After Gideon’s Orbital Belt was brought into play, the tenure of the battle shifted. The Threshen took far more damage, on account of it needing to be near Gideon as a melee combatant. Aurora also made use of her newest skill.

  

  [Lightning Fetters]: Connect yourself or an ally to one or more enemies with lightning. The fetter deals damage the further away the enemy is from the ally or yourself, eventually resulting in an automatic and mana costless [Lightning Bolt] if under the sky.

  While it wasn’t at full power on account of not being in an ideal environment, the Lightning Fetter connecting Gideon and the Threshen was a solid workhorse. Much like Mira’s Life Bane, it dealt continuous damage over time. While in melee range, the damage it dealt was less than Life Bane, but in return, it would deal greater damage than Life Bane if the Threshen went too far. On its own, it was an annoyance, but not game changing. What made it a problem was the situation the Threshen was in and who it was currently fighting.

  Gideon was dangerous in close combat because of his Orbital Belt and Force Pull, as well as the ease in which he could employ it. Lightning Fetters, as it was, added an infuriating third point of continuous damage to the combination. When the monster engaged him in melee, he would switch the Polarity of Force Pull, causing it to take damage for getting closer to him.

  

  [North]: Constantly pull enemies toward you, within a certain range. Enemies who fight against the pull take continuous damage. {Interchangeable}

  [South]: Constantly push enemies away from you, within a certain range. Enemies who fight against the push take continuous damage. {Interchangeable}

  Conversely, if it attempted to gain distance or attack Gideon’s supporters, he’d switch it back and fire the stones from his Orbital Belt. Lightning Fetters would go from annoying to a savage D.O.T., making the prospect of fighting anyone but Gideon a non-starter.

  What all these things together meant was that the Threshen was taking constant, non-stop damage from no less than three different sources, all at once. Moving away would dampen the damage from the Orbital Belt but strengthen the Lightning Fetter, and vice versa. No matter what it did, it was taking disastrous amounts of damage for no other reason than fighting three barely adult teenagers.

  Enough was enough. The Threshen wasn’t inflicted with Enraged, but its vision was red with fury, regardless. After the constant barrage of pain had begun, it’d gotten sloppy and had been punished repeatedly by the dark-skinned man for it. Its previously rock-hard carapace was now riddled with battle scars and craters, oozing dark green blood. Even if it was a 3 on 1 battle, being pushed so hard by individuals only just introduced to the System filled it with anger. It was time to put an end to the self aggrandized pests.

  Pulling back its arm, it baited the dark-skinned man into a defensive stance. Letting its arm rip in an arc towards him, it released its grip on the axe in that hand at the last moment. Glowing with a shimmering dark green sheen, the same color as its carapace, it spun in the air towards the levitating human at a blistering speed. Before it could hit, one of the infuriating bubble shields snapped into place around her, slowing the attack but not stopping it. The axe crunched into the flying human’s sternum, the blade biting deep and spraying a gout of blood. The Threshen was confused, as even though the shield diluted the power of the attack, it still should have cut the human in half.

  The other human female made a screeching wail and ran to the fallen one. Sloppy, the monster thought. Losing focus in battle would be just one of the reasons the humans would lose this fight. The dark-skinned human, while his eyes displayed despair, didn’t lose his composure.

  The axe that the Threshen threw had been riddled with poisons and negative effects that impaired healing. For that reason, Ema was stuck healing Aurora repeatedly and removing the negative effects from her whenever her skill came off of cooldown. If she stopped for even a moment, her best friend would die, and her ragged state was reflected in Ema’s face. Bursting at the seams with terror and panic, her tears and begging pleas matched her hysteric spamming of healing skills. Behind her fear, she knew that if she hadn’t transferred all her buffs from Gideon to Aurora the split second before the axe landed, her friend would undoubtedly already be dead.

