Quicker than a flash of lightning, a dark vine pierced Staff’s layers of magical barrier before he’d even completed the cast. Staff’s own bare hand slapped the vine to the side before it could tear through his body. Blood spilled as his raw administrative strength managed to divert the attack. The palm of his hand began to drip blood as the vine vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

“Silent Casting.” Staff chanted mid breath. A dark blue aura wrapped around his body as he gritted his teeth. More and more auras quickly began to wrap around him, but this time without incantation. Dark green, orange, brown, yellow, red, and finally light blue. Magical boosts of every kind. He clenched his bleeding hand to stop it trembling in fear. His other hand shot forwards as his magical power seemed to focus instantly. A powerful beam of fire tore through the magically saturated air towards the corrupted aberration, again without incantation. Morgan’s ace spell, the master level Fire Beam, was slapped aside as easily as Staff had deflected the vine. The red aura that surrounded Staff shattered, its power had been fuelled into the spell, yet it had made little difference. Tree spirits held an inherent weakness to fire of any kind. Fire Magic should have been the perfect counter to such a terrifying creature, yet its black eye sockets, the only feature calved on its bark mask, glared back at the God of Magic with simple distain.

The earth at Staff’s feet shattered in an unprompted explosion. A bright flash of light, and Staff was behind the creature unharmed, yet he found a dark vine waiting for him. Before he could flash again to avoid the attack, the vine lashed as his shoulder, spilling more blood.

These injuries were no illusion. No falsehood conjured by the protective effects of a war state shield. These were real, and painful. Staff winced as he flashed away, narrowly avoiding an entire swarm of razor-sharp vines slicing him to pieces. He reappeared high in the sky, far above the dense canopy of the deep forest. Yet his senses fired with realisation he still wasn’t safe. A spiderweb of pitch-black vines unleashed themselves into the air towards him as the forest beneath erupted into a cloud of dirt, splinter sized sharp wooden chips, and deadly toxic spores. The deadly mixture tore apart an entire kilometre radius. Staff desperately thrust his hand downwards. Barrier Magic normally drew its strength from the firm ground underneath the feet of a casting mage. Such magic was impossible to cast mid-air, but such rules had an exception, “Rule Subversion; Source!” Staff desperately chanted. Suddenly the air surrounding him begrudgingly obeyed the commands of his magical power. Instead of behaving like it was used to, it changed to now mimic the strength of the ground solely for the purpose of such strength to be drawn upon by the surrounding magic. A magical barrier surged into existence at Staff’s will, immediately accompanied by additional layers as both barrier and dome constructs began tightly arranging themselves into a dense, layered and fortified structure. Just as the construct completed, the thousands of pitch-black vines met its base. They punctured the first few layers and began to worm their way through the gaps and structural weak points as their progress slowed to a crawl. Finally, Staff had a second to catch his breath. If fire had done nothing, his next best option was clear.

Again, his magic began to flow, the air begrudgingly obeyed. Unhappy at the form it was being forced to take, but powerless to his divine command. A white circle of magic surrounded Staff’s bleeding hand as he aimed it down into the cloud of dirt, razor sharp wood shards, and poisonous spores that was continuing to consume the forest beneath him. A single beam of blinding white light shot downwards, impacting the ground with a powerful thud. The beam seemed to pass through Staff’s translucent barrier construct without issue, slicing through any dark vine unlucky enough to cross its path. A tree spirit was weak to fire, but a corrupted tree spirit was also weak to the purifying intensity of Light Magic. Such was the cost for such might. The destruction being unleashed below fell dead still. The storm of wooden shrapnel and toxins quietly dispersed as the power of Staff’s spell pushed the cloud outwards from its centre.

