Arturus stared down at the city of Nethy from atop the Temple of Fate. He quite liked the idea of being the quiet, brooding supervillain, the kind of monster that sits quietly for hours, staring out over the city he’d conquered, and plotting all sorts of villainy.

  The truth was that for him; it had all been an act ever since he’d started. People loved villains, loved rooting for them until the hero was at the cusp of victory. When Lordship of Sorcery had launched, he knew it was going to be the next big game for streaming, and he’d capitalized on it well by giving viewers something new and exciting. Almost everyone else had chosen to try to play the hero. Whether they’d chosen to start in a city or a bandit village, they were the heroes of their story. Arturus knew from day one that he was going to play the villain of someone else’s story.

  Luck or fate had led him to getting a hold of the necromancer class—a rare choice that few had the option of choosing—an evil-seeming class selection. The truth was that there was nothing inherently evil about necromancy in this game. No binding souls, or torturing the dead. Hell, he couldn’t even reanimate player corpses until he’d reached Legendary-tier.

  He’d hoped that one of the several dozen ‘heroes’ he’d come across during the years would prove a valuable adversary. None had the staying power to keep his viewers entertained. Every level he gained, every powerful body he enthralled made him that much more advanced than any who dared challenge him.

  He had thought he’d found that challenge in Annika and Kyle. They’d joined the game much later than he had, after he’d become the Reaper leader. They’d grown quickly in levels and showed themselves to be intriguing opponents. But they had little interest in what they’d referred to as his ‘petty squabbles’. He’d planned on showing them. He was going to engineer a rivalry by losing out on being the first to Celestial-tier while live on stream. He would rage and demand vengeance.

  Instead, they’d ruined that plan by ascending while he was off air. In his frustration, he ascended shortly after. He got no end of flak from his stream manager for that one, but that slimeball didn’t know that Arturus was the Reaper leader.

  Well, he would now. Arturus’ eye flicked up to the logo in the corner of his vision. An indicator that his stream was live. The whole outside world would know by now that Arturus was the secret leader of the most feared player-killing guild in the game. He could taste the drama that must be unfolding right now.

  “Lord Reaper?” One of his subordinates landed on the rooftop behind him and bowed deeply.

  He didn’t speak or even turn to face the man. Instead, he simply raised his hand to let the man know to continue.

  “The high-level guilds in the city have been subdued. There are still a few fighters giving our people trouble, but they won’t be able to resist forever.”

  Arturus smiled. Nethy was the closest Starter City to his home city of Raystown, and now it was under his control. “What of the location of the Reality Warper and his friends?”

  The Reality Warper, the only person Arturus considered a threat right now. The other Celestials had their own high-level problems going on, and none save for a few Legendary-tier players dared to upset a Celestial. They were all worried about their own potential ascension. But this low-level player had not only infiltrated his base of operations twice, but he’d also managed to humiliate him in the dev room and destroy his base.

  Arturus rarely died these days, but in a short span of time this player had been the cause of two deaths. The destruction of the Reaper Lair had not only killed him but also cut him off from all the loot he’d stashed inside. He was incredibly curious about what abilities he could learn from such a unique class.

  The subordinate wasn’t answering. Arturus turned to face the masked man. His own mask, which was soul-bound to him, could see through the man’s facsimile. He was a level thirty-five air mage named Scott. Air magic could be interesting to borrow if he needed to kill this man for failing him.

  “Answer me,” Arturus spoke firmly but quietly.

  The man took a step back as his leader turned his attention to him. “Sir,” Scott’s voice was shaky when he finally spoke. “We believe we have the location of the target. One of the Rogue’s acquaintances was asked by him to check out the level of a nearby dungeon. We think it’s where the party fled after leaving Nethy.”

  Arturus grinned at the man and nodded. “Get the scout regime and check it out, no need to move--”.

  His words were not off by a blast gay off in the distance to the Northwest. He looked and saw a figure flying in the direction of Nethy. Well, not so much flying as she was beating the air into submission with every stomp of her foot. Each stomp came down with enough force and speed to break the sound barrier, which was the cause of the blasting noise.

  “Change of plans,” Arturus snarled, using his absurd speed to move next to Scott in the blink of an eye. “Sorry about this, but I have need of your abilities.”

  He drove the blade of his sickle up into the Mage’s brain. It didn’t matter how much health he may or may not have had. A Celestial-tier weapon in the hands of a Celestial-tier player could do more damage than anyone short of a Master-tier player could tank, much less a Journeyman-tier mage.

