3. The Wrath of A God
The undead giant spiderwebbed the ground after lifting its hand abruptly. Duran was nowhere to be found. Instead, blue flames ignited on its fist, spreading rapidly upward. It tried to extinguish the flames by swinging its hand haphazardly.
Slice!
The undead giant cut off its arm, and in a matter of seconds it regrew back.
"I guess this is the best the likes of you could do." Duran's voice echoed from above the giant as he stood atop a platform made with blue flames.
'So he could fly?'
"Hahaha, surely you jest? I never knew foxes could fly." The undead giant leapt towards Duran. "Why don't I bring you down to ground level where you belong!" It attacked him with both its fists.
Some kind of barrier prevented the attack from passing.
"What's this?" the undead giant exclaimed.
Duran stood before it unmoved, unfazed — he looked completely uninterested.
"Is this all your might, fallen one?" He snapped his fingers.
A burst of flames emerged. The shockwave sent the undead giant flying into the ground — a 30-foot fall. The impact spiderwebbed the ground.
"You came at me with numbers and failed!" Duran's voice echoed loudly throughout the horizon. "You fused together into a singular entity and mustered all your strength—"
The blue flames around him shaped into a ring-like halo behind him with a fan-like symbol at the center.
"All that... and you failed to even serve as a clown to amuse me."
He vanished.
"Pathetic!"
He reappeared on the ground behind the fallen undead giant who was trying to get up.
The undead giant rose shakily on its feet.
"I refuse to accept thi—"
A blast of blue flames from Duran's fingers blew the head of the undead giant off clean. The flames burned atop the remaining flesh on the neck of the undead.
The headless undead giant still charged forward at Duran.
"It was an insult to the name of the nine-tailed fox god to have faced an opponent as unsightly and pathetically weak as yourself."
He exhaled.
"What a waste of my priceless time!"
Blue flames erupted from the ground beneath the undead giant, blowing it up into nothing but cinders. The shockwave from the gruesome attack scorched the very earth around the horizon, turning it into bubbling magma.
[You have to be kidding me! There's nothing left of the battlefield but magma!]
Bing!
"Did you guys see the eruption of blue flames by the curved cliff?"
"I saw it. I'm super scared. I don't want to piss off the master of that summon."
"You guys are a bunch of pussies. My Ice Queen will handle him with ease."
"Same."
"It's barely been 3 hours since we got here!"
"I'm in the domain next door to the cliff. I hope the summon's master is at least friendly. I'm still trying to do a summoning ritual."
The live chat was already buzzing with all sorts of opinions on the fight that had just happened.
'I am well aware that he hasn't displayed even up to one percent of his power.'
'He really was indeed worthy of the title of a god.'
"I've cleaned up the trash—" he turned back and looked across the vast horizon. "Are you aware that someone is watching us?" he asked with a disgusted tone.
'It's most likely the summoner that sent the undead legion.'
'Aria, can't you do something?'
[It's time to show you how great I am, Revet-san!]
[Aria has activated Obscure. All other summoners and their summons will no longer be able to monitor you.]
'I didn't know you had such an ability? Nice going, Aria!'
[Humhumhum! Aren't I just amazing? Unlike that fox who only causes destruction.]
"Little girl... watch your foul mouth!" Duran said rudely.
[Sorry! Sorry! It was just a joke. I didn't mean it like that. You didn't have to go killer mode on me like that. Humph!]
'I could sense a certain rage from him. It seemed what she said hit a sore spot.'
'Now that it had been made clear to me that this war was no prank, it was kill or be killed.'
'From my experiences with people, it was easy to adapt to life-or-death situations. Every individual had a trace of selfishness in them no matter how they tried to hide it.'
'Now that our lives had been put on the line, people would go to any lengths to assure their safety.'
'Myself included.'
'I would be the one to stand above them all in this bloodthirsty war.'
'Duran, amazing job dealing with the undead legion and giant. As expected, you limited the damage to just the horizon and purposely avoided the cliff. Isn't that why you knocked the giant off?'
"So you noticed?" he replied with a slight smile. "I simply didn't want your feeble self to get caught in the crossfire."
'That fight attracted a lot of attention. It works to our advantage because some of the other summoners are afraid now.'
Revet took a slow breath.
'It also works against us because now this cliff is a target for stronger summoners. And Obscure won't protect us against a surprise attack.'
'We need a shield. Any ideas, Aria?'
[I don't have any abilities currently that can create a shield. Obscure is the only ability I have now, hehehe.]
"I always knew you were useless," Duran said sarcastically.
[Hey!]
[Maybe you should try out your artifact.]
Revet dipped his hand into the pouch and pulled out a crystal cube.
'What did it do?'
'How do I check out its effect?'
[Just say "Appraise".]
'Appraise.'
[?? Artifact: Wainer]
[Effects:]
[Passive: Erects a barrier immediately it is fused with a domain core.]
[Active: While fused with a domain core, so long as spirit energy is supplied, the
equipping summoner will be able to create anything they imagine apart from life.]
'This was incredibly useful.'
'Not only did I get a free shield, but I could also create anything I wanted.'
'This domain could really use some remodeling.'
He placed the crystal cube on his domain's core.
It got sucked in, and the core glowed brighter.
[Wainer has been equipped.]
[Wainer's passive has been activated.]
A barrier emerged from the core, surrounding the entire cliff.
Tap! Tap!
"It's solid, alright."
"It wouldn't hold a candle to my attacks."
[As if! Humph!]
"I should try imagining somethi—"
[World Feature: Conquest Tavern has been unlocked.]
[Summoners will gain rewards and drops based on the difficulty challenged. The type of rewards and drops gotten will vary depending on type of conquest tavern challenged]
[Tavern conquest entry points are scattered around the neutral zones. As of now, only 50 tavern conquest entry points are available. Only one summoner is allowed to challenge a difficulty at a time.]
[World Feature: Neutral Zones has been unlocked.]
[Summoners are unable to fight or die within neutral zones.]
[World Feature:Arstrea's Map]
Bing!
"What the heck?"
"A map? I wonder if we can view domains on it"
"Rewards like what?"
"I just checked out the difficulty. It has Normal, Hard, and Nightmare difficulties."
"Just from the name Nightmare I'm already having the creeps. No thank you."
"Finally a good feature."