Tyrant

The Bard and the Monk moved very dexterously around the area evading the bullets and causing the breath to trail behind them as they laugh out loud at being one step ahead of the enemy. The Serpent on the other hand was very calm and didn"t let the laughs get to her, she knew that Decaying Spores was not just a breath like attack but a two step skill that usually provoke that reaction from her opponents.

It didn"t take long for Jazz to notice the changes to the area, poisonous mushroom buds were rapidly growing and absorbing the energy around them to mature. They went from 1 ft to 2 ft and then to 3 ft but there was no sign that they were going to stop anytime soon, the mushroom continued to swell up and in a couple of seconds they were reaching their critical ma.s.s of 10 ft and finally they exploded releasing a million spores in all directions.

The whole valley was being covered in poisonous spores that as soon as they hit Bato"s defensive auras, a sizzling sound could be heard and a portion of his energy disappeared into thin air.

Jazz looked around and saw that there was no escape. They had laughed uncontrollably while evading the breath without noticing that they have left the safety of the entrance and now they were deep inside the valley and only the giant cliff was behind them.

"f.u.c.k!"

Bato frowned by his side but was not too worried about the situation because he still had his Pearls of Enlightenment. He wasn"t about to die inside the Orb without using his Realm Weapon even if that broke the rules of the mission and caused them to be kicked out, it was definitely better than dying inside the orb.

Sigh…

"I got this" said Jazz in a very dejecter manner.

Jazz was now very adept at the use of his avatar weapon and had mastered the many instruments it could changed to. The Bard started to play the drum and immediately the beat for Performance Resonance was reverberating through the air while guitar notes interlace here and there activating Ode to the Realm.

Ode to the Realm was the second Avatar song Jazz acquired from his shoulder piece and the reason he didn"t want to play it was because of his visual effect. The first time he had played the Ode to the Realm back in the Levanthus cave, he remembered that there were incredible bright lights that gave the onlooker a feeling that Jazz was a holy being favored by the G.o.ds.

The praise from the other members of the group gave Jazz a little bit of confidence in the item until one night while he was drinking in a tavern, he tried to show off by playing the song and instead of the initial holy light, a fluorescent pink light came as particles of energy towards his shoulder that absorbed them until the Rose Design was shining.

The moment the rose design on his shoulders shone in pink light, the reflection portion of the skill activated and fluorescent pink Aura covered his body in the shape of pink hooded cloak that silenced the crowd for a couple of seconds before they burst into laughter.

The next day the nickname of " Little Pink Riding Hood" spread throughout the town and sent Jazz into a rampage of destruction inside his room forcing the team to leave the town very quickly.

Despite the visuals of the skill, it was extremely powerful. The Performance Resonance enhanced the effect of other songs by 190% and this increased the percentage of damage returned as well as the duration of the skill. The 2 seconds the Ode to the realm lasted became 5 seconds and the damage to be return was increased to almost 300%.

Jazz was covered with the pink Riding hood cloak as he made a v line towards all the poisonous spores coming their way. The cloak absorbed everything and very soon the area around them was cleaned of any spores and the cloak that was once pink change to black.

The 5 seconds Expire and as the black cloak disappeared, a huge dagger appeared behind the Wind Serpent and penetrated it straight to the heart.

SCREECH!

The Dream Serpent coil itself and then flail none stop as it dropped to the ground unable to flap its wings to keep flight. The sharp pain was unbearable and it affected the mental projection that started to become a lot less real.

In both sides of the battlefield, both Bato and Ridd.i.c.k saw the opportunity clearly and without thinking it twice they attacked. Ridd.i.c.k increased in size and took a bite of the illusory beast head and then another and just as it entered his body, his purple flame started melting the serpent and a.s.similating the energy into his body.

ROAR!!!

Ridd.i.c.k"s roar was heard by the scaleborns patrolling on the outside of the Sanctum and some of them even walk towards the cliff to see what was going on; however, the only thing they saw was a 9 headed hydra feasting on the illusory serpent.

"I guess there is a new Guardian Beast"

"It is still just a beast … Very dilute blood, nothing to fuss about"

The scaleborn guards that were watching the scene from the top of the cliff commented with disdained without realising that what they were seeing was just an illusion.

On the other side, Bato did not wasted the chance that Jazz obtained for the team and released ma.s.sive amounts of Ki from his body and then acc.u.mulated it in his right hand while moving a fast speeds until he was right in front of the serpent.

KI BURST!

Bato hit the serpent with an open palm attack that looked gentle but when the palm touch the skin of the serpent where its heart was suppose to be, all the energy gathered in the hand was transferred inside. The Ki entered the heart of the beast compressing itself until it burst with amazing powered destroying the Serpent"s heart.

THUD!!

Bato was besides the serpent and was able to hear the m.u.f.fled sound confirming that his technique had destroyed an organ inside the beast. The pupils of the beast dilated and blood dripped from the side of his mouth before the light in its eyes faded.

The fight was over and their reward was not small as vast energy came flooding inside their bodies increasing their levels.

Jazz sat down close to the waterfall and saw Bato coming towards him with a smile on his face.

"That is some skill you got there Jazz, it really save my a.s.s".

HA HA HA!

Ridd.i.c.k and Rahz arrived exactly to hear Bato and looking at Jazz"s face they understood which skill he was talking about as it was them that started the rumor of the little pink riding hood. The body of the serpent laid on the floor and after close inspection they saw the beauty of its skin and how resilient it was and best of all, that it was in such a good condition.

"Can you placed it inside the cube, Mr. Springsocket?"

There was no response coming from the bracelet in Rahz"s wrist but after a few seconds, the corpse disappeared and the bracelet illuminated its runes starting its a.n.a.lysis of the Dream Serpent.

"Hmm… No matter how look at it, the body of this Dream Serpent is real and it matches the records from the war… Tenebrous Sanctum? Interesting placed for sure, there is definitely more to that orb that meets the eye…. I wonder if they will let me do some reverse engineering… I am 40% sure that I could put it back together."

Rahz and the others were not aware of the thoughts that plagued the Artificial Intelligence gnome and started climbing the cliff towards the next stage of their mission where Captain Halar was located.

The team reached the top and were spotted by a patrolling guard that walked curiously towards them and said, " What are you guys doing here? We are not suppose to have visitors from the Bonemire Island at this time, you better turn around before Lord Venekius finds out or you might never go back". The stuff given by the Erudite at the beginning of the mission did more than just camouflage their scent, it created an illusion that change their appearance to fool the inhabitants of the island.

It was not surprise that the patrol thought they were Bonemire Scaleborns belonging to the Chaos Dragon subordinates, it was the perfect disguise to create havoc and pinned it on somebody else...