Infinite Realm

"So this is the 10th floor huh?"

The team leader of God's Battalion, the [Berserker], Blood Beast Soran, scanned the floor with his eyes. He was a bit surprised to see that the entire floor was like an isolated cave but he didn't feel much about it. This was because he had one goal in mind and that was to kill the world class boss on this floor. As for exiting the floor, Soran believed that be a path left for departure and even if they couldn't find an exit, they could just commit seppuku[1]. But this was left for when they were done with their mission and couldn't find any way out.

"It looks like we might be the first ones here." The arrogant mage player said with a smug. After having been rebuked by Soran a couple of hours back, he had had a slightly sour mood. Now seeing the somewhat empty cavern, he believed that the team leader might have been wrong with his theory and that they -the God's Battalion squad- were indeed the leaders of this raid[2].

"Don't be so sure yet. We haven't explored the entire region first. Who knows whether they got teleported the same place as we did." Soran glanced at the player.

Though Exit gates were meant to lead one to the next floor, the exact positions differ based on the Exit gates. In each floor, there exists at least 9 Exit gates and each of them would send one to a different stop. Sometimes, the Exit gates would refresh and so, a specific Exit gate could send a player to one point but send another to a different stop.

"Also, Flood. Shut up." Soran said. Once he spoke, his aura had become overwhelming as the mage player felt as if he was drowning in a river of blood with the ambience of savagery and massacre.

This feeling lasted for 3 seconds but these 3 seconds felt like 3 days to Flood king. These '3 days' weren't those regular days or vacation days but one filled with suffering.

After the feeling went off, Flood King continuously sucked in deep breathes of air as his back was all covered in sweat.

With a twisted expression, Flood King glanced at Soran in fear as thought

'The Blood Beast really isn't a pushover.'

For their exploration in Infinite Realm, Heaven's Angels didn't hold back but they didn't go overboard either. They couldn't really send all the forces of the God's Retaliation Battalion to Infinite Realm as they still needed to protect their interests in Conquest. But sending a squadron of this famed battalion wasn't much of a problem. For this, the Blood Beast Soran's team was sent over alongside a few other guild members, to start up a branch in IR.

As the highest ranking authorized member of the guild, he was the head figure of Heaven's Angels branch. But Soran being Soran, was barely interested in managing the guild so a few specialists were sent over for this. Flood King happened to be one of them.

In name, Flood King was the one of the upper echelons in Heaven's Angels branch here in Infinite Realm. He was also one of the few experts raised and trained by the guild so his authority was quite high. This lead to him being below only two persons in the IR branch; the guild leader of the branch and Soran. The guild leader of Heaven's Angels IR branch might be the guild leader but he still had to give face to Flood King, as he was an expert raised by the guild. Soran, on the other hand, didn't care and he had the right not too. But this action inadvertently infuriated Flood King, but it wasn't like Soran would still care about that either.

When the information about the world class boss was released, Soran decided to lead his team for the raid. The IR branch guild leader didn't have a problem with this and even if he did, Soran's authority was higher than his so he couldn't make a fuss about it. However, the guild leader still sent someone to monitor Soran, as no one really liked having things stir out of their hands especially when they were supposed to be the head. In summary, the guild leader was a bit frustrated that Soran wasn't under his control. For the decision of who to send to monitor Soran, Flood King was the best choice. Under the guise of the upper echelons of the guild wanting him to gain experience, Flood King was dispatched alongside Soran's team by the IR branch guild leader.

Flood King wasn't actually a member of God's Retaliation Battalion but was there to make up the numbers and gain experience, well on the surface that is. His main objective was actually to note down Soran's misbehavior and mistakes so the branch guild leader could use against him but things weren't so good for Flood King.

Together with his somewhat sheltered life and arrogance, Flood King wasn't willing to be lead by Soran; a man recorded to be the same as a wild beast. Because of this, Flood King talked back at Soran at times and even questioned his decisions; things that a regular sensible human being wouldn't do to their superiors.

