TS5 - Chapter 40 (Patreon)

Returning to her throne, Lyssia sat down, her deep blue eyes fixed on Thorn.

"You will face one of my heroic summons," she said, "a warrior in the ninth tier. Unlike the team challenges, this challenge shall be straightforward. All you have to do is kill your opponent. Of course, you will not actually die if you lose, but you will be forced to wait 24 hours before challenging again, just like the team challenges. Are you ready?"

Stretching out his hand, Thorn summoned his halberd, gripping it tightly. His helmet appeared in his other hand, and he placed it on his head.

"I'm ready," he said, and with a snap of her fingers, Lyssia summoned his opponent, a sea elf.

His opponent stood close to seven feet tall and had a well-balanced build. A wavy longsword rested in his hands, and he was covered from head to toe in gleaming armor. No sooner had he appeared than he dashed forward, his sword rising above his head and chopping down towards Thorn's shoulder. With a shout, Thorn stepped forward, his halberd stabbing out to meet the attack. Drawing his hands back, the sea elf shifted the trajectory of his sword, blocking the stab and bouncing away. Thorn followed up, taking two quick steps forward and to the right, his halberd whipping around his head in a circular pattern as he transformed his stab into a slash. It was parried elegantly with the tip of the wavy longsword, and Thorn found himself on the defensive, using the metal haft of his halberd to block against a flurry of slashes.

Dancing back and forth, the two fighters attacked and parried. In turn, Thorn found incredible delight in the smooth movements, and for a moment he was lost in them, his mind sinking into a trance until, with a jarring thud, his halberd hit the sea elf's side, denting his opponent's plate mail. With every strike, Thorn's speed had been increasing, and his latest attack had slipped through his opponent's defense, knocking him to the side. For the briefest of moments, Thorn hesitated, but that was enough for the sea elf to roll over, using one hand to propel himself back to his feet.

Letting out a battle cry, the sea elf lifted his sword and dashed forward once more, thick blue mana shrouding his body as he went all out. Retreating with Titan Step, Thorn's halberd drew a figure eight in the air, blocking the flashing longsword. Reversing his weapon, Thorn used the butt end of his halberd to knock aside the sea elf's longsword with a heavy stab, and then borrowed the force to spin his weapon around, holding it close to the head to use the halberd's blade as an axe.

Even though the sea elf could see it coming, it was clear that he wouldn't be able to block the blow, so he tried to retreat, but Thorn pressed forward, letting the halberd slide through his grip to abruptly extend. The long, sharp spear point on the end of his halberd pierced through his opponent's chestplate, and with a sharp gasp, the sea elf burst into a sea of blue mana that quickly faded away.

Taking a deep breath, Thorn re-centered himself and turned to face Lyssia, who had been watching the entire exchange from her throne. To his surprise, she had a disapproving look on her face. With a click of her tongue and a shake of her head, she pointed at Thorn. "Why are you playing around?"

Unsure exactly what she was asking, Thorn found himself frowning. "What do you mean?"

"That was pathetic," she said. "I didn't expect perfection from you, but I certainly expected better than that."

Taken aback, Thorn looked at the place where his sea elf opponent had fallen, and then back at the lady of waves. "I'm sorry, I'm not following," he said, but she just waved her hand.

"I'll summon your next opponent, but try to do a little bit better this time."

Before Thorn could reply, the air shimmered, dense mana gathering together to reform the sea elf swordsman he had just faced. Once again, the swordsman lunged forward, this time attacking with a stab instead of an overhead chop. As Thorn's weapon rose to meet the wavy blade, he felt mana gathering at his side and saw a spell construct flash into existence. Immediately identifying it as a simple water bolt attack, his first instinct was to ignore it and focus on the stab coming his direction. Yet when he tried to retreat, he found the spell construct replicating itself and realized that he had to do something about it.

