Chapter 21

Transcendence State

Everything was caught on camera.

From the moment he entered the battlefield from the sky, until that pause from a high speed clash of three awesome players, nothing like that fight had ever been seen on live TV before.

Not even the fights in the largest tournaments were that awesome that even the host and commentators of the TV shows broadcasting the war live remained glued on their monitors. It was even a hassle that their fight was paused because of the explosion and the falling ship from the sky.

The forums began to lag from hundreds of posts and articles and comments being posted every second.

Panorama Corp.’s CSRs had already stopped receiving calls ever since the fight of those three began.

It was a legendary scene caught on camera.

And the only person to actually ever came close to them was Kathleen Brew.

While the TV audience was breathless, she was on the move to watch out for any attackers that might mistook her for an enemy. Her Wyvern had been very tired since not only it had to dodge everything around him, he also had to keep himself balanced while Kathleen took her video.

But when the Piranha exploded from an unrelenting barrages of missile strikes from the Hydra, the Wyvern got nervous as he was still yet to receive an order to flee or to even save their lives.

Kathleen Brew was so caught up on their fight that she hasn’t cared for anything else but to capture every minute detail of that fight on camera.

She even used her personally saved up Camera Balls for her own adventures just to take every angle on every second of that fight. So far, she already had 20 camera balls rolling and five of those are her own and was only placed on many different angles of those three’s fight.

Until the shadow actually covered her light that Kathleen just began to move and avoid it.

—Avoid it.

She didn’t flee nor even tried to get away from the battlefield, most especially from that beautiful fight.

While everything around them fled with only the few remaining brave enough Masked Men, TGG, and Sylphs left there, the three remained unmoving, steadily feeling for each others’ movements, continuously just glaring at each other.

‘Boss, please, let’s get out of here!’

The Wyvern pleaded in his snake eyes. But only if he could speak the human language could his panicked look be interpreted. So with no other choice left, he was forced to endure this life threatening situation. That was because Kathleen Brew had already dedicated herself on capturing this epic battle.

Even if she had to be put under review when she gets back to the office, even if she had to suffer brain freeze when she logs out, even if she dies while covering for this fight, she would go so far as to actually put money from her own pocket into this game just to see this fight right at this moment as it unfolds and reveals the true winner.

No matter what happens, I will see this fight to the end!

And as such, as the shadow of the falling Piranha befell upon the three, the remaining brave players from the TGG, Sylphs, and Masked Organization, all began their attacks. They used the noise as a diversion and the moment when the shadow covered the surroundings, and jumped towards their own decided goals.

Four A-ranked TGG players went for the masked intruder.

Three unknown rank ones going for Cramer.

And five Sylph Guardians (knight-ish users) went for FlowerLord’s head.

It was like looking on a whirlpool where the three still remained unmoving while those who wanted them dead had come straight at their backs.

Kathleen only moved ever so lightly and the Wyvern endured the strong current approaching their location.

As she focused her gaze on how the three would react, especially towards the newest player who she knew would definitely get major attention starting this day, Kathleen just stared keenly, enduring the urge to get away from the falling Warship Piranha.

And just from that one snap moment…

***

A smile emerged from the masked intruder’s lips.

It was a different smile.

A smile that somehow meant that he was enjoying the fight. He was enjoying this moment, this one thrill.

And meanwhile, Cramer who was already in the verge of panicking and FlowerLord who was already at the edge of her restraint, both saw the attackers on the backs of each other and focused their attention there.

“Hah!” FlowerLord lowered her head and turned around to face the Sylphs, used the Dark Spear to do a sweeping attack that caught the unaware Guardians very surprised. It was already too late to react when they were already sliced in half.

“Heh.”

Cramer just grabbed the arm of the nearest one, snap his body and used the man like a twig and hit his comrades like sticks in the ground then crushed them with the halberd in a cruel merciless blow.

