Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Michigan - 7:00 PM

  Kayla was definitely the playmaker here. Her Part of the Crowd ability was illusionary until level 10, which would then allow her to physically turn into creatures she had observed. I had only caught a glimpse of her transformation before Jeff blindsided me, but it looked like she had turned into a Pixie, a small, winged Fae about the size of my fist. They were rare, so she had probably met one through the Pixie Watering Can sometime over our travels.

  It dawned on me that she would have had enough MVP accolades from the Emperor’s Ascent to bump Part of the Crowd from level 7, the max after the last scenario, up to 10. She did have the levels to transform. I knew that her Ylstin impression had been an illusion because the Angel’s barrier had gone down before she “transformed” back and I saw her through my aura, but she had either been holding back or waiting to increase it to level 10.

  Not only that, but she had taken Jeff’s Marked Target skill. He had long since ditched the pants the skill had originally come with and I was fairly certain he had synthesized it at some point, but I didn’t expect him to give it up. If I attacked anyone other than Kayla now, all of my stats would start decreasing. It was meant to force duels and she was probably going to hide from me while the others attacked.

  My Black Flame Aura was debuffing them, which Kayla was already counteracting, but this was going to even the playing field more than I wanted. My Angel form mitigated Marked Target somewhat by increasing the baseline at which I operated, but it wouldn’t make a difference for long.

  I pulled my glove into my inventory so I could check what Jeff had put on me, and I felt a slim piece of paper no bigger than a bookmark attached to my crown. Likely some kind of talisman. It resisted my efforts to pull it off, staying glued on tight.

  Since I couldn’t remove the accessory, I couldn’t take it off to see which one it was, though I was now confident I knew what it was. Nothing good.

  They had obviously been preparing for this for a long, long time.

  Their plan was fairly obvious. Let the debuffs pile high as they went all in on bringing me down. Kayla would continue to buff, both tiny or invisible, until I couldn’t fight anymore. The good news was that she had to be under half of her hit points or Jeff couldn’t use For The Queen. One solid strike would probably gray her out.

  The bad news was that I still had to deal with Jamie, Mercury, and Jeff. At least the Aura Stun Grenade cloud was about to time out.

  My lips curled unpleasantly as the Queen’s Knight pulled out another one. It was already primed and went off a half second later. I wasn’t blinded since my awareness aura wasn’t active and Shield Sphere was still up, but it still sucked as it reset the duration.

  At least I had the element of surprise for now, and I intended to use it.

  Mercury flickered, likely trying to switch places with the boulder to strike, but he couldn’t get into my Shield Sphere. It was getting rather toasty here, though, and I knew it was time to move. I Lifted the big rock and threw it upwards. Just as it reached the top of my barrier, I dismissed it, throwing up a Force Field to keep myself safe.

  The boulder struck Jamie square in the face with a nasty crunch that I could hear despite the roar of the fire, and she brought her hand up to her nose. It was definitely broken. I watched as the rock sailed past her until it was in the right position to be Dropped, but she blocked that with her golden shield.

  My attacks were already starting to make me weaker thanks to Marked Target, but I got back to work. The Double Agent was my priority, it was just that finding her was difficult without my aura. My plan to flush her out was put in motion once Shield Sphere was down and I had line of effect again.

  I sent my feathered saw blades to Orbit at different distances. They stayed low, cutting the grass as I attempted to find the Double Agent. There wouldn’t be any places to conceal her once I was done. It couldn’t be helped that it let up the pressure on the others.

  After a quick check of the skies to make sure Kayla wasn’t hiding above us, I turned my gaze to Jeff. He brandished his rapier and made use of his movement skill, Triple Thrust. Mercury was nowhere to be seen, which meant he was probably invisible or behind me. I assumed the latter and threw my arms and remaining wings out as I activated Crash Test.

  Sure enough, I only traveled about five feet back before I hit someone solid. The ninja had adjusted the Princess so that she would bite into my back, but I still ran him over with my superior Strength. He landed on the ground with me standing over his head, and I noticed that his wound had been sealed but not completely healed. They were wary of my Reaper’s Cloak and its hit point stealing passive, and rightfully so.

  Putting that aside, I stabbed downwards with the spear-staff. Even though he was stuck on his back, he still parried with the sword. I noticed that the Princess was becoming darker every time she made contact with my weapon, and I could tell they were storing death energy for later.

  That would be a problem. Releasing a breath, I activated Cheetah Sprint.

  <<<>>>

  [[Skill]]

  Cheetah Sprint

  For up to 60 seconds, double the speed of any forms of movement that you have. This skill has a cooldown of 12 hours.

