The first line started walking over the wide bridge made of coral. Arthur stood on the left side, effie in the middle and Gemma at the right. Their role was simple, kill and slow down as many creatures as they could, and after tiring out to return behind the second line.
It was simply a suicide mission for most people, and so they decided to have a few strong points where people could take a breather. The strong points were Arthur, effie and Gemma.
There was a gigantic metal net suspended above the bridge on their side, where flying nightmare creatures would get sliced upon flying into, or beeing shot down by the archers, which were led by Kai.
Arthur let out a breath, seeing the horde approaching. He simply stood there, relaxed as one can Bex his Dawn's ballad drawn and ready to strike anything in sight. His cloak covering most of his frame, slightly moving together with the mind.
As the first monster approached effie, it wasn't even given a chance before a balista shot blew it apart, several more shots rang out, as the war for freedom began.
Arthur bent his knees, extending his blade for more reach. And as the first line of monster approached him, he imbued the blade, extending it even more.
Swinging it in a deadly arch a dozen of nightmare creatures perishing at the first touch of the blade.
And so Arthur moved, rather than trying to stand in a small circle, holding the area. Arthur decided that he should take the initiative to wipe out as many crestures as he could, before people started getting tired.
And so he moved, shortening his blade once again, he auented his own body as much as he could and started stabbing, slicing anything he could see.
He saw a centurion running his way, he merely glanced at it, sending out a small round violet orb.
And as the orb collided with the monster's head, it was eradicated from existence, the body collapsed, and Arthur started moving again.
And so the battle continued, after ten minutes Arthur retreated back to his original place, noticing a few injured people, and even a few dead.
Grimacing, Arthur summoned his runes, and released he made a terrible mistake.
His fragment count, he hadn't kept track of it for a while, and that might be the end of him.
[Destruction fragments: 1982/2000.]
Grimacing, Arthur looked around. There was no way he could just stop fighting and leave the battle to get his next core, the people here needed him.
He was a pillar of strength.
And so Arthur continued slicing focusing more on on limbs rather than killing blows.
Soon the first wave ended, and Arthur only needed a few fragments more. He ordered that the people behind him would go more towards the middle, next to effie.
Quickly rushing past corpses of humans and monsters alike, he appeared by effie's side.
Before she could even say anything Arthur cut her off.
" I know I'm breaking formation, however I got a problem, I might collapse any second, don't ask why or how" pousing for a breath, he continued.
"Look all I need you to do is protect my squad and mainly my body till I'm able to fight".
Effie scowled, but nodded nonetheless, seeing the next wave approach them.
Just hopefully they wouldn't get flanked.
As Arthur found a few of the laying monsters still alive, he killed them, and appeared nehind effie.
And as the fragments finally entered him, there was a pouse, before a pain so great, so absolute hit him, it felt as his whole soul was beeing torn apart and pieced back bit by bit.
Collapsing on the spot, his nose bleeding, ears ringing, eyes glazed.
Effie pov.
I turned my head to the side, only to see Arthur, the insane guy, actually collapsed, he was even bleeding, and in obvious pain.
Ordering a few healers to check on him, they reported nothing wrong.
Scowling, I turned my head back to the front, only to barely block a pincer eith my shield.
Annoyed, confused and even slightly tired, I didint hold back any of my strength, and gave the centurion an uppercut with the shield, the head went flying, blood spraying everywhere.
3rd person pov.
The fighting continued and worst of all, the Demon's and the few devils, realized about the flank situation. Now fighting on the front and the side, they were beeing overrun.
Nephis stared out at the battlefield, Cassie and Sunny by her side. She stared as the formation broke, and she saw as Arthur collapsed.
Then her eyes widening, Sunny by her side as well, looked upon the barely visible Arthur.
They both immeadetly recognized the signs.
It was a core forming.
Arthur senses came back with a vengeance, first his hatred sense, without minimizing the area of it, he nearly puked on the spot. Next his eyesight, then his hearing. Slowly standing up, barely hearing the shouts, his kind still working to remember and understand the situation.
Then a body fell next to him, he barely recognized the face of the young man, a hunter under him and Gemma, then everything clicked.
Stepping to the side of an attack, he effortlessly cut down the creature. Slowly making his way to the flank created by his own orders, he cut down anything and everything.
Having to use more destruction than he wanted to, his mind began to go mad, a slight grin already forming on his face.
And as he finally received a wound, his restraint broke. Just hoping no one was in the range of the attack, he released a towering wave of destruction, barely even hearing the kill confirmations, he rushed after the fire.
Standing where he once stood, he was alone surrounded by nothing, until the creature's noticed him, a single easy target.
