The Gamer Chapter 1503 – Divided Gates Meeting 8 – A Friendly Clash of Titans (Patreon)

Krieg and Smlere met in John’s half of the arena.

That simple fact presented the god of war’s superior speed. With his balanced Stats, this was unsurprising. That the clash left them equally matched, however, spelled out difficulty. Smlere’s incredible Strength of over 3000 should have overcome the 1648 that Krieg had been previously advertised to have.

Of course, that had been an Observe John had been allowed to make. Who knew what kind of self-buffs and other tricks the warrior god had in store.

Obsidian blade quivered, as it pressed against the shaft of the scythe. Slowly, Smlere was pushed back. Her legs bent, then began to give – until the Creator Puppet provided relief.

Krieg pushed himself off the engagement, aptly dodging the swing of Inkaryl. The blades had slotted in as an icy blue, and an aura of glacial winds followed. Where the snow approached Krieg, flakes turned into water, then vapour, drafting up the fire elemental’s form like an aura of his own. Flames crawled over his orange-red skin, as if a layer of oil had been set alight.

Even the withheld heat turned the rest of the Creator Puppet’s ice aura into inconsequent liquid. ‘So much for type match-ups,’ John thought, his double’s elemental alignment switching to gravity a moment later. The Mythical weapon let out deep, warbling sounds as it was swung and thrust at Krieg.

The god of war backed away from the coordinated swings between Smlere and the Creator Puppet. Perhaps because she was a Combination or perhaps because of the innate connection between all elementals sharing a contractor, the volcano elemental wielded the scythe with all the necessary skill to make the harvesting tool a passable weapon on the battlefield. That the Swirls golem was always there to cover the gaps between her arching swings certainly helped.

How much – that was impossible to gauge. Krieg did not seem intent on exploiting any of the windows of opportunity offered to him. Stepping back and back again, his eyes, like glowing embers in a cloud of crushed coal, flickered back and forth, analysing the storm of coordinated attacks. When he had to, he swatted aside Inkaryl or the scythe with swings of his short sword. At all other times, he dodged with one or two backsteps.

Near the edge of the arena, Smlere feigned a punch from her right. Krieg saw right through that distraction, raising his blade to defend against the overhead swing by John that followed. Obsidian shattered against the superheavy impact of the Mythical, gravitation reinforced weapon. “Impressive!” Krieg shouted with begrudging respect.

In a whirl of motions, the god of war sprouted a set of additional arms, smacked aside the slowed mace and then grabbed the scythe at the shaft, just before it could sink into his side.

“You’re too keen on cutting me with this,” Krieg observed, adding his second right hand to keep the weapon at bay. “I know what this elemental is capable of. I remember her from the tournament you fought here.”

“Informed enemies are a pain,” John groaned out loud, for everyone to hear. There was some laughter from the watchers, then everything was overpowered by a titanic war cry from Krieg.

The god pushed off both Smlere and the Creator Puppet, then stormed forwards. Four identical, curved blades appeared in his hands.

John first considered Unstable Arcana, but the fight was moving too much for a 5-metre radius to be reliable. ‘Let’s see if this works,’ he thought instead, while the air all around began to ripple.

“What?!” one of the Metracanas shouted when the Chains of Babylon rushed out of their dimensional anchors. Pointed tips readied themselves to penetrate flesh and anchor themselves to their target.

Krieg did not present a willing target. Most of the ten Mana Chains simply missed their target, the pointed heads slamming into the ground and dissolving shortly afterwards. Two nearly managed to strike the god of war, but were stopped, gliding off angled blades.

It slowed the ascended fire elemental for just long enough that John could raise his right arm in defence. Silver flashed over his skin, the Maker’s Hand’s Damage Mitigation diminishing the impact by ever so little. Every HP retained was important, though, especially since Krieg pulled back and delivered a double slash to John’s chest before reinforcements could arrive.

The decrease in his HP was intense, an eighth gone from a blocked stab and shallow, long cuts. At his level of sturdy, that much in a swift engagement was worrisome. However, Particle Skin remained off and with Undine fused into Purgatory, his HP ticked back up rapidly.

Not that this had any effect on his wounds closing. The instant Krieg’s blades were no longer in contact with him, flesh and clothing were mended, leaving his suit and himself as unblemished as before. Krieg backed off, first because of the Mana Chain that slammed into where he stood, then because Edge was swiping her claws at him.

