Chương 597: War Beneath the Waters

Luke raised his free hand. [Enhanced Telekinesis activated] One by one, chunks of rubble lifted off the ground and rose into the air as he ran. Everyone taking cover looked up at the floating debris, then at Luke charging straight at them.

"Yeah, we're screwed!" somebody shouted.

"This guy's high-level!" More stones tore loose and rose higher and higher. Luke stopped and held them all suspended in the air under his control.

"He might have a few tricks, but he bleeds like everybody else!" one of them yelled. Luke stared at the group. Torn clothes. Bloodstains. Gear in mismatched colors.

"You're still doing this?" he said.

"Anything that survives, I kill."

"Anything that survives?" Luke kept one hand raised, then pointed downward.

"Oh... shit," one of them muttered. Every piece of rubble dropped at once. The group broke and ran in different directions. At the same time, Luke was suddenly among them with both kukris in hand. [You have slain a Human - Lvl 66...] [+1 Soul Fragment] [You have slain a Human - Lvl 73...] [+1 Soul Fragment] [You have slain a Human - Lvl 41...] [+1 Soul Fragment] [You have slain a Human - Lvl 55...] [+1 Soul Fragment] He cut through them like he was dancing.

Their leader came at him then, a blond man wielding two axes.

"That's more experience for me!" the man roared. Then Luke noticed something in the sky. A bird. It was flying toward them. The bird stopped. Then an arrow came down, shining. Luke's instincts screamed. He pointed his hand at the ground. [Teleportation Pentagram 2 activated]"Let's see that arrogance of yours now!" the blond man shouted, his body swelling with muscle as a red aura burst around him. A berserker state. High behind the man, an arrow was already speeding in, glowing brightly.

Luke stepped onto the circle. [Teleportation Pentagram activated] The arrow hit and exploded. Luke reappeared on top of a building and looked down at the place where he had been standing a moment earlier as it went up in a blast.

"Pretty damn strong..." Everyone below, including the blond man's group, died in the explosion. Luke looked at the counter as it dropped. [People in the area: 64/50] The bird drew closer, though it still kept its distance. Using the Eye of Sariel, Luke saw what it really was. Not a bird. A man in archer's clothes, with wings growing from his back. A symbol marked his cloak. A falcon.

"You killed a lot of my battle brothers with that explosion," the archer called. Even from that far away, his voice reached Luke clearly. Some kind of skill.

"You were the ones who shot me first," Luke replied. The bow was already aimed at him. The arrowhead flared, and the archer fired. Luke jumped from the building. The entire floor where he had been standing exploded. He threw a knife. [Witch's Thread activated] Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. The thread yanked him sideways. He threw another blade. Arrows were already flying at him.

The archer stayed high in the air, trying to pick him off while Luke raced across the tops of the ruins, swinging from thread to thread. He crashed through the floor of one of the upper levels and landed inside the ruined story below, already summoning knives. One after another, they rose around him, suspended in the air by telekinesis. [Teleportation Circle 1 activated] Luke jumped from the building. The archer was above him and opened fire immediately.

One arrow flashed with blinding light, and the others following behind it split apart in midair. A storm of arrows came pouring toward him. Luke hurled the floating knives and activated [Telekinetic Impulse]. [People in the area: 50/50] [The tide will rise in one minute! If the number remains the same, the next stage of the challenge will begin!] The notification appeared. Either fourteen people had died, or they had fled the war zone.

Luke dove through the opening of another building with [Shadow Dive] and shot through it toward the next one. His [Fort Reaper's Mantle] let him glide through the air so smoothly it was almost like flying while he kept throwing knives. The archer beat his wings, weaving through the ruins and firing as he moved. Luke propelled himself across the rooftops, finally slipping out of the man's line of sight. Then he jumped, aiming straight for him. At that exact moment, the massive wave hit.

The archer turned and fired a shot. A second later, both of them were swallowed by the water. The force was brutal. Crushing. Luke was hanging from a mana thread, but the knife anchoring it ripped loose, and the current took him. [The Marine Artifact is now available to be claimed, but be warned: reaching it will not be easy!] Luke slammed into a ruin and clung to it. With [Demonic Predator Hands] active, he started climbing. The pressure of the wave was already easing.

By the time he reached the top, he had broken free of the water. Night had fallen.

"What's that?" Out in the darkness, he saw a white light on the horizon.

"A Beacon." It was far away, but not impossibly far. He could reach it. But first, he needed artifacts. Luke threw himself back into the water. As he dove, he saw dozens of people already swimming. Lights appeared beneath the surface, magic creating glowing orbs that spread through the dark water. Most of them were staring at the same thing. The golden glow. Deep below, among the ruins, the artifact waited. Luke scanned every direction. The archer was nowhere in sight. Then the race began.

Everyone surged toward the artifact at once. Luke spotted a woman cutting quickly through the water, her feet releasing bursts of wind like jets. Then a massive school of fish descended on the artifact. When they opened their mouths, he saw the teeth. Huge piranhas. They turned and rushed everyone. The woman started launching spheres of wind from her hands, each one exploding outward and blasting the piranhas away as she fought to keep moving toward the artifact. Luke summoned the Spectral Beast.

A massive octopus materialized beneath him. Riding on top of it, he surged forward. Activating [Jet Propulsion], the octopus shot through the water in a violent burst of speed. Its tentacles snatched up several nearby people, holding them fast. Then the swarm of piranhas turned toward Luke. The octopus flung the trapped people into them. The piranhas tore into the bodies, and Luke kept going for the artifact. The woman was still ahead, swimming hard, but Luke caught up to her.

Part of the swarm peeled off and surrounded her. Luke saw the artifact. The piranhas swarmed the octopus too. He activated [Ink Jet], and the water exploded into darkness. Luke slipped beneath it fast, dismissing the Spectral Beast as he moved, and closed in on the artifact. Then he passed through something. A dome of wind. Inside it, there was no water at all. And on the opposite side, the archer stepped out. Luke stared at him.

"So we meet again." The archer did nothing but raise his bow and keep firing while Luke sprinted and hurled knives. The man dodged. The blades slipped past the dome's edge and dropped into the water below. One arrow exploded close to Luke.

"It does not matter where you run. I will find you, and I will avenge my brothers."

"I'm right here," Luke said. The archer kept shooting. Luke raised a hand. [Telekinetic Pull activated] Every knife he had thrown came ripping back toward him. The archer was caught off guard. One blade slammed into his back, and he twisted, trying to dodge the others. Luke stepped out of a shadow and struck. The archer's head hit the ground. [You have slain a Human - Lvl 90 (Aurora Hawk Hunter – Lvl 86 / Hatchet Assassin – Lvl 71 / Explosives Maker - Lvl 68)] [+1 Soul Fragment] The bow began to glow.

Luke backed away, and a second later the weapon exploded, burning the body and everything around it.

"Damn it. I wanted the loot." He grabbed the artifact and tucked it into his pocket dimension. More people were still approaching from outside, moving in through the water. Luke pointed toward the ground. [Teleportation Circle 2 activated] [Teleportation Pentagram activated] He vanished and reappeared inside one of the flooded ruins, far from where the others were. He summoned the Spectral Beast, climbed onto the octopus, and pulled away. On the surface, he saw the glow of the Beacon and decided to follow it.

He was not about to waste time there. Reaching the Beacon mattered more. With three Marine Artifacts already collected, maybe he could activate it.