Down With The Gods

“How are you feeling?” Yu asks Wyn.

“To tell you the truth, I’m kind of excited,” Wyn replies, scanning the creatures ahead.

“Good! Let’s kill something already!” Mira exclaims, unaware of the deeper implications of their conversation.

The garden is lush and green, dotted with trees and patches of flowers. The area is bright, as if a sun hangs in the sky. Yu wants to ask Christine to join him, but by the time he locates her, she has taken off with a group of other souls. The three ensure no one steals their essence by keeping their distance from others, making their way right until the red wall of the floor comes into view, before heading north toward the barricade.

After stepping over a line of rocks, they arrive at a pond surrounded by sand. Numerous crab-like creatures scuttle about, each one five times the size of an adult edible crab. Their most striking features are their scissor claws and sharp, spiky legs. The crabs remind Wyn of the typical early weak enemies in an MMORPG.

“They look edible, so let me burn them! Meal’s on me, boys!” Mira announces, summoning a fire pillar from beneath the sand to incinerate one of the crabs. She laughs with delight as it turns to crisp.

Yu joins the fray, using his crescent blade to slash open another crab. The dead creatures slowly disintegrate, transforming into essence that is immediately absorbed by the two. Checking their bands, they find that the creatures they just defeated are called crabbos, each worth only two essence. Tapping on the name of the water-element creature reveals a short description: “Mess with the crabbo, get the stabbo!”

“Cringe,” Wyn comments, glancing at Mira’s screen.

“Why aren’t you killing them?” Mira asks.

“I wanted to observe their behavior first, but you two stormed in too fast before I could say anything.”

Instead of attacking, Wyn squats down to take a closer look at a crabbo. The creature doesn’t strike; its flexible leg joints allow it to scoop up sand and feast on it. Wyn conjures a small rock and flicks it gently at the crabbo. Suddenly, it slashes at him with its longer scissor claw. Anticipating the move, he successfully dodges backward, and the crabbo quickly retreats into the pond.

Meanwhile, Mira struggles to wield her whip with enough force to take down a crabbo. In her frustration, an angry mob of crabbos begins to swarm her, snapping their claws as they advance. Wyn calls out to her to stand still before creating an ascending cyclone around her, blowing the mob away. They scatter upon landing.

“The weight should be at the tip with the metal egg, right? Try striking downward,” Wyn suggests.

The three leave the pond and move toward a nearby area dotted with small trees. Mira is determined to break a tree with her whip before proceeding. Wyn and Yu also want to use this time to familiarize themselves with their weapons.

Wyn has grown more comfortable with both melee and ranged attacks using the chakrams, thanks to the cross handles in the middle. Instead of relying solely on his physical strength, he aims to enhance his melee attacks with powerful cyclone abilities.

Meanwhile, Yu experiments with combining his water attacks with his weapon. He discovers that he can jump and stay afloat using a strong stream of water, allowing him to strike down with a powerful slash upon landing. However, the impact is painful for his arms. As he ponders how to reduce this strain, he accidentally summons a water fountain at the tip of his blade after landing, sending it flying. This unintentional discovery sparks an idea. Similar to creating a water orb in his palm, he tries it on the blade, which turns blue. Now, when he swings it, a trail of water follows, creating a splash on impact. Wyn and Mira applaud his progress, but Yu still feels disappointed that he can’t perform a water jump strike without losing his grip on the blade. He recognizes that it could be more useful for clearing enemies than just creating a splash.

Inspired by Yu, Mira attempts her own infusion attack. To gain better control over her whip, she ties part of it to her hand. Infusing her fire power into the metal egg at the whip's tip, she creates an explosion on impact. With this newfound power, she ignites several trees, but they remain unbroken. She hugs Yu in gratitude before letting out an evil laugh.

“I’m happy enough with what I’ve learned. Now, let’s teach those crabbos a lesson!” Her eyes gleam with excitement.

“Why do you hate crabs so much? Have you had them before?” Yu asks, only to receive a playful slap on the upper arm from Mira.

Returning to the pond, Yu and Mira enjoy battling the crabbos with everything they’ve learned so far. Wyn, however, struggles to integrate his elemental powers with his weapons and prefers to search for a different enemy. That’s when he spots a peculiar slim, long-bodied white bird with an equally thin, pointed yellow beak circling the pond, likely searching for a meal.

Wyn launches a cyclone at the bird, but to his surprise, it dodges by soaring higher into the air. The bird spins rapidly, resembling a thin drill, before shooting directly at him. Having been charging up for a sturdy rock pillar beneath him, he seizes the moment. As the bird approaches, he shoots himself up into the air, using the momentum from the emerging pillar. The bird’s beak becomes caught in the pillar as it drills downward. Though unstable on the sand, the pillar remains upright due to the creature’s light weight.

Seizing the opportunity, Wyn hurls his chakrams at the bird. This being his first attempt to throw weapons midair, one chakram misses, but the other strikes the beak and bounces off. Realizing he has no way to land safely, Wyn acts quickly, opting for a downward cyclone dash aimed at the bird. He summons the chakrams back to his hands and crashes into the enemy, still drilling the pillar. The impact is so powerful that he pierces through its body, but the speed of his descent causes him to faceplant into the sand. The rock pillar disappears the moment he kisses the ground.

