It was an arduous task to force the Trial System’s hand. Demon King Arctus had to stretch out campaigns and force his armies to perform continuous brutal retreats. All to make sure that the Trial System couldn’t identify a pivotal conflict to insert its Trialists. Demon King Arctus charged the battlefields himself, facing hundreds and thousands of hateful humans that attempted to slow him down. The rest of the human forces slowly chipped away at the outskirts of the demonic forces.

  This Trial’s Human King refused to listen to his plea and continued the eternal farce, taking every advantage Arctus gave him. It pained his soul, his very being to see his subjects suffer like this.

  He waded amongst the filth and gore of the humans he slaughtered. His kingdom slowly turning into ruins. All of it to force this encounter. All to make the Trial System admit that this was the only real quest it could give its Trialist right now.

  And he had finally succeeded. The music and aura that shot to the sky could be none other than his quarry. With the end in sight, he moved towards it. A singular elf [Rogue] stood against an elf [Swordsman] and an orc [Rogue].

  “Finally, there you are.”

  The elf [Rogue] he had been hunting for barely glanced at him. Demon King Arctus expected a lot of things, blatant dismissal was not one of them.

  “We’re kinda having a thing right now, go over there and wait your turn, Arctus.”

  The words sent the Demon King’s blood to a boil, his hands tightened on his giant sword. Blood began to trickle down his clenched fists. His eyes flickered to the other two adventurers his quarry was so focused on. He had reports of the orc [Rogue], she was part of the group in the elf’s previous Trials. The [Swordsman]...

  He hadn’t been part of his Trials, yet the Demon King gained some memories from the Demon Queen that had presided over the [Swordsman]’s Trials.

  An above average [Swordsman], that was all she knew about him. Showed up injured and barely survived his second Trial.

  The Demon King did not have time for this, his fury transcended his rationality.

  “I did not toil away to get disrespected like this. Let us rid ourselves of the riff raff.”

  His first step shattered the ground around him, scattering the corpses into the air. Arctus took a great leap, closing the gap. The orc [Rogue] focused her energy into the ground. The Demon King snorted.

  He threw his aura into the ground and threw his weight on the next stomp to shatter her control. At minimum the ground would shatter, at maximum the girl would die from the backlash.

  His foot slammed into the ground as Demon King Arctus–slipped. His front foot went skidding across the ground as the prideful king started doing the splits.

  [Adaptive Terrain: Permanent No Friction]

  The ground did not break, it did not relent to his aura. Something changed the very fabric of the ground below. Arctus had no time to register what had just happened–the [Swordsman] blurred.

  A blade of pure white flickered out, enhancing the skill based strike. A self-evolved skill.

  [Desperation Stance]

  The strike came crashing down as Arctus barely got his blade up in time to block. Unfortunately the [Swordsman] wasn’t finished. The [Brutal Cleave] flowed into a melded skill.

  [Uncanny Brutal Cleave]

  The extended blade wove around like a snake. Arctus was still mid slip–he could not readjust his block. The blade flashed, about to hit his exposed head.

  When a fist smashed through the [Cleave], shattering the extended skill.

  His quarry stood in front of him, glaring at the [Swordsman]. Demon King Arctus regained his posture, glancing at the orc [Rogue] that had managed to trip him up.

  The orc sneered at him.

  “Sorry Kingie, but that guy already did that trick..”

  He was gravely aware of his own mistake. He had almost expended his trump card before the fight even began. Arctus nodded at her.

  “I see, my apologies for taking you two so lightly.” He turned to the elf [Rogue], the one he was here to talk to, the one who had just saved him. “If these are your opponents then sh–”

  “Hey! What do you think you’re doing, trying to steal my kill like that?”

  The [Swordsman] stood, sword-point forward at the [Rogue].

  “This Trial doesn’t belong to you.”

  “Hello? I was the one that entered the Trial first. You’re the Trial intruders, of course the Trial belongs to me.”

