A PK, or player-killer, received their comeuppance if and when someone managed to kill them. The game's karma system tracked their "guilty party" status and gradually increased the consequences of the game's death penalty.

Currently, every member of Shining Star's raid team would pop like a pinata full of goodies as soon as they died.

Rydr wasn't aware of any of this. The enormous diver researched a lot about games leading up to playing [Frontier Online], but the super-noob avoided most of the player-killer content and guides.

The play-style failed to appeal to him when he'd suffered so much at the hands of someone who took because they could.

In a rush, the giant knelt and swept his arm across Spectre's dropped gear to store it in his [Inventory]. It was fortunate that Rydr dumped over a ton of ore when the game warned him about over-encumbrance, or he couldn't have picked up the guild leader's belongings.

"Rydr, we need you!"

Finished with his looting, Urginok's shout brought the giant back to his senses. Rydr stood and prepared to charge into the fray with his team to face the guild's raid team, his heart pounding.

Urginok was on his last legs, his health bar barely visible on Rydr's HUD. The tank, despite the aid from Syrna's arrows, still faced three melee-oriented divers by himself. How the shorter man held out against, the greater numbers was a mystery, but a health bar twice the size of his opponent's probably helped.

Rydr crouched, about to hurl himself into the fight, when an earth-shattering roar assaulted everyone's senses. The sound was so singularly loud it created a shockwave that crashed into the colossus' back. Rydr's eardrums felt like a soundbar was jammed in his ear and played at max volume.

Even his teeth chattered against each other from the soundwaves.

Forced into a stunned state, the giant diver fell onto the floor helplessly. Once stunned, a timer appeared on Rydr's HUD, but he had more pressing concerns.

*00:00:06*

The angle that Rydr tipped over at awarded him a ground-up view of an enormous, gray monster stepping into the round chamber behind him. The monster wore nothing but a giant shoulder guard and a dirty loincloth. A rope tied around its chest supported some weapon on its back, the haft visible over its other bare shoulder.

From Rydr's view, the monster's head stretched almost to the ceiling.

Unfortunately, how the giant diver tipped over left his rear end high in the air, propped up by his knees.

Incidentally, Rydr finally caught sight of Syrna, similarly stunned, at the giant creature's feet. No sooner had Rydr registered all of this when the monster reared back and kicked Syrna in the stomach.

*-89 HP*

The casual kick from the creature sent Syrna flying through the air, above and out of Rydr's field of view. In one lazy move, the monster nearly killed the blonde archer, who only had the 100 base health points that she started the game with.

The archer couldn't even cry out in pain because of her [Stunned] status.

Still helpless while he waited for the stun timer to wear off, Rydr's heart pounded crazily as the monster swaggered the rest of the way into the chamber towards the limp giant.

Since the colossus heard no fighting behind him, he had to assume that Urginok and the rest of the guild's raid team were all stunned as well. While that was a small relief, it changed nothing.

With nothing to do except freak out until the stun timer wore off, Rydr [Inspected] the monster.

[(Elite) Hogoblin Warlord Lvl. 20]

HP: ???

MP: ???

Skills: ???

Rydr's mind shorted out for a moment when he saw the monster's level and stats- because he couldn't see its stats.

This creature was completely out of his league.

The Hobgoblin Warlord chuckled evilly as it stooped down and grabbed Rydr by his hair. When it straightened up and held Rydr in front of it, the giant diver's feet dangled in the air. The creature stood half a meter taller than the diver. The task was trivial for the monster, which held the giant in the air with one arm at full extension.

Despite the reduced pain experienced in [Frontier Online], being held up with just his hair was distinctly uncomfortable. Rydr was intensely aware of the hairs being ripped from his scalp.

The whole time that the creature toyed with them, Rydr furiously tried to move his body, to lift even a finger to resist the monster. His mind railed against the helplessness. Rage and cold adrenaline coursed through his body, making his avatar twitch and shudder.

*00:00:00*

As soon as the [Stunned] status wore off, Ryd's hands flew up and grabbed the Warlord's wrist. He tried to lift himself and kick off the monster's chest.

Rydr never got the chance. Once he moved, the Warlord smirked and spun rapidly in a circle. The diver's world blurred around him as he glared at the monster's grinning face. Gnarly teeth and rancid breath filled his senses.

If the chamber were smaller, the giant's legs would've clipped against its walls, possibly crippling his feet, a fate the room's ten-meter diameter avoided. As is, the colossus tried to crush the Warlord's wrist in his hands while the creature spun him wildly.

Still affected by [Reinforcement] and [Berserer's Rage], Rydr's strength squeezed the Warlord's wrist like a pneumatic press, grinding its bones against each other. Whether this affected the monster or not, Rydr never found out.

The monster let go and flung Rydr away. The colossus tried to hold onto the monster's wrist, but his hands were drenched in his own blood from the battle against Spectre.

