Becoming the Dark Lord [LitRPG]

“I found you again, Angelica.” When the dust settled, Jonathan stood there. Beside him, the Lich remained perfectly still. “I’m not losing you again, Angelica. Not this time. You’re staying with me.”

Luke narrowed his eyes. “And you had to show up now?”

“Shut up, Luke! This has nothing to do with you.”

The Lich raised one hand. A black metal sphere formed in the air, dense and heavy, like a cannonball.

So that’s what hit the barrier.

“I’ll kill the others, Jonathan,” the Lich said, and fired the sphere.

“You’ll hit her!” Jonathan shouted too late.

Luke had already moved. A knife cut through the air and struck the black sphere before it reached the group. The impact blew the spell apart in midair, scattering dark fragments that dissolved like smoke.

Luke’s gaze flicked toward the walls.

“Stay and fight us, and you waste your time,” he said. “You lose your shot at winning the event.”

“We don’t care about winning the event,” the Lich replied, pointing at the ground. “I only need your points for what comes after.”

The earth trembled. Bones broke through the soil, and skeletons clawed their way out, one after another. They marched toward the group as swords and axes conjured by the Lich dropped straight into their hands. A few of Luke’s [Shadow Balls] were enough to set the creatures ablaze and reduce them to ash before they got close.

They split up and moved toward the Lich. It should have been four against two, but the creature was already surrounded by several black cannonballs, each floating around it like a dead moon.

Jonathan, though, wasn’t looking at anyone else. “I thought you were the fake one, Angelica. But there’s no way. The beacon tracker brought me to you when I clicked your name.”

“I am Angelica,” Angie said. Her voice came out steady, sharp. “But I already told you, Jonathan. You were so pathetic in the tutorial that I fell for Luke instead. Then I slept with him.”

Jonathan’s face twisted. “N-no. No. You didn’t do that.”

“And why do you think I’m with him?” Angie smiled, cruel and bright. “I’m his. Body and soul.”

The provocation landed perfectly. Jonathan charged at Luke with his axe, his rage so childish it was almost embarrassing. Angie fired a [Light Ball], forcing him back.

“Go,” she said. “I’ll handle this.”

“There are two of them,” Luke replied.

“I’ll handle it.”

She couldn’t take the Lich and Jonathan alone. Luke knew that. Angie was strong, but that creature had too much magic, and Jonathan, emotionally pathetic as he was, was still dangerous in a fight.

“I’ll help her,” Charlie said, stepping forward. “Master Luke. Go win the event.”

Luke didn’t have time to think it through. Every second he stayed here was another second someone else could reach the tower.

“Anne comes with me,” he decided, and broke into a run.

The Lich fired more black cannonballs, but Charlie stepped in front of them and swatted them aside with brutal force, opening a path. As Luke and Anne pulled away, she kept looking back, worry tightening her expression. Luke had left a [Soul Fragment] with Angie. He pointed toward the forest and conjured a [Teleportation Pentagram]. If things went south, he would return immediately.

“They’ll... be... okay?” Anne asked.

“They will.” Luke didn’t slow down. “Those two hit like an army.”

As they neared the walls, they scaled them quickly. On the other side, they found a place swallowed by time and vegetation. Moss-covered buildings crowded between broken streets. Old wagons, collapsed stalls, and entire houses had been overtaken by roots and plants. Trees grew through empty rooms and punched through rooftops, as if the forest had decided to take everything back by force.

Even so, metal was everywhere. Ancient structures, towers, platforms, even rusted cannons. All of it old. Abandoned. Still threatening. Dozens of towers were scattered through the area. Every one of them had metal shielding at the top, making it impossible to tell from the outside which one hid the crystal.

“Is this... a treasure... hunt?” Anne asked.

“More like an Easter egg hunt.”

They jumped down and ran through the weed-choked streets. The first tower stood close by. There was an entrance at the base, and when Luke looked up from below, he could see the top.

“Empty.”

So that was it. The place had fake towers.

“And only ten real ones,” he muttered.

As they moved on, beasts began appearing between the buildings. Serpents slithered out of holes and shadows, but Luke and Anne killed them without wasting much time. The creatures weren’t the problem. Finding the right tower before everyone else was.

While they searched, Luke kept part of his attention in Angie’s eyes. Her fight was pure chaos. Jonathan attacked like a lunatic, Charlie held the Lich back as best she could, and the field around them had become a hell of light, bones, and black metal.

To keep moving forward, Luke and Anne had to cut through the buildings themselves. The whole place seemed stitched together. Makeshift corridors, broken passages, houses fused together by the vegetation. Far away, combat echoed between the old walls.

“The problem,” Luke said as he ran beside Anne, “is that if someone is reaching the red tower right now, we have no way to know.”

They pushed straight toward the center, cutting through the forest-eaten city in a single line. Then they reached a square where several streets met. At its center stood ten towers.

