The next morning Andrei woke up first, for the first time in a long time. He looked around the room and all five of the girls were sound asleep cuddled around him. Surany and Jiks were both women that Andrei had not really experienced anything with so far and he wasn't sure if they were interested in him or not. He didn't want to push the envelope with them but he also wanted to get a buff or two before the day went under way. He still had time left on the three he received the previous day and he knew he couldn't renew Airwrecka's for the rest of the Challenge.
He snuck out of the bed without waking any of them and proceeded to the bath where he decided to see what relaxing potions and elixirs might be available for the experience. He meandered around the room reading the bottles and trying to figure out which he wanted to use when Surany stirred from the bed.
"Morning Champ!" She whispered as she came over to him and wrapped her arms around him half asleep. Andrei put his arm on her shoulder and hugged her tightly, he wasn't sure how to proceed as this was the most physical she had been with him. She looked at what he was doing and pointed out which elixirs were the best for a bath.
"I prefer this elixir but that is just me, the smell is what's relaxing to me at least. Then this lotion if rubbed into your skin makes it feel even better than normal skin on a good day. Want me to rub it into you?" She offered as she grabbed the bottle and opened it up to take a sniff.
He was a bit stunned by the bold offer but didn't refuse or hesitate, he stepped right into the bathtub that he had been running to fill it up and Surany poured some of the elixirs into the water. Andrei felt the magic from them almost instantly and a wave of relaxation hit him that he wasn't used to feeling.
Surany started to rub the lotion into Andrei's shoulders and back, which caused an audible groan to escape Andrei's lips as it released a lot of tension that was built up in his shoulders. She continued to rub his muscles with the lotion and soon she said what was on her mind "So I am told that you get a bonus and it's different from each girl if we finish you off with oral, would it bother you if I wanted to as well?"
Andrei tensed up for a second as to the line of questioning but it was more that she said that it would bother him instead of anything else. The only thing he could think of as a response was "You're a beautiful woman, I would be an idiot to say no to you" and he grabbed her head and pulled her in for a kiss. She wasn't shocked by his response, but by how easily he moved her and how helpless she felt in his arms.
He stood up and she proceeded to service him orally. The sensation was quite different than what he was used to. For one he was usually asleep when they would start so he had barely experienced just the beginning. Andrei hadn't thought about it till right then but he got really excited to find out what new buff he would get from her and it caused him to explode.
[New Buff learned: "Surany's Sucksess"]
["Surany's Sucksess" Buff will reduce all cooldowns by 50%]
Her coughing woke up the rest of the girls and of course Sophia had a comment "Couldn't wait for us could you guys?" she said with a smile from the edge of the bed.
Mini was next to her yawning and stretching then she saw where Surany was and she had a big smile on her face "Finally! You did it! I told you he liked you!". Surany started to turn a shade of red on her face that none of them had seen before and Andrei was the one to comment.
"Wow you're redder than Sunfire right now!" he commented with a big smile on his face. The combination of what just happened then the attention they both were now receiving just made Andrei happier as they were all getting along and nothing was weird so far.
They headed to the dining area to grab a bite to eat to start the day and were shocked to find out that they were the last ones to eat. They also didn't realize that they had only an hour till the next round of the MAC would start. They quickly grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to get change.
Day 1 everyone had five fights, with the 25 competitors if you went 0-5 you had little to no chance of winning already. Day 2 would continue but now 10 fights as the day started much earlier and would continue for a longer time frame than the previous day. Day 3 the final 9 fights happened between all the competitors and then everyone was ranked 1-25 based on their record.
Getting through all the competition once would make the final tournament even more intense now that everyone would get a taste of each other. Little did any of them know that Andrei still had yet to show a portion of his powers. He was the 1 rank as he went undefeated, Edwin was the only one to give him trouble and that was more because of his shield and the fact that Edwin knew of most of his attacks.
"Nature Bomb" was used to take care of Edwin after he was snagged by Wolf's Bite. The combo became an instant trap and so far killed everyone he pulled it off on. By the end of Day 3 the entire Galaxy it seemed was tuning in to see what Andrei would do next. Edwin finished 2nd in the rankings as his only loss was to Andrei.
7 fighters were given a first round bye in the tournament bracket. Which meant the rest would have to win 5 fights to win it while those 7 would only have to win 4 fights. The brackets were announced and Andrei was surprised to see Ashinat with a bye as the 6th seed. Her and Edwin would battle to take on Andrei for the championship.
Edwin barely won the match as they were both down to their final sliver of HP and Edwin's mace contacted Ashinat before her axe contacted Edwin. The place went crazy and the replay was played over and over again as there was now a standard break of 15 minutes for the contestant to recover their energy.
Andrei was entered into the VR arena and this location was a simulated coliseum with crumbling architecture. The fans from the arena were transported into the seats of the coliseum and everyone went wild as they were used to watching from an outside perspective. This tech was used for only one fight as it required a lot of energy to sustain that many connections at once to the VR realm.
"The Answer! The Answer! The Answer!" was chanted throughout the arena. Edwin had a following and a few "Fourman! Fourman! Fourman!" could be heard but were drowned out by the overwhelming support for Andrei. Edwin knew this would be the final battle and had been saving a few attacks he had never shown Andrei before. He also figured that Andrei still hadn't shown all of his abilities even to him.
There were two groups in the main entertainment box of the coliseum and to everyone's surprise when they first all arrived in the coliseum the ten people in the main box all hugged and shook hands. People who were watching them were commenting about how all the guys were flirting with the girls, none knowing that they were all a part of Death Squad thus all friends.
The chatter amongst the Death Squad was who they all thought was going to win. None thought Edwin would win but most were hoping that Andrei would go easy on him and make it entertaining. What none of them knew was that Andrei had learned more skills from the other contestants and he figured he would show those off to make the best show possible.
Andrei looked across the arena and saw Edwin adjusting his gear looking quite serious, Andrei had a smile on his face as he was enjoying this entire experience probably more than he thought he could. The countdown was at 10 and he shouted across the arena "Good Luck! And keep your head up!".
"3,2,1, Fight!" and both contestants charged to the middle. Andrei decided he was going to pull out a display of power and he threw out a barrier in front of Edwin causing him to slow down suddenly which confused Edwin. Then out of the sky dropped a "Meteor" that Edwin barely got his shield up to block. The area around him was on fire and caused him to wait out the burn effect knowing it would dissipate shortly.
While stuck in position and not wanting to end the battle instantly Andrei shot out "Lightning Bolts" from his hands directed at Edwin's exposed legs. The resulting attack took a massive chunk out of the HP bar on Edwin and Andrei was glad he aimed low as it probably would have ended the fight if he had hit him mid chest.
The lightning bolt had knocked Edwin back just as the fire dissipated and Edwin knew he was in a lot of trouble. He hadn't even attacked yet and Andrei was standing there not even breaking a sweat.
Edwin pulled out a move that Andrei hadn't seen yet and was not expecting. Edwin had put his hand on the small of his back and opening his palm he shot out a water tunnel that accelerated him forward at a great speed. Then in one motion pulled out his morning star again and shot out a "Lightning Bolt" of his own out of the morning star hitting Andrei square in the chest. His armor being very low in armor value did little to no effect on the lightning and Andrei saw a number that made him take a big gulp.
