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Volume 5

Chapter 20: Tempest Storms

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“What?! Lapis can do that!?” Siva couldn’t help but to be wide-eyed in surprise. He had read and heard of many articles pertaining to Elemental Dragons being able to control the elements but he had never heard of a Ranked Monster doing that same ability before.

But as much as he doesn’t want to admit this, he was looking at an S-Ranked Monster who was actually doing it right now.

“How is this possible?” Siva’s mind was boggled and he froze there for a moment completely shocked.

Terroa is a game that contained many mysteries but it still followed a set of rules and guidelines when trying to create a ‘role’ where players interact with.

In this regard, these Ranked Monsters’ role is to be the front obstacle that tunes a player into becoming strong enough to fight even against the weakest of the Elemental Dragons.

Then, according to the maturity of the Elemental Dragons, their strength was also ranked according to their own respective rankings. And… as far as anyone in the game is concerned, right after having the ability to battle mature Elemental Dragons, then the next enemies will be the Alien ‘Demons’ and the legendary Dragon Race.

Legends foretold of the might of the Dragon Race.

In the Book of Legends, every detail that tells of the horrors of the [Dragons] all said one thing: that they are the very symbol of absolute destruction. Before the arrival of the True Terrans, the Ancient Muans were suppressed by these creatures and the war that took place almost annihilated their entire race.

When the Terrans arrived, they liberated the Muans and thus the current Terran Civilization began.

Since then, 25 Cycles has passed. The Dragon Race was defeated twice and now, they are somewhere in the planet, regrouping, bidding their time to exact their revenge.

The people of the Dragon Race are born to have an innate ability to control the elements. To control any of the Elements means having a very powerful gift that can devastate any land with only one hand.

Currently, a clear reference to an Elemental goes by the name of Rogue that destroyed a Xargoal Mining City back in the Eastern Continent of Espada during the War of Two Powers.

As of today, no one knew where he came from or where he is based. All they knew is that he was strong and that a strong character like that definitely has a strong background.

Even now, Rogue is still being sought after by the TGG and the Sylphs’ alliance. After all, the two had become a coalition after their war.

“It’s not the same any more…” Siva murmured.

Staring at this tempest, he couldn’t help but feel that this game had changed from what he had seen and known from the forums and sites. It was now like a different universe than the ones he’s been able to patch together from the news and posts from many gamers who shared their experiences.

With rampaging might, the tempest formed by the Lapis Lazuli began to expand. The dancing tornado neared Siva’s location. The sound of wind whipping through everything rumbled like a roar of an even bigger monster, louder than the metallic roar of the Colossus Demon.

In fact, the devastating power was so great that the ripples it created became visible as large strands of ravaging winds!

A sensation of danger greater than anything else he had ever felt before could be felt in his skin. It’s the same genuine feeling of when seeing a real tornado in the real world.

The imminent threat of death filled his heart but even though he was astonished to a great degree, Siva still tried to remain his calmness as his first thought was not his safety but of the condition of his target.

And as the tornado swirled on its own orbit, its size continued to grow.

It twisted everything from trees to the land and its tip that stabbed the ground danced as it expanded even wider to cover an area with a size that’s half of an entire football field.

Monsters from the horde that followed Siva that was lost in the fog were also affected as they tried to grab on to hold something to make their feet stay on the ground. Some tried to burrow themselves on the ground but was mercilessly uprooted instead by the rampaging tornado. Those who were weaker tried to run but as the tornado expanded, the suction power of its orbit became stronger as well. They lost their footing and were pulled towards the direction of the burning tornado.

In fact, with how Siva had managed to put in some distance away from it earlier, even that far off from it, the heat of the tornado can still be felt scorchingly hot on his skin.

The fifty meters around the Lapis became a hell of torrential winds as it lashed out the bombardments, feeding on it, making itself a burning tornado that then began to expand even more. The more plasma bombardments it consumed, the bigger it became.

