MAZE - The Endless Quest

As soon as Livy called, Hera rushed over. She got by the Leviathan’s side in time to see her being kicked in the stomach by one of the humans, pushing her back several meters. Even if the man had to jump to hit her properly, the blow still had enough force to force Livy to make a large drag mark on the ground.

Hera jumped to her side, holding the two hand axes as the two humans stared them down.

‘Are they stronger than you?’ the Empress asked Livy, through her intention it was clear she was talking about the Leviathan’s awakened form as it was now. Instead of her regular strength.

‘Yeah, but not by that much. I can still hold my ground. If it’s a one-on-one fight.’

‘Better than Delta, then,’ Hera sighed in relief. The complete version of the Soldiers of Strength might not be able to show the same raw power as the prototype. Focusing on the two humans, she noticed some small differences between them. Both wore pure white armor, which gave a very strange contrast to their glowing scarlet skin. Their weapons were also the same, a white longsword with blood red runes going across the blade. However, one of them was bulkier and had short hair in a military cut, while the other had longer hair and a more lean build.

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Soldier of Strength - Level 52

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Soldier of Strength - Level 51

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‘Yeah, they are higher level than Delta,’ Hera nodded.

‘Can you take care of the thin one? I’ll take the-‘ before Livy finished her sentence, the bulkier human dashed at her. Swinging his sword upward, he forced the Leviathan to parry.

At the same time, the thin man rushed towards Hera. She saw the blade coming from above and triggered the hovering function of her shoes before using her tail to move around the man, appearing behind him almost as if she had teleported. Ever since getting these new shoes, and her new body as an Ophidianite, she could finally use the Dorohla Style to its full effect. Which was the only thing saving her right now. Even if she was facing the weaker of the two soldiers, for one of them to be stronger than the awakened version of Livy, meant that their strikes would be several times more powerful than anything Hera herself could handle.

The man growled and went for a wide swing, forcing the Empress to pull back. While getting away, she also opened her mouth, letting her fangs appear and spat out a Poison Spray. The orange venom splashed on the man’s armor but it just slid off, unable to permeate the material.

Hera didn’t give a chance for him to recuperate from the scare and went back in for a couple of strikes using [Grasshopper Slash] at the same time, she called the blades that were once part of her court to join. This wasn’t a moment where she could pull her punches, even if the day was just starting.

As [Blade Graveyard] started to appear, and the old blades slowly formed around them, the human lunged at Hera once more. She dodged the first and the second strikes, but the third came at such a speed that the Ophidianite couldn’t respond in time. Thankfully, Glacia, Shadow, and Pyro stepped in to help. The three blades pushing the sword away enough of its course for their Empress to duck under it.

“Fuck you!” the man snarled as he kicked Hera on her shoulder. Even if his attack was awkward enough to make him lose his balance and almost fall back, it still had the power to throw the Ophidianite tumbling a few meters back and pop her shoulder out of its socket.

Thankfully, by the time he recovered, the [Blade Graveyard] was already in effect. All the 17 blades jumped into the battle. They might be extremely weak when comparing to the Soldier of Strength, but it was still annoying to deal with them. And that was all Hera needed. Quickly popping her shoulder back into place, she lunged forward. Taking advantage of an opening created by the attacks, she tried to hit the man’s neck, but was only able to get his ear instead. The hand axe, buffed by the [Grasshopper Slash] and the Grasping Flames buff, was able to cut through his skin, but it wasn’t enough to lob the ear off.

The man ignored the weaker flying blades who were using everything they had to damage him and went after Hera. Swinging his sword repeatedly in wide arcs. It wasn’t a practiced style, and it felt more like he was just acting out instead of actually fighting, but the sheer speed and power behind each strike forced the Empress to pull back.

Once she was able to take a wider step away to prepare for a new attack, Twiggy yelled in her mind, ‘Duck!’

Hera didn’t think, just acted. She felt some of her hair be cut by the swing the other Soldier of Strength had just delivered. Livy, with the help of Storm and Clay, parried the strike, but the continuation of that attack went straight for the location where the Ophidianite stopped. The second human saw what was going on and used the momentum to his advantage. If it wasn’t for Twiggy’s warning, Hera might have, quite literally, lost her head.

Livy refused to let that move go unpunished. She used the pommel of the war axe to hit the man’s groin and followed it up with a slash that cut through some of the armor. However, the metal slowly started to reform, just like Delta’s flesh once did.

‘They can heal!’ the Leviathan warned as she created a spectral mouth from the side of the axe that chomped the human’s weapon, cracking it with the sharp teeth.

Hera glanced at the man’s ear. The one that was covered in blood due to her attack. But it didn’t seem like it was healing. Not as fast as it was with Delta.

‘Are you sure?’ the Empress went for a double kick, using her tail to support her body just like Vulcan did. Instead of an attack, the result was more similar to jumping off a rock. The man didn’t move at all while Hera did a backflip and got some distance between the two.

The Soldier flipped his broadsword to a backhand grip and lowered his body, getting closer to the ground. He was clearly about to do something big, but before he could continue, Crimson appeared, jumping on the man’s back. She quickly started to wrap him with her tail, trying to trap the arm holding the sword against his body, and slam her dagger on the exposed skin.

‘Crim! Don’t!’ Viper yelled, but it was too late.

With a flick of his wrist, the man brought the weapon down, creating a large gash on Crimson’s tail, and making the Spymaster drop to the ground in pain. He continued his move, lunging like a monster towards Hera and spinning in the air. The Empress tried to get away, but her legs were frozen, just now realizing that the preparation also included a way to snare her in place for a moment.

