Pioneer of the Abyss - Book 2 - Chapter 42

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't mind this. It's so that free readers can't see half the chapter when the chapter eventually becomes patron only.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those of you who are reading this on a website that is not Patreon, please stop. You're reading a pirated version. Instead, if you would be so kind, please click on the table of contents link below and go to my Patreon instead. Or even read it off of Royal Road, which is free.

Discord Invite

Table of Contents

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click the following link for the 1367 word chapter 42:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FWi_u8jkt1EFKZsGP5zsJzgChd_BRe-NabbnIkXLTb4/edit?usp=sharing

Or you can read the unformatted version below:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere Deep in the Ocean

Silence fills the room as the remaining fifteen clan members watch the recording showing the heretic slaughtering five of their own. And even after the recording ends, the silence doesn’t shatter for an entire minute.

Not until one of the clan members speaks up, declaring, “She must be eliminated. I propose sending our full forces to attack.”

“Proposal seconded.” “Agreed.” “She must be annihilated at all costs.”

And within moments, all fifteen remaining clan members agree with the plan. Following which they decide to act immediately to take advantage of the heretic’s exhaustion from fighting against five of their forces already.

The fifteen clan members all begin making their preparations before heading out within fifteen minutes. Rushing straight towards where the heretic is.

Meanwhile the Bloodliner, their god, watches on in silence without a single care for the ones who have ingested his blood.

Genuinely believing they will be slaughtered with ease if the one they proclaim a heretic is truly a Bloodliner like himself.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aqua

It doesn’t even take half an hour before I find that same unsettling sensation as before happening again. At which point I react immediately this time and activate numerous skills at once. Spreading ink all over the area, along with plague, high pressure water, and various abyssal servants.

Only to find fifteen of these clan members attacking in this ambush.

But not a single one of their attacks actually hit me.

Some of them manage to slay some of my abyssal servants with their attacks, temporarily at least, but they don’t reach me. And even if they did reach me, I’d just regenerate from their attacks.

Or at least, that’s what I think before one of them manages to suddenly appear behind me in a blur before stabbing a dagger straight into my side. Making me grunt in pain before I swing back, slamming my fist into their chest and sending them flying with a large dent in their armor.

I look down at the stab wound before frowning at the sight of some sort of gray veins trying and failing to spread from the wound.

Poison?

Not very effective poison at that.

It’s weak enough that my regeneration is beating it. Albeit barely.

I move forwards while activating maelstrom when I sense another stealth attack coming from behind me. Locking the attacker in the maelstrom for me to rush back and skewer with my polearm. Killing him in an instant.

Then I feel two more sneak attacks from behind me, making me turn around to block one with my polearm while I dodge the other.

And rinse and repeat, the sneak attacks occur one after another. With me ever so slowly killing off the different enemies.

But by the time I cut their numbers from fifteen down to five, I find my mana supply starting to dwindle. All the way down to about a tenth of my current mana. Which is what my original mana capacity was before getting my new mage trait.

I grit my teeth a little as the five enemies all back away with expressions of rage on their face. No doubt because of their ten fallen comrades.

They probably didn’t expect things to be this difficult with their numbers.

Not that I care.

While they take a moment to regroup amidst my plague and ink – which they seem to have found some way to at least delay if not block – I go ahead and activate Abyssal Ruler on their fallen comrades. Claiming eight of their blueprints for myself after all five uses of the skill on them.

Then I summon those eight along with the five I managed to get before.

Which serves to piss off the remaining five clan members even more. Especially when I sit back and watch as they fight their former fanatical colleagues.

That said, they’re a lot stronger than the abyssal servants. Simply because they still have their magic and skills.

Unlike the abyssal servants.

Still. They’re outnumbered quite a bit, with my servants over doubling their number.

And the abyssal servants still retain some of their stealth thanks to that unique blood running through their veins.

So it’s like watching a battle of assassins.

Which looks pretty cool.

It also further cements the fact that whoever the Bloodliner is behind this clan clearly has a Bloodline centered on stealth and assassination.

Anyway, I continue watching them for a bit before finally summoning more abyssal servants and beginning to overwhelm them.

Eventually leaving me with about three or so percent of my mana remaining by the time I finish the last one off.

I frown at their corpses while using Abyssal Ruler to extract their blueprints. Then I just shake my head once I succeed in getting the blueprints of four of them before leaving.

Heading in the direction of my home.

Which is nice to think about. Having a home again.

A faint smile spreads across my face at that thought. Only slightly lessened thanks to my current exhaustion.

I was originally going to go to hunt some more, but these clan members all stopped that plan. Since I don’t have the mana to continue hunting anymore.

Still. I have an item to restore all of my mana if an emergency comes. So I’m not worried about being attacked on the way home.

It’s kind of annoying how those clan members wasted so much of my time though. Considering that they didn’t give me anything in return other than some new abyssal servants.

No levels, and no REGEN stat points.

Nothing.

Although I did go ahead and claim the items on their person, even if I haven’t looked at what they had yet.

I’ll leave that for when I get home.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Across the Planet of Oceana

The various guildmasters look on in shock and awe at the recording taken of the battle between Aqua and the clan members. Along with the sight of the various clan members’ names appearing and then vanishing from the top leaderboards. Eventually leaving just Aqua alone at the top again with Jaleth beneath her.

Marking the end of the clans as the guildmasters knew them.

Some of the guildmasters were planning on helping the clans fight against the top ranker on the leaderboards, only not assisting in this battle because the clan attacked too soon and without warning. And they were even considering helping in the clan’s next attack.

All because they still had an unshakeable belief in the power of the clans. A fear that’s been drilled into them for ages.

But now that they’ve seen this?

Relief washes through every guildmaster on the planet. Relief that they didn’t interfere in the battle.

And relief that they never finished their preparations.

Now that the clan is wiped out, they just have to worry about one thing. Whether or not the top ranker will be amicable with them.

Meanwhile, deep down in the waters of the ocean, the Bloodliner with the Bloodline of the Azure Dragon feels absolutely nothing even after seeing his worshipers all being slaughtered like cattle. Because he believes only the Bloodliners reign supreme.

Only Bloodliners have the right to become gods.

And the woman has proved herself as a Bloodliner.

The Bloodliner watches her swim through the ocean for a while before narrowing his eyes.

At first he believed that there could only be a single Bloodliner on the planet. A single god.

But after seeing her power, he feels a change of plans emerging.

Because if he can join with the Bloodliner, he genuinely believes that whatever may come of it would become the absolute power conquering all. A peak existence even greater than the Azure Dragon.

After all, ever since finding out that his power comes from something else whose blood resides within him, he’s felt disgusted by that.

By having the leftovers of something else’s power.

But if he can mix his power with another’s, it will no longer be leftovers.

It will be something new.

So he continues watching her for a few seconds before returning to his training.

Deciding to leave making contact with her till a later date.