Infinite Realm

"Damn vagabonds." Sygrart said with a heavy voice.

It had been almost 6 minutes since Drunken Hog had died. Rock had died at the hands of Swift Blade. When he saw this, Three Kills had already escaped. It turned out that he had earlier made an escape plan in case things went wrong.

The entrance Sinland had used to arrive was still present unlike the door East Crow members used that had disappeared right after they passed through it. Three Kills had used this door and ran away and even though Yukino tried to stop him, the ranger was able to showcase his high level skills easily leaving her behind the dust and escaping.

Yukino could have actually chased after him but she didn't bother as the main priority was defeating the boss.

During this 5 minutes, it was a 5-minutes journey to hell for Sygrart. Under the constant assault of the players who utilized the fact that it was suffering a backlash to beat it up, Sygrart had sustained multiple injuries and damage. Also, Sygrart's talent, [Limit Breaker], had deactivated as he couldn't keep it active anymore.

Half-blood Sygrart (Special Elite) (207/700 HP)

As a result of all this plus the constant assault he received from a total of 7 players, Sygrart's HP couldn't remain stable and was down to only 30% left. But this already was quite impressive as any level 7 creature would have fallen long ago to the attacks of the 7 players. Sygrart however, was still standing; a testament to his role as a boss figure.

"You all deserve to die. To be in the way of 'His' plan, you deserve a thousand deaths. Don't you know what you are doing?!" Sygrart hollered.[1]

"Does it really matter? What's the point in talking with someone who's about to die." Chesces replied as he slashed at Sygrart.

"ENOUGH!" Sygrart yelled. As he did so, his energy levels, which were previously low, spiked up rapidly.

"What the hell?! I thought the talent had deactivated?!" Griffin, who had earlier recovered from his almost tragic dismissal, asked in shock.

The energy signals the players felt from Sygrart was quite high, almost as high as when he had used his talent. This made the players danger sense tingle, alerting them of the upcoming threat.

"Damn it. Everyone, finish him before he finishes powering up." Chesces ordered.

As he was quite close to Sygrart, he had noticed that his energy was slowly increasing and had not yet achieved a balance. If they let it do so, no one knows how strong Sygrart would be. But one thing is certain and that is that Sygrart would be far stronger than he previously was when he activated his talent.

'Is it his berserk mode? But his HP hasn't reached the 15% mark so why now?' Sato wondered as he stared at the figure.

Using the time that the players were still in shock, Sygrart used his fingers to quickly form a few hands seals before clasping them together. As he did so, a sigil in a circular shape with a triangle inscribed within it took form in front of his chest.

The circle was green in colour and had a few streaks of black flowing about it. The aura the seal was released had an uncanny resemblance to that of the Emissary. There was a feeling of chaos and madness within the sigil.

The floor beneath Sygrart's feet had begun to crack as black miasma slowly seeped out from the floor. Sygrart's face slowly began to twist in pain as the miasma seeped into his body.

"What the hell?"

"Stop staring and ATTACK!" Chesces yelled while he rushed at Sygrart.

Thanks to Chesces' yelling the players had regained their sense and rushed at Sygrart. Griffin took the lead as he was the main Mt and the one with the highest defence. Dream Tiger nocked three arrows onto his bow and fired at the transforming boss. Fudo used a [Fire Ray] spell to attack as it had a faster movement speed when compared to his other spells. Kylian didn't make any attack as he intended to save his control spells for a more crucial time. Yukino, who happened to be behind Sygrart, held her great sword and attacked from there. Yukino however, wasn't the only one behind; Swift Blade also stood behind Sygrart and he also attacked from behind. Sato lunged at Sygrart from the right while Chesces dashed from the left.

Such a line-up was more than enough to bring down any level 7 Boss and even the previous Sygrart wouldn't be able to come out unscathed from this. Well, that was the previous Sygrart.

