The Over-Break System

The instant the Quest's penalty notification disappeared, Brance's SOC shook violently, causing him to base out his legs to keep steady. A powerful flash of light occurred in the distance behind Tobs, who was already turning transparent.

She wouldn't be able to aid him any longer, and since her voice had already failed to transmit, she mouthed the words, 'Stay Strong, Brancie, you've got this,' just as a fierce battle cry echoed throughout the landscape.

"ALL WILL FALL BEFORE MY DIVINE ARROWS, AS IT HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY OUR LORD, THE GOD OF LIGHT!"

SHOOM SHOOM SHOOM SHOOM

"What in the UGHHH," Brance hardly had enough time to raise his shields in a defensive posture before four Light Construct Arrows slammed into his body almost too fast to see.

Even with [Mana Sight] active, he could only faintly catch sight of the tail trail left over as the arrows broke through the sound barrier and literally traveled at the speed of…well, LIGHT!

Crashing into his CS Tears simultaneously, the force of the impact was enough to send Brance sliding backward nearly 50 meters before Light Arrows shattered into particles, allowing him enough time to peek between his shields to see his opponent.

"HEYYY!" Brance shouted at the top of his lungs while locating his opponent hovering in the air half a kilometer away.

"DON'T YOU KNOW IT IS IMPROPER TO ATTACK SOMEONE WITHOUT JUST CAUSE OR EVEN INTRODUCING YOURSELF!"

SHOOM SHOOM SHOOM SHOOM

Contrary to what Brance had expected, instead of a verbal response, he was met by another flurry of Light Arrows, which once again sent him sliding back as he blocked them.

'Shit, those damn things pack a hell of a punch! Each arrow is dealing 5% damage to the durability of my shields. I can't keep sitting still and absorbing the damage either; I need to dodge them; only they move too fast, and I can hardly see the damn things.' With that thought in mind, Brance kicked off the ground and rushed to the left, into the nearby Mountain Range for cover.

For an instant, the idea of retreating into his [Radient Tower] popped into his head, but after seeing that the attacks were dealing so much damage, he knew it wouldn't be long until his Tower would fall under the pressure of these Light Arrows.

While on the move, his eyes flicked in the direction of his opponent, and he could faintly see the outline of six golden wings sprouting from the Man's Back.

'Another fucking Archangel, and to make matters worse, I doubt this guy will want an upfront dogfight of a battle. If my memory isn't failing me, there is only one Archer among the God Of Light's forces: the ArchAngel Uriel Demiurgos, Michael's older brother and the twin brother of Raphael.'

BOOM BOOM BOOOM

Not far off behind him, several arrows exploded on the ground behind Brance like mortar shells; however, he quickly began making evasive maneuvers and never ran in a straight line. There were even several moments where he ducked for cover behind tall rock structures only to have them explode seconds later.

Thinking quickly, Brance dug his feet into the ground, channeled over 3000 points of Terra Mana into his legs, and soon sunk into the rocks, disappearing out of sight into the depths of the Mountain Range. Even as he did this, his body never stopped moving, as not only did Brance sink deeper into the ground, but he also continued moving further away from his attacker.

Oddly enough, Brance seemed to be moving faster as he progressed through the rocky terrain, as if he had transformed into a tunneling creature.

Half a kilometer away, Uriel became flustered at his inability to hit the weak Tier-3 mortal who scurried about like a rat.

"Tsk, this Nephilim dreg has taken to the mountains; it seems he has had some training, but what can he do? I am a whole two Tiers stronger than him. If it weren't for this petty suppression of my body and power, I would have already razed this entire range to oblivion with my Tier-7 strength." Annoyed, Uriel disappeared from his spot hundreds of meters in the sky and appeared over the vast mountain range that seemed to stretch on for thousands of kilometers.

"Where are you?" The Archangel thought aloud as he Gripped his Golden four-armed bow and notched another batch of Light Arrows onto the two bowstrings.

Unfortunately, after a few minutes of searching without results, Uriel's patience grew thin, so he began unleashing wave after wave of Light Arrows into the Mountains, with each attack creating craters with a 20-meter radius.

Meanwhile, Brance was watching the Archangel's actions from below, biding his time and waiting for the right moment to strike. Although he never stopped moving, after feeling the powerful tremors shaking the rocks above, he had a feeling it was only a matter of time before Uriel became so annoyed that he started firing off stronger attacks in an attempt to destroy the entire Mountain Range.

Thus, although he was still on the move, Brance started tracing out the Runic Diagrams for [White Dwarf] and, after a few tense minutes, created five sets of milky white marbles.

'Alright, I've made 25 WDs; the next step is planting them around to lay my trap; the goal is to create big enough explosions so that it appears I am jumping out of the rocks to attack him, but these will only be a distraction.' Narrowing his eyes and looking up at Uriel with [Mana Sight] as the Archangel continuously fired off one arrow after another, Brance put his plan into action and dropped his WDs in strategic yet seemingly random positions.

Without even realizing it, Brance had created a complete circle around his enemy by spacing each marble roughly a hundred meters away from the closest one.

'Alright, the trap has been laid,' Brance thought as he slowly came to a stop under his [Radient Tower]. Then with a thought, he appeared on the 6th floor, in the Command Center.

