MMORPG : Rise of the Interstellar God

Apophis scanned the humanoid form in front of him, hardly able to believe his eyes.

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╟─╼ PLAYER

║ ╰╼[Name]: DungEater

║ ╰╼[LvL]: ???

║ ╰╼[Tier]: A-

║ ╰╼[Class]: Boxer

║ ╰╼[Biology]: Liquid

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Apophis whispered, "It is indeed him! How is this possible?! At this temperature, even the strongest metal should disintegrate!"

But something else caught his eye, something far more troubling: DungEater hadn't simply regenerated at 1 HP after what had appeared to be his total destruction.

Rather, DungEater's HP had only slightly decreased. He still had 83% of his total health remaining! Considering the sheer power of the attacks Apophis had sent against him, this was completely ridiculous.

In a few moments, the liquid molecules of metal reformed like a spray of water into DungEater's complete form. His skin was mirror-smooth, as though he hadn't received a single scratch over their fight.

Apophis didn't wait, but immediately launched another black fireball. His plan seemed simple: keep DungEater stunlocked until he died. Since he'd been able to vaporize DungEater's body for a short time and prevent him from acting at all while his body reformed, and since Apophis could use his fire Skills for free, there should be no danger in this strategy.

But something had changed.

The metal which made up DungEater's body shone with a very slightly different color, just a bit more greenish than before. Whether this came from a Passive Skill or something else, it seemed that DungEater had the power to adapt the alloy of his liquid metal body when he reformed!

And this adaptation was clearly intended to resist Apophis's fire. The black flames surged around DungEater with enough heat that they would have blasted his previous body into metallic vapor, but they did almost nothing to him this time. DungEater was now impervious to fire attacks.

As soon as he realized this, Apophis shifted into defensive mode. He reactivated his ~Susanoo~ and drew Regnier's two-handed sword to parry the attacks he knew were coming.

Seeing this, DungEater smiled and re-equipped the gauntlets that must have gone back into his inventory when his body disintegrated. The gauntlets began to glow as DungEater infused them once more with cosmic power.

***

Miles away, just as the two men were about to resume their fight, something catastrophic happened.

There was a sound like the planet itself shattering, and then a deep howl shook the world.

The stellar dragon, which was no longer under fire from Azerof's fleet, finally awoke.

With an apocalyptic rumble, the thick layer of stone shell that had surrounded it peeled away. The gravitational pull of the planet Terra drew these stone slabs itself, pulling them down like meteors to pulverize the planetary surface below and stirring up a dust storm that made huge portions of the ecumenopolis like a scorching desert.

Its two enormous, clawed arms stretched out to cover the sunlight as its two eyes lit up with stellar fire. Its magnificent body, encrusted with huge, white jewels, likewise lit up, so that it seemed as though the creature's whole body was covered with crystalline eyes.

Then the stellar dragon howled again, generating a titanic shock wave that swept away a vast circle of the city below it. Skyscrapers crumbled, the ground cracked, the atmosphere and its clouds scattered—the whole planet seemed to tremble under the growl of this colossal monster.

And then all the efforts of Azerof's fleet proved to be useless, because the stellar dragon stretched out its one remaining wing…

…And the horrific nub of bone that had been left behind when Azerof's ships had blasted the other stone-covered wing into splinters.

The light in the dragon's jewels dimmed, and the bone began to reform. Cables and strands of flesh snaked down the growing bone from the stellar dragon's body, adhering to the skeletal structure and binding together so that the monstrosity could flex and twitch the new appendage.

The vacuum of space ripped rivers of blood out of the vessels that were forming, then froze them, giving the appearance of millions of spiky ruby crystals forming across the new wing. Sheets of ice froze over the exposed muscle, then broke away as scaly skin regenerated between flesh and ice.

At last, the stellar dragon spread wide its two vast wings, its limbs that spread for many kilometers from tip to tip. Though there was no air in the vacuum of space, the shimmering membranes of the stellar dragon's wings bulged when it moved them, pushing against some unseen force or energy. It swept them in arcs that seemed impossibly slow from the planetary surface because of their sheer size, but actually covered incredible distances in mere moments.