His mind now under the influence of madness, he rushed in to meet the horde.
Everyone couldn't help but notice, the single entity, thrashing monsters left and right, single handedly breaking their formations.
And as the people cought their breather, the second line went in.
It was their chance to push for ground.
Arthur danced between the monster, slashing anything in sight, with the longsword version of his blade. But then finally started slipping, putting it off as the blood on the ground, he continued evading and killing the creatures. Until he felt it, rain, he looked to the sky, momentary cought of guard.
And he paid dearly for it, immeadetly receiving a pincer to the side, it tearing off a chunk of flesh.
Arthur gritted hid teeth, landing on his feet, the blood and water mixing into an even more slippery surface.
The pincer came back again, this time dodging, Arthur finally revealed his trump card, destruction blazed around him, the armor slowly forming, now even more physical, and less damaging to himself with the new core.
Dashing right at the horde, his wound was completely closed by cauterization.
Arthur dismissed his blade, now relying on mere touches and punches to creatures, the destruction as destructive as ever did the rest, the creature's.
Until one didint, he touched a creature, but heard a scream, shocked he turned, only to get smacked by a wing, barely taking the damage and hearing another scream of agony, he grinned wickedly, an actual threat had appeared.
Raising his head, Arthur saw a spire messenger, letting out a laugh, he summoned the Dawn's ballad once again, the blade itself shining an even brighter shade of violet, and rushed forward.
Closing on the creature, and dodging the half destroyed wing, Arthur augmented his blade and himself, and complete severed the wing, as destruction spread even further into the cresture.
Screetching like a thousand birds, the creature tried to grab Arthur with its dozen shorter limbs, only for them to be cut down as well.
Arthur grinned, summoned destruction, sending out another wave, receiving almost a hundred fragments.
Dashing towards the creature once again, the creature itself trying to retreat, Arthur let out a maniacal laugh, dodging it's feeble attacks without effor.
"You are nothing!" He shouted his voice booming Iverson the battlefield, the obvious craziness in it sending down shivers of many people's spines.
Finnaly catching up to the creature, he easily cut off the vile creature's head. Only then did he notice, that Changing Star was already on the battlefield, and that the sea has started rising once again. Deciding to not pay too much mind, he jumped into the slaughter once again.
And so Arthur slaughtered, Beasts, Monsters, Demons, it didint matter what it was, it only mattered that it died. And so as the dark sea started to receade, and he couldn't see any creatures left. His eyes turned to the people who were rushing towards the spire.
His grin widened and so did his eyes, as he started walking towards the sleepers.
Several people notice his approaching figure, the mad gleam in his eyes, but not all figured out what was his target next.
Suddenly with a maniacal laugh, he launched himself to the closet person, grabbing them by the throat, slowly choking them to death, he looked into the person's eyes, their fearful dark orbs stared back, their hands scratching at his own.
Suddenly he received a blow from the side, sending him tumbling across the bloody coral.
Arthur slowly got up, the mad grin turning into a scowl, he stared at the one who dared attack him.
It was Gemma, his weapons raised, his eyes confused, mad, but not fearful.
Gemma spoke something, bur Arthur's ears didint seem to catch the words, instead Arthur dashed forward, zigzaging across the bridge.
And suddenly he was before Gemma.
Their weapons clashed, grin met frown, green eyes met gold, and the fight started.
For some reason Arthur did not use Destruction, perhaps his mind was not fully corroded yet, or perhaps he judt wanted to play with his food.
Soon hits started landing on the exhausted hunter, wounds that healed, but not as fast as they should.
And so, gemma was knocked to the ground,,his blade falling out of his grasp.
And as Arthur prepared to finish him off, their eyes met one more time, and arthurs eyes widened.
As he looked upon the defeated Gemma, sword wounds littered his body, slashes, stars, bruises.
He looked like a broken person, his eyes slightly teary, his body bloodied, Gemma looked like a man that was on death's door.
Suddenly coming back to his senses, Arthur managed to redirecting his own swing, to the ground, his eyes still glazed, but noticeably less.
Falling to his knees, Arthur let out a pain groan, collapsing on the coral.
The last thing hr heard was.
[You have unlocked your aspect legacy.]
[A/N:Holy 1.8k words without a/n, the longest chapter to date, didint even plan for it, just sat down and started writing.
Did you understand why the aspect legacy was unlocked?
Btw how do you guys like the less detailed fights, but with smaller jumps? Rather than before where I'd said they were semi well detailed, but there were always giant jumps in combat, atleast that's what I felt like.]
Leave powerstones, cuz like yk 1.8k words.
[Atribute monarch of greed has evolved into Sovereign of greed.]