Chapter 393 - 387 : Exposed

"Huh?"

[[ System notification :

You have died. ]] 

*Burst*

A sword ran through the body of a player so quickly that the target hadn't realised it. It was only when he saw the system notification that the pain from the blow finally reached his nervous system. However, it was already too late to react as the player had exploded into starlight.

"Haa!"

A [Guardian] player suddenly appeared from behind Sato and swung a war-hammer at him. Due to both the sudden arrival and the width of the weapon, Sato couldn't dodge it in time neither he could react quickly to make a counterattack, so he simply placed his left hand in front of the war hammer, preventing himself from getting hit.

*Clang*

'Too strong...'

Like a hammer hitting a thick metal block, only a reverberating clang was heard as Sato's weapon remained steady like an iron wall. The [Guardian], on the other hand, felt some pains on his wrist which was a result of the impact from the encounter.

'How?' The [Guardian] was shocked.

Even though they were previously notified by Azure Dragon that the target's level could be higher than theirs by at least 2 levels, most of the players still had faith in themselves and their abilities. The target might be a level 11 or 12 player, so what? It wasn't like he was a Peak Expert or a Monster-ranked Expert. As long as they could catch him off guard or even swarm him with their tactics and coordination, he will be as good as dead. However, despite catching Sato off guard, the [Guardian] wasn't able to cause any damage and had even injured himself in the process.

3 levels equated to a difference of 15 attributes points. Considering that, unlike most classes, the [Swordsman] class had to focus on either 3 attributes; [Strength],[Dexterity], and [Agility], or even 4 or 5 with the additional main attributes being [Endurance] and [Vitality], since they played important roles at close range. It was this attribute allocation issue that made the [Swordsman] class one of the hardest basic classes to play. With the 15 attributes points, unless the player was a total idiot, presumably, only 5 would go to [Strength] and the remaining 10 would be distributed across the other 4 main attributes.

The [Guardian] class, unlike the [Swordsman], had to only focus on [Endurance], [Strength], and [Vitality]. So it was obvious that their [Strength] was generally higher than other players in the same level. Going by this thought, the difference between a basic level 11 [Swordsman] and a level 8 [Guardian] in terms of [Strength] should be just 3 points or so.

A 3 point difference doesn't equate to overwhelming suppression so it didn't make sense how the [Guardian] was easily losing out. The only explanation was the additional attribute points gained from a piece of equipment or weapon. This meant that Sato's equipment and weapon were well ahead of that the [Guardian]'s in terms of quality and maybe even quantity. Considering that Sato wielded two swords, it was understandable that the [Strength] difference would increase but this made Sato even more deadly.

Two high-quality swords of at least Upper-tier Mortal rank rating, a difference of 3-5 points in [Strength], and finally, reaction speed that made it almost impossible to land hit on him. All these meant that defeating Sato wasn't something that would be achieved without a lot of sacrifices, and even then, they might not succeed.

'Monster.' The [Guardian] couldn't help commenting in his head.

Sato pushed the war-hammer away, throwing the [Guardian] off guard and hacking at the defenseless player.

"Pin!"

Black Tempest, Yukino, and one other [Swordsman] had surrounded Sato on all sides and aimed their swords at him.

According to the original battle plan, the [Guardian] player was supposed to force Sato off balance with his attack while the other three launch an ambush and take him down as quickly as possible. However, with the [Guardian] failing at that, they decided to simply attack at that moment.

2 Expert players and one peak Expert had all targeted Sato at a moment where he seemed slightly vulnerable. Even with the level difference, an assault of this calibre was capable of forcing a player as strong as Sato to take a loss. However, this didn't stand true for Sato.

"[Shadow Movement]."

As if he never existed, Sato vanished from the spot as the weapons of the trio stabbed through the empty space.

"Where's he?" Yukino hurriedly asked.

Unbeknownst to them, Sato had appeared beside one of the players from the Howling Wolf Battalion. Before the said player could even react, two swords moved across his body, making an 'X' and sending him back to his respawn point.

'8'

Since Sato had dropped all pretenses with the two teams and intended to hold them back, he had slaughtered at least 8 players without fail. Even though the two teams had initiated the battle first -when they had interfered in his fight with the Kobold King-, not everyone one of them had attacked him. Hence, Sato's marker has already turned red as the system identified him as a PKer(Player Killer).

'That was close.' Sato thought.

Because he was slightly occupied by that [Guardian], taking on 3 simultaneous attacks from 3 different angles was almost impossible, even for Sato. Especially since one of the attackers was a Peak Expert and another was close to that rank, the best option at that point was to escape the area. Luckily, [Shadow Movement] was off cool-down otherwise Sato would have no other option than to face them. If that were to happen, while he wouldn't die, Sato would surely suffer a loss and if the trio worked well enough, they might even force him to stand on the receiving end.

"I get it!" One of the players at the backline, right beside Silver Wolf, suddenly yelled.

"I get why he isn't running away even though he can."

While the teams led by Black Tempest and the Iron Bear (formerly) handled Sato, the ones behind assisted them from a safe distance. As the battle had gone on, they began to realise that Sato might be stronger than they has imagined. Even so, against the two guilds, his death was inevitable especially if they were to use their trump cards. Being this strong, Sato should have realised this fact but he still remained behind. This startled Azure Dragon and Chesces just a bit and they began to wonder why he didn't do so?

The first conjecture they came up with was that Sato was angered by their interference and decided to retaliate a bit. The second was that he was hired by another guild or party to weaken their strength.

The third idea was that he had decided to weaken their teams to reduce the chances of them chasing after him or resuming the raid on the Kobold King. This would increase Sato's chances of success later on since the only possible opponents were not up to the task any longer.

The second conjecture was the least possible as they had already confirmed that Sato didn't belong to any guild and was possibly a solo player or a party player. Therefore, the first and the third options were most likely especially the first one.

However, the [Ranger] who was previously a part of the scouting team led by Var had suddenly recalled that Sato wasn't the only one here.. Add that with the fact that he remained behind while the Kobold King had already escaped, he instantly reached a certain speculation.