The Arcana Strike hung up above, slowly growing in threat. Looking down, John noted that the trolls in the arena were not triggered by this action. Their programming was either not as careful towards exploits or deliberately easier to take advantage of. A third possibility was that they would only become active once the Arcana Strike had grown enough. Whatever it was, they were free at the moment.

Fixing his gaze on the naked booty of Metra, he was distracted for just long enough for the Arena boss to finally come trampling out of the gate. It was some kind of large troll in dinosaur skull armour. Having seen so many different set pieces in his time, John just wasn’t particularly impressed. “Have fun,” John told the First of Wrath.

“I will,” the same responded, before starting her charge across the fifty-metre distance.

“Guess I will go do my thing as well then.” Salamander grinned and floated off.

“You do that,” John agreed and rolled his neck, the remaining five of them just standing there and waiting. At first, he kept watching Metra; watching a naked berserker babe battle a brute with arms as thick as her body was in itself entertaining. Admittedly, he was focused more on the way Metra’s muscles shifted around and how her athletic curves looked in motion. After some time, he decided to look up.

Salamander hovered in the relative middle of the opening in the ceiling. The lines on her skin shifted colour, from black over red to the orange gold at the centre of a flame. A fire of the same colour flickered from her left eye, as she raised both hands. Between her palms, an orb manifested. A thick black rim surrounded a dark, dangerous red. It looked like an inversion of the eclipse John had seen the day he had decided to buy the Skillbook to summon her.

Crushing the sphere between her clawed hands, Salamander tossed the resulting fragments into the air. Each was like a blood red star. They fanned out, scattered above the apocalypse elemental. For a moment they hung in the air, then the apocalypse elemental ordered them to descend with a commanding motion. Glowing and gaining mass, making a mockery of the reduction they should have experienced due to air friction, the fragments of magic turned into chunks of burning rock. A scattershot of meteorites turned the corner of the arena where the announcer and emperor sat into an absolute ruin.

Where a meteorite impacted, the kinetic force was the least of the worries. Once the solid stone had come to a halt, it exploded in a wave of black and gold fire, quaking the earth and blasting the crater even further open. As a primarily fire elemental, this part of the attack of the apocalypse elemental was the truly threatening bit. Trolls were consumed by the expanding heat, bodies catapulted from one explosion into the other, all to the insane, pleased cackling of the pyromaniac above.

Salamander raised her right hand again. A new sphere appeared, black and golden fire around a red rock, and added that extra meteorite into the mess she had created. From the way it formed to the impact, it looked exactly the same as the previous attack, just on a lower scale. This was because, simply, it was.

As an apocalypse elemental, she had three main tools of attack: fire, meteorites and earthquakes. It wouldn’t require her Unleash to use one of her fundamental tools, that would have been rather odd. Instead, what had previously been a buff applied to other people’s attacks was now an occasional, once every two minutes increase of power for her next action. While it usually was magic, she could boost her physical capabilities as well, if she so desired.

“Hahaha…ahahaha…AHAHAHAHAHA!” Salamander’s cackling grew into a maniacal laughter when the third meteorite she created by hand shattered the structural integrity of the northern end of the arena. Between the initial series of blasts ruining the platform and the deliberate attacks that followed, the egg-shaped walls started to crumble inwards.

‘Great to see that she is still having fun throwing those around,’ John thought. When Salamander had discovered that she could throw exploding rocks instead of regular old fireballs, her ecstasy on the matter had been near orgasmic. He was even somewhat convinced that she liked blowing up giant things more than sex. Not that the good old fireballs were useless now. It was all a question of the kind of material attacked and the aim of the attack. As much fun as she was having with it, throwing meteorites wasn’t exactly sustainable for suppression fire.

“Uhm, are we going in yet?” Gnome asked, as the cloud of rock dust spread out. With a giant hole in the pointy end of the arena, it got a fair bit brighter.

“Not quite,” John answered and looked up to the trolls in the watching area. They seemed a tad confused, hanging onto their ropes and staring at the destruction site. Salamander tossed another meteor into the cloud of sand and dust. This time, there was no explosion. Suddenly, the area cleared, any obstruction blown away by a golden wind. The troll emperor stood tall, one hand raised and keeping the latest meteorite suspended in mid-air. Once he had cleared his line of sight, he brought the second hand to the defence as well. The magic swelled and, with a roar, the emperor caused the meteorite to be launched back at Salamander.

