Chương 299: Chapter 294

Jacob and Delefagus oversee every Champion and Dark Champion reciting their Oaths—including Garros, who's not technically a Champion—and missing Lancelot, who's therefore not allowed to follow him into the Original Primordial Dungeon. Fuck, Lancelot! Why are you doing this?! Jacob feels a mounting headache at his Squire, but he also understands the hate that the man feels. To be fair, they have really tried to kill Jacob and the other Champions, and succeeded in killing a bunch of people at their year.

Zorathul Wlatherkz, the gold-scaled Dragonkin, is the last to enter the portal. The Dark Champions received plenty of glares on their way to enter the portal, but thankfully, people were busy enough not to start anything. Everyone has been briefed of Jacob's plan and they have orders from Sir Maximilian to stand down and mind their own business. The world inside the Dungeon of Apocalypse is, for a lack of better words, apocalyptic.

There's a red haze, like a curtain that shrouds the entire place, with particles of sand and debris flying around and making it mighty hard to see anything further than ten feet ahead. It feels like the entire place is fully enveloped in a scalding hot sandstorm at all times. Jacob gathers everybody around and uses a simple Primordial Spell that eliminates the background noise in a large area. Everybody looks weirdly at the sandstorm around them being now fully silent.

"So," Jacob says, "we have the scouting reports. As we discussed, the place is extremely dangerous. There are many Intermediate True Diamond Rank Nightmares walking around and they attack as soon as they perceive someone entering their range of action. If we're unlucky, we can be ganged up by them en-masse. So, there'll be two people heading the column." Zibrek is the first stepping up.

The green-skinned Goblin has Convergence Point and many Perception Skills that make her not just a great precision sniper, like the one she became after Jacob revealed her true talent to her, but also an amazing scout. The second needs no introduction. Nimirea walks beside Zibrek, who gives her a wide berth and looks disgusted by her presence. Despite the Goblin's attitude, however, Nimirea looks barely fazed.

"As for the rest, Delefagus and I agreed on how to approach threats until we overcome this sandstorm and find shelter. We're tasked with mapping as much of the perimeter of the area as possible, so, we'll run in order to cover as much distance as possible. Any questions?" Everybody looks gloomy but professional, which somewhat reassures Jacob. There's twenty of them. Eight Dark Champions. Ten Champions. Garros, their Healer, and Nimirea.

They start running and Jacob throws a few eyefuls at Garros, making sure he doesn't fall behind. Yet, since they released the curse of the God of Shadows, the young man's talent has skyrocketed beyond belief. He's already at Intermediate Diamond Rank after a series of tough sessions inside the Celestial Tower. They tear across the dunes at a sprint, red sand kicking up behind them in twin curtains of dust.

The dunes are massive — taller than a three-story keep, the highest cresting like frozen waves of dried blood — and the column has to scramble up one slope only to half-slide down the other in long, controlled descents. Boomgar leads on his armored boots, leaving prints as deep as drinking-bowls. Nimirea floats half a foot above the sand, untouched. Zibrek skims so lightly the dunes barely register her weight.

The wind howls overhead and the sand howls under their soles, and somewhere ahead in the red haze, the first thing they're going to kill is already moving toward them. It doesn't take long for them to encounter the first group of monsters. Just like Sir Maximilian had said, and the reason he's not allowed to follow the Vanguard, becomes immediately clear.

"Fuck," Jacob swears, immediately activating Reverse Domain and unsheathing his silvery sword. Despite Nimirea warning them ahead of time, five Intermediate True Diamond Minor Nightmares of Apocalypse appear all around them.

[Minor Nightmare of Apocalypse - Level 1366] [Minor Nightmare of Apocalypse - Level 1211] [Minor Nightmare of Apocalypse - Level 1328] [Minor Nightmare of Apocalypse - Level 1377] [Minor Nightmare of Apocalypse - Level 1268] While Platinum Rank goes from level two-hundred to four-hundred, Diamond Rank goes from Level four-hundred and one to level eight-hundred. But then, True Diamond Rank goes from Level eight-hundred and one to one thousand six hundred.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. At True Diamond, Early True Diamond Rank went roughly in power from Level eight-hundred and one to level one thousand two hundred, while Intermediate spanned from one thousand two hundred and one to one thousand five hundred. And Advanced True Diamond Rank went from level one thousand five hundred and one to one thousand six hundred.

"Boomgar, move!" Zibrek shouts, with Boomgar using Kinetic Overlord, his Rainbow Skill, to burst forward like lightning and swing his sledgehammer at one of the monsters. The multi-jointed limb of the Nightmare slams into Boomgar's shield, but its kinetic power gets completely absorbed and Boomgar uses it to spin mid-air, creating an invisible footing thanks to his Skill and slamming the sledgehammer into the monster's leg.

Collapsing to its knee, the Minor Nightmare of Apocalypse immediately senses mortal peril, but thanks to Convergence Point, Zibrek fires a massive shot that makes the monster's head explode. All the Champions, who have not really kept up with Zibrek and Boomgar's progress that much, are completely amazed by this performance. But right when Jacob is about to praise them, he sees the Dark Champions act.

