A hopeless bout with the Red Dragon... or so I think.

A hovering dragon, waiting for them to make a move while down below the hovering beast is a pair of helpless players waiting for their damnation with its fiery breath that pars the melting flames of hell.

Kyle stares at the beast wondering how an overpowered monster appears in a town event in a starting town for newbie players.

'This game is really broken.' He thought as he analyzes the situation they are in.

Most likely a monster around this level should be appearing where high leveled players gather and not to a start town where players from the low level of forty and below flocks in.

The dragon began attacking Kyle by throwing them huge fireballs coming from its mouth.

The two seeing it dodged the incoming fireballs.

It is easy for Kyle to dodge it since he has very high mobility in combat, but it is not the same for Carol.

As a class that is known for frontal attacks, Carol has a lower mobility rate compared to Kyle and was hit by the fireball on one of her legs.

Seeing Carol knocked on the ground, Kyle rushed towards her.

"Are you okay?!" Kyle said as he helped her stand up.

"Yeah, just a minor scratch." Said Carol

But on the verge of completely standing up, Carol suddenly tripped down again and immediately turns her attention to the leg that was hit by the fireball.

Kyle on the other hand scans Carol's HP gauge on his screen and saw the massive amount of damage it dealt her.

'Almost one-third of her HP was taken!' He thought and immediately asked Carol her current level so that he can calculate the expected level of difficulty of the Red Dragon.

"Hey Carol, what is your current level?" Kyle asked Carol that is still regenerating herself with the help of a potion.

"I'm currently at level 68." She answered.

"And the two that got eliminated?"

"The both of them are around level 55 and above." Carl added.

"And the name color of the dragon to you, is it in red?" Kyle said, inquiring Carol if the level of the dragon is around her level.

"No… it is still orange." She answered.

And a moment of silence hits the place along with a petrifying realization on Kyle.

'Still at orange?! Then this dragon is around the level difficulty of 70 and up!' Kyle thought while looking at the dragon and the impossibility of them finishing the event quest, making him click his tongue due to disappointment.

The field around Kyle and Carol is badly damaged and from the looks of it, the three really gave their all while fighting the beast. Yet, the damage on the dragon's HP gauge is on the minimal scale; more or less, it looks like a scratch rather than the damage dealt by the three.

Carol stands up from where she is and walks closer to Kyle's side after using another HP potion and fully regenerates her health gauge again.

"Can we actually defeat this?" Kyle asked Carol that in now standing on his side.

"I think we can in the long run." She answered.

'Well, sure… maybe after spending a truck of potions and sacrificing more level 50 and above players, of course! Yeah right!' Kyle sarcastically thought but has no guts to say it aloud.

"You want me to believe that?" Kyle said instead on what he truly thinks in his mind.

Kyle already calculated the possibility of them defeating the dragon and it is in the range of zero to negative scale.

"Of course, this game is more on how you believe in yourself rather than the statistic given by the items and classes! As long as you work hard and persevere on your craft then one day you can even split mountain!" She said with full of determination as she utters every word like a politician convincing the masses to vote for her.

'Yeah as if.'

"Well… in my language, we call it "Naïve." This is a game bruh! Everything is calculated based on numbers and statistics of equipment and damage dealing capacity." Kyle said with no intention in believing her words.

But their talk ended when a system notification appears on each of their screens.

[Warning, The Red Dragon is preparing to use "Dragon's Rage"]

Reading the notification, Carol immediately drags Kyle by the wrist and pulls him down on a near crater that was created by their fierce battle with the dragon along with her two co-guild members a while ago and hides in there.

[Red Dragon activated "Dragon's Rage"]

After a few seconds, a strong devastating fire coming out from the dragon's mouth washed the whole area in scorching flames.

While in the crater, Kyle and Carol could still feel the heat coming from the flames as the rim of the crater where they are hiding starts to melt, turning into lava.

They crawl deeper inside the crater as the molten rocks begin flowing down slowly to them.

"You should watch yourself from getting caught by the lava or by the flames because they leave a burning effect and inflicts damage to you overtime." Carol said, giving Kyle a warning about what is going to happen to him if he is caught by the fire.

"And if I get hit directly?" He asked, wondering what will happen to him if he gets a direct fire-breathe attack from the dragon.

"Well in your current level, you won't survive…" She said.

'Knew it…' Kyle thought with a hopeless look on his face.

"…But if you have a high damage tolerance or you are around my level you will survive after an attack but it will still leave a burning effect on you so…" she continued and Kyle interrupts her because of the painful fact that he is somehow a deadweight for Carol just by being there.

"Okay I get…" he said while facing his palm near Carol's face ordering her to stop talking and telling him the sad truth that any minute now, they will get eliminated.

The attack stopped after a minute of squirting fire to the ground courtesy of the Red Dragon. Kyle took a glimpse on the ground above the crater where they are hiding.

As he slowly elevates his head up to the surface, he saw the ground scorched and the woods and trees on the place are completely charred due to the recent attack.

'I'll always remember to not let a dragon do your barbeque even if you get free flames out from it.'

But Kyle forgot that the rim of the crater is still hot as hell and touched it accidentally, burning his hand a bit.

