Chapter 102: Battle
Dorian made a bitter promise that the first thing he was going to do, after he settled this, was go out and find a set of magical clothes. Surely something existed that he could switch onto instantly after changing forms. He was a millionaire now, he would spare no expense.
That or he would learn some magic technique to create garments.
‘I am not a nudist, dammit.’
The Nightlord was the first to recover from his shock. He ignored Dorian’s state of undress and immediately barked out a command.
“Kill the Minotaur! Lord Ru, I have no grudge with you, let us part ways here and now!” The Nightlord clasped his hands together, black light flowing from his eyes.
“Don’t think you can just threaten me and then ignore it, swine!” The Aeth Vampire yelled back, clasping his own hands as he began to cast a Spell.
–
Species: Human
Class – Lord Class (Middle)
Maximum Energy Level: 55,221
–
Species: Human
Class – Lord Class (Early)
Maximum Energy Level: 39,221
–
Three of the Lord Class warriors were in the Middle Stage of Lord Class, energy level wise, while the other three were in the Early Stage of Lord Class. They moved cohesively as a team, with precise coordination.
Lord Class warriors were far more common than Lord Class Wizards, largely due to how much easier it was to become a powerful warrior versus become a powerful Wizard. Mystic Martial Arts often provided a foundational understanding and made achieving at least a basic understanding in a Law relatively accomplishable.
Unless you were a genius warrior destined for greatness, most Lord Class warriors would form into teams. The mercenary team here hired by the Blue Seal Casino was no different. Powerful warriors gaining wealth to breakthrough in strength in the future, doing whatever odd, or vile, jobs their employer wanted.
Dorian’s eyes narrowed as he saw the group break off towards him. He stayed in his Grakon form, his arms twitching.
‘Condense.’
His body shuddered, becoming slightly smaller. His muscles grew denser, the fibers of his bone and skin growing tougher and more tensile. Unlike some of his other forms, there was no raw Elemental Energy flowing in his blood.
Still, his Grakon form was a powerful one.
–
Grakon – Lord Class (Middle)
Maximum Energy Level: 41,992
Ability: Expand, Tough Scales, Low-Speed Regeneration
Standing between 2.5 and 3 meters tall at full growth, Grakons are an ancient, extinct but mighty race. Their appearance consists of the head of a bull placed on the body of a humanoid, covered in dark blue or green scales. Each Grakon possesses an incredible amount of physical strength, one of the very few races that are able to reach the Lord Class through sheer physical power, even without the power of Law.
Their Low-Speed Regeneration Ability allows them to slowly recover from injuries without treatment, while their Tough Scales Ability increases their physical defense. Their Expand Ability is unique to the Grakon Race. By drawing upon the laws of the universe and the energy in their environment, a Grakon can vastly increase their physical size, and as a result, vastly increase their physical power. They were a force to be reckoned with.
–
Dorian hadn’t gained the Expand Ability yet, but even without it, his overall strength as a Grakon was considerable.
–
Dorian – Soul Status
Soul Stage: Lord Class (Early)
Health: Perfect
Energy: 70,882/40,002 (Condensed)
–
(Author’s Note: I used to list the Condensed Energy level as part of the base energy in status (current energy/base energy), but decided to change that for clarity.)
“Arrrgh.” Dorian grunted out loud as he felt himself grow stronger.
He hadn’t fully grown his Grakon form, so his base energy level was still at that of his Black-Scaled Rage Dragon form. Further, he wasn’t at his strongest due to having spent quite a bit of energy manipulating Fate in the casino.
Despite that, he was still a lethal force to be reckoned with.
“Let’s try this out.” Dorian grinned. His physical form had shrunk inward to stand just less than 2 meters tall.
‘KILL THEM!’ The voice in his head rang out, one he tried to force to a corner of his mind with a frown.
“Die beast!” The first of the Lord Class warriors rushed in while Dorian was distracted, wielding a long black broadsword. The blade cut towards Dorian, black smoke slithering off it. The other warriors circled around, leaving Dorian no avenue of escape and forcing a confrontation.
WHOOSH
Dorian sidestepped the blade, dodging it by mere millimeters thanks to the impressive control of his body he’d gained from both the new memories and from his own practice.
“Cough!” He sputtered and jumped backwards, however, as a trace of the darkness that wafted off the blade jumped through the air, stabbing into his mouth.
“Arrgh!” His lungs shivered and he suddenly felt as if he was suffering from some type of debilitating cold.
“I’ve got him Cursed!” The warrior yelled out, falling backwards slightly. Immediately, the waiting fighters rushed in.
Dorian ducked and weaved, dodging several sword strikes as he stamped backwards.
‘Dammit Dorian, what are you doing?’ He snorted, his eyes glowing.
Dorian had gained a huge number of techniques and memories as his own. But without conscientious practice, even if he had the memories of a great warrior as a part of him, he wouldn’t truly have the same capabilities. He was, at his core, still Dorian. He needed to learn certain things on his own.
One thing, in particular, was about the unpredictability and variability of the power of Law.
