Chapter 1729 – Glory Road Finale – vs Xipe-Totec [Metra POV]

Xipe-Totec tried to intervene, but Metra moved with speed faster even than her enraged agility. The back of the halberd flared, the Extreme Plasma Burst activating, and taking Metra for a spin that she could barely control. The axe blade of the prismatic weapon came back down on the Flayer Lord with devastating power.

The cut was clean, slicing the front of the Flayer Lord open. Thunder cracked in the wake of the attack. The energy burned behind, searing the torso of the so-called god-warrior. When Rex Magnar slammed into the floor, the earth quaked from the impact.

The rage of the Flayer Lord was genuine. Metra was not the greatest at reading people, but she could differentiate a half-hearted war cry from one that came from the bottom of the soul. “I FLAY!” Xipe-Totec screamed and clawed at her surface,

His sickle-like fingers ripped something off.

Metra jumped back, suddenly feeling weak. Her rage was impotent, torn away, denied its rightful status for the First of Wrath. “Now I got you,” Xipe-Totec hissed and mantled the flayed Attribute. A mad laughter rose from his cut chest. “I never had anything this powerful in my claws before! RAGE INTO POWER?! I GOT PLENTY FOR YOU, INVADERS!”

“Cherish it,” Metra hissed. She had hoped he would rip the damage reduction or the Rage Fire passive off her instead. ‘No matter, all according to analysis so far.’

The Flayer Lord closed the small gap between them in an instant. His rage now fuelled his Stats, numbers that were, in all due likelihood, equal or superior to her own.

Numbers mattered greatly to her king.

To the Breaker of Armies, numbers were an obstacle to overcome.

The first attack of Xipe-Totec clashed with the shaft of Rex Magnar. The Flayer Lord leaned deeper into his rage, immediately going for another swing. Metra trusted in the strength of her defences, let the attack pass, and kicked the undead god-warrior’s knee. A sharp but short pain accompanied the penetration of the segmented side of her Astrotium plate. Her heel crashed into the exposed kneecap.

The leg bent to the side. In his rage, Xipe-Totec had leaned too much out of balance. An instinctive half step forwards made him fall right on Metra’s spiked pauldron.

Metra dropped her weapon through a portal to her feet, then stepped even deeper into the embrace of the Flayer Lord. Claws dug into the exposed muscles surrounding his collarbone, gripping the white segment of the undead’s skeleton. Liquid blue joined the foul blood’s rivulets. Mana oozed from the obstacle in her king’s path.

Purple eyes shone green with stolen wrath. Over and over again, he rammed his claws into her armour. The Astrotium was punched through repeatedly. Metra’s inorganic body trembled within the confines of her true skin. Still, she took the attacks head on, sustaining herself on the inevitability of her victory.

The attacks suddenly ceased. Rex Magnar had slammed into the god-warrior’s back. After dropping through the portal, it had gone on a long fall, ending with it skidding off the ribcage of the god-warrior.

Xipe-Totec hissed in angered confusion. Twisted his neck, only for Metra to summon her halberd to her offhand. Holding the weapon right beneath the head, she used the spear point as a dagger, shanking the god-warrior in the stomach. Yet more of the foul ichor gushed from his white veins.

A heavy hit sent Metra flying. She barely knew what had happened, the difference between their agility raised to such a degree by Xipe-Totec’s aggravated rage that she could not hope to keep up with him. A hurdle the grinning berserker easily overcame, positioning her halberd so that the chasing Flayer Lord had to stop short of it.

She swerved into a high kick. An opening was given and an opening straightforwardly exploited. Xipe-Totec weaved to the right. Metra was already slamming her foot down, then brought Rex Magnar down on the earth. The enchantments on the weapon made it so she might as well have caused a local earthquake. Jungle soil, flattened for their duel, cracked for the second time. Gaps spread throughout the great upheaval that stopped Xipe-Totec in his tracks.

The undead creature resumed moving first, but Metra moved with purpose. A tilt of her torso had her evade the blurry streaks that his claws became. Stepping back, Metra moved with extreme precision. Xipe-Totec’s strikes were rapid, powerful, and guided by sheer wrath. It was that last point that made him one of the easiest opponents that Metra had fought in a while.

The Breaker of Armies took what hits had to be taken, evaded most of the rest, and even diverted some attacks. She had done enough damage to just run out the clock. The blood loss would not bother the undead much, but the constant draining of his mana would inevitably create the opening the Metracana sought.

It was like a sudden earthquake. From one moment to the next, Metra felt the intensity of her anger return to her. Xipe-Totec was mid assault as it happened, his eyes widening when he realized what had happened. The helmet of Metra’s segmented armour parted, just so she could flash her wrathful grin at her enemy, no longer her superior in speed.

An overhead strike of the halberd crashed spike first into Xipe-Totec’s back. Like a fish on a hook, the Flayer Lord was tossed around, slammed into the ground, for Metra to stomp down on him at the same second that she ripped her halberd out of her enemy. He tried to grasp her, but she dropped through a portal, landing on the god-warrior’s spine.

Metra stood on his broad and yet skinny back, one foot on the soil, the other in the gap between naked shoulder blades. One swing brought the curved thorn of Rex Magnar’s side to the throat of the god-warrior. Pulling back would not have killed the creature, but the gesture was nonetheless clear.

