Chapter 299: Conviction

“That shouldn’t have happened.” Aegis said as he paced around their waiting room, a few looking at him as he did this.

“What shouldn’t have happened? Feng standing up to Seraxus like that?” Darkshot asked him curiously.

“That too, but no. The mithral shouldn’t break like that.” Aegis replied as he pondered it further, gently tapping his chin with his index finger. “My mithral should at least survive a few hits from that blade.”

“That wasn’t your mithral.” Lina replied with a shrug. This caused all eyes to turn on her curiously. “I caught it from a few of the streams when we were flying in… Apparently Artaphernes or Christoph leaked some details about mithral, so they started trying to make mithral stuff here in Stormtop. They haven’t figured out how to do it properly yet, so…” Lina explained.

“That’s why the sword snapped.” Aegis nodded as he stopped pacing for a moment. “If we could get him a proper mithral sword, he might be able to kill Seraxus.” He concluded out loud for the others to hear.

“Really?” Darkshot raised his eyebrows.

“Hang on. Only way he’s gonna get a proper sword is if you give it to him. You’re the only one on this island that can make ‘em.” Rakkan explained.

“I mean, Serenity’s bodyguard Kaito has the mithral katana you made, but he’s logged out for the day.” Pyri said while making a pouting expression.

“I meant…” Rakkan interjected before anyone else could say more, “You help him get a sword, you’re helping VGN. You’re helping someone else stop Seraxus. It means we don’t get to be the ones to get revenge on him.” Rakkan clarified his thoughts as the others turned their attention to him. 

“Not just that. You can’t exactly leave this waiting area to go make a sword.” Darkshot said matter-of-factly.

“I have some refined mithral bars in my inventory…” Aegis replied weakly.

“So you’re gonna what? Give away your mithral and tell the Stormtop craftsman how to make mithral?” Darkshot asked in disbelief.

“That’s giving away the secret to mithral crafting AND giving a victory to VGN.” Pyri tilted her head sideways at Aegis, and this caused Aegis to hesitate. He momentarily glanced between each of his companions to see their expressions, and it was clear not a single one of them was liking what he was suggesting, save for Lina who looked quite indifferent. 

“Rakkan… when we first met in the Darxon hideout, you hated streamers because you thought they were all selfish. You said that we’re all the same, that all we care about is our popularity, no matter who or what it hurts in the process, didn’t you?” Aegis asked him.

“Yeah…” Rakkan replied hesitantly.

“There’s a real chance that Feng can stop Seraxus. For whatever reason, he seems to know exactly where and how to move to face him off. If Feng loses, we might be able to stop Seraxus, but that’s a maybe. If we intentionally refuse to help him, and Seraxus beats us, then runs free and destroys this island, how are you all going to feel?” Aegis asked.

“I…” Rakkan didn’t finish his thought right away, but instead took a long few moments to consider Aegis’ words. “I’m gonna think it was my fault. Again.” 

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll feel the same way.” Darkshot sighed in frustration, annoyed by the situation.

“I think we’d be no better than all of those VGN guys.” Lina nodded along.

“Alright. So we’re all in agreement on this. Very mature of you, but how are you planning to get that mithral to the crafters and have them make a sword for Feng in time?” Pyri raised her eyebrows at Aegis, and he looked momentarily dumbfounded until his mind raced, working it out in his head, then opening up his interface.

“Hae-won, get down to our waiting area as fast as you ca-” 

Aegis wasn’t able to finish sending the message before the door into the waiting area opened up.

“You realize you’re still live-streaming, right?” Hae-won replied as she stepped through the doors leading into the waiting room from the outer-hallway side of the room. As the door swung open, Aegis spotted Mikael and several other members of Schadenfreude standing outside behind Hae-won.

“What are you guys doing here?” Aegis asked as he looked at them behind Hae-won.

“We have the portal altar locations unlocked for both the dwarven forges and Stormtop. We can get that mithral where it needs to go, and bring the sword back lickity split.” Mikael explained.

