Since Kaizen didn’t send any arrows, Magma knew that it was unlikely that they would be able to escape such a mess.

The Shadow Gatun was a monster of a Mutant nature, which made all of his abilities extremely dangerous. Besides his high speed and strength, his main ability allowed him to use his shadow to attack his enemies, like an extension of its own body.

As soon as everyone in Magma’s group saw the size of the Shadowcat’s life bar, they knew that they would need a much higher level to face this monster if they were to have any chance of winning, but none of them had the choice to retreat now. It would be absolutely impossible to run away without someone to distract the Boss, so the only alternative was to fight.

Immediately, Magma drew his sword and shouted to his partners:

“Guys, we’re going to attack first!”

They all agreed to the order and ran towards the monster before the Shadowcat could have a chance to attack.

If they wanted to have any chance of winning, they needed to deal as much damage as possible as fast as they could. Magma, who was the leader of the group, led the charge.

Proddy, Guava, and Lance were Swordsmen, Rise Online’s most common and versatile Class. However, a group of three Swordsmen and one Tank was far from ideal for fighting a Boss.

They attacked with all their might, brandishing their swords with courage, but the disparity between them and the Shadow Gatun was too high.

The monster was fast and strong enough to dodge all the attacks, as well as being able to counterattack with even more speed. In addition, he also used his special ability to control the shadows to help him attack.

Proddy and Lance saw their life bars drop rapidly, and just when they thought they had dodged the Shadowcat’s claws, that black thing below them moved until it cut the two. They regretted that they didn’t have higher levels because they would probably have money to buy life potions to heal themselves.

Seeing that the situation was getting more and more critical, Magma shouted: “Kaizen, if you are still hiding, show yourself now! Come help us!”𝑜𝐯𝓛xt.𝓬𝒐𝓂

However, nothing happened. Klaus Park did not reveal his presence.

“Son of a bitch…” Magma uttered again.

At that moment, the Shadow Gatun charged again against the weakened group.

Snaking across the battlefield, the monster moved so quickly that it made it difficult to predict where it would attack from.

Seeing that all his partners were about to be attacked, Magma stepped back and used Proddy, Lance, and Guava as decoys.

As Magma thought it would happen, the Shadowcat focused on the Swordsmen.

The shadow below the Boss moved even faster than the monster itself and, like a sharp spear, pierced through the center of Proddy’s chest. The clink produced by the fall of Proddy’s one-handed sword to the ground sounded almost melancholy.

“Help me…” Proddy stretched his right arm toward his friends, who did not move a finger to help him from the hesitation.

Proddy’s life bar zeroed, and he crumbled into the air in shimmering blue particles, with only a blue orb left where the player was standing.

Meanwhile, Klaus Park, who was watching from afar, didn’t seem the least bit surprised by the battle’s outcome up to that point.

[The member ‘Proddy’ of your group was killed].

“One down, three left…” Klaus said to himself.

There wasn’t even a reason for Klaus to get involved in the fight against the Boss. If he did that, he would only be exposing himself to the risk of losing a few more levels if he died, something that for him, who had just risen to level -1, certainly was not an option.

Magma watched one after another of his followers die by the shadows and scratches of the Shadow Gatun.

[The member ‘Lance’ of your group was killed].

[The member ‘Guava’ of your group was killed].

Magma had no idea how to face such a strong enemy. His only asset was his enormous brute strength and stamina, but that was not enough against a Boss. ‘There is no way I can defeat something that strong…’ He concluded.

The Shadow Gatun was not even a bit tired, it was actually the complete opposite, it seemed even stronger and faster than before.

Even though he had no hope of winning, Magma continued trying to fight for the next few seconds. Between rapid advances and retreats, his life bar was rapidly diminishing to the point that he didn’t even have the stamina to use more Movement Skills.

Already emotionless, Magma continued to fight the Shadow Gatun, knowing that he was about to die. Suddenly, the Shadowcat charged toward him head-on, which made Magma hold tightly onto the handle of his giant sword. However, the Boss used himself to draw the user’s attention, allowing dozens of sharp shadows to pierce Magma’s back.

[You died].

[You lost 2 levels for dying.]

[You have lost 5 rep points with the Human race.]

[You are being teleported to the last respawn point.]

The messages appeared one after another on Magma’s screen.

“Hum! It’s finally over…” Klaus said as he watched the last traces of Magma’s group disappear into thin air.

At that time, the Shadow Gatun’s life bar was still at three-quarters, but still, he was undoubtedly a formidable enemy.

Still, Klaus didn’t feel in danger at that moment; after all, he was far from the monster. Klaus had no particular reason to face the Shadowcat if the rumors about the treasure were false.

First, what motivated him to go to the Cloud Wood was the experience he would gain by killing the Black Vultures, and there was no reason to be greedy yet. However, he secretly made it his personal goal to solo the Shadow Gatun as soon as possible.

Magma and his companions were teleported to the last respawn point, and as soon as the loading screen ended, Magma shouted:

“I curse the day I started playing this game!”

“What the fuck was that information!?” Lance squirmed as he grabbed Magma’s collar. “You didn’t say there would be a Boss!”

Lance and Guava quickly tried to stop the fight after several other users started looking on.

“Calm down! No need to fight!” Guava said. “Magma, why didn’t you say there would be a Boss?”

“I didn’t know!” Magma replied. “How the hell would I know? I couldn’t find any useful information about the Misty Woods on the Webnet. I thought it was a low-level area because it’s near this town.”

“What the fuck!” shouted Lance, letting go of the group leader. “It’s over. I’m not playing with you anymore!”

“I don’t care. You guys play really bad too.” said Magma.

As they argued in the center of Holinda, Klaus Park decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take advantage of the Shadowcat’s spawn cooldown to investigate the glowing orbs that were exactly where each of the players in his group died.

Naturally, Klaus went down the slope just as his former teammates had done, and walking on tiptoe, he approached the orbs. When he finally found himself in front of the spheres, Klaus counted those things. There was one for each player in Magma’s group.

Without hesitation, he touched the first orb, and a system screen appeared before his eyes:

[Part of the ‘Magma’ player’s belongings were added to his backpack].

…

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

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