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The Unfortunate Fool
Vol.7 Chapter 5 - The Mercenary King

Vol.7 Chapter 5 - The Mercenary King

Part 1 – Where am I?

Upon being teleported, I opened my eyes and I was in a forest....again.....

What's with being teleported randomly and ending up in a forest. Why couldn't it be in a city or town or something like that for once? Geez.....why is that I don't know where I am whenever these things happen. If my luck is correct then it would at least take a week for me to find my way out of this place to the nearest town.

“.....”

[Or you can just use Flight magic to see where the nearest town is you dimwit!]

“llyfr! It's been a while since I heard your voice, where have you been now?”

[Doing things, namely making sure that your mistakes aren't affecting this world too much]

“My mistakes....?”

[Namely the 5 Shadow Dragon Kings]

“Yeah....that was not my best day.”

[Yes it wasn't and you were also stuck in another dimension in which I couldn't get to after I left your body for a bit to investigate some things. It wasn't until now that I could sense you and therefore go back in you. I'm presuming you actually trained in whatever place you been right?]

“Actually I did train, I'm over level 400 now and plus I have plans to get new gear so I can be stronger as well with the other two.”

[Naturally you are lazy by nature and-what? YOU actually trained? Either you are not Eden or something traumatic happened to you and you changed a lot as a result]

“Well being betrayed did do a number on me plus other things I learnt as well. I was in a place where using water and ice magic was near impossible and still managed to not die from dehydration.”

[Hmm...it seems like it was a good experience]

“No it was Hell.”

[It couldn't be as tormenting as the training I would give you]

“No, it was literally Hell. Lots and lots of fire and lava though according to the Goddess AI it wasn't suppose to be in this game and I just fell through the cracks into it by sheer luck]

[Yeah....you need to get your luck fixed]

I don't think luck is something you can fix.

[Speaking of the Goddess AI, I talked to it for a while when you were gone. More or less got the current situation from it and I know what you want to do as well]

“You do?”

[You intend to make sure you and Alexandra and Viv get the best equipment you can get to face the 5 Shadow Dragon Kings....damn why is their title so long?, anyway to make sure you can face them properly even if its a 3 on 5 battle]

“Hmm....more or less though the Goddess AI said that we can't learn of the location of such items or materials from her.”

[But you can from me right?]

“It said that we will be getting hint-wait, you can tell us? Is that all right? Isn't that cheating? I'm only saying since the excuse from the Goddess AI was that cheating wasn't allowed.”

[Well you can say the words 'accidentally' came out during the various conversations we were having. It went to great lengths to hide its true intent though since it clearly conveyed the locations of various items and materials that is believed to bring out the most out of you three over a whole year of conversing with me]

“....”

I don't know which one is more of a monster, the Goddess AI that can actually do that or llyfr whom actually understands that over a whole year.

“Anyway before I'm going to contact Alexandra so she can tell me where she is.”

- Alexandra you there?

- Eden? You finally out of hell?

- More or less where are you?

- At the base that is around 170 kilometres south-east to the base that was destroyed

- ….And where exactly is that?

- A place called Jacksville Castle

- Okay then....thanks is there a teleport station there?

- Why? Can't you just teleport here?

- Can't since the skill doesn't let me to right now since it's skill in the beginner level

- Really? Let me ask someone then

A few seconds later Alexandra came back with her reply.

- Apparently we do but it's not operational so I have no idea if you can get here in one piece. The person said that there may be some effect on you if you do teleport in

Hmm....might as well try then.

“Spacial Teleportation!”

In front of me was was map of the continent for some reason....well at least a large part of it. It seem to not include the 10 restricted zones and some bits here and there. Blue icons appeared at locations such as cities with teleportation stations while the grey icons are of places that do not have teleportation stations but are still cities or towns....this map is really big...

Then there are the red icon in which are places with teleportation stations but are turned off. I moved my finger to the one called Jacksville Castle and clicked on it.

Warning: There may be some side effect if you teleport to this location

“Yes, let me get there....hmm...what's the next nearest place?”

I looked over and found that the next newest place was the city that a certain even occurred from a year ago. Yeah....I rather take the risk than walk for several days to get there.

“Spacial Teleportation to Jacksville Castle.”

