GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?



The phantom viper wants to fight Soverick. Soverick is the champion of the furry just as it is the champion of the Vipers. If it wins the fight, then it will be able to regain some of the honor that the Paragons lost. But it also has to protect the other Vipers. Because if it doesn't, they will die and the Vipers will surely lose this battle. That will be bad no matter how much honor it manages to regain.

The Phantom Viper is able to maintain the defensive barrier that protects the normal Vipers but it has to be close to them for the barrier to remain standing. The barrier he created surrounds the 100,000 vipers in a dome instead of separating them from the arena entirely like the defense paragon did. It is to conserve power. 

The barrier configuration also allows the Vipers to move with it but someone has to protect their flag. They can't touch their own flag or carry it about so trying to do anything else other than defending the flag and the vipers will force it to make a mistake.

'What a pitiful child of the plane.' Soverick lamented on behalf of the phantom Viper.

The child of the plane of the Vipers is very talented. It is Immortal and it has various abilities. In any other situation, all of the little things disturbing it would have been killed without any issue. Unfortunately for it, it is in a very sticky situation of not having enough resources. 

It has to do a lot of things at once. It may have all the available connections to do them seperately, but it has to do them at once since it is the only paragon left. It has to divide the resources it has for defense, strength, speed, barrier, and perception. So it is spreading itself thin between all the needs and things that need its attention.

The major problem that the child of the plane is having is the need to protect the Vipers around the flag. If it discards them, then it will be able to go on a rampage with the little resources that it has. But it will also lose its immortality if those Vipers die. 

As it is right now, it is weakening because of the death of the other Vipers on the battlefield. The good news is that it will remain immortal as long as there are still some Vipers around. So it decided to handicap itself in favor of immortality. It will remain immortal as long as those 100,000 normal Vipers are alive.

That's another reason why Soverick didn't bother to fight it. He would have preferred for the phantom Viper to go on a rampage. Then he will have a chance of killing it. He can't kill it right now because it has immortality. When combined with the defense of a brute, it means he will have to work hard to kill it and his hard work will go to waste because it will resurrect. 

Even if he manages to kill the Phantom Viper, he will have to do so at least 100,000 times before he can finally claim victory. It is for that very reason that the Phantom Viper prioritized its defense and the protection of the source of its immortality. As long as it has the 100,000 vipers and the flag, then the fight will never end. 

Unfortunately, you can't eat your cake and have it. The phantom Viper can't do everything despite its ability to. It doesn't have the luxury and the resources to. It has weakened itself by ensuring the protection of the 100,000 vipers. So Soverick let others fight it to the death while focusing on getting as much law of order from the two world gods as he can take.

More people soon joined them. They were trickling in after eliminating all the Vipers available to them. Soverick let all the commanders join in the fight. The phantom Viper had weakened enough to be handled by Ghaster alone so it was just being bullied by everyone. Still, it refused to give up. They killed it over and over again because it resurrected every time.

It became a grind. They will kill the phantom Viper but it will heal before it is expelled at the cost of the life of a normal Viper. It will need to be killed 100,000 times before it dies. Soverick decided to put an end to it when the phantom viper became weak enough.

"Everyone should withdraw in the next 10 seconds. If you don't then be prepared to die with the phantom." 

He ordered them to withdraw so they did very quickly. Everyone left the phantom Viper alone. It stood much shorter than it used to be in front of the barrier.

The phantom Viper sneered at him, "Are you ready to face me now? What a coward. It is shameful of a champion such as you to wait until I have been weakened so."

Soverick didn't reply. He said to Salvos. "Fire in the hole."

Salvos assented and brought the flames. The barrier has been weakened far too much to withstand his attack. It shattered and fell to let fire ravage the charges that it was supposed to protect. All the normal vipers were killed so the phantom lost its anchor to the arena. It disappeared and the Immortal link followed after it. There was nothing left except the black flag when Salvos' attack ended.

Soverick said to them "We won." 

The battle sage monkeys roared in excitement, "We won." 

They cheered and whistled and shouted and celebrated. They have won the battle. It is a source of joy. They didn't need to take the flags of the Vipers. They killed all of them down to the very last just like their ancestors did. Soverick smiled a little. He is also happy that they won. He gets two wishes from the sage for their victory. He can't wait to cash it in.