Becoming the Dark Lord

In front of Luke stood the beekeeper assassin.

Bad luck. We reached the spot at the same time.

The assassin began backing away, retreating step by step. Every bee in the swarm turned toward Luke and surged forward.

A thousand stings are enough to kill a person. And these definitely aren’t normal bees.

There were too many of them. If he still had his acid arrow, this would have been easy. But the swarm was closing in fast, so Luke improvised, firing arrows in rapid succession at the man controlling them. The assassin knocked some aside and twisted away from the rest.

The bees shot forward in a straight line, their stingers already exposed. Luke ran, jumped onto a tree, and started climbing fast, using his daggers for grip. Behind him, the tree he had just been on was struck, and the impact of the bees sounded like gunfire. With one powerful push, Luke launched himself upward. He moved so quickly that he made it above the swarm and immediately began firing down at the assassin as the man ran below.

The bees were still moving in a straight line, but some of them started rising. Luke dashed across the thick branches and kicked one down into the swarm, leaves and all.

Dodging the bees, Luke grabbed a vine and swung. A few of them struck his arm. Then he let go. Midair, he drove an arrow into the assassin’s leg. He was falling straight toward the swarm, but he never stopped firing. By the time he hit the ground, the assassin had an arrow in his head, two in his chest, and three in his leg.

He fell backward.

[You have slain a Human…]*312,007,771 IP earned*

Luke turned toward the bees, ready to retreat. Instead, they started dropping out of the air.

Dead.

[Participants Alive: 10/11]

Luke let out a breath. “That worked.”

Luke tore a few bees off his body. In large numbers, that would have killed me. If the venom is strong enough, it might still kill me in a few hours. Or maybe the effects will wear off.

He sprinted toward the skill chest.

[Skill Chest found!]

Give me something good. Something that’ll help me win this.

[Three skills will be randomly selected from your skill history. You may choose one of the options shown.]

[Warning: This is the only skill you may acquire during this challenge.]

Three skills appeared before Luke. Damn it. Not one offensive option.

He did not have time to hesitate. With no better choice and no time to waste, he picked one.

[The Red Bracelet has been found. The island will now sink completely into the ocean.]

[Time Remaining: 59 minutes : 59 seconds]

That was all the time he had left to get the bracelet. Or die.

***

Cindy was running with Zoe. Every time Oliver fired, the shot cracked through the island like thunder, and the bolt tore through trees as if they were nothing.

“One more shot and drop!” Zoe shouted.

The two of them threw themselves to the ground. The bolt came in like a bullet, slamming through the trees and knocking them down in a shower of splinters.

“He can really see us through the trees,” Cindy said.

They were too close to him now. Oliver was on the hill, and they had been unlucky enough to end up right in his sights. As they ran, he kept firing and tearing the forest apart around them.

“We’re going to have to kill him, Cindy. It’s the only way. Cover me.”

They ducked behind a boulder. Then they saw someone emerge from the forest. Roger, the knight. He had a shield in one hand and a sword in the other, and he charged straight uphill. Oliver’s bolts slammed into the shield, each impact ringing through the metal. Then Roger’s shield flashed white, and he surged forward even faster, knocking the bolts aside as he ran.

Oliver tensed, frantically pulling and firing bolt after bolt. It did not matter. Roger reached him and slammed him with the shield. Oliver was thrown off the hill and went rolling down the slope.

“Go for the chest!” Zoe shouted.

The two of them ran for the nearby chest.

[Participants Alive: 10/11]

The notification appeared in front of Cindy.

“Oliver died?” she asked.

As they ran, both of them looked toward the hill.

[Participants Alive: 9/11]

Then Oliver appeared at the top, bleeding, crossbow raised and aimed straight at them. He had killed Roger.

“Get down!” Zoe shouted.

He started firing nonstop in their direction. Cindy was hit. Zoe was hit too. But Zoe pushed herself back up and hurled a cloud of fire at him, then broke into a sprint. Flames streamed behind her legs, some movement skill kicking in as she accelerated. Cindy weaved through Oliver’s bolts and closed the distance, forcing him into close combat. He drew a knife.

Cindy came in from behind and activated [Mana Drill]. Oliver took the hit in the back, and Zoe finished him in the same motion.

