Creation: Book 3: Strandbinder Complete!

It turns out that the armor only had a singular opening near the face, so both of Walker's entities didn't have a lot to worry about with the manticores' numbers. They were larger than the original versions Walker had created, but not much faster, and couldn't find a way to break through the new metallic sheath Chomp and Chipper had gained. After both sets had been defeated, a second trio came out of the Guardians portal and he had to defeat them again.

"So that's what happens when one of the entities goes down." Walker said. "If we lose either Chipper or Chomp, it'll be a quick end during the Boss battle."

"It depends on how fast they beat them." Rimi responded. "The second trio came out a minute after the first."

"Then that means the surviving defender will have a minute in-between each set, that's rough."

"Look on the bright side." Virgil reminded him, trying to keep his earlier optimism afloat. "Crratch is having a terrible time."

Walker smiled and nodded, looking across at the opposing Creator. It was screaming and pointing randomly in the direction of its last surviving entity. Walker wasn't sure if he was giving directions to his defender or just screaming at the manticores, but either way it was a good sign for Symphony's potential survival.

Round 11 Complete.

Tower strength for Creator Ccratch: x/x/70

Tower health for Creator Ccratch: x/x/95

Tower strength for Creator Dante: 100/95/x

Tower health for Creator Dante: 100/100/x

- - -

Walker kept smiling as the rounds continued. The twelfth round brought three Warclaws, the protocol stepping up the difficulty by sheer numbers. This time, they each held a large corrugated blade, but their coordination was terrible as they attempted to attack the fast-moving Chipper or constantly walling and sliding Chomp. Their deaths and eventual disappearance caused no fanfare.

The thirteenth round, being the most random of all the rounds, was a small bird that screeched whenever either of the defenders came near. Both the Battlefrog and the Guardian appeared slightly dizzy each time it occurred, an implication to Walker and crew that there was a sonic element within the bird's call. But, each time it screeched there was a noticeable gap of time that allowed the defenders to shake off the debilitating effect and attack. Chomp had a bit of an issue catching it, while the Guardian cut its wings and finished it off quickly. Chipper killed a second one the moment it appeared, and neither side lost any tower strength or health in the follow-up announcement.

The Fourteenth round was a short green woman with flowers on her head. When he looked closer, Walker realized the flowers were actually growing from the top of her head, like hair would from a human. Upon exiting the portal, she immediately started growing trees, and a great swath of grass spread from her feet. The Guardian took action and immediately beheaded her, but the head stood up on four roots and ran away as the woman's arms continued their work. Chipper had to cut her into small and irregular pieces for her body to stop its work.

Chomp ate her. Then ate the one that followed a minute later. Luckily, it was enough for the system to recognize that she was defeated, and the golden entity didn't have a forest growing in its belly.

"Gotta love Chomp's enthusiasm." Walker laughed as the Battlefrog dooted to the sky.

Walker felt some tension in his shoulders as the 15th round came up. Crratch's single surviving defender hadn't lost any tower health or power since round 11 and he was worried it was stronger than they thought. An announcement lit up the sky.

Boss Round!

Defeat the Multitudes and gain the rewards!

"Ah!" Virgil exclaimed. "This is the exit boss. Most creators will fail here as their entities will not be able to defend against a large group of attackers. The first to fail is the loser of course."

"What do you mean?" Rimi said before Walker could, his tail spinning behind him.

"Why are you so excited?" Walker asked him.

"Are you kidding! We get to see more monsters! This is the best time of my life so far!"

"Rimi....we could lose." Walker said with some of his old pessimism still worming its way into his mind.

"No! We have Chipper! Don't you know what he can do?"

"What?"

Before Walker could dive deeper into what Rimi was talking about, the portal changed from grey to a swirling rainbow, blues and reds and greens rotating in and out in a stunning display. First, a shaggy long-haired monster came out, a series of horns spiking from the front and sides of its face. it charged down the path toward the towers.

Then a large group of one-legged monsters with three arms on each side, each moving in great bounding hops. To Walker's multiversally uninformed eyes, they looked like large thorns brought to life.