Luke stopped for half a second. “It has to be here.”

Anne nodded.

Then gunshots echoed through the streets. Steel clashed a heartbeat later. As they ran, Luke saw people fighting in parallel streets. A man in a long coat and gas mask stepped out from another road and looked straight at them.

“No, no. It has to be me,” he said. Green smoke leaked from his body. “The poison crown is mine.”

The mist spread fast. Luke fired [Shadow Balls] at him, but the green cloud only grew, swallowing part of the street.

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Poison or acid?

A shot cut through the air. The green cloud dispersed at once, and the man’s body dropped to the ground.

Sniper.

Luke knew that sound well. He had already fought snipers in Kataleya City. But the fallen man raised a hand. He wasn’t dead yet. The smoke condensed into a serpent of green, corrosive liquid, making it clear what it was: acid. The creature surged toward a building.

Other players began arriving. More sniper shots rang out from different directions. People dropped before they even knew they were being hunted. Luke leaped over the buildings and began circling the area from above. When he reached the top of one, he found a man lying on the ground, aiming a sniper rifle.

“Oh, fu—”

The sentence ended with a kukri through his head. Anne was already moving toward another building. More shots echoed. Luke moved to eliminate the next snipers, but a figure appeared in his path.

“We meet again,” Red Death said, pointing his revolvers at him. “Sorry, but my team and I want all your points. It’s not personal. I mean... it’s pretty personal.”

He laughed and started shooting. Luke slipped between the lines of fire, moving too fast for the shots to catch him. He threw a knife at the hut built on top of one structure, and the explosion tore away part of it. A sniper fell beside it, barely escaping the blast, only for Luke to stab him in the chest a second later.

Red Death didn’t give him room. The two clashed, jumping between rooftops, platforms, and narrow streets. Luke deflected a few bullets with his blades and threw both kukris. Red Death dodged, but Luke charged in at the same instant and punched him in the face.

The kukris curved back, striking the gunslinger from behind before returning to Luke’s hands. Luke finished the motion with a kick, sending Red Death rolling down the street.

The gunslinger got up laughing, already reloading. “Where’s that cool cloak of yours? The horns?”

From the shadow beneath Red Death’s feet, Luke emerged behind him and drove a kukri into his back.

“Don’t need ’em.”

Before Red Death could turn, Luke was already attacking again. The gunslinger spun to fire, but a wave of cold swept through the street. White mist rolled between the buildings, covering part of the battlefield.

Red Death tried to pull back, looking in every direction. “You screwed me over, horn-boy. I needed time to set a trap for the Rhiannons!”

He opened fire on Luke again.

“Get in line.”

Red Death’s revolvers glowed. In the air, the guns fused and transformed into a shotgun. The man aimed straight at Luke.

“Told you I wasn’t taking this seriously before.”

He fired. Luke rolled back, dodging by a hair, while Red Death cackled and kept shooting. A building struck by the shot exploded into pieces, flinging wood, stone, and moss through the air.

Luke readied a knife to throw, then saw Anne creeping up behind Red Death.

“Scared, horn-boy?”

Red Death was struck in the back. He dodged at the last second, avoiding the blow that would have hit his head, then started firing at Anne as she slipped away with quick movements.

“Shit! Weird monster girl!”

Anne’s voice came soft, but firm. “Lord Luke... go... win.”

Luke was about to rush Red Death when he understood.

“Thanks, Anne.”

So he ran, and hated that he had to.

“Get back here, horn-boy! I want your points!” Behind him, Anne and the gunslinger crashed into each other.

Luke reached the towers and entered the first one. “Already claimed.”

He rushed into the next tower and looked up. An orange crystal shone at the top. Activating the [Cloak of the Arcane Witch], Luke made a huge leap and touched the crystal.

[Tower Claimed: 5/6]

One left.

When he landed, he looked back for an instant and thanked Anne again in his mind. Then he took off after the Rhiannons. For a while, he managed to track them, but then the trail vanished. Luke jumped high and spotted them crossing the wall. They were flying. Of course they were.

“You people never run out of tricks.”

As soon as he landed, he ran as fast as he could. Peeking through Angie’s eyes, he saw Charlie facing the Lich. Somehow, the creature was now holding a sword and fighting her with it.

A Lich with a sword? Magic, or does this thing have a second combat class?

Luke forced his focus back onto his own path and jumped again. At least he was faster than the Rhiannons. Lucien and Curtis were farther ahead. One had wings made of wind and ice; the other, of water.

That explains how they’ve been getting around.

When Luke hit the ground, he pushed all his strength into his legs and leaped again. He shot too high, passing over both of them through the air. From above, he threw two knives.

[Telekinetic Impulse activated]

[Knife Storm activated]

When the blades got close to them, Luke activated another skill.

[Shadow Mana Explosion activated]

The Rhiannons were struck from above, swallowed by the dark explosion.

Got you.

