HC: Pacifist | Ch. 203 - Barrier

Roth’s insulting remarks woke Loki from his inaction, and he used a weird skill: [Shadow Shackles]. Despite Roth's panic, his hp remained unchanged. Before he could ask ColdHand about what the skill did, Loki attacked.

The energy projection burned the air and made it smell like bleach. Even though Roth had been prepared to use [Peace Decree], it all happened too fast, and he still hadn’t recovered from the surprise of finding Loki here.

MountainTop emerged from the portal, taking Loki's strike for Roth. The moment the broad-shouldered lizardman appeared on the battlefield. Loki kept throwing attacks, and MountainTop used one life-saving skill after another.

As Roth stood behind the tank, he understood why he was called MountainTop. The emotion of being shielded by this player was similar to that of being atop a mountain; he felt untouchable. It felt like nothing could get through him.

Loki’s relentless barrage kept coming. Finally, MountainTop couldn’t cancel the damage anymore, and he took a full hit, which brought his hp dangerously low. Just as Loki was about to finish him off, another player emerged.

The moment Ogre stepped into the field, Roth felt his palms grow sweaty and a fever he hadn’t felt in a long time: The bloodlust of the berserker. Ogre danced on the blade's edge, just like Roth had done in so many battles in the past. Looking at Ogre throwing himself at Loki with an angry smile excited the dormant violence in him, which, in turn, made Roth feel ashamed.

Ogre lunged forward and slashed with his swords, dealing almost no damage. Even so, for the first time since the battle had begun, something told Roth to enter the fray and stop Ogre from hurting Loki. Maybe it was because Ogre reminded him too much of the Slayer, the bloodthirsty berserker he had once been, and Loki had been the Slayer’s last victim. Even so, his feet were glued to the ground, and all seemed to happen too fast and in slow motion simultaneously.

Just as Ogre was about to take a hit from Loki, the dwarven tank of the Ogres joined the battle and took the hit for his guild leader. MountainTop, who had gulped down a potion, had also recovered his hp back to the green zone and joined the frontline to share the load with his colleagues.

Loki looked everywhere but at the three warriors circling him, trying to make sense of where these players were coming from, but above all, to throw Roth a few hateful looks. He stretched out his palm hand toward Roth, which began glowing in red.

Nether Beam!

TurtleShell’s hammer gleamed with a yellow hue, and he hit Loki’s hand.

Deflect!

The beam missed Roth, which made Loki slash his hand toward TurtleShell. The dwarf just took the hit, and his hp dropped to the yellow zone. Ogre used this instance to attack Loki again and slash him three times in quick succession.

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TurtleShell took another hit, which brought his health bar to the red zone. Loki used this moment to set himself aflame in yellow flames.

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It was some sort of AoE skill that dealt damage every second to everyone in close range. This dropped TurtleShell’s health to nearly zero, but he used a life-saving skill that prevented it from dropping further. Ogre and TurtleShell kept hitting Loki with their weapons, not making a dent.

Loki had turned himself into a high-end boss. Every one of his attacks could insta-kill the average player, while an average player’s strongest skill did nothing to him. Roth had to give it to the first three players to teleport for maintaining their calm in spite of how the odds seemed to be against them.

Loki threw another skill at Roth, which this time Ogre deflected with his sword. Skills such as these had to have long cooldowns, and Roth wondered how much longer they would last. That’s when Griffin arrived. The moment she stepped onto the battlefield, she was all that Loki looked at, and at once, he threw several attacks in quick succession.

MountainTop had already placed himself in between Loki and Griffin, who also kept using skills non-stop to heal MountainTop. His health bar fluctuated crazily as if it were a yo-yo, but MountainTop held. One of her healing skills was also AoE, and it allowed TurtleShell’s and Ogre’s hp to go back to the yellow zone.

Enraged, Loki attacked her relentlessly. He couldn’t be happy with the appearance of one of the top healers in the game. Even though he was much more powerful than them, having a healer such as Griffin would drag the battle out considerably. Despite the chaotic situation, they managed to keep the door open for reinforcements.

*

Abyssal Bolt!

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The dark lightning was partially reflected by a translucent shield covering MountainTop, and a green light enveloped the lizard, bringing his yellow hp bar back into the green. Loki was spamming his skills left and right, but from the moment Griffin arrived, killing these tanks off became a harder enterprise. She was filling up the hp of Ogre, MountainTop, and TurtleShell faster than he could deplete it. On top of that, every 10 seconds, another heavyweight from one of the top 10 guilds came out of the portal.

Where was his guild? Why hadn't they arrived yet? It had already been almost a full minute since the battle started.

“Where is everyone? I want a squad here now!” He messaged in his guild’s chat. It wasn’t that he couldn’t handle these players. He just didn’t know how many more reinforcements they would keep bringing, and having other allies around would help him wrap up the battle quickly.

“We were running patrol, sir. We’ll be there in half a minute.”

By now, Loki had detected the location where players appeared from. Sure enough, it was near the location where the Slayer stood, looking at the whole battle stupidly. After seeing four players arrive in intervals of every ten seconds, he also estimated that was how fast they could teleport people in. He counted ten seconds and threw a skill that way.

