Chapter 38

"Our communications with the Imperial City was cut."

It's been a month since the gates have opened throughout Cyrodiil and thankfully the situation in Horizon stabilized thanks to Max's daily nurturing of players.

He also benefitted a lot from the players getting stronger.

[Name: Maximillian Evander]

[Class: Archer]

[Parameters]

Strength -> D+

Endurance -> D++

Agility -> D++

Mana -> C

Luck -> E

Phantasm -> C+

[Class Skills]

Magic Resistance -> D+

Clairvoyance -> D

[Personal Skills]

Projection -> C+

Mind's Eye (True) -> C

Valor -> C+

[Phantasm]

Unlimited Blade Works -> E ~ A++

Triple-Linked Crane Wings -> C+

He was as strong as a True Champion, and maybe even stronger if we counted his arsenal of different weapons stored in UBW.

After increasing his parameters to an acceptable level, and after the next upgrade became too expensive,

[Saint Graph Rank Up] -> 500.000.000 EXP

He bought as many blueprints as he could. Now, he didn't need to use Caladbolg III as he had the upgraded and a stronger one, Caladbolg II. And myriad of different weapons.

He was feeling somewhat ready for the upcoming crisis.

And the information from Leopold enhanced his thoughts. The news from the Imperial City being cut was a grave situation.

"I'll close the gate here and rush to the Imperial City as soon as I can." He said.

"…" Leopold was silent for a moment, "Be careful." He said with a grave expression on his face.

"I will." Max said with a nod and turned to leave.

Grid was waiting for him at the door.

"Let's go my friend. These are troubled times, we must make haste." He said as he continued walking. "We must close the gates and rush to the Imperial City as soon as we can."

-Are we gonna see what's inside now? Hell yeah!

-Let's gooooo

-Man, I wish he could take me there too

-Maybe he will? He's probably the main NPC for this storyline so he'll probably give us the quest?

-Yeah let's hope so.

The chat in the live stream was in an uproar after hearing that they'll be entering through the gate.

They were all wondering what was inside it but was banned from approaching it.

They could only kill the creatures that passed through it.

***

"My friends, I need your aid. Nay, the whole world needs your aid. The lunatics of the Mythic Dawn Cult are trying to bring the God of Destruction on our plane. We can't let that happen. That's why, we need to close the gate and help our comrades fight the cult. Who is willing to help me?" Max said before the thousands of players as he stood in front of the Oblivion Gate.

A notification appeared before all the players.

[Close the Oblivion Gate]

[Difficulty -> ?]

Description: Enter through the Gate and sever the connection between two planes.

Reward: The rewards will be distributed among the players who partake in the quest.

Note: You have to pay 50 EXP to accept the quest.

'This again?' Grid thought upon seeing the note at the end of the quest panel, but still accepted regardless.

Thousands of players accepted the mission simultaneously. They were eager to find out what was behind the gate and Archer didn't disappoint them. "Thank you my friends. Since you all have such brave hearts, let me lead the w-!" He was about to enter through the gate when he was interrupted by a flying dagger.

Kanshou and Bakuya materialized in his hands on reflex and blocked the dagger.

'What the-?' Max thought as he was pushed back slightly from the force behind the dagger.

*Whoosh*

More daggers flew from the forest with aim of piercing his heart but Max managed to block them barely.

'An assassin, again. This brings out so many bad memories.' Max thought as he gazed upon the forest and tried to find his assailant but it was futile as the daggers always flew out from different directions.

*Clang!*

*Clang!*

The clashing of metals were echoing throughout the forest and the players couldn't understand what was happening.

All they could see was Archer looking around warily and lifting his hand to hit something. Everything else was just blur to them.

The daggers parried by Max always vanished as soon as they were blocked.

The stalemate continued for a while until the daggers stopped and his assailant finally made himself know.

He silently walked out of the bushed. His steps made no sounds.

The assassin had a black cloak all over his body with a skull mask on his face. As if the skull mask wasn't ominous enough, his right arm was abnormally larger than his body and was wrapped in black cloth.

'Geez. Get a girlfriend.' Max thought but he didn't underestimate the assassin, because even though he could see him, he couldn't 'feel' him. It was as if he didn't exist.

"That's badass!"

"That's creepy dude, what are you talking about?"

Meanwhile the players were being themselves. Some thought the assassin looked awesome and some thought he looked creepy.

But Max couldn't care about them as the assassin was on him within the blink of an eye.

'Shi-!' Max thought as he tried to block the daggers in a hurry.

