Infinite Realm

"Give up already." Yukino said as she pulled her sword out of the berserker who fought alongside Goro.

Goro frowned and studied her expression and stance. Right now, only Goro and the previous elementalist were the last of their group standing.

They originally held the upper hand in their battle especially once the [Curse of Zamatrian] had taken effect. It was only a matter of time before they won but the Snow Goddess took a different approach such that rather than being on the defensive and waiting for the curse's duration to come  to an end, she went on the attack against them. She began using Martial skills and techniques and easily took the life of the Cursemancer, who had been harassing her continuously with his curses, before finally eliminating the berserker. But it wasn't without a cost.

As the [Curse of Zamatrian] implemented a [Light Hallucinations] effect on the victim, Yukino had made a couple of errors in her attacks, leading to her getting injured. As things were now, her HP was already below the 50% mark. A few more hit would be all it takes to finish her.

Now all that was left was defeating Goro and the elementalist.

Goro, as an assassin, had a very high evasive rate, [Agility] and [Dexterity] so he had easily retreated whenever Yukino tried to make a move on him. Count in his stealth ability and skill as a 'False King', it would be even more difficult to kill him that easily.

Initially, Yukino had tried to escape the hall and head into one of the other doors but she was always held back by one of them. It would either be Goro or the elementalist or sometimes both. Such continuous interruptions had forced her to focus on the battle first before finding Chesces and co.

'She should be getting weary. All those Martial skills she's used will surely take a toll on her. I have to finish this before the spell goes off.' Goro stared at Yukino in thought.

"Stop running around like an endangered rabbit and get over here." Yukino smirked.

"Oh, it seems our goddess is running out of stamina!" Goro exclaimed with an overly exaggerated tone.

Yukino frowned.

Indeed, she was running out of stamina. After spamming martial skills after martial skills, it was inevitable she would run out of stamina after all, this body wasn't her real own; it was only an avatar. To make things worse, the attributes attached to it are far less than her real life attributes so even though she could last far longer after using 5 martial skills, the same wouldn't happen here.

"But that doesn't matter. Why? Because I plan to defeat goddess myself." Goro said with an irritating smug on his face.

Normally, Goro could just draw out the battle till Yukino gassed out but he didn't want to. He wanted to defeat Yukino with his own hands. Even though he had previously complained of the pride of too players, Goro himself even had his own pride and that was what made him want to take this decision.

However, Goro didn't hurt decide this on a whim. Since Yukino was already tired as she is, coupled with the effects of the [Curse of Zamatrian], Goro had a the advantage and so, a much higher chance of coming out victorious even though Yukino was a 'Queen'.

Looking at the elementalist behind him, Goro said "Stay away from the battle. Just stop her from escaping the range."

"Permit me to give you a view of the Savage Tribe's prowess, dear goddess." Goro grinned before rushing straight forward towards her. This time he didn't go into stealth as he felt there was no need for it plus the skill was in cool-down.

Grabbing her sword with both hands on the hilt, Yukino ran forward to meet Goro's attack. Despite overhearing Goro ordering the elementalist not to interrupt the battle, Yukino still kept her guard up against him. After all, dark players aren't well known for telling the truth but rather for deceptions.

When he was about 2 metres away from her, Goro threw a few hidden weapons towards her. Yukino's great sword had a length of almost 1.6 metres. This gave her the distance advantage in the battle. To cancel out this advantage, Goro decided to distract her with a bunch of hidden weapons once he was close to the sword's active range. This way, Yukino would be forced to either block or dodge the attack and during this time, Goro could easily close up the distance of less than 3 metres.

As expected, Yukino frowned upon seeing Goro's movements but she didn't look so displeased. Rather than dodging, she swung the side of her great sword with an exaggerated movement, as if trying to swat a fly. With the wide side of her sword, she rebounded Goro's attack towards him.

As if expecting that, Goro used the cover of her sword to squat down and rushed towards Yukino. By the time Yukino had completed her full swing, he was only 2 metres away from and still closing in.

As he was about to land a hit at her umbilical region, Goro felt the air above his head still as a heavy force was descending from atop him.

Looking up, Goro was greeted by the sight of Yukino's blade that came crashing down.

Yukino had reacted very quickly to his movements by abruptly stopping her sword's motion and swiftly bringing it downwards towards Goro.

When the sword came slashing down, cutting Goro into two without resistance.  However, the 'Goro' it cut, turned out to be an apparition as the real Goro appeared behind Yukino with his dagger inches away from her heart.

Yukino, once again, reminded Goro the difference between a 'false King' and a true 'Queen' as she managed to narrowly move away but not without harm being caught.  The dagger had pierced her left shoulder, leaving behind a pretty bad wound.

In Infinite Realm, if the damage dealt to a particular spot of a target is great, there can be serious casualties. The lesser effect could be the resulting damage becoming a [Critical hit] or the targeted body part becoming seriously injured. In worse cases, the targeted body part could be chopped off. In even more serious cases, there could be a resulting sequela like pains in chopped off region, even after it is healed.

Also, attacks dealt in typical critical points are normally cause more damage than those done on regular spots.

In Yukino's case, her left shoulder was seriously injured since Goro had used a sure-kill skill on her. Because she had barely dodged it and her shoulder wasn't a critical spot, the damage she received wasn't so much but her HP bar still took a hit. As she was now, Yukino had less than 40% of her HP left. If not for her Mid Tier Mortal rank armor, it would only take one hit for her to be done with. But even at that, Yukino could only handle 2 more hits; anymore and she would be a goner.

After his dagger had penetrated her shoulder, Goro wanted to follow up with his attack but seeing Yukino lifting her great sword despite the pain of being injured, Goro retreated a couple feet backwards.

'One in front and the other behind' Yukino grimaced upon recalling her situation.

With the injury on her left shoulder, Yukino had to use more energy than before to swing her great sword. Using martial skills and techniques became even more difficult her as most of them required the usage of both hands.

"You see dear goddess, it doesn't matter whether I'm a 'false' and you are a 'true'. As long as the environment is made to suit me, even Azure Dragon would fall at my feet." The Maniac Chief, Goro, grinned smugly.

"Just because you managed to land a blow, you think you've won?" Yukino smiled derisively at him. "Looks like I need to truly remind you of the difference between a 'false King' and a true one."

Holding her great sword with both hand and ignoring the pain, Yukino continued "Today, you shall witness the terror and might of a true 'Queen'."

AN :

Apologies but not so sincerely. I don't post on Saturdays and Sundays which I had earlier stated in the auxiliary chapter. So to those who had asked me previously, it wasn't that I couldn't post but I didn't. Saturdays and Sundays are my free days from both writing and work; simply put, its my day to catch up with my private life and friends. I only post on Saturdays and Sundays if I feel like it.

Meanwhile, I will try and make up for any forgotten uploads with bonus chapters this week or maybe mass release on Sunday. in a couple of hours…

BTW, Author's note isn't to increase word count.. The allocated character count for the author's section is just too little to contain all these.