Hell Difficulty Tutorial

The group takes a formation unlike any they've used before. For the first time, Tess hangs back, opposite her normal position, on the frontlines. She is so far behind that it would be hard for her to move close to help.

It surprises me, but I soon realize why she’s done so. Tess will be focusing on dealing as much damage as possible without being distracted by her opponents' attacks. From such a distance, she will be able to make each of her attacks as strong as possible.

Obviously, that also means she will be putting a lot of trust in the rest of the group’s ability to stay alive. For someone wanting to protect her friends so much, it's an unexpected decision.

On the other side, Lily is back on the frontline, next to Maya, who has the epic crown on her head, and plenty of mana batteries in contraptions layered over her body.

The petite healer seems to be determined, and I instantly realize that her position on the front line was her choice.

Dennis and Aaron are both on the sides and slightly behind Lily and Maya. Seeing as no one is talking, they must be using [Connection] to communicate.

A bit further back are Isabella and Sophie, the sisters close to each other, Noodle coiled around Isabella’s arm as she holds the epic bow Lily used to wield.

The last member of the group, Min-Jae, is off to the side of the sisters. He has switched to smaller projectiles for this fight, and he spins them around his body, something he started copying when he saw me doing it. The projectiles in question look a lot like golf balls, but I know they are extremely heavy because of his gravity skill.

One of his eyes is brown, and the left one is yellow, and it's already glowing and I'm sure he’s improved his control of it.

I’ve thought about it before, but I think his eyes are similar to my own, the only difference is that I have two eyes that allow me to see waves of mana. While his eye seems to allow him to see waves of gravity.

Biscuit is also there. He stands on the dune, a gentle wind blowing against his fur, and the corgi seems to be enjoying it while he breathes quickly. His tongue is sticking out as if he is trying to cool off. So far, he is not using any skills, but he is ready.

The fight starts suddenly. Initiated by Kim shooting one of his small metal orbs at the Fallen Hero.

I watch through Myrra’s Aurora glass as the armor stops moving and turns around. The corpse of the Champion clad in Valorplate. Even damaged, the red and gray armor is beautiful. And most of all, it's dangerous, confirmed by the First One’s fear of it.

When the armor starts moving towards the group, I understand it. Nothing changes after it notices the group. There is no mana emanating from it, and no skills activate. No, the entirety of that immense mana is turned into sheer strength.

The armor takes a step, and the entire dune under it explodes, and with one leap, it flies through the air right toward the group.

The silence is broken by the crackling of lightning and a terrifying noise that pierces the air as a gray spear crashes against the armor. The lightning spreads, covering the armor. The sheer strength of the impact pushes the armor away, and both burrow deep into a dune, sending an explosion of sand into the air.

Lightning flashes again, and the spear gets pulled back.

Isabella attacks next. One of the fire orbs floating over her shoulder elongates and turns into a flaming arrow which she nocks to her bow. Even though the bow is nearly as tall as her, she manages to draw the string of mana that appears and fires the arrow. As it leaves the string it grows even brighter and more compressed, a brilliant arrow made of blue fire that Isabella subtly manipulates to compensate for her lack of skill.

The blue arrow leaves a wake of shimmering hot air, and when it passes over the sand, it melts. The longer it flies, the more it speeds up, and by the time it reaches the crater left by the armor, I can barely track it with my eyes.

The explosion that ensues sends flames high into the air, some as tall as a building. The impact sprays molten sand into the area, and as it falls, it shines brightly like drops of hot glass.

Even before the fires disappear, the armor climbs out of the sand, slightly charred but unharmed.

At that point, its movements change. It's not so inhuman this time, no, it's slow and elegant. The Fallen Hero stomps on the ground, and the sand explodes high into the air like a series of geysers as the shockwave blows away the flames.

“It's not using skills at all; it's just sheer physical stats,” Myrra whispers, her eyes glued to the piece of glass.

The armor moves again and disappears from sight, another shockwave erupting in its wake.

It takes another leap, much lower and faster this time.

Just before the armor reaches Maya and Lily, I notice Kim moving his arm, and the armor stops mid-air and crashes back to the ground, pulled by the immense force of gravity.

Mana radiates from Maya, and her mana armor envelops her, denser than anything she’s ever shown me before. She uses [Boost], moving past Lily, and as the armor stands up, her axe crashes into it, sending it staggering backward.

