Chapter 592 - Skirmish 1
Chapter 592 – Skirmish 1
Draco's lips twitched as he watched the ongoing brutality. It was not even funny to see hundreds of knights, mages and healers stomped to death per second, or smashed down by a gigantic palm bigger than their hopes and dreams.
The slashes from their blades and the effects of their spells were for naught, not even so much as denting the HP of any Sentinel as far as the group could tell.
At this time, the floor description came up.
｢The Fourteenth Floor – Divine Quest
Description: You have managed to weaken the Endurance Sentinel to the point that it has fled for its life, disregarding its own orders as it felt its life essence being absorbed by you. Now, you have reached the decisive battle of the Ferrut Fort, only to see that your side is taking heavy losses.
As the Chosen One of this world, it is your duty to save the people and protect Ferrut Fort! Hold off against the Sentinel for at least 3 days and make sure at least, 10% of the current warriors survive till then!
Limitation 1: Enemies are limited to within your Rank.
Limitation 2: You may retreat from the floor at any time, but upon re-entry, you would have to resume from the exact situation you were in at the time..
Provision 1: Every 5% of HP removed from the Sentinels allows you to gain one level regardless of your current Rank or experience requirements.
Provision 2: You have full use of all your powers and abilities in the same way as you would outside.
Rewards: Score Points, 1 Bronze-Tier Reward Selection.｣
After digesting the objective of the floor, the group shared strange looks.
To waste a whole three days defending? What a dumb thing to do when they could just slaughter the opposition in a matter of hours!
Besides, with the less than a dozen Sentinels here wreaking havoc, there was a lot of experience they could farm from this. Killing Sentinels was not tough for them, just time-consuming, requiring a huge burst of power.
"Well, let's get to it. Pick your targets everyone, and fight how you please." Draco stated as he transformed into his Horned Demon True Body.
He became compact and muscular, growing long black hair, his skin becoming dark red. His physical powers increased leaps and bounds, but his Bloodline Energy was being drained at a fast rate until he switched off his Nine Hells.
This gave him more time, about 3 minutes with his current proficiency with the transformation. What was the difference between this technique and the Demon Form skill?
Only the source of energy. His Horned Demon True Body took Bloodline Energy and the Demon Form took… system energy? Yeah, something like that.
They both yielded the same power, but one had a set duration with a cooldown as well as accompanying skills, while the other depended on his Bloodline Energy, only granting him whatever skills he himself had learned already.
Draco blasted into the air like a meteor, the sound of him ripping through the sound barrier stealing the attention of all fighters below as it was so thunderous.
When they saw this small silhouette of Draco that was crashing towards a giant Strength Sentinel, it was almost a comical sight. The Strength Sentinel itself did not even make a move to defend itself as it turned to face its prey below.
Everyone who knew Draco, would know that ignoring him was a fatal mistake.
Draco grinned and charged Demonic Energy into his fist, making it glow in a scarlet color as he channeled the entirety of his momentum into a punch.
When that punch connected with the right shoulder of the Strength Sentinel, it caused a quake so strong that it upturned the ground for hundreds of kilometers, creating volumes of dust clouds that obscured everything.
The people at the fort cowered under this as the shockwave blew many of them around, some even becoming critically injured as a result. They struggled to stand up, only to see a large shadow envelop them.
Their faces warped with horror when they saw that the entire right arm of the Strength Sentinel was crashing down towards the fort, its size big enough to turn them all into paste.
Before it could come crashing down on them, a green light struck the arm, slowly turning into motes of green light that were collected by a sexy caramel-skinned woman riding a broom.
"Ohoho, this will make a great ingredient for an ogre-fication potion!" Roma commented to herself with glee. She then gazed down upon the various people here with a strange look in her eyes.
"Tsk, so many good souls. It's a shame we have to protect them." Roma muttered with disappointment, licking her lips at the thought.
The fighters below had been unable to hear her, but they had trembled instinctively feeling the danger from her and it wasn't until Roma flew away that they felt safe once more. Their minds were shaken by the occurrences happening, but they had yet to reach the limit of their capacity.
Soon, two other women came before them, another dark-skinned beauty whose sexiness made man and woman alike feel intense lust, with visible signs showing in their pants, while another was a beauty that looked so delicate and supreme that their hearts were soothed.
Though she tried to hide it, the second beauty was just as sexy as the woman beside her, creating an uncomfortable feeling as if it was wrong to sexualize her like this.
Zaine folded her arms and observed the people below. "Well, Hikari, do your thing. I know you must've been dying to ever since we appeared here."
Hikari scratched her head in slight embarrassment. "Err… am I that easy to read?"
Zaine smiled gently, rubbing Hikari's back. "Not really. Only when someone knows your good and kind heart can they predict what choice you would make."
Hikari nodded and placed her hands together. A white light enveloped her body and spread outward, passing through the bodies of all combatants.
White Light Healing!
The next instant, everyone recovered to peak health, and any lingering ailments they might have possessed had been cured permanently.