  <<<>>>

  My strikes suddenly doubled in ferocity, but there was an unmistakable grin on his face under the mask. Mercury parried again, though instead of deflecting the attack away it went into his side. Not into anything vital, though; just an inch or so from hitting the ground. It looked more like he miscalculated.

  The Princess sliced through the armor around my calf, just above my sock, and the ninja reached for it. “Your speed is now mine,” he coughed through the pain, and I no longer felt the effects of Cheetah Sprint.

  He kipped up in an instant despite his wound. I was forced to back up as the already fast Mercury ate my buff and started attacking in earnest. Buff Hunter was an incredibly rare skill that every frontline fighter wanted to get their hands on. Either he or Marishiten likely went broke purchasing it because it couldn’t be found around this area.

  Mercury was going to be in this state for about 25 more seconds, which was an eternity for someone as fast as him. He managed to stand up and circle around me, and I had to Construct a plate to stop him from slashing at my wings. The Princess was still black from all the death energy she had consumed while parrying, and that worried me.

  He disappeared, replaced by an already attacking Jeff. His movement skill had come up short thanks to my own, but now he was in my face and trying to pierce my neck. I Pushed his blade and set up a Force Field, and it turned into a glancing blow. Keeping my ear out, I spun my spear-staff and backpedaled away. I had the range advantage like this, but I knew that something else was going to happen soon.

  Now that I was away from the residual heat from Jamie’s attack, I could tell that the wings Kayla had cut off weren’t regenerating. I risked a glance to see that a small fire was slowly and steadily eating away at the growing skin and bones, essentially becoming a stalemate even though I had the Staff of Raphael boosting my hit point recovery speed.

  The glance also put Jamie back in my line of sight, and I made my move immediately. Knocking aside Jeff’s rapier, I stepped in closer than a spearman had any right to be towards his off hand. He reached for me with Crusader’s Wrath, and the next instant I was airborne as he threw me.

  A bullet whizzed through the air, clipping me in the arm as he moved me out of the way. I had triggered his muscle memory to get me out of harm’s way with one of his throwing skills, and I was very amused by the move until my back hit the ground and the wind was knocked out of me. I lamented the fact that my halo wasn’t fast enough to stop bullets, which was exactly what she was banking on.

  My Diamond Bowling Ball flew towards Jamie, who was in position to steady her rifle, and attempted to smack into the gun’s barrel to break it. She pulled it into her inventory too quickly, but I simply shifted targets to hit her in the chest before she could retrieve her shield. She audibly groaned in pain and I left her to deal with that as the other member of the Seven-Tenners.

  I rolled away and spun to my feet as Jeff tried to slash me. A Force Field on my back prevented him from piercing me through, but that didn’t help me against the ninja I was now facing.

  Mercury had wasted some of the time he had with Cheetah Sprint getting used to the speed difference, but he was making up for it now. The Princess literally flashed as he activated Tenfold Slash. I had nowhere to go with Jeff and the Force Field at my back, so I would either be forced to activate Fae Step or try and parry it.

  Accepting the challenge, I picked the latter. My focus was pulled into the moment as I spun the Staff of Raphael. The saw blades slowed down, the Vague Stick halves stopped chasing Jeff, and the spearhead at the end of my weapon disappeared as I stopped concentrating on it. My uninjured wings swept backwards when I stopped focusing on my Force Field.

  The Queen’s Knight was pushed back, and I hoped Mercury was fast enough to end his attack before Jeff could return.

  The Staff of Raphael moved according to my will, which was attuned to both body and mind. I blocked the first teleporting strike before moving to the next, using my many years of fighting Mercury to anticipate where he would strike from next. It was the same thing I had done during our first battle, but I could already tell it wasn’t enough.

  His second attack nicked me, and he reappeared before I could move to block the third. A deep gash appeared across my chest instead. I parried the fourth, but the fifth one was coming from a completely unexpected direction. I realized in the moment that the Mill’s presence during training had made him too unpredictable to me now.

  Instead of escaping with Fae Step, I figured I was close enough to half health that it wouldn’t matter. Knowing that Mercury’s Buff Hunter had a very long cooldown, I activated Overclocked Body.

  <<<>>>

  [[Skill]]

  Overclocked Body

  Remove the limitations of your body. When you activate this skill, double your Strength and Dexterity stats and lower your Constitution by half. This skill can be activated once per day for the same number of seconds as your altered Constitution stat. You gain the Extreme Dehydration debuff, taking 50% more fire damage, for the duration and for a number of minutes equal to the number of seconds Overclocked Body was in use afterwards.