Part 2 – Jacksville Castle

You have teleported to Jacksville Castle

Spacial Teleportation levelled up

Location's Teleportation Portal was not active, you have suffered from teleportation side effects

- Health and Mana Regen reduced by 50%

- All Skill Ranks decrease by 1

- Will experience dizziness

This will last for 3 hours

Oh, that was all? I thought it was going to be something horrible like losing an arm or growing another one on my back or something.

Bracelet negated the effects of the following

- Dizziness

And it seems like this bracelet is actually paying itself off right now though I still believe its a troll item that was given to me as a joke. To think it would have such a powerful effect...though it doesn't affect certain debuffs that don't relate to my status at all like health/mana and skills.

Looking around I seem to have teleported to a basement of some sort. I walked to the only way out and quietly broke the door while walking out. There I headed outside ignoring the gazes that fell on me and found Alexandra. She were in a conversation with a noble person from his looks and attitude.

“A total of 3000 knights have sworn to help us in our cause, another 10 000 soldiers have also come under us in exchange for a home and food while accepting they will one day go in battle. With these numbers, we can take care of a mere 5 beings.”

“Shut it! When I say these numbers are not enough, I truly mean these numbers are not enough to even take out one of those 5! Plus I have heard they are gathering an army of their own which means things will be worse off for us as well.”

“Which means we have to strike first. Do you not understand this is a race against time-wha? Who are you?”

The old noble man looked at me confused on why I was bothering him. I simply sighed and ignored him for now since I need to speak with Alexandra now.

“What level are you guys?” I asked ignoring the protest and words of the noble. Alexandra smiled and put up 2 fingers in a V shape, “Made it over level 400 in time.”

“Good, now we can go and get those equipment we want and need for later.” I nodded to her words and added in what we should do now.

“Hmm? I thought the Goddess AI said she couldn't tell us.” Alexandra tilted her head in confusion.

“Well llyfr got the message and will tell us the rough location of each of them. The majority no all of it is pretty much in the western continent as well so it won't take that much time. Plus I can teleport us around to other cities quickly as long as they have a teleportation station there.” I briefly explained though it seems Alexandra understood it at once.

“Good we can go now and let the other take care of the army we are raising.”

“Do we really need an army?”

“The enemy is gathering a large army of their own and have numbers of over 30 000 in total already. Which means we can't attack now since it pretty much means we will be outnumbered and most likely lose if we do.” Alexandra glanced at the noble before continuing, “We actually found out their locations. Each of them took a fort or castle and settled down there. They are pretty much on the outsirks of the Western continent in a off-balanced pentagon shape.”

Alexandra took out a map of the western continent. We pointed to where we were which near the centre of the map and then pointed at 5 points to the north compared to where we are.

“The closest one is this one which mercenaries are gathering at. East to that one, knights are gathering there as well and to the north of that one, mages are gathering. The other two don't seem to be gathering an army but they may have something up their sleeves which makes them even more dangerous than the other three.”

Why did they split up....? Are they that confident of their powers now or is there something else...?

I pondered for a bit and said, “What's the numbers at each of those 3 places. While they aren't together we can attack them individually though its best to attack them one at a time.”

The old noble then said, “Around 10 000 each I'm afraid. If we can capture one of those places and recruit them then we will have an advantage!”

“Not going to happen” I bluntly said, “They're most likely controlled in some way or have extremely loyalty to them which makes it more troublesome to try to fight them with the intention of recruiting them. Its easier to just go with trying to crush them with everything we got and then see we will do later.”

“No can do, we can't gather that many people at once. Most of the people under our command are shatter and have their hands full with defending our land from monsters.” said the noble shaking his head.

“Also each of those forts are protected by powerful magical barriers which takes a lot even for skilled assassins to sneak through. Getting an army through won't be easy as well which means we have to break the barrier first” said Alexandra.

“I can take care of that....or you....or Viv as well. Namely we have to just use brute force to break through them” I commented as well, I looked to the old noble and asked, “How many can you gather in a month?”

“Around 2000 though it would leave much of the area to be not as defended as I wish. Also I don't think you can just break them with brute force alone....we will need some people to weaken those barriers first.” he replied.

“In that case gather the army here in a month's time while me, Alexandra and Viv are doing some stuff collecting things we need for future battles. Also get some people to weaken and possibly break those barriers.”

Part 3 – Mining Accidents

“Okay...so the rare metal material is in here?” I asked holding the pickaxe I got from the nether from the corpse of the guy that died near the portal.

[Yup, just make sure you don't destroy the metal while you're at it. The only other location of which the metal is located is another mile to the west in another mile]

“No probs! Time to mine!”

