MM - Chapter 96 - AUDACITY

Spiked gauntlets formed over Raine’s knuckles and without missing a beat, he sacrificed eleven percent of his health to trigger the roulette again. [-173] His arm dropped a few centimeters from the heavy, two-handed mace that appeared to replace them. The slight imbalance was enough to pull the drifter out of position. Leaning the other way, he corrected his path.

Far beneath him, the Vaaterrans delivered several powerful blows to the queen. Her health plummeted and a tremor swept across her body. Her carapace turned bright red and she doubled in size, now truly dwarfing her aggressors. Each of her footfalls released powerful shockwaves, as her Berserk form vastly boosted her attributes.

Her body glowed in preparation to release another Blastwave. Raine was positioned well out of range, having expected the increase in her capabilities. In desperation, the Vaaterrans burned cooldowns and items, some even activating life-saving treasures.

Had even a few lesser bugs survived by this point, they would have wiped. Her attempt to absorb the horde and empower her skill failed, still her Berserk Blastwave killed a third of them. The surviving Vaaterrans ceased their attacks, limping into a tight circle to quickly heal their injuries. Seeing his chance, Raine tightened his looping flightpath while continuing to churn through his roulette. He got the mace two more times in a row, his bad luck eliciting a low growl. Down over five hundred health, he activated Healing Burst, restoring himself to full.

Shouldn’t be able to re-roll the same damn weapon! So annoying.

The queen’s health lost another ?, and since it hadn’t been long since she entered Berserk at fifteen percent health, he guesstimated she originally had around twenty billion. Meaning she should now have slightly less than a billion, or five percent. As if in defiance of her dwindling life, the queen pointed her tail at Raine and released another Giga Blast, this one triple the size of those that came before it.

This was exactly what Raine had been waiting for. He turned inward sharply, forcing the blast to fly straight up to reach him. Blistering heat washed over him, rapidly growing in intensity. His roulette triggered two more times, materializing into a shield strapped to his arm, then his spiked knuckles again.

Having worked through the mental math on how close the boss was to death, Raine counted down in his head.

Ten.

His flight path tightened further. He flew so close to the Giga Blast that his drifter’s durability plummeted. The heat grew painful, cooking his skin yet still he triggered his roulette again - gloves. Gritting his teeth around the neck of a Restoration Potion, he swallowed and the healing liquid went to work cooling his innards. 

Raine took some solace that the potions health over time stacked with the regeneration of Healing Burst. Their combined healing wouldn’t be nearly enough to save him from the overwhelming forces rampaging around him. They didn’t need to, they only needed to buy him a few more seconds. With the fireball now directly between him and the boss—blocking LOS—Raine angled ninety degrees to the side and kicked the air for all he was worth.

Nine, eight, seven.

With each second, his health and the durability of his glider dwindled. The blast was close enough that it dominated his view. Before he could count down again, he cleared its side and it shot past him, bringing him to under a quarter health. Able to see the battle again, he watched as another round of overpowered attacks connected with the boss. 

Infuriated, she planted her legs into the ground, preparing to unleash another devastating scream; there was no way Raine would survive and the only Vaaterran capable of interrupting her died in the last blastwave.

Shit, shit, shit. Six!

Raine pulled hard on the drifter’s controls and its nose pivoted, facing straight down.

Five.

The Giga Blast’s target being below it, combined with gravity, arrested its considerable momentum. It hung in the sky for a moment, blotting out the clouds and blocking the Vaaterrans ability to attack from above. Slowly at first, then in a rush, it plummeted straight down, promising death to the casters if they didn’t back away. They didn’t hesitate, leaping back and continuing to attack from max range with more direct abilities. This gave Raine the opening he needed to close the gap.

The queen paused her scream to look up at her own fireball heading straight toward her. Compound eyes expanded, acknowledging the danger. Then, she saw the far end of the tether. It was one of the many gifts from her new mistress, and had guided her toward the one that must be annihilated. Now, that detestable abomination was falling directly toward her open maw. Delighted that she may fulfill her purpose before death, she pushed her legs deeper into the soil and spread her mandibles wider. Cataclysmic Screech was recast with double the effort, its use would surely kill them both.

Four, three, two.

A dual tick of regeneration gave Raine enough health to activate the Roulette a few more times. His spear appeared, then finally the weapon he’d been searching for. Renewed vigor flowed through his body as its presence massively boosted his physical attributes. His plan didn’t require it, and he hadn’t counted on getting it, but it was a welcome surprise. Just because there was no Superiority to gain, didn’t mean it wasn’t worth trying to get the last hit.

Repeated Lunges had taken his nosedive to truly ludicrous speeds. It didn’t matter, the blast closing in from above was faster and he could already feel its heat cooking the soles of his feet. He tucked his knees tight to his chest, hurtling toward the queen's head. A fresh wave of elemental blasts crashed into her from all sides. In slow motion, Raine watched her inner mouth open wider. A huge gust of air filled her lungs, fuel for the scream that would be his end.

