Chapter 80 - 77 : Sato Gets Serious

(AN: As I rushed this, errors might be present. Please do notify me of any )

"Hehehe. That little princess will die under boss three Kills' onslaught and you will soon follow her. At that time, you will finally test grandma Meng Po's soup.[1]" Riddled Tree taunted his opponent even while dodging the flitting arrows.

"Hmph. Don't feel so smug yet; the battle isn't over." Dream Tiger harrumphed before shooting 2 more arrows at him.

As they were both long range players, and expert players at that, it would take quite some time for a victor to be decided between the two of them. Despite having not defeated his opponent, Dream Tiger had still succeeded in getting the upper hand of the battle, forcing Riddled Tree to be on the defensive, only having the option of dodging his attacks and counter attacking once in awhile.

Nonetheless Riddled Tree was still alive and well. Even though he a druid, which was more of a support class than a combat class, Riddled Tree was still able to hold out against Dream Tiger, going far as even taunting him mid battle. This proved to show that he wasn't an ordinary character whatsoever.

"Hehe. No worries, you will soon be dead. Till then though, I don't mind playing with you a bit."

. . . . .

On the other side, Devis and Rock were still having a somewhat difficult time defeating Sato. Sato, despite facing two opponents, had a calm look on his face but a calm look isn't all it takes to winning a battle. Faced with two expert players, Sato was forced to constantly be on the defensive with no chance to counter. Even when he tried to counter-attack, one of the players would interrupt him, forcing Sato back on the defense. This lead to Sato being on the receiving end and he inevitably got injured in the battle. To an outside figure, it was already a miracle that he still held out against the onslaught but only Sato knew that he was still holding back against them.

*Clang* *Clang*

"Die!" Devis yelled as he saw an opportunity to attack.

*clang*

Sato was quick to respond, placing his sword in between himself and Devis' short sword.

"You've been screaming 'Die, Die' but I'm still standing in front of you. Do you still have any bit of pride and dignity left eh?" Sato taunted his opponent.

Normally, this wasn't his style but rather Fudo's but as the saying goes, if a child plays with ink, his hands will also be colored black[2]. After spending quite some time with Fudo, he had learned Fudo's annoying behaviour but that wasn't all. Sato decided to taunt Devis to try and destabilise his mind.

"Hmph. You will still die no matter what you say." Devis angrily lashed back.

'That guy has been off to the side for awhile now. If I'm correct, he should take about 10 more seconds before he returns to the battle again.' Sato inwardly grumbled.

Swift Blade had not only gone off to drink a few health potions but to also wait out the cool-down of some of his skills, with the intention of returning to battle at an almost peak state.

Since Sato and Dream Tiger had joined the battle now, only 4-5 seconds had passed by. For swift Blade's health to restore back to full and also for his skills to be off cool-down, Sato estimated at least 10 seconds for this to be achieved.

"Mountain Cleaver!" Rock yelled before using a martial skill against Sato.

Normally, high level martial techniques and arts are quite rare and difficult to practice unless one starts from young. Mountain Cleaver was a very common martial skill taught in quite a lot of dojos in real life as such, even Rock knew it. Despite being so common, it didn't become famous just for its popularity or rather, it gained it popularity due to a certain factor and that was that it strength was undeniable.

Sato easily saw the attack coming and being the pro swordsman he was, Sato easily saw through the attack. Despite so, Sato didn't counter-attack nor did he try to break the technique instead, he dodged the attack. This was because Devis had also struck at almost the same time and if Sato had focused on Rock's attack, he would have been caught in Devis' assault.

'I can't keep being forced back otherwise I might actually die.'

Taking a step forward, Sato hacked out with his sword. From a third person view, it didn't seem like there was any sword skill or martial art attached to it; just a simple sword slash.

Rock, who happened to be the closest to the attack, reacted quickly and placed his shield on front of himself. However he misunderstood Sato's intentions. The sword took a turn at the last minute and headed for Devis who was preparing to launch another assault on Sato. This was possible because both Devis and Rock were quite close to each other after their previous assault against Sato had failed.

"Thinking you could get rid of me that easily? Dream on!"

Despite being surprised at Sato's advance, Devis still reacted well, moving towards the strike rather than retreating.

'It's a good thing this punk decided to attack otherwise the other one would have joined up.'

Indeed, Devis and Rock truly wanted Sato dead. They were already upset at the fact that despite the both of them teaming up against 1 player, they still couldn't end him quickly. Even worse, their target had been somehow able to avoid their attacks at the very last minute as if he had predicted it or had eyes behind his head. If the battle had went on as it previously had, Devis and Rock wouldn't be able to eliminate Sato before Swift Blade arrived. They then decided to keep forcing him on the edge and sooner or later, Sato would decide to counter. At that point, Rock would hold his attention while Devis would land the finishing strike.

Though things didn't go as planned, as Sato had aimed for Devis instead of Rock, they still believed that they had this in the bag. Why? Because Devis was an assassin. As an assassin, it was very common for his [Agility] and [Dexterity] stats to be higher than the other classes. Plus the natural physique bonus granted to assassins together with his expert skills, it was undeniable that Sato would lose out in a one-on-one against Devis. Well, this was what they thought anyway.

*clang*

As Sato's sword closed up to him, Devis struck out with his short sword and clashed with Sato however he felt something different, something that shocked him.

'He's stronger?'

Devis felt like the power contained in this slash was a few time stronger than Sato's previous attacks. So powerful was the slash that it sent him two steps backwards.

'Shit!'

