Chapter 54

~ Battle in Dragonis ~

SW/SW/SW

“Hathor!”

“What the hell is she doing here?!”

“The mid-boss is here in Dragonis!!”

“Should we kill her?! What should we do? Is she hostile?!”

“All of you beginners leave this place!”

Veria looked around in confusion. Why did everyone suddenly seem so… alert? Their face was so pale. Did it have something to do with the newcomer? Veria attempted to look at her, but found herself blushing.

The redhead was truly stunning, with captivating eyes and a bewitching smile. But those weren’t the ones that made her blush. Her choice of apparel turned her face bright red. She once read an adult fashion magazine for references in business attire, but she found something interesting instead. In the middle of it, she found a rather… weird fashion sense. It looked exactly like what the newcomer was wearing. If the memory served her right, it was called leather harness…

And God, it looked like she was naked…

She was called Hathor? What a weird name…

The redhead leaned to BloodAce, reading his friend list without an inch of shame. “Oh, who is this Maria? Your new slut?”

Veria’s eyes widened at the vulgar words.

“…an acquaintance,” he replied curtly.

Hathor let out a long and calculating hmm. Her slit-eyes slowly shifted to Veria. She gave her a small, but mocking smile, “And this one?”

“I-I’m BloodAce’s new friend!” Veria stuttered slightly, feeling small in Hathor’s imposing presence. She didn’t know how to explain it, but it was as if she was standing in front of a respectable royal family.

“BloodAce?” she looked at the man beside him and a small oh escaped her red lips. “Ah, I see. Hmph, BloodAce, isn’t it?”

The person in question didn’t look comfortable to be talked about, “What are you doing here? You’re scaring those players—I mean adventurers.”

“Sweetheart, I came to take you home.”

Veria realized that those two were married in-game just by looking at Hathor’s ring finger and the way she called him. But why was her tone had slight mockery in it? Was that how she normally spoke?

“Oh, umm… about what we were talking about…” great, now she had them staring at her. “I guess I’ll e-mail you later! S-See you!”

Veria hurriedly left those two, fearing that she would only get in the way.

0000

“What is wrong with that girl? Suddenly leaving like that,” Hathor arched her brow. “Ah, I see. A good and pure girl, thinking that she’s disturbed our precious moment together and decided to leave. How cute.”

And you’re not cute at all, Kail paid her a glance.

Hathor gave him a sultry smile. “Did my beauty render you mute?”

“No.”

“…you could at least say yes.”

She was ignored.

Kail stared at the elf girl who had disappearing into the crowds.

Veria, wasn’t it?

He swore he had read that name somewhere…

0000

“Hathor in Dragonis?” Maria replied abruptly when a Travonka member reported what he had seen. “Your joke is as nasty as an empty bottle of Elixir. She is inside that floating castle and will never, ever travel outside of her domain.”

“But she’s here! I swear! A newbie like me didn’t dare to go to that place! Please, do something!”

Maria was about to discipline him before DPS stormed in. “Bad and good news! Hathor is in East Dragonis, near the Dragon Statue! Inform all members who are above 160 to come ASAP! If she is hostile, we’re after her EXP!”

“See; I told you!”

Holy… Maria muttered under her breath as she listened to their stories. “I-I’m on it! Please be careful!”

DPS nodded and exited the room, followed with the newbie.

All this time boss NPCs would never, ever leave their designated area. They did wander, but still within their respectable domain, waiting to be killed by players. But now that Hathor proved her knowledge wrong, could it be that boss NPCs now had the ability to travel? Was this had something to do with the Advanced AI System?

After she had finished what she had ordered to, Maria hastily made her way to the East Dragonis. To her surprise, the place had already been crowded with high-level players. Several famous Guild Masters were also there, probably with the same intention as her—killing Hathor.

The succubus herself was in a conversation with the ex-member of Travonka, BloodAce. This meant another surprise for her because hostile NPCs (boss at that) would attack players on sight, but this… Hathor was talking to a player…

And why that cheater, of all people?

“Maria,” called DPS as he approached her. “Bad news. Every guild has sent their best fighters. I fear it would turn into a dog fight. If that happens, I don’t think we could stand a chance.”

When DPS talked too much, everyone knew in an instant that this was serious…

“But PK is forbidden in town.”

“If it’s about Hathor, then this is not PK anymore, Maria,” DPS cut her sternly. “That succubus is a hostile NPC. I don’t think it would count as PK if we kill her. But I don’t know if it’s about these crowds of EXP-hungry players.”

Maria gulped. Her mind was playing the worst possible outcome right now.

DPS had that face full of worry as he watched the crowds, “…what I fear the most is that the dev will turn this battle-forbidden area into—”

“Don’t,” Maria lifted a hand to stop him. “Please don’t…”

Those two stood in silence for a long time, before Maria asked, “…what should we do? Should we wait until they are finished and then attack?”

“…too bad that I don’t have the answer to that. Guess we should wait and see.”

Far in the distance, Hathor seemed to be opening her inventory. She took out a thick book and gave it to BloodAce. It was unknown what the book was, or what was the purpose of her coming here and giving a book to a player. For a brief moment, BloodAce sighed heavily as he read the cover.

“…are you thinking what I’m thinking?” DPS asked.

“Yes. That book… it’s probably a quest item. I suppose we could PK him and steal that. Who knows? It may be an important item to a hidden quest?”

Far away, a swordman finally readied his double blade, ready to attack at any given moment. Hathor easily noticed it first, given that she was facing the swordman. Her slutty personality crumbled and was replaced by that of a fighter.

She lifted a hand towards him, “Give it up, meathead. Do you think you could stand a chance against us?”

Maria and DPS shared a confused look.

Us?