  Gideon was now fighting the boss tier monster alone. He had no buffs, and while the Threshen retained the debuffs it’d had from the start, it outsped him even more than before. The Lightning Fetter was still active, so it was still under constant assault and unable to go finish off the back line. The dark-skinned human’s attacks were even more vicious than before, his swings exacting a heavy price for each one that landed, trailing a dark aura speckled with stars behind each attack. Ferocity was no replacement for quality, however, and the superior Threshen soon overpowered him.

  Beaten and bloody, the dark-skinned human was sent to the floor for what would be the last time. A savage scar trailed from his shoulder to hip, bleeding profusely. He dragged himself back in a doomed attempt to escape the Threshen warrior, to its great delight. A fitting end for such an annoying human. Humans really were the weakest in the Macrocosm for a reason. It slowly approached, relishing the moment.

  “F-Finally…” the human coughed out. “You’re an… an annoying piece of shit, you kn-know that right?” The dark-skinned man’s last words were punctuated with a waterfall of blood spilling from his mouth with a retch. The Threshen cocked its head, curious. Even without its help, the human would die soon anyway, so it saw no reason to stop him from speaking.

  “I set this up… ages ago,” he said, blood trickling from his mouth. “and… you only just now followed me over here…” his laugh was weak and streaked with coughs. “You see… I have a point to make.” The Threshen was confused, but lifted its axe to finish the human off.

  What the Threshen failed to notice was that the human’s irritating stone pelting skill had been inactive for a long while. Through all the pain it had been going through, the absence of one more source of pain slipped under its radar, as visually striking the source was. Almost as though subconsciously thankful for its disappearance, it’d also subconsciously swept it under the rug. What it also failed to notice was the terrain of which it was standing. The entire floor had been covered in blank paper by now, but joining that paper on the floor… was a large amount of stones; from the rock that’d been crushed earlier and the rocks from Gideon’s Orbital Belt. Strewn about the area where he’d initially fallen and dragged himself away from, the boss tier monster stood directly above as they began vibrating.

  

  [Stone Grave]: Cause a spot within your area of influence to explode upwards with spiked stone. The larger the area, the longer the cooldown.

  Suddenly and without warning, the stones below the Threshen warrior conglomerated and erupted upwards as a single pointed stone. While it was a single pointed stone, however, it had more than one spike. Almost as though it had a mind of its own, the single stone tapered into several points upon impact with the Threshen’s body, maximizing the damage. Those several pointed spikes impaled the Threshen completely, exiting out its back with an explosion of dark green blood. Its compound eyes were wide with surprise and disbelief, the same blood pouring from its chittering mandibles. Paper flew upwards with the blast, some even being pinned to the monster’s body, its blood dying the blank canvases with its near death.

  Near death wasn’t enough for Gideon, however, who wasted no time. With a growl of effort, he got up and slashed his pocket knife above him in an arc. The indomitable Threshen, after taking so much damage for so long, couldn’t take any more. Its head flew, separated from its body by the streak of cosmic night sky of Comet Swing trailing behind the dagger.

  

  Congratulations!

  You have slain

  [Threshen Warrior]

  Level Up x4

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

  You’ve reached level [14]

  Your stats will be allocated appropriately for your class

  You have [6] levels until you are allowed to allocate your free points

  You have [0] free points

  New Skill!

  [Massivity]: Target an ally or enemy to become heavier or lighter.

  - [North]: Double an enemy or ally’s weight, becoming heavier and slower. Enemy or ally strikes are heavier. {Interchangeable}

  - [South]: Halve an enemy or ally’s weight, becoming lighter and faster. Enemy or ally strikes are lighter. {Interchangeable}

  Congratulations!

  You’ve gained the

  [Strategist]

  Title!

  Gideon stumbled to the ground after beheading the boss monster. The Threshen had thought he would have died no matter what because of his wounds, but it hadn’t known about Arthur’s True Heart of Devotion granting passive health recovery.

  It wasn’t long before his wounds began slowly stitching back together. Finally able to look over to his friends, he saw Ema clasping Aurora in a vice grip hug, the taciturn woman tapping her on the back as though tapping out of the ring. He managed a smile before falling onto his back.

  “Whenever you two are done, I’m practically cut in half over here. You know, just in case you have the time to help.”