“Just let me taste your blood already, shy stuff,” the sadistic mixture of Siena and Sylph blabbered. “Just a little bit, please, pretty please? You would look soooooo goooooood writhing in absolute agony. Ah, just the idea gets me all tingly.” She tip-toed from one foot onto the other, before charging forwards.

Where Smlere had the Strength to almost match Krieg, Edge certainly had the speed to outpace him. The Combination of two of the three speed-devils among his haremettes was dashing and twisting around Krieg, ever keeping him on his toes. A third pair of arms sprouted, something that John noted was wordlessly commented on by a raised eyebrow from Sol. The short glance to the side was all John could allow himself before following the spawning of a second head on the god of war’s shoulders.

Where the first head was that of an anonymous Spartan warrior, the second resembled that of a well-nourished Indian man, hair covered by a many-layered, ornate headwear of incandescent gold. His face was as orange red as the rest of the god’s skin, but his eyes were black as oil. The additional arms soon held round shields with a bump at their centres to bash and deflect blows.

The red flickers never left Edge, while the black eyes traced the Creator Puppet and Smlere in their attacks. A one man storm of movements, Krieg fended off the three-directional assault. Fighting with fists and claws, the elementals were held back by their inferior range, while the Creator Puppet simply lacked the Strength to slam through the defensive manoeuvres.

Krieg wasn’t playing with them, but he also still wasn’t taking this fully seriously. The god of war retained his defensive fighting style, never doing more than exploit the most obvious of openings, of which there were very few.

Carefully angling his fingers, the Gamer shot a 4-finger Blast Ray. Krieg pushed everyone back, to give himself the room to dodge, and ultimately managed to side-step the attack.

But John had already moved. Chaining Magus and Skittersteps, he teleported around the battlefield unseen. Tracking three other opponents must have distracted Krieg just enough for him to lose track of the Gamer, who reappeared a moment after shooting first a fifth, then a sixth Blast Ray. The original was deflected twice, allowing it a full turn that then slammed into Krieg’s back with enormous kinetic force.

For a split second, Krieg was blasted forwards like a ragdoll. He crossed several metres, then clapped two of his hands together. A wave of fire and shock counteracted his flight, both cascading against the barrier, making its silver and gold weave visible again for a moment. “Impressive! Truly impressive!” Krieg shouted, no more begrudging aspect to his respect. A third head joined the other two, this time an East Asian man with an enormous beard of greyish black, his eyes nearly normal.

His two empty hands gripped a pair of Guan Daos – a spear with a scimitar as its tip. The curved swords were replaced with an axe in one hand and a gladius in the other. Taking several battle stances at once, each of his arms readied for an alternative approach by his enemies, the god of war started a slow, broad-legged advance.

There were no openings. Where the Blast Ray had hit the god in his back, fire leaked out of his skin. A wound that slowly closed. “You’re a terrifying opponent, John Newman,” Krieg declared, inching ever closer towards the quartet of enemies. Edge and the Creator Puppet remained ready for every move. Smlere beat her foot on the ground rhythmically, making the entire stage tremble. “Wounds, exhaustion, diminished mana, I can see none of it on you.”

“Information warfare was ever my favourite approach to victory,” John returned. Not like anyone that listened here was not aware of that fact. “Which makes your methodical fighting a pain to deal with. The god of war, truly, to always know what strategy is most secure to achieve victory.” There was no ridicule in his voice. Perhaps he was overplaying his compliments a little bit, but he did have a crowd to please. “Do you think you’re done gathering intel?”

“You’re still withholding a few aces,” Krieg said.

John just smiled. Rising Annihilation maxed out. His smile turned sharper. “I suppose I am.”

Purgatory's strongest Attribute had always been Arcane Ascension. The upgrade from Spellstorage 3 let John cast a spell with 3 times his maximum mana, free of charge, once per day. Except, when Rising Annihilation was maxed out, it was 5 times instead.

Smlere had been shaking the ground with the taps of her heels, slowly maxing out the destruction-charging Attribute. Now, John cashed in that cheque. 188 Chains of Babylon manifested all around, the lance-heads of the chains peeking out of the ripping portals that served as their anchors. John aimed; Smlere slammed her fists together. Radiance of heat and light rose from her skin, like liquid rock inside a glass bowl. The Unleashed state strengthened her considerably, in exchange for halving her remaining time.

