FB: Chapter 92 – Director Han

“Do you prefer Foxy Blight, or April White?” the Chinese government official asked me in game, in perfect English. He didn’t even need the automatic translator program. If one looked carefully, they would see the mouth movement didn’t match the words spoken. Isabella had set up this meeting, since the man in front of me had a tremendous amount of pull directly with the Chinese government and its President.

“In game, it would be Foxy Blight. I am a busy woman, Director Han. What do you want?” I asked. He nodded at this.

“I wish to hire your services and that of your guilds for three guild battles on behalf of HeroTen,” he stated.

“I am not against the idea, but how much are you offering?” I asked.

“Half the wager we plan to win in each battle. So, 500 platinum. The battles would be limited to 40,000 people each on a terrain type not of our choosing,” he replied. Clearly everyone was shy after the disaster of an uncapped battle.

The amount seemed small but that was only because I was losing sense of the scale of money with how much I spent all the time. I was like some rich city girl whose main strength was swinging around a credit card to get whatever she wanted. Thankfully I had a bit more self-awareness than a bimbo like that. I was the god player, the one who held the destiny of Exponential in her hands, Foxy Blight.

“Half is acceptable as long as it is no less than 500 platinum. I would want 500 slots. Also, a clause that I am not responsible for a loss if your army retreats. You don’t have to win, I will do that, but it will be a massive headache if everyone runs off without fighting or there aren’t full numbers. Your forces can choose to hold their position or attack the enemy. I would prefer the former, but I won’t dictate strategy,” I replied thinking over traps that could be set up for me.

“That is acceptable. I will have something drawn up. I am surprised you are willing to work with a guild that you just fought and crushed as well as a foreign nation,” Director Han said, probably to get a better understanding of my character.

“Today’s ally is tomorrow’s enemy. I have no doubt that after this little stunt, guild battles will include a no outside forces clause or at least a no Foxy Blight clause. Also, I could always use some spending money,” I replied with a smile. With three battles for a total of 1,500 platinum, I would arrange a little competition within the guild to handle the distribution of that money.

Director Han stood up and held out his hand. I reached out and shook it. “My people will reach out shortly to finalize the arrangements,” he said.

“I look forward to that and I promise you are guaranteeing victory by hiring my guild and myself,” I replied, and we shook hands. The handshake was dropped, and Director Han left my office. That was his in game name as well. If he ever got a promotion, he would probably feel embarrassed being stuck with a job title as part of his in game name, but that wasn’t my problem.

Isabella then came in and I gave her the details of the preliminary agreement. Everything was arranged in a couple of days. Clearly HeroTen needed to recover its reputation. If that meant hiring me and using my halo of invincibility to stabilize their own reputation, then I had no complaints.

For the remaining 499 slots. A chunk of them went to the 12 Champions and their teams that my guild employed. The remaining slots were opened up to elite teams from my guild. Each team would be paid a fraction of the total payout based on the number of kills during the guild battle, with a zero payout if they died. It was their expense if they used consumables.

Kill Blade, the Combat Officer, would be coming along but with no scouts. I wanted to push a new method of high level combat. That was why each team would act as combat scouts instead of having dedicated stealth scouts. One of the support members in each team was responsible for reporting back and relaying information to the two staff members Kill Blade was bringing along.

He would be stationed at HeroTen’s command post to update them on our actions and allow for possible coordination if they wanted to take action. That way we could avoid complete chaos.

The night before the battle we arrived at the mustering point and were teleported away to the battle space at dawn. I rushed out right away along with my teams. The HeroTen side was still organizing as we ran into a forest. They were going with large formations as their battle strategy. Those kind of formations only worked well in static positions like a star fortress.

In the field of battle, it would become too chaotic and large formations would shatter. Also, people tended to work best with teams they had fought monsters with. We were hired for combat support not strategic advice, so I hadn’t said anything. My guess was that HeroTen’s leadership was trying out a range of tactics with us to guarantee a win as a safety net. Countries around the world were learning based of history, but those weren’t the right lessons for combat in Exponential. The last time I checked, the Roman Empire never had area of effect spells.

I held Slice in my hand as I raced against the enemy teams moving through the forest. I could see the looks of surprise on the faces of the enemy guild members when they saw me rushing at them. “Its Foxy! Run!”

“Scatter! Scatter!”

“Formation D!”

“Where are the Champions!”

“Not me! Look over there! AHH-“

I began my rampage through the enemy lines swinging Slice left and right. I tried to aim my swings so I took out two or three people with each swing. I had around 80 to 90 levels on these people. Even without my mega sword, the absolute level difference made the situation so despair inducing that I didn’t bother to use any skills or consumables. I just ran up and smashed people. I only used Blink if there was no one nearby so I could keep up my non-stop rampage.

My Champions and elite teams had moved in behind me and formed a mobile battle line taking advantage of my disruption to mow down and pick off enemy combatants. Once HeroTen heard what was happening they moved in with their large formations into the forest to pin the enemy guild in place and sent out their own elites to rampage as well.