Rydr's effort to hold on made him ragdoll through the air, disoriented and dizzy before he slammed into the chamber's wall. The breath rushed out of the giant's lungs as a bright red damage number floated over his head. Quakes traveled through the chamber from the impact point.

*-110 HP*

Unlike the kick that almost killed Syrna, Rydr's collision against the rock wall combined the Warlord's full strength and the centrifugal force from its spinning. The untreated [Alpha's Pelt] did nothing to mitigate damage for him.

Rydr's HUD flashed red, warning the diver that he was in danger even as he gasped to suck air back into his body.

*HP: 123/480*

The giant's health bar remained barely a sliver above a quarter as his body heeded gravity again and fell out of the crater, his impact left in the wall. The diver fell a meter to the ground.

Somehow, despite his ragdoll impression, Rydr was right-side-up when he met the wall, so he managed to land on his feet while he sucked in massive breaths to replace what he'd lost. Stone pelted the top of Rydr's head and shoulders, knocked loose from the crater in the wall.

The giant stumbled before he caught himself. When he looked up to find the Warlord, it still stood in the middle of the chamber, laughing raucously and grinning like a spoiled child.

Still disoriented from the spinning and collision, the monster's image started to overlap with a similar scene from Rydr's childhood, of his tormentor laughing and giddy from the pain they caused a small child.

Rydr shook his head to dispel the image, fury pumping adrenaline through his veins. Blood fell into his eyes, stinging and turning his vision red.

The dyed red visage of the monster's giddy face still overlapped with the other. Even though he knew that he should run away from the creature and try to escape from the mines, Rydr couldn't take it anymore.

"WIPE THAT FUCKING SMILE OFF YOUR FACE!" Rydr's shout shook the air, deafening the nearby divers who had just recovered from their [Stunned] status.

When Rydr roared at the creature, he activated everything.

[Peerless Physique], which had its cooldown wear off during all the fighting, settled on Rydr's body in bloody red light. Unknown to the giant, his strength rose to 359. [Third Eye] was activated subconsciously and painted the chamber in the brilliant colors of the ambient mana.

The shout, powered by all of the behemoth's buffs and the almost insanity-inducing rage pumping through him, eclipsed the Hobgoblin Warlord's original war-cry.

His super strong diaphragm, which happened to be a muscle, shot the air out of his mouth like a cannon with a mist of steam. The steam came from the extra body heat brought by [Berserker's Rage], which poured off his body.

Then Rydr braced himself against the wall and kicked off with all his strength. His joints shrieked at him as his skin started to bruise visibly on the legs—the wall, already damaged from the diver hitting it, crumbled under the giant's bare feet.

The enormous diver rocketed forward, parallel to the ground, and tackled the Warlord. The impact of their skin against each other sounded like a meaty sonic boom. The collision with the monster's stomach echoed down Rydr's neck painfully.

The Hobgoblin boss never expected its weak prey to fight back and wasn't braced when Rydr seemed to teleport into its stomach. The towering monster bent in two from the impact, breath audibly whooshing out of its mouth, before they both flew across the chamber and into the opposite wall.

*-0*

*-60*

Even with the monster's body eating a lot of Rydr's momentum, the initial force from his super-jump wasn't abated at all.

However, Rydr's flying headbutt dealt zero damage. Only the impact against the wall affected the creature in any way. The difference in their levels was too great; the level suppression made it so the diver couldn't deal damage to the monster. Not that Rydr noticed or cared at the moment.

Despite having its breath knocked out, the monster wasn't stunned. It grabbed Rydr's shoulders and tried to force the diver away from itself so it could grab its trapped weapon.

Its confusion from the sudden attack increased when Rydr failed to move a centimeter.

Instead, the enormous diver wrapped his arms around the monster's abdomen, braced his legs, turned, and heaved the creature into the air as hard as he could.

It was the Hobgoblin Warlord's turn to have its world blur into color and motion as Rydr flung into the air. However, that wasn't enough for the colossus as he leaped after the boss, chasing it into the air.

To the side of the chamber, the rest of the divers present, including Urginok and Syrna, watched the ongoing battle numbly. Their own battle was forgotten in the wake of the two monsters' destruction.

Even Rydr's teammates couldn't help but see their teammate, cloaked in the giant [Alpha's Pelt] and covered in blood, as a monster. The clash between the titans continued to shake the chamber, sending showers of stone and small stalactites to the floor.

Shining Star's raid team was gobsmacked. Their mouths all hung open as they witnessed the giant diver tangle with the [Elite] boss monster. Some of them even wanted to cheer on the monstrous diver when he stood up after the monster's first attack, even though he was their enemy moments ago.

Then they watched the giant diver shove the [Elite] boss around the chamber like a sack of potatoes. From there, the raid team's awe and hope quickly turned to horror. Even though the boss-like diver outmatched the Warlord's raw power, he couldn't deal any damage, which meant they couldn't deal damage either.

