Episode 9: Demons of the Marsh

Candeo Marsh, an infamous area for PVP players to clash to their heart's extent. The area itself was dark and gloomy with the moon forever illuminating a soft blue glow. This glow was reflected all across the waterlogged fields while an assortment of spiders, alligators, and some weird carnivorous plants made their home here. This was a level 50 area so everything was much stronger than anything we had faced before. But I had come a long way from being a low level Ronin. Hell, the rest of us were doing great too. It was about time that we tested our skills on real players so I decided to take us here. We rested in the town of Candetonn where Candeo Cafe was located. It was cleaner than any inn or bar we've been to before so it was a nice change of pace. However, the prices of the food and drinks were not so accommodating.

"I think we spent too much..." Soran sighed as he sat back in his seat. Each of us had ordered our own Grilled Fish Fillet from the menu. I would have listed down the ingredients to craft one if I didn't consume it all in a few bites.

"Who cares? I've never had food that tasted this good in real life!" Daize was definitely content with his purchase. "The buff this provides is awesome as well."

Being the most expensive item on the menu, this chunk of meat from the sea provided us with an extended attack and defense buff which would help us when we take on other players. All we needed to do was wait for the rest of our party to arrive. The remaining members were M and our other friend whom he had mentioned before during his stupid fishing quest. Apparently, he had already started playing AKO a few days ago and managed to level up enough to join us for our PVP adventure.

"What's taking them so long?" I crossed my arms as I my mouth sank into my scarf.

"In hindsight, we probably should've saved these for later." Soran sadly looked at the empty plates in front of us. The buff these gave us ran on a timer of around an hour but unfortunately, the food was too delicious to be left alone.

"Argh!" A player near us suddenly slammed the wall with his fist. "That's the fourth time this week!"

Glancing at him, I noticed he had gauntlets with three large blades sticking out of them. He was obviously a Brawler.

"Dude, calm down. It's just a necklace, we can forge another one." His friend, a Duelist, put his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Where are we gonna get another emerald then?" The Brawler remained in his distressed state as the Archer slowly approached both of them.

"What seems to be the problem, good sirs?" Daize and his stupid smile greeted the pair. "Surely you know that this area is a PVP area. You're bound to lose something if you're not careful."

"You don't understand!" The Brawler sighed and recollected his thoughts. "I lost a rare necklace 'cos of a cheater. The Demon took it."

"Cheater? What Demon?" The Archer asked as his smile disappeared.

"You haven't heard about him?" The Brawler looked at the three of us in confusion.

'No we haven't, just explain it.'

And so he did. "Out there in the wetlands, lives a Player Killer who attacks from the shadows with his knives."

"Ooh, throwing knives! Scary!" I said in a sarcastic tone as the other player walked up to our table.

"The scary part is that he seems to have an unlimited supply of them." The Duelist continued. He was right in that regard; throwing knives did a lot more damage than arrows so they limited the amount one player could carry at a time. "He also hides in the trees well enough that all he needs to do is hit you with a barrage of blades until your health whittles to zero."

"Infinite throwing knives? Is that some sort of rare item?" Soran asked us as we contemplated the situation.

"So you think that's because of a cheater?" Daize asked. It wasn't far-fetched to find cheaters in a game that barely had enough security as is. I wondered what the hell the development team was doing to prevent stuff like this. I didn't want to think it but my uncle probably wouldn't have let this slide if he was here.

"Man, the way that guy moves, it's inhuman..." The Brawler said in a melancholy tone. "Anyways, I'm done for tonight."

We exchanged goodbyes before both of them logged out, leaving us thoroughly intrigued. Just who the hell was this Demon?

Opening: Crossing Field by LiSA

Before we could delve any deeper into our thoughts, however, two players came into the café. One of them was M with his usual smug face since he was wearing his stupid hat proudly and the other was a Wizard which was basically like a Sorcerer except the magic staff they used was more damage focused than support.

"Yo!" The Wizard raised his hand to greet us without a change in his dead expression. This was Orhaxum who was the closest friend of M and a part of our little band of merry men. His bright cyan robes made him look like a priest while his hair, which was of a similar but darker color, extended down his face, covering one of his blue eyes.

"Took you long enough." Call me impatient but I was a bit annoyed that they were late to the very meet-up they planned. At least they were here now. I quickly navigated to the party menu to invite them.

"M's the one who delayed us." Orhaxum pointed his finger at the Reaper.

"Sorry, I was caught up with something in real life." The guilty party nervously laughed as he explained. He probably had to eat dinner or something. Speaking of which, I wasn't sure if I had.