“Okay.” Aegis nodded, thinking again for a few seconds before he reached into his inventory and took out 5 large mithral ingots, sparkling in all their purple hued glory. As he took them out with very little regard to their value, Mikael’s guildmate’s eyes lit up with bewilderment. The only one who had his eyes on the prize was Mikael, and Hae-won promptly took the bars from Aegis and handed them off to him.

“I just need a way to talk with the best blacksmith in stormtop, so I can tell him what to do.” Aegis said.

“Don’t worry, he’s a livestreamer too. If you watch each other's streams you should be able to communicate, and walk him through the crafting process.” Mikael explained.

“What’s his name?” Aegis asked curiously.

“Seriously?” Darkshot turned to Aegis with another look of disbelief, which others around him mimicked. “He’s the top blacksmith player in the game…” 

“What?” Aegis shrugged. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll get him to the right stream.” Darkshot shook his head disapprovingly at Aegis while saying this to Mikael and his companions. 

“Okay. Portal up.” Mikael turned to his wizard companion who promptly began casting a portal spell just outside of Aegis’ waiting room. Within a few seconds it was open and Schadenfreude rushed through it.

“Hae-won. You gotta relay to Feng what we’re doing. Making a mithral katana, even a rushed one, is going to take at least 20 minutes. Possibly longer. They’ve got…” Aegis looked at his interface briefly, “Another 3 minutes for this intermission, then if they lose the next match, another 5 minutes before the third match…” 

“So, tell Feng to somehow survive against Seraxus for 12 minutes?” Hae-won confirmed.

“As long as possible.” Aegis replied. Hearing this, Hae-won took a long, anxious breath.

“There’s a good chance they’re already hearing this.” Hae-won motioned to Aegis’ live-streaming icon, “but if they aren’t, I’ll make sure they know.” Hae-won said before turning to leave the room.

“Good. Okay.” Aegis took a deep breath to psych himself up after Hae-won had shut the door on her way out, and started fidgeting with his interface to locate his livestream viewer. “Let’s hope this works.” 

“Jensora’s the name of the streamer.” Darkshot said as he saw Aegis digging into his interface, and with the name, Aegis was able to quickly open up the livestream of the blacksmith player.

“I’ve got you open on my livestream viewer, Aegis.” Jensora said to no one in particular. 

He was already working on setting up his tools and powering up the heat in the forge. He wasn’t alone, either, as a group of 6 dwarven players were all around his workstation, preparing it for the upcoming job. They had a proper Katana mold prepared, and the hilt was already being worked on by several others.

“Good. I’ve got you open too. Can you hear me?” Aegis asked to confirm.

“Loud and clear.” Jensora replied with a slight delay. A few seconds after this, a shadow dancer wearing the Schadenfreude guild tabard appeared in Jensora’s livestream and quickly took the mithral bars out of his inventory. 

“Here, I’m the fastest member of the guild so I brought them ahead of the others.” The shadow dancer explained while Jensora took the bars out of his hands.

“Perfect. I understand time is of the essence here, but worry not, my skills are very high level and I learn quickly.”

“Let’s get started then.” Aegis replied with a tone of urgency.

---

The timer for the intermission concluded, and the doors on opposing sides of the gladiator arena swung open. 

The next match of the Semifinals will now begin. Each team has 60 seconds to enter the arena before the first match will commence. The party led by Seraxus is currently winning with a score of 1-0. 

The announcer’s voice carried across the arena, and the audience slowly quieted down. Like before, each party was led out of their respective waiting rooms by their party leaders, Feng and Seraxus. As they made their way towards the center of the arena, Seraxus eyed three sheathed enchanted iron katana strapped to Feng’s waist, and immediately laughed.

“What's the matter, no more mithral? You really think three are gonna be enough? You shoulda brought at least five! Oh wait. Three’s the most a samurai can equip at once, right?” he called out mockingly, to which Seraxus’ companions around him and his fans in the audience all laughed along with him. 

From this exchange alone, hatred began to seep into the atmosphere and a small flicker of black abyssal wings could be seen on Seraxus’ back. However, rather than begin playing music, Serenity waited patiently on her raised platform with her band - her eyes locked on to Hae-won who was standing alongside her and the VGN broadcasters.

