Universe's End

“Lunar Ascent!”

Harrison shouted as his body surged upward, a minor manipulation of gravitational concepts alongside his usual lunar abilities. Temporarily locked in the air like a false moon, the man felt power surging through him.

“Moonfall!”

Weight multiplying several times over, Harrison dropped back to the ground below, slamming down hard, and from his impact, an omnidirectional spiderweb of crevices tore the ground asunder. From those same cracks, lunar energy exploded outward, like a silver wall of fire in every direction.

Monsters were slain by the dozens, but there were hundreds. It wasn’t called the battleground for no reason.

“Ashen Winds!”

Guarding Harrison’s back, Jharrel raised his palms upward as a storm of ash surged forward, an affinity he’d gained during his time spent training on the Reverse Mountains so many years ago.

“Strangle Reflection,”

Morales, speaking quietly, shot forward as afterimages appeared behind him, each one reaching out and grabbing a monster before solidifying into threads that entangled the monsters.

Marcie, meanwhile, watched with her arms crossed.

They were working well together. Harrison had the most damage potential of the three; his lunar abilities were nothing to be scoffed at, and Jharrel provided wonderful cover with his ash, with Morales taking the role of crippling support, skirting around the battlefield and locking things down as a flexibility-based fighter; he was about as slippery as they came.

But they were also currently fighting a battle of attrition, standing atop a growing mountain of monster corpses, as hundreds surged forward.

Some of the monsters were rather fishlike, minions of the Mer-kurial Khan. Others took the form of eyeless beasts with reaching tendril-like whiskers on their noses and claws that could tear the ground apart as if it were cardboard, minions of the Deep Eating Khan. Finally, there was a third group of monsters that resembled undulating worms with razor-like teeth and appendages that could seemingly sprout anywhere on their bodies and retract just as easily, almost like a cousin of the not-uncommon amorphous cave slime.

Oh, there was one other group, but they were less of a ‘group’ and more of a ‘mutation.’ That being said, they were made up of fallen monsters that had black roses sprouting from their bodies, and in some cases, monsters that were entirely plant-like in appearance, pure Black Rose spawns.

As far as rhyme or reason, there was none; the battlefield was like a three-way front that boiled over into pure chaos within the very center.

They were currently on a single offshoot sub-battleground, and Marcie was making sure her ‘team’ was getting their reps in.

Oh, here comes trouble.

Three elites were gathering to advance and claim the sub-battleground, peak tier seven alpha variants. As a tier eight herself, Marcie could handle them with ease.

But.

But this wasn’t about her. It was about taking her team, made up of high-tier seven elites, and sharpening them. Maybe asking them to cross over into her world, from talented to transcendent, was a bit much, but if she could at least get them to break through to peak-tier seven, or even tier eight itself, that was far more achievable.

Oh, there it goes.

The first of the elite monsters reached her team as an oversized mole that tore free from the ground, slashing out with its claws. At peak tier seven alpha variants, the monster was undoubtedly a powerful opponent, having a small level advantage over any of the three individually. But that was individually, and even with that said, there was still a solid chance any one of them could have defeated the monster in solo combat.

Her team avoided the attack even when caught off guard, before springing into action. Morales was already sprinting around the monster, locking it down as afterimages reached out, turning into an entrapping silken embrace. Jharrel had brought his hand up to his face, blowing against his palm as a gust blew out, increasing in intensity by the second and becoming laden with ash.

Finally, there was Harrison, his axe overhead as a miniature moon began to manifest. An alpha variant was strong, but her team was made up of three high-tier seven elites who’d been through the trenches with one another.

But then, the other two appeared as well. Breaking its stealth skill, a flying squid shot downward, capturing Morales in its tentacles that wrapped around his head, its beak attempting to bite off his head. Harrison, temporarily unguarded, was assaulted by hundreds of reaching worm-like appendages exploding from beneath him, opening into countless mouths filled with those razor-teeth the worm monsters were so well known for.

While they were each capable of defeating the alpha variants in single combat, they’d let their guard slip after dealing with hordes of fodder monsters, and then were distracted by the single ‘threatening’ monster that had appeared.

So, how will you all handle this?

