Chapter 34 - 289-304

289 Reaching Cambridge City

Only one wave of ultimate attacks of them was enough to clear the entire area around the hole for almost hundreds of metres. If I wanted, I could have let them stay here and keep killing the rest.

But it would be a waste of their might. I decided early on to leave this feast for my soulers.

As for my fallen gods, they still got a bigger stage to shine on.

This time the hole wasn't protected by anyone from the inside. I was prepared to take another deadly hit from that ring of light, yet it seemed it was a one time attack or something.

That race… He has a lot in his arsenal. I hope they'd deplete most of their unique items by fighting the other races inside.

The moment I passed through the hole, I found the city stretching underneath. The first thing I spotted was the big surface of water lying just a few hundred metres away from me.

It was a lake! The first thing I saw here was such a big lake!

I instantly looked around. As expected, this lake was surrounded with dense numbers of monsters. Familiar big aquatic, octopus-like monsters were filling the entire land around the lake.

I turned to look at the map. According to it, the city here had three lakes in different sizes on the north, and one big river arching the southern borders of it.

That river was called Charles river. It was also what separated the city from Boston. According to the map and the size of the lake nearby, I knew this was the biggest lake here, called the Fresh Pond.

I didn't know why I found the name quite silly. It was quite obvious this lake was formed of fresh pure water, not salty ocean waters.

Anyway this was what the citizens of this city decided to call this lake with. There must be one gate underneath this pond, with two others lying underneath much smaller lakes on the East from here.

As for the remaining two gates, I didn't need to look or speculate for them. They must be underneath that river.

From my past experience in dealing with those monsters, I knew it wasn't necessary for me to go searching for all the underwater gates.

The five gates would be linked together underneath the city in a giant underground space.

I knew I would only need to crash through one gate and then I'd find the other four waiting for me there. Yet the question here was: Should I attack this gate right here or wait?

Of course the decision wasn't up to me to take. I just arrived in the city, so I lacked any knowledge about the current skirmishes going on all around the place.

Just moving my eyes around was enough to tell me how bad and complicated the situation here was. Every single inch in the city was bombarded by violent explosions, lightened up with many flashes of light.

To make the dark picture complete, thick tongues of smoke rose up from everywhere in the city. Yet what was remarkable was that many parts of the city were still intact.

That was weird! Just from the waves of explosions I heard, the city should be destroyed at least once!

But for unknown reasons, these devastating attacks only shook the city, and didn't cause any significant damage to it.

The first thing I had to do now was to determine where the MIT campus was. I looked at the map and didn't find any place marked for that significantly important place.

Sigh! I had to ask them for directions.

I forgot to add Maven as my friend before leaving. So the only two ways I had were to go and ask Hilary to ask him, or to directly find his contract among my long contract list in my profile and message him through it.

Of course I chose the first, it was much easier for Hilary to find him.

[It's situated near The big river in the south] she sent me this message before adding, [We already cleared the debris here. The shelter they have here is really colossal!]

I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. All I needed now was for that shelter to be spacious enough to accommodate all my forces. Aside from that, it was meaningless for me to be honest.

But if my chick was interested in it, then I wouldn't say a word against it.

I looked at the direction of the big river. At this moment I called my chariot again, filled it with my warriors. I didn't summon any soulers, only dragons and fallen gods were enough.

After all, I didn't intend to directly join the clashes here. I had to make a big tour around the city first before deciding anything else.

*Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

Yet just as I was about to move, I was welcomed with a barrage of projectiles from the aquatic monsters around the pond. It wasn't a big deal as I used the full speed of my chariot, directly avoiding such attacks.

Yet as I flew fast, the sky all around was filled with many flashing projectiles. It looked for a moment as if the ground and sky switched places and it was now raining from the ground instead of the sky!

My aim was to get away from the range of these projectiles and go towards that river. Just as I was getting closer to it, another volley of attack welcomed me from five different directions!

They all came from the directions of the river, but not from the same spot. Five different places… Interesting!

I knew there were two missing gates here, but when did they become five? I looked at the directions of the projectiles coming while controlling my chariot to evade most of them.

Of course their aim was clear; they wanted to stop me from getting to the MIT campus. Yet no matter how hard they tried, I'd arrive there.

290 A Nice Idea

I kept moving in the air for a few minutes. During which I already confirmed the places of these gates.

Five… There were five gates in that damn river! Three were in the segment separating Boston from Cambridge. The remaining two came, one from the east and one from the south.

Interesting… As I could tell, the two on the west and east belonged to the gates of this city. Yet only one of the front segments of Charles river belonged to Cambridge.

The other two must be from Boston city. Alright, I never imagined I'd have to fight against the two cities monsters like that.

But they already summoned lots of monsters on both banks of the river. Of course they weren't just having their fun without any pressure.

I could see lots of forces fighting against these monsters with all their might. I saw humans, Berserkers, and even Dragons fighting the Hector forces.

Yet that wasn't still a hopeful situation for me. After all these forces weren't fighting under any agreement or any form of unity.

They were fighting among each other. Not to mention the Hectors didn't sum up most of their big monster forces without supporting these with tons of cannon fodders and different races.

Even I spotted many one hundred groups of Hector races, like the ones I got rid of before at Brookline city.

But at least these forces were putting lots of pressure over the Hectors. What made me helplessly sigh was the aquatic monsters on the other side of the river.

They were inside Boston city, yet their range of attack was able to reach my chariot inside Cambridge. I didn't imagine I'd have to fight both cities' forces this early on.

So, should I retreat? Should I find another gathering spot for my forces or what?

Well… I would never do that!

"If you want to prevent me this hard from reaching there, then it's just more reason for me to crush all of this."

I grinned evilly, simply raised my chariot up until I almost reached the high dome of that shield. Even being there wasn't enough to stop the dense rain of these projectiles.

Yet it was enough for me to get a better general view over the two cities. I couldn't get to the borders of Boston. After all, that city was very big compared to Cambridge.

But at least I could see what lies beyond that brutal battle at the other side of the river. The Hectors weren't having a good time in Boston. As far as I could see, the city was divided mostly between the Dragons, the Berserkers, and the Selvators.

The three stretched their forces, controlling almost eighty percent of the entire area I saw from Boston. I didn't need to activate my hawk skill as knowing more wasn't going to be of any help for now.

So even if they were putting such a strong show around the river, they weren't in fact having the upper hand at Boston.

Hmm… That inspired me with an idea. But before executing it, I turned to examine the city of Cambridge with more attention this time.

The city was filled with two races mainly; humans and Hector forces. As for the other three races, they were present but only around their gates.

They seemed to save up their forces and only defend these gates. Or perhaps they were Fang's and Wryly remaining forces. I couldn't really tell them apart.

But comparing the two cities, I finally made up my mind. It was better to execute my plan before doing anything else.

"Time to leave a few eyes down there," I instantly led my chariot to head in a direct course to the ground. I already spotted the MIT campus. It wasn't that hard to find with all the heavy defences and lots of human forces surrounding it.

But I didn't head towards it. I aimed for a spot not far from the campus. During my sudden fall, many projectiles finally landed over my shield, issuing massive explosive bangs all over the world.

Yet I was confident in my child's ability to withstand these attacks. The projectiles weren't that strong alone, but with such dense numbers they were deadly.

But I only needed to endure this for a few seconds before finally stopping my chariot only tens of metres off the ground.

"Come forth," I summoned one thousand soulers in that brief moment before returning again to fly high in the air.

The explosive sounds of the projectiles were stopped for one second as they missed my chariot. But then they returned the moment I rose high up.

"Time to teach you a small lesson," I evilly grinned, "not to mess with a human called Hye again."

My eyes shone as I led my chariot and started to move fast across the river. The distance wasn't that big, and the period when I crossed the river was really tense.

The monsters were much closer now to my chariot. So the frequency of their attacks became much more aggressive. Yet I managed to cross the distance, all the way to the areas not under the control of Hectors.

"Good evening," once I got away from the range of those monsters' projectiles, I shouted in a cheerful tone before adding, "I know you came here to get something from Fang and Wryly. But who told you this city initially belonged to any of these two? Did you ask for my permission before coming here?"

"Hahahaha! Pathetic human!"

"A lovely pet! I want him!"

"Is he serious?"

"Come on guys, we have a clown here to entertain us!"

"Let's hunt him down and trap him in a cage."

Many shouts and insults rose from every corner in this big city. Of course I meant my words to the letter, but I didn't mean to directly clash with them here.

"Show them your might, my mighty boys," I simply pointed my glaive at the entire area beneath my chariot while giving the orders for my fallen gods and dragons to attack.

And without any surprise, the entire part of the city below my chariot turned into a real piece of hell!

291 Divide And Conquer

This time I saw it clearly. Just as the waves of attacks landed down from my forces at the city, something flashed forming a thin layer that protected the city buildings.

