“What happened?” The trio that attacked Arthur was shocked by the sudden ripple of energy that erupted from their target. It was strong enough to knock the fire arrows from the air upon contact.
Then, they felt a strong aura emitting from Arthur as his entire body seemingly formed a red halo.
“He used an ability!” The masked player yelled as he snapped out of it. “Herculia! Attack him before he does anything!”
“I’m on it!”
The large man didn’t waste time as he channeled his mana to his fists before rushing toward Arthur as fast as he could. He intended to smash him with pure brute force before he could do anything.
“Die, bastard!”
As he launched his fist forward, Herculia thought that the boy couldn’t dodge since he didn’t move the entire time. However, at the very last second, Arthur suddenly looked up, and then, he suddenly vanished.
‘Huh?!’
Herculia was taken by surprise when the boy disappeared from his sight. It was sudden and quick. By the time he realized that Arthur had moved to the side, the boy had already launched an attack.
*BANG*
“HAGH!!” He felt a powerful punch carve his torso in with ease. Air was knocked out of his lungs as he was thrown to the side a few feet away.
“Wha-?!” The masked player was completely taken aback. But, he quickly snapped out of it and desperately tried to use one of his abilities.
‘I need to use shadow ste-‘ Before he can even say anything, he found his enemy already in front of his face. All he could see were two red eyes staring into his very soul before he felt the impact of the horrible punch on his guts. His entire body rippled from the hit.
*BLURGH*
Coughing out a huge mouthful of saliva, he was knocked back to the ground.
“Herculia! Danny!”
The third player who was hiding in the bushes screamed when she saw her two friends on the ground, groaning from pain. Arthur immediately looked up and stared at where she was hiding. His face was filled with rage.
“Come out or I’m killing your two idiot friends!” He ordered her with an extremely cold voice.
A few seconds later, the girl slowly emerged from the bushes with a frown on her face as she kept her arms in the air.
At that moment, Arthur’s aura vanished as his eyes returned to normal. A weird feeling of exhaustion washed over his entire body as his vision blurred for a moment. He swayed back slightly before regaining some of his composure. A strong headache hit his head out of nowhere.
‘Dammit, am I getting a side effect from using the Lonesome Warrior’s Howl?’ He asked himself as he gripped his sword. ‘This is the first time I’m using this so I didn’t know that. Dammit, I can’t let them notice that.’
“You bastards ambushed me like a bunch of cowards to try and kill me. For what?! For goddamn what, huh?! I just wanted some potions and you cannot even accept that. A bunch of obnoxious idiots!” He cursed as he lifted his hand up and snapped his finger. Immediately 5 blood arrows appeared around, floating in the air.
“I tried to strike a deal with that dipshit and he didn’t even contemplate that! Now, all of you are going to be sent to the shadow realm!”
Although Arthur would’ve usually killed them instantly, the overwhelming anger he felt at that moment made him hurl curses at them for doing this. What he hated more than having to deal with a spoiled brat was dealing with multiple spoiled brats.
“Who is this bastard… Danny?” Herculia asked the masked player who turned out to be someone named Danny.
“Like… hell do I know? Ugh, I can’t move.”
“You attacked my friend. I wasn’t there to ambush you. Do you think I would stand by and not help my friend when he’s being attacked?” Herculia said as he held his side.
Arthur squinted his eyes as he looked at the large man. “Did you even realize that your friend attacked me first?”
“I gave you a warning. I was in need of those potions and I was going to take them no matter what.”
“Wait, did you attack him because he took your potions, Danny?” The girl asked as she looked at him.
“Leader said that we need at least 150 potions. Those were the last 150 potions in the store and he wanted to buy ten. I couldn’t let him get them and disappoint her. We need them far more than he does.” Danny said.
“…”
Silence took over the entire place in one fell swipe. Nobody spoke one word as they stared at each other confusedly.
“You have got to be kidding me…” The girl facepalmed as she exhaled a long breath.
“Danny…”
“What? We needed those potions.”
“Not enough to try and attack other players, you idiot!”
Seeing this interaction, Arthur felt even more confused than before. He kept looking between the three of them as if he didn’t know what to say.
“Wait, so you lot didn’t plan this ambush out?” He asked as he cut the argument short. “Was it ‘Masked Idiot’s’ mistake?”
“I’m not Masked Idiot!” Danny growled angrily.
“I’m sorry man but… You were in the wrong here, I think.” Herculia rubbed the back of his head with an awkward look.
“Shut up musclehead. You don’t understand how important these potions are. We can’t just leave the village and travel without at least 150 of them with us. Even ten could be the difference between us being wiped out and emerging from this forest alive. The leader knows well the danger that comes with this task.”
“What danger?”
At that moment, a soothing voice echoed in the entire area, catching everyone’s attention, including Arthur’s. Even though the voice only said two words in a calm and quiet tone, it immediately took over the entire conversation with ease.
Arthur lifted his head up only to see someone sitting on a tree branch not that far away from the spot where he was standing. His immediate thought was ‘How did that person appear out of nowhere?’
He hadn’t felt their presence at all this entire time and he didn’t know why. That was a very important detail that he couldn’t ignore. The second thing he realized was unlike the other three, this woman had no hostile intentions at all from what he could see. He couldn’t even feel her aura to know how strong she was or if she was ready to attack or not.
But, that particular part made him understand one thing. ‘She’s stronger than all of them… That’s the leader.’
The significant difference between her and her group was horrifying. It was as if she was cut out of a different cloth. However, by far the most striking thing about the girl was her appearance.
In one simple word, she looked stunningly beautiful to the point where Arthur had to take two looks to understand if she was indeed how she looked. However, somehow, each look made her look even more beautiful.
She had strikingly white hair like snow and an equally shiny smooth skin that seemed to almost reflect the light of the sun. Her eyes were a deep shade of green that almost looked like a divine cosmic cloud in their beauty.
For a second, the two made eye contact as they tried to read what the other was thinking of. But, that brief look turned into a few seconds of silence. The other three felt a weighing nervousness upon their leader’s sudden appearance.
The tension rose in the air to an unbearable degree.
Then, out of nowhere, Arthur lifted his finger and pointed at the girl with a blank expression. “Hey… You…” He said.
‘Oh no.’
Everyone immediately tensed up as their readiness to start the fight again returned. For their leader, they were ready to do anything even if they had to fight him again. However, what Arthur said next completely wiped that idea off their heads. It was the last thing they expected to hear from him.
“You’re a horrible leader. Probably the worst leader I have ever seen in my 15 years of living on this god-forsaken planet.”
“…”
It was a complete shitfest.
A//N: Give me all your Golden Tickets!