Putting On A Show

My newest suit of armor came out half a time heavier than the last despite the fact that they were designed the same, even down to the dimensions of the scales transmuted from bone fiend ivory.

Unlike my last suit of armor, though, I made the forearm and shin blades from chaos soul crystal so that my 'unarmed' damage from my suit soared by over a hundred points. As well, each blade was enchanted with my Weakness curse to debuff my enemies.

Each piece of my suit was divine legendary in grade and the suit came with a new set of perks for every matching piece. Three pieces of Fiend Defiler armor awarded the effect of plus ten percent movement speed, five pieces increased all physical and magical parameters by ten percent- which caused my PATK alone to rise by a hundred points when wielding my swords- and all seven pieces awarded the perk 'Demonic Deterrent'.

Demonic Deterrent was a two-prong debuff to my enemies, demons would be debuffed with a fear effect similar to the demon killing titles and any creatures, NPC, or players who had never faced demons before received double the ten-percent debuff to all stats. Just by standing in my presence an enemy demon suffered from effects similar to my Weakness curse.

This did not even count the blessings on each piece of armor. Each piece had the same blessings as any other but they all stacked together for three overwhelming perks. The first blessing was an increase to all of my stats that stopped stacking at ten, the second blessing shortened all of my skill cools by a total of ten percent, and the final blessings stacked together to remove the difference between in-combat and out-of-combat regeneration rates.

While fighting in my 'Underworld Fiend Defiler's Suit' I could regenerate health and mana just as quickly as I could when lazing around the cathedral!

My longest cooling skills were Mana Slash and Spirit Eruption which was only three minutes long while the others were measured in just seconds, so the cooling buff was honestly negligible for me as a classless player. The addition of ten to each of my stats only amounted to some health, mana, one percent of movement speed, and five extra damage to my attacks so it, too, was negligible in the grand scheme of things.

However, being able to recover twice as fast during combat was an incredible gain that overshadowed even the stacked recovery effects of my Hauntings' blessings. In fact, the blessings of my new twin swords were more complimentary to the armor than the armor to the swords. I was nothing short of ecstatic after donning the new apparel

Even though the other members of my team had vaguely different armor designs and pieces they still had the same blessings. The only real differences were that Stonewall and Papi into fully plated heavy armor suits had heavy defensive buffs while our mages who were lighter armor versions with only a few fiend ivory augments had magic based buffs. The suits they each made for themselves were also tailored to their styles and classes which allowed for these buffs to appear.

It was honestly somewhat strange, the slayer suits, ancient tragedy suits, and even the raid suits made from troll and wolf materials all shared similar effects and buffs but now the shared Fiend Defiler suits had different set effects. It was somewhat confusing at first but I merely chalked it up to the fact that our designer and assistant abilities were rising.

Not long after my team and I finished our new suits of armor I received a notification that I had been anticipating but was surprised to see as a proper announcement.

[Clans: Meteora and Apoc Warlords have entered Lost Divinity Raid Dungeon]

Since my party and I had been working in the divine pool, hoping to use the holy energies in the area to benefit our crafts, we had a perfect view of the cliff at the back of the dungeon. Even though I could not actually see anybody yet I could tell that it would not be long before people started showing themselves. So, growing out a single bladed finger, I cast Spirit Slash up into the air.

The Spirit Slash traveled straight up for a hundred feet, easily passing through the zip-lines of cordycep silk I made when my alliance first entered the dungeon as it continued climbing into the sky. Over a dozen strands of only slightly dried cordycep silk fluttered down from above, dragging over the graveyard and fence at the back of the cathedral as they disconnected from the ruined belfry.

With the zip-lines cut the other clans would have to find their own way down from the cliff, hopefully buying us quite a bit of time before they showed up at the cathedral. "Do we go up there and have a 'talk' with them?" Go asks after my reflexive action of disconnecting the cliff from the cathedral, looking at me and raising his eyebrows meaningfully with the word 'talk'.

Smiling ruefully, I say, "Nothing, yet. Go get the other clan leaders, we'll see what they think before we make a move. As much as I don't mind being a bully I don't want to do anything unnecessary. I already sent the signal that they're not exactly welcome here so we'll take our time from this point forward."

Moving out with only a nod for acknowledgment, Go quickly leaves the dried reincarnation pond and starts jogging toward the cathedral, moving with markedly more speed than I was used to seeing from him. Like my own suit, his armor afforded him an increased movement speed.