The enemy side had put together a force of 8 Champion level combatants and they rushed towards me to counter my rampage. They had already lost thousands of people, but if they could bring me down, they might be able to salvage some of their pride.

“Fireball!” That skill was used by 4 of the Champions and an expensive area of effect anti-teleportation consumable was used. I kept rushing forward and swung Slice, breaking the fireball flying at me. While the others flew past me. That was the downside of range magic attacks, if one kept moving they were incredibly hard to target with a direct hit. They would have been better off using control skills, rather than damage skills.

As for my current tactic, physical attacks triumphed over magic. The mechanics were a lot more complicated than that, but it was another way that QAI made melee builds viable in this kind of battle. “Slice!” The Champion in front of me was sharded instantly when the super critical attack landed. My Luck stat, the power of Slice, and the absolute level difference of around 70 compared to these Champion level combatants was too much.

I reached another Champion level combatant and they brought up their large shield to block me. That was cute. Slice slammed into their shield, instantly shattering it, then it kept going and hit the player sharding them with a super critical attack.

“Bullshit! That is absolute bullshit! Right through the shield while he had a defensive skill up!”

“Blink!” I teleported behind the complainer, and he was sharded a quarter of a second later as Slice slammed into the back of his head. “Sucks to suck, but I am Foxy Blight. The one who stands above all other players! Slice!”

Another Champion level player was instantly sharded. Everyone just looked at me as I pulled out an MP and SP potion from my inventory and drank them. They were in a state of shock and disbelief. If I had just killed them it would have been one thing, but I was sharding them. That meant I was wiping out their entire HP bar and then some with a single attack, which meant the attack was super critical.

Only top level players who understood the mechanics realized how much of a flex it was for me to be sharding them. If I was in their shoes I would have been embarrassed as well to show my face while realizing I was completely outmatched.

“Screw this! I will take at least one HP off her before I die like that! Light Step! Hyper Step! Giga Blade! Crush Blade! Severing Blade! DIE!” Someone was clearly excited as they stacked up a bunch of movement and attack skills for one single ultra attack.

This kind of stacked attack was powerful but very obvious. I chose not to dodge using Blink which would be weak, but decided to flex on them instead. I planted Slice into the ground and ducked behind the mega sword as the man unleashed his stacked attack. Slice trembled slightly but held as the man’s blade shattered upon it.

Weapon quality was also important in melee fights especially if you were going for a skill stack. I pulled Slice out of the ground and swung. The man leapt at me in some kind of desperation move and was struck in the neck by the hilt of my weapon. Glowing white shards flew past me as he was instantly sharded by a super critical attack. I didn’t even need use the edge of the blade.

While it was tempting to try and tank that blow directly with the absolute level difference, I was still at risk to critical attacks that hit me. With a large skill stack and hitting my neck it was technically possible, but incredibly difficult to pull off. With how low my HP was compared to my level, it was highly likely that I would die instantly if I had been hit by that skill stack if it was counted as a critical hit.

Anyone who analyzed my fighting style would realize that I would have to stack up a lot of support skill shards to wield a mega blade. Not as many people understood the game mechanics in a way I did without researching the topic first. I wasn’t using my poison attacks since I wanted people to think I didn’t have them equipped. In time people would come to realize how broken my current build truly was.

With the Champion level team sharded I continued my rampage. The enemy guild issued a surrender after four hours when night began to fall. I had managed to kill 9,523 people, almost a fourth of their entire army. The forces I had brought along killed 8,122 people all together. There was shock when the numbers finally came out. I had no doubt I would see a new class of fighters soon, trying to copy my style of fighting, the mega sword class.

“Dave, what do you think of HeroTen’s latest battle?” Fred asked as I watched the ENN report on the massacre while I relaxed outside of the game and enjoyed a meal.

“Fred, it was a one-woman massacre. Everyone knows about the unique weapon Slice since Foxy Blight put it up as a prize for some tournaments in the coliseum. What no one imagined she would be the one wielding the weapon without rearranging her entire build. For a long time it has been speculated she mainlines Luck and poison,” Dave explained.

“Many people might think she set poison aside to main line a mega blade which has some synergy with Luck. But they would be wrong. We have visual confirmation on the number of skill shards slotted into her armor bracelet and her weapon. She was running 16 skill shards, which means she is level 120. In addition, several of the skill shards are gold colored and cyan. That means they are Artifact and Heirloom ranked.” A shame I couldn’t use a dagger to hide my skill shards as my main weapon while using Slice. One of the downsides of using the full capabilities of a unique weapon.

People weren’t idiots. They would look for every little detail about me. “How is that possible? The next highest leveled player is estimated to be in the mid-sixties?” Fred asked.

“That’s the real question. We do know that Foxy Blight was out of contact for around a month. I would say that she was grinding up a lot of experience. Where and how? Those are the questions. But I can say with absolute confidence that the next two battles HeroTen has scheduled are already decided if Foxy Blight takes the field. At this moment she is effectively invincible and truly the god player.” I smiled at this statement.