Dodging the now simple rock quite handily, the apocalypse elemental looked down. The rubble of the destroyed arena began to stir, as several of the buried trolls made their way to the surface. Some had died in the initial impact and, notably, one of the emperor’s bodyguards was missing, but the majority of enemies had made it out of the initial scattershot.

“Get’em,” the emperor said, his calm voice echoing throughout the entire arena. For a moment, it was calm. Then the announcer himself burst out of the rubble. Going directly into a sprint, the troll thankfully stopped in his chatter. The already odd-looking suit was largely destroyed. What threads remained strained and tore when the announcer’s body expanded.

‘It’d be a problem if that one picked Metra as his target over us,’ John thought. The First of Wrath was faring well against her single opponent and would likely win if given enough time. Which made it John’s job to give her that time. “Sylph, you take on that one. Keep your attacks precise.”

“Caaaaaaaaan dooooooooooo,” the arcvolt elemental responded and then zapped forwards. A streak of pale blue and green, she crossed the distance in a near instant. The brute of an announcer came to a sudden halt, trying to swipe at the little woman that was now in front of him. His arm cut through the air, but only travelled through a cloud of electricity left behind by Sylph’s movement. First above then, dodging another attack, behind the enemy, Sylph threw lightning at her opponent. Currents crackled through the space between them, seared flesh and caused the monster to spasm. Regeneration made both a short-lived harm to the creature, but it was harm regardless.

Much like her appearance, Sylph’s fighting style and tools hadn’t changed. She was faster now, her electricity more potent and honed, but she still utilized them in the same fashion.

While Sylph was occupying the special enemy, the rank-and-file trolls seemed to have picked John as their opponent. He didn’t even bother looking in the direction of the descending enemies. His focus lay on the emperor alone, who continued to hang back and just oversee the situation. ‘The enemies are really getting smarter the further along I get,’ the Gamer thought. “Gnome, if you would.”

“S-sure thing!” the autumn elemental declared and stomped once. In a three metre radius around her, the earth suddenly shot up from the level ground, leaving them at a one-metre high elevation. High enough to break the tide of enemies into climbing waves, but not high enough to disincentivize them from attacking.

Siena, Gnome and John took their stance at enough of a distance from one another that the area they were defending didn’t overlap. The wedge-like claws of the Talon of the Ravenlord slid from the back of his hand to the tip of his fingers, extending his reach. At the same time, Undine fused with Purgatory, effectively assuming her item form and allowing the Gamer to manifest an estoc made from ice in his left hand. An icy mist rose from the black scales of the magical claw, enveloping his lower arm and the blade.

John raised his right hand and met the very first attacker with a slash across the face. It didn’t kill the enemy, but it made them fall back into the dark blue mass of bodies that was now clamouring to get on top of their ring. After a few moments of regeneration, that very same troll joined the assault once again. Stabbing and slashing, John kept the trolls at bay. Although his physical Stats were not sufficient to finish any of these enemies off, he had balanced his sheet enough that he could hold them off. It wasn’t easy, he was in constant motion, pushed to the brink of what his Agility and Strength allowed him to do, and only the presence of the Mandala Sphere allowed him to keep enough of a view of the situation to play his attacks correctly. Regardless, he was doing it, and the more he hurt his enemies, the more Rising Annihilation increased the very same Stats he was relying on at the moment. Slowly the task transformed from nigh impossible to merely difficult.

Gnome and Siena were faring much better. Whenever a troll successfully managed to climb onto the earth spirit’s third of the circle, they were met by a solid fist. A lucky troll merely had his ribcage broken, as he was sent flying back down into the arena. A less lucky one only had its head sent flying, Gnome’s punch turning their brains into a splattering mush that turned into dust and ash before it could stain anything. Each time, the autumn elemental seemed grossed out by the result of her offensive action, but kept going regardless, unwilling to disappoint her summoner or let herself be run over by a mindlessly hostile crowd.

Where Gnome fought with reluctant brutality, Siena presented her murdering with a savage elegance. Always in motion, leveraging her superior speed, the moonshade elemental ducked away under swipes and weaved through punches, while retaliating only with strikes from her tail. What could easily be misconstrued as a motion of villainous arrogance was simply the most effective way to fight the trolls. Trenches cut with her claws weren’t deep enough to finish off the opponent immediately and healed after just a few seconds. The sharp crystal layer around the spade-tip of her tail could dig much deeper, actually severing heads and necks from spines.