5 minutes later....in the depths the mine.

“Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!! Its collapsing!!!!”

“Damn you Edddddddddddddddddddddden!!!!”

Part 4 – Another Sparing Battle

“Hey...are you sure you don't want me to help you guys mine? I mean there is a lot of stuff to dig through...”

I was sitting on my own guarding the materials that 'we' gathered from monsters and possibly other humans and players that may come to steal some of this stuff that we have gathered. After the month passed by, we have went to several locations in which llyfr pointed out which were mines.

As such due to an earlier incident that I tried mining and part of that mine completely collapsed which meant we had to clear up the rubble before mining again. After that Alexandra took my pickaxe which was the one that increased luck a lot and started mining on her own with me and Viv not doing anything until Viv took it to himself to help out as well.

“Yes! Found the metal!” shouted Alexandra in excitement

Its been a week since 'that' accident occurred and it seems we can finally get out of this mine. With the acquirement of this certain metal, we had around 10 different kinds of metals in which we apparently need later for when the blacksmiths do their work.

“Eden grab the bags of other stuff we mined, we're getting out of here.”

Another hour passed and we were out of that god forsaken mine. Moving to a place near an open field, Viv took care of the metals that we mined while me and Alexandra got ready for a relaxing spar.

It was time to have a 'friendly' battle where we would go full out but without turning this place into a barren land.

“You ready?” I asked taking out the Divine Sword to use against Alexandra.

Alexandra raised her sword and shouted, “Holy Aura!” with pure white aura appearing around her increasing her power, speed and defence by 3 times. She immediately charged at me swinging her sword at multiple directions to me. This person....

“Dragonic Release! Dragonic Overload!”

Dragonic Release is now active

Dragonic Overload is now active

Power filling my body I jumped back out of her range and started firing magic projectiles at Alexandra. With both of these skills active, my body's strength increased by 1.5 times and spell strength by around 2.5 times.

Sluuuuuuuuuuuush!

The magical attack hitting her aura was negated as she cut them down with her sword.

“Sword Wave!”

A wave of destructive flashed forward to me destroying everything in its path. I jumped to the right and dodged the attack. I was at a level that I can dodge them somewhat easily now. However Alexandra jumped to the same direction and slashed at me. I countered using my sword as our clash repelled each other away. I was blown back further than Alexandra due to the difference in our strength and our weight.

“Battle Aura!”

Golden Aura covered my body as it further increased my strength and defence by 178%. Using Red Aura doubles the damage I can deal compared to the Golden Aura by 2 times in exchange of having half the defence bonus while using Blue Aura doubles the defence I have compared to the Golden Aura by 2 times in exchange for the having half the damage bonus.

Battle Aura is now active

I jumped at Alexandra slashing downwards from above her which she blocked as well and she countered with a slash of her own.

“Burst Strike!”

Red Aura covering my sword, I burst downwards at Alexandra hitting the ground instead of Alexandra since she dodged it. Damn she's faster than I remember and she hadn't used everything yet. She has still to use those new skills she gained from changing races.

“Flash Slash!”

Her blade turned into light as it hit me at great speed. Alexandra continued with her attacks as she used 'Contiguous Flash Slashes ' to attack me with great speed but without much power behind each of those attacks. However she still managed to hit me countless times and as such decrease by mana bit by bit.

You took 135 damage

You took 105 damage

You took 150 damage

You took 112 damage

You took 100 damage

….

After a minute of this exchange she shaved down my mana by 30 000 even with my increased mana regeneration. Getting annoyed by this exchange of attack in which I was at a disadvantage I shouted, “Garden of Eden!”

Garden of Eden is now active, will consume 150 mana per second

25 000 mana consumed on activating it, I instantly casted hundreds of spells at once at Alexandra.

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

You took 12 042 damage

Burst Recovery activated, Mana Regeneration increased by 300%

Mana levels being only around half the amount at 120 000 and quickly decreasing with the activation of Garden of Eden I wanted to quickly settle this since I rather have a high mana level when facing Alexandra.

“Great Explosion!”

I casted a fire spell in which a laser beam was shot out of my right hand and when It hit the ground near Alexandra, it exploded in a radius of around 10 metres.

“Flame Tower!”

Gathering the flames from the explosion from the first spell I casted flame tower in which the fire turned into a hurricane of fire.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuush

“Lightning Slash!”