[-200 HP]
"Nice shot man!" Andrei commented mid battle. "That really fucking hurt!" Andrei was not aware that everyone could hear him, he thought he was just talking to his buddy. "Why haven't you used that attack before now?"
Edwin was not used to someone asking questions in the middle of a battle, nonetheless it being technically his boss, he stood for a moment not sure if he should respond or keep attacking. "I learned from the best!" Edwin replied with a grin.
The truth was he had learned that attack from Andrei and wasn't sure if it would work or how powerful it was. Andrei having the reaction he had made Edwin believe he might have just found his new favorite attack. As he had made his comment about learning from the best he shot out another "Lightning Bolt" from his morning star and Andrei was ready for this one and blocked the attack but made sure the reflection didn't go back at Edwin.
Andrei figured the best thing they could do was put on a show and so far they were doing just that. His body was healing and the big chunk of HP was filling up which made the entire crowd start murmuring about it again. The chunk taken out was the largest they had seen "TheAnswer" take but the speed that the HP bar was growing back to full was what had everyone really talking. Some were even calling him a cheater from the stands.
Andrei pulled out an "Ice Axe" in his right arm while keeping his shield on his left open. They started exchanging physical attacks with their weapons and "Wolf's Bite" was activated which the crowd once again went wild seeing the white wolf pulling on the opponents leg. Andrei remembered he could also produce a wolf with his kicks and started to attack Edwin's shield knowing it would do nothing but look cool.
The crowd was going wild as Andrei kept pulling out more powers than he had shown before, at one point he had done an acrobatic lunge to the side while trying to shoot Edwin's armor with his slingshot. He started changing up the pellets in the sling shot which brought out more "Oooo"s and "Awww"s.
Edwin's HP was down to a quarter of his total and Andrei had only been hit one time. He had attacked with all of his different abilities but so far Andrei was just too fast. Edwin was getting frustrated and finally just pleaded with him "Can you finish this as I have no chance and we both know it."
Andrei's smile disappeared and he realized he might have been toying too long. He obliged and Edwin, who left an opening on purpose for Andrei to exploit, let out a sigh of relief as the battle ended. Both were then released from their pods and the place erupted.
The two of them were surrounded by people they had never seen or met as they were the only two to exit pods at the end so it was easy to figure which was which when Edwin appeared with his 4 different color markings in his hair and eyes. They all figured he was the Fourman and moved on to Andrei as the crowd grew around him. Andrei was not expecting any of this and was looking around trying to find an exit.
The girls had come down the VIP guest lift and seeing the mass of people around Andrei, Mini wasted no time and started making a hole by shoving and shouting. People were a bit stunned by her brash behavior but soon recognized her and the others behind her as "TheAnswer"'s VIP guests. Andrei was drowning in his mind as the questions, voices, and just general noise was overwhelming him. He had controlled his new hearing abilities but this was overwhelming his mind.
Mini pulled on his waist and when Andrei looked down seeing her face his mind started to settle down. He focused on the top of her head and started following her as they were now heading right back the way Mini came as the other girls had kept a tunnel for them to walk through. They all departed the area with the girls holding off the crazy crowd as they got in the lift and went right back into the VIP guest area which was now empty. They all stood there and just started laughing.
"What the hell just happened?" Andrei asked, confused and finally started to regain his senses. He was positive someone was affecting him in the crowd trying to weaken him or attack him. His body was shaking and he wasn't sure what was going on. He then had a weird taste in his mouth and turned away from the girls and bent over and puked. There was a green yellow bile that came out that had neon green specs in it that was a sign of Nature energy which usually meant poison.
He stood back up and felt completely fine. His interface then displayed a new message
[New Passive learned: Immune to Poison]
"Someone tried to fucking kill me!" he proclaimed while wiping his lips with the sleeve of his shirt. The girls were looking at him confused but then looked closely at his puke and could see the Nature energy. Jiks was the first to speak as she knew the most about Nature poisons.
"What are you feeling now? I have an antidote skill so if you're feeling anything let me know and I will remove it." She offered with a concerned look on her face.
"No need, I guess the nice part is that whoever poisoned me wasn't strong enough and now my powers have made me immune to poison. Not sure if it was a vampire or Sam's gift but I will take it. The biggest concern is the fact that someone tried to assassinate me, wait where is Edwin!" Andrei shot up and headed to the lift as he needed to get to the lift to find Edwin, not sure if he was targeted as well.
The lift opened right before Andrei got to it and Edwin and his VIP five came spilling out "Hey! There you guys are! Are we partying up here now?" Hook exclaimed as the two groups collided again.
"Someone just tried to assassinate Andrei, how are you feeling, Edwin?" Jiks had taken the initiative having the same concerns as Andrei for Edwin's health.
"Me? I am fine, it just sucks I lost twice to the same person but at least it's my boss!" Edwin said with a grin trying to lighten the mood. His attempt was valiant but fell short as Andrei now solely thought that the winner was the target or someone knew he would win. He was trying to replay in his mind the exit of the pod till Mini got to him. There were just too many people that were surrounding him to figure out who could have poisoned him.
They all talked for a bit to let the arena calm down and most of the crowd exit. They were all discussing the current situation and figured it would be best to just go to their rooms and not inform anyone of the failed attempt.
*********************************************
Day 5 of the MAC started out better for Andrei than any day of his life. He received a new buff from Jiks and Lily, plus Mini, Sophia, and Surany were involved so on his interface he had 5 small icons with the cooldown timers. He noticed the icons were profile pics of the girls' faces which gave him a chuckle.
[New Buff learned: "Jiks Licks"]
["Jiks Licks" increases the area of effect of all skills by 50%. Lasts 20 hours]
[New Buff learned: "Lily's Lollipop"]
["Lily's Lollipop" the first attack an opponent lands will cause them to be confused for 1 second. Lasts 20 hours]
"What's so funny up there big guy?" Sophia heard the light chuckle and was focused on his face.
"The buffs I get from you guys have little pics of each of your faces and they are all your orgasm faces which caused me to chuckle as I hadn't noticed them before. Little snapshots from my own view of each of you." He said with a smile then jumping up he changed the roles of what was going on and they all had fun for the next few hours.
When they all were dressed and ready to leave Andrei stood by the door looking at the five of them and decided he needed to say something about it. "I'm not sure if I'm still dreaming but the five of you have made me the happiest man alive, I'm glad we all get along and please let me know if any of this is too much for any of you!"
With that they left for the final day of the MAC with a bit of a hop to their step. They were all feeling great as Andrei was solo champion and the MA group challenge looked to be theirs as well with 3 of the top 7 from the solo bracket coming from Hathin.
The five academies of Hathin, Elondinonin, Valunti, Frunturlun, and Tunstid had sent their five best to this event but didn't necessarily bring the five best that work together. Edwin and Andrei had more experience working together than anyone else in the competition which most didn't realize that the two finalists, 3 of the 4 semifinalists, were in fact all from one Academy.
