“In the end, you still are weak Hideki.”

Hearing that sentence once again, the very sentence that started all this. The very sentence that breed hatred within him, Hideki lost it, growling and charging forward at Sato.

*clang*

Sato met his attack head on as he was a true physical class player that had the capability for head-to-head combat.

Sword against dagger, swordsman vs assassin, both parties wielded their weapons and struck back against each other trying to get the better of their opponent. Despite being on the lower hand in the number of attribute points in [Agility] and [Dexterity] even though it wasn’t so much, Sato was able to bridge the gap with his gaming experience and skill.

Hideki on the other hand, was a victim to Sato’s flawless attacks. Even when it seemed like he was about to get the upper hand with his higher attributes, Sato would turn the tables around by executing a different martial technique at the last moment thereby not only escaping the danger but also dealing significant damage to Hideki.

*clang*

*clang*

Even though their speed wasn’t above that of what a human can see they were still quite fast; attacking about 3-4 times within a second. With his higher [Dexterity], Hideki was able to slash out more times than Sato but even so, Sato comfortably received his attacks and still had the luxury to counter.

Snake’s jaw, Seven flower kills, Myriad slashes and more. Hideki used martial technique after martial technique trying to best Sato in their duel but despite all that, he seemed to still be at the the receiving end.

‘Why? Why? I have trained to the best I can. I even got assigned to a special training program by the guild. I learnt all I could but why, why can’t I still win? Sato, why can’t I reach you?’ Hideki inwardly yelled as he felt a tinge of desperation from not being able to make any reasonable advancement in their battle. ‘What can I do? Do I really have no choice left?’

Their fight went on for around 3 minutes. At this point, Hideki only had 32 HP left while Sato still had about 69 HP. This was mostly because of Hideki landing a lucky shot or trading blow for blow. Even so, with a single look at their current state, the winner could easily be determined as Sato seemed to still have a lot more fighting spirit in himself while Hideki was quite worn out with his breathing seemingly haggard.

“Have you had enough, Hideki? Or do you want me to finish it?” Sato stared at Hideki who had just retreated while grabbing at a recently formed injury.

In Infinite Realm, even though players tend to not experience major injuries, the Heaven System simulates these injuries once a critical attack has been landed at the same place twice. This leads to the opponent bleeding and constantly losing HP and stamina, though at a miniscule amount.

“Hahaha.” Suddenly, Hideki started laughing wildly without a care for his current appearance. He then shouted out “You fool. Haha, you think I would just give up after going this far? What do you take me for? Can’t you already see? You’re surrounded.”

As he said so, a few other players stepped out from their hiding places, numbering at least 8. Counting in the other 3 spectators (Hideki’s two followers and the ranger) together with the mastermind, there were about 12 players on Hideki’s side.

“I never planned to go this far but you have forced my hand, Sato.” Hideki grinned in a vile manner.

“Enough with the comments. Trying to portray yourself as a good guy really isn’t like you Hideki. If you had never planned this from the start you wouldn’t have ever had the thought of ganging up on me.” Sato held his sword pointing downwards while scanning the new arrivals.

“Hmph. It doesn’t matter what you say. You’re still going to die today. Attack him!”

Apart from one of the followers who was charged with watching over the cursemancer, the remaining 10 players rushed after Sato. It looked as if a group of hunters had ganged up on a pitiful prey. Of the 10 players, 5 of them, including the ranger from earlier, were long range fighters. 3 mages; 2 elementalist and 1 necromancer, 2 rangers, 2 guardians, 2 berserkers and 1 swordsman. If the assassin Hideki who was lurking in the background was included then such a force was even capable of taking on an expert class player.

Arrows and spells from the long range squad covered the sky making it so that Sato couldn’t even retreat backwards. The 2 guardians rushed forward ignoring the attack as if it wouldn’t strike them with the aim of forcing Sato to focus on them as they were right in front of him. The 2 berserkers together with the swordsman, attacked from the flanks cornering him right in the middle. Hideki entered stealth mode and waited for the perfect opportunity to land a devastating blow on Sato.

