New Game+

Chapter 196 - The Wind And The Arrow

The powerful wind broke through and pushed as if there was a change in the air pressure creating the strong penetration of the wind. The Kraken had calmed down when the force field was deployed as it blocked the wind itself. But now, the wind of Hermes pushed inside and created a strange wind field around them.

"How arrogant!" The Emperor roared angrily.

"Don't do anything yet. Let them have their fun."

The Emperor contained his anger and relented to making a devastating attack.

"The others will soon find ways as the battle inside will become more and more chaotic. Once they're all gathered, I'll Invoke it. The world will once more remember why we are called Emperors!" The Empress declared.

A twister of air made landfall on the surface of the Kraken. The twister started to grow larger and larger. Right in the center of the twister stood six figures.

"Let's get this party started! Four Winds! Move!" Hermes ordered.

The four men suddenly jumped and were suddenly flying at incredible speeds.

Four figures shot out of the tornado and zoomed around the Kraken.

Several unprepared Exoskeletons perished as the figures zoomed nearby. And a barrage of strange bullets was shot out as the four held small equipment on their arms. A strange cutting sound was heard as several needle-like objects pierced and struck the small visors of the Exoskeletons.

The pilots died and fell down.

The four continued to move with amazing speed.

An Armor immediately unloaded a barrage, but the four moved in an extremely strange manner.

One of them suddenly slowed down and immediately moved at an extremely fast speed towards the other direction.

One of the Exoskeletons tried to ram one of the figures, but a silver light could be seen, and the Exoskeleton was sliced in half.

The Armor kept shooting, but the four figures approached the Armor through a blindside. The vision and monitors of the Armor were suddenly attacked, leaving the Armor blind.

The other soldiers suddenly began chasing and attacking the flying figures. As they moved, some were suddenly struck with a powerful wind that hindered their movements. Others were blown further as the wind would push them faster on the direction they were going.

The four were vastly outnumbered. But the number of enemies they had was dwindling.

"Go! Irvana… Find me that Seed!" Hermes ordered.

"As you order, Father." Irvana disappeared in plain sight.

"Now for the Rule." Hermes smirked. The tornado gathered near him, and he sprung up and moved towards the direction where the two Rules were. The tornado moved along him as it became his very feet. His movements were extremely erratic, and none of the turrets, Exoskeletons, and Armors could hit the moving man.

"Oh? He wants to deal with us personally?" The Emperor was surprised.

"It's a diversion. You handle him. I'll leave my Rule to you."

"You're stepping out??? The Emperor was stunned.

"I'm stronger out of this Rule anyway. I'll deal with the rats." The Empress left the Rule immediately. The Rule opened out, and an appearance that looked like a large throne could be seen. The Empress stepped out. Almost immediately, she disappeared.

"Be careful, Irvana. I can't see through the WGP's cloak." Hermes whispered as he charged onwards to face the Rule.

On the Platform where the EMP exploded out, Cliff and Gardo stared in shock at the battle going on.

The air channels reached their area.

Cliff could feel the air thinning. It was slowly getting harder to breathe.

Cliff observed several Exoskeletons that were fighting. Sure enough, some of them were falling down. He immediately turned to Titan.

"What's happening?"

Titan was the first to sense it.

The hair follicles of his skin could sense it. After being tuned by Richie's sound and undergoing various painful experiments, the smallest movements in the air could alert Titan. Their rubber suits had already allowed the air to easily go inside them. And with the movements occurring on air, Titan could sense it.

His sensing was weaker than the power, accuracy, and detail of Realm Somatotopy. But in terms of reach, it was bigger than what Cliff or even Seeker could master.

"General! Something strange is happening in the area around us! I can feel the wind nearby blowing on a very concentrated direction. It's as if… there's a channel of air moving. You can sense one nearby! Use your Realm and sense there!" Titan alerted as he pointed to an empty spot over their heads.

"I can feel it. What a disgusting ability. He's creating a roller coaster of air channels!" Cliff used his Realm to sense the changes nearby.

The air channels had extremely strong winds that went more than 200 kilometers per hour. The friction and resistance made the movements of the Exoskeletons and Armors more difficult.

The Exoskeletons and soldiers were emerging from the Kraken as the battle between the WGP and Grant Hermes began.

Explosions and gunshots echoed as the battle began.

Cliff recalled the details of who Grant Hermes was when he was talking with Seeker that night.

---

Cliff had just had a wonderful talk with Charm Novelty-Blastoise, but then, Seeker's call and immediate orders horrified him. As the two talked about who they might fight, Cliff had already made his preparations for the fight.

"Can you at least tell me of the Overcomer's that you're sure to be going there?"