Parrying the stab, he also created a mana shield to block the dense spears of water that shot towards him. They splashed against the mana shield, causing cracks to run through it. At the same time, Thorn shoved his halberd forward, intending to bash the sea elf's blade aside. Yet even as he struck out, his opponent's sword seemed to twist and waver, bending around his weapon and shooting towards his wrist. Titan Step carried Thorn back, but already a third spell construct was forming, this one carrying mana that was denser, heavier, and felt more dangerous.

Feeling as if he had lost momentum, Thorn tried to stabilize his position. But it seemed that no matter which way he turned, his opponent was always attacking. The elven swordsman's movements were like crashing waves, one coming after the other, with relentless force. They were just irregular enough that Thorn didn't feel as if he could grasp the rhythm in order to break through. And finally, annoyed, he let out a shout and stomped forward, using the vibration he created to throw his opponent backward and disrupt the spells that were forming around him. At the same time, a spell construct of his own wove together, and half a dozen sharp stone spikes rose from the ground and launched themselves toward his sea elf opponent.

The fight was fierce, and Thorn found himself pressed. Not only was this opponent even better than the first in terms of swordsmanship, the addition of spells forced Thorn into a difficult position, causing him to fight defensively most of the time.

Even when he was able to take the initiative, he soon found himself falling into his opponent's rhythm. He grew more and more frustrated, and seeing the disappointed look on Lyssia's face Thorn finally decided that he had had enough. He lunged forward, accepting his opponent's blade as it stabbed towards his side. His abandonment of any defenses shocked his opponent, but before the sea elf could withdraw, his wavy blade struck Thorn in the side and, with a clang, bounced off his armor.

Shortening his grip on his halberd, Thorn brought it down in a vicious slash that ripped through his opponent, bisecting him from shoulder to hip and leaving a faint purple line in the air. With a burst, the sea elf faded away, and Thorn was left trying to catch his breath. Even before he turned to Lyssia, he knew what she was going to say. Sure enough, she let out a sigh, her hand massaging her forehead as she stared at him.

"What an absolute mess," she said. Her words stung, and for a moment, Thorn found himself growing defensive. While he had never considered himself to be the best at either fighting or magic, he knew he was strong. The disdain in Lyssia's tone got under his skin.

Without giving him a chance to retort, the Lady of Waves continued to speak. "If this is your standard, we're all in a lot of trouble," she said. "Any one of my sub-generals could wipe the floor with you. You're only on the second level, and already you're starting to struggle? Who taught you how to fight? Because whoever it is needs a beating."

"What's wrong with the way I fight?" Thorn asked, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the Lady of Waves on her throne.

"What's wrong with the way you fight? Practically everything," Lyssia said, a mocking smile on her lips. "Your form is fine, though barely, but you lack decisiveness in your movements. You clearly haven't spent enough time unifying your different strengths. And on top of it, you use everything independently. You're a titan. You have overwhelming strength. Yet you fight delicately, like a little girl. You have access to the greatest martial arts in existence, and yet all you use it for is running away. You possess the ability to cut through practically everything, and somehow you didn't use it until you had been fighting for nearly half an hour. On top of that, your method of using spells is a mess. You have absolute control of how many elements, and all you do is throw stone spikes, but that's not even the worst of it. I could understand if you had a particular fighting style that you liked, but the worst thing is that you don't even take the fight seriously."

Taken aback by the tirade, Thorn found himself unable to refute even a single thing that the former elemental empress was saying. When he had gotten frustrated at the end of the fight, and stepped forward, using his armor to block the attack, and striking with his void blade, he had killed his opponent almost instantly. And while he had felt relatively good about his performance during the fight at the time, now looking back over it, he found himself almost embarrassed.

He could have started the fight with that simple attack, obliterating his opponent's defenses, and slaying the sea elf in one blow. Yet instead, he had spent almost half an hour blocking and counter attacking. As much as he wanted to protest that he was actually quite strong, there was something in what the lady of waves was saying that reverberated in his head. Standing up from her throne, Lyssia walked down out of the air, and gestured for him to step forward.

"It took me a moment to figure out your problem," she said, "but I think it's that you don't know what it is you actually face."

"What do you mean?"