Doom Ray!

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He insta-killed a medic who had come to reinforce Griffin. No doubt that medics were what they would want to teleport over more of. Even though Griffin was among the top 3 medics in the game, she couldn’t keep up with such a furious amount of healing alone for long. He just had to keep throwing his skills around, and the battle would be over.

Spectral Spear!

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Wave of Hate!

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He kept shaving off chunks of hp from the tanks, and Griffin kept healing them up. Another 10 seconds and he threw a skill toward the portal. Nothing happened. Two seconds later, another player joined the fray. He clicked his tongue. They had delayed the teleportation on purpose. Whoever was leading this expedition wasn’t slow by any means. It didn’t matter. His reinforcements were about to arrive.

You’re stuck inside a [Quintessential Barrier]. Find the five shards of the barrier to destroy it from within.

“You flatter me. To prepare a quintessential barrier to hunt me down is a compliment,” he said between clenched teeth as he kept throwing damage skills left and right.

None of the players attacking him answered, perhaps because of how busy Loki was keeping them. The newly arrived medic was entirely focused on healing only TurtleShell, which took some of the pressure off Griffin. He tried to snipe him, but he just blinked away, dodging the skill. He didn’t know who this medic was, but from this alone, he could tell he had top-notch skills.

He got a message from his patrol.

“Sir, there’s a red skill around the observatory. It says it can only be broken from within. What do we do?”

Loki recalled the information he had about the quintessential barrier. It required five crystals to activate, which could only be procured from the rock golem dungeon, a level 52 dungeon in the Rock Canyon. The final boss had a one percent chance of dropping it. Each crystal went for five thousand gold in the market. He sneered, thinking of how committed these guilds were to destroying him. They had even prepared such a treasure to pin him down.

The bad part was that he couldn't break the barrier unless he found each of the five crystals. He decided to ignore the fleas circling around him and went looking for the crystals. He waited until the next cycle of 10 seconds had ended, and waited. This time, he managed to snipe a rogue as soon as he had appeared. Even though MountainTop, Ogre, and TurtleShell kept hitting him, they weren’t taking any of his HP, so he would just ignore them and look for whoever had the shards.

They must have sneaked five rogues here before Loki first detected the Slayer. That was the only explanation for how they had managed to activate a [Quintessential Barrier] right under his nose. All he had to do was kill them, and the barrier would be destroyed. Or, he could just go back to trying to kill the Slayer. Yes. That was even better. He was undoubtedly the one behind this invasion, and whenever he attacked him, the others just threw themselves in harm’s way to shield him. He would do that.

Blink!

Loki teleported right next to Roth’s face.

Abyssal Bolt!

Courageous Taunt!

Just as the skill was about to connect, his body moved on its own and threw the attack at TurtleShell instead. How annoying. For the next five seconds, he couldn’t attack anything but the dwarf tank. How had he been able to react so quickly? He had even used [Blink].

Thanks to Loki’s high level, the taunt effect wore off after only two seconds, but the Slayer had already run away to the other side of the observatory. He tried it again. He buzzed his wings and flew in a long jump, lunging toward Roth with another skill activated.

Reptile Taunt!

MountainTop taunted him, making him miss another attack on the Slayer. These annoying idiots kept getting in the way. This wasn’t supposed to be like this. He was thirty levels above them! However, they were incredibly skilled, were clad in the best gear for their level, and had a collection of rare and epic skills that couldn’t be overlooked.

He tried it again. He waited for the 10 seconds between teleportations to pass and prepared a damage skill. Instead of going for whoever appeared out of the portal at the last minute, he used the skill to attack Roth again.

Nether Beam!

The beam cut through the air, and none of the three warriors seemed ready for it this time. After killing the Slayer, he would keep the enemy’s reinforcements from coming, and he could just make quick work of them, putting an end to this assassination attempt.

Orbital Catch!

For the first time since the battle began, something finally overshadowed Loki’s anger. It was a primal, dark emotion that Loki hated but couldn’t help. He felt his mouth go dry and his heartbeat racing. An old man stood in front of Roth. He had simple, black robes and looked at Loki with interest. Loki’s brilliant attack seemed to have been caught in the man’s gravity and spun rapidly around him, like a moon around the planet.

“Jaw-Long…” he whispered in awe. He had hoped he wouldn’t get involved, but his worst fears had been proven true. Despite all his power and his overwhelming level advantage, the only reason why he wasn’t entirely sure he was the most powerful player in the game was this man right here.

“Such interesting prey,” said Jaw-Long.

Gravitational Slingshot!

The ray of red light that had been caught by the old man was sent back to Loki.

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For the first time, his hp bar came down significantly, and Loki couldn’t ignore what he was feeling: Fear. He could have dealt with all these idiots without a second thought, but this wasn’t a man he could ignore. Jaw-Long had come to hunt him down.

Ch. 202 - Infiltration

INDEX

Ch. 204 - Searing Heat