Polymath Redux – King vs. King
Chapter XVII
While everyone’s guard was down the dragon king quickly drew his sword and hurled it towards the little girl, Morialia. The sword spun and flew towards her at breakneck speeds but also calculated enough that it would spin just enough so that the blade would stab through her. This was merely a test to uncover the true identity of the little girl, if he was mistaken he would immediately rush over and do everything in his power to heal her.
However the outcome of this action was unexpected. At the very least the dragon king had expected that the little girl would dodge the attack but that wasn’t it, what happened was that the girl effortlessly slapped the dragon king’s sword away from herself, changing its trajectory as the sword pierced itself into a nearby wall.
“…”
Everyone was surprise, but the one who didn’t expect that outcome the most was the dragon king himself. He had been holding back but never did he meet an individual who was able to effortlessly deflect his attack in such a lazy manner.
“This is… ”
Leona thought about the words that the dragon king spoke before. With this reaction from Morialia it took only a few seconds to comprehend the entire situation. She was smart enough to make the connection; Morialia, the puppet corpse, the carcass of the Spectral Eater and her display of power right now. She understood but couldn’t really pinpoint an exact motive for all of this trickery.
Was it for some kind of revenge? For fame? A job?
Just what was Morialia’s true identity?
“It seems that child isn’t as she first appears.”
The dragon king spoke out. Nobody could take their eyes off of this absurd situation; none of the members of Hywel knights had ever met a being with comparable strength to the dragon king, not even Rio who had lived for centuries. Morialia made a displeased, sour face, she clicked her tongue in a non-childish manner and averted her gaze as if to drop all of her façade.
She shook her head in her own denial.
“Tsk, I should’ve factored in the dragon king as well. How unsightly for me to make such a big miscalculation.”
Morialia spoke to herself, but those words were not the words that would be made by a child. Her words carried the tone of voice only reserved for beings who considered themselves above everyone else, as though everyone else was just a plaything to her.
“What are you?”
The dragon king demanded to know. Morialia, no Mordred was now at a crossroads. He could either reveal himself and somehow end thus with an apology and negotiation, or continue playing the role of a villain to test their strengths. The truth was he didn’t particularly need to kill them, that wasn’t what he was here for in the first place, merely to test their powers.
Even though the plan was altered a little, the situation could still be rectified to its original purpose. In fact, now the dragon king himself was thrown into the mix, what better chance to test the strength of the beings of this world than this? Mordred decided that he wanted to continue on with this situation a bit more and see how far he can take it until he was satisfied.
Morialia smiled back, a bone chilling and nerve wracking smile. The members of Hywel knights had cold sweat running down their backs as they firmly understood that this being wasn’t to be trifled with and was clearly out of their league.
Morialia started walking towards the dragon king’s sword that was hammered into the walls. It was firmly placed, requiring at least the strength of ten men to pull it out, or so that’s how it seemed. However the small girl, Morialia walked over and effortlessly drew out the sword as though it had been stuck in butter and not tons of stone.
“What? How?!”
The thing that surprised the dragon king wasn’t that she was able to pull it out, but that she was able to wield the sword in the first place. That sword wasn’t just a normal one, it was special, bound to the soul of the dragon king, allowing only him to use it. So then why was this unknown being able to wield it?
“I am human, that I can guarantee you beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
The girl answered the dragon king’s earlier question.
“Hey, isn’t that sword supposed to send a feedback to anyone other than the dragon king if they picked it up?”
Wolf commented from the sidelines, though everyone had the same question, no one except Morialia had the answer. Her ears twitched a little and she smiled back at them.
“The sword’s feedback is working as intended, I’m just suppressing it. Though I have to admit it hurts like hell.”
Morialia threw back the sword in much the same manner the dragon king did to her, however there was a considerable difference in speed, flying and spinning much faster, prompting even the dragon king himself to dodge the dangerous spin of his own sword. For a moment there was a fracture in his pride and with it an intense, burning anger.
The girl had admitted to being human, but the dragon king had to dodge the throw? Impossible!
The dragon king turned back to face Morialia but once he did he noticed that the little girl was no longer there, just empty space. In fact no one knew where she went not even the Hywel Knights who had kept a close eye on her. She had just disappeared into thin air.
However a moment later the dragon king could feel some pressure coming from above him. Following his intuition he gazed up to find Morialia jumping down on him. In respond the dragon king raised his shield to defend himself, what followed was an enormous shockwave and air pressure that even the members of the Hywel Knights could feel from a distance.
Feeling satisfied at the result Morialia jumped down behind the Dragon king with a devious smile. ‘This could work’ she thought, though the test was supposed to be on the Hywel Knights with the Spectral Eater, testing someone a bit more powerful and directly was sure to give more conclusive test results.
