My team and I stood on the palace terrace overlooking the shattered kingdom below. Off in the distance, we could see the encroaching city like a dark cloud ready to blot out the sun. The Lykaian King soon joined us and folded his arms in resolute defiance.
"King Satori, what is your strategy, and how do you want to use us?" I asked.
"It is my understanding that your ship is very advanced and that you helped modify my son's ship for faster engines. I don't expect we can make any meaningful modifications now, but if there is anything you can do for our shield generators around the city, we would be grateful."
"Jaxon, you got your task."
"Ugh, fine. Give me all your Ultimate Cores and the Special Cores while you're at it." I winced at the cost he was asking for but forked them over all the same.
"Anything else?" I asked the king.
"Our defense is best suited to my people. I'll give you free rein to decide how best to manage your team."
"Very well." I turned to my team. "Ok, folks, let's load up. Kaelyn, you're our next best pilot. I know you've been learning from Jaxon. Tobi and Zarrah, you'll be on guns. And before you can complain, Tobi, there are so many enemies out there that not even you can miss. TelVurn, I know you'll want to be in a window casting spells, I'll leave you to it. Up top," meaning on the ship's roof, "Ve, Ferra, Akoth, Dave, Hiroshem, and I will be stationed to bring the fight to them. Kaelyn, get us close enough to disembark but also stay out of trouble. Go high if need be, we can jump the distance easily enough. Everyone knows what to do?"
TelVurn pointed his nose in another direction but gave a slight nod. Everyone else just nodded normally because they weren't assholes. Once we were all in position, Kaelyn took the ship into the air. I released Ferra from within me, and she stretched as if waking from a long nap.
"Finally, you've called me out. Where's my food," she grumbled.
"See out there," I pointed to the swarm of monsters accompanying the flying city, "there is your food. Eat all you want." She followed my finger, which wasn't necessary, and got excited.
"I prefer my meat cooked and soaked in beer. But I will happily eat to my heart's content!" She shouted.
"First of all, it is beer-battered, not soaked in beer. And that is only certain dishes."
"Whatever. I will bathe in the entrails of my shredded enemies and devour their Cores!"
Ok… my pet is a psychopath. How did I not see that before? "Yeah, you do… you do that. Awesome…”
The ship took off, and we got a front-row seat to the mountain defenses coming online. Layers upon layers of shields activated. Rune-enchanted circles for boosting spells began to glow from hundreds of sources as Lykaians took positions within them. They were essentially turrets. Outside of Jaxon and me, this world didn't have guns, at least in the traditional sense. However, the Lykaians did show that they had energy-beam weapons. That was how they took down the Tharantan Sky Ravanger, the would-be Apocalypse Beast.
Every ship was positioned around the shattered mountain, and beam turrets were being brought online. Jaxon got to work on modifying them on the fly using his Blessing at full potential.
The floating city slowed to a halt, and the massive swarm of enemies moved ahead to attack in force. Ahead of the defensive reaction was the hundreds of beam weapons firing off. Thousands of enemies became incinerated, but hundreds of thousands more moved in to replace them. The assault was in full motion.
I was standing on the roof of our flying fortress and got a good view of the flying city. What I saw was unthinkable. I remember the castle I escaped from. The building served as the command building. The wall served as the border of the ship. The mountain seemed to house the engines. But it was the ten Tokeki standing stoically along the wall that was imposing. Although the heads of more than a thousand Taurens on spikes were very close.
~~~
Two weeks prior, the floating city approached the Tauren tribes. The great tribe of Ben was joined by the great tribe of Tim and Sue. In total, they had nearly fifteen thousand warriors above B rank. They had at least 900 at the Sage level. But it was their six Divine users that really made up their total strength.
The horde of monsters that swarmed them excited the horned warriors. Abilities and Skills were secondary to the sheer brute tenacity the Taurens had in vigor. They met the opposing force with determination of will and brutality.
When it was just Taurens versus Kordra, the Taurens were winning. However, it was just four Majin that joined the fight that turned the tide. Breythen, Tokeki number 2 waved a hand and unleased many projectiles forged out of light that were stronger than steel. Rizen opened hundreds of portals and unleashed even more monsters mutated to have different new abilities. And then it was number ten, Krotoain, the firestorm that really devastated the front lines. Meteors came crashing down, and in the chaos, Breythen moved about cutting down the most powerful of foes.
Ultimately, it was Sol who got exactly three kills, but arguably the most important ones, as he mounted the leader's heads on spikes. Sol looked over and nodded at Melaiven and smiled. He was just buying, after all. He did his part, and now he could disappear for a bit.
When the battle ended, nothing but blood and burnt ruins were left in the floating city's wake. Then they moved North, straight up the western coast. Lykaia was next on their conquest list. Once they fell, then it would be only Astramarta that would pose any real threat to them.
