If anyone were to ask the people in the caravan to describe the fight against the swarm of Drowned Kappa, they would likely all reply with the same word, ‘Underwhelming.’ Not that the monsters were weak, they were close to level 50 and a real danger. But considering the amount of people they had protecting the container, dealing with them was barely an inconvenience. The defenders killed the first wave of monsters before they even reached the walkways, and the second wave didn’t get much farther. The third and last wave was the only one to get into melee range, but even then, it was easy to kill them. Kappas weren’t very smart, and they just jumped from the ground, trying to reach the walkways. Which, in turn, gave everyone enough time to aim and strike at them, killing the last wave of creatures before anything was even damaged.

They could have done something with the bodies, but they decided against that. They didn’t have a good place to butcher them, and their shells didn’t look all that interesting, even if Flint did get one of them to test some things. In the end, Nimbus became responsible for the ‘air drop’ of the bodies. Sleeping near a source of free food like that was a surefire way to get in trouble, and this wasn’t what they wanted. At least he didn’t drop one by one. Instead, Britta made a quick net for him to grab a number of the kappas and then drop farther away from the group, in the middle of the bog.

Despite his level and new strength, it still took him around an hour to finish dropping everything. People went back to bed, and soon morning came. No more attacks, likely due to the fresh bodies that were spread around the room. After all, something like that would attract a large number of monsters and, in turn, make them fight amongst themselves. The ones that emerged victorious would already have a full belly.

Once morning came, they simply put away the tent and dropped the walkways to the side before heading out of the room. Today was the most dangerous day of their journey, and the sooner they were able to finish this, the better. The next room was called ‘Forgotten Wasteland,’ which was quite ironic. People who lived nearby could never forget the existence of that place. It was a room in the 19th layer, and the monsters would be from levels 55 to 60. Over 20 levels above the monsters in the adjacent rooms, with the exception of the Drowned Bog. People considered that room to be a barrier. A wall only a few could pass by, thanks to the violent and ruthless monsters that roamed the room.

To help with that, Nimbus suggested being attached to the caravan. That way, they could move a bit faster and maybe clear the room without any trouble. Randolph liked that idea, he had been a merchant for a few decades already. Despite the danger that raids and ambushes posed, he was still more wary of monster attacks than anything else.

Little did he know that their travel across the Forgotten Wasteland was the most uneventful part of their journey. Quite literally, nothing happened. They arrived, saw the ashy desert with dried trees and rocks all over the place, and rushed to the next doorway. Two hours later, they were there, and heading to the next room. They saw a few monsters here and there, but they were too busy in their own battles to care about the caravan blasting through the room.

And then they were already close to their destination. All they had to do was cross a small part of the ‘Lilyfield Valley.’ Despite the name, it didn’t have a single valley, but a multitude of them. The two cities that existed here were built on top of one of the mountains, which made them extremely good defensive positions. The problem was that one of them was controlled by humans, while the other belonged to the Alliance. They were a few kilometers away from each other, but the area between the two cities didn’t turn into a battlefield. Sieges would end up just making things worse for the attacking force. The forts were built around dungeon entrances, and when adding the drops from it, the cities became self sustainable.

The result was that this room was in a state of cold war. Spies and sabotage crews would always go back and forth between the cities, trying to finally be able to cause the enemy fort to collapse. Which also meant it was hard to know when there would be a team of people trying something. The doorway the caravan passed by was close to the Alliance city, but their destination was about a few kilometers away, towards an area that wasn’t controlled by either faction, which was a problem since they would be heading to another battlefield. Both sides could send more support to the next room or receive that help from them, and exactly because of that, controlling the doorway was nearly impossible. But they did have people watching over both sides. Or at least, the caravan needed to assume that they would be under surveillance.

Another thing they had to do was follow a specific path created by Randolf himself. He knew the area considerably well and figured out a route that would keep them off the beaten path and, hopefully, not find any humans until they were already heading to the next room. About two hours into their travels, Hera was now on the back of the caravan since Nimbus was also helping pull the container. They were passing by one of the smaller valleys, with two mountains just a few meters taller than the vehicle itself.

Hera suddenly felt something weird, like something prickling in the back of her head. She looked around, glancing at the top of the valley.

“What’s wrong?” Vash asked.

“I don’t know… I feel something weird. Almost as if there is someone watching us,” Hera frowned.

Vash gave a slight shake of his maracas, making a very soft sound of pebbles falling. He closed his eyes for a moment. After a few seconds, they shot open, “We have incoming. They are going to intercept us at the end of this path. A group of 6, and they seem strong.”

His warning came through the communicator for the entire crew.

“Randolf, can we change routes?”

“The path is too narrow for a turn, our options are: speed up or slow down,” Randolf replied.

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“Think we can outrun them?” Roan asked.

“They are in mounts. I don’t think we can,” Vash replied, already noticing how Birtta’s face turned pale.

“Ok, Randolf. Speed up. I don’t want the fight to happen in this valley. We need to be in a more open place,” Skyler ordered.

‘Twiggy. Who do you think we should awaken for this?’ Hera asked the tiara. She had a few ideas herself, but during this journey, she used fights to test and teach Marchioness Cerulean the ways of commanding the court. When they had time, she would add Robin to the conversation, but it didn’t sound like this was the case.

‘Lurize,’ Twiggy replied.

‘Why?’

‘We need numbers. That means a titled blade. Nimbus is pulling the caravan, and he will be way too fast for the rest to follow. Livy is not a stealth fighter, just her yelling will warn others of our position. Viper and Crimson would need to hide and then ambush the ambush, which takes too long. And Vulcan can’t be awakened. Lurize is the best choice by default,’ Twiggy quickly explained, gaining an approving nod from the Empress, who also had the same idea.