Then a series of ice-covered triangles floated behind them, constantly firing a green beam made of particles a few feet in front of them.

And more.

And more again.

Walker gave up trying to count, but after a few minutes, the portal stopped sending out the horde and went back to its customary grey haze.

Chomp was in serious trouble. He kept erecting walls only for the green beams to break them down, or the shaggy behemoth to charge right through them, spikes or no spikes. He was evading as best he could, but his stealth wouldn't work against so many enemies and he could only move so far. The great fish tower behind him started firing shots as his defense crumbled and broke. They overran him in less time than it took for them to exit the portal, sad doots filling the air, and the great fish tower went down.

On the other path, Chipper had moved up to the front of his tree tower and sat down. He crossed his legs like Walker had seen so many yoga nuts and kindergarten teachers do, and then a glow started in the middle of his chest. It didn't spread for once, only increased in intensity until the pale color Walker usually identified with pure magic became blindingly white. The multitudes sat entranced as it grew more and more bright, before it expanded in a great wave, incinerating them to the last. As the final member of the multitude died, Chipper started a new glow in his chest and waited. Each multitude came, and each perished instantly as the glow reached maximum intensity.

"So the end of Chomp has come and passed." Virgil said after Chipper cleared the third and final wave.

"He was a champion of Symphony." Walker replied somberly. "We are all witnesses to his achievement." He finished, but as he did so, a new idea popped into his mind. It would involve some trickery, and unlike his Monster System, this one would require direct input. Still, it had potential.

"Witnesses....watchers...." He whispered to himself, but the announcement they'd all been waiting for appeared.

Round 15 Complete.

Rewards Increased.

Tower strength for Creator Ccratch: x/x/x

Tower health for Creator Ccratch: x/x/x

Tower strength for Creator Dante: x/95/x

Tower health for Creator Dante: x/100/x

.....Scanning.....

Crratch has failed to defeat the Multitudes!

Dante has won the second battle of Creator Wars!

As the overlay updated, in the distance and on the other platform, Walker watched as his fellow Creator stopped moving. A bright light lit up just over his head and opened, expelling a green portal that wasn't hazy in the slightest. Though he was a good distance away, Walker could see glimpses of a world where other Warclaws were going about their day, weapons strapped to their backs, as the portal slowly moved down and swallowed Crratch inch by inch. Eventually, as his whole body entered the portal, it shrunk until it closed and Walker's overlay lit up again.

Congratulations Dante! You have absorbed all of Crratch's resources to include the following:

An abundance of landmass creation instrument materials.

An abundance of entity creation instrument materials.

70 years of Temporal Resources.

The genetic blueprint for the Warclaw.

All of Crratch's already existing Landmasses have been grouped and placed next to Symphony for your eventual application. To expedite your use of said materials, and allow for greater creativity within the alpha protocol, a new system has been unlocked and connected to the Landmass System.

For reference, all creators who complete the second battle successfully will gain the use of this auxiliary system.

Please choose from the following....Error.

Error.

.....

.....

Private message from the Alpha Protocol Council detected.

.....Retrieving....

Hello child.

As you have won your second battle, and done so with relative ease compared to your peers, we will offer you a choice. You may continue to advance in this scenario and receive greater rewards until your entities can no longer withstand the battle, or you may step away now and receive the rewards and ability choice you have already earned.

A word of warning. If you choose the first option, and your "monsters" do not survive until at least the thirtieth round, you will lose the Avatar ability we have previously granted you. To balance this, each wave will only attack your remaining entity once.

In five minutes your options will arrive. Your assistants will not be able to help you.

Walker read the messages a second time, then looked over at Virgil and Rimi. Both were still standing, Virgil's face holding a look of concentration as he stared at something on his screen, while Rimi was watching Chipper. He assumed that the protocol placed them in stasis as Rimi in particular had a hard time holding still this long. Although he understood that neither could truly "hear" him, as they were currently separated from the timeline in which he would be speaking, Walker was always fond of speaking out his thoughts to try to find any problems in his line of thinking.

