[MA] 233. Death or Glory (Patreon)

Previous Chapter — Table of Contents — Next Chapter

[A/N: Surprise release!

One less delayed chapter. Only one remaining, and I feel confident about releasing it next week!

Delayed chapters: 1

Next release: Saturday]

"Found you," the Drow Maiden whispered, revealing to Uk'Gaar who his foe was just an instant before her domain covered everything.

He instantly released his domain at full power, too.

All his emotions, anger at the mockery foremost among them, poured into Carnage and Destruction. Assisted by his mana, it turned into his domain. His red domain immediately Destroyed the Maiden's Darkness and underpinning Annihilation around him. He pushed more and more mana into it, and it expanded and expanded—until it didn't anymore.

When domains met, they didn't initiate willpower combat. Instead, willpower, the number of Laws being used, and the distance to each domain user determined a domain's strength. Reality itself determined how things went from there, like two punches meeting each other and physics deciding the victor.

Willpower was still a factor, though. Focus and purpose could push a domain harder. However, Uk'Gaar didn't try that.

Domains required mana to exist, and when competing domains met each other, the mana in the contact point kept being consumed at a fast pace. The Maiden had infinite mana, but the orc had been cut from the Guardian System.

He had potions and tools to recover his mana, but there was no reason to waste it by trying to expand his domain. The larger it became, the larger the contact point and the more mana he would need to use.

Instead, it was much better to do the obvious thing: leave her domain altogether—or make her believe he would.

His escape artifact had been obstructed; instead of galaxies away, he found himself on the other side of the planet. That suggested leaving would be equally impossible. So, he wouldn't even try it. Instead, Uk'Gaar planned on forcing his enemy to come to fight at close range to prevent his escape. If she used other B-rank artifacts, he would destroy them as they came.

It wouldn't even be hard to trick the Maiden into believing he was making a run for it; most would in his situation. After all, his defenses had failed him. The five forearm-thick, foot-deep holes on his chest were quickly closing but were evidence of her power. That would be enough to scare many warriors.

Moreover, two much smaller, finger-thick, three-inches-deep holes on his neck and head had activated the lifesaving treasure after his heart had also been pierced and disintegrated into nothingness. While B-ranks surpassed their bodies, being beheaded and losing their vital organs would leave them vulnerable for a few moments. It would've given the Maiden a chance to easily capture or kill him.

The Half-Dragon Drake Scale Armor on his chest and up to his knees was B- equipment that shouldn't be pierced by B- attacks, which meant the Maiden already had a stat at B. Well, she might also have pushed the mastery of her Laws to an absurd degree, but no one did that at C-rank. It was a waste of time because doing so after reaching B-rank was much easier and faster. Moreover, he knew her. She was meticulous. She wouldn't attack a B-rank at C-rank. So, she had ranked up like him but had used more AP to improve her stats.

Uk'Gaar didn't care. He had always been weak to sneak attacks, which is why he had lifesaving artifacts. Now that she had been baited out of whatever hole she had been hidden, he was confident he would kill her.

And he would take great pleasure in doing so.

The Maiden had always won whenever they sparred, but actual combat was something else altogether. In the field of battle, he was invincible in the same rank. She had been C-rank the last time he saw her, so she also couldn't have expanded her Laws too much after ranking up.

But first, he had to fool her. If he went looking for her amid her dark domain, he would be literally fumbling in the dark. Threatening the boy might work, but while it wasn't beneath the orc, he wanted to trick her by his own means instead of using good old blackmail.

He decreased his domain to look like he was worried about wasting mana while escaping—as if he would try ti avoid clashes. Still, he kept it a few dozen yards around him, enough to unmake any incoming magic. Then, he rushed straight into space. If she didn't block him, he would leave.

He did.

One moment, he could only see as far as his domain let him, and everything beyond was darkness. The next moment, he was outside her domain, looking at the other pre-war planets and the sea of stars in the distance. The B-ranks thunderlord and drow who had been going at it were nowhere to be found.

Uk'Gaar frowned despite reconnecting with the system and instantly recovering all his mana.

Why wasn't she following?

His blood boiled the next instant, as he understood it.

He had told the boy that he had found him. It was a declaration of absolute strength. The boy could only try to run, never defeat Uk'Gaar.

Now, the Maiden had told him the same and even let him go. That meant she didn't care about what happened to him. He was a non-factor to her, an ant. Her domain was still deployed below, and he could come to get killed if he wanted. She wouldn't waste her time pursuing him but wasn't afraid.

Uk'Gaar roared in absolute rage and shot straight at the center of the vast sphere of darkness.

He was heading into a trap; he knew it. The Maiden understood him well and liked using psychological warfare during their spars. But he didn't care. He would crush everyone and anyone in his way!

That was his Path!

Uk'Gaar took his sabers from his back as he advanced with absolute conviction.

He would bring Carnage to her Darkness and Destroy Annihilation itself.

= - = - =

Liya watched Uk'Gaar's approach. She had let him leave for two reasons.

First, mana. The energy he would waste coming at her from the edges of her domain would be more than what he would've wasted from his previous start position.

That little difference might not mean much, but it might also be what let her win. As Shen had recently found out, when fighting a superior enemy, you did everything you could and won on their mistake, almost irrelevant as the mistake might be in this case.

Second, to mess up with him. She had known he would be furious, and orcs didn't believe in controlling their emotions like the drow. While that didn't guarantee he would make a mistake, it made it ever so slightly more possible.

