New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Astaroth summoned White Death and quickly melded with Luna, making sure he didn't stay idle for too long. Even if he was powerful on his own, the monsters were many, and they were mostly higher level than him.

As small antlers grew from the side of his head, wrapping around it like a crown, his stats burst up again, this time higher. Luna's level at birth had been set at fifty, so her total stat points were already much higher than White's.

That, combined with her higher grade, made her a much more dangerous entity altogether. So being melded with her made him an utter monster of a player.

The rest of his party saw his health shoot up rapidly, and they gasped. Phoenix had been on the receiving end of this form, and now that she saw the stats in her interface, she understood why she lost.

But something bugged her. The stats seemed much higher than they should have been, and Astaroth's current power didn't match the tournament.

'He looks much stronger now. Was the melding not complete back in the tournament?' she wondered.

In the meantime, Astaroth had switched from a physical combat mode to a battle mage style. He was now zooming around amidst the apes, shooting basic spells at them.

But his basic spells did the same amount of damage to them as a mid-tier spell would do. His intelligence score right now could be compared to a boss monster.

Each firebolt he cast hit for over two thousand points of damage, which was enough to one-shot any ape he hit. So Phoenix decided to inspect him to fully grasp the situation.

Status:

Name: Astaroth (Fused to Luna)

Race: Ash Elf

Level: 36

Stats:

HP: 53'125/53'125  MP: 36'620/36'620  Stamina: 100

Strength: 154 (189) (+20 armor) (+15 passive)

Agility: 154 (169) (+15 passive)

Constitution: 211 (252) (+20 armor) (+21 passive)

Intelligence: 274 (301) (+27 passive)

Wisdom: 257 (283) (+26 passive)

She gasped in surprise. No player was even remotely close to this level of power, currently.

The only one she thought of that might be able to contest this strength would be Khalor, and by virtue of his army of undead only. In a one-versus-one fight, she was sure Astaroth would win.

Phoenix wondered what a high-tier spell would do with that intelligence score. She guessed it wouldn't be pretty for anything receiving it.

After fighting for another four minutes, around half of the horde of monkeys were dead. The rest were clinging to the walls of the gorge and throwing rocks at them every few seconds.

Astaroth had enough of this nonsense, and Gulnur was constantly needing healing, since he was tanking the ape king all this time.

"Gulnur, stun it and back away!" he shouted to the dwarf.

"Alright!" Gulnur shouted back.

He then swung his hammer back before smacking it dead center on his shield.

*Dong!*

Gulnur used his Sonic Wave skill, causing all the surrounding monsters, the king included, to be stunned for three seconds. He used those seconds to run behind Astaroth.

Once the dwarf was standing behind him, Astaroth brought his hands forward, as an orb of milky white energy formed between them.

In Phoenix' and Violette's senses, the power contained within that small orb was like a miniature sun. Phoenix recognized a touch of essence in it that wasn't mana.

'He's using Aether too?!' she thought, befuddled.

She hadn't been used to the essence of Aether enough to recognize it the first time she faced this attack. But now, it was undeniable.

Contained within that small ball of white mana, was a seed of Aether. And from what Phoenix could feel of it, whatever damage this spell was supposed to do originally, it would be much more now.

Astaroth was focused on his spell. Infusing it with Aether was no small task, and he had been accumulating it inside himself ever since he melded with Luna.

Luna's legendary grade made it easier for her to attract the higher level energy, which in turn, meant he also had an easier time with it when they were fused.

He had been playing with that every chance he could, slowly getting the hang of gathering snippets of Aether. But this time, he was infusing all he could gather in this one spell.

Astaroth was watching, as the number next to the spell explanation kept changing according to the amount of Aether he had infused. What had started as a five hundred percent damage spell was now sitting on a five thousand percent.

The apes, who had recovered from the stun a couple of seconds ago, were now running at him fast. He knew he couldn't charge the spell any longer, so he let it go.

"Moon Beam," he muttered.

The ball of energy, which was now the size of a bowling ball, erupted into a white beam of focused light. It was bright enough that the rest of his party had to shield their eyes.

Astaroth, however, kept looking straight ahead.

*-98'578*

That was the only number that appeared. The rest of the horde of monkeys were vaporized so quickly, the system didn't bother giving the damage report.

The ape king took on the blast, with his chest forward, trying to prove to his foes he didn't fear them. When the beam hit him, it charred all of his front, turning the stone plates on his chest to dust, and burning his fur.

The monkey roared in pain as its eyes went red and it thrashed about.

"Be careful, that looks like an enrage skill!" Phoenix shouted out.

She was aware that her party members knew what that was, but it was always better to voice these things and keep the party on its toes.

Astaroth came out of his melding after he cast Moon Beam, even though his timer wasn't completely over. He had learned with practice that consuming Aether for spells would increase their cooldown times and reduce their duration.

Fortunately,  he could still summon Luna and fight with his two companions for the remaining five and a half minutes before he could meld with White again.

He summoned her and grinned at the enraged ape. The ape roared and charged at the party.