Infinite Realm

'Damn it.' Sato cursed as he saw Lu Zhen's disintegrating body. There was a smile on his face as his body slowly withered.

*Boom*

At the last moment, Lu Zhen's remains detonated with a blast. He had set off the remaining [Simple Explosives] he had on himself, in hopes that he could injure the kobold even more.

While the explosion was indeed strong -capable of even taking down a full grown elephant- a above-level 10 monster couldn't be affected by such. If one was lucky then the explosion might tickle such a monster otherwise, it wouldn't even react to it. Whether Lu Zhen knew this or not didn't matter as the explosion could also serve another purpose; that was to create a smoke-screen to inhibit the kobold's vision, buying the others more time to escape. 

"Don't just stand there! Run!" Seiichi yelled at Xue Yan from behind as he nocked an arrow on to his bow.

"Sato, take her with you. I will provide cover." Seiichi said to Sato through the team chat.

Sato didn't argue as he felt it was unnecessary and would waste more time. Also, he could understand where Seiichi came from; Xue Yan was too slow and letting her be was too risky as there was a more than 70% chance that she would die.

Running towards Xue Yan, Sato picked her up and immediately backed her before taking off on a sprint. The reason he did so was because Xue Yan's speed was much worse than his. Even with the increased weight, Sato was still much faster than she was so giving her a 'ride' though might hinder his speed but it would at least increase her chances of survival.

"Thank you." Xue Yan softly muttered from behind Sato. She was indeed shocked silly when Sato picked her up but she didn't resist. Though Xue Yan was a newcomer to gaming, it didn't mean that she was dumb. She knew that if she was to survive this incident, she would need help from someone and Sato just happened to provide one.

"Don't thank me yet. Just hold on tight and hope that we live through this." Sato replied nonchalantly. 

While Sato carried off Xue Yan, Seiichi stayed behind at a distance to grant them cover. Even though the mission turned out to be a failure in an unexpected way, the team still had to make sure that Sato and Xue Yan lived.

"This will be tough." Seiichi sighed bitterly. He was just a level 7 [Ranger]. Facing a suspected level 10 world class boss that should be at least Special Elite, without any special consumable or supplies, there was no amount of hope that could save anyone from death. 

"5 seconds. Just 5 seconds. That's all the time we need!" Sato yelled in the team chat. At the same time, he activated [Sprint] and stored his sword into his space bag to prevent it from disrupting his movements. 

Even though Sato knew that Seiichi might only be able to hold down the monster for only a second or two, that wasn't enough. If it where Sato alone, then maybe in two seconds he might have given a reason gap away from the monster and maybe before it caught up with him, he would have closed in on the tunnel's entrance. But carrying Xue Yan with him, he needed more than double the time.

The tunnel that Sato had aimed for all these while was only 78 metres or so away. Considering that an [Agility] of 10 points already closed in to the movement speed of the fastest man alive, a mere 78 metres could be conquered in but 5-6 seconds. However Sato had 12 points in his stat and he also had the added weight of Xue Yan's figure so it would actually take more than 5 seconds to reach the stop. Nonetheless, Sato believed he could make it in time.

Fudo's ambush was already irritating to start with much less Lu Zhen's. The green-eyed kobold was irked at the fact that it had gotten injured by these creatures. Though the explosion didn't do much to it, the stab in the eye was a lot painful.

"Bastards!!!" The green-eyed kobold roared. 

Green flames spewed forth from its sleeves turning the floor beneath it to molten lava. From this one could presume the temperature to be at around 1500°C or close. At such temperature, most stones would become liquid and a human would become ash. This was the difference between a level 10 or more world class boss; it was a being beyond a mortal's understanding! If the green-eyed kobold even wished, it could move to a mortal settlement and be treated like a god, just as it was here.

At this point in time, the green-eyed kobold had forgone the idea of playing with these measly creatures. It relinquished the original plan of capturing some of them and simply wanted to annihilate them all, here and now.

The flames on kobold's left hand dissipated as a light blue shade was revealed to wrapping the palm. It then moved the hand towards its left eye and used two fingers to touch the injured eye. The injured eye began to heal at an astonishing speed with the 'black hole' being closed at a visible pace, shocking Seiichi who stood on guard against it. This was the first time they had seen a monster in Infinite Realm healing.

"Self-heal?!" Seiichi asked with a twisted expression on his face.