Delefagus is the first, releasing a wave of miasma that he casts around two Minor Nightmares of Apocalypse, immediately snaring them into place, similarly to what Boomgar had done, just much, much more efficiently. Also, the miasma seems to mess with the creatures' sense of balance, since they start stumbling forward aimlessly. But before they can take another step, Zorathul, the gold scaled Dragonkin, rains blue fire magic upon them and melts them like they're nothing.

The other two, instead, are finding themselves facing Asterismos and a very tall Elf, both wielding swords. When Jacob thinks that they're about to show some amazing collaboration, he instead sees the Elf cutting at the other Dark Champion, who defends and slashes back, forcing her to parry. Their attacks are so out of place that even the mindless Minor Nightmares of Apocalypse are confused for a second, looking at them with their eyeless faces, saliva dripping down sharp canines while they anticipate their meals.

They keep cutting at each other as they arrive in the middle of the two creatures.

"I can't believe you're this slow!" The Elf, the woman, Veyrissa, shouts.

"You're getting rusty, Veyrissa!" Asterismos shouts back. Jacob barely notices what happens next. When the monster attack them, in a fraction of a second they unleash a furious series of blows that pulverizes the monsters. With the two creatures down, Asterismos says, "I killed the one on the right."

"I killed both," the proud and tall Elf woman, taller even than Vyrrak, smiles. Only the black-scaled Dragonkin on the Dark Champions side, Korrath, is taller than her.

"But you're good enough to become my disciple one day."

"Cut up the crap you two!" Nimirea shouts.

"Seven more incoming!" Jacob doesn't even have the chance to enter the fray as the Dark Champions meticulously take the monster apart as if they're nothing. What's most interesting, however, is the degree to which they can coordinate with each other. Even the bickering swordsman duo, the Highblood and the Elf, and their utter unpredictability create a series of scary combos that turn every monster coming their way to smithereens. It feels like they went all through hell and back while fighting together—all of them.

In contrast, Jacob has to shout a bunch of orders for the other Champions, with all of them struggling one way or another to cope with wave after wave of incoming monsters in these red dunes. Orrivane, their Void Mage, reformed cultist, and Jacob's friend, can barely aim at the creatures given their speed. In fact, if it wasn't for his Rainbow Skill Event Horizon, which creates an absolute shield of supreme void magic, he'd be already bleeding on the ground.

Asterion, who's fighting with three blinding spheres of Light, even in his imposing frame, is being pushed back by a single Minor Nightmare of Apocalypse. Even as Vyrrak tries to harass the creature to create openings, they're struggling. Many silhouettes fight in the red sandstorm, battling multi-jointed limbs and scary white monsters.

After the fight, Jacob is about to order everybody to continue marching, too ashamed to say anything else, when a large space suddenly clears as Nimirea creates a massive dome of water around them.

"What are you doing?" Jacob asks warily. She's sworn the same Oaths everybody else has sworn, but her sudden behavior confuses him. Furthermore, she starts stomping her way up to Jacob's face and jams a finger in his chest.

"Ouch," Jacob says, frowning at her but feeling too embarrassed by her closeness to say anything else.

"DID YOU FUCKING HIDE THEIR WEAKNESSES AT THE TOURNAMENT?!" She roars, pointing at the Champions. Only Baal showed a degree of combat experience and power that stands toe-to-toe with the Dark Champions.

"Huh?" Jacob asks.

"ARE YOU DEAF?! DID YOU HIDE THEIR FUCKING WEAKNESSES?!" That's when it dawns on Jacob. She's asking if he had the Champions other than Vyrrak hide because they would have lost against the Dark Champions. He puts on a shameless smile, like a cat, and nods.

"Yeah." Every Dark Champion looks at him like he's a madman.

"We could have killed them all," Delefagus mutters.

"I thought he wanted to force a confrontation with Nimirea—that's why he hid them. And that he needed their power. But this… this is ridiculous. Even Jacob Cloud, without that cursed Skill, is weak!"

"Hey," Jacob frowns, raising his hands innocently.

"You're making it sound like we conned you."

"You made the Oath contain the word collaboration, a bunch of things about not abandoning each other," Nimirea suddenly says, making all the Dark Champions perk their ears up.

"Is this… No. You wouldn't be that shameless, would you?"

"Huh?" Jacob smiles in an oblivious way.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"This fucking bastard created the illusion that he was much, much stronger than we thought," Delefagus says.

"Astabazos, without his Skill, was the weakest of us. Especially after he drained himself so much during the battle. Instead, the bastard got much stronger over the battle with that Minor Nightmare of Apocalypse because of his Skills—that's how he killed him. If Astabazos had attacked him outright, he might have actually killed him. We… we overestimated them all!"

"You made the Oath in such a way that they would force the Dark Champions to help out, essentially acting as training partners to the Champions," Nimirea adds, incredulous.

"How can you be this shameless?!"

"Huh?" Jacob starts whistling and looking at the pretty water dome Nimirea created.

"Wow, your eyes look really pretty today."