It didn’t take Shaun long to get a good idea of how best to strike at the army right outside the compound. With them gathered so close and his own side not really doing much about it as they didn’t have the people to make any impact in the war any longer, it wasn’t an overly difficult job to use some large scale attacks to start clearing out the numbers.
Rather than try and sneak up on them he flew straight out to the army, low enough that they could all see him approach and yet just far enough away that they wouldn’t be able to do much of anything against him.
Amplifying his voice with air he gave them one chance to escape from the event before dying. “Leave the event now or die. You have 10 seconds to act before I start attacking.”
His lightning form along with the cackling of power around him made an impact on the gathered army, his hope was that Jason would make an appearance and he would be able to cut straight to the end of this fight. Sadly, very few accepted his offer of escaping, what was worse was that even after the 10 seconds were up Jason made no appearance.
Although this wasn’t the desired outcome he still had no issue with killing off the army until he either ran out of mana or Jason appeared. Summoning all of his Zapian Eagles, he set them loose on the army, at the same time he started sending lightning and ire strikes at the army from above. He saw many of the people in the army attempt to put up barriers and shields to defend themselves from the attacks but with the amount of power he put into each strike, mixed with his eagles causing pandemonium throughout the ranks, there was nothing they could do to survive his attacks.
He also didn’t bother stopping, one after the other he rained hell down on the army, he was draining his mana quickly but he also didn’t care. Even if Jason showed up and he had barely any mana left he truly doubted that he would be able to do any damage against him.
It took no more than 5 minutes for him to have reduced the amount of people gathered at his compound by a third. Millions dead yet still plenty more to go. He had used most of his mana in the attack but he still had plenty of stamina left to use his swords.
Swooping down from the air he hacked through the retreating force with little to no regard of his own safety. He was too quick for them to put up much of a fight and with his strength he was easily able to smash through their defences like they were wet paper. Thousands more died by his swords as his mana increased yet he got no joy from the fight, if it would even be called that.
As the army continued to run he followed. He planned on chasing them to the very end or at least until Jason made his appearance. Between him and his eagles the number of people on The Pantheon’s side dropped quickly, he ignored every notification he got as it was all much of the same. More points for killing people, points for killing a majority of the enemy’s side, points for killing this person and that person. It was all just pointless at this point.
Every time his mana got back up to over half he reverted to using his skills to wreck more destruction on the retreating force. The mages were the first to go, they didn’t have the stamina to keep up and when they tried to attack him in force it just gave him an easier opportunity to kill them in bulk.
He kept at it for hours, following them as they ran, yet still no sign of Jason. This entire thing had become ridiculously tedious and boring yet it also accomplished something that he hadn’t expected. They all knew they didn’t stand a chance and because of this they also left the event in droves rather than be hunted down and killed by him or his eagles.
He was disappointed that Jason hadn’t joined in the battle, he had no idea where this guy was but to let his entire army get decimated without at least joining in the attack was beyond disappointing. It wasn’t until there was less than a quarter of his people left that he saw another, smaller army approach in the direction that the army he had been killing off had been running.
When he saw the second army he cut off his attacks and waited for them all to join up. He needed to lure Jason out, and he hoped that giving him time to organise his people would do just that. The last time he spoke to Jason he got confirmation that he wouldn’t attack him one on one, knowing he would lose. Little did he know that that even with all of the people he had gathered, he still wouldn’t be able to win.
“If Jason is here, please can he come out already. This needs to end so we can get on with our lives. You have lost, so lets just finish this damn event.” He made his voice loud enough that everyone would be able to hear him and then he just sat on the ground and waited.
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He watched as the two armies merged into one and started to form some semblance of a proper fighting force. He didn’t attack them at all during this time and just waited. It took over 10 minutes before he finally saw Jason step forward to the front of the gathered army and even from this distance he could tell the guy was pissed.
Another guy took a step up just behind him and started waving a piece of clothing. It took him a minute to figure out what was happening but eventually he gathered that waving the white shirt was them waving the white flag. They wanted to talk. He waved them over but didn’t make any motion to get off the ground.