The flame tower was slashed in half with Alexandra's sword. Tch, she wasn't roasted by that attack?

“Flash Glacier!”

I activated an ice spell which was the polar opposite of the last spell in which ice grew and exploded from the ground under Alexandra. She jumped on top of it and rode it to the sky where she shouted, “Divine Beast Shift!”

Markings on her body appeared as the image of the beast appeared on her forehead. In this state, all of her stats are increased by a further 2 times in which made her much more dangerous even in my current state. I think she fully max out that skill while I wasn't looking to get it to that point...

“Crusader Sprint!”

Oh, the skill that doubled her agility again...

“Head Smasher!”

Alexandra's body accelerated to me as her blade went towards me.

“Ice Flower Guard!”

A ice flower spawned in front of me to block the attack.

Slicccccccccccccccccccccce!”

Shit, she cut through this guard like butter! Never going to use a make-shift spell for defence ever again!

“Mana Shield times 24!”

On the ground Alexandra continued to attack me as the mana shields appeared to protect me and were shatter one by one in a mere 3 seconds in which she managed to destroy all of my mana shields at once. I need to get away from her now!

“Dust Explosion!”

This is going to hurt!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

You took 34 642 damage

Burst Recovery activated, Mana Regeneration increased by 300%

“Ow ow ow....”

Garden of Eden deactivated

“Humanoid Dragon Transformation!”

Humanoid Dragon Transformation now active, all stats +66%

Turning into my humanoid dragon form, black scales appear on my arms, legs and the rest of my body. Alexandra appeared from the dust and attack me again.

“Cleave Blow!”

Mana flowed through her sword as it went towards me. Hardening my scales of my arm I parried the strike and slashed at Alexandra cutting the bits that were not covered in armour or at least thick armour.

“Crimson Lance!”

Red Aura covering my sword in a thick form of a lance I stabbed my sword into my Alexandra's chest and let it explode.

Bang!

Her armour cracked a bit as she was thrown backwards a fair distance. Damn at this rate I need to use Magic King Drive as well. I looked to see Alexandra getting up all fine. It seems the combination of her using her aura as well as Divine Beast Shift at the same time gives her a pretty high defence along with her usual high defence from her armour from the beginning.

Because of this as well as the fact that even in my extreme buffed up state, Alexandra was fine with an attack using Crimson lance which increased damage even more than usual. Which means her defence is higher than I thought or she has a really good recovery spell.

Either way I need to increase my power.

[I to awaken am the Tyrant whom stole the throne of God]

[I devour the wisdom and rip apart the Knowledge]

[I will become the Magic King that rules over all Creation]

[And I will show you true Despair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

[Magic King Drive!!!!!!!!]

Magic King Drive has been Activated

- Spell Damage Increase by 180%

- Spell Range Increase by 180%

- Freely able to use the Elements at Will

- Strength Increase by 180%

- Agility Increase by 180%

- Movement Speed Increase by 180%

- Defence Increase by 180%

- Able to use 'Golden Weapon Trio' Freely in this state

- Resistance to Magic Increase by 49% (Max is 99%)

Time Limit: Until you die or Stamina is exhausted

My golden aura increased in size and power as I was going to my final state...or near it. I was 5.5 times stronger than I would be normally with all of these stat boosts.

Fire Formation ? Blast Form ? Expand Factor ? Inferno Flames

Gathering fire in my hands a large amount of flames in an condense form.

“Inferno Flames!”

Immediately, the spell activated and the entire area was covered in deep flames that quickly burnt down the forest we were in. I sensed a large number of life forms escaping from the area in mere seconds when I used this spell. However the flames did not even affect Alexandra....damn looks like I have to get physical with her.

“Grow Claws.”

My left hand turned completely turned black in scales as it grew in size and sharpness at the end rapidly increasing its sharpness and power. I charged forward at Alexandra while she didn't see me properly visually.

“Burst Strike!”

I hit the back of her sword since she blocked my attack on reflex.

“Compressed Light Warrior!”

Light appeared around Alexandra which hurt my eyes and was compressed into armour that covered her entire body. However even with this, it only increased her power and defence by a certain extent which wasn't enough to completely block my attack.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Then all I have to do was overpower that defence with sheer power alone!

“Armour of Blood Warrior!”

Red Aura covered my body while I was next to Alexandra.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

Damage you deal will double in exchange of taking double damage

My total power increased by 2 times along with the rest of my buffs which turned my body stronger to a total of 8 times. It seems this skills added on with the other buffs along with the passive effects of the skills that also worked in the background to increase the power of my attacks.