  The battle of Arthur versus the Threshen Warrior was no longer a battle. From the beginning, the only things the monster had over the knight were greater speed and skill. During that beginning, that lent to a sort of battle of attrition where neither combatant could really hurt the other.

  Speed was good, but it wasn’t the answer to everything. If one couldn’t slay an enemy quickly using that speed, then the enemy would have longer to eventually land a hit. The longer a battle went on, the worse it’d be for a speedster, as the opponent’s blade would get more and more chances to find them, be it through a prediction, reading the speedster’s patterns, or simple luck.

  The Threshen could not kill Arthur fast enough. His defensive scores averaging around 300, backed up by Champion’s Plate bolstering his defense along with other bonuses, he was an immortal behemoth of steel. The Threshen was eventually opened up for attack, losing an appendage in the exchange.

  The weapon it had been using was a long scimitar in the shape of a beetle’s pincers, and it was meant to be wielded with two hands. When the Threshen lost its arm, it also lost one of the few things that had been keeping it in the fight against the knight; its skill with its chosen weapon. It hadn’t suddenly become trash with its implement; it was just far less graceful than before. In a battle with so little margin for error, however, that was enough, and its life bled from the many wounds in its body. Viscous liquid leaked from the wound and its mandibles both as its scimitar scraped against the floor, soliciting a frown from Arthur.

  Monsters aren’t supposed to bleed.

  He didn’t have time to contemplate the matter, however, as Gideon’s hammer slammed against the side of the Threshen’s head from behind.

  After their victory over the bug creatures, the group gathered inside of the large elevator. Gideon had gained 4 levels in total, not gaining any for their help in finishing off the second Threshen Warrior. The way the System rewarded experience seemed to be based on contribution, so Arthur had gotten most of it. The other Threshen was a different story.

  Aurora had gotten the least amount of experience for the battle. While she loathed to admit it, she had hardly helped at all, even getting in the way during a critical moment. Normally being the most powerful damage dealer they had, becoming so impotent so suddenly was both jarring and frustrating. The System reflected her lack of contribution by only awarding her 3 levels and no new skills. Gideon had gained 4 levels, a new skill, and a title all at once. As the one who dealt the final blow against the Threshen Warrior, it was expected that he’d gained the most overall.

  Even then, he was not the one who gained the most levels. Ema had gained 5 levels from the encounter, and the reason was clear. Unlike Gideon, she had contributed against both Threshens, even if she hadn’t during the latter half of the second monster. Unlike Aurora, even after the monsters split up, her interventions were constant, and was felt every single moment of the battle, passive as most of it was. Out of everyone present, she had contributed the most by far, and therefore had gained the most experience.

  After getting in the elevator, the group soon realized that it wasn’t functional. As with everything else in the building, it was only made to look human, and had none of the actual wiring or electricity that allowed elevators to perform.

  “Hold on… I think I may be able to do something about this…” Ema said, crouching down and pressing her hands against the elevator floor. “Give me a minute…”

  Gideon leaned his back against the wall as Ema prepared for whatever she was doing, looking at Arthur suspiciously.

  “What? Is there something on my armor?”

  “You fought a boss tier monster alone and won.”

  Arthur looked away. “I didn’t win. You’ll recall that I couldn’t kill it.”

  “Don’t deflect. You know as well as I do that even if we didn’t help you, it was only a matter of time before you finished it off.” Gideon’s eyes narrowed. “You… just how strong are you, really?”

  One could have heard a pin drop. Silence permeated the area after Gideon’s directness. Aurora’s hands left her pockets to cross over her torn and bloodied blouse, eyes sliding between the two as Ema pretended not to listen closely.

  “You told us about the dungeon, and the things you did to get out,” Gideon continued. “But you didn’t tell us what you gained during the dive. You didn’t say how many levels you gained, or what items you got in there.” He pointed at the Alexandrian blade hanging from Arthur’s hip. “What is with that old ass sword? It looks on the verge of breaking, but anytime it so much as scratches against another weapon, it destroys them. Why does it make that sound when it lands a hit?” He pointed at Arthur’s shield. “How has a simple wooden shield not broken by now? I’ve seen people use similar shields before, and they always shattered from the monsters’ attacks. They’d died because of that.” He sighed, the thought of the fallen taking the wind from his sails. “Its not fair to us for you leave us in the dark. If we’re going to be fighting together, we need to know everything.”

