Alex felt a chill of foreboding running down her spine as his laughter echoed through her ears. She immediately tightened the grip in her arms. The veins in her arms are popping and her muscles bulging in front of him. 

“Acckkkk!” The goblin shaman squirmed and tried to wiggle free of her grip. His nails dug deep in her arms, and he tried to kick her away. But his small and weak stature couldn’t compare to Alex’s strength. 

In a matter of seconds, his resistance started to weaken. But when her eyes met his bloodshot eyes, she didn’t see the eyes of someone dying. He smiled at her, then raised his head to the sky and screamed at the top of his lungs. “COMEEEE!!!!!!!”

Alex suddenly felt her life in danger, seeing that strangling him was not enough. She rushed to a burning tree and smashed his body in it. However, he continued to scream as loud as he could. And soon Alex’s fingers were slowly being pushed back by the growing dark red aura around him. 

Even though she poured every ounce of strength in her every attack with the intent to kill him. It seems that The sense of danger she felt in him grew stronger and stronger each second. 

“Tsk,” Alex pushed her feet off the ground. However, after retreating a couple of steps, she suddenly lost her balance. It was because her right leg collapsed out of nowhere. It was only thanks to her fast reaction that she recovered her balance. And stayed in a half-kneeling position. 

“Did I force it too much??” Alex mumbled while panting heavily as she felt the exhaustion she suppressed with acupuncture earlier is taking a toll on her body. The pain she accumulated burst forth and started to attack all over her body. 

“Alex!!” Ezekiel cried in panic. He wanted to go to her side and heal her. However, his feet are frozen by an unknown force. 

“How weak… One Dragon’s Art, and I’m at my limit.” Alex muttered as she tried to stabilize her breathing first. She overestimated her current body, thinking that she could finish the fight in a short amount of time. As a result, she used her family’s Dragon’s Art which significantly took a toll on her body, mind, and spirit. 

She once experienced doing the same thing on Guardian, so she thought the side effects would be minuscule. 

Alex doesn’t understand where she miscalculated when her current body is almost the same as the one she used in Guardian’s early days. The only difference was that she could exert more power in this game as she felt her spirit stronger.

“You should have killed him when you had a chance.” The goblin shaman uttered in a man’s deep, cold voice as he remained floating in the air. 

Alex raised her furrowed brows as she stared at him. She felt as if the enemy in front of her was no longer the same one she was fighting. No… the first time she felt something different was when she finally landed an attack on him. 

The strangest thing was blood. It was those drops of blood trickling all over his body. She only missed noticing the small details because she was annoyed. The goblins she slew did not drop even an ounce of blood. She even thought that it was a very nice feature of the game. Yet the drops of blood in front of her evaporating into thin air. And starting to merge with the dark red aura thickening it is the proof that blood does exist in the game. 

“Who are you??” Alex asked as she gritted her teeth and tried to stand up. However, she no longer feels even an ounce of strength in her right arm and leg. She still wanted to fight, but every second the blood merged with his aura, Alex felt the air around her getting thicker and thicker, slowly suffocating her. The gap between her strength and his feels as if it’s getting farther and farther.

After the dark red aura absorbed all the blood in the goblin shaman’s body. He gently landed on the ground and stared at Alex’s eyes, then at Ezekiel, who was behind. “I am Chaos; my enemies call me Conqueror, my allies call me Void’s Guardian. You can call me anything you like.” 

“What an interesting duo, a hero and a sage?? And you have grown stronger in just a short amount. But in the eyes of those who reached the pinnacle of your race. Your strength is nothing but those of an ant.” 

Alex tried observing her enemy while he was talking, but the more she watched, the deeper she fell into his abysmal prowess. 

Even Ezekiel, who was a few meters away from them, took a step back when he met his eyes. Even though his appearance is that of a small goblin. The fear he felt is almost comparable to his experience when he was once at his death’s door. 

He was waiting for an opportunity to attack, but he felt as if he was just an ant in front of him. He wanted to go to Alex’s side to heal her. However, it felt as if the moment he moved, he would die instantly. 

Seeing that fighting him was pointless, Alex gazed at Ezekiel to give him a signal that it was time to run and leave her. With her current state of having her right arm and leg crippled, running and fighting are not their options. She can only accept her fate of death. 

“Run! I’ll buy you some time.” Alex pressed some acupoints in her body once more to force her body to stand even with just one leg. They are already used to dying in games; she will just remember this defeat and take revenge in the future. As long as one of them lives, the sacrifice is worth it. 

However, the moment Ezekiel turned his body around to run, he was stopped in his tracks by Chaos’s words. 

“There’s no point in running. You’re quite unlucky for me to roll a large scale magic on my first roll of the day.”

“I wish to talk with you a little longer, but it seems everyone has come to greet me.” Chaos uttered as he gazed at the cracks in space in the sky. 

“Stop spacing out and run!!” Alex exclaimed as she raised her fist and pushed her foot off the ground to charge at him.

Woken up by Alex’s shout, Ezekiel ran with all his might. 

Using his hands, Chaos pierced his chest and grabbed his heart out in just a second. “It’s too early to meet everyone. Take your time to get stronger; we will be waiting.” 

Chaos crushed the heart in his hand then chanted. “CORPSE EXPLOSION!!!” 

“Till we meet again, hero….”