The chamber vibrated as the sentinels lunged at Vivan.
Vivan leaped high over one of the sentinel's shoulder using its arm as his stepping stone, then a clean horizontal slash landed on its neck mid-air.
[System Chime]
-Mental Multipliers activated.
-Usage of override recommended
He gritted his teeth.
"Override? No way. A 24 hours cool down will cripple me. Not yet."
The horizontal slash connected perfectly deep into the stone neck of the sentinel scattering fragments like shards of glowing codes. But it was not enough to send its head flying.
Another sentinel's blade cleaved down in a brutal vertical arc. Vivan twisted his body while jumping over to the shoulder of another sentinel.
The strike missed him and crashed into the chest of the first sentinel.
The sentinel shuddered as neon veins pulsed erratically before its body crumbled into fragments of flickering codes.
"OOO! They can hurt each other." – A grin curved Vivan's lips.
[System Chime]
- +5 all general stats for defeating a sentinel
With a sharp breath he repeated the tactic. Dodge, redirect, and let their own colossal blows turn against each other.
The chamber vibrated with the sound of stone colliding against stone as every clash left faint pulses of glitching codes behind.
Vivan was moving calculatedly and it looked like a single jolt of blue lightning dancing over the high mountains.
"This is easy stat farming." His laugh echoed through the chamber like a mad man just found his ecstasy.
[System Chime]
-Time Remaining: 2 minutes 20 seconds
The battle royal was nowhere near to be finished as new sentinels kept popping out of the chamber's wall, ceiling and ground.
But Vivan had already found their patterns and timings.
As the blue lightning continued its dance of destruction the silent watcher hanging from the ceiling widened her eyes in awe.
"What is he?" A breath of disbelief released from her lips.
"Even in front of the sheer death he is laughing?"
[System Chime]
-Time Remaining: 1 minute
As the last sentinel crumbled, its fragments scattered like fading pixels.
Vivan exhaled hard. His sword was still upheld. For a moment the chamber was silent. Only the hum of broken code blew in the chamber.
[System chime]
-Phase I complete
-Initiating Phase II
-Calculating stat gain
-Entry Permit Progression: 25%
The glyphs along the chamber rippled, rewriting themselves once again with glowing logic.
Shattered fragments of the sentinels floated upward as they fused into new shapes. Magicians of stone hovering in the air held stone staffs pulsating with blue neon codes.
[System Chime]
-Phase II initiated
-Time remaining: 3 minutes
Their eyes lit as Vivan smirked.
"Figures. Close combat was not enough. Huh? Now it's bullet hell."
A flash erupted. The nearest magician raised its staff and the air cracked open as a barrage of fireball rained down like meteor shower.
Another magician chanted a spell in distorted tone that allowed those fireballs to follow Vivan.
The chamber turned into a storm of coded sorcery.
The silent watcher's breath hitched on the ceiling.
"What are those things? Sentinels that cast sorcery? I have never heard of any ruin or dungeon like this."
Vivan blurred into motion as the first wave of fireballs exploded against the ground.
The chamber lit with neon flames as each blast carving molten scar across the stone floor.
[System Chime]
-Heat damage registered: - 100 HP
-Dodge sequence bonus: +2 AGI
"Tch!" Vivan twisted mid-air. A fireball grazed his shoulder. The heat burned his tunic over the shoulder.
Vivan's eyes widened.
"Even after dodging I took damage like that?"
He quickly equipped his Flamehide vest. Then Coat of Ignis was equipped for the first time.
[System Chime]
Fire resistance increased by 20% due to Flamehide vest Fire immunity raised by 80% due to Coat of Ignis
More fireballs came rushing toward him. A left body spin followed by a backflip helped him to regain his balance.
He parried one of the fireballs using his blade then leaped over the other one.
His grin widened as his gaze met the fire magician's eyes.
"Fast tracking fireballs Huh? Let's see how you like being farmed next."
And someone who is watching him from above just got her jaw dropped in awe.
"Even with these, his eyes are not of a cornered man. Those eyes are of a predator."
He dashed forward as his sword flashed blue. Then he stepped on the stone statue standing in the chamber to reach the height of the hovering magicians.
A leap toward the fire magician left a gust of wind behind.
*Swoosh*
Then he roared.
"Mana Strike!!"
More fireballs came rushing at him. Vivan twisted his body mid-air to dodge the fireballs through their gaps and channeled that twist to a vertical slash in the air.
As the strike was about to hit the fire magician a purpled light flickered on Vivan's right. Too fast, too close.