Jason came walking to him alone which he found somewhat amusing. He walked slow enough that it appeared he was calm but Shaun knew better. This conversation was not going to be like the last one where they exchanged questions and answers in a relaxed manner. It took 5 minutes for Jason to make his way to him at his slow pace and he tried not to let his irritation show.
“Do you have any idea what you have cost me? What the consequences of this will be?” Jason didn’t join him on the ground. He stood above him and looked down at him.
“You lost, Viv will be world leader. The Pantheon will be pissed, probably do something stupid like start an actual war against The Empire that spans more than just our planet. Sound about right?” He had already deduced this based off what he had learnt about Earth being a nexus planet so it was easy enough to guess that they wouldn’t roll over and just let The Empire have it without a fight.
“The…… yeah. How did you know?” Jason now looked more confused than angry at how he knew.
“Not hard to figure out. Our planet is worth more than you know. I imagine that regardless of who won this event that a larger war would have broken out. The world leader thing just gives the winning side an advantage but it doesn’t win the true war that will occur.”
“You know what makes our planet so special to them, don’t you? You said you didn’t before. You lied.” He was back to being angry now.
“I didn’t lie, I honestly didn’t know when we spoke last. Now I do. But that really doesn’t matter. Can we just finish this event so we can get a move on with what actually matters outside of the event. Even if you manage to kill me, which you won’t. And even if you personally killed every single person left on our side you still won’t get enough points to make number one. Just give up. Tell all of your people to exit the event and I will kill you now and we can all get on with our lives.”
“You want me to just give up? Tell all my people to give up without a fight?”
“Yeah. Aren’t you over this event already? Nothing will change, I will still be number one and you will be number two. We are just moving up the timeline of this finishing.”
Jason thought about it for a minute, trying to find some way to come out winning. It also seemed like he had an idea if his slow smile was anything to go off. “I will agree, but first you have to agree to something. If you think that you can defeat me and all of my people gathered than you have to assume you can take my strongest attack and live. Right?”
He had no doubt that even the strongest of Jason’s attacks wouldn’t kill him anymore. He also got where Jason was going with this as well so he just cut to the chase. “You can hit me with your strongest attack, you can prep as much as you want. If I can take it you have all of your people leave and I kill you. If I die you can do what you want with the remainder of the event.”
The look of shock on Jason’s face was worth it. He didn’t know if it was because he agreed to it so quickly or that he was so confident that he would survive. Regardless, if it got this thing over with he didn’t care.
“I also want to know what makes Earth so special. Then I will attack you with everything I have, you can’t defend yourself. Then if you live I will give the order and concede the event. Do we have a deal?”
Telling Jason everything about Earth being a Nexus planet wasn’t in his plan, but he didn’t have to explain everything, he just had to say why Earth was so special. “Agreed. We have a deal.”
“So tell me, why is Earth so special?” Jason looked hungry for the information and he had to stop himself from smiling at the pure desire on his face.
“It’s a Nexus planet. No attack me and let’s get this over with.”
“Hold up, what the hell is a Nexus planet?”
“That wasn’t part of our deal, you wanted to know why Earth was special and now you do. The fact you don’t know what a Nexus planet is, is not my problem. I fulfilled that part of the deal so unless you want to go back on it, which I will take as an end to our little truce which means I will just kill you now, you will hurry up and attack me.”
Jason went from being annoyed to outright furious in a second. He started growing red in the face and looked like he was seconds away from losing his mind and doing something stupid. It took several long seconds for him to pull himself together and calm down enough to understand that if he didn’t follow through on his part of the deal that he would have no chance at actually attacking him.
“Maybe not now, but at some point in the future, I will get stronger than you and when I do I will make it my mission in life to kill you.” Jason took out a spear and stood above him aiming it right at his own heart. “I truly hate you for what you have done.”
He didn’t say anything back, didn’t even move. He just waited as he felt the mana start to grow within Jason and decided to see what he could find out about the guys affinity and power. If he was being honest, the more he saw, the more intrigued he got. How interesting.