And as for the masked intruder, his white polo and black slacks were immediately covered in the black themed Martial Arts Gear and just clapped his hands that made his attackers all fell down dead on the ground. And along with that sight was the message on all of their visions. Everyone, and everything, on the battlefield was affected by that smile.

“Hahahahaha…” The masked intruder started to laugh as he launched towards Cramer first. They were all around 20m away from each other and it was just easy for them to resume attacking.

“You?!” Cramer was utterly surprised. Not only did he ignored the falling warship, this man actually lunged an attack right at him. And then on his other side, the FlowerLord also began to move forward as she did a zigzag before jumping high on the sky. “You actually picked on me?! RAAAAAAAAA…!!!”

His war cry bellowed, and the orange aura seeping out of his body intensified.

It engulfed his body and then vanished, then later came back as a soft glow seeping off his shoulders. But when he raised his head to look at his attackers, his eyes were dyed orange and a smile emerged from his lips.

“I AM CRAMER!!!”

He screamed and Cramer brandished his large halberd as if it was paper in a big circular arc.

CLANG…CLANG…CLANG…

Metallic sounds came to echo one after another and the masked intruder along with FlowerLord was knocked off their stance as they could only try to cross their arms and defend.

While in midair, Cramer moved quickly than before his mind could think and grabbed the outweighed leg of FlowerLord and brandished her towards the other man.

She was obviously hurt and a sound of pain echoed.

The guy was easily thrown away while FlowerLord used the Dark Spear to attack Cramer. The attack connected and Cramer let go of the leg. But as soon as she though that she was already safe, the moment she motioned to jump away, the large halberd appeared right at her face.

And as much as she doesn’t want it to happen, all she could do is to shield herself with the Dark Shield.

“Gyaa…”

The sound was a blunt metal and on the smokes and dust clouds around the area, the hurt FlowerLord was thrown off towards an inclined rock and she became a decoration on that rock in an instant.

A dent was made and she was implanted but Cramer won’t give her a second chance so he motioned to run at her, holding his giant halberd for a finishing blow.

But through the dust clouds and the smokes, the guy he threw a few meters emerged with a clenched fist. He had a grin that showed his teeth, a smile that won’t make anyone happy to be seeing about. More like, it was a smile that could send shivers through one’s spine. It was a smile that fell on the category of ecstasy, as if he just got his parole and was freed from 100 years of solitary boredom.

His eyes can’t be seen, but the over all expression told Cramer the same thing he’s been searching for.

“NOW THIS IS A FIGHT!”

Cramer swung the halberd, the masked intruder met it with a fist. The impact pushed them off balance but Cramer used the off balanced state to twist his body and deliver another, more powerful, impact-type attack.

The attack was directed to no one, just in mid air.

The masked intruder saw it hit something in mid air as the illusion of the air became a rippled effect and a large impact hit his unbalanced body.

And at the next moment, the hit actually pushed him away like a giant fist.

He knew this well, Air Shot, but from a rather bigger scale and bigger cylinder with a bigger tank for storing bigger amounts of air pressure, release in an instant.

“Gwaa…!!”

“Hahahahaha…!! Come on!”

Cramer was also bathed in ecstasy as he turned his body around and run after the thrown off intruder.

In mid air, around 10 meters high, Cramer ran below him, got passed him, and jumped with incredible agility as he swung the giant halberd down. He was literally made into a pulp as he received direct impact from his back and fell straight towards the ground like a meteor.

He bounced three times before stopping, and a part of the falling ship that was still burning fell down from their left side with some not too far away from them.

No one else was left there with them, even the encirclement of the dead corpses were gone as if it was scared and dug a hole in the ground to hide. But they were still there and never minding anything as the girl who had a strong weapon and spirit stumbled when she released herself from being a decoration.

There was only a kilometer left until the falling ship hit where they are and the size of it and its speed of fall is enough to make anyone lose heart of escaping.

But the break only lasted for a moment since at the next second, from the clouds of dust and smoke where he landed, the masked intruder, who he never got the name, kicked the ground and appeared with clenched fists before him again.

Cramer had a wide smile as he prepared to meet him but there was another person there to be wary about.

