Might as Well - Chapter 399 (Patreon)

The entire area was saturated with explosions.

In the middle was a giant storm of fire, with blood and curses raining down from a high-level Blood Army lieutenant, while the silent clones rushed into the groups and exploded with shadow magic, lashing out at anybody who was near. At the same time, the bombs he had given them also went off, sending vacuum bombs, shrapnel, searing fireballs that reminded Sam of the spells Dan casually slung around, shredding globes of wind, and icy spikes protruding from a central point.

The previously pristine area was, within a few seconds of his clones emerging from the tunnel, turned into a battlefield that looked like war had been happening over it for decades. The camouflage cover was torn apart, letting the sun shine more light on the area.

Then, as Sam skipped over the ground, each step taking him farther and farther from the battle behind him, the Blood Army lieutenant shouted.

“ENOUGH!”

The deep voice resonated, echoing off the nearby mountains, and Sam idly noted that several birds flew into the air from a nearby copse of trees. Then the mana surged to new heights, the tainted mana practically blanketing everything around the woman.

The bloody firestorm also swelled before spears of fire burst from it, covering everything in a rain of red blood-colored lances of fire. Air sizzled as they flew, and wherever they landed, they exploded into a bubble of spinning fire that consumed everything it touched, leaving behind perfectly circular depressions in the ground.

Cries of other players went up instantly, begging for the woman to stop.

“Hey! Friendly fire!”

“Watch where you shoot, bitch!”

“AAAARGGH!”

Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for Sam, she didn’t listen.

With an angry swipe of both of her hands, the storm of blood-red fire dissipated with extreme efficiency, turning into a thick disk of explosive force that swept through the area, dissecting several nearby allies who were not fast enough to react. Those farther away, while managing to throw up different types of defensive spells or skills, with some even activating artifacts, also took some of the damage.

Ignoring the cries of pain and cursing, she turned toward Sam. While he couldn’t see behind himself, he could feel the mana spike in his direction.

Juking to the left, he watched as a lance of blood fire impacted the ground; the fire, instead of exploding in all directions, exploded toward him, following his body’s movement.

Sam launched himself backward, eyes on the snake made of fire slithering through the air toward him with a menacing air, and the miasma of blood magic wafting off it.

“Haha!” the woman exclaimed as her hands never stopped moving, launching lance after lance at him, while Sam tried his best to dodge them. “You will never be able to lose them! You stepped into our territory! Blood seeks blood, you moron!”

Sam conjured a shield made of shadows, barely resisting the urge to use void mana to subsume the fire snakes currently circling him as he jumped, rolled, and ran around the increasingly more pockmarked area, while explosions went off around them.

‘Thanks for the info,’ he thought while reaching into his pocket and pulling out one of the mana-chips filled with blood magic.

Then, just as his feet touched the ground and several blood fire snakes homed on him while his enemy launched more lances at his position, he flicked the mana-chip forward, the small item tumbling in the air, and he happily noted that several snakes turned toward the item, allowing him a small breathing space.

“What?”

Naturally, his enemy immediately noticed the anomaly.

WHUMP!

Three snakes made of blood-colored fire hit the mana-chip, detonating it.

Using the momentary distraction of the Blood Army lieutenant, Sam stopped moving, pivoted around, and, using the motion, swung his sword, releasing a barrage of shadow and wind blades toward the woman, saturating the air with them and removing him from her sight.

She reacted instantly, moving her hand from around her waist up in the air with a rapid motion, and the ground in front of her rose at the same time, creating a large wall that absorbed the blades of magic Sam had launched.

“Hah! You think you’re Solar! Yet you can’t even use shadows properly!” she crowed with laughter in her voice.

Sam felt the mana surge around him with a familiar taste (naturally mixed with the foul stench of blood magic). Shadows cast by the camouflage covering began to bulge before they exploded into writhing shadowy snakes, all of them opening their jaws to consume him.

The woman facing him just laughed as the shadowy snakes began to grow, first the size of normal snakes, before they turned into gigantic anacondas, their bodies growing thicker and thicker, their scales gleaming with a blood-red tint.

“This is how you use shadow magic, you amateur!” she declared triumphantly and with no small amount of condescension.

Sam stepped backward, finding a comfortable spot for a stable stance, and watched as the snakes, still growing, fed by his enemy’s mana, circled around him, occasionally snapping toward him, but never attacking.

Yet, he knew the moment he tried to escape the encirclement, they would instantly strike.

The earthen wall fell, and the woman was revealed, standing there, hands out like a conductor, grinning maliciously as her eyes drank in the sight of Sam surrounded by the snakes.

“Give up, you fool! Not even Solar could escape this!”

Now that he had the perfect view of the enemy player, Sam reached out with his own mana. Thin tendrils sought out the shadowy constructs, quickly finding the weak points.

“You think so?” he said, distorting his own voice. During the interview, too many people heard his voice, so he needed to be careful.

The woman with the statu-esque hairdo just laughed in derision. “Think? Oh no… I know! I’ve studied Solar’s magic! Your little tricks didn’t even come close to it!” With her hands still held out, mana streaming from them, and the shadowy constructs circling Sam, she stepped forward. “Now! Tell me who you’re working for and maybe we’ll allow you to resurrect properly instead of ganking you until you give up! The resurrection of all those who step foot in here is set in our territory. You cannot escape!”

