Chapter 69 – Hidden Challenge Part 6, A lone thief against a party of four

In my glee from nabbing the boss monster kill from right under their noses, I didn’t realize I was running further into the castle grounds until I was well within the castle’s courtyard.

Fuck. Judging from my last scarring experience with the mimic, I had no desire to go any further into the mysterious fog covered castle and get myself killed again. It was better just to face the players. I turned around at the main castle door and observed as the four party members emerged from the fog.

The level 76 warrior wielding a longsword and large rectangular shield looked a bit worse for wear. He was slightly under half hp, and there were various dents in his armor and shield. I’d judge his equipment as average to above average for the hidden challenge. Much better than what normal players had, but fairly standard for anyone strong enough to have entered the competition.

I couldn’t see the level 72 male mage’s mana bar, but I presumed that he had to be running low after using consecutive [Permafrost]s back to back. He had nearly full hp, but as a backline dps, that was to be expected.

The level 79 female halberd warrior was the biggest threat from a statistical perspective, but she was still far weaker than a high 80s or low 90s player. Her health was a fair bit above half.

And then there was the witch, at level 75. She looked completely different than when I first saw her, now that she was wearing flashy class appropriate clothing. Her health bar was completely full. I wondered what her mana situation was like, since she had to be constantly maintaining an illusion spell during that entire fight with the fog demon.

“Hand over the tickets and we’ll let you go,” the level 76 warrior said while uncorking a health potion.

“Otherwise, you’ll have to face all four of u–”

The sight of that health potion tipped me over the edge. I couldn’t let him heal up. Sprinting forward like a dart, I commanded love whip to rampage in the general vicinity of the warrior. The warrior yelped as the whip hit him in the arm and the potion fell to the ground, shattering. He drew his sword to beat off the strange whip that kept lashing at him from open air.

Telekinetic control has risen to level 4.

Forget about him, the witch needed to die first. She had her hands clasped together, and a stream of faint looking butterflies were headed my way. I didn’t notice it the first time because I wasn’t paying attention, but that had to be a visual indicator of her illusion magic’s channel.

I dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding that stream of illusion magic.

The witch’s eyes widened in shock. “He dodged it?” she exclaimed in a surprised tone.

It was only due to my heightened sense from my demi-human state that I could sense such a faint trace of magic.

Without missing a beat, I casted [Restrain] on the witch and ran towards her as fast as I could. Activating dimension ripper, I jabbed forwards my void covered left hand right at the witch.

Before I could connect, a halberd came between me and the bound witch, putting an immediate stop to my onslaught. I backed off, eyeing the dangerous melee weapon warily.

“Rahh!!” the halberdier yelled, activating [Battle Cry].

[Your strength has been lowered by 50 due to the effect of a battle cry.]

[You have been dazed due to the effect of a battle cry.]

She then leaned down, ready to use her charge ability at me. I held my breath, making sure to get the timing of this down correctly.

The female halberdier launched forwards with her charge, and I instantly activated [Shadow], letting her charge right through my afterimage. In my ghastly form, I ran around towards the back of the castle, making the split second decision that entering further into the grounds was alright as long as I didn’t go into the actual castle itself.

“Ice fan!” the mage shouted, casting a flurry of icicles towards my gaseous form. The icicles passed through me without harming me, and I nearly laughed at how preposterous my [Shadow] ability was. [Dimension Thief] really was shaping up to be a legitimate contender of a class, even though it required a lot more effort to pilot than a regular thief or warrior.

Right as I made it around the corner, the effective transfiguration period for shadow expired, and I reappeared in human form. Taking a deep breath, I attempted to summon the portal for dimension room.

[You cannot enter the dimension room when there are enemies nearby.]

Damn it, I was still considered in combat.

“He can’t have gone far!” the male warrior with the sword and shield said loudly. His voice was approaching my position behind one of the castle pillars.

Quietly summoning adamantite poleaxe, I waited in ambush for them to approach.

“Damn kill stealing brat, I’ll mess him up when we catch him,” the female halberdier spat in anger. “I’ll make him cough up all ten of those tickets, even if I have to squeeze him to death for them.”

“We should be careful,” the witch illusionist replied. “He’s able to detect my illusion magic somehow. I’ve never seen anyone dodge it before, but that guy managed to…”

“What class do you even think he is?” she continued. “A flying whip, some kind of melee buff for his arm, wielding a poleaxe with light armor…”

“He’s probably just a poor warrior who can’t afford high quality armor,” the sword and shield bearer retorted.

Well, he wasn’t wrong there. Compared to the fitted mithril armor the shieldbearer was wearing, my tattered robes and iron plate armor set were garbage. But that wasn’t to say that I was poor in-game. I was sitting on a ton of unspent gold that I never got a chance to use.

Their voices were getting close. I tightened my grip on adamantite poleaxe and bided my time, keeping a close eye out on the cooldown indicator for shadow. Less than five seconds later, the warrior’s shield came into view. He was still looking backwards at his teammates and chatting, so I held my breath and waited just a few seconds longer.

The second person to come into view was the female halberdier, who instantly gasped. “Hey, there he i–”

Slicing forwards with my adamantite poleaxe, I aimed straight at her head, leaving a deep cut on her tan face.

[170 damage, critical hit!]

