch]
“Begin!”
Shin severed a six winged angel that appeared in his way, a mythic tier seraphim by appraisal of the king’s same rank. But the portly hedonist showed no concern for what laid before his eyes. He simply opened his mouth and uttered two dismissive words.
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“Kill yourself.”
The words sank deeply into Shin, urging him to obey. And a line of light flashed through the center of the king, two halves sliding away with his silk toga in a bloody mess. His words consumed and ignored.
For the fifth time, Shin faced a unfamiliar opponent. This one a young man of impressive build with long thick red hair and inhuman features. Red scales lined parts of his body matching and majestic horns grew from his head. He stood arms crossed with a smile, lighthearted and confident. A galant figure in armor and cloth with all the poise and presence of a hero.
[Draconian Gigant (legendary) - Greater Lord]
“Begin!”
Shin’s blade cut through a golden fortress on the draconian’s golden arm but stopped short on his flesh. A fist slammed into Shin’s stomach, shattering his mystic protection and a second impact from the same strike blasting a hole in his gut. But Shin didn’t falter in the slightest. A paralytic gaze stunned the draconian in place, as he spun the other blade at his neck.
Mana of white and black slashed through with the means to bypass Indestructible, and sparks of lightning met it. They wreathed out like static stopping the blade short. It was not strength or force, but simple magnetism, preventing the blade itself from approaching.
The gigant snapped out of the paralysis, lightning surging across his fists as he rained down a volley at Shin. Shin was faster by a note but found no ease in dodging the attacks. There was a strangeness about the draconian’s movements, moving at just the right time in just the right way, blocking Shin’s attacks and countering with increasingly close brushes with death.
Foresight. Shin was sure of it. And he was sure of its weakness. Shin’s weapon vanished and a ball of ghostly foxfire rose above, duality fusing in until it burst into a cage trapping them both. Shin charged with a prismatic fist sparking a brief reaction from the lightning monk before jolted his focus to the streams of foxfire lunging at him from the cage’s bars.
Shin flickered again punching with his full force, stopping just short before slipping away. The white masked goblin darted all around, erratically, unpredictably, sometimes short, sometimes nearly a complete attack. Such behavior with the looming threat of truestrike forced the gigant to keep his focus on the invoker, at least partly and forced him to rely on foresight all while the tendrils of foxfire struck at every opening.
The gigant shifted around the hunting foxfire and Shin lunged. The gigant barely showed it on his face but it showed enough. Confusion. He shifted in Shin’s direction, and his expression changed. But it was too late. The cage shrunk rapidly around them as Shin struck.
The draconian flared his power and struck back, prismatic cracks shooting through his body while lightning burst half Shin’s body apart and sent him flying. But the bars of the cage bent around his body and closed in on the draconian left behind. Lightning surged over his body in an instant and exploded, crashing against the cage of foxfire, cancelling it out.
Shin’s body regenerated in an instant as the draconian stood among the lightning scorched stone with labored breath and a strained expression. He looked at Shin and smiled, confident and genuine.
“Rax, seventh prince of Xarrash.”
“Shin.”
Rax laughed a little. “Sorry, I underestimated you. I’ll use everything now.” The draconian prince took a stance as he spoke, gripping power into his arms. His friendly expression slipped into that of a fierce warrior. In an instant his body swelled three times his size into a veritable giant. A violent mane of lightning coated his body and thunder his fists.
Rax shot forward and cratered the stage as Shin darted away. The giant shifting around nimbly, surprisingly so for his size forcing Shin to dodge a constant assault of heavy punches and swipes. Rax’s true speed had not changed, but the length of his stride and reach compounded it, along with his raw power evident by the sheer sound of his strikes.
Shin blurred around a strike, bursting up through the air. A giant fist barreled through the air and froze in place as Shin melded Greater Glare and Mindfray into one excruciating attack on his mind, prismatic mana coating his fist. And a bolt of lightning zapped him from Rax’s body the moment he drew close, a speed far too fast to react to.
Lightning and thunder struck, the giant’s fist crashing Shin into an invisible barrier surrounding the stage. His body half mangled and full charred slid down as a second fist crashed into the barrier. Rax spun around to Shin appearing behind, the invoker regenerating in an instant. Sparks of intense voltage coursed over him but his body moved as he wished it.
Rax charged with no delay and Shin charged again too. The gigant swung a thundering arm as he held back the other, ready for the second strike. Shin gathered the mana for glare and mindfray and Rax’s face shifted. Shin stepped off the air with a burst of violent vibration, propelling him faster than ever before. Lightning zapped through his body but he bore everything and struck deep into the giant’s core with dazzling prismatic mana.
Shin leapt back and invoke faded away with the last of his mana as Rax fell to a knee. He strained against the damage spread through his soul but the lightning faded to nothing and his body shrunk back to normal. The gigant held his stomach with labored breathes, weary expression slowly excepting the inevitable.
Rax looked over to Shin patiently waiting and smiled, humbly and confidently. “I’ll use everything from the start… next time…” The draconian’s words drifted off as his body fell to the stage. And Shin reset again.
A woman stood before him, her lean curvy body covered in high quality leather armor save for the pale blue skin visible only around her eyes between the hood and mask covering the lower half of her face. Eyes cold and callous before the target in her unyielding gaze and two large daggers in her hands.
[Elf Shadowdancer (legendary) - Greater Lord]
“Begin!”
Shin’s masked head left his body draped in white and black in the blink of an eye. As his head arched round in the air, he turned his gaze to the elf woman looking back in derision. Not born of arrogance, but of ardent trials overcome and a mountain of corpses beneath her feet. She vanished again, and Shin’s head fell in severed chunks. And his body rose, reforming a new one. Double bladed naginata in hand, he leaned over, his stance amateurish and foreboding against the biggest threat he had faced so far.