I didn't know what it was, and didn't get a clear vision over the colour of that light. After all the attacks landed fiercely and exploded violently.

But it was enough to tell me that there was someone here protecting the city buildings. Who he was or what was his real purpose from doing that, I didn't know.

Of course I hoped he would be a friend. But if not, then I'd have to kill him even if he worked this hard to preserve my two crown jewelled cities.

My fierce attack came as a big and unpleasant surprise to all the fighting forces down below.

Just as I was pouring hell over their heads, the Hectors pushed their forces, slightly getting closer to aim at my chariot.

But before they could start attacking, I started to further move away from them in a calculated way. At the same time, I kept attacking relentlessly while the three races started to wake up from their initial shock.

It seemed these forces came from regions far from here. My fame wasn't that big yet, not enough to let other races far away to know about my threatening presence.

Yet that also played quite well for my plan. I slowly kept moving away from that river, getting closer to the ocean.

Of course my plan wasn't to go there. If the small ponds of water had gates in their bottoms, then the ocean wouldn't?

I was aware of the presence of another force of monsters at the ocean shore by now. These monsters were initially acting lazy, only standing idle until I started my sudden move and crossed the river.

Since then, they started to show noticeable movements, trying to arrange their forces to attack me.

Yet halfway through this part of Boston, I suddenly shifted my direction to the west. There were a bunch of small lakes scattered there in the distance, but they seemed to lack any presence of those annoying gates and aquatic monsters.

That was good news for me. After all, my target was to just keep pestering all the hostile forces here, separating part of the Hector forces away from the Cambridge side.

Of course that came with attracting all the attention of the hostile forces of the three other races to me. By now, I was almost in the heart of Boston, tightly surrounded and closely chased by all the four races.

"See you later," like a child playing and fooling around, I waved at all of them before finally releasing the real speed of my chariot.

In a flash my chariot passed a large distance while getting as high up as possible until I reached the shield. I didn't stop there, as I kept moving towards Cambridge, finally crossing it in a span of a few minutes.

What I did was to attract the enemies like bees on honey, then I kept away the honey. So the bees would first be at loss, then they would turn from bees to deadly wasps!

After all, the four races gathered up here without properly arranging their formations, closely in contact with the other races they were hostile with.

With my absence, going as far as Cambridge city on the other side of the river, they would find no other enemy to fight except themselves.

Just as I crossed over to the other side of the river, the loud shouts of the brutal fight started, making me unable to control my laughs.

It didn't need strength and numbers to win a war. Sometimes one man could make all the difference, all by himself.

I didn't waste any further time after that. The next instant I summoned all my forces and even the Albany city monsters.

The first ten thousands I summoned were mostly killed before. So I had to summon another batch of them. It felt great watching my forces crash through all the lines of the enemy forces, letting them fall with muffled thudding sounds on the ground like pieces of dominoes.

And as I was finally acting against the Hector forces here, the human forces stationed nearby started to attack fiercely as well.

From the first minutes of this fight, I could tell apart two sides clearly from the human forces. One was fighting with much experience and admirable and quite familiar organisation, while the other looked messy and much weaker in comparison.

The numbers of two sides weren't close. The organised side was mostly around thirty thousands, and the other side was over two hundred thousands.

But if you asked me which one was more effective here then the smaller side of course. And that wasn't surprising at all. After all, this small group was the remaining part of that cult.

The fight started brutally from the start. With the presence of my Albany city monsters, I wasn't worried about the fate of this battle.

Yet I also was aware that to end this fight for good, I had to go through the river and close the gates under the city.

I wanted to do that, but couldn't. After all Things seemed a bit different here considering the presence of the two cities this close to each other.

So first I had to push back the enemy monsters, stabilise the situation, go down there and have a short word with people leading the human forces below.

I needed to know more details about the situation here. Also I wanted to ask about the strength and numbers of humans in the city.

I also needed to wait a bit longer until Wryly's and Fang's forces would come to me. After all, it would be better to fight with all the forces I could muster here.

So, first things first… Let's go and smash those monsters and push them back all the way to the damn river they came from.

292 Securing MIT Campus

The fight wasn't as easy as I thought. The monsters coming from the river seemed to grow in magnitude, covering the entire river bank at the side of Cambridge city.

It was clear that the Hectors leading this fight decided to focus all their forces here. The army I separated was still fighting brutally against the three races armies in the middle of Boston.

Yet with their absence, things didn't look that good here either. I kept watching the fight high from my chariot, analysing the enemy movements, looking for a chance to go and close the gates down below if possible.

With the sudden rise in the number of monsters, things didn't look that promising to me. I had to put aside that move for now, and am currently focusing only on driving the monsters back to the river.

"Focus your fire over the river side," as the ground battle was intense, I had to find a way to relieve the pressure over the forces down below.

The combined army of my forces and the human forces here weren't enough to stop the influx of the new aquatic monsters. They barely contained the situation and made an unmovable frontline just five hundred metres away from the MIT campus.

It wasn't enough! I wanted to drive all the monsters back to the river side at least. But seeing how hard they were struggling down below, I had to go to the river and start attacking on my own.

Of course with my presence there, many monsters changed their aim and tried to take me down. I kept controlling my chariot as best as I could, evading as many projectiles as possible.

"Keep firing!" And at the same time, I kept my forces on board busy launching deadly attacks over the river side.

My shield kept getting bombarded with projectiles, yet I always kept the stored stat points inside my chariot's heart above fifty million all the time.

That was the safest limit I could accept. And with that, the aquatic monsters could only attack without dreaming about hitting the chariot or hurting me.

With that, I kept my chariot flashing right and left across the curved bank of the river. During this, my forces kept showering this side of the river with deadly attacks, clearing large chunks of enemy in every breath.

Yet in the next breath, more enemies would pop up from the river. At this point, I started to seriously consider building an aquatic force, led by none other than my krakens.

I haven't summoned any kraken sync the first time I got them. In fact summoning fallen gods or even dragons came always as top priority to me compared to these.

But right now… It became more obvious how Hectors value water battles. If I kept depending on ground forces like this, I would always be on the passive side.

Yet again there was the number problem. After all, each kraken monster would take five thousand soul points to summon. Currently my soul stack is getting higher in each passing minute, almost close to five million points for now.

Despite how big that number might seem, in fact it was far from enough. Even with ten million souls, I could summon two thousand krakens at most.

Compared to the tens or even hundreds of thousands of monsters brought to the waters by these Hectors, my boys looked small and not enough.

I needed at least fifty to one hundred thousand krakens. Something like this would be enough to balance such fights and make a difference.

If my soul couldn't solve it, then my bones could. I decided to go and ask for that winged nymph help once I settled this fight.

Mentioning her, she already finished gathering the second batch of captured races. She sent me a message while I was running amok in Boston.

But it wasn't yet time to receive them. I needed to get done here first, then see what I could do later on.

I kept attacking the river non-stop for the next hour. Since my appearance here, most of the focus of all the monsters was attracted to me.

That helped a lot in relieving the pressure up front. The combined human and my forces pushed the frontline all the way to less than three hundred metres from the river side.

It was enough. After all, less space was enough to deprive the monsters of the numerical advantage.

That didn't mean the Hectors were out of solutions. Just during this hour, they managed to summon a new army at the other river side, at Boston city, enough to threaten the forces at Cambridge.

If not for this army, my forces would have long captured the river already. I looked at the inside of Boston. These Hectors… "They are really merciless and decisive!" I muttered while watching the fight ending in a three race clash.

The Hectors decided to sacrifice all the monster army in return for keeping the three races busy. I only hoped for Hectors to call back their monsters, bringing the fight to the other side of the river.

But they were much smarter and more decisive than I initially thought. I considered repeating what I did here, go and bring the three races' armies to this side.

Yet that wasn't going to help. After all, my real goal was accomplished already. This side of Cambridge was secured for now. My next goal should be controlling the entire city, or take down that shield for good.

Before doing any of that, I had first to go and check on the ground forces. I needed to organise things here first. The top priority was to securely defend this campus at all costs.

As for taking down the shield or taking control of the city, I could easily do it alone.

With that I stopped attacking the river for now, and went directly back towards the MIT campus.

The campus itself was big, almost one mile over the border of Charles river. The Campus part opposite to the river was filled with loud bangs and many shouts of war.

If I wanted to select one word to describe this campus then it would; Green!

293 Treason!

Everything I could see around the buildings here was filled with such rich green colour. It would be a nice play to live in, but that would be for another time.

As for now, I just landed my chariot in the middle of a group of ancient looking buildings, with one in the middle that gave me a roman empire feeling.

It had many columns and a big dome in its upper part. It must be something iconic for this place, something that lost its significance since the start of the apocalypse.

"Come," I called forth a few dragons of mine, "go over there and look for the leaders of the group of humans fighting here. I want to meet with them, so bring them on your backs and make sure they stay away from harm."

