Chapter 56 - 53 : The Snow Goddess Vs The Maniac Chief

(AN : Using my phone so error might be present. Please notify me of any.)

*clang* *clang*

Take a quick step forward and utilizing the opportunity made from the opponent's negligent moves, Yukino slashed downwards with her great-sword before Goro or the mages at the back could interrupt her.

"Ahhh!"

With a cry, the 3rd player fell leaving only 4 men left.

"Are you ready to give up?"

Yukino swung her sword, leaving behind a trail of blood.

*Clap* *clap* *clap*

Goro deactivated his stealth mode while clapping his hands.

"I have to say, I'm impressed dear goddess. Despite being outnumbered 1:7 you were still able to take down 3 of my men. Worthy of a goddess indeed." Goro ended his words with a smile that didn't seem so nice.

"You don't plan on giving up?" Yukino frowned.

"Why would we? I did say that you aren't leaving here alive and I meant it."

"You Savage Tribe bastards have always been so dumb. Even when you are given a chance of freedom you refuse and prefer to stay in your cage."

"Hahaha. Freedom you say? Even if we let you go, would that change anything? Your guild would still hunt us down and that's how it's meant to be. We are total polar opposites that strike at bone another. Like fire and water, no ice, after all you are the Snow Goddess." Goro laughed while tossing and catching his dagger repeatedly.

"This would only end with you all dying." Yukino said to him.

"Our goddess has never been this chatty before. What happened? Are you tired? Hahaha. You might have taken down 3 of us but so what? Since we came to eliminate Emperor's Might's players, we obviously had to come prepared."

Once Goro finished talking, the two mage players in the group spread themselves apart and each brought out an animal skin scroll. Yukino tried to interrupt one of them but was held back by Goro and the last physical class player, a Berserker who used a spear. The two mages then used that time to complete the incantations and then tore the scrolls in two.

The scroll then disintegrated into bronze coloured particles that floated around the entire hall. They seemed like fireflies as they scattered around the slightly dark hall.

Slowly but surely, the particles occupied most of the hall lighting it up.

"Light show? Is that all you can do?" Yukino scoffed at the result of the previously performed actions.

"Heh."

As soon as Goro smiled, the 'fireflies' further brightened up turning from fireflies to little star dots.

*Timmmmm*

As they did so, they produced a weird chime after which they players present all felt a weird feeling pass over them, similar to the feeling you get when you dive inside water.

[[ System notification :

You have been afflicted with the [Curse of Zamatrian]

[Slow] : Movement speed and Attack speed reduced by 10%.

[Light Hallucinations] : Player would experience hallucinations once in a while at a random pace.

[Mana lock] : Mana in the surrounding area is locked as such, player can't recover lost Mana except through potions.

]]

The [Curse of Zamatrian] was a low level scroll, around the Low Tier Mortal Class, made by a crazy alchemist who studied runes. Due to his lack of the adequate and appropriate corresponding knowledge of runes, the scroll ended up as Low tier Mortal rank. It's one of the few scrolls accessible to players in various NPC stores at this stage.

Unlike the [Holy Light seal], this is a true Low Tier Mortal class scroll, only having a few low level effects and not capable of causing damage. Even so, this low level effects, if used properly, could easily change the tide of the battle especially for the [Light Hallucinations] effect.

Apart from its weak effects, the [Curse of Zamatrian] only has one other shortcoming and that is that it works only within a certain range. In other words, if the targeted prey were to evacuate from the affected area, the spell wouldn't have any effect on them.

Nonetheless, the scroll still has a very handy feature that especially makes it useful. This is the ability of enabling the user to easily decide on who would be affected and who wouldn't within the spells range.

With this ability in the way, the user would have the upper hand in the battle and could easily keep the target within the radius of the scroll's effect.

"You're done." Goro laughed maniacally in such a way that he didn't bring shame to his title as the Maniac Chief.

Goro stabbed forward with his dagger while the Berserker lashed out with his spear from another direction.

Normally Yukino would easily handle their attacks and maybe even counter but thanks to the [Slow] effect, she barely held her ground against their joint assault. When the two mages (AN : Just so you know, they're an elementalist and cursemancer) joined in, things got harder for her.