“Dragon Rampage!”

My blood boiled and the red aura increased in size increasing my power even more.

Dragon Rampage is now active, all stats will double for 1 minute in exchange for taking double damage and all stamina

“Crimson Lance! Burst Strike!”

The Crimson Lance burst strike attack went to Alexandra at once. With this I was 10 times stronger than usually actively.

“Blood Destruction!”

In that moment, my instincts took over and activated Mental Acceleration which slowed down time for me. Alexandra's aura turned a blood red as the markings on her body turned bright red as well.

“Sword Wave!” she shouted though to me it sounded weird since it was all slowed down for me.

I if I recall in this mentally accelerated state, Blood Destruction was a skill in which removed the limiters in the body which increases the damage she does as well as her speed as well in exchange of increase sensitively to pain and damage to herself. Its similar to Armour of Blood Warrior in this way but is much more dangerous. Along with her Holy Aura

Both our attacks clashed at each other at the same time.

….....

….....

When I woke up from whatever happened Alexandra was unconscious as well. Looks like this round is a draw....and it only destroyed only a part of the forest in exchange.

“Well time to see the army we will use as bait...I mean help us take one of the Shadow Dragon Kings” I muttered as I woke Alexandra up.

Later that day the blacksmith gave us a lecture on damaging equipment from sparring.

Part 6 – A Stupid Army

Back at Jacksville Castle, an army of 2000 was gathered prepared to assault the fort where one of the enemies of the western continent lied. They had been briefed about the details of the operation of which they were to attack a fort of mercenaries and a person that has enough power to kill a dragon by himself.

“Are you sure we can take them with only these numbers...?”

“They say that the mercenaries over there don't even care for money at all and would even die for their leader.”

“Have you heard their numbers as well? There's around 10 000 of those guys in there....we're going to die if we fight them head on.”

Those words were resounded around the troops when we got there to lead them. Naturally as the person who had the highest infamy here and most likely in the whole continent as well, I could not lead them and they would most like attack me if they heard a word from me...though I was getting strange looks from them...

Viv who looked like a small child was also not able to lead them and there were some particular people who were given him strange looks as well.....need to make sure he doesn't mix in with them else his purity might be taken......yeah that can really happen....

Which leaves.....Alexandra....well she is the only one of all of us who have proper leading skills plus she has the charisma stat as well which gives a great bonus to convincing people to follow her words.

In front of the army, Alexandra started her speech to motivated the army.

“Today I have some bad news you all of you....you are all too weak!”

Eh? What was that?

“The enemy outnumber you guys in both numbers and individual strength! You guys are guy fodder! Now get out there and die!”

“.....”

What the hell.....? This is meant to motivate them....?

“Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

“Let do thisssssssssssssss!”

“.....”

Why the fuck are these guys cheering for a march that will end up as them dying in the end?

Alexandra turned to me and said, “These guys are really stupid so any old thing will motivate them. I found out after a mere week working with them sugar coating my words until I couldn't bear it anymore and just screamed out the truth at them. They for some reason seem fine with it until I realised that they were really really stupid.”

“How stupid?” I was really concern in this part.

“They all became completely loyal to me due to my gender, looks and that fact I can cook for them. Some of them even gave me gifts on some occasions.”

I see, so they are all your bitches now....well at least we have so many loyal slaves to sacrifice now.

Part 7 – The Mercenary King

A few days later we were at the mercenary fort where there was literally 10 000 men there...I wonder how they get their food and water they need to sustain themselves. Anyway need to focus on taking out that mercenary king guy and take back one of the mana fragments that was taken from me.

Using Soul Scan as well as my magic sensing abilities as a mage (yeah you still call yourself that?) I immediately noticed that the barrier was truly powerful.

“What the hell is this?! I never seen such a complicated magic barrier. How many effects does it have? Though it doesn't seem have the physical rejection one....is this a trap? I smell a trap” I said while observing the ever-changing barrier in front of me. No wonder why the noble said I wouldn't be able to destroy it with brute strength. This thing has so many layers independent of each other that even if I tried, I wouldn't even be able to take down half of them with the help of Alexandra and Viv.

“Ah” muttered Viv looking at the barrier, “There's a couple of ones that supplies those mercenaries with energy which allows them to survive without food or water in that area as well as ones that increase all of their stats as well. Nothing that horrible yet.”

