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Chapter 404: Escalating the Scales

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With a kick simple kick, the spear head stabbed at Baal but the shield’s upper right tip made it in time to block the tip and the attack was deflected, the reddish-maroon coloured spear twirling in midair.

Siva followed with a swing of his axe, his body bid an almost impossible twist in midair as his legs were facing the ceiling. It was a clockwise strike.

“Hah!”

The sword met the axe and another loud noise of their blades clashing with heavy force erupted with a deafening explosion.

Even the blue smoke domain parted from just the remnant kinetic energy generated.

Each of their blows carried their weights and their full momentum, not a speck of mercy pulled out in the entirety of their strikes.

With Siva breaking Baal’s stance he let go of the axe and used his legs as weights, twisting yet again in midair to catch the spear at the tip end that he then swung towards the devil’s head.

{Hahh!}

A loud roar and Baal fully raised his left hands with the shield and blocked the strike, then offhandedly sweep his sword upward to cut Siva in half —only to be blocked by Siva who used his feet to step on the handle of his axe in midair.

Siva flashily flipped in the air while Baal retreated at a good distance, 10m away to catch his breath and spat a spit of blood.

His injury was affecting him.

{You bastard! BASTARD!!! You’ve disrupted all our plans before and you’re becoming a hindrance this time as well…}

Their eyes fixed on each other. They didn’t mind that the entire place had also started to melt and collapse as the overload of the ship’s core from the great surplus of processes because of the damage in the Life Support Facility came closer and closer.

“Heh… are those your last words?”

{The first born had been reborn! Even if I fall here, at best, I’d only lose a host body and take more time to find another compatible body to nourish to recover my strength… but the First Born, he’s not the same person as before… in the end, even if you get your strength back, by that time, this planet would have fallen in our hands and the crystals are assembled in our beck and summon!}

Siva frowned. This was something even Janus had no idea of. It is true. As far as he can remember everything regarding Mefisto, he didn’t have that ability to ‘devour’ and assimilate anyone that he had eaten. Even Janus had to change some parts of his plans in order to deal with him and in the end made him decide to do that inevitable sacrifice.

But in the end, Siva knew that he had to just be as strong as he can and prepare for anything that will come up in the future, face it the same way he had faced all obstacles in the past… head on.

The stronger he is when he faced them in a clash, the better his chances of success and survival.

“So what!” Siva hissed coldly. “The same or not, it will not change the fact that I will kill you here for the second time.”

He didn’t say another word and didn’t let Baal say a word of reply either. He took a heavy step forward and brandished a diagonal slash that came from his upper right flank.

Baal roared and blocked it with his shield and their waltz began once again.

*****

{Shet… Shet..!! SHET!!!}

Three Supremes were running at full speed to the direction of the throne room from three directions.

{Because of those pesky metal puppets, I’ve let an intruder into the Emperor’s chambers!}

{Intruders!}

{Kill them!}

On the way to the throne room, there were those players and NPCs that have invaded the ship that came towards their direction.

They thought that these Supremes were nothing more than ordinary Demon Commanders and since they have so many elites in one place, they found this a chance to haul in something big before they escape back towards the city.

It was a fatal mistake.

As a result, there came another piece of news that traveled in the forums: there are three ridiculously strong Demon Commanders in the mothership and they were all heading towards the central region.

Those smart guys in the forums and chat groups realized that perhaps this [event] was drawing into its close because not only there were the elites of the demons appearing one after another, the ship itself had shown signs that it was about to blow.

Many players, when they received the emails of this news, decided to abandon the hunt for Siva as they became satisfied with their current haul.

Some of these guys even went to collect scraps of what fell down of the Mobile Suits to the barrier dome of the city as they retreated.

For some reason, the falling debris stopped at just around 500 or so meters above this transparent barrier dome. It was as if the weight of the massive ‘object’ above their heads and its still active domain had maintained a gravitational pull on its allied units.

There was just too many of these metal scraps and too few survivors with limited inventory slots.

It was bounty!

Many of those who felt ‘contented’ by their hauls had then began to invite more friends to join them in scavenging the falling debris. In any case, this battlefield —or any battlefield at that— was always an opportunity to score bigtime as long as you are able to survive. Therefore, people flocked at the areas where Mobile Suit remains had fallen.

But that didn’t mean they were the majority.

Those with boiling bloods of the spirit of adventure and challenge still persisted and hunted down the rare ‘demon resources’ that could be seen as clear as day inside the ship.

Useless “Pawns” were those ‘normal’ demons, with their commanders the commonly seen ones; those ‘resource’ demons, however, are those that looked like fire spirits of other games that emitted extreme heat and with some even using dark-fire spells.

These are rare Fire-attribute ‘monster’ resource.