Doctor diagnosed you having cancer? No need to create and sell drugs as the White Dragoness had removed it.
Any sexual diseases your one-night stand had 'forgotten' to mention? No problem, Doctor Hikari's miracle light had your back!
A curse upon your soul that limited your talent? Not a problem, barely an inconvenience for her!
Many stood up with shock on their faces, not understanding how such a great miracle could come to be. To heal so deeply, not even the Saintess or Pope was this powerful!
However, Hikari was not done. Still maintaining her posture, she dragged in torrents of Worldly Energy which was rich in this area into her body. Then, an even more powerful white glow exploded from her, covering the entire battlefield at once.
White Light Resurrection!
The light sparkled when it hovered over dead bodies or certain parts, hovering over them. It then infused itself into these bodies, granting them life once more as their owners opened their eyes with incomprehension.
Those who had been crushed to paste took slightly longer as their bodies were being reconstructed, but regardless of what end they had met, every human who had died before they came and during it rose to their feet once more, gazing around with surprise.
How were they alive?
They instinctively looked towards the source of the white light and knew through the result of a law of the world that their benefactor was there. As such, they all kneeled down and kowtowed to Hikari to show their gratitude for being given another chance at life.
Those who had been healed were shocked out of their souls by this. Among them, many had lost brothers, lovers, and the like in this battle and had only been trudging on because they had thought that to be their last hope.
However, they would now be able to reunite with all those who should have been lost!
This feeling… this chance…
They gazed at the still glowing Hikari who had her hands clasped in what seemed to be prayer, her eyes closed as she was still focused, and knelt down as well.
The entire human side of the battlefield was currently kneeling to one person, the lovely White Dragoness who prioritized saving the life of anyone who deserved it.
Zaine by her side was slightly overwhelmed by this, her heart shaking. This kind of aura and ability… her sister-wife Hikari was truly too amazing!
Zaine's eyes as she gazed at Hikari softened further, not able to hide her affection for her. Hikari herself soon opened her eyes and was stunned to see everyone kneeling towards her, quickly moving closer to Zaine as she was confused.
Zaine laughed and gently caressed Hikari. "You should get used to this, they are rightfully paying their respects to you for saving their lives and reuniting their families."
Hikari blinked with surprise. "Oh! Well, that's fine, but they don't need to kneel! It wasn't much of a big deal!"
Zaine nodded. "Certainly not to you, but to them, it's everything."
Hikari sort of understood this and Draco had taught her something similar. He taught her about relativity – not the science one – and how things would be perceived differently by different people due to different characteristics, circumstances, and ideologies.
So, in this case, it was likely that they thought what she did was grand while she didn't see it as such. Hikari felt like she understood the world a little bit more after this.
They then turned to face the battle that was ongoing.
"I'll stay here and make sure none of these fellows die again, as well as herd them away from the danger. What about you?" Zaine asked Hikari.
Hikari pondered for a while. "I'll stay here with you. I can do any healing or resurrecting from here should the need arise."
Zaine nodded and watched the battle, especially Eva who had joined in right after Draco.
Eva gazed at Draco who had tuned into his Horned Demon True Body and decided to fight with her bloodline as well. As such, she gazed towards the ground as her formerly black eyes now became golden-green in color.
They radiated power and majesty, manifested into five figures that appeared before Eva while kneeling.
Camael, Baraquiel, Jehoel, Sarathiel and Samael.
Camael was the leader of the Angelic Powers as well as the Angel of War. He looked like an ancient Greek soldier and wore spartan-esque armor that glowed gold like his body.
He wielded a golden greatsword in one hand and a tower shield in the other.
Baraquiel was the Angel of Lightning, who commanded the electrical powers that emerged from the heavens and struck down upon the lands. He wore a set of Angelic white robes with the mark of electricity on the chest area.
Since he was a Virtue, he was more of a 'magic caster'.
Jehoel had fiery red hair that and burned as it flowed behind him, as well as piercing scarlet eyes. He currently wielded a long spear that burned with flames and wore similar spartan-esque armor to Camael.
Sarathiel was an absolutely stunning beauty that was on par with Bella and Slim Fatty, but below Zaine and Roma.
She was the Angel of Discipline, wearing a set of tight-fitting robes that showed off her curves even as she placed a hand on her glowing red sword that hung at her waist.
Samael was a pretty boy that was a mixture between killer shota and budding fuckboy. Average height, spiky black hair, and bright golden eyes as well as a playful smirk.
In essence, he was like a younger Draco.
However, this pretty boy was the one and only Angel of Death. He had a large black scythe attached to his back that looked read to separate heads from their necks.
They all roared out with all the will in their hearts: "WE OBEY THE SUPREME GODDESS, HER GREATNESS, HER UNPARALLELEDNESS, HER DIVINITY EVA!"
Eva's lips twitched but she abstained from chastising them. The Supreme Goddess had even tried ordering these Angels to refrain from calling her as such, but these Angels would never break formality. As such, she could only sigh and give up.