[Participants Alive: 8/11]

Oliver’s body toppled onto Cindy, and both of them rolled down the hill. By the time she got back to her feet, Zoe was there, blood running down her body.

“We did it.”

***

Luke ran through the forest toward the beach. Someone had already claimed the red bracelet, but its glowing outline still burned in his vision.

Whoever has the bracelet just needs to protect it until time runs out.

His boots splashed against wet ground. The island really was sinking into the ocean. As he got closer, he spotted a blond man suspended in the air, held up by plant tendrils growing out of his body. Luke recognized him at once.

“If you die now, it’ll be a lot easier for me to defend the bracelet later.” the man said to him as he advanced toward Luke.

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The tendrils kept him two meters off the ground, while more burst from his back like claws and lashed at Luke. Luke answered with arrows. The tendrils shifted shape and formed shields, knocking them away.

Luke clicked his tongue and kept moving, switching from bow to twin daggers. He dropped into a slide across the ground, barely avoiding a strike, and in the same motion sliced through the two tendrils holding the man aloft. The man pitched forward. Luke came up fast, leapt onto his back, and drove both daggers in like fangs.

[You have slain a Human…] *293,641,782 IP earned*

[Participants Alive: 7/11]

The body crashed down behind him. Luke kept running. The bracelet was farther out now, in a ruined village beyond the forest where the sand began. The water had already risen past his ankles. He moved through the trees more carefully, scanning the area.

An open field. Perfect for snipers.

He saw one house collapse. Luke crouched and hid. Then another building caved in. He kept watching. A scream rang out somewhere nearby. He ran again, bow in hand, eyes moving over everything at once. In the distance, he saw the glowing silhouette of the bracelet resting on a corpse half-submerged in the water. Then, suddenly, a harsh white light flared in the village, and a figure went sprinting through it.

Luke knew that skill. Father Brandt.

The red outline of the bracelet moved. Someone had taken it off the corpse.

“You weren’t actually stupid enough to sit around waiting, were you, old man?” a woman’s voice called out.

Madinson stretched her elastic arm and slingshotted herself onto the roof of a house.

“Waiting? Shame none of the idiots actually believed that,” Father Brandt replied, leveling his staff and firing a yellow bolt at her.

Madinson sprang away, dodging through the air. Then she punched at empty space, her arm stretching out and nearly catching Father Brandt before he threw up a dome of mana around himself.

Luke sprinted for a piece of wreckage and dropped into a crouch, watching the two of them fight. The old man was not nearly as weak as he pretended to be. He kept darting out of the way and firing lightning.

“Age brings experience, and experience is the greatest power,” he declared while dodging again. Then he touched the tip of his staff to the water.

Madison convulsed as the shock ran through her. The Father pointed the staff at her and unleashed another bolt. She was thrown backward into a tree.

“I told you,” he said, then turned and ran.

Madison got back up, furious. Her legs bent like springs and she launched herself high into the air after him. That was when Luke shot her. His arrows caught her mid-leap.

[You have slain a Human…] *402,342,225 IP earned*

[Participants Alive: 5/11]

Her body splashed into the water while the Father kept running. Luke drew on the old man next.

An arrow sliced past his face. A split second later it hit a nearby house and exploded with enough force to tear the whole thing apart. Another arrow slammed into the wreckage Luke had been using for cover and blasted it to pieces.

Luke threw himself away and landed hard in the water.

Heavy arrow.

There was only one person on the island who used arrows like that. He rolled aside just in time to avoid another shot that punched a crater into the sand.

Ivor.

Luke ran, weaving away from the incoming arrows until he threw himself behind another chunk of debris. He sharpened his focus and listened.

“The bracelet’s getting away, Ivor!” Luke shouted, nocking an arrow.

“I’ll go after him later,” Ivor replied.

He was moving through the village somewhere, unseen. “First I eliminate the most dangerous ones.”

The next arrow slammed into Luke’s cover and blew it apart. Fortunately, he had already moved. He sprinted for a tree, but it exploded before he could reach it. Luke bolted deeper into the forest as another arrow ripped past him, punching through a line of trees and sending them crashing down.

“Still using only the heavy arrow?” Luke shouted. “That trick’s getting old.”

Then he looked up. An arrow was already descending toward him, and in midair it split into many. Luke ran hard, dodging as best he could. Every impact blew craters into the ground and shattered trees apart.