Bracing herself for the blow, she called all the blades around to her aid, with the exception of Livy, Storm, and Clay, who were entangled in their own fights. All 17 court members reborn thanks to [Blade Graveyard] formed a defensive line, as Twiggy used both [Silvered Strength], and [Bathed in Silver] to buff the court’s attributes. The final back up was Lurize, who used his [Winged Boost] to cross the distance between him and the Empress, taking the front of the attack.

All that happened in the seconds after the Soldier of Strength left the ground and an ominous white light with a thin red line around it emanated from his weapon. Viper was trying to disrupt the spell, but his mana wasn’t able to pierce through the magic of the human.

Even with all those defenses, and all that preparation, it still wasn’t enough to stop the attack. The blade sunk deep into Lurize’s arm before tossing him on top of Hera and sending both flying across the battlefield. Only stopping when they slammed against the valley wall, leaving a large crater behind. Amongst the blades helping block, Dao, Ember, Brute, Beam, Frost, and Autumn all shattered with the impact. The rest went flying off, cracked but not broken.

The man stepped back in a smirk, cracking his neck as he got ready to finish the job. But before he could reach his target, Crimotra, the guardian form of the Spymasters, appeared. The twin daggers attached like mantis claws swung rapidly at the man and still using the Dorohla with the serpent’s lower body. Both Viper and Crimson agreed to use this form, since it looked like Hera was doing well against the man while fighting like this.

Hera struggled to get up and so did Lurize. Both were already injured, but they couldn’t stop now. Daskka, who was unable to do anything to help so far, was already covering the two, healing them as much as she could with her mist. As she finally gather her bearings, the Empress saw Livy being tossed to the ground. After one big swing that both the Soldier of Strength’s sword and the Leviathan’s war axe clashed, the sword shattered. Forcing the man to use his fist to continue the fight. Unfortunately, he was proficient in that kind of battle.

Livy got up with a groan, but her form shifted, getting smaller and reaching her regular height of 3 meters tall.

“What the-“ before she could finish the sentence, the human tackled her to the ground and started beating her face repeatedly.

However, that only lasted a moment. A large figure, not as big as Livy herself, covered in red marks, flashed through the battlefield. It slammed against the Soldier of Strength on top of the Leviathan and started clawing at him with madness in its eyes. Vulcan had reached 100% on his Daemonic Influence and now was lashing out at the biggest source of his anger. The people who were experimenting on his kind.

Thanks to him being also a Strength Spirit. Or a Daemon in this case, his strikes were able to overcome some of the defenses of the human. Not just that, but being attacked by a Daemon of the same kind seemed to interrupt the connection between the man and whatever was supplying him with the power.

Still, that Soldier wasn’t about to take this lying down. He pushed Forge away and started a melee with him. Both were punching each other with such strength that cracks were forming on the ground, blood and mana being splattered around the place.

Hera glanced around, thinking about what she could do. She wasn’t strong enough to hurt the Soldiers of Strength. There wasn’t enough power behind her blows. And she couldn’t use the break combo right now. The blast could damage the valley to the point of causing a landslide, which would be a danger for those in the camp.

‘Hera!’ Nimbus rushed over, the last of the court, to arrive. Everything happened too fast, and he was protecting Helena. Only when the Empress was slammed against the wall that he moved.

‘Nimbus?’ Hera glanced at him and an idea came to mind, ‘Mount form. Now! Livy, come here, weapon form.’

Without questioning, the two titled blades followed the orders. Hera had the remaining court members from the [Blade Graveyard] to work as the conga line as Nimbus quickly ran away from the camp. Once they were close to the limit, the Sentinel turned around.

‘Gather them!’ Hera asked her court. Vulcan was now losing the fight, already on the ground with the human on top of him, beating his head mercilessly. Even with Sun and Storm trying to hold the man back, he didn’t seem to care. Robin also fired arrow after arrow at the Soldier, finally being able to join the fight without being a danger to the court.

Crimotra quickly guided the other Soldier of Strength towards his partner, and when they were close enough to each other, Clay wrapped himself around both of them, pulling the two to the side and making sure Vulcan wasn’t on the path anymore. The segmented blades held on to the humans for a moment, but in just a moment, the two men grabbed the metal with their gauntlets and pulled it apart, shattering the chain whip in a quick motion.

Vulcan, still moving and under the Daemonic Influence, jumped at the man he was fighting, pushing him against the jagged barricade. He grabbed him by the back of the head and slammed his face against the wall again and again. Removing some of the buffs as he did so. Lurize and Crimotra quickly joined in, using the opening created by Forge to start cutting up the man in hopes of finishing him off.

While that was going on, Hera wasn’t just waiting around. Once Clay started moving to grab the Soldiers of Strength, Nimbus dashed back to the camp at full speed. Not even a high level explorer would be ok after being run over by a car at almost 100 kilometers per hour. And in this case, it was a war axe with over 50 strength scaling, buffed by a Serrated Ice spell, a [Grasshopper Slash], and Hera’s [All In].

Her hope was to hit both of them with that attack, but Vulcan took one of them out of the area just a second before the Empress arrived. Whit a mighty swing, Livy came in an arc from below, slamming the lean human on the stomach and pulling him upwards. Or at least, that was the plan. Once the blade connected to the armor, the force behind the attack was so strong that it cleaved right through him, citing the man in two pieces.

Nimbus stopped right away, which made him tumble to the ground, with Hera still on top of him. When the Ophidianite looked up, she saw Lurize and Crimotra walking away from a body as Vulcan returned to the legacy. She had won. It was a hard battle, but Hera could proudly say that both Soldiers of Strength were dead and she was the one who killed them.