A throne manifested itself beneath Eva and carried her into the sky. She then gazed towards her summoned Angels and pointed to the Sentinels that were being engaged by Draco alone.
"Assist my soulmate in his battle and take down all those behemoths! Do not hold back!" Eva commanded imperially.
The Angels received their orders and roared their acknowledgment before rushing to battle. Eva settled in her throne to watch them, as her Eye of Miracles Inheritance didn't have much offensive power, but was more of a 'summoner' type thing.
It was the counterpart to Draco's Horned Demon Inheritance, but it was drastically different. After all, we all knew about the violence of Satan and how he could muster the power to battle even Jesus to a draw.
However, God never directly fought, only creating more and balancing the world. Basically, he was the Gamemaster, so he couldn't break the rules of his own system lest he cause chaos.
Eva was trapped within the same rules.
However, what pleased her and shocked Draco was that in this state, Eva could perfectly use Creation Energy just as well as Hikari. Not for healing – though she could do that as well theoretically – but for blessings, miracles, and most importantly, creation in the primary sense.
Eva watched the five Angels go into battle and was pleased. Due to the nature of her Eye of Miracles, she didn't need to support the Angels she summoned with her bloodline energy.
As long as there was energy available to them, the Angels could absorb it themselves and do whatever they needed to. This was why Eva often summoned them in-game casually but never in reality.
In reality, there was no ambient Worldly Energy for them to absorb, so they would drain her Bloodline Energy as the default. In Boundless, this was not a problem, so she could maintain this form longer than Draco could his Horned Demon True Body.
Even if you multiplied all of Eva's Battle Angels by a hundred, they still wouldn't match Draco in this form. Everything had its pros and cons.
So Draco = Short Duration + Pinnacle Tier Power while Eva = Long Duration + High Tier Power.
Camael raised his tower shield and engaged another Strength Sentinel head-on, tanking its blow while he was in mid-air. He did not even take a single step back, rather roaring and thrusting his shield forward to knockback the Strength Sentinel, which was shocked by this.
He then sliced at it using his greatsword, which cut into the flesh of the Sentinel that was as thick as titanium metal like it was butter, causing it to bleed. The Strength Sentinel bellowed with pain, trying to take a step back and regroup, but was pursued by Camael who continued to hack and slash at it.
None of the wounds he left healed, as there was a burning light within them that festered.
Sarathiel cornered an Agility Sentinel that had been chasing down some humans initially, and cut off its right fist with a single slash. The beauty wore a stern expression that showed only seriousness and resolve as she fought crazily, not even regarding her own safety as important before the orders of the Supreme Goddess.
The Agility Sentinel wailed in pain, trying to use its superior speed to take Sarathiel down, but unlike Camael who was a steady fighter, she was much faster. A single flap of her white wings and she would appear on another side of the Sentinel to lay into it with her weapon.
In this regard, Jehoel was similar to her. As a purely offensive fighter who wielded the flaming spear of heaven, he was one that emphasized speed and dexterity. He too challenged an Agility Sentinel as only he was fast enough to match its movements.
He stabbed towards its various weak points, aiming to cripple the behemoth slowly and secure the skill without causing any trouble to himself, which was where his battle style differed from Sarathiel.
His spear left afterimages as it moved and struck towards any point on the Agility Sentinel, leaving burning wounds that expanded with each second. At this rate, he would soon be done with his foe and able to move on to another.
Baraquiel was the only non-melee fighter among them, so he naturally hung back slightly. His entire body was soon clad in yellowish electricity that spread out to form an aura around him.
He raised his hand and pointed towards an Endurance Sentinel that was trying to come forward to rescue its masters from their plight. Immediately, the behemoth was struck full body by lightning channeled by Baraquiel squealing in agony from it as it became paralyzed.
Baraquiel simply continued channeling the lighting non-stop, not even breaking a sweat as the Worldly Energy was enough to sustain his onslaught.
Samael smiled as he watched his four compatriots battle with skill and expertise against various foes. His eyes then roved to the remainder of the battle, especially towards Draco.
Samael was the only Angel who did not dislike Draco, but rather found him interesting. Their looks were roughly similar, and Samael didn't understand why he felt a kinship with Draco from a certain regard.
However, he had been given a command by the Supreme Goddess, so he moved to execute it.
He raised his Scythe of Death, which exploded with blackish fire that made any living person feel terror from the depths of their soul, and swung out towards another Strength Sentinel that was closing in on Draco to assist the one he was fighting.
From the edge of his scythe, a black wave of energy was fired out that tore through the air, heading towards the head of the Strength Sentinel in question.
When that behemoth sensed the aura of death coming upon it, it abandoned its charge as the stopped to defend against Samael's attack. It raised to hands to block the black wave, but was shocked when it cut through both of its forearms with ease.
The remnant energy then left a deep cut on its neck before it faded away, unable to continue as it had exhausted its power. This made Samael tsk as he knew that the Worldly Energy around him could only grant him this much power to fight with.