The purple bolt of lightning touched Vivan's skin flicking him away on the ground.
Vivan's brows narrowed.
"What the -"
A third stone magician hovered above extending its stone arm that held a stone staff pointed forward glowing in purple hue of lightning.
[System Chime]
-Elemental Affinity Detected: Lightning magic
-Tracking Rune Active: 10 seconds
-Lightning damage registered: - 500 HP
A tensed whisper came out of the silent watcher's lips.
"The spells… they're following him! That's impossible… It's like the chamber itself is hunting him…"
The second magician chanted again reinforcing the tracking rune. The lightning bent like a serpent made of code as it slammed toward him no matter where he landed.
And the fireballs followed the lightning strikes.
"Seriously?" Vivan's eyes widened.
"They are not only covering each other but also a synchronize attack?"
But he could not think much as the fourth magician sentinel jumped on to the ground from air with a slamming fist.
*BOOM*
The ground shattered with a huge crack. Then huge pillars of stone kept charging at Vivan randomly from the ground.
[System Chime]
-Elemental Affinity Detected: Earth Magic
-Defensive subroutine active
-Time remaining of Phase II: 1 minutes 20 secs
Sweat started to form in his forehead as he kept evading all the magic attacks without being able to see any opening to attack.
He dodged the lightning strike by rolling to his left as the stone pillar popped up just there grazing him by his back. He used that pillar as a cover from the upcoming fireballs.
One of the fireballs got smashed onto the stone pillar but others tracked him behind it. Again his evading journey started without a moment of rest.
His mind raced.
"Damn it! A whole party composition? Fire DPS, Tracking rune, Lightning support, Earth Tank… What's next? A healer?"
The answer came with a rush of Icy wind.
The fifth magician descended as its body glowed in pure blue glyphs. Its hands rose, summoning spears of water that hovered in the air before launching at Vivan like harpoons.
[System Chime]
-Elemental Affinity Detected: Water Magic
-Pierce damage active
-Time remaining: 10 seconds
Vivan spun between the projectiles by twisting his body as his heart pounded hard. The collision splashed across the floor that made his footing slipped on the wet floor.
But the barrage of attack did not stop as the sixth magician hovering above unfurled its green coded wings. A cyclone churned around it, currents slashing like blades of air.
The lightning strike came rushing at him followed by the fireballs as the second magician chanted again to activate the rune of tracking.
Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, wind – all elements flashed in front of his face after being guided by the tracking runes simultaneously.
For a heartbeat Vivan's blade trembled, not with fear but from the sheer impossibility. Even his gamer instinct fell short to figure out a way.
Vivan gasped in tension but the system saved him.
[System Chime]
-Phase II completed Calculating stat gain
-Entry permit progression: 50%
-Initiating Phase III
Suddenly all the charging magic vanished like they have been decoded.
Vivan let a breath of relief out of his mouth but the relief was short lived as the room spawned numerous foot soldiers again along with the magicians.
[System Notice]
-Initiated Phase III
-Time remaining: 10 minutes
Vivan rolled his eyes upward as he smirked at the chaos infront.
"Of course! The bullet hell just got patch upgraded to Raid Hell."
The chamber was filled with pure chaos. Blazing fireballs, hissing lightning strikes, fast stone pillars, water spears like whistling harpoons, and fiery wind blades supported with the numerous melee sentinels.
It was too much for a single man.
But Vivan was built different. He met death eye to eye and kept evading and counter attacking.
The lone blue lightning was restlessly dancing at the chamber's rhythm.
Even the watcher above lost all hope of his survival as she could not muster any courage to come supporting him.
"It will be instant death." She whispered.
Vivan ducked under a cleaving sentinel blade. Then he used a Stone pillar, uprising from the ground at him, as his foot hold and equipped the boots of Sylph.
Then he leaped towards the fire magician as his blade sparked blue.
"Enough of playing rabbit…"
[System Chime]
-80% boost to speed due to Boots of Sylph
-80% boost to jump due to Boots of Sylph
-80% boost to agility due to Boots of Sylph
Vivan roared – "Mana Strike."
A downward slash cleaved across the fire magician's skull, splitting it into two just before the magician could finish his fire spell.
The stone mage convulsed as its body was flickering with broken glyphs before it shattered into shards of red neon codes.
The victory was short lived as a spear of water pierced his left leg while he was falling. Blood spilled out from the wound as a vicious stone pillar charged at his face.