0000

“…you talk too much, Hathor,” Kail spoke disapprovingly.

Hathor let out a maniac chuckle and summoned her infamous, huge, two-handed axe. In an instant, everyone in the vicinity was holding their weapon.

“This will be fun!” she giggled excitedly. “I didn’t get so much fun several days ago, but I suppose this will make me giddy for the rest of the day!”

“Hathor, no,” Kail ordered, “avoid unnecessary fight and return.”

“You are no fun. I will teach him manners,” she pointed at the dual blade user. “Draw your sword as well, Husband. We will kill that meat and then everyone will follow his step… to hell!”

This woman… Kail felt a cold sweat trickling down his face. Normally she wasn’t this uncontrollable. He wanted to go home as soon as possible, but it would cause suspicion if he continued to reject her, seeing how perceptive Hathor was. On the other hand, he didn’t even know how to summon that damn weapon. He had tried calling it mentally and by using ritual, but no nothing came up.

He was treading on a thin ice…

No, he wouldn’t lose to this whore. If he wasn’t convincing enough, he was obviously not using his power to make her bow down.

All of a sudden, Kail saw something flashy moved towards Hathor, followed by cracklings similar to that of a thunder. Hathor swung her oversized axe fast enough to made it disappeared, a feat awesome enough to widen his eyes.

0000

One by one those players took turn attacking Hathor, making sure that they didn’t attack fellow players or the system would treat it as PK. No matter how strong they were, their attacks weren’t enough to kill the succubus.

In the midst of confusion, five players sneaked on the guy behind her.

“I’ll take your life and that book with you!” an assassin shouted, using his skill to slice him to pieces. However, the target was way too fast for him, even with his high perception and speed, and retaliated with a darkness spell.

“That cheater isn’t a warrior! He’s a mage!” the assassin informed his teammate. “To hell with the guards! We’ll kill him right here!”

With that order, the remaining discarded the thought of getting labeled as PK and charged. Their eyes glinted with bloodshed and greed. It didn't cross their mind that BloodAce wasn't a player. He was considered as a boss NPC, but no one paid attention to that, much less concerned about getting labeled as PKer.

Even with high-level players going after his life, BloodAce didn’t look scared. He dodged a flurry of attacks one after another despite his heavy armor. However, the weird thing was he didn’t retaliate. It was as if he was just playing around.

While he was dodging, he didn’t realize the presence of the sixth member who had been hiding for a surprise attack. She jumped from her hiding spot and swung her sword at him from behind, sending him towards a fruit stall. With a loud crash the stall crumbled, burying BloodAce along with it.

“Regroup! He won’t die by that attack!”

Slowly BloodAce rose from the pile of rubble with a murderous expression on his face.

“…enough is enough,” he muttered, cracking his fists as he moved towards them.

One appeared behind him, attempting to slice his throat but was quickly grabbed and blasted in the head. His corpse disappeared, awaiting revival.

With one glare, BloodAce dashed to the nearest player, making a hole through her chest. Of course it didn’t hurt, so he grabbed the front of her clothes and cut her arms.

“You damn cheater! Get your hands off her!!” a knight ran with his halberd ready to kill. BloodAce sidestepped the attack after throwing the amputated girl away mercilessly. He ducked the horizontal slash and muttered something.

“Oh sh—”

Before the knight could even finish his cursing, he was thrown into a wall, his body crackling with electrical residue.

“FraGranada!” a woman shouted. “Damn you, cheate—!”

BloodAce was looming before her.

“Lietha!” an elf cried as her friend’s body was blasted to pieces.

BloodAce fought unlike what mages commonly did. Instead of managing his distance, he preferred to stay as close to his target to easily blast or melee them. As the time progressed, however, BloodAce began to make irregular and unpredictable movements.

And finally he showed them all his true color.

Three pair of white wings sprouted from his back. He flew above, eyes clouded with what seemed to be madness.

“Don’t let Hathor escape!” someone shouted as the succubus flying towards BloodAce.

“What the…? What the heck is she trying to do?!”

“What on earth—”

Everyone screamed in terror once they saw what BloodAce did. He summoned multiple runes, each facing different directions.

“Holy shit, that’s—”

[Sigil of Despair]

Before they could finish their sentence, everything was quickly incinerated. Black beams corroded everything, be that stall, buildings, or players. No one was spared, nothing was left standing.

0000

Hathor watched in horror as her husband destroyed everything. Once Azariel was consumed in madness, he couldn’t differentiate which were enemies and which were friends. How she was grateful that she was hiding close behind him.

…else she would be dead, too.

Hathor landed on the ground after making sure that it was safe to step on. Azariel was behind her, covering his head with a hand.

“Are you all right, Husband?” she extended a hand to caress his pale face.

“…I’m all right, I guess…”

“Did you hurt somewhere?” she knew how silly the question was, seeing how heavily armored he was, but it wasn’t hurt to ask.

“No, just scratches. Let’s go back before they send more of their kind.”

Hathor nodded and led him to the Dragon Statue…

0000

DPS coughed as he crawled out of the rubble he had trapped in. Miraculously he was spared from the destructive magic. He was shocked to see everything was ruined. No players were seen aside of him.

Hathor and BloodAce were nowhere to be seen.

How a mere cheater able to unleash [Sigil of Despair], Azariel’s ultimate move?! What was more, he had Hathor fighting alongside him, something that would never happened with the aid of cheats! DPS had used cheats with his old character and got banned. Among stat-boosting cheats and armors, there wasn’t any cheat to make boss-type NPC your ally!

DPS ran a hand through his messy hair in frustration. He did not understand a single thing! No matter how hard he tried to think, nothing came up!

…wait, how about posting this on the GeaOnline wikia and see how many people commented on it?