C
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TRIAL TIME 17:32
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WANCHI
COLONEL
The horns blew again, and all the activity paused in the valley as an army was revealed. Seven Armies, to be more accurate.
The seven armies stood in formation at the entrance to the valley about a mile away from them. Above each army stood older Mermaids in full combat gear on floating disk of swirling water.
The seven leaders all used some type of movement power, and raced to the group. As they arrive they all look at Colonel curiously, then the Mana Stone with hunger then to Princess Maria who bowed to them.
“Councilors. This i-” She said respectfully, but as she was about to introduce them to Colonel, they cut her off.
“We will debrief you, much has changed since you left my daughter.” A Mermaid with short hair and tattoos all over his bare chest said to her.
“Just put up the sound barrier. We do not owe anyone an explanation.” The oldest looking female said, eyes on the Mana Stone in Gunter’s hand.
Colonel didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to see this was about to go south real quick if he didn’t do something. He Analyzed them as the all go to the princess, and put up some type of sound blocking bubble.
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Felicia Finn
LEVEL: 70
CASTE: Noble CLASS: Councilor/Arch Mage RACE: Nascent Mermaid
POOLS:
HP 12000/12000 regen 2850HP per day
MP 8500/8500 regen 3295MP per hour
DR:70/70
AR:300/300(Mage Shield)
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Samuel Squid
LEVEL: 70
CASTE: Noble CLASS: Councilor/Mist Elementalist RACE: Nascent Mermaid
POOLS:
HP 12000/12000 regen 2850HP per day
MP 8500/8500 regen 3295MP per hour
DR:70/70
AR:240/240
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Marvin Manatee
LEVEL: 70
CASTE: Noble CLASS: Councilor/Water Warlock RACE: Nascent Mermaid
POOLS:
HP 12000/12000 regen 2850HP per day
MP 8500/8500 regen 3295MP per hour
DR:69/69
AR:240/240
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Sarah Swim
LEVEL: 70
CASTE: Noble CLASS: Councilor/Steam Gunner RACE: Nascent Mermaid
POOLS:
HP 12000/12000 regen 2850HP per day
MP 8500/8500 regen 3295MP per hour
DR:95/95
AR:240/240
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Tessa Turtle
LEVEL: 70
CASTE: Noble CLASS: Councilor/Spring Druid RACE: Nascent Mermaid
POOLS:
HP 15,000/15,000 regen 2850HP per day
MP 8,500/8,500 regen 3295MP per hour
DR:105/105
AR:240/240
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< ANALYZE >
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{PLAYER NAME: Olivia Octopi
LEVEL: 70
CASTE: Noble CLASS: Councilor/Swashbuckler RACE: Nascent Mermaid
POOLS:
HP 19000/19000 regen 2850HP per day
MP 8500/8500 regen 3295MP per hour
DR:195/195
AR:240/240
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Clarence Crab
LEVEL: 70
CASTE: Noble CLASS: Councilor/Water Stalker RACE: Nascent Mermaid
POOLS:
HP 12000/12000 regen 2850HP per day
MP 8500/8500 regen 3295MP per hour
DR:75/75
AR:240/240
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Colonel took the time to analyze the other strong members. But then saw the look on Maria’s face.
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< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Maria Manatee
LEVEL: 61
CASTE: Noble CLASS: Princess/Ice Wizard RACE: Nascent Mermaid
POOLS:
HP 9,000/9,000 regen 1850HP per day
MP 8,500/8,500 regen 2600MP per hour
DR:60/60
AR:240/240(Ice Shield)
EFFECTS: Trepidation
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‘Well, shit.’ Clyde thought, ‘It might already be out of hand already.’
The sound barrier dropped, and the eight turned to Gunter. Princess Maria shook her head with a silent no on her lips. The Arch Mage turned and started to speak. “Cavalier Gunter, bring me that Mana stone. The Council will figure out what to do with it.”
“No.”
