Bloodlines Online

"Jamaya why didn't you stop him!?"

"You think I knew he would challenge them? Why would I be here if I knew he was crazy enough to challenge those mentally wounded girls!"

The coven was following Jamaya and Ezekiel who she was leading out to the dueling arenas but behind them was a crowd of students that had the same goal of watching what they thought would be a spectacular beat down.

"A male really challenged them?"

"What kind of mental wound could make someone try to fight the Breakers? Whoever this is must have worms for brains."

"I heard it's an otherworlder!"

"An otherworlder? How did they even get here yet?"

"Yeah I thought it was supposed to take at least two months for the tier three regions to start seeing otherworlders?"

As these conversations were humming in the background the green tinged devil turned to Jamaya.

"Sweety, listen... I have a feeling that this otherworlder is confident for a reason."

"What do you mean?"

"Did you try to get a feeling of his mana? The odds of an otherworlder knowing how to suppress their mana signature is slim but I couldn't get any idea of his."

As soon as they heard this they opened their senses to the mana surrounding them and there was a single obvious fact.

The mage beside Jamaya had no mana signature at all.

"How did he learn to hide his mana so perfectly? That's an archmage level skill!"

Moreth shook her head in response and that was all.

~

During the Magical revolution of BLO it was discovered that those with a background in the scientific field as well as a background in the engineering field were more skilled as mages.

People with creative minds were able to do very well as mages but over the months that followed the initial release of the game as well as the first raid it became known that those who had an understanding of the rules of physics could have greater skills as mages than any other.

To truly excell as a mage you needed to be capable of shaping your spells properly.

Those who knew physics could shape their spells in ways that created more efficient constructs; the better their knowledge and their imagination, the better their spells.

With proper training anyone could become an excellent mage since they only had to learn the basics of physics to have better spell constructs than those of the NPC mages.

The discovery that the average player was better than the NPCs at making spell constructs was shocking but after learning how they created their spells it became the assumption that the devs put this limitation in place so players would feel more special.

Until the raid was released mages did not have to do much to be impressive but the true magical revolution would occur afterwards.

-Excerpt from "A History of Spellcasting in Bloodlines Online."

~

After finally reaching the arena the coven took a few seats as close to the battle as they could.

They wanted to be able to yell to their otherworlder friend if necessary because they felt responsible for not properly telling him how to avoid trouble.

As the system accepted their duel and erected the barrier they all watched as the battle began, two demonesses dashing forward to lash out while the mages cast fire spells that would have burned his clothing.

It was clear they were toying with the otherworlder but they could not have expected what happened next.

As the two warriors brought the flat sides of their blades down on him he lashed out with his wing's limb as if batting away a fly, they all saw his wings for the first time and they were shocked to see savage claws at the ends where there would normally be a thin digit like that of a bat.

This wing had covered itself in a mana barrier as it struck their weapons but he didn't move a single inch from the collision as their weapons were bashed out of their hands by a burst of mana.

When the spells collided with him the demonesses were caught off guard which meant they could not avoid the blast radius of the explosive nor the spreading flames of the area effect stream.

Meanwhile the male took the spells head on like they were not dangerous enough to dodge.

When the flames cleared they were expecting you see a wounded young male that had overestimated the defensive power of his items but they instead saw that he didn't even have ash or dust on his cloak.

He seemed to be speaking to the coven and clearly said something that enraged them because they moved into a formation known to the students.

The first rush formation of the Breakers.

The two demonesses who charged forward at first would strafe him while the third who had observed all this time would charge in with her movement skills and dual blades to wear down his defenses.

The mages would use their spells to knock him off balance and begin to damage the points exposed through his defense using beam technique spells.

It was a combat strategy that worked very well on many opponents due to the variety of attacks that had to be blocked while magic was forcing them to take steady damage.

It seemed like the strategy would claim another victim until he vanished.

Suddenly the barrier began to grow opaque with poison mana as the male teleported between each woman, leaving wounds that glowed a sickly purple.

Each time he vanished he left behind a cloud of toxic mana that entered their wounds and saturated their bodies while they tried to hold their breath, this spell seemed to have been made with this in mind however because they all watched as the skin and weak points of each woman began to show odd colors.

The mages and warriors threw themselves out of the mana clouds but this did not stop the male who just kept teleporting around and slowly filling the arena with a poison that they clearly were not ready for.

What shocked everyone the most however was when he stood in the middle of the arena and snapped his fingers, this act seemed to set off an instruction in the spell as every cloud he made suddenly detonated like bombs.

As the mana dissipated the crowd saw that the coven was wounded and the poison had clearly affected them in a negative way since they moved more sluggishly.

The three demonesses began to move in a different path than before, much more erratically but those who knew of the battles this coven had participated in knew this was another strategy of theirs.

Erratic movement that had a touch of danger for the opponent while the devils used spells to pin him down.

They all watched as he prepared to dodge and many began to whisper questions since he wasn't using his movement skill.

As he shifted to the side one of the demonesses slashed in his direction, a wave of fire lashed out from her sword which made him stop however.

He threw a blade of poison mana at the demoness while jumping back but then he was caught by another blade of wind that made him hit the barrier.

With his face covered no one could really see what he was thinking but Jamaya began to whisper to her coven.

"He isn't trying... he's a shadow mage."

The three of them stared at her before looing back to the duel.

Everyone watched as he was slashed and burned, the demon wielding two blades even charged to slam him into the barrier again.

He crashed into the barrier hard but quickly jumped away with his wing's flapping.

He lands hard while the others slash at him with mana infused strikes, they began wounding his wings which made him yell in pain while the rest of those watching began to criticize the ruthless attacks on his wings.

"They have no honor as warriors."

Moreth growled in anger as they watched such a friendly male get attacked Un a disgraceful way.

This seemed to have given him the push to try harder however because he began to unleash waves of fire.

He launched spears of fire as well as blades, each strike colliding with the women until he realized that they were very resistant.

Eventually he stood in the middle of the arena with every demon charging like before as the mages used alternate affinities to attack him.

He stood there and as the three attacked him with the spells raining upon his form he unleashed a wave of black fire.

His body was covered in black armor while his wings had become serrated at the edge as if weaponized.

He blinked into another position with a slash across the back of the demoness before repeating it over and over again.

Each blink ended with a slash of his clawed gauntlets that had a delayed burst of damage.

Now that he was using his shadow affinity everyone was shocked, but more was to come.