The Glorious Evolution

Fang ignored him and kept walking forward, dragging two chained fangs behind him... they were attached to his wrists and rolled up to his matted black-furred elbows. He was a mountain of blood-red muscle, covered in the same fur... he resembled a three-meter-tall werewolf that had escaped a brutal experiment and kept the chains as a reminder of what had been done to him.

”Why is he coming at us alone... has he lost his mind?”

Arthur asked, his pupils narrowed at the sight of Fang’s yellowish fangs dripping with thick saliva as his eyes locked on them. Everyone could feel it... the intense bloodthirst building up around him with each step he took.

’Why do I have a bad feeling about him?’ Levi frowned.

He had scanned Fang fully and found nothing bizarre besides his crimson, bloodthirsty spiritual aura... he didn’t know why, but it reminded him of the Hound.

He could never forget the day he first saw it, nor the strange feeling it left in his chest.

Orry’Xel was supposed to be nothing more than a hired blade... a newbie mercenary. Someone like that should not have drawn Levi’s attention.

However, in Levi’s eyes, the situation itself was suspicious... The Conqueror’s Faction was not careless. They did not hand important operations to inexperienced newcomers, especially not in a game of this scale. Hiring two novice mercenaries and making this their first assignment was too reckless.

But Levi didn’t have much information about them to dig deeply into their background... he found nothing on the network... as if these two were born right before the game began. Now, seeing Orry’Xel being this bold against eight Daywalkers made Levi’s heart skip a beat.

”Eradicate them!”

Just as Levi was about to warn them to keep their guards up against him, he was left dazed at the sight of Xorr’Vaedryn leading the undead army behind Orry’Xel! His teammates remained in the back to defend the Toxic Kingdom.

’Guys, play it slow and safe until we ascend the rope... something feels off about that werewolf,’ Levi alerted them with a solemn tone.

”Aren’t you looking down on us a bit too much, captain?” Tyrese cracked his neck lazily. ”If we can’t handle two Nightcrawlers with this team, we shouldn’t be here.”

”Captain Levi, we respect you a great deal... but we don’t need you to fight all of our battles.”

”Have some trust in us... It’s their funeral for coming at us!”

Michael, Rakai, Blake, and Nadal nodded in support, not too fond of being underestimated like this... meanwhile, Arthur, Nurah, and Shia respected Levi’s warning and told him that they would be careful.

However, they weren’t going to retreat or play it defensively against two Nightcrawlers and a bunch of undead... their reaction was understandable.

They had worked hard day and night to prepare for this event... if they couldn’t handle this small challenge, it would be a massive hit to their confidence.

”I can deal with the undead army alone... follow me for cover,” Arthur uttered calmly as he stepped to the vanguard.

The wind whipped his ponytail as he faced the encroaching tide of rot and bone... once he saw that the undead army would take a while to arrive, Arthur held his shield in front of him and sprinted in their direction.

Just like Tyrese... he brought a boots-type artifact that ensured he wouldn’t lose his footing easily on top of the spinning rope.

Seeing this, Nurah, Shia, and the rest chased after him.

Kreeee!! Kreee!!!...

The winged undead arrived first, their harrowing screeches merging with the howls of the wind... they circled freely around the spinning rope, appearing from every direction around Arthur and the others.

”Fire!”

The instant the wyverns captured their summoner’s order, they widened their bony jaws and unleashed a torrent of deep purple mist!

”Don’t let the mist touch you! It’s a mental-based venom!” Nurah warned as she sank into her own shadow, avoiding the attack.

Arthur and the rest used whatever defensive or evasive abilities they had to avoid the rapidly spreading purplish mist around them... luckily, the rope was in constant motion, which forced the mist to disperse a couple of seconds later.

Not waiting for a second attack, Arthur manifested the vermilion fortress around his allies and kept the door open.

”Stay inside for a moment... It’s for your own safety.”

Following his ominous warning, Arthur left the fortress and shifted the central vermilion gemstone to a green one... the central socket clicked, rotating until Vaelith’s Gemheart locked into place.

Without hesitation, Arthur drew back his arm and slammed his fist against the gemstone... under the eyes of the viewers, the gemstone emitted a contained green light, manifesting as a singular vertical slit down the middle.

Arthur lifted the shield with one arm and directed it at the flying undead wyverns.

”Heaven’s Breaker Arts: Vaelith’s Petrifying Gaze!” Arthur roared as he faced the incoming flood of venomous mist.