It might take more time to explain but the entire thing happened in a span of three seconds!

Siva and the Demon Commander were being dragged and Siva used all his might to fly away from it, latching himself on anything that he found to be planted firmly on the ground.

Gradually though, even a big volume of the plasma smoke screen he had scattered around the area of the forest were being sucked into the tornado.

The entire area incidentally became the focal point of his plan!

“Of all the things… No matter, I just have to cope up with the events in here.”

Inside its core, the roaring Lapis repeated its roar and as it did so, the tornado’s rotating power intensified and the tornado itself began to expand even bigger.

“Siva!”

“Where are you?!”

Thorn’s and Volt’s voices rung on Siva’s auricle. Both were extremely worried for him.

Siva looked around him and could indistinctively make out anything aside from the flying trees and the flying monsters. He himself was clinging on desperately on a thick tree and used his Black Ender to stab the main trunk and hug it.

“Where are you two?” He said.

“Far from the eye.” Thorn’s voice replied in a relieved tone. “But let me just tell you that the Colossus is looking at that tornado while the other two ships are hovering directly up above.”

Volt continued. “From the looks of it, those two warships are preparing to support the Colossus.”

Siva looked up towards the sky with difficulty and there, true enough, he saw two worm-shaped dots hovering above their current position –warships positioning themselves as if to send a set of bombardment just like what the Colossus did.

He couldn’t help hissing, “I’ve gone so far as to spend all of my Plasma Smoke Grenades… I won’t fail here. I need… that Ball!”

“What are you going to do now?”

“Do you have a plan?”

The two knew that they were powerless to say something that will change Siva’s mind so instead of pushing for him to cancel this reckless plan, they just went on and supported him. After all, if he failed here then it means that they too will fail and die. All three of them were in the same boat. Might as well go all out and multiply their chances of success.

But then Siva’s reply made their hearts sunk.

“I have nothing. I just have to keep pushing forward.”

“…”

“…”

Far away from the danger zone, Thorn and Volt couldn’t help looking at each other and then letting out a helpless sigh as they shook their heads.

As of this very moment, they could only watch him as Siva takes on two Lapis Lazulis and three warships all on his own.

Speaking of the first Lapis, as the tornado by the second Lapis Lazuli wreaked havoc in the vicinity, the other Lapis seemed to have realized something.

Doing the same movement, it smashed the ground where it stood, planting its claws firmly on the ground, and then roaring with the same grand majesty as the second Lapis.

Following this roar, strands of greyish brown wind materialized and gradually took form into a bundle of visible wind currents that not even a second moment later became a second tornado, dancing and hissing like a giant monster on the forest floor.

Trees were uprooted and the force that sucked Siva and the demon towards the cores doubled in its grand might.

And speaking of the demon, as Siva turned his head, he saw it firmly using its black matter to stab the ground and resist the sucking force of the tornado.

Siva had already changed gears into the Flight Armor as the Demon summoned its Black Tech. The roar of the Lapis in the center of the first tornado kept on repeating as the land around it burned and seethed with the raging inferno that it absorbed.

Siva looked on towards his target and his eyes had a glint of obsession as he gritted his teeth.

With a last desperate gamble, he pulled his sword from the large tree and kicked the air repeatedly to change direction towards his target. With a BOOM that was muffled by the tornado, he flipped and turned, sword in hand, as he lashed out an attack towards the unknowing demon.

Not until the demon felt that there was danger in his life that he raised his head to see Siva’s sword only just a meter away from him.

Panicked, he raised his arms to block by the last minute and letting go of his support, doing his best to summon a black armor to cushion the unlockable surprise attack.

[You are inside the Killing Zone! Your defenses are reduced by 70%.]

The blade reached first before the liquid matter and his left arm was cut off before his right arm that was now covered in black armor.

A cry of pain and agony resounded amidst the storm and the demon commander fell back, unfolding his wings, and wanted to get away from Siva as much and as soon as possible.

