With a curse, the other man teleported, dropping his control over the hammer clone. With a quick effort of will, Sam cemented his control over the clone, and sent it on a collision course with its owner. Reading the weave of the local Dao, he pinpointed the emergence point of the teleportation, and when his enemy emerged, two hammers converged on him, nearly crushing him to paste. Only a hasty backpedal removed him from danger, and even then, the shockwave rippled over his body.
Sam suddenly sent his hammer’s size hurtling to its max, and with a sharp retort, it shattered the sound barrier, and slammed into the other fighter’s gut. Sam let go of his weapon and teleported to its head, his fist hurtling into his foe’s cheek. The flesh rippled, and with a crack, the man skidded along the ground for over a mile. Sam pushed off his hammer, and with a quick flex of his Weapon Mastery, the hammer came speeding towards his waiting hand. A few teleports allowed him to build up speed, and by the time he had reached his foe, he was traveling at thousands of miles per hour. Each step, in between teleports, turned the sand to glass, and left patches of billowing flame.
An almighty boom rang through the air, and Terra’s Will crushed the other warrior into the ground, canyons opening up and a crater forming. A smear of blood was thinly spread across the base of the massive hole in the ground, with Terra’s Will embedded in it.
Behind Sam, the two clones vanished, as if they had never been there. Essence poured into him, and another level sent power coursing through his form. White light lifted him up off the ground, for everyone to see.
Two notifications appeared, but at this point, he had no need to read them. He knew what they said. More power followed his level up, his entire form filling with the strength of an E Ranker. At this point, he gained hundreds of points every time he leveled up, to say nothing about when his titles were upgraded.
Giving Granthar his customary grin, Sam took his helmet off, and teleported towards the gate. Only the king had different plans.
“Enough of this!” The man roared from his royal box, evidently deciding that the shame of such an emotional reaction would be soon overshadowed by the shame Sam was causing him if he did not act. “The people of this kingdom have watched this farce draw on for long enough. At this rate, the upper echelons of my soldiers will be wasted.”
“I am happy to prove myself another way,” Sam replied smoothly. “After all, I wouldn’t want to overtax your followers either. I am not a monster.”
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“Of course not,” Granthar replied, his teeth grinding. Once more, Sam wondered how the man had ever reached such a level of power with that attitude. Unless perhaps, his strength rendered him beyond anyone’s judgement. That was probably the case.
“What would you have me do, your majesty?” Sam asked.
“There are monsters that plague the outer reaches of my empire. Monsters in the traditional sense, and monsters that take the forms of men. Rebels harassing my people and my interests. If you can deal with them, I will happily give you what you desire.”
“Desire?” Sam asked. “I seem to remember this being your idea. Though, that is a decent plan. Where do I start?”
“Right here,” Granthar declared, summoning a portal before Sam. “This is the only way to the outer reaches of this solar system, so do not dare to decline, like you have before.”
“Would you sign a System contract to that end?” Sam asked.
Granthar snarled, but nodded. “I would.”
Sam tried to scan the man’s character with his old Eyes of Truth skill, but as he expected, there was a dense mist of power concealing the man from his metaphysical vision. The only thing he could do was trust him, and the System.
Realizing that Sam was serious, Granthar pulled out a sheet of paper from a storage device, jotted something down on it, and then called down the judgement of the System, surrounding the paper in a solid blue light.
A portal formed beneath it, and it opened next to Sam’s hands. He picked it out of the air, and read it.
I, King Aldus Granthar, swear upon my life that the portal that I have summoned for the cultivator Sam Atlas will only lead him to the destination that I promised.
Sam nodded. “What exactly is the destination that you promised?”
The other man growled, too low almost for Sam to hear. At this point, everyone in the arena was staring their way, shocked at his audacity at challenging the king. For most here, a D Ranker was akin to a god, a being that they would never dare to stand against. Sam, however, was a different man entirely.
“You will be deposited on the front lines of battle, in a place where the environment is not openly hostile, at least to an E Ranker. However, there will be monsters there.” Granthar’s face at this point was a curious shade of purple, and Sam knew that it was time to take his win, and leave with it.
He nodded, and stepped through the portal. Only then did the System send him an updated version of the layer quest, meaning that Granthar had been intending to betray him. Sam had noticed a surreptitious flick of the man’s hands at the last moment, and a slight change in the portal, telling him that its destination had switched.
With a slight laugh, he let the portal carry him through time and space, stepping out a moment later into a war zone. Sam stood upon a different planet, one far colder than Prax. The sun of the solar system was extremely distant, looking more like a moon than anything else. Though, to Sam’s advanced senses, it was just as good as daylight.
