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Volume 3

Chapter 36: The Son of Mars

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For the professional players of Terroa, the concept of time is but a hindrance. Once you are inside, as the flow of time is hastened three times from that of the real world, you'd have no chance to look at the clock as your attention is fully drawn to the concept of gathering more power, becoming stronger, and of course, as you are a professional gamer, all your attention is put on to gathering information about missions and quests that will bring you more money.

People call them «Dark Gamers» but they aren't dark nor anywhere close to being black hearted individuals.

A poor adjective to describe them it would be but they are, in all aspects, just «Professional Gamers». As is. In the current era, games evolved from recreational into a world where gamers interact with each other while they pursue their own personal agendas.

And now that games have been fitted with the RMT, a system that allows players to trade in-game money to real world CASH, professional gamers had just been a tide more aggressive and wiser than the other gamers.

And to be more blunt about it, in just a few months after the release of the game, the ratio of gamers over the number of the pros dropped in a significant arc.

Following this trend, the real world countries that had the grounds for economical superiority did not miss this chance to claim position over the other ones who had the same idea to monopolize power as much as possible.

Not only that, countries and even private companies all over the world started to hire private and professional adventurers to establish tourism spots for their own profits.

This way, not only they gain in-game money and even influence over the players, they also arouse competition and professionalism on the idea of the profession of the «Hired Adventurers». Players whose confident enough on their skills and abilities grab this opportunity to be able to gain not only glory but also money. Thus the number of professional gamers who didn't care about anything else increases in numbers everyday.

Of these individuals, the Helium Guild is a respected group in the entirety of the Thrall Kingdom and all its neighboring lands.

The Union of Seven Nations, the biggest alliance of countries in the real world, had taken a stronger foothold inside the game as well.

In the Eastern Continent of Espada, «The Union» had been able to take stronger influence over the eastern side of the continent.

With the inclusion of the in-game dominion of the far eastern Kingdom of Thrall; its western neighbor, the Persian Empire; the northern martial Mengsk Territory; and the four states that consisted the ELFF Union, the countries mentioned became a recognized real-world dominion of the «The Union» as their hired adventurers partook in its massive colonization campaign.

At the time, no country nor private company are yet to use the opportunity given by the «game world» for the financial monopoly so they became known as the first and largest power to take hold inside the game.

But following their example though, a series of paid and personal campaigns began to sprout all over Terroa that, until now, became a reason why there are wars.

Players and pros came to battle to receive glory, fulfill their code of honor, solve personal vendettas over the competition of the profession, and of course there was also the fight to gain fame.

The gamers, as they are, loved to be praised and receive rewards upon completion of their tasks and missions.

For the pros, however, as money is all they care about, the flow of time only becomes slow when they are not in the middle of a high paying adventurer job.

On these circles, Helium Guild is considered to be the most promising group of pros who considers strength to be the epitome to hold power.

They are a young a Guild, not even a year (real world year) of existence. Aside from the fact that its members were all the newest hired adventurers of The Union, it's also a fact to all they are the most eager ones to gain the title of the best.

In this regard, their leader, the indomitable Jack "Blood Sword" Stone who came from the North was the face of their Guild's Motto.

He had battled the other pros who came to challenge his mettle and they all came to respect him as he prove his might. His sword was said to be the heaviest as his thirst for glory and honor to his Guild's name was as high as the highest peak in Terroa, Mount Olympus.

And along those lines, his spirit was also inherited by his guild, thus their purpose and ultimate goal to stand at the pinnacle of The Union's realm.

There are still much to be explored in Espada's eastern dominion and by claiming the title of «the best», they will be able to monopolize, or at least receive, majority of the exploration quests from The Union.

With more quests, the more money goes into their pockets, and the more their focus on the said mission will be as they try to complete it.

But in all their missions, it was this last one they took that they were forced to actually exert not only their all but also have to exceed their limitations in order to complete it.

To get the legendary weapon «Excalibur» with a unique ability only «leaders» can use, they had not only tried to be desperate to defeat its guardian, as they accepted the fact that they are not strong enough to defeat it, they came to this last tactic now.

Get the Boss NPC's attention and sneak in into the lair of the boss mob and get the weapon.

No time to waste as he fully understood that time is not on their side. The army of 44 strongest players of their Helium Guild had prepared themselves to battle the greatest adversary they will, perhaps, ever face.

But the silent boss mob had a specialty.

No attack can connect on its blind side, meaning, even when they group upon him, only those blows powerful enough to break his guard could actually damage it. Or they hoped as there wasn't even a sign that the enemy is hurt if they ever connect an attack.

The silent boss mob with the name «Romulus» doesn't make a sound on the slightest. The only sound that comes form him is when he swung his fire sword at his enemies, colliding with the shields or the parrying weapon of the defenders.

But his swings were fast, in par with the power that it had and the second sound that comes from him is the sound the wind makes when he attacks.

In the blood moon's light, he looked like an entity of darkness. It is as it was in the scripts in «The Book of Legends», that the evil sealed because of a crime against his brother had been a void of his darkness.

