[Dark Pope Benedict]
– Rank: Silver
– Level: 10
– Classification: Mage
– Quirk(s):
— Veil of Shadows: A passive shroud surrounds Benedict, reducing damage from holy attacks and granting him slight regeneration in darkness.
— Sin of the Faithful: Losing his daughter, Miriel, to the demons, Pope Benedict broke the god’s will to bring her back—Once Dark Pope Benedict receives fatal damage, Demonic Angel Miriel revives him and joins the battlefield.
– Stats:
— Physical:
↳ [Strength: 40 | Health: 80 | Stamina: 60]
— Mental:
↳ [Mana: 110 | Focus: 95 | Perception: 85]
– Skills:
— Darkness Mastery (A)
— Shadow Dominion (A)
— Shadow Strike Whiplash (S)
— Dark Benediction (A)
— Soul Grasp (S)
— Dreadful Aura (A)
— Void Barrier (A)
— Corruption Wave (A)
— Black Prayer (A)
— Obsidian Fouled Arms (A)
— Deathly Conviction (S)
‘Use Shadow Dominion and play with him,’ Almond commanded.
[Shadow Dominion (A)]
-Description: Dark Pope summons a large area of darkness that suppresses light, granting him increased power within its bounds. While active, allies within the shadow gain enhanced defenses, and enemies suffer reduced visibility, perception, and slight erosion of their magical defenses.
Xavier’s expression was dark as he looked at Dark Pope. ‘This summon feels even stronger than that beast.’
Darkness suddenly started spreading around the platform as Dark Pope used Shadow Dominion, initiating the combat.
‘What?’ Xavier narrowed his eyes, activating his Focus Field at full power. ‘Where is he?’
‘I can’t sense him…there’s no unique mana trail in this mess. This is bad.’
‘Should I attack Almond? No, if I do that, I’ll get struck by that summon’s skills.’
“Come on, make your move,” Almond’s voice carried over, his tone carefree.
Xavier gritted his teeth and dashed at him. ‘I can’t hit that guy with my long-range skill, I have to get close.’
He couldn’t detect Dark Pope, so if he didn’t do anything, he was just waiting to get ambushed.
But just as he crossed five meters, even in his fast dash, crackles of whip echoed in his ears before he felt danger.
He had no choice but to boost his legs and change his direction as he made a burst dash to the left, dodging whatever that was about to attack him.
“Your reaction is pretty good, but how long will you last like this?” Almond asked with a smile.
While the battle progressed slowly on the platform due to Almond not taking the initiative to attack Xavier, the audience was growing faster even since Xavier’s appearance.
Naturally, the uproar was even bigger than before, enough to reach seniors of the guild.
“Damn, just how many summons bro has?” Roken smacked his lips. “But I think Infernal Knight is the most badass, right, Julian?”
“He has more of such powerful summons?” Ryker asked, his brows furrowed. “How many exactly?”
“We don’t know,” Julian curtly replied. “Including the two he showed back in the branch, he got four so far.”
Sam had his mouth covered with his palm, his eyes on the platform, “Our super rookie will lose…He doesn’t have enough Mana to deal with this summon along with Almond, while Almond still has a lot, and he hasn’t shown everything yet according to these two.”
“Why isn’t Xavier using his Spellblade’s Descent? That SS-rank skill should allow him to one-shot both of them if he does it correctly,” Ryker muttered. “Right?”
“He wanted to use it, but I am thinking that he can’t discover Dark Pope. That shadow zone must be hindering his perception and vision,” Sam guessed. “Without proper perception and vision, he could miss the target even if he used Spellblade’s Descent. And he is already low on Mana, so he only has one chance.”
…
“Lily, let’s go out! Quick!”
“What’s the matter?”
“Some guy from GAA is challenging newbies! He put up the Stardriver Shard Staff as a bet! That magic staff is perfect for me,” Natalia said, excited. “Let’s go get it!”
Lily raised her eyebrows, “What’s his level?”
“No idea, but it’s silver rank. Anyway, I just heard about this from Melissa, who contacted me just now. Let’s go, let’s go!”
“He might be Almond,” Lily smiled, her eyes sparkling as she began walking towards the exit.
“Wait, Almond? How do you know?” Natalia caught up to her.
“Just my guess from what you said,” Lily grinned. “He is a newbie in GAA, put up a 1st Floor Rare-drop that hasn’t been seen for years as a bet, and came here…yeah, that’s Almond. Only he was on the labyrinth’s 1st floor in the second cycle where drop chance increases, especially when soloing, so he might have gotten it.”
“Damn, that’s kinda make sense. Let’s see if this challenger is really him,” Natalia was excited. “I’ll get that magic staff easily if it’s him.”
They arrived at the arena shortly but saw that no one was fighting on any of the five platforms.
“Hey, where’s that challenger, Mel?” Natalia asked as she and Lily walked towards a group of four girls of their age.
“Executive Ken took him away. You should’ve come here two minutes earlier. That rookie from GAA really defeated Xavier, and he made it look easy! Can you believe that?”
Natalia grinned, “We believe because we know someone who can do that.”
“Why did Executive Ken take him away?” Lily asked, her brows furrowed.
Executives were only below Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master. They were frontline adventurers.
“I don’t know. He just appeared on the platform out of nowhere and said something to that rookie before both of them disappeared with Executive Ken’s teleport skill.”
“I bet Executive Ken is going to recruit him to our guild,” one of the girls said with excitement, “It will be fun if he joins our guild. He is also quite handsome, you know?”
“I watched the battle with my skill, and oh girl, his eyes were something else, not to mention how he made it look so easy when defeating Xavier,” another one swooned.
“What’s his name?” Lily said plainly before narrowing her eyes as she asked. “Is it Almond?”
The girls were startled. Stay tuned for updates on M V L
“How do you know his name? We just found out a minute ago since it’s been spreading after he left.”
Lily vanished like a shadow, onwards to the headquarters building.
“What happened to her, Nat?”
“Hehe, just know that he is the reason why she shooed away Xavier when he came to propose to her,” Natalia snickered and left as well, going after Lily.
“Hey, what do you mean by that?”
“Does that mean Lily likes this Almond?!”
“Poor Xavier…I think I should tell him this news and comfort him to move on.”
“…”