  “You weren’t scheduled for a Trial attempt. Technically you’re the one intruding on Guild property.”

  “The Guild doesn’t own the Trials! Even if it did, I should be grandfathered in because the Witch Tyrant approves of all of this!”

  Demon King Arctus did not know what to do, nor how to get a word in edgewise. The two continued to bicker away, the elven [Rogue] uncaring that he was standing so close to the Demon King.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  The orc snickered at the dumbfounded and uncertain Arctus.

  “Yep, those two are idiots. Pretty sure they’re both teenagers.”

  The Demon King turned to the only one that wasn’t currently ignoring his existence.

  “You are not enemies?”

  “Well, we definitely aren’t friends, I can promise you that.”

  Meanwhile the [Rogue] and [Swordsman] were still going. The argument was somehow heating up.

  “What even was your plan? Steal my kill, put us down on a timer then we duel until the Trial collapses around us? ”

  “I was simply getting rid of a threat.”

  “You didn’t think things through! Admit it! And you think you’ll make a good Captain?!”

  The [Swordsman] bristled. “Now you are going too far.”

  “I’m not even halfway done!”

  The orc laughed then whispered conspiratorially at the Demon King.

  “Hey, what about you and me duke it out while those two keep going at it? I think I can beat you before they finish up.”

  Her voice was loud enough for the other two adventurers to hear. Both of them turned to glare at her. Arctus let out a pained sigh.

  “This was not what we were promised. A bunch of disrespectful children given powers and potential beyond our wildest dreams. Children that do not understand the responsibility that should come with it.”

  The elf [Rogue] finally turned and acknowledged the Demon King. A dangerous glint in his eye.

  “Well duh, ”

  The Demon King paused, then chuckled.

  “Yes, yes you all are.”

  It seemed it existed in their world too. They were always the most unreasonable folk. Boisterous, greedy and cowardly. The only way to get them to listen would be to give them a good beating.

  Demon King Arctus swung, disregarding his original objective

  –

  The music picked up tempo. It was on phase two of Artigan’s theme song, a steady beat of domineering war drums to drown out all the noise.

  Ryan laughed as he stepped back from the earth shattering swing. He threw his three knives of returning–not at the Demon King but at Valee. She exploded in movement from her runner’s stance. Splitting to the side to dodge the knives. Ryan recalled them.

  These were no soul weapons, they flew back, towards him. Slower than when he’d first thrown them.

  The Demon King slid his foot forward, being careful not to lift it off the ground, nor step too hard. He put all his force into the swing–not at Ryan but at Valee. She exploded once again in movement.

  Faster than Ryan’s [Instant Dodge]. She wasn’t just using all her limbs to explode outwards. It was brief but Ryan saw it. The ground shifted slightly and launched her as she moved, a springboard off the ground with all of her limbs.

  Zedart came swinging in at Ryan. Bright gleaming white flashing out to slice his arm off.

  [Aura Command: Blade]

  Ryan’s right arm was too fast for the realm three [Swordsman] to parry. The gleaming white blade met aura and Zedart went flying backwards. Ryan felt something below shift under his feet–the ground had lost friction. He didn’t bother trying to slam his foot–he’d seen what had happened with the Demon King.

  Instead, he skipped over the patch of ground and stepped on a solid section.

  Helped, of course, by hours of energy training. He could almost see the way Valee’s Epic branched out from the ground and cover a ridiculous area.

  The moment the Demon King noticed he wasn’t being targeted by Valee, he kicked forward into the air. Trying to tackle her with his enormous bulk.

  But Valee was no regular controller. She exploded out again, even faster than the Demon King–but she’d shown this before. Arctus threw his greatsword at the [Rogue], trying to hit her midair. Valee twisted, hands blurring out.

  [Extended blows]

  The spinning hunk of metal shattered every single one of the blows. Valee didn’t look like she was expecting it to stop the blade, just to change the angle slightly so she could barely dodge–

  [Uncanny Cleave]

  Zedart’s melded extended blade skill softly touched the spinning blade and maneuvered it away, forcing it to go wide of the orc. Valee tsked when she landed.