The Creator of Symphony began pacing back and forth in front of his two assistants, "The Avatar ability is important. Virgil said that few to almost none of the Creators in every rendition have it, which means they can't just pop on down to their worlds whenever they want. It's huge. The ability to just drop in and say hello to my people, the citizens of Symphony. To show them I am no God, but a fallible creature whom they can touch and see." He had a hitch in his step for a moment, fixed it, and kept pacing. "That is a huge thing. But, if the rewards keep escalating, will it just be temporal resources? I know they're important, extremely so, and that this could set me up for the rest of the battles in the future. But, what kind of future will it be if I can't speak to my people. If I can't find my one single follower. If I can't step in and fix things that have gone so, so, wrong. I could have fixed the Slicer with everything I've unlocked now. Sure, it broke Symphony and I was stuck in that time, but with the Avatar and the Domestication abilities, I could have stopped it from breaking everything else." Walker pounded one hand into the other.

"No, I couldn't have stopped it. The system wouldn't let me touch anything until I fixed Symphony, and if I fixed it and then rewound time, it'd just be broken again. I have to stop focusing on this moment so much. We've come so far since then." He slapped himself, hard.

"This is important. I need to think about what's best for Symphony!" He yelled at the air. "Not to mention, am I somehow torturing Chipper if I continue on? We didn't ask to be here, to put them in this situation, but are the rewards worth doing that to him? What do I do?" He finished, asking the sky a final time. Walker looked up for a moment, waiting for, but not expecting a response.

What do I do? He asked his inner and unconscious thoughts, when something in his chest answered. Walker felt a vibration rumble from within, and then a flare of Forest Green pushed out of him for a moment. The colored soul power shot out at an angle for just a moment, and he followed it with his eyes as he swore it was pointing straight at Chipper down below.

When Walker looked down, he saw Chipper vigorously waving his arms at him to get his attention.

"How are you doing bud?" He asked.

Chipper returned a thumbs up, shocking him. He remembered the identify he'd thrown at the Guardians when the last fast-forward in time occured, and the word sapient jumped out in his memories.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Chipper nodded.

"That's great bud. So here's the real question, what is it that you want to do? I'm not sure if the risk is worth the reward. They said at the start that you wouldn't have any memories of what we're doing here, but it still feels wrong to continue to push you through fights where you'll be hurt, just for the potential rewards to come. If they aren't things we can use, I feel like it's not worth it." He slapped a hand to his chest and another smaller pulse of Forest Green answered him. "I'm lost and I want to know your thoughts here, but I don't know how we do that."

The Guardian shrugged, then took a hand and wrote something in the air. Chipper used his magic to create a pulsing and steady light in the air, spelling out the words, "Will it help you and Symphony."

"That's a cool trick. Yes, it will help us both. And you won't stay dead if, or when, you eventually lose. You'll come right back to where they took you."

Chipper wrote again, "Then, I am happy to do it."

"Are you sure? We need to win for at least double what you've already gone through, and it will get progressively harder."

Chipper shrugged, then gave him a thumbs up.

"Okay, then that's what we'll do. Thank you Chipper. I promise, when this is over, I'll drop down to your Mana Tree and we'll have a conversation in the first moment that nothing pressing is happening."

Chipper lifted his hand and drew with his magic again, "I look forward to meeting you. Please choose what is best for Symphony during these battles." The words faded from the air as the timer ended.

The Choice is here. What will your decision be Dante.

Will you stay and reach for greater rewards?

Or

Will you leave and return to the safety of your constructed world?

Walker looked one more time at his two assistants frozen in time, then at his valiant defender, before selecting the first option.

Your decision has been made. We hope you enjoy what is to come.

One last modification. There will be no more "easy" rounds. Each round will be a boss battle, and to make it fair, they will count as five rounds altogether.

Good luck Creator.

"What? What happened?" Virgil suddenly asked as he was unfrozen. "Why is my screen different? Did they place us in stasis?"

"I am confused." Rimi also said in puzzlement. "Why is Chipper not in the same place he was a moment ago?"