  <<<>>>

  The Staff of Raphael moved into place to block Mercury, and I could have sworn an aura of smugness emanated from his entire being. Put off by the sudden shift in the mood, I swung, using the momentum from his attack to strike back with the other half of my weapon.

  Mercury used his Mystic Ninja ability to trade places while still in his Tenfold Slash. Jeff was suddenly in front of me, rapier coming my way, which meant that this was planned. I activated Shield out of habit, but that wasn’t about to be enough.

  The Queen’s Knight glowed again as he activated his unfair buff a third time, and his rapier only just barely got caught when I twisted. His other hand had its palm pointed at my face, and four Fire Bolts flew towards my eyes. They were small projectiles, but it was clear that he was trying to keep my field of vision limited so that I couldn’t Fae Step out.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Unfortunately, it worked. I was too slow to dodge now even with Overclocked Body. Without my awareness aura, my vision was contained for the moment and I couldn’t trust the area he was allowing me to see. Jeff had put me on the back foot, but I still had options.

  Knowing what was going to happen behind me, I made a decision. Fuck it. I started charging my big attack.

  Every one of my remaining Starstones activated as I focused on what little I could see of Jeff. They roared to life, but that was all they could do for now. The skill would take time to actually get moving.

  Mercury, probably expecting me to disappear, slashed at my back. Shield shimmered from the blow, but didn’t break. That happened when two of the four Fire Bolts struck my face. Not only did they burn my eyes, but the damage was enhanced by Overclocked Body’s Dehydration debuff. He had well and truly blinded me.

  I was in a bad spot, which was only made worse when the Princess went through one of my wings. She cut at least halfway through my spine on contact. Not only that, but Mercury released all of the energy he had collected in one foul swoop.

  While I might have been an Angel of Death, that didn’t make me immune to death energy. It filtered through my body, rebounding several times as the sheer concentration of it physically pushed the life out of me. Blood rushed to geyser out of my skin like I was in some kind of horror movie, coating everything around me.

  It was almost enough to kill me. Almost. The feeling made me stagger.

  I used Touch of Heaven and, once my eyes healed enough that I could see, finally activated Fae Step to appear next to Jamie, who had a strange new submachine gun in her possession. I recoiled at the sight of the weapon because I could feel the Demonic energy roiling off of it.

  They were really expecting to use Heavenly Hero’s fatal flaw of being susceptible to Demonic attacks in order to defeat me when I should have been invincible. A small part of me was proud that they were taking this so far, but I also felt like they were doing me a little dirty here.

  Not that I could complain, really. This was exactly what I wanted.

  Jamie recovered quickly. She placed the gun against my chest and started firing. My halo flew downwards as I took a step back, but I still took some of her bullets before there was a gap for it to fit in. Most of the ones that hit me pierced my paper armor. The energy in them seemed to ooze inside of me. It was quite painful, but not nearly as much as being reconstructed. I dealt with it.

  The Cable Conglomerate snaked through the trigger guard, forcing her finger into place as the halo moved into position, and then tied the gun to her arm. Jamie attempted to backtrack, but I kept her close. I couldn’t pull her due to her high Constitution, but she likewise couldn’t do the same to me.

  Behind me, my Starstones finally shot off like bottle rockets. The second halo had appeared near Mercury, aiming at him. He was momentarily caught off guard as a burst of bullets struck him in the chest and shoulder, forcing him to abort his charge. This newest development sent him into evasive maneuvers.

  Jamie managed to free one of her hands by the time the Demonic submachine gun emptied and my halo returned to my head. She went for the uppercut, a dagger flashing into her hand. I was too slow to dodge out of the way, taking a nasty cut that went deep into my jaw and cut two of my teeth, but I struck her across the face with the Staff of Raphael. She blinked before opening her mouth and breathing fire in a desperate move.

  She was one step too late. I Constructed a face plate around her mouth that turned her fire back on her. It wouldn’t hurt her because she was nearly immune to fire damage at this point, but it would be uncomfortable. Jamie attempted to back off and reposition, but we were both immovable objects. I did allow her to turn, though.

  And, as it turned out, my Dragon’s Breath was stronger. I opened my mouth and released a beam of black and gold energy no thicker than my fist directly at her forehead. The Weapon Master grunted, a testament to her willpower that she didn’t scream, as her scales started to melt. She began stabbing and kicking me, and I used Force Field to protect against the former.

  In our new position, I could see Jeff over her shoulder. Mercury had disappeared, but that was okay for now. The Queen’s Knight was about to fall. With a determined look on his face and over thirty Starstones coming his way, he raised his rapier.

