Ding! Player Ryder has died!
Izroth glanced at Luna before turning back to look over at Mick and Tina. He thought about just eliminating everyone and claiming the prize for himself after all the world of cultivation was ruthless. But this wasn't the world of cultivation, he had goals that he had to accomplish in this world and wouldn't needlessly create enmity with everyone he came across.
"Hey, Cleric. How many more of those heals do you have left?" Izroth spoke but his eyes never left Mick and Tina, it was as though he was an ancient beast waiting to devour its prey.
Luna blinked a bit few times, but even though she was still quite shocked Luna quickly snapped out of it and regained her composure and a serene mind.
"I have 5 heals remaining" Luna had taken her last mana potion earlier and used a heal to recover some of Halls HP, but before she could continue healing Quince was suddenly attacked! So she had enough mana to use only 5 more heals.
Luna didn't know who this person was but he had saved her life and didn't seem to hold any malicious intent. Plus, it seemed as though he had some grievances with those other players to settle.
Izroth nodded, "You and the tank leave the party and invite me. Try to stay alive until I finish those guys off. Think you can handle that?" Izroth said as he pointed towards the direction of Mick and Tina.
Luna's heart grew extremely cold as she nodded. Originally there was no reason to conflict with one another, but these players shamelessly killed one of her party members and almost killed her! Even if one had the patience of a saint there was still only so much they could tolerate! "I can!" Luna sounded firm and resolute.
Luna spoke with Halls over the party communication and he agreed. At this point, there wasn't much else he could do except firmly hold his ground and hope for the best. Besides, throughout this battle, he learned to trust Luna and her judgment, if she thought it was best to do so then he wouldn't fight her on it.
Ding! Player Halls has left the party!
Ding! Player Luna has left the party!
Ding! Player Luna would like to invite you to a party along with Player Halls! Do you wish to accept?
"Accept!" Izroth said without hesitating in the slightest manner.
Luna and Halls were both curious as to what class and level this player would have to be to one shot someone and when they saw his level they were utterly shocked! A Level 3 Combat Master?! They were surprised, never in their wildest dreams would they have thought he'd be a Combat Master and only level 3 at that! This had to be some kind of bug right?!
"M-Mick, what are you going to do? That guy just instant killed Ryder!" Tina was frightened! She had told Izroth earlier that he was useless and in the way. She looked at him with disdain and contempt as though Izroth was beneath her, there was no way he wouldn't want revenge! Tina's face turned very ugly as she thought about all those things and her potential fate.
Tina wasn't the only one nervous, Mick had cold sweats on his back. Wasn't this guy just a noob or some snotty rich kid? Wasn't he a Combat Master, the most trash class in the entire game? He was only level 3, a nobody!
Mick fear slowly started to turn into anger at allowing himself to be fooled by Izroth, he had to die no matter what!
"It was just luck! Ryder was already low on HP from the Shadow Wolf's sound attack. He must've just put all his stat points into nothing not attack and got a lucky critical hit! Hmph, trying to pretend he's amazing, he just got lucky!" Mick was starting to feel more and more confident as he came up with reasons that justified what happened.
"Besides, he's just a coward who sneaks attacks others, how shameless!" Mick spat to the side in a show of scorn.
"T-that's right, he just got lucky... That has to be it! Heh, and to think I was actually a bit scared for a moment there. Just a tiny lizard who thinks he's a dragon!" Tina had also regained her confidence after listening to what Mick said to her, it all sounded logical and without fault.
Halls and Luna almost coughed up blood from anger when they heard the shameless words leaving Mick and Tina's mouths! Shameless? Coward? Sneak attack? Weren't they describing themselves?!
First, Mick and his two members offered to help them. Then, when Halls gave Mick the party leader position to invite the rogue, he suddenly jumped into battle without giving the lead back. To make things even worse, they were purposely sabotaging some moments of the battle and almost got Luna killed! Their Cleric was only healing Mick even though Halls was taking most of the damage.
The worse thing of all was that not only did Mick change the loot settings to party leader only, but their rogue left the party and sneak attacked Quince and tried to even finish off Luna! Yet they had the nerve to sit here and call Izroth all those things?! How could Halls and Luna not be completely enraged by their attitudes?!
Izroth grinned a bit while slowly walking forward closer to Mick and Tina. He didn't even find it necessary to waste words on trash like this, but he couldn't help but speak after seeing how foolishly they were acting.
Luck? Did he need that? Coward? In his thousands of years of cultivation, no one had dared call him a coward! Sneak attack? He was clearly standing in the open before he attacked, they were just completely ignoring him because they believed he wasn't a threat.
"Good, very good. I can't remember the last time someone has called me a shameless coward. I guess that must make the both you a piece of trash. No, even a piece of trash is too good for you, you're nothing. You're just insects who feast on pieces of trash!" Izroth didn't make wasting any more words and made his move rushing forward towards Mick and Tina.
"Flickering Steps" Izroth said to himself as his agility shot up as his body seemed to be flickering in and out of existence! A 350% boost to his agility for 15 seconds! His base agility was at 30, so with the help of 'Flickering Steps' his agility would become 105! That was even more than the Shadow Wolf's monstrous agility, and it is a world boss!
Mick and Tina could barely even react to the Shadow Wolf's agility of 80 and that was only because Halls was such a good tank, constantly keeping the focus on him and shifting to cover for their weak spots and making good calls. All they saw were flickering afterimages of Izroth as he moved closer to them.
