Martial Online.

Chapter 36: Skill

"Urgh." Prince walked out of the hole in the wall and saw three young men surrounding the dark, cloaked figure. He only recognized one of them.

'Cauldron, the Kingslayer...'

"I didn't expect that it was possible to get neck pain in-game." Barbarian groaned while rubbing his neck as he walked towards Karma, soon surrounding him alongside the three young men and Prince.

Karma soon smiled again while surveying his surroundings. He was entirely surrounded, but he didn't look alarmed. He simply opened his palms, summoned a pair of black feathers, and transformed them into black claw-like daggers.

They resembled crow's claws, but in a much bigger version. The blade was also letting out eerie black smoke—the Black Smoke of Verhan!

"I suppose you five are the strongest this city has to offer." Karma chuckled. "Light Continent truly has fallen low. I don't understand why the Dark Continent and Lord Ravan don't just exterminate you all."

Swoosh!

A metal arrow cut through the air and approached Karma's smiling figure with blinding speed.

Karma moved the left-handed dagger and deflected the arrow with pathetic ease. The arrow fell to the ground, and its tip had the insignia of a fluttering wind.

'A wind...' Prince's eyes widened, and he turned towards the nearby roofs, where he soon saw a green-cloaked figure standing on top of a pointy roof. She was about fifty meters from Karma.

Her cloak fluttered against the wind, and soon the hood blew away, revealing her face. She had a pale face, like she was from somewhere cold, but it made her features look very delicate and beautiful, making everyone feel protective of her.

She was an archer with a bow made from more durable wood than the basic version, and all her arrows were made from solid steel.

Karma scoffed and hurled his dagger across the air, straight towards the green-cloaked woman. The distance was closing quickly, and yet she hadn't moved out of the way yet!

At the last possible moment, she leaned to the left and suddenly began falling from the roof to her death. She then nimbly rolled around and delicately landed on the street, while the dagger had missed her a long time ago.

Karma chuckled and made the dagger make a U-turn and return to his grip.

"So, that is six. Any more fools wanting to die at my hands?" Karma asked with an ever-lasting grin.

The female archer climbed on top of another roof and kept her distance from Karma. She was, after all, a long-range fighter.

"So, even she was here." Barbarian murmured loudly. "Captain Nora, the leader of one of the Seven War Guilds—Stormdawn."

"I am getting hungry, so let's get this done with." Anthon said and nodded at Cauldron and Ignite.

"Finally." Karma rubbed his neck. "I was getting bored."

Ignite grinned and lunged forward while swinging his sword in a wide arc.

Anthon moved his sword overheard and slashed it down with a powerful swing.

Cauldron flanked Karma from the side and stabbed his sword towards his waist. If it landed, the sword would go straight through Karma's body.

Karma parried Ignite's blow with a lazy-looking slash and then grabbed Anthon's sword-wielding hand's wrist, stopping his attack. He then lifted his leg and kicked away Cauldron's sword.

Barbarian bent his knees and jumped high in the air with his axe above his head. He screamed mightily and brought his axe down with limitless fury.

Karma casually looked up and tossed Anthon away like he was nothing but trash on the sidewalk. Then he moved both daggers above his head and smashed them against the axe.

Boom—the ground exploded, and a shockwave knocked down many players.

Barbarian gritted his teeth, and once the dust cloud dispersed, he saw that his axe was blocked by two daggers. Small beads of sweat appeared in his brows, as he had never been beaten in a battle of strength like this.

Karma's large grin stretched his facial muscles. He then lifted his leg and smashed his foot into Barbarian's gut, sending him flying through nearby buildings.

A brown-cloaked figure charged at him and unleashed his own sword strike. The strike was powerful and accurate, but Karma was faster and effortlessly parried it with his dagger.

Karma then swung the dagger quickly and scratched Prince's cheek. The scratch on his cheek started smoking immediately.

Prince was infected by the Black Smoke of Verhan!