  Crusader’s Wrath jumped off of his hand as the skill of the shield within, Guardian Shield, activated. It moved on its own, running into the Starstones individually as it protected him. There was no way that was going to last, however, and Jeff knew it

  He was right there beside the gauntlet, slashing them down with expert precision. The man’s face was the picture of concentration as he thrust and slashed, at one point taking down at least three in a single swing. That wasn’t going to do at all.

  Normally, I liked to say the name of spells as I cast them. It was a stylistic choice that I enjoyed. I couldn’t while Dragon’s Breath was active, but I cast an old favorite of mine anyway.

  <<<>>>

  [[Spell]]

  Boneshake

  Target one creature with a skeleton when you activate this spell. All of the bones in its body vibrate violently, causing damage equal to your Willpower stat and debuffing Strength and Dexterity for Wisdom*0.5 seconds. The duration of this effect will be lowered by enemies with a sufficiently high Constitution stat. Cost: 150 Mental Points.

  <<<>>>

  All of the bones in Jeff’s body rebelled for a split second, and that’s all the remaining Starstones needed. The moment the first one slipped past his guard, he had no chance.

  A sword slashed across my back once, twice, three times as Jamie continued to stab me with her dagger in an attempt to escape my ongoing attack. I had used Shield on instinct, but it was canceled without fanfare. My Diamond Bowling Ball moved to intercept on its own, but Mercury was still hopped up on the double speed buff. It tried to block, but it was now far too slow and he carved around it.

  I let him because I needed to take one of them out now. I leaned in towards Jamie and swept the beam down her face, letting the Construct over her mouth slip away so I wouldn’t give myself a headache by destroying it myself, and she finally grayed out. I snipped the Cable Conglomerate and let her fall to the ground.

  The energy Mercury had taken from my Shield came back to bite me as it was released into my body, and my head would have come free from my shoulders if I didn’t have my failsafe.

  <<<>>>

  [[Warning!]]

  Your once-a-day passive, Heavenly Hero, has activated. You are invulnerable for 5 seconds, except from damage caused by Demonic sources, and you will regain 4% of your hit points per second during this time.

  <<<>>>

  Another sickening feeling rolled over me, and I knew exactly what it was this time. I waited a second to heal 4% of my hit points before activating Cognitive Form. It was the only way to give me the best odds of surviving the next few moments since Mercury, too, had somehow gotten his hands on his own source of Demonic energy. My intuition proved right, because a dagger would have been stuck in my back if I still had one.

  Anthony Franklin, as a physical being, disappeared. I now existed completely as a self-contained mental construct. Even though I had shed my body, my mind expanded to fill the same space. There was no pain or distractions, only my will. Unfortunately, my strength was still sapped thanks to Kayla’s Marked Target skill but Jeff’s debuffs weren’t active as I was no longer flesh and blood.

  Mercury’s Demonic dagger was magical so it hurt me, but the damage was reduced enough that it didn’t kill me outright in this form. The Princess was still through me, but Heavenly Hero was dealing with that as the blow that triggered it.

  A part of me was sincerely glad that the Demonic weapons they had brought to the fight didn’t have an energy component themselves. If the Princess had been imbued with that and hurt me, I definitely wouldn’t have survived. This was a small miracle.

  I turned, or perhaps I was already facing his direction, and swept my arm towards his face. He flinched backwards, expecting the attack to hurt, but I went through him like a ghost.

  Five Constructed drills were created in its wake, however. They were weaker than they should have been even with the insane boost from Cognitive Form thanks to Marked Target. Mercury pulled away, slashing at them with the Princess. He cut them in half, and I felt their disappearance ripple through me. Normally, that would just give me headaches, but I didn’t have a brain to hurt anymore.

  Mercury twitched as he was warned of an attack from behind by his barely-visible helper. He twisted in an attempt to dodge the two pieces of the Vague Stick that came his way, and I adjusted knowing exactly what he was about to do. They flew around us, but he had already reacted.

  Jamie appeared in his place, her grayed-out body a target for his ninja swap, and I grinned. The two sticks were already there and their sharp points jabbed into his chest and gut. He stumbled backwards as they Spun, drilling into him, and daggers appeared all around him.

  It might have been astonishing to everyone else, but Mercury continued to swing the Princess despite the ever spinning rods of pain in his body. The blade continued to cut and slice, causing my mental body to ripple more with every drill destroyed. Unpleasant, but that was all. I had time.

  A quick glance showed me that Jeff was wheezing on the ground, surprisingly still alive. His armor and chest were completely blackened from the number of Starstones that had struck him. He had performed admirably, but it was time to put him out of his misery.

  My Diamond Bowling Ball fell from the sky as he almost managed to put his Pocket Bacon in his mouth. It lit on fire before striking him in the chest, caving it in. He, too, grayed out while I Pushed the healing food off to where it couldn’t be used.

