So I’m the Damsel In Distress Now?

[Requirements met, Counter Sense activated]

The fiery breath of the Red Dragon is then deflected by Kyle's daggers as his skill activates, sending the beam of fire back to the dragon, burning a portion of its body.

The dragon growls in pain upon receiving the attack that Kyle deflected to him.

And the hope of victory tainted Kyle's mind, but a problem now arises.

Not everything he thought would go as he expects it to be and not everything can be ended by just a mere skill, especially if it is something that is beyond one's capability and in this case, beyond one's level.

Kyle is stunned after seeing that he didn't knock the dragon down and is still hovering above him, he expects it to be the same as that when he is in the tutorial stage of the game where the skill instantly eliminates his opponent.

But he did notice a huge amount of damage on its HP gauge yet it is not enough and he still has a long way to go if he wants to defeat it.

Sweating due to the heavy tension that he feels inside him and also because his horizon is now filled by raging flames adding up the molten rocks flowing like water on the ground because of the recent attack of the Red Dragon, Kyle is now trapped in one place and has nowhere else to run to.

The whole area that he knew as a place filled with bouncing slimes is now covered in red-hot flames and the trees around making it as a forest are now turned to cinders.

'This is hell.' He thought and began scanning as fast as he can for a possible place to escape the beast which is a pointless act indeed.

Nowhere to run, Kyle thought of another way to prevent his demise and remembered the item that Carol gave him a moment ago before she left.

'The Town Return Scroll!' He realized and immediately opens his inventory to search for it.

After successfully finding the scroll in his inventory, a thought enters his mind as he is about to use the scroll and flee to safety.

But Kyle immediately flushed away from the thought and refocused his mind on what is in front of him.

'No, this is the right thing to do now. I need to escape and find someone who can defeat the dragon!.' He said to himself and is about to press the item and use it in his inventory, when suddenly, a voice echoes around piercing through his ears, a voice that he is familiar with, a voice that he regrets hearing again.

"Excuses…"

"Are you going to run away again?" The voice from someone added, questioning Kyle, forcing him to look around so that he can find where the voice came from and to find the person who owns that voice which he is very accustomed to.

And then, there is a sudden pause, everything stopped, the raging flames, the flowing lava, and even the Red Dragon stops in mid-air, a view that is usually seen when a movie is paused by the viewers, everything stayed still except for Kyle that can still move around freely as if nothing happened.

"Where are you?!" Kyle shouted while still scanning around the place looking for that person.

"Are you saving just yourself… again?" the voice questioned Kyle which sounded more like a provocation.

"No, it's… it's the right thing to do now! I… I can't defeat it, not in my current state." Kyle answered the voice referring to the level gap he and the dragon has.

And another question came out from the said voice.

"I thought you are done running?"

"Yes, yes I am! I'm not running away, it is the best thing to do right now! I already gave my all, but it's not working!"

"But I guess you're not." It answers him back.

"I do! The dragon is just beyond my league, I can't deal enough damage even with my best skill!"

Then there is a moment of silence before the voice answers back to Kyle.

"Coward…"

After that conversation he had with the familiar voice, the surroundings return back to normal and everything began moving again.

Kyle wonders what happened and impulsively searches around him, wondering why the voice suddenly stops.

But before he could grasp the time to search, the Red dragon initiated another attack on Kyle.

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

Realizing it, Kyle rescans the place if he has anywhere else to go, but luck is not on his side this time, the only place left that he can step on is the very same place he is currently standing right now while the rest of the place is covered in burning lava.

'Nowhere else to go.' He thought and stares down at his daggers.

Looking at his daggers an idea came into Kyle's mind.

Searching for a perfect spot to initiate the idea in his mind, Kyle looked left and right and found a tree that is still standing, yet, is on the verge of being engulfed by the scorching flames.

[Red Dragon activated "Dragon's Rage"]

Another devastating fire came out from the dragon's mouth but a scale lower than the "Macro Fire" he used and it is going straight towards Kyle.

Kyle flings the dagger towards the tree, piercing the dagger on the tree's trunk, and before the tip of the fire reaches Kyle, he used his skill "Dagger Blink" to transfer himself to the tree.

Hanging and was able to escape the dragon's fierce breath, Kyle again looked for another possible transfer spot until he could improvise a plan to defeat the dragon.

This means that right now, he is running, but not in a cowardly way, but rather in a tactical repositioning way.

In his search, Kyle found an elevated part in the forest that is around twelve feet high above the ground he is standing earlier and is just a few steps away from the tree he is hanging and threw his dagger in the direction where the cliff is.

Landing on the cliff, Kyle can now entirely see how large the area of effect of "Macro Fire" and how devastating the damage on his surrounding is.

Kyle could only gulp down his saliva on the view that can be compared to hell rising on the surface of the earth.

'They should call this one as "Hell Rising Dragon" than as a "Red Dragon" with all these flames around.' He thought while taking a quick look at the AOE the dragon can inflict.

The dragon stops hovering and went down the burning land. As the dragon lands on the ground, the flames around the dragon began on gathering on the spot where he received the return damage inflicted by Kyle.

The flame slowly covers the burned part while the dragon's HP slowly regenerates as he is being covered in flames.

'A self-regeneration ability?! This is bad!' Kyle thought, knowing that if the dragon has such a skill, then to actually defeat it, he needs to continuously land an attack to prevent it from regenerating.

