Hakurai
patreon
Chapter 308: Fleeting Light
🕑 Added 2024-08-10 10:00:09 +0000 UTCMakaroth, now aboard the Sages of Destiny Airship alongside Synopse and Lilya, had a floating transparent livestream viewer open in his peripheral vision next to his livestream chat log. The chat messages were filled with a mix of support and hatred, but that was not what had his attention.
Despite the distractingly large explosions of magic occurring all throughout the city of Stormtop, the countless reapers beginning to circle the skies around the city and blot out the sun entirely, and the black dragon that was soaring through them and releasing bursts of darkness that were being continuously met by Ysil’mareina’s own breath attacks, his attention was not on his surroundings at all.
His eyes opened wide at the sight of Aegis’ forfeiture of the second match.
“I can’t believe Pyri lost to him…” Synopse said in disbelief, causing Lilya to throw him a look of annoyance.
“Why would she be anything special? You lost to Seraxus too, didn’t you?” Lilya asked him with a raised brow.
“Yeah, but I learned most of what I know about optimizing gameplay reaction speeds from her. She’s always been better.” Synopse replied in earnest.
“Only if she isn’t holding back.” Makaroth corrected him.
“Was she holding back?” Synopse asked, and the two looked at each other straight in the eyes.
“I don’t think so,” Makaroth said with an ominous tone. Several more explosions erupted in the skies around them, but they stared at one another as if wordlessly exchanging thoughts.
“Pathetic of me to hope that my son and Pyri would clean up my mess. I made it, and it’s mine to deal with,” Makaroth said, to which Synopse nodded anxiously and took a deep breath.
“What’re you saying?” Lilya asked the pair, not picking up on the extent of their exchange.
“We hold the city of Stormtop long enough for Aegis’ match to end. He’s done well enough with Serenity to keep his wings disabled, which should make it easy for us to take him out. We just need to team up with Feng and all of the other skilled PvPers that are defending the city.”
“Where are they?” Makaroth asked as he started looking over the cityscape. He spotted Mikael flying atop Ysil’mareina and Feng aboard one of several Vindicator airships that were circling the fortress at the center of the city but saw no others.
“They’re with Daehyun, watching the main gates to the north.” Synopse pointed them out, where two tall abyssal juggernauts could be seen towering over the walls of Stormtop’s northern gate, met by a barrage of spells and arrows from the defenders atop the the nearby garrisons and towers.
“Captain, take our ship to the front gates. Let’s get them on board and ready to take out that sword of hatred once and for all.” Makaroth shouted so that the captain behind the stern could hear him. He responded with a knowing nod, waving his fingers and curving the wing sails of the ship while other members on deck stood at the edges on all sides, firing at the reapers nearest to them.
“You’re going to just gather all the high-level players and ambush Seraxus when the tournament ends?” Lilya confirmed with a look of skepticism. After she’d said this, Makaroth caught a shift in the messages flowing through his livestream chat, insulting him. Words like ‘cowardly’, ‘cheap’, ‘wimp’ began to scroll by, but Makaroth took a deep breath and addressed them regardless.
“It isn’t the bravest method of dealing with this threat, but it’s a threat that must be stopped at all costs. Honorable can’t be considered when we’re talking about this entire game world and the time and money all of you have invested into it. We’ll do whatever it takes to take him down, even if it means fighting him 1000 vs 1.” Makaroth said with confidence, and this got a good number of players in his chat back on his side.
As he said this, he hadn’t been looking at what was happening in the world around him, however.
“Makaroth!” Synopse snapped him out of his interface to look ahead at the northern gates. Makaroth waved away Aegis’ livestream and his chat to see the two juggernauts falling and disintegrating, having been slain. Behind them, however, rose a bulging mass of dark abyssal mist. Its appearance caused a horrendous roar from Ysil’mareina as she attempted to issue a warning to all in the Stormtop.
“Is that…?” Synopse said with his eyes wide in disbelief, and he wasn’t the only one to be staring at it in shock. Makaroth had seen it before. Synopse had seen it before. Lilya had seen it. Anyone who had watched footage of Aegis’ Hrath’mir quest and his escape from Arallia had seen this bulging mass. [???(ELITE) - ???] appeared in giant red text simultaneously with a pair of massive red eyes that formed in the depths of the dark bulge.
An ominous silence befell Stormtop as the reapers pulled away from the rising mound of darkness, and it quickly grew up over the top of the northern walls.
“Get them out of there. GET THE PVP PLAYERS AWAY FROM THE GATE!” Makaroth shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Voice amplification.” Synopse tapped his staff unto himself. “PULL BACK FROM THE GATES, DON’T GET HIT BY WHATEVER THAT THING ATTACKS WITH!” Synopse’s voice carried over the city streets, echoing off the nearby buildings to reach the countless players gathered at the gates. Skar, Daehyun, Eerie, and many others had to do a double take to confirm it was Synopse that issued this warning from atop the airship.
