Overpowered Wizard

Time seemed to slow down for Zarian as he grinned wider behind his blue fox mask. Above his head and the nuclear cube, a heavy dvergr was coming down with the wrath of a storm demigod.

The power Valin was generating was impressive, far surpassing what the bold warrior had shown when they first met.

He wasn’t an epic Master Ranker at all. He was pushing somewhere close to the peak of legendary. Maybe beyond, just like Naomi. That meant he could hit at the mythical range, going far above his level.

Thus, Zarian came to a simple conclusion in the tiny time window before Valin landed fully.

Valin had abilities to hide his true power and parts of his profile. He also had an ability or two similar to Aura Ignition, but based on lightning, thunder, and maybe something more.

Zarian couldn’t exactly tell. There was a fuzziness surrounding Valin that wasn’t there earlier, like a magic jammer, thwarting Zarian’s Devourer of Secrets and Stories.

And that was frankly interesting!

Zarian laughed while everything running through his mind happened at speeds far beyond human, pushing free evil +11 harder.

Time kept moving slowly as Zarian felt the high voltage build up. He felt the crushing pressure of thunderous force condensing on his position. The already displacing air was rushing out of the way.

Everything that could move was trying to get the fuck out from under the double-hammer storm slam, yet Zarian waited for that last split second just for the fun of it.

Then, right before Valin struck the nuclear cube on his way down, Zarian used his 762 Agility, Para’s physical boost, and one of his newer skills. It was a skill he’d created from combining other speed-based skills he gathered at New Florida.

<Super Speed Force +2 (Level 27): With enough aura and force, boost your body and mind to incredible speeds. Using this spell for longer than short bursts can be extremely costly. Scales with Agility and Mysticism. Advancements: +1 raises potency. +2 grants scaling with Wonder.>

Zarian and his nine large fox tails were on their way out of the warded camp by the time Valin struck down like a bomb.

Behind Zarian’s blurring feet, thick cords of lightning lashed the ground, the lightning forking, slamming, and channeling itself in near fractal patterns. Zarian dodged every electric surge by the skin of his teeth, altering his path on a dime and finding gaps in the stormy net.

Slipping free, Zarian came to a long sliding stop half a mile outside of his camp. Here, he waited for the shockwave to roll over him after it finally caught up.

“Damn it, Valin, that’s just plain rude,” Zarian teased. “I’m going to have to remake my camp after I make a new skeleton out of you.”

“We could’ve been friends, Valin! Now I’m hungry and angry and must have you over for a meal!” Para growled, all nine fox tails moving like violent serpents from behind Zarian.

The billowing smoke and burning debris hadn’t even settled before Valin shot after Zarian like a ball out of a cannon.

Thick streams of lightning jettisoned from behind Valin’s heavy body as he moved even faster than his initial attack, but not with the same power. The dvergr must’ve realized landing large power attacks wouldn’t work, so he pushed his Agility far faster than anyone would expect from him.

Returning the nuclear cube to Para’s pocket dimension, Zarian burst forth with sudden speed force again. His outline blurred into a long streak. Blue strings of electricity crawled over him from the static build up.

He met Valin in the middle, a thousand feet outside of his demolished camp, forcing the heavy warrior to swing his right hammer early for a downward slam.

Seeing an opening, Zarian burst-step to his left, the hammer missing to his right. Then the disguised Conquest Wizard pivoted and hooked a punch into Valin’s thick and armored side.

Normally, a punch like that from Zarian wouldn’t hit for much even with his physical boost from Para and the additional speed force. However, Zarian did have 535 Strength from finally investing more points into his body.

Still, up against legendary and super-lightning-powered Valin, that still wouldn’t seem like a decent enough counter move compared to everything else Zarian had in his arsenal.

There were two other factors involved other than it being demoralizing to get beaten down by a wizard.

Zarian had learned hand-to-hand combat from Naomi, and Ruvaria made him brush up on it, too. The Sorceress Queen was surprisingly adept at laying her hands on others.

Last, Zarian could layer magic on his fists with a mix of aura and arrays for different effects that his speed-forced mind and absolute teachings could conjure.

For this liver punch, Zarian covered his fist in magic rock that had the weight of a large hill while moving at sonic speeds.

The air that whooped out of Valin blared like thunder as the punch seemed to fold the heavy warrior in half. Then the dvergr flew off to the side, his entire body forced off his surging path.