  I shivered as Kayla’s Mark sapped away even more of my stats. Looking around, I saw that most of the grass had been torn apart and shredded, leaving very little for even a small creature to hide in. In this form, however, I sensed her intent before I could see her.

  Mercury, staggering as he was now, received a short reprieve as I created three Force Fields behind me. Kayla’s Cat Claws swiped across them, barely dealing any damage, before she shifted forms. Once again she took on the form of Ylstin, and she slashed at me from over the barriers.

  I let the attack phase through me. It wasn’t magical even though it was a transformation, so I couldn’t be hurt by it.

  The Princess, on the other hand, I dodged. As a blade of pure energy, she could deal full damage to me despite my incorporeal form. It hadn’t worked before because of Heavenly Hero, but I hadn’t healed the full amount because of Cognitive Form. While I couldn’t take time to see how much HP I had, I knew it couldn’t be more than 2 or 3%.

  I Constructed another dagger, this time less than an inch from his throat, and slammed it into him. He clutched at it, staying alive for an agonizing second before he, too, grayed out as his injuries finally pushed him into negative hit points.

  I turned to Kayla as she swung at me. The Double Agent transformed back mid-air, attempting to land on me with her Drakefang Dagger in hand. It was putting off a palpable aura of magical energy similar to that of a Dragon, so of course that had been buffed after her and Jeff’s run in with Valthraxyvr in England. She had neglected to mention that part.

  That also explained the everburning flame that prevented my wings from regenerating. A nasty little skill, that. I approved.

  Kayla grit her teeth and continued to swing at me. I dodged, not risking any more damage, and backed away. She rolled across the ground, and I Constructed a wall of spikes waiting for her at the end of her movement.

  The sound of a chainsaw revving blasted through my ears, and I grimaced. The roll was a cover for pulling something out of her inventory in an attempt to get the drop on me. In this case, she pulled out Chainsawface, the unfortunately named item that was made from the teeth of the Tuskgutter Ghost. She shredded through the Constructs and stabbed it at me.

  I thought I made it away, that I backed up enough. It could deal damage to ghosts and incorporeal forms like mine thanks to the properties of the ingredients used to make it. Kayla, however, was tenacious. She surged forward, her cloth armor tearing on the spikes that appeared around her. I watched as she fought through the pain.

  The tip of the weapon grazed my mental body, barely touching me before her body grayed out and went slack on a bed of spikes. Chainsawface fell to the ground and turned off. I stared in disbelief at how close it had come. In this form, that was the scariest weapon they could have sent after me after the Princess.

  A footprint appearing in the dirt caught my eye, and I threw up all of my Force Fields. Shield, unfortunately, was still on cooldown from my stupid use of it earlier. My saw blades whirled to life from all around the area and came to create a moving wall of pain.

  “Show yourself!” I demanded, activating Noble Roar for the second time this fight. Somewhere, Kayla flinched, and the illusory footsteps disappeared. I was left looking around, trying to find her.

  The Double Agent didn’t come from any side, however. Her Dagger Rod of Stabbing stabbed through me from above, much to my surprise. It wasn’t so much the magical effect of the weapon that did me in, which was sorely reduced, as it was the Credibility boost Kayla had on all of her attacks. If I had a body then she would have split my skull, but it didn’t so I simply wavered in place.

  That was it, though. This duel was decided.

  Turning around, I sent everything I had after her. Saw blades, drills, the Demonic weapons; I held nothing back. Kayla’s eyes widened as she brought up her hands as if that would protect her somehow. Even with my stats reduced to a pittance of what they used to be, the attacks were still enough to kill her thanks to all the Noble Sacrifices she had dropped earlier and a reluctance to heal thanks to my Reaper Cloak.

  My final foe grayed out. Three seconds later, everyone was healed as the arena spell ended. Thankfully, it was absolute healing provided by the system itself, which meant that I was brought back to full hit points as well despite my transformation.

  I dropped out of Cognitive Form and was hit by the backlash. It wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things—it couldn’t have been when I only had a max of four percent of my hit points—but I hit myself with Touch of Heaven before anyone could notice anything wrong.

  A second later I also turned off Break Free and was immediately hit by a migraine. That couldn’t put a damper on my fantastic mood, though.

  I snapped away the messages that popped up from the fight and started clapping. “Congrats on the draw, team!” I announced happily. Four heads snapped towards me with varying degrees of disbelief, as if they couldn’t understand what I had said. I grinned. “Don’t worry, I’ll explain. For now, though, take a load off. Y’all deserve it. I’m incredibly proud of each and every one of you.”