Before she can attack again, the Fallen Hero swings its arm, and she is sent flying, as the front of her armor cracks. The armor takes a step to follow her, but Lily appears in front of it, and the armor changes its mind and punches her. The punch is smooth and elegant, looking like the result of thousands of repetitions.

Its hand passes through Lily's chest, but then the twin's illusion disappears, and Lily hits it with her fist instead and sends a blast of gray mana through the punch.

For the first time, the armor takes damage, the smoke-like mana leaving deep gouges.

The armor starts moving at terrifying speed, and I notice the bag on Lily's back growing smaller as she uses [Sacrifice]. As she does this, she moves nearly as quickly as the armor. They exchange blows until the armor feints and then kicks, breaking her arm. She rolls across the ground over a distance longer than a football field.

It dashes at Lily, but Dennis is there. He grabs her and pulls her away while a dozen illusions obscure them, each one realistic enough to fool even me, and each of them with different mana signatures.

Instead of dealing with them individually, the armor stomps, creating another crater as the shockwave destroys the entire dune along with the illusions.

Isabella shoots another arrow, but this one is different. Sophie, knowing that she can't manipulate a mind that doesn’t exist, uses [Manipulation] to compress the arrow and even tie the web she’s created to it.

There is no explosion of flames from the area, just a localized burst that is extremely compressed and thus pierces a hole through the Fallen Hero, exiting on the other side.

A piercing noise follows, and a spear trailed by lightning flies directly at the hero’s heart, and for the first time, the armor blocks. It puts an arm in front of its chest and is sent flying.

Before the spear can return, the armor grabs it and stabs at Maya, who charges it. She barely dodges, but the next elegant stab pierces her chest. The armor tries to move to finish the woman encased in armor but is prevented by the web Sophie prepared coiling around it and halting its movements.

Maya gets to her feet, the wound on her chest healing at a visible speed, and her armor flickers and disappears. Instead, she creates an axe larger than she is that takes on a dark blue color with a streak of light blue mana flowing through it.

Her swing is quick and deadly, the axe burrowing into the armor's neck.

Getting a warning, she lets go of the weapon and uses [Boost] to escape quickly.

The armor tears apart the skills holding it back. Not by disrupting them, no. Just by using raw power that defies any attempt to slow it down.

At the same time, a dozen javelins trailed by lightning crash against it. One after another, each of the javelins crumples and breaks, and yet they leave dents in the armor and channel their lightning through it.

A few fire arrows join in, and Min-Jae also uses his eye, closing his hand as he reaches towards the armor. As he closes it, the armor moves quickly, and instead of its chest, its forearm gets crumpled under the force of the press.

The Fallen Hero turns to Min-Jae, and its focus stays on him. Lily, presses the attack and gets thrown by a skillful kick that leaves even more of her bones broken.

A swing of its arm destroys the illusion and the entire dune in front of it. The sheer pressure of the swing throws Maya and the twins away.

Then it rushes at Min-Jae.

Dozens of iron balls crash against it, each one that hits slowing it down a bit more as Min-Jae stacks his [Gravity Well] and increases the weight of the armor.

The dome-like web Sophie’s been creating shrinks and tangles around the armor, slowing it even further, but it's still not enough.

Every time it gets slowed down, more mana flows through it, strengthening it further. The heart of the Champion beats weaker than when he was alive, but it’s still loud, even after his death.

The spear the armor’s been holding starts pulling it toward Tess, but the armor just grabs it with both hands and breaks the epic weapon like it's nothing, and the pieces fall to the ground.

Another stomp sends sand into the air, blocking the view as the armor charges.

I watch as a big armored arm grabs Min-Jae and tears off the boy's arm, only for the illusion to disappear as Lily stands there instead of Min-Jae, her arm torn off. The petite healer uses her skill, and all the sacrifices in her bag disappear, her waist-long hair shortening even further.

She doesn't regenerate her arm, no, the petite maniac even sacrifices the arm the armor is still holding, and then punches the Fallen Hero in the chest, her gray mana flowing through him.

At the last moment, the armor shifts, and a burst of gray mana eats its arm instead of reaching its heart.

Immediately after, with immense speed, it punches Lily, denting her chest, and then breaks Lily's neck.

Before the armor can tear off her head, purple tentacles coil around it and tie it up, not allowing any movement.

