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The aftermath of the Dungeon Raid withiy of Elderbridge still remairong. It has only been two and a half days sihe i, and many people are still missing. Children have bee orphaned, and a quarter of the city has beeroyed. Although Duchess Teressa did her best to take care of her territory, the distrust of the citizens towards her was strong.
She had been trying her best to help them, rebuilding them with both her abilities and also by purchasing materials and paying workers to do it, but the plete recovery of a city she had left alone due to her own self-loathing and depression wouldn’t be quick. It could take months, or perhaps even years.
And she khat it was in this state that her city was the most vulnerable to external attacks. Many of the other es of the Emperor, or even his siblings and children, coveted this city, not because of what little it produced on its fields and cattle but due to the three low-tiered dungeons it possessed.
They were easy enough that most people could ehem, bringing back valuable monster materials and other products, always with a ce to even bring a treasure chest too. It was an endless farm of loroducts that could still help anybody get their ey eveer.
Yet Teressa did not ma well a it mostly for just any Hunter or Adveo e and gamble their lives without particurly trag people t her what they hunted so she could have stant growth ireasury.
Elderbridge is older than when Duhemselves existed, and it was pletely by luck that this small, poor city ended up being the vessel of not o three of them when the “New Era” began.
The very cept of “Instance Dungeons” themselves was nothing but a weird fantasy until then, and the world did not know of su incredible souraterials like before. But with this came many other challenges.
Stronger monsters began to appear around Obscuritas and also the other Realms, rger structures spawned out of thin air; gigantic towers, massive and a castles of eras long fotten, and even more, just retly, when the greatest ge of them all started to appear: Pyers.
People were suddenly possessed by a ype of power, blessed with powerful new Skills, Traits, and deadly Fws as well. Their personalities even ged too. Pyers became much different than other people, almost as if they had bee pletely different people altogether…
And now that her son had bee oeressa was both relieved that Vd had bee stronger and also worried about the ges her poor, crippled son would have undergone. He was certainly much different than before, both in personality and even his way of speaking.
But then again, did she even know her son that well? Through all these years since Vd was born, she had hardly held a long versation with him, as he was often bedridden or sleeping.
“Hahh… The world I used to know has ged,” she sighed. “The New Era is unfiving. Those that do not adapt… Will droerish beh the waves of ge.”
As she looked at the dark, eternal night sky and the three moons, she smiled lightly, recalling her son, her daughter, and even Alitheus.
“But it’s a good family anyway... I get used to it.”
BOOOM!
Her eyes widehe moment she heard a loud explosion.
The eg cries of the citizens reverberated everywhere.
The ground trembled as the roars of hundreds of men echoed from afar.
And even the roar of a creature, a beast.
“What’s going on?!”
Teressa ran to see the people running away in the opposite dire from where she was, overseeing the restru of the rger building in her city that housed the most families.
“L-Lady Teressa, please help us!”
“A group of barbarians had broken through the city walls using a giant draic beast!”
“W-We ’t take this anymore! We have to run!”
Families with their children, orphaned kids, and people that were left oreets all started running in the opposite dire. Their duchess remaiill for a couple of seds, her anger growing rger.
“Seriously… I simply ’t take a breather for five seds?!” She roared furiously, and her Aura of Blood Power surged tremendously, freezing the floor beh her. “But this is also my fault; I deserve this…”
FLASH!
She greair of bat-like wings made of frozen blood power, flying into the skies and rushing towards the bandits.
.
.
.
Crack, crack…!
The people of Elderbridge, already tired ahered down from the Dungeon Raid, never expected aerrible io befall them.
CRASH!
The walls right behind them—the thing that made them sure nothing from the outside world would dare eheir safe city—were shattered.
“W-Wha…?!”
“Ehhh?!”
“W-What’s happening? The walls…!”
Werewolves, orcs, imps, demons, moon elves, and blood elves all panicked as they saw a gigantic draic cw, covered in fiery red and yellow scales, break out of the wall with a sirike.
“ROOOAAARR!”
And the head of a big, draic creature emerged from the hole, further shattering the walls and breaking open the weakened magical barrier produced by it.
BOOOM!
The gigantic beast charged forward, destroying the entire wall in front of it and leaving a huge mess. A mohat strong would definitely not be something anybody in this city could easily handle.
A feared Tier 6 monster!
A beast capable of easily trampling over cities, a creature that, with sheer power, could even break magical barriers that weren’t reinforced enough or imbued with enough Ara.
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
RUMBLE!
The ground trembled as the gigantic beast of over thirty meters of height walked into the city, its jaws slowly bzing with bck fmes, the creature’s iguana-like head seemed rather stras eyes cked pupils, being pletely reddened, and surrounding its here was a ade of bck pearls, imbued with strange, cursed energies.
But above all, the most terrifying thing was that it didn’t e alo wasn’t just a wild beast, not at all. It came apanied by hundreds of men charging ihe city and one of the physically stro races of Obscuritas, Orcs!
“Hahahaha! Raid this run-doweal every single damn thing, you bastards!”
The orc chief and leader of the barbarian tribe leading the invasion roared, ughing his lungs out as he led his army of robbers and plunderers ihe weakened city of Elderbridge. Sitting over the draic creature and holding upon a bck-colored staff made of dark wood and topped with a purple-colored skull, he seemed to be somehow trolling the creature.
The orcs charge ih furious roars, swinging their ons imbued with magical fmes, trying to set abze the surrounding areas while sughtering the people they came across, tearing them to shreds with a single swing of their enormous axes and swords.