“Feng.” Hae-won shouted into her amplified staff, causing him to look up at her.

“Don’t worry. I already know.” Feng replied to Hae-won quickly.

“Hah?” Seraxus looked back towards Hae-won, then towards Feng again in confusion. “Know what?” Seraxus asked, but Feng responded by only grinning at him and taking a fighting stance.

“Good luck.” Hae-won replied, then gave a nod to Serenity.

“Alright ladies and gentlemen. You know the drill! No hatred! Full support of Feng! Let’s do this!” Serenity shouted as a fast beat kicked in, thanks to her instruments and her drummers. The sound quickly overtook the arena, almost completely drowning out the sound of the announcer.

Match begins in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

They maintained an identical formation as the previous match—Feng rushed forward with his party across the arena towards Seraxus’ group. Both sides had their members fanning out, preparing for the engagement, and Seraxus proudly strutted forward to meet Feng. 

Despite now knowing exactly what Feng’s strategy would be, Seraxus made no adjustments to their strategy. It was as if he was openly saying to him ‘no matter what you do, you can’t win’. 

Feng’s group swerved wide around Seraxus as Feng drew out one of his iron katanas, preparing to begin his attacks on the imposing orc in front of him. Seraxus responded in kind, drawing out all of his battlemaster weapons, including the black sword of hatred.

“Ronin: Truestrike.” Feng mumbled, causing his iron katana to glow with magical energy once more. Once he had, the mirages began forming and splitting off from Feng’s original form.

This time, Seraxus calmly waited for them. Their numbers grew to 18 copies of Feng, but Seraxus knew it futile to try and find the real one - he also didn’t feel particularly pressed to do so. 

Once the images closed in on Seraxus, eventually one of them struck at his abdomen, dealing a measly 1636 damage - a fraction of what was dealt by the mithral blade. 

It was then that Seraxus retaliated, using his Switch skill with his weapons to surround Feng’s real form as he attempted to disengage from Seraxus. Both players were moving with such incredible speed that the audience was having difficulty keeping up with them, but the moment that Seraxus caught Feng and landed a hit on him with his sword of Hatred, everyone saw it.

Feng managed to perfectly parry the strike with his iron katana, creating a loud clashing of steel and a flash of black abyssal energy that erupted out from the point of impact. The iron sword stood no chance - it immediately shattered into dozens of tiny pieces and disintegrated around Feng, but he’d survived the strike and turned around to face off with Seraxus once more.

“Hah.” Seraxus laughed as he watched Feng discard the hilt, then drew out his second iron katana. “This is it? All you’ve got?” 

Feng didn’t reply, but instead took a fighting stance once more by bending his knees and digging his heels into the dirt.

“Ronin: Truestrike.” He cast once more, his determination unwavering. He glared at Seraxus from the distance he held between the two, but it didn’t have the same effect it did last time. Seraxus just smiled upon seeing Feng’s glare.

Feng then kicked off the sand-covered tiled floor, beginning another series of attacks on Seraxus. He split into multiple forms of himself again and Seraxus patiently waited for the real one to strike him. Eventually, the mirages all reached Seraxus and feigned their sword strikes on him, but every single blade that reached Seraxus just passed through him.

The real Feng steered completely clear of Seraxus and avoided getting in range of any of his weapons at any point, running beyond him and stopping a few meters safely away on the other side.

“What the hell was that?” Seraxus raised a brow as he turned to face Feng once he’d located the real one and all of the illusionary versions vanished. Seraxus was quick to pick up on things, and this was no exception. This change in Feng’s behavior prompted Seraxus to glance back up to the raised platform in the audience where Hae-won stood, watching the match in silence from behind Serenity’s performance.

“You’re buying time?” Seraxus turned back towards Feng, and Feng smirked slightly. “You teamed up with that Harbinger of Light? Heeeeeeh?!” Seraxus is suddenly filled with rage, his demeanor shifting entirely and startling Feng.”You’ve gotta be kidding me.” He snarled and broke into a charge towards Feng, going on the offensive this time.