  [Skill: Necro Drift]

  You have slain a player. Please choose two skills to drift:

  1. Air Blast - Level 30

  2. Hurricane - Level 25

  3. Flight - Level 10

  The list went on, but Arturus didn’t care about the rest of it. As soon as he saw that ‘Flight’ was only level ten, he knew that Scott had been lazy. He relied on only a few spells rather than ensuring all his skills had been effectively trained.

  Luckily, there was a hidden perk to his Celestial-ranked Necro Drift that only showed up when he selected the same option twice.

  [Info]

  Dual Drift activated. Boosting Skill: Flight to level 100.

  Wind rushed around him, lifting him from the temple’s rooftop and pushing him towards the oncoming form. This was going to be quite an interesting fight, but he had to ensure the safety of his army as well. Opening up his lieutenant’s chat, he sent off a quick message.

  Arturus > Get the whole army out of the city. Teleports, movement enhancements, mounts, whatever it takes. We’re abandoning it.

  Tom > None of the mages have teleports closer to that dungeon, so we’ll be backtracking.

  Arturus > It doesn’t matter. If they don’t get out now, they’re all going to be sent for respawn in Raystown or Eastgate.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  That shut his troublesome lieutenant up. Arturus did this all for the fun, fame, and most importantly, the story, but Tom was a different matter. He did this because he liked to kill. Tom was useful, even if Arturus disagreed with the man’s bloodlust.

  A shield formed beneath the figure, battering air into submission, allowing her to stand still as Arturus neared her. Mara’s skill set was just full of interesting tricks like that. He was even more interested in killing her in this fight so he could drift a few of those skills. For once, he wouldn’t have to hold back. He could use the full force of his abilities without losing viewers from him completely ruining his foe in the first ten seconds. Some people liked an overpowered character that played into their power fantasies, but he’d learned the hard way his viewers liked to watch him struggle. Even when he succeeded, they wanted it to feel earned. He’d have no trouble giving them what they wanted in this fight. Mara was an impressive player and a terrifying combatant, even if she wasn’t a frontline fighter—considering her class was a tank class—she’d be more than enough to handle his unrestrained might.

  “If it isn’t the Bulwark, are you here to try to put a damper on my parade?” he taunted her.

  “You’ve gone too far this time, Reaper. Turn back your forces and never show your face in Nethy again.” Her voice echoed out across the sky, amplified even more than one would expect.

  He couldn’t help but grin; this fight was going to be the most fun he’d had in years. He’d tried to goad Mara into a battle several times as Arturus, but now the same fight was coming to him organically. All because he was after something that required him to get a little too close to her city of Mara’s Bastion.

  “No, no. You had your little fun in Raystown when you took out some of my best fighters and stole their gear. My poor Mana Mage hasn’t been the same since you overloaded his siphon. Not that I’m angry; that was an interesting lesson.” He brandished his sickle and flicked his wrist a few times, weighing the weapon in his hand. “There’s something I need in the area. Go back to your city, and I promise I’ll leave you in peace.”

  Her spear materialized in her hand. He’d seen her use it to great effect in high-ranking dungeons, but he was curious how well it would work against a peer adversary. Before long she’d know who the legendary leader of the Reapers was. There would be no denying it after exposing his power set. That was one of the issues with having a unique class; there was no chance of playing it off like someone else could have the same powers.

  Mara twitched, but Arturus was faster. He activated one of his favorite spells: ‘Revenant’.

  All around the Bulwark, dark shades materialized, manifestations of every enemy killed in the area in the last few days. Their screams echoed around them as they lunged at her with outstretched claws. The shield she was standing on vanished, and she rocketed away with another stomp. The shockwave shattered most of the weaker revenants, but a few, those composed of the souls of boss monsters, survived the shockwave. Her spear slashed through the air, eliminating them with relative ease.

  He should have expected that. They were in a starting area, and the two of them were Celestials. Nothing short of a high Legendary-tier boss soul would stand more than a single strike from either of them. Still, he wasn’t about to let up. He was going to see just how eternal her bulwark truly was.

  He raised his hand towards her and screamed the name of his spell. “Necrotic Chains!”

  She knew the spell well; it was one that he used regularly when they partied together. He used that familiarity against her as she turned her shield towards the ground. Arturus had always held back just for a moment like this when he could use the surprise to his advantage.

  Instead of sprouting from the ground as they always had, chains burst from the clouds overhead. He pumped mana into them as they snaked over her body, each point spent translating to another point of necrotic damage per second.

  “A necromancer, I should have guessed,” Mara sneered through gritted teeth. “Nothing but a pale imitation.”

  A bright light flashed from her armor, shredding the chains, which fell to the ground below. The light blinded him for a fraction of a second, but that was all the time she needed to close the gap between them. Her spear swung, slicing Arturus in half.

