The silence that followed Pip’s proclamation was brief, like the calm before a storm.
The leader of the Apex guild group, a man who identified himself as Doran and sported golden armor that gleamed pretentiously under the Elysium sun, blinked repeatedly, trying to process the sight in front of him.
The initial shock, caused by the oppressive aura emanating from the small creature, was quickly replaced by an expression of pure scorn.
Doran let out a harsh laugh, striking his metal gauntlet against his own chest. "A fairy? You all really have hit rock bottom, haven’t you? Being protected by a shiny little keychain with delusions of grandeur! I’ll admit, the visual effect of the black armor is interesting, but size still matters in Elysium, sweetheart hahaha."
The other nine members of Apex joined their leader in the laughter.
They were all Players of uncommon classes, proud of the corporate sponsorship they received and of already having reached Level 12, with their leader even being a Level 13 Player! To them, ten against seven street thugs and a fairy was math that ended in an easy win.
On the other side, the Silver Lotus group didn’t let their guard down.
Skye, now under the ID Lotus, took a step forward, her hands resting on the hilts of her swords.
"Doran, you talk too much for someone about to get a taste of his own medicine." Lotus remarked, her voice coming out cold and loaded with a confidence that made her opponents’ laughter fade. "You think your numbers make up for your lack of skill?"
With the arrival of this little fairy in black armor, Skye visibly relaxed, since Halon, who already had an extremely impactful name in Elysium, had assured her that Pip, this little fairy, could handle any Player below Level 15 as long as their Base wasn’t too high.
Even though she didn’t know exactly how powerful this fairy was, she still trusted the weight of Halon’s name, so she trusted the information.
"Last warning, you big noisy people." Pip said, his voice distorted and deep because of Lohan’s armor. "Get out of the way of Pip’s new friends’ friends, or Pip is going to kill you!"
"Get them!" Doran roared, losing his patience. "Kill the fairy first, I want her little armor as a trophy!"
The command was the trigger, however, it wasn’t Apex who started the fight, but Jenny.
The girl, who had the Rare Berserker class, let out a guttural war cry that made the air vibrate.
Her body was wrapped in a thick, reddish aura, and she lunged like a projectile at the warrior closest to Doran.
The impact of her axe against her opponent’s shield sent out a shockwave that kicked off the massacre.
Pip wasted no time.
With a sharp crack of his metal wings, he shot into the sky, becoming a black and purple blur that defied the visual perception of Apex’s scouts.
Lohan’s clone expanded Pip’s sensory network, letting the fairy see the battlefield like a tactical board.
An Apex archer tried to aim at Pip, but before he could fire, a thin, translucent blade of compressed air cut through the air with a hissing sound.
The new wind magic Lohan had absorbed from the falcon struck the man’s bow, splitting the weapon and his arm in one clean motion. The archer screamed in pain, only to have his voice silenced by an ice spike that appeared out of nowhere and pierced his chest.
"What?! Where did that come from?!" one of the Apex mages shouted, looking at Pip, who was spinning through the air with tremendous agility.
"The wind blows wherever Pip commands it mwahaha!" the fairy laughed, diving in a swoop toward the mage.
Pip used his plant control magic strategically, making dark, thorny roots, strengthened by Lohan’s energy, burst up from the ground beneath the mercenaries’ feet.
Three Apex Players were instantly trapped, their legs pierced by the poisonous thorns. Taking advantage of their immobility, Zach and Kai charged forward, delivering lethal blows to exploit their enemies’ vulnerability.
The battle quickly grew lopsided.
Even though Apex had the numbers advantage, Silver Lotus, or rather, Astralis Requiem, fought with fury, and Pip acted as a support unit and heavy attacker at the same time.
Lohan continuously fed biomass and mana through the clone, letting Pip’s armor regenerate from any scratch and making the power of the wind and ice magic overwhelming.
Doran, seeing his group being wiped out in a matter of seconds, panicked.
He tried to strike Pip with his golden sword, but the fairy suddenly vanished from his sight, reappearing behind Apex’s leader.
Pip drove his small sword into the joint of Doran’s armor, while Lohan used slime tentacles to pin the warrior’s arms.
"S-stop! We’re from the Apex guild! You’re going to regret this!" Doran stammered, desperately opening his guild chat to call for reinforcements. "Help! We’re under attack by elite Players and a mystical creature at the east gate! Come quick!"
’Too late to ask for help, buddy.’ Lohan thought coldly and mercilessly.
Pip pulled off an acrobatic spin and unleashed a gust of wind that slammed Doran into a rock.
Before he could get up, Lotus appeared above him, her swords glowing with a celestial light that reminded Lohan a lot of Sacred Light, and with a crossing strike, she finished off Apex’s leader, killing the man.
The remaining Apex scouts, seeing their leader fall, tried to flee in opposite directions. But they forgot Pip wasn’t alone.
Sara, the group’s mana sensor, pointed out the direction of each fleeing enemy while casting water spells to hinder their mobility, and Vonde used void magic to create suction portals that blocked their retreat, draining almost all of his Mana, but slowing their escape just enough that all of them died right there.
Pip then acted as the final hammer, firing off wind blades and ice spikes with surgical precision, until the last member of the enemy guild fell lifeless onto the grass of the clearing.
Silence returned to the area, broken only by the heavy breathing of the Silver Lotus members, who looked at the trail of destruction with a mix of satisfaction and awe.
They had defeated a bigger, better equipped group without suffering a single casualty, and they knew a large part of that was thanks to the small creature now hovering calmly in the center of the clearing.