Overpowered Wizard

Chapter 121: B2: C21: Master Ranker

While Zarian spent the past four months studying to seal his Overwhelming Darkness, his fellow Floridians had taken separate routes to advance themselves. Just like him, they’d often committed to tedious, less rewarding tasks.

However, they hadn’t studied volumes of books to create a legendary technique. Instead, they’d dealt with clearing random packs of weaker monsters or lifting rubble from a fallen hill of fortresses off a trapped adventurer. Or, in Naomi’s case, having to pick up something big and lift it a bunch of times in between drills with the youngsters.

That hadn’t seemed like much. And it hadn’t been, especially for Naomi, Bianca, and Gilbert. So to maximize their growth, those three had to find stuff to do day-in and day-out, almost nonstop and with little rest other than the bare minimum.

These simple and well-known words, ‘Welcome to the grind,’ summed up that part of their lives after the Darkrun Apocalypse.

Naomi had focused on her stats and pushing herself beyond her limits. She’d kept developing her physicality and her Aura Ignition with the help of her psychic abilities.

Bianca had focused on dealing with her trauma after being brainwashed by traditional good. She’d gone on adventures to fight and meditate on how free good +5 worked, which was different from traditional good.

Gilbert had leaned more toward being a major support for their young guild members and for foreign adventurers. He’d often saved lives at the expense of being a drunken human meat shield and taking more and more punishment.

Unlike the other three who’d often gone out into the wilderness for multiple days to weeks at a time, Hannah stayed in Ride-or-Die Village. Hannah’s way of grinding and growing had come from completing many side quests that were related with the village or crafting or enchanting or all three.

The System truly seemed to favor Hannah and went as far as providing enhanced levels with higher than normal vitality when she’d accomplished her quests. Granted, she alone had uplifted the sole human bastion standing against the wolf dragons, wolf kobolds, and the savage creatures of the northern frontier.

Everyone’s growth had come far slower compared to earlier adventures. But the time and effort they’d spent on their individual paths allowed them to delve deeper into who they were within their roles and what they did best as they leveled up and progressed.

With each new gain, everyone had kept their fellow Floridians mostly updated, so there wasn’t much they couldn’t account for with each other except for maybe the most recent changes. Zarian had mostly known what he was working with even after four months of not teaming up with his favorite people.

But knowledge wasn’t always the biggest factor even if it was foundational for Zarian’s Fractured Mind. One of the Floridians’ biggest weapons was their ability to communicate and stay linked up via the mind spiders inside of their heads.

Thanks to Spectral Spider Network +2, the speed at which information relayed between them was much faster and smoother than before. It was both instantaneous and simultaneous without getting confusing, like a really clear chat call where everyone was locked in and there was no lag.

Zarian felt Naomi’s rising anger suppressed by a chilling calm as the aura in the air snapped, crackled, popped, and moved with a frenzy with her new ignition technique. He felt Bianca’s cheerless focus as she devoted her all to support with equal measures of goodness and sadness in her heart.

Zarian felt Hannah’s crisp calculations, which were assisted by Magi’s sharp predictions, as the legendary Runic Engineer sat on her architect throne at the top of the tower and laid down suppressive fire from miles away, all with a flex of her runic will. And, finally, Zarian felt the alcoholic burn from the rare beer Gilbert drained all in one go while riding hard on Slip the Sleipnir’s back, like a medieval cowboy racing to get to the action.

And while Zarian was filtering through all the sensations that his friends were sensing, they could do the same with each other and him especially.

They could feel the impending doom encroaching upon them all, like a ticking time bomb of inevitability. All because Zarian had to play the overpowered wizard role against a relentless enemy and keep Overwhelming Darkness from breaking its seals fully.

It was both painful and exhilarating, like holding back the tide of ultimate destruction, the end of all life in the universe and beyond, just to use a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of its true power.

Gilbert summed it up best while still riding hard from miles away. “God Almighty, if this is their way of trying to save the universe from Zarian, I think they shouldn’t have sent an elf retard to masquerade as an elf prince!”

While also miles away on her architect throne, Hannah replied: “Gilbert, you’re not supposed to say that.”

“I can’t say what now? God Almighty?” Gilbert was flabbergasted.

“Retard.” Hannah sent down another volley of magic artillery that kept Ruven from moving around too easily.

“The universe is on the verge of getting eaten again, Hannah, and this is what we care about?!” Gilbert shouted. “Fuck it! What do I know? I’m here, and it really looks like I’m late to the shindig!”

Gilbert launched off of Slip’s armored back. The legendary Knighted Healer landed hard and skidded to a stop close to the edge of a deep ravine Zarian had created while using one percent freestyle.

There were multiple ravines – some short, some deep – that lacerated the snowy land and slashed apart the nearby stony forests and fortress hillocks. Artillery fire struck down and shook the earth constantly, filling the battlefield with the roar of violent thunder and bright magical effects that ranged from furious red to frozen blue.

When heavier cloud cover blocked out the stars and moons of the night sky, a new type of magic artillery soared across the air at a slower velocity. The new magic ordnance erupted into long-lasting yellow flares that shone on the battlefield like miniature suns.

Bianca and her squad of clones plucked the artificial lights from the sky and sent lasers flying at Ruven’s dashing form. They forced the stubborn elf to zig-zag around them or deflect the lasers with rapid swings of his arcane staff.

