Chapter 73: The Real Fight Starts Now
"Serious Table Flip!"
Steve pulled on the ground he dug his finger into, as if he had grabbed the edge of a table and overturned it. But instead of a slab of wood being flipped over, all the remaining ground not affected by the gravity spell on a normal level was uprooted in a tsunami of rock and debris as the earth within the domain Steve isolated began to pile out of the pocket and enter the range of the gravity of the spell.
More and more the earth was broken away as the adventurers clinging on to the pro-gravity chunks were peppered with rocks and dust as they saw the earth rush by them like geysers of water. Layers upon layers of the ground was removed using Steve's raw strength as a hole spanning the whole area of the 3 mile wide space became deeper and deeper.
The adventurer's ears were filled with nothing but the sound of rumbling earth as the light became blotted out for the adventurers. But those who were watching the broadcast were given a bird's eye view of what Steve had really accomplished through all of this. There was a reason he'd isolated this specific area in the piece of land. Because when the final layer of dirt was peeled away to reveal what was beneath, people stood up in from their seats in further disbelief.
In Babel, the god's eyes widened as in that huge hole in the ground, there was revealed lush forest, flowing rivers and white walls.
"That's...the 50th floor." Hermes said as the description matched exactly what was in the Dungeon handbooks. "He's ripped open a hole into the Dungeon!"
"Ptah, at this point it's ridiculous." Dionysus said. "We got the message, we've seen all we had to see, can you not just reign your children in before they tear the planet apart?!"
"And what do you expect me to do from here?" Ptah asked. "Shout all the way across to the battlefield and tell them to stop what they're doing?"
"You ARE able to do that." Loki commented. "You know, with that special power of yours."
"...Even if I did tell them, I cannot control them with my voice the same way I can control the lot of you." The Egyptian god said.
"You can't?"
"No. My children are somehow protected against my own power. Maybe because they carry my blessing but if not for that reason, the fact still remains that I cannot exert the same power over them."
"And why would they not just obey you?" Dian Cecht. "Don't tell me you took in a bunch of over powered otherworldly freaks and they don't listen to a word you say."
"NONE of our children do exactly what we say." Ptah said. "That's the point of free will. They're not going to follow us to the letter. But anyways...this is all of your fault. You pressed me for a War Game and you set my children on a war path with Freya's children. Now they're going to see it through and they're like forces of nature. You just have to wait until it's over."
"Freya, come on." A goddess pleaded with her. "Can't you get your kids to just throw in the towel...or rather, the flag?"
"And how would you suppose I do that, even if I wanted to?" Freya raised a brow. "What messenger can we send is fast enough to reach the battlefield now? And even if we had such a person, which of them is now going to enter the barrier. And anyway..." Freya stared at the magical screen, silently praying in her heart that Steve spared the lives of her children. Her wagers were the furthest thing at the back of her mind now...she just wanted her children home and safe and in full count when this whole debacle was over. "...my children are just as stubborn. They won't just give up like that. They'll fight till their last breath if they have to. It's just the way I raised them."
"Great, so we've got two stubborn gods with equally stubborn children at each other's throat and none want to just finish this." Goibniu said. "Meanwhile, Apollo and Ishtar's Familia are being trampled like ants just because they're in the way....what a War Game this turned out to be."
---
The Freya Familia opened their eyes as the chaos came to a stand still. All around them, they could see floating debris, ranging from small pebbles to mountain sized boulders that floated between the bubbles that were the chunks, suspended in an anti-gravitational field.
It was like the War Game was taking place in an asteroid belt where the rocks just floated around in zero gravity. Only where the chunks were concerned was there gravity keeping them rooted. They walked to the edge of the chunk they were situated on and looked down beneath them to see the surprise that Steve had in store for them.
"The 50th Floor." Hedin said. "From the sky to the Dungeon. This is the real battlefield. Not just a show of power, but intentionally making the playing field larger...they're about to get serious."
"Serious?" Alfrigg repeated. "SERIOUS? You mean everything they were doing before now was just them being casual?"
"Certainly didn't seem to cost them much." Hedin remarked before looking to the Boaz. "Ottar. What's our next move? We jump off this thing and we get caught floating in that nullification field. We stay here and we become idle targets for them."
Ottar stared as he watched the members of the Ptah Familia separate and land amongst different Familia groups stuck on different chunks. For instance, Kai landed on the chunk where Phryne was and the toad women clutched at her axe as she caught sight of the speedster on her platform.
...
"You bitch! You again?!" The toad screeched. "Where is the orange haired whore, the one that wrecked my beautiful face?!"
"Where she needs to be." Kai said. "Though I would advise you keep your eyes on me. I'm just as dangerous as she and the captain has ordered us to get serious."
