Hiral let his blade of unmaking fade as the rest of his party raced to engage the swarm of new heads looking to make their lives difficult. In the sword’s place, his Runic Hand Cannons appeared. Now, at S-Rank, with them being bonded to him through Greater Entwined Destinies, he didn’t even need to draw them anymore. When he needed them, they’d be there. It was a handy benefit of the ability.

  It also wasn’t the only one.

  Dodging a stream of searing fire and a bolt of lightning from a pair of heads that seemed to hold him personally responsible for the scar on the hydra’s body, Hiral didn’t start shooting just yet. Instead, as he weaved between the attacks coming faster and faster—and decimated the landscape behind him—the chambers of his RHCs began to glow. It started with the mechanism where he stored the original crystal discs holding the Runes of Impact and Energy, though he’d recently replaced Increase with Piercing. Those were what gave his RHCs their ‘type’ of shot. Or, as Hiral liked to think about it, their personality.

  Since he’d reached S-Rank, and his weapons themselves had also become S-Rank—thanks to his bond—they’d become a little more boisterous. From the glowing chamber, flickers of light and energy expanding, fanning out for five small circles to hang in the air around the weapons, almost like the windshield he had on his Skybike.

  These were in no way for defense, though, with the Edicts behind his back shivering in anticipation. They knew what was coming. Well, best not to keep them waiting. Another dodge, then an Exchange with a clone he’d left back where he started, and Hiral pulled on the power behind his back. As one, five Edicts glowed brighter, then vanished from where they floated behind him, only to reappear within the circles above his RHCs.

  Because Greater Entwined Destinies treated his pair of RHCs as one item, he wasn’t quite splitting the Edicts, though he was getting the benefits of doing just that.

  Edicts of Dreaming, Expansion, Breaking, Vibration, and Increase seared themselves into the previously empty circles, and each of the RHCs in Hiral’s hands took on a new weight. They weren’t just weapons anymore. It would be more accurate to call them forces of nature. Maybe even that was an understatement.

  Two more dodges, as well as releasing a few more clones, while the rest of his party peppered the monstrous Prince with attacks that changed the landscape, and Hiral finally took aim with his RHCs. He hadn’t used them in their rerun of The Final Sunrise, because they’d been busy upgrading themselves to S-Rank. This was the first time he—or anybody—would get to see what the new, improved items could do.

  They’d been with him almost from the beginning. His first real weapons and dungeon loot. Their usefulness had ebbed and flowed with his own growth in power, and reliance on other weapons. He’d bet on them, though, with binding them to his soul. Was he going come out the winner or loser in that wager?

  Hiral’s instincts told him the answer to that at the same time he pulled the triggers.

  Previously, each shot from the RHCs had been a searing bolt of Impact, looking kind of like a miniature shooting star, a bit smaller in size than the palm of his hand. They’d packed a pretty respectable punch against what Yanily called trash mobs. Against most Bosses, though? Not so much. Hiral had even taken to dropping them into his domain—thanks to Domain Infusion—because the combination was just better for dealing with large groups of weaker enemies.

  This time, what came out could neither be called small nor unimpressive. No longer the size of Hiral’s palm, the beams of destructive power were more akin to what Hiral was used to seeing with his Annihilation of Amin Thett. With a sound like tearing paper, each watermelon-sized beam somehow had a different form, even though they came from the same runic recipes.

  From Hiral’s right hand, the pure-black beam flickered with white flames across its surface. From his left, the beam was a pure white, this time with back lightning crackling around it. Even then, their new appearances were the least impressive things about the shots.

  Two heads—each struck by one of the beams—snapped back like they’d been punched, the heavy scales that’d taken the impacts were cracked and left smoking. Considering the size difference between Hiral and the Prince of the Swamp, it was as if a finger-flick to the forehead had the same force behind it as one of Right’s haymakers.

  Hiral could only smile as the pair of hydra heads recovered and glared at him. Then he began pulling the triggers as fast as he could. Ten shots per second—per RHC—spat salvo after salvo of black and white beams at the Raid-Boss, raining down shots on it faster than the pounding storm could.

  Unbelievably, each shot didn’t cost any more energy than the previous iteration of his RHCs had. Most of the power of the improved blasts was being provided by the Edicts, or at least by their control over the concepts they represented.