Despite so, Sato wasn’t frightened. Instead, he took in a deep breath and took a stance preparing to clash with them.

“Prepare yourself for today, I shall show you a glimpse of my true strength.”

‘How foolish of you Sato.’ Hideki thought.

The arrows and spells were the first to arrive and as they about to hit him, everyone heard Sato seemed to turn into another person as they heard him say in a low voice ” Lotus sword art : 2nd form : 3 leaf block.”

An unimaginable thing took place as Sato slashed his sword. The players seemed to see his blade split to form a lotus that blocked of all the spells and cut through all the arrows.

“IMPOSSIBLE ! Those arrows are made of high grade 1 star materials. No player should have such strength.” A ranger at the back lines exclaimed.

“What do you know?” Sato calmly said.

Despite his shocking performance, the physical class players still rushed towards him as this was a mission handed to them by their superior. The Guardians were the first to encounter Sato with the berserkers and the swordsman perfecting timing their approach in a way that Sato wouldn’t be able to react properly against them.

“Lotus sword art: 1st form : Swift kill.”

Following that, the two guardians felt a stinging pain before they collapsed not knowing what had just occurred. The berserkers and the swordsman on the other hand were able to see when Sato attacked as there was still a little distance between the two parties but even so they didn’t get away totally intact with one of them falling to Sato’s strike and the other two withdrawing backwards but with less than 50% HP left.

‘It seems I’m still weak to use it. If I had a little more in my attributes they would have already been dead.’ Sato was slightly disappointed at the result but that didn’t stop him from pursuing the other two.

As he was about to chase after them, he felt something behind him and spun to hit the target but was stopped halfway.

*clang*

Hideki appeared out of stealth mode as his attack had just failed and retreated quickly. Turning to the other players he screamed “What are you waiting for?”

The long range players were initially awed by Sato’s performance but after hearing their captain’s orders they regained themselves and cast spell after spell, fired arrow after arrow hoping that just one of their attacks would land.

“Just give up Sato!”

Sato replied “Inevitable struggles for a bunch of dead men.” With that, he rushed towards the long range squad because he realised that if he let them be, they would continue to interrupt him.

As he was rushing towards them, it was unavoidable that he would run into their attacks but even so, there wasn’t a hint of hesitation on his face. Running side by side in an erratic manner, Sato was able to avoid most of the attacks and throw off his attackers aim. For the attacks he couldn’t avoid, he expertly deflected it to clash with another minimising the barrage of spells and arrows he had to face.

Since the close combat attackers couldn’t approach him due to the multitude of long range attacks, they decided to guard the long range squad which was Sato’s target. Initially, they came ready to kill Sato but after they had lost 3 of their men, the berserker and the swordsman were nervous with sweat secreting from their palms.

It didn’t take long for Sato to arrive in front of them and once he did, the last berserker rushed towards him in a bid to take him out as Sato had just dodged a projectile and was in an awkward position. But to his surprise, Sato made a startling movement that was seemingly impossible, landing a surprise attack on the berserker. An elementalist tried to fire a spell at Sato to make him retreat but instead, Sato pushed the berserker towards it thereby eliminating the last remaining inch of HP he had.

The swordsman seeing how his partner had died lost all resistance and ran away. That seemed to be the sword that struck the camel’s back as the remaining players, who were obviously terrible at close combat battles, lost their back bones and retreated too.

But Sato wouldn’t let them go so easily. Once blood has been spilled more would be spilt. He chased after them one by one and succeeded in killing the entire mages. However, the rangers and the swordsman, due to their superior mobility, were able to use the time Sato spent killing the mages, to escape quite some distance away.

Sato returned back to the original field and realised that the other follower, the cursemancer and Hideki had all disappeared.

‘That should teach him a lesson.’

Indeed, after this experience, Hideki would be haunted by Sato.. He came with a group 12 men strong but only 5 men escaped but with a history to haunt them all.