Chapter 230 (Patreon)

Chapter 230

Chaos erupted.

A dozen intricate ritual circles overlapped one another in the air over Riven’s position, written in the flames of the sun.  Celestial power tore down from above and crashed into his position, only for Azmoth’s defensive dome of hellfire to nullify the attacks with a thunderous boom that scattered the flames across the already molten room.

Battlecries roared out and heavily armored soldiers leaped from above with vampiric hounds and thralls, while vampires on the ledge up above and in the smoldering hallway took aim with rifles full of silver bullets to pepper Riven’s position.

Athela’s vertical maw across her lower torso and upper arachnid body opened - letting out a torrent of energy from her ability ‘Crystal Maw Cannon.’  Elemental lightning fused with ice and purple sin energy shot out in a radiating wave that shredded the incoming thralls along with two of the three vampires at the end, instantly ending their lives - but she was forced to defend and backpedal when a flaming sword tore a gash into one of her legs.

The warrior was flung off her body instantly and smashed into a wall with the sound of snapping bones, only for Riven’s arc of black lightning to rip across his body - burying the warrior deeper into the stone and shoving him across its surface in sprays of debris for twelve yards like one would wipe thick ice off a windshield.

*CRASH*

The echoing squeak of the dungeon boss was shrill and loud with resounding fervor, and its two battle axes made contact with Azmoth’s shield to create a shockwave that pushed the brutalisk into the dungeon floor with the weight.  One of Azmoth’s free hands crashed into the ground and his body let out a kinetic shockwave that staggered the rat, only for him to follow up with flaming breath in a torrent of fire.  The enormous armored three-eyed rat rapidly dashed left and avoided the flames while simultaneously using a kinetic martial art of its own - raising both huge axes up in the air, each larger than Azmoth was, and smashed them down in dual rippling waves of energy that tore through the entire room across the demon’s position.

Pieces of Azmoth’s obsidian plates were ripped off, but he ignored the damage and began chanting under his breath.  Quick, direct, and violent body motions lurched from his four arms while activating his Tier 3 martial art buff ‘The Burning Crusade’ - and everyone in the dungeon diving party that Riven had entered with saw their bodies begin to cinder.  Weapons and claws caught fire for additional flame damage, and they each gained increased resistances to flame as well - inhibiting the sun damage Riven and Athela were currently taking while sparks flew in clashes of blade, magic, metal and claw.

And like a fuse was lit underneath them, the skinwalkers acted on this new buff in a frenzied rage - tearing out of a weakened point in the dome barrier together and rushing the vampiric hounds and human paladins that were trying to swarm Athela’s position.  Their bodies shifted and morphed, revealing to everyone the demons that they actually were with extended claws, lanky pale limbs, and shrieking screams roaring from circular toothy mouths.

The violence escalated.

***

Riven’s enhanced body - moving far faster than what was normal with wisps of power from Blessing of the Crow - ripped through a tear in space.  His blade smashed through the armored flaming shield of a paladin immediately after the teleport, but the man in turn sacrificed his shield and the impaled arm behind it to return a blow of his own - flaming silver mace crashing into Riven’s left shoulder with a resounding sound of metal on ivory that shook the pureblooded vampire just by being in proximity with the weapon.

Sunfire stacked on silver alloy.  Riven felt weakened by the close contact, and he felt his regeneration in both health and mana already beginning to decline.  If he let his reserves drop to a dangerous level and didn’t keep himself in top condition throughout the fight, he wasn’t sure he could even depend on his normal levels of healing whatsoever.  Not only that, but they’d attacked in an enclosed area that limited his long-range capabilities; and in a place where he didn’t have massive amounts of blood reserves to pull on as environmental mana.

They’d planned well for this.

• Gluttony’s Riptide: Passively builds up an elongated blade of sin energy that can extend by swinging this weapon in an arc. Recharge rate and damage output depend on control and insight concerning Gluttony.

The ground underneath him screamed in protest and shattered with a roaring visage of Gluttony at his back.  Dark sin energy swirled and flew forward in an arcing slash, colliding with three overlapping barriers of the sun in a monumental explosion as he simultaneously parried a swinging claymore and staggered when a flail collided with his back.  Silver bullets slammed into him from above in a storm of metal, but the room exploded in crimson light when spikes of crystalized blood launched off the floor skywards.

The spires of ice avoided his allies entirely, some even bending around fluidly before reorienting themselves in the direction of enemies.  The vampires and crusading invaders did not fare as well however, and many of them were skewered or knocked off the overhead ledge entirely while the dungeon boss itself was too large to dodge.

The enormous three eyed rat was still engaged with Azmoth in a david-and-goliath scenario when Riven’s spires struck - tearing into weak points and even through many spots along its armor into a tough hide of scales and muscle.  Azmoth capitalized on it in that moment and activated his shield’s grasping ability - pulling in the screeching bloodied rat closer with a black hand that ripped out of the shield’s metal; before meeting the giant rat’s face with a magma strike.