Ohey saw a handful of bodies on the floor, people finally realized that this wasn’t just a bad dream again and that misfortune had befallen upon them once more.
“R-Run…! RUUUN!”
A werewolf screamed, running away while grabbing his two daughters. He didn’t even have time to mourn the death of his wife, a aerrible i happehe people that were there also started esg as quickly as possible, their screams of panid horror reverberating across the ey.
The powerful, tall, and muscur orcs of the Bck Fang Bandits, formerly a tribe of nomadic barbarians that had to turn into criminals and raid small vilges to feed their own irying times, were much strohan most of the people of Elderbridge, who grew up in the odity behind the walls.
Eae was at least Tier 3 in levels of strength, covered with War Ruhe source of power for most Orc tribes, tattooed over their bodies. The more they sughtered, fought, and killed, the stroheir War Runes would grow and the more they would expand across their bodies, and depending oalents, attributes, and abilities, the runes would take different colors and shapes.
“Gehahaha! There’s a lot of food here!” one hed as they started robbing a huge bakery. “Carry out all the bread! The flour and anything else you find inside, hurry!”
Although they killed anything on sight, they were still prioritizing robbing food and anything valuable, enteriy houses and breaking anything inside, and bringing out small chests full of s, jewelry, and pieetal such as silver and gold.
“Anybody that finds something, bring it to the back of the beast!” the chief ahem. “Hurry the fuck up, bastards! And- Huh?”
His eyes widened as he saw something approag—in fact, two figures ing from the skies. One didn’t even resemble a person, but something like a huge golem made of red and goldeal, flying by enpassing their bodies on spiraling winds. The other at their side was small and rather defenseless looking, a cute incubus with red hair.
“Hah! What are these freaks? The only thing proteg this piss-poor city?” ughed the chief. “Attack them!”
The chief imbued Ara into the staff as the purple-colored crystal skull unleashed a bolt of bck lightning into the draic creature, making it squeal in pain.
“GRYYYAARGH!”
With a furious cry of pain, the creature opes jaws and unleashed several giant fireballs of bck fmes, firing them towards the ining “guardians”.
“Well, it’s about time I try this,” the armored man spoke, summoning a sword out of thin air, and then imbuing it with his Ara. “Let’s see… Like this?”
He sounded like an amateur, yet wheivated his Skill, his hands moved like those of an expert, even if for a split sed.
“{Dual Bzing Bde Arts}: {One Sword Style: Magic Break}”
SLAAASH!
A single ssh was unleashed within the skies, expanding into an enormous wave of fiery red fmes, g against the ining five-meter-big bck fme fireball.
BOOOM!
The fireball exploded before reag them, leaving behind a huge cloud of bck smoke, which he and his panion passed through easily.
“Cough, cough, that was... Cough, ugh, awesome,” the incubus groaned. "But, ugh, was that fire cursed? I feel kind of weakened, Paul!”
“It would be better not to breathe it, Chris!” said the armored man. “Now let’s go down! you fire arrows at those guys over there? Don’t let them take any more lives, please!”
“Sure, I got this!” Chris healed his curse immediately using a sparkle of light ing from his Heavenly Core, pointing at the distance as he summoned his magiagic arrows of several elements being fired oer another. “Don’t think yetting out of here alive after you killed i people, you piece of shit!”
“Huh?!”
“A-Arrows from the sky?!”
“Magic?!”
Dozens of arrows of frost, winds, lightning, poison, and fmes rushed down like deadly elemental rain. The orcs pilging around were instantly met with a swift end as the b elemental explosions tore through their bodies.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
Those that somehow mao survive, slowly standing up in fusion, were quickly killed by a huge bck, red, and gold-colored trident rushing down against their chests and pierg them at lightning speed!
CRASH!
“W-What…?!”
CRASH!
“Use your shield to- ACK!”
CRASH!
“How is that trident moving on its own- UAAGH!”
CRASH!
The Orc Chief gred at the se in disbelief, his long bck hair waving from the shockwaves geed by the elemental explosions, his bck cloak revealing his scarred, ugly face.
“What?! Those attacks…! But my men are all Tier 3! Yet they’re dying so easily? This is- Ah!”
His eyes widened as he sehe presence of someone ing behind him. The armored man he had mocked before appeared, swinging his magic swainst him.
“Trying to sneak behind me, you bastard?!” roared the orc chief, his staff unleashing a dark power that created a mighty magical barrier around his body. “Don’t think you easily hurt a powerful Sorcerer such as myself! I’ll teach you-”
“{Dual Bzing Bde Arts}: {One Sword Style: Barrier Shattering Fire Storm}”
FLUOOOSH!
Vd not only sshed once, but three times at the same time with a single sword, unleashing a storm of bzing fmes that engulfed the orc, slowly beginning to shatter his barrier!
Crack, crack…!
CRACK!
“It’s… shattering my magic barrier?! Impossible!”
CRAAASH!
Before he could reinforce his barrier, it pletely shattered into pieces, and the powerful orc chief was engulfed in a tornado of fmes, burning through his body.
“Uuuaaaggh!” He screamed in agony. “Y-You dam, move and attack!”
His staff glowed brightly as the gigantic dragon’s red eyes released crimson sparks of lightning, its head twisted towards its back with surprising ease, opening, and bsting Vd with a dragoh.
“Shit…”
BOOOM!
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Pach
