Infinite Realm

"Not enough."

If faced with the current situation Sato was in, an average player would either try to save his skin or tank the attacks from the [Ranger] and Var, before going for either the Kobold King or Kito. However, Sato was no average player.

'[Astral Might]'

Sato doubled down on the passive pressure released by his blade, focusing it on Var who was just a few steps away from him. The sword, which was already on its way, went on to clash with Var's dagger, bringing with it the boundless momentum from the special aura.

*Clang* 

Var felt like he had clashed with a speeding truck as the force from the sword flowed through his dagger into his body, wreaking havoc within it as he felt his organs vibrate to the force. Without realizing it, Var had opened his mouth wide and puked out blood.

-87 (???/??? ???)

Before Var could even process a single thought right after that, his body was abruptly shot into the air like a rocket. Var had barely realised that his feet were no longer on the ground when he was more than 10 feet into the air. The direction and angle he had flown at were such that he had interfered with the trajectory of the two arrows headed towards Sato.

-58

-61 (???/??? ???)

[[ System notification :

You have died. 

]] 

In mid-air, a shocked expression was displayed on Var's face as he saw his HP go from the 100% mark, down to 0. It had happened all too quickly that Var felt that it was a dream. He even prayed it was such as dying meant that he had lost a substantial amount of HP which would cost him a lot to regain.

Sato didn't pay attention to this. In fact, right from when he had already collided weapons with Var, Sato's attention was no longer on the man. He already knew his strength and if he couldn't take down a level 8 [Assassin] while he was level 15, that would be a shame and a disgrace to his name and ability.

Right after Sato had sent Var away, he had focused his attention on the other [Assassin], Kito. For the last arrow from that [Ranger], Sato had simply swiped at the air with [Drakken] and this created a compressed blade of air that deflected the arrow to the side.

"[Astral Blade]."

This was the second [Astral Blade] Sato was using since the raid and he still had one more left.

Sato could have used this skill to stop the Kobold King but since its prowess was roughly the same as his, unless caught by surprise, chances were that it would easily dodge the attack and still be on its way. Hence, Sato had used it on Kito, whose skills were way below his. The chances of this youth dodging the slash were very slim whereas blocking it would be the same as suicide. Of course, the target wasn't aware of this.

Eight after Sato had swung his blade, he mysteriously disappeared from the spot, appearing just a mere 3 feet away from the Kobold King.

"?!?!"

The Kobold King was astonished as it widened its eyes in shock. There was no undulation of space, no fluctuation of mana, or anything out of the ordinary with Sato's appearance. It was as if he had always been there.

"Die."

Sato stretched out his arm as he brandished [Drakken] at the reptilian-like creature.

- 107 (1297/10000 Kobold King's HP)

The Kobold King hurriedly backed away from Sato right after that but Sato followed closing after it, almost like a piece of tissue paper stuck under one's shoes.

[Bon Slash]

The Kobold King clawed right at Sato but instead of retreating, the black-haired youngster blocked with one sword at hacked with the other. Due to the fact that the Kobold King's speed had momentarily dropped as it attacked, Sato's sword was able to reach it once more.

- 69 (1228/10000 Kobold King's HP)

"Graw!" 

In frustration, the Kobold King bit down at Sato, forcing him to retreat this around.

As Sato finally stepped away to have a breather, the others had finally returned to their senses. As for the identity of the 'others', that was just the [Ranger]. 

Kito, who had to face Sato's second [Astral Blade] was not lucky enough to make it. He had tried outrunning it but the brilliant curved beam of light was too fast for him to do so. Kito couldn't even react in time to dodge it so he tried blocking it. However, that was a dumb move from him considering that Kito had already suffered before after clashing with Sato's [Black Flame Slash]. While it was true that part of the reason could be attributed to the abilities of [Drakken], a majority of it was due to the absurd gap between him and Sato. So even though [Astral Blade] was weaker than [Black Flame Slash], it was not something the meagre Kito, who had already taken a HP potion before, could handle.

Just by coming in contact with the attack, the out had already been sent back to his respawn point without delay.

'This guy…is a beast!' The [Ranger] couldn't help but sweat in fear.

If not for Sato having to change his focus to the Kobold King in fear of it escaping, the [ranger didn't doubt that he would have died alongside his previous comrades.

'What was that skill even?'

Sato escaping the encirclement of him and Var could be easily understood as the strength difference between Sato and Var being huge. Due to this, Var was easily launched into the air in the direction of two of his arrows and the third was deflected just by a slash from the target.

Kito's death wasn't a mystery either as it could be attributed to that strange skill that was too powerful for him to handle. Even the [Ranger] doubted whether he could survive if he were the target of that skill.

The only strange thing from what had just happened during this 5 seconds battle was Sato's mysterious disappearance and reappearance beside the Kobold King. It looked almost like teleportation but wasn't exactly the same. All the [Ranger] saw was a few black tendrils escaping from Sato's shadow and dragging him to the ground. The Kobold King might not have seen it clearly but the [Ranger] noticed that Sato didn't actually appear out of the blue but was 'vomited' from the floor close by.

While the [Ranger] and the Kobold King didn't understand how such could happen, Sato perfectly did. It was thanks to the built-in skill of [Drakken], [Shadow Movement], that Sato was able to change his position so quickly. 

[Shadow Movement] could enable the user to 'shadow jump' to any shadow within 5 metres or one with a 15 metres range. However, the latter required the user to mark the shadow beforehand but there was no limit to how many shadows could be marked. 

During his battle with the Kobold King, Sato had marked quite a few shadows around the area just in case he would have to suddenly retreat or strike at the Kobold King when it least expects it. With the Kobold King plotting its escape, Sato was forced to then use the skill and jump to one of his already marked shadows. Since Sato had never used the skill throughout the fight with the Kobold King, it never would have known that such existed in Sato's arsenal so it wasn't so cautious with its escape. This wrong behaviour from the Kobold King ended up costing it a lot as the perfect chance to escape had fallen from its grasp. 

The reason why that was the perfect chance to escape was that the number of opponents was much less then. Now, however, it was no longer the same. 

The others had arrived.