A Huge Problem

Small cuts and bruises lined Arora's face. Her health bar was now steadily hanging within the yellow zone. Both her arms and feet had also been restrained as she laid uncomfortably in a small cave surrounded by two of her kidnappers.

Arora felt even worse than pathetic. She had allowed herself to be easily kidnapped, proving to be a massive burden to Shade.

"We need to kill that guy!" Argued one of the players. He had dark brown hair which was tied back in a ponytail and dark blue eyes. "He'll be a massive pain if we meet up with him on the next stage!"

"I'm telling you that we should just kill the girl and get out of here, Lax! The chances of us meeting up with him at the next stage aren't that great! It was a dumb idea to take the girl hostage in the first place!" Argued another with bright blue eyes and cocoa brown hair.

"But that bastard killed, Michael!! We have to get our revenge! That's why we need this girl as bait. When he comes to rescue her, we'll have our archer, Mason, shoot him with a poisoned arrow. Once he's weakened, we will all attack and kill him!"

Arora felt like crying. She highly doubted that Shade would come for her. She knew she was more of a burden to him than anything else. Why would he come to rescue someone who had held him back for so long? Her kidnappers had done him a favor by taking her off his hands.

"Hey, you bit*h!" Shouted the leader, Lax. "It's already been four hours since we've taken you! Why the hell hasn't your friend come?!"

"I-I don't know..." Whimpered Arora.

"Damn you little whore! If he doesn't show in the next twenty minutes then we're gonna be forced to kill you! You've been completely useless!!"

Arora's eyes were soaked with tears. She had been continually abused by her kidnappers over the past few hours. They wanted her to give them information on Shade but she had remained tight-lipped. This was the only thing that she could do.

"She's kinda hot though. Before we kill her, we should probably have some fun!" Laughed Lax's subordinate.

"Heh- She might be worn out. Just look at her! She's beautiful but otherwise, she's completely useless! She has to be the concubine of that guy she was with!" Supported Lax.

"Haha!! You're probably right!"

Just then, they were interrupted by footsteps coming from behind them. Both Lax and his subordinate turned around to see Shade walking through the cave entrance towards them. This had caught them completely off-guard.

"What the hell?! What is he doing here?!! Mason was supposed to contact us as soon as he saw him then shoot him with that damned poisoned arrow!!" Cursed Lax.

Shade then calmly threw down the head of Mason and an arrow that was dripping with green liquid before them. They immediately realized that Shade had beheaded their comrade.

"You son of a bit*h!!! How did you figure out our plan?!!!" Screamed Lax angrily.

"It was quite obvious that you wanted me to follow you so that you could lower me into a trap. You purposely left your tracks in the mud so that I would find where you had taken Arora. But you made one mistake. I noticed that the tracks you left split into two groups. A set of tracks went up onto the higher ground as if to hide in the bushes. Given that I was already aware that you had an archer on your team, it was only common sense that I'd notice you were trying to snipe me. In short, you're not too bright."

Lax hissed with rage. Their plan had failed and they were now in serious trouble. However, Lax soon came to notice that his subordinate was trembling in fear.

"Why are you shaking like a sissy? Don't lose hope! We can still beat this guy!" He encouraged.

"I get it now! He's the Head Reaper the rumors have been talking about! He has to be! Why else would he be so strong?! He even cut Mason's head off!!!"

"What?! The Head Reaper..? That's not possible!"

Shade then withdrew his sword as he slowly approached them. Both Lax and his subordinate slowly backed away in fear. They knew that there was no way that they could defeat him.

However, just then, a massive tremor shook the entire cave like an earthquake. This caused Shade to lose his balance momentarily. On the other hand, Lax and his subordinate had managed to keep their balance due to supporting one another.

Taking advantage of this, Lax ran towards Shade with a small knife before slashing at his throat. Shade, however, managed to jump backward, barely dodging the attack. This was when he noticed that Lax had a wide grin across his face.

"Perfect! I don't know what that tremor just now was but it worked in our favor!"

"Damn right, Lax! We have a chance after all!" Supported his subordinate.

For a moment, Shade was confused. He didn't understand what they were laughing about. This was until he noticed something quite problematic. There was an icon that resembled a green skull just underneath his health bar. He had suffered a slight cut across his left cheek from Lax's blade. It had unfortunately been coated in poison.

Shade's body immediately felt weak. He staggered to his knees as his health bar steadily declined. The poison was quite strong. He needed an antidote quickly.

"Don't waste your time," began Lax. "This is a special poison! We got it after we ambushed another team and killed one of their members. It's slow-acting and only kills you after 48 hours. However, it makes your body so weak that you probably won't even be able to walk properly! And the best part is, regular antidotes can't cure it!!"

Shade hissed. This was a very unprecedented situation. He could barely stand, much less fight. He was in serious trouble.

Slowly, both Lax and his subordinate then proceeded towards Shade. They lifted their blades above their heads with hefty grins across their faces. It was time to kill a weakened Shade.

"SHADE!!!!" Screamed Arora in horror.

"This is for our dead teammates!!" Shouted Lax.

Just then, before Lax could end Shade's life, the entrance to the cave exploded like a bomb. Debris and dust flew in all directions as the cave shook violently.

To everyone's ugly surprise, a massive bear with white fur now stood over them. It then gave a mighty roar, threatening to drive them deaf. Slowly, two health bars alongside the name, 'The White Claw' appeared above its head. It was the field boss.