Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

Tyrannical Kyp rushed to open the cabinets on the back wall and quickly shoved everything into his bags without bother to look at what he was grabbing.  All of the extremely valuable materials had already been taken away from the magic research lab but there was plenty of equipment and basic materials still left.  It was cheaper for Baramore to abandon these things compared to storing and shipping them to the shadow realm.

While Tyrannical Kyp moved as fast as he could, the voices in the hallway were getting closer.

"There should be plenty of good things still left in here."

"Yeah, yeah, that is what you said about the last place but we didn't find anything worth taking."

"It doesn't matter.  Boss isn't afraid of the drow, he said people are getting worked up over nothing.  Let's just do what were told."

"That is fine by me.  The bosses orders were to kill all outsiders and take anything of value."

"It worked out well that everyone fled, now we can make Avalon our home base.  Once boss decimates the drow we will run this place.  When those stupid idiots that fled want to come back, we will be in charge.  Boss will be the one collecting the tax.  This will probably be the easiest time anyone has ever had conquering a country."

"I heard that Lucan Quilldrake, that Hand of Raze has a decent relationship with the people of Baramore.  But it doesn't matter, even if that joke of a warlock wants to elp them get back their land they will all have to kneel and beg boss."

"And empty their pockets."

"Ha, ha, ha, I can imagine it now."

"Hey, check it out.  Those morons even left the door to the research lab unlocked, lets grab everything and head back to the town square.  Boss said he was going to make an example out of those NPCs that decided to stay."

"He, he, I can't wait.  Everyone will soon learn that Avalon and Baramore now belong to Dark Web."

Three players casually walked into the research lab to find all the cabinets and drawers open and emptied.  They glanced around the windowless room and quickly focused their attention on the corner that was covered in darkness.

"Something weird is going on."  Said one of the players.  "My night vision can't see into the corner, that isn't natural darkness."

The three players who had entered the room drew their weapons.  After Tyrannical Kyp heard their conversation early, he didn't even bother trying to talk to these people and leaving peacefully.  He planned to leave with his own strength.

He knew he had made the right decision to prepare for an attack once he saw that all three players that entered the room had red names.  Their names weren't a gentle shade of red either, they were a deep marron, which was a testament to the large number of players that they had killed recently.

"Bish, check it out."  Said two other the players, pushing the weakest one forward.

The player named Bish, readied his bow after nocking an arrow and let it fly into the darkness that enshrouded one corner of the room.

*Clink*

They heard the sharp sound of an arrow head hitting the wall after Bish shout an arrow directly into the center of the darkness.

"Huh, maybe it is the remnat of a past experiment."  One of the players suggested.

"Go check it out and see if there is anything in there."  Said another before pushing Bish forward again.

The young man put away his bow and drew a dagger before slowly stepping closer to the dark corner.  Just as he was about to enter the darkness…..

"AHHHH!"  Bish let out a high-pitched scream.

Two fur covered hands reached out of the darkness and dragged him into it.  Bish vanished from the view of the others.

The two remaining players quickly drew their weapons but before they could even take a step towards the darkness to rescue their companion, Bish's screaming stopped and silence overtook the room.

Bish's teammates could see two blood red eyes staring at them from the darkness.

"You-!"  One of the players was about to curse the creature in the darkness, but before he could say anything more, Bish's lifeless body was thrown out from the darkness and skidded to a stop right before them.  They could see that their teammates neck had been snapped and his arms and legs were twisted in various directions.

As they looked, Bish turned gray and his body disappeared.

"HELP!!!!  WE NEED BACK UP!!!"  One of the players shouted.

Tyrannical Kyp cursed his luck.  He had put on to strong of a show, he had wanted to scare the players and throw them off their game to make it easier to defeat them in a three on one fight, but the players weren't as greddy as he thought.  In stead of trying to conquer the monster in the darkness themselves and keep the rewards to themselves, the players quickly called for help and held no intention of trying to take him on alone.