The five groups were put into their simulated arena with the same challenge. This challenge changed every cycle to ensure its difficulty but always involved the winner either taking the beast nest or the ones that came the closest to it. The five groups while doing the same simulation were on their own so there were 5 arenas being displayed.
This challenge could take hours on end so while the focus was on all five to start they would enlarge key moments on a replay loop of graphic kills or deaths of the squad. Many different stalls of vendors were set up around the arena for people to get food, adult beverages, merchandise, memorabilia and many other random goods. People were already selling "TheAnswer" shirts and hats with the green camouflage and scale highlight pattern that Andrei's new armor featured.
The betting went crazy when the teams were introduced and everyone that saw the grand finale went crazy. The place started chanting "Hathin! Hathin! Hathin!" drowning all the combatants in their chant through the arena's floors and through the pods glass. "If this doesn't get your blood flowing, you must be dead." Andrei said with a big grin on his face. The rest were soaking in the noise as well with huge grins.
Andrei looked at DeAngelo and asked "Do you absorb through shields?" as he currently did not have a shield. Dean shrugged his shoulders because he hadn't tested it as he had gauntlets on his hands and used them to block. Dean wasn't expecting Edwin's shield to appear on his arm but also wasn't going to complain.
He looked at Brutus who had a custom made assault rifle with the barrel resembling vines coming together to shoot out the bullet. Andrei had never worked with a gun fighter and he had used his own slingshot to end their fight quickly to not embarrass him when they fought the one time in the tournament. Andrei asked if he could see his gun for a moment and he held it and admired it. He copied the blueprint to his multiply tab and the gun appeared in his inventory. Andrei smiled at Brutus and handed it back saying it's a fine weapon.
Ashinat's two axes were quite unique. The one axe was infused with lightning and the other had fire. They were both intermediate weapons but neither had advanced properties. Andrei produced an "Ice Axe" and held it up next to her axe to compare the two. "Want to test them out?" She gave a smile to him seeing how he was interested in her axes.
He copied them both while test swinging them, they were incredibly light. When he first grasped the handle the lightning and the fire in the respective axes lit up and extended each weapon by an inch. Ashtinat's eyes grew big as she had never seen that happen to them before. He handed them back to her and the weapons settled down in their intensity and her face had a saddened look to it.
"Cheer up, we have a beast nest to capture!" Andrei shouted to her as he ran off towards the first beasts in the distance. No one else could see the beasts but Andrei had located them right away and was off. Edwin wasn't used to the brash nature of Andrei literally shouted "Hey, wait up!" as he was used to being the leader with the impenetrable shield.
Andrei was in a full sprint, for whatever reason he did not have a care in the world for the safety of four with him and he was letting loose. He was running full speed and shot out from his arm "Wind Pellets" taking out two small birds that were flying. He wasn't even sure if they would have attacked or not; he just felt like practicing in the VR all his moves and didn't care who watched.
He closed in on the beasts and could see there were five of them, something he expected to be the first group in a test like this. Andrei wanted to see if he could kill all of them before his squad could get in a hit. The beasts being VR knew he was there but that didn't mean they could do anything about it. The first took a "Lightning Bolt" straight to the neck and it was decapitated. Andrei sent out a "Blood Dagger" at the next and it decapitated the beast as well.
Then he took a hit for the first time and his smile went away for a moment then he remembered its VR and even in VR he regenerates HP. He smiled and laughed out loud which sounded maniacal to a lot of the Galaxy watching. They didn't understand what was going on, just that Andrei had run off faster than any of his squad and he was now laughing at being hit. Andrei then summoned Ashinat's axes and the lightning came surging out even further than when he was holding it earlier. Ashinat put her hands on her back to check that her axes were still there and was shocked to feel them.
Andrei closed the gap on the next beast with two long strides and spun his body, dealing a massive force to the beast with both axes. He was shocked at how the beast gave no resistance as the axes cut through them with ease. The last two he decided to throw the axes at them with great force and precision, the elemental edges sliced right through the beasts and they were split in half. The throw left the axes on the ground by the group as they caught up and Ashinat picked up the axes and they felt identical to hers. The edges died down when she grabbed them just like before but she held onto both of them.
Andrei gave a grin and said "I just wanted to test something out, you guys can get kills now as well" They all chuckled and moved on as they knew there was a timer to this as well in terms of whoever completed the task first would be the winner. If the bets for Hathin to win hadn't already been crazy, the one fight with the first beast group told the Galaxy that Hathin was going to win by a landslide.
All four other academies were each struggling to take out one beast nonetheless the pack, Hathin's squad was onto the second beast group which was a pack of 10 wolf like creatures just significantly uglier. They were all extremely agile which made them difficult to hit. The beasts would quickly snap at them, try to distract them one way then another attack from the side or back.
DeAngelo took the lead and let the wolves bite at him and the shield was building up his ability. After multiple attacks a wolf came in and he timed his swing down and crushed the head of the beast with his now super strength.
Brutus' gun was having the best effect on the wolves as his bullets would slow down the creatures. He wasn't able to kill any so far but the peppering of bullets into them was slowing them up for the rest to easily get their killing blows in.
Ashinat took advantage of the slowed down beasts and started to chop their heads off. The last two beasts she tried to do what Andrei did and threw the axes connecting with both beasts killing them but not slicing them in half. She then looked at Andrei and was wondering just how strong he was if she wasn't even as strong as him.
Andrei didn't attack on purpose to prove to them that they were strong as well. He did block a beast from biting his own head off but the shield blocked the beast with ease and the pain it felt from the reflection caused the other beasts to not attack Andrei again.
The bets were pouring in now if they were going to be the quickest to ever run a MAC final day co-operative challenge. The record was set 78 cycles ago which that information was spreading like wildfire as it was completed in 5 hours. They weren't 30 minutes in and they were going into what is usually the midway point, the only thing consistent from each cycle was the difficulty would increase via sheer numbers.
A group of 20 beasts was the next challenge and these were all house cat like creatures but instead of fur there were thorns and the tails shot out lightning that would stun for 2 seconds the opponent. The cats had circled up the squad and were darting in and out trying to attack them. Little bolts of lightning shooting out from random cats' tails trying to find holes in the defense of the squad.
Andrei aimed his reflections perfectly hitting a cat causing it to be stunned which he followed it with "Lightning Pellet" of his own from his sling shot. It was powerful enough to kill the cat beast. He shot at another and the cat beast dodged it with ease. Andrei realized he needed to get them stunned first by reflecting their ability or some other way.
Ashinat kept getting stunned by the lightning attacks but the rest of them kept her from being injured. Brutus's gun proved to be too slow of an attack so he stopped firing as he wasn't sure if he ever hit any of them after unloading bullets at them for a solid minute.
The three shields closed in and Ashinat and Brutus moved into the center to be protected more as they weren't sure how to get these cat like creatures as only one had been killed. Andrei then remembered the last time he was surrounded on P113 and woke up the legendary beast.
"Sledgehammer of Wind" he summoned the weapon that felt lighter than air itself he pulled back and slammed it on the ground thinking "Wind Hammer with Wind Slash" and a massive explosion of stunning wind knocked all the cats up into the air and they all landed awkwardly as they were unable to move.