While it was true that the concept of self-heal wasn't new in most games much less VR games, players of IR had yet to see any monster that had this characteristic. They all thought that the producers of IR had genuinely removed this ability after all, in reality, no one can self-heal in battle at such an absurd rate. Sure living organisms and even inanimate objects can self-heal but it wasn't that absurd and they couldn't do so in battle like that. Even as it stood in VR, one would require not just magic alone but the aid of either a trained individual or a special supply to achieve this. Without the aid of a healer class or some health potions, healing in battle was virtually impossible. But no one had ever considered whether monster happened to know some healing spells just as players did. They couldn't be blamed though. 

Normally creatures and individuals weren't a jack-of-all-trades; one would usually focus on one path and train along it. But currently, the green-eyed kobold had defied this logic. Not only had it used space magic but also flame magic and now healing magic. The first two could be ignored after all, one could classify them under one category; that is the attack magic category, but healing magic was altogether a different stuff. It was because of this that the two classes [Druids] and [Clerics] were a whole new job altogether. It had been presumed virtually impossible to learn two different magic categories. Even in previous VR games, unless one had reached the top, it was difficult to achieve this.

With the knowledge of the kobold being able to self-heal, Seiichi realised that defeating it was definitely out of question, whether now or even later. This was a true OP boss.

'Let's get through this first.'

Aiming his bow at the kobold, Seiichi let go of the arrow on it with the greatest of hope.

[Drill Shot]

The greatest advantage of [Rangers] was their longer attack range. Even when comparing with mage classes, [Rangers] were still on top. This was one of the passive advantages granted on to them by the game. While mages had to increase both [Intelligence] and [Willpower] to increase their attack range, [Rangers] only had to increase their [Strength]. Seiichi already had 17 points in there and added with the passive boost from his class, his attack range was beyond the 20 metres mark, but below 30 metres. This was a very much safe distance in both PvP matches and certain PvE matches but against a monster like the kobold, this distance didn't make him feel safe enough.

"???"

Originally, the green-eyed kobold was about to pursue after Xue Yan and Sato but it suddenly sensed an incoming threat from the side. With a furious expression, the kobold swung its hand at that direction sending forth a billowing wave of green flames.

"Die!"

The flames were massive, reaching so high that they almost touched the ceiling of the floor. With such a massive size, the heat exuded from it wasn't to be joked about. 19 metres from the flames was already hit enough to rival an oven set at 150°C. In other words, water would turn to gas instantaneously and this was at a 10 metres distance! Even further out wasn't left out as the temperature increased wildly, making those within a 30 metres range from the flame to sweat out profusely as if they had just journeyed through the hottest desert for 3 days and 3 nights without the slightest reduction in heat. From the motions of the green-eyed kobold, this was an easy spell for it to cast, yet such a spell couldn't be countered by any IR player currently in existence. This was the true strength of a world class boss!

"Incredible!" Even though the attack was aimed at him, Seiichi couldn't help but appreciate it. Normally, flames had an aesthetic feeling to them. Basically, in the eyes of some, flames were a beautiful an artistic fabrication of nature. This green flames had a different feeling to it that and flame lovers and art appreciators engross themselves at the sight of it.

Against the encompassing green flames, Seiichi's arrow was like a toothpick going against a boulder; the difference was so great that even a mad man could tell.

*Whoosh*

The arrow didn't even have a single reaction as it was drowned by the seemingly all-encompassing flames.

Seiichi tried to retreat in time but in the end, he turned out to be much slower than the flames.

"Damn it!" Seiichi cursed as he ran.

It didn't even take a second before the flame wave was within 5 metres away from him. At this distance, Seiichi could already feel the scalding heat, which was by far too much for his body to handle. The feeling was akin to being placed within a huge oven and being baked alive; it was by no means as pleasurably as being in a sauna.

'Guess I'd have to use it.' Seiichi thought as he sighed bitterly.

Seiichi wasn't a selfless fool or anything like that. The reason he decided to cover Sato and Xue Yan was because he believed he could leave here safely. As for the source of his belief, it was a special one use exchange talisman he had gotten from one of the Mortal rank chest the team had discovered on the way. The talisman came in a pair, an activation talisman and the position talisman. The talisman allowed one to use the activation part to teleport to the position of the other talisman. Though it was a one-use item, it was very valuable and wasn't something one could easily buy with money alone. It was not a lie to even call the talisman a second life. In this situation, Seiichi couldn't do anything other than activating the talisman.

Luckily for him, before the battle against the kobold chief, Jekyll, Seiichi held the activation talisman with him and kept the positioning talisman at the entrance of one of the tunnels. The only reason why he didn't use it earlier was because it had a distance limit of 100 metres. Seiichi had to wait till he was within a 100 metres of the positioning talisman.. Before he had interfered with he kobold's chase, Seiichi made sure that he was within range or a least close to it.