ShanDeRad
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Book 2: Chapter 36
🕑 Added 2024-06-03 11:24:55 +0000 UTCThe rest of the day proceeded as planned, Shaun had spent more time than he realised making the ring and now had to get ready to attend his second last meeting. When he walked into the meeting room at the soiree he was greeted by a smiling Xavier Barshen, The Empire representative that had been one of the most forceful reps in trying to get him to join them.
“Please, take a seat Shaun, we have much to discuss.” Xavier motioned for him to take the chair directly opposite him. “You have been productive I see. Level 61 and still in the tutorial, an impressive accomplishment.”
“Thanks, I have been working hard, taking advantage of the dungeons as much as I can. Crafting when I need to recover.”
“You also made an impression at the feast, the first one anyway. I sense the fear and death radiating from your armour, Wyrm scale I believe, quite the find and an impressive piece indeed. If you wouldn’t mind I would like to test how strong your aura is. If you would hit me as hard as you can with it”
Shaun knew this was a test, what Xavier really wanted was to see how much power he could push into his aura, which in turn, would show how powerful he was, regardless of what his level said. Rather than going full out, he decided to just push only half of what he was capable of into his aura and push it across the table at Xavier.
“Come on Shaun, I have been around longer than you by centuries, I know when someone is holding back, show me more!” The moment Xavier yelled at him he started to push down on him with his own aura, leaving Shaun no choice but to fight back or be crushed by it. The more Shaun pushed against Xavier he was met with even more pressure by him, forcing him to continue to push back until he was using everything he had to bear down on Xavier. When Xavier continued to push him but Shaun couldn’t summon any more power to put into his aura Xavier laughed at him. “Enough, I have gotten what I wanted.” He felt the oppressive aura back away from him and he let his own fall back as well until neither of them were releasing their power.
For a while they sat in silence, each of them staring down the other. Shaun was the first to break the silence. “What level are you? You beat me back like it was nothing, none of the clans could do that and I felt them try.”
“Now we are getting somewhere. Here I thought it was going to be harder to get you to have an actual conversation with me.” Xavier summoned a drink, doing the same for Shaun before having a sip. “The clans, or at least those that have come to find members, are either in D grade or very early C grade, but none are elites. I, however, am in the middle of C grade and would be counted as an elite member if I were in any of the clans, but in The Empire we expect everyone to be an elite. To give you context an elite is someone who is able to fight up many levels, sometimes even grades. And if I was to guess at your power, I would say that you could fight a very early, very average D grade at this point. That means you would also be an elite.”
The conversation was tamer than Shaun expected after that, they discussed potential fighting styles, the rigorous training regime that everyone who entered The Empire had to not only be part of but also graduate. The way that Xavier spoke about it the more Shaun realised that it was more like a school, one where you focused on not just learning how to fight at the best of your ability but also on tactics, how to succeed in a war and even how to lead an army.
“There is one other thing to consider. Both the Creators Guild and The Dynasty have approached me with another offer, one that they think you will like. I don’t see the harm in offering you a second option in joining us, although I would prefer you have no ties but to The Empire. The first option you have is to join us, fully. The second, and more unorthodox option, is that you join The Empire but also dedicate some time to the guild, learning your craft and further increasing your skills under their tutelage. They would have a representative stay with you in The Empire who would help you take advantage of your profession, which even I can admit, seems to be powerful in its own way. The things you create will then be sold through The Dynasty as if you were apart of the guild however, we would get first pick as to whether The Empire wished to purchase what you make.”
He thought back to his conversation last week with Wilaron, he had said that he was going to find a more attractive offer, something that he would find more interesting than just crafting, and it seemed he had done just that. It was a good offer, they had taken into consideration everything that he could possibly want, but they had missed one crucial thing, he wasn’t safe with any of them. Even now a part of him, that part that he was recognising to be the memories of the Nephilim, was giving him some guidance, a new experience that he was only just now being able to tune into. If he really listened to that feeling he got an understanding of how this would go. If he accepted the offer, which he wasn’t going to, but if he did, he would be pulled from three separate sides and eventually the relationship between the powers would show signs of cracking and The Empire would simply go back on the deal and cut out the other two powers. The gained everything and lost nothing, holding all the power in the situation.
“Thank you, Xavier, for the offers. I will take them into consideration along with all the others.” He didn’t want to antagonise him, so went with a respectful reply, not giving voice to the potential issues he saw with such an offer.
“I don’t see what there is to consider, but I do look forward to hearing your answer in 2 days time. You can go now.” Xavier just waved him off, a complete dismissal.
Shaun considered telling him that he had no plans to make a choice until the end of the tutorial but decided to put it off until he had to. He simply left the room and went back to his own room, he was holding off on going through the dungeon again and he had no current plans for crafting, for the first time in a while he felt a little lost as to what he should be doing. When he reached his room he decided on exploring the memories he knew he had from the Nephilim but could access, he knew they were suppressed somewhere inside of him and that they only really made themselves known in very specific circumstances, but with this new feeling he had been getting he wanted to see if he could delve deeper into his mind and find something more.
