Published at 17th of December 2020 8:12 pm

Chapter 454 - Unexpected Collaboration

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The Stalwart stood atop the rubble with even more rage for the Draugr, its body burning even hotter, reaching a crimson color with the flames turned blue.

The heat increased exponentially in the area, forcing Dave to go into the [Infernal Tyrant's Oppression] as the heat felt unbearable.

Warlord and Valentine backed up, the heat instantly made them suffer from the Overheating condition and they were not prepared for such things. The Aura of the Draugr was not helping the situation either.

"Raid team, assemble here IMMEDIATELY!" Valentine shouted through the voice com.

The raid team was the Devastator's strongest asset, composed of the strongest players the Western Super Guild had to offer.

Dave ignored the lot that needed preparation to fight and dove right toward the Stalwart.

"Skelly's going for the kill! He wants to hog all the loot and EXP!" a player shouted.

"Shut up, he can't beat that thing before our party arrives, It's even better if he withers it down for us," another replied.

While the group was arguing about how to make the best use of Skelly, the latter dodged a clawing strike aimed at him, though Dave was still a good distance away from the Stalwart. Dave had no doubt in his mind that the Stalwart's seemingly missing attack did have some other nasty side effects.

His intuition was correct since the Stalwart's clawing motion rendered the air, as large cleaves of energy spewed forward slashing through the air and moving at a breathtaking speed where Dave had been just a fraction of a second ago.

The attack ripped and sundered the ground, then moved ahead clashing into the party of huddled up players. The most attentive of the lot had either moved away or used their Defensive Skills.

The rest had turned to burning cinders and ash. Even those who used their Defensive Skills didn't escape unharmed, as a matter of fact, the only ones that survived the direct clash against the Stalwart's attack were the ones that had their high cooldown Defensive Skills that granted them either damage immunity or fire immunity. The rest that opted to save on their big Skills didn't fare any better than their scorched comrades.

It was apparent to the lot that the fight was going to bring a huge casualty count, so the ones that had the least confidence in their Skills and skill sets backed off leaving the fight to the pros.

The Stalwart charged at Dave like a rhino, clawing at the ground to get more momentum and moving with enough speed that one wouldn't be surprised if the creature could break a mountain in half if it crashed into it.

Dave slid under the paws of the beast and dug Durandal under the Stalwart's belly. Lava spewed out from the wound, causing the enraged creature to shudder and turn its frustration and pain at the bystanders.

Players began screaming as the Stalwart chased after them while dragging the Draugr along beneath itself.

"Fuck it's indiscriminately killing players, Valentine, we need to help." Warlord addressed his friend. Valentine was the undisputable best Guardian of Conquest, so he should be able to do something.

"Not now. I won't be able to last against it without our top healers. Everyone under the level 450 if you value your life, leave the area!" Valentine shouted the last sentence, and the players obliged. They understood the fight was much bigger than them.

Even the players who met Valentine's criteria weren't as confident in faring against the Stalwart any better than the lower level players.

The creature's mere presence was enough to force them to continuously chug on Health Potions just to offset the Overheating effect.

Dave managed to wrench the sword from the belly of the beast and was freed. He stood up then ran after the mad Stalwart, jumping via [Immortal Apparition] and landed on the Stalwart's head.

The Stalwart clawed at its face to get the Draugr to leave his perching spot. Dave reacted with a back roll, landing on the Stalwart's back safe from the incoming claw.

Dave swung down Durandal, forcing a pained scream out of the Stalwart. The creature did a barrel roll, tumbling to the side forcing Dave to jump off. Once the creature gained its balance, it opened its mouth wide, white and blue rays of light gathered around its gullet.

"Not this time bitch," Dave cursed and charged it with [Stampede], crashing into the Stalwart and swung his shield up against the beast's lower jaw, causing them to clank shut.

An explosion blasted inside the Stalwart's mouth, causing the pent-up ray of light to blast through the holes between its fangs, and at the same time breaking a few of those dagger-sharp tools of death in the process.

Dave took a few steps back. The attack he stopped was bound to cause unwanted damage, to the players, and if he was unlucky to himself as well. It was a tradeoff however, as the Stalwart didn't get to release the energy and remained in its Overheating form.

"The team is here! Skelly, step aside we got this," Warlord ordered.

Dave ignored them and kept fighting the Stalwart.

Being ignored, Warlord drew his battle-ax and charged ahead.

Dave glanced back, noticing the advancing Warlord and spoke up, "The moment you turn that blade against me, is the moment your gaming career ends."

The Undead focused ahead, and didn't even pay the charging Warlord any heed, his threat was true, and deep down, Warlord knew that the Draugr was not boasting.

He had felt the difference in strength between the two. He understood that if the Undead wanted he could clearly summon his followers here and have the entire area razed to the ground. Not to mention the kinds of damage he could cause if he actually had the ability to summon those fearsome Abyssal Knights.

Never mind the Stalwart, any one of those Abyssal Knights was a power to be reckoned with, even without their armies.

Warlord didn't speak but swung his ax forward, its direction was at Skelly's back. Yet before the thrown ax touched Dave, it changed direction and landed neatly on the Stalwart's neck.

Warlord appeared right where the ax was and raised his fist and swung down.

A mighty gauntleted golden fist materialized in the sky and dropped down upon the Stalwart.

It missed Dave squarely, but the intention of Warlord was clear, he was going to fight with Dave, but if he got in the way, Warlord was not going to be responsible.

