Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Vespera offered the floating camera drone a smooth smile, raising her single right hand in a polite wave. ”Good evening, everyone.”

The stream chat overlaying Sky’s vision instantly went into a chaotic frenzy.

The text scrolled across the screen so fast it turned into an unreadable white blur as eight specific comments flashed prominently on the HUD.

[@GamerGod99: AHHHHHH LORD VESPERA IS BACK! MY QUEEN! ❤️]

[@SovereignWatcher: 2 MILLION VIEWERS IN 30 SECONDS! BLESSED LAND IMPACT!]

[@NoobMaster69: SHE IS SO GORGEOUS BRO! LOOK AT THAT SMILE!]

[@PVP_Legend: What are we hunting tonight Sky?! Show us some blood!]

[@ValoriaFan: So relieved Lord Vespera is safe! She’s so aesthetic!]

[@DarkKnight_00: Late night Basin raid?! Let’s gooooo!]

[@StreamLover: Blessed Land peak content incoming!]

[@TacticalNuke: Who is that person wearing a motorcycle helmet on a direwolf lmao?!]

Sky caught the last comment, laughing warmly as he gestured toward Aeli sitting atop Luna.

”And for those of you asking in the chat,” Sky announced cheerfully, ”this helmeted companion riding beside Lord Vespera is one of Blessed Land’s high-tier Heroes! Lord Vespera has informed me that beneath that tactical helmet... she is an extraordinary, once-in-a-generation Jade Beauty who conceals her face to prevent global chaos!”

Hearing Sky repeat the ”Jade Beauty” title to over two million live stream viewers, Aeli felt her entire body go stiff inside her plastic helmet.

Panicking completely, Aeli reached out with her trembling white-gloved hands, tightly clutching Vespera’s black sleeve, ducking her head behind her Lord’s shoulder as she shyly raised a single hand toward the floating camera drone, offering a tiny muffled wave.

”H-Hi...” Aeli whispered softly from inside the helmet.

She wasn’t usually so shy or reactive but she was trying a different persona, it was like Lord Silas... he was using a different persona to take this Lord by surprise when their war started and she would do the same.

The live stream chat went into a meltdown of pure adoration.

[@GamerGod99: AHHHHHH SHE SAID HI! SHE IS SO ADORABLE!]

[@AnimeFanatic: JADE BEAUTY IN A MOTORCYCLE HELMET?! MY NEW FAVORITE TROPE!]

[@ValoriaFan: Look at her clinging to Vespera’s sleeve! She’s so shy!]

[@SovereignWatcher: FACE REVEAL WHEN?! WE NEED A FACE REVEAL!]

[@Degenerate_X: Blessed Land is literally full of breedable women lmao!]

Sky’s eyes caught that last perverted comment scrolling across his vision, and a prominent vein popped on his temple beneath his alloy mask.

”Moderator! Ban [@Degenerate_X] permanently from the stream network immediately!” Sky barked into his internal system channel, clearing his throat quickly.

Vespera let out a soft amused sigh, looking over at Sky.

”So, Lord Sky... how exactly are we going to track these scout spiders back to their nest in a basin this vast?”

Standing beside Sky, Hiro... the blindfolded main Hero stepped forward.

He reached out his gloved hand, taking the dead scout spider from Sky’s palm.

Hiro turned his blindfolded face toward Vespera with his voice deep and calm.

”Lord Vespera,” Hiro spoke, ”as a dedicated viewer of our stream broadcasts, I assume you are already familiar with my tracking technique?”

Vespera offered a sharp knowing smile, nodding her black-haired head. ”Of course. Your signature skill... [Pathfinder’s Thread].”

Hiro possessed many high-tier sword skills, but his most famous, legendary ability across the streaming network was his Homing perception.

By taking any physical remnant, organic material, or silk strand originating from a target entity, Hiro could channel his steel mana to forcibly trace the target’s original spatial origin point, carving an illuminated path through the physical environment.

Hiro held the dead spider in his palm, closing his blindfolded eyes as he let out a low focused grunt.

”Pathfinder’s Thread!” Hiro commanded softly.

CRACKLE... FLASH!

Hiro’s body violently erupted with a surge of brilliant sapphire-blue steel mana.

The dead spider in his palm dissolved into fine, glowing blue dust particles.

The white silk thread trailing from its abdomen absorbed the blue energy, expanding outward into a blinding beam of pure radiant sapphire light.