  “First a mountain,” Seena said over the party chat while she hurled explosive lances of plasma at the Prince. “And now that? Do you even need the rest of us?”

  Before anybody could reply, it was the aforementioned Prince of the Swamp who ‘answered’. Another bellowing ROAR from eight of the twelve heads shook the zone. If anything local had unwisely stayed out to watch the epic battle, they’d sure be running now. But it wasn’t the eight heads that deserved attention, but instead the other four that hadn’t roared.

  Instead, these four heads, all with near-identical appearances, looked skyward and opened their maws while attacks came from all sides. Crackling lightning formed between the huge teeth, then shot skyward like pillars connecting heaven and earth. As soon as the energy touched the storm clouds high above, it spread outward in an expanding web of electric flashes

  “What’s it…?” Romin asked, and they all got their answer a second later, with lightning bolts raining down across the zone.

  It was a lot like Yanily’s domain, except it was targeting the party instead!

  And, really, being on the receiving end of the constant stream of attacks was significantly less fun than having it on their side. Within seconds, the party was scrambling to avoid getting hit, or at least trying to get hit less, as was the case for the Onslaught-Romin. Even with his movement abilities, the big tank just didn’t have the necessary, constant agility needed to dance between the falling bolts. Worse, every time one struck him, it was like it contained a kind of building-stun debuff, freezing him in place a fraction of second longer than the previous hit.

  The rest of the party was doing only slightly better. Seena had taken a pair of quick hits off the get-go, then used her flaming-lily-defensive ability to tank a dozen or so in quick succession. The time seemed to be enough for the stun-debuff to fade, and then she was dodging again. Seeyela, likewise, had taken one right at the beginning, then used her Insatiable ability to swallow the next few coming her way. That success had made her overconfident, and another blast had slipped through, tripping her up for another pair to catch her.

  Laseen’s strange movement ability, fast as it was, turned out to be great for getting from point A to point B quickly, but the images she left in her wake were apparently not completely separate from her. One of them getting caught by a falling bolt made the woman stagger and stumble, leaving her open for a second blast. Trying again, the same thing happened, and Laseen was forced to rely more on her natural prowess. As a Blooded vampire, she had a lot of that. Just… not quite enough. She was taking hits almost as much as Romin was.

  Right had turned to punching the lightning as it fell, his stats not quite up to the task of completely dodging them. The tactic partially worked, the debuff effect significantly reduced by intercepting the lightning bolts with his Auroran Conquerors. Reduced, but not negated, which meant he was slowing with each blow.

  Left, on the other hand, burst apart in a flock of black crows to avoid the worst of the storm. Even if one of the component birds got struck—and destroyed—it didn’t matter to the agile movement ability. As long as one bird from Moonlit Murder remained, Left could choose where he reformed. Over and over, the double danced within the falling lightning, healing splashes from his Waters of Frey getting thrown out briefly every time he merged.

  Hiral, thanks to his Dex and Atn fared the second best against the area-attack, zipping around bolts long before they reached him, thanks to his sensory domain. Not a single one struck him, while he continued lashing out at the Prince with his empowered RHCs—and the impressive damage they were inflicting. Yes, the monster had a—rightfully—insane End, but its health bar was dropping. Slowly.

  That just left Yanily, the one who wasn’t even bothered by the storm. Hells, most of the time, it almost looked like he was reaching out with Tempest Roar to catch the falling bolts. As if they were trying to escape him. Around the spearman, more and more of a charge built, and it was only a matter of time before he used it.

  Problem was, the Prince of the Swamp wasn’t finished setting the stage yet. Only a few seconds after the lightning started raining down, another monstrous ROAR echoed from eight heads.

  Knowing what had to be coming, Hiral focused his fire on the four that hadn’t ‘spoken’. These ones, with flames leaking from the edges of their mouths, didn’t look to the sky. No, they were staring at the ground, and despite Hiral pelting them with shots that shattered scales and drew blood along their necks, the heads breathed flames.

  Straight into the ground in front of the hydra. No sooner had that been done, than pillars of flame and lava burst from the earth in geysers of red destruction. Though these new attacks didn’t seem to have the same stunning debuff as the lightning, they were immediately just as dangerous. What they lacked in debuff potential, they more than made up for in raw damage potential. Even getting splashed by the jetting flames or the molten rock falling after drew hisses of pain and a drop in health bars. Once again, Romin took the worst of it, outright face-tanking a single pillar of flame after getting caught by a trio of rapid lightning bolts.