"Roar!" My dragons could speak if they wanted to, but it seemed they loved to roar instead of using human tongue. I watched them fly away towards the direction of the ongoing violent clashes while being lost in thought.

This battle… It was supposed to be a nice walk in the garden before. If not only for those damn Hectors, I'd have taken control over these cities here and started merging them together.

Yet things escalated to such tense heights, making me wonder if I lost my luck or what.

[How are things at your part?] As I waited for the dragons to come back with the ones I needed, I sent this message to Hilary.

[Waiting for your message, shall we go into the tunnels now?]

[Not yet] I sighed. This move seemed to take much longer than I expected, [Have everyone come to you yet or what?]

[That lousy girl of yours is here with that cold dude] I knew she was referring to the jumper and Karoline, [But there are still few missing as they said]

[Let's wait for them then]

[Won't we attack soon?]

[Things are quite messy here. Just stand by and wait]

I closed the chat and yet my dragons were nowhere to be seen. "Sigh, alright let me check over the other lazy two…"

[Where are your forces buddy?]

Even after the passage of over one hour, Wryly and Fang's forces were nowhere to be seen. I thought they would take much shorter than that to come to me.

So it looked weird.

[They are all dead!]

[We got ambushed midway by forces of the other archlord]

Yet the two messages I received weren't the ones I expected. [Don't tell me you run short on your forces!] I sent two. Even if their forces here got ambushed, they still got one gate each to use.

Why didn't they send their reinforcements yet? Didn't they know how important this fight was for the two of them?

[The gates are gone!]

[The entire gates at your place belong to the enemy]

Again they managed to surprise me with their words. Damn! How inefficient a couple of dudes they were!

If one of them was ambushed then it wouldn't be that weird. But the two of them? And that happened just when I was lashing the butts of those aquatic monsters! How in the world did this happen?

One simple word popped up into my mind; treason! They both were betrayed by their own forces. So simply put, their forces didn't die, instead they changed coats and decided to join the other archlords.

What? Was their reputation this shallow in their own races? Were they a losing ship? No way!

I already invested so much in these two. They held lots of keys to my future plans. I'd never allow them to go down or break free from me no matter what.

What if their remaining forces changed coats? That wasn't something I'd bother myself with. Instead of working with these two forces to take control over the city, I'd just work a little harder and much smarter to achieve my goals.

If the two gates here fell already in the other archlords hands, then it would be better to use that to my advantage. There were no allies here in the two cities.

All forces were hostile to each other. But I held one big advantage over any other forces here; I got the Hectors' Argo.

Anywhere I'd go to, the Hector forces in that area would automatically target me. Like what I did back in Boston, I intended to replicate this also here.

Even if the other three races took notice of my actions, they had nothing else to do. Even if they retreated and fortified themselves heavily behind the walls of their castles, I'd go knocking over their doors and lead the 'Hector forces all the way to them.

There was only one way out of here, which was to eliminate as many foes as possible from the entire board. Instead of wasting my efforts over this, it was better to use the help of Hectors.

"Why are they taking all this time to come?" After I finished planning out what I was going to do, it felt weird for my dragons to not come here yet.

I looked at the direction of the river again, and this time I totally froze. The river side was filled with strange deadly looking sharp and gigantic lances, all pointing towards the direction of the river side here.

Damn! Those Hectors… Do they still have many aces up their sleeves or what?

"Come forth!" At this moment I didn't need to hesitate. I simply took out my precious pillar, and with a simple move, it was planted in the ground, half a metre away from me.

"Thundering Might skill," I softly murmured, activating at last one of the skills of this pillar.

And with a fwoosh, that pillar shone in bright red and yellow light, expanding upward like it was aiming to touch the clouds. But it was stopped by the current shield covering the entire city.

Then something unbelievable just happened!

294 The Battlefield Arena Challenge

I initially planned for the pillar to execute its skill and form a big shield around my forces. My biggest concern was to lose too much over there and that would threaten MIT campus next.

But when that pillar extended towards the sky and was stopped by the already existing shield, that shield suddenly trembled as if it was getting an earthquake.

That trembling came as a surprise. Yet what happened next was more shocking. The pillar didn't stop there as it extended furthermore upwards as if there was nothing in this world to stop it.

And as it kept rising up, a big hole started to appear, showing the inner gap in the shield's two layers.

This was fine so far. After all, I was well aware of the presence of that gap. Yet when it ascended beyond my sight, I felt it emitting a strange wave of heat.

It felt like it was burning or getting baptised by fire somewhere. I didn't let go of it, and then a weird message popped up.

[You activated the Thundering Might skill of your pillar. The skill has already met a similar one with the same authority of the caster like you. You have a decision here to make]

[You can either ignore the old shield and focus entirely on forming a new one, or you can merge the two skills together, fighting for dominance over the final shield]

[The last one standing will be the owner if you decided to fight for the ownership of the final shield]

[It's your choice]

I blinked as I reread these messages more than thrice. Was it true? Did I have a chance to take control over that annoying shield?

"I agree to fight!" even before fully realising what was going on here, I instantly agreed. I was afraid such a chance might slip by and would miss a valuable and rare opportunity to overcome that shield.

Damn! If I could get control over this shield then nothing could stop me here. I waited impatiently for the system to give me the conditions of this battle.

Would it be a battle of fists or wits? Or would it be a battle or riches? I couldn't guess what was going to happen, yet I was so welcoming.

I never dreamt of having such an opportunity, and I was so determined to take full advantage of it.

This damn shield… Just wait, I'd take full control over you and turn this fight upside down for my good.

[The battlefield arena between you and your opponent is set]

[You can access it now in five… Four… Three… Two… One]

[Please pass through the gate and get to the battlefield arena]

A gigantic portal appeared next in front of me. Its size was so immensely huge, enough to encompass my entire chariot within.

"Is it allowed for me to bring forth my chariot?" I muttered to myself before deciding to give it a try. The system never did anything out of coincidence. And the size of this portal weirdly matched the chariot's huge size.

Just as I decided, I led my chariot to pass through the portal. It felt like getting immersed in deep cold water. And just before a gush of bright light blindfolded my eyes, I got to see these row of messages:

[You can bring anything non-living inside the battlefield arena]

[All your living subordinates are going to be left behind]

[You can't use any help from any living person, god, or subordinate in there]

[Welcome to the battlefield arena]

[The rules are simple: as the challenger, you have to find your opponent and kill him within the time limit given]

[The time inside the battlefield arena works in separation from the outside world. So the time spent here isn't equal to the time spent outside]

[If you fail to kill your opponent within the time limit, you will lose the battle. The final shield will belong to him. The pillar ownership will return to him. You'll lose half of everything you got in your inventory and in your account. Even your class won't be spared]

[You can't renege on the challenge. Either you kill and win or be defeated and lose]

[Death in the arena isn't real. You or your opponent will live after this with the consequences of such challenge]

[Winning will grant you the ownership of the final shield]

[Winning will grant you one half of the opponent inventory and account belongings]

[Winning will grant you a higher ownership rank for your pillar]

[Good luck. You'll get information about your opponent once reaching there]

I looked up at all these messages in a daze before the bright light blinded me. The blindness continued for a few minutes before everything cleared and I could see that arena.

"F*ck! What the heck is that?!!"

Yet unlike what I expected, this arena was something else. I looked for something similar to a rounded big and spacious arena, enough for two strong contenders to compete against each other.

But what I saw in front of me was something else. A world! An entire big and open green world of forests.

I was on top of my chariot, standing on a very high point in the sky. I could see almost for tens of miles around, yet it felt like I couldn't see enough.

"This… Is this another world or what?" I looked around again in doubt, trying to find a speck of hope in the middle of all this greenery.

Yet I couldn't spot any battlefield arena at all. What? Don't tell me the arena was this entire world!! That couldn't be true!

[Welcome to the Lucrative world] but the message I received cleared all the doubts I had.

It was a real different world, and it seemed I had to fight against my opponent in such a colossal wide place.

I looked again around and one thought only kept flashing in my mind, emitting gloomy black light in my head. Wasn't that challenge all about finding him and killing that bastard?

295 A Paragon?!!!

How could I find him here? Damn! Even if I got an entire year, I wouldn't be able to execute this task no matter how hard I tried.

Finding him? In here? Come on! Even finding a needle in a haystack was more possible than finding that enemy of mine.

[You are invited here for the battlefield arena challenge]

[Your task is to find your opponent in the next eighty-four hours and kill him. Failing to do so will make you a loser in this challenge]

[The world is the same size as your world. To compensate for that, you'll have your ride speed increased by five folds without increasing the consumption of energy]

[Warning: you can't get access to the market]

[Warning: All connections with the outside world is severed]

[Warning: your channel is just working in one direction. Your subscribers can only watch without contacting you]

[Warning: Your opponent is already here!]

