Chapter 45

***updated previous chapter, read the end part***

Seven months ago.

"So why do you risk your life? If you have a wife and kids?" Eliyah asked Maxed as they stood atop a cliff overlooking a blue forest. A refreshing breeze blew as the two conversed.

"Why? I don't know. I just couldn't stand it, y'know, the mundane life I lived in Kasia. That kind of life of working, surviving, without her and my kids."

"So you became adventurous."

"Yeah, I just couldn't live like that anymore, not without them. I wanted excitement and adventure. I guess I could also describe it as my soul secretly wishing for self destruction, making me fight monsters and wander the game."

"So pain drives you."

"Yeah. I thought I could wait it out, until the game was cleared, but the pain wasn't something I could bear. What about you?"

Max asked, turning his head towards Eliyah, who then had shoulder length brown hair. The former had a pained look in his eyes.

"Me? Well, I'm...pretty much the same as you." Eliyah said with a slight smile. It was obviously fake.

***

Stefan floated three meters in the air in front of Max, who looked up at him in confusion.

"So you're the guy. My sister told me you met her."

"Are you the fourth ranked?" Max asked with an open mouth.

"Yeah. My real name is Stefan Zanoza, the Thunder God, as players like to call me." He looked at him without tilting his head down. He had a white cloak and no visible weapon.

"It's an honor to meet you. You guys are incredible." Max said in genuine awe. He barely knew what to say.

"I'm happy to meet you too. I'm on a vacation with my sister for a bit and decided to stop by and check you-"

"Sir, leave the arena field at once or you will be removed by force." The red haired Awakened referee interrupted the two. He floated in the air like Stefan, slowly going towards him.

"Please leave us alone." Stefan said with a slight smile. It was a sociopathic smile void of emotion.

"I will ask one more time." The Awakened said with a clenched fist.

"No, I will not leave." Stefan said. This time, he didn't even make a fake smile.

Six knights approached him from the ground, weapons imbued with aura.

"Okay, then..." The white robed Awakened man said. He burst forward at Stefan to engage him in air. He jumped from the air itself towards the player.

The Thunder God made a motion of his hand that Max couldn't even perceive and the Awakened man was decapitated when he went inside Stefan's range. He fell down into the field, dead instantly.

The knights below froze. They looked at the decapitated body. The head wasn't even anywhere to be found. As if it was erased. Maybe it flew somewhere into the city outside the arena. Or into the crowd.

The booing stadium went quiet. No one moved for a few moments.

The knights dropped their weapons and raised their hands in surrender.

"How'd you even find the Epic boss?" Stedan asked the Max who had a shocked expression.

"Luck and accepting an Awakened NPC's offer in a desert. I accompanied him into his hideout which contained the dungeon."

"Ah. Would you like to come with us? We could use your intelligence in our guild. It surely wasn't mere luck that you accomplished what you did."

"No thanks." Max replied.

Stefan nodded. His expression darkened for a moment.

"Then, Max, I'd like to test you real quick. See what you're made of."

"And if I refuse?" Max frowned.

"You can't. I'll kill you for real."

Max hands were shaking slightly. His heartbeat was so strong he thought he would get a heart attack. What will happen now? He thought.

"You know I can't match you in anything man. Please, just leave me alone." Max said.

"I know. What I'm gonna do is send one lightning strike on you, and if you survive, well, I'll give you something. Gods reward the deserving."

Max was frozen, thinking for a couple moments.

Then a wild idea came to his mind.

"Can you at least tell me when it comes, so I can brace for it, please?"

Stefan laughed a bit and nodded.

He was majestic. Max could recognize that, even as he readied himself for death at his hands. White cape flapping. Classically square face, a jaw that anyone would have envied. Luscious brown hair that went down to his shoulders.

The suns shone behind him. Max stared at the light. That beautiful glow, that powerful something beyond.

There are things greater than him, the Awakened thought. There is life, and love, and the universe itself. Virtual it may be. Max thought as he readied himself for possible death.

The player looked up at him with a defiant look. A murderer outlined in brilliant light. Seen like that, he was just a shadow. Darkness. A nothingness before real power. Max's heartbeat calmed down. He relaxed and took a deep, calming breath.

"I'm hitting you in three...two...", he sighed and put his right hand out.

"One."

A flash of light was accompanied with a boom as lightning struck where Max stood.

Or had stood.

The ground was blackened at the spot where the lightning struck, and Max...

He was next to the blackness. Unharmed and eyes open, staring at the fourth-ranked player.

The levitating Transcendent's eyes showed surprise and his mouth was open.

He fell down and landed on the arena's stone field.

"You...you dodged it?"

Max was silent, hands shaking, his teeth clenched. His pulse was through the roof.

"Ye-"

The Thunder God lunged at Max at sonic speed barehanded, swiping at his head.

Max dodged again.

Then another strike came. Max dodged again, at superhuman, sonic speeds. He moved as much was necessary at that speed, to dodge.

He then dashed away from the Transcendent who walked towards him.

"Please, it's just an ability. It'll-"

Stefan's skin went white, pure white and lightning aura enveloped his whole body. He sent out a lightning strike which Max dodged again at a godly speed and then Stefan bolted towards him, arms extended to grab Max.

Max dodged yet again.

"It's an ability!" Max screamed.

Stefan's eyes were wide and murderous, as if everything that happened in the last ten seconds was an insult to his whole existence. His eyes glowed bright blue.

His skin was pure white with bright sparkly dots all over his visible skin. They looked like stars in the night sky, but on white skin.

He strode towards Max silently, the latter stepping back, trying to create some meaningless distance.

But then, Misa landed between them.

"That's enough Stefan, leave him alone."

Her brother stopped.

Max was breathing rapidly and was shaking.

"What are you?!" Stefan yelled.

"It's an a-ability that makes me dodge all single target attacks for 10 seconds!"

Stefan's skin went to normal again. His aura disappeared.

"No one, not even Priam, the first ranked himself can dodge my lightning. You just fucking did it." He said.

Max's mouth was open and he had a stupid expression on his face.

He heard notification sounds in his mind. They did not open and reveal themselves while in combat.

"Well here, take this."

Stefan threw a potion towards the shaken Max.

"What's this?" He asked Stefan after he barely caught it.

"An Elixir. Increases a random stat by 50 points. A gift from me. I'll see you up there someday." He said as he and his sister flew up and out of the silent arena.

Manuel, Eliyah and Thomas leapt down onto the field after that.