Unfortunately, Zarian couldn’t connect cleanly and get away. A reflective thunder blast flew in the Conquest Wizard’s face upon impact.

It would’ve landed clean if Para hadn’t smoothly wrapped her fox tails around her host, cocooning him and taking the brunt of the damage.

Together, the wizard and parasite soared backward, riding with the reflective blast for a hundred feet before sliding to a stop. The fox tails whipped out of the way as Zarian reoriented himself and found Valin flying directly for another exchange.

The hammers swung even faster, and Zarian had to react on the back foot. He dodged the first swing with room to spare. Just when he was about to counter, he aborted. The second hammer swung through the spot he would’ve occupied if he’d committed.

The first hammer came around again, but Zarian slipped it even smoother than the last time. Once more, the second hammer swung, but it missed wide, hitting nothing but an afterimage of the super-sped-up Zarian.

As Valin tried to reset, Zarian landed a straight punch covered in magic similar to a small mountain in supersonic flight.

Valin’s head rocked backward. Blood poured in thick gouts from his broken nose. His thick neck strained as his heavy body followed in the same direction his head was going.

With the dvergr flying away from the powerful punch, Zarian braced his body and focused his aura and sorcery between the palms of his hands. He was going to create some big fuck-you beam that would take about .2 seconds to charge.

But the damn dvergr released an immense thunder blast from his back and completely reversed his course.

Valin came back to Zarian in .15 seconds. He moved so fast he caught Zarian off guard and forced Para to initiate her auto-defense cocoon for her host.

All her tails wrapped around him, which messed with Zarian’s vision slightly, leaving him at Valin’s mercy.

The double hammers struck, crashing through layers of condensed aura before touching the physically manifested fox tails. And that touch came with a whopper of an impact.

Zarian’s world went white for a short time, but he didn’t feel any pain. Instead, Para took all the pain, all the damage. She even reduced the shock for her host.

Suffering for him, Para kept her host shielded as they got batted through the jungle, bursting through tree after tree, some of them covered in razor-sharp claws that got annihilated into splinters with their passing.

Finally, they came to a sliding stop that dug a twenty-foot rut that was thousands of feet long and left a trail of destruction in their wake. Para’s fox tails unraveled shakily from around Zarian as she, his favorite skill, with an existence that transcended most existences, suffered a paralysis debuff.

The debuff slowed her movements and thoughts, making her twitchy and unhappy.

Zarian stopped smiling behind his mask.

“You’re really good +7, huh?” Zarian asked aloud. “I can’t exactly see your profile, but I got a decent sense for traditional good.”

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The air darkened around Zarian as he grew more serious. “You and your easy-ass power ups don’t know what genuine power looks like. All you’re doing is sacrificing your sense of self instead of delving deeper within!”

“I’ve sacrificed nothing I didn’t want to sacrifice, Isaiah Skybreaker! Let the Good Gods witness my devotion and power!” roared Valin, who came flying straight at Zarian again.

The heavy warrior was moving with renewed confidence, with greater power, and with more speed. Valin crushed the distance so fast, a series of thunder shocks followed behind him like magical sonic booms. His stormy power snaked and snapped with lightning tendrils that acted like the heads of hydras lashing out at the world, every blow a promise of punishment and retribution from the heavens.

Zarian had to admit that traditional good remained a thorn in his side.

Free evil, no matter how high, didn’t increase power directly like traditional good. Even free good required more inner work to draw out its true power.

With enough belief in the powers that be, such as the Good Gods, then the power ups from traditional good were one prayer away from snowballing into a growing issue. The case with Valin was almost reminiscent of Bianca, and that pissed Zarian off.

“You disappoint me,” Zarian grumbled, unleashing one of his fourteen grand spells, the one that many adventurers would fear most, a monstrous thing borne from the fusion of Void Domain and Void Parade.

<Void Paradise (Mythical): The void answers to you, and so do the legions of creatures that live there. Other lesser void users are yours to manipulate, like any pawn. Movement in and out of the void is easy for you and for your things, passengers, friends, followers, and those who may worship you, especially in celebration. You can also move and alter the environment, magic items, reachable powers, and sometimes other weak creatures who cannot resist your influence. The costs are as big as you can imagine. Scales doubly with Wonder.>

Zarian disappeared from in front of Valin as the thunderous do-gooder entered a land that was far scarier than the steamy and edgy jungle.

