New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Only eight wolves were left when the Firewall extinguished, but they had red eyes and frothing mouths. They all lunged together as soon as they saw a person near them.

Sadly, the poor sap getting assaulted like that was Alexander, who was locked in a heated exchange of claw swipes with a Raijū and had little to no manoeuvering space.

But before they could reach him, a torrent of undead came charging in, a mix of animals that the dire wolves had fed on, and released their vindictive energy on the wolves. Behind them, Clark, Jonathan, and the freshly healed Juan dashed at the dire wolves.

Violette had never stopped attacking the wolves from her little outcropping of rock on the side of the valley, but she was starting to feel tired. The ice wall at the start of their ambush had already drained a lot from her.

So pushing out a powerful ice pillar from the opposite side of the valley to save Jack had left her running on fumes.

But she pushed through, knowing she was one of their only mages in a favourable position.

She had seen how tired Kary looked from afar and knew the woman was in the same position as her. They couldn't keep this up for too long.

But the group made quick work of the dire wolves as Clark charged back against one of the Raijū, the one already getting swarmed by Margarett, his help no longer needed on the pack.

The Raijū quickly noticed their pack was decimated and that their chances of winning this had nearly bottomed out. With a loud howl that shook the air, sending the people half-kneeling as they held their ears, the Raijū regrouped.

Lightning appeared around their horns as they looked at the group with hatred and malice.

David's face paled.

"Don't get hit by those attacks! Disperse and hide!" he shouted, lunging for the nearest set of rocks to cover his body.

He knew this attack. He had fought Raijū in his past life, and this attack could one-shot a tank player.

Anyone taking this would instantly be vaporized.

Everyone that was near the Raijū suddenly scrambled to hide. But the hiding spots were very few.

There was a reason they picked this valley for their ambush.

Cory was left spinning his head like a panicked animal, not finding anything to hide behind, as was Violette, whose position didn't allow her to hide at all.

In the instant before the attack finally left the Raijū's horns, Alex noticed the two stragglers. He hadn't hidden yet, in case this would happen, and now he didn't know who to help.contemporary romance

"Help Violette!" he heard before lightning cracked.

"Thousand Thoughts!" Alex shouted, time almost stopping around him.

As he felt his mind accelerate, Alex delved into Solomon's ring.

"Asmodeus! Come out!" he shouted, reaching the white room where Solomon was.

The old man looked at him with worry. The kid rarely came here in his human form.

This could only mean something terrible was happening.

But the demon wasn't responding.

"Asmodeus! Come out right this instant!" Alex screamed, a tinge of despair in his voice.

Solomon didn't know why the demon wasn't responding to the kid, but he decided to help him. Snapping his fingers, he forced the demon to appear, making the latter click his tongue in annoyance.

Seeing him, Alex ran up to him.

"Meld with me right now! I need your powers!"

Alex was in a hurry and tried touching the demon king to accelerate the process. But Asmodeus teleported a few feet away.lights

"No. I don't want to. Your world is boring. Every time you use my powers, nothing fun happens. Don't call on me for trivialities."

Solomon frowned.

It was rare for demons to be obedient; that much he knew. But the ring should have forced him to obey.

'Is the seal I put on them weakening? Is it because the kid is too weak still?'

Asmodeus was about to teleport away when Alex suddenly flashed before him. A hand clamped on the demon's throat, locking him in place.

"You don't get to say no to me!" Alex growled, his voice suddenly doubling out.

One of his eyes had gone black, his iris turning red, and his canines suddenly seemed sharper.

"You are melding with me, or I will devour your essence and feed on it, reducing you to nothing."

Asmodeus chuckled at the threat. He highly doubted the human part of his new 'Master' could achieve this. But something was telling him the kid was no longer simply human.

That demonization wasn't coming from any demon in the ring. It could only mean one thing.

"So you've finally become corrupted. Now THAT is interesting," the demon said, his eyes gleaming with curiosity.

"Fine. I'll meld with you; I want to meet that new demon birthing in you. That'll make my time worthwhile."

Solomon's heart skipped a beat at the words. He was about to call out to Alexander when Asmodeus vanished, and Alex followed suit.

"Wait!" he shouted.

But he was already alone.

"Was it a mistake to give him access to the ring?" he muttered, his face suddenly grave.

As Alexander's surroundings returned to the valley, he noticed the Thousand Thoughts spell was still in effect. He could see the lightning had travelled much more than he was comfortable with, but it wasn't too late.

Around Cory, a golden bubble had appeared, and he could tell nothing would get through it. But how weak the kid would be after that was left to be seen.

As for Violette, her face was stuck in a mask of fear as the lightning bolt was getting dangerously close to her.

He teleported in front of her, the movement instantaneous, and stood before the lightning bolt.

Reaching inside himself, he tapped into his newly formed mana lobe, and drained it completely, using a spell he had only recently learned in New Eden.

A thick blue barrier appeared between him and the lightning bolt, containing all of Alex's mana. He could only hope it was enough.

The added power from Asmodeus might be strong, but he could barely tap into it as a human. This meant that aside from teleportation, Asmodeus' power was inaccessible to him.

After forming the barrier, he teleported once more to get closer to Violette and grabbed her in his arms, acting as a human shield.

His Thousand Thoughts ended, and lightning flashed across the valley, causing two explosions.

Everything turned white for a few seconds, and everyone's ears rang loudly, their eardrums not blown out but in awful shape.

"Is everyone ok?!" Kary shouted, trying to assess the damage.

The silence was her response.

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