Not that horrible? This means these guys will die faster than I thought they would. Damn, I should've requested for 4000 men instead of 2000.

“If that's all then.....” I looked back at the 2000 men that were following us and sighed since they will all die but that doesn't mean all of them have to die at once, “1000 men go forward and charge, when those guys die, the other 1000 will charge in afterwards! Anyone who survives will spend the night with Alexandra here!” I patted Alexandra's shoulder as she elbowed me hard with a look of contempt on her face.

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

“Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

“Let's do Thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhis!!!!”

With that 1000 men charged straight in like idiots while the second half had strange looks on their face towards us....

“You lot will stay here until the others die. We'll go ahead first.”

With that the three of us ran through the magical barrier as well taking a different route than the first suicide troops. Within moments of entering the magic barrier that surrounded the fort, I felt a sharp pain in my head.

Magic Barrier is affecting you

With that message around 20 other messages appeared under it saying how this damn magic barrier was affecting me. The three of us immediately got out of the range of the magic barrier before any weird effects got hold of us.

“Damn why do I have a feeling that it affected us more than the others” I complained since when the 1000 suicide men went in they seem fine.

“Perhaps it's designed so it affects us specifically, I mean most of them do know us and know how dangerous we are to them” said Viv looking at the magic barrier again, “No matter how I see it, this thing seems to too big and too powerful. How are they running it? Hmm? This is....”

Viv looked in shock as he explained it to us, “They are using the 10000 men that are stationed here as the power source of this magic barrier! Incredible, they were able to tune the magic barrier to a point that the men won't die in there and yet the magic barrier is sustained from them alone.”

“Now is not the time to admire them! Unless we get in there we can never recover the mana fragment!” said Alexandra in distress.

[Use the bloody mana fragment you have for Gods Sake!]

Eh? llyfr?

[I am really sick and tired of you guys not knowing what to do when you don't just brute strength through everything! Take out the mana fragment now!]

Following the pissed off llyfr's words and taking out the mana fragment, it shone in a weird way. Eventually the light surrounded us and...did nothing?

“Hmm?”

[This will allow you to go through that damn barrier without trouble. Just get the mana fragment and get out, you don't need to take out the fort if you wish]

With that llyfr's voice disappeared again.

“....”

“....”

“....”

However the three of us were silent in how easily llyfr resolved out problem and how pissed he was....I have a feeling that we need to get smarter and not stat wise....

Anyway when we now entered through the magic barrier there was no effect on us due to whatever llyfr did to the mana fragment. This was quite nice since now we don't have to suffer through the negative effects this barrier had on us though I was the one who had the least problems with it thanks to this bracelet though I still think it is a troll item...

Getting closer to the fort we noticed something was wrong. There were no patrols nor did those mercenaries moved at all with dead eyes.

However when the 1000 men army stupidly charged in against them they took soon had dead eyes.

“Brainwashing magic?” I exclaimed as the 1000 army turned around and charged the other direction with another 2000 mercenaries following them.

This would explain a number of things involving how these mercenaries were gathered. They were lured in by gold and were forced to stay like this due to the magic.

“What are you three doing in my home?” said a cocky voice. I looked and found it was one of the 5 people who took a mana fragment from me.

I smirk at this opportunity and said in the same tone, “Taking back what's mine to collect.”

Dragonic Release is now active

Dragonic Overload is now active

Battle Aura is now active

My strength increased by 3 times as I pointed my Divine Sword at this Mercenary King. Alexandra also activated her Holy Aura and Viv started gathering mana in his body to use.

“Hoh, it seems you three became stronger. But do you really think you can match the power of a person who has perfectly tamed a mana fragment?!”

Wind gathered violently around the Mercenary King and revolved around him and his twin swords. From this feeling along he was stronger than a high levelled Dragon and was about level 600-800 in strength as a base level.

Well damn....lucky its 3 against 1 here.

“Looks like you brought an army to the fight” said the Mercenary King looking over to the area in which a battle was taking place,“Let me bring one to ours as well!”

Oh.....shit.

Using Soul Scan I immediately noticed that an army was 2000 was marching to us and would get here in mere minutes.

“We're finishing you off now!” I shouted as I fired fireballs along with Viv's own magic attacks at the Mercenary King.

“Whirlwind!”

Around the Mercenary King the wind expanded and blocked our attacks deflecting them to the ground and sometimes back to us. We easily dodge them and continued out attacks.