They tried to stand and run away, but the two monsters' battle shook the tunnels like a localized earthquake and continuously knocked them off their feet. Only one diver, one of the archers, made it to his feet and started to stagger away, like a ship in a storm.

Back inside the chamber, Rydr caught up with the Hobgoblin Warlord in midair, throwing out a super-charged uppercut into the monster's stomach. For the second time in the creature's life, it bent double over its enemy's fist like a cartoon character.

The uppercut arrested Rydr's momentum, transferring it into the monster. The Warlord's involuntary flight continued until it met the tip of a creamy white stalactite. The tip of the stalactite was forced through the joint of its bare shoulder from the raw momentum of the collision.

The Warlord roared in pain and rage, unused to the puny ants it hunted, managing to hurt it.

*-0*

*CRIT -110*

Just as before, Rydr dealt no damage with his attack. Strangely enough, the stalactite returned the exact amount of damage Rydr was dealt before.

When Rydr landed on the chamber's floor, cracks spread out from the impact of his feet in a spiderweb. [Springform] negated any damage he might have suffered from the eight-meter freefall, so Rydr spent no time preparing his next move.

The Warlord's weight ripped the stone out of its shoulder as it fell twelve meters towards the waiting giant. Rydr waited for the right moment before he stepped out of the way and grabbed the monster by one of its feet.

Even before the creature met the ground, Rydr turned around and braced the monster's leg against his shoulder. The movement whipped the Warlord's head into the ground, dealing minimal damage, but that wasn't Rydr's goal.

The colossus roared and heaved against the Warlord's leg like a giant lever, lifting the monster into the air and slamming it back into the ground in a perfect arch.

*-70*

Without pause, Rydr continued to lift the monster into the air and slam it back and forth into the ground. Each impact shook the chamber, even as the spiderweb of cracks underneath Rydr continued to spread.

Those stuck on the side of the cavern noticed a faint blue light start to creep out from the cracks in the chamber floor.

Rydr lifted the Warlord above his head to slam it into the ground again when the monster's leg vanished from his grasp and sent the giant diver stumbling to the ground.

Incensed, Rydr spun around as on his knees as he tried to stand. When he turned, the Warlord was on its feet, an enormous axe held aloft as the monster brought it straight down at Rydr's face.

Rydr's breath hissed out as he rolled to the side, the axe whistling by his face and burying itself in the ground, creating a fissure in the chamber floor. The shock from the blow bounced Rydr off the ground, despite his new bulk.

Each of the missed attacks thundered against the diver's senses in their twisted game of whack-a-mole. From the tip of each attack, a new crack split the chamber floor.

The Warlord brought its axe down repeatedly as it tried to split Rydr in half. The colossus rolled around on the floor, barely dodging the weapon, in a circle before he got his feet under him and dove at the monster's legs, sending them both to the floor.

The monster roared as it toppled, Rydr's own roar mixing with it.

On the ground, the monster twisted, trying to free itself from the diver's grasp. Its life-saving skill, [Retreat], was on cooldown, else it would have used it again. Its other abilities required the monster to take more damage than the giant diver could deal.

Rydr, aware that a single hit would kill him, crawled up the monster's body and straddled it, using his knees to pin the monster's arms to its side. The Warlord heaved, trying the throw the diver off, roaring in the giant's face.

The colossus roared right back, spittle flying from his mouth as he grabbed the monster by its head and started to bash it into the ground. Rydr's roaring continued as he lifted the monster's head and smashed it into the ground again and again.

*-0*

*-30*

*-0*

*-30*

*-0*

*-30*

In the middle of his frenzy, Rydr was almost thrown off when the Warlord kneed him in the back, almost ending the diver's life in the process. His HUD flashed blood red, repeatedly blinking on the edge of his vision.

*-50 HP*

*HP 73/480*

Enraged, Rydr dug his thumbs into the Hobgoblin Warlord's eyesockets. The monster's angry roars turned into cries of agony as Rydr popped its eyes out of their sockets, even as he kept beating its head into the ground. The gelatinous orbs slipped disgustingly against Rydr's palms to dangle against the monster's cheeks.

*CRIT -100*

*CRIT -100*

Rydr lifted the monster's head to slam it into the ground again when the enormous diver vanished in a pillar of light.

The chamber was almost silent except for the monster's cries, its head falling to the ground in the absence of Rydr's attacks.

The divers still in the chamber and closest tunnel blinked, shocked at the giant's sudden disappearance.

One of the Shining Star members, the tank that Urginok was fighting earlier, called out from his place on the ground.

"Did...did he die?" He was confused because it looked like the giant diver still had health left when he vanished.

"I...I don't know?" Urginok muttered back.

The Warlord, even though it was blinded, whipped its head around towards them as it stood up. They all gulped in tandem as the beast flashed red, releasing another ear-splitting roar, and stomped on the ground.

The chamber floor, so heavily abused by the clash of giants, suddenly collapsed under its feet. In the same instant, the floor exploded upwards as a wave of light rushed out of it and disintegrated everyone present.