Instinctively the dragon king grabbed his sword and dashed back to make some distance between himself and the Morialia. After gaining distance he noticed a large crack on his sturdy shield; the shield which had served him for centuries now had a crack because of some child? No, he knew that this wasn’t an ordinary child, yet still couldn’t help suppress his anger.
“What’s wrong? Dragon king. Are you afraid?”
Morialia taunted.
“Fool, I will not be insulted! [Dragon’s blood]! [Berserker]! [Strike Enhancer]! [Counter Block]! [Urgent Strike]!”
Though it was unnecessary to shout out the name of an attack, it was widely recognized that doing so would greatly enhance the effects of the skills. Of course the trade off was that once someone shouts out the names of the attack, it would be obvious what their next moves was going to be. Thus it was up to individual discretion; did they want power or subtlety?
Morialia did not know those skills, they were unique only to this world but she could understand by the context and words what they might be. She smiled, ‘experiencing this world’s skills, not bad’, she thought to herself.
The dragon king threw his shield to his side and gripped tightly on his sword using both hands. A posture that the Hywel Knights knew very well, that he had forgone his defenses and would be focusing entirely on his offenses. A subtle but noticeable pressure resounded around the Chasm.
“Come at me.”
Speaking in a haughty manner, Morialia gestured using one finger. Enraged, the dragon king dashed forward at extreme speeds and warping the area behind him by leaving after images through sheer speed.
“[Paladin’s Shield], [Phoenix’s Regeneration], [Mana Shield], [Titanium Skin], [Undead’s Tenacity], [Acceleration Boost], [Reaction Enhancer], [Parry Enhancer], [Celestial Protection]. [Sword Break]. [Dual Cast]. [Elemental Shield]. [Melody of Defense], [Song of Clarity], [Sound distortion].”
All of those skills were buff skills from the various classes that Morialia had. Speaking under her breath in less than a few seconds she finished casting an unfathomable amount of spells and with that a creeping smile was reflected off the dragon king’s eyes.
The moment they clashed, enormous pressure and shockwaves were expelled forward, destroying the nearby walls and boulders. Smoke and dust rose up covering the scene of the battle. The Hywel Knights could only anticipate the result of the clash.
“No way…”
Wolf, the battle maniac spoke out in disbelief. The scene before him defied logic to him, the dragon king’s sword blocked by an invisible force field; a combination of [Mana shield] and [Paladin’s shield]. The sword visibly rattled in the dragon king’s hands as he struggled to push further into the shield. However before it could do so a small crack appeared on the sword.
“[Sword break].”
Morialia chanted those words and as though obeying her command the golden sword of the dragon king instantly shattered to pieces, leaving only parts of the Hilt and a third of the blade. Before the dragon king could even react to this, Morialia’s [reaction enhancer] and [parry enhancer] kicked in allowing her an easy and swift strike. She kicked the dragon king directly to his chest and sent him flying.
However that wasn’t the end of it, [Acceleration Boost] was also activated and Morialia was able to reach the dragon king before he even landed on the ground. She sent down a powerful axe kick down and smashed his face into the floor. Another large explosion taking place kicking up even more dust and smoke.
“Dragon King!”
Leona shouted out and tried to rush over to his aid but was stopped by Joutr. She tried to struggle out of his grasp but was unable to.
“Don’t go, we’re no match for her. You’ll only get in his way.”
Leona understood those words but couldn’t bring herself to accept them. She continued to struggle as even Wolf tried to hold her back. From the cleared up smoke the dragon king’s trembling figure could be seen. Blood dripping from his face, but for some reason he had a grin, right Wolf understood what that meant.
That look was the look of an individual who finally found a worthy opponent. It was the thrill of battle, the dragon king came from much the same vein as Wolf, a ‘battle maniac’.
“Hah… hahahaha! Wonderful! That’s how a real battle ought to be!”
This time Morialia felt grossed out by his uncanny grin. He was being pummeled to near death but still had a smile? ‘That’s disgusting’, she thought to herself but in her distraction the dragon king had disappeared. A reverse of the situation from before, the difference being that Morialia had [intuition] to guide her. Concentrating briefly she anticipated a strike from her left so she dodge, the dragon king revealing himself and missing his target.
“[Celestial Bombardment].”
Morialia spoke the name of another spell. This time, seemingly from the heavens themselves rained explosives made of mana.
“[King’s Shield]!”
The dragon king shouted, a large golden dome appeared before him, shielding him from the bombardment.
“Hey old man, this is a channeled ability that will continue until I run out of mana. You really want to bet which one would last longer, my mana or your shield? I’ll give you a hint, the thing that’ll lose out is the same color as piss.”
“Hahaha! We’ll see about that!”
“Tsk.”
Morialia didn’t like it, the dragon king had no guarantees of winning yet he was still having fun? ‘Don’t make fun of me’, she thought.
“[Mana Arrow]!”