Cramer knew that with only a slight mistake, the Dark Spear which she wielded masterfully will immediately take his —both of their lives. And that person screamed with a voice of fury.

“Don’t ignore me!”

Cramer had his reaction a little too late, even in his Transcendent state, that the distance between him and her was already broken with a powerful Strike of a big jet black sword.

All he could do was to protect himself with his Star Shield and it was thanks to the triple stats effect of the Artemis MOD ability, Transcendence, that he was able to stand the heaviest attack he had ever received next to that attack from Guild Master Thorn. His feet was then implanted on the ground and he braced himself and opened his eyes for the follow up attack.

It was an instinctive action, because he saw that the masked intruder was already upon him with an attack he knew would finish him off.

That’s because on his upper left vision was an Info Window, [You are inside the Killing Zone. Your defenses are reduced by 70%], and he honestly knew that once an attack like his hits him or her directly, it would mean the end of their careers.

But something tingling on his senses came first and he reflexively leaned back just in time to see a jet black blade pass through where his neck was and that that attack was actually meant to finish the two men in one single swoop. Luckily, he sensed it first and only the masked intruder was the only one who directly received the attack on his chest.

Or so he thought because when it seemed that the attack was gonna hit him, a bluish aura came from him and he vanished like an after image in the air.

“What the…”

“Where…”

The two’s surprised reactions vanished when a large tremor hit them both on their sides. He just attacked them both at the same time. And even though it seemed a weak attack, the purpose of that one attack was not to damage them but it was actually made to throw them both into the air.

And at the next moment, the ground shook as if a meteorite fell down, because on their general east was the large English letters, [TGG-PIRANHA] with the letter “I” missing with a blasted hole, written in silver white luminous font.

It was the ship and it just crashed 40m away from them. It fell down bow first, in an inclined 45 degree position so with the gravity and distribution of weights, the stern followed through towards them. A loud series of explosions succeeded the moment it had touched the ground and the four, including the Kathleen Brew in the air, was in the direction of its decline.

“Hahahahaha…”

His laughing voice echoed along the booms of the succeeding explosions, and its sound seemed to dye a red painted warning to all the ears that heard it. Cramer and FlowerLord immediately balanced themselves as the two landed on the ground, looked at each other, then looked up front to see the hundred and so meters of the large ship falling down on them.

The Piranha, a Nebuchadnezzar-class Battlecruiser: 130m long, 50m wide, with six levels, fitted with mid-grade warship technologies, designed for atmospheric use having a wingspan of 160m and a thrust output that can reach a speed up to 1.5Ma (Mach 1.5 = 1839kph) in atmospheric conditions and three times that when in the outer space, is now a history as it falls down on them, seeming to drag them both towards their graves.

Unfortunately, they did not bring any Wing Set.

The look on their faces told them so.

But there was one thing that they were more concern about. It’s because the Masked Intruder seemed to not care about the falling ship behind him as he lunged another attack with that deadly smile.

“That guy’s crazy…”

“The Destroyer…“

“Excuse me?”

“The Witch warned me about this…”

Though the two of them faced him with a renounced unspoken partnership, The Destroyer came to them with a pair of BOOM from his feet from 30m away.

Cramer saw his smile.

“I’m getting shivers.” He said as the shadow of the large ship befall on them.

Escaping on both sides were impossible since the ship’s descent on them will get them first before they could get away. And thus, he gritted his teeth and charged first, planning to meet the man with a monstrous crazy mind.

FlowerLord thought that the contest was over.

The Destroyer was clearly not someone they can defeat on their own. Thus, that one moment earlier where they looked at each other, if they want to survive this war, they just had to team up together against him.

If you lose to him, just remember that you fought The Destroyer. That in itself is already an honor.

“What a load of BS!” FlowerLord yelled angrily as she recalled that Witch. “He’s just a crazy bastard who wants to brawl.”

And as they decided to abandon the thought of running to stay alive, the final round of their three way battle finally began.