In the midst of the two intertwining storms, the demon made its way, catapulting himself kicking the air, and gaining distance. Siva didn’t let out the demon as he twisted midair and then kicked off to follow the demon. The two were then dragged by the pulling force of the fire tornado and wind tornado but they still managed to put a distance away from its infernal core.

In fact, the two of them were perfectly in the middle!

One round, two, three… the two tornados were not that close to each other and whether it was by chance or by science, they both were making an uncontrolled “8” movement between the tornados.

But despite the danger, Siva’s mind was still filled with his obsessive vigor.

“You’re not getting away!”

With a layer of delight, he kicked the air and sped towards the retreating commander. Even though he felt like he was being spun on a giant washing machine, he still tried his best to maintain his balance and gain even a closer distance with his target.

Struggling to maintain distance from the tornado, the demon commander looked back at Siva with anger and astonishment as he roared a command in alien language followed by a resounding reply from the big Colossus not too far away.

Siva felt his nape go numb as he immediately twisted his body and changed the direction of his twisting turn to dodge.

Just as he did, his ears picked up the sound of the wind barrier being broken. Like a giant bowling ball banging directly against a metal wall, the sound of it was breathtakingly loud and frighteningly terrifying.

After only two moments, a bright beam of light came from the distance as a cannon was fired from the open mouth of the Colossus warship.

It came from the opposite side of where Siva and the demon commander were at and it directly hit the tornado, disrupting its twisting momentum.

The absorbed plasma smoke screen had been thicker as it neared the burning center and so it neutralized majority of the plasma burst’s destructive force before it hit the core. The flaming tornado that was converted from the earlier plasma bursts of the mortars from the Colossus also dissipated as the cannon fire pierced through it, separating Siva and the demon commander… and actually destroying the second tornado on its wake as well!

Strong gusts of wind shot out in all directions and all objects luckily trapped within the outer core of the tornados were like kites that lost their strings.

One by one the objects flew in many directions, falling in many places as the greyish brown strands of wind elemental power scattered as well.

The two Lapis Lazulis appeared from the bottom of the dissipated tornados, heaving, panting, exhausted to a seemingly large degree. But Siva only spent a moment to glance at them as his full attention was poured on thinking of ways to kill the alien demon.

When the beam of light disappeared, the demon commander became astonished that it did not kill the man who had injured it.

And when Siva finally managed to balance himself in midair, he looked at the direction of the Colossus that was now crackling in many places as it seems to have strained itself on that attack.

While the demon’s eyes were widened in disbelief, Siva kicked the air on that opening. The demon was startled as it realized what the Terran wants and so it desperately flew towards the direction of its Colossus Warship.

The chase began as the demon commander dashed back. Gripping its bleeding arm with his other hand, it looked back at Siva who was hot on his trail, radiating intent akin to a snake looking at a pitiful frozen mice.

It felt horror, contrary to its earlier arrogant and overbearing presence s it realized that the obsession in Siva’s heart and soul were greater than anything that it had ever seen before.

With every flap of its wings, his speed increased but at the same time, Siva continued to kick the air and their distance only shortened, much to its regret.

The alien roared as his Colossus Warship began to rumble, the seemingly tired-looking posture looked up to the sky as its body straightened and then began to float from where it was planted.

Lines upon lines of golden outlined details appeared on the surface of its body as it began to morph. It was changing form.

Its feet floated from the ground and it began to morph back into a warship; the legs were the tail end while the head and body were the worm-like body and fin-like wings.

OOOOOOMMM–!!

A loud droning sound echoed and vibrated in the air as Siva closed in until less than a hundred meters away from the demon.

It was on that next moment that he looked up as he noticed that the sky suddenly darkened. He gasped as soon as he noticed that the sky was blotted out by countless numbers of demons that were freefalling from the two warships up in the air.

