"Status,"
Athelei commanded, and the screen appeared.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
=} User: Athelei (Tier 1 User) {=
=} Interface Authority Level: 1.15 {=
Age: 4
=o=o=o=o=
=} Physical Attributes {=
Health: 7/7 -> 8/8
Strength: 3
Dexterity: 6
Defense: 2
=o=o=o=o=
=} Mental Attributes {=
Mana: 14/14
Intelligence: 28
Will: 21
Psychic: 19 (Unique)
=o=o=o=o=
=} Other Attributes {=
Energy: 8/8
Charisma: 22
Luck: Questionable
=o=o=o=o=
=} Skills {=
- Cyan Analysis Skill: Examine (Level 6/10) -> (Level 7/10)
- Purple Analysis Skill: Appraisal (Level 6/10) -> (Level 7/10)
- Orange Analysis Skill: Judgement (Level 6/10) -> (Level 7/10)
- Trinity Analysis Skill: Inspect (Level 6/10) -> (Level 7/10)
- Orange Tier I Skill: Shop (Level 1/10)
- Trinity Tier I Skill: Sneaky (Level 1/10)
=o=o=o=o=
- [Invisible] mode is currently active.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
"Mm," Athelei glanced at his Cosmic Interface and nodded slightly. He had a simple theory in mind after learning enough about the world through the Cosmic Interface and his own experiences, 'Tier I Skills might really require a special environment to level up, and each skill requires its own unique places... I would need to find a place where people suspect each and every little thing if I want to level up Sneak, and I would need to have access to things people want to buy if I want to rapidly increase Shop's level.'
Athelei then used Inspect on himself, to see just how much the mutation had progressed.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Orien (Hidden: Athelei, Inactive: Angel, Nikiri Mist, ... )
- Race: Human (17%), Starless (1%), Unnamed Mutation (82%)
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
"Eighty-two percent," Athelei chuckled as he got out of bed and ran to his room's balcony, "I hope I can keep myself alive with this much..."
RHHHOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAHHHR!
A familiar earth-shaking roar shook the buildings of what was left of Avina. Ulthasiair had once again appeared, and this time, it seemed set on attacking.
The hills now looked like islands, especially now that the tides had risen by twenty-five metres total. Much of the natural earthen barriers between zones had been toppled and broken through.
Erosion was the land's fate in the face of rushing waters.
Destruction was an inevitability with all the beasts and battles.
As for Eastern Avina, it now looked like a graveyard. No chirps, no breath. No sign of life.
Only red candlelights were dancing around, as Lady Karire summoned dark clouds aplenty. Her [Malicious Storm] allowed for the horde to approach through the dark shadows cast by her clouds. The city was now deprived of a warm, bright morning.
But she had no choice.
Avina no longer had any space. Tomorrow night would be the night when the Undead Remnants should have appeared again.
They would have materialised out of thin air, ambushing all that lived. Out of nowhere would they appear, munching on children, silencing the adults, and turning the elderly into ashes.
Thus, it was better to battle now.
Now, when they had yet to breach the city's final defences. Now, when the defenders could still see them.
"Libra,"
The commoners began praying together in their cramped living spaces.
"Oh, master of balance,"
The knights gripped the pommels of their swords till their knuckles turned white.
"Oh, Zodiac of impartiality,"
Even the trapped Adventurers, who had always been so carefree, now looked grim.
"Please continue to allow us to govern the balance,"
The nobles each said their own prayers as they coordinated their defences.
"Don't let us tip to one, heavier side."
Athelei whispered as a subtle smirk spread across his lips. Grey fog leaked out of his fleshy body, spreading thinly all around his 4.5-kilometre range—the range that had grown with his [Psychic] growth.
It was now the dawn of a new day, a new month.
Night and day had found an equilibrium at this moment. The lively west and the dead east each occupied a half. Beasts and monsters shifted as separate parts.
The fate of Avina now hung in the balance.
And as the balance was tipped, when night turns into day, when life and death collide, and when beasts and monsters run to their prey, chaos will descend.
Humans, beasts, and monsters.
The orchestrating Nightwalkers, the lurking Exiled, and the defending Nobles.
All their gears began spinning with a collective roar.
RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!
And so began the first of May.
.
.
.
The battlefield had initially been divided into two balanced halves and four large safe zones.
The balanced halves were obvious;
The western floods and the eastern undead.
The four large safe zones were similar;
The Arthime territory, Veritas hills, as well as Sky Cross stayed dry in the western floods. The lonely Lotus mountain was defending the east.
There were a few smaller safe zones, mostly the territories of the other nobles, but they were not as heavily defended nor as threatened when compared to the four large safe zones.
