〈System Alert: You have been affected by a Chaotic Shift.〉
"Where did you come from? Where are my sister and your party?" Mariposa was startled by the sudden appearance of Izroth. But, she was concerned that since Izroth was alone, Zi Yi may have met with some kind of misfortune within the Chaotic Dogma Realm.
During her time here, Mariposa understood the potential danger of this place. There were quite a few times when she believed that her party would suffer some kind of major loss. However, they had been fortunate and skilled enough to come out on top in every situation they ran into so far.
At least, that's how it was until they came across Silent Step and the other members of Fatal Touch. One of her party members was ambushed and killed without mercy. After that, Silent Step made some bizarre transformation and killed another member of her party.
Mariposa did not understand his reasons for doing so, but she did not care. In her mind, Fatal Touch was now a sworn enemy of her Sleeping Gardenia guild. While she would not purposely go out of her way to antagonize Fatal Touch before this encounter, they had made the first move and so she no longer cared about giving them face.
"I was separated from everyone else and was transported here without my knowledge or consent. As for your sister, I assume the same thing has happened to her. Where I came from... Well, that's something I'm unsure of myself. Though I believe it has something to do with being affected by what's called a Chaotic Shift." Izroth spoke in a calm and steady manner.
"Chaotic Shift...?" Mariposa muttered to herself. Wait a second, Aegis did ask her before if she was capable of locating someone using her spatial magic. At that time, she did not understand why he had asked such a question. But, with the sudden appearance of Izroth and given the information he just provided, it most likely had something to do with this so-called Chaotic Shift.
"Then, I think you're in the same situation as him." Mariposa pointed over in the distance.
Cling! Crash!
Izroth heard the sound of fighting nearby. However, since it had nothing to do with him and he was speaking to Mariposa, he did not bother turning his attention to it immediately. But for some reason, he could sense two familiar presences. One of those two familiar presences were very vague as though he had only come across it once or twice.
But, the other presence strong as if he had come into contact with it for an extended period of time. Izroth could not help but to inwardly frown when he fully grasped the second presence. At first, he thought that maybe it was just because of the interference of the Chaotic Dogma Realm that he mistook the presence for something else, but now he was sure.
The second presence Izroth felt belonged to that of a Shadahi! How were the Shadahi linked to this place? Or better yet, how did they get into a place like the Chaotic Dogma Realm? Weren't they all sealed within the Shadahi Realm?
'This presence feels like that of a Shadahi, but it's a little off. It's as if the aura of the Shadahi has been diluted and the amount of dark cold energy present is nowhere near as powerful.'
When Izroth turned to look in the direction Mariposa pointed towards, he saw a humanoid figure with red skin and demonic red eyes. That humanoid figure emitted the Shadahi-like aura he had sensed. But when Izroth examined the humanoid figure, he was surprised to find out that it was not a monster, but rather a player!
'Why does a player have the power of the Shadahi?'
There was also something else that bothered Izroth. How did that player manage to get into the Chaotic Dogma Realm without his Shadahi ties being discovered? After all, the characters who were behind sending them into the Chaotic Dogma Realm were all legendary figures. They were not naive and would not just trust anyone to accomplish this mission.
Izroth felt uneasy and things did not seem right to him no matter how he thought about it. It all just did not add up.
'It seems the Shadahi has already found a way to start spreading their influence through players. Are things already starting to move into place behind the scenes?'
There was nothing Izroth could do at the moment but speculate the multiple possibilities. However, that would get him nowhere with his current set of circumstances. Right now, the most important thing was to regroup with his party members.
Izroth then turned his attention towards the other player who fought against the Shadahi-like player. This was someone he seemed to be running into quite often as of late.
'I didn't expect to run into him here. It appears he was also separated from his party through a Chaotic Shift, according to Mariposa.'
Izroth was referring to Aegis, who calmly stood before the Shadahi-like player with one sword in his hand. Although he looked completely defenseless at a glance, he had absolutely no openings whatsoever. It was the mark of a master swordsman!
"Do you know the two players fighting over there?" Izroth asked Mariposa.
Mariposa nodded, "The one with the red hair name is Aegis if I remember correctly. He is a member of the famed guild, Heaven's Law. Well, if you can call twelve members a guild. They are a group of extremely skilled and powerful players. No one knows their origins, but their power is the real deal." she explained.
Her voice then grew cold as she continued, "The other one is called Silent Step. He is the leader of an organization called Fatal Touch. You can think of them as mercenaries with no sense of honor, willing to do anything to further their own interest."
It was obvious from Mariposa's attitude that she did not think very highly of Silent Step.
Aegis felt someone else enter into his range of perception as he fought against Silent Step. He glanced over and saw Izroth standing there with a carefree expression on his face. "It's him... Did he also experience that phenomenon?" Aegis muttered to himself.
