New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Slashing his way out of the black dome, Astaroth looked around.

The battlefield hadn't devolved as much as he had expected, but a few details did catch his attention.

First of which, was the three gray names in his party list. Food Goblin, Peaceful Grove, and Meat Shield, all had their names greyed out, with empty health bars.

'Three dead… In half an hour. That's more than I had hoped, but less than I had expected.'

Looking around the battlefield, Astaroth noticed there were very few black domes and bubbles remaining. And what few remained were mostly up in the air.

Using his active mana vision, he spotted the biggest mana signatures across the plains separating the two war camps. He saw so few large signatures that were tainted in black and red demonic mana; he felt disappointed.

'What use is there to have officers if they get slain by the opposition so easily?'

A few of these large mana signatures, he recognized, though. One of them, in particular, was burning a vibrant red, a sign of its fire essence.

Astaroth flew in that direction, using Sky Steps, and stopped near Phoenix, who was assessing the battlefield from an aerial position.

"There you are. Did you get a tough opponent in there?" Phoenix asked when she felt him approach.

"We can say that. What's the situation like?"

Phoenix eyed him with worry, but when she saw his calm face, it subsided.

"We lost Meat-Shield and Food Goblin to a hiding demon officer. He's still roaming about, taking out powerhouses that manage to free themselves from their black prisons. Peaceful Grove died in an AOE attack that wiped out a hundred soldiers. The others are hanging on for now."

Astaroth nodded his head, trying to figure out his role to come.

He hesitated to join the remaining bubbles, lest he fall into a combat way out of his league. But hearing that a stealthy demon was roaming the battlefield, he made it his task to take care of it.

He reactivated his active mana vision and found it lickety-split.

There it was, a faint mana presence, weaving through the battlefield, leaving a trail of blood as it went, striking at vital points, causing many soldiers to fall to their foes. But Astaroth could see him well.

"I'll get that buffoon that's hiding. If you want me to do anything specific, message me," Astaroth said, before bursting away in a wave of wind.

"Wait! How are y—And he's gone…"

She was curious about how he would find him. But if someone could, it would be him.

His uncanny ability to sense mana, where she only felt a faint presence, was tried and tested, after all.

She still had a battle to orchestrate, so she couldn't waste too much time following his progress. But she trusted he would get the job done.

She had to swap around her previous assignments just to compensate for the three dead party members. She would have left things as they were, but more and more attacks were raining on Jeanne and Jaxx, so she couldn't.

'RedWing. Go help Jaxx protect Jeanne. I think the demons are starting to catch on to what she's doing,' she asked him in the party chat.

'On it!'

'Violette, I know you are enjoying the chase right now, but I need you to assist Twinxie and Chronos before they get taken out. You're better at wide-range attacks, so you'll cover a party better than Galtion.'

'Okay!'

She saw the enormous water-elemental-looking Violette spin around, and backtrack toward the pair of mages, and laughed a little.

Galtion was better put to use in these one-versus-one scenarios, with how he fought, so it was better to let him be, for now.

With how few officers made it out of the dark domes alive, it was hard to regain a semblance of a chain of command, and no one seemed to listen to the orders Phoenix gave. It was starting to irk her.

'Can't these fuckers realize I'm trying to guide them to victory?' she wondered, gritting her teeth.

On Astaroth's side, he made a brisk pace toward the invisible demon, and when he caught him with his free hand, the demon yelped in surprise.

It was still invisible, and it looked like Astaroth was raising his hand empty. But he could feel the added weight.

"How are you seeing me?!" the demon whimpered, slashing his knife at Astaroth's arm.

But the dagger strikes barely tickled his massive health pool, as he had melded with White.

"You aren't as hidden as you think, filthy demon. But it's okay. You won't have to hide much longer."

Closing his grip like a vice, Astaroth started repeatedly stabbing his metallic-covered claw into the demon's abdomen, spraying purple-ish blood everywhere.

To the onlookers, it looked like the air itself was spraying blood, covering Astaroth from head to toe.

And when he was done, and the demon died, it reappeared, falling to the ground with a dull thud. Astaroth was covered in grim, and he looked like an incarnation of death or a god of war.

The devilish grin he released only accentuated this effect.

"Come, demons! Come and meet your maker!" he shouted, before bursting into action again.

Astaroth didn't know what was happening to him, that made him feel so violent, but he didn't care. His blood pumped loudly in his ears, as his heart throbbed in excitement.

For every demon he felled, the more excited he felt. It was exhilarating.

The allied soldiers around him dared not stand in his path, lest he treat them as enemies. But one was brave enough to ask him for orders.

"Sir! You must be an officer from another division. Please, tell us what to do!"

Astaroth halted his killing dance to look at the soldier.

The poor man almost fainted when Astaroth's full attention landed on him. Astaroth's blood-covered figure was nightmare-inducing, and his intense glare drove the point even further.

"I'm not here to take command. I'm here to slay demons. You want orders? Follow the ones that the women on fire keeps trying to give you, instead of acting like fools!"

He resumed his massacre, no longer paying the soldiers any mind. But his words nonetheless echoed across the battlefield, and soon enough, reached Phoenix.

She jumped on the chance, and order came back in minutes, as her orders spread amongst the troops on the ground.

'There is still hope, after all. Let's just hope nothing unexpected happens from here on out,' Phoenix mused.