Infinite Realm

As the kobold guard quickly approached him, Sato realised that he had only two choices he could make. One was to abandon his weapon and retreat immediately. A second had already gone by and the cool-down was already off his skill. With the aid of [Sprint], Sato believed that he would be able to widen the gap between himself and the two monsters.

The second option, was to battle it out here. With his weapon clamped in the palms of the kobold chief, this seemed impossible. Even more so was the fact that the kobold guard's strength would probably be higher than his. Without a weapon, he would surely be at a disadvantage in the brawl.

No matter how one thought, the first option seemed like the only reasonable one. But Sato wasn't inclined to give up that easily.

'But what can I do...' Sato's brain hurriedly began processing at a very high speed.

Suddenly, in that very nanosecond, he came up with a very absurd idea.

'It might work, it might not. But I have to still try.'

'Mountain Fist!'

With one hand still gripping on his sword, Sato suddenly punched at the kobold guard with his left fist. He was actually trying to use his hand to attack the kobold guard's bone sword. This was insane because anyone in their right mind could easily be guess the end result of the clash; and that would be Sato getting seriously injured in a light case but losing his hands if things went South. The leather glove that had covered his hand was a Novice rank equipment and it didn't have any protective function. Punching out like that was almost no different to punching out with his bare hands. In this kind of scenario, this move was akin to suicide or a last stand before giving up.

Even the kobold guard in question was surprise at his actions, before it sneered in response. This was understandable, after all, how could the weak and fragile arms of this strange creature possibly compete with the might of its bone sword? Not even the chief would dare do such.

Sato punched out with all his strength and focus, with the single intention of deflecting the strike before it arrived at him. The power in the fist couldn't be underestimated as if such ability was demonstrated in the real world, it would be able to create a dent of a metal plate. But when compared to that of the kobold guard, it was still lacking.

At the last moment before the two attacks collided, Sato only yelled one word in his mind.

'[Parry]!'

*Clang*

With a sound similar to two metals colliding, the force behind the kobold's bone sword was neutralized. Sato had actually succeeded in stopping the attack but not without a cost.

The bone sword was stopped, true, but it still managed to injure him at the very least. After all, Sato contested against a bone sword with his bare hands. No matter what, there was no way he could go unscathed. The sword had managed to dig one inch into his fist, almost severing his fingers. The pain was very excruciating and harrowing to the flesh. Even with his painful sensation reduced by 50%, Sato still found this difficult to endure. Luckily for him, the sword didn't dig any deeper and had come to a halt.

This was quite incredible as not only did Sato survive this experience but he had confirmed a certain conjecture of his. Skills could be used without weapons!

The value of this information was beyond estimation and this was due to not only the negligence of players but also their old fashioned, retard brains.

When IR was released, the developers had constantly advertised how good the game was, claiming it to be a new reality. They claimed that it would be a sensational game that would be different from the other ones in existence. Despite such constant enlightenment, most players ignored their words treating the game as they did with others. Sato however, was different.

Ever since he met the [Cursed servant] and the goblin war, Sato discovered that this game might not be like the rest. Common gaming logic wouldn't necessarily be applied to it. From then on, he began thinking outside the box. At this point which seemed to border life and death, success and failure, Sato's brain had brought up an absurd idea that no other player would have thought of in his place. He had wanted to use skills with his body.

In some martial books and even in martial arts training, they say that the pinnacle of a weapon user would be to use any material as a weapon. A pinnacle swordsman would be able to use a branch or even a leaf as his sword. This sounded absurd but because no one had ever been proven to have reached such a level, it was unknown. But from the teachings of such martial arts, it was quite possible. If IR incorporated most if the laws and practical knowledge of reality into the game, wouldn't one be able to perform such skills with their body?

Though the basis of this would be to reach the pinnacle first, with the aid of the player interface and system, maybe a shortcut could be found. When an enticing idea is born, it becomes hard for a person to press down such temptation.

As Sato's mind had given birth to such an idea at that last moment, he decided to try it out. Truth be told, he had actually tried this experiment a while back, just when they were waiting for players to arrive here. The result was that he had failed, but for an unknown reason, Sato felt that he was close but just missing something. That something turned out to be such a life and death moment that would spur his potential.

Yes, this was a game but sometimes, the struggles in a game aren't much different than that in reality. Sato had made a deal with Xue Yan to complete this mission. Because they didn't know each other back then, the penalty for failure was quite severe to Sato.

Originally, Sato wasn't bothered as if he failed the first time, he could always try again later but with the divulging of the information to the public, he was forced to only have one try at it. With the way things were now, if the team were to fail now, the chances of them even getting a second chance was low. Compared to the other stop teams, they didn't have much of an advantage except for being a bit higher levelled.

In coordination, team work, Expert count, resources and manpower, they were a lot worse. As a result, Sato couldn't affirm that apart from them, no one else had the strength to take on a level 10 world class boss. It was highly possible that if these two teams went all out, they could take down the boss without much of a hitch. By the time Sato and his teammates died, revived and re-challenged the floors, other teams might have already arrived here. This was because the [Teleportation runes] only worked up to the 8th floor. They had to still work their way back to the 9th floor. By that time, at least 2 or 3 other teams might have made it this far to the boss. Who knows, maybe one of those teams could pull it off.

With such a conjecture in mind, Sato was forced to try his best in this battle. In this confrontation, he was able to drive his potential and force himself to face the kobold guard's bone sword. Though the effect was weaker than normal (with a sword), Sato was still able to pull it off and save his skin. But now wasn't the time to rejoice.

Making use of the opportunity when both the kobold chief and guard were stunned at his actions, Sato pulled his sword from the clutches of the monster, before turning back and running at the speed his legs could take him.

"Roar!"

The kobold guard was shocked and even more so, enraged that Sato had stopped its strike with his fist especially after its boss had made an opportunity for it to attack. Without dwindling behind, the kobold guard pursued after Sato.

The kobold chief, on the other hand, didn't hurry to pursue him yet but glanced at Sato's departing figure for a bit before chasing right after.

Like this, the trio once again engaged in a cat-and-mouse game, with Sato at the lead while the two kobolds pursued right behind.

"Sato, where are you?" Right after Sato accepted and audio call that flashed in front of him, Fudo's voice sounded out.

"I'm almost there. You should be seeing me in 10 seconds or so." Sato replied. With the 5 seconds boost from [Sprint], Sato could cover a lot more distance. With 5 seconds more, even at regular speed, the 4/5 of the former 200 metres would have been covered up by him.

"Okay." Fudo replied before cutting the call. He knew that every second Sato spent running was done with full concentration and his senses at its highest. Because of this, Sato didn't dare to pay much attention to his system interface and only focused on running and keeping track of the kobolds' movements. Every second he split his concentration elsewhere would make things harder for him. If not for his anxiousness, Fudo wouldn't have even called him.

"Guys.. Get ready, we will be in action in less than 10 seconds."