"Get up!" Urginok shouted at Rydr.
Stunned at the sudden return of his teammates, Rydr dug himself out of the rubble. Another arrow whistled through the air, heralding Syrna's presence to knock the second goblin on its ass again.
The creature cried out in pain, and Rydr whirled around to face it.
In a massive lunge, Rydr leaped for the bristling monster. The giant massively overshot his goal. Instead of lunging at the creature, Rydr's combination of passives and buffs launched his avatar into the creature.
With his arms stretched over his head, Rydr caught the goblin with a flying knee in a two-handed swing-pose. The impact absorbed some of Rydr's momentum, but he needed to ignore the goblin to stop himself.
The giant extended his legs and leaned back, like landing after he jumped off a swingset. The goblin, covered in scrimshaw-metal armor, flew through the air and hit the wall Rydr barely managed to avoid.
*-10 HP*
*-24 HP*
Rydr's impromptu flying knee scratched the monster, but he noticed the creature's impact against the wall dealt more damage.
Just maybe- Rydr stopped to think, and it almost killed him.
Rydr wrongly assumed the goblin was stunned when it lunged at his groin with its serrated shortsword- which it clutched through Rydr and Syrna's combined assault.
The colossus panicked and reacted instinctively.
He let go of the pickax with his right hand and reached out to grab the smaller humanoid by the top of its head. Then, like a small dog, Rydr pressed the monster into the floor with his massive strength and size.
Despite the level suppression, which decreased Rydr's damage and increased the monster's, his strength score was too much. In a battle of strength, Rydr won against anything below his "weight class."
Proper application of strength meant more than dealing with damage numbers. When Rydr dragged trees around and held the massive boulder, most of which now resided in his [Inventory], and again, now, Rydr sensed his path forward.
If the diver solved his glass ceiling, pure strength would reveal a tyrannical might- the further Rydr progress in Frontier Online.
The goblin shrieked in its foul tongue, spitting expletives at the enormous diver above it. More than dogs, elves, and pretty much any other humanoids- including other goblins- the goblinoid races hated beings larger and stronger than themselves.
Rydr forced the struggling monster into the floor as hard as he could, afraid it might wriggle loose. The giant, certain of his grip, looked up to check the battlefield.
Urginok faced two of the creatures in a deadly melee. The tank wielded his hammer more akin to a bo-staff than a warhammer, with his hands placed under its head and near the end. He suffered a few wounds where the goblins' wild flailing landed on his bare arms. Their damage numbers flashed red even to Rydr and Syrna.
*-30 HP*
*-27 HP*
The brunette jabbed his weapon back and forth rapidly, forcing the goblins to defend. The moment bought Syrna time to fire another two arrows in quick succession, doubtless using [Double Shot], into one of the two goblins.
*-6 HP*
*-9 HP*
The archer's numbers suffered even more than Rydr's from the level suppression. The three goblins outclassed their party. It was possible that Rydr could slowly finish them off while the other two ran interference. However, they knew it was an uphill battle when they jumped in the mines. The other option was to lay down and die.
The knockback effect from Syrna's arrows slid the goblin backward a meter, rather than knocking it clean off its feet. While the monster still reeled from arrows, Urginok laid into the other goblin with his hammer.
The tank used his superior reach to kite the monster as he steadily stepped backward. Urginok's gambit was to buy more space between the two monsters, giving himself more time to fight just the one.
When the second goblin recovered a couple of seconds later and leaped into the fight again, Rydr did the only thing he could think of.
He grabbed his captive goblin by the scruff and hurled it at its charging comrade with all his strength.
The goblin ragdolled through the air and crashed into its sibling, sending the two of them flying. The damage dealt to them wasn't worth mentioning, less than 1% of their total. Rydr's strength score still had its way and threw the two monsters across the chamber into one of the large openings.
Freed from his burden, Rydr leaped into combat. The giant diver kicked off the ground and flew to Urginok's side, ready to bring his pickax down on the lone goblin. Rydr started to get the hang of "dashing" with [Springform].
Tangled with Urginok's hammer, the goblin watched helplessly as the behemoth's weapon fell.
Like a bolt from the blue, an arrow flew from the opposite side of the chamber, piercing Rydr's shoulder and stopping his attack.
*-30*
Red damage floated over Rydr's head. Caught off guard, Rydr sensed the arrow in his shoulder like a sharp ache. The giant reached up with his left hand and ripped the projectile from his shoulder, freeing the "joint lock" feeling he sensed from the lodged missile.
Done with that, Rydr's head jerked to trace the arrow's flight.
Across the chamber, framed in the light of Syrna's torch, stood another team of divers. Divers intent on stealing the goblin kills from Rydr's team.
The two goblins Rydr knocked into the tunnel entrance were pinned down by the opposing team and swiftly killed in front of them. Whatever items they dropped were picked up by the other team before one of them stepped into the chamber with them.