No. The two cut through the blast and kept flying as if nothing had happened. They only lifted their eyes. Curtis turned and fired arrows of water. Luke cursed under his breath, let his body drop, and fell like a bullet, dodging the arrows in midair. When he was close enough, he threw knives in several directions and multiplied them before impact. Then he charged at Lucien.

He crashed into the wing of ice. At the same time, he let the cloak absorb the freezing damage, building elemental resistance against it. The two tangled in the air and fell in different directions. Curtis landed soon after. The rain grew heavier, turning into a storm.

“We meet again,” Luke said.

Lucien calmly brushed dust from his clothes. “To think it would be you.”

All three of them looked in the same direction. There was a tower on the beach, and its top glowed red.

“We’re about to win this event,” Lucien said. “Unless you want to end up dead, get out of my way.”

“Right back at you.”

Luke rushed Lucien. A wall of ice rose in his path. Arrows came right after. Before the barrier exploded into frozen shards, Luke had already thrown a kukri at Curtis.

“Curtis, handle this,” Lucien said.

“Yes, Uncle.”

Great dragon wings spread from Lucien’s back, and he took flight.

“I’m not letting you go.”

Luke was about to throw another kukri when an arrow flew straight at him.

Then another.

Then dozens.

Curtis conjured and fired without stopping, and every arrow exploded into snow. Luke couldn’t take a step without one chasing him. He jumped into the sky, but more arrows followed. They curved. They didn’t miss. Lucien was already close to the tower. Luke clicked his tongue and threw the kukri far away.

Curtis appeared in front of him. “You lost. If I were you, I’d turn back. Better defeated than dead.”

“You people are so full of yourselves.”

“Dragon pride,” Curtis replied as a blue arrow formed in his hand. “A flaw of our race. Or maybe just an honest recognition of our superiority.”

Lucien was almost at the tower. Luke would have to fight Curtis.

“No choice, then.”

He advanced. Curtis moved first. No. He was hit first. The blow hurled him back. Another arrow fell right after. Curtis rolled aside, and when the arrow struck the earth, it opened a crater as if it weighed a ton.

Heavy Arrow?

“Listen up, bastards!”

The shout came first. Then a figure landed near them. It was Yut Saeten. Luke looked back and saw Ivor aiming his bow. The archer simply nodded in greeting.

“Move, assassin,” Yut told Luke. “Go win this event. If I had to lose, then I’m losing to the best. Not to dragon trash.”

Curtis snorted. “You think I’ll let him move on?”

“I’m the only bastard allowed to kill that guy,” Yut said.

He smiled and charged Curtis. Luke didn’t have time to process that. He just jumped. He put as much strength as possible into his legs, using the power of [Feline Agility], and launched himself forward. Lucien was about to land on the tower when Luke hit him in midair. They slammed into the sand.

Lucien rose, and a sword of ice appeared in his hand. “You really are persistent. Like a cockroach.”

Luke gripped both kukris. “Now you don’t have your little nephew to hide behind.”

“You talk as if I can’t kill you.” Another ice sword formed in Lucien’s free hand. “You only survived last time because I was playing with you. Because I wanted to know how you knew Allison Rhiannon.”

Blue dragon wings unfurled behind him. His hand sprouted claws, and one of his eyes shifted, the pupil turning vertical.

“After all the trouble you’ve caused me, even begging won’t save you.” Lucien’s voice was no longer calm. No longer human. It came deep, low, carrying the weight of something ancient. A dragon’s voice.

Luke closed his eyes for a moment and focused. Lucien shot forward like a bullet. Too fast. Luke blocked and deflected the blows as best he could, but the force was tremendous. Every impact made his arms shake. Every ice blade drove his kukris a little farther back.

“Look at how pathetic you are,” Lucien said. “You’re not deflecting. You’re cornered. Grip your weapons properly.”

Luke was forced back across the sand.

“This is the man who thought he could rescue Allison Rhiannon?” Lucien rose, hovering above him. “And I actually wasted my best abilities thinking you’d be worth it.”

Then he breathed out a jet of ice. Luke raised his hand and activated the skill he had chosen at level 110 of Spellcaster.

[Arcane Wall activated]

The barrier shielded him from the ice while he kept concentrating. Soon, Lucien dove again and attacked, shattering the dome with a brutal strike. At the last second, Luke opened his eyes.

[Spectral Fusion I activated]

It had worked. The core was whole again. And Lucien had noticed too late. Luke struck back with so much force that Lucien flinched and retreated, pulling away from the vast spectral darkness that bloomed around him.

[Cloak of the Arcane Witch activated]

Luke began walking toward him.

[Demonic Predator Hands activated]

[Horns of the Demon of Darkness activated]

He stepped through the black mist.

[Choose a core for Fusion: Juvenile Sunken Kraken]

[Fusing you with Juvenile Sunken Kraken...]

The beach went silent.