Path of the Slayer B3 50. Diamond Castle Champ & Enemy Veteran Attacks

An intense force erupted from around Merlin. Tangible sparks of complex spellcraft appeared in the air around his head. I could feel the dwelf wizard rewriting reality from being near him, as if I was getting a glimpse of his own rune-work.

I could never be a wizard, but part of me still wondered if I could use warlock spells if I learned enough from watching Merlin in action.

The wizard stepped to the edge and thrust his hand forward. Small sparks of fire appeared around his arm, spiraled in a corkscrew pattern to his palm, and combined into one tiny compressed sun ball before shooting forward as a thick bar of fiery wrath that was fifteen feet wide.

I felt none of the heat. Nor did Grimmy or anybody else watching from close by. Merlin meticulously focused all of his wrath and power forward as that one huge fiery beam.

The Master Cantrip landed upon the Rank 5 monsters with the finality of a god casting his wrath down upon Rank 0 mortals. They didn’t just burn. They suffered utter annihilation. So did the land they’d stood. So did the wicked woods, the tainted lakes, and the valleys filled with defiled growths.

Even without his Profound Calculator, all became ash under Merlin’s flaming wizardry, his power beyond the scope of a mere Legendary with two Paths. This was the System Brand at work, expanding his power further beyond.

“Whoa,” Veteran Sharia said.

“Oh my,” commented Veteran Zez.

“I swear on the System, if I don’t get any action, I will be pissed,” grumbled V.

“Keep going, Merlin, baby! You’re the Diamond Castle Champ for a reason!” Syleth cheered from among the juniors. The other juniors cheered as well.

Merlin chuckled before summoning his Profound Calculator, the magical abacus clacking rapidly by his crowned helmet. His fiery power grew even more intense, like he was pouring an entire sun concentrated into a thick yellow-white beam. The annihilation of the monsters quickened. It was truly an astonishing sight.

“Master Arden?” Grimmy asked.

“Yes?”

“Should I learn to be a wizard?”

I shook my head. “No, Grimmy. You keep cultivating the sword. This is the power of our Diamond Castle Champion. Let him have his moment.”

Even Doomie was looking at Merlin, and I did the same, beholding the power of my friend. Regardless of his insecurities, he was destined to be someone of great power.

I was more than happy to keep pushing him in that direction, but those were thoughts for the future. For now, I turned to keep a vigilant eye out for the greatest dangers.

My Veteran Rex caught the danger faster than anyone else. He didn’t yell a warning. He turned to our left, opened his smoky mouth wide, and hurled something I’d never seen from him until now: a shower of meteorites like a continuous cannon blast of immense and fiery proportions.

The scattered streams of burning projectiles defaced the top of the plateau and shook our vantage point hard enough to throw some juniors off their feet.

I was too strong to get knocked down like that. Instead, I looked through the destruction and caught a survivor bolting forward anyway.

They were swift, powerful, and packed with energy that was beyond mine. It was a Legendary Veteran, and despite all of my growth, they were out of my league. But they fell well within Veteran Sharia’s reach, the Raider woman moving so fast I nearly lost track of her.

In the next instance, an impact that was nearly as loud as my Mag Storm Cannon reverberated across the plateau. Then, a second impact roared from a valley off to the left. Heavy rock and smoke shot up in a great plume that pointed out where Sharia had taken the other Legendary Veteran.

That was followed by a series of impacts, explosions, and vicious fighting that could only exist between two Legendary Veterans in the Level 150s or above.

The landscape became terraformed rapidly as Sharia pushed the fight further away from the plateau, scattering hills, shifting the valleys in different directions, splintering whole darkened forests into fragments. I kept assuming Veteran Sharia was pushing the pace, because the fight veered into a new wave of Rank 5 monsters, slaughtering them in great and gory sprays.

“That one is too strong for me. Perhaps in the high Level 160s,” Veteran Zez confirmed. “I would be a detriment to Sharia instead of an aid if I tried to help her.”

“Then get ready because we got more enemy Veterans,” grouched V as he strode toward the left side of the plateau he’d finished pounding with his opening attack.

Looking past his big feet, I spotted five dark figures getting themselves sorted out after enduring V’s attack.

“I have to hold back the monster waves before I can help you guys! Do you want me to send my Tyrant Sentinel with you?” Merlin shouted while hurling down more master flames.

The Rank 5 defiled monsters were legion, and even with the wizard burning them away before they could get close, more kept streaming toward our position from the fallen embassy. We couldn’t afford to shift Merlin’s focus away from keeping back the monster horde.

“Keep the Tyrant Sentinel with you just in case. I’m going to have Sabretooth stay back as well.” Following my order, Merlin summoned his Epic anti-magic golem. As he did that, I nodded at my autocycle to get my meaning across before looking toward my juniors. “I’m going to ask the impossible of you eight. Watch Merlin’s back with Sabretooth and Tyrant. You might have to fight a Veteran or two if any slip past us.”

I didn’t wait to see them confirm. My attention snapped toward where I last saw Thumper sitting in the Seiza Position.

There were stacks of finely webbed boulders and shrubbery covering that position now. I also sensed the telltale signs of a concealment spell in use, too. The others had hidden him as best they could.

My next steps took me toward the more obvious threat as V continued his assault from closer up. Magma spires jutted into the air rapidly. Explosive meteorites flew out from the Veteran Rex’s mouth and landed with plateau-shaking eruptions that were on the verge of smashing half of our vantage point to smithereens.