---

Aegis, from within the waiting room, saw this unfolding on the waiting room screens. He glanced between them, and his livestream viewer where Jensora was working furiously on forging the Katana.

Aegis gave a few more instructions to Jensora as both his and Jensora’s viewership began to skyrocket, but as the mithral was being formed into the mold, Aegis watched as Seraxus broke through Feng’s defenses and shattered his second iron katana.

“We’re running out of time. Come on!” Aegis shouted urgently to no one in particular.

“We’re going as fast as we can!” Jensora replied in a panic to Aegis through the livestream. 

---

“What’s going on, exactly?” Makaroth asked in confusion, watching the match alongside Lilya and Synopse in the stadium audience.

“It’s Aegis, your son.” Synopse smiled at him, his voice barely audible due to Serenity’s loud upbeat music pouding into their ears. “He’s working with Jensora to forge a new Mithral sword for Feng. Feng just has to survive long enough so they can get the sword to him.” Synopse explained.

By now, all of the spectators in the audience seemed to be aware of what was happening behind the scenes - several news networks including VGN’s had announced what Aegis and Jensora were doing.

“Heh…” Makaroth looked somewhat dumbfounded, contemplating what he’d just been told. Synopse seemed to pick up on this and put his hand on Makaroth’s shoulder.

“Serenity’s music, Mikael’s transportation. Jensora and Aegis’ crafting, Calikgos’ strategy and Feng’s skill. Everyone’s working together to stop the bad guy now. The way it should’ve been from the start.” Synopse gave him a nod before turning his attention back to the match. “COME ON FENG! HANG IN THERE!” Synopse cheered.

Makaroth didn’t respond or join in, but instead looked down towards his feet shamefully, despite his large audience of viewers still watching him. He had too much running through his mind now to put on a show. 

---

Seraxus became relentlessless in his assault on Feng. No longer threatened by the damage he could deal, he willingly took several hits from the final iron Katana until finally cornering Feng with his floating weapons, forcing the third and final perfect parry on the Sword of Hatred.

As the katana shattered and disintegrated, Feng whipped the useless hilt at Seraxus and desperately disengaged. He created illusions in all directions with every step he took as he bolted across the arena, but Seraxus pursued. 

Despite Feng's many illusions and incredible speed, it became clear rather quickly that Seraxus was faster. He sliced through every single illusion that Feng was able to conjure with his Ronin skills until finally cornering the real Feng with his floating battle-master weapons, and slashing through Feng’s defenseless back with his sword of hatred.

Combatant Feng has been defeated.

Seraxus took a deep, calming breath as he watched Feng’s body disappear from the arena, then turned to look to the opposite side where his party was fighting with the rest of Feng’s party.

“Stop messing around and slaughter them.” Seraxus roared in anger at his companions.

---

“That’s not enough time…” Aegis mumbled anxiously as he saw what had happened through the waiting room display. He wasn’t the only one thinking this, as Rakkan, Pyri, Darkshot and Lina had their eyes peeled on the match.

---

“Multicast, invisibility!” The wizard player of Feng’s group shouted, spreading the spell out to not just himself but the other three. Immediately after casting it, all four invisible members of Feng’s group began darting in various directions.

“I’ve got truesight you morons.” Sylvia snarled as she cast a spell to cause purple tattoos to form around her eyes, followed up by her eyes themselves glowing purple. She then levitated up into the air slightly and extended her right arm, pointing in the direction of one of Feng’s invisible party members. 

As she did, a giant hand made of purple smoke formed in the air in front of her, the index finger extended in the direction of the same thing her real finger was pointing at. As the target she was following with her eyes moved, so did where she was pointing, so that Seraxus could know exactly where the invisible target was.

Seraxus moved as though this was a situation they’d dealt with many times in the past. He immediately charged at the invisible target that Sylvia was pointing out, and within seconds cut them down despite not being able to see them.

Combatant Laiyo has been defeated.

“Next.” Seraxus ordered coldly. Sylvia immediately located the next fleeing invisible member of Feng's group and did the same thing, pointing them out for Seraxus to cut down. While this was happening, Hajax, Gambit and Zuon hung back and watched with bemusement. 

