Just so everyone knows, I know fully well how 'powerful' King really is. The last AN was me just joking about King's 'power' to somehow look like a badass despite all evidence otherwise.

King stood upon the edge of the precipice, the height of the plateau affording him a vast view of the forest below. Beyond the stretches of hinterland, the sun was beginning its final run, its fiery glory already dimming beneath the horizon. With arms crossed and meeting the sun's diminishing glare, no one could deny the grand image he presented. Especially as his shadow was cast over the thirty or so players that still insisted on stalking him, Klein's group not included.

As the cluster of players rested and chatted after a long day of fighting monsters, King remained aloof. He remained a good distance away, his back to them as he once again pondered the same question that had been pressing at him since yesterday, when Kayaba had announced this death game.

What the hell was he going to do?!

Outwardly, King was the epitome of calm and collected. With his sturdy posture, crossed arms and head held high, he projected an image of unflinching power benefiting the World's Strongest Man.

Inwardly, King was just trying his best not to cry.

Ten hours. Ten hours of risking his life in this death forest trying to level because that was what was expected of him. Ten hours of fighting murder monsters because he couldn't just up and run away when people started panicking the plaza. Ten bloody hours of trying to lead complete strangers and praying to whatever god there was that no one died!

And that wasn't the worst part. Not in the least. If he was honest, ten hours would be a drop in the bucket compared to who knows how many more hours of this crap he was going to have to do!

All because he was too scared to just man up and admit that he wasn't the hero they all thought he was. And now because of that, he didn't even have the choice anymore.

He had seen how they had looked at him in the plaza. How his every word, even if it was just common sense, seemed to resonate across the crowd. How all the building despair and fear gave way to rising hope as they used him to be the shining hero to rally behind.

Okay, that last part was a bit pretentious but the point was that since almost everyone knew he was here and was busy hero worshipping him, he couldn't just drop off the radar and hide. People would definitely search for him and when they inevitably do and find out that he wasn't the Hero they all wanted him to be?

King couldn't help but shudder as he imagined all the disappointment, anger and hate that would arise if the illusion was shattered. And if they got angry enough…

Nope! He didn't even want to think about what an angry mob would do to him.

Essentially, if he tried to be the Hero; he was probably screwed. If he didn't try and just went and hid somewhere; he was even more screwed.

King inwardly groaned as he found himself in the exact same dilemma as yesterday. He was like a character stuck with a couple hundred death flags and locked into a route with only bad ends in sight and more flags in sight.

But hey! Look at the good news; he was now level three only after a day of training. Apparently, this was pretty fast. Now he was only slightly less likely to die a horrible death. Good for him…

With one last look at the fading sun, King exhaled and cleansed his face of dreary expressions before retreating to the rest of the group.

They should probably head back to the Town of Beginnings. He had no idea if monsters were still active at night and he didn't want to know. Fighting them during the day was hard enough, going at it in the darkness of night? Hell no.

"We leaving?" He heard Klein ask him, the man finally able to talk to him without having a heart attack half way. Now if only that could be said for everyone else.

"Yes." Was his simple reply, stirring more than a few resting heads. "It's too dangerous to remain here at night."

There were a few subtle signs of agreement amongst the crowd. The nodding of heads, the way some cast their eyes in the direction of town. As always, no one would even dare raise an argument against him. Whether that was a good thing or not, he still wasn't sure.

King passed through the players, the whole lot of them waiting till he paced by before following him in an informal line like his own personal retinue. This had been the impromptu formation they had been using throughout the day. On one hand, he essentially had a small army on call. On the other, every, and literally every, monster attack would go for him first and foremost.

Maybe the AI could tell he was the leader? Maybe he was just the one that triggered their aggression first? He had no idea but every encounter with monsters today had started with him being jumped by something. This had essentially forced him into the role of a tank.

Did he like it? Nope.

Did anyone else want to swap with him? Of course, not.

He sighed as he brushed his past a tree. Why did he ever decide to play this stupid game in the first place? He could be back home, playing Doki Doki Sisters, finishing of Minako's route but no, he just had to try out that new VR game, didn't he?

The Hero's moping was then suddenly interrupted by a scream that filled the woods.

King froze. Surprise and a shiver of fear snaking up his spine even as his head snapped to the direction of the scream. That had definitely been a human scream and that could only mean…

He involuntarily glanced behind him, hoping to see some cue on what to do. Instead he met dozens sets of eyes searching for the same thing. Everyone else was stuck, wracked with indecision and awaiting him to make some decision on how to proceed.