Naomi moved with she-hulkish speed and power to chase after the elf. A green-blue aura crackled from close around her dynamic phenom of a body, the aura trailing behind her like the long tail of a human-shaped comet.

She was moving nearly as fast as the elf at speeds so dizzying it was hard to track. And she was using Aura Ignition in a way that was far different from the usual.

This newer version of Aura Ignition felt too weak to be the true Second Stage. However, it was less of a burden to her body while granting more control, enabling her to use her skills.

Naomi’s stack of abilities combined with this smaller form of Aura Ignition was powerful for her, letting her keep up and use her psychic powers.

The blurring forms of Naomi and Ruven hopped over ravines, swerved around piles of rubble, and skipped past craters as dark and elemental powers struck at the ground around the two. The dark powers landed the hardest, of course, since that was Zarian’s forte.

The apocalyptic son of ultra gods stood on a thirty-foot tall boulder Naomi had thrown earlier. He couldn’t move as easily while he focused on controlling a fraction of his cosmic-dooming power.

With every release from one percent freestyle, Zarian felt himself about to tear apart, constantly fighting to stay human. Constantly fighting to stay focused and unyielding to his own weakness, the loss of control.

The eight-legged and armored horse dashed forward for more action. He rammed into one of the treants and stomped hard with his steel hooves to break off huge slabs of bark.

Zarian let Slip battle a towering, trunk-grown monster many times bigger than the Sleipnir. The boy wanted the action, so he could have it.

Meanwhile, Zarian conjured one wide ring of serrated darkness and spread it out with a snap of a finger. He cut down the rest while Slip stomped all over the body of the one he was facing.

Each dying treant struck down with a groan and rumble. Then all became still around Zarian after Slip killed his treant and neighed in victory.

It was right then that Zarian realized something. He couldn’t use Overwhelming Darkness any longer.

He cut himself off from the spider network and left the rest of the fight to the others. He focused inward, as if he was going to cultivate again, but not quite.

He cycled his breathing and felt the bead of darkness inside of his soul. This was not an accurate showing of how massive and terrifying this entity could end up being, but it was there. And it was raging.

He felt how it wanted to break free and go on a rampage once again. He felt how the darkness wanted to eat everything.

He still remembered the taste of the many worlds, galaxies, and universes he ate across multiple dimensions. He even salivated at the thought. He was growing hungry.

Part of him wanted to feast and feast and feast forever and ever and ever, regardless of morality, regardless of all the lives that would end to satisfy his eternal darkness.

However, he still remembered the countless years of struggle against something that was out of his control. He remembered how he refused to quit, forcing him to suffer in spite of himself and his own darkness. For too long he’d carried the burden of having an undying but futile determination, all while losing constantly.

Zarian refused to suffer that again.

He pressed down on the monstrous sensations. He pushed his entire Willpower and Floridian Mindset against the raging darkness inside. He took a risk and dumped all his remaining free points on Willpower, pushing it from 267 to 404.

He felt a surge of power from Overwhelming Darkness, but he stayed locked in as his willful mind refused to yield. He refused to quit. He refused to lose. He refused, he refused, he refused.

He wanted to have control and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. He wanted to grow powerful under his own terms with his friends.

He refused power at the cost of having a fun life.

Zarian wasn’t sure how long it took, but he found equilibrium. Then he committed to chants and hand-signs for a specific technique, the biggest reason he’d studied the many books about sealing.

“Overwhelming Darkness: Twenty Dark Locks Sealing Style Technique. Lock All Twenty Dark Locks. The Dreaded Dragon Sleeps Away Inside Imprisoned Legend. One Hundred Percent Seal. Full Control.”

The mini cubes in his gauntlets moved up and down before disappearing. The pressure inside faded. The night stopped being his servant to bend and manipulate at whim. The darkness stilled.

Zarian released a sigh of relief.

He opened his eyes and saw the others closing out the fight in the sky.

Naomi was getting juiced up by a combination of Adrenaline Jolt +2 and Sacrificial Blow +2 from Gilbert. The adrenaline skill was more potent than ever, buffing Naomi’s ridiculous physicality to even more ridiculous heights. The sacrifice skill had a new advancement letting it work on others, empowering Naomi’s next melee blow at the cost of Gilbert’s health.

Naomi punched straight through Ruven’s staff and destroyed it. Her punch landed on the elf’s torso where a barrier of runic power covered him. She smashed the barrier into pieces with a strident crack that resonated for miles.

Her punch didn’t stop there. It kept going, glancing off Ruven’s side as he dodged the full blow at the last split second.

That was okay.

Naomi’s glancing punch turned Ruven’s ribs and half of his torso into one colossal mess. He became a limp thing of broken bones, bruises, and bleeding lacerations. He fell hard from the sky and landed with a final, crater-forming thump.

Ruven didn’t get up from that.

He wouldn’t want to, as Bianca stood on a hovering panel of light in the air above. She held aloft a large javelin made of more light and would throw it if the elf budged only a little.

Ruven didn’t budge.

Naomi and Gilbert crashed down together, the both of them looking ragged from the blitzing chase. Naomi’s ignition was gone, leaving her body strained and badly busted.

Apparently, even the weaker version of Aura Ignition could still cause her some damage. Gilbert used his Healing Force +2 to help them both out.

With everything settling down, Zarian nodded at the results.

The landscape north was smashed, totaled, and completely ruined for dozens and dozens of miles. But the Floridians had won their first fight against a true Master Ranker.