A sharp glint flashed in Izroth's eyes as he returned his Sword of The Storm to its sheath.
Izroth's words and actions caused the players to become furious. What madness! Not only did he sheathe his weapon, but to say that he'll only need one of them? Wasn't he looking down on them too much? Did he really think that he would be able to deal with them so easily now that the Veil of Serok was lifted? Dream on!
Trinity, along with her party, surrounded Izroth at every angle so that there was no way for him to escape. Although none of them specialized in head-on confrontations, what could one player possibly do against the five of them?
Trinity prepared to fire off a shot from her bow, however, she suddenly felt her body grow heavy. She looked down to see crystals forming on her legs. It rapidly expanded and in less than a second, her entire body was completely encased in crystal. A clear look of panic could be seen on Trinity's face as she was trapped inside of the crystal, unable to act.
First, her own arrow was turned back against her making it so that she was rendered helpless. Now, she was once again taken out of the fight before she even had any chance to fight back. How could she not feel frustrated when she was incapable of lifting a single finger in retaliation?!
Izroth used the Crystallization skill on his Crystal Sea Head Ornament to trap Trinity. Of course, he did not do so because he felt threatened by her attacks, but instead, it was to kill two birds with one stone.
"Die!" One of the players yelled as he slashed out with his dagger towards Izroth. However, his dagger would never have the chance to land an attack.
As soon as the four players were within six meters of Izroth, a myriad of palms shot out in every direction. There were dozens, then hundreds, and then thousands of palms that descended down upon Trinity's group, however, there were only five true palms hidden away inside of the seemingly endless barrage of attacks.
Seeing an overwhelming number of attacks headed right towards them caused the group to hesitate on their assault. How was he attacking so fast?!
Izroth's first wave palm strikes hit Trinity, who was encased inside of the crystal, as well as, the four other members of her party.
The reason Izroth used the Crystallization skill on Trinity was not only to prevent her from escaping but to also help activate the effect of his Myriad Elusive Palms. For every target struck by his Myriad Elusive Palms, the cooldown on the skill was reduced by four seconds.
With a total cooldown of twenty seconds, this meant that as long as Izroth successfully hit five targets, the cooldown on his Myriad Elusive Palms would always reset! Of course, there was one more reason Izroth trapped Trinity inside of the crystal.
Not even half a second had not passed when the movements of the four players who charged at Izroth came to a grinding halt. There was an extremely ugly expression on their faces as they could not activate any skills, move, or attack. But, the reason behind their gloomy expression was the fact that their bodies had begun to turn into countless particles!
Trinity's face turned pale as she witnessed what happened to her four party members. Dead! They were all dead! The most terrifying thing was that she had no idea how they had died when she had been watching closely the entire time! She was encased in some kind of weird crystal and then the next thing she knew the members of her group had turned into particles.
Was that even allowed? How were you supposed to fight against something like that?
"Just what kind of monster did we provoke?" That was the only thing going through Trinity's mind at that moment. However, if she knew that Izroth used her to kill her own party members, how would she react?
Izroth turned around and set his gaze on Trinity as soon as the last of the particles had dissipated.
Trinity's heart dropped when Izroth turned to look at her.
Izroth's flickering silhouette appeared directly in front of Trinity. The sight of him flickering in and out of existence caused a sense of dread to creep up on Trinity without her even realizing it.
Trinity decided that the instant she was freed from her imprisonment, she would activate the Veil of Serok and escape away from this place as fast as possible! To deal with someone like that, they would need something more than just the Veil of Serok. That guy was definitely a top player!
"I have a few questions I want to ask you. If you cooperate, I'll consider letting you go. I may even make it worth your while. However, if you attempt to escape or disappear again, then don't blame me for being impolite." Izroth's narrowed his eyes as an overwhelming pressure fell upon Trinity. Even though she was in the crystal, she was not safe from the effects of Izroth's Soul Pressure skill!
Since Trinity was already in a state of panic and shock, Izroth's Soul Pressure took effect with ease and put Trinity into a weakened state. Of course, he made sure not to overdo it as he did not want to make a mistake and kill her. After all, he had quite a few questions to ask her.
"I'm going to release you now so you can talk, however, if you attempt to run away or I see even the smallest sign of suspicious movements, then you'll be joining the other members of your group. Besides, I'm sure you've realized by now that I've already discovered how to locate you even if you're hidden." Izroth said in a calm tone.
Of course, Izroth still had no way to discover Trinity's location if she used the Veil of Serok again, outside of attacking randomly, but she did not know that. After all, he managed to kill one of them while it was active, so why would she not believe him? Not to mention, she was unable to think straight given the immense amount of pressure she was feeling.
Izroth released his Crystallization skill as the crystal that encased Trinity shattered into numerous pieces, freeing her from her confinement.
"What do you intend to do?" Trinity said as she viciously glared at Izroth in a hostile manner. But, one could see the fear that lingered within her eyes. In other words, she was doing nothing more than trying to put on a brave act.