As an expert player, the cursemancer was able to realize this and so he bide his time carefully before casting a curse.

"[Paralysis]"

Noticing that she can't dodge the attack neither can she ignore it as the [Paralysis] would make things worse for her, Yukino blocked the attack with her great-sword leading to a small explosion of the eerie black elliptical object.

*Boom*

Using the black weird aura that resulted from the explosion as a smokescreen, Goro rushed forward and plunged his dagger towards Yukino's side.

Yukino didn't sully her title as 'Queen' as she noticed the attack and bent towards her right but even so, she still got hurt a bit as the dagger brushed through her waist.

*Slit*

Yukino then tried to counter but the spear-wielding berserker swung his spear at her, interrupting her move and forcing her to retreat backwards.

The elementalist then followed up by firing a

[Mana ball] as it was the quickest and most effective spell in his arsenal. Yukino spotted this and swiftly dodged but she was immediately met by Goro's follow-up attack.

Vexed at being forced on the defensive continuously, the hacked at him but at this time, the Berserker and cursemancer had already performed their own attacks aimed towards her as if expecting her move.

They were disappointed this time as once again, Yukino didn't tarnish her image. Her attack was actually a feint which she made use of to retreat. Goro and the berserker chased after her as they couldn't let her leave the hall since the scroll's ability only barely covered it.

"Hahaha. Dear goddess why are you running? Come back alright? I won't bite." Goro mocked as he ran after her.

Ignoring his irritating jeers and derision, Yukino began pondering on her current circumstance.

'This can't keep going on. My speed is lower than theirs so it's inevitable for me to be forced back. Looks like I might have to use it.'

Yukino abruptly stopped and turned around. Seizing this chance, the two mages fired their various attacks at her while Goro smirked inwardly.

'All you big guys are always prideful. Meanwhile your shitty pride will be your doom.'

Goro and the berserker attacked from the sides while the attacks of the mages came from the front.

Taking a deep breath, Yukino held her great-sword with both hands.

'I haven't tried this with a great-sword before but oh well.'

"Lotus Sword art : 2nd form : 3 leaf block."

. . . . .

"Where are we exactly...?" The player beside Chesces, who was earlier against leaving Yukino behind, exclaimed.

The group had earlier departed the hall through the biggest door present among the 3 options. After going through the door, they entered a hallway and rushed through it encountering goblin scouts at a few intervals, which they killed swiftly proving that they were indeed experts.

Normally, this would have been impossible but since they had levelled up in the battlefield above, their levels were at least 1 above that of the goblin scouts. Combine that with their adept and resourceful skills, tactics and cooperation, the goblin scouts were nothing but cannon-fodders in their eyes.

After they had gone far, a distance that took them 3 minutes of running and turning excluding the time they took for their battles, they had entered a chamber, one far bigger than the previous hall.

The chamber was dark but as they walked deeper, blue flames lit up by the walls, lighting the entire chamber. It went on till it reached the end of the chamber.

*Bang*

Once the entire torches were lit, they heard a bang as the doors behind them, which they didn't notice when they walked in, closed.

"So there were doors?" That player spoke again.

"This should be the commander's chambers. Look around and see if you can find anything." Chesces stated.

"You don't need to worry about that captain. Look." The last player in the group pointed at the end of the hall.

There was a huge wall painting there similar to the one Fudo and Sato had seen before. The only difference was that apart from the 2 figures on the painting and the 'dark sun', there was a river of blood beneath the figure with the grimoire.

Beneath this painting, a figure bent head down, and prayed with muffled sounds. Beside him stood 4 huge armored figures, reverently standing guard beside the figure with their enormous sized weapons. The auras they exuded made the chamber feel like a sea of blood as the atmosphere felt like an abattoir. It was quite creepy and out-of-place when contrasted with the blue colored flames.

The figure that was bent low, on the contrary, didn't exude any aura whatsoever seeming like an average monster or human. But somehow, it seemed to blend perfectly in the atmosphere feeling like it truly belonged here.

"So that's the boss…"