From their side shot three magic arrows towards Morialia, she was able to dodge but the cost was that [celestial bombardment] was cancelled allowing the dragon king to get in a strike to an unguarded Morialia. It was the first strike that he managed to get in.
A clean cut to her torso with the broken blade… or it should’ve been if [Phoenix’s regeneration], [Titanium skin] and [Undead’s tenacity] didn’t take over. The wound was repaired even before a blink of an eye. Almost as though the cut itself had been an illusion.
“What kind of cheat is that?!”
From the sidelines Stella screamed. She was the culprit behind the [mana arrows], thinking that they could get an advantage over Morialia but in the end the situation looked extremely futile.
“You know, I don’t really like using ultimate skills in battle, because I don’t really like the idea of using the safety net, but since I’ve gotten everyone’s test results, why don’t we finish it off with a bang?”
Morialia asked. The dragon king’s intuition was telling him to run, that this was going to be dangerous, that everyone here would die if they stayed any further. However his mind could not accept running away, not before a fight. He lived by his sword and he would die by his sword, that’s how he wanted to live out forever.
“You guys should run away.”
Morialia spoke as she sighed, she directed the advice towards the Hywel Knights who had been standing there, useless for the past few minutes. However the response she got wasn’t exactly what she wanted to hear.
“We won’t abandon our friend, the dragon king.”
For a moment, both Morialia and the dragon king was stunned to hear that. For different reasons of course.
“I see, so you’ve made up your mind. Okay everyone dies. [Gravity Well].”
A pulse shot out from Morialia, as though time had ceased for a moment everything froze in place. It was a beautiful sight, if only briefly, then everything was dragged to the floor, even the dragon king himself could not stand and was kneeling down.
“What… is… “
Leona wanted to ask but she couldn’t continue that sentence due to the intense pressure felt all over her body. Everything, even air itself felt as though it was being pulled down. The only exception here was Morialia herself.
“Do you feel that, dragon king? That is the weight of your own blood, it’s pulling down on you and if you continue on like this you’ll die.”
“Fight… fairly…”
The dragon king growled.
“Oh, but I am. This is a simple test of endurance. Though I may look fine, the truth is this skill affects me just as much as you.”
[Gravity Well], an area of effect, suppression spell. In the [Hellgana] game this skill was the ultimate skill of the [sorcerer] class. It suppressed anyone in the area, stunning them and not allowing them to move or do anything, whilst taking periodic damage. Eventually they would die out, but this skill also had a drawback, which was that it also affected the user as well.
Thus it was aptly titled the ‘suicide bomber’ skill, as one [sorcerer] would incapacitate an entire battalion of enemy troops while the sorcerer’s allies would take out the enemy from afar, which would also kill the sorcerer himself.
This ability too, was a channeled ability, thus it was possible to be canceled out by sudden rapid movement or being attacked.
Before the skill could proceed to the level of irreversible damage on the Hywel Knights, it was interrupted. Someone had attacked from beyond the range of the [Gravity well]. The pressure of the intense gravity was lifted and everyone could breathe normally again, however they were unable to move due to the pain they were suffering.
Morialia had caught the attack that was aimed at her, she looked at her hand to see a steel arrow. She glanced at the direction of the attack and standing atop of the chasm was a lone archer in dusty gear.
He jumped down all the way from the top and landed perfectly on his foot at the bottom of the chasm. He had his mouth and nose hidden behind a black mask. His eyes were a clear blue with dark brown hair. His gear wasn’t that impressive, a semi-expensive looking leather armor, suitable for a ranger.
“Casec?”
Leona glanced up to see who it was.
[Song of Clarity] had kicked in, refreshing Morialia’s mind and reminding her the real purpose of this test. She was about to kill everyone here but that wasn’t her goal in the first place. For a second she dreaded herself that she got caught up in the act.
“Ah… right.”
She spoke to herself and sighed.
“[Mass healing]… [Song of Endurance]… [Inspiration]…”
Morialia healed everyone as if the entire thing was a farce everyone got back on their feet, in fact they were feeling much better than they did before.
“What’s going on?”
Rio was the one to speak up, as a [cleric] she had never witness such a powerful healing spell before. She was interested in it more than Morialia’s true identity.
Morialia sighed once more.
“I’d like to apologize for my rash behavior just now. I don’t know what came over me. Let’s start from the beginning, I am Morialia, a human.”
The dragon king burst into laughter as he heard the words come out of her mouth. ‘She didn’t know what came over?’ he thought, but he did. He felt it very much tingling in his body, the joy of fighting, that’s what came over her.
“…”
The Hywel knights didn’t know how to respond to this.
Then with an innocent smile Morialia spoke in a refreshing tone, much in the same manner as she did when they first met. The façade of an innocent and vulnerable girl returned.
“Then as an apology I’ll take all the members of Hywel Knights as my disciple! So forgive me? Teehee~”
Rebirth Online World 