This displacement in his footing was more than enough of an opportunity for Sato to attack again.

"Hold it!" Rock roared as he swung his weapon at Sato.

"I've been waiting."

Sato abruptly turned and slashed at Rock.

Because he was rushing towards Sato to attack him plus he believed that Sato was fully focused on attacking Devis, Rock never actually thought that he was Sato's real target.

The assault on Devis was nothing more than bait for Rock to drop his guard. Sato already expected that the duo would try to force him to bite back under their continuous onslaught. Even though he knew that making such an action would be no different from stepping into their trap, Sato decided to do it. Heck, he even had a gorgeous idea in mind and that was to use their own trap against them; turning it into his own trap.

Sato first made it look like he was attacking Rock before abruptly changing his target to Devis. This would make it seem to his opponents as if he was confusing them and his main target was actually the assassin. With that in mind, Devis would hold him down while Rock tried to strike him down. But even at that, the duo wouldn't easily drop their guard.

In other for that to happen, Devis had to be in an actual perilous situation that was extremely favorable to Sato. This would force Rock to swiftly react, forgetting to keep his guard up against his foe because he would be preoccupied with the thought of saving his partner and he would believe that Sato wouldn't plan on hesitating with such an opportunity presented before him.

That was exactly where he made a mistake as to Sato, handling Devis was never his intention at all; even if he had a good chance to do so, he would rather use it as a trap for Rock. Once Rock had now focused his attention on saving Devis, he had already stepped into the planted landmine.

For this to succeed, Sato had to overpower an assassin who had a natural advantage in [Agility] and [Dexterity]. To do this, he had relied on his power weapons that provided amazing attributes for him, together with the extra attribute points he had received from his sub-class. Even though Sinland was comparable to a 2nd tier guild, due to their low numbers and lackadaisical attitude to the other elements of the game, none of them had actually discovered that sub-classes give an extra level's worth of attribute points. That combined with Sato's recent level after battling the trolls, he was far ahead of Devis in terms of attributes but he never used his full power against them.

Sato only decided to do so now, after making them drop their guard against him and taking him as a push-over. This would enable him to cause more damage as they would believe that he is actually below their ability after gaining the upper hand against him.

Sato didn't stop at one strike as he released slash after slash on Rock's body. Even with the armor and high [Defense], Rock's HP was dropping at a very fast rate.

"Bastard!"

Regaining his senses after feeling the pain from the attacks, Rock lifted his weapon to strike at Sato. Devis, on the other hand, had already regained his balance and had launched himself towards Sato.

One in front and one by the side, Sato finally understood a bit of what it meant to be surrounded but he didn't waver at all neither did he retreat.

Facing Rock who was the closest to him, he blocked his axe strike[3] and repelled it with the [Parry] skill. Next was Devis' strike which was quite close to his chest already as Sato was focused on Rock. Nonetheless, Sato didn't dither as he swung his sword and pushed away Devis' blade while sending Rock flying a few metres away with a kick.

"You will need more than that to stop me!" Devis yelled fearlessly before striking out again but this time, with a martial skill and a combat skill.

"Three Fang strike [Shadow Strike]"

Immediately, two different phantoms of Devis sword took shape beside the original. One shouldn't underestimate it as they weren't illusions but actual strikes. Devis had attacked so quickly that it looked like he had produced illusions.

The Three Fang Strike was a special martial art where one had to attack three times at the same time in a particular pattern and angle. Normally, Devis couldn't use the Three Fang Strike on his own but with the help of the skill [Shadow Strike], which boosts his [Attack Speed] by 15%, he was able to pull it off.

"Now die!"

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*

Three 'clangs' rang out as Sato easily blocked the attack without breaking a sweat.

"What? How?! Impossible!" Devis began shivering.

The Three Fang Strike was his finishing martial technique, a high level one at that. His strong suit, the pièce de résistance associated with him. It was the very skill that had brought him glory in Sinland and Sato easily blocked it. Not even those high figure in 2nd tier guilds would do it as easily and as smoothly as Sato did.

"Is that it? Is that all there is to you? Showing such a flowery move is so dumb. Let me show you how a sword should be used."

Sato slashed out again and like previously, he didn't use any martial art of skill, just his brute strength and force as a player.

Because Devis was stunned at Sato blocking his attack, he couldn't react on time and even if he could, Sato's attributes far surpassed his so he could easily catch up to Devis.

"Arghh."

The sword came crashing down and accompanied by its fall was the sound of Devis' scream. With fear in his eyes, Devis tried to retreat.

"A sword is meant to kill…" Sato's voice sounded out.

As Devis was about to retreat, Sato slashed out again, injuring him and diminishing his HP even more. Nonetheless, Devis didn't want to give up retreating.

"If the sword cannot kill it's target, then what is the point of sword skills."

Sato slashed out again at Devis, who was trying to escape, and this time he finally used a skill, the signature skill of all current swordsmen, [Horizontal slash].

"No…"

With Devis' unwilling cries, his body fell down as blood splattered all over the place.

"I hope you have comprehended the art of swords."

AN :

[1] Chinese Mythology. Grandma Meng Po is the goddess of forgetfulness that serves a special soup to dead souls that are about to reincarnate. The soup is a brainwashing liquid, like literally. It wipes your memory clean.

[2] Can't remember where exactly I learnt this proverb(or idiom?) from. The same as playing in muddy waters, it simply means that when someone associates with something for awhile, they tend to learn or copy a few things from it.

[3] I don't know whether I had given Rock a weapon but it's now an axe.