"Now! While they are all stunned!" He himself dropped meteor after meteor without his longsword but didn't care about the spirit cost as he pointed his arm and unleashed a series of meteors around the squad that sent shockwaves through the Galaxy.
"How many meteors did he just drop?" An online comment appeared under the live stream.
"I thought summoning one meteor for fire ability users was a lot of work, he just dropped several hundred!" Was another comment over exaggerating the situation.
"I just ran the replay and there are 32 different meteor points of impact he dropped around the group in less than 2 seconds" another commented, whether that was true or not people could watch the replay themselves and in slow motion you could count them but in real time it just looked like a circle of fire rained down from above.
They were only an hour in and if they knew anything it was that they were going to face a boss either now or the final group of 40 then the boss. What none of them knew was that they were going to take on both.
As if it was some sick joke to Andrei, the simulation's final boss was the "King Cobra Turtle of Magnitude". They all stood there for a minute a big enough distance to not grab the attention of the boss beast. It was surrounded by 40 smaller versions of it.
"This appears to be the same legendary beast I encountered on P113." Andrei started to tell the group.
"Wait, you have been to P113?" Brutus interjected.
"Yes, why does that matter?" Andrei responded, taken aback from being cut off, something he wasn't used to in general of late.
"I hear it's got cool Elementals to increase your gear at the advanced level." Brutus' response was hesitant and realized he shouldn't have said anything.
"Anyways, the legendary beast that looked just like that one had extremely powerful lightning attacks from its fangs, the tail shot out a wind attack that I never saw but it leveled many trees. It's a legendary beast so it might have more attacks than that so be careful. It appears to be element sensitive to all the elements when you look at the markings. Hopefully we can lure a couple of the small ones away to figure out how to take them out. I am going to try and pull one now to see if we can do just that." Andrei told them of his plan.
There was one that was showing on Andrei's mini-map as being completely isolated. Andrei saw the path to it and snuck over, while on his journey he wasn't sure what to do to get its attention. Then he figured out that at minimum it would make no sound so he figured he would give it a try. Getting in range he opened his palm toward the beast and thought "Tame Beast" and the miniature yet still very large King Cobra Turtle started moving towards Andrei. His interface then popped up with a message he hadn't seen before.
[New Pet Tamed: King Cobra Turtle of Magnitude]
[Give new pet "King Cobra Turtle of Magnitude" a name?]
"Sparky!" was the best he could come up with for the creature but was more interested in the message that also appeared when he tamed the beast.
[New beast tamed, put in "Beastiary Holding" Y/N?]
"Yes" he thought and the beast suddenly disappeared and a new tab showed in his interface labeled "Beastiary Holding". The tab then had his three pets showing and two of their profiles were highlighted in a gold trim, Fluffy and Burny, while Sparky did not have the golden trim highlight it. Andrei didn't expect to get a pet out of it and then he was wondering how in the world his system was able to do that. To the Galaxy watching all they saw was the beast move towards Andrei then disappear.
Plan B thought Andrei as he had no idea he was about to create a pet doing that. He scanned his mini-map to look for another one but only found a pair of two by themselves. He summoned an "Ice Axe" and landed it right in between the two beasts heads that were close together. That got their attention and they started to move in his direction.
He glanced around and saw that none of the others were engaging so he backed up and lured the two further away. Edwin saw him get the two beasts' attention and told them to move out so they could all figure out the weakness together. The two beasts followed for a distance then seemed to start to lose interest in the figure that was throwing things at them from a distance. The two turned around to head back to where they were hanging out and a meteor dropped in their path. They looked around and didn't see anything, then sensed the movement from behind and Andrei was on them to get them to stop from going back.
The battle ensued with Andrei dodging the attacks and swinging at different points of the creature seeing what was weak and what wasn't. The squad joined in and soon they discovered that the belly was the weakest point and flipping them would be a death sentence. The only problem was the boss was massive, how were they going to flip him. So far Andrei's new "Nature Bomb" was flipping them over with a two for two ratio thus far. They decided to try it on another group of three that was not far away from them currently.
They didn't lure them away, they just figured they would now work on clearing them out small groups at a time. Andrei was testing out his "Nature Bomb" with thoughts of the other elements and skills and so he tried out thinking of "Nature Bomb of Fire with Wind Slash" and the ensuing explosion was massive. The beast didn't flip, it just flew up in the air and was dead before it hit the ground according to the EXP that popped up in Andrei's interface.
He tested out the elements and then thought if Blood worked like the rest and then he saw what he was hoping for, the turtle didn't even move it just went blank in the eyes as the explosion erupted into the turtle and disintegrated the internal organs of the beast. He tried another and this time thought of the wind slash and the legs as well as the snake like neck exploded out of the shell.
The turtle beasts that were left didn't know it but they were all about to pop like the last one did. Andrei went from one to the next doing one attack as they couldn't move out of the way. The boss had heard the commotion and was watching as all the smaller versions of itself kept exploding. It saw the group and started firing its lightning attack from its fangs which Edwin and DeAngelo were specifically waiting for him to start doing and they blocked all the attacks.
Andrei's back was to the boss but he had the two tower shields defending his backside. The last of the turtles popped and Andrei did his first attack to the boss which caused a loud pop and the gigantic turtle hissed. Lightning bolts shot out almost in a stream at the group, the beast was enraged and attacking as quickly as it could. Wind attack hit the shield and moved both of them backwards, Ashinat and Brutus got behind Edwin and DeAngelo to support them against the wind attack.
At this point the beast was unleashing constant lightning and wind at the group, not giving Andrei the chance to even attempt an attack back. Andrei felt DeAngelo and Brutus were losing a bit of ground so he placed a barrier in front of them which allowed them to regain their balance for a moment and regain their footing.
Andrei also took that moment to peer around the shields and sent another "Nature Bomb of Blood with Wind Slash" which he had aimed at the leg and it suddenly burst open. The hiss was intense and they all froze from the sound of it. The leg was closing up its wound and Andrei remembered "Blood Boil" would reopen wounds fatally so he looked at the wound and thought "Blood Boil" and sure enough the hiss rang out again and blood came gushing out of the leg like it was trying to attack something.
The rain of lightning bolts had stopped and the wind attacks were slowing down. Andrei took the opportunity and set off a bomb center mass and continued to do so till the beast stopped moving.
The five of them all were suddenly exiting their VR pods a little shocked that they just defeated the boss of the MAC. What they didn't yet realize was that they had done so in record time. After what had happened the day before security had changed and no longer were people allowed to come and go from the arena VR pod room.
An Elryn General came up to them dressed in his best military uniform with a big smile on his face "Congratulations Team Hathin! If you all will follow me back to your rooms as we will wait for everyone to conclude their challenge. Once all teams have finished then we will summon you to the presentation."
They headed back to their rooms and decided to all head to Andrei's and watch the rest of the groups. There were snacks and beverages spread out on a table in their main room and the General noticed all of them go into the one room and told the attendants to increase the service to that room as they were the winners.
