Infinite Realm

Of the original 7 members present, 2 of them had died, exactly Katsuo and Yato. Their deaths had arrived so suddenly that the others weren't able to react in time. Even if they could, it wasn't like they wouldn't. The monster was obviously far stronger than the 7 of them combined.; facing it was beyond suicidal.

As Sato and the rest evacuated from the area, the green-eyed kobold didn't just standstill and stare at them. Having taken down two of the players, it still wasn't satisfied enough. In honour of its fallen father, it had sworn to decimate the entire team; there was no stopping at two.

"Spread out!"

While it was true that they didn't notice the green-eyed kobold in time, the team had managed to react accordingly. This was because right before it arrived, Fudo had already sensed it approaching. There was the space of at least one second between its arrival and the team's reaction. Added together with the fact that it aimed for Katsuo and Yato first, that space was enough for the others to create some distance between them and the monster.

After using spacial manipulation more than 10 times, the green-eyed kobold had worn out its mana tank. Since its proficiency over spatial magic wasn't that good to start with, it had to spend more mana than usual and also had to withstand the backlash and after-effects of the skill with its body. As a kobold, it indeed had a strong body but compared to its kinsmen, this was still weak. This 'weak' body was incapable of tolerating the continuous strain and backlash from using spatial manipulation to mimic a forceful approach to teleportation. Because of this, the green eyed monster didn't use spatial magic to pursue after the others, but that didn't mean it was out of options.

Being, at least, at the level 10 rank; the green-eyed kobold's attributes alone was more than enough to pursue the remaining 5. However, this was on the condition that they ran in the same direction. Sato knew this and that was why he gave the team the order to split up. He made it so that everyone's chance of survival depended on their individual luck.

5 different players in 5 different directions. With a few choices to make, one would be torn apart of which to choose no matter who or what they were.

Sensing the leftover mana in the environment together with the black marks left on Jekyll, the green-eyed kobold reached the conclusion that a flame user had a major hand in the death of its father.

It reached the conclusion that a flame user had a major part in the death of its father. Using its magic sense together with its high affinity to mana, the kobold screened the players and within a second, it locked on to the fire mage players in the team. Without a second to lose, it locked on to a target and ran after them. The target was Fudo.

'Damn it.' Fudo cursed as he sensed the kobold right on his tail. The green eyed kobold was like a walking tank of overflowing mana. Normally, it would be able to suppress its aura from being so easily noticed but with its rage roaring through the roof, the kobold wasn't bothered about that.

'Guess I'll have to use it.'

With that thought, Fudo suddenly pointed his staff to his side and released a fireball that blazed across the field. Immediately after that, Fudo took out a scroll from his space bag and tore it into two. It was a swift-use scroll that needed no incantations or excessive actions to activate it.

As the two halves of the scroll fell to the ground, a light-yellow glow erupted from the spot. It wasn't blinding to the eyes but was soft. The glow wasn't so intensified so it didn't spread so far, barely illuminating a 5 metres radius.

Barely a second later, the green-eyed kobold had arrived just behind Fudo, right at the point the glow erupted from. Suddenly, mystical chains broke out from the spot, entangling the kobold to form a glistening 'cocoon'. Though it looked like the kobold was trapped, Fudo knew that this wouldn't hold it for long. The main purpose was just to pin it down, for what was to come.

'Now.'

All of a sudden, Fudo disappeared from his previous position, appearing 30 metres away, right where his fireball had landed. This was a special skill he had gotten a long time ago; [(skill name)] [1]. Fudo had gotten it from a spell scroll he got after he and Sato defeated the [Cursed servant] [2]. Because of the long cool-down attached to it, Fudo barely made use of it, only saving it as a trump card skill for escaping when all seemed for naught.

*Boom*

Before anyone could react to Fudo's sudden change in position, the spot green-eyed kobold was pinned down sudden erupted with a loud and violent explosion. At least, a 15 metres radius of the green eyed kobold's location was turned to dust. Even the [Low Class Earth Suppression Array] couldn't handle the blast and was devastated beyond repair.

The ground shook for at least 4 seconds and during this period, despite being tempted to take a look, none of the players did; only running for their lives with the best strength they could muster. This was because they all knew that no matter the amount of damage the explosion wreaked, it wouldn't be able to kill the kobold. Even if it severely damaged the monster, none of them believed they would still have a shot at eliminating it.

'That should hold it down for a while.' Sato thought as the entire team escaped even further out.

The scroll was a special trump card they had prepared for defeating Jekyll [3] but due to certain circumstances, it didn't have the opportunity to reveal itself. Normally, the array linked to the spell was capable of holding down any figure at level 10 and below for at least 7 seconds but with the earlier motions of the green-eyed kobold, Sato felt it only held it down for 3 seconds or even less. Even still, this was already quite impressive. As for the origin of the explosion, this was the major array, the [Low Class Earth Suppression Array] imploding on a specific target within.

While it was indeed revealed that the [Low Class Earth Suppression Array] was a simple barrier-type array that didn't even shield off anyone from entering, such a simple feature wasn't enough for the array to be worth 30 silver coins. It had a special skill attached to it that made up a considerable percentage of the price. The skill was named [Implode].

From the merchant Sato had bought the array from he came to discover that the [Low Class Earth Suppression Array] he purchased, actually had a hidden feature within. Because of this hidden feature, the price was much higher than other support barriers like it and even higher than other [Low Class Earth Suppression Array]. For an unknown reason, the person who made this exact one had inscribed an explosion ruin within it, giving the array the ability to attack at the cost of self-destruction. However, the inscriber had hidden this feature so unless one was a qualified [Appraiser], they wouldn't discover it. In a way, one could say it was a hidden feature, a surprise for any who would buy it. Because of this, this exact [Low Class Earth Suppression Array] was sold at a much higher rate than normal. Sato didn't have enough money to spend on an [Appraiser] (mainly because the info had already been revealed to him so there was no need to do so again) this hidden ability wasn't revealed in the system explanation of the array.

By the time the explosion had set off and settled, every one of them was at least 80 metres away from the point. The 10th floor was a cage of sorts so there was almost no way out without finding an Exit gate, but this was almost. Before they began the raid, Sato and the others had wandered around the floor and discovered a few exits out. For a some of them, they couldn't get in because there was a restriction that prevented them but there were still a few they could get past. The team didn't explore these channels because they didn't know whether they would be able to return back in time or find a way back but that didn't mean that they would simply ignore them.

One of the reasons Sato had decided for them to face the kobold chief out of town was because of these 'special exits'. The location they had chosen for the raid was decided not just by the terrain but also by the 'location'. This 'location' referred to the position of the place. In this case, the most important criteria that defined this position were those special exits.

In the scenario where the kobold chief turned out to be much stronger than they thought, Sato didn't want them to die an unnecessary death just like that. With a few special exits close by, they could simply escape into them and possibly survive the threat of death. With this, it could be seen that Sato had even planned far ahead into the raid than others would.

While indeed the special exits didn't come to use against the kobold chief, they were useful at this point.

'The closest should be a hundred metres more...' Sato thought.

The place they were had 5 such exits but only 3 were accessible by them, with the rest being restricted to access. Sato had headed straight for one of them and this one happened to be the closest. Also moving in the same direction as he was, was Xue Yan and Lu Zhen. Fudo had originally done the same but after being forced to use [Blaze Movement], he changed direction to another one. As for the last one, Seiichi went for it.

At this point in time, it looked like the team was out of trouble but they all knew that was anything but true.

"Roar!"