Bringing up the monitoring displays and a small map, he then plotted in the location of each [White Dwarf] before marking Uriel as an enemy.

"You wanna fight with ranged weapons? Well, two can play that game." Brance said with a smirk as he primed all weapons on the fourth floor. Like when he fought Michael, the current artillery layout was set to Layout E.

-Layout E: One Tier-4 Positron Cannon, Two Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Cannons, and Two Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Ballista.-

-Tier-4 Positron Cannon: Fires, One Terra-Light-Wind Beam.-

-Fires, One Terra-Light-Wind Beam.-

-Damage: Static 125,000 Points of AOE DMG.-

-Cooldown: 25 minutes.-

-Charge Time: 10 minutes.-

-Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Cannon.-

-Fires, one Terra-Light Shell.-

-Damage: Static 12000 Points of Magic Dmg.-

-Cooldown: 4 minutes.-

-Charge Time: 45 seconds.-

-Tier-3.5 Mana Construct Ballista.-

-Fires, one Terra-Wind Javelin.-

-Damage: Static 10000 Points of Physical Dmg.-

-Cooldown: 2 minutes 30 seconds.-

-Charge Time: 25 seconds.-

With his left hand on the Command Column, Brance positioned each of them in such a way that they would have a clear line of fire on Uriel, and once they were in place, only then did he snap the thumb and middle finger of his right hand, triggering the remote detonation of the first [White Dwarf].

RUMMMMMMBLLLLEEE, BOOOOOOMMMM!

At first, a faint rumbling sound quickly drew Uriel's attention. Then, a moment after he heard the sound, the ground erupted with light, vaporizing everything in a 40-meter radius and generating a massive beam of light that extended into the sky.

Without missing a beat, the instant the beam of light shot into the air, Uriel released two waves of arrows as he floated away from the ominous pillar of Mana.

Brance had anticipated this outcome, and when he glanced at the map on his Command Display, he saw that Uriel had moved directly over one of his traps.

SNAP

RUMMMMBLLLLE BOOOOOM

Unable to register what happened, Uriel didn't even have enough time to curse and was soon bathed in a pillar of white light.

"AHHHH FILTHY HEATHEN!" Uriel's pained howls of agony came from within the beam of light, and with a swipe of the four-armed bow, the pillar of light was severed in half, with the top part dispersing into particles and the bottom sinking back into the ground.

Seeing that Uriel had taken practically no visible damage from the attack, Brance frowned and quickly snapped his fingers, triggering the third explosion. Instead of it being one of the closer traps, this time, it was some distance away from his target.

"THERE!" Uriel shouted as he surged through the sky and fired off several arrows, only to find that he hadn't hit anything a few seconds later.

With three explosions and pillars of light under his belt, Uriel now knew something was wrong, and his eyes scanned the large tunnel-like holes in the ground left behind by the explosions.

"Damn it; this Nephilim scum also appears to have a Terra Affinity; he has burrowed underground and laid some type of explosive trap to draw my attention, but where has he gone? Is he still hiding underground or…" With his eyes continuously scanning the surrounding area, Uriel stopped speaking. His eyes widened as the large, six-story stone tower off in the distance caught his attention halfway through his statement.

"Too late," Brance calmly stated as he unleashed a ranged barrage of his own, freeing all his weapons at once, the Positron Cannon included. That wasn't all either; having pressed the six trigger buttons on the Command Column, Brance clutched the air with his right hand, pulled down, and made a punching motion.

His actions triggered the remaining 22 [White Dwarfs] hidden underground, causing them to roll slightly and angle toward Uriel before exploding.

All hell broke loose the next second. Twenty-two pillars of light exploded from the ground at an angle and intersected at one point, Uriel's location, while the Terra-Light-Wind Beam, two Terra-Light Shells, and two Terra-Wind Javelins howled through the air.

The loudest explosion Brance had ever heard shook his entire SOC as the attacks crashed into each other, shattering through space and forming a spatial tear where Uriel was hovering. The sheer destruction caused by 28 attacks simultaneously erupting was enough to generate a shockwave so powerful that the [Radient Tower] cracked and fell over.

"FUCK!" Brance screamed as he suddenly went airborne and slammed into the far side of the room. Bouncing off the wall that had gone from the right wall of the sixth floor to the ceiling, Brance fell all the way back down to the former left wall, now the floor of the Tower.

For a time, Brance could only hear a loud ringing in his ear as tinnitus set in, giving him a flashback of the numerous times he had fired his rifle without ear protection.

Using his shields, Brance was slow to get back to his feet and soon teleported himself outside the [Radient Tower], where he found himself standing on the side of his crippled structure, looking out over the massive amount of destruction he had just created.

Narrowing his eyes and activating [Mana Sight], he then scanned the area to try and locate Uriel, and it didn't take long to do so. Floating in the sky but looking like he had been through hell, Uriel flapped his three remaining wings as golden blood gushed from his right arm, or what was left of it. Brance's ambush had destroyed it, leaving only a gaping wound in place of an appendage.

-This series is exclusively published on Web if you are reading it anywhere else...You Wrong, Fam. PS Check out the Discord, https://discord.gg/dcxKNJEMwg-