One!

This was the moment. Everything hinged upon reaching her in the next second. The thrill of the hunt had long overwhelmed his sensibilities. He had two ways out, either capable of allowing him to escape unharmed but it didn’t matter. Backing down when he was so close had never been a possibility.

Raine dismissed his drifter and lost twelve Discipline activating a fully powered Leap. It was powered by over a hundred and seventy Potency. When his feet crashed into hardened air, his speed instantly doubled causing his cheeks to pull back and his vision to blur.

With all the might in his body, a furious roar erupted from his lips, “PuriPuri Comet Burst!!”

The bejeweled, glistening head of Cassidy’s Comet connected with the tip of the queen’s clypeus, right above her mouth. Raine’s incredible momentum and Potency was multiplied by 1,800% damage. The queen’s vastly superior level, which should have made her all but immune to his meager attack, was completely ignored. [Critical hit! -143,277]

The tip of her head cracked wide open and the scream flowing up her throat shifted to a strangled cry rife with pure agony. Her cranium blasted down so hard the rest of her gargantuan body flipped into the air. The Giga Blast was there waiting for her. It crashed into her stomach, immediately igniting her body and burning a gaping hole deep into her flesh. She plummeted toward Raine like a fiery comet as her health hit a single ?.

Raine’s vision turned dark as he was enveloped in her looming shadow. Then, a dozen suns blossomed around him when the Vaaterrans panicked. They released a final desperate round of lightning bolts, flares, blasts, and empowered arrows, each dealing millions of damage. The fallout from such devastating attacks was too great for Raine’s low-level health pool.

Destruction on a scale he had rarely witnessed even in the past swept over him and he was cast into the land of the dead. His view distorted and he now saw the world through a filter of dark and ghostly ethereal fog. It clung to every surface, turning reality into a weaving figment of its former self. 

The queen’s hazy form went right through him and crashed into the hard ground. The instant she landed, she took another ridiculous sum of damage from comet burst’s broken physics mechanic. [-71,639]

[You have defeated an empowered World Class Hierarch!]

[Due to assistance from a higher power, no Superiority or Attunement rewards may be earned]

[Due to hindrance from a higher power, additional loot and achievement rewards may be earned]

[Achievement for defeating a World Class Hierarch more than 100 levels above you: Acquired Title (Big Game Executioner)]

[Big Game Executioner: (Title - Non-upgradable) Deal execution damage to World Class Bosses below 5% health]

[Bonus achievement for first to slay a World Class Hierarch: Loot rarity and quantity +1]

[Regional System Announcement: Congratulations Alaric for being the first to defeat a World Class Hierarch!]

[World System Announcement: Congratulations Alaric for being the first to defeat a World Class Hierarch!]

If Raine currently had a heart, it would have been pounding like mad. In the realm of the dead, his body consisted of billowing gray and black smoke, just like everything else. There was no time to relax and pick apart the massive implications of the system messages. The next battle was about to begin.

On her back, the queen twitched in her death throes. Raine’s ghostly body and hers occupied the same ethereal space. As the fires burned away the last of her flesh, her ghost form became more solid. Except her appearance had changed too much. Maligned, twisted limbs raked through the fog above. Jagged demonic spikes covered her carapace, and her large eyes had been replaced by green, wispy flames.

Demonic heritage? No, the higher power. Was it the witch? Is that why it kept shooting at me?

The queen’s gaze landed on him and she thrashed all the harder, quickly righting herself. Her attributes were so beyond his it wasn’t even funny. She instantly pierced him with a wickedly sharp limb, but it was to no avail. Lacking an ethereal skill, neither of them had the capacity to hurt the other in the land of the dead. Raine ignored the ghost, focusing on the shadowy impressions of the Vaaterran powerhouses closing in to collect their rewards.

A giddy giggle leaked from his lips: They would not have them all, for he was not truly dead.

In the last moment before she crashed atop him, Raine had thrown a bottle at his feet. Its contents covered him in dark shimmering powder that dragged him into a place that was both reality, and not.

[Ethereal Powder: (Lustrous Blue) Sprinkle on the body to slip into the ethereal realm for fifteen seconds. Beware the hidden dangers that lurk within the unknown abyss]

Raine was ready, ephemeral knees bent and nonexistent muscles poised to strike. He was both flesh and not; here and there. Subject to the rules of both realms, yet hindered by neither.

Two agonizing seconds passed before it began. Fifty rays of light descended from the heavens and impacted the ground around the queen. They ranged in colors, the least radiant among them Marvelous Gold. He Lunged at a pulsing purple light beside him, reaching it right before several Vaaterrans collapsed atop it.

Their bodies collided but Raine had no physical form to be disrupted. His momentum carried him straight through them and into a golden globe snaked by pulsing lines of dark energy. His second prize vanished from both realms. The man whose fingers were outstretched toward the item blinked in surprise, then he threw his head back and roared, releasing the full might of a fourth class powerhouse.