They had just entered the room and displayed on a big screen the battles and they saw the boss just kill a challenger in one shot with its lightning attack. They all started talking about the fight they just had with the boss turtle and how if they had charged in they would have been toast. The challenger they just saw shot was the last of the group from Frunturlun Academy.
Elondinonin and Tunstid both had their challengers still in it with Tunstid down one member. The group of people were talking about getting to know each other as all of them might have been from Hathin but most did not know each other. Death Squad members were now the talk of the event and anyone who works with Andrei or Edwin were getting bombarded with questions.
This held true especially for the five girls seen in Andrei's VIP box. The questions about who was his girlfriend and such were discussed with all five of them neither confirming nor denying any of them were his girlfriend. Andrei was feeling slightly weak then he realized he hadn't consumed anyone's blood in a couple days so he asked Mini to join him in his room real quick.
He grabbed her and spun her around and sunk his teeth in her neck. She was startled by his abrupt action but was completely relaxed and let it happen. The sensation running through her felt better each time he took a bite into her and she was starting to wonder if that was a bad thing. He finished up his feeding then gave her neck a couple nibbles that led to her ear and got a giggle out of her. He continued to her lips and gave her a kiss and then a simple "Thank you" in between kisses.
They left the room and joined back with the group which Sophia had caught on to and made the joke "That was fast!" Mini shot her a look and said "He needed a snack!" and Sophia, realizing what that meant went silent and tried to downplay the situation by walking away and talking to someone else.
Ashinat was the first to approach Andrei after he left his room and Mini walked away to converse with O. "What does one have to do to become a member of Death Squad? I am told you are the leader of the SPRU Death Squad correct?" she inquired after hearing from many of the others that Andrei was the leader.
"I am the leader and I am assigned a mission that requires many more to join, are you interested?" Andrei responded knowing she would make a great addition to their team. He also wasn't sure what she had been told so he didn't want to assume anything.
"I will be honest, I went through SPRU training but my team was wiped out on a mission that I was sidelined from going because I got a major virus the day before our mission and stuck puking my brains out during the entire mission. They were wiped out on a planet you supposedly came back from before you even graduated as a cadet. My only question is do I have to suck your dick to join?" Ashinat was blunt with her approach and Andrei appreciated it.
"Haha that is not a prerequisite to join, only those that want to can, I won't say no. But in all seriousness you would be a valuable asset to our team and if you want to join I will invite you to our base, known as Goliath." Andrei informed her.
Her communication device beeped and an invitation to join Death Squad and portal instructions to get to Goliath were both there quicker than she could have imagined anyone doing such a task. She looked back at him "What the hell is this, were you planning on inviting me?"
"No, that is just the response when I add someone to Death Squad by our base Goliath." Andrei casually responded not realizing how crazy he sounded.
"I have a question for you, what do you think of Brutus and DeAngelo joining?" Andrei asked her hoping for her insight as she knew them better than he did, or so he hoped.
"They both did well and have their own unique abilities that can be utilized by a skilled leader so why not." Ashinat replied as casually as she could, she was feeling a level of excitement she hadn't felt since she lost her team if she was honest with herself.
Andrei walked over to Brutus and DeAngelo who were talking with a group of the VIP guests and apologized to the group and asked for the two of them to talk privately. Everyone was more than happy to oblique the MAC Solo Champion and leader of the Group Champion with huge smiles telling him to take his time talking to them.
The three moved to a portion of the room that they could converse alone. Andrei asked them if they would join and both agreed faster than he could get the question completed. Both of their communication devices beeped at the same time and they received the same instructions as Ashinat. Andrei's explanation made more sense to them as they knew of military base assistants to be very punctual, not realizing Andrei was talking about the ship.
Both of the last groups of contestants for Elondinonin and Tunstid had been eliminated making the winner even more prestigious as only 5 previous groups had won from being the only to take down the boss, usually its multiple groups get the boss or no one gets the boss. The forums were exploding with all the stories surrounding this cycle's MAC and it felt like the Galaxy was a buzz about it.
The final ceremony was to be held and everyone in Andrei's room was to attend. The General who showed them to their room appeared at the entrance and made a loud bong noise from a device that grabbed their attention. The General cleared his throat and politely asked them to follow. "Please if first the VIP Guests per Challenger is to line up with their Challenger and then I need Brutus Pons' group first, DeAngelo Dean's group second, Ashinat Seyer's group third, Edwin Jarvis' group fourth and lastly Andrei Ierdna's group. Then follow in that order to the ceremony as we will be escorted there will be cameras with the eyes of the Galaxy on you."
Suddenly the mood shifted in the room as they all realized the gravity of what the General just said and they all formed up and headed out. When the general said they were going to be escorted Andrei would never have imagined 50 Sandarian guards would literally make a perimeter around the group escorting them to the event.
When they had exited their room the escort began and each group coming out of the room were startled by the sudden surrounding guards as they all looked extremely intimidating. Most people were not used to being around Sandarians and O was the only on the Hathin base so even Death Squad members were taken aback by their size and strength. Andrei reached the group, looked around and thought to himself "man, to have this as your front lines must be an intimidating sight for the opposing army."
They arrived at the ceremony without incident and proceeded into the banquet hall that led to a massive stage. There were thousands of people already in the seats throughout the area to witness the crowning of the champion. There was a small Elryn woman who came up with a clipboard in hand and on her head was an obvious earpiece to show she was in charge of things. She gave the VIP guests instructions on where they would be sitting when they headed out onto the stage as well as the Challengers and their order and location on stage.
There was a General who was already working the crowd over with a speech about the importance of the Galactic Federation Military being one unit, that this was all in fun, the usual propaganda issued by any and all governments throughout all of time. There was a general hum of noise that could be heard throughout the General's speech as most weren't paying attention to him. Then Brutus and his group stepped on stage and the place erupted. The General looked back and saw that they had only gotten to the edge and hadn't actually gotten onto the stage as he was still talking but the eruption drowned his speech out.
Brutus looked at the General and had a sheepish grin on his face thinking to himself Oh well you were a boring old man and proceeded to head out with his five VIP guests with him. They all were waving in each direction looking at all the people, the VIP guests continued to their seats as Brutus stood at his x on the ground so to speak in the form of a number 5. DeAngelo took 4, with Ashinat standing at 3, Edwin at 2 and Andrei was on 1. The crowd went bonkers when Andrei and his girls made it to the edge.
He had the girls all circle around him since Mini and Jiks were so much smaller they easily walked in front of him without blocking anyone's view. Surany and Sophia were on each side of him and Lily was next to Sophia but Andrei had his arm around Lily holding her close to Sophia. The group were walking much slower than the rest and they all soaked in the spotlight.
"He's with all of them!" One girl shouted from the audience.
"Wow what a lucky guy!" A jealous guy commented.
"Those girls have no respect for themselves!" a grouchy woman spouted in disdain.
They all ignored the comments and kept their smiles going and a slow wave to match their slow walk. Andrei stopped at this 1 and that is when the show really started. Each girl then turned and kissed him right on the lips in front of the Galaxy. They then walked just as slowly to their seats and sat down with all eyes and cameras on them for what seemed like an eternity to some.