The trees became twisted, ugly, and bulbous things that made soul-scratching noises without making true sounds. The sky disappeared from view and became the stuff of nothingness and endless eyes with irises that held visions of the end of all things.

The ground became unstable, nearly ephemeral, while still able to support weight, almost like solidified gas. However, to stay put in one place for too long threatened to drag the dvergr under and bury him forever, to where the Star System wouldn’t even bother to bring him back to proper reality because the cost would be too much.

The power of traditional good and super lightning magic kept Valin afloat when he landed heavily. Looking around, Valin found himself alone and judged by the legions beyond the twisted trees that served one god, one lord, one man who made the void his paradise.

And that man floated in the void-changed air with all the eyes turning to look upon him.

“Give yourself up to Starlight’s hunger or suffer a fate worse than death, Valin,” Zarian demanded, sitting on a throne carved out of bleeding moons and metallic hearts.

Valin floated into the horrid air, stalks of lightning and thrusts of thunder jetting beneath him. He looked around at the flesh trees, at the legions of eldritch creatures beyond.

He looked at the horrors beyond horrors surrounding and watching him. Then he looked up with eyes filled with lightning.

And determination.

“You’re him. You’re the Dark Emperor, aren’t you, Isaiah?” Valin murmured.

“I will neither confirm nor deny that. But do know you will meet a painful end. Your saving grace is that one end is far quicker than the other.” Zarian tilted his head to the side. “You decide.”

Valin laughed, his thunderous voice pushing aside the ghoulish grasp of the void. His Willpower firmed up against the creeping madness that wanted to rip his sanity apart and split his soul asunder from his body.

His lightning remained his. His defiant attitude remained his. And his traditional good climbed ever higher, going from +7 to +8, as if the Ascended Heavens deemed Valin worthy to be greater for this moment.

“Bearded ancestors, one and all, this is WONDERFUL!” Valin roared.

Zarian blinked, a little surprised. “Wonderful?”

Valin laughed some more. “Of course, it is wonderful. To be here at the beginning of the tournament and given the right to face the Dark Emperor himself is a blessing! You, oh grand nightmare, oh fearsome ruler from across the universe, have an infamy that is greater than this tournament, greater than any evil, even greater than The Dragoness!”

“Hm, yeah, that’s kind of true. So, you still don’t want to surrender?”

“Ba ha ha ha! Surrender? Me? Never! This is my moment! To bring honor to my family and to my Gods! I say let’s fight!”

Zarian wanted to be mad, since Para had taken damage for him and was still suffering through some paralysis. But the damn dvergr had an infectious cheer, forcing Zarian’s frown into a contemptible smirk behind the mask.

From his throne of bleeding moons and metallic hearts, Zarian waved his hand, and the void answered with a quiver and a silent roar.

Many slavering, gibbering, squelching, crunching, screaming, squishing, squiggling, and illogical creatures that were legion came flying at Valin from all sides.

They crashed upon him with powers that could break Willpower, reduce Strength, sap Agility, destroy Wonder, and rip Mysticism. They attacked with an entropic nature that could strip the profiles off the souls and leave them forever vulnerable, maybe even separate from the Star System.

Valin exploded with renewed power and goodness from under the eldritch horrors. His lightning and thunder blasted him free from the legion of things that raged and danced under Zarian’s rulership.

Then the heavy lightning warrior flew up to challenge the Dark Emperor directly – only to get struck by a fusion beam of sorcery and void magic that Zarian had already charged up.

Zarian’s sorcery landed with the weight and speed of a supersonic flying mountain. And the void magic speared straight through and ran havoc on Valin’s profile, giving him a taste of his own medicine as revenge for paralyzing Para.

Before the dvergr landed in an awaiting pile of eldritch horrors, Zarian returned them back to the Super World of Steam, Jungles, and Claws. The void pulled away like one would slide aside a curtain, except for the throne of bleeding moons and metallic hearts.

Zarian smashed the maddened throne right on top of Valin as they landed in a new section of the jungle. The impact destroyed everything from around them and formed a deep crater.

Since the throne was more than eccentric furniture and was alive, it attempted to eat Valin while he struggled to get his magic back in working order from the void-beam disruption.

