May 14, 2020

  The seven soldiers charge towards Iravin. Iravin runs towards them, using biomass to change his arms into blades. The soldiers spread out across the battlefield, taking positions in different locations around Iravin. The three soldiers at two, five, and six o’clock sprint towards him. The three soldiers at nine, seven, and eleven o’clock go under the ground. The last remaining soldier at three o’clock jumps up in the air. Iravin turns to the three soldiers sprinting at him and prepares himself. The cursed energy in these soldiers are only about 70% of what Waldo has. With only three of them here, he could take them on. If it were more at once, he might have had a bit more trouble with that. The soldier at front takes the first attack and throws a kick at Iravin. Iravin dodges the kick and swings his blade arm. Another soldier comes in and deflects the blade arm by compressing their body into a shockwave and blasting it away.

  Iravin brings down his other blade arm and cuts through one of the soldiers. The other two soldiers run at him and then split off in different sides. Iravin watches the two of them carefully and then decides to go for the soldier on the right. He dashes towards it and swings both of his blade arms. The soldier isn’t able to block the full extent of the blades and its arm dissipates. As Iravin is about to swing his blades and decapitate the soldier, the other three soldiers that went underground sprout back up by erupting the ground under Iravin. While they hold off Iravin, the soldier in the air comes down and creates more shockwaves to replace the arm of the wounded soldier. The three underground soldiers come back up and the now six soldiers await Iravin’s next charge.

  Coming out of the cloud of smoke, whip fists are suddenly swung. One of the soldiers fall victim to the whip fist and disappear. Now there are only 5 soldiers remaining. The remaining soldiers take in the shockwaves of the fallen soldier and empower themselves with the cursed energy. Iravin then comes running out of the smoke cloud and turns his arms into blades again. The soldiers turn their own arms into blades and charge at Iravin. Meanwhile, Waldo is still in the back line and watching the fight unfold. Iravin is becoming accustomed to the multiple opponents and their power. He’s beginning to fight very well against them. It’s almost time for Waldo’s plan to come to its final step.

  The soldiers and Iravin continue their relentless exchange of strikes. Iravin eventually brings down two more of Waldo’s shockwave soldiers. The remaining 3 soldiers take in that cursed energy and empower themselves. They’ve become even stronger than before and run towards Iravin without hesitation. Iravin also charges at them. The three soldiers swing their blade arms at Iravin and Iravin swings both of his. The soldiers and Iravin are then forced into a sudden clash. It doesn’t take long for Iravin to overwhelm them with his strength and get rid of the remaining three soldiers. Then, the cursed energy withdraws back to Waldo. Iravin turns his head and stares at Waldo. He’s taken care of his annoying little troops and now it’s time for the main course. Waldo flexes his arms a little bit and steps forward.

  “That was quicker than I anticipated. Your evolution and adaptation skills are certainly no joke.”

  “You still haven’t seen everything that I can do.”

  “Neither have you. In fact, I don’t even know of what I’m capable of anymore. I’ve been enlightened, sure. But the scope of my horizons has been increased.”

  Waldo stomps the ground and the ground begins to glow blue. Iravin sprouts shields on his body the instant he senses shockwaves coming up from the ground. The shockwaves are relentless and continue to spew out from the ground. It’s like an endless hailstorm of attacks. Once Waldo stops firing shockwaves at him, he takes off from his spot and kicks Iravin in the face. Iravin doesn’t move from his spot and swings his blade arm at Waldo. Waldo narrowly slips away from the blade and fires a point blank shockwave at him. Iravin manages to just barely block in time but is still knocked away from the shockwave. Unexpectedly, his back collides with a random stone wall. This wall wasn’t here before. In fact, there are a ton of stone walls around Waldo and him. Where did all of these walls come from?

  “I did it. While you were busy defending yourself from my shockwaves, I was using a small fraction of them to move up the ground into several walls. And now, the rat has been cornered into a wall.”

  “Even a rat backed into a corner will still bite the cat.”

  Waldo begins to smile. His hands curl into fists and he lifts up his arms.

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  Waldo clamps his fists together. The sound of his fists hitting each other resounds across the walls and the battlefield.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Domain Expansion: Shattering Art of War!”

  The Domain Expansion calls upon a black barrier to surround the area, but is swiftly destroyed and replaced with a blue barrier. A grand colosseum is erected in the center of the Domain Expansion. Iravin checks his new surroundings in confusion.