Urginok maintained his pace with the surviving goblin while Rydr stepped to the left, keeping himself even with the other diver.
Without a helpful nametag over each other's heads, Rydr and his counterpart had to announce themselves.
Which the enemy was more than willing to do.
"Ho there, friend! You must be the divers Guile let slip in here a few hours ago." The diver stood around 1.9 meters tall, covered head to toe in sleek black armor. Short, white hair, like that of an anime’s main character, covered his head.
The armor looked awfully familiar until Rydr realized it was the same armor the hobgoblin warriors were wearing.
This guy is wearing a full set of monster armor. Whoever he was, it had to be someone with clout. Speaking of Guile...
"You mean that was your guard dog at the door?" Rydr called back. Even as he bought time, talking to the other man, Rydr kept an eye on Urginok's fight.
The tank held his own against the over-leveled monster. The lack of damage slowed him down, but Urginok's superior reach and height gave him an unmistakable advantage over the child-sized goblin.
Rydr breathed a little easier. The giant never saw Syrna in the chaos, but she aided Urginok from somewhere behind him. They could handle it.
When Rydr's shadow, cast by the torch's light, fell across the other diver, his dark armor made him all but a ghost. While the effect was intimidating, Rydr's giant silhouetted form was more imposing.
Covered in tattered clothes and the enormous [Alpha's Pelt], Rydr cut a tyrannical figure in the mines' depth. The behemoth looked like a boss monster compared to his opponent.
The pile of rubble from Rydr's impromptu ambush, all that remained of the stalactite, stood between the giant and the other diver.
"Guard dog? That's so harsh, friend!" The blonde diver tsked and shook his finger at Rydr.
"We found this place first. Isn't that how it goes?" The blonde man lit up as a series of buffs were cast on him from behind. "You can't go stealing other people's toys, now can you?"
"This mine is a resource for everyone in Grotto," Rydr refuted, "Who are you to say that the entire mine is yours?" The other man's principles grated against Rydr's sensibilities. The other two goblins were already lost to the enemy team, which rankled the giant.
Plus, the shower of buffs that intermittently lit up the other man told Rydr that they anticipated a fight.
"I, you gnat, am Spectre, leader of the ranking guild Shining Star." Spectre, as the man named himself, took a bow, flourishing his hand. At the tip of his fancy bow, a gleaming silver dagger materialized in his hand, a matching one appearing behind his back.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
He cut a roguish figure, the antihero, to Rydr's giant monster.
"Don't you mean Fallen Star, Spectre?" Syrna's voice came from behind Rydr, but he couldn't risk turning around. Syrna, for her part, knew they were going to die. Shining Star wasn't just a group of selfish bastards. They were a group of murderous selfish bastards.
Shining Star was a famous PK Guild.
All that mattered now was how painful their team could make it for Shining Star's main raid team. It was their piss-poor luck that landed them in the same starter town as a ranking guild and a ranked player-killer like Spectre.
On the other side, everyone was a professional diver who worked for the man standing in front of Rydr. Spectre was effectively a CEO that murdered anyone that disagreed with him. Twenty divers waited outside the chamber, ready for Spectre's signal to rush in and overwhelm their team.
Their lives were in the palm of his hand, and Spectre knew it.
"Fallen, we may be, but someone needs to be the worst, don't you agree?" Spectre flourished his daggers, ready to slaughter another group of hapless divers.
There were other paths into the mines, and his team encountered several others while exploring. They killed those unlucky few and distributed their items amongst themselves.
Spectre was particularly "lucky" a few hours ago.
They came across an independent diver acting strangely and tailed him back to an overgrown tomb. After their guild spawn-camped him back to level one, the diver gave up the password to enter the tomb.
Inside they found a series of challenges that Spectre threw men at until they learned all the patterns.
Then Spectre went through and aced all the trials, "earning" himself an [Inheritance]. Spectre even earned a feat for being the fifth diver to discover an [Inheritance].
The [Inheritance] changed his character sheet, effectively giving him a class before hitting level ten and choosing one normally. Spectre was confident that his stats and abilities rivaled one of the base classes at level twenty-five or higher.
The [Inheritance] really was that powerful. At a low level, the [Inheritance] was even better than Rydr's [Paragon] passive.
A guild leader's life was luxurious!
"If you're the worst, then someone else has to stand at the summit, don't you think?" Rydr taunted his opponent, relieved that he didn't need to play nice anymore. Blood, already a dull roar, thundered in Rydr's ears as adrenaline fueled his fight or flight reflex.
Rydr was going to fight.
The giant hefted his pickax and prepared to leap at the repugnant guild leader. To his right, Urginok and Syrna's combined efforts killed the surviving goblin, sending some more experience points to Rydr.
