Becoming the Dark Lord

Behind Luke, a massive crab heaved itself out of the water. Ahead of him, the gunslinger Austin waited, clearly hoping for the smallest opening to put a bullet through him. Luke stayed behind a broken stone pillar, weighing his options.

[The Treasure Guardian has awakened. Defeat it to claim the reward!]

People who had jumped from the bridge were surfacing all around, swimming toward the ruined arena. The crab lashed out with its huge claws, knocking several of them aside.

Luke glanced toward Austin. He has the advantage at mid-range. I wonder if he does at long range too. And besides, he’s agile enough to dodge arrows. A gunslinger is a type of assassin, after all.

He’d need to catch Austin when his guard slipped… and of course Austin needed the same opening to kill him. They both knew it. Farther ahead, a soaked participant reached a corpse and pried the bracelets off.

“I made it! I’m in the event now!” he cheered, only to be struck by a violet flash and drop instantly. But it was an archer, and Luke spotted the quiver.

More shots rang out. Austin was firing.

Mana bullets?

Luke sprinted for the corpse. Gunfire chased him, one shot burning into his side before he rolled behind debris. He grabbed the quiver and pressed a hand to the wound. The skin was scorched.

Mana. No bullet, no bolt. Just raw mana shaped like a projectile.

“You’re still quick. Good instincts too,” Austin called from somewhere unseen.

“You’re not bad yourself.”

Luke stuffed the arrows into his own quiver, nocked one, and ran. Austin fired, and Luke loosed an arrow back, diving behind another ruin.

“Those revolvers of yours… temporary, aren’t they?” Luke called out.

He grabbed another arrow, preparing to close the distance. Now that he had ammunition again, he could pressure the gunslinger properly. He sprinted. Austin fired, and Luke shot back. His arrow missed by inches as Austin ducked behind a wall.

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue? Temporary or not?”

Austin didn’t answer.

“Of course they’re temporary,” Luke said. “If they weren’t, you’d walk around with that skill active all the time. But no. You waited to activate it until you were cornered. So it’s temporary. The only question is the type.”

He hurled an arrow at Austin’s silhouette as it darted between ruins.

“Either the revolvers drain mana fast or they’re limited-duration. Either way, time’s on my side. Once they drop, you’re done.”

Austin laughed sharply and burst from cover.

“Let’s see who’s in trouble when that thing decides you’re the tastier target!” he shouted, firing toward the giant crab.

The creature let out a deep, rumbling bellow, turned, and charged straight toward them. Luke happened to be directly in its path.

“Oh, perfect…” He broke into a sprint, dodging bullets and claws at the same time.

Arrows from other participants pelted the crab. It swung a massive pincer and grabbed a woman, flinging her aside with brutal force. Luke pushed forward toward Austin, only for the crab to rear back and spew dozens of blue orbs, each one larger than a person. He dodged through the barrage, but the crab slammed a claw into one of the spheres. It detonated in a violent burst of water. The shockwave triggered the others, and the whole field erupted.

Luke was thrown through the air, Austin too. Luke slammed through the brittle wall of a rotted wooden shack, and water surged in, flooding everything. A powerful current formed from the strange blue liquid, pulling everyone toward the Guardian.

Luke managed to hook his arm around a jutting rock. Through the swirling water, he spotted Austin climbing the remains of a half-collapsed house in the distance.

“I wanted to go after the crab,” Luke muttered. “But now it’s personal.”

He climbed onto the ruined structure as Austin raised both revolvers. The Guardian was busy fighting others in the distance. Luke slung the bow over his shoulder and drew his twin machetes.

“May the best one win,” Austin said, spinning the cylinders of both guns before unleashing a barrage.

Luke sprinted across the broken ground, leaping between shattered pillars as the last of the water drained toward the lake. Purple mana bullets shrieked past him. He closed in, forcing Austin back until his heels nearly hit the edge of a collapsed wall.

“Twelve shots,” Luke said. “Which means now you need to reload.”

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He rushed forward. Austin blocked with the revolver, tension flickering across his face. He managed to reload one weapon during the scuffle and fired immediately. Luke dodged, rolled, and countered with sweeping strikes. Austin slammed into a ruined column, and Luke lunged.

Austin dropped one revolver, tossed a dark sphere at the ground, caught his falling gun mid-motion, reloaded it in the blink of an eye, and fired again. A cloud of black smoke billowed outward, swallowing the arena. Luke dodged blind, relying on instinct, leaping forward to finish him, when a sphere of condensed water crashed beside them. Austin fired.

The resulting explosion blasted both of them in opposite directions. Luke tumbled into a half-collapsed house and pushed himself up, scanning for Austin.

The bastard ran.

He turned toward the Guardian, the massive crab, hurling water spheres at anyone who got too close. Dozens of combatants were still trying to bring it down. Luke clicked his tongue and charged. A floating mage above the battlefield hurled chunks of earth at the creature. Luke slipped behind an archer, took him out cleanly, and grabbed the arrows from his quiver. Another fighter charged the crab with a sword; Luke shot him without hesitation.