As the players turned to flee, Tango leapt from the darkness and sprinted towards the fleeing targets.  Tyrannical Kyp was safely positioned inside the his beast's shadow.  He really didn't want to give up on these red named players.  Just from killing bish he was able to lot thirty gold pieces, three pieces of armor and a weapon.  They were all only level 140 which was twenty level lower than himself, but they could still be sold for good money.

Tango had become much smaller after his evolution, he was now the size of an average person, but his strength still remained the same as when he was a five meter tall terrifying figure.  In fact, the quadkong's damage had increased by a margin even though his strength stayed the same.  All that strength and power was now consolidated to a smaller area, making it that much more devastating.

*Bang*

An overhead strike came barreling down into one of the fleeing players backs, smashing him into the floor, another arm quickly grabbed the leg of the player that was nearly flattened and flung him across the room like he weighed less than a dinner plate.  The player crashed into his remaining teammate, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

Tang leapt into the air, with all four fist cocked back and ready to pummel as he dove head first towards the two players who were struggling to get back up.

***

The players that had been rushing towards the research department suddenly stopped when the screams and the sounds of conflict suddenly stopped.

"Quick, send someone to the graveyard to find out what happened."  Said the player who was in charge of coming to the rescue.  "Let's move back and set up a perimeter, if there is someone or something in there, they won't be able to escape without leaving the building.  Let's not play on their terms.  If we try to search the building, we may get picked off one by one."

The players that were following quickly agreed.  The players of Dark Web weren't dumb, they were aware of their situation.  They knew they were red players and dying would be extremely costly. Deciding to play it safe, they quickly left the build and surrounded while more players quickly showed up.

"Team leader, I just received word from the graveyard.  There is a mutated quadkong in there.  They say it is pretty powerful and can control dark magic."

The player in charge of the rescue nodded his head.  "We don't need to bother boss with this.  We already have thirty people here.  One quadkong is something that will be a piece of cake compared to our combined might.  Tighten the perimeter and make sure he doesn't escape, who ever had alchemical fire, toss it into the building, we will flush the beast out."

***

Tracker92 checked his interface.  He had just received a message from his party leader, Tyrannical Kyp.  After reading it, he understood that Kyp didn't have time to talk and quickly passed the information to the other people in the party.

[Tracker92:  …That was everything that Kyp told me, it sounds like this Dark Web is planning something in the center of the city here soon.]

[SneakySnake: If they are all red players, it may be a good opportunity to strike it rich.]

[Darkx_xAssassin: Lucan did say anything we looted off a player would be ours.  Besides these Dark Web guys have already cleaned out most of the city.]

[Tracker92: Lucan will also reward us if we give him the stuff these guys drop.  I wouldn't mind getting in his good books.]

[Bubblegumfairy: What about Kyp, should we give him a hand.]

[Tracker92:  Don't worry about him, there is a reason that SuperSleuth made him party leader even though he isn't one of Super's acolytes like us.  Tango is strong, and he still has that new weekly ability that he hasn't used yet, and even if he did use it, the best thing we could do would be to stay out of the way.]

[Darkx_xAssassin:  Agreed, he can take care of those fools himself, let's head to the city center and meet up before we deal with the others.]

[SneakySnake: Sounds good.]

[Tracker92: Agreed.]

[Bubblegumfairy: +1]

*Boom*

"RAAWWWRRRR!!!!!"

The four acolytes of Super closed their interfaces and looked towards where the noise had come from.

Even from the other side of the city, the could see Tango clear as day.  The quadkong had broken through the roof of the flaming building and now stood over thirty meters tall.  The ferocious four armed gorilla was beating his chest and roaring in preparation for the massacre that was about to commence.

When the beast stopped pounding his chest.  He turned his eyes towards the pathetic rats that dared to take him on as he cast his eyes towards the ground where the players were scurrying about, trying to flee as quickly as possible.