Even though they were all faring well, the sheer number of trolls threatened to overwhelm them. There were about a hundred of them, all eager to join the fight. Climbing over each other, they came in unreliable waves. Just when it seemed that a few trolls would manage to get into the centre of the platform, breaking their formation, Salamander swept down. A trail of fire followed her, as she flew over the crowd and then delivered a flying knee to the face of one of the assailants. Just like that, the threat was demolished and their position secured again. Salamander took off and continued to harass the trolls with fire.

For over ten minutes, that situation went on in that configuration. As they simply kept coming, the group simply kept fighting. Although it got hairy sometimes and actually killing trolls was a bit of a challenge, they were slowly whittling down the number of assailants. ‘If this continues, I will eventually win without using the Arcana Strike. What will you do now?’ John thought, directing the attention of the Mandala Sphere at the emperor.

Something similar must have gone through his head, as the leader of the trolls calmly raised his arm and pointed at John. The remaining bodyguard nodded and started to run, brandishing an ornamented stone sword. Going past both the battles of Sylph and Metra, the female troll was directed at interrupting John’s situation.

‘They may be smarter, but they are still far from thinking optimally,’ the Gamer noted. The emperor had to trigger the Arcana Strike. Even if he didn’t know what it was, John wasn’t sure if Gaia shared such information, it was a basic observance that it was something dangerous. The need to do something was self-evident, but John would have moved his extra pieces to support either the berserker or the announcer in this situation. Given the current circumstances, it would have worked much better for the trolls if they put additional pressure on Sylph or Metra. The rest of the group was already pinned and would continue to be so for a while.

Since interrupting his enemy while they made a mistake wasn’t wise, John simply let the bodyguard approach and gave Metra a quick notice. The blonde babe swung her axe two more times, then discarded it in favour of simply charging at her enemy. Ramming her shoulder into his gut, she continued storming forwards and towards John.

The bodyguard leapt, Metra crashed into the back of the crowd and John let the Arcana Strike descend. Blue, muscular bodies were torn apart by arcane currents, when the well-charged attack exploded outwards. While the boss Metra had been fighting was finished off, already hurt from the constant barrage of powerful blows, John wasn’t quite so sure about the bodyguard.

When the arcane mist began to clear, his suspicion was confirmed. At the same time, it was nothing to be alarmed about. Among a host of other trolls, those on the outskirts of the impact site, the bodyguard had only barely survived. Even though their regeneration quickly reduced the size of their wounds, it wasn’t powerful enough to replace half a body in the time it took Salamander to conjure a new meteorite.

The bodyguard’s head was squashed and the dissolving body blown apart by the wave of fire that followed. Getting out of the crater where their platform had previously been, the entire group moved on to finishing off whatever trolls remained. Everyone but John, who turned and ran towards the emperor who was now charging them.

‘When the plan falls through, raw aggression is the last path forwards,’ John thought, as the two of them met on the field of battle. A wave of golden energy clashed against the Gamer’s Particle Skin. Having finished off so many enemies with Arcana Strike meant that John had a mana regeneration of 90 MP per second, with all costs already deducted. Under such circumstances, he was more than willing to just power through any attack.

He emerged unscathed on the other side and raised his left hand. Dropping the estoc, he pointed his index finger at the ornate troll’s head. The emperor reacted just in time, moving to the side before a purple ray of energy penetrated the air where his head had just been. That wasn’t enough to escape the Arcana Ray, however. John just moved his finger and the attack travelled along. A high-pitched sound, like a drop of water evaporating on a hot plate, accompanied the motion.

The emperor dodged further to the right, which was where John met him with a slice of the Talon of the Ravenlord. Empowered by the lightning Enchantment, the attack stunned the emperor for a moment. Then he was struck not only by the Arcana Ray of John but also that of the Mandala Sphere. Slowly cutting holes through his leathery hide, the emperor roared defiantly. The blue skin started to shimmer in a metallic fashion. A precursor for some sort of counterattack, no doubt.

John simply used Shifting Momentum to get out of melee range. Not because he was afraid, but because he didn’t want to be in the way when a meteorite and a lance forged from lightning both hammered into the boss. Metra and Gnome followed up quickly and the emperor got dogpiled before any of his potential power could really shine through.