Dave didn't care, he wanted the Stalwart dead, both to piss off the Ash King, and secondly to get the token as it would allow him to exchange it from Drahma for another Conquest Right.

Dave swung Durandal at the Stalwart's hind legs, the creature stumbled to the side and flailed its long rocky tail at Dave.

The Draugr held his shield up to absorb the attack that never came. In front of him was a gigantic pink shield that stopped the attack square in its place.

Valentine had joined the fray and stopped the attack from landing on Dave, giving him enough time to charge up an attack.

Dave thrust Durandal forward the moment Valentine's shield deflated. The giant sword morphed into a larger form of dark light, into a [Sword Lunge]. The sword sawed through the Stalwart's tail ripping it from the base.

Warlord hacked down with his ax on the Stalwart's head, before the latter could fully counter with a swipe, a red spear pierced through the large creature's open palm.

Dave didn't need to turn to realise that it was Satan Slayer who had joined the fight.

"Blessings of the Mighty!" The sound of a holy prayer sounded from the back, the spell was a continuous healing mass effect, yet it only targeted the Devastators players, leaving Dave out of the area of effect. The healing effect would have done nothing but cause damage to the Draugr, and the Priest knew it well.

Dave pivoted around the Stalwart, being the one with the highest aggro, the creature turned to face it, giving the Devastator's Legacy holders the chance to pile on on the damage with little to no obstacles.

The two sides had entered into a silent agreement to bring down the Sworn Stalwart. No one spoke further, they began collaborating in seamless jolly cooperation.

Dave leeched the aggro, allowing Warlord the pleasure of dishing out damage, Valentine acted as the party's Guardian, interfering when any one of them needed a breather or when the Stalwart attacked.

Satan Slayer poked at the creature but kept his aggro to a low level, this way he would be able to disrupt the Stalwart if Valentine didn't have the opportunity to assist one of the DPS.

As for the healer, he buffed and healed the party besides Dave, yet this didn't mean that the draugr didn't have any assistance, a few Bards showed up, and began buffing the entire player group including the Draugr.

No one spoke, not a single onlooker said anything, all just watched the choreography of movements, the attacks, defenses, and even the occasional assist from Dave towards the Devis, or vise versa. It all looked as if the group had partied together for ages.

The Sworn Stalwart was on its last leg by the second hour of the fight. It was exhausted, its flame fully depleted, and the players began to have mental exhaustion from being forced to fight a creature that could kill any of them at the first mistake.

Some of the bystanders that had remained alive were attentively keeping an eye on Dave lest he betrayed the Devastators for the kill. But nothing of the sort happened. In fact, it was Warlord who brought down his ax on the Stalwart's neck severing it and landing the final blow.

Dave had all the time in the world to steal the kill, but he was not interested in that. He understood that by taking the Altar away from the Devastators, allowing their Guild Master to get the Last Hit on the Stalwart would at least remove some of the bitterness in their hearts, even though he didn't lie when revealing that siding with the Ash King was never going to be good for them.

As for the EXP, Dave didn't care, he still had more Raids to do, and more Stalwarts to kill if they appeared in the other temples. He could compensate for this loss with the benefits it would give him.

Warlord was secretly surprised at Dave's inactions. After this hunt together, he didn't doubt that the Draugr could have finished off the Stalwart. The Draugr had an amazingly powerful Legacy and there was no way that he didn't have any more high damage Skills in reserve.

The players all stood still overlooking the cooling body of the Stalwart.

Dave placed his sword on his back and moved toward the body.

"Where are you going?" Warlord asked.

"Looting, what do you think?" Dave answered.

Before Warlord replied in anger, at how this was a team effort and all the loot should be split together, Dave sent him a party invitation.

"I only need one thing, you can have the rest. This way we'll split the loot as a party and you won't have to doubt that I only took on one item." Dave explained.

Warlord accepted the party invitation and invited the rest of the players with him.

"Alright," Dave touched the Stalwart's corpse and a list of items showed up.

***

[Sworn Stalwart's Cleaver] Bound Legendary Weapon

[Sworn Stalwart's Infernal Hide] X1 Crafting Material

Sworn Stalwart Diagram

[Sworn Stalwart's Token]

Sworn Stalwart's Claws X 18

10,000 Gold

***

When the group saw the loot, they were all shuddering. It had actually dropped a diagram for the Sworn Stalwart's gear. This meant that they could craft armor made out of this creature, and judging by its level, the gear would provide the Devastators with a massive power boost.

"Skelly, what item do you want?" Valentine asked.

Dave didn't hesitate, "I'm taking the Token."

The answer came as a surprise to Valentine, he didn't dare believe his ears. The following words came out of his mouth even without him wanting to say them, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I know what y'all are thinking. I don't need the Stalwart armor. You guys can think of it as a replacement for the altar. This way, your power will increase without having to submit to the Ash King. Anyway, I'm off."

"Right. Thank you, for the help," Valentine was as polite as ever.

Dave shrugged.

Warlord's frown disappeared and he nodded at Dave before he turned his head.

"Heh, Tsundere," Dave laughed and used a Teleportation Scroll to return to the Underworld.

As soon as Dave appeared in the Dead Realm, two Death Knights showed up in front of him.

"Your Lordship, the smith Andre has finished his work and is waiting for you at the forge!"

"Nice. I was hoping he would be done. Seriously why would I want Stalwart stuff, when I have a Royal Armor Set waiting for me." Da

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