  By the way his body twitched, and every step was a stuttering mess, the debuff on him had reached its maximum potential. Others in the party wouldn’t be far behind, either, with attacks coming from above and below splitting their attention. Even Left was having trouble dodging both types of attacks and hitting others with his healing magics.

  Laseen, for her part, had opted to take more hits in exchange for throwing out healing needles. Since her needles applied a significant heal-over-time boon, even if her limbs weren’t following her instructions very well, her S-Rank reactions only needed a second of free movement to get a needle away.

  It wasn’t a sustainable tactic, though, and they’d…

  A third bellowing ROAR brought Hiral’s thoughts to a stop, and the four final heads—these the ones that spit a combination of fire and lightning—weren’t looking at the ground or sky. Their mouths opened toward where lightning met fire, before belching burning electricity at those points.

  Where the three forces struck—a single breath piercing through to strike multiple times in a line—some kind of egg-shaped structure formed. There wasn’t even time for anybody to wonder what might lie within, the eggs’ shells cracking to release a three headed… something.

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  Unlike the Prince of the Swamp, these things didn’t really have bodies per se, with the three heads connected by their necks to each other. Left bobbing in the air where they were birthed from the convergence of powers, these thirty-foot monsters took less than the blink of an eye to pick their targets. Then, through no means that made any sort of logical sense, they rocketed toward different party members.

  Where the party had once outnumbered the Prince—not counting its splitting heads—the group was now outnumbered five to one.

  “Domains,” Seena barked out. “We need to stop these storms.”

  “Got it,” Hiral said, a barrage of shots from his RHCs carving up one of the Tri-dras—Thank you, View—as it tried to bite him with all three heads at once. With the pieces of it falling from the sky around him, Hiral Exchanged with a clone he’d sent quietly to stand beneath the massive Prince of the Swamp.

  As soon as he arrived, he pumped solar energy into his now-S-Rank Concentrated Domain of the Sun+, the glowing stadium seating full of a cheering audience emerging from the ground at its four-thousand-foot-diameter.

  Concentrated Domain of the Sun+: Set the stage to claim the advantage.

  Grants the following bonuses to user and members of user’s party while within the bounds of the domain:

  Cooldowns and damage taken reduced by 50%

  Attributes, movement speed, energy efficiency, and damage increased by 50%

  Critical hit chance increased by 25%

  Critical hit damage increased by 75%

  Trigger chance for random abilities increased by 35%

  Note: Diameter of domain is 400 feet from central point at time of creation.

  Note (2): Domain does not move once created.

  Note (3): Domain restricts entry and exit of anybody other than the creator and their party, though sufficient strength can bypass this.

  Note (4): Domain can take on aspects of other lasting area-of-effect abilities with a fixed range and duration.

  Note (5): Duration—2 minutes 40 seconds per Rank

  Note (6): Cooldown—40 minutes

  Note (7): Bonuses for user are doubled when dueling an opponent one on one.

  Note (8): Edict-reinforcement has made the domain more real. Exit and entry are further restricted. Debuffs on the user and party within the domain are reduced or outright cancelled. Reality within the domain bows moderately to the user’s will.

  Domain Expansion multiplied the listed range by an impressive factor of ten, while a quick thought added Blight’s Mercy—the sword Hiral had previously upgraded—via Domain Infusion. A little bit of experimentation back in The Final Sunrise on their second run had shown him an alternate option to giving his RHCs to the domain. Now, with the sabre added, his whole party benefitted by adding true necrotic damage to all their attacks. Most notably, from the weapon’s description, the first three notes now applied to all attacks within the domain.

  Note: (True) necrotic damage greatly slows natural and magic healing without applying a debuff.

  Note (2): Effects of (true) necrotic damage do not naturally fade over time, and must be overwhelmed with excessive healing.

  Note (3): (True) necrotic damage has reduced effects on constructs, does normal damage to undead, and increased damage to the living.

  Given the sheer amount of End the Prince had to have, along with its body already working on healing the wounds it had taken, the necrotic component would be just the thing the party needed.

  On the other hand, the eyes that now glowed black—and leaked a rising energy of the same color—from the entire audience in the stands of the arena were a little creepy. It probably wasn’t Hiral’s imagination that the cheeks of the spectral audience looked more sunken, or their bodies withered.

