Arcane kingdom online co.., p.127
Arcane Kingdom Online: Complete Box Set, page 127
She raised her hand just as she had before when she had hit me with that mana blast in the academy courtyard.
“Back off, hag!
Artemis leapt in the air and with her fox claws dealt a scratch against Madame Friedra’s cheeks.
Three lines of blood emerged on the noblewoman’s face, filling her with anger.
“Artemis Brush? I haven’t seen you in years. I’m not surprised a talentless performer like yourself ended up working with savage imposters.”
“Talentless?” balked Artemis. She let out a grin. “Darling, I’ll show you talentless.”
Artemis and Madame Friedra must have gone way back. They had a long-standing rivalry from their performance days. I wasn’t sure what kind of smaller battle was happening amidst this larger frenzy.
Artemis sang out a high wondrous note like an opera singer. The note filled the room and the energy flew in the direction of Madame Friedra.
My former teacher’s eyes widened at the sight and sounds of Artemis’ beautiful voice.
“Impossible! A high-c tessitura is the only way to unlock a bard’s opera ray,” exclaimed Madame Friedra.
Artemis continued singing the note as it formed into a blast of energy that sent Madame Friedra into the walls.
The noblewoman’s neck fell forward. She was unconscious.
“Who’s the talentless one now, bitch,” spat Artemis.
I had no time to congratulate Artemis on taking out her rival because it was one small speck of the larger battle.
So far, Konrad Takeshimi was nowhere to be seen, but the guards kept flooding in.
The fight in the ballroom was just getting started.
37
Arethkarian soldiers flooded through the door.
They kicked down tables and pushed forward, deeper into the ballroom.
“That’s a lot of soldiers,” said Serena. “What the heck are we going to do?”
I ducked for cover behind a fallen table and Serena joined me. I wasn’t sure what our next move should be. A bit of time remained on my phantasms timer to distract the soldiers and buy us time. That’s what we were doing. Biding our time.
A pink laser blast darted just over our heads.
The shot blasted into a tall glass window, shattering it. The shards of glass rained down and, like a curtain swept away, revealed the starry night sky outside. A wind swept through the ballroom adding to the chaos.
“We were dictating the terms of the fight at the start,” said Serena. “But we’re losing control of the battlefield now.”
Serena was right. As more guards streamed into the room, they’d be able to surround us. Even if we were physically and magically stronger than the average Arethkarian soldier, we were still going to struggle against hundreds of them.
What we needed to do was whittle down their numbers.
I stood up and assessed the destroyed ballroom-turned-fire-fight arena.
I checked the phantasm timer on my HUD.
Five seconds.
I triggered leaping illusion.
The phantasmal clone shot out of me, wielding the dream blade and heading like a cannon ball to the group of enemy soldiers.
Three seconds.
It was now or never.
I triggered mind explosion.
The eighteen phantasms of myself all around the room suddenly shattered into destructive magic glass, exploding in every direction.
“Agh! My eyes!” screamed an enemy soldier, who’d been in close proximity to one of the phantasms.
He fell to the floor in agony.
The soldiers dropped one by one. If not killed by the blast, heavily wounded, or wracked with an intense debuff the mind explosion ability potentially dealt: nightmare insanity.
The debuff wreaked psychological havoc on the mind, making one see their worst nightmares.
In effect, it was a more elaborate complex form of paralysis. If you were scrambling on the floor, running away from hallucinatory cockroaches, you weren’t spending time shooting at me or my friends.
The excess amount of soldiers had dwindled. Their screams echoed through the hall, while a few of them retreated back.
“Nice work, Clay,” said Serena. “It looks like hybrid classes are where it’s at.”
It was exactly as Betina had foretold. I needed to unlock Dream Druid to survive and win this fight and so far, the new hybrid-class was paying off in spades.
One Arethkarian captain was still barking orders.
“These guys aren’t giving up, are they?” said Serena.
They were keeping it together in a far corner. Some of the men were suffering from the nightmare insanity debuff and they were waiting for it to cool off, which was probably when they’d make another push towards us.
The captain spoke into a communication crystal. “Squad-B in the ballroom, requesting back-up. Lots of it.”
The captain then yelled over his table barricade towards us.
“Give up now, fools,” shouted the captain. “Reinforcements are on their way. You won’t be able to survive when the entirety of the Arethkarian army floods this room.”
Serena let out at a long sigh behind the barricade.
“Are we going to last?”
“We just need to hang tight,” I said.
We knew once the fighting started every able Arethkarian soldier was going to descend upon the palace and the ballroom. We had made an appropriate counter measure for such a scenario, but we had to let it play out first.
The captain spoke into his microphone again. “This is squad-B captain. Where is the back-up? We’re fighting a high-level enemy and we need all the firepower we can get.”
No reply came into the soldier’s communication device.
Then a crackly sound of a transmission came out.
The voice on the other end croaked: “Your back-up ain’t coming, scumbag.”
Serena grinned at me.