~~~
Our ship flew in weaving patterns, gunning down any monster within range. Ferra eventually leaped off and slashed one monster after another as she jumped from one to the next. I shifted into full werewolf since my claws would make pulling off the same feat as Ferra a bit easier.
After a dozen or so of that, I fell about thirty feet to the wall of the floating city and gazed up at my first real opponent. The Majin was about twelve feet tall and blue. He had four tentacles in place of arms and a bone-like exoskeleton but gleamed in the sun more like metal.
"And here I thought they called us monsters," the Majin said. "What exactly are you?"
"I AM… WEREWOLF," I spoke in a loud, gravelly voice. It was always difficult to speak in this form.
"Interesting. I am Krotoain, number ten," he said while lighting all his tentacles on fire. Several red markings appeared on his face and body, and it occurred to me he was activating his Curse.
In response, I activated several Skills, the usual suspects for any battle. Stone Skin, Barrier, Skill Boost, Aura Sense, Thought Acceleration, Acceleration, Dual Mind, Sonic Speed, and Mask Aura. I always had the passive Skills active, such as Danger Sense and Conceal, but I also activated Cooling Shield since I felt things were about to get hot.
Krotoain's tentacles whipped out incredibly fast and extended to reach across the distance between us. Even when I dodged each strike, the fire would burst and strike my barrier. Moving fast and occasionally Burst Stepping, I got into melee range and reached out to cast Winter's Grasp. The cold instantly created a frost that chilled Krotoain immensely. After a few seconds, his body slowed down and then became frozen. The fire fizzled out in a puff of smoke.
Stolen novel; please report.
Then the ice cracked, and Krotoain took a few steps to work the chill out of his body. I didn't expect it to hold him long, it was only a T5 skill, after all. However, it was long enough to bring out my sword and dice some sashimi. However, Krotoain disregarded the loss of his arm thingies and headbutted me before kicking me off the wall.
A flying Kordra broke my fall, and I used it to launch myself back up. The tentacles were replaced by actual arms with hands, which grew very quickly. Then, four flaming swords formed out of pure fire and took aim at my head. I parried the blows until my sword began to melt. Tossing it aside, I summoned my soul weapons.
Across the battlefield, Lykaians were clashing with monsters and Majin alike. For wolf people they swarmed out like ants. There were so many of them. The Majin didn't expect this level of action, and every Tokeki got involved.
There were meteors, blizzards, tornados, and even razor-sharp flower petals. The ships did their best to destroy the larger objects from colliding with the city's shields. Jaxon's modifications were already paying off when a powerful beam struck and fragmented before dispersing with little damage.
Melaiven, the current Monster King, sat on his throne and gazed upon the Lykaian's mountain. He sighed heavily. Something was always standing in his way; as it turned out, it was that otherworlder and his team again. Melaiven held out his hand and activated his special Soul Art and Curse. The downside to his Curse was agonizing pain, but the Soul Art lessened it by a few degrees to tolerable.
Above the shattered mountain and the shields, a portal opened up a light shone down, encompassing the city. Then it burned bright, blinding any who looked upon it. A sound unlike anything anyone had heard before split the air, deafening many. But what they couldn't hear, they felt instead when the shattered mountain blasted apart.
The city's remains would continue to crumble and burn for days to come. Survivors desperately tried to dig people out and heal those with the worst injuries. The war continued, but the Lykaians, after losing their home, were beginning to lose hope. It became dire until the Lykaian King howled and blasted his aura across the battlefield. He then launched himself into the air on a trail of flames and crashed into the monster's city, causing it to rock. Then another explosion occurred, and the city listed sideways and began to fall out of the sky.
While Melaiven was cursing and trying to right the ship, Sol appeared behind him and made his move. The Monster King's defensive spells were powerful, and he had the secret Soul Art to rely on, but the power of the blade of energy that pierced his chest was unlike anything he had felt.
"When did you…" Melaiven began but spurted blood.
"My Curse allows me to absorb spirit life and boost my power. So, of course, I would research ways into the spirit realms. I destroyed an entire reality just to gain the power to cut right through you. Now I am the Monster King," he said with a snarl.
~~~
I dropped to all fours and used Burst Step to approach Krotoain rapidly. He tried to jump out of the way, but I was faster and raked his legs with my claws. I simultaneously cast Chaos Fire and infected him with venom. But I didn't stop there. I pounced upward onto his back and bit his neck while my claws sunk into his flesh and tore chunks away. He roared in pain and then roared with anger.
S rank, anything, is hard to kill. S rank Majin that were strong enough to be in the top ten were stupidly hard to put down. He stabbed backward with impossible arm bends and skewered me with several blades. One of them hit me in the throat, which really pissed me off.