Damn! Even my channel was blocked! Forty-eight hours! Wasn't that equal to one day in the apocalypse?

One day? My forces would be annihilated if I didn't finish this up in the next few minutes! I looked around and could only helplessly accept my fate.

I couldn't do anything to help them. Sorry guys, you are on your own now.

I was even deprived of the right to summon my warriors. In such a vast place, using my dragons and warriors to scan the ground and sky was a good thing I couldn't use now.

So… I was in an alien world, having nothing except my chariot, and I had to find that bastard and kill him in less than forty-eight hours.

If I was him, I'd run as fast as I could away from me. Compared to him, my place was clearly visible to him miles away.

My chariot… Damn! It turned from my advantage into my disadvantage. Should I call it back? But that meant I'd have to scan the world blindly on foot!

It wasn't even possible to do that! The only thing I could do now was to just keep it around and try to search for him.

But where was he in the first place? And who was that damn bastard?

[Your enemy isn't far from you. Yet his specific location can't be pinpointed for you]

As expected! Keep giving him the f*cking damn advantage one after another! Fair system? Humph, fair my as*!!

[Your enemy is one of the paragons of the Hector race. He is called Smith. Here is his picture for your to recognise]

What the heck?!! My enemy… he was a paragon! A f*cking paragon! For god sake! What did I just get myself into?!!

The next moment a screen flashed in front of me. It wasn't a picture but a live feed, like one that belonged to my channel.

And there I saw the face of a very serious guy. He was covered in fine golden red scales, with a sharp looking elliptical pair of eyes.

He looked smart, strong, and not easy to kill. Yet what was good about this was that it showed what he was doing at this moment.

He wasn't running as I expected. He raised his head, looking in fixation towards a certain point in the sky.

Wait a second… Was he looking at me at this moment?

I couldn't help but raise one hand high in the air, before closing all fingers except my middle one. If he was looking at me right now then it was good to issue such an insulting challenge towards him.

For a second there I swore I saw his face twitching, like he clenched his jaw muscles. Damn! It was true then! That bastard… he was so close to perfectly seeing me and my finger.

[Your feed screen will appear once per hour. It will also appear for your enemy at the same time. Each appearance will last for one minute before closing up. The feed can transmit images and sound]

"Oh… So you can hear me motherf*cker?" I looked directly at the screen and then that scaled bastard turned his face towards the screen as well.

It seemed as if the screen appeared in front of him at this moment. Or he was just oblivion just like me of what all this was about.

"You are that ant who tried to touch his gods? Humph, it's a good thing you challenged me then. I'll make sure you'll regret all of this."

His voice didn't carry anything but arrogance and complete confidence. That dude… he gave me an even worse feeling than when I met that dragon archlord before.

"Let's see how good you are then. Come on, I'm standing all here and will wait for you."

"Hahaha, thinking of me like those damn stupid winged lizards?" he laughed, as if I said a funny joke or something.

"Then just stay still, I'll come and shave those scales off your body one by one."

"An empty threat that holds no weight," he snorted, "if your race was even one thousand times better than what they are, I might have felt threatened right now."

We both stopped talking, only kept looking at one another as if we two stood in front of each other. Damn you! I couldn't even think such a race would combine arrogance, strength, and intelligence in one.

Just before the screen would flash and close, I raised my middle finger again. Even if he was feeling reassured about his odds here, I would never show any sign of defeat, not even in front of him.

As the screen vanished, I knew the real fight would begin.

Even if I failed to taunt him to attack me, I could at least recognise the spot he was at.

I saw a small running water stream just ten metres behind him. There was some sort of a hill not far from him. So I was looking for a stream of water in an area adjacent to a hill.

296 The Two Missed Treasures

But in the middle of all such greenery, wasn't such a stream of water common? Then I should look for any hills anywhere here.

I started to move my chariot around fast. The earth underneath me looked like it was covered in a thick blanket of green trees.

I couldn't even see through the thick layer of trees with the help of my hawk eye skill. After half an hour of flying in circles, I lost my earlier excitement and couldn't help but helplessly drop this idea.

In such a world, and under such conditions, how could I find him? Was there even a chance for me to find him?

In fact I wasn't feeling hopeful at all.

Out of my boredom and frustration, I thought of crushing all the trees here using my chariot pulse wave attack and ground separation skill.

I started ruining the ground all around. Large pieces of earth started to get elevated before being thrown away into other locations.

The pulse wave attacks didn't help that much except for crushing down the tall and thick crowns of the trees. Apart from that, I couldn't find any more uses for it.

So I kept using the ground separation attacks, trying to luckily find that bastard. However, whom am I fooling? That bastard was able to see me miles away. Would he stay this close to me? Would he wait for me to elevate the ground or throw these pieces over his head?

Sigh… What an impossible quest that was!

The first hour passed fast without achieving anything. Again that screen popped up and that bastard appeared in front of me.

"Yawn… So much expected from a low race… Yawn…" he kept stretching up, yawning on purpose as if he was humiliating me.

"Just wait… I swear your sweet neck will belong to me in the end," I tried to control my anger, yet hardly succeeded in doing that.

"Don't let me die while waiting for you then," he laughed while the screen closed. Like before, the scenery around him didn't show anything specific or recognizable at all.

Damn! Damn! Damn! This couldn't continue! Not like that!!

As I was already burning from inside out from anger, I started to check my arsenal inside my inventory, looking for anything that might be useful.

"Scrolls? They might be useful…" I paused and hesitated to take these scrolls out. In fact I got tons of these things in my inventory, almost never using them before.

They could create massive damage in limited space. But considering the vast world here, it looked pointless to even use them.

"Hmm… How did I forget about this?"

I took out something that I acquired a long time ago. Just looking at this compass made me think I got it in another lifetime or something.

How did I forget about it? And just seeing it and holding it in my hands made me recall another item that I got at the same time with this compass.

Before checking the other item, I opened the description window of this compass. I believed I had never used this compass before. And now? Hell, it was the perfect stage for it to clear all the dust off it and finally shine.

[Anubis Desire compass: A compass to guide anyone to his most desired thing. Grade pale gold godly treasure. It's rumoured to be used by the Anubis god himself back when he supervised the matters of humans on Earth.

Using the compass to point towards the direction of your most wanted desire. You just need to think about a single desire and focus most on it before using the compass.

Each time usage needed five million coins. The compass will keep pointing towards the direction until you reach it. You can't use it until you reach the destination of the previous desire first.

Can't be blocked by time, space, or any restrictions.

There is an option for instant teleporting the user to his desired place. The price for such usage is fifty million coins plus one million blessing points, or just by taking the blessing from Anubis god himself and grants you his agreement for using such a function for free.

Can be upgraded under certain conditions. Requiring the help of Anubis god for that]

Damn! Damn! Damn! How did I forget about this gem of mine? I caressed it with extra care, evilly grinning.

That bastard… Just wait! I was sure now I had no other desire than to go and find that bastard.

Before doing anything else, I took out the other item I got from Anubis god.

[The Anubis god Libra: A scale to measure one's soul. Grade white godly treasure. It's rumoured to be used by the Anubis god himself back when he supervised the matters of humans on Earth.

Using it consumes one million coins each time. You select a target and after activating the Libra, you can weigh his soul. If he harbours ill intentions towards your race then he will be cursed for life. His stats will be permanently halved.

Every time he uses stat points to increase his stats he will need double the amount to raise a single point. His cultivation will be halved. His gear stats will be halved.

His life span will be halved. His following forces will have a temporarily halved effect in all stats for one hour. His contract bound forces will be cursed like the master. The curse can't be blocked, elevated by anything except by using the same scale to undo it.

To undo the curse you'll need to consume another million coins. It has a fixed chance of twenty percent to undo the curse of other gods with a price of ten million coins each time.

Can be upgraded under certain conditions. Requiring the help of Anubis god for that]

Of course I used that libra treasure before. It saved my life when I was desperately fighting against the Curasee race and that monster of the dark realm.

And it was its destiny to save my life again here, with the help of the other Anubis treasure.

Of course I ended up allying myself with Sith, another death god, but that wouldn't leave Anubis angry, right? After all they both belonged to the same shrine and ancient civilization.

297 Let The Drums Of War Rumble!

Anyway it wasn't the time to worry about such things. It was great that I could use my coins to use these two. And now the question was; what should I do with these?

Well… the easiest plan was to use the compass and go towards that bastard direction. Yet as effective as it might seem, it wasn't a good plan.

The idea was ok, but if I did that I'd alarm that bastard. It was better to surprise him instead. So I patiently waited, and this time I wasn't feeling any dejected like before.

Instead I was almost feeling my heart throbbing in my chest out of excitement. I started to arrange my moves, depending entirely over the element of surprise to take the best hit off that dude.

