You’ve defeated 18,260 players!
Players at level 40 and above are considered adept players. The experience adepts gain from defeating lower-level players is reduced based on the difference between their levels.
Many of the defeated players were ten or more levels below you and therefore did not yield any experience.
Yuri reached level 44. Yuri gained +18,260 event points...!
* The processing backlog has cleared.
New achievement: Kill 10 players!
Skill acquired: Frenzied Demon!
Frenzied Demon: Knockback dealt to other players slightly increases in intensity (making it easier to knock players over).
New achievement: Kill 100 players!
Your Frenzied Demon skill evolved into Killing Frenzy!
Killing Frenzy: Knockback dealt to other players increases in intensity (making it easier to knock players over).
New achievement: Kill 1,000 players!
Your Killing Frenzy skill evolved into Demonic Shock Wave!
Demonic Shock Wave: Knockback dealt to all enemies increases in intensity (making it easier to knock opponents over).
New achievement: Kill 10,000 players!
Your Demonic Shock Wave skill evolved into Demon Lord Shock Wave!
Demon Lord Shock Wave: Knockback dealt to all enemies increases considerably (making it easier to knock opponents over).
“Oooh! Nice!”
My rampage had netted me a bunch of rare skills. Frenzied Demon had become Demon Lord Shock Wave, and that wasn’t the only skill that’d rapidly evolved. Because the number of player kills by my summoned monsters had reached ten thousand, I was given a summoner-only skill known as Demon Lord Kin, and because I’d killed a thousand players with projectile attacks, I was given a skill known as Demonic Archery. Demon Lord Kin was a highly effective passive skill that constantly boosted the stats of all summoned monsters by a factor of 1.3. Meanwhile, the Demonic Archery skill applied a homing ability to any projectile that I launched or threw...which was completely useless to me. The plan was to keep relying on Puffster and crew as always.
“Pikwooooh...” It seemed Chirpster was limited to just twenty minutes of flying with a player on his back.
“Oh? Getting tired, Chirpster? Thanks for all your hard work.” I stroked the soft feathers on his back before sending him back to the alternate dimension.
With my ride gone, I touched down on the ruined plaza. No longer did the arena look like a peaceful copy of Starting Town. It was a city of death, full of rubble where buildings once stood and with fires burning throughout.
I could see the survivor counter in the corner of my vision still steadily ticking down, but there were no signs of life around me.
“Hey, Navi, did I win?”
“Hold on just a minute there, Yuri! I mean, Lord Yuri! We’re not done processing the data... Oh?! There are still ten players left!” For some reason, Navi sounded so happy she might cry. “This battle’s not over yet!”
If she’d been looking forward to giving commentary and didn’t want the battle to end too quickly, then I knew how she felt. “You can relax, Navi! If it helps everyone wake up to the power of these three choices, I’ll make sure the suffering of those survivors lasts as long as possible!”
“Nothing you just said makes me want to relax! Ahhhh! Can no one stand up to this heretical airhead of a hot babe turned Demon Lord?!”
Uh, excuse me? Surely, she meant to say “wise, handsome saint turned genius hero.” Let’s see whether she keeps up the slanderous commentary when she’s surrounded by a gang of angry Puffster arrows vibrating menacingly...
But before I could teach Navi a lesson, some sort of explosion sent a mountain of debris behind me flying in all directions.
“Ha... Ha ha!” someone laughed.
I saw a figure emerge from the rubble and dust—a man covered in blood from head to toe. It was a sight that made me smile. He limped toward me, and as we locked eyes with one another, he chuckled. “Heh heh. That all you got, Yuri? You really thought you’d kill me that easily?!”
“No, I knew you’d pull through! Let’s go, Baldy!”
I knew my brother-in-arms wouldn’t let me down! He’s the best! We’d agreed to duke it out like men, and as a man of his word, Baldy was here to face me.
Suddenly there was a rapturous cheer. The voices of the spectators were reaching us through Navi’s microphone.
“S-Someone’s still alive! And it’s one of our toughest players! I thought Demon Lord Yuri’s victory was certain after the defeat of our strongest contender, Zansword, but now, rising from the ashes, another of our leading players, Reinhard von Edelfelt, has made his appearance!” Even Navi was cheering as she gave her commentary. Also, apparently my title was Demon Lord now.
Whoa, hold up... “Hey, Baldy, that name doesn’t exactly match your avatar, does it? I would’ve bet money your name was Hrothgar.”
“Who’re you calling Hrothgar?! That reminds me, you’ve been calling me a barbarian since the day we met... All right, that does it. If I win, you have to do everything I say for an entire day! I’m gonna have you clearing out monsters, farming items, everything! You’ll be begging for mercy the whole night!”
“Ha! Then if I win, you’ll be my slave. I’ll be dragging you around with me from morning until night!”
“Fine by me! Sounds like we’ve got a deal!”
We each took a moment to gulp down a recovery potion. My MP was maxed out once more, and likewise, the strength returned to Baldy’s body as all his wounds vanished. Then we both threw down our empty potion bottles, and the instant they smashed on the ground...