[Hellforged Maul (Infernal / Volcanic Weapon): 319 average physical damage on strike, Two-Handed for full effect, with each strike dealing additional burn damage on hit and over time.  10% bonus to stun chance.  Requires 532 Strength stat with the Infernal or Volcano Subpillar to use.

• Magma Strike:  Activate this ability to increase the damage dealt by 40% in the form of an additional magma-based explosion.  Mandatory 5 minute cooldown.]

Stone maul met armor rat skull in an explosion of flame and molten rock, sending the creature rolling and bouncing across the ground even despite its massive size.  Azmoth roared and exploded forward, launching himself with a flare of hellfire off his legs and feet and crashing into the dungeon boss with the force of a cannon.

*WHOOMF*

A miniature sun of golden flames exploded overhead, causing a wave of burning energy to radiate out from the hole in the ceiling above Riven’s position - collapsing directly onto him.  The vampiric prince staggered under the channeled assault of golden light, twisted to avoid an incoming spear thrown at supersonic speed across the room, and prepared a counter attack.  Spinning storm razors ripped into existence around him by the hundreds, infused blood and shadow mana in conjunction with the path of Red and Black, and launched forward in a chaotic tidal wave of desolation.

Twisting and turning with lock-on effects for each of the hundreds of deadly projectiles, the spinning blades avoided all skinwalkers, avoided Athela, avoided Azmoth and ripped into enemy warriors.  Vampiric hounds and thralls were shredded entirely in sprays of gore by the dozens, not as protected as the other combatants, while an abrupt shield wall was formed in a line from the enemy paladins and knights on the lower floor.

Sunlight blasted upwards from radiant shields, connecting with the oncoming barrage with each storm razor exploding on impact with tremendous force.

An illusory copy of Riven ejected itself from his body and he saw himself go invisible, only to see a fire-covered flail originally meant for his real body flash through one of Fay’s illusions.

He grinned, seeing the man wide open while noting relief upon the channeled golden light of the sun above followed Fay’s illusion too, and his spiked knuckles took the armored man’s chin at close combat.

> Ripping Claws: Punching someone with the spikes of your gauntlets will cause massive hemorrhaging damage over time.

The metal of the man’s helmet tore and blood fountained out of the heavy knight just as his lower jaw tore off with it, sending the warrior crashing into the ground twenty meters away before Riven’s body teleported back to avoid a two-sided attack by other combatants.

Time seemed to stall when his hand curled and he activated his snipe ability via blood lance, the mana flaring up his arm in slow motion as his vision zoomed in to lock onto the exposed neck of another paladin.

The long crimson blood lance erupted from his outstretched hand at emphasized speeds.

*SMASH*

A sonic boom caused the room to shake and the paladin’s shield barely came up in time to block Riven’s attack, shattering the shield but saving the man’s life while he spun through the air in dozens of flips per second before smashing and bouncing off the ground in a roll.

“Damn, I thought I had him.”

To his left another flaming longsword whipped around and collided with his weapon, only for two skinwalkers to claw under his armpit and rip the appendage off entirely with herculean teamwork.  The man screamed, only to be pounced upon by the two level 90 demons in an extremely violent goring session.

Throughout all of this, the dome of crimson ice mostly held - but he made sure to reinforce it from time to time when able.  He’d also sealed it shut again after the skinwalkers had left it to join the battle, and was relieved after looking that way again to see these enemies were completely ignoring the weaker members of the dungeon group - considering them noncombatants no doubt until the end where they would certainly be killed if Riven ended up losing this fight.

Well at least he didn’t have to worry about a hostage scenario.

On the other hand, the monks from above were doing a very good job in healing any of the knights and paladins his side didn’t outright kill, as did the golden sun overhead that simultaneously healed the invaders and sought him out to damage him over time with searing heat even despite Azmoth’s buff to reduce fire damage.  The vampires on the ledge had also stayed out of the fray, taking pot shots at Athela, Azmoth, the skinwalkers and himself this entire time while sending in their thralls and fleshy hounds to do the up-front fighting alongside the other invaders.

His pauldron groaned under the sparking impact of a powershot from a steampunk rifle above, and Riven was sent crashing into the ground when two golden fireballs smashed into his body.  One was intercepted and eaten by the gluttonous maw on Messenger, but the other one made full contact with his lower thigh and groin - causing him to lurch and wince.

“Cocksuckers!” He said in a high pitched voice through gritted teeth, rolling and launching himself across the room as sin energy bloomed out the back of his armor to avoid yet another large fireball.

Creating a shadow rift just before he smashed into the wall, he teleported up above and right behind the vampires and monks taking potshots at him.

He gave an evil grin, and the entire area around him - now completely devoid of allies he had to worry about getting caught up in the immediate explosion - began to light up bright red. His hands blurred with the proper motions, and a shockwave radiated out from his body to floor the enemies with their backs turned to his airborne position.