Just imagining the look on his face made me uncontrollably laugh. He felt so invincible at the moment, yet he'd never expect what was coming at him.

I waited, counted seconds and minutes that passed so damn slow this time. I felt like time was working against me. When I was helpless and faced the threat of losing this challenge, the clock raced forward.

Yet when I finally got a chance to fight back, that clock was burdened with heavy bags of sand, refusing to move forward except after making me feel more desperate here.

Screw you! If you were a man, I'd love to kill you.

Yet no matter what, the hour finally passed. I placed my helpless look over my face, acting as everything was still going the same.

I stood on my chariot, holding my two precious treasured items firmly within my grasp.

"Still not able to find me? Hahahaha!" The first thing he said once his face appeared on that screen was this. I gave him a cold gaze, feigning my rage.

"Just wait and see… I promise you'll die in my hands."

"Keep dreaming!"

*Fwoosh!*

The first act I did was unexpectedly calling back my chariot. I was still flying at a very high altitude. So just taking away my chariot let my body pause for a brief second before fiercely falling down to the ground.

"You…" Just seeing me doing this made him shocked. Wait dude… I'd come and surprise you any moment now.

The next thing I did was to use my Libra.

[Do you want to curse the paragon of the Hector race?]

[This will deduct one million coins for that]

"Do it!" firmly I said, without any speck of hesitation. The next moment a row of messages kept popping up in front of my face, announcing the rate of activating that curse in its slow motion.

[The Anubis god Libra is weighing the soul of your target]

[The measurement is done]

[That target is judged to be an enemy for you]

[The Libra is cursing the target]

[The cursing process is initiated]

[One percent of the cursing process is done]

[Two percent of the cursing process is done]

[Three percent…]

The rows of messages kept flashing in front of my eyes while the wind kept howling all around me. I knew that curse would take a long time to proceed, so it was the first thing I decided to do after calling back my chariot.

Yet what I didn't expect was for that bastard to sense what I just did to him. From the look over his face, his wide opened eyes and gaped mouth I could tell he was shocked by this.

No pal, this was just the beginning.

"Watch this," I snorted while the next thing I did was to finally use my second treasure.

[Do you want to use the instant teleportation function of the Anubis desired compass?]

[Warning: You'll have to pay fifty million for this function]

[Warning: this can only work on you]

"Just f*cking activate it!" The thing I hated most about the system was its annoying habit of talking too much.

Of course I was well aware of everything I decided to do, or else I'd be a retard!

[Fifty million coins are deducted from your account]

[You are going to be teleported in three… Two… One…]

*Fwoosh!*

Just as I got closer to the ground at a terrifying pace, my body shone brightly and was surrounded with black light. Just before the scenery changed in front of my eyes, I hurriedly summoned my beloved chariot.

*Thud!*

"Ahhh!"

The impact was something I never expected! The falling speed of me was unparalleled, didn't stop or even slow down when I got teleported.

It seemed the compass moved me while keeping my momentum. Just landing over the floor of my chariot made every inch of my body scream in pain.

Yet I tried to endure everything, slowly standing up while grabbing the two treasures back into my hands.

"You…" the look over his face was really priceless. That bastard never imagined I'd find a way to come to him. If he was shocked before when I cursed him using my Libra, then he was now petrified out of shock, like he was this close from dying!

"Hit him!" in a cold tone I slowly muttered, while activating my chariot's two deadly skills at the same moment.

If I could hit him hard then it was this moment where he was shocked to even blink. And just because I didn't need that compass for now, I stored it away while taking out my beloved pair of daggers.

*Fwoosh!* *Bang!* *Flash!*

The three attacks landed mercilessly over him. Just when he woke up from this shock, he got hit by a grand piece of earth that smashed against his body, totally burying him underneath.

The pulse wave attack flashed over his body just one second before he got hit by that large rock. His body was thrown in the air before slammed heavily against the ground by that rock that I controlled.

And in the middle of that, my dagger flashed fast and penetrated his body. The full set of illusion grenades exploded and he was engulfed into an illusion.

298 I'm Going To Kill You!!!

Yet that wasn't what made me grin, the tracking function of my dagger was. Now I didn't only get my compass to find him, but also could easily use my second piece of dagger to keep tracking him.

I didn't even stand in my place for one second. The burden of my pain was thrown at my back for now.

"Let's see how you'll run away this time," and as I reached one of the machine guns installed on the side of my chariot, I evilly laughed while starting a violent rain of explosive grenades from this one and all the ones next to it.

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

And the world was only filled with violent sounds and terrible shakings of the mighty explosions of my grenades.

A paragon? I'd kill you bastard like a street dog!

*Rumble!*

Yet in the middle of my deadly barrage of attack, the entire world rumbled before a pillar of light shone from the thick veiled smoke cloud that enveloped his body.

And in an audible sound, the air shook and was swept away from him, revealing his body and sending back any grenade I fired at him.

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

In the middle of the chaotic explosions of my thrown away grenades everywhere, it was my time to get surprised by him.

He appeared, covered in a thick and strong looking shell of metal that covered his entire body. He wasn't small, with a giant body of four metres.

But now? Heck… that weird metallic suit that covered his body entirely made him much bigger! Instead of his four metres height, he was now reaching ten metres, almost this close from touching the bottom of my chariot.

Damn! That suit looked so damn cool! The suit took the form of that bastard yet in a much bulky and more musculine version.

That Hector race initially had a slim body from the start. They weren't muscular, not like Dragons, not like Selvators, and hellish not like the Berserkers!

Yet this suit made him even more intimidating than any Berserker. I looked at the shiny bulging parts that mimicked strong muscles with envy.

The colour of this suit swayed between golden yellow, red, brown, silver, and blue. It had a thin layer of light that seemed to protect it and its owner from my attacks.

Even after all this barrage, the shell that dude wore had only a few scratches here and there.

"Interesting," I slowly said while that bastard showed another ability of his suit; flying!

He rose up slowly in the air, issuing a silent challenge to me with his actions. He rose until he reached my level, stood there while his head only appeared from a cavity in the upper part of that suit, looking like where a neck should be.

"It's not over yet," he said in a calm tone, yet I could feel how deeply enraged he was, "it's just the damn beginning."

"I like your spirit," I snorted, deliberately mocking him, "keep it even after I stumble over your pretty face with my shoes."

"Let's wait and see who will step over the other," he waved his big arm, and the next instant a group of flying objects appeared all behind him.

They were all cylindrical and slightly elongated in shape, with different sizes. All shone brightly in a dangerous light, seemingly this close from firing their content at my face.

But wait… Who said I was a sitting duck waiting for slaughter? Even if that dude brought such a big hand, it didn't mean I wasn't out of options here.

*Fwoosh!*

Just before the laser fast attacks came from those bunch of deadly pieces, I moved my chariot fast. My girl had a big butt, yet she was sexy as hell while dancing in the air!

Without even getting surprised by it, my chariot moved, flipped upside down, crossed over his head, evading all his attacks without a miss.

*Bang!*

And as he called such a deadly weapon of his, I also summoned one of my deadly weapons as well. That dragon heavy as hell glaive was summoned before I let it fall while passing over that dude's head.

The attacks between the two of us came swiftly and nearly in a fraction of second. As he tried to control his weapons to hit me, my glaive fell over his suit, smashing that thin protective layer of shield off, piercing deeply into his suit and hopefully… His body.

I watched my heavy glaive move slowly before stopping, almost reaching below the midpoint of his suit.

*Fwoosh!*

And without any hesitation I jumped, holding the rope with one hand, before falling heavily over the exposed part of the glaive. I landed over it, slowly pushing it downwards before I threw a hell bunch of my explosive grenades at him.

Then I jumped off my glaive, not to forget taking it back inside my inventory. I controlled my chariot to take me away as fast as possible before my grenades would set off.

And the only thing I heard was his screams of pain and anger, mixed with the ear deafening explosions of my grenades.

I tried to aim these mostly at the gap created by my glaive. It took a minute for the smoke to slowly clear out. I looked at the end of this deadly clash between the two of us with anticipation.

I emerged unscathed, only using a few of my grenades. Yet for him things were much different. That suit he was so much proud of was now cleaved in half all the way from his shoulders down to slightly below the waist.

And that wasn't all! Many holes appeared, small and wide, with few stained with his blood.

He got hurt, at last. That sounded like heroin to my mind!

"I will f*cking F*CK YOU!!!" he roared, like any injured beast. Yet dude… You didn't know that just before that glaive attack of mine landed over you, the curse was finally over!

Everything I prepared for linked together now. Even if he ran away, I was sure he wouldn't pose any threat to me.

Or was I just underestimating that damn paragon?

Well… I'd have to keep fighting then and not lower my guard or get intoxicated with what I achieved so far.

After all my quest here was to kill him, not to just seriously wound his flesh or his ego.

