Pinned and Pummeled

The ground trembled as the Freyans emerge from hiding.

With the pitch-black gate shut tightly, Lang and his group were left with no means to escape. Lang and the rest of the members of the Dark Mane Guild froze in confusion. What's going on? Wasn't this area a demon territory? What are these creatures that suddenly appeared before them? They don't even look like demons in the slightest!

Questions flooded their thoughts as they tried to calm down. Even if they were indeed a group of high-level players; facing a thousand monsters with unknown strength and abilities was still something they wouldn't dare to do. Lang couldn't help but look at Jin who seemed to be the guilty orchestrater of the entire ambush. Looking at the crown-like horns on the head of the latter, Lang spoke, "A demon race player? Is that "a thing" on this server? That's... very interesting."

For something so fascinating to suddenly appear before him, the feeling of excitement overwhelmed the feeling of fear within Lang. Unknown to him, he wasn't just facing an interesting player — he was already facing the area boss.

How cruel have fate played along…

Without hesitation, an attack was suddenly initiated by Lang. After all, what good could a level 20 player do against him who was basically a Dark Descent pro? Whatever caused the pesky player to grin so wide, he will remove it in an instant! A set of kunai-like dagger appeared in Lang's palms as he furiously hurled a barrage of said daggers toward Jin.

Paying no attention to the atrocious creatures that appeared before them, Lang and the rest of the group focused each of their attacks on Jin. Lang was now coveting the secrets of acquiring a demon-race character in addition to the unknown class and title. If he were to take down the cocky bastard in one fell swoop— He would then easily "acquire" the knowledge of getting a demon character from the battered player.

Although ignoring the monsters that surrounded them was quite risky, the Dark Mane Guild members easily understood the reason why they focused fire on the lone player. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the demon-looking player was the one who commanded the summoning of the monstrous hoard.

"You've got some flashy tricks up your sleeve, eh? Not bad, not bad..." Lang taunted as he quickly drew closer to Jin. Although he wasn't as fast as the latter, the blades he hurled were enough to deter the speed of the demon player. He couldn't care less about the minions surrounding Jin; if he were to rate them, he would say that they were a little more threatening than human fodders.

… *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

A series of banging noise suddenly echoed, Lang couldn't help but turn around to see what it was. If it were any other noise, like spells being invoked, he wouldn't even pay the slightest attention to it, but the cries that followed made him somewhat curious. Surely those loud booms did not come from spells, but from a blunt force...

"What are you looking for? You weren't chasing after me?" A taunting voice suddenly whispered through Lang's ear. Jin, in a blink of an eye, appeared right next to the bewildered Lang without the latter even him noticing.

Lang, who was in a daze after seeing hundreds of repulsive creatures wildly pummeling the others— members of the Dark Mane Guild who were with him— turned back to see a dazzling greatsword spiraling towards him.

*Shlick*...

…

HP: 4,282 (-218)

['Corruption' effect applied!]

[Will lose 5 HP per second!]

…

Lang fell a few steps back from the momentum carried by the greatsword. A huge gash on his chest became apparent, as blood slowly dripped from it; every drop seemingly carrying a corrosive aura due to the effect of Corruption.

"As to be expected… the demon race is indeed superior! Hahaha... Soon enough, I'll have my hands on it! I want it!... Give it to me!" Lang maniacally laughed. Instead of worrying about his injury, he was praising Jin's power instead. An ecstatic expression drooled off his lethargic face. Indeed, the racial feature of a Void Walker was as devilish as one could even imagine. Albeit humanoid, its languid look made Lang appear creepier even by the standards of the most atrocious person from the Freya race.

Although Jin was caught off guard by Lang's sudden elated expression and was frozen in place by the latter's sudden creepiness, the demonic sword Seyna did not stop in its pursuit as it, once again, charge towards Lang in blinding speeds.

"Come on now… are you looking down on me, little demon? You might have landed an attack, but your tricks won't work on me repeatedly." Lang mocked, as he activated his racial ability. His character suddenly became mirage-like; it was as if his body was glitching in and out of the void, unaffected by external factors…

*Shlick!*

...Unfortunately, his racial skill wasn't all that effective against the buffed Seyna. If it were the demonic sword without the added passive effects, then a Void Walker's racial ability would've proven sufficiently effective. Alas… it wasn't.

— *Shlick!*... *Shlick!*... "Shlick!*

['Corruption' effect applied!]

[Will lose 5 HP per second!]

…

['Corruption' effect applied!]

[Will lose 10 HP per second!]

…

With Seyna having double passives, including 'Blinding Hit', it was improbable for any of its attacks to miss…

Lang's ecstatic expression gradually dissipated, as his attempts to avoid the demonic sword failed every single time. The greatsword was simply too fast! Even his blades, boosted by his racial skill, couldn't intercept a single attack from the demonic sword— it was as if the weapon could weave into a different dimension deeper than the void; no matter which skill Lang used, he couldn't do a thing against the inevitable attacks coming from the frenzied weapon.

Black flames caused by the stacking effect of Corruption started burning from the wounds all over Lang's body. Even though it was quite impossible for Jin to have Lang ran out of mana, it was definitely probable— even easier— for his HP, which was quite low, to begin with, dissipate as quickly as Lang could invoke an edge tampering spell.

---

If it wasn't because they were strong and skilled in the first place, the members of the Dark Mane Guild might have been wiped clean within the first few minutes of the battle. In such a terrifying situation, however, they would have wished they were dead. Even if the game's pain simulation had been toned down to barely 20 percent; bleeding to death was not something one could easily suffer through.

If it were simply one Dark Mane member against 20 Freyans, the fight would have been one-sided, favoring the player. As a matter of fact, one LV 60+ player could wipe a hoard of LV 20 and above monsters on his own. The current situation, however, was terribly different— The monsters that they were fighting against were… organized. On top that, there were a thousand of them!

Clubs swinging left, right and center, followed by a volley of paralyzing spells, left no room for the group to breathe. Hell, even if they tried to swing their weapons, they couldn't swing at all! Not even once! They couldn't even blink, as large wooden clubs would immediately pummel them to the ground the moment they tried to stand up!

The eighteen members had overwhelming odds against them… and that alone, pinned them to the ground with no choice but to accept the fate that they walked into.

Who could've guessed that a mere LV 20 player, basically, have an army of strong and terrifying creatures? Not them, that's for sure.