Not Ready Yet

Instantly, everything became clear as Mufasa body seemed to move on its own, arm arching for a wide diagonal slash straight to the chest. Lira's yell seemed to trigger something in him, a fire like he had never known, not equaled even by when he had to kill or be killed after being backed into a corner by orcs.

Set ablaze, was his desire to better himself in that moment, as adrenaline pumped into his blood stream filling him with strength he had never known.

For a moment even, he reached a miraculous state – what he might imagine it was to surpass one's limits and gaze into the greater beyond.

In this moment, his sword no longer had a shadow as the blade itself disappeared in the speed of the slash, roweling up the wind to follow it in its conquest towards the dominating entity before it.

He had achieved it.

Sword Style Skill – Point-Blank Sovereignty

Lira's facial expression rose in surprise as he saw this phenomenon.

However, even though it was surprising and exciting to Lira, it was only just reaching an acceptable level for showing swordsmanship under the system.

Before Mufasa's blade could even fully pass by the tip of his toes, Lira's summoned knife had hit it near the guard of the blade, slamming it and the wind following it into the air in a seemingly condensed blast that echoed for miles.

Silence ensued for a third time.

No one else had expected such an exchange, nor could they understand the power it had generated when there didn't seem to be skill use involved. The blast of wind alone was easily enough to kill a regular human.

Just like that, the exchange was over, the resolution covered only by a thin film of dust in the air.

Quickly though, it was blown away leaving clear sight of the winner.

Mufasa was kneeling from the pure drainage of his psyche that occurred in allowing him to touch upon this Sword Style skill for the first time.

Lira, however, was simply looking down at him, with no blade in sight.

"You've seen it, right? That is what I strive for now. The previous conveniences of life no longer hold light to that great flame."

Mufasa could not stand, let alone move; his facial expression could not be seen.

His next words, however, surprised everyone nearby.

"I understand. I was stupid. Please, let me strive with you."

*What the fuck is going on? That guy that was just arrogant as shit is being subservient? Why are they talking like movie characters? In abstracts? What just happened?*

Thoughts like these ran through everyone else's minds at that moment.

"No."

*He denied him?!*

"You should strive on your own. Then, we might convene to test each other when we meet again, every time we meet again."

"Yes."

*Did he just find god or something? Why is this dude suddenly acting like this and WHY DID THE OTHER DUDE SUDDENLY CHANGE HIS ENTIRE DEMEANOR? He's giving off the vibe of a king talking to his fucking people right now. What is going on…*

"Ah, good, then we're done here. Please, finish explaining the basics to the others. I'd do it quickly."

With that, without any explanation to the others, Lira simply sat back down facing the forest, his back to the flag.

*The second wave…there's a saying for moments like this, I swear. What was it? Hmm…AH. Like moths to a flame.*

Mufasa quickly spoke of a few concepts that one could look into to understand the usage of their weapon better and was finishing up his little lecture. No one raised too much a racket at being lectured either.

"Training…you need to know your movement abilities and constantly increase them; you need to know your opponent - if they're humanoid, they're muscles seem to work similarly; you need to know what you can do with your blade…", detailed Mufasa.

Suddenly, Lira coughed lightly and spoke as he drew the knife he'd used against Mufasa.

"Finally, well, you should all know this. Kill or be killed is the mode of evolution. Kill and be killed is the mode of fortune. If you still want to sleep at night, don't do something that would cross your conscious, that is, if you all haven't already. Also…prepare for battle."

It took a moment for those last words of his to click.

The first to ready themselves was Mufasa, who only stood stunned for half a second before instantly summoning his gear.

"Where?"

"5 o'clock from my 12. Anyways, last lesson. Most of you might have only used…"

Lira suddenly continued the lecture as everyone quickly readied themselves. As he spoke, figures began to appear in the shadows of the trees, and suddenly steps could be heard.

Poof! Pof! Poof!

*So late in the evening? I wonder what happened…"

"Skills to use them, seeing them as just a skill. Of course, you would. After all, the monsters have been too easy…"

Lira's group tensed up, preparing for battle, while Lira's eyes glimmered with mirth as he restricted a smile.