"Ahhhh!" Sygrart let out a scream but this one sounded more human than his previous ones but that wasn't the most shocking fact. The surprising thing about the scream was that it didn't even need to be translated in their minds. Whenever Sygrart spoke, his words were usually translated in the minds of the players. This was the effect of the language he used because just like the famous Klaman runes, the language Sygrart communicated with had the ability to self-translate within the minds if listeners. When he also screams, the meaning of the sound of the scream is also translated to match the syllables and tones of the language of the listeners but in this case it didn't go the same path. That only meant one thing, Sygrart wasn't speaking with that special language anymore; he was speaking in the language of the players.[2]

This was quite a shocking discovery but as experts players, the players all managed to keep their head in the game.

Suddenly, an air-wave blasted out wards with Sygrart as the centre. The wave was very powerful as it managed to force all the players back by a few metres but that wasn't the end yet. Sygrart had disappeared and reappeared beside Chesces. Chesces, even though he was forced back just recently, sensed Sygrart's presence. As the 'false King' he is, it wasn't difficult to do so since Sygrart's energy levels were so high that even an ordinary human being would be able to sense danger for him much less a 'false King'. however, sensing and reacting are two different things. Before Chesces could make a move, Sygrart grabbed him by his left arm and twisted it in a horrible fashion. The next thing that happened would be the only thing one would do after experiencing such a thing.

Yes, a scream.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!" Chesces screamed loudly in pain.

But not just any scream rather a blood-curdling one. Such a scream could arouse the darkest of scares in one's mind and it made goosebumps rise in the minds of all the players present as they felt a chill pass through them while seeing the posture of Chesces' mangled arm. The arm was bent backwards to form a 'V'. Seeing such a disturbing view was, well, really disturbing. A hazy black mist slowly drifted from the spot Sygrart held and it was due to this mist that Chesces

"Captain!" Kylian yelled.

"Damn. This game is really mean." Fudo stared in awe at the mind-blowing scene. While others looked worried, Sato and Fudo were still calm after all it didn't really concern them that much. Even the death of all the players present wouldn't shake them. Even if they really had to face the boss alone, they still had a 30% chance of success. To Sato, a 30% chance is still a chance so their deaths weren't really a sure thing.

"Damn it." Yukino cursed before rushing towards Sygrart. She was destined however to not reach him as Sygrart instantly disappeared once more to reappear a 10 metres away.

"[Nature's Comfort]" Kylian cast a spell as soon as Sygrart had left Chesces. [Nature's Comfort] was one of the few healing spells possessed by the druid class but it had a special hidden effect. Due to the fact that it was of the Nature element category, it had a quite a powerful effect in restoring an individual back to their original state. Thanks to the effort of [Nature's Comfort], Chesces' arm had recovered to its original state.

"Ha!" Griffin charged at Sygrart with his shield held up high. He also applied the skill [Taunt] to draw Sygrart's attention towards himself and prevent him from escaping.

Yukino followed close behind him while Dream tiger and Fudo launched their attacks from a suitable distance as usual. Normally, Sygrart would have either attacked Griffin while dodging, deflecting or blocking the long range attacks but something…different happened.

"Arggh!!!" Sygrart crouched low and held his head as the sigil in front of him was overreacting and sparking off little bolts of black coloured lightning.

"What's going on?" Fudo looked confused.

"...don't let this opportunity go by so easily!" Chesces, who had just recovered, suddenly yelled.

Normally, one would be shocked at the boss' current reaction but those who belong to this 'one' are just your average human beings. Chesces however, isn't your average human being but a master tactician and also a pro-gamer. This phenomenon that had just occurred would make one wonder why but not a pro-gamer. This was the legendary 'zero-retaliation period'[3].

The 'retaliation period' usually occurs after a boss had undergone a serious power-up that doesn't count as the berserk mode. Once the power-up is gone, the boss experiences a backlash and during this backlash, players can attack the boss non-stop without receiving any damage. This can also occur when a boss uses a high level skill or spell.

Right now, Sygrart was in pain as the little black bolts swam through his body. A blood-curdling scream and a tearful roar was enough to make everyone have different fantasies about the degree of pain he suffered.

