Everlast Online

All fighting stopped as the dome collapsed, revealing its once hidden contents to the world.

"Finally we can claim what is ours!" The representing executive from Golden Radiance yelled out, eliciting cheers from his subordinates; they all prepared for a great battle with their war cries.

"In your dream Golden Douche!" The members from Diamond star started jeering and yelling at their enemies.

Nina believed they would start fighting in seconds, then the dome fell completely and the event goal was ready for the taking.

What Nina didn't understand was that there were 2 people inside.

The spectral dome opened and inside were 2 wholly different people. The 1st was a tiny girl dressed like the staple image of a witch, big black hat, straw broom and her clothes were even complimented by little pumpkin buttons and buckles.

Unfortunately, her face was hidden behind a strange mask that reminded them of a court jester as it jingled with bells. They couldn't even inspect her as what came up was:

[???]

Just question marks, this created a single thought to universally spread through the minds of all present players - excluding Nina of course.

The event boss!

Grins spread across the crowd as they shifted their attention to the more imposing figure.

While the witch girl was barely a metre tall, the other figure towered over her at 8 feet tall; she was more than twice the size of the witch.

She wore jet black armour that covered her entire body, except her head from which long silver hair extended down to her lower back. Her ears were long like an elves and although it wasn't clear she had claws extending from her fingers. The most striking of her features were the mask on her face and the long tail that extended behind her.

The mask was made from pure-white bone, it did not have a lower jaw bone and instead extended with sharp teeth that could clearly rip a person apart. The eye holes were deep and dark like staring into the void; it made for a terrifying sight.

The tail was an incredibly imposing sight, it was around 2 metres long and almost as long as she was tall. The entire tail was made from what looked like highly sharpened vertebrae; each holding enough strength to rip through solid steel.

As if her tail wasn't enough of a weapon, in her hand was a large one sided blade, that while clearly being so long it required 2 hands to wield; the woman swung it around easily with only 1; a staggering display of her strength.

Yet, despite every cell in the players bodies screaming in fear at the sight of her, their instinct to run and hide. The sight of her status was enough to completely stifle their fear:

[Gloria (1) (NPC)]

"Looks like a real big mess happened while I was gone." The little girl said as she chugged what looked to be a mana potion, "Oh! But some of my skills leveled, some can even evolve."

"I see." The taller woman looked out at the crowd, her sword in hand, "Master, will you allow me to destroy these enemies on your behalf?"

"Haha! Go ahead, show me what you've got." The little girl laughed. The players felt insulted at the idea that a mere level 1 NPC could beat them; there is nothing like the pride of the rich to completely ignore the facts before them.

"You think you can beat us!?" One golden radiance member yelled out in anger, "Bring it on bitch! I'll show you where you belong!"

Shouts of agreement from both sides came along.

"Are these the people you desire to trample upon, master?"

"Yeah..."

"I understand your desire much more clearly now." With that she shot off into the crowd, and in just a second 10 players had been cut in half. No skills, no special abilities; just her.

Liz watched happily as she saw Gloria run through the swarm of players and destroy them with ease, none ever putting up more than 2 defences before being cut to pieces. Liz laughed, wondering where Nina had gotten too.

She might have died... Liz thought, but she wasn't too worried about it and turned back to the fight. Maybe I should lend her a hand. It's also a good opportunity to try out my newest skill!

[Raise Horde]!

MAgic fled from her quickly, losing quite an amount as it seeped its way into the fallen bodies of the players, those that hadn't already disappeared.

100 zombies rose from the ground and began attacking the living with fervour, it didn't matter if they were once enemies or allies, they were ripped apart. One thing Liz did realise was that the zombies she had created were slowly becoming more... zombie-ish...

Their flesh was slowly rotting away, some had lost arms that were already loosely connected before.

I suppose this is what was meant by 'rate of decay'. Liz thought as she watched the slaughter in front of her.

She had chosen Gloria due to her melee capabilities as while Eren would serve well, Liz already fit in as a magic caster, what she lacked most was a powerful fighter; hence Gloria.

"Well..." Liz said, seeing the battle was taken care of, "Let's evolve some of these skills."

Liz had a giant smile as she looked over the 3 skills to improve:

[Congratulations. The skill: <Bone Spear> has reached its maximum level] [<Bone Spear> Is now eligible for (Evolution ↓)]

[Greater Bone Spear (E-): Create and launch a spear made from bone. Damage scales with level and INT. 25% chance to inflict <Bleed> status effect. By sacrificing HP player can 'supercharge' the attack] [Conditions: <Bone Spear (10/10)>]

This was easy enough, Liz clicked the option and gained the upgraded skill. Then she looked over to the next one, this one was of a little more importance.

This decision was a little bit harder, but not by much. As usual there was a typical advancement, but when she saw [Undead Beast], Liz knew exactly what she would be choosing.