"Piss off uggo!" Phryne shouted. "I'm gonna go find your friend and rip out her-"
Phryne was silenced as she found a fist buried in her nose which made a crater in her face and her head snapped back in a whiplash. Kai then span around and round house kicked her in the stomach so cleanly that the area beneath the toad's hips turned 360 degrees and the Amazons with Phryne heard the audible sound of a spine being broken. Phryne's face contorted in pain as she prepared to fall forwards having lost control and sensation of her lower half but Kai was suddenly standing on her face.
Surprisingly, the toad's face was so large that Kai was able to stand on it with both feet. But the expression on the speedster's face was enough to make the women shiver. Gone was the joyfulness and the childish grins. What had replaced all the joviality was stone cold resolve, and icy demeanour as the look in Kai's eye made it seem she was no longer dealing with another sentient being but a pest that needed to be exterminated. This was what happened when Steve ordered them to kill; their real god was not Ptah, but in their eyes the one that had made them his family.
"I told you, the captain has ordered me to get serious..." Kai said as she leaned down and grasped Phryne's eyeballs with her hand, no care at all for how the toad felt her grabbing it. With a swift pull, she tore out the eyeballs from Phryne's head until the optic nerves were all that was connecting the organs to the toad's skull. Kai faced the eyeballs towards her. "...so like I said. Keep your eyes on me!"
Phryne screamed bloody murder as Kai ripped out the woman's eyes and kicked off of the woman's face, backflipping onto the ground of the chunk and tossing the organs aside. Her kicking off from Phryne's face made the woman's flabby body bounce off the ground and into the anti-gravity field where she floated, still screeching like a strangled goat with her mouth wide open.
Kai withdrew an enchanted bow from her hotbar and pulled on the string, an arrow automatically being nocked in placed. With no time wasted and not a glance spared, Kai let off the arrow and it sailed through the air, swift and true as it lit on fire, a clear sign of the Flame enchantment on the bow. The arrow lodged itself in Phryne's throat, piercing the woman's uvula and burying the flaming tip into the woman's brain cell, roasting her nerves and her spinal cord as the brain died then and there.
There was a puff of confetti and the toad's body disappeared. It all happened so fast, it was barely more than the blink of an eye and the Amazon's which made up Phryne's posse could only watch and process it happening while their bodies were one; unable to move fast enough and keep up with Kai's speed, and two; they were paralysed by fear. Kai put the bow away into her inventory and called forth her sword.
"No more games." Kai muttered loud enough for them to hear.
Cold indifference was on her face, and for a moment the Amazons saw the illusion of a bloodthirsty giant she-wolf looming up behind Kai, telling them all they really needed to know in that instance and that moment in time...they were nothing but her prey.
Which was cemented by Kai blurring forward and gutting three Amazon's with her netherite sword at once. The heartless gamer persona that saw other living creatures besides her own family as nothing but NPCs and expendable livestock or entertainment was in full swing now as she mowed the women down mercilessly...she had her order, and she would do her job. As per Steve's programming.
...
Efe landed on the chunk where Luan Espel was cowering along with some other members of his pathetic Familia. She landed nimbly on her tip toes and put a finger to her chin and she wondered cutely as any typical little girl did.
"Hello." She said cutely. "You are members of the Apollo Familia right?"
"Get the HELL way from me!" Luan fell on his backside and scrambled away on his hands and feet like a retarded crab. "You're freaks the lot of you! You shouldn't even exist!"
"Well that's not a nice thing to say." Efe pouted. "I'm little girl. You shouldn't say mean things to me! You're supposed to call me cute and adorable and praise me with nice, pretty words. Not insult me!"
"You are anything but cute!" One of the adventurers said. "You're psychos! You're demons...here to torture us all! Go back to wherever you came from and tell your sick captain to take his hellspawn monster with him!"
Efe's eyes narrowed dangerously as the cute air around her vanished, leaving behind sharp, glinting purple eyes as the pupils dilated in ice cold anger.
"You can insult me all you want, and not call me the names I deserve to be called." Efe said before she gestured with a finger, purple mists of magic covering it. All carbon matter in the soil of the chunk beneath them condensed greatly under the high pressure of her magic while she simultaneous weaved it about to give the shape she wanted from it. Out of the ground itself shot a spike made out of diamond, stronger than the hardest metal and sharper than a seamstress's needle and impaled the adventurer through the throat. He gasped out blood and clawed at the structure that had penetrated his pipes.
"But you will not insult my Onii-chan in front of me." Efe's tone was full of warning and a challenge for them to say more.
"...She's just a mage brat. Get her before she can cast again." The other adventurers said as they pounced on her.
Efe just sidestepped them at the last millisecond and watched them as they sailed off the edge of the chunk and in the zero gravity field where they hovered as Ari picked them off from one of the floating boulders with an M2010, fatal and precise headshots each. It seemed that in some weird game logic, the null gravity didn't affect the speed, power and trajectory of a bullet.
Luan could only gape in horror as he was left all alone with this psycho girl who had just impaled a man in his throat and tricked more grown men to jump off a cliff. He pointed a shaky finger at Efe who only raised a brow at him in questioning.