John either finished this in one blow or would have his resources choked out by the god of war.

‘Go!’ he ordered, inside his mind.

The Mana Chains launched in three waves, less than a second between each. A notable delay, in the realm of superhumans. During the first wave, Krieg himself Unleashed – at least that was what John assumed happened. A wave of catastrophically dense fire exploded outwards, incinerating the very chains coming for him. The collapse of air that followed the concentrated explosion threw the second wave of arcane projectiles off their course. Silver chains were thrown everywhere.

That still left the third wave. Burning like a funeral pyre, the god charged forwards, his weapons imbued with the flames of war. A terrible glow emitted from molten carvings shaped like circuitry – like the scars on Salamander’s skin and the etchings in her armour.

In part, Salamander clashed with her progenitor the next second. Smlere met one of the axes of the god of war with her fist. In reaction to that contact, a pillar of plasma shot from the back of the bearded weapon, turning an already fast swing into a meteoric descent. Certainly, inevitably, slowed but not halted, the weapon sliced and melted through the volcano elemental's arm.

Two arms whirled around, keeping Edge at bay as she skilfully wove through the flying Mana Chains in an attempt to find an opening. She found none. Not even with the Creator Puppet backing her up. Each of the war god’s movements kept them at bay, if not with the main swing, then with the terrifying arches of fire.

But even with three heads and six arms, the god of war had to take some hits.

Of the 62 mana chains of the third wave, 12 managed to make their way through. From various different directions, they slammed into the ascended fire elemental. Most penetrated his skin only shallowly, only 3 truly managed to connect, sinking deep enough to not break from the heat when they were pulled taut. A leg, his side, a shoulder, the first was foremost, the impeccable balance of the god, finally, breaking.

Smlere threw herself into the opening, flooring Krieg with her remaining arm. The gladius stabbed into her side, a pillar of flame emerging opposite, a hole as big as a grapefruit instantly blasted through the volcano elemental’s abdomen.

The god of war, however, was on the ground.

Swinging overhead with both hands, the Creator Puppet brought down Inkaryl like he wanted to hammer in a fencepost with a sledgehammer. The weapon screamed in orchestral anticipation at the glorious violence, its blades shaded with gravitational forces.

Five weapons were crossed in defence against the Mythical armaments and the Sceptre of the Undeclared King turned all of them into burst, black glass. With the shattered surface, the energy bundled within was let loose, the Creator Puppet and Smlere catapulted upwards and aside, like rodents next to an artillery bombardment. Their bodies were flung far outside the bounds of the arena, slamming into the amphitheatre and the garden. The viewers had gotten out of dodge in time, but the plants were caught alight.

Krieg was dazed, for one split second, and that was all that it took for Edge to drag her claws over a raised shoulder. Bright red, some kind of essence stuck to the knife-like extensions of her two-segmented fingers. Swiftly, without the usual flair or babble, she raised her fingers to her lips, to ingest the essence and Unleash herself.

John teleported forwards and delivered a series of Blast Rays at point blank range, to keep the god of war from rising, but Krieg only let John get through one salvo. A new weapon appeared in his hand and was driven into John’s chest with such cataclysmic might that it cut through his mana reserves and sent him flying to the ground.

Around Edge, the shadows swirled into the form of a physics-defying scythe. She readied herself for the swing – then her face was hidden by a palm of the three-headed god. Krieg slammed the small elemental into the ground. Then, with methodical ease, he conjured brass knuckles around his fingers, a two-pronged extension going out from them.

Their purpose became clear immediately. Krieg brought down his fist on Edge’s arm, the two prongs penetrating the stone north and south of her arm. The stone glowed red hot, burning the Combination only as a side effect of reinforcing the material enough that she could not simply pull herself free.

Edge was contemplating trying to transfer the scythe to her other hand, but John knew when he had lost. His only path forwards at this point would have been an Undine Unleash, and she had not healed enough damage to enable that. Krieg had been incredibly measured in this duel. Any other options John could pull were on the nuclear side of things.

So, he put his hands up and declared, “I… surrender.”

He did not like saying that.