Chapter 39: Odds

The time has come. The day is so very near.

"What are we up against?", Sargon asked Theor.

"A horde of malachite and below monsters led by ebony-level Alphas. The Flesh-King is at Ultanium. I also sense an etherite presence with him. It is no beast, nor is it human. The total number of the horde is around 10,000 and 100 are ebonies."

"That is quite the grand army.", Dexaril commented. The others just nodded with deep thoughts.

"Number mean little in front of power, my friend. Plus a good plan. Yeseme and I will corral the horde. You will use area-of-effect destruction magic to make them ash. We will thin their numbers like this until they gain some sense. I will deal with the ebonies, the rest of you need to stick together and fight together. Make use of the fact we can all fly. Most of our enemies can't. Theor will be attacking Murjack. Once we finish the horde off, we will join him as support so Murjack can finally die."

"Sound Plan", Yeseme said. "Indeed", Dexaril agreed. "Easy peezy Master", Pharis said confidently.

The three companions are all high malachite fighters. Dealing with beasts will be no trouble for them. "As long as I take care of the ebony company, they will be fine without a doubt.", Sargon thought to himself.

The day came for the fight came, and they rose with the sun. Dexaril donned in his scaled firedrake robes and wielded his Staff, Encompassing Red. Pharis in her Monster Armor wielding Pharis's Black Gaze Bow. Yeseme with her monster armor and a new bone spear she made and named Critical Fang. Finally Sargon with his Earthly 15th century full-plate knight armor, with his kite shield and longsword.

Led by Theor, the group moves out.

They start covering ground going deeper into the monster lands. They cut through whatever monsters are stupid enough to stand in their way. Soon, the monster lands turn into a leafless brittle forest. Tainted mana everywhere. The ground is gray, the air is stale. Then they are upon a gigantic valley filled with the monster horde.

Theor is unfazed, but others beside Sargon are intimidated by the sheer quantity. "Fear not their numbers. Each will fall with a single stroke of our attacks. Stick to the plan and all will go well. Do not forget to adapt to the situation as necessary. I will begin my charge and wipe out the ebony company of monsters. You all may begin corraling the monsters and exterminating them immediately after." With this, Sargon put down his visor and readied himself.

With his signature warcry, he charged through them, "Deus Vult!"

Yeseme then says as she gets to her job, "Alright Pharis, corral from the right, go. Be ready Dexaril!"

While the three are taking care of the fodder, Sargon had finished his beeline charge and had reached the ebony company. Theor simply jumped to where Murjack was on the other side of the valley. The unidentified etherite foe was not making any moves.

Sargon was now in front of 100 ebony-level monsters. All being no lower than mid-stage ebony. Sargon sighed to himself, "Let us get to it then."

Sargon attacked shield first. Gutting the first monster before shield-basing the next. They had no fighting form, so he used his footwork to dance around them while reducing their numbers. Needless to say, he was not holding back. He went full power right off the bat. Even then he was receiving solid attacks. His armor was getting more and more dents and deep gashes. With 50 monsters down. He discovered the last 50 were the strongest of the company. Throughout the fight, they were drawing blood from him. Although nothing serious.

During all this, Sargon was refining his astra through battle. His blue star burning hotter and gaining some size. Astra starting to gain a natural flow in his body rather than a conscious one. Now faced with the last ten monsters, technically no less powerful than him. He sighed once more before rushing them.

Now it had begun to rain. It was not regular rain though, but blood rain.

"HahahhahMuahahahahahahhahahaaaaaggghaahahahaaaaaaa"

Long-winded laughter came from a nearby pointy boulder that made Sargon stop his charge, the monsters also stopped and looked.

"Hello Sir Sargon the Starry Knight, I am Rotisbougia! Steward of my goddess Heilgrash.", Rotisbougia introduced himself.

Sargon asked, "Are you responsible for the blood rain demon." Sargon spat "demon".

"Indeed I am. I used all the monsters you and the other mortal had slain as sacrifices. Hence I could summon the blood rain. Which has an excellent effect of raising the monster corpses into more powerful undead versions and strengthening the live ones."

Sargon looked back after Rotisbougia's words. He could see the monsters rise. The fodder did get stronger, but strong enough to cause worry for the others. The ebony undead however all rose his level and the living ones he was about to kill rose to Low-tier etherite. Though he could their bodies could not handle the power and would die anyway after this battle.

"Hehehe, also if you're wondering why I'm not fighting. It is because of the powers that be have placed restrictions on a powerful demon like me being here. I can't interfere directly, but I can most certainly do something like to interfere indirectly nonetheless.", Rotisbougia explained.

"Damned demon! I will treasure the day I purge you from existence. No matter what you've done. These abominations will fall this day!", Sargon stated.

He began fighting the 100 all over again. With the battle being much more difficult, he started to bleed even more.

"Enough!", he yelled.

Through sheer will and focus, he started his breakthrough to etherite. Solar flares started erupting from his body, repairing it, then repairing his armor. New astra pathways showed up on his armor, shield, and weapon. They glowed and hummed to life. His previously glowing eyes became a sharp light.

Now he could do a move he always wanted to do, but never had enough control. With the new astra pathways, he could now do it.

In a whisper, he said, "Borealis".

Borealis was an optical attack. Sargon would adjust the radiated astra from his eyes to affect his opponents' eyes. When they would see the light, they would see blue, green, red, and yellow lights rushing at them from all sides. The attack targets the enemy's astral body by going through the mind, the goal being to break the astral body apart, killing the physical body. The soul would remain intact though as well as leave for the afterlife.

Sargon then swept his gaze at all the monsters, killing all 100 hundred.

Rotisbougia was watching him with a deadpan expression. He thought to himself, "What the fuck!". When Rotisbougia met Sargon's eyes, even he had received some injury. Although an attack of that level still can't kill him.

Rotisbougia decided it was time to go. "This isn't over Sargon, my lady will have your soul!", he yelled before disappearing."

Sargon looked behind to find that the three were finishing up their work. It seems the undead indeed did not pose as a problem to them.

"All that effort just to makes us use some more time. What an incompetent demon.", He said.

Sargon then looked to where Theor was fighting the powered-up Murjack, " Time to slay the Devil's beast."

He rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck, and then started to go to Theor.

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(Underworld)

"You worthless disgusting thing!", Heligrash said as she stepped on Rotisbougia repeatedly.

She stopped once she saw the smile on Rotisbougia's face. She sneered at him before saying, "you better hope Murjack wins this, or it's a millennium of cleaning sacrificial chambers for you."