“One last thing, Percival,” The Emperor said, “You shall not use Blood magic. Show your worth.”
With that, my brothers all shot towards . Spells, {Charges}, thrown weapons. It was obvious from the start that they had no coordination whatsoever and they had to stop and watch what our brothers were doing unless they wanted to hurt themselves. I didn’t move, the spell I was about to cast required my full concentration. Not because it was complex but because I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be easily dispelled or unraveled.
A few attacks landed, their damage after my absolute mitigation not even worth ntioning. With a twelve million HP regeneration per second, it would take a lot of ti before they could force to react.
As I finished my spell, a magic runic diagram was engraved in the stone below. That was it. A spell to engrave a sturdy diagram. Like functional programming, the diagram activated with my magic to cast the spell it represented. The whole arena was filled with pitch-black darkness that caused a mild disorienting effect.
Free from the burden of spellcasting, I dodged the few attacks that ca my way and slinked away into the shadows. Using my Ethereal senses, I could see when Edmund tried to dispel the darkness and shot a M.I.T.H Force Javelin volley at him. It was just to distract my dear [Spellstaff] brother as he was one of the few who could tamper with my spell.
I didn’t go for the kill. I needed to prove to the [Emperor] I was a worthy successor and he already knew I could {Assassinate} soone with great skill. What I did was to burn 240 million Energy at once to summon a hundred and twenty level 70 Vampires. Then another minor expenditure to cover the whole arena in hundreds of thousands of al-Mi’raj. The latter was just to give the forr the benefits of {Zerg Rush}.
“Ah! It’s biting my ankle!”
“What’s this?”
“Al-Mi'raj! Ignore the fluffy bunnies!” Edmund shouted. His intonation was weird at ‘fluffy bunnies’. It was like a mix of awe and disgust.
I took a backseat as I ran interference and led the horde of vampires and bunnicorns like a [General] would. The horned rabbits did little to the high-level [Princes] but they were a worthy distraction, especially when they had so much evasion stacked that killing one required their full attention.
Edmund evaded the vampires sent at him and torched them with a short-range Fire spell that seared the far wall as all the heat was directed away from the caster. A smart addition to Fire magic. It also told he was concerned about fire. Soone didn’t invest in their resistances.
“Vampires! Be careful, brothers!” Edmund warned. With the vampires on him dead, he set a Force bubble around him to keep the Al’Mi-raj at bay while he tried to unravel the darkness spell, its purpose now evident.
With four vampires on each of the other [Princes] (Leodec was exempted and I promptly buried him in a mound of fluff), the real threat ca unannounced. Lords of the night and quite proficient with stealth, the vampires struck at exposed parts and latched onto their flesh, drawing blood and vitality from my brothers.
A few of them killed their vampires and a couple entertained themselves exterminating the bunnicorn nace. Terrible mistake, they should’ve helped our brothers. A vampire was a dangerous enemy. Once they sank their fangs on flesh, a ntal attack took place and the victim often fell into a state of ecstasy that was hard to shake off. The drain of blood numbed the body and mind, making rule number one of a fight against a vampire “do not get bitten”.
One who excelled at killing the undead was Walther of Silbethia. The [Imperial Sharpshooter] could sohow pinpoint the undead even in the darkness and use one of their classical weaknesses. An arrow through the heart was all it took to take out his assailants.
But most didn’t see summoning the vampires. By the ti they felt the sting of the fangs on their arms, ankles, and necks it was too late.
A dozen of the weaker [Princes], those with support of back row Classes or just low level and bad luck died. Their souls did not depart from their bodies, a sign they were infected with vampirism and would rise as thralls to my summons.
Five more would die before Edmund won our little magical interference ga and unraveled the darkness spell. The results were apotheotic. The sun invaded the arena once more, and my summoned vampires crumbled to ashes in re seconds. Then the seventeen fallen [Princes] scread in pain as they too burned under the sunlight, their partial transformations making the process that more lengthy and painful, although no less inexorable.
“What have you done, Percival!” Edmund roared at .
The al’Mi-raj now died in troves to the frontliners among my brothers, audibly popping into non-existence as they were struck by their weapons.
“This is a fight to the death, Edmund. None of them surrendered, so they died. There’s hope for the fifteen of you still standing.”
“You wretched monstrosity! Your depravity knows no boundaries!” He self-righteously exclaid.