Although there were the looming threat of those three ridiculously strong Demon Commanders, with the ‘resources’ themselves launching an attacking frenzy, the sparkling opportunity that may not come again right in front of them still outweighed all else so they grit their teeth and stayed behind. After all, with no risk comes nary a good reward.

What changed, on the other hand, were the influx of new faces that came, bringing their momentum that could turn the tides in favor of the allied force carrying a dynamically different approach and goal.

These were the more organized forces that came in this aerial battlefield with intent to seize all and every resources they could find —with theft and robbery being optional course of actions if a very important and very rare resource, such as the creature inside The Box, ever came in their eyes.

With that as a given, just as the struggle for The Box had reached another crescendo, the fastest organized group who approached and reinforced the allied forces were the once who came from the Southern Isles… Haven Dust Company!

Flagship Kannada, a renowned warship from the Southern Isles, bearing the flapping streamer of the Haven Dust Company, slowly but surely rose from the city’s air space, ignoring all official warnings and reprimands from Jeremiah.

From their top deck, hundreds of players began to swarm en masse with 40% of them being Barrier and Support Mages that deployed a formation that shockingly had an advantage over the frenzied attacks of the Aviators.

(AN: just to remind you guys, these “Aviators” are the pilots of the Mobile Suits which converts into Jet Planes for faster travel so please don’t confuse them together, okay?)

“Thank God you’re here.”

“We’re saved.”

“Let’s divide this trophy after this battle.”

The allied force group comprised of patched NPCs and Players who came in the battlefield first wore smiling faces when they greeted the cavalry.

But in the next instant, they came to realize that all these so called “reinforcements” were actually the villains who came to steal what they scrupulously labored for many hours for.

Alas, by the time they organized themselves to fend off their attacks, The Box had already been seize and they were ousted out of their defensive formation, receiving the frenzied suicidal attacks of the Jet Planes and the Mobile Suits.

The forums and chat groups exploded with angry mobs roaring furiously in condemnation of Haven Dust Company.

And yet, they were nothing more than but a small minority as the Haven Dust Company came in the warzone very prepared to get their hands on Siva’s metal box trophy.

“The Red Dragon Knights also came!”

From the chaos of the battlefield, another large group of people came forwards, numbering even an entire company more than the numbers that the Haven Dust Company brought with them.

A legion of red armored ‘knights’ came soaring on their metallic wings with the trademark weaponry in their hands —a pointed lance of blood red color!

“Knights of the Red Dragon Flag!”

Those who have been wronged by the Haven Dust Company came in to beseech the ‘knights’ to help them get revenge on the backstabbing behavior of the Haven Dust Company.

The commander of the red armored legion gave a glance and a slight bow but didn’t say anything and the representative of the ‘wronged’ realized that if it hadn’t been the Haven Dust Company who came first, these ‘knights’ would have done the same act towards them.

Only fools wouldn’t realize these open clues.

The ‘resources’ here were very special and almost one of a kind —especially this “Siva’s Trophy” that fell from the mothership— that’s why they realized that if it had also been them, given sufficient time to prepare and organize, perhaps they would have done the same thing.

“Hepta-Pyramid Formation!” the red-armored legion commander shouted this order and the units under his command pointed their lances towards the solid barrier formation of the Haven Dust Company.

Seven units forming seven points, forming a five-angled pyramid formation created a massive Magic Circle 50m in size behind them with a ‘gong’ noise echoing like an indicator of its completion.

The bluish red Magic Circle emitted light as it cast a pressure towards the direction of their target.

Their distance with each other was over 100m but with the Hepta-Pyramid Formation’s massive size, it was rendered half almost immediately.

“Shield-Fortress!” shouted the commander of the Haven Dust Company.

Like a polished diamond gem on a necklace, edges of a seemingly transparent turtle shell formed with the Barrier Mages and Support Mages in a unique and ye-catching manner.

Each of the mages cast their spells, strengthening their allies with the cumulative effect exactly being this visual spectacle itself.

“Fire!”

“Endure!”

With each commander giving their others, the men and women in their ranks all shouted as their cast spells met each other in a clash.

A massive explosion occurred that created a large impact circle between the contact points.

Those unlucky ones who were caught in the midst of this skirmish perished on the spot, the Aviators themselves taking this chance to surround and put pressure on the both of them. After all, within this battlefield, they still number more than that Players and NPCs combined.

“Again! That box is ours!”

“Switch formation nodes! Reinforce the others!”

The Box was still in the hands of the Haven Dust Company but their positions were a complicated mess of circumstances.

Even if the Red Dragon Flag’s forces had their backs towards the Flagship Kannada inside the barrier dome, global war code ethics dictates that no warship could fire on infantry units unless said enemy personnel was deemed to have a threat-level comparable to a warship (effective on Demon and Monster or Named Ranker, those so called “Hidden Boss” NPCs); or said goal of firing their cannons towards personnel were for the sake of areal bombardment for saturation effect.