“Ahhh!” she screamed in pain at my successful cheap shot.

“What the?” the shieldbearer yelled, turning in surprise. The moment he saw me, he raised his shield and began an incantation.

“Taunt!” he shouted. A ripple effect spread through the air, capturing me within its grasp as I felt myself walk towards him with my poleaxe raised, ready to strike the fully armored man.

[You have been taunted. The effect will last for 10 seconds. Due to the demi-vampire blood in your system, the duration has been reduced to 5 seconds.]

I was finally starting to piece together that my demi-human race seemed to have an effect on decreasing the duration of certain crowd control abilities. So far it worked on both [Petrify] and [Taunt], but not [Battle Cry] or the illusion magic.

Both the level 72 mage and the level 75 witch were preparing spells to fire at me as I walked forwards taunted towards the shieldbearer. But crucially, the halberdier did not react yet. Because of that, I chose not to use [Shadow] to drop the taunt.

The shieldbearer raised his sword and slashed down at me.

“Shadow!”

Escaping the last second of duration left on taunt so I wouldn’t get hit by a direct sword strike, I shaded right through the party of four, easily phasing through their spell casts and weapon swings. Speeding towards the front of the castle again, I checked my mana. Each use of [Shadow] was 100 mana out of my 1224 maximum mana, but as long as the fight dragged on longer, my base mana regeneration would be able to replenish enough to keep me going.

My base mana regeneration was significantly higher than my base health regeneration, so it was probably better to take a mana hit instead of a health hit. These were all novel combat situations, so I needed to make decisions on the fly.

This hit and run strategy relied heavily on the element of surprise for my ambushes. Once the party of four began to figure out my skill set and could anticipate my next move, one lucky taunt from the shieldbearer into a cc chain while shadow was on cooldown and I would be done for.

It was time for more deceit. After making the corner to the front of the castle, I rematerialized as a human and ran for the castle door. Pushing with all my strength, I opened the tall front door and took a peek inside. It looked like a haunted medieval manor, with a huge staircase in the lobby welcoming visitors. Several suits of armor lined the hall, and a red carpet led straight from the door to the staircase.

Anyway, it was never my intention to go into the castle. I bent down and grabbed a handful of dirt and grass, then threw it on the carpet near the entrance and turned to the left to run behind the pillar on the castle periphery, right as the four players caught up to the front courtyard.

“He went in,” the level 76 male warrior said while approaching the door. “The door’s open.”

“Let’s go, then,” the level 72 mage replied.

“Wait,” said the level 75 witch. “Shouldn’t we at least do a vote first? It might be dangerous.”

“Alright, raise your hand if you’re in favor of going,” the male warrior replied, raising his own hand. Three hands went up, leaving the witch alone in her hesitation.

“Oh, alright…” the witch sighed. “But let’s be careful.”

“We already killed the guardian of the castle. It should be fine,” said the warrior, leading the way into the castle with his shield raised.

After hearing them advance into the castle, I emerged from my hiding spot and checked the front door again.

“Holy shit, there’s so much treasure!” the mage shouted from somewhere upstairs. “Forget the guy, let’s just take the gold instead!”

Treasure? I decided to listen in a bit longer, but noticed a disturbance that forced me to divert my attention. From up the hill, several player wolves were descending upon the castle now that the fog was starting to lift after the defeat of the fog demon. There was a group of three and a few solos. Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of a familiar looking shimmering invisible disturbance stalking one of the solos.

As if on cue, the level 90 assassin from earlier appeared from invisibility and activated [Backstab] on the solo ranger, doing nearly half of his health in one hit. Before he could even properly react, she slipped away again into invisibility.

Thank god I didn’t decide to pursue her. That damage was absurdly high, enough to one shot level 70s with poor physical defenses like June with just one [Backstab].

The attack set off a chain of events, as the ranger mistook his adversary as a ranger in the three man party. He shot a warning arrow at the party, which caused them to set up in a fighting stance and charge, as the other solos also joined the fray in an attempt to pick off the half health ranger. Utter chaos began to unfold, and I tracked the female assassin as she stalked the battlefield under the cover of her high level invisibility spell.

WaaAaaAaaaaaaaAaaaaaaaaaAAAaAAA–

One of the solos had a guitar in his hand and was playing it, causing an unnerving sound wave reverberation. It was his unique Eclipse ability, which he used as a distraction so he could throw his boomerangs. Boomerangs sliced through the air towards the injured ranger, hitting him in the back for a small chunk of damage. The boomerangs did nowhere near as much damage as the level 90 assassin’s [Backstab].

This was turning into an outright battle royale brawl, as even more players began to descend the hill and join the free for all now that the fog had lifted. What a wild preliminary round.

In the sky above, Bubs’s commercial salesman-like voice rang like thunder. “Where’s all the murder? Where’s the killing? You little shits are being too peaceful! As punishment, I’m updating the rules.”

Objective updated– Survive a week and collect at least (20) 50 tickets to advance to the next round.

New Rule VIII – If more than half of the contestants are still remaining by nightfall, Bubs will execute the players with the lowest ticket counts until there are only half remaining.

“And why is that imposter Beezlebub still alive?” 1000 tickets for his head!”

Rule VII updated – Killing the player named Beezlebub yields (100) 1000 tickets.