Two pitch black eyes glared back up at Staff as he began to fall downwards through the air. Gravity finally noticing his presence now that it had been more than a blink of an eye since he’d retreated so high. He’d hit it square on, and he’d hurt it, but just barely, “Go, Iirth.” Staff whispered as he released his grip on his magical staff mid-air. Iirth vanished in a haze of dark magic at its master’s command. A blinding flash of white light, and Staff’s feet firmly planted themselves upon solid ground. The forest floor had been calved up and turned into a rocky wasteland barriered by the still dispersing storm of dirt, wood, and poison. Now that he could once again call upon the correct sources for a majority of his magic, he opened his mouth, a new command at the ready, “Rule Subversion; Flow.”

At his command, Staff’s magic exploded with a new intensity. The magically saturated air now happy that its wishes were no longer under his command. All had not returned to normal however, in the place of such a violation of the natural order, a new violation had taken its place. The very limit to how much one may channel, how brazenly, how numerously one may wield their magical power, lay shattered and discarded. Staff’s magic unleashed itself onto the world, held back no longer by its strict limitations. Eight rings of fire instantly ignited at his feet, but that was merely the start. Eight more surged through the air around his left wrist, eight more around his right. His eyes narrowed as eight rings instantly surged into existence like an eight layered halo of flames around the top of his head. Every single aura surrounding him shattered, the power fuelling them channelled elsewhere as he poured everything he dare towards the direction of the corrupted spirit.

Barely a fraction of a second since such power had surged, the resulting flames unleashed themselves as Staff’s magic instantly converted from its condensed raw form to intense flames, “Vanish!” He exclaimed. As dirt turned to clay, as humid forest air turned to hellish inferno, dark vines again spun a vast web to respond. Flames and vines mixed as the two massive area of attacks collided. Dark vines evaporated as flames dispersed. Vanish, the eight ring variant of Staff’s favourite spell, completely ignored resistances to deal True Damage. It also increased its own damage with each target hit, but the vines all counted as a single target, so not something of use here and now. That solidified it however, this corrupted spirit was wielding some kind of fire resistance. A purposeful counter to its own weakness. Not only had it been smart enough to consider its own faults, but it had the intelligence to learn new magic not typical of its kind. The remaining, heavily damaged pitch-black vines retreated as Staff’s flames completely dispersed.

“Liquify.” Its voice whispered through the air as for the first time, now that the air was clear and void of obstacles, Staff’s eyes fixed themselves on the full form of the ancient, corrupted tree spirit. It’s wooden, puppet-like arm aimed its dark, magically charged hand at Staff’s feet. The ground beneath him exploded into a seething pool of magma. A panicked flash, and Staff stood just shy of the blast radius for the spell unleashed against him, but that had only been the beginning, “Tectonic Wave!” The ancient, corrupted tree spirit chanted. The magma rose up from the pool and began forming viciously hot tendrils of lava that seemed to obey its every wish. Staff took a deep breath as he collected himself. Those two spells had been Master Level Earth Magic. Tree spirits were known to wield standard Earth Magic, but it being able to wield the far more powerful and vastly more advanced levels of magic was deeply troubling. The many tendrils of lava unleashed themselves at blinding speed towards the Elven mage.

A blinding flash of light, but Staff hadn’t changed position. The tendrils of lava halted at her presence. Zoie stood between Staff and the boiling hot attack; her eyes firmly locked with the familiar element. Her form distorted from its normal human looking shape. In its place, a giant terror took form. A central pillar of fire wrapped in igneous black rock armour. Four times the height of Staff himself, Dracona the Living Flame stood tall.

“Doorway To Hell!” Her deafening voice boomed. The rock wasteland surrounded by scarred deep forest vanished, replaced by a hellish inferno. A pocket dimension of fiery hellscape. Whatever moisture had survived Staff’s magic was no more. Intense heat that only a Demon could conjure washed over all three of them, “A troublesome tree spirit?” She muttered as her gaze shifted to the wooden puppet wrapped in pitch-black vines the very same way a regular tree spirit was wrapped in living vines, “An unfortunate match up for you, troublesome foe.” She confidently boasted as her two thick, flaming armes wrapped and supported by the same igneous rock gestured to their surroundings. A sea of magma surrounded the relatively large rock platform they were now all stood on. A scorching hot arena completely separated from the main space of the Gameworld. Here, Gods and monsters could unleash their all without fear of wiping out the world itself.

