R aven didn’t care what had happened between his friend’s clan and the unknown players. He had no choice but to help Soul Crushers.

“Will?!”

“Stop staring! Join my party!”

Landing, Raven tossed a Healing Potion to his friend and immediately summoned Kharses.

Light Terror has sent a party request.

Accept?

Yes/No

Seeing the weird masked guy, Terror’s opponents realized that it was the loner recently mentioned in the clan’s chat. They doubted that there was another person parading such an ugly mask around.

The deal was not to kill any individuals so long as they showed no hostility. But since this guy meddled in their affairs, they had no choice but to kill him — and take his Influence Spheres.

However, before they could even think about doing this, a giant monster appeared in front of them. It was huge. Insanely huge. And very, very deadly.

Name: ???

“What the fuck is that?!” screamed the player who tried to identify it.

“Is it some undead thing?”

“What’s its fucking level!? Billion?!”

“Focus, idiots!” another one ordered, summoning his pet and casting Blessing.

And even though one of them had level-two Identification, the name Kharses was of no help.

Their deaths were quick. Kharses was out of their league.

While his pet was murdering the group, Raven exchanged a few words with Terror. Hearing his story about the conflict between Soul Crushers and another clan, he realized that it had been triggered by a trivial kill-steal incident.

Lions’ Den, the clan that he had never heard of before but that was part of the TOP-30, accused one of the Soul Crushers of finishing off their mob and stealing their loot and XP.

Such a sorry excuse for a fight. Someone must’ve gotten really desperate to collect more Spheres.

Two minutes later, Soul Crushers realized that they had fallen into a trap. A group of just fifty, they were badly outnumbered. Their attackers seemed to be well informed about their total number, and the whereabouts of the rest of their members. Using this knowledge, they lured the group into a trap, cutting off any escape routes.

Joining his friend’s group, Raven saw that forty-three members were already dead, killed on their way back to the statues. That was another peculiar feature of this event — there was no save option. If they died, they were respawned at the starting point of their journey. To some extent, it was to their benefit; with the event’s post-mortem penalties, they would’ve been easy prey anywhere else.

Once Terror finished his story, Raven flashed a broad smile and looked at the carnage. Now he could legitimately kill as many members of the Lions’ Den clan as he could for the sake of avenging his friend.

“Does Night know?”

“Yes. Because of the penalties, he told us not to try to avenge our friends but to come to the main camp and wait. It’s near the tower.”

Raven winced at hearing that.

“Shit. Was there anything interesting in the tower?”

Before Terror could answer, a thundering sound came, the cause of which was a large blazing rock hitting Kharses. Running out of the woods were two groups of twenty players. They immediately began to surround Raven, Terror, and Kharses, and summon their own pets. One player even had five of them.

“I jinxed it, didn’t I?” Terror muttered, glancing over his shoulder. “Any ideas?”

“You can either hide or stay and watch the show.”

“The show?” It took Terror some time to guess what his friend meant. Getting it, he smirked. “I see you’re as greedy as ever.”

“Why, you hurt me, my friend...” Raven began to disappear into the shadows. “...it’s just that I can’t walk past a person in need of a good ass kicking.”

Raven disappeared from sight, targeting the two healers who stood behind the other players, protected by them and their pets.

He couldn’t see their levels, but he was sure they weren’t strong enough to be a real threat; five had already been sent to respawn by Kharses’s AoE attack. Even three tanks could barely withstand its rage.

The pressure coming from Kharses was making the players feel very, very small and very, very weak. Had they seen its level and HP, they would’ve already been running for their lives as fast as their legs could carry them.

“Where is he?!”

With all their attention on the giant monster, they had missed the moment when its owner vanished from sight.

Winter General, the group’s leader, had seen the rogue disappear. Cursing his luck, he realized whom exactly they were up against.

“Guys! Our enemy is White Raven. Wizards and assassins, get ready! Block his pet with loops. Don’t forget he also has an Ogre!”

No one but Zarnitsa knew that Shimiraz was long dead and hence posed no threat.

While warning his clanmates, Winter General reached out to the clan leader, describing the situation.

Hearing Raven’s name, no one asked any questions.

The healers were showered with buffs to prevent their quick and inevitable deaths. Although they, just like wizards, had a skill to detect hiding players, this time it failed them. To detect Raven, they needed something more powerful than Dispersing the Dark.

Ambush. Underhand Blow.

Materializing behind one of his targets, Raven attacked, killing the player with a single blow.

- 12,560 HP

The two Ikals froze with astonishment before they could activate their skills, looking like they had just learned that their dream house was ninety-nine percent off.

Five-figure damage was unattainable — and deadly — for almost any player at this stage of the game, except a few hundred who had powerful gear, specialization, or skills.

Raven smirked at landing critical damage with his very first blow and ducked, avoiding an arrow shot at his head. His dagger missed the healer who had used a Leap-like skill, escaping the blow by a hair’s breadth.

Time seemed to return to normal after a brief pause, and the battle raged on around him, with the Lions’ Den members fighting off Kharses and his own unpredictable attacks.

They already had enough trouble with these two when the paladin, the one they had been chasing at the very beginning, joined in. Even their strength in numbers was completely useless. Not that they were weak, bad with their skills, or not knowledgeable about the game mechanics. But Raven escaped their blades and arrows with the nimbleness of an acrobat. Every time they seemed to have finally cornered him, he somehow got out of it and turned their attacks against them.

The priest approaching Raven from behind crossed his scythes, sending a silent energy attack at his back, after which he dashed to help his clanmate who was unpleasantly surprised by Provocation failing to activate.

Raven’s hand darted for the tank’s armor like a snake and shuddered at the touch, as if electrocuted. It was Soul Seizer’s activation. A few days before, he had leveled it to the Master rank.

SOUL SEIZER

Rank: Hidden

Active skill: Master (0.03%)

Duration: 3.8 seconds

Cost: 500 energy

Cooldown: 1 minute 40 seconds

The tank’s body went limp once it was hit by magic. Raven used Leap, escaping the priest’s cleaving attack.

Everyone knew that Ascension had no friendly fire option; an ally’s attack did just as much damage as that of a hostile player. That was why all clans spent a lot of time practicing teamwork and coordination.

Watching the cross approach his body, the tank could only wince, aware of his teammate’s attack strength. Fortunately for him, a buff enveloped his body, withstanding the attack.

Looks like I’ll have to kill you first, Raven thought as he saw Winter General giving an order to the buffer.

He used Leap to jump diagonally, not in a straight line as usual, disappearing from the buffer’s sight, and killed him with a single blow from above.

Rolling away to escape a hiding archer’s magic arrow, he hid behind a tree and gulped down another Energy Potion. Twenty seconds remained before the end of Twilight Walker’s cooldown. Raven watched Terror and Kharses fight, considering his next step.

“Shit.”

His heart suddenly dropped. Before he could react, he was yanked up and thrown into the air in a manner that defied both the laws of gravity and physics.

His gaze slide over the trees, looking for the attacker.

That bitch, he thought as he spotted a hand peeking from behind an Ikal’s shield. It belonged to a sorceress, the only class that had anti-gravity spells.

Using Identification, he stared at the name in astonishment.

Name: Ori-Tori

Raven knew her as a Columbus Club member. An encounter like this one was nothing if not suspicious.