“Flash Step! Flash Slash!”

Alexandra turned into light for an instance and appeared next to the Mercenary King king attacking with her sword turned into light. The Mercenary King blocked it using both his swords at once being pressured from the sheer force Alexandra has before kicking her away.

“Golden Spear!”

I summoned a spear that was shot at the Mercenary King at high speeds in which Mercenary King had no choice but to block using his twin swords again without the aid of the wind.

“Hatred of the Besieged flows through the air, in the rivers and in the depths of the tainted grounds. Curse of Chains!”

Screamed resounded in the area as hands appeared under the Mercenary King's legs which grabbed him.

“Wind Enchanted Slash!”

Using the wind on his blades to increase the range and power of them, the hands from the spell were quickly chopped off while defending from the magical attacks me and Alexandra were using at the same time.

Namely one of us attack the Mercenary King head on while the other two support that person with ranged attacks.

“Damn you! Wind Explosion!”

Wind gathered around the Mercenary King in the form of a blade that was tens of metres high in the air.

“Crystal Palace of Reflection Max Output!”

Crystal Palace of Reflection is now active, 24 mirrors have been created

The diamond shaped mirrors quickly gathered and formed a giant shield in front of us.

BANG!

From the lone attack, half of the mirrors from the spell were destroyed which meant that attack almost went up to 50 attacks at once considering one mirror can take 4 attack before being destroyed.

“Discontinue mirror creation.”

Crystal Palace of Reflection stopped producing mirror, mirrors left is 12

I moved the mirrors to evenly protect all of us as the Mercenary King enraged now came to us and attacked us at the same time. Jumping out of the way Viv took the support role and started to debuff the Mercenary King.

“Slow, Slow, Slow.....”

While Alexandra was taking it to close combat now being more serious.

“Divine Beast Shift!”

Markings appeared on her body as she slammed her sword at the Mercenary King with such forced that he was blown back a few metres. I took this chance to hit him hard with a spell.

Ice Formation ? Pillar Form ? Consume Factor ? Expand Factor ? Ice Glacier

“Ice Glacier!”

Ice formed under the Mercenary King as it exploded outwards encasing the Mercenary King in ice over and over again as it expanded. However the ice cracked and the Mercenary King was freed with the help of his wind.

“Sword Wave!”

A flash of light appeared on Alexandra's sword before a wave of destruction flew to the Mercenary King.

Bang!

From the smoke that quickly disappeared, the Mercenary King was injured from the attack. It looks like these guys aren't that strong after all. Well...it could be that this one was the weakest of the group so I better not get too cocky.

However just when our victory was in sight I heard screams.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

“Kill themmmmmmmmmmmm!!!”

It was the army in which the Mercenary King brought this way. Damn did we take too long. The Mercenary King smiled in his victory as the army came closer.

“Hey Eden....can I take him alone?”

A bit surprised on how Alexandra was asking instead of doing I agreed immediately without much thought. Well the Mercenary King wasn't that strong and Alexandra can probably take him on her own.

“Sure, Viv you with me against this army.”

With that Alexandra was left with the Mercenary King while me and Viv took on this 2000 army near us. I wonder what happened to the other army we had....well now is not the time to think about that.

While running to the army I asked Viv, “You want to have the first hit or should I?”

“You do it. Make it flashy to see if they can still feel fear.”

I grin and started chanting.

[I to awaken am the Tyrant whom stole the throne of God]

[I devour the wisdom and rip apart the Knowledge]

[I will become the Magic King that rules over all Creation]

[And I will show you true Despair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

[Magic King Drive!!!!!!!!]

Magic King Drive has been Activated

- Spell Damage Increase by 180%

- Spell Range Increase by 180%

- Freely able to use the Elements at Will

- Strength Increase by 180%

- Agility Increase by 180%

- Movement Speed Increase by 180%

- Defence Increase by 180%

- Able to use 'Golden Weapon Trio' Freely in this state

- Resistance to Magic Increase by 49% (Max is 99%)

Time Limit: Until you die or Stamina is exhausted

“Full Dragon Transformation!!!!”

A sphere of pure mana was formed around me and the body of a 70 metre dragon appeared.

Full Dragon Transformation is now active, all stats increase by 80% and will cost 50 000 per hour

Unlike before when I met Warlic and had my race changed again, my Dragon Form changed in a lot of ways. First thing was that the colour of my scales were now pure black with strips of red on the ends of each scale.