“I’m not losing to the likes of you!” we both cried as we charged at each other with our fists clenched tight! “Urrrrrrggghhh!”
Baldy and I began our fight amid the blazing ruins of the town. I charged full speed at him and met his fist with my own. “Gonna knock you flying, Baldy!”
“What?!”
Right away, I’d gotten the upper hand. God Killer Fist negated all the force he threw at me, and then came Demon Lord Shock Wave—the skill I’d learned by killing over ten thousand players. Even with zero strength behind it, my punch sent Baldy flying backward.
Baldy somehow landed on his feet, then he skidded for several meters before coming to a stop. He held his fist while giving me a crooked smile. “Man, that hurt my arm! Hey, Yuri, how’d you hit so hard?! I’m playing the power grappler class. No one should be able to knock me back. Were you lying about being at zero strength this whole time?!”
“Nope! It’s ’cause I just learned a skill called Demon Lord Shock Wave. Weird name for it since I’m playing the hero here.”
“Some hero you’d make!” With that rather rude comeback, Baldy came charging at me again. His fists were emitting some strange aura that had to be part of a power grappler skill.
Interesting. In that case, I’ll fight like a summoner! “Get out here, Gobster, Wolfster, Chirpster!”
“Goh buh!”
“Woof!”
“Pikwaaaw!”
My three boss monsters sprang out from summoning circles around me with ripples of malevolent black miasma pulsing from their bodies. The Demon Lord Kin skill was constantly elevating the stats of each boss.
As intimidating as they looked already, I wasn’t done. “Arts activate! Hyper Power Burst! Hyper Defense Burst! Hyper Magic Burst! Hyper Luck Burst! Hyper Speed Burst!”
“Grrgaaah!” My powered-up familiars each gave a wild snarl as their stats tripled. Then they all rushed at Baldy to strike with their club, fangs, and flaming wings.
“Sh-She’s showing no mercy at all!” Navi screeched. “Demon Lord Yuri is about to put a stop to our hero’s miraculous comeback with an instant kill! Wah! The Demon Lord really is trying to shut down our event!”
I’m not the Demon Lord! That tiny fairy’s getting a noogie from my fingertip once this is all over, mark my word... But for now, I had to focus on Baldy.
Baldy gave me a worried smile. “Oh man. You’ve got boss monsters working for you? You really are a Demon Lord, Yuri. Looks like it’s time I got serious. I’m going all out! I’m gonna draw on every drop of blood in my body to take you down!” There was a burst of red light from his body, and then his exposed muscles began turning crimson and spitting sparks like red-hot swords. “Art activate! Death Wish!”
The moment his foot touched the ground, Baldy darted toward me like a crimson lightning bolt! Moving at supersonic speed, he got up close to the Goblin King and hit him with a powerful uppercut that sent him soaring into the air to collide with the firebird. He’d taken out both monsters with a single blow.
All the while, Baldy had never let his guard down. The Wolf King had tried to seize the opportunity to lunge at Baldy’s back, but without even turning around, Baldy hit him with a back-handed first, sending the boss monster flying dozens of meters away.
Wow, Baldy...since when’d you get so strong? I noticed that a pair of horns had sprouted from his head.
Navi noticed it too and gasped. “Wh-What incredible power! Reinhard von...that’s too long, so I’m just gonna call him Baldy! Baldy took out all of Demon Lord Yuri’s familiars in no time at all! But it certainly cost him. The Death Wish skill is a double-edged sword! It doubles the user’s stats, but it steadily drains their HP! And judging by those horns, he’s using another rare skill called Divine Oni Transfiguration that triples the user’s power and speed while guaranteeing they’ll die after a minute passes! Once triggered, there’s no way to cancel it!”
Navi’s words had me stunned. Baldy was literally bleeding himself dry for the sake of our fight. There were other survivors besides us, so even if he won this fight, he had little chance of winning the battle royale.
“Do you mind, fairy girl?” Baldy complained. “You’re giving away all my secrets, you little imp... Though I guess it’d be kinda anticlimactic if I dropped dead mid-fight and no one knew why. I get it, you gotta keep the crowd hyped. Well, there you have it, Yuri. Gonna spend the next minute running and hiding now that she’s given the game away?” Baldy was laying my options bare...but I could see a sense of trust burning in his eyes.
Oh ho...nice! I’ve got no choice but to take this like a man! “Ha! Me, run? Bring it on, Baldy. Whatever you throw me, I’ll be right here to catch it!”
“Bwah ha ha! I knew you’d say that! Let’s go, Yuri! I’m coming at you with all I’ve got!” I caught a glimpse of a crazed grin on his face, then he rushed at me with supersonic speed.
I tried to fend him off with my fist, but it proved futile. He was so fast that he struck me while I was still winding up my punch. When his punch slammed into my chest, it sent me hurtling backward for hundreds of meters.
“Nggh?! Gah?!”
I smashed through many of the houses dotted around Starting Town, my HP being wiped out again and again. Relentless triggered every time as I died over and over.