"Sorry guys, you got frozen in time. Let me explain." Walker did a quick breakdown of the options and his conversation with Chipper. He didn't mention his soul power manifesting itself for the second time. Virgil spoke first.

"Yes, the original Guardian is much more intelligent than I had thought. It may have even created its own written language."

"Yep, plus he seems to have good intentions for Symphony." Walker replied.

"Like an anti-Slicer?" Rimi asked.

"Kind of. I hold a lot of faith in our defender down there."

They continued to speak for a time, breaking down what they thought they might see, with Virgil being, naturally, realistic. Rimi couldn't help but imagine larger and larger attackers, to the point that the relatively small arena would be unable to hold creatures even half of the size he was describing. The announcement came as Rimi was speaking of a large sword made of crystal that attacked with lightning while driving others mad.

Boss Round!

Defeat the Crushinators and gain the rewards!

"Crushinator?" Walker said out loud as the portal turned Silver and three ten-foot-tall robots exited, rolling on four wheels with a grinding sound. They were the color of sterling steel and had a thick base and two large arms sticking out of their sides. Each of the robot's arms ended in large and round bludgeoning weapons. The Guardian pulled once at its armor, watching it settle with a ripple, then jumped toward the first robot to exit. When he got within range of his opponent, Chipper stuck a single arm out. The Crushinator swung both clubs in a blur and impacted Chipper's arm simultaneously on both sides. Walker had closed his eyes as he didn't want to watch his future friend get hurt, but nothing had happened. There was a ripple coming from the rest of Chipper's armor that settled as he watched.

"The armor?" Walker asked Virgil.

"Indeed. It is kinetic armor. As long as the attacks are not spread over large amounts of space, it can diffuse any force applied to it. That is how Chomp lost even with his own suit of armor. There were too many attackers at once, and it overwhelmed the kinetic displacement effect."

"Well, it's nice to see that I made the right choice then. I think Chipper could still take this out with his own abilities, but a little extra safety never hurt."

"Indeed." Was all Virgil replied with, as Chipper began to make slow and heavy attacks on the robot, targeting the joints that held it together with his paws or using his powerful tail. He was mechanical against the mechanical object, tearing each piece down before he attacked a new area. It didn't take him long to tear the robot apart, and the other two, whom Chipper had kept at a distance as he fought, moved forward. Rather than risk his kinetic armor failing him from four attacks at once, he kept positioning one robot between the other and continued his previous strategy. About five minutes after the start of the round, all three robots had disappeared.

Round 20 Complete.

Rewards Increased.

.....Scanning.....

Alpha Protocol Council changes detected.

The option to return one or more of Dante's entities is restricted and no longer available.

Alternative reward provided as a choice.

Alternative reward upgraded due to difficulty.

- - -

Congratulations Dante! Your entity completed the twentieth round of the second battle!

Please choose from the below rewards. You may only choose one.

You have three minutes to decide.

1. Remove all afflictions plaguing your entity and heal them.

2. Increase the size of your entity by 50%.

3. Gain 100 years in temporal resources.

4. Unlock the Gambling System for future battles.

Walker and his assistants discussed the options and threw away one and two. Walker had asked the Guardian of course, but Chipper didn't want to change either, and he didn't need any healing. Virgil argued for the temporal resources, while Rimi naturally wanted the Gambling System. Then again, Rimi just liked any systems he could study. It came down to Walker.

"We just got seventy years from Crratch, I think we're okay."

"You do not understand how precious temporal resources are Walker. They can even be......damn." Virgil said, stopping mid-sentence.

"What?" Walker asked.

"I cannot speak of it, I am sorry. There are still some restrictions placed upon me."

"It's okay. I think the Betting system is going to be pretty cool. We can't use it right now from what I see, but who knows, it could really come in handy in the future."

"Do as you wish." Virgil replied with a wave of his hand, so Walker went with Rimi's pick.

The next round approached quicker than it had in the past.

Boss Round!

Defeat the Slimes and gain the rewards!