*Clang!*

"Guh!" He was barely able to block the daggers before he was kicked away.

He rolled a few times on the ground before he caught himself and dodged out of the way of a dagger.

The dagger embed itself into the trunk of a tree right next to Max's head.

'This guy is relentless.' Max thought in his head.

Even though his situation didn't look good, he didn't panic and analyzed his situation calmly to find a way out of the situation.

The assassin once again engaged in close combat.

His blows were strong and his movement was fast.

'Gotta wait for an opening.' He thought as he tried to match the assassin blow for blow.

His body started to get covered in wounds but he calmly assessed his situation.

He avoided the ones he couldn't block, and for the ones he couldn't avoid, he took the blow at places that wouldn't impair his movements.

Throughout their exchanges, the assassin didn't even utter a sound. He was like a machine that was programmed to do its job.

Relentlessly trying to kill Max.

The battle wasn't going in his favor and he was aware of it.

Max once again blocked the daggers of the assassin and was kicked away, but this time, he was prepared.

He let go of the twin swords and while on air, another blade materialized in his hand.

"Sit Upon the Frozen Heavens, Hyōrinmaru." With his words, the katana in his hand thrummed in anticipation and the surrounding dropped in degrees.

The assassin noticed the unnatural drop in temperature and rushed in to stop whatever his target was trying to do but he found that his feet was stuck.

"Do you know how much sweat I dropped there? A lot." Max said as a bow and a weapon he had never used before materialized in his hand. "I'm too close for a Caladbolg shot."

It was a pitch-black weapon with a few small edges coiling around the thin core, spiraling around it and somewhat curving outward.

He knocked it on the bow and pulled the string. "Chase, Hrunting." He chanted and let go of the string.

The sword-turned arrow turned into a magical bullet enveloped in red light and shot towards the assassin in a blinding speed.

The assassin saw the projectile and with amazing reflexes, parried it. But another one was upon him without a break.

He parried another red projectile before he was assaulted by another one.

*Clang!*

He parried it too and was thrown away from the force behind the third projectile.

But he couldn't get a moment of rest as a fourth one was just upon him.

This time, he didn't block it and brought his right hand up.

With a perfect angle, the red projectile cut through his wraps and his demon arm was exposed to Max.

'What the fuck is that?' Max thought both in wonderment and disgust.

His arm was twice as long as his body and was stitched to his back.

"…" The assassin didn't utter a word when he forced his arm to rip off his flesh.

It looked very disgusting and horrifying. And that arm was pointed at Max. "My work sculpted with mysterious souls. Overflow with anguish… Zabaniya!" The assassin finally uttered his first words.

Slowly, something started taking shape in the assassin's demon hand.

*Badump*

Max's heart took a skip as he saw the figure slowly materializing in the assassin's hand.

It was a heart.

And it didn't take long to figure out to whom it belonged to.

It was an illusory heart made through magic, but it was connected to Max's heart.

He didn't want to know what'd happen if the fake heart was crushed, so Max fired his last Hrunting with full reinforcement, making it a Broken Phantasm.

*Boom!*

As soon as it was released from the string, with a sonic boom, the red projectile shot for its target.

The other four Hruntings that were fired before also returned and targeted the assassin.

Upon seeing himself in a pincher among five projectiles, and knowing that he couldn't finish his curse in time if he went ahead with it, he opted to retreat.

*Boom!*

The last Hrunting exploded upon making contact with the target.

Smoke filled everyones vision but only one was aware of what was going on.

It was Max.

He swiftly climbed on top of a tree with bow and a Hrunting arrow in his hand as he scrutinized the woods.

"That was the worst option you could've taken." He said as he knocked the Hrunting which was red as blood now on to the bow.

Hrunting, Hound of The Red Plains as it was called, was a superb arrow. (It is a sword.) Once its name was called, it would chase its target even if it was parried, dodged, or blocked.

As long as Max had eyes on the target though.

But, as long as Hrunting tasted the blood, it would find the target no matter what. Even if it chased till the other side of the world.

And in the previous exchange, the assassin took the blow of Broken Hrunting to aid him in his escape.

Hrunting had tasted blood.

"Chase, Hrunting!" Max chanted once again as a red projectile reaching mach 10 shot through the sky like a comet and found its target.

"Ah… The Golden Throne is watching." Was the assassin's last thoughts before Hrunting pierced through his body and left a huge hole in his stomach.

*Boom!*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Phew, barely managed to finish another chapter.

Seriously, I fell like the chapters suck these days. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts.

If you enjoy the story leave a few stones and reviews will ya?