“How about this one?” Ivor’s voice called from somewhere in the forest.

I still can’t see him. Some kind of stealth skill, or camouflage? If so, he’s shown me three abilities so far. Maybe four. Maybe he picked up a fifth.

A streak of orange light came at Luke. He dodged. The tree behind him exploded in a fireball that hurled him forward. More arrows came after him, multiplying in the air. One flew straight at his face. He barely had time to raise his hands and try to catch it. The weight behind the shot was so brutal it launched him backward through the trees.

A rain of arrows followed while he rolled across the ground trying not to die. Some were heavy. Others were ordinary. There was no rhythm to them. Luke staggered back to his feet, limping, blood running down his leg as he ripped an arrow free. His bow was gone. Lost somewhere in the chaos. He looked down. There was a trail of blood on the ground.

***

Ivor watched Luke limp through the trees, retreating farther and farther. He took a slow breath, drew, and fired. The heavy arrow smashed through the trunks in its path, its weight enough to split wood and knock trees down as it tore after Luke. Luke kept running. Ivor did not even need his eyes to know where he was going. The blood trail told him everything.

“It’s over,” Ivor said, loosing another arrow high into the air.

The arrow split into six against the sky and rained down over Luke’s position. Luke managed to avoid the worst of it, but one still struck him. Ivor kept walking, calm and methodical, and drew again. When Luke tried to drink a healing potion, Ivor fired at his head. The arrow hit the flask instead. It exploded in Luke’s hand, and he threw himself sideways onto the ground.

“I can hear you taking deep breaths,” Ivor called out. “Your lung’s probably punctured.”

He pulled another arrow from the quiver on his back. Luke was dragging himself across the ground now, leaving blood behind him in a widening trail. Even so, he still managed to crawl behind the trees.

“I always prefer a clean hunt. One quick shot,” Ivor said as he aimed again. “I’m not like the other psychopaths on this island.”

He settled the bow. “Don’t drag this out any longer than it has to be.”

“I have a family!” Luke Moon shouted back. “I can’t die here!”

Then he started coughing. Loud. Wet. His position could not have been more obvious. Ivor simply adjusted his aim and prepared the next arrow.

“You don’t understand!” Luke shouted. “I have to find them!”

“Unfortunately, pity doesn’t keep anyone alive.”

Ivor released. The arrow obliterated the tree Luke had been hiding behind. Then something hit Ivor in the chest. A knife. A second blade flashed across his throat. It happened so fast he had to blink just to understand what had happened. The bow was torn from his hand, and Ivor fell forward, pain blooming through his chest.

“H-how?” Ivor asked.

Luke was standing behind him. Ivor looked toward the shattered tree.

Impossible.

“I’ve got a teleportation skill,” Luke replied. “I was just stalling until I got close enough to my pentagram.”

Then he fired an arrow straight into Ivor’s face.

“Thanks for the bow.”

Ivor fell backward. Then there was only darkness.

***

Cindy and Zoe walked through the forest.

[Participants Alive: 4/11]

“So that’s all who’s left,” Cindy murmured.

Zoe was a few steps ahead.

“We can still make it, Cindy. If the worst ones get taken out, and it comes down to us and Luke, he’ll listen to me. We’ll come to an agreement. We can survive this, Cindy. Me for my brother, and you for your sister.”

“We’re dead, Zoe.” Cindy’s eyes filled with tears. “You were right when you said this place was meant for people who killed an innocent. I killed my sister.”

“No, you didn’t. She was in a coma, wasn’t she?” Zoe glanced back at her. “You just did what you thought was right and let them turn off the machines. We’re getting out of this.”

“I don’t want to die,” Cindy whispered, crying now.

“You’re not going to.” Zoe turned and kept walking. “Brandt’s plan was good.”

Cindy tightened her grip on the knife. “I can’t die, Zoe. My sister may be gone... but she left behind a daughter.”

Then Cindy killed her.

[Participants Alive: 3/11]

Zoe’s body hit the ground.

“His plan might actually have worked if nobody had taken the bracelet and triggered the island’s destruction,” Cindy said, wiping her face. “You were spiraling, Zoe. You weren’t thinking straight.”

Cindy looked toward the glowing outline of the red bracelet. “I’m getting off this island.”