'Hmm, I feel cold.' Prince frowned, changed the grip on his sword, and unleashed a barrage of attacks.

Karma parried all the sword strikes effortlessly with incredible speed and accuracy. He didn't take even a single step backward, but instead took one step forward.

After deflecting another strike, Karma lunged forward and stabbed his dagger towards Prince's face. Prince sacrificed his left arm to block the dagger. The dagger stabbed through his forearm, and his health bar started blinking red.

"Did you forget that I have another dagger?" Karma grinned and brought his second dagger towards Prince's head.

"Did you forget that I have a sword and a longer attack range?" Prince smiled cheekily.

"Huh?" Karma lowered his gaze, and his eyes widened in shock. A steel sword stabbed through his waist, piercing the flesh of his abdomen. The sword went through his body, the blade entirely drenched in blue blood.

"Cough!" Karma coughed up blood.

[HP: 2750/3000]

[HP: 2700/3000]

[HP: 2675...]

He was drastically losing his health.

Since the moment Karma summoned his daggers, Prince realized that there was only one way to harm him. He had to bring him closer and ensure that he couldn't dodge or escape the attack. Therefore, he intentionally sacrificed his arm.

Because of Karma's arrogance, he took the chance for an easy kill but forgot that Prince had advantage of the range and could easily hit him before the dagger reached him.

"Ugh, it hurts!" Karma screamed and stabbed his dagger through Prince's face in a fit of rage. Prince's body turned into floating pixels, and he was soon gone from the world of Martial Online.

"Ugh..." Karma looked at the sword at his waist and was about to remove it, but then the sword turned into pixels and also disappeared.

He touched his bleeding gut and infused the Black Smoke of Verhan into the wound. His wound slowly healed, but he couldn't do anything about his pain or the loss of health.

[HP: 2135/3000]

"Whoo..." He let out a deep breath and forced a grin on his face. He turned to the rest of the players and opened his arms wide. "Crow Death!"

Crows flew out of his body like bullets and attacked all the nearby players. The players were panicking, and most of them already had low health; therefore, most of them died quickly. But there were still many players, and they managed to fight against them fairly well.

Swoosh, swoosh, several arrows flew, but Karma quickly deflected them with the blunt side of his daggers. He narrowed his eyes as he saw the green-cloaked woman waiting for any moment to strike.

"Crow Targeting." Karma closed his left eye and pointed at the green-cloaked woman with his finger like it was a pistol. Then, a dozen crows flew out of his finger and charged at the woman with the speed of a bullet.

'Only dozen? My crow reserves are that low?' Karma was stunned and held his painful gut. 'That attack from that bastard must have killed over a thousand crow cells. I only have less than a hundred crow cells left! God damn it!'

At the end of the street, several players were watching the ongoing battle. They were behind a crowd of players and couldn't advance. Most of them wanted to fight the boss and receive rewards. Thus, he tried to push the players forward, but no one was moving as everyone was like sardines packed in a can.

One of the players looked at the battle with a thoughtful expression.

'Prince managed to injure the boss so much.' Ambrose thought and looked at his swords. 'I would be dead within a second if I took part in a battle of that level. I wonder if they can even kill the boss, he is far too powerful.

'Is there anything I could do?' He frowned and walked away from the street, increasing his distance from the boss battle. He took a seat in the yard of the cafe and put his swords on the circular table.

'Anything...'

At that moment, he realized what he could do.

He took out a scroll from his inventory—a skill scroll.

"A skill, but what kind? This is my first skill, and it will greatly influence my future style. For now, I just need to focus on skills that will help me against the boss.

"What could it be..."

At that moment, a certain scene appeared in his mind. It was part of his favorite book, Ambrose the Immortal Man. When the main character of the book first received his immortality, he wanted to test it and intentionally got injured.

"What about that... Haha, that is insane." Ambrose let out a strained chuckle, but when he looked at his swords, he bit his lips and sighed. "My whole life, I have been trying not to get injured, but now the opposite... Fine, let's see if the game accepts this skill."