Our plan was coming together.
The captain screamed into his communication crystal: “Who the heck are you? What the heck is going on?”
I stood up from behind my barricade.
The captain’s squad were the only remaining enemy soldiers in the ballroom. A few noble guests were hiding under tables along the walls, but it was mostly us and the true enemy now.
The captain yelled out, “Where’s the reinforcements? What have you done with them you demon?”
I turned my head across the room and saw Ren, stepping out of a hiding space and giving me a thumbs up.
“Do you want to tell him or should I?” I said.
“Your reinforcements aren’t coming,” said Ren, walking towards me.
“That’s impossible,” shouted the captain.
“I think your reinforcements have a bit more to deal with than they were expecting,” I smiled.
In our preparation for this final battle, we’d decided to tell Ren about who we really were. Rather than being upset, he was relieved. More than that, he was willing to help us.
He gave us the special codes to his father’s nearest plantation and with the help of Artemis’ smuggler network, we were able to free all of the imprisoned Chosen.
“Look,” I said.
Through the broken windows we saw the city on fire. Rooftops were burning. Screams, shouts, and gunshots were going off.
“What have you done?” gasped the enemy captain.
The thousands of freed players were currently descending upon the city, breaking through the gates, and causing chaos in the streets. Any enslaved Chosen they found, they helped rip off the magitech neck bracers and freed them, adding another enraged player to their army.
“How is this possible?” shook the captain’s head. “Even if you’d freed all those players, they were still weak and without any gear.”
I grinned, once again, enjoying all the chess pieces coming together.
“The Duke of Salaphem sends his regards,” I said.
On top of informing Ren, we’d also contacted the Duke and revealed what we’d been up to. He lent his own spy network and undercover soldiers to help aid the army of freed Chosen marching through the streets.
“I’m sorry to say, but it doesn’t look like your reinforcements are coming.”
38
“You are in grave trouble, boy!”
The voice echoed from a far corner of the ballroom. Stepping out of the shadows was Julius Goldenbough.
He strode towards Ren, burning with rage. The look on his face said he intended to kill his own son.
“…Father…” said Ren, his voice filling with fear.
Ren had stood up to his father on multiple occasions, but what he did tonight was the most defiant action he ever took against him. This action, unlike all the rest, was a final stand against his father and everything he stood for. He knew the backlash was going to be more intense than anything he’d ever had to deal with in the past.
Julius rushed towards his son. The man’s fingers twitched as if he was going to expose his class abilities to us.
He raised his fist as he came within meters of Ren.
Swoosh!
We all stood in front of Ren. Shade, Serena, Artemis, and myself.
“If you want to hit your son again, you’re going to have to go through us, you bastard,” I declared.
The father took a step back, surprised.
Julius Goldenbough had just witnessed the entire battle up to that point. He knew what we were capable of. He was happy to pick on those weaker than himself, but he was shrewd enough to back away when he was unable to win easily.
The guard captain limped over to the noble patriarch.
“Sir, we need to evacuate the area,” said the captain. “The big guns are finally arriving.”
The captain glared at me, before limping away towards the door with Julius trailing behind them.
“What did he mean by big guns?” said Shade.
I didn’t want to voice it, but I think we all knew.
Stepping out from behind the podium was a long haired man with glasses and a beard. He wore a flowing white robe and had a placid expression on his face.
Konrad Takeshimi had arrived.
“Are we ready?” I said.
The power emanating off the man made it clear that the person standing on the stage was the real Konrad. This wasn’t an illusion.
It was time to hit this bastard with everything in our power.
I triggered dream dance.
The world around me slowed and pink flames erupted in all direction.
I stuck my hand out and conjured the dream blade once more.
With the glowing blade firmly in my grip, I stepped out of the dream realm. Less than a second back in reality, I triggered a new ability: dream wave.
I sliced my sword sideways and a gushing wave of sparkling energy in the shape of a half moon blasted out towards Konrad.
“Amazing,” said Ren.
“Dream magic might be the only thing in this world powerful enough to defeat a high level chronomancer like Konrad,” said Artemis in awe.
Dream wave was an ultra-powerful top tier dream druid ability. It dealt upwards of 2000 MTKP of damage. It was enough power to one-shot some trash mobs. It would be devastating to most players, depending on the gear they were wearing.
Plus, the wide moving AoE of the blast meant Konrad had nowhere to run.
The cascade of powerful dream energy shot forth, covering the entire length of the podium.
The blast crashed into the wall.
The stage was empty. Konrad had disappeared.
“What the—” shouted Ren.
Konrad was a smart opponent. He wasn’t going to fall for such a direct attack like that.
The man had a host of different spells from slowing down time to electric blink that would allow him to dodge a seemingly inescapable attack.
The only question left now was: where was he going to reappear?
A flutter of robes came from overhead.
“Oh shit,” I said.
Konrad floated right above us and flicked his fingers down, shooting a spell at us.
The dust of his spell shot downward and hit me and the others in the chest.
