Well, sh*t!

That was the thought that ran through Hol's head when he saw how quickly the ring hero's armor turned from the royal mage robes with some armor padding here and there into a dark cloak with pitch-black armor underneath, only broken up by a few glowing yellow lines. It was as if instead of a mage, an armored knight had taken on a magic robe instead.

Instead of the large shield-like jar, William had a moment ago, a smaller yet more ominous form was now covering the king's left hand. It was a large black pot with several yellow symbols covering it, some forming a large, sinister smile with diseased yellow teeth. The rest spelled out some symbols or ran around the different gemstones that covered the pot.

But unlike Hol thought, that wasn't all that changed. The rings on the right hand of the king changed from the different colorful forms into one monotonous black and yellow form with two foxes surrounding the murky yellow gem.

A dark aura was wrapped around his entire body, making him look bigger than he was, almost towering over Jim and Hol.

A shiver ran down Hol's spine as his eyes widened in confusion at the sight.

How the hell is he dual-wielding those?!

Before Hol could react, the cursed hero was already in front of him with his ring-covered fist raised. The hero could barely raise his hands to protect himself when the king punched him in the face, slamming his head into the ground.

The king raised his foot to crush Hol, but he set off a skill to blast himself away, buying some distance. As the king lunged at Hol again, letting out an irritated grunt, Hol swung his sickle to blast the king's face off, but the man caught his hand and punched the otherworlder in the gut. Hol raised his other sickle and swung again, this time setting off 'Chaos Strike', stabbing the ring hero several times in the chest.

But to his horror, the ring hero didn't seem to acknowledge the pain, as it only left small holes in the armor and shallow cuts in his skin. He grabbed Hol's hair and kneed him in the face. Before Hol could recover, he kneed him again, breaking the man's nose, let go, and punched the man in the jaw, knocking out some teeth.

Hol gasped out in pain and tried to break out of the king's grasp, but to his surprise, the king himself let go. Before he could gain any ground, however, a bright yellow light erupted from the king's jar and blasted him away, burning his armor and skin.

Ha ha, I'm in danger. Jim thought to himself as the ring…jar hero?… King turned towards him.

"You just couldn't stay away. You just HAD to ruin things even though I tried so hard to keep you out of it!" the ring hero roared out, his voice booming through the hall as he approached Jim.

"An eye for an eye, you son of a gun," Jim smiled, even with his arms and legs trembling slightly. Even though he didn't want to admit it, the king before him looked like he could cut Jim in half with just two fingers. Yet he stood firm and tried to come up with a plan on how to beat this man.

"Mjolnir!"

Not wanting to test his defense by letting the king attack first, he launched his weapon at the king in hopes of knocking his lights out. The king raised his hand and caught the hammer,

"Impossi-" Jim began, but the king was in no mood for games as he lunged forward and punched Jim in the stomach.

"Stop treating this like a joke!" the king screamed, punching him again. Jim gasped out in pain but he didn't get any time to recover. Midas slammed his face into a nearby wall and proceeded to punch him ruthlessly, breaking Jim's skill-made armor and the armor he stole.

Just as Jim thought he was about to die, the king dropped him to the ground and grabbed his head, groaning in pain. The dark aura was beginning to thicken and circle around the king even faster than before. The ring hero grit his teeth and his eyes started to turn a bright golden color.

"Sh-shut UP!" He slammed the jar into the ground when a thought occurred to him.

"With this… can I upgrade it as well?" he mumbled, glancing between his jar and the rings, completely lost in thought. Jim and Hol seemed to have been forgotten as the jar began to shimmer.

Hol grumbled as he tried to get up from the ground.

Shoot! What do we do? I just got several upgrade methods and he's barely receiving any damage! What is his upgrade method? Maybe if I had an extra one… wait! What did the pickaxe hero say her method was?

"Now I have to use more ore to raise the smelting level again, or else this weapon will be weaker than the fourth best one I have."

Welp, here goes nothing.

Hol opened up his status screen and indeed a new method has shown up. Smelting level popped up as an option on his current weapon so he clicked it and saw a new menu appear with the cost of an ore he had in his inventory.

