As Ruin manipulated all eighteen weapons and formed a perfect circle in front of him, an overwhelming force crashed into his Eighteen Arms of Wushu. At first, the weapons shook violently and it seemed as if the attack had passed. However, before Ruin knew it, an overwhelming pressure slammed into his body.
One of the unique effects that all sound-based attacks had was bypassing and ignoring most forms of defenses. Ruin, who already revealed his annoyance with magic, was caught off guard by Luna's voice magic and sent flying backward.
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"It worked!" Zi Yi said in a slightly excited tone of voice. They were finally capable of seeing just how much damage they were dealing to Ruin. It was difficult to tell since the eighteen weapons usually intercepted all the physical attacks thrown at him. Ruin had to rely on his own natural movement ability in order to avoid any magic attacks.
Guan Yu shot forward like an arrow being released from a bow and thrust his guandao towards Ruin. He did not need Zi Yi's instructions to be clear on what to do next. As his guandao closed in on its target, a mirror image of Guan Yu's guandao appeared behind Ruin.
"Let's see how you do without your floating weapons protecting you!" Guan Yu said as he used the skill Mirroring Attack to assault Ruin from two different angles at the same time.
At the moment, Ruin was furious. Since when had he ever allowed himself to be so humiliated by a bunch of inferior trash? The more that thought crossed his mind, the more angered he became with each passing moment.
"This is the price of looking down on us!" Guan Yu said as his guandao pierced through Ruin from both sides.
However, before anyone could celebrate, they noticed something odd. Ruin was hit by Luna's voice magic and so the damage from Guan Yu's attack should have been shown. But, there were no damage numbers that appeared on the battle logs.
Zi Yi quickly swept her gaze across the battlefield. She wasn't there! Where did the sleeping woman with the pink hair go? She was just resting there a few moments ago. But before she could open her mouth to warn everyone to be careful, she heard a sweet yet somehow chilling voice sound from right behind her.
"Plum blossoms?" Zi Yi's found herself in a world of pure white as she saw the petals of plum blossoms falling slowly in a seemingly endless stream. It filled up the pure white world with a colorful and vibrant pink. If Zi Yi had to use one word to describe it, it would be tranquil. For some reason, it felt as if her consciousness was slowly slipping away and drifting off into a world of absolute tranquility.
"..i-... Yi-... Zi Yi!" A worried and panicked voice called out which snapped Zi Yi out of it. That voice belonged to Luna who stood not too far from Zi Yi.
"What-" Zi Yi looked down at her hands and noticed that they were turning into small particles that drifted off into the air. Her eyes were filled with shock when she finally realized that eighteen weapons were pierced or smashed into her body from all angles.
"Did you honestly expect a different outcome?" A familiar voice rang into Zi Yi's ears. It was the same voice that belonged to Ruin! But, how did he manage to escape from Guan Yu's attack? Or better yet, how was he able to get so close to Zi Yi without anyone realizing it?
It was already too late. Zi Yi was already dissipating which meant that her fate was sealed.
Zi Yi's eyes were soon filled with regret. Although a part of it was due to her experiencing an existence wipe, her biggest worry was about not being there for everyone in a time of need. She had come up with a plan and it had failed. She started to wonder that if she had never met Izroth, would she ever fight against someone like Ruin?
But, Zi Yi did not regret meeting with Izroth and everyone else, especially Luna who she felt the closest to in the group. If she had the chance to do it all again, she would not hesitate even if she knew the potential outcome.
"Sorry..." Were the last words to leave Zi Yi's mouth before she completely dissipated and turned into nothing but floating particles that soon disappeared into the Undying Maelstrom. Zi Yi had experienced an existence wipe.
Luna's expression darkened as she stared coldly at Ruin. She blamed herself for not being able to do anything for Zi Yi even though she was the healer of the party. Even if there was nothing she could have possibly done since Zi Yi's HP dropped to zero instantly, she still blamed herself because of it.
As the shock gradually faded, it was soon replaced by fury. Guan Yu, Halls, and Valentine were all fuming with rage as the actions and words of Ruin echoed inside of their minds.
Their eyes were also locked onto the new participant in the battle. They did not know what she did, but they had a good feeling that she had something with Zi Yi's death. After all, it was too much of a coincidence for her to appear out of seemingly nowhere and close to Zi Yi just before her demise.
They had been too careless in just letting that pink haired woman do as she wishes and sleep peacefully. To be honest, they believed that it was too their advantage since they would only have to fight one of them, but they had been too naive. Such naivety had cost them the life of not just a party member, but a friend.
"You took long enough, Lulazali. Chichi!" Ruin said to the woman with pink hair.
"Mhn, where's Aegis?" Lulazali's voice was soft and sweet. However, she sounded sleepy as if she had just woken up from a long nap.
"He's dealing with that other guy. You know, the one called Izroth that he spoke about back then. Chichi!" Ruin replied.
Lulazali nodded in response. She seemed completely uninterested in the other players that were giving her and Ruin death stares at the moment.
Ruin then turned his attention back towards the others.
"Tell you what, since I'm in such a good mood I'll give you all a chance. As long as two of you hand over your lives, then I'll consider letting the rest of you walk away from here. You should be grateful, it's not every day that I'm in such a good mood." Ruin said in a mocking and voice filled with a patronizing tone.