Like that was some signal, Rydr leaped forward in the same moment that Spectre...disappeared.
An instant later, Rydr felt a burn across his left thigh.
*-20 HP*
The red number floated above Rydr's head and followed him as he sailed through the air, landing where Spectre stood a moment before.
Rydr whirled around, just in time to see Spectre vanish again.
To Rydr's left, Urginok threw charged in front of the guild's raid team and proceeded to aggro against their team. The maneuver, although suicidal, bottlenecked the raid team at the tunnel's arch.
"Come on, you cheating scumbags, fight someone who actually sweats for their gains!" Urginok roared his challenge in their faces. The shout left him like a tidal wave, the game sending him a notification at the same time.
Syrna circled the chamber to get an angle on the other entrance while Rydr faced the slippery guild leader by himself.
Somehow their fights always broke out into this combo, but it couldn't be helped. Right now, Rydr was the party's big gun.
Is he turning invisible? Rydr's thoughts raced.
While he stood around thinking, another blow landed on Rydr's abdomen, carving another chunk out of his health bar.
*-12 HP*
*448/480 HP*
Spectre's damage seemed to fall off a little, possibly a tradeoff due to whatever ability he was using to vanish. Rydr's HUD flashed every time he suffered damage, but he couldn't keep track of the guild leader.
As Rydr thrashed back and forth, trying to hit Spectre as he passed by him, the giant hit empty air.
Syrna and Urginok managed to keep the raid team trapped in the tunnel, but Urginok's health already dipped below halfway. Whatever damage they dealt to the guild divers was quickly patched up by their attending healer.
What their team didn't know was that Spectre was outside the range of his team's healer. For the moment, his duel with Rydr was truly one on one.
Despite his bravado, this fact made Spectre intensely nervous as he faced the angry giant.
The colossus was forced into the center of the chamber, next to the pile of rubble, wrapping the giant pelt around himself to help defend against the guild leader's attacks.
Little cuts continued to cover Rydr's body. Each one caused around ten points of damage, but Rydr's health was slowly draining.
Death by a thousand cuts in a video game.
One of Rydr's attacks swept through the pile of rubble and scattered it in the air in his frustration. The debris suddenly swept away, along with a shower of tiny damage numbers appearing over Spectre's head.
*-1 HP*
*-3 HP*
The guild leader, in his haste, ran straight through the cloud of rocks Rydr threw in the air. The sleek diver rubbed his face to clear his eyes and took off again just in time to avoid Rydr's wild lunge.
Speed! The sudden damage from the shower of rubble finally let Rydr figure out Spectre's secret. Somehow, the guild leader was ridiculously fast.
All the strength in the world meant nothing if Rydr couldn't land a hit!
Spectre's [Inheritance] granted him a phase-shift ability. At his level, the ability allowed him to take on a shadow-like quality and slip through their air without resistance or sound.
However, it wasn't invincible. Spectre wasn't immune to damage in the shadow form. If Rydr caught him, then the giant would have free reign to kill the guild leader.
But, he's too fast!
Rydr growled in frustration as Spectre got into his pace again, showering Rydr with tiny cuts. Desperate, Rydr forced himself to think.
The giant activated [Berserker's Rage] to boost his Dexterity by another 20%, not bothering to calculate the bonus.
With the addition, Rydr saw the barest hint of Spectre's form as it passed by him. Rydr thanked his stars that Spectre couldn't reach his head. Otherwise, he'd be blinded by his blood.
However, it wasn't enough. Just because Rydr saw his opponent a little didn't suddenly let the colossus keep up with his enemy.
But, since Spectre was fast and not teleporting, Rydr might have an answer.
In a sudden rain of blows, Rydr laid into the air around him. For all the world, it looked like he resorted to flailing to land a hit.
Spectre soon discovered why the giant behaved so strangely. Just after the guild leader sliced through Rydr's side in the middle of one of his passes, he slipped.
Spectre's foot dipped into a hole he failed to notice. Rydr's wild strikes weren't wild at all.
Each one landed precisely on Rydr's target- the floor. The enormous diver pelted the floor with small divets, designed to create little pitfalls and leave debris all around.
*-8 HP*
*-11 HP*
Still, Spectre slid across the floor, nearly into the wall, before he stopped and took off again.
Rydr's mind worked in overdrive, letting his synesthesia loose. The chamber mapped itself inside Rydr's brain while he actively calculated Spectre's mass and momentum.
Unlike before, when Spectre appeared and disappeared, the guild leader melded totally into the shadows as he sprinted around the room.
Even though they were accidents, the giant was getting dangerously close to trumping his speed. Spectre's problem was that speed was all he had right now. The ability heavily nerfed his attack damage in return for a massive increase in his movement speed.