He had an armor akin to that of the ancient Romanic Garb of Warriors; gold with blazing orange and golden red designs and a helmet of that of a king with jewels and gems and pearls.

Royal as he may seem, the boss mob «Romulus» does not fight like a regular boss mob that they had fought in their careers.

The longer he is surrounded, the better he fights, and the more people that attacks him, the faster his parries seem to come.

When there was only two or three that comes for the challenge, he surprisingly gets a hit on one of them if they all attack from the front side at the same time. Jin, as bright as he was, noticed the irregularity in this boss mob's algorithms.

For regular boss mobs in his memory, they would at least try to receive the damage from the enemies and then parry with all their might to even the numbers.

With this algorithm, the boss mobs would at least deal with a certain group until they are finished, giving off openings for the other groups, especially to the ragners and mages, to attack.

No matter how strong a boss mob is, when a diversion tactic as such is laid out, the small damages would at least accumulate and the boss mob would tire out. And as it happens, the attacks' damage piles up, leading to the defeat of the boss mob.

Thus, there was the allocation of the forces between the damagers, the balanced, the tankers, and the tactician.

But this particular boss mob doesn't use that regular algorithm. Not to mention he don't have any underling as all boss mobs should have, he also reacts differently on each attack and position of the players around him.

When he senses that the rangers' arrows was upon his nape, his shield moves like a reaction and he twists his body to defend his neck.

Then, when there are attackers on all his direction, he ducks and attacks on the ones on his rear side.

It's as if he knew there were attacks coming from his blind spot and he reacts with the priorities on such.

But when he used that opening, setting up a plan to lure Romulus to get his attention on his rear side, it's as if he senses it and abandons his defenses and attacks with all his might up front.

The variety of his reactions to different set up of this tactic is also head achingly vast.

When rangers do the diversion, he'd sometimes use his shield or dodge it entirely and attack his attacker. But if it's a swordsman, he would always, at each single time, face the diversion and raise his sword in a preparation stance as if inviting him.

This single instance is the only thing that's constant on his algorithm. All the others more seemed to be just a reaction to deal with cowardly attacks.

Jin knew, no, he felt, that this particular boss mob's unique algorithm centered in the honor of a duel.

But when he tried to pin this thought in his mind, a tide of regret would always come in his consciousness. For Romulus is the guardian of the tomb where Excalibur lay, for quite by chance, the only way for them to get it may perhaps be the defeat of the guardian by way of the duel.

And what more, he only does the duelist's pose in a swordsman. That's actually the origins of Jin's worries.

Jack is the strongest swordsman in the guild and even if an argument says heavy swordsmen are better, the way Jack uses a sword as an extension of his arms are even more fascinating than any swordsman in movies.

If this hypothesis is true, then they would have to force this situation in their favor. All they had to do is to use the duelist algorithm to their advantage and buy enough time until the cavalry arrives.

On the seventh clash, nine in total had already fallen. In the midst of the grassy hayfield, the defeated lay with nay a visible body on the ground for they all had turned to skeleton upon contact with his sword, and vanished in the battlefield into somewhere else.

It's the same as any other defeated corpse in the videos of the fights with this boss guardian.

In their memories of their fights with him, it's the same as the last, with the defeated burning with a black fire eating heir bodies, removing all flesh, then vanishing in midair as if evaporated smoke. Nothing changed.

Though if there is one thing that they've proven, however, it is that they were able to see and confirm the weirdness of his AI algorithm.

And just when the third duel invitation came into the third swordsman who was left alone in a crowd, Jin had stepped in before the others began to attack.

"STOP!"

And to the confirmation of his doubts, the black smoke body with an armor of gold also stopped moving.

His sword pointed at the man, Jin tried to step closer. A trickle of sweat traveled from the swordsman's left temple, down to his cheek and to his upper lip.

The taste of salt came to his senses as he waited for the reason and explanation from their man.

But 4 seconds later, the sudden silence along with the death of the wind came to be so much for an anxious ranger as his hold to his arrow began to crumble and his grip suddenly released.

The arrow, unintentionally aimed at Romulus, ignited a spark of unprepared retaliation as the dark warrior came to return to the condition they once were.

With a smooth parry, the arrow met his sword.

It burned in black cinders and its red glowing eyes put its glare at the trembling perpetrator.

"You stupid fool!" Jin screamed out of anger and out of panic. The men was unprepared for that sudden pause but when they came back to their former stances, the chaos of the battle also returned.

Their formation was planned and from their distance to each other, and the chaotic screams of spells being cast, the sound of his cry for stop had lost its chance to be heard.

So the chaos of battle brought back and their numbers kept on dwindling. They forgot to listen and kept their focus to their single target alone.

To swords and magic arts cast, to arrows released with their destructive spells, accuracy and momentum added and multiplied, the battle against a single foe of human size continued to pass.

A horrible cycle of what had been happening occurred and although they were keeping with their plan to buy Jack's team a plan, it's still clear to them that all their avatars' existence were being rendered gone.