And the stellar dragon began to move. Its body seemed almost small with the stone shell removed, though it was still truly a colossus. It sailed off, away from the ravaged planet of Terra, into the darkness of space.

***

The stellar dragon's shock wave cracked like thunder through the atmosphere, blasting away all remaining clouds and weather events, and smashed into Apophis and DungEater. Being such powerful Ascensionists, however, it barely made them flinch.

DungEater said in his strange voice, "Well, let's start again. You know, this planet is probably condemned because of you."

But before Apophis could answer, something unexpected happened.

DungEater tried to take a step forward, but his knee buckled and he dropped to the ground. A look of shock covered his mirrored face, and he began vomiting huge quantities of black blood!

Apophis's mouth fell open in surprise as DungEater's HP dropped down to 60%! The only possible explanation was that the stellar dragon's shock wave had somehow injured even a Rank A- character like DungEater! That was about the same level of damage that Apophis himself had caused during the last stage of their fight, with his flames the temperature of a yellow sun!

But what could be the explanation for this? After all, Apophis himself hadn't been harmed by the shock wave. It had been filled with some kind of special cosmic power, of course, the same power that allowed the dragon to fly with regular wings, rather than jets, in an environment without air to push against.

But this power had only damaged the environment due to simple force generation, not from any kind of visible energy blast.

Many ideas came into Apophis's head, and he tried to piece them together. This event was outside even his own understanding of Horus from his first life. Could it be that this dragon has a special ability that is strong against a creature like DungEater? he wondered.

Just then, Apophis noticed something else quite strange… his two-handed sword had started to radiate a blue glow, and that glow was getting stronger by the moment.

And everything fell into place.

Apophis had already known that, unlike a normal sword, Regnier's sword had been forged with the ability to channel its user's Cosmic Energy into its blade. That made it exceptionally powerful for a demigod like Regnier. However, it seemed that the sword could also absorb environmental energy, if there was enough of it.

The stellar dragon seemed to be a creature composed almost entirely of stellar energy, like a living reactor. Its wingbeats had blasted the surface of the planet with this energy, and Regnier's sword had attracted this energy like a lightning rod.

However, so had DungEater's own liquid metal body, and it seemed that the stellar energy was like poison to him! Potentially, it had disrupted the energetic field which kept DungEater's body in one cohesive unit and which allowed him to regenerate.

Though DungEater could apparently adapt his body to resist many physical or elemental attacks, it seemed that he'd finally met his match.

Apophis smiled and channeled as much of his own Cosmic Energy as possible into his own blade. His red void energy and the dragon's blue stellar energy mixed in shimmering swirls, as though the metal were instead hollow glass containing some mysterious liquid. A purplish glow shone out from the blade, repelling dust particles that hung in the air nearby.

DungEater's eyes went wide as he realized all of these truths himself. Though he'd previously had an almost insurmountable advantage, the tables had now turned.

And it was all due to Azerof's fleet failing to suppress the dragon that Apophis had summoned.

However, DungEater pulled himself back to his feet and raised his gauntleted fists, and Apophis realized that he hadn't won just yet. Though he'd been able to match Lucifer's body in terms of swordsmanship, DungEater's ability as a Boxer was far greater than as a swordsman. That had been clear from all his attacks against ~Susanoo~.

Apophis knew that he needed to bury his blade in DungEater's body to ensure the energy would achieve maximum effect. However, in this exhausted state, he couldn't rely on his current dueling ability.

For the first time, Apophis opened the Warrior Talent Tree, giving him access to the Skills from his secondary class.

He swiftly invested 25 Skill Points into the "Sword Mastery branch of the Warrior Talent Tree, gaining access to a primary Skill that would hopefully bolster his dueling ability.

System Notification: Congratulations! You've just unlocked the Skill ~Smash~.