Here, separated from risk of any collateral beyond his fellow Gods, Staff’s face lit up with a large, genuine grin.

“Nebular.” Staff’s voice quietly whispered. Just like before, the rules of the very world lay ignored and discarded as Staff’s magic flowed without limit. It concentrated entirely within the palm of his hand and took the form of a superhot cloud of gas that began to spin into a turbulent disk, “Ignition.” He added as the cloud of gas compacted and condensed, heating up as it did so until it suddenly hit critical mass. A flash of heat and power, and just like that, a Protostar ignited within his palm.

Pitch-black vines immediately targeted Staff. Unable to hide within the forest, now completely out in the open, Dracona’s eyes tracked their attack approaches like a seasoned hawk.

“Chain Explosion.” She calmly chanted as a completely different kind of magical power surged from her own body. Unlike Elven Magic, Demonic Magic was purely fire and lava based. While limited to this aspect, that did not make it less powerful by any means. Demons as a race naturally produced magical power within their own bodies. They radiate such power as heat, their natural magical generation acting as the source for their infernal red aura. They did not require knowledge and careful balance of the forces of nature, nor did they draw on nature’s strength. They drew from themselves, and such power was at times even more terrifying.

The air surrounding the ancient, corrupted tree spirit exploded. As the fiery explosion connected with the twisting vines coming from the creature, secondary explosions instantly triggered and tore them asunder at the roots. If that had not been bad enough for their foe, the pressure waves of each individual explosion twisted and tore at its scorched figure. Fire resistance or not, there was no escaping that attack unharmed.

A single second after ignition, the protostar within Staff’s grasp unleashed a wave of scorching energy unlike anything yet seen in the Gameworld. Staff’s bleeding hand now began to char as deadly radiation began to saturate his skin. He bit his lip and bared down against the pain as he waited one more second.

“Main Sequence Class; Red Dwarf.” He chanted through gritted teeth. The Tauri star quickly expanded and turned a deep red as it formed an all too familiar stellar object to those who existed within the world of the admins. Barely larger than Staff’s own hand, its intense heat somehow dwarfed the heat of the surrounding infernal hellscape. It’s piercing radiation dealing small damage to both Staff and Dracona even through their administrative resistances, its mild gravitational pull viciously tugging at Staff’s injured hand as he focused his efforts on properly holding the reaction in a stable state.

The smoke of Dracona’s explosions cleared, revealing the ancient, corrupted tree spirit was still relatively unharmed. Some of its wooden components had been scorched or split, but the resilient black vines seemed perfectly capable of holding the form in one piece still. It again aimed its hand to the igneous rock floor as intense magic of its own surged. The ground tore into chunks of heated rock.

“Boulder Shot” The spirit chanted as it readjusted its aim towards Zoie. Dracona tensed up and smacked aside the now supersonic human sized boulders that had shot her way, “Boulder Shot!” The spirit chanted once more, again the mid-flight rubble aimed true, but this time darted around her and began to bare down on Staff’s vulnerable position. A spark of magic from somewhere unknown, and one of Staff’s layered magical barriers raised to take the shots without any effort from Staff himself. Finally, his eyes lit up as the miniature star within his grasp found the perfect balance.

“Game over abomination.” Staff muttered as he casually flicked his wrist. The red dwarf shot out of his grip and tore its way through space, causing gravitational ripples that twisted and contorted the air. It’s aim found the main body of the corrupted tree spirit. Like a plasma torch through a leaf, it tore through the creature’s body with zero resistance. The wooden puppet frame of the tree spirit set ablaze from merely being within proximity to the star, yet the corrupted tree spirit’s dark and empty eyes purposefully tracked the stellar projectile while it swung around for a second pass.