"Ouch!" he said as he looks at the hand of his that got burned.

'Magic damage?' he thought as a purple damage indicator appears on the palm of his hand and continuously deals damage to him.

'Wait, did I just felt a burning pain? For real?'

"You got caught?" Carol said wondering why he suddenly screamed.

"No, I accidentally touched the molten rocks on the rim." He answered and slides back down to the crater.

Kyle then checks the remaining time of the event and a sigh came out of him.

'Only an hour and a few minutes have been consumed by this event yet it feels like it has been an eternity.'

Then Kyle noticed Carol cramp herself together as she hugs her legs while sitting on the ground.

"Are you crying?" Kyle said

"Of course not, I'm thinking." She answered

But before Carol could even use a single neuron from her brain, the two heard a flapping sound along with a strong wind blowing the roasted dust on the ground.

The red dragon began moving and is now in search of the two who intrude on his territory.

[Warning, The Red Dragon is preparing to use "Macro Fire"]

A notification appears on their screens telling them that the dragon is about to use another skill. Kyle waits for whatever Carol's reaction will be since he doesn't know what it is but a few seconds had passed yet Carol stays still at her position.

Kyle took a quick glimpse again on the surface and saw the red dragon flying above them while stretching its mouth open.

A bright light can be seen in glowing in its throat.

Stunned from what he sees, Kyle stares at the dragon, bewildered by its great form that is both beautiful and terrifying.

'From the looks of it, it is something similar to an ultimate.' He thought as he can feel a great pressure just by looking at the dragon while charging his attack, he knows that if they get hit by it, then it is game over for them, he can feel it in his guts.

"Uhm, Carol… aren't we supposed to be running by now?"

But Carol didn't answer Kyle; hence, she just looked at the dragon as it prepares for its attack and after a while, answers Kyle with something he didn't expect to come from her.

"No, we can't run away from that." She said with a somehow sad face on her.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Kyle asked why she would say something as absurd as that and Carol answers him immediately.

"Macro Fire is the final attack of the Ruby Dragon, a dungeon boss in Lorencia that high-level players until now couldn't defeat…" Carol said, stunning Kyle from her revelation.

"…Because it deals pure magic damage and has a very wide AOE, no equipment available in this game has enough tolerance for it nor you can even escape from it." She added.

And Kyle remembers when he was in the blacksmith introduction quest.

The Blacksmith told him that all equipment has a physical defense but only a selected few has both magic and physical defense with them and it is considered as a rare kind of equipment and even if a player gets a hand on it, the magic defense it gives is only on the minimal side and couldn't protect the player thoroughly.

And worst even if there is an item with high magic damage tolerance it is still pure damage so the incoming attack will ignore the defense of the items, still making it useless.

'Pure magic damage huh? Looks like I can declare this as a "nice try, good game." Then.' He thought, remembering the term a player use when he is about to lose in a battle game.

Kyle went blank and the word Carol said keeps on running in his mind.

'Damn this, it is so unfair to place this kind of mob in a place like this that has pure magic damage, it is so unbalanced! They don't even sell enough equipment for magic defense yet they make monsters like this who can inflict magic damage, and it's a "Pure Magic Damage" to make things worse!'

'Pure magic damage… Pure… magic… damage…'

'Pure… Damage?'

And an exclamation mark inside Kyle's mind appears along with an idea in his mind that could possibly help in the situation in a way that he hopes it to be, probably.

"Carol, since I think it has a long charging time, can you go away as far as you can?"

Hearing his words, Carol wonders what Kyle meant by it and asked him an inquiry.

"Yes, I can use a town return scroll, but… why did you ask?" She said.

"I will be conducting an experiment." Kyle replied Carol with confidence and a hint of doubt on his face.

But before Carol leaves, she conducted a trade first with Kyle.

"And… why are we trading right now instead of you going back in town?" Kyle asked, wondering why they trade instead.

"I'm giving you this." Carol said and placed a town return scroll on the trade window then closed the trade.

"In case your "experiment" failed, use it immediately." She added.

Then after her words, Carol used the TRS and returned to her saved town.

Kyle, while watching Carol pixelates and disappears completely from his sight, Kyle then refocused his attention on the Red Dragon hovering above him.

Kyle pulls out his daggers while marching forward closer to the dragon as it nearly completes its charging.

'If this fails, I won't even have the time to use this town return scroll.'

[Warning!!! Red Dragon will activate Macro Fire in…]

[5]

'A count down?!'

[4]

'So it means the attack gives an ample time for the players to make an escape or attack it non-stop since it is defenseless when charging up!'

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Red Dragon activated Marco Fire]

After the count down, the Red Dragon discharged a massive amount of fire mixed with molten rocks in a 360 degrees area while hovering above.

Kyle received the attack and the damage he received is also in a massive scale, draining his HP gauge continuously as if someone poked a hole on his HP gauge and the red liquid is flowing out nonstop.

[Warning HP level critical!]

[Please use an HP potion in your inventory]

[Warning HP level critical!]

[Warning!]

[Warning!]

[System Notification: Requirements met, passive skill [Counter Sense] activate]

And a ray of hope shone on Kyle's face.

'Gotcha now, Red Dragon-san.'