Chapter 29: The Rise of a Demon

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Part 1

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As I left the trails of the guard’s body behind me, what I faced next was two lines of heavily armoured guards equipped with spears and swords. Looked like they were beginning to take me more seriously now. Well, they had too since I had personally trimmed their ranks by no less than 15 of them.

“All of you goons can come together at me!” I sneered while waving my finger, beckoning them to me. I needed to trash talk a little until Rose finished with her job. Just to buy some time and to attract any attention away from her.

“You are just one. We are many! We are not foolish enough to play your game, stranger!” And the timing could not be more perfect than this. Rose had finally burned the fourth building. And as the flame rose up the air followed by a couple of explosions, I snickered at the group.

“Who said I was alone? We too are many. But to you guys, I’m more than enough!”

“Hurry! Run to the Captain and inform him…” I shut the lead guard up immediately with an arrow right into the middle at the back of his head.

*Point Blank! Critical Headshot!*

Though unregistered in the HELP Menu, the Point Blank or PB attack is one of the deadliest if not the deadliest attack in NPO. Anyone, players or even NPCs like Elly could deal a Point Blank attack provided they met the five criteria that I’d stumbled upon.

First, it must be either a projectile or a thrown weapon. Any melee weapon that was thrown could be considered a projectile weapon when determining whether it was a Point Blank or not. However, I had yet to try with active projectile skills to determine the extent of a PB attack. Second, it was the varying range of our to-hit-target which needed much experiences to determine. No enemy had a fixed range for PB to succeed. We just had to hazard a guess and for a human foe, it was in the range of a few swords length. Third and fourth would be the surprise element or being at the enemy’s blindside and also combat alertness of the foe. And last but the most troublesome criteria was the specific part where a PB attack could hit and dealt the most damage. Hitting a human foe on his head would be best in my current situation. I did not know about the attack modifiers or whatever mechanics that went behind it; I was more interested in the end result.

His HP diminished to zero instantly and that poor guy died right where he stood. The distance was good enough for a Point Blank attack and all of them did not pay me any attention when I changed my equips. Unfortunately, I could only do this trick just once.

“Who’s next? You, you… or all of you?” I reequipped myself with sword and shield and taunted them further.

“Men… attack!!” One of the guards was having none of it anymore and decided to end my night. And it looked like all of them was going to charge directly at me.

Silly. They should have listened to that guy I shot earlier. I had come prepared for them.

Once they were roughly 20 feet away from me, I flicked the tip of my sword on the flint stone that I laid beside me beforehand and the spark that was created burned the soil beneath me. It caught fire and travelled fast towards a designated spot I had planned earlier. I had timed it well enough that when they reached the hidden mound of explosives – which I had planted several around the area – it would blow them right away and perhaps taking a massive amount of HP together with them. I saved it in case if they wanted to overwhelm me with their numbers.

The explosion did work well enough and I only had to just give them the coup de grâce. The heavily armoured ones were ended through a stab from the back of their neck while the lighter armoured one was either killed immediately or near death when I slit their throats.

“H-He… he is a demon!!”

Those who survived tried to run. And I had no reason to kill them yet. For now, they would serve me yet another purpose.

Once I had cleared my way, Rose had burned the sixth and final building prior to the mansion. As the flame and the smoke engulfed the whole area coupled with a few more deafening sounds of explosions, it was time for my next plan. I had scattered the guards well enough and taken the liberty to thin out their ranks. By this time, their forces were left with roughly 70% of their strength – scattered throughout the whole area, trying to control the fire and captured their ‘enemies’. It was total chaos and panic. Just what I had hoped for.

And Rose’s next duty was to rendezvous with me in the most dangerous of place – the main entrance of the mansion.

When the two of us appeared, the guards that I had purposed let off the hook just finished his reports. The moment he saw me, he was terrified.

“T-T-The demon is here!!”

“And so I have come – for your King’s head!” I stabbed my sword on the ground and shouted ahead.

“Who are you, stranger?!” A large man with a thick moustache that could clearly be seen from his helmet took notice of me immediately.

“A demon, like he said.”

“Nonsense. You are no demon! You are nothing but a mere puny man in front of me.” That big thick moustache guy was at level 115, presumably the highest level NPCs here.

“Really? Come on you big muzzy ‘tache. Let’s find out shall we?”

As if to answer my taunt and insult to his look, he immediately ordered a couple of his men, a level 100 guard to rush over. But before they could reach anywhere near me, Rose had stopped their movements and lifted them high from the ground using her improved version of Vine Hold called Thorn Tangle Trap. The vines were sharp, spiky and Rose could infuse poison too which I gladly let her did it. The sight caught the one who spoke to me by surprise. The two men struggled for a while before finally succumbed to their torment. I took this chance to continously provoke him.

“That’s from my little helper. Now, I’ll give you, muzzy ‘tache and your men two choices. One, you let me kill your King or two, you will let me kill you and then I will kill your King.” I let out a laugh to mock them. My demands were absurd at best. His face was twisted with anger as I continued to sneer at him while patting Rose’s head. She immediately went on behind me and then disappeared. Her next stop was to inform the Bunnian couple to start making their moves.

“I. Will. Kill. You!!”

He came charging at me with a huge axe. But I had seen a bigger axe than this and even then, I was unflinching. I charged at him immediately and went as close as possible before he could swing it at me. An axe might be powerful, but if I stopped it from being swung, it was as good as being on a lifeless statue. I lunged forward, taking a couple of huge step inside his attack range with my left foot planted between his feet and before he could realize what happened, I then bashed my shield onto his chest. He flung backwards as his axe slashed nothing but air. The guy was two head taller than me and was fully armoured so slashing with a sword wouldn’t do me any good. I needed to stab or use a blunt attack on him instead.

“Oi, I have seen bigger axe than yours. Is this the best you could do?” I stood up immediately and seized my one and only chance. I knew better than to let him stood before I did. I went over and kicked his head as he tried to defend himself from my attack. But his axe was too slow and lumbering. The blade yet again slashed air as I kicked his head once more to the ground.

“M-Men… k-kill… him!”

Finally, I had been waiting for this moment. Fighting the enemy one by one was too time-consuming. If I had all of them coming at me, then I could have finished this faster. The ‘only’ problem was I had neither the AOE attacks nor skills that could render these people out instantly. Numbering about 60 of them, it needed massive AOE indeed. Fortunately, Popo, Mimi and to the certain extent, even Rose could compensate for whatever I lacked in.

“Landslide!!”

“Wind of Blades!!”

“Thorn Entrapment!”

And about time too. As I prepared myself for the onslaught, my backup finally arrived.

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