The Achievement Junkie

"Is that the best you've got?!" Naparn shouted with a domineering smile. Not holding back against his former comrade, the Molten God hurled bubbling magma at Lunara.

Saying nothing, Lunara doused the lava in her glacial breath, hardening it instantly and letting her swat it away. Dragas wasn't too far from here and gave Lunara the confidence to stand before the lv. 97 Molten God.

Naparn continued to shout, "If Sterfen is too much of a coward to show himself, then I'll just have to kill you!"

Charging at full speed, Naparn prepared his blade. It was red-hot and ready to cleave the icy goddess in two. Defending such an attack would come at a cost.

However, Dragas was also a part of this fight. And her abilities combined with Lunara's weren't simply additive, they were multiplied.

As the Molten God rushed Lunara, he felt himself grow heavier and more sluggish as a faint black aura gathered around him. At the same time, both holy and nature energy surrounded Lunara's body, filling her with more strength than ever.

A frosted spear appeared in Lunara's hands. It was glistening white like freshly fallen snow.

With her weapon at the ready, Lunara took Naparn head-on!

Just before their collision, Naparn had to force his way past a barrier of holy light, lessening his attack's strength. This evened the score as the debuffed Molten God exchanged blows with the buffed Water Goddess.

The colliding attacks caused the air to tremble. Opposing energies warred as Naparn's Molten Blade met Lunara's Glacier Spear. Neither side budged, standing their ground and sending shockwaves through the air. Even at their great height, the residual shockwaves were felt by those battling below, albeit too weak to cause them any harm.

Naparn was incredibly displeased. Though he wasn't at a disadvantage after counting the debuffs and buffs, his pride was already wounded greatly.

He proudly stood as the second strongest holy god. Yet he was incomparable to the second strongest chaotic god and always had been. Knowing full well that three gods were dispatched to keep Moranti at bay, how could Naparn not feel insulted in his current situation? While Moranti was facing two lv. 96's and a lv. 95, Naparn was being rivaled by a two lv. 93's. There was no comparison to be made.

Fueled by his raging pride, the heat around Moranti grew and grew.

Lunara acted similarly as she covered herself in more cold energy. But Naparn's soaring temperature was starting to overtake her subzero defenses. It would mean a prolonged battle was the worst strategy.

"Now, you'll face my wrath!"

As Naparn shouted and pushed Lunara back, something strange occurred. Two figures suddenly rushed up out of the Zuran army. Those two took to the sky with vicious speed and were aimed for the battle in the sky. Each gathered a different energy into their hands.

When Dragas and Lunara spotted the new challengers, both of the incoming figures threw their own attacks.

A bolt of blue lightning rushed from one figure's hand while a flaming vortex burst out from the second. The lightning targeted Lunara, the Water Goddess, and the fire targeted Dragas in her dryad hybrid form. Clearly, those attacks would be critical to the battle and planned out in advance.

Dragas managed to find a moment to evade, narrowly avoiding the encirclement of flames. But the same couldn't be said about Lunara.

While being pressured by Naparn, there was no chance that Lunara could avoid the speed of that jarring attack.

As the lightning fell upon her, Naparn grinned from ear-to-ear. That was until he noticed something.

Standing in front of Lunara, Sterfen had appeared. With his knives in hand, the Assassin God deflected the lightning while receiving some small residual damage.

"No one touches my wife…" Sterfen stated, snatching everyone's attention. But he wasn't done. Soaring downward, Sterfen countered the charge of the two incoming figures. "Sillo… Sybin… You've chosen death!"

Laughing to themselves, the Twin Mage Gods glanced at each other. Sillo mocked, "What are you going to do about it?

"Does the stealthy god have anything he can do now that you're found out?" Sybin added.

Yet as they giggled to themselves, Sterfen continued his rush.

"Fools!" Naparn shouted at the ignorant twins. "Don't lose sight of him!"

"Funny you should say that…"

Hearing that whisper at his side, Naparn lifted his arm to defend his throat. In the knick of time, Naparn felt a scratch against the scales of his forearm. The Molten God used the same motion to extend that arm and swipe his sword through the air, making contact with an invisible figure.

A second image of Sterfen appeared with blood dripping from a slash across his chest. "Not bad…"

That second image faded, proving that it was merely a weak body double. That was also proven as the scratch on Naparn's arm was barely noticeable, much in part to the natural defense of his scales.

While Naparn felt a sense of relief, the Twin Gods were startled by Sterfen's frontal assault, the exact opposite sort of attack that Sterfen was known for.

Sterfen reached the Twin Mage Gods with two knives in had, one aimed for each god.

Both Sillo and Sybin grew more serious after Naparn's warning. Sillo gathered an armor of earthen energy. It was so compacted that it nearly resembled thick, crudely formed metal. Sybin, on the other hand, increased the amount of wind energy around her while weaving past the incoming attack.

Each twin was ready for a battle. But they felt no resistance as the knives reached them.

"What the--"

"AAAAHH…"

Sillo shared his thoughts aloud but was interrupted by his sister's cries. He turned to see a dagger shoved through her throat. But something was off. That dagger came from the side, the same side that Sybin had traveled past in order to evade Sterfen's attack without colliding against Sillo.

The image of Sterfen that had just falsely attacked the twins then faded and the true figure of Sterfen appeared, holding the other end of that killing dagger.

"As I said, you've chosen death…"