"What?" She emphasised by opening her hands and looking down at herself. "Is there something on me? Oh please don't tell me there's a stain on my clothes! I can't stand them!"
"Monster." Luan gasped. "You're a sadistic f***ing monster, the lot of you! There's no humanity in you at all."
Efe gasped dramatically as her hands flew to her mouth while she stared at him bug-eyed. So ridiculous and outraged was her expression that Luan dropped his finger and rose a brow in confusion at her over-reaction.
"What? What did I say?" He asked.
"You...you naughty boy!" She said. "How can a kid like you curse like that in front of a young lady like me? That's very bad manners!"
"I'm not the kid! I'm a Pallum. You're the snotty kid here, a kid who thinks she's so powerful that she can do whatever sh*t she puts her mind to and its okay! Just like her goddamn Familia!"
"You did it again!" Efe exclaimed before she tutted. "My Onii-chan went through so much trouble to protect me from bad language like yours. He said I have to remain pure and innocent...and you're trying to ruin it!"
"Ruin what?" Luan asked in confusion, feeling as if he was poking a hornet's nest with this one. "Why exactly would hearing a bit of swearing taint you?! You're soul is already black with darkness!"
"I have to remain pure and lady like, uncorrupted by filthy language from lower class swine like you!" Efe put a hand on her hips. "How else will I become my Onii-chan's wife in the future!?"
Luan actually dead-panned at that, in spite of his growing fear.
"Oh, so it's one of THOSE situations is it? Wait, your big brother would be your captain right! And even at your age you're still thinking of marrying him? Don't they give up these kind of thoughts at like...four?"
"No, he's not my real brother." Efe said. "But even if he was, I would still do my best to try and marry him. Because he's the best Onii-chan in the world! He taught me a few important things." Efe pulled back a finger and the diamond spike collapsed into soil again, the impaled man breathing his last as his eyes rolled back and he collapsed onto his knees before his back leaned over the edge of the chunk and the weight of his head leaning in that direction eventually made the entire body tumble over. Efe then pulled out a rather large hammer from her inventory, not unlike Amy Rose's hammer. Luan turned paper white as Efe approached him.
"One of the lessons my Onii-chan taught me was this...to discipline other kids who use foul language." Efe said as she approached Luan who scrambled away from her but was then cornered as he dangled over the edge of the chunk, looking down into miles upon miles of a long fall where he would most certainly splat like an egg on the exposed 50th floor if the filed was deactivated. He looked at the purple haired girl who raised the large hammer above her head with a solemn expression on her face. "I will make my Onii-chan proud and teach you some manners!"
The air was filled with Luan's screams.
...
"Damn, she's enjoying this way too much." Ari said as she watched the scene with her scope and looked away from Efe bringing down the literal hammer of justice on Luan repeatedly, like one who was using a tenderising hammer in pounding meat.
Ari then activated her magic, which replaced all the rounds in her mags without her having to physically reload them, instead taking the rounds from her inventory straight into the gun and dumping the cartridges out.
"But then again, so am I. I'm just glad that the ban on me using guns on people was lifted for this stage of the fight. Better enjoy it while it lasts." Ari grinned as she leapt up onto a chunk where she knew some of the lesser members of the Freya Familia.
Her touch down on the ground startled them and made them spin around as they glared at her in both fear and anger. She merely grinned as she dismissed the rifle in her hands and switched it for a trench gun before aiming straight at a girl's face
"Surprise motherf***ers!" She said before splattering the other adventurers' faces with brain matter.
...
Zuri was on another chunk engaging Hyakinthos and his top adventurers in a physical fight. The fools had thought that just because Zuri was a mage that he would be easy picking...but they were dead wrong. Zuri was a better mage for sure, but he was a deadly combatant, enough that even Steve had to be careful. And thanks to the custom blade on his staff, he was able to utilise it like a scythe as he humiliated Hyankinthos.
Zuri butted one adventurer in the stomach with the end of his staff before ducking under a sword and kicking the one who swung it so hard in the chest that their heart exploded and their body disappeared into bursts of confetti. Zuri dodged an arrow that sped by his ear and grabbed an adventurer just as another came flying towards him and held him up as his meat shield.
Unfortunately the meat shield met the arrow with his crotch since Zuri didn't have time to adjust him properly. And so Zuri's ears were filled with screams like that of a woman...because the adventurer he'd indirectly castrated may as well have become one now.
Feeling bad that the adventurer would probably stay this way, Zuri flicked the body hard enough the neck broke from whiplash and killed the guy. He tossed the body in front of another approaching adventurer, and the burst of confetti customary of a dead body disappearing in Steve's domain blinded and confused the attacker long enough for Zuri to slash him across the eyes with the blade on his stuff, blinding him bloody.