“Hira-Gira: Sliding Snake!” Dorian’s arms seemed to twist as he flung himself to the left, moving quickly and adeptly.
One of the warriors, an Early Lord Class fighter, swung downward with what looked like a golden mace.
Dorian ignored the attack, his arms wrapping around the right arm of the fighter at a blur, using one of the techniques from the memories.
CRACK
“Arrrrrgh!” The warrior screamed aloud as his body was flung through the air, landing down hard on the roof and smashing it in slightly. His right arm was broken, set at an unsettling angle. The fighter’s eyes rolled up in the back of his head, knocked unconscious by shock and the injury.
“Cough-cough!” Dorian’s chest heaved as he spat out some black substance, and then spun around.
“Black Flames!” A ball of black fire blasted across the roof, forcing all the warriors to dodge backwards.
“RAAAAR!”
The debilitating sickness in Dorian’s chest was obliterated as he psyched himself up, his body boiling with energy. He snorted a few remnants of the dark substance out of his nose.
“Easy come, easy go.” He shrugged.
“He’s broken the Curse!”
“Parnel, cover Raven.”
“Use Group Plan 3!”
The mercenaries coordinated as they surrounded Dorian again, this time two of them approaching him at once. An Aura of strength burst off these two, both practitioners of the Law of Might.
‘Laws again, huh?’ Dorian narrowed his eyes.
Laws were the building block of reality in the 30,000 Worlds. A Law was a concept, a rule of reality, that if one believed in strong enough, and gained an understanding of, one could manipulate to great effect. For example, by studying the Law of Might, if one understood it well enough, one could use it to gain great power, giving their physical attacks incredible strength.
Laws were an abstruse, hard to understand concept, but a staple of this reality.
As the two warriors rushed right at Dorian, their attacks imbued with the Law of Might, Dorian smiled.
And rushed right back at them.
‘Moving Force, activate! Berserker Boost, activate!’ He activated two of his own Abilities, feeling a menacing power fill him. The Berserker Boost Ability filled his body with angry might, turning any injury or wound he took into power, while the Moving Force Ability made every step he took increase the power of his punches.
BOOM
A huge explosion of force obliterated the roof, sending up shards of wood and rock everywhere, revealing the blue barrier set into the roof itself, preventing any attacks from penetrating the building proper.
“Arrrrgh!”
“Ahhhh!”
THUD
THUD
The screams of the two mercenaries ended in two quiet thuds as they were thrown backwards, smashing against the crystalline barrier that covered the area. They slid down it and fell down to the roof where they laid unconscious, knocked out and injured.
No matter how powerful a Law was, a fighter was only as strong as their understanding of it, combined with their physical might.
The fighters before Dorian were not weak. They were elite mercenaries, part of a powerful team. They were far stronger than most regular mortals.
Their understanding of the Law of Might, however, paled in comparison to Dorian’s current raw physical strength.
‘KILL THEM! SEEK PERFECTION IN THE CHAOS OF DESTRUCTION!’
“Arrrgh!” Dorian clutched at his head after he blasted them away, the voice in his mind screaming at him.
‘Shut up!’ It was becoming harder and harder to force it down.
BOOM
In the background, the two Wizards were currently staring at each other. Both were practitioners of a similar Law. The Aeth Vampire studied Life Magic, and the Law of Death, while the Nightlord studied Darkness Magic, and the Law of Death.
The two had come to a standstill, waiting on the other to make the first move. Energy crackled in the air around them.
The Nightlord was covered in a light layer of blue energy and seemed perfectly fine, while the Aeth Vampire had several dark wounds staining him, injured.
“Grand Seal: Transport!” After the Nightlord saw the damage Dorian did to the roof, as well as his knocking away of the mercenaries, the obese man frowned. He waved his fingers.
Immediately, the barrier that surrounded the roof shivered.
WHOOSH
The barrier, and everyone in it, teleported.
Vanishing from the inside of the city, where they would soon start to draw attention, to a predetermined location a dozen miles away, in the middle of a plot of empty farmland.
.. .. .. .. .. .. ..
The man known as Leader walked furtively around the city, irritation filling his eyes. He was currently standing in a random marketplace, where peasants were calling their wares.
‘Where is my fellow Great Seven practitioner? Surely he can feel my presence. Is he stronger than me and just ignoring me?’ His thoughts were full of confusion.
Very few inheritors remained among those that practiced the Seven Great Sins, not after the Destroyer wiped out their ancestors and teachers a thousand years ago. Those that did remain stuck together as allies, for the most part.
As a King Class inheritor of the Law of Pride, Leader was one of the stronger of the survivors.
His eyes widened, however, and he spun around, looking towards the center of the city.
‘Wrath! Yes, an inheritor of Wrath! He must be a Senior that is even stronger than me! Though, that is only temporary. My strength will reign supreme in the end.’ A prideful smile appeared on his face. He had met inheritors of every single one of the Great Seven except Wrath.
His eyes wrinkled, however, as he stared at the center of the city, and then slowly turned, to a spot several miles out from the city.
‘You teleported?’ He shook his head in confusion,
‘Whatever. I will come greet you regardless, Senior. Just a few moments.’