Death by a thousand cuts was the only kind of death Spectre could dish out. The guild leader dearly wished he could kill the giant in a shower of glory, but Rydr was too tall.
All of Rydr's truly vital parts were out of reach, while his nethers were too close to Rydr's flailing limbs to risk targeting.
So their deadly dance continued. Rydr's blood rained on the chamber's stone floor, and he made his way around the room, ignoring Spectre's weak blows.
Rydr methodically followed a schematic inside his head until he stopped, dead-center inside the chamber. The huge diver kicked his way into the pile of rubble, scattering it more evenly through the chamber.
Then the behemoth settled in, closing his eyes, and focused. Inside his mental map, the facsimile of Spectre darted around the chamber, forced to follow the "lanes" that Rydr created.
Each time the diver landed another cut on Rydr's body, he updated his mental model, trying to sync up his calculations to Spectre's real speed.
His goal wasn't to ruin the battlefield so much that Spectre couldn't attack him. Rydr's goal was to restrict him while still giving him the taste of victory.
Spectre needed to believe he was untouchable.
Behind Rydr, Urginok knocked one of the guild divers to the ground, catching them in the throat with the haft of his weapon. The tank fought wind abandon while arrows whistled by him to interrupt guild divers.
Urginok trusted Syrna's skill with the bow enough to believe she would pick her shots. After all, the tank hadn't been shot in the back yet.
He was a hair's breadth from death regardless. Urginok's health hovered around a third. He would have died already if not for Syrna, but Urginok knew the real reason.
Divers didn't have enough ranged abilities yet. The guild's archers couldn't get a clean shot at the tank or into the chamber. The only spells present in the guild's party were two heal spells and a handful of buffs they randomly grabbed from divers that didn't want to be healers.
So the guild's raid team was locked into melee combat before they reached level ten and selected classes for themselves. If the enemy team had access to more spells, Urginok would have died in the battle's opening act.
In the center of the chamber, Rydr was finally ready to spring his trap. The giant's calculations finally synced up with Spectre's extreme speed.
*233/480 HP*
Down left, back up right, across from the right, down back right, and right up the center. Spectre's strafing pattern traced a rough star around Rydr, with the giant in its hexagonal center.
If Rydr was right and the slight displacement in the floor's debris said he was, Spectre's momentum and stride would put his foot right...HERE!
The colossus bore down with his right leg in a massive stomp. While there was nothing there when Rydr launched his attack, a soft, wet crack resounded through Rydr's foot.
Spectre's shin shattered halfway down his leg, trapped under Rydr's barefoot. Even dulled, Spectre cried out in pain as his momentum threw his body forward, ripping his leg free from Rydr's foot.
*FATAL CRIT -90 HP*
Rydr, still baring down on Spectre's leg, barely budged when Spectre's momentum hit his leg and tore through the rest of the guild leader's tendons and fibers.
*-10 HP*
*-10 HP*
*-10 HP*
Spectre cried out again, grabbing at his missing foot even as he dragged himself backward, away from the blood-drenched giant. His ragged stump, barebone, and muscle tissue visible spewed blood explosively as his avatar bled to death.
Rydr's breath came out in ragged gasps as he staggered towards the disabled diver. Sometime during their conflict, the "hood" of the [Alpha's Pelt] flipped up to cover Rydr's head. The rest of the pelt draped across the giant's shoulders and nearly to the floor, like a grotesque cape. Barechested underneath, Rydr's chest steamed where it showed through the cape.
When the giant reached Spectre, the guilder leader flailed at him with his daggers, but he suffered from the same lack of ranged attacks to defend himself. In between Spectre's wild swings, the giant leaped forward and slammed his foot into the guild leader's diaphragm.
Pinned to the floor, Spectre stabbed his daggers into Rydr's leg. Without the proper leverage and against the iron-like slab of muscle under Rydr's skin, Spectre caused nearly no damage.
*-15 HP*
"S... So, you're the same as me then? You take just because you can!" Coughing, Spectre accused Rydr to buy himself time. If his raid team killed Urginok, then his team could sweep in and kill them all.
Despite himself, Rydr responded, "I'm not stealing anything," the giant ground his heel into the guild leader's stomach, "I'm just the first diver to say no." Rydr hefted his pickax and flipped it around, so the chisel-like wide edge faced Spectre.
"With the ability to back it up." Rydr finished and raised his pickax high over his head.
"We will SPAWN CAMP YOU BACK TO LEVEl ON-"
Ignorant of the guild leader's threats, the chisel-head of Rydr pickax fell like a guillotine and crushed Spectre's head in a shower of pixels. The majority of the gore vanished with the light, leaving a bloody dent in the ground as a testament to Spectre's skull getting caved in.
The built-up guilt from their party murdering other divers bit Spectre in the ass as every bit of gear he wore clattered to the ground once his body vanished.