Basic wartime action. Every enemy would resurrect in a certain enemy-controlled area unless they prepared their own resurrection point nearby, which most armies did in case of a war. This prevented people like him, infiltrators, from escaping simply by committing suicide.

In turn, the enemy couldn’t infinitely kill the resurrecting individuals as long as they stayed within the area of the resurrection point. As long as they left, they were fair game. Thus, limiting their movement and practically imprisoning them.

How did they leave? They called their guild, who basically bought their freedom. If the guild didn’t? You could buy your own freedom.

This practice prevented infiltrators and thieves from getting away with loot or important items. Granted, information could still be shared by simply logging out and calling the client, but for infiltrators, that was a mark of shame. Getting caught and having to log out to deliver the requested information? They would be mocked by everyone…

He smiled at the woman and raised his hand, not holding the sword. A brief pulse of mana, and then he clenched his hand into a fist.

At the same moment, right in front of the disbelieving eyes of the enemy player, all the shadowy constructs unraveled, leaving behind only quickly sublimating blood and him standing all alone on the pockmarked ground.

“Or maybe I wanted you to think that?” he rasped with laughter in his voice.

The woman snarled. “You think you won?” Her arms came down, and the air was suddenly filled with hundreds of lances of fire, each of them deep, deep red, almost approaching black. She was visibly sweating, but the grin on her face was menacing. “Think again!”

With a throwing motion, her arm flew forward, and the lances of blood flew toward Sam with incredible speed. He just jumped forward, running low to the ground, juking left and right, zigging and zagging, making sure to dodge every strike and defend against those he couldn’t avoid.

Shadow magic, strengthened by his own magic, tanked everything, and he was fast enough that within a few blinks he was in front of the woman, who was looking down at him with even wider eyes.

His sword flashed upward, cutting through the hastily conjured blood shield and into her body.

She stumbled a little backward, but it was enough for Sam. His foot pushed downward, and, using the solid ground, he swung his body around, his leg kicking out, hitting her armored body.

For a moment, his leg was connected to her, their eyes meeting, before the force was fully transferred, empowered by his own mana, sending the woman ragdolling across the area, occasionally hitting the ground.

He lowered his leg and watched as she landed in an undignified heap, groaning and spitting curses.

Using the time, he looked around.

The area between him and the walls was empty. Most of the ground was covered in holes, either made by the explosives he had issued to his clones or the spells his current opponent was throwing around.

Every other player was dead.

He saw countless bodies turning into pixels as one lone clone stood in the middle of the carnage, looking around a bit lost.

Sam reached over and pulled at the seam of the mana that held it together, and the last clone vanished too.

Just in time for his enemy to slowly push herself off the ground and turn her head toward him, still on all fours.

“Ugh… I hate melee fighters…” she muttered loud enough for him to hear.

Sam just raised his sword and launched three distinct crescents of shadows at the groaning body. They landed within a blink of an eye, cutting into the woman.

However, instead of blood, he saw… blood.

The body exploded into a cloud of blood, swirling around, the crescents of shadows having no effect, cutting deep burrows into the ground behind it.

She swirled around for a moment, coming to rest on an intact slice of ground and materializing again, before clicking her tongue. “Tsk… I thought you’d have fallen for that…”

Sam just smiled and raised his sword, ready for anything.

Two pairs of eyes met, the woman’s hairdo a bit more disheveled and several cuts open on her dress and armor, while Sam still looked whole.

“But you made a mistake!” she declared dramatically, throwing her hands forward, letting the mana ripple through the air. Sam watched calmly as it reached out to all the blood around him, and rolled his eyes.

He just smiled. “Bam.”

As the blood began to form into shapes, bubbling up and up, his enemy’s eyes widened.

Sam just pointed down casually.

She followed his hand.

There at her feet was a small bomb.

She had maybe a moment to look up and open her mouth, but it was too late. She was too deep into casting her massive spell. There was no chance of escape.

FWHOOOOOOOOOOOOM

A large globe of eye-searing white appeared where she stood, erasing matter and player in the same second. All that remained was a deep, perfectly circular hole, the surface of which was completely covered with an impossibly smooth, glass-like substance that crackled and tinked as it cooled down after the sudden absence of the heat that created it.

Sam, however, didn’t celebrate.

Instead, he rushed toward the factory. Part of it was that he wanted to see what they were doing, and part of it was that he needed to rest a little and figure out how to remove the curse.

Seeing as nobody had intervened in the fight with the woman whose name he still didn’t know, he estimated he had maybe five minutes or even less to accomplish all of his goals.

No doubt everyone who participated in the battle would be reporting the moment they got the chance, which would mean the backup was dispatched the moment his first clone appeared. There was also every chance that his fight was live-streamed to the higher-ups of the enemy guild.

He had made sure not to use anything that could identify him, but there was still a chance that they would think it was him.

Reaching the walls of the factory, without any care, he reached out with his mana and roughly grabbed the stonework, wrenching out enough of the stonework to create a rudimentary staircase for him to ascend to the roof.

He had a feeling he didn’t want to go inside…