Caleb Mordant stared at Kael, his voice trembling in disbelief. "I-impossible. You couldn't break out even with your transformation last time. How..."
Kael stood there, his bow in his left hand and an arrow glowing with iridescent light in his right. He offered a relaxed, satisfied smile. "Did you think I've just been sleeping this whole time?"
Caleb's eyes locked onto the arrow. "Is it... that arrow?"
Kael shared the weapon's stats in the local chat.
[Primal Core Arrow (Transcendent)]
Physical Attack: +10,000
Magic Power: +10,000
Frostbind Form: Inflicts a 20% slow.
Flame Form: Attacks trigger an explosive blast.
Ironwood Form: Knocks targets back 20 yards.
(Explosive Blast: Deals magic damage in a 16x16 ft area upon impact.)
Can switch forms freely. Unlimited uses.
"Your Murloc Prophet is a slippery bastard," Kael said. "He merges with the water, completely cloaking his presence while zipping around the prison to dodge my shots. But he never actually despawns."
Kael twirled the arrow. "The Flame Form's sixteen-foot blast radius might not seem huge, but it expands my hit zone exponentially. A few blind shots into the water, and no matter how fast that Murloc is, he's taking splash damage." He smirked. "I spent two straight days grinding materials for an NPC blacksmith just to forge these."
Watching Caleb's face contort with rage, Kael turned back toward the convoy. "Briony, Carys, excellent work. I really appreciate you giving me a front-row seat to this idiot's mental breakdown."
Caleb's eyes practically bulged out of his skull. "Briony! Carys! You two scheming bitches! You set me up?!"
"No! We didn't!" Briony shrieked, panic setting in. "Young Master Mordant, he's lying! Don't listen to him!"
Caleb was beyond listening. "Nuke him!" he roared. "We have the Sunfire Bell! I don't care how tanky he is, burn him down!"
A barrage of spells and arrows blotted out the sky, raining down on Kael. He didn't even flinch.
-1
-1
-1
A sea of minimal damage numbers floated above his head. His health bar barely twitched.
"Impossible!" Caleb stammered. "The Bell's buff gives all of us over thirty thousand Magic Power! How are we not breaking your defense?!"
Kael shook his head slowly. "You fundamentally misunderstand how the Sunfire Bell's spell amplification works. Didn't you notice it when you fought bosses?"
Caleb just stared, utterly lost.
Done talking, Kael drew his bow. He didn't even pick a specific target. Four iridescent arrows with crimson tips streaked toward Caleb's mob.
-93,823
-301,123
-90,392
A single [Splintering Arrow] combined with [Pierce] tore through twelve players instantly. As the arrows lost their momentum, the crimson tips detonated. Four overlapping 16-foot explosions engulfed the backline.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
-27,457
-23,232
-29,121
Kael had over 2,500 Intellect—which translated to 25,000 Magic Power. Add the 10,000 from the Primal Core Arrow, and he was hitting with 35,000 raw Magic Power. The overlapping blasts instantly vaporized dozens of players.
Before the smoke even cleared, Kael fired again. Four more explosions rocked the gorge.
By pure luck, Kael hadn't actively targeted Caleb, and the Splintering Arrows hadn't auto-locked onto him. But the surviving players were already breaking.
"Guildmaster! What do we do?!"
A few brave mages tried to start casting large AoE spells at the convoy behind Kael, but he shut them down instantly. With his 60-yard range, any player who started a long incantation or channeled spell caught an arrow to the throat. Caleb's forces were reduced to tossing instant-cast spells, which barely scratched the paint.
Watching his forces get slaughtered, Caleb gritted his teeth. "Fall back!"
The words had barely left his mouth before a Splintering Arrow pinned him to the ground, instantly zeroing out his health.
With their leader dead, the remaining thousands scattered in absolute panic.
Kael wasn't about to let them off easy. He gave chase, hunting them down as they dove into the river, scrambled up the cliffs, and desperately pushed into the dense brush. He pursued them for two miles, racking up another hundred kills before finally returning to the convoy.
The Starlight Town players erupted into cheers as he walked back. Kael felt genuinely refreshed. He had been grinding solo quests for days, and using Caleb's ambush as a stress-relief valve hit the spot. He nodded to the cheering crowd.
Then, his expression cooled as he locked eyes with the two moles.
"Briony. Carys," Kael said, his voice dropping. "Has Guildmaster Lila treated you poorly?"
The sisters kept their heads down, refusing to speak.
"When the new dungeons dropped, Lila didn't push for server-first clears," Kael continued. "She personally carried you both to help you gear up. You were new recruits. Did you feel any gratitude for that?"
Silence.
"During one of those runs, the second the boss died, Carys purposely flooded the voice comms to distract Lila while Briony pocketed a [Queen's Crystal]. Lila noticed immediately. She just chose not to say anything."
"Oh, so she kept quiet just to use us?" Briony snapped, her head snapping up to glare at Kael defiantly. "What makes her so special? In the end, she's just relying on a man to do her dirty work. She's no different from us. The only difference is the man she chose happened to beat the man we chose."
Kael laughed, a harsh, dry sound. "Interesting perspective. She didn't say anything because she didn't have hard proof at the moment. To make sure she wasn't falsely accusing you, Lila manually audited hundreds of thousands of combat logs, boss drop tables, and chest loot histories just to confirm."
He pointed a finger at Briony. "Honestly, I used to respect the hustle. Being a mole takes guts. But what you just said? It makes me despise you."
He stepped closer. "Who doesn't need help? Who doesn't need allies? In your twisted worldview, are the weak just parasites attached to the strong? You're completely wrong. Everyone has value."
Kael paused, gesturing to the hundreds of ordinary players and NPCs behind him. "Take this siege. Without these 'ordinary' players doing the heavy lifting, none of us are achieving anything today."