New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

'Master Astaroth! You are finally back! Not a moment too soon, too.'

Astaroth was stunned wordless for a moment.

'You can talk now?!' Astaroth asked in his head.

But seeing as the fight was intense, and she was wounded, he brushed aside his question and dashed into combat.

Pulling out Ad Astra, Astaroth changed it to a sword-whip form, going for flexibility as he dove through the enemies, unsure whether the monsters that looked uncorrupted would attack him or not.

But the further in he pushed, slashing his sword in arcs, cutting deep wounds into the enemies, he was yet to get attacked by any monster not seething with demonic energy.

Astaroth thought his dance of arcing slashes would help the monsters beat back the corrupted forces. But he rapidly understood something.

Cutting deep into the side of a Giant Corrupted Bear, he watched as its health dropped a quarter down, before suddenly going back up to full a second later.

'What the fuck?!'

The bear he had struck turned around, locking its blood-red eyes onto him, before swiping with its massive claws toward his head.

Dodging the blow in extremis, Astaroth back-flipped away, before launching himself at the bear again. He swapped the form of his weapon, going for a greatsword.

When he was close enough, and the bear tried swiping at him again, Astaroth dropped to his knees, using his momentum to slide under the attack. Sliding under the bear, Astaroth kicked off the ground right under its neck, raising his weapon in a wide arc, using his Severing Strike.

His momentum, aided by the damage of the Ad Astra, as well as the skill and the weak point he hit, all came together to cause an insane amount of damage.

*-68,273!!*

·ƈθm The greatsword slashed cleanly through the neck of the bear, going all the way through to the top, as the head fell to the ground, the body soon following.

Astaroth scanned the bear before it disappeared into pixels, making sure the damned thing was dead.

*Giant Black Bear (Corrupted)*

Level: 40

Grade: Special

Health: 0/51,500 (Dead)

Mana: 0/1000

Seeing the zero in its health bar, Astaroth nodded once, satisfied.

Turning his head forward, he focused on Genie and her opponent, who were waltzing around each other in a dance of death. Genie was much quicker than the bear, allowing her to move out of reach for most attacks.

But the bear was not dropping dead, even after being battered so much. Astaroth could even see the wound on its throat sealing closed.

'She needs help.'

Astaroth calculated from the health bars of the corrupted monsters all around that they healed at around ten percent of their full health per second. Knowing this, any damage under that bar was bound to be useless.

And by the looks of the fighting, the monsters fighting against the corrupted foes were far from reaching that standard. The level difference, as well as their higher grades, made them mighty foes.

But this wasn't an issue for Astaroth.

All the monsters, corrupted or not, were weaker than him by entire realms, considering his melding with any of his companions. This effectively meant he could end this combat by himself if he joined either side.

Of course, he would never join the side of the corrupted.

Switching the form of his weapon to spell slinger mode, Astaroth sent a mental message to Genie.

'I won't be coming to help you right away. I think I should help all the other creatures that are still right in their mind. I don't know why they haven't attacked me yet, but I feel like they aren't the enemy. Will you be alright against the bear for a little longer?'

Instead of responding with words, Genie sent him a wave of reassurance.

That was all the confirmation he needed.

Astaroth thought hard about his next action. He needed a spell that would deal a lot of damage, and hit a wide area, but not hit any target that wasn't corrupted.

This wasn't easy to achieve, given his mana control or elemental affinities were not the greatest. But his mind stumbled on an idea.

'It might work…'

Charging a single stone bullet spell, Astaroth focused hard on the composition of the stone itself. He thought of a material which would match the idea he had in mind.

The stone bullet changed from simple rock, slowly to a darker colour, reaching a dull grey colour. When the bullet stopped transmuting, Astaroth was now left with a sharp-looking iron bullet, still in the shape of the stone bullet spell.

The next step required him to use an element he had never used before; electricity. The closest he had been to electrical mana was when Phoenix had channelled lightning through him, in their dungeon run, to create an underwater bomb.

He focused on that memory, recalling the feeling of pain, but also the unique 'flavour' of the electric mana. Recalling the intense pain he had been put through, he shivered slightly, but caught himself again, focusing back on the task at hand.

Using some of the neutral mana in the air and himself, Astaroth modelled it until he reached approximately the same feeling as electric mana had given him. Opening his eyes, a small spark of electricity was dancing over his hand, next to the iron bullet.

*Spell learned!*

*Through experimentation, you have learned the spell Shock. Congratulations, player Astaroth!*

Astaroth grinned at the achievement, but his plan wasn't over. He still had a few steps to do.

At the moment, all the surrounding monsters were strangely ignoring him, or blocking the corrupted beasts from reaching him. He was left alone to focus amid this heated battle.

But the tides were so rapidly going bad that he knew he shouldn't dawdle.

Using the dancing spark, he inserted it into the iron bullet, making the stone look like it was about to explode for a moment, before it went back to normal.

Astaroth held his breath for the next step.

Shooting the iron bullet at a corrupted monster, Astaroth watched as it penetrated the monster, the wound sealing shut behind it, leaving the stone inside. He then formed another iron bullet, before shooting it right next to the monster he had just shot.

As the iron bullet zoomed next to the monster, about to fly right by him, the trajectory changed, the iron bullet suddenly veering toward the monster and puncturing his body once again.

*Spell learned!*

*Through experimentation of the Stone Bullet spell, you have created the spell Magnetic Bullet. Stone Bullet Mastery has reached level one. Congratulations, player Astaroth!*

Astaroth grinned manically.

'Yes! Now the true damage remains.'

"Time for some science, you wicked beasts!" he shouted, grinning like a madman.