King crunched his eyes shut and turned away. Damn it all!

He drew his sword, banged it on his shield once before waving it down the direction of the scream. Mustering the bravest sounding voice, he could make, King called through his scowl. "Let's move! Someone needs help!"

Gritting his teeth, King broke into a run, dodging past the incoming trees. He was confident that everyone else would be quick to follow once they saw him moving.

His confidence wasn't unfounded. Though nowhere near as loud as the mob that had followed him out of town yesterday, the clamour that thirty sprinting players made shouldn't be underestimated. Shouts to 'hurry up!' and 'follow King!' spurring them on faster.

King kept his eyes ahead, not daring to glance back lest he slam into a tree, while trying to maintain a straight line as best as he could. He was soon rewarded with a bitter prize. The sounds of fighting reached his ear. The grunts and shouts of people and the snarls and howls of Dire Wolves. Though he couldn't pinpoint numbers, there sounded like a lot more wolves than there were people.

And despite his best efforts, King could feel the could touch of fear grappling with his mind, urging him to turn back. That he didn't need to put his life on the line for complete strangers that'd probably never return the favour. That even if he wanted, he could never be the hero that everyone thought he was.

And that was probably the truth. He wasn't suited to be a hero at all. He couldn't be the hero that people thought he was. He wasn't sure if he even wanted to be.

King shook his head and almost snarled as he forced the thoughts from his head. Whether he was a Hero or not didn't matter right now. This wasn't the real world anymore. He actually could do something. So even if he couldn't be a real Hero he could at least be a decent person. And a decent person wouldn't just stand by and do nothing.

Or, he hoped they wouldn't anyway. Besides, there was like thirty of them and Dire Wolves never seemed to travel in packs larger than six. As soon as they got there, they could just steam roll the-

King looked down.

He could see the endangered players. Five players against two or three times that in wolves, the whole lot of the spread out and split off from each other. Most of the unfortunate players hovering on the border between red and yellow. It was obvious that without intervention, the players were doomed.

What was also obvious was the fact that his leading foot had no earth underneath it, his boot falling onto open air. He wanted to stop. He wanted to slow down. His momentum wouldn't let him.

The next second he was descending through the air, A whistling tunnel of air sucking the breath out of him as he plummeted off the plateau.

Left with no other recourse, there was only one thing King could do.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"

His blade descended, slashing a long glowing scar across the creature. The wounded wolf whimpered in pain and limped back but before Keita could follow through with a final blow, another wolf was upon him.

Grunting with exertion, Keita used his shield to block the wolf as he beat a hasty withdrawal. The wolf's snapping jaws scrambling across his shield but finding no flesh to bite at. But even though the wolf scored no direct hit, the brown-haired teen winced nonetheless as his health bar finally dipped over to the red.

"Keita, we're out of healing items!" he could hear Tetsuo scream out to him. Keita glanced over to him, seeing his tall friend's form desperately struggling to ward off the wolves as he covered for a critical Sachi.

"Dodger? Sasamaru?" He called out as he leaped to his left, dodging another wolf's lunge.

"I'm empty!"

"Just used my last one!"

The two of them called back, both from completely opposite directions. Keita bit back a scowl as he once again retreated, the three wolves attacking him finally pushing into the cliff face. His back literally against the wall.

Damnit all!

Levelling his sword at the wolves, he watched them with a wary eye as he frantically tried to come up with a plan. The five of them were split up, the Dire Wolves cutting them off from each other. They needed to link up if they were to have any chance of surviving th-

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"

With a shout bursting with raw emotion, a massive form slammed into the wolves from above, the impact kicking up a plume of dust and dirt. The centre wolf not even given the chance to move before it broke apart into a flurry of pixels. And from the crater, Keita could see a familiar form start to stand up.

Was… was that King?! Did he actually just leap down from the cliff to save them?!

He had his answer as the dramatic pounding of the King Engine drummed into his ear. Despite that his health had drained to less than half from the fall, the Hero seemed unperturbed. In fact, the Hero's entire body quivered with excitement and barely contained bloodlust as he faced off against the two remaining wolves.

Giving only a low growl as warning, both wolves pounced as one. Two snarling masses leaping at King, their eyes filled with murder.

Spinning on his feet, King slammed his shield into the first wolf. The creature blasted away from him as it painfully recoiled from the shield bash. In the same motion, King brought his sword to bear against the second wolf that was coming dangerously close, drooping it down in a familiar stance.

