New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



As the Lich cried out in distress, its minions on the ground echoed out its pain, and their eyes turned red.

Phoenix saw this and gulped.

"Tighten the formation! They're going into a frenzy!"

Astaroth clicked his tongue. With the Lich in the air like this, it would be harder to take out.

Aside from himself and Phoenix, he doubted anyone else could fly in his party. And if he melded with Morpheus, he would take away a precious ally on defence duty.

'Am I going to be forced to meld with a demon for this? Why am I feeling like it wouldn't be of help? What to do?'

But as he thought this, a soft melodic hum echoed in his head once again. Immediately after, Astaroth felt something push out his back, phasing through his leather armour.

Turning his head, two large, white-feathered wings now adorned his back, their size matching the ones he had when he melded with Morpheus, although they looked less monster-like.

He grinned.

Launching into the air, Astaroth swapped his weapon's form again, making the Ad Astra into a long spear, with a cross-shaped tip. He charged at the Lich, picking up speed rapidly with every beat of his wings, aiding himself with some Sky Steps along the way.

The Lich, who had been focused on stretching its influence outside the arena some more, to get all of its army here, failed to notice the coming white comet until it slammed under him, pushing it off balance.

It screeched in pain as the white light coming from this assailant seared its body.

"You! Under which god do you serve?! Who sent you after me?!" the Lich questioned, fury filling it.

Astaroth smirked, beating his wings to stay aloft over the Lich.

"I serve no god, you hideous abomination. I'm only here to kill you and get stronger. No hard feelings, okay?"

The Lich screeched in anger, releasing a bolt of dark energy directly at Astaroth's face.

He jerked out of the way last second, but lost balance a bit. Tumbling a few meters down, Astaroth caught himself again, only to be met with another bolt of black magic.

He couldn't dodge this one, and reflexively closed his wings around his body, blocking the blow. This action protected him from the damage, mostly, but the impact sent him flying backward in a downward arc.

Catching himself before he slammed into the upper walls of the coliseum, Astaroth clenched his teeth.

'Flying with wings doesn't allow me the same freedom of movement as Sky Steps. I need to be more careful…'

He wasn't all that used to aerial combat, since he seldom fought in the air. But now was as good a time as any to learn.

Beating his large white wings, Astaroth rose again, flying toward the Lich, spear at his side.

The Lich looked at the incoming Ash Elf and prepared to fire at it again. But a ray of light coming from the ground caught its attention.

Reacting on instinct alone, the Lich erected a barrier below itself. Not a moment too soon, either, as a bolt of moonlight slammed into the barrier, pushing the Lich slightly upward from the sheer force of impact.

Luna, who was standing on the ground, still in humanoid form, grinned at the undead. She then turned into her stag form, in which she had better control of those beams and their intensity, and started barraging him with attacks from below.

"Nice going, Luna!" Astaroth shouted.

The attacks could serve as distractions, at worst, and help him deal some damage if the Lich focused on him instead of her. This was a great way to help.

Of course, doing this meant Luna wasn't focusing on her own surroundings. But Jaxx started protecting her from harm, since he could no longer hit the boss, as she peppered the Lich from the ground.

'At least, he isn't completely stupid…' Astaroth thought.

Galtion had gone to help his friends, charging into the waves of the undead like a high-speed drill. It was helping, but Astaroth felt like his potential damage was being wasted.

'How can I make him come up here?' he wondered.

Astaroth could deal with the Lich if given enough time, but this wasn't a viable option. He could feel the enemies outside the coliseum pushing into it, more and more, like an unending torrent of death.

They needed to end this fight soon, or his allies on the ground would get overwhelmed.

He typed into the group chat.

'Galtion, I'm going to cast something on you. Tell me how fast it makes you.'

Focusing his mind on the dragoon momentarily, Astaroth tried casting Wind Walking on him from afar.

He felt the mana leaving his body, but couldn't see from this height if it had achieved its intended goal.

But Galtion suddenly sped up, blurring across the entire arena in a single second, a loud boom happening, as he passed the sound barrier.

'Whoa! Whatever you did, it worked. I've never run this fast. But why do you need me to go faster?'

'I need you up here. Find a way to reach the boss. I won't be able to take it out alone. Not before it gets all its army inside here.'

Galtion understood the gravity of the situation and started thinking as he bulldozed through enemies. But his mind wasn't all that tactical, and he couldn't figure out a way up into the sky.

"The walls!" Jaxx yelled, beating away the zombies that were trying to nip at Luna's hide.

"Run up the walls like the scarlet speedster!" he yelled out.

Galtion's eyes widened in realization.

'Of course! I might run fast enough for this!' he thought, in ecstasy.

Galtion ran a full circle around the arena, picking up speed, before he sucked in a breath of cold, corrupted air, and jumped sideways onto the wall next to him, running along it.

He half expected to fall back down and tumble at mach one for a while, but the lightly rounded angle of the walls kept him pressured enough, through centrifugal force, that he stayed parallel to the ground.

He laughed in delight, realizing he was defying gravity. But now he had to figure a way up.

That would be much more of a challenge.

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