"I don't want to. It would be more detrimental to you. I don't know how strong or weak he is. I messed up with my estimates with Meng. I didn't know that that damned gem allowed him to overcome his heart demons. Now, with all that's been going on in the world, they might be preparing for war. So they could be stronger than they really were in my past's present." Seeker remained adamant.

"Then tell me his general Path, skills, and so on."

"Hermes is the direct opposite of two Overcomers. He is the direct opposite of Lennox because he doesn't usually plan. He plays it all by ear. And he is more powerful doing that than actually making up a plan. Lennox has his thousand thoughts that can formulate the best plan. Why did you think we survived the Tyrant Empress? Truth be told, the most important key of that battle was Lennox. And that's considering Lennox was already waring with himself. Some of his thoughts were surely taken through lust. So my suggestion, consider facing this guy as someone who can match Lennox."

"Why don't you just kill me?" Cliff asked with an irritated expression.

Seeker laughed.

"Come on, Cliffy… You're almost at the Ranked Hero level! Don't stop here!" Seeker chided.

"You said two… Who's the other polar opposite?"

"The Lone Wolf. Richie. Richie is the perfect Lone Wolf among Overcomers. He never had a team in my timeline. Probably now he plans to build it, and this will be interesting. But Richie can fight an army all by himself. But Grant isn't. He never fights alone. Meng might do it. Lennox might if things go haywire. But not Grant. He always has his four swords with him. To him, being an Overcomer is not being an individual, it's a unit. He is an Overcomer, but it's because he relies on others is what makes him strong. He is an Overcomer who has underlings that he trusts with his life."

"Great. Not only is he capable of matching Lennox, but he also has a team. And by the sounds of it, these are all Ranked Heroes? I thought you said I was only going to face one Overcomer and one Ranked Hero!"

"That's what I said. Don't you get it? Those four aren't Ranked Heroes. They were simply at the peak of Inhuman. They need Hermes to be that strong. And Hermes was using them."

Cliff wanted to beat Seeker, but he knew it was an impossible dream. Still, he couldn't help but fantasize smashing Seeker's casual face on the table before them.

"I can leak emotions, and I can absorb them. I feel like you've been smashing my head on the table." Seeker grinned.

"So he's not the only one I need to worry about? I take him out, or any members of his team, he'd be greatly weakened?"

"No. Right up to the moment I died, Hermes still had all four members. As I said, he and those four is the Overcomer. If you manage to kill one, then yes, he'd be weakened, but in another sense, you've basically killed the Overcomer. Can you kill an Overcomer?" Seeker asked.

"Then tell me about his team. So I know what to look out for."

"I've met and talked with two. Austin. A coward, if I had to describe him in one word. He is the only strategist that I know of that can survive and adapt in the random and almost chaotic improvisation of Grant. Then there's the main sword of Hermes. Omricon. He's the strongest and is the only one who uses a sword. Alvin is the ranged expert. We'll they all are, but he's the guy that can shoot through and hit the target despite the chaos that Hermes makes. As for Omega, try not to calculate or anticipate his moves. He's as random as his boss."

"What about Irvana? I thought she was one of them."

"She is… But the Tyrant Empress got Hermes in my timeline. She was the only one sane enough to flee from her and withstand the lust. But I can imagine what it would be like if she remained with the three of them. As for the Thief in the Night, I'm almost sure that her Path wouldn't have reached Perfect Cloak."

"There you go again. Will it really be that accurate? What's the basis of your claims?"

"If she had already achieved Perfect Cloak by now, she'd be an Overcomer."

Cliff was silent. But he agreed with Seeker's assessment.

"Regardless, if that Ranked Hero joins forces with him… What can my Realm do? I can't keep on using Realm! I'd be out of energy before the fight begins!" Cliff argued.

"Who says that you would deal with that? Your best bet is to use our Scout. If they appear before you guys get your weapons, don't fight them. Titan has to get you guys out of there. It will take all of you to deal with the Three Winds and the Thief in the Night. But I'm sure you guys can easily escape them." Seeker reminded.

"That bucktooth kid doesn't look like the reliable type!"

"Don't underestimate gamers. The pressure he's been exposed to, definitely eclipse yours."

…

Cliff recalled all this and turned to Titan to give his orders.

"Titan. Lead us out of here! We can't clash with them yet! At least not without our gears! And Gardo's not enough to face all of them! We have to meet Tyler to get your suits!" Cliff ordered.

"Is it alright if we get detected? Their thermal detectors can detect the weapons Gardo's team brought."

"We can't! In this scenario, the Emperors haven't forgotten about us yet! They'll be looking for at the deaths of their soldiers! We can't get seen! And you can't kill the enemy directly!" Cliff demanded.