‘Vulcan, awaken Lurize. Everyone get ready for a fight,’ Hera ordered.

“Are we going for the kill?” Daskka asked.

Hera glanced at the herald, hesitating to answer for a moment. However, she knew deep down there wasn’t a choice. Every report they saw talked about how humans always tried to kill all the members of a different species. And if they were doing that, telling her court to spare their attackers would only cause problems. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to give such a cold-blooded order.

‘Only if you have to. If they are weaker, we just knock them out and move. But if they are too strong or don’t seem willing to stop…’ Hera took a deep breath, ‘Go for the kill. But if they are running, let them. Just… don’t tell the Harmony Guardians. I know Roan and Flint won’t approve.’

Everyone nodded and got ready. Vulcan and Lurize were already close to the Empress in their weapons forms. The forging hammer gently tapped the side of Lurize’s body, and Hera watched the transformation again. It was something she never grew tired of seeing.

Lurize was a Zweihander. A large two-handed sword with an adorned guard shaped in a wide U. Above it, there was a blunt part of the blade before a secondary guard that stopped other swords from sliding all the way to the base of the weapon. It would then be just a simple edge all the way to the top. The one thing that changed after Mr. Beetle joined the weapon was a small engraved skull right in the middle of the metal where the secondary guard was located. When awakened, it changed drastically. The U-shaped guard shifted, showing two Hercule Beetle horns, one on each side, becoming larger in the middle as a pair of symmetrical open beetle wings appeared before connecting back in the center of the blade. The blade itself was no longer silver but now golden, with vibrant orange skulls all over it, and the skull that was present in the base version became pitch black with red eyes. Another change was the secondary guard. It wasn’t just a pair of spikes, but now segmented pieces that moved like the bug legs, reaching out to any weapons that dared get into their range. Lastly, the entire weapon was covered in an eerie orange glow. Something that screamed danger to anyone who dared get closer.

When the transformation was over, Lurize also appeared again in his bipedal form. His armor was sharper, with more spikes and jagged edges. The horn on the top of his helmet grew, and a secondary one appeared from behind his head. His entire body grew a few centimeters, but the biggest difference was that he was now almost as bulky as Livy. His armor changed colors, becoming golden and orange to match the weapon.

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Lurize of poison - Venom

Zweihander - Rhinoceros Beetle

Stats: 852

Strength: 167 Endurance: 145

Agility: 138 Charisma: 134

Intelligence: 134 Luck: 134

Mana: 6 581 562/ 6 581 562

A two-handed sword that excels in duels thanks to its parrying hooks.

Weapon Scaling:

Empress attributes: 142

Strength x 17.5 Endurance x 15.3 Agility x 14.8

Charisma x 14.5 Intelligence x 14.5 Luck x 14.5

Skills:

Ancient Weapons Master

Being part of the court of blades, Lurize learned almost all simple combat styles of weapons that have been a part of the court before. He can teach the court members simple fighting styles at an accelerated rate. When teaching those who are not part of the court, he can only share his knowledge of weapons that were a part of the current court, not previous ones.

Venom Edict

When using a Venom spell or skill with this weapon, the effects are increased by 80%

When infused with mana, this weapon deals an additional 60% Venom damage with all its strikes.

All weapons wielded by Lurize will be under the effects of the Venom Edict.

Awakened: All Venom-related spells in the entire court will become venom spells. This includes elements such as poison, toxin, disease, etc.

Venom Blade

Lurize can create a cover for his Zweihander. The amount of mana used by this skill will dictate the increase in strength and range of the weapon.

Minimum mana cost: 10 000 mana.

Winged Boost

Using his wings, Lurize can move at high speeds for a dash.

Movement speed increase: 100%

Cooldown: 1 hour

Beetle Form

Lurize can become a small golden Rhinoceros Beetle. In that form, venom spells are 20% stronger. He is able to fly and increase his ability to move stealthily.

Exoarmor Rank 5

Lurize’s body takes the benefits of an exoskeleton of the Rhinoceros Beetle. Half of his total weapon scaling is used to increase his defenses based on the attributes present in the weapon scaling.

Defense scaling: 91.6

Defense + 458%

Awakened:

The Scaling and Attributes are doubled.

All skills have their effects doubled, as well as the duration. Their cooldown is reduced by half.

Awakened Skill

Awakened Spirit Bound

When the Empress uses a Venom or Poison-type spell, Lurize can pay half of the mana cost of the spell desired. Doing so will make him spend only a quarter of the total mana cost for the spell.

Awakened: Any Venom or Poison-type spell cast by the court will be cast at half the cost. Additionally, Lurize can channel the magic through him, using the connection to the Venom Spirit to forgo half of the new cost. As a result, any spell cast with Lurize’s help will only require 1/4 of the original mana.

Rhinoceros Form ->Golden Rhinoceros Form

Golden Rhinoceros Form

Lurize becomes the embodiment of a Rhinoceros beetle while in his awakened state.

All attributes and scaling receive an additional 70% increase. However, once this state is active, the awakened form can only last for 10 seconds.

New attributes:

Strength: 567 Endurance: 493

Agility: 469 Charisma: 455

Intelligence: 455 Luck: 455

New Scaling

Strength x 59.5 Endurance x 51.9 Agility x 50.36

Charisma x 49.3 Intelligence x 49.3 Luck x 49.3

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“What is that?” Britta gasped.

“One of my secret weapons,” Hera winked at her and turned to Lurize, “How are you feeling, big guy?”

“Great. I’m ready for the fight, Empress,” Lurize said, the last word filled with pride. When in his awakened form, he no longer had to worry about his Ss sounding like Zs when speaking out loud.

“Glad to hear it. Because the humans noticed something changed. They are about to reach us!” Vash yelled a moment before the human ambush appeared at the top of this small valley.