He quickly pressed the upgrade button and watched as the counter next to the name raised to '+1' and his stats rose. He did it again and again and began to rapidly press the button, when suddenly…

[Smelting failed]

[Smelting level returned to 0]

Sh*t.

He grumbled and began to upgrade his weapon again, when suddenly, Hol was brought out of his thoughts as a laugh erupted from the king. He was looking at something invisible in front of him and the jar began to shimmer rapidly.

Damn it! He's upgrading his weapon! 7 will do, I can't let him get stronger than this!

"Thunder Strike!" Hol sent off a large bolt of lightning from the tips of his sickles, slamming into the king's body and knocking him back. However, the attack seemed to be completely ineffective, bouncing off harmlessly.

"Shrapnel Shot." Midas didn't even move from his spot, instead pointing his rings at Hol and firing off several golden beams of light at him. Hol tried his best to block or dodge them, but some ripped through his arms and legs, leaving long holes in his body. The smell of burned flesh hit his nostrils as he collapsed onto the floor.

"You've both been a huge thorn in my side, so let's finish this already." The king began to slowly walk up to him, his weapons charging up attacks.

Dang it! What the hell do I do?! Do I really have to turn to my wrath? Do I ha… wait! I still have that!

Jim saw Hol's face light up for a moment. Realizing that Hol had a plan in mind, he tried to think of something, anything, to get the king's attention. But there was only one thought that came to mind. Probably because the other thoughts were beaten out of his head.

"OI! YOUR MAJESTY!" Jim screamed out, standing up from the rubble.

"WHAT?!" the king roared, turning towards Jim. He was expecting an attack, a grand asspull or even Jim begging for mercy. But he was not prepared for what he saw.

"I WALK A LONELY ROAD!" Jim sang as he began to dance to the best of his abilities in a desperate attempt to slow down the madman. One of his arms didn't move past the elbows, while a leg of his was being dragged around limply. "THE ONLY ONE THAT I HAVE EVER KNO-!"

The king grit his teeth and punched Jim in the jaw, sending him to the ground.

"STOP! MAKING! THIS! INTO! A! JOKE!" The king hollered, supporting every word with a heavy punch to the head. "THIS IS MY LIFE AND THE LIFE OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE STRUGGLING FOR SURVIVAL! WHILE YOU JUST MAKE F*CKING JOKES!"

But his screams fell on deaf ears as Jim's vision began to blur and the king's voice started to get further and further away from him.

Is this… how I die?

"Lunar Strike!" A voice called out, knocking the king away from Jim. A warm sensation enveloped Jim as he felt the pain almost disappear completely and his vision sharpened. He looked over at Hol who dropped a small skull-shaped bottle to the side, letting it crash onto the floor, shattering on impact.

"I agree. Let's finish this, you son of a b*tch," Hol said, his weapons shining dangerously.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Leona hollered, swinging her pickaxe around for another round of attacks. A random knight that tried to approach her was blasted far away, freeing up room for the chimera to try to run away from under Leona. Unfortunately for the beast of destruction, Leona had a death grip on its fur, keeping her from falling off.

"What are you doing?! Why haven't you slayed the beast of destruction yet?" somebody asked next to her. Leona turned around but didn't see anyone. She scratched the back of her head with her pickaxe in confusion.

"Damn, I think the last batch of drinks was spiked," she mumbled.

"Hero! That is not the problem here! You are keeping us from stopping the waves! This means we have to deal with more monsters!" another voice rang out.

"Oh please, I'm killing most of them. It's a good chance for y'all to level up. We all know you guys need it since y'all strugglin' so much!" Leona laughed, swinging her pickaxe and killing another monster.

"Fine, I'll end it myself!" one of the voices said, and a blade suddenly appeared out of Leona's shadow, aimed at the top of the chimera's head.

"No you don't! Carbide Lamp!" Leona yelled. Suddenly a bright light erupted from the gem of the pickaxe and surrounded the tip, forming a lamp that blinded everyone around it other than the user. She swung it towards the shadowy arm, emitting a screech from it as the two shadows retreated.

One of them grunted and dropped to her knees, her body letting off steam. Her sister quickly rushed to her aid and handed her a healing potion.