Most of the time, Soran ignored this action of his but even Buddha has his limits. This time around, Soran had gotten fed up with Flood King's stunts as he replied his provocative action with his vicious aura.

"If I am correct, then I would say that that place is where the boss is." The [Ranger] from before pointed at the kobold settlement. It wasn't like anyone couldn't guess that but the [Ranger] said so to avoid the awkward atmosphere from getting worse.

"Let's get a closer look then." Soran said.

Without wasting anymore time, the team began walking towards the monster encampment. Unbeknownst to them though, their movements were being monitored from a distance by Emperor's Might, who happened to have use the same strategy as Sato did when monitoring them; hide in a secretive spot and use a [Cloaking scroll].

"Good. It looks like they are heading over." Azure Dragon nodded as he glanced at the God's Retaliation Battalion team with a telescope.

"Everything is in place now. All that remains is for Tawaki to attract the monsters towards them and then we move in." Black Tempest said.

"Tawaki would make it." Chesces said as if understanding the underlying meaning of Black Tempest's statement.

"Of the men in our crew, Tawaki is the fastest. Added with the fact that he is an [Assassin] and he has a [Cloaking scroll] and a minor [Speed Boost scroll], sneaking past the guards down there and making a scene before escaping shouldn't be too difficult for him."

Tawaki was the [Assassin] who spotted the God's Retaliation squad back when they first appeared [3]. He was also the top ranking [Assassin] in this party and one of the best in the guild entirely.

"I know. But something makes me feel uneasy." Black Tempest sighed.

"...me too." Chesces smiled bitterly. "It just feels all to easy to me."

"All too easy?" Azure Dragon shook his head. "If it works out them it is all too easy. But as for now, we don't know. The plan might sound simple but there are too many loopholes. First, what if Tawaki doesn't attract the monsters properly, after all he isn't an MT. Second, what if Soran's men don't last long against the kobold horde? Third, what if the boss is too strong for us defeat in time?"

"There are a lot of issues stemming from this plan but we don't have enough time nor men to prepare for various contingencies." Chesces shook his head with a sigh.

"Indeed. That's why we have to make sure we get this right in one try. So stop lowering our morale and focus on the fight that is to come." Azure Dragon said.

"Okay."

While the mantis stalks the cicada, the Oriole waits in hiding.

Unbeknownst to the team, there was a third party present, Sato's group.

While Azure Dragon had also given out his orders and made preparations for the raid, Sato did the same. Funnily enough, their intentions and ideas were almost the exact same thing.

While Azure Dragon sent Tawaki as their bait, Sato sent Lu Zhen forward. In this regard, Lu Zhen was way better than Tawaki because he was one level higher. Even if Lu Zhen didn't focus on speed as Tawaki did, the increase in level still made his overall stats a lot higher than Tawaki's. With the head-start and resources Sato had distributed to him too, Lu Zhen's chances were much higher than Tawaki's.

"Xue Yan, care to watch a show?" Fudo asked her.

"What show?" Xue Yan stared confusingly at Fudo.

"One where we get to mess up a top guild." Fudo grinned.

"It's been awhile since I have ruined a top guild's plan while reaping the benefits. I never thought that my blood will boil this badly." Fudo said with an intoxicated look.

Seeing this, Xue Yan slowly stepped away from him as she felt that Fudo looked incredibly creepy right now.

"Enough." Sato reprimanded him. "Everyone get ready. Once Lu Zhen has attracted the monsters towards them, we have to quickly dive in and separate the boss away. If I'm correct, then we have only 3-7 minutes to succeed in eliminating the boss. We have only one shot at this so no mistakes, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. We got it." Yato said nonchalantly.

"Katsuo, this mission depends largely on you as the MT. Try not to mess this up." Sato said lightly. He didn't want to add much pressure on Katsuo but it was still inevitable as the raid did indeed depend largely on whether the MT could hold down the boss' aggro.

"I know." Katsuo nodded heavily.

Sato nodded. "Alright then.. Lu Zhen should be almost in place so let's move."