As Siva and their commander were so close to each other now, they can’t risk firing off their cannons and accidentally hitting their own boss.

But the number of the falling demons was just too great and it was even enough to blot out the light of sol and totally cover the sky with their shadows.

Their screams of joy echoed from the sky and it fell on the still intact part of the forest below Siva like a wall of murderous clowns feigning joyful laughter. It was a scary sight to see the horde of demons falling from that height like rains and all the more it was horrifying to hear them laugh and jeer, crazed to know that they were given the chance to kill and take lives. To Siva’s own estimates, even four or five Lapis Lazulis will be overwhelmed by the sheer number and force of this demon horde.

And so, he was left with no other choice.

“I have to reach him faster!”

With this scream, Siva unleashed the Killing Zone and then kicked off the air. He drank a blue potion and he also changed his equipment into his twin guns.

With Eibon and Steve in hand, his weight was definitely lightened and so he kicked the air again and reached a whopping speed of 250kph.

It was his best speed and this speed surprised the demon he was chasing.

Left with no choice, it roared and gave an alien language command.

From above, countless rays of plasma light shot forth like rain falling with momentum from the skies. But Siva only lighted his body up with the sparks from the Spark Grenade that traveled through the floating particles of his disintegrated Dragunov.

With the additional effect of the rules of the game that stated for these Plasma Bursts only effective in a maximum distance of 400m, he was confident that with the horde still around a kilometer away, he will still be safe.

Still, it didn’t mean that the Plasma Bursts had lost its penetrating power. Given that he was below and they were above, there were still the occasional beams reaching him though the damage was lessened by the jacket of electricity provided by his gear.

But the damage was pilling up due to the numbers and if he doesn’t hurry, he’ll eventually meet his end.

“I’ll kill you before you reach that ship!” As he spoke, Siva pulled the trigger and rounds after rounds of point forty five caliber bullets whistled towards the demon’s directions.

A few of the bullets hit the demon on different parts of his body. But Siva’s target was actually his wings and as well as its back.

In its panic, the demon roared and turned its body.

Using only one hand, it summoned a dark spear. The spear was as malevolent and as sinister in presence as the one that FlowerLord can summon but their numbers were totally realms apart.

FlowerLord was a player strong enough to fight against this commander one against one while this particular Demon Commander was the weakest kind of its class. A true strong Demon Commander commands an entire fleet of Colossus Warships that numbered up to 27. A commander encharged of only these three are either a fodder Demon Commander or a weakling banished into doing suicidal missions.

The latter would have been the truth, considering that demons have their own pride to themselves. It was one of their Seven Doctrines.

With a flick of its arm, the Dark Spear was launched like an arrow towards Siva.

But Siva had the opening a moment to decide of the quickest counter to this attack and so from the time that the demon summoned this spear, he had already changed his equipment into his solidified Dragunov.

He said, “I need your power…”

Siva’s voice was calm and it was only spoken to himself, no one else. Yet even so, when he deflected the spear flying off with a punch and even though he was also pushed back by the exchange, the two of them were already just under 20m apart and Siva’s own momentum was only disrupted while the demon’s final desperate failed attack sent a blow to its AI.

“It failed?!” It could only lament.

“Die for me!”

Kicking the air, Siva’s voice echoed about on the demon’s ears as if it was a declaration that today was his demise.

The demon hurriedly turned its body and tried to fly away but then, as soon as it flapped its wings…

RIIIIIIIIPP!!!

…it was then followed by the sound of something ripping.

The demon’s heart stopped at this moment. Looking back, it saw a large hole opened up in his left wing.

His eyes widened as he realized what it meant.

Following that moment was a BOOM that rang about from behind him and just as he turned his head out, the looming skull face with red eyes of the man who he called a [vessel] earlier was just a feet away from his own.

And then, he was taught the definition of horror.

[You are inside the Killing Zone! Your defenses are reduced by 70%.]

SLASH!