The mage saw it happen. “What are you doing!? We’re on the same side here!”

“Not in this place,” Luke answered, firing again.

The mage dodged midair and pointed his staff. More stone spheres flew toward Luke. He evaded them and returned fire. The mage conjured a barrier that deflected the arrows, only for the crab to seize him from behind. The mage shouted and instinctively unleashed everything he had, the stones smashing into both the creature and himself before he slipped from its grasp and fell.

Luke raised another arrow.

“Wait—”

[You have slain a Human...] *1,066,478 IP earned*

“I’m the one who’s killing that damn crab,” Luke said, narrowing his eyes at the Guardian as he sprinted toward it.

He aimed for its back.

This is definitely going to draw the gunslinger out eventually.

He needed to be quick; sooner or later, the fighters at the top of the area would descend.

That Yut will keep the archer tied up, and vice versa. But sooner or later, they’ll go down.

The crab lashed out with its pincer. Luke dodged, rolled beneath its body, and fired upward. The Guardian spun wildly, trying to locate the source of the hits. Luke kept shooting until he ran out. When it slammed down to crush him, he slipped away, switched to his machetes, and rushed one of its legs. He struck rapidly, relentless, until the joint began to give way. One last kick sent the damaged limb collapsing.

The creature lurched, flailing and launching more water blasts. When it toppled sideways, Luke snatched a stray arrow off the ground, fired it into its remaining eye, then vaulted onto a rooftop and hurled himself down onto its shell.

“Die, you bastard!” he yelled, driving his blades down again and again into the Guardian’s head as it thrashed, even managing to injure itself in its panic.

The collapsing ruins shook as the giant crab slammed through pillars. Luke drove his blade down with everything he had, forcing it past the darkened shell.

The creature toppled, crashing so hard that Luke lost his balance and tumbled across the wet stone. He hit the ground and rolled into several of the crab’s membrane-like spheres; thankfully, they didn’t detonate on contact.

“Great…” he muttered, feeling something in his ribs protest sharply. For a moment, everything went quiet. The Guardian stopped moving.

Luke pushed himself up, but the sound of footsteps splashing through water cut through the silence. He reached for his machete, but it was kicked out of reach.

“Don’t,” someone said, leveling two revolvers at him. “You killed the monster. Thanks for saving me the effort.”

Austin stood there, drenched and smiling like he’d already won.

“Don’t even think about running,” he warned. “You might dodge one shot. Maybe even two. But I’ve got plenty left. Before we start this dance you’re going to lose, tell me… what did your notification say? Where’s the treasure?”

“It’s right here in my underwear!” Luke snapped, flinging his steel dagger.

Austin dodged and opened fire immediately. Luke darted aside, the shots burning past him.

“Always a trick with you,” Austin shouted.

“Oh, I’ve got more than one!”

Austin glanced toward where the dagger landed. His expression froze.

“Ah, damn it.”

The spheres around the crab ignited in a chain reaction. Water erupted in consecutive blasts, flinging the gunslinger through the air. Each explosion burst with the force of a collapsing wave, flooding the arena in seconds.

Austin hit the ground hard, coughing up water as he staggered up. He reached for a revolver. An arrow struck his head. Another pinned his hand. A third hit his leg.

Luke kicked the revolvers away. Austin, surprisingly steady despite the hits, pulled something from his pocket: a soggy roll-up cigarette. He placed it between his lips with forced calm.

“Damn… I really had to die... in a water arena?” Austin said, voice strained.

The cigarette slipped from his mouth. “Honor in leaving. Life in returning.”

[You have slain a Human…] *17,114,386 IP earned*

Luke clicked on the notification to see more information about Austin.

[You have slain a Human (Gunslinger Assassin: Lvl 50 / Squire of the Long Night Pistol Order: Lvl 50 / Ammunition Maker: Lvl 50)] *17,114,386 IP earned*

The revolvers shimmered and shifted back into ordinary crossbows. Luke let out a long breath and pressed a hand to his injury.

“Not a bad duel, gunslinger,” he said quietly, then headed back toward the Guardian.

With no blades left except a scavenged dagger, he finished the task.

[You have slain a Treasure Guardian: Lvl 85] *4,000,000 IP earned*

[Reward Chest is now available!]

[Warning: The waters will no longer drain. This abyss will begin to flood. Climb the vines on the walls… or swim for it.]

The chest gleamed gold atop a stone at the center of the lake. As Luke turned toward it, a figure rose from the water, a hooded archer in green.

The man looked from the chest to Luke. “Thanks for giving me an opening on Yut Saeten.”

“He’s still alive?”

“Men like him are very hard to kill.”

Luke nodded toward the chest. “So… are we doing this? Fighting over it?”

“No. The hunt is yours. So is the reward.” The archer stepped onto a vine. “Good luck making it to the end, warrior. Let nature decide who escapes this purgatory.”

He climbed without ever turning his back. Luke waited, wary, until the man was gone. Then he dove into the lake and swam for the golden chest.

When he opened it, he froze. “All this time… it was this?”