As for Zarian, he took his time to layer more aura and sorcery around his fists, advancing and interlinking the magic until they were stronger and more durable than ever before.

Then he took one step in and out of the void while pushing his speed force to its limits. Just when Valin finished killing the chomping throne of bleeding moons and metallic hearts, Zarian appeared at Valin’s side and punched the dvergr across the jaw.

Valin flew a mile to his right where Zarian reappeared from out of nowhere, his fist already cocked back before landing another punch that sent Valin flying for another mile to his left.

Reappearing again, Zarian didn’t even give Valin the chance to touch the ground and sent the dvergr miles into the sky with a whopping uppercut.

Valin flew for a while before finding Zarian in the air, waiting for him. The next haymaker punch struck like an asteroid, sending Valin down harder and faster than all the other hits prior.

The dvergr finally hit the ground, devastating another claw-tipped patch of the jungle with a grand eruption that scattered the trees and the steam far in all directions. Once all the debris settled down, it was easier to see Valin was halfway buried at the bottom of the crater and struggling to get up.

“To be honest with you, I’m still holding back,” Zarian said, reappearing near the half-buried dvergr. “It wouldn’t be sporting if I killed you instantly.”

Valin coughed blood and spat out his teeth to avoid choking on them. Every breath was a fight for survival for the bold warrior while Zarian remained completely untouched.

The Conquest Wizard sighed. “I’m a little upset that you tossed aside my mercy. But … I still have respect for you, Valin. So, surrender to me, and I’ll let you go home.”

“I would prefer to eat him … but I will accept the decision if we can go back to filling my hunger with the tasty monsters in this world,” Para said.

“See, even Para’s giving you an out. We’re really giving you a lot of our goodwill here. More than what others would get,” Zarian said.

The dvergr blasted free from the ground with another surge of lightning and thunder, albeit far weaker than before.

He was missing both hammers now, yet he still threw a big, knobby, and mangled fist at Zarian.

The punch struggled to get close, faced with layers of pure and condensed aura that surrounded Zarian in an easy to form barrier. Still, Valin pushed with all his broken power to break through and land an actual hit on Zarian’s chest.

The Dark Emperor stumbled back a few steps and no more, all the lightning and thunder heavily diffused and absorbed as extra aura into Zarian. The most Valin could do was shave off a fraction of a percentage of health from Zarian and no more.

“I think, Valin, we’ve reached our limit. You in power. And me in mercy. Please endure for a little while longer as my tails strip the flesh off your bones and eat you alive.”

Zarian crossed his arms as Para made happy growling sounds. All nine fox tails reached forward from behind Zarian with a carnivorous intent, the paralysis debuff now gone as Para moved nimbly to wrap Valin up and consume him.

Valin, bloody, hurt, tired, and completely mad, raised his big fists and prepared himself to fight all the way to the end.

Zarian was glad to see it. Valin would face a horrible death, but at least he would leave a lasting impression, making the meal more enjoyable for Para.

Or that would’ve been the case if the Star System didn’t get in the way, warping the world instantly.

Before Zarian and Para could act, Valin disappeared, and in his place, a ridiculous notification appeared.

<A contestant has beaten the Dark Emperor! There are now only 7 remaining positions for the Final Round.>

“... how?” Para murmured, tails twitching.

Zarian opened and closed his mouth behind his mask.

Then a sudden realization struck him like a lightning bolt.

“I won’t even give you one hit,” he’d said arrogantly to Valin before the fight.

“Fuck,” Zarian cussed. “Fuck! FUCK! FUCK! I made the condition for the game without realizing it! How did that slip by me?! How did I fuck that up?”

Para hissed the answer. “The Lion Prince! It has betrayed us! That was not a mistake we would’ve made normally if it wasn’t for how broken and reduced our POV is! I don’t even think it’s weakening our power directly, like the Darkrun Debuff. It’s making causality flow greater for everyone else while decreasing our odds!”

Zarian roared. “WHY DO I KEEP GETTING PLAYED BY MY OWN FUCKING POWERS?!”

“No more, no more, no more! Let there be carnage! Let there be horror! Let there be blood and flesh and MEAT!” Para roared back.

For the next two weeks, Zarian and Para went berserk, and many of the creatures and contestants of Super World Jumunja suffered for it.