SWISH!

The radiant blue light shot out from Hiro’s hand, piercing directly through the dark twilight of the forest.

It didn’t just point a vague direction... The sapphire light physically carved a glowing three-foot-wide luminous blue path directly across the mud, roots, and trees of the Umbral Basin.

The glowing path stretched deep into the dark misty forest, perfectly mapping out the exact winding physical trail that the scout spider had traversed from its mother’s nest to Sky’s camp.

Even though Hiro was completely blind, his spatial vibration perception allowed him to feel the blue light cutting through the atmosphere with clarity.

”The path is open,” Hiro announced, drawing his massive double-edged broadsword from his back with a ringing sound. ”The origin nest lies roughly three miles northwest of our current position.”

Lord Sky drew his broadsword as well, a fierce battle-hungry grin spreading across his face beneath his alloy mask.

He looked back at his floating camera drones, pointing his blade down the glowing blue trail.

”You heard him, chat!” Sky roared enthusiastically, leaping five feet into the air and landing squarely on the glowing sapphire path. ”The hunt is officially on! Let me lead! Let me lead! Let’s go crush this spider nest!”

FWOOSH!

Sky exploded forward down the glowing blue trail at high speed with his boots kicking up dark mud.

Hiro blurred into motion right behind him, his broadsword trailing blue sparks against the air.

Vespera looked at Aeli, her deep purple eyes twinkling with excitement as she gripped Valkyrie’s reins with her single right hand.

”Hold on tight!” Vespera commanded softly. ”Let us show his stream how the Blessed Land hunts!”

HOWL!

GRRR-RUFF!

Valkyrie and Luna let out thunderous howls that shook the surrounding trees.

With a massive surge of speed, the two wolves leaped off the mud, shooting down the glowing sapphire path after Sky and Hiro like gold lightning bolts, plunging deep into the dark uncharted depths of the Umbral Basin night.

...

WHOOSH!

Vespera’s silver longsword carved a razor-sharp horizontal arc through the dark air!

A surging crescent of emerald wind mana erupted from the tip of her blade, cleanly decapitating a horse-sized Umbral Spider mid-leap.

Dark viscous green blood sprayed across the muddy forest floor as the creature’s heavy multi-legged torso tumbled uselessly into a thicket of briars.

Beside her, Valkyrie let out a deep chest-rattling growl with her massive silver paws pinning a second spider to the earth before her jaws snapped shut with a bone-crunching sound.

CRUNCH!

Out of the corner of her deep purple eyes, Vespera caught a flash of bright sapphire-blue light.

CLANG!

Hiro, the blindfolded main Hero of ’The Unmovable Wall,’ let out a low focused grunt.

”Ugh!”

He drew his double-edged broadsword just three inches from its scabbard, unleashing a concentrated wave of pressurized blue steel mana.

The blue aura cleaved cleanly through the air, bisecting a charging Rank 2 spider from head to thorax before the beast could even fire its webbing.

They were currently standing right outside the mouth of a massive dark cavern.

The glowing sapphire path carved by Hiro’s [Pathfinder’s Thread] terminated directly at the pitch-black cave entrance.

It was abundantly clear to everyone that this dark tunnel was the central nest of the scouting spiders.

However, guarding the cave entrance was a swarm of over thirty lesser arachnids... ranging from palm-sized crawling scouts to horse-sized armored horrors!

Vespera didn’t waste time with basic sword swings.

She channeled her Gold Core’s wind mana into her single right palm, feeling the air currents swirl rapidly around her fingers.

’Gale Guillotine!’ Vespera thought.

BOOM!

Vespera thrust her sword forward in a wide sweeping circle!

In a fraction of a second, the entire clearing outside the cave transformed into a sea of roaring emerald-green wind blades.

Dozens of three-foot-long razor gusts shot out in all directions, turning the swarm of spider monsters into a gruesome, airborne meat-grinder.

SLICK! SLICK! CRUNCH! SPLAT!

Over fifteen spiders were instantly sliced into dozens of falling oozing pieces.

Black and green blood rained down over the mud, completely clearing the left flank of the cave mouth in a single, effortless one-handed casting.

Up on the floating camera drones, Sky’s live stream went into a frantic frenzy.

[@GamerGod99: HOLY SHIT! A SEA OF WIND BLADES?! 🔥]

[@SovereignWatcher: LORD VESPERA IS CASUALLY WIPING CROWDS WITH ONE HAND!]