The black vines that were holding the wooden frame of its body together suddenly pulsed an all too familiar power. A pitch-black, two-handed blade appeared within the tree spirit’s grip, immediately causing a black aura to wrap around its ablaze form. The flames died down, but the burns had dealt noticeable damage to the wooden body and the vines themselves. Staff’s eyes widened with realisation as the freshly revealed Dragon Sword aimed towards his red dwarf. It wasn’t trying to win this fight; it was trying to gain power. He desperately aimed his hand at his own spell, “Collapse!” He immediately chanted. The star instantly collapsed in on itself at his command. In its place, a white-hot ball of solid matter was all that remained. Still with an intense heat of its own, but there was no more radiation being generated. It connected with the blade, the dragon sword quickly got to work. The White Dwarf was no more, absorbed just as easily as The Creator’s meteor. The surrounding black aura that now enveloped the tree spirit intensified with newly obtained power. The black vines themselves began to regenerate and fill in the hole through its chest that Staff had initially caused.

“And now admin, your light is mine!” The corrupted tree spirit mocked as it aimed its sword towards Staff. An awkward pause occurred as Staff raised an eyebrow.

“Cosmic Spells aren’t that simple I’m afraid.” He tutted with a prideful smirk, “They rely on the trigger effects of other Cosmic Magic.” He revealed, “Can’t conjure a White Dwarf without collapsing a star.”

“The trickster God doesn’t disappoint.” The corrupted tree spirit muttered as it stood tall, now fully healed. Staff winced out of irritation. He had prevented the troublesome blade from mimicking his most powerful set of spells for now, but risking that possibility again was beyond dangerous. To add to their worries, the magical power he’d poured into the spell initially back when it was a nebular had now been absorbed by the blade. While it was likely still not as powerful as the Dragon God’s Blade, it was beginning to head in that direction with such a large absorption. Without a word or gesture, a ghostly outline of a dome shield appeared around Staff and Dracona.

“Neutron Mode.” Iirth chanted from its yet undiscovered position. The shield suddenly surged neon green, “Cleanse.” Iirth continued. The small number of stacks of radiation that had accumulated on the two admins vanished without a trace. The shield then shattered, vanishing completely. Staff glanced down at his injured hand. Cut and still scarred with radiation burns. The radiation status effect was unique within the Gameworld. Its effects decayed over time but never vanished completely without intervention, and the effect wasn’t able to be resisted or prevented. Despite the fact that the admins themselves were completely immune to status effects, not even their protections could prevent radiation. Such an effect left unchecked within the Gameworld itself, could be the trigger to an extinction level scenario. Dracona’s hellscape had been used specifically so that Staff could go all out, but now because of his mistake, Cosmic Magic wasn’t something he could risk using against this foe.

“What now?” Zoie huffed towards Sam. Staff scrunched his face as he considered their options. Zoie was more of a tank than him, but when it came down to it, they were two mage types against a chaotic and adaptable opponent. The revelation of the dragon sword certainly complicated their magical options.

“Time to change tactics.” Staff muttered. His magical power swelled once more, “Summon Greater Elemental; Earth!” He chanted. Raw magical power flowed from his fingers to strike the earth ahead of him. Rocks crunched and collected themselves into a dense, giant form. Twice the size of a human, the Earth Elemental glared its small eyes towards its ordered opponent. It charged forwards, every step stomping with the power of an earthquake. The tree spirit watched the actions of this new summon with curiosity as the Elemental continued to bare down on its position. The tree spirit raised its hand.

“Liquify.” It chanted.

“Negate!” Staff instantly chanted in response. An Expert Level Counter Magic spell he saved only for the more desperate of situations. The magic of the tree spirit fizzled. It instead launched a barrage of dark vines towards the Elemental. The vines punctured the Earth Elemental’s thick armour but otherwise had no effect. The Elemental continued its charge as if such injuries meant nothing to it. With the summon now coming into arms range, the tree spirit stepped back a few paces, leaving little room between the edge of the rock platform behind it. It swung its sword true. The powerful blade sliced deep into the torso of the Elemental. Staff shot a smirk towards Dracona as his magic flared once again, “Compact!”