After a moment of struggle, the Fallen Hero gets loose, and when it tries to find Lily, she is already gone, an Illusion from the twins helping her escape.

Turning towards the newest enemy, the armor takes a step towards Biscuit, who doesn't even growl, just observes it curiously.

Biscuit tilts his head, a focused expression overtaking his face, and instead of purple tentacles, an orb of purple mana materializes in front of the corgi. The orb starts off as big as a basketball but shrinks to the size of a golf ball, its purple color darkening with streaks of different colors flowing through.

Don't tell me.

The orb starts glowing bright white, and Biscuit shoots it at the Fallen Hero who tries to run away but is once again stopped by Sophie.

Aaron appears next to Biscuit and grabs him from the ground. He activates [Haste] and runs at a speed that is almost as quick as the armor.

Then the Fallen Hero changes again. The first time it happened, its awkward movements became smoother and elegant, yet this time they’ve become confident and domineering. Even though Sophie holds the armor, it straightens up and slashes its hand towards the orb flying at it.

The orb disappears as if it never existed, and an immense force slashes against the ground, creating a deep and long crack in the sand.

Another slash with its hand destroys Biscuit's mana arms as they reach toward it, and the stomp creates a shockwave that forms another crater around the armor.

Biscuit growls and javelins made of purple mana form by his sides as he is being carried by Aaron. The mana projectiles shoot towards the armor, which blocks each of them easily.

Meanwhile, Tess and Min-Jae finish their preparation, and from high in the air, something starts falling. It's the chest made of unknown material that once contained the eye Min-Jae now sports. The indestructible chest is falling much quicker than it should be, and I'm sure it's much heavier as well, the force behind it being immense.

Dozens of purple tentacles explode from the ground and surround the armor. Sophie activates her skill, and even the twins seem to use their [Connection] in a weird way.

With a shockwave, the chest smashes against the armor, crumpling and bending it and forcing it to its knees. The sheer weight and inertia dealing immense damage.

But slowly, the Fallen Hero still stands up. Its stance changes once more, and it disappears from the spot, reappearing in front of Min-Jae and Maya. The young boy doesn't even have time to react, but Maya does. Her [Boost] gives her enough speed to face the armor for a few seconds even though she is bleeding and tearing her body as she moves, the crown on her head keeping her alive.

A dozen attacks are exchanged in a second, both of them changing positions to try to gain an advantage over each other while Lily moves nearby.

Even though the armor has only one arm, it dominates Maya, and the moment her skill deactivates, a hand swings to her face. Messages are exchanged between the group and Lily grabs the armor by the hand, her body strengthened by [Sacrifice], now capable of following the armor.

Quickly pulling its arm away, the armor dashes and disappears, attacking Isabella.

Lily disappears simultaneously and steps into its path, the two of them exchanging blows.

Giving up on her ranged advantage, Tess lands nearby, a crown over her head and lightning crackling and trailing her body. Her face appears on the piece of aurora glass, and she declares something, the armor freezing in mid-movement and turning to her.

Tess's crown disappears, the lightning that formed it flowing down her body and into her hand where it reforms into the shape of a spear. The blonde faces it and attacks the armor as it changes its stance again, to the form with elegant movements.

Lily, with her presence masked by the twin's skill, jumps on the armor's back. Her gray mana turns into a dagger which she repeatedly stabs into the armor's helmet, causing it to stagger a bit. More messages are exchanged between the members and skills activate, forcing the armor to stop its movements.

Then Tess takes a step forward and a spear of lightning pierces right through the place where the heart is supposed to be.

In the following silence, nothing moves for a while, and the wind continues to move sand over the dunes until it stops as well.

Finally, the Fallen Hero staggers and falls to its knees.

 

Congratulations! Your group has completed your Floor quest and defeated the second Calamity.

You have received 4000 shards.

 

Relieved, everyone from Group 4 groups up, smiles on their faces as they check on each other and seem to read notifications as well.

The boys, still weak and wounded, start checking the armor lying on the ground, and I notice they are talking quickly.

In the end, they did it; on their own, they defeated the Calamity, and I see that every single one of them has become stronger. Some of them by a lot, and some didn’t have the chance to show it fully because of the opponent they were facing.

Another soft ding sounds, and curious I check the new Floor quest that has appeared.

Floor quest: Kill Lynthari Matriarch Myrra

Reward: 6000 shards