  Really best not to dwell on that very long…

  Good thing a distraction came along in the next second, with the other members of his party unleashing their own domains. Power billowed out from each of his allies, their domains forming for only an instant before they got sucked into the arena of fun and death.

  Like the pillars of flame still bursting from the ground, plants with heavy, thorned vines, and lilies that burned as they blossomed grew from the ground. As soon as they’d fully formed, fireballs and explosions filled the air, while the general bullies that were the vines smashed at or tried to grab any of the Tri-dras that got close.

  At the same time, a new wave of lightning bolts joined the first, though these took the shape of electric gryphons as they broke free from the clouds. One after another, these lightning bolts that almost seemed to be able to think and pick their targets dove after the Tri-dras as well.

  Neither of the domains was enough to outright kill the powerful, three-headed, flying snakes, but they did start layering on the damage. They also proved to be an excellent diversion, more than one Tri-dra flying distractedly into webs materializing within the bounds of the glowing arena. Seeyela’s domain was more than just sticky, too, the toxic properties of it escalating quickly the longer it took the monsters to extricate themselves.

  Dense musculature beneath the protective scales of the Tri-dras allowed them to—impressively—break themselves free, though that just left them sitting targets for the fire and lightning to catch them. Those closest to the ground also found themselves the targets of solid animals charging across the broken earth in random directions.

  Coming out of nowhere, and disappearing the same way, Romin’s domain only had a few flying attacks, while the most of them could—at most—leap twenty feet into the air. Despite the limitation, when they hit, they hit hard.

  All that, though, only slowed down the new additions to the battle. They did nothing of note to the Prince itself, its thick scales easily deflecting any of the domain attacks that came its way.

  Not that Hiral expected the domains to win them the fight. The attack-like properties of his party’s domains was just a bonus, not the point. It also bought them a few extra seconds to release a plethora of other abilities. The Banner of Courage came as soon as Left had a second to himself to shape the tattoo, then vanished just as fast for copies of it to appear unfurling down the stands of the spectral domain.

  You have been buffed by Banner of Courage.

  Critical Strike Rate increased by 20%.

  Critical Strike Damage increased by 65%.

  Attack Speed increased by 10%.

  Significant Healing Over Time.

  Significant Shielding granted.

  All Attributes increased by 10%.

  Immune to Fear and Fear-like effects.

  All elemental resistances increased by 10%

  Solar Absorption Rate increased by 1 Rank.

  Note: Duration for all effects is 3 minutes.

  Impressive, as always, and between the Domain of the Sun and the Banner of Courage it’d absorbed, Hiral’s next shot from his RHC hit significantly harder as he landed a critical hit. Then another, and another. One more—this one causing a Tri-dra to explode from the bonus effect of Allied Killing Spree+, and he Exchanged briefly to activate two more of his abilities.

  First came his pennant buff, the flag forming briefly before also getting absorbed into the larger domain.

  Pennant of Windy Reinforcement—Plant a pennant forged of pure solar energy and your highest attribute to share some of your strength with your allies.

  Note: Pennant of Windy Reinforcement boosts Dex of allies within 100 feet by 300.

  Note (2): Duration of Pennant of Windy Reinforcement is 3 minutes, with a cooldown of 10 minutes.

  Note (3): Pennant of Windy Reinforcement must be planted in the ground to have any effect.to the arena of fun and death.

  Three-hundred more Dex—before his multipliers—was a nice bonus, and then an additional three-hundred to all his other stats shortly followed as the rest of the group pulled out their own pennants. Not that Hiral was wasting time appreciating his increased stats, his second ability rolling out across his nearby party members.

  Worry not on the darkness of the road ahead, for new heroes stand with you.

  Resonance of Heroes: Grants a party-wide buff that echoes abilities of the new generation of heroes.

  Grants Ability (Passive): Resonance to user and members of user’s party within range.

  Resonance: Chance on ability usage to repeat as a Resonance Echo.

  Note: Abilities generated by Resonance have a chance to manifest as a Building Resonance, charging for up to 3 seconds before releasing.

  Note (2): Building Resonance attacks do up to 45% increased damage, while Building Resonance support effects see 45% increased proficiency.

  Note (3): Chance to manifest as a Building Resonance increases against enemies of higher Rank than user, or of Unknown Rank.