The portal spat out a series of different slimes. One was red and had heat waves rising off of it, while a blue one spread rime across the ground every time it jumped. Each was a color that corresponded to their elements, with the third representing lightning and the last one, going by the hissing and rising fumes from its hops, being acid. The four slimes's colors corresponded with their elements, and Chipper didn't wait.

After analyzing his opponents for a moment, he put on a burst of speed and ran towards them. As his feet moved, a pale glow began to spread from his body outward, reaching the slimes and continuing on until it surrounded a fairly large area within his path. Once he was only a few feet away from them, and Walker's anxiety was starting to peak, the Squirrel spread his arms wide and collapsed them together with a loud clap.

The pale magic reacted, closing with the movement of the albino squirrel's hands until it reached the slimes and brought them together in the middle, crushing them into each other. The opposing elements wreaked havoc on each other as they popped, boiled, and froze among other reactions. Chipper held them together for a few more moments, then released his magic and sat down. If Walker wasn't mistaken, it seemed like each time the Guardian used large-scale magic the way he was, it took something out of him and he needed time to recover.

"Those seemed kind of basic, right?" Walker asked.

"It depends. If Chipper wasn't magical, or so well practiced, that would have been quite the difficult round. "

"Well, it was pretty fast." Walker said before cupping his hands to his mouth, "Way to go buddy!" He yelled down in encouragement.

Chipper gave him a tired thumbs-up as he tried to control his breathing.

"I would say it was fast, but not that it was easy." Virgil replied. "The Guardian is very efficient and well-practiced in magic. Most of the abilities it uses take a steady amount of control and a large amount of training or practice. Elemental slimes seem simple, but have killed an untold amount of challengers across the multiverse."

"Yeah, he's pretty great." Rimi said with a smile. "Do we happen to have the genetic code for them?" Rimi couldn't help but ask. Virgil's response saw the small blue squirrel wilt in place. A final pop ended the round as the Slimes faded away.

Round 25 Complete.

Rewards Increased.

Congratulations Dante! Your entity completed the twenty-fifth round of the second battle!

Please choose from the below rewards. You may only choose one.

You have four minutes to decide.

1. Remove all afflictions plaguing your entity and heal them.

2. Provide your entity with an appropriate weapon that is modified for its use.

3. Gain 125 years in temporal resources.

4. Unlock the Broadcast Ability permanently.

"Uh oh". Walker said when he saw the rewards. He turned to Virgil, "Is the Broadcast ability what I think it is? Something that can spread out to every entity on Symphony at once?"

"Indeed."

"Well crap. I was going to pick the years on this one, as that would almost double what we currently have, then I saw the weapon option and thought that was solid too. But the Broadcast ability? That could be used for all kinds of things once we have a civilization to talk to."

"Yes, it is quite the conundrum." He looked down at the Guardian who was seated where Walker had last seen him, legs crossed as he recovered from the fight. "Chipper! Would you like a weapon?"

The large squirrel tilted its head, thought on it for a moment, then laboriously wrote in the air with a slow hand, "No thank you."

"Okay, problem solved on that front. So we don't need option #2. That leaves temporal resources or an ability that is needed.....you know what I'm going to say."

"I do. It is unlikely that the ability choice provided from defeating Crratch will provide this same choice. I agree at this time."

"Sweet." Walker said, and just before he selected his choice, he took a look at the timer, then at his only remaining defender breathing heavily on the ground. "Lets run the clock down a bit." He said, and after getting two nods, waited until he had ten seconds remaining before selecting the fourth option. Only a few minutes went by, the rounds coming faster than they should be based on what Walker knew of the first fifteen, when a unique announcement started writing itself in the sky, then erasing itself, and writing again.

Boss Round!

Defeat the Gr....Error.

Error.

.....

.....

Alpha Protocol Council changes detected.

....Scanning.....

Difficulty greatly increased.

Boss round updated.

Defeat the Army of the Lost and receive your rewards!

"What the fuck!" Walker yelled out.

"This is quite unusual" Virgil agreed.