Uk'Gaar didn't find Liya at the center of her domain, of course. Every single mana particle he wasted counted.  Every extra millisecond he fueled his anger and frustration might be the difference between life and death later.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be long before he decided to go for Shen or the world—or both. She would be forced to intervene then.

Liya was free, but she was still drow, and so was Shen.

Drow on the battlefield didn't let other drow die, not even if it cost them their tactical advantage—at least not when they were close enough to do something about it.

As expected, her foe only looked for her for a few seconds—which was longer than she had anticipated—then went looking for Shen. The boy was back to the closest drow zone. The orc headed there.

And finally, Liya struck down, coming upon Uk'Gaar from the air like a meteor.

= - = - =

Uk'Gaar had seen the Drow Maiden wear many different pieces of equipment on their spars. However, he had never seen what he now did as she invaded his domain.

Materialized darkness—or close enough.

The armor covered her body and wasn't too thick, just like the standard drow armor, but it was so black it looked like a hole in Reality rather than a color. He couldn't even see any features of that armor, bendings, or individual parts, only her silhouette and volume. He identified the material at once: subphase light-consuming obsidian.

As its name implied, it consumed all light that touched it. As all materials from a subphase space, it was expensive. Not so much that Uk'Gaar had never seen it before, but enough that he couldn't have bought it if he wanted.

That was a legitimate B+ ore, yet here he was, using B- armor. More importantly, her armor could block domains. He couldn't see inside.

He had never felt so furious out of jealousy in his entire life.

The Maiden had entered his domain, and he was inside hers. When there wasn't enough gap between competing domains, they overlapped. In that shared space, most of their aura-like abilities were blocked or weakened. However, it still gave them perfect awareness of their surroundings.

That added to her advantage; overlapping domains consumed even more mana. While inside his, she couldn't recover her mana either; he had cut the system from there, too. However, if she left his area of influence and returned, she would've recovered her energy, while he wouldn't.

An amateur would've tried to win quickly to ensure she couldn't leave.

Uk'Gaar knew better. He knew the best approach here was to conserve energy and wait for the perfect opportunity. He should fight defensively.

She fell on him fast, but it wasn't hard to dodge. At their rank, attacks from a distance were almost useless. There was too much time to react.

Then, despite knowing better, he swung his sabers with all his power.

Strategy and tactics had their value, but neither was omnipotent. In one-on-one battles, they were even less helpful. Here, experience was king, instinct was queen, and Uk'Gaar was their emperor.

There was only him and his sabers, and the Maiden and her spear.

He would win.

She dodged one of his blades by bending backward and blocked the other with her spear shaft. The impact released a shockwave that he ignored, but it pushed the drow back and bent her spear.

Uk'Gaar froze in shock for a split instant.

That exchange let him understand a lot. The Maiden... She was either only using power equivalent to a very powerful C-rank to humiliate him, or she was still C-rank and had dared to attack him—which also humiliated him. He didn't know which option was worse.

It infuriated him far beyond anything in his life ever had.

His red domain became crimson under the power of his emotions as he lost himself into his Path.

He was Carnage, Destruction, and Saber honed by a mind that perfectly synchronized with them. None was above or below the other. Path and mind, controller and controlled, they all became one, without any risks that other races would suffer. One sentiment was shared, pursued, and fueled them above all: rage.

He entered the state exclusive to orcs: Berserker Unity.

Uk'Gaar now became physically incapable of letting go. Until either he or the Maiden died, he would never leave that state.

He didn't mind.

She would die soon enough.

= - = - =

Liya reproached herself in her mind. She had wanted Uk'Gaar to go berserk only after he had wasted more mana. However, she had pushed too hard.

The next phase of her plan came earlier.

Her initial sneak attack had also been used to feel the exact composition of Uk'Gaar's armor and body—unfortunately, both had already recovered. She started vibrating everything around the overlapped domains at frequencies to destroy armor and body. Magnetism wouldn't matter here, so she didn't waste her time.

In fact, the frequencies also shouldn't matter; the orc could cancel them even with his overlapped domain. Being in his berserk state made him very, very slightly less in self-control in exchange for an indomitable will and focus. That wouldn't be enough for him to ignore the vibrational threat in the air.

However, this was just the first step of a technique that she couldn't have taught a D-rank even if she wasted all eternity teaching them:

Quantum linking.

Most beings developed a domain and stopped there, drunk on their power. The drow saw them for what they were: a tool. And tools could always be honed or used more efficiently.

Liya's domain's mana linked with Reality around her and entered a unique quantum state. It was two things at once: the mana vibrating air molecules at set frequencies and the very molecules being vibrated. The effect happened to all the mana in her domain, including the overlapped space. Uk'Gaar couldn't stop it because he couldn't directly stop her domain's mana from being in that place.

Without a counter-technique, nothing could stop the vibration. The frequencies, further empowered by Liya's C-rank mana, could erode even the B- armor in a matter of seconds.

Unfortunately, the orc knew how to defend himself, and his domain twisted some Laws in a way that made the frequencies useless. Fortunately, countering her attack was tens of thousands of times more mana-consuming and hundreds of times more focus-demanding than the attack itself. That had been her goal; it was just another piece of the puzzle.

She would pile all the small advantages she could on top of each other and hope they buried Uk'Gaar for good.

But that was it. She had finished setting up the board.

Liya threw away the weaker spear she had sacrificed to further provoke Uk'Gaar and stepped back to grab her real spear, which had been floating, hidden, beyond the overlapped domains.

It was time to face her destiny head-on and see if her Path would lead her to death or glory.

Previous Chapter — Table of Contents — Next Chapter