He threw Elental magic at , changing the elents to see which one was the more effective. Spoiler alert, of the eight basic elents, the answer was Earth. Which was partially physical and was affected by my Adamantite-laced armor.
I ignored him and went for my next target. Stanley of Luisea was a weird fellow. He had bloodshot eyes, not unlike an engorged vampire but I knew he wasn’t bitten. He swung his greataxe at the al-Mi'raj with great abandon and a goofy look at him. As I approached, I slled herbal… “dicine” on him and spotted a few droplets stuck to the corners of his mouth. He went full RoboCop2 and “nuked” himself.
It gave him ridiculous speed. I dove into lee with my trusty Thinblade in my hand and he swung his oversized ax with roaring beasts etched on the blade at . {Pregocnition} was of little use as the attack wasn’t preditated, the Ability warning of it only when he’d committed to the strike. I still dodged by a hairline and stabbed at his hands.
He shouted at and I was actually pushed back by a ter with a notification I’d failed a contested Strength test. That gave him room to defy inertia and bring his oversized ax straight at my head. Gritting my teeth, I braced myself and parried it with the blade of my sword. The ax sunk a full handspan into the thinblade before it stopped, forcing to bend my knees.
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But the important effect of this exchange was locking in place. Two whip users, Andrew of Krakhania and Angus of Narisia, an [Imperial Taskmaster] and [Imperial Beastmaster] respectively, used their slavering weapons to bring to submission. I would’ve gained a debuff to my ntal Attributes if I hadn’t had the {Pinnacle of…} Perk for each of them. The Pinnacle disallowed Attribute damage or drain.
The other twelve, led by Edmund, started to coordinate among themselves. They largely ignored the bunnicorns now and closed in my location. It was obvious to that it was set up to be a tough fight if I had only as many attacks as a normal person would.
Fuck secrecy. The people important to were three thousand kiloters away, and they admitted they couldn’t get there as fast as . I exploded into a burst of colors as my tails, wings, and horn all ca alive and stretched out to et the attackers.
I also triggered {Light Elental Form}, doing the opposite of my previous stratagem. Now they couldn’t see because of the blinding light coming from my body.
The first order of business was to return the favor and whipped the flagellators. Three glowing tails struck at each of them, giving chase as they stretched to their improved full twenty-four-ter length.
Andrew dodged and fell in the path of another tail. The glowing red tail struck his side and wrapped itself around his arm, dealing a heinous burn as he scread. Without his mobility the other ones also struck, causing necrotic damage as the black one drained health and dizzying him as the silver one struck. The three tails wrapped themselves around him and squeezed as they lifted him effortlessly into the air.
Angus was not as fast but not a milliter less precise. His expertise with beasts ant he often led the creatures into battle, giving him the feral instincts needed to evade the snaking butt-appendages. As I chased him and controlled the tails to keep the other [Princes] at bay, an idea ford in my head. I swung my wings forward like I was using them to balance myself. He ignored the apparently soft appendages until they struck at an arm, cutting the flesh and scraping the bone as he scread in pain and almost lost the limb.
Then I used {Flash Blink Step} and charged him, goring my [Beastmaster] brother through the heart with the unicorn horn. He expired a mont later, his body vanishing from where it hung impaled on my horn, leaving only a streak of blood running down my temple which quickly disappeared too.
I took a few blows to the tails and one of my brothers ca close to severing one. Edmund kept barking orders and running magical interference, my distracted state aning he had the upper hand now. He also dispelled the summoning spell keeping the al’Mi-raj alive and they all vanished, revealing that Leodec was on the ground, pretending to be dead.
That couldn’t continue. Even with two dozen-plus limbs, they still outnumbered and my concentration was only so good. Tracking fourteen high-level enemies with such varied styles was tough work.
{Eldritch Aura} was my solution to even the playing field in my favor. As the bluish lightning sparked around and random jolts cracked in the air and ground inside the arena, all the princes felt the sting of a -296 penalty to all Attributes. That would, of course, be mitigated by their Ego score but Ego was the hardest Attribute to raise of them all. At most they staved off sixty or seventy percent of that penalty, aning they still took a loss of almost a hundred points all across the board.
I didn’t want to show the [Emperor] too many of my cards but it was useless now. I was either committed to fighting my way to the top or giving up and going away in sha. I needed that (unique) Class, I needed that extra power to face the dragons.