Jin had seen the weakness of the boss mob but he had been unable to deliver that message to his guild mates for they have been embraced by panic and revenge.

Friends fall one after another, the formation crumbling with each passing lives.

But since he was in the far back of the formation, he's not that much into the fight and was watching like the chess player. He could see the chaotic scene spreading into the field and he dearly wished that the cavalry would arrive in time.

And just then, as if to grant his wish, the red moon in the cloudless night was blocked by a shadow in a very peculiar shape.

From where he was, he saw the shape of a long equally sided trapezoid with two uniquely shaped wings-sort of armament on each side.

The one on the port side looked like a flat parallel sided platform with a thickness that can shield the long equal sided trapezoid body from attacks.

And the starboard side, facing the side away from their location, had a shadow of what looked like a spear of some kind.

But seeing it bade a grin to his face. He took out his window and summoned a flare gun loaded with an orange bullet, firing it with no second wasted.

He did not wait for a reply and summoned his Guild Window, pressing a warning button, and the all men in the battlefield looked up.

From the red moon, they saw a flash of light. The tiny speck of shadow a hand's size was pointing its spear-shaped part who was now positioned at the underside of that flying ship at their direction.

The signal was given, it's time to jump out of the way and retreat. Its area of effect will be huge. It's going be large enough that an area of 60 meters in diameter is expected to be scorched in extreme heat.

When they all jumped in unison, the defending boss mob stood his ground.

As he had no one attacking him, he did no attacking in return. This was another theory proven in Jin's mind and he watched the scene in awe as a blinding bluish white light hit where Romulus was standing.

The wind cut, a cry of explosion echoed in the scenery.

All grass and land swayed widely, trees flapped and lost some of their leaves. The members of Helium was struck speechless, the sound of wild wind remained on its roll. The hot, dry air kept on going for at least a bit more until finally after ten seconds that it calmed.

Leaving a heated, scorched land on its wake, the strong blast of energy from their warship's Longhorn that could sink a single battleship in a clean hit made Jin's heart skip beats in gladness and anticipation.

With the calming of the violent wind, the leaves flying directionless around them, the members Helium Guild stared at the burning land with reverence.

Smoke and dust clouds floating around the place, their vision filled with the thought of their enemy's demise.

Out of nowhere, cheers exploded, a ceremonious cry of victory echoed around. But Jin felt uneasy, they have yet to confirm that target was dead or alive. So he took out another flare gun and pointed up, when he pulled the trigger, the smoke parted aside.

PUSSSHHHHHH...!!

Came the sound of the signal flare.

Green light shone on its apex and their warship that's hovering kilometers above charged the Longhorn for another shot.

But the smoke cloud parted, not by natural wind but by force, a lone unharmed greenish red area in the midst of a burning land came to their sights.

Right arm raised with a shield, the dark skinned knight remained unscathed.

Grim filled, the men stopped breathing. The dark figure with undamaged golden armor stood there scanning the sky and the attack's perpetrator. And when he locked his eyes on the warship, he raised his hand to the moon.

Down came dark red colored aura, like a floating thin layered gaseous water, the repulsive aura hugged his dark smoke skinned arm like a snake.

From the sky, the warship hovered, the rotating arms switched its side on the bottom from the Longhorn into the shield.

At the next moment, a dart of red cannoned aura burst from the silent dark warrior's arm into his hovering sky aggressor. As shocking as it was, there was no sound that came nor echoed until the impact that was heard from the sky like thunder.

It was metallic and blunt, but it was undeniably loud and threateningly thunderous.

Such fearsome attack was the first that they saw it.

The collision of the red canon ball shook the sky and their floating warship changed course and moved as a sign that the attack was felt.

And the red mimicry of a human turned its attention on the Helium members. Preferably on the right, the shield and arm came to a stance of charge.

With this another change in algorithm, Jin's mind had finally felt tired.

He cant follow the direction of its algorithm now. For a moment, it seemed to look for a duel, then it shifts to attacking those who attacks him. No sneak attacks will pass through, not even cannon fires that could bring down warships were a match.

This boss mob's AI algorithm was a complete and utter mystery. Whoever designed its complex reactions to player behavior would have been either a genius of all geniuses or a once in a hundred years prodigy.

For it was the first time he had faced such monstrosity and what felt like an eternal moment ended with a slash on his chest.

Jin felt his Insurance activating.

All current equipment lost, but he will be resurrected 24 hours later in the fountain of the last walled city he visited.

But just before his vision was utterly rejected, what he saw in the sky was a strike of orange light.

Like a ball of fire it was coming to their direction, and as soon as he felt his avatar's flesh being eaten by the black smoke flame, the fire ball landed with a BOOM in their midst.

Seconds felt longer and he stared at the newcomer's face with horror. Two lines of thought drilled into his mind just before his eyes went black.

The first is that Karim failed his mission...

"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK..!!"

...and that The Destroyer had entered the fray.