Another thing was that I felt I could move better than normal compared to before in this form even though there was no change in the stat increase at all in this form. Plus this form was suited for mass destruction on a large scale which was perfect against an army.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!”

I gave a roar in the air as I flapped my wings to take off in the sky.

I looked down on the army and activated Evil Gaze which apparently debuffed them as well. Well this was a skill that could only be used against those who are weaker than me and with low fighting spirit.

Gathering a massive amount of mana in my mouth I did not let it loose just yet. I gathered more and more to the limit and then fired it at the army below like a laser beam.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

I stream of destruction could be followed as I hit the middle of the army causing around a quarter of them to die. However they seem to still move forward without fear....was this magic barrier causing them to be controlled to such a point?

Behind me on the ground I could see a massive golem still forming but yet moving forwards as if Viv was too impatient to bring out the full form of his golem creation skill. I could even heard him from here in the sky.

“Let the Blood of the Land Rage and form an immortal army! Golem Creation: Army Version!”

Then and there it seemed like the ground exploded and a golem army appeared, each golem was the size of 2 or 3 humans and they were marching slowly compared to the humans running towards the golems swords ablaze fearlessly attacking them.

What came after was a massacre for the golems that is. Being outnumbered plus the fact that the controlled mercenaries were stronger than the golems with all those buffs they got from the barrier, the golem army fell quickly.

However the destroyed golems soon restored themselves and fought the mercenaries again and again while being destroyed and restored every time. The mercenaries were being slowly taken down with sheer.....well sheer everything.

After a while the mercenaries army dropped to under 1000 in mere minutes and then I heard a shout in the air that I could hear clearly.

“Blood Destruction!”

Red Aura covered the area where Alexandra was and she was.....coming this way? Something was wrong....

Then for some unexpected reason the magic barrier broke into pieces and the magic that controlled everyone in this place was gone.

What the....

Changing back into human form I landed near where Alexandra and Viv were with Alexandra completely exhausted from using Blood Destruction. It was similar to my Dragon Rampage since it quickly took all our stamina in a short period of time but Blood Destruction also has more risks with increased pain and sensitively in exchange for a higher buff when activated.

With the mercenaries back to normal and frankly confused on what happened, this was supposedly our victory....I guess. But....

“What happened to the mana fragment?” I asked Alexandra.

While catching her breath finally she answered, “He got away with help from Thinny...I can't remember his other name so I'll call him just that. Our suspicion was right, the Mercenary King was the weakest one, at least compared to Thinny. He was a monster in a true sense.”

What? Thinny was here? I couldn't even sense him at all.

“Those shadows....they completely absorbed any attacks and concealed his presence completely. When he was about to attack me I activated Blood Destruction and yet I couldn't even sense him and instincts took over and I ran here....”

Alexandra hit a tree which resulted in it breaking and falling down nearly hitting me.

“.....”

Well it seems this battle was for almost nothing then. It seems the 5 have different levels of power with Thinny possibly at the top....

“Excuse me...are you the ones who freed us from the mind control?” asked one of the mercenaries that was part of that army that was sent to us.

“Yeah....”

“Can I offer you my help no our help for freeing us? I think I speak for everyone that we want to kill that bastard who tricked us!” The other mercenaries nodded in agreement as well.

Well it wasn't all a waste then. We just gained....around 9000 mercenaries minus the ones we killed.

Hmm.....I think I was forgetting something important....like there was more numbers to consider....hmm....

Who cares.

“Let's get back to the base then. I think we can use this as a stronghold to attack the other forts then. You lot, get some people and have them follow us where we will discuss how to feed all of you.” I shouted at the mercenaries taking a number of them back which numbered to around 4000.

Later on back at the new base at Jacksville Castle, the old noble was extremely happy at our 'success'. It was only after that I noticed that the 2000 were brought with us returned almost all safely.

Continue Misfortune?PreviousExitNext

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Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 7600~

- This was a bit of a crappy chapter in terms of structure sorry about that. Things only picked during the two fight scenes for some reason....

- In terms of what will occur in the next few chapters it will go like this: Collecting Material -> Status on what is happening -> Battle against one of the Shadow Dragon Kings

- More or less these battles will take place 1-2 months a part from each other so the Trio can collect materials for their final equipment set. Note that some of the stuff they will have may appear in the future chapters....or they do something to earn them.