The sudden loss of so many Attribute points caused them to stall and stumble. Imagine a grown man who suddenly had the strength of a toddler in the middle of a fight. That was an accurate rendition of the [Imperial Princes]’ state.
My tails caught the remaining thirteen [Princes] as Edmund was still in the fight. His mobility went to shit but he still had enough juice in his MP pool to keep my tails from getting him with smartly placed barriers. I withdrew and let him be as I turned on the {Manastorm} and let it drain his remaining MP.
I finished each of my brothers, one by one, leaving only Edmund and (and a planking Leodec) on the Arena.
“What are you?” He roared between huffs as he endured the mana burn from the Manastorm and the loss of Attributes from the Aura.
“From the dawn of ti I ca, moving silently down through the centuries. Living many secret lives, struggling to reach the ti of the gathering. When the few who remain will battle to the last. Few have known I was among you… until now!” Sorry, I couldn’t resist my chunni impulses again.
“Are you even human? What sort of deranged monstrosity are you?”
That was the straw that broke the cal’s back. I was outnumbered thirty-two to one, defeated all the others and he still clung to his delusions. But again, didn’t we all?
Imperious, I called Pandora to my left hand. “Mind your words, mortal. I no monster. Say another word, Edmund, and you shall be no more. Know your place, little [Prince].”
Pandora turned pitch black as the {Aspect of the Void} took root. The sunlit arena and my elental body all beca dim as not even light itself could escape what was basically a magical black hole. Howling winds scread around as they picked dust and the ashes of my vampire brothers and brought them to oblivion.
Weakened and on his last straw, Edmund sensed the all-devouring nothing and cowered. Gone was his bravado, gone was his haughtiness. The three-hundred-year-old failure of a [Prince] finally showed his true face.
“I yield! I renounce my position in the line of succession! Keep that away from !”
In a mont Pandora was there, in the other she wasn’t. Once I confird my position as the heir to the throne, I returned to my normal form, unhard save for a few hundred million MP missing.
“You can stand up, Leodec. It is over now,” I said as I walked past him. As I went, I brought out each of my brother’s bodies, the ones that perished today. Those that turned to vampires were represented by small piles of ash from their bodies, all I could save before Pandora cleansed it all.
Under the watchful gaze of a silent pondering [Emperor], I showed another of my cards.
“Arise, warriors of the Empire! Your duty is not over. To the east, enemies mass against our land. You will heed my call and fight for your holand!”
Their souls answered my summons. One by one, the forr [Princes] of the Empire, still clinging to their Royalty but now devoid of any aspirations to the throne ca back to life and opened their eyes in confusion.
“What happened?” Walther of Silbethia asked.
“You arrogant bunch lost, that’s what!” The [Emperor] said as he jumped off the balcony and landed on the arena with a mighty stomp. “And now you are no longer [Princes] of this Empire. {I forbid you from using your Royal titles and status.}” He ordered and it settled upon them. Even Leodec was affected as they all took down their titles from display.
“We died,” Clent of Kaiphia tittered then broke into peals of laughter. “How are we alive? I can see the red notification.”
“Ask Percival,” Edmund dejectedly said as he joined his brothers in sha. “If I had to guess, we were defeated by a freaking deity.”
Clent snorted. “You wish! You only say that because you don’t want to admit we were killed by a kid that’s not even twenty years old!”
“Indeed,” the [Emperor] said as he stared at . “Percival, you are worthy of succeeding ,” he said, a bit resigned. “When will you take the throne?”
“Not today,” I declared as I t his gaze. “But would you listen to now? We must prepare. I sense that every dragon in this world is gathered in the great mountains to the east. They will co to the Empire, to lay waste to everything. I’m fated to fight their goddess.”
We all knew what was the ceremony to inherit the throne, title, and Class of [Emperor]. Since it was a (unique) Class, the crown prince had to kill the forr [Emperor] or wait for him to die. There was no such thing as retirent. Only death would release the title and Class for inheritance. That’s why he asked when I wanted to take the throne. As one could guess, the [Emperor] wouldn’t just give up on his life. That’s why Edmund spent three centuries as the crown prince.
“We need to prepare the Empire,” I said. “All of us, that’s why I brought you back to life. The dragons cannot engorge themselves on our flesh.”
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