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╟─╼ [Skill] ~Smash~

║ ╰╼[Warrior]

║ ╰╼ [Common]

║ ╰╼ [Skill LvL] Tier-1

╟─╼[Summary] : Strike a blow that mere mortals cannot evade!

╟─╼[Effect] : Lock on to a target and make a swift melee attack with your primary weapon. Cannot be evaded through normal movement, but can be evaded using Skills, parried, or blocked.

╟─╼[Upgrade Cost] : 10 Skill Points

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This Skill dealt very little base damage, but Apophis doesn't care about that. The important thing was that he now had a tool for accurately stabbing DungEater so that he could channel as much pure energy as possible into him!

Of course, this was a very low-level Skill and DungEater could still avoid getting hit from most of Apophis's attacks using it, but the lock-on feature would free up Apophis's concentration by a huge amount, drastically shrinking the gap in effectiveness between the two of them.

With this new ability flowing through him, Apophis moved into a Warrior's stance. He activated his Skill ~Berserk~, filling his arms and legs with strength! For the next thirty seconds, all his primary stats—and damage—would be doubled.

During these few seconds, DungEater was also preparing for their final clash. He used ~Earthbending~ to form a smooth stone arena underneath their feet. Then he used the incredible Boxer Skill, ~Domain of the Champion~, which drew a glowing red circle of energy as a boundary for this arena. This Skill gave a damage multiplier to everyone who stood within it, but was much higher for the user, and this damage bonus would rise with every second that passed inside it.

In other circumstances, of course, an enemy wouldn't allow a Boxer to set up such an arena. They'd instead remain outside it and used ranged attacks to fight. However, DungEater had correctly analyzed Apophis's Warrior-based strategy and knew that he would be fighting using Regnier's two-handed sword.

The two men would fight in melee, inside the arena. Only one would walk out alive.

Time seemed to slow down for both Apophis and DungEater, for the Warrior-Esper and the Sun Cultist who had absorbed the Skills of countless classes.

Apophis spread his ~Demonic Wing~ and summoned his ~Susanoo~ in a spectral skeleton around him, then raised his two-handed sword and charged towards DungEater!

He arrived in a split second and used ~Smash~ to aim a stab at DungEater's metallic belly.

But the Boxer reacted just as quickly, swinging his own fists and disintegrating the severely weakened ~Susanoo~!

Apophis realized too late that he should have devoted more Energy to defending himself. His blade pierced DungEater's torso just at the moment that the gauntleted fist smashed into his own smoky face, sending him flying back past the edge of the arena and nearly a kilometer across the leveled city!

But he was still alive. Apophis raised himself up and checked his HP and Energy. It was bad! He'd spent nearly all his Energy by infusing it into his sword, and he'd put the rest into Susanoo. Now he had only the tiniest trickle of Energy regeneration from an empty meter, and his HP was down to 19%!

He had one foot in the grave. What was he supposed to do now? He could wait for a few seconds for his Energy to regenerate enough to fly back to the ~Domain of the Champion~, where DungEater was surely waiting, but he'd have wasted almost all of ~Berserker~ by then…

Then he heard a noise!

DungEater hadn't waited in his arena at all, but was right beside Apophis!

However, he hadn't escaped unharmed. The spot where Apophis had stabbed him looked as though it had frozen into solid metal, rather than being liquid. Spiderweb cracks had spread out from this point, and his left arm had crumbled completely away. Black blood dripped to the ground from the wound that stretched all the way up his left side.

But he still had 29% of his HP left.

DungEater laughed bitterly as he realized how badly his single punch had hurt his enemy. "It's over, Apophis! No more fighting."

He staggered over, crossing the last two meters which separated them, and then stretched out his hand as though to help Apophis up.

But then his hand began to melt, drizzling over Apophis's smoky body. "This… will be a good lesson for me. I should have just done this to begin with."

System Alert: The player "DungEater" has used an assimilation Skill against you.

System Alert: Assimilation 10% complete...