Chapter 3: Danger

“Empress!” Rai spat. His kind and gentle appearance had completely vanished. A look of frustration and rage was on his face.

“Do you have any idea how many credits I was carrying when you killed me?” Rai growled, “Three million!”

Empress whistled. Although three million wouldn’t be considered a fortune anywhere outside of the starting zone, inside, it was a lot of money.

Even after robbing the entire bank, she only had one million credits.

“If you hurry up you might be able to pick them back up,” Empress advised, wanting to get rid of him.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Rai frowned, “There’s no way someone wouldn’t have picked them up by now. I’ll have to track them down later. For now, I’m going to deal with you.”

Empress immediately pulled out her rapier. Rai’s negation powers were in effect. Unfortunately, it would render her barrier pistol useless.

“Not going to use a gun?” Rai sneered, “I won’t be so kind.”

He pulled a revolver out of his pocket and spun the cylinder. He raised it towards her.

“Today the undefeated Empress will face her death. Now you’ll get a taste of what it’s like to go to the bottom of the leaderboards!” he laughed

That was the penalty for dying. Upon death a player would not only drop their credits and lose experience, they would also be sent to the bottom of the daily leaderboards.

“I don’t plan on joining you down there,” Empress sneered.

“Say whatever you want, you won’t be able to escape from me,” he pulled the trigger.

With a boom, the bullet sped forward, colliding into Empress’s shoulder as she attempted to dive out of the way.

Empress ignored the realistic pain, jumping to her feet. She dashed diagonally left and right, performing the serpentine maneuver.

Rai fired five more shots. Three of them missed, smacking into the metal wall behind her. The other two struck their mark, embedding themselves into her stomach and thigh.

Empress smiled evilly, raising her rapier. Rai sneered back. He pulled the trigger. The gun made a click as it attempted to fire an empty chamber.

Rai’s face froze.

“That was six shots!” Empress laughed loudly.

With the thrust of her arm, the rapier stabbed forward, impaling itself into Rai’s throat.

His body flailed and blood leaked from his mouth as he gurgled unintelligibly. With cough, he spat blood and went limp.

Empress removed her sword from Rai’s corpse with a flourish. Now she had another minute to escape.

She placed her hand over her wounded stomach, attempting to staunch the flow of blood. Then, she hobbled outside of the bank, encountering a group of heroes and villains locked in fierce combat.

The heroes had arrived due to a distress call from one of the bank tellers. The villains had arrived shortly afterwards, hoping to profit from the chaos.

“Is that Empress?” one man asked in wonder, noticing Vivian from the corner of his eye.

At his exclamation, the two groups ceased fighting and turned towards her.

Empress cursed inwardly. For once she wished she hadn’t chosen the neutral faction. That way she would at least have allies in situations like this. Her health was rapidly draining. She couldn’t allow herself to die here.

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“Screw off!” Empress shouted in rage, causing the heroes and villains to turn pale from fear.

However, one of the men noticed that she was bleeding.

“She’s wounded and just come out from inside the bank!” he shouted, “Don’t be afraid! Whoever kills her will get huge rewards.”

The villains’ eyes went wide with greed as they realized she had just robbed the bank. Likewise, the heroes started drooling when they realized the fame boost they would get for killing the notorious Empress.

Empress’s face turned unsightly. She waved her hand forward, causing a barrier to materialize in the air. The barrier wrapped around a man flying in the air, then shrunk, crushing him into paste.

The crowd gasped in horror, realizing that dealing with her would still be troublesome.

“Everyone attack at once!” a man roared.

At his signal, dozens of different attacks leapt towards her. Men transformed into werewolves and attacked her with claws. Tree roots broke through the cement road and stabbed towards her. Bolts of fire and ice rained towards her head.

Empress took a deep breath, summoning her barriers once more. All the attacks collided into her barrier, threatening to break it. Her face went pale as she used her energy to resist.

It was at that moment that a man materialized behind her. It was Rai, again.

Empress didn’t falter, she immediately spun on her heel, thrusting her rapier through Rai’s eye as he appeared before her.

He died instantly.

“That should stop him for a while,” Empress muttered. After three consecutive deaths, a person would be teleported to a random safe zone to prevent further deaths.

However, the damage was already done. Rai’s momentary presence was enough to negate her barrier, causing multiple attacks to crash into her body.

Empress was blown away, slamming to the bank walls. Blood trickled from her mouth as she gasped in pain.

“Dangit!” Empress howled inwardly, “Am I really going to die here?!”

All of a sudden, an idea sparked in her mind. Summoning the last of her energy. She created the biggest barrier she possibly could. She sent it flying towards the crowd of heroes and villains, making their eyes pop open in horror.

They attempted to crawl, fly, and run out of the way, but they were too slow. The barrier crashed into them, causing many to explode from the pressure.

A screen popped in front of Empress’s eyes, making her smile triumphantly. Then, with a flash, she disappeared.

The heroes and villains gaped in confusion. 

“Where did she go?!” they cried, “She was so close to death!”

“Quickly, search for her!”

They immediately scattered, running in multiple directions in an attempt to track her down.

They wouldn’t be able to find her though. With her last ditch effort, Empress had slain multiple opponents, causing her to level up. 

She was kicked out from the starting zone.