  Note (4): Range of Resonance of Heroes is 200 feet from user at time of usage.

  Note (5): Duration of Resonance—2 minutes per Rank

  Note (6): Cooldown—60 minutes

  Note (7): Cooldown between Resonance Echoes—10 seconds.

  Three more buff notifications came one after the other as the whole party coordinated passing each other specifically for the purpose of sharing buffs.

  You have been buffed by (Lesser) Aura of The Mother of Flame+.

  All those benefitting from the Aura gain moderate regeneration, minor damage reduction, immunity to the Unnamed Touch, and attacks inflict additional fire damage.

  You have been buffed by (Lesser) Aura of Heaven’s Punishment.

  All those benefitting from the Aura gain moderately improved speed and reflexes, minor stacking damage bonuses for consecutive hits, and attacks inflict additional Lightning damage.

  Note: Damage increases by 0.5% per consecutive successful hit within 3 seconds of the previous hit.

  Note (2): Damage bonus caps at 10%.

  You have been buffed by (Lesser) Aura of the Void-Venom Empress.

  All attacks made by those benefitting from the Aura inflict additional Void damage, gain an additional +5% chance to critically hit, do +15% additional critical hit damage, and can score critical hits on entities or objects normally immune to critical damage.

  Note: Void damage ignores resistances and some defenses, while leaving behind a destructive energy.

  Already glowing with power, the three auras hardly had any visible effect across Hiral’s body, but he sure saw an improvement to his RHC blasts. Firing ten per second from each weapon stacked up the benefit from Yanily’s aura in an instant, and he practically buried his first target in energy before it exploded.

  Nearby, Left’s hands danced across his own body, shaping tattoo after tattoo. First came The Pack, the nine, powerful, spined wolves stalking out of thin air beside their leader, with the largest throwing its head back in an echoing howl.

  You have been buffed by Furious Howl.

  Increases damage inflicted by 10% for 180 seconds.

  No sooner were the wolves on the field, than the Bond of the Hidden Prince—a majestic bird of prey—swooped skyward. The Wings of Anella coated the bird’s own wings, while its talons glowed with the power of the Daggers of EnSath. At Left’s back, the Heralds of War and Peace formed, then merged, combining to form the Herald of the Unending Cycle. Next came the Banner of Despair—also vanishing to merge with the domain—though shackles and chains of black, wrought iron, stretched from the ground to bind targets within the arena.

  Finally, with a WHOMP of power and peal of thunder like the sky cracked, Left shaped one more tattoo. The Spear of Clouds.

  As soon as the powerful, S-Rank weapon appeared, Yanily’s domain doubled in intensity, another horde of electric gryphons emerging from the clouds above to attack.

  Even with all that, the party was still outnumbered by the durable Tri-dras. Yes, Hiral could wipe one out in a second—thanks to his now-overpowered RHCs—but the Prince was still producing more. And, with every one that emerged, they harassed the party enough they couldn’t get ahead of them to do something to stop the Prince from creating the next wave. The party needed to give them more targets, which was exactly what the next ability was perfect for.

  Class Ability: Spectral Support

  Spectral Support—Summon three spectral combatants to fight by your side, with abilities based on your role within your party.

  Note: Rank of Spectral Support at time of summons is one less than user’s current Rank, with levels being equal.

  Note (2): Individual power of Spectral Support scales with user’s attributes, gear, and abilities.

  Note (3): Duration of Spectral Support is 3 minutes per Rank (currently 15 minutes) with a 60-minute cooldown.

  The spectres came into the battle at only A-Rank, but with all the buffs the party had going on right now, they were going to be punching way above their Rank. And, to give the Tri-dras just a tad bit more to get their attention, Hiral released a swarm of solar energy clones. These things were little more than loose bags of solar energy vaguely in the shape of Hiral. They had no real way to attack, and even less ways to defend themselves.

  The only thing they had going for them was…

  BOOM!

  Of course, they exploded.

  Which more than one Tri-dra found out as their jaws closed around a clone.

  With all those buffs and abilities now active, the entire area was an active warzone. Solar energy and powerful attacks criss-crossed to the sound of thunder, explosions, sizzles, and cracks. And it bought the party just enough wiggle room to once again turn their undivided attention to the Raid-Boss in the center of it all.

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