With so many options, the last thing this creature would have expected was for Staff to wield its own element against it. The rock form of the Earth Elemental suddenly condensed and compacted into a single rock around the dragon sword’s already heavy blade.

“My turn.” Dracona boomed as her fist came from behind the Elemental’s remains. Her arm suddenly doubled in size, thickness, and mass just before impact. The air roared, a thunderous boom echoed, the surrounding sea of lava rippled as the rock island shook from the impact.

“Beam.” The tree spirit chanted. It had taken the blow head on and shrugged it off despite the sea of lava directly behind it parting from the sheer force Zoie had brought to bear. A bright beam of blinding white light sliced through Dracona’s demonic body. Staff winced again. Another mistake. It had secretly absorbed that spell from him before Zoie had even arrived. It knew how useful a spell of Light Magic would be against a Demon. Dracona flashed away, reappearing next to Staff in her human form.

“Ouch.” She sighed, her skin lightly sunburnt, “That’s certainly a hard counter.”

“We’re three mage classes exchanging blows, but it grows stronger the more we fight.” Staff sighed, “This is a hard counter to us both.”

“Out of tricks already?” She teased with a small smirk.

“Certainly not.” He playfully responded with a slightly puffed chest. Yet, his posture quickly turned serious, “But we aren’t winning this fight without help.”

“Let’s hope the others are online then.” She sighed as she straightened her plain white dress out, “Time for plan C.” She ordered.

“Agreed.” Staff responded. He raised one hand, only to begin moving it through the infernal air like a well-practiced dance move. The air felt his magic flow and responded in kind, “Rule Subversion; Velocity.”

At his command, the limit of how much magical power could be wielded at once suddenly returned. The world took a quiet sigh of relief, yet in the place of such a breach of rules, something else took its place. The nozzle width had been returned to normal, but now the speed of the power flowing through it shot all the way to infinity. Staff closed his eyes and took in a deep breath of fresh air as he felt the stubborn medium willingly grant him permission, “Chain Lightning Bolt!” He chanted as he thrust his arm towards the tree spirit. His eyes shot open as the built-up magical power within responded without delay. A lightspeed bolt of lightning struck the tree spirit dead centre. Secondary lightning bolts spanned outwards like a web from its initial target, searching for other targets to chain from, “Deflect!” Staff quickly chanted. Suddenly the secondary chains twisted around and simultaneously struck the tree spirit. Again, the chaining effect of the spell triggered. A web of lightning expanded outwards, “Deflect!” Staff chanted again, perfectly timed, his magical power able to flow with an impossible response time. After the third strike, Staff willingly allowed the chained effect to disperse on its own instead of redirecting it again. The tree spirit stood still, struggling to move as electrical charge surged through its vines.

Lightning Magic wasn’t that effective against an Earth based creature, but effective or not Lightning Magic was high damage and near instant impact even without Staff’s unique effect. However, Chain Lightning Bolt halved its damage every time it chained, so continuing anymore wasn’t going to achieve much. As the tree spirit began to regain its movement, Staff aimed its way once more, “Lightning Bolt!” He chanted. Again, a powerful bolt of blinding light struck the tree spirit dead on. No chain this time, but with a much cheaper spell, that wasn’t an issue, “Silent Casting!” He chanted. Again, a dark blue aura wrapped around him. Now with such a powerful effect combined with his rule subversion, lightning again struck. Again, again, again, and again. Barely a gap between them, each spell as powerful as the last. The unforgiving barrage turned thunderous booms into an intense white noise of static and heat.

“Compact!” The corrupted tree spirit desperately chanted. The rock at its feet suddenly began to flow across its form, like skin and then compacted into a dense armour. Staff halted his barrage of magic.

“You’re right.” Zoie sighed, “It’s smart enough to counter everything you’ve got.”