"Wow, you two are pretty f*cking weak. Wonder how you got this *hic* far. Toodles!" Leona laughed, sending off several more blasts in all directions.

Wonder how Hol is doing? He should have come back a while back. Guess the king is keeping him busy. Oh well!

With that, Leona continued her relentless attacks, leveling up as she went and keeping the wave open in the process.

"Erst Blast! Zweit Blast!"

"Erst Strike."

"Shrapnel Shot!"

"Second Strike."

"Lunar Blast, Fireball!"

"Dritt Strike."

The king blasted skill after skill out of both weapons in a desperate attempt to push Hol back, but he simply countered with his own skill and advanced forward. An aura of dangerous energy was emanating from his body and his weapon shimmered brightly.

[Smelting successful]

[Smelting level raised to 9]

[Smelting successful]

[Smelting level raised to 10]

[Smelting successful]

[Smelting level raised to 11]

I gotta end this soon. The second the duration ends I'm probably gonna be incapacitated so I have to kill him, grab the jar, and run like hell back to my world. But damn, the guy wasn't exaggerating when he said this was op.

'WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE!" the king screamed, pointing both weapons at Hol. "Erst Contain, Second Contain, Dritte Contain, Magic Bind, Prison Container!"

Skill after skill was thrown at Hol, trying to keep him down. However, he was able to break most of them until magic circles appeared around his arms, stopping him from breaking out of the last container.

"Change Bind (Attack), change container (attack)! IRON MAIDEN AND MAGIC CIRCLE SPIKE!" the ring hero hollered as the skills before him began to grow spikes, stabbing Hol. A large iron maiden descended from the skies, its doors opening up to reveal rows of spikes ready to skewer anyone that enters it. At the same time the floor around Hol began to glow as a sharp, glowing, blood red tip burst out of the floor and stabbed into the container.

"Mjolnir!" Jim yelled, sending his hammer at the head of the iron maiden. But despite that being his strongest attack, the hammer bounced off of the head of the maiden and returned to Jim's hand.

"Stop interfering!" the king screamed, charging up an attack with both weapons. Jim's eyes widened in a panic as he started to run in the other direction. However, he had no way of outrunning two blasts of energy.

"Reflect Bash!" Jim jumped to the side and swung his hammer as hard as he could, slamming its reflective surface into the blasts. However, despite his best efforts, he could only redirect a fraction of the attack. The blasts of energy sent his hammer and him flying back. Jim screamed out in pain from his arms almost being torn off as he tumbled to the floor.

"Dual Lunar Strike!" Hol burst out of the jar, tearing the magic spike and iron maiden to shreds in an instant. His weapons were now glowing brighter than ever, with a blue glow surrounding his whole body.

"WHY WON'T YOU TWO DIE ALREADY?!" the king shrieked, charging up his attacks again. A golden aura began to wrap around his weapons. Coins began to rise from a bag on his hip and get absorbed into the weapon.

"Like I'd lose to someone like you!" Hol yelled back, rushing at the ring hero with his weapon covered in wind. "Whirlwind Strike!"

"GILDED!" the ring hero yelled just before the attack struck him. Despite the crushing power Hol's weapons now held, the ring hero didn't take substantial damage. Instead of the black and yellow armor he had before, his equipment was now completely enveloped in a layer of glowing gold. The place where Hol hit was already being repaired by his weapons.

"Let's test out the rest of these, shall we?" the king sneered, reaching to grab Hol with his golden gauntlets with claws. Hol jumped back, sending an attack at the man as he ran, but despite the attack breaking a large chunk of the armor, it simply repaired itself as if nothing happened.

"Now let's test what this jar does. Pot of Greed!"

The ground began to rumble, and the castle shook and creaked, as if ready to fall apart at any second. But just as Jim began contemplating defenestration, the ground burst open as a fountain of golden coins began to seep into the room. They gathered around the king's jar.

"DUCK!" Jim yelled, jumping out of the way just as a bright beam of burning yellow light erupted from the jar. Hol managed to avoid the attack at the last second, and the blast crashed into the wall behind him, reducing it to ash.