Another adventurer approached from the side with an axe over-head like he wanted to bury it in Zuri's skull. But the mage simply pointed the staff at the guy and wordlessly fired a blast of magical energy. The attack hit the adventurer and vaporised all flesh and blood, leaving behind only bone as the skeleton dropped the axe and shattered into an arrangement of bones as that too disappeared in a burst of confetti. Another thunderclap sounded overhead as the resurrected adventurers were spat out of the cloud.
"Still not willing to let them die, eh Steve?" Zuri sighed wistfully.
"{Aro Zephyros}!" Zuri heard Hyakinthos shout behind him and without looking, he stretched a hand behind him and caught between his fingers a spinning blade of fire.
Zuri then turned around and examined the magic he caught in his hand before looking back at Hyakinthos.
"I'll have to give you points on the creativity." The scholar said as he stared at the one Steve referred to as nothing else but a 'poofta'. "But I'm afraid I'm a bit too high level to be caught out by magic like this. I've come across things much stronger and deadlier than your parlor tricks."
"H-how?" Hyakinthos asked. "How are you just able to catch my magical attack in your bare hand like it's nothing?"
"I've spent over a hundred years studying the finer bits of magic to be caught out by this pathetic attack. I've probably forgotten more about magic than all the scholars in Orario combined have learnt about it." Zuri huffed before smiling. "Though, there is 'one' who for certain doesn't fall into that category."
Hyakinthos grit his teeth at how this War Game had turned out for all of them, and hatred built up in his blood to the point that veins bulged out out of his face.
"We are the Apollo Familia." The ponytailed prat said. "We are guided by the Lord of Light himself, kissed by the sun and basked in all of its mighty glory. We will never be toppled by upstart heathens in a worthless Familia like yours." The hateful grimace turned to a smirk as Hyakinthos prepared his next move, making Zuri raise a brow. "We are certainly not arrogant enough to just fall into a trap. {Rubele}!"
The disk in Zuri's hand exploded in a storm of fire with power equivalent to that of a C4 as Hyakinthos grinned at what could be the undoing of the 'arrogant mage' in front of him. He sheathed his red Sun's Flamberge and scoffed.
"100 years my ass. All that time studying only to be caught out by an explosive attack. What a waste of my air." Hyakinthos began walking away to the edge of the chunk he was on, looking for a way to get off. "Now then, where are the rest of those fools? Especially those two whores, Daphne and Cassandra. When I find them, I'm going to make them pay for their treachery to Lord Apollo! I'll have them laid out for the horses to play with then. I'll flay them alive! I'll immolate them at noon in lawn of of our manor! I'll humiliate them! I'LL-BLURGH!"
Hyakinthos was cut off as something stabbed right through his back and he looked down to see the blade of Zuri's staff jammed right through his back and out his abdomen. Looking back, he saw Zuri with his arm outstretched holding he weapon in place while with the other arms, he was vacuuming all the dispersed fire magic from Hykanithos's magical explosion into a fire ball in his palm.
"Like I said, it would be embarrassing if I were to be caught out by such a circus trick." Zuri said as he condensed all the fire into the fireball in his palm. Not even his clothes were affected, let alone suffering any damage himself.
"How?" Hyakinthos spluttered out as blood poured from his mouth. "How did you survive?"
"I'm just better, and smarter than you." Zuri said. "You're just a pompous little boy toy of Apollo's that seems very proud of that fact. You're a taker through and through." Zuri leaned forwards and smirked cruelly. "And that last part doesn't extend just to the amount of L's you've taken in the past half hour."
Hyakinthos grunted as he tried to pull his body from the blade but Zuri held him fast.
"And what was that I heard about immolation?" Zuri asked as he pointed the fireball of the poofta's own fire magic right at him. "Perhaps for one to understand what he truly threatens with, he must experience if first hand."
The fireball became very much like a blowtorch as Hyakinthos shrieked in pain, his body becoming just one big bonfire as his clothes set alight and he dropped over the edge of the chunk. But not before Zuri caught ahold of the Flamberge gifted to Hyakinthos by Apollo and pulled the sword out of its sheath. Zuri held it aloft, not even caring as the flaming meatbag fell over the edge.
"Nice sword." The scholar said before tossing it in his inventory. "I might pick my teeth with it."
He then stared over at another chunk where he watched Sunny engage with another group of adventurers from Freya's bunch. One of them tried to ambush Sunny but the farmer rolled back out of the way of the lunge and grabbed the back of the guy's pants. Sunny quickly pulled the man's slacks down and flipped his hoe around so the butt-end of the tool was lined up with a brown eye. One smooth thrust and the adventurer went ram-rod straight as he screamed like a stuck pig.
Zuri shivered at his friend's behaviour. And Noor was nowhere to be seen.
"How uncouth." He commented before looking at the orb on his staff and watched a clock with its hand ticking down inside. "The gravity spell is about to wear off soon." He looked up at the highest chunk where he knew the Freya Familia executives were. "Hurry up and do what you must Steve. Even I'm starting to get bored."
---
"They're monsters." Ottar commented as he observed what the Ptah Familia was doing down below.