Further complaining would have to wait, as four more portals joined the original for a total of five. Walker could feel his heartbeat pulsing in the back of his skull when he witnessed their arrival. He knew the risks here and had to rely on Chipper to see them through it. He didn't expect the Council to up the stakes of the round, but what choice did they have? As each portal turned to a dark purple, what walked out was a horror story no one could expect.

When you hear the stories about skeleton armies in books back on Earth, it doesn't quite prepare you for the reality of honest-to-God walking corpses. These weren't walking skeletons, but dead creatures with rotting muscles, internal organs spilling out and forgotten in their path only to be tread upon by those who came after. They didn't make a sound, only plodded on in the nude, both internally and externally. And the smell.....Walker was hundreds of feet away and still, the smell punched him in the face. Neither of his assistants reacted, but Walker slid over to the edge of the platform and emptied his already empty stomach over the side.

The Guardian backed up as they exited each portal in rows of two, steps marching in cadence with each other in a form of discipline they'd known in their previous lives. Chipper was affected on a level much higher than Walker was, dry retching sounds and coughs reached his ears as his stomach finally had nothing left to give up.

"Mmm, I hadn't considered that." Virgil said, tapping his chin with one paw.

"Wha-whatt?" Walker falteringly said, still leaning against the edge of the platform and bracing his hands on the protocol's shield that attempted to keep him within.

"The Guardian is a pure magic type, extremely pure in fact. This army is the opposite. It is an army of impurity, powered by the magic of death and maintained by hateful memories. Chipper has won battles with physical strength, speed, and outstanding magical control. The problem lies in the fact that the Monster System inundates its members in their magical attunements. Everything about Chipper is based on purity, and an army of the impure will act as a poison should they damage him. If he moves close to any of those creatures, it is likely his magic will protect him for a short time before he ultimately fails and collapses."

"So, the Council increases the difficulty of this battle, the last one we are forced to win before I lose the Avatar ability, and chooses to throw a perfect counter to Chipper. That's super fucked."

"But not impossible. The protocol does not allow for impossible challenges, just improbable ones. There is always a way to win, Chipper just has to find it. These soldiers are also walking toward him at a sedate and measured cadence, he has a chance to succeed."

Rimi nodded quickly and yelled out, "You can do this Chipper! You're the best! You got this!"

The albino Squirrel didn't respond, just kept slowly backing up toward his tower. Eventually, he stopped right at the range of where his tower killed the Battlefrog in the first round, and drew a line in the dirt with a claw. Then he unleashed a quick force of pure magic into the earth in front of him, digging it out and bringing the pieces to him. Walker could see how labored his breathing was and sensed that he was on his last legs physically and mentally. Each use of magic showed itself as a visual drain on the Guardian, his back hunching further and further with time. But, then he did something unexpected.

He picked up a rock and arched his arm all the way back, before shooting it forward and nailing one of the skeleton soldiers in the head, knocking it clean off. The body collapsed right after, and both faded away as a defeated foe. He continued to do this as each soldier entered his range, landing a clean hit more often than not, and even when he missed, the missile would still hit and slow those who came behind. When he ran out of rocks, his magic would stretch to the front, or the sides, and drag more broken earth to him. By the time he'd killed over twenty of the soldiers, there was a clean trench that they were forced to enter.

Like a machine, Chipper was building missiles and launching them at his opponents. If the moment wasn't so serious, Walker would make a joke about taking Chipper onto his team for the next snowball fight. Soldiers eventually stopped exiting the portals once about fifty had walked through, and the portals began merging until only two remained, larger than the original. After a brief pause where Chipper was still finishing off the standard fare, more well-preserved soldiers began running out of them at speed, bits and pieces of armor clinging to their outfits. Walker noticed these soldiers were wearing red tabards that held a symbol of a raised fist on their chest.

"Ah, the remains of the Marauding Army. They were once a galactic force to be reckoned with, claiming different worlds in large quantities until they met a force that could not be defeated, and disappeared from the second rendition. The Lost Army indeed."