“How?!” the Flayer Lord croaked.

“You’re simply not cut out to be a berserker,” Metra answered victoriously. That was all she cared to offer in terms of advice.

If anger would have been the most reliable tool to make people fight well, then it would have been reflected in the martial arts of the world. Instead, most schools of fighting hammered down the importance of control over one’s own movements. Someone that was bigger, tougher, and faster could still be easily overcome if their every move was telegraphed. It was why man was more dangerous than animals. A bear may charge with great ferocity, but a man had wits.

To be a berserker, one had to retain a fluidity to their fighting style with their rage. It was to combine the power of raw aggression with seasons of experience, muscle memory, and the control over the anger. Wrath was a resource, to be controlled like logs on a firewood.

People that indulged in anger for anger’s sake were impotent warriors.

“Do you surrender?” Metra asked. “Or shall I guide you to the afterlife?”

The exposed teeth of the god-warrior grinded. Despite that, he spoke nonchalantly, as if none of this mattered to him. “Fine then, take your little victory. Now unhand me.”

Metra shook her head, grabbed Xipe-Totec by the greasy hair, and twisted him to face Nahua. “You owe the lady an apology.”

Nahua stood there, smiling as sweetly as candy corn. Innocent little blinks were every bit as fake as the flavouring used in such sugary delights. The smile did not reach her eyes. A dark green in shade, she stared in wait.

“…I apologize to you, Nahua-xoco-atl-xolotl,” the Flayer Lord spat out. “Now, release me!”

Metra waited for a signal. When Nahua sighed and magnanimously waved off, the First of Wrath released the hair of the god-warrior. She shook the hand as she walked away, trying to get the grease off it. “I wouldn’t try that,” the ancient weapon stated after five steps. “Unless you want to find out just how big the new pond is.”

The strained undead was ready to leap at her. She could sense it with every fibre of her warrior spirit. She could also see it through the mental connection she shared with the most handsome observer in the crowd, but that was too dull and straightforward a council to take first. When she glanced over her shoulder, the heavily damaged undead warrior turned away, his purple eyes filled with hatred.

‘This isn’t over,’ she thought.

Pleased as Nahua was, the axolotl demigoddess observed the First of Wrath warily once the time for gloating had passed. She, too, was still realizing just how small a fish this Aztec realm was compared to the modern Abyss. Metra reckoned that, a hundred years ago, they would have been a formidable entry to the global players. Their competition then would have been stagnant European powers and crumbling American colonizers.

The current age was different.

The current age was the Generation of Monsters. Ancient powers awoke, be it Romulus or the Azure Tribe, and struggled against Latebloomers like her very own king. Guilds old and new were forced to change because of the influx of young people with great power. A static power like the Aztecs, who had apparently removed themselves from the world for all this time, did not benefit from this.

‘We’ll see if we let them catch up,’ Metra thought and stepped up to her king.

“Good job,” he greeted her with a warm smile. Lowering her head slightly, she asked for her reward and received it swiftly in the form of ear scritches. The best part about the extra pair of ears was, without a doubt, that sensation. Like a massage paired up with a really nice stretch. It made her tail wag.

“The final seal, then!” Quetzalcoatl raised her voice, pulling the attention back to the front. John listened very carefully. This was the final breaking point between him getting his Mythical Ichor or not. “Offer to Huitzilopochtli an item in your possession! You will be judged by the value that you present.”

“Any item?” Glory asked.

“Any,” Quetzalcoatl confirmed.

Glory reached into a satchel, attached to his horse, and pulled out a letter. “I offer to Huitzilopochtli a copy of the contract that he signed for the lessons of the Grim Reaper. May he find it a reminder that the Lord of the Necropolis is owed justice and repayment!” The letter fluttered through a portal.

Liakan stepped forwards next, presenting some kind of rod forged from azure and silvery metals. “I offer a great gift, a sceptre fit for a ruler,” the demigoddess stated. She let go of the rod and it, too, dropped in through a rift.

Norahnon was next. “I offer… mhm… yes, I offer you a single strand of my hair!” the Great Researcher exclaimed.

Metra could feel the rapid thoughts of her contractor move next to hers. It was like standing next to a raging river. Even if she jumped into it, she’d just end up confused.

Such was the case when he stepped forwards and pulled a Turkheir from his inventory. The fairly large, raptor-like animal had been stored in the Guild Inventory after being marinaded in a thick, dark sauce. Prepared for a roast, it already made Metra salivate at the memory of this, the most delicious of meats.

“Nahua, if you would offer this for me,” the Gamer requested, handing the Turkheir over.

It was ever in her king’s character to be utterly paranoid about the little things. Giving the Turkheir to Nahua was a gesture of diplomacy. It also kept him clear of having the sacrificial connection to Huitzilopochtli.

“I offer this delicious meat to my lord father,” the axolotl woman declared. The portal opened before she could do the ritualistic drop of the carcass. It gobbled up the offered meat greedily.

“Your sacrifice has been found most satisfying!” Quetzalcoatl announced and pointed at John and Nahua. “You may enter the inner realm first! The rest will be invited past the final seal come tomorrow.”

It was finally time for answers.