Tyrants of Earth - The Legend of Artigan

The highest Trial would only be challenged on the last seven days of the timer. At this time, the Tyrants would gather and five to all seven of them would challenge the highest Trial. It had been this way ever since the completion of the tenth Trial and hadn’t changed since. For it to happen while there were still thirty days left was unprecedented.

Time restarted in the Trial.

“What the fuck!?” Felsley shouted. “There was plenty of time before the last week!”

Had the Witch Tyrant pushed up the schedule just for him? No, it was more likely that his situation lined up with whatever they had already planned. He could have just as easily stayed on Earth, too afraid of Latarro to attempt the Trial… or, Latarro was part of their plan.

He’d gotten flushed out by a hero, then pushed into a Trial. He could almost see the plot.

Damnit, he was getting sick of dealing with [Mages] and their mindgames. He sighed.

Valee’s team instantly went on the defensive.

“Trifront!”

A barrier appeared in front of the [Mage] and the [Warrior] stepped up in front, shield up. Valee took up the middle position, taking a low stance with her bladed tonfa gauntlets out. The half elf [Warrior] started reaching for her crossbow.

Ryan shook his head, unimpressed.

“Touch that crossbow and you all die,”

All three of them were tense. Their leader met his eyes, her blades glinting in the light.

“What now? We can’t leave with the desync on.”

“Just give me a moment to think.”

“Fuck that, we have to fight,” the [Warrior] hadn’t gone for her crossbow but she was ready.

Ryan looked the half-elf [Warrior] in the eyes.

“Adele Schmidt, aka Marickle the [Warrior], has parents that have passed the fifth realm and they’re very proud of you, [Double Blow], [Power Strike] and [Instant Block]. One merged skill, [Powerful Double Blow].”

Marickle went dead white. Then Ryan turned to Felsley as he flinched.

“Asif Syed, aka Felsley. The Destined of the team. No fancy parents. Favors a single sided [Barrier], [Firebolt] and [Magelight]. No merged skill but is good at managing his mana and okay at multicasting.”

“What the fuck?”

“Finally, Valee Dubois, Aka Vaillee on Realmnet. She prefers Valee and clearly wants the public to give her a title that’ll allow her to use her actual name. Dragonslayer parent but barely ever mentions him.” Ryan shrugged. “Other than to use his name as a shield I guess, [Quickened], [Enhanced Senses] and [Double Strike]. Possible hidden merged skill but unlikely with those choices.”

Now the orc [Rogue]’s hands were shaking.

“Fucking hell. Felsley, your dragonshit blog you dumb fuck.”

“Everyone does it! You approved too, you loved the videos!”

Felsley wasn’t wrong, everyone did it. Nobody expected to be attacked by other adventurers in the lowered realm and skills weren’t too varied.

It still wasn’t good when a ‘teamkiller’ was staring you down after having listed all your skills.

Ryan didn’t have time for this.

“Relax, I’m saying if I wanted to kill you there’d be nothing you can do.”

“So you scouted us, you planned all of this.”

Valee focused back on him, his Epic’s passive was working overdrive on her now. Ryan just had to hope it would work in the right way.

“Yes, it would be a difficult fight but one I would win, remember I have pistols,” Ryan lied, “you all have great foundations and are ambitious, but that means none of you have brought firearms or have a real game changing move.”

Valee gritted her teeth, Felsley looked unsure what to do and Marickle was still dead white, he could see her shield shaking. Ryan had no idea how to reduce his Epic's influence when he was in such a dominant position… wait he did.

He dropped the bullipede tusk onto the ground, then took a step back. He even put his hands up, nothing in his palms.

“I’ll give you all an offer, you can stay around the portal and leave when it’s back open.”

“That’s awfully generous of you. How are we supposed to trust that? How do we trust that the army won’t just sweep us and force us to fight?”

She was still in fight or flight mode, her gauntlets were clenched tight, sweat was starting to bead on her forehead. It looked like his ploy of stepping back hadn’t worked as he’d hoped it to. He was still in too far of a dominant position.

Ryan had to use logic instead.

“I’ve never attacked an adventurer that hasn’t tried to attack me first.”

“Bullshit, what about your first team?”

“Have either of you actually seen an interview and explained what had happened?” Ryan asked coldly, “or was it all hearsay as the Guild tries to cover for the children of dragonslayers?”

He was painting a vague bullshit picture for the team to eat up, funnily enough Zedart hadn’t gone on an interview and of course, neither had Gamielle. It also wasn’t a lie that both of them were children of dragonslayers either.

It worked well considering Valee’s [Enhanced Senses] could be used as a rudimentary lie detector.

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They started faltering at that. Valee’s eyes darted to him then back at her team.

C’mon make the right choice.

“I let Zhenyu’s team live. Ever wonder why he was silent about his encounter with me? It wasn’t because he was ashamed, it was because he owed me one for letting most of them live. I could have set an example. Killed all of them. Including the Realmbound.” Ryan pushed. “I let Garbolt’s team go the first time and I didn’t kill any of the outpost team.”

“We can’t verify that last one.”

But Ryan could see it in her face, she was caving. An encounter where the opponent knew all of your skills and tactics was the last thing an adventurer wanted to face.

He had one last card to play.

“You know what? I’m going to give you another offer instead. What if you all help me in my quest instead? I’ll share the description and everything else.”

Ryan saw the look of surprise as they got system notifications on his offer. Now that was hilarious, he was the one making the offer.

“We still can’t-”

“I think I’ve made my sincerity clear enough,” Ryan said, no longer letting them doubt his offer. “But if even that’s not enough then here, consider this an early payment.”

He kicked the bullipede tusk towards them. They froze as they saw a boss weapon, gifted like that.

Then he leaned in and smiled.

“Besides, don’t all of you want to know what an S-grade clear feels like?”

Adventurers and their greed.

–

Valee and her team were reading their quest description.