Gardo barely caught on what Cliff said as he was a bit late in matching the speed of Cliff.

"We can't be seen, and he can't kill? That's too much."

"It isn't too much. It's what we need to do!" Cliff answered again.

Titan hesitated.

"Here." Cliff handed his sword over to Titan. It was the same sword that Arthur used during the Australian Avarice. It was a weapon made of glass.

"I know this will be the first time you'll kill people who aren't criminals. But you have to get us out of here. If we stay and fight Hermes or get detected by the WGP, we will die. This is your advent, Scout!" Cliff gripped Titan's hand as he placed the sword handle on Cliff's hand.

Titan stared blankly for almost a split second and then immediately took the sword.

"Keep a distance of at least 20 meters from me. Let's go." Titan commanded as he ran ahead. The group followed and maintained the distance that Titan said.

Several Exoskeletons were flying towards their direction.

The team had no structures to which they can hide nearby. They had to carefully follow Titan route, or they would be in the middle of the air currents that were moving around the Kraken.

As the Exoskeleton was flying towards them, Titan knew where their suits were looking at. Despite the darkness around them, he could see where his enemies were looking at. This was one of the basic requirements that Scouts had to have in Piercing. Scouts also went by several titles in the game. Some called them ninjas because they had to have the skill to avoid detection or avoid being seen by the enemy. Some preferred assassins. Titan was widely known for being the best of the latter title. He could take advantage of the views of his enemy and approach someone and kill them with a silent arrow.

But of all his abilities, Strawberry_Situps was widely known for one of his most annoying skills. He was the only one who managed to learn it in the Covenant. Arthur could calculate it, but back then, his speed wasn't fast enough to react. Titan, however, could do it.

One of the Exoskeletons gazed down. On that precise moment, he saw a thermal heat suddenly appearing out of thin air.

The shocked pilot raised his arms to shoot the foe, but suddenly, a stabbing pain struck his right shoulder.

The time the stab occurred, was the precise time he pulled the trigger. The pain on his shoulder forced him to shift the direction of his aim.

The rattling of the Exoskeletons Gatling-gun resounded. The Exoskeleton shot his companion right on the head, killing the other pilot instantly.

Strawberry_Situps had the fewest kills within the Covenant. But if people count the enemy deaths indirectly caused by Strawberry_Situps, he would have the third-highest kill count within the Covenant. Only Danny and Arthur surpassed Titan. Killing his opponents through friendly fire, only this scout had been consistent and capable in doing this.

"Clay?! What are you doing?!" The other pilots shouted in shock as they aimed their weapons at the soldier who just shot their teammate.

The soldier known as Clay fell to the ground. The sword was immediately retrieved by Titan.

"Wait! Don't shoot! I saw something! It attacked me!" Clay managed to call out immediately.

His weary companions looked around while continuing to aim at Clay.

Titan used the nearby structure to run up several stories. He then kicked and jumped towards one of the Exoskeletons hovering at the back. And right before he was near it, Titan caused his temperature to rise.

The sudden appearance of a rising temperature caused panic to the Exoskeleton and immediately raised his arms to shoot.

Using the sword again, Titan stabbed the shoulder of the Exoskeleton.

The pilot began to shoot. Titan had already caused his temperature to drop once again and stabbed the extended forearm of the Exoskeleton.

"Ahhh!" A pained cry was heard. The pain on his arm caused him to tightly hold down the pressed trigger. The blade stabbed through his muscles, disabling him from letting go of the trigger.

"This is better." Titan thought to himself as he moved the arm of the Exoskeleton. With his free control, he can easily cause more friendly fire.

Two other soldiers died at the sudden barrage of this hovering Exoskeleton.

Right before anyone could shoot the apparently traitorous Exoskeleton, Titan had jumped off him and shouted at a different frequency to alert Cliff, who then followed. The exploding gunshots masked his shout, and only Cliff heard it.

"Traitors! I repeat! Traitors are among us!" the Exoskeleton that questioned Clay ordered as he brutally unloaded a barrage of bullets to his former ally.

The Exoskeletons immediately moved away from each other and were wary of each other. It was then that the wind currents reached them. Several heat signatures could be seen moving at a fast speed and began to shoot at them.

The commotion and the battle allowed Titan to lead Cliff and Gardo's team without being detected.

Gardo was amazed at Titan's skill.

Cliff was delighted.

"Seeker's right.. I DID underestimate these gamers! Let's go! Strawberry_Situps has logged in! Piercing Arrow has joined the fray!" Cliff laugh as he imitated the iconic alert that appeared when a player joined a room in the Piercing games.