The orb of crimson light between his palms was thrust forward, and in an instant grew to the size of a truck.  “Nefajia crecus blood nova!

*BOOM*

The vampires were eradicated in a single go, with half of the floor they stood on vaporizing under a blinding red light - its blowback shattering the summoned golden sun as well that sent many of the monks falling back with cries of alarm.  Winds whipped the air around them and the dungeon shook with the impact, leaving Riven to crashland in a superhero pose on the crackling remnants of the ledge overlooking the battle below; where Athela’s large figure crashed all eight legs into the dungeon boss to help Azmoth take it down in the confusion of Riven’s shockwave.  Black lightning coursed through his body, and his crimson eyes elevated themselves through slits in his ivory gluttonous helmet to look at the six monks and three armored warriors standing across the gap in the floor.

These three warriors were different from the others who’d already jumped down.  Each of them had frilled helmets, each of them had more decorative armor than the others with golden and black trimmings, and each of them had bright red capes with the sigil of the black sun on it in the same way their breastplates showed off the symbol.

These were the leaders of the empire’s invasion force, and they each drew flaming longswords while getting ready in a defensive stance - radiant shields lighting up in golden light while their eyes flared a bright orange mixed with gold.

[Otherworldly Invader, Empire of Dying Suns. Level 120 Sunchosen, Human.  ELITE.]

[Otherworldly Invader, Empire of Dying Suns. Level 117 Sunchosen, Human.  ELITE.]

[Captain Vros Kinal, Invading Faction Boss, Empire of Dying Suns. Level 122 Sunchosen, Human.  ELITE.]

The six robed monks quickly got to their feet, getting behind the three ‘sunchosen’ warriors and empowering them with various buffs - golden rings of light encircling the three warriors at different points in the air and sigils of holy and sun origins smashing down onto the warriors’ bodies.

A man’s calm voice carried over the chasm between the two sides of the ledge, coming from the central man labled ‘Captain Vros Kinal’ by the system.  “Hello, Riven Thane.  I have heard much about you, and I must say that I am less impressed than I thought I would be.”

Riven raised an eyebrow, watching the power build between the three of them as his own power immediately spiked.  Roaring waves of black and red thundered around him in a storm of crimson frost and black lightning, and the visage of gluttony - Riven’s soul clone - appeared behind him with a hungering chuckle of malice that caused the three warriors to instinctively step back.

Riven sank Jackal into the floor blade first, then smashed both his armored hands together.  Tearing them apart with strings of blood and death mana ripping through space between his fingers, eight flashes of light appeared - four to either side of where he stood.

[Legionaries of the Blood God (Death / Blood)(Tier 2): This is a temporary summoning spell that does not require minion slots.  You may summon up to 8 Elite-Class Bloodstricken Undead from the Blood God’s realm, equal in combat level to your own, and may designate whether or not you wish to summon Blood Knights, Blood Sorcerers, Blood Assassins, or a combination of the three when you do so.  Undead are non-sentient and last for 5 minutes before disappearing.   1 day cooldown time.  Very high mana cost.]

[Summoned Blood Knight, Bloodstricken Undead, Level 133.  ELITE.]

[Summoned Blood Knight, Bloodstricken Undead, Level 133.  ELITE.]

[Summoned Blood Knight, Bloodstricken Undead, Level 133.  ELITE.]

[Summoned Blood Knight, Bloodstricken Undead, Level 133.  ELITE.]

[Summoned Blood Sorcerer, Bloodstricken Undead, Level 133.  ELITE.]

[Summoned Blood Sorcerer, Bloodstricken Undead, Level 133.  ELITE.]

[Summoned Blood Assassin, Bloodstricken Undead, Level 133.  ELITE.]

[Summoned Blood Assassin, Bloodstricken Undead, Level 133.  ELITE.]

Eight hooded skulls etched with unholy crimson runes on their foreheads stared with equally crimson orbs for eyes in their skull sockets.  Four were heavily armored with red claymores and thick red plate mail.  Two held thin, wicked daggers dripping blood mana in each hand and were strapped in intricately decorated red leathers, while the last two wore crimson robes of shifting runic black sigils and held staves with ruby orbs that flickered blood mana.

Riven yanked his sin-afflicted weapon out of the ground in a spray of debris, got into a stance, and the screeching visage of gluttony opened wide as tendrils of dark sin energy poured out in a typhoon in all directions around him.  The hooded blood knights simultaneously shifted their own stances, planting their armored forward feet in line with Riven’s own - long blades lowered at the opposing fighters while the blood assassins utterly vanished in clouds of red; and the skeletal sorcerers began summoning blood lances similar to Riven’s own that collected in the air around them.

Riven sneered.  “Good thing I won’t need to keep you impressed if you’re dead.”