With my Mag Storm Cannon out of the fight, I grabbed the Lever-Action Arm Cannons from my back and quickened my pace. I sensed Veteran Zez was behind me, ready to support me more than anyone else. I also noted Grimmy moving steadily on my right. Other than those two, there was Doomie walking calmly on my left. She was looking at the arm cannons.

Seeing her intense focus gave me an idea.

“You’re great at reloading. Faster than even the Shadow Clones. I’m going to need you to reload my arm cannons for me,” I said. “In fact, here’s my belt.”

Tucking an arm cannon under my armpit, I removed my belt from around my waist and slung it around Doomie’s petite own. The belt automatically clipped on and adjusted.

Doomie’s gaze snapped down to the belt before snapping back up to give me a nod. I replied with her favorite confirmation, “Good Girl,” and she nodded again with more passion.

Then the time for prep was gone, and I was fighting a Veteran for real. She came screaming at me while covered in burn marks, the top of her head smouldering, her body stripped naked after V’s attacks had hammered her with a meteoric and volcanic wrath.

The Veteran was a human woman, and other than her wounds, she didn’t have any weird growths, tentacles, protruding bones, or other magical mutations. Instead of that, I felt the thick wickedness of her defilement trying to press down on me, especially with how I was well within her Domain.

“I’ll twist you up and make you my toy!” she screeched at me.

“Now, now, why be so dreary when we can have fun instead!” Veteran Zez announced from behind me.

A series of notifications in my System Logs gave me a better understanding of what was happening.

[Oh no! You’ve been set upon by a Veteran Domain with Defiled Sphere and Enhanced Corruption!]

[Congrats! You’ve been supported by a Veteran Domain with Spotlight Sphere and Enhanced Showmanship!]

Above my head, one half of a corruptive dark dome smashed into one half of a sparkly and colorful dome. The clashing Domains and opposing spheres held me as the focal point of the struggle, appearing evenly matched, until Zez’s side of the conflict overwhelmed the weaker Veteran of the Defiled Covenant.

The human defiler shrieked as Zez’s Spotlight Sphere became complete, emboldening me more than I was already.

I fired and reloaded my Lever-Action Arm Cannons faster than ever, emptying all fourteen rounds under a second, splitting away chunks of the enemy Veteran as she screamed from the assault. Yet, she still refused to die, her defiled Path Energy keeping her upright even if she was mostly strings of flesh and a skeletal frame.

I threw both arm cannons at Doomie who sprouted two more arms to assist with reloading both of them quickly. She was already finished by the time I launched myself at the still-standing enemy who threw her Path Magic at me.

A beam struck me in the chest, nearly stopping me in my tracks, until I activated the flight option on my bonded armor.

The intake vents vacuumed in air, struck them with magnetic lightning, and pushed out plasma from the jet panels around my armor, shooting me forward like a bullet. I thrust my left arm ahead, but I didn’t strike first with my fist. Instead, I punched out with my Twin Vambrace Veteran Slicers.

Sching-Schwinkt!

The enemy Veteran screamed with half of her exposed lungs as the slicers went straight into her eyes and out the back of her skull. That still didn’t kill her, so I wrapped the metal claws of my right hand around her exposed neck, holding her in place as I ripped out the slicers and punched them into her skull again and again.

Meanwhile, she punched and struck with point-blank blasts against my armored chest, rattling me, bursting my internal organs, but not doing enough to stop me from ravaging her face.

“I have to go help against the others! Keep at it, Sir Arden!” Zez admitted before running off. The Spotlight Sphere faded away, returning me to reality, and making me feel somewhat weaker.

Yet, I still held the advantage against the heavily injured and screaming Veteran woman until enough thrusts from my slicers to her skull finally ended the conflict. Then I received a notification that nearly shocked me despite anticipating it.

[Congratulations, Slayer! You’ve slain Pathwalker Veteran Rosemary, “The Blood Of The System Is Madness Incarnate,” Epic Level 107 Path of the Defiled Covenant!]

[Bravo! You’ve slain a Veteran while still a Pathwalker! Increased Leveling!]

[1/4 Veterans of the Defiled Covenant!]

The shock was nearly overwhelming.

I did something few Pathwalkers had managed.

I’d killed a Veteran while still a Pathwalker. The discovery of that forced a gut-wrenching laugh out of me. The excitement filled me to the brim, and I found myself growling under my breath.

“More. I want more!”

Then I turned around and came face-to-face with cruel reality when I saw a Veteran nearly cave in all of Grimmy’s head with a punch empowered with Legendary Path Energy. The Little Fighter, my knight, had her torso opened up from a prior wound as well. Overwhelmed, she fell to her knees, the sunny light of her Oath dimming as her energy spilled out of her quickly.

Before I knew it, I grabbed the Lever-Action Arm Cannons off Doomie and emptied them even faster than before. Each cannon shot splashed off or left superficial damage, their power lessened against the Legendary Veteran – a creature that was more nightmarish than anything I’d ever faced.

If it weren’t for his low Level compared to the Legendary Veteran being fought by Sharia, I would’ve counted myself mostly out of the fight. Even now, I had my doubts, but the Little Fighter was gravely hurt, and all that mattered was redressing the injustice. So, I threw myself against my latest challenge.

He was another human.

But dark-skinned.

And dreadlocked.

And spiritually rotten to the core.

He was so abhorrent, my ancestral roots felt disgusted and horrified. Losing myself to hellish madness was more acceptable compared to this thing, this betrayer.

“Welcome home, brother!” roared the defiled nomad.