Vivan leaped to the rising pillars right using his hand then he kicked the pillar with his right foot to channel a second leap.
Another mana strike slashed the lightning magician as a fast and sharp blade grazed his torso mid-air giving him a deep wound while the last chanted lightning strike hit his body.
Extreme pain surged through him along with heavy blood loss. Yet he grinned through the pain.
"Once you choose to be a gamer, you always fight till… Last HP." – He shouted.
Vivan twisted his body to see the attacker as he saw multiple melee soldiers are prepared to throw their swords at him in the air following the first one.
"Damn Nut jobs of synchronized AI!!!" He shouted as his body was falling.
But the sentinels were nowhere near to be finished.
Stone pillar charged at his falling body as hundreds of swords flew toward him along with water spears and wind blades.
[System Chime]
-Warning: Critical threshold reached
-HP remaining: 12%
-Override recommended
-Time remaining: 6 minutes
Vivan coughed blood but he whispered.
"No Override! I can't do this alone. It's time for that. "
Then he called him for first time with a desperate roar.
"CALL OF FLAME!!"
As the incoming attacks almost reached his body a hot burning fire surged around him.
Then a portal of flame opened bending the air of the chamber.
A three headed tiger leaped out of the portal carrying Vivan's falling body on its back stepping in the air.
[System Chime]
- Guardian of Embergate: Trinirak has been summoned
Among the dark battlefield the tiger was leaping in the air like a beacon of fiery hope carrying Vivan.
Red fire was burning from its middle head, blue on the left and purple on the right head along with its tail and fur burning in hot red flames.
Vivan smirked while resting on Trinirak's back as his HP started recovering due to empathy boost.
"HOH! I never knew you can walk in the air." Vivan patted Trinirak's burning mane, being unfazed by the heat due to coat of Ignis.
And the Silent watcher? She was about to fall of the ceiling being shocked but she gripped her plunged blade in the ceiling to stop the fall.
"Is that the rumored guardian of ruins of the fire giants?"
Then another whisper followed.
"He just summoned the guardian? Who the hell is this man?"
Numerous wind blades and water spears rushed again at them breaking the silent watchers focus on Vivan as some of them grazed her by ear in pursuit of him.
But Trinirak, even though it was summoned at his 10% of power due to the skill binding, he just flicked those attacks away by whipping his tail.
Then it looked down on the ground towards the numerous sentinels and fire mages hovering along with it.
Three different colored flames sparked in its three heads as it roared a battle cry.
The heat in the chamber rose high and three huge beams of flame scorched the chamber in its every corner burning the sentinels along with the mages.
The move that left Vivan almost on the death's lap now echoed as an ally.
"APOCALYPSE BURN!"
The stones melted away leaving only steams and rising heat in the chamber.
[System Notification]
-Unbalanced power surge detected.
-Death march has been annihilated before the calculated time
-Restoring Death march phase III in 20 seconds
Vivan's eyes widened as his grin of victory vanished due to the system chime.
A small crystal started flowing upward in the air glowing brightly as it started restoring the chamber.
And Trinirak? It was immobile due to cool down effect of apocalypse burn.
Vivan shouted in desperation.
"Hell No! you won't ruin my victory again!!!"
Then he leaped from Triniark's back. His sword glowed with blue hue.
"Mana Strike!!"
A clean slash to the crystal landed. A small line of crack occurred diagonally on the crystal and then it got shattered in glass pieces.
[System Chime]
-Death March has been cleared.
-Extreme success detected.
-Entry permit to the Genesis Chamber created.
- Calculating rewards Due to high achievement calculation will take more time
-Reward calculation progress: 85%
Vivan landed on the ground full of molten stones. The heat in the air started to cooled down.
Trinirak descended in a blaze of fire as its paw striking the floor with molten sparks. The beast lowered itself onto its haunches.
Vivan sat on the ground leaning on Trinirak by his back.
He raised a trembling hand and patted the central head once again.
"Good Boy!"
The central maw opened, not with a roar, but with a low rumble almost like a purr. Then, in a surprisingly gentle motion, the beast leaned down and licked Vivan's face.
Flames danced harmlessly across his skin leaving only warmth behind.
High above, the Silent Watcher's breath caught. Her knuckles whitened around the blade anchoring her to the ceiling.
"That fire… it should have reduced him to ash."
Her eyes trembled, locked on the sight below.
"No one survives the Guardian's flames. No one… except him."
And the system kept chiming.
[Reward calculation progress: 95%....96%...97%...]
…To be continued