Yu and Mira rush over to check on Wyn. As they help him up, they notice one of the chakrams stuck in his chest. Mira urges him to dematerialize it quickly.

“It hurts a lot, but I’ll live, I think. At least I’ve learned two things from this,” Wyn says, gently touching the gash on his chest, which resembles a bloodless cut. His face is also marked with dry, white abrasive wounds. “The rock pillar can stay up as long as I concentrate, and I need to take better care of my face,” he adds.

After absorbing ten essence, it’s revealed that the bird is called a drillbill, with the useless description: “A bill that can drill.”

“We’d better skip reading the descriptions from now on. What a load of crap. And was that a bill or a beak? What’s the difference? I thought it was a beak all along,” Wyn mutters weakly as Yu and Mira lay him down by the rocks.

“Yu and I will keep hunting crabbos. We’ll leave when you’re healed, okay?” Mira says, to which Wyn responds with an okay sign.

Wyn’s gash isn’t too deep and heals within less than two hours. The team sets out to find stronger creatures to fight. Currently, Wyn, Yu, and Mira have collected ten, twenty-eight, and thirty-three essence, respectively.

“You need to catch up, grandpa!” Yu jokes.

“What matters is passing the test. I’m not too concerned yet,” Wyn replies.

Ahead lies a sizable hill, with a vast hole in its center resembling a rabbit’s burrow, stretching as wide as the hill itself. This sight reminds Wyn of a certain movie scene, filling him with unease. Despite his reservations, Yu and Mira insist on exploring. They promise Wyn that if it gets too dangerous, they will leave immediately.

Inside, a tunnel leads to a hall with two branching tunnels. As they venture deeper into the right tunnel, the light from outside fades. Mira wraps the whip around her hand and arm, infusing fire into the metal egg to create a makeshift light source. They arrive at another hall resembling a basin chamber, devoid of branching tunnels. What they see below is a horrifying scene: rabbit-like creatures devouring each other with their long, sharp teeth. Essence sparkles all around the dry basin chamber.

“Bingo!” Yu exclaims, his excitement palpable. “I can drown them, then we can share the essence!”

“The basin is too large,” Wyn warns.

“Kill the bastards, Yu!” Mira’s bloodlust surges once more.

“I have a bad feeling about this…,” Wyn says.

His instincts prove correct. No matter how many water fountains Yu conjures, the water disappears too quickly. Worse yet, his fountains send several of the creatures soaring upwards. Now alerted to the trio's presence, the creatures turn their attention toward them. Acting quickly, Wyn fires a fully charged ascending cyclone into the basin before grabbing both Yu and Mira, urging them to run. Once they reach the first tunnel, Wyn propels everyone out with a cyclone dash, sending them far from the hole. The force sends them rolling upon landing.

“Lucky we have you!” Yu beams, touching his face.

“Erm, guys. We’re not safe yet,” Mira warns, pointing.

A nest of the rabbit-like creatures hops toward them ferociously. With white fur speckled in various colors, they bear long, sharp rabbit-like teeth. Their unusually long, stiff ears make them appear larger; without them, they’d be as tall as Yu’s stomach, but with their ears, they exceed his height. Their fluffiness creates an illusion of a much bigger creature.

“Mira, slow them down with your fire pillars! Keep summoning one after another!” Wyn commands. “When they get close, blow them up with your whip!”

“Yu, ready your weapon. Your water jump slash will be effective here.”

Wyn stands on a rock pillar, counting eight creatures hopping toward them. Due to their speed, they effortlessly zoom through Mira’s fire pillars. Wyn instructs Mira to switch to projectiles while he hurls rocks at the advancing creatures. The creatures’ stiff ears fold in half, then unfold to deflect the projectiles. However, a couple of Mira’s attacks land on two of them – one igniting in flames while the other slows down; both remain alive.

“Don’t land on them! They’ll reflect your slash. Land on the ground and send them up with the fountain!” Wyn shouts.

Yu water jumps and lands a slash in front of one creature, ensnaring it in the wide fountain stream. Meanwhile, two unaffected creatures nearby hop toward Yu. Before they can get too close, Wyn unleashes a charged-up cyclone attack, sending them flying away from Yu.

Wyn jumps down and springs from the pillar, executing a cyclone dash at one of the creatures with weapons in hand. The dash collides with the creature's midsection. Though lodged, the blades fail to cut through. Wyn then extends his arms outward, slicing open the rest with force. He uses the carcass of the slain rabbit to cushion his landing, dematerializing his weapons just in time. He finds himself quite far from the others.

Meanwhile, Mira faces off against two rabbits. She maintains her distance with a series of non-stop explosions by whipping the ground. She manages to blow one that gets too close into bits. However, as she turns to the remaining creature, she miscalculates, sending the metal egg flying toward its ears. The explosion goes off upon impact, but the egg ricochets upward, returning right back at her. Unable to react in time, it hits her wrist – the arm holding the weapon. Though the explosion doesn’t detonate, her wrist is broken, and the enemy remains unharmed.