299 A Chase

"You… Are good!" Just as I imagined he would scream in rage or pain, he slowly said these words to me.

He acted like a wounded beast, someone who wasn't on the verge of getting defeated but getting his revenge.

Damn! That bastard's spirit was made out of what? Steel?

*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*

Just like large pieces of metal fell over each other, that dude's suit started to issue such sounds. Yet his suit wasn't falling apart, instead it looked like it was getting amending itself.

Few pieces fell over the ground, yet the most started to reform. This was amazing! That suit… it felt like it was alive, having its own soul, could even more like it had limbs and living cells.

The size of this suit got smaller compared to its initial size. The end shape didn't differ that much, and it didn't take much longer than a few span of breaths to end such transformation.

*Fwoosh!* and in a swift way that dude got out a long spear that emitted thick bellows of red yellow gas from its shaft and edge.

"I acknowledge your strength as a foe," he slowly said while his head and face got covered with a thin filament of a semi transparent material.

Damn! His suit got smaller but it didn't show any sign of weakness at all. If I had to put in words, it got stronger, and also faster.

"Let's see how you'll adapt to my new form," his tone told me he was still confident in his victory here. Just before I could do anything to him, he raised his spear, landed it heavily on the ground, creating a mighty explosion that released a heavy wave of debris towards me.

My chariot's shield managed to absorb everything, but next there was nothing in front of me. That bastard… did he think he could outrun me again and escape?

I didn't hesitate to take out my compass and use it. After all, I never lost my desire to find that bastard, not even after hitting him this hard.

[Do you want to use the Anubis Desire compass to locate your most desire?]

[You'll need to pay five million coins for this usage]

"Pay," I didn't hesitate to agree. After all that, the bastard decided to run away at such a moment in a sign of his plan to heal himself first.

Of course there were lots of ways to heal any wounds in the apocalypse. Potions for example could do miracles, but these potions would take time to make the desired effect.

So he decided to retreat until he got himself healed up, a sign that his injuries weren't by any means small.

As I paid the price, the compass' needle started to rotate fast for a few seconds, breathing out a thin layer of black gas before it finally stopped.

It directed, strangely, to the opposite direction I thought initially that the bastard ran towards. That bastard was so cunning, running away towards a different direction than the nearest direction to him.

I didn't know yet how he bypassed my chariot and my sight and vanished into such a direction. He might have used some sort of a treasure to jump towards that direction.

But it didn't matter now. I instantly turned my chariot around, headed with its fastest speed towards that direction.

My chariot's speed was unparalleled with anything I ever saw before. So the thought of his suit to be faster than my chariot was unrealistic to me.

Time proved that my belief in my chariot was right. The chariot kept flashing fast, turning scenes all around me to long trails of thin vague lines.

The speed was so fast, and yet I didn't care about any of the long trees scattered here. My shield worked so well in cleansing all the trees in my way, clearing a long and wide path in front of me.

In less than twenty minutes, I finally spotted something new. In the middle of such a vague world all around, I spotted something moving at a slower speed than mine up front.

It was that bastard. His suit was moving so damn fast that it even emitted three long lines of smoke behind it. But its speed wasn't in any way close to mine.

I saw him clearly, and he also spotted me once I got closer. I could see him turning around to look at me, while in one hand a large bottle was there.

He was healing himself as expected. But who said he could do that?

*Boom!*

Even if he was travelling fast, my chariot speed was enough to help any grenade I released from my many machine guns here to catch up to him.

Just as I released my grenades, they started to travel at a much slower pace towards that bastard. I knew the grenades were actually travelling so fast, much faster than its usual speed.

But thanks to the difference of speed between the three of us, the grenades had to travel in such a way.

That helped that bastard to timely evade the grenades. Despite that, the grenades explode violently beside that bastard, attacking him with their mighty explosions in the meantime.

I kept firing everything I got at him, and he kept running as fast as he could. At some point, the amount of grenades I released was too much for him to evade, and he got smashed up while messing with his momentum.

"A chance!" my eyes flashed in determination. Just at this moment I saw a window, another window for my deadly attack. In an instant reflexive move, I started to run until I reached the edge of my chariot, then I jumped.

We both were in the air at this moment, and just as I got out from the chariot's defensive shield region I felt how damn fast we were travelling.

Just from the merciless wave of attack that came from the air from the front told me how fast we were moving.

300 Victory!

Yet I didn't let such a thing get in my way, letting my body rise higher in the air, getting a few metres up his.

"F*ck you!" as he spotted me coming, he had nothing else to do but to wave his spear, hoping to get me hit with it.

But dude… you were spinning in the air uncontrollably like a broken kite! His spear movements looked so silly and funny to me, a futile attempt as the last struggle of a dying man.

In my eyes, he was dead. After all, he was flying in such a lousy and messy way while I was having my balance.

But who was he? A paragon! A goddamn paragon! The highest and most strongest person in the entire apocalypse, assumingly.

He also came from a race that wasn't that weak. So even at this moment, I never lowered my guard.

"Die!" We both said it at the same time. In a flash I summoned out my deadly heavy dragon glaive, and at the same moment… the tip of his spear flashed in a bizarre dark red light.

Time seemed to grow slowly at this moment. I saw his spear emitting a dangerous pulse that exploded in an ear deafening sound.

And in a response for that timely explosion, that bastard got his body under control. It felt like he was lying on the ground, and just leant over his spear to stand up.

He was preparing to fight back! Just as his body was standing erect, all the parts in his suit flashed, opened different size holes, and flashes of light emitted from these holes at the same time.

That bastard… was he thinking himself a star or something?

*Bang!*

Yet in the face of my mighty glaive, in front of such a terrifying might, how could such a halved stat dude would dream of struggling?

The glaive was let loose the moment it appeared. Its deadly heavy weight pressured over my arms for a brief second, before finally free falling and taking a big chunk off that bastard's suit and body.

This time I tried to better control the direction of my glaive fall, yet thanks to the last struggling move that the bastard showed, the edge of my glaive just missed his head by an inch.

Regardless, the end result was for almost one half of that suit and his body to get separated by my glaive. This time it seemed the suit wasn't as sturdy as before.

Thanks to my earlier attack plus the continuous attacks of my grenades, the defensive abilities of that suit seemed to be depleted. I looked at the remaining half of that bastard while gushing out copious amounts of golden red blood from it like a fountain.

"It's your lost pal," I slowly said while the next instant the chariot was called here. I landed over its deck in grace and easiness, while that bastard just got slammed away from my big girl's body.

I slowly walked to the side of my chariot, overlooking the about to die enemy of mine. This battle… It started off wrong but I managed to challenge and crush all the odds and gain victory.

At this simple moment, I felt truly invincible. Paragons? Humph! Against such meticulous planning and good preparations, they amounted to nothing in the end.

"You… Won't… Get… To… Enjoy… This… Win… Of… Yours…" he was speaking while gushing a large amount of blood from his mouth. His voice was weak, stuttering it word by word. Yet I perfectly heard him.

That bastard… he seemed to not realise the deep sh*t he was in! Dude… did you take Anubis god for a joke or something?

You got cursed, and that didn't just stop at you. It would extend to all your forces. You weren't just a simple person, you were a paragon!

As grand the peak one was standing on its top was, as big his fall would be. Our little battle here didn't stop here, pal, but would also extend and show its effects over all your forces in my world.

"Humph! Just blame yourself for selecting my world to come and invade," I didn't tell him any of that. Instead it would feel much better to let him feel these facts later on by himself.

I just regretted not seeing his face when he'd realise how deep his abyss was. But what I cared about was my gains. I won this fight, and now I gained lots from it.

He didn't have anything else to do to stop his demise. After cursing and throwing many threats towards me in a stuttering way, he finally gasped his last breath and died.

This battle… It was something that I'd never forget. After all this wasn't just a mere battle to determine who would win the fight over my precious two cities.

It was a battle against a paragon! A lesson that taught me that even paragons could be attacked, defeated, and killed.

And with his death, my challenge here came to an end.

[Congratulations! It took you two hours and forty-three minutes to complete this challenge]

[You killed the Hector race paragon, a mighty being from a prestigious race]

[You gained two favour points from the system higher ups]

[You got half of his inventory randomly selected by the system]

[You gained total control over the final version of the shield]

[Your name is now spread across any world that has any Hector race and their allies]

[Your name is now spread across any world that has any human race and their allies]

[Your figure will be known universe wide for a brief moment of time]

[Be proud of such achievement, human race Hye]

I looked up at all these messages. I was proud, indeed I was! Such a feat was even recognised by the system itself. How big was this win actually?

My name was spread all over the universe. Was it a bad or a good thing? I couldn't tell for sure for now. Just as the rows of messages ended, a portal flashed and enveloped me and my big chariot at the same time.

I took my farewell look at this world before the scenery changed and I found myself back again at my original place. I was still standing in front of the ancient looking group of buildings at MIT campus.

