Infinite Realm

"Hold on guys, just a little bit more." Sato yelled in the team chat. 

(478/1700 Sato's HP)

"Damn. This guy's a tough nut to crack. Even with his injuries, he's still putting up a front."

(820/1200 Seiichi's HP)

"Grawr!"

(1465/10000 Kobold King's HP)

[Fury]

Barely a minute had gone by since the Kobold King went berserk and according to the severity of its injuries, it was supposed to have been dead 40 seconds ago. However, after the Kobold King had gone berserk, its injuries had been suppressed. The initial crippling of its skills, due to its injuries, that lead to the Kobold King losing 5% of its HP every 5 seconds had changed to 3% every 10 seconds, and its HP recovery speed was only slowed by 25%. This meant that in every 5 seconds that went by, the Kobold King would recover 75 HP which meant 150 HP every 10 seconds. So, in every 10 seconds that went by it only lost 1.5% of its HP instead of the supposed 3%.

Due to the Kobold King's act of forcefully suppressing its injuries, it was able to retaliate even more than before. Though it was true that the severity of its injuries didn't offer the Kobold King an increase in strength as compared to its base form, it had gone all out against the trio, trading injury for injury. 

When it had taken that approach, the Kobold King had become more deadlier than it was before. In just this past minute alone, Sato, Seiichi, and Xue Yan had incurred more damage than throughout the other 29 or so minutes. In total, this raid had gone on for almost 30 minutes and the Kobold King was still able to cause hell for the trio even with its weakened stats.

'We need a turning point.' Sato thought as he stared at the Kobold King that was undergoing a second transformation right after it activated [Fury].

The skill, [Fury], was independent of the usual berserk form of monsters and the two could be stacked together, raising the strength of the user to an all-time high. However, it came at a great cost; a very grave one at that. [Fury], unlike berserk mode which was a monster purely reacting out of anger, was a skill that boost the strength of a kobold by making it burn its blood and potential. The result would see the monster's strength soaring to about 20-30% of its original abilities. However, once the skill duration was over, the monster would end up in a weakened state with its blood needing time to recover. In some more dire cases, the creature would end up dead right after using the skill to defeat its opponent. 

For the Kobold King's case, this weakened state would end up acting in chorus with its injuries, forcing the Kobold King to either require an extremely long time to recover or to die. Even without the skill's side-effects, the Kobold King would eventually lose its life to the injuries as there was no healer figure among the ranks of the kobold population. With its options being cut off, the Kobold King no longer bothered about being conservative and decided to go all out, using a skill that would even hasten its death with the hope of dragging either Sato, Xue Yan, or Seiichi with it to the underworld.

As [Fury] was activated, the Kobold King's scale shades took a much darker than it already was. The claws grew a bit longer and the horns on its head glistened with a metallic sheen as they looked a bit taller and shinier. Even the aura of the Kobold King underwent a drastic change as not only did it become heavy, it also exuded a deep and extreme nature of carnage and the desire for blood. It was as if a demon of death had appeared on the surface and wouldn't be pleased until it saw blood spill to form rivers.

"Xue Yan, retreat with Seiichi. I will try to hold it down for a while. Find the best opportunity to attack otherwise, avoid reckless shots."

Sato hastily gave out an order as he felt alarm bells ring in his mind.

"These guys are quite strong." One of the scouts from the Howling Wolf Battalion, a young player, said in awe as he stared at the battle ahead.

"Don't make excessive comments or movements lest they spot us." A stern voice sounded from beside the young player.

"Sorry for that." The young player lowered his voice as he apologized.

"You're worrying too much, Var. If they could spot us, they would have done so long ago. The only mage player here is that female [Elementalist] but she's too focused on the battle to sense our presence. If she could pull that off, then she would be a monster." Another voice different from the other two, spoke up with a relaxed tone.

The scouting team consisted of three players, 2 [Assassins] and 1 [Ranger]. The youth was one of the [Assassins] together with the other voice that had reprimanded him. As for the last one, the one with the relaxed tone, it was the group's [Ranger]. being blessed with an advantage in regards to sight, the [Ranger] was able to see things that the other two couldn't.

As an [Elementalist], and a high levelled one at that, Xue Yan should have been able to sense the presence of these players especially since they didn't make use of any special scrolls to hide their presence. However, as her full focus was required to face the Kobold King, Xue Yan wasn't able to spread a part of it out. Also, she never would have expected for another group of players to make it in time to the 10th floor while the team was still here, so, Xue Yan believed that there was no need to waste her energy on such a pointless act; the Kobold King was a much better target so she focused solely on it. This resulted in the current situation where the 3 players from the Howling Wolf Battalion were able to close in on them but Xue Yan still didn't sense their presence.

"You're right. But we still have to be careful lest we attract attention towards ourselves." Var, the leader of the scout team as well as the second [Assassin] in the group, said.

"News just coming in. The captain is leading the team over here. Emperor's Might is with them as well." The [Ranger] said. He was the one in charge of communicating with the main team so all information had to pass through him. 

"The captain is truly a genius." Var couldn't help but praise.

He could obviously guess that the reason why Silver Wolf was leading the team over was to take the kill. Rather than waiting for the other guilds to show up and work with them, sharing the loot in the end, it would be better to snatch this opportunity right here. This was already a common act in VR games but to these military-style trained men, they weren't used to such acts.

"But why bring another guild with him?" The youth couldn't help but ask.

"Isn't it obvious? From the conservative estimates from the Grand guild meeting, to defeat the Kobold King, at least 6 guild teams are required. But here we see just a team of 3 players. To have faced the Kobold King alone and gone this far meant that they weren't a simple team. Even if they were originally more players in the group, for these 3 to have survived this long means that they aren't your average Experts. Who knows, they might even be Monster-class Experts. If we were to face them alone, even if the trio are tired, they would still be able to put up a good fight. In that case, using a super guild's raid team as cannon-fodder against them wouldn't be a bad idea." Var analysed.

"To use a super guild as cannon-fodder. Only captain would dare to do such. Kekeke." The [Ranger] laughed.

"Monster-class Experts?" The youth asked. He wasn't into gaming for as long as the other two and was just a recent recruit. It was due to his amazing potential that Silver Wolf took him under his wing.

"The second strongest class of player. Just like their title implies, they are all monsters." Var said with a bit of dread.

"I once had the liberty of encountering one such battle between them. Their reaction speed, battle techniques, battle awareness, and skills were all top-notch. Their ability to control the tempo of a fight was even more impressive. I wouldn't even last a few seconds against those guys. Even our captain might only be able to block one or two hits from them but the tempo of the battle would fully be in their hands. I give him only 5 seconds before everything will come to an end." 

"That strong?" The youth widened his eyes. 

"Even stronger. Let's just hope that these guys aren't at that level.. If they are, only using Emperor's Might as our shield would we then have a shot at the reward."