Chapter 415 - 409 : Emperor’s Might Joins The Mix

"Hold him down!" The leading [Necromancer] yelled as he ran alongside the others as they pursued Sato. He was still preparing his spell but with him having to chase after Sato, the cast duration had increased in turn.

"It's not that easy." The cloaked [Assassin] said in response as he was still stunned by the fact that he couldn't even catch up.

'Even though the curse landed on him, he's still this fast! He's already really strong and now this fast? What level is he? What kind of equipment does he have on?' The cloaked player couldn't help but be astounded.

Despite running with his full strength, he could barely match up to Sato's pace, and this was with Sato being cursed whereas he had a buff that increased his speed.

'I really need to be careful around [Cursemancers].' Sato thought as he felt his speed slowly recovering.

As this was the very first time Sato had faced a grown [Cursemancer], he wasn't so cautious about the player as he thought he could waltz and dodge all the attacks. Unlike the other classes, apart from the [Cleric], [Cursemancers] had the weakest attack power in the game and so, they were only good at team fights making the class a dependent one.. Because of this, most players tend to underestimate them, even in team fights. Sadly, Sato realised the hard way that his previous thoughts were nothing more than a dream.

'Hmm?'

"Hmm?"

Almost at the same time, Sato and the [Necromancer] felt something up ahead. It was like an instinctual response from their expert senses.

"Haha. You guys are so terrible at one job. Let me show you how it's done."

A loud voice suddenly boomed from in front with the appearance of a descending large figure who wielded a large door-sized war-hammer.

"Die!" 

The new arrival swung down the hammer with tightened muscles, amplifying its already descending speed due to gravity with his own strength. The end result was an attack that had the forces capable of smashing a full-grown elephant to death. Just the size of the hammer alone was enough to scare one from confronting it head-on, much less the attack that was terrifying.

"Get out."

With a cold voice, Sato brandished [Drakken] at the figure, purposely aiming it at the hammer to avoid killing the player instantly. Even though the player made his appearance with an intimidating assault, Sato was anything but intimidated.

*Clang*

*Bang*

A soft metal clang rang out the very instant the two weapons collided. However, before the sound could go far enough, a loud bang exploded from the same spot as the hammer-wielding figure was sent flying back almost in the same manner as he had arrived. Despite arriving in such a taunting way, he was unable to deal any damage to Sato and was instead dealt damage due to the force of collision from the two weapons.

'Too strong.'

Even though the cloaked [Assassin] was already aware of this, seeing this display of strength reminded him of the same thing again.

"Ha!"

A loud noise sounded as two players charged from the sides with their weapons held high. They were [Berserkers] who had performed the class' [Charge] alongside the skill [Cleave]. The direction of their charge was undeniably Sato and even though they had caught a glimpse of the hammer-wielding player's end. 

Their original intention was to assault Sato once he was blasted away by the hammer-wielding player or at least held back by him. However, Sato had easily dealt with their partner, forcing them to make changes to their initial plan.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Sato dodged the duo with ease and sped up till he had left them behind.

Seeing him get past them, the duo didn't give up right away but instead joined up with the others and began pursuing Sato.

'Almost there.'

The town was currently less than 200 metres away from Sato, and for him, this equated to roughly 20-30 seconds. However, there were at least 10 different players behind and the number just kept on increasing. In terms of marksmen classes(ranged classes), there were at least 5 of them who could attack from a ranged distance with an insane accuracy rate. Sato had to constantly dodge these attacks from time to time, to prevent himself from being held back by them.

Just as Sato was wondering if these were the only players after him, a bunch of players showed up in front of him, just a few tens of metres away from the south gate.

"Now!"

Black Tempest roared as the floor beneath them developed a yellow aura. While the others were unaffected by the aura, Sato felt his actions to be immensely difficult to perform as his body slowly began to come to a halt. It was as if he was stuck in a quagmire and found moving difficult.

"He's caught. Now!" Black Tempest shouted.

Following that, the players who had arrived with Black Tempest began using their various attacks on Sato. Most of them, especially the long-distance fighters had already kept their distance from Sato and attacked from a safe spot. For the non-ranged players, they made use of the ranged items in their bags starting from attack-type scrolls to ranged consumables like explosives.

Multiple coloured projectiles shot through the air as they all aimed for the slow-moving Sato. For a second, the sky looked like a myriad of colours as both the grey and black coloured attacks of the [Cursemancers], as well as the varied colorful attacks of the different [Elementalists], all streaked through the sky as they aimed for Sato.

*Boom*

The spot Sato stood at became covered in dust and explosions, all as a result of the combined attack he had to face.

"See there, that's how you do it.". Black Tempest smirked.

"A bunch of dark players but you still don't know how to kill a regular one with no effort." Black Tempest jeered at the team of players.

However, he wasn't done doing so when a voice suddenly spoke up.

"It's true that they don't know how to kill a player but who are you to say differently about yourself."

The dust and flames from the explosion finally settled as Sato's figure was revealed inside to be standing firm despite all of that.

Black Tempest and the rest glanced at him with wide-open eyes as they wondered how a player could tank all of that without dying.

[[ System notification :

You have been attacked by a player. Retaliating against your attacker won't incur any punishment on you. ]]

"You know, I was originally planning to let you all off but it seems like that was a mistake of mine. I have a feeling that till you understand the difference between us, you guys would stop at nothing to kill me. So, let me give you a glimpse of that difference."

Even without his words, the others had realised that the temperature of the entire place has dropped a few degrees as Sato's face turned cold. The black cursed sword, [Drakken], was firmly latched onto his right hand as Sato glanced at the surrounding players.

During his run, 7 players had joined up with the previous 6 from Savage guild while Black Tempest led a team of 8 players with him. Therefore, a total of 21 players were out in the open, confronting Sato head-on.

Sato knew that there were a few more hiding behind the bushes, biding their time for the right opportunity to make a strike. He had even sensed at least 7 of them so far but there were definitely more than that. They were just being careful with their actions and didn't rush to join the battle, most likely because they had seen Sato's strength and weren't too confident of victory even with the 22 players in front. Those guys who hid in the shadows wanted to make use of the 21 players as their cannon-fodder to deplete Sato's energy and stamina before they would finally make their moves. However, Sato didn't care.

With the system notification alerting him of being able to attack the players, Sato felt that there was no reason why he shouldn't. If he kept on running, not only would he be perceived as a weakling, but the news would spread and other players would be attacking him for being a lucky chap in defeating the Kobold King. It would not only affect the morale of the team but it could affect Sato adversely as most players would begin considering him a lucky fellow. While it was true that Sato never cared about public opinion, he had to this time around, at least for the sake of his team.

'We'll need to recruit some players soon and if the leader of the team is seen as a wuss, no one would want to join us. In that case, a little show of strength wouldn't hurt.'

Even with the 20+ pairs of eyes on him, Sato remained calm and flexed his muscles. Stretching his neck a bit till he heard a clack, Sato comfortably glanced around at the players who remained frozen in their footsteps.

"I5 seconds; that's all I need.