I entered into Rage Phase 2, skipping past Phase 1, and then really began to shred the Majin to pieces. It still took three solid minutes of frenzy attacks before his corpse quit moving. Slowing my breathing to regain some control, I noticed several S rank Lykaians, along with Hiroshem, were engaged with the other Majin. Only Rizen was free and was waiting for me to finish.
Rizen was number 4 from the looks of the markings on his shoulder. I only noticed the markings on number 10 after I bit down on his neck. How much of a power difference was there between the two? Rizen didn't seem particularly afraid of me. Still, I tested the waters.
This Majin was primarily a summoner. I hope that meant he wasn't a strong fighter. I activated the Soul Art for body and fortified the area around me. Then, with a burst, I broke the sound barrier in under a picosecond. Rizen raised a finger and traced a black line horizontally, and a line of blood splashed in my vision, but I didn't feel a thing.
Notice!
The Skill: Last Chance was Successful.
You have used a death save.
Holy smokes. I just died, and now I’m out of death saves. How in the world did he pull that off? I jumped back and reactivated Barrier. I hadn’t even noticed when the first one collapsed. Dashing back and forth for as much as with width of the wall would allow, I approached with a bit more caution.
He caught my descending claws and pushed against me with amazing strength, but Rizen soon discovered he wasn’t the strongest. So, he tried to kick me, but I caught his ankle and bit down on his thigh. I tore a chunk out, and he cried in pain and punched me in the head. I dug claws up into his ribcage, but he reached out and grabbed my throat and squeezed.
I shoved hard to break his grasp on me and lost a bit of my neck in the process. I started to heal quickly, but then I took a punch to the jaw and then a hard kick to my side and soon met the castle wall a good hundred feet away. It was not a nice meeting. The wall was rude to my shoulder and back.
I rose to my feet shakily and then got hit again with that black beam. I moved just in time to avoid my chest being cut in two, but it got my metal arm severed at the elbow. I was just about to pop into Rage Phase 3 when he appeared before me and shoved a hand into my forehead. Then it was lights out.
When I awoke, I could only see a system notice in my H.U.D. However, I could access anything else, including Harry.
Notice!
You have used the one-time Skill:
Soul Ticket T9-R1
You have now entered the Soul Games!
Winning can grant various prizes.
Good luck!
Then everything shifted, and I was suddenly in an arena with many alien ghosts. These weren't Kojin or monsters of any kind I knew of. Some even looked human, except they were all transparent blue. I raised my hand and realized that I was just like them. Very dead. Well, that sucks. I also had two regular ghost hands. Guess that makes sense, though. While a part of my body, my prosthetic wasn't a part of my soul. Actually, no, it doesn't make sense. It became linked to my Blessing, which should be part of my soul. Or am I missing something?
Although I could see notifications, I couldn't see my status or hear Harry. Perhaps some aspects of my Blessings are temporarily turned off. Or there is some trick to re-access the full system. Either way, I need to figure out what is going on quickly.
"Ah, a newcomer. Let's see," a new ghost said as he floated around me, flipping through a logbook. "Odd, it says here… wait, you're from a level 1 world? How did you come across a Soul Ticket so soon?"
"I survived being killed. What is this place?"
"Think of this place as a special level in a video game. Wait, you do know what that is, right? I forget the level of technology each starter world has."
"I do know. Go on."
"Ok, good. So, this place is a determination stage for a very few select people who earn a ticket. Here, you can win various prizes before moving on to the afterlife. But winning the whole event can allow any wish to be granted. Within reason, of course. We had this one guy waste a wish on making a circle into a square."
A wish for anything? Now that sounds great. And then, my mind started to explore all the options for how to abuse it. Like, could I get this and this and this… as long as it sounded like one continuously long wish. Then again, how likely is it I would win? I don't even know the rules.
"That is very exciting. How do these games work?" I asked.
"There are many different kinds of games you can enter. Win enough to get points. The first loss, though, and you're done. Then, you cash in the points for your rewards. Get enough points, and you can enter the final game. There is where you fight for a chance at a wish."
"Alright, so where do I begin?"
"Wherever you like," he said, pointing to all the areas where games were being played. Some were kiosks or booths. Some were inside small buildings, while others were out in the open. Like a patch of ethereal grass where some kind of ball game was being played. Since I wasn't meant to be here this early, I'm guessing I'm outclassed by everyone here. It was interesting to learn that Draotis was a level 1 world. That certainly meant that the boat took people to a level 2 world. Or it is highly probable, at least.
"Oh, Ezikiel, one last thing." He said, using my name, which I never gave to him. "If you hope to compete, I suggest you unlock that last Soul Art. You'll be at a major disadvantage otherwise."
"Ok, that's good to know," I replied, and he nodded before floating off somewhere. The guy had no legs, even though everyone else did. Maybe he's like a system administrator or something. Either way, I knew what I needed to do. Find someone who can help me unlock a Soul Art. Observe the games and learn the rules. Then, profit.