“The words came from two people. One was expected the other was completely unexpected to Colonel. The first was him, of course. Colonel wasn’t going to let some council who didn’t even have the decency to introduce themselves to him take a gift he gave in good fate. The second voice was the owner of the Mana Stone. Gunter didn't hesitate to put the stone in his storage pouch. He lifted his chin in pride and felt free for the first time in his life.” The narrator said.
“You dare deny your mother and Council?” Felicia Finn said dangerously.
“This is a gift from the Progenitor of our race, Mother. He gave it to me, not our people, just me,” Gunter said, looking at his mother.
“We decide what is good for the people, not you or the Game prompts,” Tessa said nastily.
The Colonel’s Legacy Perception slowed the world down as the arch-mage quickly cast a spell. Even in his slowed perception, her hands blurred, which is a testament to the difference in their sheer stats. She released the ball of crackling energy at her son. Clyde quick stepped to her and slapped her wrist away, causing her attack to demolish a cliff face with a lightning bolt.
Felicia’s wide eyes turned from confusion to anger in an instant as she began to cast another spell. She stopped casting when an Ice Shard was centimeters from her eye. Colonel’s cold, hard gaze froze her more than the frost floating of off the sword shape Ice Shard tip.
“That is just rude, Felicia,” Clyde said as all of the tension around him thickened.
“I gave that to your son as a gift for killing him. I won’t have you sullying my honor by robbing him in front of me.” He said the last part loud enough for everyone to hear. “You are definitely not getting Mother of the Year votes from me, by the way.”
From behind the Colonel, a claw the size of his body started to close around him. He turned and slammed the ice shard into the water construct, and it froze instantly as he pushed more mana into his own Ice Shard Spell. The momentum of the attack kept moving forward, however, and Felicia couldn’t get out of the way, while Clyde escaped easily with a roll.
Clarence and Felicia crash into each other, and the Colonel gets up, dusting dirt off his shoulders.
“Besides,” The Colonel said, taking out another pink Mana stone. “There is more where that came from.”
The other Councilors looked at the human confused at his power. He only felt like a Tier 3 at best, but his stats seemed to be much higher than that by the weight of his Presence. They could only assume that he used a Mana Stone to push his stats higher. Even so Tier disparity should still negate a lot of his advantage, yet all the Councilors were wary still.
None of them had been able to dodge Clarence’s water summons sneak attack, even when they knew it was coming, but this human not only dodged it but used it to take out another Councilor three tiers above him.
They all stare at the Mana Stone, and instead of looking happy like Clyde thought they would look, their facial expressions was one of uncertainty.
“You will give us that and convince the Caviler to give us his,” Marvin demanded as Maria lowered her head.
“I most certainly will not be doing either of that option, Warlock Marvin,” Clyde said flatly.
The Councilor’s eyes narrow at the Colonel. “You are too weak to be talking to us.” He turned to Maria. “Did you tell him our positions?”
Princess Maria seemed surprised that they were addressing her again and shook her head. “No Councilors.”
“You mean he can identify us? Preposterous.” The swashbuckler Olivia said. She was a curly-haired, young-looking Mermaid with a set of four tentacles wiggling on her back. She had a sword lazily placed on his hip, but Colonel could see her focused eyes.
“Yes Swashbuckler Olivia. He can identify you. Though to be fair I would have to guessed your levels before even meeting you.” Clyde replied.
“I see.” The swashbuckler said as she smiled dangerously at the Colonel.
“This farce is over.” Arch-mage Felicia said, finally getting her bearings.
“I feel like that is my line, Felicia,” Clyde said as the annoyed Arch-mage stared daggers at him.
“You speak to me too familiarly, weakling,” Felicia said, rubbing a ring on her finger.
“Felicia, I don’t give a fuck about what you think about me.” Clyde began coldly. ”Any group that would force their subordinates to give up their personal gifts without offering fair compensation while talking about traditions and hierarchy are usually pieces of shit, really. I didn’t have a good picture of your council prior to that, anyway. Hiding in your one remaining city until The Imperium came for you like crabs in a barrel.” He looked at Clarence. “And like crabs in a barrel, you can’t even tell who your real enemy is.”