[@NoobMaster69: SHE IS SO CLEAN BRO! NO WASTED MOVEMENTS AT ALL!]

[@PVP_Legend: Look at that wind density! That’s at least Tier 3 control!]

[@ValoriaFan: MY QUEEN IS CARVING UP THE NEST! LET’S GOOOO!]

Seeing Vespera clear half the field with a single casual swing, Hiro’s jaw tightened beneath his blindfold.

’Fuh...’

His calloused fingers gripped his broadsword’s hilt until his knuckles turned white.

STOMP!

Hiro violently slammed his right boot into the dark soil!

KRA-THOOM!

A massive terrifying shockwave of wind and blue steel mana erupted out of his foot, cracking the solid bedrock beneath the mud in a twenty-meter radius.

The explosive physical force slammed directly into the remaining fifteen spider monsters, knocking them completely off balance and launching their bodies thirty feet straight up into the air.

While the spiders were suspended helplessly mid-air, Hiro drew his broadsword entirely from its sheath.

SLIDE... FLASH!

The blade flared with a blinding sun-like sapphire light as Hiro executed a single, blindingly fast multi-directional iaijutsu slash!

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!

Even though Hiro didn’t physically jump into the air, dozens of dense, criss-crossing blue light-slashes materialized around the airborne spiders simultaneously.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

All fifteen airborne spiders were violently diced into hundreds of microscopic, falling chunks.

A massive shower of black blood, severed spider legs, and shattered carapace plates rained down over the cracked ground like a grotesque, dark storm.

SPLAT! CLICK!

Hiro smoothly sheathed his broadsword with a sharp metallic sound, standing tall in the center of the bloody carnage without a single drop of grime touching his pristine leather uniform.

Lord Sky looked at the falling spider chunks, then turned his head toward his Hero, shaking his head with an exasperated quiet sigh.

”You really don’t need to show off like that, Hiro...” Sky muttered under his breath, rubbing his mask’s temple.

Sky turned his gaze toward Vespera, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully behind his alloy faceplate as he carefully analyzed her combat profile.

’She’s an extraordinarily capable wind mage...’ Sky reflected silently inside his mind. ’And her sword craft is top-tier. I handle Water magic as my primary elemental branch, but seeing the way she holds her longsword... I have zero doubts that if I were to face Lord Vespera in a direct, one-on-one sword duel, I am severely outmatched in raw bladework. She trusts her sword implicitly... It’s like an extension of her own arm.’

Sky ran complex calculations in his head.

’Her wind magic output is easily dense enough to blow away and disperse my high-pressure water spells. In a straightforward head-on confrontation between the two of us, I would inevitably lose... unless I rely on that.’

Sky knew his own limitations.

As a Lord who built his entire reputation, wealth, and empire on live streaming, his active combat arsenal was naturally public knowledge.

Stream viewers demanded variety... they hated seeing a Lord spam the exact same three spells in every single match.

To keep millions of subscribers entertained while winning high-stakes Lord Wars, Sky had to constantly devise creative unconventional tactical strategies to overcome superior opponents.

And right now, for the upcoming official Lord War against Blessed Land next week, Sky had already formulated a key tactical counter.

’For the war next week,’ Sky thought with a confident smirk beneath his mask, ’I’ve already assigned two of my elite Heroes who specialize in pure Light Magic to lock down Tasmin. Light magic naturally disrupts, burns, and neutralizes shadow manipulation, so Tasmin’s dark domain will be completely suppressed.’

Sky looked past Vespera with his masked face fixing onto Aeli sitting atop Luna.

’I don’t know much about the rest of Vespera’s officer roster...’ Sky mused, his eyes scanning the helmeted elf. ’She’s keeping her territory’s internal roster remarkably secretive... but that doesn’t matter. My war-band’s overall numbers and combined utility will carry the day. I just need to remain extra prepared. Now... you, helmeted girl... what exactly is your power?’

While Sky was busy analyzing his rivals, Vespera stood beside Valkyrie, looking over at Hiro with a slightly raised amused eyebrow beneath her female disguise.

’Is this blind guy seriously trying to compete with me?’ Silas thought dryly inside his mind. ’What is it with male Heroes and their desperate need to flex their physical output the second a pretty woman enters the field?’

Vespera turned her head toward Aeli softly. ”Are you doing alright?”