  Arthur thought to himself for a long moment. In his “heart”, he knew Gideon was right. There was no way they could cooperate effectively if they didn’t know about absolutely everything in his arsenal. When he witheld the information previously, it wasn’t with any desire for subterfuge or distrust, it was a simple mix of pragmatism and a general dislike of the limelight. He simply didn’t like talking about things he had that others didn’t, and he didn’t like flaunting his power to people who had less. Even so, he’d been repeatedly forced to do just that because it was what the situation called for.

  Arthur didn’t even feel like his “strength” was real power, but a heavy weight of responsibility of which he’d never be free. He was okay with that, but what he was not okay with was being forced to show off over and over. He was no braggart; and he very greatly preferred to be anonymous, which is why he had his moniker.

  None of that mattered right now. In his “heart”, he knew Gideon was right. He’d let his distaste for speaking of himself endanger his party, and that would end now.

  “You guys know my real name, Arthur Lindow.” He let out a breath. “But… I plan on going by Viridian as a moniker to protect my identity. My class is called the Audacity Knight, and I’m… level 32.” The group’s eyes went dinner plate wide at his level, with even Ema’s head shooting up from her task.

  “WHAT?” Aurora said in a whispered shout, careful not to yell too loudly to alert any other monsters that might be in the area.

  Arthur grimaced under his helm. “There’s… more. Audacity Knights are… singular, and I mean that very literally. If I understood the System correctly, I am and forever will be the only one in the universe.” He began speaking faster, as the floodgates opened entirely. “Audacity is a power unique to Audacity classes, and is restricted because of its potency. I can empower my skills beyond what they’d normally be through Audacity. I have skills that empower me physically beyond anything I’ve seen anyone else do to this point, and while I can’t confirm it, I think I have an affliction unique to my class.” He went on to explain the Enraged affliction and its synergies with his True Heart of Devotion to its fullest, leaving nothing out. Aurora went from being wide eyed to looking at Arthur like he’d came from space. Gideon was the most composed, yet clearly affected by the information, and Ema had stopped what she was doing entirely to look up at Arthur incredulously.

  “This…” Arthur put a hand on the hilt of his sword. “Is called the Aged Blade. I don’t actually know much about it but…” He explained everything about the blade, from the redacted tag to the mysterious man living “inside” of it. He followed up with the Predominant Chest of Apotheosis, explaining how most of the things he’d gotten were from that. By the time he was done explaining all his skills he’d withheld as well, the group looked exhausted. Aurora was slumped against the wall, looking like her entire worldview had been flipped on its head. Gideon stood with a contemplative, if bewildered face, and Ema simply gawked at Arthur like he’d turned into a dragon with teeth as long as her body.

  “That’s… everything. I think.” He said, thankful that he could hide his face inside his helm. No one said anything after a long time, Aurora eventually prodding Ema to continue what she had been doing before.

  “That’s… certainly a lot,” Gideon said. “I can see why you were reticent to talk about it.”

  Ema barked a laugh at Gideon’s words, prompting Aurora to check outside and make sure no one was around.

  “No… you were right. I should’ve told you all of this from the beginning.” Arthur admitted. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it. After all, that just means we have a better chance of succeeding here, right? Mr. Level 32?” He had a sarcastic tone, but Arthur knew it held no animosity. He chuckled. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

  It wasn’t long after that Sasaki Ema finished what she’d been doing.

  “Aaaaaalright everyone, I hope you’re ready to fly with Air Ema!” she screeched in victory.

  “Ema, stop making so much noi-” Aurora’s words were cut off as Ema’s Seize skill enveloped the entire elevator, throwing them upwards suddenly and pinning everyone but Arthur to the elevator’s floor.