“WHO DARES?!” 

The Mundane Realm was torn asunder. The queen’s body ripped itself apart as the ground exploded. Precious items flew into the air. Raine didn't miss a beat, Lunging after the next nearest Chaotic Gold orb. He saw it then, a Heavenly Amethyst globe that had landed beneath one of the boss’s misshapen legs. It was now shooting into the air but still hard to spot amidst so much blindingly bright loot.

He ran full tilt, infusing as much Discipline into his body as it would take. Lunges powered his every step as his Concentration firmed ephemeral fog into solidity. The little health he had remaining drained away in a flash, but he made it. His fingers graced the sphere and it vanished into his inventory. In the next heartbeat, a wave of cursed weakness from his newest acquisition assaulted his senses and the world dulled around him.

Damnit!

Raine knew there was no time to mourn his foul luck. The powder only lasted fifteen seconds and five of those seconds were already gone. If he wasn’t a thousand kilometers away by the time the effect ended, Grand Marshal Lirik would kill him for taking what belonged to his soldiers.

Two more Chaotic Gold orbs were just out of reach. Unable to help himself, Raine Lunged one more time to grab them. He promptly activated Returners Privilege at its maximum five minutes and appeared atop the battlement of Celendine’s Shield. Without wasting a heartbeat, he triggered a Return Stone with Silverlight City already pre-selected.

The ten second cast time ticked down in his HUD. Internally, Raine was a tirade of indignation.

Of all the crap, bullshit, unlucky, dogshit, garbage. How the hell did I get another cursed item? Loot rarity plus one my ass! 

The witch! It really was her. She looks younger every time she consumes a cursed item. This must have been her goal. Now that I've got it, she’ll come for me.

The item in question pulled itself from his inventory, automatically equipping around his right hand. It took the form of a pitch-black, fingerless glove. Dark chains extended from the cloth around each large knuckle. They pulsed with crimson energy that coiled around his flesh. The chains ended in five rings that each circled a finger. Malevolent energy radiated from the glove, seeping into his hand and coursing through his body, spreading the sickening weakness.

He already knew what it was doing to him, but since he wasn’t going anywhere for a few seconds, he pulled up its information anyway.

[Heart of Plutus: (Heavenly Amethyst - Cursed)]

[Cursed trait 1: All attributes reduced by 60%]

[Cursed trait 2: Effects hidden]

[Cursed trait 3: Effects hidden]

[Cursed trait 4: Effects hidden]

[Cursed trait 5: Effects hidden]

[Cursed trait 6: Effects hidden]

What the fuck?! Six effects? The Ring of Nine Arms only started with three and before seeing that, I’d never heard of one with more than two. Sixty percent… No wonder I feel so weak. If the downside is this strong, how powerful are those six effects?

Realization struck and Raine’s eyes bulged. He’d snatched a cursed item with such an overwhelmingly powerful downside during a plus one loot rarity world boss. Such an item appearing at a time like that was so out of the ordinary that it couldn’t be ignored. 

If the negative trait was cleansed, it was entirely possible the glove would upgrade to an even higher quality than it currently was, and there was only one tier above Heavenly Amethyst: Legendary.

All I have to do is make it to level fifty. Then, I can take this to a temple and have them remove the negative trait.

I take it all back. This glove could be the most powerful item I've ever seen. With the advantages I already have, getting to fifty with forty percent attributes won’t be a problem. The real issue is going to be keeping it away from that damned witch. All she has to do is kill me… Where in the Commoners District can I hide from her. Yeah, that’s probably my only chance. It’s going to cost me, but it should work.

Determined not to die for the next two hours no matter what, Raine watched the two timers in his HUD. The first reached zero and the ethereal world around him faded. He was back in reality, and less than a second later, Grand Marshal Lirik appeared before him. Raine’s jaw didn’t even have time to drop as the second most powerful man in the kingdom pointed a finger at him.

The world twisted like a cyclone and the fabric of reality twisted apart. The countdown of his Return Stone halted, an error message flashing across his vision. Light built at the tip of Lirik’s finger and death loomed. 

Raine was lifted into the air and tearing agony pierced his skull; it came not from Lirik, but from within. A bubble of dark energy leaked from his head, growing instantly large enough to envelop him. The beam of light from Lirik’s finger wrapped around the bubble, slicing through the wall behind Raine. In the next moment, the darkness invaded his whole body and he vanished from sight.

Grand Marshal Lirik frowned at the space Raine had occupied a moment before, then his gaze hardened on a well-hidden vixen who was flying away at full speed. His growl shattered stones and ruptured space. He jumped, the force collapsing a large section of the great wall behind him.

Raine fell through the darkness that had swallowed him, unable to gather his wits through the pain in his skull. Some time later, his butt landed hard on a stone floor and a familiar old witch hovered over him. Her bony finger was pointed at his face, just like Lirik’s had been, “We need to talk!”