"Good mood?" Guan Yu kicked off his back foot and sped towards Ruin who stood where Zi Yi was just moments ago.
"You can take your offer and screw off!" Guan Yu said as his guandao spun rapidly in a circle next to him and his speed began to greatly increase. When he arrived in reach, he swung his guandao outward to strike both Ruin and Lulazali.
Trailing behind Guan Yu was Halls. He felt as if he failed in his duty as a tank and was unable to protect Zi Yi. Right now, he was just as upset at Ruin and Lulazali as he was with himself.
At the same time, Luna used that opportunity to create some distance. However, during her retreat, she cast a Superior Holy Smite aimed at Ruin. Since he did manage to get hit by her voice magic and a few attacks from before, his HP should be in the danger zone.
Valentine wasted no time as he began to cast a new spell.
"Although the magic sequences are still a bit shaky, it's a risk I have to take." Valentine said to himself as magic sequence after magic sequence began to stack on top of one another in front of him. Due to the unique nature of Valentine's class, learning and mastering new sequence spells required knowledge of how magic worked within RML.
Valentine was a perfectionist when it came to magic and would never take such an unnecessary risk. However, Zi Yi was his childhood friend. How could he remain calm when all her hard work had gone down the drain right before his eyes?
"You still wish to fight? How pointless!" Ruin was no longer wielding eighteen weapons, but instead, he now only had four weapons encircling him. Although he did not show it, controlling eighteen weapons simultaneously was tiring and took a massive amount of mental strength.
If not for his unique trait Psychokinesis, then he would not be able to control even three weapons with the class he chose, let alone eighteen. But, even with his Psychokinesis trait, it was still challenging since every weapon required a massive amount of concentration to control. Like Aegis, Ruin had received his trait when he first logged into RML.
However, since Lulazali had joined the battle, he no longer required more than four weapons to deal with the rest of the group of players before him.
Soon enough, both sides were locked in a battle with one another, but it was easy to tell which side was at a disadvantage. The most troublesome person to handle was Lulazali since they were still unaware of what her class was or how her skills worked.
All they knew was that from her appearance, she was definitely some kind of magic-based class. Ever since she first appeared, things seemed unnatural and weird. There was this vague feeling that something was wrong, but they could not put their finger on it.
What frustrated them was that they could not keep track of her movements no matter how hard they tried. It was not because she was fast, but it was almost like she could freely go wherever she pleased, whenever she pleased.
Lulazali appeared behind Valentine as the wand in her hand emitted a faint light.
Valentine experienced the same phenomenon as Zi Yi, as everything around him turned pure white and his vision was filled with nothing but the sight of the petals of plum blossoms. Even with his Eyes of Magic, he was unable to discover that anything was amiss as his consciousness began to slowly slip away.
By the time he regained his awareness, he had already begun to dissipate. Valentine had followed in Zi Yi's footsteps and experienced an existence wipe.
Everyone was baffled by what was going on. How was it possible that someone could just simply stand next to a player and then the next moment their HP instantly dropped to zero? There was no room for healing or any kind of lifesaving skills, all there was time for was death.
"Regroup!" Luna called out in a gloomy and an almost disheartened manner. Since Izroth and Zi Yi were no longer here, she was the one to take charge of the battle situation. It was due to her leadership that Valentine had to pay an unfair price. When it came to strategies and battle tactics, although she good compared to most players, she was still not at the level of Izroth or Zi Yi.
Even though Guan Yu and Halls were livid, they still listened to Luna and broke off their engagement, forming a tightly knit group. Every cell in their body wanted to rush in and smash both Ruin and Lulazali, but things were already going terrible enough and they understood that such recklessness would only add to the problem.
Luna's mind was racing as she tried to find some way for them to get out of this messy situation. Her first thought was to try and lure them over towards Izroth, however, these two were no joke. If she led them over towards Izroth when he was already in a difficult fight, then she would be sealing all of their fates.
"That makes two. Aegis should be finishing up as well, right? Chichi!" Ruin said in a casual tone of voice as he spoke with Lulazali.
All of a sudden, a wave of massive killing intent washed over everyone present. Even though it was not directed at any of them, it was still a terrifying feeling to experience. This caused everyone to instinctively retreat and create some distance between the other group.
A few moments later, everyone witnessed a bolt of lightning crashing down from the sky. All this came from the same direction that Izroth and Aegis traveled in to have their battle.
"Let's go." Ruin had a serious look on his face as he chose to ignore the remaining three and head over towards where Aegis was fighting. He knew that Aegis did not have that kind of hidden strength, therefore, it was only logical to assume that it must have come from the person he was currently fighting against.
"Do you really think that we'll allow you to leave as you please after what you've done?!" Guan Yu shouted angrily.
Lulazali and Ruin, however, paid him no mind as they both began to make their way towards Izroth and Aegis.
"Wait!" Guan Yu charged forward, however, the two of them had a headstart and both of their ranged damage dealers had been eliminated. There was no way to stop them besides catching up.
"We can't allow Izroth to face the three of them alone!" Luna said as she threw caution to the wind and rushed forward along with Guan Yu. Halls, of course, had already begun to move at the same time as Guan Yu.
It did not take long for them to reach the scene where Izroth and Aegis battled. However, they were shocked when they witnessed the scene before them.