"As I said, I have a few questions for you to answer." Izroth replied.
"Why should I help you? You'll just kill me once I talk, so what's the point? Just hurry up and get it over with!" Trinity scowled. If she died, then she would only lose some experience, maybe drop a piece of equipment, and have to deal with being in a weakened state for one hour.
She was willing to pay that price instead of betraying the ones who sent her on this mission. So what if she had to suffer a bit because of it? In the long run, it would all be worth it in her eyes!
"I see, then I suppose you leave me no other choice." Izroth said.
Trinity could feel the atmosphere become increasingly tense. Should she just make a break for it and ignore the potential consequences? However, before she even had time to consider that course of action, Izroth did something that caused her to be left completely dumbfounded.
"You-! What are you playing at?!" Trinity shouted in an angry tone when she saw what Izroth made appear before her.
…
A few moments ago back at the caravan…
"We're moving!" Mirage said as she rushed towards the original direction that the arrow came from. She waited for around fifteen seconds before she decided to rush off since she was still waiting for a few cooldowns to come up, however, the moment her skills were off cooldown, she did not hesitate to charge forward.
"Wait a sec, we still don't know-" Midnight tried to warn Mirage that they still had no idea just who or how many people they were dealing with. When he turned around to speak to Ying Yue, she had already vanished as well! Was this a party or a free-for-all?
He could only let out a helpless sigh and follow after Mirage into the forest. He began to think that he did not know what he was signing himself up for when he agreed to join this party.
A bizarre combat master who often wandered off by himself, a headstrong fighter who did not think things through all the way, and a magic caster who kept to herself for the most part. Could it be that he was the only normal player within the group?
Midnight was slower than Mirage and so it took him a few extra seconds before he was finally able to catch up to her.
Mirage was in the same area that Izroth was located in just a few moments ago when he confronted Trinity's group. But, there was no one around as far as Mirage could see which caused a frown to appear on her face. Did she run in the wrong direction? She could have sworn that the arrow came from this side of the forest path somewhere.
"You're too reckless." Midnight stated as he released a deep sigh.
"Do you notice anything strange?" Mirage asked with furrowed brows.
Midnight took a moment to examine his surroundings before he nodded and responded, "If by strange you mean that a battle took place here, then yes." He could see the scars left on the trees and ground that were created by Izroth's Tempest Strikes. From the looks of things, this fight had just happened not too long ago. If that was the case, where were the people who fought?
…
Meanwhile, around thirty to forty meters away from Trinity and her group's original position…
"What's going on? She's late!" A player hidden along the forest path said. He was with a separate group of six players that planned on attacking the caravan at Trinity's signal, however, Trinity's group had yet to make a move.
The caravan should have been in total chaos by now, however, there were no signs of that.
"I've already sent her a few messages, but she's not responding to anything. Should we just attack with the other group that's waiting?" One of the players said.
"I'm afraid you won't get that chance." A voice came from behind the group and immediately caused them to jump in surprise.
"Who-!" Before that player could finish his sentence, he felt something cold brush past his neck. His eyes widened in shock as he looked down and saw that his hands had already started to break apart and turn into particles. He had been killed just like that!
That scene caused the other five players to become infuriated, but none of them received the chance to express themselves as that same cold feeling brushed past their necks, ending in their deaths. In the blink of an eye, all six players were eliminated!
'That makes two groups. It looks like she was telling the truth. Smart choice.'
Izroth sheathed his Sword of The Storm after he finished off the last member of that group. He had extracted some interesting and unexpected information from Trinity within a short period of time. Of course, he did so by making her an offer that she could not refuse.
Not only did he learn of the locations of the other two groups, which he had already eliminated, but he also found out who it was that sanctioned the attack on the caravan.
Fortunately, the other two groups were much easier to find since they had an item similar to the Veil of Serok, however, it was much weaker in comparison. In other words, as long as Izroth was within ten meters of the group, he could sense them without any issue.
'What is it about this caravan that you want so badly? Money? Items? No, to grab your attention it has to be something much more valuable than that.'
Izroth had learned a lot about factions inside of the Amaharpe palace library. One of the more notorious factions was surprisingly one he had already encountered back during his trip to the second kingdom O'Tohelm to complete the first part of his SSS-ranked quest, the League of The Eidolon.
The players who were ready to attack the caravan were all members of the League of The Eidolon! In other words, it was that powerful faction that ordered the attack on the Silver Hawks Caravan. However, what did they have to gain from this?
From what he knew, the League of The Eidolon made their profits through assassinations and blackmailing, not petty bandit robbery. According to Trinity, they were just supposed to prevent the caravan from reaching its destination, that's all. He could tell that she was not lying to him, however, Izroth knew that it could not be that simple. Therefore, there was one question on his mind.
'League of The Eidolon, just what are your intentions?'
