Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

The Bloody Lily landed on the ground and spun her sword to block another attack from the Centipede Queen's claws.

Such was the strength of the redhead that she managed to deflect the angle of the creature's attack, which forced the Queen Centipede to make a full turn with her body to attack her with her pincers again.

The Bloody Lily jumped to the right when the creature, returning from its last attack, tried to attack her once more.

The player had learned her lesson that she could not focus her attacks on the creature's armor, because the resistance of that was absurd. So she attacked the legs of the Centipede Queen and managed to rip off three of the monster's legs with a single swing of her sword.

The creature screamed in pain and fury, but the Bleeding Lily didn't care one bit about that. She knew that she needed to keep attacking the creature, without giving it a chance to regenerate. So she continued to attack the creature, swiftly dodging the onslaughts while also dealing with the Mutant Rank Hive Centipedes.

Gradually, she began to notice that her sword was getting heavier and heavier. Although it was made of magic rube steel, this was not a magic sword with a focus on durability, so it didn't have much resistance against the creature's formidable natural defense.

The Bleeding Lily didn't care about that; she knew she had to do this now or never. If she failed, there wouldn't be another chance, and all her Guild members could be killed. That would be a huge detriment to the guild's finances and morale as well.

The red-haired woman continued to attack the creature, always dodging and dodging its attacks.

At the same time that the Bloody Lily's fight was going on, Kaizen was already returning to the library. To be quicker, Kaizen climbed the rooftops again and identified from afar the tower of the Municipal Library. It was impossible for him not to notice that there was a colossal centipede making a huge wave of destruction just a few blocks away.

"So, that's the Centipede Queen that the wizard commented on. Who knew that the earthquakes that were happening were because she was moving around underground in the city." Kaizen thought aloud and as she ran, she realized that a red figure was fighting the gigantic creature. "If she is the one taking care of this centipede, does that mean she couldn't make it to the library?"

Psyker had not yet thought about the possibility that the Bloody Lily had not made it to the guild's temporary shelter, and when he thought about it, he increased the pace of his steps at the same instant.

When he arrived in the vicinity of the City Library, Kaizen felt the tremors caused by the Centipede Queen's plunges against the ground more keenly, but he didn't care about that, because the most important thing was that the library tower was on fire. Besides, he trusted that the Bloody Lily could take care of the centipede.

When he arrived in the library block, he saw that all around the area there were many figures wearing black cloaks, whose hoods covered their faces. These people were fighting against the members of the Crimson Soldiers' Guild.

The Bloody Lily's allies were powerful, and reinforcements from other players had sprung up to help them deal with the siege, but while there were less than two dozen players, there were more than a hundred servants of the cult of The Eye of Hermodr. The point was that in a battle of long duration, quantity usually trumps quality.

Kaizen wasn't paying attention to any of this. All he wanted to do was to feel the euphoria of battle, to feel his heart pounding, to make his brain try tirelessly to find a way to emerge victorious from a difficult battle and make a lot of money. Despite all this, Kaizen needed to show Bleeding Lily that she could trust him, so he was obliged to help her allies, otherwise she would never forgive him.

Dathan was completely surrounded by more than twenty hooded figures. Some of these cult servants were using magic, others poisoned daggers, and some even spears. It was such a wide variety of attacks focusing him that even a high-level player like Dathan was having trouble dealing.

The brown haired boy used the Class Skill called <Sword Art>, which had the power to increase the Attack and Speed attributes of his weapon, to imbue his sword with a fervent blue aura. He propelled himself once again and danced in the middle of the enemies' front line of defense, dodging all attacks while striking back as hard as he could. As soon as he stepped back, however, the mages in the rear healed the melee combatants. For Dathan, fighting this way was frustrating and exhausting.

However, Dathan suddenly heard screams from the rear of his enemies, exactly where the mages were.

"AAAHHH!"

"HARGH! What the..."

"Where did this guy come from? Kill el..."

At that moment, Dathan finally saw the opening he had begged so hard for appear. Taking advantage of the fact that the <Sword Art> buff hadn't run out yet, he combined this with another skill called <Combat Talent>.

This latter skill allowed him to predict his opponent's actions in less than a second, and with both buffs active, the increase in his sword's speed and attack was improved by more than three times.

Dathan leaped forward and swung his sword at the opponents around him. His sword was no more than a blue blur to their eyes, and he gave none of them a chance to react. The opponents' bodies were broken in half and their internal organs were scattered on the ground.

In that instant, Dathan realized that there was a guy attacking the enemies' support mages, and that this guy who showed up to help him was the same guy who stole all the rewards from his last raid on the Howling Draughtsmen.

'Kaizen?!' Dathan mentally exclaimed. The two players greeted each other with a nod as they crossed paths during the battle.

As they sliced through the minions of The Eye of Hermodr, a small competitive atmosphere began to emerge between them.

Dathan's sword skills made Psyker jealous, because he too wished he could have the skills of a swordsman to enhance his sword combat, and thinking about it made him suddenly remember a fact.

'I don't have to just feel like getting a skill like that, because I can just copy it for myself!' Kaizen thought and a huge smile of excitement broke out on his face.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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