[Congratulations. The skill: <Sharp Claw> has reached its maximum level] [<Sharp Claw> Is now eligible for (Evolution ↓)]

[Razor Claw (E+): Greatly empower one attack using claws. Power scales with STR and skill level. 15 Second cooldown. 5% chance to inflict <Bleed> Status effect. <Cannot be used without claws!>] [Conditions: <Sharp Claw (10/10)>] [Dark Claw (D-): Greatly empower one attack using claws, imbue attack with dark magic in exchange for mana. Power scales with STR, INT and skill level. 20 Second cooldown] [Conditions: <Sharp Claw (10/10)>, <Used to support Dark-Aligned attacks (10/10)>]

This was another easy choice really, still the chance of a bleed effect did almost sway Liz. She had seen just how fatal the status effect could be when she fought with the lizards. But in the end she acquired the 3 new skills she wanted: [Greater Bone Spear], [Summon: Undead Beast] and [Dark Claw]

"Now, let's see what Gloria is up to." Liz said, looking up at the scene of carnage in front of her.

The floor was soaked in blood and the forest resembled the swamp she had been farming in; and at the centre of it all was Gloria, with not a drop of blood marring anything but her blade.

Liz chose to look over her panel again, finding her growth exceptional.

====

Name: [Gloria]

Race: [Bone Slayer] (Attributes)↓

Class: [Demise Knight (6)]

Stats: [STR: 115] [END: 90] [AGI: 115 ] [INT: 55]

Race Skills: [Bone Blade (1) (C)]

Class Skills: [Demise Blade (23%) (C)]

Other Skills: <N/A>

====

Gloria had started at level 1, with a stat distribution of 100, 80, 100 and 50 for STR, END, AGI and INT respectively; meaning she was gaining a disproportionate amount of stats in each area, but with each level she increased significantly. Not to mention her proficiency with [Demise Blade] was increasing at an ungodly speed.

Since Gloria was not native to Galdrash she did not have a system, more so, since she had died she was set back to her race's basic stats and her class's initial point. Of course she had evolved both her race and class over the years she had been alive in her world, so she was still much stronger than her original race; still Liz was glad to see she would be able to keep up in her journey.

Gloria had been fighting the insolent creatures that had attempted to attack her new master; Gloria had never once thought she would serve another, it was her life mission to place her people upon a pedestal that none could ever hope to reach, to escape the servitude they had been forced into. But she had died, unable to see that dream come to reality.

But, she was given a second chance, a chance under this master. She had answered the call with trepidation as she understood what it meant, but seeing her master's strong will, her strong desire to fight against the system; Gloria could not help but desire to be a part of that. Perhaps it was merely a desire to fulfil a dream she could never see for herself, but Gloria didn't care, now what matter was serving her master.

She swung her sword with determination, recalling the practises of her training, the hundreds of years she had spent honing her abilities; she was set back to the beginning now, but what a beginning it was. 

Her strength was much higher than what even the strongest warriors of her tribe could hope to achieve and this is her at level 1! 

She swung her blade with perfect precision to slice 2 enemies apart and utilised her tail in order to kill an assassin who had sneaked up toward her. She was thankful to see her master's zombies coming to assist, it made the combat much easier to accomplish in that regard as many were busy fighting off the horde of zombies that would keep on replenishing as her master continued her summoning.

[Demise Blade] ticked up in proficiency as it had all those years ago, once she reached 35% a deep black aura seeped from blade and inflicted a debuff onto the players, draining their health as Gloria went around cutting foe after foe.

From here, levelling this is going to be a nightmare. Gloria thought as she remembered the amount of time she was forced to put into this exact skill.

One pesky tank had managed to evade the clutches of death as he aimed for Gloria's back, so Gloria saw fit to make use of her racial skill: [Bone Blade]. From her tail, many of the vertebrae extended and became both sharper and stronger. The tank who saw the attack coming smirked, believing himself invincible after taking minimal damage the last time the tail attacked, placed his shield before him and braced himself. Only for his shield and his body to be cut clean through, it also resulted in the death of 2 behind him.

In this carnage Gloria could see no one who would be a match for her, until a large man wearing golden armour appeared before her and swung a heavy club down towards her. The club had sharp looking spikes protruding from them, but Gloria merely blocked the attack; she did not expect the man to twist the club slightly in order to trap her blade before punching her in the stomach. (A/N: This is not Golden Monarch BTW, most execs were beta testers, hence they got the vanity item bonus)

The damage was minimal but Gloria still reeled at her complacency.

Even after all this time, I continue to make such mistakes? Gloria reprimanded herself as she took distance, but as she did the earth below her shifted ever so slightly. From this she lost her balance and once again suffered an attack from the club wielding enemy.

"Temporary truce!?" The golden man yelled out, Gloria only realised she had fallen to teamwork as another man revealed himself behind her.

"Fine, only since your people seem incapable of dealing with her." Gloria did not understand how the man dressed in muddy robes could be this much haughtier than the one who adorned such excessive gold, but ignored it and brought herself to her feet.

She grinned as she saw she had reached level 10, it seemed this world had similar rules to her previous one.

