The Heart

"W-what should we do?" A person asked. He wasn't sure whether these were the same players, and they were just mind-controlled. Therefore, he wasn't sure whether they should be attacking them.

"Attack, haha!" Ramon laughed and slashed through one of the players' throats.

As he grinned, thinking that was already one kill, the wound on the throat mystically healed.

"Eh?"

The player growled like a wild animal, grabbed Ramon by his throat, and threw him with unimaginable strength across the room.

Ramon crashed into one of the pillars, leaving it slightly cracked, and fell to the ground with stinging pain.

Ptui—he spat blood off his mouth and saw that his health had received a dent.

[Ramon - HP: 28/50]

"Tch..." Ramon took out a few breads from his inventory and ate them greedily. His health started to slowly rise.

Parrish danced like a boxer around the female player, whose eyes looked hollow and lifeless. He then delivered quick jabs and powerful punches, breaking her nose and jaw.

However, all her wounds mystically recovered, and with a low growl, she lunged at Parrish and tackled him to the ground. She revealed her rotting teeth and bit down on his neck.

"Ugh, shouldn't we go on a date first?" Parrish laughed, grabbed her by the back of her neck, and tossed her off him.

However, she took a big bite of his flesh with her, munching on it like a delicious dish.

"Shit..." Parrish climbed back to his feet and saw his health take a hit.

[Parrish - HP: 25/50]

At that moment, Hannibal appeared behind the female player and chopped off her arm.

As the arm landed on the ground, tendrils grew out of its stump and reconnected with the female player's shoulder. She looked as good as new, once again.

"Damn, can these things even be killed?" Hannibal thought out loud with a chuckle.

The female player growled and lunged after Hannibal, who quickly docked out of the way and slashed through her abdomen. However, that wound also healed within seconds.

Donald, Niko, and Luke attacked a player whose face looked angry and launched their attacks. They managed to deal with lots of wounds on its body, but every wound healed mysteriously.

A small distance away, Samuel and Fama worked together against the blond-haired player, whose face was pale and lifeless. They managed to hack down its legs, but they grew back almost immediately.

A short distance away, Ramon faced the well-toned player, who managed to throw him effortlessly across the room.

But then a sword pierced through the well-toned player's chest. As he turned around to see who stabbed him, he saw pale-faced Seth holding his steel shortsword.

The well-toned player growled and slapped Seth away, as if he were swatting a fly.

Seth rolled on the ground with a bloodied face, but he managed to keep hold of his steel shortsword, as if he were clinging to it like his life depended on it.

"Fuck off, brat!" Ramon shouted, not caring whether Seth could hear him or not. "This is my prey!"

He hacked down his machete, cutting deep into the well-toned player's shoulder, causing a gush of blood to spill out. However, the player didn't seem faced and punched Ramon in the face, sending him stumbling backward.

The well-toned player then pulled the machete from his shoulder and hurled it back at Ramon.

Ramon's eyes widened, and he quickly rolled out of the way—the machete landed on the ground, right beside him. It was inches away from impaling his leg.

"Ptui!" Ramon held his nose, spat out the blood from his mouth, and picked up his machete again.

[Ramon - HP: 21/50]

After eating the bread, he managed to get his health to 35, but with that single punch, he lost 14 valuable health points.

At that moment, every player heard loud clanking noises, and for some reason, the players who got sacrificed stopped momentarily before screaming angrily. Then, they all turned towards the magic circle.

They all saw Adam destroying the magic circle with his pitchfork.

"What the hell is he doing?" Ramon asked with a frown, but then the well-toned player in front of him started running towards Adam like a possessed demon.

Crack—Adam managed to create a big enough crack for the magic circle to be broken. It wasn't able to accept sacrifices anymore.

Through the crack in the ground, Adam could see a large, beating heart pulsating with great intensity.

As he was about to throw the pitchfork at the heart, all the possessed players lunged at him simultaneously, like a horde of zombies.

"Not that easy, huh..." Adam quickly blocked the punch from the well-toned player with his shield and dodged the kick from the female player.

As he backed off, the blond-haired player screamed loudly and lunged at him with his mouth wide open.

Adam dodged it seemingly effortlessly, but his footwork looked fluid, as if he had done the same motion thousands of times before. He then swung his pitchfork, separating the blond-haired player's head from the rest of its body.

All the players, who weren't possessed, expected the head to reconnect, as did the rest of the limbs before.

However, to their shock, the blond-haired player became nothing but a pool of blood on the ground—he died somehow!

"H-how!" Donald exclaimed in shock.

'The magic circle was the reason for their regeneration.' Adam thought and quickly dodged the attacks from other possessed players.

"What the hell did this guy do?" Ramon zoomed forward and hacked off the female player's head, killing her instantly.

As she also became nothing but a pool of blood, everyone's eyes gleamed with greed. Somehow, they were now able to kill them.

They instantly ran forward towards the last two remaining possessed players and quickly overwhelmed them. They didn't care if they hit their allies; as long as they got the final hit, they expected them to be the bosses.

However, while they were occupied, Adam approached the crack on the floor with the pitchfork in hand.

At that moment, Ramon, Parrish, and Hannibal approached him with deadly intentions.

"Well, well, what are you planning?" Ramon asked with a laugh and swung his machete at Adam.

Adam quickly blocked the machete with his shield but let out a loud groan as the force of the blow sent him sliding backward.

Hannibal looked through the crack, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Yo, there is some kind of fucking heart in there!"

"Ohoh." Ramon looked at Adam with a grin. "I wonder who told you about that, huh?"

A distance away, Seth's eyes widened in surprise while he was cleaning the blood off his face.

'My brother didn't mention that. Wait, was he not part of the boss fight? D-did he wait for others to kill the boss for him?'

"A heart?" Donald's eyes narrowed with greed as he finished killing the last remaining possessed player.

Everyone gathered around the crack and looked at each other with narrowed gazes—the heart was completely defenseless, and it looked like an easy kill.

However, who would be able to get the last hit?

"Argh!" Adam lunged forward and tackled Hannibal with his shield, sending him tumbling to the ground.

"You bastard!" Ramon screamed.

As Parrish threw a punch at Adam, he quickly blocked it with his shield and plunged the pitchfork deep inside Parrish's gut.

"Ugh!" Parrish coughed up blood and saw his health fall dangerously low.

[Parrish - HP: 2/50]

"R-Ramon, quick!" Parrish screamed.

Ramon hacked the machete down at Adam, but he quickly blocked it with the shield and slammed his foot deep inside his gut.

"Ugh!" Ramon stumbled down to the ground with a loud groan—he felt like all the wind was knocked out of his body.

Adam pulled out the pitchfork from Parrish's body.

[-1 HP] 

Parrish fell to his knees and saw another health point leave, leaving him with only one. He reached out to his inventory, wanting to grab one of his foods to restore his health.

However, Adam then swung his pitchfork and slashed through his throat.

Parrish's eyes widened in shock, and he fell to the ground—dead.

A silence fell among the players as they watched the scene unfold.