The slit opened wide, and a wave of green radiance erupted, sweeping across the sky like a beam of emerald fire... any undead wyvern touched by the light found itself petrified from the tip of its tail to its bony horns. Their ghastly bodies hardened into cold grey granite while their leathery wings turned to heavy slate.

Not even their venomous mist was spared from the petrification!

”It can’t be...”

Xorr’Vaedryn and the rest of his allies were left startled at the sight of the dreadful, terrifying beasts, which became nothing more than falling boulders, whistling as they plummeted into the abyss below!

Yet, Arthur wasn’t even done... he swiftly tightened his grip on the shield and charged in the direction of the undead legion!

The petrifying beam was still as forceful as ever... even when the distance was in the hundreds of meters between them, the green beam landed on the army’s front row!

The undead chimeras turned into solid monstrous statues. The sticky glue that had anchored the horde had hardened into brittle glass.

Snap! Crash!

With the glue now petrified, it snapped under the tension of the spinning rope. The petrified undead were kidnapped by the wind and gravity instantly, vanishing into the darkness of the gorge with the rest of the wyverns!

The Nightcrawlers, Daywalkers, and viewers showed mixed emotions as they watched Arthur singlehandedly take down the legion of undead with a single ultimate!

He just kept charging fearlessly forward, firing the petrifying beam nonstop... but as the undead kept falling under his ultimate, everyone was stunned to see petrification spreading, akin to a curse, rapidly across the surface of the shield!

Once it touched Arthur’s fingers, the petrification continued mercilessly, sealing his arms solid!

’That’s enough, Arthur... if you keep abusing it, the curse will seal you whole,’ Khu’zan warned solemnly.

’I can still move while petrified, unlike them, so no problem!’

Arthur’s latest perfect evolution to the Warden rank had helped him unlock the infamous Vaelith’s Gemheart and its Petrification Aspect... Vaelith’s Petrifying Gaze was the rewarded ultimate, which was a powerful petrification ability that sourced its potency from the Gemheart itself!

The petrifying beam was so powerful that it could petrify almost anything around his current rank... However, if the petrifying gaze remained open for too long, the petrification curse seeped out of the Gemheart and affected the user as well.

Luckily... Arthur’s first unlocked Warden ability negated the effect of the curse a little... he was still going to get petrified, but Animus of the Marble Shell ensured that only his outer layer was petrified, bestowing him with a protective stone-based layer while maintaining a reduced level of mobility.

Since this applied to any type of petrification... not even the petrification curse of his ultimate could bypass its effect and petrify him whole.

’Don’t forget... It’s called a curse for a reason,’ Khu’zan frowned. ’You won’t be able to break it apart... You will be forced to feed the Gemheart kinetic energy to reabsorb the petrification effect.’

’Then I will do that,’ Arthur narrowed his eyes coldly. ’I am not stopping until I clear a path for my friends or the petrification reaches my feet.’

Arthur kept his word... he pushed through nonstop even when his face turned to stone. Xorr’Vaedryn and his teammates showed ugly expressions as they watched their army dropping into the abyss nonstop. Yet, none of them dared to step in front of the green beam or attempt to block it.

As summoners, their whole prowess relied on the power of their summons and numbers... fortunately, they weren’t alone in this.

’Fang! Do something! My venom and summons are useless against petrification arts!’

Xorr’Vaedryn reached out to Fang for assistance, but when he turned to look for him, the space where Fang had stood moments ago was empty.

It wasn’t just him. Everyone lost sight of him, except for two people... Gamemaster Envy and Levi!

’Arthur! Watch out! He is crawling on the rope’s bottom!!’

The moment Arthur received Levi’s distressed warning, his heart skipped a beat... he swiftly turned the petrifying gaze around him to block the ambush, but alas... his attack landed on nothing.

Fang climbed from under the rope in an instant, his claws digging into the rope akin to a panther climbing a tree... then he launched the chained fangs in Arthur’s direction from behind after Arthur turned around!

It was as if he predicted that Arthur would be warned, and that his first instinct would be to turn around to protect himself.

Instead, the fangs latched onto Arthur’s petrified arms in a blink and tightened around his muscles to the point that the tough stone skin cracked under the pressure!

’Jackpot... to think I caught his little brother first,’ Fang grinned wickedly. ’The Bishop should be pleased.’