  (A colosseum came out from nowhere! This isn’t the same place. The atmosphere feels different and we’re in a damn colosseum! And this guy…)

  Iravin looks at Waldo and sees that he’s going through a change. There’s a faint silhouette of a halo above his head. That glowing blue eye of his looks even fiercer than before. And that devilish smile of his has returned. It’s definitely less crazy and tweaked out than before, but that smile is still hungry for an entertaining battle. Iravin decides that it’s no use questioning what’s happening or where he was sent. He puts a hand upon his forehead and begins to laugh. In a matter of seconds, all reason seems to leave Iravin’s eyes. His body twitches in excitement and his face morphs into a crazed expression.

  “Oh, to hell with it! Who cares about any of that?!”

  “It seems your screws have become to loosen up. What a pleasant sight.”

  “I’ve always had a screw loose.”

  “What a coincidence. I think the same goes for me.”

  Iravin charges forward and yells. Waldo, however, appears right before him and slams him into the ground. Thanks to retrieving his lost memories, he can fully utilize the power that his Domain Expansion grants him. The buffs are no longer being wasted. Waldo then grabs Iravin’s face again and drags him across the ground. Iravin puts his hands on Waldo’s wrist and tries to pry him off. Waldo suddenly launches him into the air. The blue barrier fluctuates and shockwaves collide with Iravin from all angles. Iravin is sent towards the ground but he lands last second. Waldo comes from above and starts flying towards him. Iravin narrowly dodges a downward kick from Waldo.

  Shockwaves suddenly erupt from the ground and fire into Iravin’s back. Iravin is staggered towards Waldo and Waldo grabs him by the torn collar of his shirt. He delivers a devastating punch to Iravin’s ribs and then finishes it off with an uppercut. The Domain Expansion has increased Waldo’s power by a lot and has succeeded in bypassing Iravin’s adaptability even for just a second. Then, Waldo creates shockwaves all around Iravin and fires them all towards him. The shockwaves are just a second away from crashing into him. Iravin suddenly grabs onto something on his chest right before the shockwaves rain down on him. His screams and roar can be heard in the distance.

  “It seems I got him. Yeah, right… he’s possibly about to pull off something miraculous.”

  A cloud of smoke arises from all of the shockwaves raining hell on Iravin. Waldo stands there as he assesses the situation. The halo silhouette above him is becoming more clear and refined. He stands there, ready to see what Iravin will do now. Will he finish his adaptation? Will he bring out that armored form again? What if he brings out the full extent of his cursed technique? There are many things that Waldo is anticipating for. However, he soon figures out that it was neither of these things. Iravin screams once more from within the cloud of smoke. Some sort of energy clears away the smoke and makes him visible again. Waldo puts his arms up to avoid the full force of the wind. He looks back up. He sees Iravin holding a long set of chains in his hands. There’s a certain aura to the chains that makes even the current Waldo chill up from it. He can feel something coming it from. It feels like a pure cataclysm.

  “I didn’t think I would have to do this. You’re stronger than anything I’ve had to face since waking up.”

  “I should be saying that. Out of any of my opponents, I believe you stand at the top so far. It should be an honor. Now then, it seems this battle has escalated. In that case…”

  Waldo stretches out his arm and lifts it up. Cursed energy begins to flow towards his palm. As this happens, the colosseum begins to rumble and shift. The buff from the Domain Expansion is causing this fluctuation of power to affect the entire space inside. Waldo’s cursed energy begins to materialize from his palm.

  “I summon… Hades!”

  The cursed energy fully forms into the corseque once again. Waldo holds Hades in his hand and smiles at Iravin. Iravin smiles back. The chains are starting to wrap around his fists and fill with an ominous energy. The auras of the two warriors begins to flood the colosseum grounds.

  “This is it, Iravin. It’s the final curtain. We’ve both come quite far from where we started. Let’s put our new powers to the test.”

  “Right you are. I didn’t think that today would wind up as interesting as it did. I have to thank you.”

  “Let your actions speak louder than your words.”

  The two of them disappear from their spots. Iravin’s power has increased due to the presence of his chains. Waldo’s power has increased due to having summoned Hades. Right now, they’re both standing on equal footing. No one is overly more powerful than the other. It all comes down to how much pressure they exert. It all comes down to who is more hungry for battle. Waldo swings Hades. Iravin throws a devastating punch wrapped in his chains. The two weapons collide with either. The two powers are incredible forces. In a matter of seconds, both warriors cause the entire colosseum to crumble from the sheer volume of their clash. It’s truly War versus Cataclysm.