But the next message made me smile, grin out of excitement and joy.

301 Shield

[Congratulations! You got the acknowledgement of the destroyed world, Krishn]

[A portal option is now available to your profile]

[You can access that world by paying a certain price to open that portal and get there]

[The world map is now prepared and will be available for you to scan]

[The current world state information is being piled up and will be available for you in your profile]

[The world's past main events are going to be piled up for you to access at your profile]

[The world's will is going to issue you quests according to your actions later here in your world and there in that world. So pay more attention to your actions or else you'd get nothing in the end]

The world's will? It was the first time to hear such a term. Well… this wouldn't be the first to hear about something weird since I came back in time.

I opened my profile and found a big icon carrying the name of that world. When I tried to select it, a message popped up telling me it was still under preparation.

Ok, I'd just wait for it to be completed and then would see what that was all about.

As I closed my profile, I looked again at the ongoing battle up front. In fact I didn't check over there once coming out as I was sure things would be over a long time ago.

It took me almost three hours to get this quest done. Despite this, it was an outstanding speed, but it was far from enough to save my boys.

"What is that… What's going on here?!!!" but as I turned my sight towards the direction of the river, I was totally shocked to see that side.

Things there… They were just like the moment I left. Long and densely packed spear-like things were flying and gathering from the other side of the river, threatening to take away the life of my forces.

It seemed like not even a single second passed since I left. How could that be possible?

I recalled the part which was related to the difference in time between that world and mine. It was impressive indeed to have such a difference, enough to make me spend almost three hours there for a few seconds here.

It was amazing! But I had nothing to object to. After all this just ended up in my favour. And now? I could save my forces and start fighting back.

And now it was time to see what that shield would do. I literally risked my life for it. It would be better for it to be worth the price I paid.

I looked up and that hole created by my pillar before leaving here was gone. Instead I noticed the shield shining in bright white light as if it was exploding or something.

f*ck! Don't tell me it was going to explode after all I did! I felt a little tense. Indeed if the shield got destroyed, then the entire problem of separating the three cities would be gone.

Yet I wasn't expecting this. For a reason I was hoping for something grander than just a simple end.

I didn't have anything else to do but to wait. My frontline troops were destined to get wiped out if that grant attack linked.

The only hope here would be hanged by a thread over the shoulders of that shield. If it ended up exploding, then I had to drop any hope to use these forces forever.

But it wouldn't end up this bad. Just to be sure my losses won't be that big, I called back most of my forces. Only the few dragons I sent to bring the leaders back were left.

In fact if this attack landed, then it was pointless to have a word with those people. They seemed to do a great job here, sustaining till now even against all these enemies from all sides.

But without the presence of their forces, what value would they still hold? Sigh! It would be a damn waste in the end if these forces ended up dying.

I had nothing else to do but wait and watch. With each passing second, the waters of the river would go up, consolidate, and form more deadly looking spears.

It wasn't the act of a skill or magic, more like a work of a treasure. I just didn't know how filthy rich these Hectors were. But I got a good deal from that paragon for sure.

I didn't check my inventory yet, but it would be filled to the brim without doubt. I just hoped that a cool suit would be there. Even if it was crushed in front of my deadly attacks and chariot, that baby was already a piece of art.

*Rumble!*

Just in less than a few minutes, the world entirely shook. I looked up towards the source of this, and that shield seemed to have another change.

And with it, rows of messages popped up in front of my eyes.

[Congratulations! The new shield is about to be born]

[The ultimate Hecman shield is about to be born]

[The shield is more durable, much stronger than the usual shield]

[The shield now can stay as long as it doesn't get destroyed]

[The shield soul is getting birthed at this moment]

[Please give a name for the baby soul of your shield]

Baby soul? What the heck did that system think of me? I wasn't a father, and would never be one so soon at least!

"Call it… Shield!" I sucked at giving names. So don't take it so hard my new soul.

[The name is given]

[Now you can contact your shield soul directly through your profile]

[You shield soul named Shield is saying Hi]

"Hi girl," I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, but it would be better to be a girl, "I hope you can help me here."

A message popped up and a smiley face appeared then an explosion emoji next.

"Can't you speak yet?" I muttered while seeing the row of fists and even bombs in that screen.

What the heck did that even mean? What was she trying to say here? Was she able to do it? Or did she have toys to play with before sleeping? Damn!

302 Closing The Gates

I looked at the row of funny and different emojis, and didn't know what to do. "Can you then do something about this situation?"

As things reached this point, I had nothing else in my power but to ask.

I couldn't get her meaning, but at least she could understand my words, right?

Then another row of meaningless emojis popped up in front of my eyes, making me lose any hope I got before.

*Rumble!*

Yet just as I was this close to give up, I heard such massive rumbling coming from the shield up above. The brightness intensified all of sudden, and it even emitted rays of light.

The rays were like thin pillars that fell and covered all the area underneath the shield.

At first I thought that girl mistook my intentions. I didn't want her to shine and bring warmth to the world here. I wanted her to do something and save my boys.

But when I looked closer, I noticed that these pillars were moving. It looked slow at first, but when a few seconds passed, I noticed the pillars were converging fast towards one spot; the river!

The lights kept covering the river until it began to shine like a hot piece of ember. I waited, hopefully something nice would come out of it.

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

And without any warning, all the pillars started to turn silver then red then started to cause explosions anywhere it touched.

The river began to be covered in thick clouds of smoke. I even saw the water surface of that river getting turbulent, showing big holes like big fists clashed against it.

The monsters on both sides of the river started to die. At the same time, new monsters influx from the river surface started to show a massive decline.

These pillars… They were attacking and killing monsters everywhere, even under water. How cool this was!!

"Keep it up, good girl!" I couldn't control my excitement at this moment, looked high up at the shield and shouted in great joy. Right now all the spears that were threatening my forces were crushed to pieces and returned to the river twisted body.

As for my forces, in the middle of all this they looked fine. The rays of light and even the explosions didn't even touch a single hair of them.

Brilliant! Such a kind of attack that could take away all my enemies and keep my forces alive was really brilliant!

Another row of emojis appeared. This time I looked at these faces with a smile on mine. After all, my newly born girl here has done a marvellous job so far.

"Attack all the hostile forces in the three cities! Kill them all!"

This time my words aren't just directed at my girl. I shouted at my forces at the river side. It was time to press for the victory, kill anyone standing in our way.

Standing high in the air, I looked at all my forces shrugging the shock off their shoulders and starting to attack. The first battle was, of course, against the monsters in the river.

This could be described as an eternal battle if the gates underneath were left untouched. But what was really apparent was the fact that these monsters began to show many signs of weakness.

They weren't as strong or aggressive as before. In my eyes, I could see a single human fighting a couple of them and even taking them down without much effort.

Before this, a group of humans were needed to take down one single monster, suffering casualties in the process.

"The curse… This is what my curse is all about, bastard!" I knew the reason behind such great change. After all the curse of Anubis was this deadly, not only on that paragon but over his scattered forces here.

"Come with me!" I instantly seized the chance and summoned all my warriors. It wasn't time to sit and watch. The enemy was being barbecued with my baby shield and my forces here.

The enemy was simply in chaos, and it was the best moment to aggressively push forward for the win.

I led my forces without the need to wait any longer towards the river. Once there, I didn't hesitate to dive into the river. I didn't need to pay any price to gain the blessing from the Albany aquatic building.

After all, its blessing would continue for one day.

As I dived into the depths of the river, it wasn't surprising to see a grand cave underneath. It extended beyond my sight, seemingly covering up a distance of many miles around.

"I'll get you first," as I got there, the rays of the shield kept helping me. They kept killing many monsters, and those who were lucky to survive, were killed by my boys on the chariot.

One gate was down. Two were down. Five were down… I kept taking gates and shutting them down like I was playing a game or something.

The enemy was in its lowest moments right now. Their leader, that paragon, already was so much weaker than a normal archlord.

His forces got the worst part of it. Even if he was demoted to power to such an extent, he wasn't that bad. But for his forces, losing almost half of their stats turned them from scary hybrid monsters into weak and docile low levelled monsters.

It was my luck to face that dude in that challenge. Just one victory sealed the fate of this entire big battle. That was a simple and clear example of how important a leader was in any army.

No matter how big or mighty the enemy was, as long as the leader was taken care of, everything else would be smoother to me.

"Fifteen!" After less than one hour, I managed to finally close the fifteenth gate. The world underneath the river was really calm at this moment. All the monsters that wreaked havoc before were now lying dead, motionless at the river bed.

"Go, bring everything up," I didn't want to stay here and marvel at this place's beauty. At some point in time, I decided to come back here and use this place for a better use.

303 Wolf

I might build a town underneath these waters, or perhaps build a hidden and secret lap for my intelligent minds to work in secrecy and develop the mighty weapons for my army.