–

“The sharpness isn’t as important as the durability. As long as the blade survives the parry, it should be fine. Don’t waste time sharpening it.” Aegis ordered Jensora through their live-stream exchange.

“Got it. How much time do we have left?” Jensora asked him back.

“Uh…” Aegis turned to the waiting area broadcasts and saw the 4th member of Feng’s party be cut down. This member was the Wizard player, meaning the invisibility spell on the 5th member had been canceled so that all could see him. 

He’d managed to get as far from Seraxus in the arena as possible in the time he’d been invisible, but now with Seraxus glaring straight at him he looked like a defenseless deer caught in headlights.

Desperate, the player - a lizardfolk battlemaster, began positioning all of his weapons in front of himself defensively, preparing to protect himself against any incoming attacks. 

It was comically futile, though. In the blink of an eye, Seraxus cleared the distance across the arena and cut through his defenses using his sword of hatred and killed him.

Seraxus’ team has won the round.

As the robotic arena announcer’s voice echoed throughout the stadium, Aegis took a deep nervous breath.

“We’ve got less than five minutes.” Aegis finally answered Jensora.

“Oh boy. Okay. Okay, COME ON BOYS, HAMMER LIKE YE’ MEAN IT!” Jensora shouted at his fellow blacksmithing players, all working intensely on the blade. It was removed from the katana mold, and while several worked on tempering the blade on an anvil, another was already sizing the hilt and preparing to attach it. In addition, they had enchantment orbs prepared to add to the craft immediately upon completion with a high level enchanting crafter on standby, pacing impatiently.

As Seraxus’ party left the arena for the intermission, all eyes fell upon Aegis and Jensora’s livestreams. Jensora was experiencing the highest viewership he’d ever had as the world was watching him craft the blade with his companions on the edge of their seats. Everyone from Makaroth, to Tommy, to Nicholas had tuned in to watch the best blacksmith player in the world work hastily. 

“Time?!” Jensora asked.

“Less than a minute!” Aegis replied.

“This’ll have to do!” Jensora snapped at his workers. He pushed the hammers away despite the blade still looking quite unrefined, and dipped it in cooling water to finish tempering it. The red glow faded from the metal, returning it to its purple hue. 

They then clipped the blade into the prepared hilt, snapping it in and tightening it in seconds.

“Enchanter!” Jensora ordered, and the enchanting player stepped up with the prepared orbs in hand. He utilized some high level skills from advanced enchanting that Aegis hadn’t seen before in order to instantly apply the enchantments.

“Done.”

“Last minute inspection…” Jensora carefully looked over the blade and inspected the item card. “This’ll have to do. Go!” Jensora handed the blade off to Mikael, as a portal had already been created by the wizard of Schadenfreude. 

With blade in hand, they stepped through the portal and the shadow dancer of Mikael’s guild took the blade once they’d arrived atop the portal altar of Stormtop.

“Don’t drop it.” Mikael ordered him, and the shadow dancer nodded back.

“SHADOW DANCE!” He shouted anxiously, teleporting away with incredible speed, making use of the many shadows of the ruined buildings of Stormtop. 

10… 9… 8… 7…

The door to Feng’s waiting room swung open, and the shadow dancer of Schadenfreude was welcomed inside.

“Got it in time.” Feng took the finished mithral katana from his hands, and the shadow dancer let out a sigh of relief. Feng swung the blade around a few times to test it out. “Way better than the last one.” He added before sheathing it on his waist and lining up with the rest of his party members.

“The world is counting on us.” Feng began to smile once more. “Let’s not let them down.” 

The next match of the Semifinals will now begin. Each team has 60 seconds to enter the arena before the first match will commence. The party led by Seraxus is currently winning with a score of 2-0.

-----

Author note: Tomorrow's chapter will be

Chapter 300: The Avatar of Hatred

I'll try to make sure it's well edited to celebrate the 300th chapter, but, oh boy this next chunk is what I've been excited to write for months now. I'm so glad we've finally gotten here and hope you guys enjoy the next chunk of chapters as we near the conclusion of Book III.