Andrei didn't know they were going to kiss him but he just went with the flow and had the biggest smile on his face. The audience started to settle down and a different person now popped out from behind a curtain that the General had disappeared behind. This person was much livelier than the General and went straight at the elephant in the room.
"WOW! WOW! WOW! What an entrance folks, what an entrance!" the energetic man shouted into a drone that amplified his voice without the need for shouting. "Well folks it appears our champion will not be left alone tonight, am I right ladies?" He had finished his speech with a laugh that felt so fake one had to laugh at how ridiculous he sounded.
"First ladies and gentlemen, let's give it up for the five champions from Hathin!" Andrei started to drown out the guy's voice as he was thinking about what their next steps should be and how he probably should no longer associate with SPRU as they are supposed to be an unknown entity and he was now known.
Andrei was zoned out and then realized that the man was talking to him and he had not heard the question. "Well I don't blame you for being shy about it, I wouldn't want to have to pick one either!" The man quibbed at Andrei and Andrei still had no idea what he just said.
"Yeah man, I was zoned out, what did you ask me?" Andrei was blunt and direct and had no idea why this man was laughing or made the remark he just made.
"Got more important things on your mind I see, well let's move on shall we? Tell me what are your plans after the academy, are you going to stay with the military or is this just a stepping stone?" the man said with a boisterous heartiness to him that made Andrei think he was trying too hard to be impressive.
"I can't answer that as I can't tell you the future. I can tell you that I am going to do everything in my power to protect those I care about and if you threaten me or mine just understand that I will hold nothing back and what I displayed these past five days was me holding back more than any of you can imagine." Andrei's speech was spoken so cool off his lips that people felt the temperature of the room drop.
"Yeah ok, you know I wasn't threatening you right?" He chuckled nervously as he didn't know how to continue this line of questioning. The audience had gone silent as what Andrei said had a weight they weren't expecting either.
"Sooooo moving along to Edwin Jarvis!" the host moved onto the next person not sure how to continue to question Andrei. Andrei didn't mind and was hoping it would shut the man down as well. He glanced over at his girls who were all in their own little zones of thoughts or discussions and he knew they would become targets if he had the enemies he thought he had.
"Well I will follow wherever Andrei leads us, he has a future involving each of us on stage here and I speak for each of us when I say I can't be happier." Edwin had just spoken an answer that Andrei didn't hear the question to.
"Is it true that you are King Fhordin's bastard son?" was the next question out of the host's mouth and Andrei responded to that.
"What the fuck kind of question is that to ask of someone in front of the Galaxy?" another hush fell over the crowd and the host gave the most awkward forced chuckle anyone had ever heard. "No seriously, I get that you want to catch all the headlines and all but to ask someone if they might be a King's bastard son might be the dumbest question you could have possibly asked. Are you Queen Fiona's bastard son?" Andrei asked while looking directly into the host's eyes insulting him in the same way with his question.
This got a bunch of chuckles out of the audience and the host could feel himself losing the crowd. He didn't know how to shift the questioning with Edwin so he moved onto Ashinat.
"Well you displayed quite the feat of strength out there today, what are your plans going forward?" He kept it as simple as he could trying to remember what she accomplished or her powers.
"Andrei is my leader so where he goes I go or if he tells me to go somewhere else then I will go there." Ashinat didn't bat an eye when she responded with a quick direct response. They all weren't liking this host and his line of questions so far had gone astray quickly so she was as blunt as possible with him.
"Well there you have it folks, the winners of this cycle's Military Academy Challenge!" The host announced to the crowd and Andrei turned around hoping it was done when he heard the man continue.
"This cycle as in every cycle the winners get to head into the vault of the military academy to see what might be helpful for them. If the winners can now proceed to the vault following the guards." the host announced and they all perked up as they weren't aware of this award. Andrei noticed then that the heart rate of the host had increased significantly and he decided to react.
"I believe we can check out the winnings tomorrow, we have an important meeting to attend and won't be following any more guards to any more events. We will see you tomorrow, if all of our VIP Guests could come up to the stage and hold hands" Andrei spoke up and there was a hush over the crowd as no one knew what was happening.
Andrei's gut was telling him something was going to happen and that there was a trap laid out in his future but none of them could have predicted what he was about to do. The 25 guests quickly got into position making sure they all held hands as Edwin was quickly making sure anyone who wasn't was. Andrei saw they were all in place and gave the crowd a warm smile "Death Squad Out!"
With that they all ported back to Goliath on the 5th deck. Andrei realizing he would have a lot of explaining to do quickly grabbed everyone's attention. "Listen up everyone!" his voice sounded like it came from the walls as well.
Silence fell over everyone but no one could keep their eyes still as they were all looking frantically around trying to figure out where they were, all except for members of Death Squad.
"Welcome to Goliath, Death Squad's base of operation. I have invited all of you to get away from whatever that nonsense was. At minimum we will get some cool gear tomorrow, but honestly I felt like there was a trap for us. Call me crazy but everything felt off from the moment we were escorted with no one really paying attention to us. I then felt the host's intentions change when he told us about the reward as if he knew what our actual reward was going to be. I took it upon myself to make sure all of you were safe so here we are in the safest place in the Galaxy." Andrei told the group and proceeded to wave his arms around to display everything.
"I am going to allow Goliath to give you all a tour that needs one but I have business to attend to with our forgers. If anyone is an expert in specific fields that need to be filled on the Goliath roster you can find it on the second floor as you exit the lift. Enjoy the tour."
With that he headed off to the lift to go up to the 4th floor to meet up with Jayson. The newcomers now just realized that only the newcomers were there with Andrei when they ported into Goliath and they all started asking where the others might have ended up. Entering the forging area Andrei was pleased to see the two of them were in the middle of making more gear.
"How's the Epic shield coming along?" Andrei inquired from the two forgers and they heard the inquiry but kept working. Andrei realized he should have waited for them to stop before asking a question in general of them, it should have been obvious to him they were deep in concentration.
They finished up on the piece of armor they were working on and both went from concentration mode to all smiles. "First of all, can I say congratulations on being the MAC Champion as well as now being one of the richest Squads in history." Jayson said while holding out his hand to shake Andrei's.
Andrei was taken aback by the comment, "What do you mean richest?".
The two's faces were already lit up in huge smiles, they got larger somehow hearing Andrei ask exactly what they meant. "Well the cores that came piling in were so many that we decided to start making standard equipment with our technique. This gained a lot of traction and soon our gear became the hottest on the Galactic Market. We increased to intermediate and the profits came in. Jayson didn't want to put all of the earnings into your challenge but I was able to convince him to do 50%." Henry told Andrei.
"We were relieved to see you when they showed you as we had some doubts for a while till we saw the first fight and the armor we just made for you was on you at the arena. We ran to Deck 1 and saw that the gear was gone." Henry was going on about the gear and not the winnings.
"Basically, we bet on you when it was a +10,000 and we bet 10 million credits so we are now billionaires." Jayon had cut off Henry as he was rambling. "We also started the "TheAnswer" gear line of standard and intermediate gear from all the cores we have. They are selling instantly, basically anything we make at this point sells the second we put it on the market." He finished up with a huge grin.