In this regard, even if the Red Dagon Flag’s forces had their backs on them, they weren’t going to get a single attack from that warship.

And it was indeed the case.

{BAAAAAATUUUUUU!!!}

With a roar in alien tongue, a single sound echoed from one Aviator unit and it spread towards the other Mobile Suits one after another.

It created a wave of this echoing war cry followed by an organized kamikaze attack… once again.

Massive formations of Jet Planes dived down for a dual kill and they hit the Haven Dust Company’s big turtle shell as well as the Hepta-Pyramid Formation of the Red Dagon Flag’s forces.

This attack even dived down as far as the barrier dome of the city but they all only became additional debris that floated back up as they bounced off the barrier dome.

Innocent spectators and scavengers (very) unlucky enough to have been in the area of attack were all killed by that assault.

When a Mobile Suit gets destroyed not by magic or attack to the pilot but by the destruction of their cores, the resulting meltdown will cause the core to explode and cause devastation in a 50m wide area.

Over hundreds of Jet Planes exploded at the same time, rendering massive casualties to spectators in the far edges of the battlefield.

Collateral damages like these were normal in a war zone that’s why it can only be blamed with luck as to ‘where’ these random stray attacks will land on.

In the shadowed sky, the exchange of magic spells and aliens’ plasma bursts continued like meteors as bright circular lights exploded here and there.

The tide of war had shifted again.

The Box were snatched by a volley of kamikaze Aviators who sent hundreds of Jet Planes on a dive and companies-worth of Mobile Suits for one retrieval effort.

Active spells few in a flurry and the Aviator unit that carried The Box was luckily hit and The Box fell on no one’s hands…… causing a moment of silence in that entire battle zone.

{Protect the Supreme!}

“The Box!”

“Get The Box!”

“Don’t let it get away!”

{Kill the Terrans!}

{Annihilate them!}

“Prepare defensive formation!”

“Attack! Attack!”

Within minutes and seconds, three forces shifted the entire battlefield and the size of it grew even a bit bigger than before as it expanded in scope and cover… even reaching at the entirety of the entire region in front of the giant warship Baal.

“What a lively scene…”

Out of nowhere, a relaxed and seemingly carefree voice of a man could be heard on a remote region above the barrier dome.

In that direction, they saw… a harem company. An eye-sore and an irritating sight of a single man with so many angels he was freely fondling with his four handsome limbs.

Right. There was the word ‘handsome’ in there for Kladis was indeed a devilishly handsome man —at least here in Terroa— with blonde hair and a very imposing presence.

Around him were different types of women; some with tanned skin and country-destroying beauty; a few with above average facial beauty but had mind-destroying figures one could only wish for in their dreams; with some akin to those main heroines of CGI Movies with perfect alluring figures and facial qualities that can make any man “stiff” in so many kinds of ways.

—and yet all of them were fawning over Kladis, even fighting over the right to be fondled by him in broad daylight………………. in public!

Women saw this interesting and couldn’t help but be curious as to how Kladis managed to create this Harem.

Men, however, wrote Kladis’s name at the VERY top of their kill list.

There are also those who wanted to commit suicide there and then —40-year old virgins, perhaps even older—because Kladis achieved what they’ve been striving to accomplish their whole lives.

“It’s beautiful.” Kladis watched the scene unfold in front of him like a uni-wide HYPE-HD movie. “The lights of destruction and the dying echoes of their breaths as they die… truly… it is fascinating.”

After he spoke, he slipped his right hand inside a blonde girl’s shorts, fondling her ass as if it was a normal thing to do. The men around him gulped as the women blushed, while the blonde girl let out a gasp as her face tuned rosy in complexion, her body wiggling until she arched he body back like an arc, went stiff, and then collapsed.

“Holy shit. Did she just…”

“*gulped*”

“When do we move?”

“Let’s research his house and do it then.”

“I already ordered my knife extra sharp.”

“Good thinking.”

Many people saw this and had many different kinds of reactions. But for the harem region…

“I’m next!”

“No. I was next!”

“Kladis, baby, you promised, right?”

“Come on girls, you all will get your chance.”

Kladis was carefree as if the warzone didn’t even enter his eyes and all of it was nothing more than a source of entertainment.

The ‘unconscious’ girl was dragged away by the other impatient once and her place was replaced by a red haired woman.

Kladis gazed up again as he took care of the girls, no, the women on his fou—five limbs.

No one around knew if these are NPCs or players but if they’re all players then f*ck it, he deserves to die.

“Oh look. A party’s coming.”

Kladis’ carefree tone attracted the attention of the many who were paying attention to his actions and they looked at the direction of his gaze.

From the left, a contingent of players not the least bit lesser in numbers with his own and of the Red Dragon Flag’s came in an imposing formation.

On the lead was a familiar face that Siva would’ve recognized at first glance.

“City Lord Ren. Long time no see.”

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