Keita gaped as he recognised the sword skill. Was King intending to try and use Parry on the wolf? According to the skill description, you had to initiate the Parry the exact moment before the enemy's attack hit you. He could see how this could be feasible when your opponent was using a weapon but this was a damn wolf! How the hell were you meant to parry a-

His jaw dropped when the metallic clang of a successful parry rang through the air. King somehow managing to trap his blade inside the clasped jaw of the wolf. The Dire Wolf looking almost as confused and surprised as he was even as it hung from the blade.

With an almost hysterical expression, King then swung his sword into the wolf. There was no accompanying flash of a sword skill but since the wolf literally caught the blade in its mouth… King finished the wolf with a single slash that cut straight through the creature, a pained whimper escaping its jaw before it evaporated into glitter.

All this in just a few mere seconds.

Half blinded by awe, Keita only barely noticed the additional wolves that were beginning to skulk over. Credit to Kayaba, the AI for the monsters was impressive. That however meant that the other wolves had noticed King's presence and had identified him as the largest threat. The Dire Wolves not busy harrying his friends converging towards King. That still left at least six of them including the one King had shield bashed against the Hero alone.

With only a moment's hesitation, Keita stepped up to stand with King even as the Hero backed away towards the cliff. There was no way he could just let King do all the work, not while he was still standing and his friends were in danger.

"What's the plan?" He asked as he steadied himself at King's side. The Hero must have a plan right?

The answer came from above.

"Yeeaaargh!" "Aaaaaah!" "Waaaaaah!"

No matter how smart the wolves' AI might be; they certainly hadn't predicted the deluge of players literally dropping on top of them. The six wolves disintegrating in near perfect unison underneath the weight of a person as scores of players landed onto the battlefield, some more gracefully than others.

Even though all of them had lost half their health, not a single one looked the least deterred. Not to mention that the number of players now overwhelmingly outnumbered the wolves. So long as they played this right and carefully, no one needed to die today.

Had this been King's plan all along? Luring them all close to the cliff so that his followers could take out the majority of the wolves in a single strike? And he planned all this in the few seconds he had whilst fighting off two wolves?

So this was the World's Strongest Man!

"Damn… that fall nearly gave me a heart attack." A man wearing a red bandanna muttered loudly, heaving hard while clasping a hand to his chest. Taking a moment to compose himself, he looked to King. "What do we do now?"

"My friends," Keita blurted out, waving in the direction of his still beleaguered party. "You have to save them! Please!"

King barely even had time to nod before the band of players charged at the wolves. The ones leading the charge placing themselves between the remaining wolves and his friends while the ones following quickly pulled his friends out of immediate danger.

"Use healing items on them first!" Keita heard King shout out to his party. Literally not even a second later, someone was trying to shove a healing potion down his throat. He gratefully drank it all down, feeling a weight lifting off him as his health drifted back into the safe zone.

By the time Keita lifted his head back up, the battle was done. There were no wolves left standing and all the players that had saved them were amid either celebrating their timely intervention or fussing over his exhausted friends. The benefits of outnumbering your enemy ten to one.

"Thank you." He said, eyes trained on King who stood apart from the others, just silently watching them all. "Thank you for saving us." He repeated when King turned to give him his attention. "We would have died if you hadn't jumped down to save us."

The Hero looked at him impassively before turning away but not before saying, "It was nothing. You should thank everyone else here instead. They did most of the work."

"No way!" Another man in a bandana denied before looking to him. "You should have seen King. He didn't even look down before making that jump!"

"No hesitation at all." A large man chimed in amidst trying to stuff a potion down Ducker's throat.

"Yeah, I doubt any of us would have made that jump if you hadn't gone first." Another player put out, lifting his hand to pat King on the back before hastily reconsidering.

Amidst all the pouring praise, Keita heard King utter a single sentence in denial. It was quiet however. "No, it wasn't on purpose."

'…wasn't on purpose?'

Keita stared blankly at the Hero before realization struck him, comprehension settling in immediately in the aftermath.

What King was implying was that he hadn't intentionally jumped down that hole. However, his instincts, honed by countless years of heroic deeds, compelled to leap down to save them without even a second thought for himself. There was no way King could have known that he'd survive the fall. Hell, looking at the height of the cliff now, he didn't think anyone could survive that fall!

And yet King did it anyway.

Crazy? Yes. Foolish? Definitely. Nonetheless, Keita could only stand back in awe at such selfless heroism. To be able to lay down your own life to save others at a moment's notice… this was what it meant to be a Hero like King.

Keita exhaled and looked over to his friends. He could only pray that he could even be a fraction as heroic as King was today.