"Not even in my wildest dreams could I imagine you guys accomplishing this much this quickly, thank you and awesome work!" Andrei replied with the only thing he could think of. The news of now having lots of resources at their disposal was something unexpected. They had finished up their conversation when two people entered the room and Andrei recognized them as VIP guests.
They were looking in all directions checking out the surroundings and they both saw the hammers that Henry and Jayson had and they both quickly rushed over to the two forgers to ask them about it.
"Where did you get those hammers? Those look like the hammers of legend that give perfect forges. Those must have cost you a fortune!" The one commented without getting a response. The other was just staring at the hammers without saying anything, it was comical to Andrei to watch the fascination in the eyes of this kid staring at the hammer.
"I'm Henry and this is Jayson, we are two of the forgers here on the Goliath. And you are?" Henry held out his hand while inquiring.
"Sorry, Jibin and he is Horis. We both signed up for forging on the list and then we received a message to proceed down here. I can replicate a piece of equipment once an hour so if we need multiple of a piece I can make one per hour. Horis' ability allows him to create molds with his mind, so he can duplicate visually what you might want if he has a visual of it himself." Jibin introduced themselves and both Henry and Jayson were really impressed to hear those abilities and both of their minds started turning on the possibilities.
"Can you replicate Legendary gear?" was Jayson's first question which Andrei agreed in his own head was a good first question to be replicated would make their gear much more powerful. "Unfortunately I can only replicate Standard and some Intermediate but I read that the ability I have is rare but those that have had it in the past eventually make it to legendary if they continue to work on their ability." Jibin had a positive outlook on it and seemed to be a positive guy with his entire demeanor and aura.
"Well I will let you guys have your fun. Let me know when the shield is ready so we can figure out who can wield it." Andrei knew these four were about to get deep into forge speech and he wasn't trying to stop it. Jayson looked at Andrei and realized they hadn't given him that either.
"Hold up, grab the shield as he needs to add to someone because…" He had wandered to another part of the room and then pulled out the shield. Andrei's eyes sparkled in awe as the shield came into his eyesight, it was a work of art.
The shield had a classic shield shape with a pointed bottom and a flat top. The outer 2 inches of each edge of the shield had a different elemental energy swirling along it. The bottom had green nature energy, the top had blue water energy, then the sides had white and red wind and fire energy that swirled back and forth. Inside of the elemental energy was an outline of 2 inch spikes that radiated all four colors of energy swirling in the tips of the spikes. Inside of that was a three dimensional skull with its mouth open, the teeth had two large fangs.
"Identify" revealed to Andrei that there was active beast skill. This skill stated that you could extend the skull out and if the fangs sank into a victim it would drain their HP and give the user HP. When he held it the elemental energy on the shield lit up and the fangs extended. The forgers were all watching in amazement. Andrei was thinking about the elemental energy and where it was on the shield and thought about Stone Wall and how it was a Nature defensive ability and when he thought the shield shot a stone wall into the ground and held the shield in place. "Oh shit! The shield can do that!" Henry exclaimed.
Andrei thought about cancelling the stone wall and it disappeared back into the shield. He then thought about if there was an ice wall skill that he hadn't learned and the shield from the top expanded an ice wall. Andrei was even more shocked that it did that as he didn't know of an ice wall skill for himself but was just thinking about it. Then cancelling the ice wall like he did the stone wall he thought about fire wall and wind wall but neither happened.
The wind and fire were on the sides and swirling together unlike the water and nature so he wracked his brain trying to think of what could activate the wind and fire. He was thinking of the wind swinging the shield in frustration and noticed that it accelerated. He then pulled it back and thought about the wind and did a lunge forward driving the shield forward and he was accelerated at an immense speed ramming into the wall.
"Yeah I would advise against running into walls, even with shields!" Jayson said with a chuckle as they all were laughing at the sight Andrei just made crashing into the wall as if he had planned on it.
Andrei stood up laughing at himself but he figured out what he wanted and then thought about if he could use it as a battering ram and did the same thought but had the shield held in front of him and his body shot forward at an incredible speed. He never figured out the fire attack but also knew that this shield would be better for Flen who needed his own shield. Andrei copied it into his inventory as well as put the original in his inventory to take it to Flen.
Jibin and Horis had never seen Andrei move anything to his inventory so they were both standing there startled "Where in the world did that cool shield go?" Horis spoke up for the first time.
Andrei turned to the two newcomers and gave them a warm smile. "Don't worry I still have it, I guess you have never seen my abilities." With that Andrei then put on his original gear in an instant and the two newcomers' eyes doubled in size. Andrei chuckled at their expression and he left the room putting his gear back in his inventory.
The next day Andrei gathered everyone in the cafeteria to inform them of the plan to return the VIP Guests to Hathin's MA and then for the Champions to go collect their prize as it was broadcasted to the Galaxy that they get rewarded from the vault. They all made physical connection so that they could port and Andrei took them to Hathin's MA portal room where the guards were startled but then recognized many of the group members and realized they were all returning from the MAC.
Then without wasting time the five of them came together and Andrei ported them to Elondinonin's MA portal room. They arrived to see that there weren't 50 Sandarian guards waiting for them. Andrei felt at ease as they left the room and no one was acting weird.
They proceeded to the vault that Mini had given them directions to, Andrei was leading the way and they didn't know he had a mini-map guiding him. They made it to the entrance where several Elryn guards stood. "Halt, you can not pass." claimed one of the guards. They all had different weapons but they all had the Elryn symbol of a tree of a life on their chest. The one who spoke had a shield that was the size of him on his back. Andrei chuckled to himself realizing that it would be his smallest shield if he were to hold it.
"Do you think this is funny? We are authorized to use force if necessary." the man shouted at Andrei taking offense to his chuckle. Andrei cleared his throat and was going to reply but was interrupted.
"That won't be necessary! Stand down and let them through!" A young looking woman not dressed in military gear or wearing armor had just come from the vault entrance. "My apologies as they weren't informed or paying attention to the fact that you five were awarded a visit to this vault and that you told us you would be back today." The woman continued talking while the guards were left flabbergasted and knew they had to stand down.
They each backed up and stood at attention and in unison "Yes your Majesty!" as they formed two different lines to usher the Death Squad Champions of five to walk by. "Identify" Andrei thought and it confirmed what his suspicions were and now was wondering if maybe his joke is what hit the host so hard. He extended his hand to greet the "Queen of the Elryn" Fiona Naomi which she was taken aback by how forward he was. Most bow or stand awkwardly not knowing what to do in the presence of a Queen but Andrei had his hand out with a warm smile "Hi, I am Andrei!".
"Well call me impressed with the fact that you're not shaking in your boots like your colleagues" as she pointed with her head towards Brutus who couldn't believe they were meeting the Queen. "I usually don't like to wait for my guests to arrive but I am glad I have made the exception. Tell me why did you leave yesterday? Did you not feel safe? What made you think you had to protect everyone from your Academy?"
