Infinite Realm

"Hahaha. Hahahahaha. You sure are one funny b**tard." Blood Sword laughed wildly. "You know what, I think I like you now. Just drop your space bags and equipment and I will let you go. How about it?"

"I appreciate you liking me but my apologies, I'm straight. Also, do you take me as a fool? You obviously wouldn't let us go just after we hand over our stuffs. That doesn't suit you dark players." Sato replied.

With his almost 4 years experience of gaming, Sato obviously knew how to differentiate truth from lies. Bringing 22 men and setting up a barrier just to let him go if he handed over his stuffs? If anyone actually believed such a crap, they might as well believe that the Earth is flat.

"Tch. I'm not gay and it's your loss for losing such an opportunity." Blood Sword said vexatiously as if he was a good Samaritan that just got rejected for offering to help.

In truth though, Blood Sword never planned on letting them go scot-free even if Sato and Fudo both handed their equipment and resources. Forgetting the dark player code of eliminating a target, there existed a blood feud between him and Sato. It should be recalled that a couple of hours back, Sato had fought against Blood Sword's crew of 4 over a Mortal rank chest. In that event, Crimson Scar, the prideful assassin, had died at Sato's hands while Sato himself escaped with the contents of the treasure chest. Blood Sword had obviously came back for payback over that disgrace and the fact that he had brought 22 men and a barrier showed that things wouldn't just end at him taking Sato's stuffs.

Despite how twisted it sounds, Blood Sword's real goal was actually to capture Sato alive and torture him. That was why he brought a team of 22 players; not to kill him but to capture him. In VR games, killing players is actually a lot to easier than capturing them alive as the targets could just commit suicide, indirectly escaping from their enemies' clutches. With 22 different players, Blood Sword believed that even if Sato was a level 7 player(the publicly known highest level) he could still capture him alive. But oh, was he in for a good surprise.

"Since you refused my good will, you might as well die." Blood Sword stated indifferently as if a god judging over mortals.

From the 4 separate directions (front, left, right and back), different projectiles took the air, all aimed at Sato and Fudo.

Of the 22 players Blood Sword had brought, 12 of them were long-range players and they were divided into 4 teams of 3. Each team had at least 2 Rangers and these players used a class specialty skill of theirs, the [Triple Shot] which could allow them to accurately fire 3 arrows at a target.

With the two Rangers in each team shooting a total of 6 arrows, multiply that by 4 and we have 24 arrows. Add that to the remaining 4 mage class players' attacks and there would be 28 projectiles heading towards Sato and Fudo from 4 different directions. If they had all come from the same direction, Sato would have been able to not only dodge it but even block it. But as it came from 4 separate directions, it became harder for him to do so and more riskier.

"You lose." Blood Sword smirked.

"Really?" Fudo, who had yet to speak so far, grinned.

When the projectiles were less than 2 metres away from Sato and Fudo, Fudo held his staff as he muttered silently,

"[Mana Pulse]."

Fudo then lifted his staff up and stabbed the bottom down at the floor. Immediately the Black Alder Staff came in contact with the ground, a crimson ethereal cloud-like wave, blasted out in all angles like wave. It looked flimsy and weak to the touch as it even passed through Sato without hurting him, but once it came into contact with the projectiles, it either deflected them or crushed them all.

[Mana Pulse] was a new skill Fudo had gotten quite sometime ago; very long in fact back when they had fought the [Cursed Servant]. It was used to deflect attacks and projectiles aimed at the user but in actual sense, it wasn't only limited to attacks. To better explain, the skill was used to shove everything within a certain distance of the user, away from the user. If the substance is far weaker than the power wielded by the spell, it could be destroyed by the spell. A good example was some of the arrows fired at them. As they were made from weak materials, below the 1 star rating, those arrows were destroyed.

The reason Fudo had yet to use this skill was because it wasn't so practical in battle. It best served as a defence type skill even more so when one is outnumbered in battle. Ignoring the Goblin warfare back then, Fudo had yet to be in such a scenario and so he had yet to use the skill. Also, it had quite a high MP cost, not something one could easily afford especially when they are still low levelled.

'But that's all changed. I can now use it for at least 3 times.' Fudo grinned like a creep.

The crimson wave went on for a few more metres before stopping, exactly 5 metres away from Fudo.