He dropped into a mediation and started trying to explore deeper into his mind, he didn’t know how long he tried but he kept getting pushed out the more he tried to probe, it was clear that whatever was trapped in his mind by the heritage wouldn’t be coming out until it was ready. What he decided to do instead was think through the events of the past week, he had caught glimpses of the others every now and again but they had done what he had asked and stayed away from him, there had been talk about the fallout of their team and the main theory was that Shaun was planning to fight for power so had cut them out of his plans. It still sucked that he couldn’t spend time with them but every time it got to hard he just remembered why he was doing it in the first place.
The night passed quickly and when the next day came he was ready for his fight, he was already told he would be fighting in the group of three but he hadn’t bothered to check who he was fighting or when. He didn’t have much to prepare for though, the last he checked he was over 10 levels higher than pretty much everyone in the tutorial so they could have pretty much made it everyone against him and he would have still bet on himself. When the time came and his orb glowed to signal the 30 minute mark before his fight he stopped what he had been doing and went towards the arena. He had been practicing with his new skill, taking all of the elements out of whatever items he had and wasn’t using, putting it in their own little inventories. What he learnt about the skill is that for each different element he absorbed with the skill another little sphere of power would be created where it would be stored. The same elements would always go to the same sphere but if there was even small differences than it would create another sphere to store the elements. He had attempted to combine elements into one sphere but no matter how hard he tried he wasn’t able to mix them.
When he finally arrived at the arena he took a seat to wait for his turn to enter, for the past few fights everyone just conceded beforehand, this time though he was approached by someone else who had been waiting for their own fight.
*Nicholas Greer – Level 37*
“Hi Shaun, I’m Nick, or Nicholas, but just call me Nick. Everyone calls me Nick.” The guy seemed a little nervous, most people did when they approached him now though so he wasn’t shocked. “I am supposed to fight you in the next fight, as well as Jessica.” Nick motioned to Jess, who he was surprised to see, he hadn’t really spoken to either her or Michael outside of the first meeting so seeing that he was going to be fighting someone he knew was a bit of a shock that he hadn’t expected. “I just wanted to ask, if we do decide to go through with the fight, are you going to kill us like people say you will?”
He knew the rumours around anyone that decides to fight him will die in the arena, all because he had killed Trevor in the first fight. “As long as you try not to kill me I wont try and kill you Nick.”
“Jessica said you wouldn’t kill us but I just wanted to make sure, I don’t really want to give up without a try. So let the best man, or woman, win right?”
They didn’t talk again after that but Nick seemed like a decent enough guy, he decided that he would let the fight go on for a bit before finishing it, just so that they could show some skills off at least. He would gain nothing by completely dominating them and in all honesty, he was actually curious as to what skills they may be able to throw at him.
When it was time all three of them walked into the arena, there was some cheering by the crowd and everyone watching seemed to be in good spirit. “It looks like we have our 3 person battle ready to go!” Dijaun spoke to the crowd. “For the past 2 fights the opponents of Shaun Clermont have conceded, will it be the same today? Challengers Nicholas, Jessica, do either of you with to concede this fight?” Nether of them conceded which got the crowd truly excited, it had been a while since he actually fought and they hoped to see more of what he could do. “Then let the fight begin!”
The moment the fight started Jessica sent an attack his way, it looked like a decently powerful attack too if her mana usage was anything to go off. When she let the skill go a beam of mana was sent straight at him, he considered dodging but wanted to see what his armour would make of it. As soon as it hit him, square in the chest, he barely felt the attack, but then unexpectedly the attack changed and from the point of where he was hit a second explosion was released that made him take several steps back to keep his balance. Before he fully recovered Nick was on him with two blades, on in each hand, and an air of darkness surrounding him. For his level he seemed quick, probably focusing most of his stats on Dexterity, but compared to Shaun he was slow. He easily dodged the attacks and Nick used every skill he had available, one of which was rather impressive. When threw one of his blades it disappeared in mid air and then magically appeared behind Shaun, going straight for his back, he felt it as soon as it happened and decided to use his ring to teleport behind an unsuspecting Jessica.
The moment he reappeared he placed his sword against he neck from behind, the moment she realised though she but up a barrier in front of the blade, which he could have easily broken through but instead decided to see what she would do next. She triggered some skill that sent a wave out of her which would have effectively blasted back anyone else but was nothing more than a gentle breeze for him. When he didn’t move from his position, the sword still against her neck she yelled out that she conceded. The moment she did he teleported back to Nick and used his own sword to knock the blades from the man’s hands. It took a bit longer than usual as he decided against going full on, but when he felt that the man had shown enough of his abilities to the crowd he put the smallest amount of lightning into his sword and the next time that it connected with Nick’s blade he was shocked by the electricity and fell to the ground. He recovered quickly though but instead of continuing to fight conceded, he had done everything he could to land a blow and hadn’t succeeded, continuing on would have been embarrassing and he knew it.
“And the winner is decided! Let’s here it for our three fighters!” Dijaun yelled at the crowd when Nick had given up. Thankfully none of the reps were present so he was clear to just leave the arena.
*Round 5 Winner declared as Shaun Clermont*
1,689,721 TE awarded to winner for beating opponent in two on one battle. You may now leave the arena.
Comments
TerrestrialOverlord
nice...I can't wait till he's in a place where he's no longer OP