They were scared senseless! Such speed shouldn't be possible! He was even faster than the Shadow Wolf! Doomed, they were doomed! Mick and Tina's faces turned extremely hideous at the turn of events. But they had no choice but to fight now, there was no way Izroth would forgive them by this point.
Mick grit his teeth and tightened his defenses, "Look you can have all the loot okay? We will even help you get rid of those other two and listen to what you say from now on. Okay, so how about we just let bygones be bygones?" Mick was still trying to salvage things even in this situation.
When Luna and Halls heard Mick, they both wanted to strangle him themselves! Even in this situation, he could still act so shamelessly!
But would Izroth trust the words of a such a shameless person? The answer was no! Even if he did, Mick and Tina had crossed his bottom line time and time again, they both had to die!
"First Baneful Sword: Destruction" Izroth sword in one smooth motion was unsheathed, slashed forward and then sheathed once more.
-260 HP!
0/150 HP Remaining! (Tina)
Ding! Player Tina has died!
Tina didn't even have time to heal. Nothing much had to be said about a Cleric's poor defense. Before she could even react, Tina suddenly fell over. She had died! Another player killed with only a single strike! It was an overkill!
"In fights, one should always target the healer first, otherwise the entire battle could be dragged out until your inevitable death if the healer can heal for more damage than you can output" Izroth recalled the memories of that hardcore gamer that was absorbed into his own and targetted Tina first. He wouldn't even give her a small window of hope!
Mick finally lost his last bit of confidence as Tina was taken care of in one strike just as Ryder was. Was he also going to die here the same way? He could only feel regret for his actions. If he had decided to instead make friends with this person, perhaps they would've been able to get many benefits from his strength. But it was too late now, they had already become enemies and nothing could change that.
Mick clenched his sword and shield tightly in his hand as he slashed out towards where Izroth just was after he killed Tina!
Miss!
Mick didn't attack anything but the flickering afterimage of Izroth, and not too long after he felt a sharp pain on his side!
-70 HP!
380/450 HP Remaining! (Mick)
Too fast! He was way too fast! Mick couldn't even put up his shield to block in time, he couldn't see the attack coming at all! Mick started to panic and just wildly swing his sword around him trying to get a hit off! It was like trying to hit a phantom!
Miss!
Izroth had a smirk on his face and his eyes were completely cold as his sword cleaning cut Mick on his neck!
Critical Hit!
-140 HP!
240/450 HP Remaining (Mick)
"It seems if you hit actual vital points, there's a high chance that it'll be a critical hit." Izroth thought to himself as he continued his assault against the utterly defenseless Mick.
Izroth sword slashed across Mick's back, of course, none of Mick's attacks would hit by swinging his sword randomly. Izroth could easily avoid that level of attack with his current agility.
-70 HP!
170/450 HP Remaining! (Mick)
Even though Mick was a warrior, he invested most of his points into strength, one of the worse things you could do for a tank. While it would seem like a good idea in the beginning because you get to do more damage, as you get further into the game you wouldn't be able to be a tank or damage dealer because you wouldn't be able to take or deal enough damage!
...
While Luna was indeed concentrating on the battle with the Shadow Wolf along with Halls, she couldn't help but keep some attention towards the battle going on over there. Terrifying! That was the only word she could think of when seeing that flickering afterimage moving around everywhere.
"What skill is he using...? That has to be at least a B... No, an A-ranked skill with that kind of power. Combat Master... I thought they were supposed to be a trash class, but maybe there's much more to it than that. After all, I doubt the company would add in a completely useless class. Also that weapon..." Luna thought to herself.
She was correct, the company would never add in a useless skill! It wasn't that Combat Masters was trash, it was just that they required a unique kind of player. After all, creating skills may seem easy, but one had to know that it was actually very difficult to create a strong skill!
It just wasn't worth it to have potentially a bunch of weak skills and no strong skills, at least with a defined class you would eventually get a strong skill. But with Combat Master, there was just simply no absolute way of knowing.
...
Critical Hit!
-140 HP!
30 HP Remaining! (Mick)
Izroth had once again struck Mick in at a vital point with his sword and managed to get another critical hit! Now, he was only one strike away from death!
Mick eyes were filled with fear, it hadn't even been more than 6 seconds since the fight began and he was already in such a state and Tina had died!
Mick started to think back to the moment that he first came across Izroth. He had a flash of brilliance when he saw that rare weapon sitting upon his back. He had to have it! But the more he thought back, the more his fear slowly started to turn to pure hatred for Izroth.
Mick felt as though he had been toyed with all along and that it wasn't him scheming against Izroth, but Izroth scheming against him! "I won't rest until you die!" Mick shouted though it was the last thing he shouted before a sword descended towards him slashing cleanly across his chest.
"Then, I'll be waiting" Izroth spoke in a cold tone as he sheathed his sword.
-70 HP!
0/450 HP Remaining! (Mick)
Ding! Player Mick has died!
Mick, Ryder, and Tina had all been eliminated by Izroth, just one person who was 2 levels below them! What a frightening player!
Izroth then turned his attention towards the battle with the Shadow Wolf, it seemed things were becoming more and more intense since they had no damage dealer to do any real damage to the Shadow Wolf. Its HP didn't move much from where it was before.
1,225/10,000 HP Remaining! (Shadow Wolf)
150/700 HP Remaining! (Halls)
80/180 HP Remaining! (Luna)
300/300 HP Remaining! (Izroth)
Izroth placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, he still had 7 seconds remaining on his 'Flickering Steps' after dealing with Tina and Mick.
It was time to defeat a world boss.