Blood Sword's team were stunned at the skill's effects and strength that they halted their advances and thoughts, staring at the mage in a red mage gown.

*Stomp*

Taking the opportunity made possible by the enemy team's act of being stunned in awe, Sato dashed at the players in front and drew his sword from it's sheath.

"You dare?!" The player closest to Sato was shocked by Sato's movements. 'Rather than escaping, he actually wants to retaliate?'

"Die!" The player, who so happened to be a berserker like his leader,  slashed his axe at Sato. His attack looked powerful and was even boosted with a skill. Swift and deadly, would be the right words to describe this strike. But in Sato's eyes, the eyes of a level 8 player, this attack was as slow as a falling leaf in a calm weather.

*Schwatt* [2] (Author's idea of a sword forcefully cutting through flesh.)

-64 [Chop] (66/130 Cannon-fodder player)

"Arghhhhh!!!"

Rather than blocking the attack, Sato had dodged it easily and countered with a sword slash that went through the player.

With one sword strike, Sato had easily taken almost half of the player's HP. This act alone placed the public in stun again.

Not letting this chance go by, Sato swung his sword again and brandished it swiftly  twice at the player. In less than a second, the berserker had turned fallen, with his body slowly crumbling to stardust.

"Sttthhh!"

All the players present, apart from Fudo, were all shocked and stunned silly. They couldn't breathe normally again and were all wondering what cheat this player had used. Even a level 7 player couldn't just defeat that level 6 berserker in 3 moves. Despite the fact that the berserker had not gotten a subclass yet and was lacking 5 extra attributes points, he still wasn't supposed to die that easily even more so, that quickly.

"Is he a demon?" Someone asked.

It couldn't be helped that some thought that way as what Sato had achieved was very shocking.

"Hmm. He's too weak. I even held back but it looks like I might need to do so more." Sato muttered.

"Pfft." Blood Sword who stood way back suddenly coughed up blood. As if what Sato had accomplished wasn't mind-blowing enough, he had to rub it in by saying he was holding back.

"This b**tard...Attack! Kill him! Use everything you have and bring me his head!" Blood Sword roared angrily. Sato had defeated him before and he didn't want that to happen again especially now that he had 22, no, 21 men on his side.

"What's going on?" Blood Sword stared at his men. Even after he had yelled 'attack' no one had taken a step closer towards Sato. In fact, they had all slowly begun to retreat backwards.

Players could die and even if they would still resuscitate, they would lose a lot of experience points. No one would like to lose experience points, if they could avoid dying. They all had the same thought; if Sato could kill that guy under 4 moves, what about them? Even for the ones who had sub-classes and boasted of having the highest HP, after taking a look at Sato's damage values, they knew that it would only be a matter of two or more strikes added to the initial 3 strikes, before they would be goners.

"What's going on? Didn't you hear me? Attack! Whoever gets me that man's head would receive 2 Upper tier Mortal rank equipment." Blood Sword added incentives to his words.

"Upper tier Mortal rank equipment? And 2 at that?"

The players' eyes began to glow red with greed. They had seen the power of an Upper tier Mortal rank weapon before. Hell, even their boss used one. Such weapons or equipment could easily change a gamer's fate and status at this stage of the game. If they had those, they could potentially rival expert players in battle.

"But, he's strong..." One of them hesitated.

"Strong? Maybe it's just his weapon. Heck, it should be an Upper tier Mortal rank weapon at least, right? If I kill him and it drops, I could ask the boss for it." One player, who happened to be a swordsman just like Sato, stared at the blade in Sato's hands with greed.

"That's right. There's no way he could be above level 7. It should be his weapon!"

When another player supported this statement, more began to believe it and so, their eyes slowly shined with greed even more. Together with Blood Sword's promised reward, the players' moral was through the roof due to greed.

Sato on the other hand, didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. The useless [Bandit's Sword] that he had in his hand, which happened to be the lowest of all Mid tier Mortal rank weapons, was actually been speculated by the players to be an Upper tier Mortal rank weapon.

"Ah!"

With one player roaring, the other players then joined and rushed towards Sato. They are attacked without fear of death and with confidence in numbers. The long-range players fired their attacks while the physical classes ran forward to assault Sato. Like bees to honey, like a man rushing towards a beautiful woman, like irons to a magnet, like, like...

"Like Moths to a flame, you rush to your despair."