Nonetheless, the players didn't pity him as they attacked him during this time. Of course, Sygrart wasn't so dumb as to just stand and get attacked; he erected a barrier around himself but due to the constant subjection under pain, the barrier couldn't last long and was eventually broken. Within 5 seconds of its destruction, Sygrart's HP had become less than 15% of its original value.

'Did his defence increase or what?!' Sato inwardly complained. Normally, with Sygrart in a 'no-retaliating' state and 30% HP remaining, 5 seconds was more than enough for the combined force of 7 players to finish him off. However, they had been attacking continuously and vigorously but Sygrart had only lost a chunk of HP with 15% of his original HP left.

"What the hell?!" Sato wasn't the only one who noticed this as even Griffin cursed at such an absurd defence that made his own pale by far in comparison.

'Hmm?'

"Kraaaw!" Once again, the familiar and incomprehensible roar which the players never expected to hear again sounded out. Accompanying the roar was an intense air-wave that pushed the players back. Sato had immediately retreated before it could reach him. Yukino and Chesces had also managed to do the same but Swift Blade and Griffin were a tad slower and got blasted away by the counter. Kylian's healing spells quickly reached them and brought their HP back to the top.

"Looks like the zero-retaliation period is over. Too bad we couldn't finish him." Chesces smirked bitterly.

Meanwhile, Sato stared at the System log for the battle and noticed something really surprising.

'My damage…'

[[ System Battle Log :

-3 Sygrart (193/700)

-4 Sygrart (182/700)

-2 Sygrart (163/700)

-4 Sygrart (147/700)

… ]]

As Sato had been attacking with 6 other players, it was inevitable that when he had landed a hit, Sygrart's HP must have already depleted at the hands of another and so the HP value differed but that wasn't the point. The point was his damage figures; they were absurdly low! As they were in a rush, Sato didn't pay attention to the damage value of his attack but he just attacked. Now seeing this, Sato felt like dashing to the game's programmers and giving them a heartfelt speech about granting bosses a cheat level damage reduction ability. Of course the speech would be done with his fist otherwise how will it be heartfelt?

'Did his defence increase? But this much is insane! '

"It looks like this dude wore advanced mark-kevlar[4]."

"Damn. This is a fucking cheat! A bug!"

It looked like the others had finally realised it and checked their battle logs as some of them, especially Dream Tiger and Fudo, began cursing out loud.

"Prepare. It isn't over yet." Chesces shouted.

"Kraww!" Sygrart roared but this time much louder than ever. A burst of green aura intertwined with black lightning burst forth from his head but stopped at the ceiling, not daring to pass nor smash through it.

"This battle should really end in the next chapter or the readers might get annoyed…"

"Fatso, what did you say?" Dream Tiger asked Fudo.

"Nothing and don't call me fatso!"

. . . . .

At the battle between the three horsem-,uh, strongmen and the Emissary's projection.

The Emissary's projection suddenly separated himself from the battle and stared at a spot in the plains below the mountain. The trio didn't stop him as they all stared at the same spot.

"What was that?" Deval asked with a mixture of confusion and shock.

"So you have finally accepted to awaken him?" The Emissary's projection smiled while staring at the spot as if he could look through the ground.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, for Sato and the other players, they all suddenly received a mission.

[[ System Notification :

Emergency mission

Mission Rank : B

Description : Prevent the descent of a dark force.

System comment : Either he goes boom or you go boom. Choose. Wait a sec, this mission doesn't even need your permission. To war!!!

Basic reward : Special Title [Savior of Races]. Others; 50 silver coins and one Upper tier Mortal rank weapon or equipment of choice.

Time Limit : 5 minutes ]]

AN :

[1] Please do keep in mind that the language Sygrart speaks differs with that of the players. The words are automatically translated in their heads.

[2] I used the term 'language of the players' because all the players come from different nationalities like France, Japan, China and so on.The game usually automatically translates things to suit them all. So for an English-speaking player, a NPC would look like he is speaking English and even his lips would move the same way. But for a Chinese-speaking player, the NPC would be speaking Chinese and his lips would be moving the same way. Awesome right?

[3] Made it up or rather, I coined the situation with a name.

[4] Made up crap…