“Power is all that matters in the GREAT GAME child. As you grow older, if you live past this day, you will see that it isn’t all black and white.” Felicia said sagely.
“Bullshit, Felicia.” Clyde rebutted quickly. “You just said Power is all that matters. So it is pretty black and white and gets more powerful. Which I intend to do. But you all have capped out.” He shrugged.
“That might be true, but you would still need to defeat us to live past this day.” Steam Gunner, Sarah said.
“What?” Gunter and Maria both said, confused.
“Shut up! Only speak when spoken to.” The Mist Elementalist Samuel yelled at the two younger mermaids. “You all have seem to have forgotten your place on your little journey. We will fix that later.”
“Just to be clear, you got the alert saying I am now your progenitor, am I correct?” Clyde asked.
“Yes,” Felicia answered.
“And you believe that I am, correct?”
“Of course, the prompts don’t lie,” Marvin answered.
“So what you are saying is that you don’t care that I wiped out two elven armies.” Clyde looked at their body language and saw right away that they knew that the armies were killed. “You knew that before we got here.” It wasn’t a question. “So why wasn’t there a ceremony for your conquering heroes return?” He pointed to the four monks.
“Because...” Clyde raised his hand to forestall Felicia’s rant.
“Actually, Peck Joy, answer this, please.”
“Greed, my lord. Greed.” Peck Joy began.
“How dear you...” Felicia began again.
“Felicia please just chill out. I will get to you in a second.” Clyde cut her off again he had released a small amount of his Presence which confused her. “Continue Peck Joy, sorry about that. Gunter your mom is the absolute worst, now I see where you get your pride from. Peck Joy?” He nodded at the Cleric.
Peck Joy kept speaking, not allowing Felicia a chance to reply. “That Mana stone alone would push anyone who used the whole thing to the next major threshold or peak of their stats in all their stats, more than likely. While powers are great, pure stats can’t be overcome by tactics and even Tier disparity in your case.”
“I never used one of these.” Clyde said as every one looked at him like he was Pinocchio, and had grew a longer nose at every word he said.
“Then you should just give it up; wasting the stats on the weakest of us is a waste,” Marvin added.
“Yeah, no. You are too cowardly for me to feel okay about doing that.”
Sarah had had enough of being talked down too, she casted a quick spell, and a turret formed out of water in front of her. She moved to man it when a ice shard slammed into it freezing it.
“Sarah, don’t be like that.” Clyde admonished.
The others look on in disarray. None of them saw him cast or throw the ice shard, and while their eyes may have been stuck on the Mana stone, it shouldn’t have distracted them enough to miss a spell casting.
Who was this human, they all thought, and not for the first time.
“You will wish you showed us more respect in a few.” Felicia slowly said.
“Respect is earned and must be constantly maintained, or it is just tyranny.” The Colonel said as he stood ready. He wasn’t stupid. His Halos were ready to go, and he had created a few Ice Shards in advance and put in his storage another advantage of his max storage Ability and the higher rank spell allowing for that.
The world kept slowing down as each Councilor tried to maneuver themselves into a position to strike. The Colonel thought it was time to finish this.
He put the Mana Stone away in his Soul storage. Unlike the bag that Gunter had put his away in, no one could sense the stone Clyde put away.
“Where did you put it?”
“Did you use it?”
“No way, we would sense his Presence grow.”
“He put it in a blood or soul storage ability. You are intriguing, aren’t you? Maybe if you survive what is to come, you could be useful.” Felicia said sagely.
“So I am assuming we will be fighting. Is it like a tournament style?” Clyde asked, not afraid of these guys at all.
“You have to defeat us all,” Marvin said with a malicious smile.
“In single combat, right?” Clyde asked doubtfully now. He was sure he could beat each of them as long as it was one-on-one. He, however, wasn’t feeling good about it being a one-on-one fight though.
The councilors looked at each other and communicated a message, and Clyde’s heart dropped because he knew that he wasn’t going to get that lucky.
“You must defeat all seven councilors and their armies,” Felicia said, smiling knowingly.