The two halves of the battlefield had begun to blend together as the flood broke through the earthen barriers that had been impeding its advance. The arrival of Ultlhasiair had caused a miniature tidal wave that allowed the waters to spill into undead territories.
The water flowed without remorse and began to consume the rest of Avina's low grounds.
Now, the east was flooding too.
As for the undead, they began to scale the hills where the humans hid in terror. To get to their prey, they ignored the rushing currents around them and devoured as much life as they could. They walked through the rivers that had formed due to the floods and snatched every beast that caught their eye.
The beasts were serving themselves on a silver platter, so why would the undead refuse a feast?
With the influx of lives, the death toll grew.
The waters that flooded into the east turned a weird shade of grey as the bodies of the beasts were turned into ashes.
The undead that emerged from the floods all looked horrendous as they took on traits of the deep-sea beasts they absorbed into themselves.
Rows and rows of teeth lined the Undead Remnant's maws, wriggling like tentacles at the same time.
Hundreds of eyes lined their bodies as they crawled forward with a variety of appendages. Pincers, claws, legs, tails, fins, and the like, appeared every now and then as if the undead were showing off their creative skills.
Their grey bodies were clad in different types of scales and shells, all coloured in the same dull grey.
And the red candlelight of their sentience burned like bonfires.
Lightning crackled above the Arthime territory as Lady Karire felt the churning Mystic Energy around her body. Her Mystic Pattern circle stubbornly stayed lit above her head, creating a swirl of storm clouds and letting loose a heavy rain.
Powerful winds lifted her body and made her lighter than ever. The shackles of gravity were loosened, as Lady Karire was granted the ability to leap high into the sky and glide.
Perhaps if her studies leaned less into the storms, she could've achieved flight.
But she chose her awe-inspiring command over lightning and thunder.
BOOM!
A particularly large streak of branching lightning appeared like a crack in a sky of glass. The thunder that came with it shook people's hearts more than the roars of Ulthasiair.
Lady Karire stood atop her grand tower which stood like a pillar holding up the sky. Hundreds of Mystic Patterns had lit up along its sides, forming four of her [Malicious Storm] circles. From up here, she could see the entirety of Avina and strike wherever her rain poured.
With the aid of her tower, she was stronger than ever.
BOOM!
Lady Karire pointed at a foe she had once fled from. With her fingers, she conducted a lightning show.
Another [Malicious Storm] circle appeared in front of her, working with the circle created by her tower that willed the storm above into existence. Chain lightning then struck the sea serpent Ulthasiair from above, turning the world into a bright day for a moment.
U R R R R Y A A A A A H
The sound of Ulthasiair wailing in agony shook the waters all around. Its entire body writhed and thrashed as sparks flickered across its 300-metre-long body.
Ulthasiair roared in rage, lunging forward in a mad dash towards the Arthime territory.
But the myth that lightning never struck one place twice was a blatant falsehood. Lady Karire waved her slender fingers once again, consuming a large amount of Mystic Energy to summon another frightening bolt of lightning.
BOOM!
Ulthasiair had to reel back in pain as electricity coursed violently through the length of its body. Another ear-rending cry shook the waters as the sea beast writhed violently and caused a large amount of savage destruction.
But Lady Karire seemed to have more.
She waved her fingers four more times, making the Mystic Patterns on her tower suddenly dim.
A large influx of Mystic Energy poured into four Mystic Pattern circles that commanded four more rumbling flashes of lightning.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Like beating a drum, every bolt fell unto Ulthasiair as if the sky hated the beast's existence. Lady Karire was playing a song to vent her bubbling waves of anger.
All the elites of Avina who watched this literally thunderous display all gulped.
Seeing an Artist perform in their home ground was always a sight to see.
WOOOOOOOONG!
Another Mystic Pattern circle appeared around the Arthime territory, but instead of Lady Karire's tower glowing with hundreds of Mystic Patterns, the mansion itself glowed with numerous milky white lights. With that Mystic Pattern circle came a sound that trumped both the thunders and the beastly cries.
But this sound was adeptly controlled as it sent forth waves upon waves of bone-shaking blasts at the invading Undead Remnants. The monsters that had been scaling the slopes of the Arthime territory faced a reverberation that kicked them off of their feet and back into the floods.
The Artist pair who headed the Arthime family was letting loose.
Those who had sought shelter in their art-filled territory sighed in relief as they watched their guardians push the enemy back.
But Athelei, who was among them, couldn't help but sigh.
"Can Sir Xiu and Lady Karire keep this up forever..? Unrealistic." He whispered to himself. A conflicted light flashed through his eyes as he admired the battle that raged around him,
"...How long will they last?"