Andrei wasn't expecting to be bombarded by the Queen of all people, he thought long and hard about how he wanted to answer and she almost started to speak again getting annoyed with how long he took when he said "I hated the whole ceremony host vibe, but when he started to talk about the reward, two things happened. The first would be the fact that no one before now has been rewarded with such a thing, at least not broadcasted to the Galaxy. The second was the host started sweating bullets when he announced it, we could all feel his mood shift, and if I were to guess his heart rate was through the roof. All of that forced me to take protection of those around me as paramount to anything else and not wanting to be stuck in the middle of 50 Sandarians that might want to kill me and those with me I got us all out of there."
The queen gave a hearty laugh and slapped him on his shoulder "That is why you are going places. You were in no such danger, those guards were my guards ordered to make sure you could make it to each area with no incident. It is why no one paid attention to you when you came in, I know you felt it then as the sight of those guys spooks outsiders. It is the most common thing for younglings like yourself to make that observation but I love your instincts."
"Please follow me and I will show you our private vault. I am told that you won the solo and the leader of the group so you are to have two pieces of your choosing." She casually commented to the group and they headed into the building they were calling the vault. When they went in they were all in complete shock as the vault was enormous. Andrei was even wondering if they had done an enlargement ability because the building they just walked up to did not look this large.
They all headed their own separate ways but the Queen stayed with Andrei and continued to talk. "So I am told you might be the most powerful ability user ever caught on video, is that true?" She almost sounded like she was goating him into revealing something she didn't know.
"No idea if I am the most powerful, I will be one day, right now I have many ways to grow and need to grow in many ways. The biggest thing is that I want to protect those I care about and I was told that we are all in danger and I need to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can. What that danger is, I have yet to find out, but I know that the bits I have learned I know I can grow in unimaginable ways." Andrei figured he would either get her on his side or lose her with his speech but he continued.
"I haven't changed the way I think about the world but I am seeing that corruption and greed are rampant everywhere, one man can't change that but when it's around me it will be snuffed out. If you threaten those I care about, I will have no mercy." He concluded with his word chilling the air around him causing the Queen to shiver. She was awestruck and didn't know why but was feeling a strong pull towards him that she had never felt from anyone.
Andrei finished his speech but had been looking at the equipment while giving it. There was a chest armor piece that caught his attention and it was because it had two abilities he hadn't paid close attention to but knew he needed to get leveled up.
[+++Advanced Chest Armor of Ultimate Protection]
[+100 Strength +100 Stamina +100 HP]
[+10 Presence +20 Constitution]
[+100 Defense]
It was ugly but he didn't care he knew it was just going to go on his fourth loadout and probably never be worn but those bonuses were going to make him significantly stronger.
He placed it on and added it to his fourth set and it disappeared in front of the Queen who audibly gasped. "What just happened to the piece of armor?" She quickly asked him. He just popped it back on and then off a second later which she then chuckled because she thought he broke it.
Andrei checked out his Presence tab and the Skin Hardening was now telling him that now Intermediate weapons would not be able to pierce his skin. Andrei could only wonder if at some point his skin would be impenetrable to almost all weapons.
They were walking around and nothing was screaming out to him till he came across a unique pair of leg armor that seemed too good to be true.
[+++Advanced Leg Armor of Nature's Protection]
[+100 Agility +100 Stamina +100 Spirit]
[Grants Maximum Nature Skill levels of all known Nature Skills]
[+50 Defense]
Andrei awkwardly put the leg armor on in front of the queen and as soon as he added them to his "Activate Armor" he saw his Nature tab light up. Then he thought about how he had Final Form: Nature so he looked at the tab and saw it was unlocked. He smiled a big huge smile that got a reaction out of the Queen.
"What just gave you that big of a grin? Those leg armor are for Nature users, they are considered the best leg armor nature users can use. My grandfather won many wars in those pants and you put them on and get the biggest shit eating grin a girl has ever seen." The Queen was laying into him trying to find out what just happened. Andrei's smile continued as he thought what the hell, let's try it out here.
[New Zii Skill unlocked: "Final Form: Nature"]
["Final Form: Nature" allows the user to transform into Nature's deadliest form of a Python. Nature abilities have a 1,000% increased power. All user's stats are 400% increased. Time spent in Final Form is 3 minutes. Cooldown is 8 hours]
Andrei's entire body started to shift and wave about into the form of a Python. The Queen jumped back a solid 10 feet in one leap as she was completely shocked at the transformation. Andrei wanted to test it out so he quickly slithered around the room faster than most of them could keep track of. The sensation felt like he was floating through the room but it was the effortless gliding of the python's body that made it feel so weird at first.
Guards came rushing in to assist their Queen as they saw a massive Python go zooming across the area. Andrei seeing the fright in their eyes quickly canceled his final form and held his hands in the air "Guys its ok it's just me, I got a new ability from the reward and I apologize if I scared you"
The group of guards were hesitating and looking at the Queen for their answer she flicked her hand at them to tell them to go away. Andrei still had a huge grin on his face as he walked up to her and gave her a bow. "Thank you, You're Majesty! I am truly grateful for these incredible gifts and they will be used for the betterment of the Galaxy I can assure you."
He then looked at his final form ability and saw the cooldown was from four hours. Then he remembered his buff from Surany was 50% cooldown so he could use final form again in a couple hours now. He was excited to test it and as well as needing to test his vampire form.
Ashinat was still meandering around and Andrei noticed that she couldn't find anything. He noticed a necklace that she might like and so he grabbed it and put it on her neck in a quick motion to where she only could react verbally to the assault. She felt the surge of power and her hand instinctively grasped the necklace.
"This necklace has a passive to it that will grant the user's weapons their full elemental potential as well as give you an increase to your strength." Andrei told her with a warm smile from just behind her as he clasped the necklace from behind her head.
"I will take it! But how did you know it would do that?" Ashinat inquired as to how he would know the necklace's powers. She was becoming more and more fascinated with her new leader who seemed to be attracting everyone's attention no matter what he did.
Andrei walked over to DeAngelo who was contemplating between an axe and a sword that both seemed to be calling his name. Andrei figured telling him the difference would help him.
"The sword's beast skill turns the sword into a chained whip. The axe's beast skill allows the head to be thrown and then pulled back to it. Hope that information helps you!" Andrei told him
DeAngelo thanked him and grabbed the axe off the wall and told the Queen "Thank you, Your Highness!" They all went over to Brutus to see if they could help him, in truth only Andrei could but they all had selected their reward so no reason to linger.
Andrei then noticed in the back of the room a weapon that made perfect sense for the person who can reload any gun.
[+++Advanced Gatling Gun of Poison]
[+100 Strength +100 Agility +100 Stamina]
[Gatling Gun projectiles poison the enemy that will drain the Stamina and Spirit]
Andrei explained the beast skill and Brutus' eyes lit up and a big smile on his face. "That would mean I could unload suppression fire indefinitely as that holds a 1,000 round magazine." Something Brutus could read and Andrei couldn't, which made Andrei wonder if "Identify" leveling higher would eventually tell him that information.
They all thanked the Queen one last time and circled up so Andrei could port them back to Hathin's MA. Andrei called a meeting in their designated room at SPRU HQ to discuss everything that had been going on and for everyone to meet if they hadn't.