“That’s only the beginning.” Staff muttered as he eyed the fortified tree spirit with distain, “It’s yet to bring the power it absorbed from me to bare. It’s been focused on healing and defence.” He revealed, “Once its drained us of mana it intends to go on the offensive.”

“Good thing not all of us wield magic then.” A familiar voice boomed from Staff’s side. The Elven mage turned to find Axe stood beside his massive cannon, already aimed towards the tree spirit, “Afraid a thin layer of rock won’t be your saving grace against me.” He spoke, addressing the tree spirit itself. A casual flick of his wrist, and the cannon fired. The cannon ball tore through the air at the same blinding speed as Staff’s Lightning Magic. Runes glowing at full power as the human sized projectile of dense metal slammed into the immobile tree spirt. It’s rock skin shattered like glass as it was flung off the edge of the rock island and into the air above the sea of lava.

“Tectonic Wave.” The tree spirit chanted. The lava parted as it fell. Its feet firmly planted themselves against the boiling hot igneous rock sea floor.

“Got ourselves a troublesome bugger, haven’t we?” Axe remarked as he glanced a smirk at Staff and Dracona. It was rare he had to come to the rescue of his fellow admins. Normally their superior firepower had them playing the role of saviour to him. His signature two-handed war axe flashed into his meaty grip as his smirk turned to a teethy grin, “Shall we?”

“Lead the way, Forgemaster.” Staff responded as he gestured both hands towards their opponent. The three of them flashed down from the high up island of rock to the exposed sea floor.

“What we got then?” Axe asked as he eyed the opponent properly. The metallic full plate armour littered with runes and covering his entire body other than his beard and head turned to liquid metal.

“Focus Light Magic resistance to assist Zoie. Impact resistance as well to counter its Earth Magic.” Staff answered, “Piercing and fast vines too, plus whatever else it’s hiding.”

“Aye.” Axe chuckled. The liquid metal reforged back into the same armour upon his body. Runes ignited and sparked to life. Fresh, newly picked runes more fitting their foe. Next his axe liquified, “And presumably the dragon sword special as well.” He added as he eyed the troublesome sword within the grip of such a terrifyingly strong creature in its own right. His axe reforged just like his armour had, it returned to his hands with fresh runes of its own, “Sam on support, Zoie on counter, got it?” He ordered. Staff and Dracona both nodded without argument, “Time to show this fucker how we’ve kept things running this long. Going low!” He announced.

Axe tensed, then charged forwards towards the tree spirit. The spirt tilted its head slightly as it took in its new foe. A slow close-range fighter with a troublesome ranged attack that wasn’t magically based. Its gaze focused on Axe’s weapon. A legendary construct wielding multiple runes of immense power. It steadied its own dragon sword. If the admin wished to clash blades, it had no complaints on the matter. It lunged into a full charge towards Axe.

A blinding flash of white light, and suddenly Axe was gone. Replaced by Dracona’s towering demonic form, and no longer a few metres away, but directly in front of the tree spirit. A giant flaming fist came crashing down towards the spirit. Dark vines shot out in response and brought Zoie’s fist to a painful stop just shy of impact.

“Beam.” It chanted as it aimed its blade at Zoie’s chest. The beam of pure white light shot but found Axe’s armour as its target instead. Another blinding flash had again caused the admins to switch. The powerful magic glanced off Axe’s thick protection like a pebble bouncing off a sturdy castle wall. Axe was now in melee range. The corrupted tree spirt quickly blocked the Dwarf’s powerful slash. At last, a legendary weapon had made contact with its blade. The dragon sword hungrily absorbed the magic of the powerful weapon. Axe’s fierce expression remained unchanged despite clearly witnessing his own weapon fall victim to the signature effect of the dragon sword.

“Left yourself open, bean sprout.” Axe teased with a large grin. A powerful punch slammed against the side of the tree spirit. A full power, completely unexpected and undefended blow from Zoie’s giant fist. The tree spirit was sent flying into the surrounding walls of liquid lava.