Only a few minutes later I found myself seated in the bottom of the dried up pond full of divine rocks with Little Thirteen, Donna, and Mistress. Everybody was now suited up in demonic armor and looking downright terrifying. Even Donna had switched from the usual magic robes to a light armor suit of demonic skin and thin fiend ivory splints about the torso and legs.

"We can't simply kill them off," Little Thirteen says after a few moments of silence in response to my simply question of what we should do. "Since they're already down here, they'll just respawn here at the cathedral. The best we can do is find a way to control and minimize their actions. It's only two clans while there's basically four of us and they may not even be working together. If we act too soon we'll probably end up making them work together."

"If we don't work with them then they'll have no choice but to work together," Donna points out the obvious. "If they're together, it would be easier to control their movements to begin with. Why don't we just pretend to take them in and then send them at one of the remaining outposts? We can call it a test. We already know they'll get wiped out without help from powers like Tragedy's Travelers so we can just say they have to prove themselves to us. They'll end up losing levels and becoming less of a threat in the process of trying to earn our respect or whatever."

And here I thought that Little Thirteen was a devious asshole! Donne just took the entire cake from right in front of the old man. I had to admit, though, if it came down to facing my clan or taking such a test I would face the test rather than facing Tragedy's Travelers.

After the shows that I put on during the territory portion of the raid I could only imagine the other clans felt the same way. Since the parties able to enter the dungeon were limited to fifty people per clan then these two clans together were only a hundred players strong. The clan camp I had bullied previous had a few hundred players.

Finding themselves faced with me, the other clans would be smart to take our suicide mission rather than face the increased penalties of PVP death at my hands.

"Then, we'll go with that plan," Mr. Thirteen says with an approving nod to Donna. "Now, how do we go about it? Do we let them waste time getting down from the cliff or do we go and say hello ourselves?"

"I say we put on a show by taking another outpost in front of them," I finally chime in. "When we do it, it will look easy and make them underestimate the task we set for them. You have already seen how two people from my clan were enough to handle a lesser demon boss as well as how just Stonewall was enough to capture one. All the other outposts and bosses are as strong as Orion or even stronger, meaning they'll all die two or three times before finally succeeding."

Nodding his approval of this proposition slowly, Mr. Thirteen says, "It's not a bad idea. It will help to ensure their complacency in the beginning and when they realize just how deep the pile of shit they stepped in really is it will be too late to go against us. With luck, they'll even come to us begging for help as they pile up losses instead of profits."

Our group of clan leaders continued discussing for another few minutes before finally deciding on a course of action. Under the premise that it would take them at least a couple of hours to reach the cathedral and meet the skeletons, we had plenty of time to actually take an outpost and return. Better yet, there was a chance the other clans would see the NPC skeletons and attack out of fear to become their enemies.

Even though our groups could more or less manage the outposts without the skeletons, it would be nearly impossible for the other clans to continue in this raid dungeon without the help of the skeletons.

So, half an hour later I found myself leading the alliance company of around two hundred players toward the next outpost while making sure that we were clearly visible to the world. Despite the fact that this would give away our position to the enemy it would ensure the fact that the new arrivals would take the time to watch and learn from us. As well, there was little point in stealth when demons like Orion could remote monitor us with their incredible power.

As expected, the walls of our target outpost, which we had dubbed as Outpost D, were manned by numerous Taurian and other demons. Among them was a new species of bestial demons like the boss from the previous outpost with venomous tails and mismatches body parts. However, these chimera-like entities had more varied parts such as the heads or fins of fish or feathered limbs that helped them to stand out from their comrades.

Maintaining our current formation of a single broad line of players with a single chaos lance apiece, I raise a fist to signal our forces to stop in place a hundred yards out from the enemy outpost. Responding in kind, numerous hoarse or shrill demonic voices filled the air with challenging calls. Moments later, the demons atop the wall began rushing forward.

Opening my first into a simple hand, I throw my hand down as if signaling the start of a raise and, as one, all of the players gathered took out and threw their chaos lances. The lances arched through the air with a myriad of elemental reactions and their powers were activated, leaving comet tails of magic in their wake.

Many of the demons facing these lances struck out into the air, unleashing weapon skills or plain dark magic into the air in an attempt to destroy or derail the incoming attacks. Many of the lances exploded in the air, releasing masses of energy over the heads with shock waves strong enough to stagger the demons. Only a couple dozen lances actually managed to make landing, leaving smoke craters and clouds of debris or bodies in their wakes.

Leading the player forces forward, I break into a run and cry out, "CHARGE!" Both Hauntings were soon in my hands and my power rose once again, causing me to quickly leave the other players behind as I ran to meet the charging demons.

*