"That they are." Hogni said. "Yonder adventurers pose no threat to those great warriors, but merely provide fodder for sport. They are outmatched."
"That's an understatement." Allen muttered. "But they're weaklings. Why would would we be the same?"
"Because you're all piss poor and weak compared to us." Came a voice behind them and the Freya Familia executives turned quickly to see Steve standing there with his arms folded his fingers drumming as his armour glimmered with magic. "And no matter what you do, you will never overcome us. We are legion, we are great...we are inexorable."
They hadn't even registered him moving into their range, even with their advanced senses.
"Fancy words we couldn't give a sh*t about." Alfrigg said.
"Finally decided to stop running?" Dvalinn asked.
"No big monster to hide behind now, is there?" Berling taunted.
"Now it's just you versus all of us." Grer said as he tightened his grip on his greatsword. "And we're going to wreck you."
"You really are brothers." Steve commented. "You share the same level of stupidity as well. Too addled by your worthless love for your equally useless goddess."
""What?!" The Gulliver brothers roared in deep anger. The Freya Familia's hands all clenched as they heard this, even Ottar.
"You seem to have got the wrong idea." Steve explained. "It's not me versus all of you...it's all of YOU versus ME."
He paused to let those words sink into them, but at the same moment, Phryne respawned and dropped beside him, trying to get to her feet and shake off the disorientation. When she realized where she was and who she was standing by, she brandished her axe with a war cry and directed her impending attack at Steve.
He did not even spare her a glance before punching in her direction. The Freya Familia saw nothing but his arm blur out of its folded position towards Phryne, and a moment later the toad's body exploded into a bloody mist that dispersed into the air, followed by another crack of thunder from above. Now incensed as the Freya Familia was, even they knew they couldn't just vaporise a level 5 with a punch.
Hedin was smart enough to know what happened.
"He turned her into bloody mist...using just the pressure that his punch created." The light elf said under his breath.
"That's just a whole other level of bullsh*t." Allen said.
"But you'll be slapped with a whole lot more where you're heading." Steve said before he smiled. "I can feel your anger, your hatred. You revile me for how much I've humiliated you and put you off like feeble children who only need a bit of discipline at the end of the day." Steve tilted his head and grinned at them as he saw they did not react this time, especially Allen. Last time they'd responded to his poking, the big G vaporised them. "And like good children, it seems you're learning. Well I guess its time to stop faffing around." Steve unfolded his arms as he flexed his fingers. "Let's get this over with shall we?"
Ottar brandished his black sword and grunted. "Bring it!"
Both Steve and the Freya Familia leapt at each other. If this were Dragonball, the episode would have ended where Steve's face and the faces of the Freya Familia were caught close in one frame, expressions frozen at the exact moment before collision. But semantics and theatrics aside, one thing could not be denied...the most powerful forces of the mortal world were about to smash into one another.
And the impact would rip everything apart.
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Chapter 74: Clash of...?
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Allen was the first to reach Steve, given that he was the fastest of his Familia of course and he had the long range weapon which he thrust straight towards Steve's face. But when there was only a hair's breadth between the tip of the spear and his eye, the gamer ducked down so fast that Allen didn't even realise that the spear had gone through an afterimage.
Steve allowed the weapon to pass over him until Allen was close enough before he grabbed the catman's arm. Allen's eyes widened as he suddenly felt the adamantite grip, before his world was suddenly turned upside-down as Steve flipped him into the air. Allen was an experienced fighter and had been in situations like this before, so he kicked his legs forward to make himself land on his feet.
With his arm still in Steve's grip, he tried to turn his spear around and skewer Steve again but found that Steve now had his arm through the gamer's legs. Steve ducked again quickly as several weapons of the other adventurers crossed over his head, planning to decapitate him. Steve looked at the Freya Familia and grinned a disturbing smile at them, making the raise their brows in anticipation of what could cause this sudden expression of sadism on his face.
He had both hands gripping Allen's arm. While maintaining eye contact with them, he used one to rip off Allen's forearm and hold it high in the air as the catman let out a scream. Ottar wasted no time as he swung his sword at Steve again, but the gamer held up his arm and stopped Ottar's dead in its track, the blade of his sword inches away from his face. Steve's leg kicked out and his boot connected with Ottar's stomach so hard that ripples travelled throughout the man's face.
Ottar went flying off the chunk and smashed through dozens of boulders in the anti gravity net before slamming into another chunk and shattering it into thousands of pieces, amongst which his body disappeared. The rest of the Freya Familia stared at the scene before looking back at Steve as he held up Allen by his stump while holding the severed limb in the other.
"It doesn't end here." Steve said as he stared them down. "Your captain going down like that only serves to stoke the desire in me to torture you more."
"You believe that is enough to intimidate us?" Hedin raised a brow.
"No." Steve shook his head. "I'd be disappointed if it was. It's only going to make it more fun. This..." He held up Allen. "...is only the beginning for you lot. I aim to take a piece out of all of you...then I'll hand you down to my siblings so I can have some alone time with the piggy. A King to a King."