  Arturus laughed.

  He was sure that she expected it to be the end of the fight, but he activated his get out of jail free card.

  His body dissolved into thousands of maggots and fell to the ground below. He hated the feeling; his consciousness fragmented into thousands of pieces at the same time the mana drain hit him. But he was used to both by now. He hadn’t made it to Celestial without experiencing both effects countless times.

  Focusing on a single cluster, he began reforming his body. He would be able to do this continuously until either his body completely reformed or someone destroyed every last maggot.

  His eyes searched the sky for her, but the sound of a sonic boom caught his attention faster. Thinking he’d been defeated, she had turned toward Nethy, likely intent on cleaning up any Reapers remaining there. A mistake that was going to cost her dearly.

  He focused his will and cast the spell ‘Drift: Mana Siphon’. The field snapped over the area, large enough to encompass half the city immediately. His version was even more terrifying than the base version; at Celestial-rank, it no longer slowly moved out around him. Instead, it immediately took effect over the entirety of the effective zone.

  Mara started to drop out of the air, every kick of her feet adding mana into his pool. He hadn’t realized her flight was a spell and not a skill, which made the effect all the more amusing. She turned in the air as she fell and activated another spell. No doubt her intent was to overload him and cause him to burst, but he wasn’t that idiot Mana Mage. He hadn’t activated the spell while already full of mana. Not to mention he was Arturus, his mana pool was larger than that of any other player save for a few near-celestial mages.

  She crashed hard into the outer buildings of Nethy, causing them to crumble down around her. He could feel the death from her fall, not her death but the players and NPCs who had been in her path. Each death bolstered his power.

  A particularly powerful soul caught his attention. Likely a player who had been within ten or fifteen levels of reaching the wall between Legendary and Celestial. He pinched it off before it could feed his body’s hunger for mana. This next spell would give away his identity, if the mana siphon hadn’t already done so. All the other spells up until now had been from his Necromancer class, but this next one was a Necro Drifter exclusive.

  This was his ultimate answer to her ultimate shield.

  He formed the soul into a sphere, its energy coalescing into a visible object. With a mental command, he sent it high into the air along with several other, weaker souls taken from his collection of drifted skills. He’d be losing those abilities, but they were ones he rarely used.

  ‘Soul Artillery’ came crashing down on the city of Nethy with every strike exploding into a representation of that player or NPC’s most powerful combat ability. One blast sent jagged shards of ice ripping through the buildings; another manifested as a force dashing through the streets, tearing apart everything in its way. Every slain soul added to the next wave of artillery.

  Several minutes later, the final wave of souls crashed onto the ground. Half of Nethy now lay in ruin. Screams of pain from the half-dead echoed through the air, rubble shifted as it tried to find rest, and the once vibrant city was now a graveyard.

  He deactivated his ‘Mana Siphon’ as his mana pool began to overfill, the excess burning in his veins like lava. He wasn’t an idiot like Bob and had no interest in being popped like an overfed leech. Mara was still alive somewhere in the rubble, still a threat.

  He knew the viewers of his stream would be eating this up. They’d only ever seen ‘Soul Artillery’ used against swarms of monsters in the most dire of fights. Never before had it been this strong, or this destructive. He’d never unleashed his power in a populated city. Longtime fans and new followers alike would be going crazy in the chat, speculating on whether Mara could have survived such an assault. He could imagine his moderators even sharing links to one of the several split-stream viewing sites. He didn’t mind; Mara had been a good sport so far in this fight. She should at least reap some real-world personal benefits from it.

  He channeled ‘Drift: Flight’ again, rising high into the air above the city. He could see the cowards in the city fleeing through the southern gates. Not that he truly blamed them for their cowardice; it was sensible, really. What hope did they have of standing up to the might of someone who could level a city on a whim? What—

  A whistling caught his attention too late as an arrow struck him in the side just below his ribs, driving the breath from his lungs. He squinted his eyes and bared his teeth in a silent scream at the pain. He’d been caught off guard by his cockiness. An incredibly human flaw, once more reminding him that as powerful as he was in this game, his mind remained the same flawed mind as it was outside of his pod.

  His eyes scanned the terrain and the air. He expected several more arrows, but there were none. And no sign of the archer who had shot him. He had to admit he was impressed. Not only had the person fired upon him, but they had been so sure of themselves that they’d fired only a single arrow and then hidden. Impressively, they’d not only hit him, but hit him in profile.

  When the developers finally patched the bug trapping them here, Arturus would have to track this mystery archer down and get a copy of the recording. He might even have to buy the said individual a drink, to show that he had no hard feelings. After all, that kind of shot deserved his respect.