  “I had that.”

  “There was no need to risk it.”

  The [Swordsman] nodded at a disgruntled [Rogue]. Valee begrudgingly nodded back. They had to admit it to each other, they were the most outmatched in this fight. Valee sniffed.

  “I’m the control, you’re the bruiser. You’re going to have to be the finisher.”

  Zedart nodded, then charged forwards. The uneven ground gave way to a flat surface as the sword came down diagonally. Ryan shifted his body to dodge, then the blade curved towards him and Ryan once again contemptuously punched so he could shatter the extended blade.

  But Zedart came close and Ryan couldn’t trust his footing. He smiled, then threw out all five of his knives of returning, not at Zedart but behind Ryan.

  Meanwhile the Demon King launched himself at the [Swordsman] with a smaller blade in hand.

  Valee switched to targeting the entire zone. The entire area had become devoid of friction. Only Zedart could perform at his peak here.

  But Ryan had seen this before, he’d seen how to defeat it.

  He started sliding across the ground like an ice skater. He skidded past Zedart, slipping under the swing with ease. Valee tried to trip him up with a high friction patch–all it did was make him adjust and jump forward. His right hand condensed his aura into a fist while he recalled the throwing knives he’d thrown earlier.

  Zedart was right in the middle of fire.

  Ryan recalled the knives. Normally they weren’t faster than he could throw them, that is, if Ryan hadn’t switched things up. He upped the risk entirely, his aura tendrils having been latched onto the knives. They flew back wildly and far faster than their enchantments allowed, forcing Zedart to do a complicated maneuver to parry them all. It wasn’t enough, at speed and force, one of the knives sliced him through the thigh.

  Meanwhile Ryan punched outwards at the Demon King. A wild haymaker.

  The Demon King punched to match him–but unlike the nimble Ryan who had launched from a firm patch, his feet were flat footed on frictionless ground. Ryan’s fist collided with the Demon King’s gauntleted fist, and the Demon King lost. The enormous demon went skidding backwards, blowing the corpses out of his way.

  The outcome?

  Ryan stood in the middle, holding his hands behind his back, mirroring the pose that Larix often did. The billowing robes of the Obsidian Sect completing the look. He held his chin high in the air. Completely untouchable.

  The Latin choir started playing from Felsley’s phone. He chuckled.

  “It really does work well. Doesn’t it?”

  The orc [Rogue] gritted her teeth. Her eyes were fully focused on him. His momentum was building again and she knew she had to do something to slow it down.

  “, there’s a closed loop in there. It’s still carrying and holding all the momentum from assaulting the outpost. Has to be realm six, the amount of power it's holding is .”

  Ryan whistled.

  “And here I thought I’d gotten good at hiding my circulatory system. More functions of your Epic I assume?” He shook his head, then lifted his right arm. “But you’ve made a mistake, it’s only realm five. It is indeed a highly specialized class arm.”

  The Demon King stared at Ryan’s arm and decided that the best course of action was to go pick up his greatsword. Valee didn’t want to let Ryan keep talking about his new arm, they needed to expend his aura not build it up.

  “There’s a reason why he isn’t using [Aura Slash]. If he uses it, it’ll expend too much power and weaken the whole arm. That’s the gap, no real ranged moves other than his knives, he probably can’t even hold a weapon at realm three without destroying it.”

  Valee really was good at being an annoying shit. She’d gotten it mostly right, although…

  “You keep making assumptions Valee. Though once again you’ve made a mistake. The real reason I’m not using [Aura Slash]?”

  He grinned.

  “It’s because I don’t want to end it too quickly.”

  Valee sighed, having given up on wordplay to weaken his momentum. Instead she began loosening her bindings.

  The Demon King picked up his greatsword.

  Zedart shuffled forward.

  Ryan laughed.

  reon is

  23 chapters ahead!