MAZE - The Endless Quest
1088 - Avalon
For the seal on the Chainsword, Hera and Vulcan had something in mind. The shell of a tortoise surrounded by a snake. And with the addition of the bone metal, they also decided to place a pair of wings on the bottom. This wasn't giving any specific power to the weapon, but instead, leaning in the Spirit Claw attack even more. And George was more than happy to help with the process. He offered some obsidian to create the crest.
The hope was that thanks to the seal, that one power would become stronger. The result was what they expected, as the Spirit Claw attack gained a second upgrade.
Once the Primordial Blossom trigger the upgrade, every single skill of the weapon changed. Became stronger, and now, Spirit Claw had an added effect in the form of Ouroboros Bloom. Which made it so that if a target was killed with that attack, Hera would gain a temporary shield based on what she killed. During that time, the chainsword would spin even faster and after a minute, an explosion would happen, with the weapon as the center and the damage would be as strong as the barrier.
In addition to that, the Spirit Claw changed names. From Primordial Serpent, to Primordial Winged Serpent.
With the last upgrade finished, Hera turned to George, "So, to add this to my court, I need to give a proper name for the chainsword. Any suggestions?"
"How about Eternal Revving Engine?" George suggested something that was already clearly on his mind.
"That's not bad, but since I need to talk to them, I prefer to pick single word names. That's why they are called Nimbus, Forge, Viper, Crimson, Filigree, Lurize, Shadow, Oberon, Storm, Hoop, Eira, Pyro, Sun, Robin, and Storm," Hera quickly pointed to all of her court members as she spoke. Clay had been the blade that offered to be dismissed.
Hera knew that was the best option. Having too many strange weapons on the court could prove to be a problem, and Clay was the strangest one by far. After all, people generally didn't use chain whips. Not to mention the whole chain motif overlapped significantly.
"Ok… I think I get it.. How about Eterevegin?" George suggested.
Even Insomniac face palmed at that suggestion, "Yeah, no. Let's try again. Something simple," he said.
"I don't know… Maybe, Chainy?" George suggested again.
Hera rolled her eyes, but she still felt that he was the one who should name the blade. After all, this was a legendary item and something that it was truly George's life's work, "Don't you have a name that you wished to give to these swords but never was able to use?"
The crafter paused for a moment before nodding, "Yeah… I do." He glanced at the chainsword, "There is a story that I always loved. A name from which legendary weapons came. Avalon."
Hera smiled, "I like that," she turned back to the blade, "I ask you now to join my court. Your name shall be Avalon, a member of the Fiord County."
The chainsword vanished, turning into mist before Hera summoned it again while pulling up the status screen of the weapon to confirm the upgrades were still there.
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Avalon - Chainsword - Cutting
Empress attributes: 183
Scaling:
Strength X 50.5 Endurance X 40.5 Agility X 35.5
Intelligence X 25.5 Charisma X 5.5 Luck X 5.5
Active Skills:
Spirit Claw - Primordial Winged Serpent
Avalon is able to manifest a primordial winged serpent to strike your foes. Those who are struck down by this attack sprout saplings that explode after 3 seconds.
Cooldown: 24 hours
Four Season Revving
Avalon is able to activate 4 different speeds with varying effects.
0 RPM - 50% of scaling becomes defensive. Allies within a 10 meter radius can recover mana when hitting enemies.
9 000 RPM - Defenses increase by an amount equal to 10% of Avalon's scaling.
12 000 RPM - Attacks deal 40% extra damage. Each attack recovers a portion of Hera's mana.
50 000 RPM - Attacks ignore all defense. Avalon loses 5% speed per second. Once it falls below 40 000 RPM, the mode is deactivated.
Passive Skills
Blooming Dread:
When the chains are vibrating at a speed of 9 000 rpm or higher, attacks ignore 25% of target's armor. If attacks hits a weak point on target, instantly increases the speed of the chain by 12 000 RPM up to a maximum of 60 000 RPM. In addition, that sudden increase creates a small storm of sharp petals around Avalon.