They were also nearly two weeks straight without sleep. Marcie had been marching them from sub-battlefield to sub-battlefield, pushing them to their breaking point, which had been the point.

Will you break your limits?

Jharrel, the ‘easiest’ to target, had quickly been focused down entirely by the mole monster that ignored the other two, who had been pinned down by the other elites that had attacked. Trying to scald the mole with ashen winds, the mole seemed unfazed, with a natural resistance to earthen elements.

Morales, never the direct combat type, was struggling to hold back the flying stealth-based squid monster whose tentacles were slowly shredding through his armor and skin, beak drawing closer and closer to his head.

Not good enough… Yet.

The goal was to claim the Black Rose for themselves, but that was only possible through one means.

Slaughtering the three khans that contested the battleground. As strong as Marcie was, she had no illusions about being able to defeat a tier eight territory alpha on her own. Aided by either Apostolos or Tsarina? Possibly, if the matchup were good. On her own? Not a shot. Thus, she needed her team to make up the difference.

Break your limits.

The good news was that they still had some time until Oscuro opened, at least two years, which meant two years to conquer the battlefield and hopefully push the three of them to tier eight or the utter peak of tier seven.

Would it be enough? Who knew. Tsarina had given Marcie a task, and while Marcie herself didn’t follow ‘orders’ from Tsarina as she might have from Apostolos, she treated the bug-woman as an equal. Plus, it was for the good of Ehkorrus, and while Marcie was hardly the loyal-unto-death type, Ehkorrus was her home.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

At least for now. She’d been eyeing potentially petitioning to relocate to Sky Haven; the place sounded interesting, and she’d love to explore somewhere truly new.

But that’s neither here nor there.

Shaking her head, Marcie returned to paying attention to her team.

Oh, look, not bad.

Marcie was moderately surprised when the first to break through was Morales. In a moment of inspiration or desperation, or perhaps both, the man did something new, as two afterimages shot out from him in either direction, looking like they were glistening with morning dew, eye-catching and hard to see all at the same time. Rushing in either direction from the squid, the afterimages grabbed hold of the squid and pulled in either direction. As they pulled, strands made of the same weirdly glistening material began to creep across its body, like a spreading frost, wrapping the monster like a cocoon. Finally, unable to let it go on for any longer, the squid monster struck out with its tentacles, slashing through the two weirdly glistening afterimages, which dissipated instantly on contact.

And that was enough for Morales, as, with the squid distracted and partially bound, he broke free of its grasp and threw himself out of the way. Monsters attempted to bury him under their cumulative weight, but the man was up and moving within moments.

Good, good.

Jharrel was next. Tired and pushed back, the man struggled to inflict any real damage on the monster until he clenched his hand, the swirling ash surging inward into a dense ball hovering above his palm. Fanning his hand toward the mole, the ball of densely packed ash reacted, as a lance of ash shot forward and stabbed into the mole. Instantly, the skin around where the lance had stabbed began to flake and dry out as the man leaned into the more esoteric aspect of his affinity rather than the purely physical aspects rooted in earthy elements.

Very good.

Lastly, there was Harrison. More and more of the worming tendrils had begun to grasp hold of him, unfazed by the man’s cold lunar energies. His answer was simple. Rather than focusing on the tried and true ‘cold’ aspects of his affinity, the ground beneath him began to shatter and crumble as his weight began to increase massively, the pressure of an entire moon pressing down until at once he shattered through several feet of stone, his hand lunging forward and grabbing hold of the source of the worming tendrils.

There we go!

Still smiling, the expression began to fade a moment later as Marcie sensed something else. Tier sevens and peak tier sevens had dominated this battlefield; she’d been the lone tier eight and had kept her presence largely hidden.

And so, it was rather starkwhen she felt something big rapidly approaching, an aura that no tier seven could replicate.

Her team was doing a good job of handling their respective elites, but Marcie suddenly appeared, glancing at them as her expression said it all.

Scam.

Disengaging, the trio rapidly pulled away even as the monsters tried to prevent the escape.

Not that it mattered, as only moments later, something dropped from the ceiling above. Its aura crashing down, black thorned vines manifested from nothing, strangling the elite monsters or otherwise extinguishing the life from the fodder monsters outright.