Before they could do much in the way of reacting, the mound began to morph itself and form into a gigantic spear of black mist, the size of a huge tower. It didn’t take but a few seconds of its beginning formation to cause all players at the northern gates to begin to turn and flee.
“Steer us away!” Makaroth ordered the captain of their ship, who’d been flying towards it, and he nodded, veering the ship out of its path. As their ship changed trajectory, the spear began to solidify into black steel, but the tip of its spear began moving—it was following and aiming at something. Makaroth followed the tip to see where or what it was pointed at and quickly saw it following the movements of Ysil’mareina as she soared above the central fortress.
“Synopse, don’t let that thing kill the silver dragon, or we’ll be completely screwed!” Makaroth shouted
“How do I stop it?” Synopse asked Makaroth frantically, the spear completing its formation.
“Astral Displacement,” Makaroth ordered him, but the spear finished forming just as his words got out. Synopse pulled out his artifact staff and waved it with wild urgency as a sudden deafening silence befell the otherwise besieged city. It was as if the spear itself was momentarily absorbing all sound and light before it shot forth from the darkness creeping up to the northern gate.
It pierced through the gate and walls, shattering them and killing all players near it who hadn’t used movement skills to get away—including Eerie, Skar, Daehyun, and most of the other PvP players. Beyond that, it pierced through a merchant vessel that had been outfitted with cannons and was carrying Stormtop guards armed with crossbows, killing all on board and exploding the vessel into smithereens.
The spear had hit this vessel because it stood between it and Ysil’mareina, who was desperately flapping her wings to fly out of the path of its trajectory, but the spear shot like a bullet.
A black void sphere formed to the left of Ysil’mareina, thanks to Synopse’s artifact staff. He cast it at the last second, and it wasn’t enough to absorb the spear but could, with the spell's gravitational alteration effects, change its trajectory just enough that it narrowly missed hitting and killing Ysil’mareina.
Thanks to Synopse, the spear flew through the sky and disappeared into the distant dark clouds, leaving a hole in the swarm of reapers circling the city briefly before they moved to close it with their thousands of black leathery wings.
Adrenaline rushed into Synopse’s body as his heart rate pumped. It had all happened in just a few seconds, the tides of the battle shifted so drastically, but he could cast the spell fast enough at the right location. It was a victorious move, but it didn’t feel like one as the sounds of abysslings stampeding through the broken northern gates filled the silence of Stormtop. Following them, Juggernauts and Ferrawolves began to march in.
“Now what?” Liyla asked with a look of terror. “How the hell is anyone supposed to beat something like this?”
Makaroth looked to her, then Synopse, then the other crew members, and saw them all looking at him with the same expression of hopelessness.
“It wouldn’t be fun if it was easy, right? You guys seem to be forgetting something.” Makaroth smiled as he took out his greatsword and created several cinderbolts to form around him. He moved to the side of their airship nearest the overwhelmed northern gates. “I’m the number one streamer.” He said before jumping off and charging towards the oncoming swarm.
Synopse briefly exchanged a look with Lilya, where they both smirked and shook their heads. Lilya jumped off the airship after Makaroth while Synopse turned his attention to the cluster of Airships still soaring above the fortress bearing the symbol of the Vindicators and the Schadenfreude members on the ground fighting alongside Daehyun’s guildmates and Stormtop’s NPCs.
“Hold out until Aegis’ match is over. Either he wins, or we team up and end this ourselves. Stormtop must not fall.” Synopse shouted, his voice amplification still active.
—
Nicholas, Mike, and Andrew each used their own series of interface interactions to manage different screens around them, all hovering and transparent. They all had different information that they thought most important to gather after seeing the end result of Aegis’ match. While they’d been watching hopeful, none of them said anything when he forfeited, turning the score into a 0-2 for the side of the light.
After several charts and numbers were monitored, Andrew was the first to speak up. He enlarged one display and put it front and center to catch the others' attention.
“One good piece of news, the balance of good aligned players has improved.” Andrew tried his best to sound positive.
“That’s temporary because players have been actively killing anyone siding with Seraxus on all islands. It’ll likely rebound once they can log back in and the tournament results are announced.” Nicholas replied, only briefly glancing at Andrew’s screen before returning to his own.
“You don’t think the Harbinger of Light can win? Aegis? He’s, like, the definition of a good guy. He’s been guiding all of them to fight back against that sword the entire time, hasn’t he?”
“It’s one thing to know how to beat a mechanic and another thing to execute on it,” Nicholas replied with a light sigh.