Lyssia held up a finger, telling Thorn to wait for one moment, as her other hand rotated in a circular pattern, her palm out. Where her hand passed, dense water mana gathered, rippling in the air. The darting silver fish that surrounded her shot forward, forming a heavy screen.

"Allow me to show you one of my memories," she said. In the screen, Thorn saw a deep darkness. He recognized it immediately as the vastness of the void, empty, save for the fierce clashing elements that made it so dangerous. For a moment, it appeared as if there was nothing, and then, with a flash, eight figures appeared.

"This is the beginning," Lyssia said, "of the final battle that I fought alongside Urmag'Tal, the Titan of Earth."

In the image, Thorn saw a familiar figure standing in the void, his hands clasped behind his back. Seven others stood around him, each an elemental emperor. Among them, Thorn saw Lyssia, dressed in an impressive set of blue armor, and holding a seven-foot-long sword with a wavy blade. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the void split open, disgorging an endless rush of terrifying-looking crystalline creatures.

"They are the Unmaking," Lyssia said, her tone grim. Without any hesitation, the monsters leapt forward to attack, and the seven elemental emperors rushed into battle, their bodies growing huge as they unleashed their elemental powers. With every attack, they pulverized dozens of their opponents, yet more and more came pouring out of the gaping hole in the void. Urmag'Tal had yet to move, but already the elemental emperors found themselves hard-pressed. The enemy threw themselves forward with reckless abandon, not seeming to care one bit for their lives, as they used their powerful bodies to smash into the seven emperors. Soon, the void was filled with dust, as more and more of the strange crystalline creatures launched themselves into battle. There was a fierce frenzy among the Unmaking, and despite their significant losses, they didn't slow down even for one second, giving their opponents no time to catch their breath.

The fighting dragged on, and Thorn found himself nearly overwhelmed by the sight of what he was witnessing. Just as he was going to turn and ask Lyssia why Urmag'Tal wasn't attacking, he saw his grandfather stepping forward, lifting his hand into the air and clenching his fist, as if he was holding the handle of a hammer. For the briefest of moments, his hand hung in the air, and Urmag'Tal let out a sad sigh. The sound itself shook the battlefield, forcing the crystalline monsters to retreat.

Then his hand fell, completing a movement intimately familiar to Thorn - the simple stroke of a blacksmith's hammer. Though he held nothing, Urmag'Tal struck the void itself, and across the battlefield a million hammers fell, crushing the crystalline monsters into nothingness, and freeing up the seven surrounded elemental emperors.

Taking the opportunity, they quickly retreated, gathering up once more, as millions more of the unmade surged through the portal in front of them. Stunned by the display of power, Thorn didn't know what to say as Lyssia waved her hand, closing the portal, withdrawing her memory, and closing the screen upon which it had been shown.

"Did you see the fanaticism with which they did battle?" Lyssia asked, staring deep into Thorn's eyes. "If you did, then you should understand that no hesitation can exist on the battlefield. Imagine for a moment that your friends were out there fighting beside you. Had we not all been as powerful as we were, we likely would have fallen almost immediately. Your problem," she said, shaking her head, "is that there is too much kindness in your attacks, too much grace in your defense."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Thorn asked.

"No," Lyssia replied, rolling her eyes. "Unfortunately, it's not something you can learn from solo challenges at the shrines. You already have enough strength and raw potential to beat even the hardest level of challenge that I can offer. Yet even if you go through every single one of the shrines, you will find yourself not improved even a little bit."

Part of Thorn wanted to dismiss what Lyssia was saying and point to his divinity, claiming that he would improve no matter what. Yet there was a deep wisdom in her words that caused him to hesitate. And finally, after she had returned to her throne and taken her seat once more, he took a deep breath, shaking away all of the extraneous feelings as he focused on her.

"Then what is it I should do?" He asked, his calm eyes meeting her brilliant blue gaze.

"You should go find your grandfather," she said, "and ask him how to forge ruthlessness. Come back once you have done so and I'll have a present for you. Until then, though, there's absolutely no point in you continuing this."