Then there is this other problem, aside from its strong attacking abilities and regeneration capability, the dragon seems to have an ironclad defense for physical attacks.

With all the thoughts combined in his mind, Kyle didn't notice that there is a system message on his screen. The moment he realized it the Red Dragon is now hovering up on the cliff, leveling his view to where Kyle is standing.

Now the dragon and Kyle are faced to faced while having deep eye contact with one another.

Its diamond-shaped pupils staring at Kyle.

As Kyle stares back at it, the mesmerizing abyss engulfed with the essence of destruction reflects from the windows of its soul.

And a loud roar raging like thunders follows.

Petrified by the act of the dragon, Kyle could only cover his eyes with his arms due to the strong wind charging towards him alongside the deafening roar of the dragon.

And a strong flap of its wings blew Kyle away, tossing him away to a huge boulder.

As his body hits the surface, the agonizing pain of being tossed around and slammed on a hard corner runs throughout his whole body. Twitching due to his body ache, Kyle wonders why he felt such torment and immediately opens his setting to find out if there is something wrong with the "Pain Receptor" of the Full Dive Gear as he lies on the ground.

Opening the settings, he found out that there is nothing wrong with it and the pain receptor is still on the lower end of zero, making him wonder even more.

'I didn't receive critical damage but why do I feel such pain? As if I was hit by a car in full speed.' He thought theoretically, as he compares the pain he received from that of being run by a vehicle.

But still, a question lies in his mind, why would he felt such pain when it is not critical damage, and what is more, even if it is, he already set the pain receptor to zero to prevent it from sending pain signals to his brain.

'Why would a game company even place a feature where players feel actual pain? Even if they say it's for the sake of having a realistic feel, it is very wrong for a game that involves fighting monsters!' he complained yet even if he does complain the whole day, he knows that it is useless since it is already added in the game features.

So instead of pouting about something that can't be helped, he refocused himself on what he can still accomplish even if it has almost zero possibilities, and that is to defeat the dragon.

Kyle then pushes his body using both his hands away from the ground where he is lying and leans himself on the boulder.

As Kyle leans on the boulder behind him, he can clearly see the dragon waiting still for him to bounce back.

'What are you looking at?' he thought, annoyed by the fact that the dragon seems to be toying him.

Kyle picks his dagger on the ground and flings it towards the dragon, but at the time the dagger reaches the dragon's scaly skin, it is deflected and it falls down the cliff to the lake of lava below.

A message then appears on Kyle's screen, stating the status of the dagger he threw.

[Titanium daggers Destroyed]

"Damn, my only weapon now destroyed."

After that, the dragon began growling that sounded like a burst of laughter upon seeing Kyle's weapon meltdown on the lava with its mouth forming a crescent as if it is showing a grin.

"Did you just laughed at me you giant lizard?!" Kyle shouted in anger at what he just heard from the dragon then leans the back of his head to the boulder where he is currently inclined.

Having no weapon to use against the dragon, Kyle is now waiting for either help from someone or the end of the event.

He checks the even time remaining and it is still an hour and a half so he crushed out the idea of waiting for the end of the event because before that happens, he is the one who is going to end first.

'So it's either a help comes or goodbye me and hello death penalty of one hour and a thirty percent EXP deduction.' Kyle thought as he thinks about a forced logout and an hour of being unable to log in to the game with a matching EXP deduction.

And the worst scenario happened to Kyle.

[Warning! Red Dragon is about to use "Dragon's Rage"]

'Ahhh, so my end comes first.' He thought as Kyle reads the notification on his screen

[Red Dragon activated "Dragon's Rage"]

The fiery breath of the Red Dragon charging towards him in full speed as the blinding light coming from it forces Kyle to cover his eyes with his hand as he waits for the attack to reach him.

Accepting his fate of being eliminated for the first time in the game, Kyle closes his eyes and waits to be forced out of the game, back to the main menu, and return to reality.

A few seconds have passed and there are still no warnings of him having a critical HP level, then it turns to a minute then another minute has passed, and still nothing.

Wondering what is happening, Kyle slowly opens his eyes and saw something in front of the blinding light of the dragon's fire, a silhouette of a person standing right before him and taking all the damage of the Dragon's Rage.

'My hero! Don't expect me to say that dude.' He thought, yet still glad that someone did come for his rescue.

Kyle noticed another system notification on his screen stating something about a party member using a skill.

[A party member uses "Art of Defense"]

'Oh… so this person is in my party. That's very kind of him to come all this way, oh wait… the town is just right next door, he might have noticed something flashy is going on here.'

"Are you just gonna sit there and watch?!" The silhouette exclaimed, noticing that Kyle seems to be just waiting there instead of offering some help.

Hearing it, Kyle snaps out of his thoughts and immediately stands up yet too disoriented on what to exactly do at this very moment.

But there is something more about this encounter of Kyle and his savior that has the obsession for dramatic entrances.

Kyle knows exactly from who that voice belongs and slowly walks closer towards the person who blocks the attack for him.

Seeing the image clearly, Kyle almost dropped his jaw. Good thing that he is currently holding his chin to prevent it.

'The pink hair and that exact color of eyeglasses frame.' Kyle thought as he stares from behind the person who saved him.

"E-Emily!?"