This place was really special. And I planned to use it later on if possible. But for now I had to go back up and take full control over the three cities.

This fight… It was my win after all. I started with a backfoot, losing the initiative and being deprived of my precious cities.

But now I ended up reclaiming them, having such a mighty shield to watch over my future kingdom capital for good.

As for the forces here, they weren't that bad either. Apart from those experienced cult people, the rest just got baptised by the fire of this deadly battle.

They'd continue growing, and soon enough I might find good seedings in them to nourish and become mighty generals in the future.

I got out of the river, looked at the status of the battle here. The cities were still covered with the shield lights, with certain areas being showered with the pillar lights more than others.

These areas would be where the three races held their forces. I didn't have any mercy towards these. After all in this battle, every race was on his own side.

And my future capital couldn't have any race other than humans in it.

"Go and help them," as I got out from the river, I saw my forces were waiting for me there.

The influx of new monsters was stopped by the sealing of all the gates. So they had no more enemies in this region to kill.

As for other human forces, they were smart and had their own leaders to lead them away and keep fighting.

I pointed my glaive towards several spots, and the next moment the soulers flashed fast, heading directly towards these regions.

The soulers might be weak against the aquatic monsters for a reason I didn't know. But against any other race here, they were deadly.

I knew they would be enough to claim the victory and clear up the three cities. But I still flew with my chariot around, taking a wide tour of the entire place.

After all I knew this fight was done for. But there was still someone hidden in the shadows, and I needed to lure that dude out.

It was the one who protected the three cities' buildings till now. No matter how deadly the battles were, no matter what kind of a weapon used, even my shield's mighty pillars of light attacks, the city's buildings kept standing erect.

There was not much harm anywhere around the cities considering the buildings. One could see thick clouds of dark smoke rising up from different places here, but you couldn't see any demolished buildings at all.

The lack of the ruins I always saw in any city before was weird. Someone was standing up and protecting the cities. I didn't know who he was, and so I couldn't tell his agenda.

From the surface, that dude might be on my side, on the human side. But without truly knowing his identity and meeting him up in person, I couldn't be that sure either.

Sometimes things on the surface would be fake, and the essence of anyone couldn't be told by the exteriors.

But no matter how long I flew, even after the end of this battle, that dude didn't show himself at all.

What? Don't tell me he was afraid!

Well… I had to put down such a task for now. The dragons I sent a long time ago finally appeared from a distance. They carried ten people on their backs, the leaders of the human forces here.

As for that dude… If he decided to not show himself up, then what was there for me to do about this? Nothing!

"Welcome," I said while the ten people jumped off the backs of my dragons. From the look over their faces, I didn't need to say anything to lure them in.

After all they saw my might, my real power, or part of it. I looked at the ten faces, eight men and two women, while feeling their true awe and admiration.

"Sir, are you Hye from New York city?"

The first to speak was the biggest of them. He wasn't that much taller than me, but his body was fed up with muscles.

That dude must be a workout addict before the apocalypse. "It's me," I nodded, "what's your name? Are you one of the military?"

"I'm related to the military," he extended his arm and I shook his hand, "I'm Wolf. My name isn't that of course, but it's what I got when I was a kid."

A talkative dude… Terrific!

"That's cool, Wolf," I said, trying to stop him but it seemed he was too excited to be stopped.

He kept talking and talking, speaking about how he heard about me from the rumours, then saw my broadcasted video, before he got the order to come here and bring everything with him from his company.

He was an ex-military guy who had an injury at one of the big rounds in the Middle east. He had to leave the battlefield, something he considered like a death sentence for him.

Yet when he got the offer to work in such a big military contractor company, he decided to give it a go. According to his words, the toys the guys with white coats kept developing were really amusing and fun for him.

Dude… I didn't ask about your life story or was interested in hearing it! He even didn't give me the name of his company yet!

"Ok ok," I had to stop this talking machine from adding more noise to the place, "just breathe and tell me what defence company you are from?"

"Defence? Boss, we are making weapons to kill, not toys to defend! I always said this word is misleading but…"

Damn me! That dude was really unstoppable!

Should I kill him to enjoy a moment of silence or what?

304 Meeting With The Four Big Names

*Snap!*

As I couldn't stop him with my glaring eyes, I had to use one of my weapons. With a simple snap of my fingers, I called forth one of my dragons.

*Roar!*

My dragon landed beside me with a mighty roar that managed to silence that dude. Finally! He was like a talking machine, knowing no limit.

"Ahem," I cleared my throat before asking, "which company are you from?"

"Is it safe?" yet instead of answering me, that wolf seemed to be more interested in my dragon, "can I have one?"

"If you wanna die then be my guest," I simply waved my hand in an invitation, one that Wolf had to turn down with a retreating couple of steps.

"I want an answer, Wolf," I leant over my dragons, slightly in a move to threaten that talkative and slow minded guy.

"I… I'm from Lockheed Martin company," he said and I frowned when I heard what he said.

"Aren't you from the Raytheon company?" I asked, but he shook his head then pointed at someone else:

"He is."

"Hi sir," a slightly smaller built dude stepped forward. Compared with Wolf, this one seemed much smarter and a bit fierce, especially with his sharp deep eyes and bald head. "I'm Moore, nice to meet you sire."

"Nice to meet you," I shook his extended hand before he added:

"I've moved here by your orders. But these dudes here…" he moved his eyes around, seemingly with an annoying expression on his face, "they appeared a couple of days ago."

"They?" I asked, moving my eyes around the other eight people, "which companies do you belong to?"

"I'm from Reston company."

"I'm from Northrop corp."

The ten people started to stand in different groups of five. Four of them belonged to the four big companies I heard about from that major. Each one had one to two people standing together, with Wolf and Moore standing alone.

As for the fifth group, it had three people in it. Unlike the other four, this group was formed entirely out of young people.

"And you?" I spared my questions for a later time. After all, I knew that one company was situated here, and the other three were around Washington D.C. city.

So it seemed a little weird for the other three to send representatives here. In fact I didn't intend to take the trouble and go to their locations for now.

I had my hands tied with many things already. I might be able to go to their locations after the end of the upcoming big battle, or perhaps after the end of the fourth quest.

"We are the leaders of the MIT student force here," one of the three youths said, while moving his eyes around, seemingly more terrified of my boys than the other big guys around.

"Don't worry, they are docile as long as you don't touch them," I smiled before adding, "so you are the ones leading the campus here, right?"

"That's… that's before these dudes arrived," he said, while focusing his eyes over one person here; Wolf.

"Wolf… What did you do?" I asked that talkative person, and he shrugged.

"I did nothing," he lied, "I just executed the CEO's strict orders."

"Which are?"

"To take control over this place and heavily fortify it."

"Oh," I recalled what that major said about the Lockheed Martin company. He described them as a big fish, the biggest military company ever in the entire world.

And with it they intended to continue as the biggest fist in the new world. But who told them they were the biggest fish here? If so, then what should I call myself? A shark?

"So how come you all are here?" It was time for me to understand what happened here, "shouldn't you be stationed around Washington?"

"In fact…" Wolf started speaking for a long half an hour. That dude had the ability to speak for all this time without taking a single break! Damn! He was something else.

But from what he poured unto my face, I learnt a lot about what happened. It seemed the leaders of the other three companies met together or spoke remotely. And they agreed to not let this chance slip off their hands.

Of course I could understand their reasons, but these folks missed a big thing here. They just sent lots of their forces and much of their weapons to here. But they sent a few of their scientists and engineers.

I didn't care that much about the weapons, brilliant minds were my main goal. Unlike what they expected, I'd never place what they brought into my eyes.

For example, the Lockheed Martin guys sent a dozen of their latest stealth bombers. Come on! Were you still living in the old times or what?

Bombers? What would I use these useless pieces of metal for? To me they were useless. To anyone in the apocalypse, they were useless. Even after a hundred years they'd still be useless!

Lockheed Martin wasn't the exception here. All the other two companies did the same. Despite the fact that what the other two brought was much better to me than those useless bombers, I still couldn't value their things this much.

Compared with the Raytheon group, who brought over their entire base here, these three companies were destined to fall behind.

Raytheon guys brought over almost one thousand engineers and scientists, making me grin when I heard that from Moore. As for the other three companies, the best brought only less than one hundred!

"Why do I have the feeling you aren't that excited about our presence?" Unlike Wolf, the others from the other two companies weren't as slow as him.

One of them asked, in a harsh tone that told me he wasn't pleased with my reaction.

"And why should I?" I wasn't fazed at all with his attitude. I slowly crossed my arms and added, "after all what I'm looking for isn't weapons but the brilliant minds behind making such toys."

"Toys?" that dude seemed to be insulted by my words, "these are the best of what humans made before all this sh*It happened! You can't find any better weapons than these anywhere in the world!"