"You talk too much." Hogni said as he blurred behind Steve and tried to stab him in the back. The sword struck the Netherite armour and but was not able to penetrate it even though Hogni wielded his best weapon. The Dark Elf frowned for a moment as he felt a funny sensation on his back before a mysterious wound suddenly opened on it and he felt blood dripping down the back of his shirt as he stumbled back in surprise, somehow experiencing the wound he was aiming to inflict on Steve on himself.
"And you don't think before you act." Steve looked back and smiled at him. "It's called Thorns. You'll get used to it."
Hedin brought his weapon around and tried to cut Steve's head off but the gamer simply opened his mouth and caught the blade between his teeth, which he promptly bit into pieces before he dropped Allen and his torn arm and grabbed Hedin by his own arm. He pulled the elf forwards and smashed a fearsome punch in his face, shattering the man's glasses and crunching his nose. He then grabbed a fistful of his hair as well as Hogni's and smashed their foreheads together so violently that a shockwave was emitted and he was most certain that the two elf kings now suffered severe concussions.
He looked at the Gulliver brothers who stared at him warily. He smiled at them before throwing both former elf kings high in the air and watched as their bodies sailed. He faced a palm at them and threw a fireball at them both empowered by {Cataclysm}, which collided with their bodies in an explosion so powerful and hot that the shockwave cracked the chunk they were standing on and the heat vaporised the bodies of the two elves. Up above, there was another crack of thunder as the elves were respawned into the fighting area, fully restored and regenerated.
The Gulliver brothers tightened their grips on their weapons and got into a stance as they stared the gamer down.
"Don't bother." He told them. "You're not worth the time."
He clapped his hands in front of him with enough power to blast the Pallums away with a shockwave into the gravity field. Where they went, he did not care. They would most likely get lost in the three miles' worth of floating mountain sized pieces of debris and the even bigger chunks. The image reminded Steve of an image of an Asteroid Belt, only replace space with the landscape of Genkai and you had a perfect picture of the current state of the battlefield.
He didn't even bother turning around as he tilted his unprotected head to the side and Allen's spear brushed past his ear. He grabbed the spearhead and pulled downwards so the shaft rested on his shoulder and flipped the catman over him to his front where he could see him. Blood poured out the stump in rivers but it was not enough to diminish the "fastest adventurer's" resolve.
"Kitty has learned how to fetch me a stick." Steve mocked. "Are you sure you're not getting your race mixed up?"
"Quit trying to patronize me!" Allen snarled. "How did you know about my sister?! How do you know anything about that?!"
"Doesn't matter to a dead cat." Steve said as he played in the tug of war over the spear. "You know, although she is exiled, she should still be carrying Freya's blessing. Am I right? I can't imagine your goddess is so eager to let go of something she's keeping within her hand's reach."
Allen's gritted teeth didn't seem to convey the answer he desired for some reason.
"Doesn't matter." Steve said. "Once I've beaten you all to a pulp, I'll go over to her and pick up the pieces you left behind myself. Perhaps then she'll appreciate some 'real' brotherly love." Steve said as he put an emphasis on the love part and Allen's sharp eyes became enraged as he began pushing against the spear, hoping to drive it into Steve's face. "Struck a nerve did I? Doesn't amount to much in the end. I can't imagine little Anya would ever forgive you for so callously abandoning her for Freya's love."
"She was not fit to serve our goddess." Allen spat. "She brought shame to us. It's her fault that she was made to go."
"And not the fact that the whole lot of you are just thirsty simps who keep getting cucked?" Steve raised a brow before he suddenly pulled on the spear and made Allen fly forwards and land his neck into Steve's grip. Steve pulled him close and looked him over with a strange grin that made Allen all the more infuriated. "You know you can never be her Odr right? You never have and never will be able to become worthy of that position since it was never meant for you."
"And what would you claim to know about that?" Allen spat. "You consider yourself the Odr? Is it any wonder you demanded complete submission of our Familia? You want to take her."
"Oh you poor fool." Steve smirked before he lowered his voice. "Let me bring you in on a little secret. Want to hear?" Allen spat at him in reply but Steve continued talking as the catman listened. "I know the identity of the REAL Odr." The gamer smiled at Allen's eyes widening.
"What?" The catman said, bewildered.
"That's right. I've had my eye on him for quite sometime, and he is pretty much in my palm at this point. He may as well soon be eating out of it." Steve's grip tightened on Allen's throat as his tone darkened considerably. "Your goddess has spread mischief and suffering everywhere in pursuit of her fated one. I'm going to enjoy keeping that person always away from her at arm's length. The best form of victory over your enemy is the one they can't even see."
"You lie!" Allen choked.
"On the contrary, I speak quite truthfully." Steve said. "And as for you, I have my own form of torture in store for you. Once I'm done with you and your goddess, I'll take your sister for myself. I've always had a thing for dense catgirls...and your sister is quite the looker too. I wonder how long it will be before she'll be yowling my name." Steve said suggestively.
