Those from Sacred Beasts were taken aback by Izroth's bizarre request. He wanted to face thirty to forty players by himself?! If it were casual players, it would not be much of an issue.
However, these players knew that Sacred Beasts were one of the top ten guilds. Not to mention, they had just defeated a world boss—this alone was enough to deter most players. Either they were incredibly foolish, or their overall skill level was above that of a casual player's.
Even if Izroth was skilled, the members of Sacred Beasts had seen him use at least three to four high-ranked skills. As a combat master, they understood how challenging it was to learn one high-ranked skill, let alone three or four. To them, that was already a miracle and major accomplishment. That's why they believed that Izroth had exhausted his strongest skills fighting against the Failed Chimera. Since that was the case, how could he possibly take them on by himself?
"What should we do? We can't let him fight alone out there while we sit here and wait for our deaths." Banshee frowned with furrowed brows as she looked to Meng Jiang.
"You're worried about the wrong thing. Mr. First Place can take care of his own well being. For now, all of you should focus on recovering." Meng Jiang said as she gently pat the top of Acogu'An's head.
Everyone was startled by Meng Jiang's response. But, they knew their guild leader would not make baseless assumptions. Given her personality, the Sacred Beasts players understood that Meng Jiang must know something they don't. As for what that was—they had no clue.
"I don't know what guild or organization this group belongs to; however, I have a feeling he has some history with our attackers. Regardless, they made one crucial mistake here today. They have made an enemy of my Sacred Beasts—an enemy of me." Meng Jiang said with an icy smile on her face.
At the same time, the players from the Headhunter Syndicate grew closer to Izroth and the barrier. The melee players rushed in first and led the frontal charge together.
When they saw Izroth step out from the barrier alone, they scoffed and shook their heads at his stupidity.
"What does he plan to do by himself against all of us? Just a fool in a hurry to die." One of the Headhunter Syndicate members mocked.
"Ha! Let's see who can claim his head first!"
"That's good and all, but how about we make it interesting? Let's all put up two gold coins, and whoever takes his life gets to keep it all to themselves!"
"I'm in! Since there are 36 of us, the winner will walk away with 72 gold coins! That's almost five months worth of salary for us!"
"Count me in too!"
"Me too!"
It was clear that the players from the Headhunter Syndicate did not view Izroth or those from Sacred Beasts as a threat. Even if they got lucky and killed a few of them, so what? They were outnumbered four to one! Add that to the fact their high-ranked skills were on cooldown; what was there for them to be afraid of?
Izroth took a few steps forward and drew a line in the earth with the tip of his sword.
"No one is permitted to cross this line," Izroth stated nonchalantly.
"Hahahaha!" The members of the Headhunter Syndicate erupted into a fit of laughter.
"Is this guy messed up in the head or something?"
"I thought he might have something left up his sleeve, but he can only give empty threats. How pathetic!"
"Heh, I'm going ahead, boys! Watch me cross his line and separate his head from his body!" One of the rogue-type classes from the Headhunter Syndicate said as he activated a movement skill and quickly raced ahead of his guildmates.
"I'll pay two gold coins to see that! It'll be an improvement to his brain! Bwahaha!" Morning Sky added. He knew that Izroth did not know him, but he remembered Izroth.
Morning Sky had not forgotten how Izroth angered their guild leader during the meeting. At that time, their guild leader allowed him to walk away with his life intact, but his rage was still apparent.
"Heh, I'm the only one here who knows his real identity. As long as no one else looks too closely, if we kill him now, and I secretly take credit for his death later, the guild leader will surely show his gratitude and reward me. He may even promote me to one of the Banes!" Morning Sky internalized.
Swoosh!
The Headhunter Syndicate rogue, Light Blitz, removed a dagger from his sheath as he approached Izroth's location. All of a sudden, a second Light Blitz appeared, and then a third.
"Hmph, let's see how long you can keep up that arrogant bluff of yours!" Light Blitz and his copies spoke in unison.
However, right as Light Blitz and his copies were about to step over the line Izroth drew in the earth, a streak of purple light flashed past them.
Poof! Poof!
Immediately after the purple light's appearance, the copies of Light Blitz exploded into clouds of smoke, leaving the real Light Blitz standing motionless.
"What's that fool doing playing around? Why'd he just stop?" Morning Sky frowned when he observed Light Blitz's sudden halt of movement.
Out of nowhere, Light Blitz, who was just alive and well a few seconds ago, had begun to turn into particles that drifted away into the sky.
Dead! He was dead! This left the members of the Headhunter Syndicate dumbfounded and made them grow cautious. Their charge speed had drastically decreased.
They did not see anything strange or out of place. There was only a flash of purple light one moment and a dead player the next! What kind of trick did he use to defeat Light Blitz so fast? This was the question on all their minds.
Even the players from Sacred Beasts were baffled. After all of that, he still had skills powerful enough to eliminate someone in one strike? Since when were combat masters so domineering?
"As I said—no one is permitted to cross this line." Izroth's figure suddenly started to flicker in and out of existence. Simultaneously, two bolts of purple lightning struck down from the sky and coated his Sword of The Storm with the lightning element.
Izroth took one step forward; however, this was only from an outside viewpoint. In actuality, within less than a quarter of a breath, Izroth had arrived within the center of the Headhunter Syndicate's group!
"What-!" One of the Headhunter Syndicate players were shocked by the abrupt appearance of a flickering silhouette. At first, he thought it was a ghost and became frightened. But, by the time he realized what was going on, the entire world around him had gone gray. Just like that, he was gone! However, his death was just the beginning.
Bzzzt… Bzzzt! Crrrrckle!
"Ahhh!"
"Where did this lightning come from?!"
"He's here! He's in the- Gaaaah!"
After the first player in the crowd's death, a bolt of purple lightning jumped out from his body and struck the nearest target. This single bolt of lightning was ruthless as it repeated this process indefinitely, creating a chaotic situation among the Headhunter Syndicate. Several players were even paralyzed after being hit by the lightning and left utterly defenseless!
"It's not stopping!"
"Get away from me!"
"Every man for himself!"
This was the work of Izroth's Call of the Thunder God's First State: Heavenly Descent. Not only did it convert all his weapon-based attacks to the lightning element, but one of its effects, Lightning Chain, allowed lightning-type attacks to jump to nearby enemies within 15 meters!
This meant that as long as they stayed within 15 meters of each other, the lightning would deal damage and bounce indefinitely—and this is precisely what occurred.
In the blink of an eye, 36 players had been reduced to 10 players. However, even this did not last long. The few long-range mages and archer-type players could not survive the strike from Izroth's First Baneful Sword: Destruction, which let the skill cooldown reset upon their deaths. Combined with his Flickering Steps and Enhanced Instantaneous Movement, every swing of his sword was accompanied by death.
Morning Sky, of course, was not spared from this result. In fact, he and his short-lived plans were one of the first to fall under Izroth's blade!
In less than ten seconds, the Headhunter Syndicate had gone from many players down to just one, and soon—there would be none!
Suddenly, the sound of the zither had come to a stop, which prompted Izroth to activate his Energy Vision Sense.
'Oh? Trying to escape?'