She made her move and attacked the club wielder, using a wide slash with a large amount of power. The golden man scoffed at such an obvious move, believing Gloria to be a fool; sure he lacked the same amount of strength, but that same strength had already been beaten already with just a bit of teamwork.

However, his eyes widened in shock as the attack passed right through the club and again he was shocked as he was sent flying away with a large cut in his side, the opposite side from where the attack had come from.

This was the skill Gloria received at level 10: [Veiled Slash]. Despite sounding like an attack, it actually offered no bonus to the damage done.

What the skill did was deceive the enemy by creating an illusory attack, while hiding the real one. This could become fatal in a match between swordsmen, and any knights with honour would faint at the idea of using such a technique; but not a [Demise Knight] as they were a type of [Dark Knight], ones who had become corrupted and abandoned their honour.

Of course [Veiled Slash] came with its own set of weaknesses, for starters it was incredibly easy to see through the illusion - especially at lower levels - assuming the enemy had some kind of detection skill. Second, it only worked on a single target; anyone who watched that last bout would likely be wondering why the golden knight raised his club high instead of blocking the obvious attack to the side. Finally, the skill had both a cooldown and a mana cost to use; so while useful in some cases it came with enough weaknesses to prevent it from becoming especially powerful.

However, in a one-on-one duel - especially one against a lower strength enemy - it could end up deciding the match; as it had just now.

The golden knight fell to the floor, Gloria's status effect having kicked in and taking off what was left of his health

"You were surely a worthy enemy. But I was the superior fighter." Gloria declared before turning to the mage who had disrupted her balance earlier.

He, Ralia, was confused as to why that idiot from golden radiance, Lord Lucas, had not simply blocked the attack that had come his way; not having seen the illusion. But when he saw Gloria's masked face staring at him he readied his staff to begin casting.

Ralia had chosen to be a mage, hoping to specialise in earth magic, and as such only knew Earth magic skills; besides the 2 he had gotten from his class. He was very close to level 30 and was sure that would grant him the earth mage class he wanted so badly, especially considering how the class skill he reached for level 20 was related to earth magic. 

He began his attack by firing 3 earth spears at Gloria who dodged and weaved between them, Ralia, who had seen Gloria's agility in action, prepared for this and activated one of his purchased skills. A set of 5 tendrils extended from the blood-soaked ground and attempted to ensnare Gloria; she managed to prevent this and close the distance by expertly cutting through each of the tendrils as they attacked, resulting in her being right above Ralia, ready to strike. Ralia had not expected her to so easily bypass that attack.

In a last ditch effort to evade death and a return to level 28, Ralia activated his strongest skill: [Stone Maiden]

The skill was a lesser version of another [Iron Maiden], one that entrapped their enemy in a coffin of stone, filled with spikes to pierce them. It had an incredibly long cast time, but dealt devastating single target damage, it could almost be called an execution move.

Gloria saw as stone walls formed around her, spikes extending from them and she displayed no hesitation in slicing down to finish the battle. Unfortunately for Ralia, right as the door of the coffin formed Gloria's blade came crashing down on top of him; bisecting him down the middle and cancelling the almost activated skill.

[Stone Maiden] was a powerful skill but only did any damage after the stone door closed, hence Ralia died without being able to deal any damage to Gloria.

Having defeated the leaders of their groups, both Golden Radiance and Diamond Star guilds felt unsure of themselves and didn't attack as they looked at the giant woman. But they didn't have the chance to run away as 10 large monsters began attacking

They were like nothing they had ever seen before; absolute monstrosities that ripped their allies and enemies to shreds.

They were the size of bears with long, sharp extrusions extending along their spines. The claws of these beasts looked like they could rip apart battleships and mouths opened in such a way they inspired fear in each of the players minds. They were beyond terrifying, but the worst of it was the long, black, greasy hair that extended from their heads. It looked so... Human! The idea that these creatures may have once been humans caused their formations to shatter as they ran for their lives.

Gloria and Liz's beasts ensured that none of the players escaped, though if some did it was single digits, and by the end Gloria had hit level 16 while Liz had gone up again to level 52!

As every other player had died and Liz was deciding on how to spend the points she had been saving from her previous levels, Nina once again appeared. Gloria put up her guard as she saw the strange human appear from nowhere; she did not have any sensory skill and so had not seen her coming due to Nina having a higher level in her [Stealth] skill than most players.

"Oh. Hey Nina, where you been?" Liz asked, as she spoke so casually to her Gloria lowered the blade she had pointed at the girl, returning to guard duty over her master.

"Ah..." Nina could barely speak, she was cut off by Smokey anyway.

"What happened, why were there so many players?" She asked, having placed 20 of her points into INT and 7 into AGI.

"Ah... Uh, I think there was an event." She finally stuttered out an answer, still shocked by Smokey's unbelievable strength.

"Oh, sweet. You think there was like an item drop or something?"

And so the 3 looked around for some kind of special item.

2 of them not understanding that they were the cause of the outburst and the other too baffled to inform them.