Allen's face was filled with cold hatred as he started thrashing about, scratching as Steve with his remaining arm while kicking about. But with his neck in such a vice grip and being held at arm's length a few feet above ground, even he couldn't do anything.
"YOU WON'T TOUCH HER!" Allen screamed.
"No...I'm going to rock her world." Steve said. "I will entice her with my charms and I will penetrate her mind and body...much like this." Steve picked up Allen's spear and drove it through the man's gut and out his back as blood poured onto the ground. "Only much less bloody. I'm not aware of her having any partners so I assume she has still not been deflowered. They do say virgins are clingy and cats even clingier. Don't worry, I'll be gentle with her. It's so much more pleasurable when they're willing."
"You bastard!" Allen glared at him as blood bubbled out of his mouth. "You will pay for this."
"Say that when this situation is reversed." Steve said. "And the chance of that happening is, let me calculate real quick...non-existent." Without another word, Steve gripped the spear with both hands as he swung it around in a few circles with Allen still stuck on it and flung it towards another chunk. "So easy to wind him up where Anya is concerned. Not that I really meant all that."
Allen's body bounced off the hard surface as the spear was shaken about in his gut and rustled his organs as the urge to throw up became more prominent. Steve teleported above him and jack-hammered him downwards. Allen's body shot down like a comet, smashing through boulders after boulders for miles upon miles as he entered the Dungeon, where his body collided with ground of the 50th Floor, creating a massive crater and from what Steve could see was a massive splatter.
Steve stood on a floating boulder as he looked up to see hundreds of balls of lightning flocking towards him like a swarm of birds. He looked down to see Hedin staring at him, blood dripping from the elf's mouth for some reason as he grit his teeth. Steve noticed that the spectacles had not come back with the elf.
"Lightning magic is your specialty if I remember correctly." Steve said as he looked at the swarm unfazed. "My little bro however, is thousands of time the talented mage you are, elf."
Hedin scrunched his brows in confusion as his rain of lightning attacks suddenly came to a complete stop. The balls of lightning shivered for a moment in their frozen state before they began to swerve in another direction, clumping together as they formed a stream of lighting. Hedin followed the trail as he traced it to Zuri standing on a chunk, holding an adventurer over the edge by his ear while he held his staff in the air as a bright light shone from it.
Zuri made eye contact and smiled at him as he siphoned all of the lightning balls into his staff, vacuuming them in staff until they were completely snuffed out and devoured by Zuri's magic. Hedin squinted in shock at the other mage's abilities and the abnormal use of magic. Zuri shook his head with a smile and pointed the staff at him as the same lightning magic began to crackle crazily around the tip.
Hedin had no time to react as a stream of lightning engulfed him across that short distance, blasted by his own lightning magic as Zuri looked on with a smile.
"That's my bro." Steve nodded proudly as he sensed someone loom above him. He raised a hand and caught Hogni's sword between his fingers as the elf's elbows jarred at having his weapon stopped so suddenly. "You didn't learn, did you?"
"Every slight against our Lady must be re-"
"Didn't ask." Steve said.
He pulled on the sword and used Hogni's body as a bat to smack away the Gulliver brothers who had approached him from behind all the other debris. It seemed by now that the adventurers had managed to figure out a way in which they could navigate through the all the rubble floating in the air. They were now jumping from rock to rock in order to land on chunks where his teammates were.
He watched as Efe created crystals spikes in the air before firing them off at a swarm of mad adventurers who were fighting her in desperation of survival, the constant death and rebirth sending them mad, which made them sloppy enough that Efe could dispatch them easily. Though that only made the cycle repeat itself as the adventurers respawned.
Steve flicked Hogni in the air and palmed him in the stomach with enough force to make the elf's body travel right across the grasslands. Just in time as Steve saw a sudden shockwave in the distance break apart a boulder and a large dark shape come flying towards him. He drew out his Netherite sword just in time and held it up as a large black sword smashed into his own and he was greeted with Ottar's bloodshot eyes as Ottar's momentum carried them both across the gravity field and into the gravitational pull of another chunk as they collapsed onto the grass and rolled across the ground.
Steve stood upright first and pointed his netherite sword at Ottar as the Boaz held up his own weapon. There was a boot print still visible on his stomach and blood was dribbling out of the man's mouth but he was otherwise fine. Though Steve did notice the constant winces that the older adventurer made as they circled each other.
"I was certain a kick that strong was enough to put you out of commission." Steve said. "Long enough for me to dispose of your friends. You surprise me. You're even stronger than I gave you credit for."
"Why do you adventure?" Ottar suddenly asked.
"Well that's just random." Steve cocked his head. "What significance does that question pose?"
"Just answer." Ottar said. "For you to be this strong, you must have a reason. I want to know an answer."