Chipper finished off the last of the slow and falling apart soldiers as the new ones entered his field of vision. Twenty of them charged at once in a single coordinated double-line, and once they entered the trenches, he shot a burst of magic at the walls and collapsed them in, crushing their bodies into the condensed rock and dirt. None survived.

"Hah!" Rimi yelled, laughing. "Such a good Guardian!"

"Very smart." Virgil agreed and Walker smiled, thinking this was it. They'd done it.

The portals merged again and a single creature stepped forth in platemail, proving him wrong yet again.

Bonus Boss!

Defeat The General of the Army of the Lost!

"Fuckin come on!"

Walker watched as Chipper sighed, his ribs moving in and out as air was forced into his lungs at a high speed. The General took a single step and suddenly appeared only three feet away from him, pulling a sword from a sheathe at his waist, he swung it with great speed, twisting his body for maximum impact on the weary defender.

"Look out!" Rimi screamed.

Chipper dropped to one knee as fast as he could, a pure glow erupting out of his armored shoulder nearest to the quickly approaching and too-close sword. The weapon deflected slightly, but the General was already arcing it back around quickly, not perturbed by the Guardian's quick reaction and showing his advanced combat experience. Chipper's hand glowed as he punched the General directly in the face, knocking it back three steps and making it miss the follow-up attack. After the punch, the defender shook his hand in pain, taking a step across the line he'd drawn behind him at the beginning of the round.

The tabard-covered General stepped forward again, entering Chippers range, but also the Towers. A shot rang out and struck the General as he was attempting to impale the worn-out Squirrel, breaking a piece of his right arm off and knocking him back a step. Chipper followed the tower's attack and stepped forward, swinging his tail at the same spot with great accuracy. A loud crack could be heard as the bone gave out and the remains fell beside the General, whose expression didn't change from the loss. The only thing in his vision was Chipper at that moment.

The Guardian stepped back again and the process repeated, only this time the tower struck the edge of the General's chest, burning the clothing away and showing a small crack in the bones of his sternum. Chipper followed up after the tower's attack and a large fissure cracked open across the entire length of the attacker's body. Chipper's left hand glowed for a moment as he stepped in quickly, a second glow appearing from his right as he shot magic behind the General and pulled him close for one final punch.

It didn't work.

The moment the magic spread and tried to dominate the area around the General, it fell apart, the Army of the Losts attunement showing itself. The Guardian went all out regardless, leaning into the attack and throwing a full-bodied punch right where the fissure had erupted, but just as his fist connected, a sword arrived at the same moment, stabbing through his kinetic armor in such a fast burst that it couldn't compensate. It pierced deep into Chipper's side, and marred his formerly pristine white fur with pink blood.

Both the General's corpse and the sword faded away. The moment the sword finally disappeared entirely, Chipper collapsed to the ground. Walker's overlay lit up.

Round 30 Complete.

Rewards increased due to difficulty.

Congratulations Dante! Your entity completed the thirtieth round of the second battle!

Extra reward option provided due to difficulty.

Please choose from the below rewards. You may choose up to two.

You have five minutes to decide.

1. Return your entity to the state it was upon arrival.

2. Replenish all of your entity's tower resources and health.

3. Gain 175 years in temporal resources.

4. Upgrade your creation instrument.

5. Your Advanced Assistant (Virgil) may now work with the Landmass System in a limited capacity.

Walker didn't want to make Chipper suffer any more than he needed to, but he remembered what the Guardian had said. If it was what was best for Symphony, he should do it. A hard moral line to tow, but this was a rare opportunity and Walker didn't want to miss it. He chose the first and last options quickly before Chipper could die and his choice became meaningless.

Chipper's body faded away as he watched, and Walker was worried that he'd acted too late. He looked at his two assistants and was about to apologize for being too slow, when Rimi shouted, "look!"

Walker turned and brought his eyes back to the broken battlefield, only to find an unarmored Chipper waving at him. The valiant defender's words appeared in the air, "I am fine. Let's keep going Creator."

Walker smiled and felt his eyes water a little. Round thirty-five was coming.