"It's time. We can do this right?"

One of the men from the other team asked the emaciated man in a low voice, fear audible

"Yea, we'll make it. We can do this."

His response was steady, though raspy as it seemed to always be.

"But skills can be leveled up! And in more than one way! Try training a skill after this figh-Ah. I made a small miscalculation. There are two groups. There's another one coming in behind this group. They're slow, either aware of what's in front or injured. This is getting a bit interesting now."

Reactions among the group visibly worsened, even for Mufasa. He could take maybe a few people, given that they were not as strong as Lira, but not ten. Fighting two groups was pushing it.

"Alright, alright, for moral's sake. I'll show a bit of my strength."

Even though Lira said this, he remained sitting, and after he spoke silence ensued on the field. The rustling sounds from footsteps stopped as well. Then, a voice pierced this silence from the tree line as a line of people charged towards them, a large man of Asian descent leading the front.

"GURHA GOSUREH JIGHLI MASAO!"

*Oh, shit, I forgot this is international for a moment. Dang, that's kinda anticlimactic. I have no idea what this man said. Eh, let's respond in kind*

"THEN TO WAAAARRRR. WE. WILL. GO!"

Lira yelled as he stood up, summoned the leg piece of his armor and slammed that foot down into the ground, before pulling his arm back across his body like about to perform a charge attack from a video game.

"I advise you duck."

His voice came through exceptionally clear to everyone in his group even with the charging of the enemy group from the tree line.

Everyone instantly hit the floor.

Lira's eyes glinted red for a moment as they squeezed to a squint.

Swpt!

Lira's hand nearly teleported to the other side of his body, he moved his arm so fast.

What happened next could scarcely be described in words for those there.

SIIIIIIIW-PAAAAAAH!

A whining came before a massive, explosive pressure forced his teammates to block their ears as quickly as they could as it drilled into their ears painfully.

Ding-ding-ding-ding.

About a second later, the charging enemies were blown away, fully off-the-ground blown away, kicking up a massive dust haze. Some slammed into trees while others simply kept flying for tens of meters before slamming into the ground and rolling backwards.

However, soon after, a gust of wind interrupted the small dust storm, splitting it and blowing it away.

That same man that led the charge of the enemy was still standing and had summoned a strange weapon, though he looked exhausted. It looked like two giant personal fans with their butts together.

*Holy shit, that looks like Aang's flying thing. Is it a staff made of fans? Can it do both? Yo, that's cool as shit! Was there a weapon like this in history? Why was I unaware?!*

Lira was stunned by the weapon.

*Worth a shot, right?*

"Hey, can I ask ya what that weapon is?"

"Gurha yasga Unghe!"

The man looked angry, his eyes conveying a fiery that Lira had only seen in his time conquering ogre colonies.

*Ah, shit. He's gonna be ignorant.*

***

"So, I lost…"

Ion had suddenly appeared in the front of the tower in a flash of light only to see Rex already sitting there waiting on her.

She faked a pout while flipping her hair with her hand.

Che, known to her as Rex, couldn't help but be a bit taken in by her pout. Truly, she was quite beautiful.

"Yea. I won…but I think Lira is the one who really won. Check the chart."

"…That @$@%$#$&#*%!. He must have made it out as soon as we went in!"

"Ion…you're blue, like really blue. Before, I thought you were a bit off color, but it's clear now. What happened?"

Ion ran the answers she could say through her head at lightning speed, however ended up speaking the truth before she could finish deciding.

"I switched game species. I'm an "Echidion" now, a being blessed by Or'Nkuhra, whatever that is."

"You're not human? What? Um, what? You gave up on your humanity so easily?"

Ion pursed her lips.

"Some of us have goals, you know? Survival being one…The stronger, the better, right? Plus, I'm still a hominid?"

"Can you even still reproduce with humans?"

"I don't know, did previous hominids breed with homo sapiens? I imagine it's like breeds of dogs…"

"Ugh. Well, you are still human looking, and we don't know if it really means not being human so much as a power up…"

Ion rolled her eyes.