As a matter of fact, it cleaved its way through the castle, burning through every wall in its path, and collapsing a large chunk of it. The king cursed under his breath as he saw the destruction his attack caused.

"That repair bill is gonna be crazy," Jim laughed. But his smirk was quickly wiped off of his face as more gold began to circle around the king.

"Take this! Golden Eagle!" With a shout, a large bird made of solid gold burst forth towards Jim, with a trail of golden coins behind it. Jim knew he wouldn't be fast enough to dodge it, or strong enough to block it, but he raised his hammer anyway.

"Refle-" "ROPE!"

Before the eagle hit Jim, some weird rope tugged harshly on his stomach and launched him into the air and through a hole in the roof. He looked down and saw Hol, with a rope form in his left and the glowing blue sickle in his right, run towards the king, even as the eagle began to turn to pursue him relentlessly. Hol launched a skill at the eagle, however it simply bounced off of it, barely making a dent in its form.

Dang it, what am I supposed to do here? I'm underleveled as hell and my weapons aren't that great! Do I have anything that does scaling damage or an effect of some kind?

Jim began to rapidly scroll through his most recently acquired weapon forms until one caught his eye.

Well, this could work.

Meanwhile, Hol continued to run and duck under the relentless pursuit of the golden eagle, as well as the ring hero's barrage of attacks. But he was beginning to get tired and the duration of the bonuses would soon disappear.

Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t! Even though my smelting level is so high, I can't upgrade it anymore because the chance is so low. How is he getting stronger and stronger? Just how stupid is his curse series?

Hol swapped back to the dual sickles and raised them into the air. "DUAL LUNAR STRIKE!"

With a blinding blue light, Hol stabbed his weapons into the top of the eagle's head, cracking its skull open. With a dying screech, the eagle exploded, sending golden shrapnel into every direction, injuring Hol in the process. As he scrambled to his feet, the king continued to calmly walk up to the hero.

"Do you finally see the difference in our power, otherworlder? I have been preparing for over a decade in case another one of you showed up. All those long nights of grinding and all the money spent on weapons are finally paying off."

"You're the one who invaded my world, you hypocrite!" Hol retorted. He was about to lunge forward, but then he noticed Jim's head peeking out from the hole in the roof. Jim pointed to his hammer then at the king.

"You're just upset I got you before you had the chance to get me." The king fired back, raising the golden pot. "Now let the ruins of this castle become your tomb! Golden Buria-!"

Suddenly, the king felt his body become heavier as something light hit him in the back of the head. He turned around to see Jim with a glowing green hammer

Augmented ? Kryptonite Hammer N (Harvested)

Abilities Unmastered: stat reduction resistance (weak)

Special Effects: Spirit Sealing Bash (medium)

[O, O]

"This weapon just cost me over 20 thousand energy to upgrade. Worth every item."

Jim grinned and jumped away, but the king rushed after him, readying another skill.

"Solar Bla-HUH?!" Instead of the jar firing off a skill, a burst of energy erupted from it that slammed the jar to the floor, holding the hero in place. He tried to raise it with all his might, but it was like the jar was fused with the floor.

"Huh? Why did it add this effect? I didn't-sh*t!" the hero cursed, glancing up as the two heroes ran toward him.

"Thunder Strike/Mjolnir!" Jim and Hol rushed forward, their weapons cracking with electricity. The king raised the ring and chanted his barrier skill, putting it up just in time. However, despite his best attempts, the barrier couldn't hold up and shattered.

The ring hero screamed out in pain as he was blasted away, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris. Jim stumbled forward, gasping for air.

"He's not dead," Hol warned, pulling Jim up.

"Yeah, that would be too convenient."

As the dust settled, it revealed the king, down on one knee, covered in blood and debris. His golden armor was shattered at the ground and a large, bleeding wound was visible on his chest. He was gasping for air and tried to stand back up, but his body refused to follow his commands. His eyes darted between the two heroes, trying to search for a way out.

"There's no use in running. You are too injured to fight or flee. So pray to whatever god you believe in because I'm sending you to them." Hol declared, pointing his sickle at the king.