Eternal Withering
Serpent venom coats the chains, dealing a small amount of damage on contact. In addition, targets affected by this venom move 10% slower.
Sakura Tortoise Shell
Attacks blocked by Avalon have their damage reduced by another 20% and are reflected by shrapnel petals.
Season's Bite
Avalon's chains can be covered in elemental energy. When they are in that state, all attacks gain a 20% bonus elemental damage of the same type as the energy surrounding the chain. Consecutive attacks charge Avalon. When fully charged, the next attack will deal 50% of all damage dealt by Avalon in the last 10 seconds.
Sakura's Serenity
The court is able to channel its emotions into Avalon for 1 hour. During that time, a court member's emotions will not influence Hera's in any way. If the court kills an enemy during that period, this effect is extended by 10 minutes. Total duration cannot surpass 10 hours.
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Ouroboros Bloom
If Spirit Claw kills a target, a barrier will be created around Hera. This barrier can take damage relative to the endurance of the killed target. While this barrier is active, Avalon's speed is increased by 20 000 RPM.
After 60 seconds, the barrier will explode, dealing damage equals to the amount of damage it could withstand.
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"My Empress, it is an honor to be under your service."
Hera was slightly taken aback at that reaction, but she had heard that kind of thing enough times to not be as bothered by it.
"I'm very happy to have you with us," she replied with a smile.
But George had a frown, which caused her to ask, "Is everything okay?"
"It's fine. It's just… Even if I am the crafter who created this, I can't hear his voice. I'm just a bit sad about that."
"Yeah, I get that. I wish there were a way for me to let you hear it, but the best I can do is tell you what Avalon's saying," Hera replied.
George shook his head, "Don't worry about it. There's going to be a part of me that's always going to be thinking if you were being honest or not. I'm too paranoid to be ok with that."
Hera turned back to Avalon, who was floating in front of them and changed the subject, "But I'm still surprised at how big the upgrade was. I was not expecting the primordial Blossom to do this much,"
"I know, I figured you would get maybe some extra stats or something for me, but a full upgrade was wild. I mean, it even changed how the Fury Channel works."
"Yeah, and the seal that we placed also changed the Spirit Claw."
She quickly wrote it down and shared the description with the crafter and Insomniac. They read it carefully for a moment before George said, "This is strong. It doesn't say anything about how much damage that's going to do, so I'm not entirely sure."
"More often than not, when a skill doesn't say how much damage is going to do, it just means it's going to do a lot," Insomniac added.
"I really want to test it out. Do you think we can go to the dungeon again?"
"I don't see why not," Insomniac replied.
"Oh, can I go?" George jumped from his seat almost like a kid asking to go to the movies.
The Empress nodded and turned to Avalon, "Ready to show us what you got?"
"If it is your command, Empress, I am ready to give my all."
They quickly moved back to the dungeon even though they had left that place just earlier today, and Hera was somewhat surprised about her own endurance. She wasn't someone who was going to get tired for no reason. However, she did spend hours fighting against Insomniac, used a couple of her more powerful skills to destroy a mountain, came back, had to deal with Frederick and the entire duel/lesson. Then ran all the way back here to get an upgrade.
Now, she was going back to the dungeon just to test this new weapon. It was a lot in a single day. And yet she had to admit, she couldn't feel better. Maybe a bit sore, much more like she was in the middle of a gym session. There was still a lot that she could squeeze out of this round of exercise.
The dungeon was still reserved for them. After all, it was still the first day of their reservation.
Hera found somewhat odd that they were reserving the dungeon instead of just saying that they were taking this slot, but apparently this was how things worked in this area. It was yet another way that they could control the people who lived there. But Hera was too happy to be bothered by something like that. She was too excited about the new weapon to consider the ramifications of not letting people run dungeons just because they could do that.
The three of them quickly entered and walked towards the entrance of the cave for the dungeon boss. Hera had no illusion that Avalon was able to do as much damage as her supercharged attacks with the hollow handles. But she wanted to compare how effective they were going to be even though she wasn't going to do another one of those attacks right now.