"If you're expecting some reason like looking for the glory of an adventure or breaking my limits or becoming an icon, then I'm afraid you'll be sorely disappointed. I'm not like you Ottar. I don't chase lofty goals."
"What do you chase then?" Ottar asked. "What would possibly allow you to just walk around with powers such as this?" Ottar gestured to their surroundings.
One has to understand the situation all the contesting Familia were in. They were enclosed withing 3 miles worth of land. Further than the normal eye can see to make out proper detail. And it was nothing but an apocalyptic wreck as boulders from the sizes of pebbles to the size of small mountains floated around in an anti-gravity field between large chunks of earth suspended in the air. All around were magic explosions and the signs of battle as adventurers fought the members of the Ptah Familia, radiations of power enough to make people faint if they were anywhere near these battles.
To top it off, they were all hovering above what was now a second mouth to the Dungeon as they looked down miles upon miles into one of the deepest floors recorded to date. There was always the instinctual fear of falling down there, a height even adventurers would not survive.
"We're just better." Steve replied. "But tell you what, let's make a deal."
"A deal?" Ottar raised a brow.
"If you manage to land a single mark on me, I'll tell you why I adventure." Steve smiled. "So how-" He was cut off as he bent backwards to avoid being bisected by Ottar's swing. "I guess that's a yes." Ottar brought the sword back as he hoped that Steve could not dodge when he was in such an uncomfortable position like bending backwards.
But Steve surprised him as the gamer's arms locked around Ottar's waist and Steve performed some sort of forward suplex as he brought the Boaz down on his head, his skull burying into the dirt. Steve did not stop there though as he grabbed Ottar's ankle and swung him around at a large boulder in the distance, about the size of 5 normal sized houses.
Ottar's back made an imprint in the boulder as he shook his head to clear of the dizziness. In his blurry vision, the Boaz only just made out something swinging towards him and he dodged to the side as an axe buried itself in the rock where his head had been. Attached to the axe was a chain that led to Steve's hand. Steve grunted as he yanked on the chain and the boulder suddenly lurched forward as the sudden jolt pushed Ottar further into his imprint.
Steve watched as the boulder came closer to the chunk he was standing on and he clenched his fist as he timed his attack perfectly. When the boulder reached him, he buried his fist in Ottar's gut and the boulder shattered into thousands of fragments from the impact of the punch. Ottar bent forwards as his body shot through the air, soaring across the battlefield and smashing into another chunk on the other side of the grasslands.
He choked as he coughed up more blood, his head ringing as he tried to bear the pain he was going through. He'd been hit by punches from Balor before, but even the monster's blows were not as hard as what he was feeling right now. He was fortunate that Steve's hand was not that big, otherwise he was certain that he would be paste. As he focused, he saw Steve travelling to him, leaping from one floating boulder to another as he knocked adventurers out of his way that tried to intervene.
Ottar began doing the same, as much as his movements caused him pain. He too began using the boulders as platforms to jump and travelled just as Steve did to meet him in the middle. When both were sure they were close enough, they leapt at each other with their swords drawn.
Just before their sword clashed, Ottar activated his {Hildis Vini}, coating his greatsword in an aura of golden light, amplifying the strength of his physical attack as he swung with both arms while Steve swung with just one. The collision of the swords created a flash of light...before a blast wave erupted from the connection and somehow shook the very atmosphere of the contained space in the barrier as adventurers were dealt a powerful kick to their stomachs by the shockwave.
Steve and Ottar continued to do this as they exchanged more blows, leaping from boulder to boulder as they chased after one another. The collisions of their exchanges blasted apart boulders and chunks and even adventurers' bodies as Ottar's blood run hot, his focus fixated on nothing but his opponent as Steve countered his attacks blow for blow. Ottar managed to kick the flat of Steve's blade and send the Minecrafter flipping backwards in the air as his feet landed on a chunk.
Ottar charged the same attack again into his sword and swung his blade, creating a powerful shockwave that decimated the boulders in front of it and travelled towards the gamer. Steve stood straight and walked towards the attack, not even flinching as he walked right through the slash. The boulders and debris behind Steve was sliced apart but Steve smirked at the shocked Boaz as he walked away from his strongest attack unharmed.
Steve then returned the favour by punching forward with his fist, creating a shockwave that created a gale of wind, which blew Ottar away along with all the debris near him into the wall of a nearby chunk. Ottar landed on that one fortunately with his feet and he dug into the side with his fingers as he looked back at Steve.
The gamer lifted his own sword and slashed downwards with his own shockwave. Ottar leapt out of the way as the chunk he was clinging to was sliced in half. Ottar used his handhold to swing himself upwards to avoid an iron block that suddenly sank into the side of the chunk. He looked back to see Steve summon more iron blocks and launch them at him as they impacted the chunk with enough force to dig holes right through. One block smashed the sword out of his hand as Ottar found himself weapon-less.
Just then Steve impacted the side of the chunk where he was, and time slowed down for the Boaz as the point of the Netherite sword travelled towards his throat.
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