“It’ll be fine,” Mike said while waving his fingers to push Andrew’s screen out of focus in favor of Makaroth’s livestream. Through it, both of them watched as Makaroth charged into thousands of abysslings, with Lilya at his back casting supportive spells and heals. The abysslings were not strong, but their numbers were unreal, and he was receiving minimal support from the airships and other players.
Unlike Aegis’ stream, Makaroth had his user interface easily viewable for those watching him, and it showed his stamina and mana resources dipping during the battle. One point in Makaroth's favor was that public sentiment was slightly shifting back in his favor as everyone watched him put on his last stand.
“Once the match ends, the players outside of the arena can work together and team up against Seraxus. Feng, Makaroth, Synopse, and several other high-ranking members from both of those top guilds will be able to take him out.”
“Oh, yeah! And Aegis and Serenity too! They’ll all be able to team up!” Andrew chimed in, and both of them turned to each other with hopeful expressions. “All they have to do is kill that kid, and everything will be back to normal.”
“Exactly. The nightmare will finally be over.” Mike smiled.
“Neither of you have been paying any attention,” Nicholas growled angrily before enlarging a livestream of Mikael’s. From the stream, they could see Ysil’mareina desperately holding back the black abyssal dragon as it soared through the swarms of reapers surrounding Stormtop. “He’s proven himself a champion of darkness. The Elite NPCS in charge of the abyss have given him their full support. There is absolutely nothing stopping him from hopping on that dragon and flying out of there the moment the match ends, and that's being generous and assuming that all of those defenders of Stormtop last until then.”
“So what? You’re saying it’s over? Samantha’s design is a failure?” Andrew snapped at him provocatively. Nicholas didn’t entertain this question with a response but instead just glared at him.
“VGN’s players wi-” Mike began talking.
“It’s about time you both got back to work, I think.” Nicholas interrupted him with an emotionless voice. Andrew and Mike briefly exchanged looks before giving him a nod.
“Good idea. I’ll make sure things continue to run smoothly.” Mike replied before exiting the office simulation.
“Guess I should start preparing some damage control since you’re just going to let this happen,” Andrew grumbled before leaving the simulation as well.
Nicholas stood in silence, eying Mikael and Makaroth’s livestreams on the enlarged screens floating in front of him. He waved his fingers around to manipulate several of the smaller screens in the back until he found a display of Seraxus and Aegis’ livestreams, and then he pulled them both forward instead.
On Seraxus’ stream, he was pacing around and talking to his audience, but his nerves were rattled—he lacked his typical calm demeanor despite his attempts to act tough. Nicholas lost interest in watching him quickly, though, and instead focused on Aegis, who had re-appeared in his waiting room alongside his companions and was currently arguing with them.
“Come on, kid,” Nicholas mumbled to himself.
—
“Got the last of ‘em,” Herilon announced with pride as he stepped back into the Night Hunter’s tavern near the center of the city of Kordas. Most of the other players who had dispersed to hunt down Vri’flow’s targets had returned before him, and as a result, he had missed the end of the second match.
However, he could quickly ascertain the results by reading the room upon his return. Several tables were in heated arguments about the mistakes Aegis’ had made, while others insisted that Aegis played perfectly and that Seraxus’ sword was simply unbeatable. Herilon walked past them to get to the table where Quinn, Ren, Trexon, Travis, Baffo, and Sapphire had gathered and sat down to catch them mid-conversation.
“If they use those skills first, it could work, right?” Ren was asking the table, giving a nod to Herilon as he pulled up his chair and took a seat.
“It won’t. Hajax needs to go first, or Lina will struggle to have an impact.” Sapphire replied, no carrot in hand. Instead, she nervously tapped her fingers on the wood and bit her lip, her eyes moving as though contemplating several things simultaneously.
“What can they do to get rid of Hajax faster, then?” Ren asked, turning to Quinn. Quinn was looking into a mug of ale on the table before her, also silently pondering. When asked, she looked up and saw all eyes turn to her for answers.
“I don’t know. It’d have to be something with Pyri…”
“They’re not going to let Pyri move freely. Gambit’s all over her with those spiritual monk skills.” Travis shook his head.
“So then what? What do you think they should do?” Ren turned to Herilon, who looked over them at the livestream display of Aegis that was hovering over the bar. Several NPC bartenders and barmaids were rushing around it, some passing through it—they could not perceive its existence. On the screen, he saw the frustration on the faces of Aegis and his team and just shrugged.
“Dunno. Tough match-up. The kid knows his stuff when it comes to PvE and grinding, reading into the lore, and such. But, Seraxus might just have his number.” Herilon replied objectively.
“Well, if he loses, what does that mean for us?” Baffo asked, but the looks of everyone else at the table answered the question for him.
