Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 3 - Chapter 30 (Patreon)

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Table of Contents

Click the following link for the 1323 word chapter 30:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KxAs_4hYuZIlBz1PvFGVdpR3kDmzfF1yCw-tAb4JbDE/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

Within the Pioneer Game

Darius Vex has disliked Aqua ever since he first heard about her.

A Bloodliner daring to step into the spotlight of a Pioneer, and even becoming an Official Pioneer at that. He doesn’t care about her situation or that she had no choice in the matter.

All he cares about is that his own viewers massively decreased after Aqua’s rise. Nothing else matters to him.

The only thing he can do to fix this situation is to be the first Official Pioneer to defeat her in a Pioneer Game.

So, without hesitation, the moment the game begins, he goes around hunting down other Official Pioneers and mind controls them to force them all into serving as his own forces. Then he goes to find Aqua and surround her with his forces.

An entire force of over a hundred Official Pioneers. All of whom are at least on the average to above average range in level.

He doesn’t believe there is any chance for Aqua to fight off all of these Official Pioneers. Especially not outside of the water.

There is a chance she could defeat them if they were underwater. Even Darius recognizes that she’s that powerful underwater. But he can’t help but frown when he sees her looking pleased at the sight of being surrounded by over a hundred airships in all directions.

What does she have up her sleeve…

Darius has been an Official Pioneer for years. He may be a little arrogant thanks to his mind control that has rarely ever failed, but he isn’t stupid.

That’s why he brought over a hundred people to fight her even outside of the water.

No matter what it is, it won’t change anything.

He shakes his head and continues controlling the Official Pioneers to close in the sphere around her. Feeling absolutely confident with every bit closer they get.

It’s not just the Official Pioneers themselves, but their ships as well. Each of which have been upgraded to include weapons.

When all of the ships get within two hundred meters of her, he orders them to stop and begin preparations to fire.

And yet, right as he’s feeling the most confident about the situation, everything suddenly changes when it all goes dark and he finds it impossible to breathe as water begins to rush into his mouth and nose.

Darius’ eyes widen in shock as he suddenly finds himself submerged in dark water. But he doesn’t panic. Instead he tries to control some of the Official Pioneers with water related skills to fire him out of the suddenly appearing water.

Only for the water to grow significantly darker as he feels immense pressure pushing down on him from every direction.

Now panic finally begins to set in as he senses the Official Pioneers he’s controlling beginning to drop off like flies. All while he sees numerous deep blue creatures with glowing blue lights shining within the water swimming all over the place. Too many creatures for him to count right now within the deep water around him.

Not because there are too many of them, but because he can’t even see them all through the water. Even with their glow.

His panic grows by the second. More and more abyssal servants including some enormous ones appear along with large tentacles, with him sometimes seeing some of the Official Pioneers under his control being crushed or eaten before his very eyes. All without making a single sound as they try to scream but can’t underwater. And to make matters worse, he senses the Official Pioneers under his control dropping like flies faster and faster by the second.

Ninety left.

Seventy left.

Fifty.

Thirty.

By the time a mere ten are left remaining, Darius finally finds himself close to Aqua’s own ship. Although he’s not sure how he got here.

All he is sure about is the sight before him.

The sight of Aqua sitting on the edge of her ship looking out at everything happening around them with one foot on the edge of the ship, one arm resting on top of her knee, and her other leg leisurely swinging back and forth off the edge of the ship. Her eyes glow with a deep blue light as several abyssal servants of different aquatic creatures calmly swim around her, illuminating her direct surroundings.

Darius immediately tries to control her mind now that he’s this close, only for his attempt to slam into what feels like a wall. With his skill not so much as budging her in any way.

His eyes narrow before trying even harder to control her mind. And if that doesn’t work, directly attack her mind.

But none of that works. His attempts repeatedly slam into the wall that is her mind without doing a thing.

What’s more is that, when he tries to attack her mind, he feels his own attack rebounding back at him from the sheer strength of her mind. Which attracts her attention to him as she looks direction at him after his attack.

She raises a single brow as the last of his controlled Official Pioneers die off, then she just waves her hand, making a single being appear in front of him.

The Abyssal Lord serving her.

It moves faster than he can dodge, especially while in the slow process of drowning and under the pressure of the water, and grabs his throat. And the last thing he sees before everything goes dark are the glowing eyes of Aqua still visible behind the Abyssal Lord.

Then he finds himself appearing as normal within the stadium of the Official Pioneer Game, where he hears incredibly loud cheers. All for Aqua as both live and recorded footage of everything that just happened plays across numerous screens within the stadium.

Darius feels dazed as he watches just how easily she wiped out all of his forces after surprising them and dunking them in the water that just appeared out of nowhere.

She has a skill to summon an area of water… this will change everything in the game. She might even defeat that alliance…

Darius takes a deep breath before letting it out again. Feeling incredibly conflicted about everything that just happened.

He feels upset that he won’t be able to use her as a stepping stone to increase his viewers, but he also feels more respect for her than before. Simply because this power of hers means she can turn the battlefield into her own preferred battlefield.

How many times she can use the skill and how long it will last, he isn’t sure. But the fact that she can do this in the first place is enough to drastically increase her threat level in his mind.

What’s more important than those factors to him, however, is her immense mental strength.

So this is what the Mental Hidden Stat can do… I’m jealous.

He quietly stands in the stadium with the other defeated Official Pioneers watching as Aqua sends her abyssal servants to go gather all of the ribbons from the various Official Pioneers she just defeated. Then she places over a third of them into her ship to upgrade it while keeping the rest for points.

And doing this immediately skyrockets her score straight to first place in the Official Pioneer Game.

Which isn’t surprising to Darius or any of the other viewers watching. Considering that she just took the ribbons from over a hundred other players in the game.

Darius watches for a little while longer before eventually leaving the stadium amidst the commentator’s passionate commentating.

I need to find a Special Dungeon of my own if I want any chance at getting that Hidden Stat.

He quickly puts all thoughts of the game behind him as he focuses solely on unlocking that stat. No matter how unlikely it may be for him to unlock that exact stat.