New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Astaroth dived toward the flat mountain plateau, gaining speed as the wind whistled in his ears. His melding was almost over, and he needed to reach the plateau before it ran out.

With a scream of rage, he pushed out almost all of his remaining mana to his feet, generating wind magic in a straight jet. The wind shot out behind him, pushing him forward with incredible momentum.

When he was almost at the plateau, his meld ran out, and he swapped to melding with White. The massive increase in stats would at least ensure his survival, as he collided with the stone ground like an air-to-ground missile.

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He immediately used Alpha’s Howl, sending almost half of the players into a fear effect.

“I’m going to kill you all!”

He summoned Genie back with his mind, adding an extra ally to the fray.

He did not want to waste time with pleasantries. Even if the players tried to threaten him into joining Aces High, he would refuse them.

So instead of having to blabber with them, he picked the easy way out. Kill the lot and be done with it.

As he was about to dash into the line of players before him, something caught his attention from the side. An enemy player was falling forward, his head flying up into the air.

Behind that player, a small-sized human was standing. His hand was extended outward, with shearing wind gales brushing off of it.

Astaroth started laughing.

“You’re like your grandfather. You like to make an entrance!”

“Mr. Astaroth! You recognize me!”

Standing there, over the vanishing body of a dead player, was the kid Astaroth had met in the private hospital of Jack Boudreau.

Astaroth quickly scanned him to have his player name. He didn’t want to call him by his real name in the game. That was bad player etiquette.

Astaroth only retained two things from the brief scan. The name Gale, and the class Arcane Monk.

While he was talking to the kid, the leader of this bunch of scum snapped at his gawking men.

“Don’t just stand there! Kill them!”

Astaroth’s head snapped back to the man, now knowing who was responsible for this. Therefore, the one who needed to pay.

Astaroth immediately invited Gale to the party after receiving the invitation from Phoenix. Phoenix said nothing, since she trusted Astaroth.

In party chat, Astaroth typed this, ‘Kill everyone, but keep the loud one alive. He’s mine.’

With the odds now five against twenty, it seemed fairer. Although, for probable onlookers, the odds would look skewed in the five’s favour.

With Astaroth here to relieve the frontline pressure, and Gale doing a part of it too, as a hit-and-run melee, Phoenix and Violette could unleash their anger at their pursuers.

Genie was picking off easy kills, diving in and out of combat.

Running wasn’t Phoenix’s favoured solution, but the tables had now turned. In a matter of minutes, the plateau looked like a volcano had erupted, only to be contained by an ice age.

Half the plateau was burning, lava pooling at certain places, and on the other half, a permanent blizzard was raging, blowing icicles at the stray players that dared hunt them down.

Gale, who was still new to this trio, was shaking in his boots, and it wasn’t because of the cold. He now understood why his grandfather kept telling him women were scary.

The rage the two girls in the party were displaying would make god cower in fear. Meanwhile, their main frontline, Astaroth, was running rampant among the players.

It was all over before his melding with White ended. They left only one enemy player standing, his feet frozen in place to keep him from fleeing.

Astaroth was walking towards the guy, his anger still flaring off of him as he stared at the man enough to peer into his soul. Big beads of sweat were rolling off the player’s forehead.

“I’m sorry! Alright? I’m just following orders!”

“Whose orders was it to hunt down two fleeing girls, looking like a pack of rabid dogs?!”

The man gulped.

His orders were to invite everyone they crossed to Aces High, or scare them into not joining any guild at all. He had interpreted that as ‘Kill them so they don’t join anyone else.’

“The guild master was very clear about making sure the ones who refused didn’t join other guilds.”

“Good. The answer I wanted to hear.”

“Please. Just let me go. I’ll make sure no one in Aces High ever bothers you again!”

Astaroth was now standing right in front of the man. He kicked the ice holding the player down, destroying it, along with his ankles.

The man howled in pain.

Astaroth grabbed him by the throat, cutting his screams short. He lifted the guy before carrying him to the edge of the cliff-side.

“Please… Please don’t kill me,” the man squeezed out, his throat too constricted to talk clearly.

“Oh. I won’t kill you. I wouldn’t dare.”

The man looked relieved for a microsecond before the grip around his throat clenched harder. He felt his body yank backward before jerking back upward.

Astaroth had thrown him into the air, hard enough that the player lifted for about thirty feet, before stalling. But his pain wasn’t over.

Just as the player was about to scream, because his body was now falling freely to the ground, five hundred meters below, an icicle plunged into his throat.

Following right behind, a massive fireball the size of a miniature sun. The man didn’t even have time to feel its heat as it disintegrated him.

Astaroth was already walking away from the ledge when it happened, not even looking at the man. He wasn’t worth any more of his time.

“What now?” Phoenix asked.

“We’re going back to Sunpeak.”

“Are we going to forget this happened?”

“Most certainly not. We are going to the guild office. We make a guild and strike back. Azamus wants a war. I’ll give him one.”

Phoenix smiled at his attitude. That was the attitude of a pro player.

Violette was swinging on her feet a bit, humming to herself. She would join the guild even if he didn’t ask.

Astaroth was like a brother to her, and she would follow him into hell at this point. She already had, according to many people.

As for Gale, he was about to walk away, a tinge of sadness on his face. His time playing with Astaroth had been so short, but he was too shy to ask to join them.

“Where are you going, kid? Don’t you want to join us?”

The question immediately brought a smile to his face. He spun around, joy in his heart.

“Of course!”

Soon, the strongest guild in the world would be born, and it would hold this title for years to come.