"Whatever floats your boat Mr. How about you contact Lira?"

"Well…see. I've tried but it actually says the message can't go through."

Ion did a little spin.

"Can't go through? Could he be in another dungeon? Are there any near here?"

"Nah, the closest dungeon the news reported last time was in the mountains up north. Also, the internet is down as well as the tv and…radio."

Ion stopped spinning abruptly.

"Did you say that…the radio was down? You're joking. That's literally almost impossible. Does it need a change in batteries? Are you certain that THE radio is down and not just that one?"

"I cannot get a signal from anything. It's like it's being blocked."

"That's bad…we have no way to know what's going on on the large scale! We should head closer to Atlanta and try it again!"

"What about Lira?"

"You should know better than me that he can fend for himself and contact us whenever!"

"Yea, that's true, bu-What in the fuck is that?"

Ion turned to look in the direction that Rex's head suddenly froze in.

Before their very eyes, around one hundred meters away, an incredibly massive snake was seemingly forming particle by particle. Rather, the glowing particles that seemed to be forming it seemed to take up their whole line of sight and then some.

The only reason they could tell it was a snake was because the head was almost done forming, and that alone was larger than a gas station.

"…"

"…"

They watched on until Ion finally got her wits about her, as her alarm signals rang in overdrive.

"That's our cue to leave! LET'S GO!"

"SHIT. That's huuuuge! Is that a boss? I didn't even see something like that in the tower!"

Rex simply whistled as he took out his gun while sprinting away with Ion.

"What a monster. That's gotta be at least a mile long. What level is it?"

"Haa, haa, no idea, but we're at this point and see no chance of beating it…At least double ours, haa, haa."

Ion heaved as she sprinted and talked at the same time.

SCCCCIIIIIIIIIII!

Instantly, both of them collapsed to the ground as the world around them began to spin.

"Wha…"

*In the fhuhgb-*

In just one second, both Ion and Rex were incapacitated. Even with all the gains they'd made from the tower, they were instantly out of combat.

It couldn't be called a roar physically, but there was no doubt in their minds, that this was this monster's roar. It was asserting dominance over everything nearby.

More than alarm bells, every bad sensation and sign that could exist in the human body was going off in Rex and Ion's bodies. Panic was unavoidable at this point. Confusion was the norm. They had no control over their bodies. That was the level of instinctual fear they were in, even if the snake had never even looked in their direction.

*NEED. TOO. MOOOVE! AUUUUUUGGH*

Rex was sporting a rocking migraine that made focus impossible, but even so, as the adrenaline pumped, he tried to tell himself to do something even if his body seemingly couldn't.

*I DON'T WANT TO DIE HERE! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! USE-THE-SK-SK-SKILLL!*

Finally, his finger, which was on the trigger of his mana-gun that he been grasping tightly in his hand since he fell, was able to slam down.

BFEW!

A small and ethereal azure flame instantly shot out at high speeds. It quickly disappeared into the distance.

A moment later, Rex's body disappeared as well, as if he had just been a mirage.

At the same time, without a care for how damaged she would be, Ion created a massive spike of ice that erupted from underneath her throwing her high in the sky and far away from the almost fully formed snake.

***

Lira stood over the Asian man who was out cold with his face in the dirt, while gold and green pieces of something littered the ground around them.

"I'd prefer to not kill you, unless it's necessary. Don't know if I get points for it though."

"Just kill him! Mercy isn't something wasted on enemies."

"Are you kidding? He just attacked us with clear killing intent."

People from Lira's group instantly rebuked his words.

"Oi, such a decision, such permanence. I don't want my first one to be wasted on him."

Lira raised his voice as if he were reading the climax of a story. Others simply looked at him strangely.

*If I am to delve into such darkness, the only place I'll accept sitting is the highest rung. Even my first kill shall represent that.*

Clomp. Clomp.

Lira simply backed away, leaving the man surrounded by his teammates.

"Go ham."

Sic. Sic. Sluuggh.