"They won't leave you alone. My death will do nothing but bring their attention to this world and these people! Something that I have been trying so hard to avoid!" the ring hero croaked out, blood gushing out of his mouth. His skin and face began to pale as he scrambled to his feet.

"Who the hell are you talking about?" Jim inquired, tilting his head in confusion.

"The ones behind everything! The ones behind the wave! Behind the monsters coming from it! Behind people like me! They are…"

Suddenly the king stopped and his eyes widened. He reached for his throat. Jim saw a layer of gold beginning to spread from his neck, running up and down his body. The ring hero glared at the two and pointed his ring at Jim and Hol.

"Mad Dash!" Before the ring hero could send another attack at either of them, Jim rushed towards the man and slammed his weapon into his head with all his might. The gold covering his throat and chest shattered, splitting him in two. The ring hero's eyes widened, as if in disbelief of what just happened. The golden layer quickly spread to the top of his head, making his expression a permanent one.

With a loud crash, the golden head slammed onto the floor, and soon the golden body followed. And with one final crash, the ring hero was finally dead. Jim collapsed onto the floor, letting out a long sigh of relief as he watched the ring on the golden statue's finger turn into a flash of light and disappear.

"Daddy?" a voice came from behind Jim. He turned around to see who it was, but all he saw was the debris littering the floor, with nobody nearby.

Damn, I must have hit my head pretty hard. Anyway, time to get some drops. Oh, and I guess the wave boss too.

"Hey, what's your game plan now?" Jim asked as Hol picked up the jar off of the floor.

"I have to leave now before the drawbacks kick in." Hol attached the jar to his hip and took one final look at the king. After he was sure the man laying on the ground before him was dead, he nodded and turned away. Hol walked up to the nearest hole in the wall with a view to the wave before hopping off of the edge into the empty streets below.

"What a weird guy," Jim mumbled, stuffing the golden statue into his hammer. After he finished gathering the previous ring hero, he walked towards the edge where Hol jumped off from and looked at the wave.

I should probably go take care of that, huh?

"Make way!" Leona yelled and jumped off just as she rode the chimera boss monster into a nearby tree. The knights have long given up on trying to catch up to her, and the two shadows ended up severely hurt. All she had to do was use the light skill several times to stop them from turning into shadows, and they were almost burned alive by said skill.

Just as Leona was about to grab the chimera again and take it for another round, a panting and bloodied Hol ran towards her through the forest.

"Hol! You made it! And I see you got the jar back!" she exclaimed, pointing to the jar in his hands. Or trying to at least, as her aim was a little off since she was swaying from side to side.

"Thanks. You can kill the boss now. I'd love to talk but I must be off before the effects wear off," Hol exclaimed, as he ran towards the wave in the sky.

"Good luck, Hol! Don't get your weapon stolen again!" Leona yelled as the hero swung himself over the trees and into the waves using some rope on a stick. Or was that his weapon form? She couldn't tell very well from this distance.

A low growl pulled her out of her thoughts and she glanced back at the chimera.

"Right, you're still here. Erst Strike." She pointed her weapon at the beast and released a beam of light, blasting a hole through the monster's chest just as it tried to run away. An exp notification rolled in and the wave above her began to close.

Welp, that's my cue. I think I'll be banned from this place for a while… oh well, back to my cave friends I go!

She was about to teleport away, but a sudden thought came to her.

Well… I do wanna see another summoned hero. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to get a better look at the one who has to save the world. Maybe he'll be cute?

With a wide, drunken grin on her face, Leona activated an invisibility skill and slowly wobbled back to the battlefield.

Killcup

This drink is made by the Holy Bar Hero. It is a very powerful drink with a very strong backlash and was made possible due to the Holy Bar Hero traveling the multiverse with his puppets through the vassal heroes and his cult setting up bars everywhere in his name. With the knowledge gathered from different worlds he was able to create the Killcup.

Think of it as the Sacrifice Aura of his world. It doubles the drinker's stats for a minute and raises their luck to absurd levels. Think Safracice Aura x Liquid Luck from Harry Potter, except instead of lowering your stats for a while, it hospitalizes you and possibly makes you vomit your guts out.