When Silent Step saw that Aegis had let his attention stray away from their fight, this angered him and he felt as if he was being looked down upon. "You dare to look away during a fight with me?!"
Who was he? He was the number one assassin! No one had ever dared to look away from him during a fight for fear of instantly regretting it. Being at the top for so long, he had gotten used to that sense of superiority and level of respect. He would ignore others, but not the other way around.
Silent Step vanished from the spot he stood in just moments ago. It was an empowered version of a rogue's Stealth skill called Vanish. Unlike Stealth, Vanish did not impede a user in any way and allowed for them to move almost freely throughout the battlefield.
However, while Silent Step may give many others a difficult time with his mastery of stealth-type skills, his worse possible matchup was Aegis.
The lemniscate's which formed Aegis' pupils began to glow with a faint aura constantly traveling along its lines. To everyone else, Silent Step was completely invisible and could not be seen at all.
But, in Aegis' eyes, he could see everything with great clarity. This was the power of a unique trait granted to him by the system when he first started RML. The name of the trait was the All-Seeing Eyes. Aegis was actually the very first player within RML to receive a trait from the system.
With the power of his All-Seeing Eyes, Aegis did not have any trouble leveling up or overcoming difficult battles. It was due to the amazing effects the All-Seeing Eyes bestowed upon him.
At the moment, Silent Step was closing in rapidly on Aegis. His movements were made in such a way that they limited the number of motions required and quicken his speed in reaching a specific point.
He held a dagger in his hand that was pitch black with specks of white aura floating around it. It appeared as though the weapon itself was also influenced by Shadahi energy.
Woosh! Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!
The four players that were a part of Silent Step's party launched a pincer attack on Aegis. Their goal was to occupy his attention while Silent Step waited for the perfect moment to strike. As they surrounded Aegis, Mariposa started to grow restless.
Although she offered to assist him, Aegis insisted that he could handle it alone. However, his current situation did not look very favorable.
'They won't touch him.'
Even though the players going up against Aegis were not weak by any means, the gap was still too large between the two involved parties. Izroth had a brief encounter with Aegis, but he was able to somewhat grasp his level of strength and skill.
The players who were performing the pincer attack had good coordination, but their individual skills left much to be desired compared to Aegis.
Soon enough, Aegis was locked in a fight of five against one. Though, one of them was hiding and waiting to strike. As the four players slashed out towards Aegis and threw out multiple skills, Aegis seemed to be able to predict their movements and always just barely avoid their attacks.
That was not all, he would strike out with deadly precision with his counterattacks and the amount of damage he dealt was not light.
Aegis' sword moved with such precision and grace that it almost appeared as if the sword itself was performing a type of dance. However, it was not a peaceful dance, but rather a waltz of death!
"Ah! No... All of my hard work!" One of the players who was attacking Aegis yelled out as Aegis' sword swept across their body and dealt the killing blow. Their character soon dissipated and experienced an existence wipe. Just like that, he had lost all the work he put into his character on RML.
The moment Aegis' sword reaped the life that player, Silent Step took the opportunity to commence his ambush from behind Aegis. After all, what better time to attack then when an enemy had a taste of victory? However, Silent Step had grossly underestimated Aegis.
Aegis gaze was locked onto Silent Step from the moment he appeared. This alarmed Silent Step and he wanted to fall back to try again, however, it was too late to call off his attack.
Swoosh!
Silent Step's dagger hit nothing but empty air as Aegis successfully side-stepped the attack.
Aegis swiftly struck Silent Step's body three times with his sword which caused him to be knocked back a few meters from the impact. This caused the other three remaining players to temporarily fall back.
By the time Silent Step regained his balance, he had an ugly look on his face. How was this guy so strong?! Even without this transformation, Silent Step was still a top tier player. Therefore, when he used this transformation no one should be able to harm him in the slightest. However, this guy was a monster amongst monsters.
Silent Step grit his teeth, "Retreat!" He decided that the best course of action, for now, was to temporarily retreat and regroup. After that, he would another time to deal with that member of Heaven's Law.
The three members followed Silent Step's orders without hesitation and immediately retreated. A part of them was terrified of losing everything just as two of their other members had already done. So when Silent Step gave the order to retreat, they were obviously relieved.
"Just you wait! One way or another..." Silent Step did not bother finishing as he soon disappeared and retreated along with his party members.
Aegis sheathed his sword and had an unbothered expression on his face. "Just a bunch of dogs that only knows how to bark." He then turned his attention towards Mariposa and then Izroth.
"Our paths seem to cross quite often as of late, Aegis." Izroth said in a carefree tone of voice.
"You two know each other?" Mariposa was shocked. How did Izroth know a member of Heaven's Law?