“Uh oh,” said Shade.
The spell didn’t do any damage to us. It did something way worse.
Flickering onto my HUD were the words, “Slow (debuff).”
Crap.
I triggered electric blink and reappeared a few meters away. No longer in the shadow of the floating Konrad.
“Agh…help…me…darling,” said Artemis, between gritted teeth.
We had to get rid of the slow debuff as fast as possible. This was how chronomancers won their fights. They dictated the terms of the battle, controlling their opponent’s actions, until they were too weak to survive.
I triggered status cure.
Curative glowing diamonds surrounded my person and the slow debuff dipped away.
“Share…the…love…mate,” squirmed Shade, trapped in the spell.
I conjured status cure and shot it outward with a big enough air blast spell that it healed everyone else in one go.
“Thanks, mate,” said Shade. “Now let’s mess this guy up!”
I grinned between breaths. I didn’t think it was going to be that easy, but I liked the optimism.
“Remember not to look him in the eyes,” I shouted. “Otherwise, he’ll trigger petrify.”
Everyone nodded, readying themselves for another chronomancer attack spell.
Before Konrad could do anything else, I triggered dream surge.
I gripped my dream blade tightly and swung it forth in the direction of Konrad.
A long burst of crackling lightning shot out of the blade and travelled across the ballroom into the air towards Konrad.
“Dream druid,” muttered Shade. “More like freaking OP-druid. Go Clay!”
I gripped the sword with both hands as the emanating lightning from the blade exited the sword like a slithering snake of power.
Unlike dream wave, the thick thread of dream lightning tracked its enemy like a honing missile, swerving to hit its target.
It would be a lot harder to dodge.
The burst of dream lightning smashed into the robed figure floating above the ballroom near the gilded ceiling.
Konrad shivered and shook spasmodically as the attack hit him in the stomach. The electricity swirled through his veins and enveloped his whole body.
Shade threw out a shadow shuriken as Konrad was locked into place by the dream lightning spell, adding to the overall pool of damage inflicted onto the man.
Serena leapt on a table and shouted, “You’re not the only one who wants to get a piece of this asshole.”
She jumped from the table and then triggered charge strike to propel herself further into the air.
Once in range of Konrad, she unleashed blade tornado, slashing her sword into the man at a rapid pace.
We were giving it everything we had. If we didn’t kill Konrad right now, we should at least be severely weakening him.
“ENOUGH!”
A blast of energy shot from Konrad’s body.
The wave of power cancelled out the dream surge spell and hurled Serena across the room.
“Serena!” I yelled.
She wouldn’t get killed by such an attack, but with Konrad you never knew what dirty tricks he might have up his sleeve.
Serena crashed into the ground at the back, losing 30% HP.
I materialized an HP potion and lobbed it towards her.
“Heal yourself!” I shouted. “We have no idea what’s coming next.”
Konrad’s powerful class plus guardian abilities meant fighting him was unlike fighting anybody else. The rules of battle didn’t apply to him. We had to outsmart his insanely OP abilities.
Konrad peered at me from his position in the air. He’d heard me say, “we have no idea what was coming next” and it looks like he believed me.
“Clay! Watch out!”
Konrad disappeared in the air.
He emerged right behind me. His right arm was raised.
“Get out of there, Clay!”
In a second, Konrad was going to slice his arm down like it was a blade. The excess of mana burning around him would turn his attack into a slice of energy. It would burn through my armor and kill me.
Konrad was in a checkmate position.
The man swung his arm down towards my back and spine.
Shiing!
I stood in the exact same spot, except that I was now facing Konrad. Worse for the old man, my dream blade had stabbed him right in the gut.
“CLAY!” yelled Ren.
I was still alive after the attack. In fact, I was better than that. I was standing over my defeated opponent. The evil man who’d killed my brother and wronged so many others.
“You’ve…killed…me?” gasped Konrad, as a dark red patch of blood soaked into his white robes.
It looked like it.
When Konrad had overheard me say, “We have no idea what was coming next”, I’d been baiting him to attack me. He took it, electric blinking behind me, and raising his hand for a magical melee attack.
Right as he struck, I triggered my dream counter ability, cancelling Konrad’s spell and allowing me to deliver a death blow to the chronomancer.
It was a high-gamble move. I dangled a checkmate position in his face and he took the bait, only for me to reveal that I was the one winning this match.
Konrad didn’t shatter. He wasn’t an illusion. Nope. He collapsed onto his knees, then fell over. A small pool of blood leaking out all around him.
Konrad Takeshimi was dead.
I stood over Konrad’s corpse.
I materialized an HP potion in my hand and gave it a swig. My health quickly recovered. I followed up with an MP potion.
The main battle may have been finished, but there was still chaos happening outside. I wasn’t going to act without thinking now.
I looked down to the fallen man. He was a player, of course. So technically, he’d respawn right where he was in three hours.
We’d killed him, but not wiped him from the game.
I turned to Ren. “You have that thing we were talking about.”