After all, her Empress core was still running really low. She had spent almost everything in order to create a legendary weapon and even had to ask Insomniac to let her borrow mana stones in order to fully complete the weapon. Otherwise, she would be stuck with an epic weapon since the cost skyrocketed once they reached legendary grade.
"Everybody ready?" she asked Insomniac, George, and also Avalon, to see the if new blade was willing to show off a little bit.
They all gave positive answers as the Empress prepared herself to strike. She took Avalon in her hand, feeling the weight of its form. For the size of the weapon, it was much heavier than anyone would expect.
It almost felt like she was brandishing a two-handed sword instead of a simple one handed one, not to mention that the vibration of the chain caused a strange effect on her arm. Something that wasn't really a problem but at the same time wouldn't be completely the same thing as using a regular weapon.
The chainsword moved, and with a mighty swing, Hera heard Avalon shouted out, "Spirit Claw, Primordial Wind Serpent."
She held back from laughing. It was funny to see one of her blades actually calling out the name of their skills. But her amusement quickly vanished when the actual attack manifested. Following the arc of her slash, a 3 meter tall winged snake floated upwards. It was spectral, very similar to [Spirit Armor] but instead of the green color, this one pulled more towards the purple and lilac. Almost as if it was a neon sign that was losing its charge, or starting to turn off.
The face of the serpent itself was very similar to Daskka, although on this size and the pressure emanating from it reminded Hera more of Chika instead of the herald. Then again, Daskka did came from the guardian beast. So it made sense that the two of them were very similar. The wings, on the other hand were different. The shades seemed to change from feather to feather, a strange pattern that was predominantly red, yellow and blue.
The serpent flew into the sky before quickly making a U-turn and slamming in front of her, directly on the mouth of the cave that she was aiming at. But it certainly wasn't done. It continued forcing itself into the cave, leaving behind a trail of destruction caused by the sheer force of the wind. After around 20 seconds or so, all the noise, all the rushing winds and the rumbling caused by the attack suddenly stopped.
The mountain was still there. The entire thing was still standing, and the attack wasn't able to destroy it as the legendary version of Hera's new combo together with the handle was able to do. But it was clear that this attack was able to wipe out most of what was inside the cave.
As if to confirm that, several smaller explosions echoed as the group started to move towards the cave.
The three of them slowly walked inside with Hera taking point and Insomniac being on the rear guard just to save George in case something were to happen. In some areas of the tunnel, the marks of the scales of the primordial wind serpent were on the walls. It was clear that parts of its body slammed against it, creating those stamps. A couple of the monsters that lived there were completely obliterated, being turned into paste against the walls of the cave.
They continued and noticed that even some of the side tunnels seemed to be destroyed and there were markings of the snake going through them. Before Hera even needed to ask, Avalon confirmed that indeed it was the case. Once the serpent reached those areas, smaller versions of the attack detached from the main body to cover all the area.
This wasn't something he controlled, but it was something that just happened. He imagined that if he wanted, he could recreate that effect. Alternatively, he could not let it happen naturally and control more of the attack. But since this was the first time Avalon ever used the attack, he wasn't entirely sure what would happen.
They continued walking deeper and deeper into the caves, seeing that there was really nothing left inside. Hera was expecting this to be a powerful attack. After all, it was a legendary weapon, and it was an upgraded version of it. But this was well beyond her expectations.
Then again, she wasn't entirely sure if the boss was truly dead. To confirm the results, they arrived at the last chamber of this cave. Where the groundhog boss was located. Its corpse was no longer there. As it had been completely destroyed in the attack. But Avalon told her that it wasn't quite like that.
Everybody could tell that it didn't turn it into a paste what happened to the monsters that they saw before getting here. Instead, the monster was probably battered by the wind in such a hard way that it resulted in its destruction. Which was already an incredible result. But the markings on the walls truly indicated that once the primordial winged serpent reached this point in the cave, it started tossing the boss around, slamming it against the various sides of this chamber until it could no longer resist.
Puffing his chest, despite the fact that the MAZE also had a hand in the creation of this weapon, George turned to Hera with a smile.
"So, did you like it?"