"What matters is that we can finally leave now." Daize cheered as he stretched his arms in anticipation. As they accepted the request, I scanned through the player list. For the first time, we actually had a full party of five. However, as I looked through everyone's classes, I realized there was only one possible healer.

"Right, Orha you're on healing duty." I told him as he nodded in response.

"Of course…" Even if he was a battle type mage, he was still the only one with a healing skill.

"Speaking of healing, where's Megumi?" Daize asked while glancing around for the little Sorcerer.

"She said she wanted to party up with Arryn for a bit. I don't know why though." I answered with an annoyed tone. I just hoped that Arryn wouldn't try anything on her. If she did…

"Jealous?" The Archer grinned like an idiot as I glared back at him. This type of teasing would never have happened if she didn't reveal that she was an actual girl in real life.

"Yeah, I'm jealous she gets to be away from your ego for a little while." Closing the menu, I made my way to the door before turning around to face the rest. "Come on, I don't want this buff to go to waste."

"By the way, who's she?" The Wizard pointed at our Guardian who then proceeded to turn red.

Our footsteps squished in the mud as we walked carefully across the Marsh. I had put everyone in a certain formation to ensure that we wouldn't have an opening in our initial defense. Daize was obviously jumping from tree to tree, awaiting surprise attacks and scouting ahead of us. Soran guarded the front while M and I took to the rear. Orhaxum was placed in the middle since the healer was almost always the first target when it came to fights. We had to be more careful than usual since PVP areas were no joke. Die and you lost money and EXP, not to mention any items or consumables you have equipped.

"Man, why did I agree to go with you guys?" M groaned yet again as we continued walking. At this point, I wondered why they still considered me as the impatient one. "There's literally nothing happening. I could be fishing right-"

"Wait!" Soran held his hand up. In front of us were multiple cubes emanating a faint blue light. He curiously touched one of them. "Are these…"

The Guardian jumped back as a loot menu popped up. Some gold, a belt of strength, and a couple of potions… this was clearly the dead body of a player.

"Gaia cubes. In the lore of Aura Kingdom, a manifestation of an envoy's soul." Orhaxum explained to us briefly. He always enjoyed reading up on games' lore more than any of us so he was our resident historian.

"There's lore?" I asked with curiosity. We never really paid attention to the story that much since it was just exposition after exposition. The trees ruffled as Daize jumped down to look at the cubes.

"Hey, this guy dropped a clothing item!" He instantly put on a new pair of dark brown glasses which we're slightly bigger than his default. "Wairuzu, you can have my old ones if you want."

"Oh, I don't think so!" I had a personal rule stating that my avatars should never EVER have glasses. If Wairuzu started out with one on default, I would have sold it right away. Don't ask me why though. I didn't like talking about it.

"Hey!" Orhaxum raised his staff and slammed it onto the ground, attempting to make a loud thud but only getting a soft squish. "We should be careful. These cubes are fresh meaning the killer or killers can't be far."

As if to emphasize his point, a stray arrow found its mark at the center of our formation. It had a weird fuse attached to the tail that sparked as we stared blankly at it.

"Hey Daize, you misse-" I was immediately blown back as the bolt exploded. The others were also thrown away save for Soran who stood his ground with his shield. Out from the blue brush came five players, one of which was the archer who shot the arrow. Another guy with a giant great sword took his place in the front. The sword itself told us that he was of the Crusader class and obviously, he was the head honcho. Looking closely, they all had a blue tint to their armor which made for an excellent camouflage for this area bathed in blue light.

"Looks like we got ourselves our prey. Taito, take care of the healer!" Their party leader barked out his orders.

"You got it! Sonic Bomb!" Taito, who was apparently a Gunslinger, raised one of his pistols and fired a large blast of sound at Orhaxum who was on the ground. Unfortunately for them, the Wizard was a battle class mage. He fought back with a bolt of lightning. The two blasts collided in mid-air and cancelled each other out. Getting back up, he cast a healing circle around us which slowly regenerated our health. It wasn't as fast as Megumi but that was a given.

Everyone immediately sprang into action after the initial attack. Soran's shield met the blade of the leader's great sword while my tachi clashed with another guy's lance. M quickly activated one of his skills and created a portal that shot out a couple of shadow balls every few seconds like a turret.

As my sword was parried, the Lancer backed off and drove it straight at my chest. I weaved side-wards before he went in for another jab. Seeing an opening, I spun clockwise and slashed him diagonally. Stumbling back, a green aura surrounded him. A Bard class player was strumming his harp and healing the Lancer at a far faster rate than even Megumi could do.

"This isn't good." I heard as I jumped back beside Orhaxum. Glancing back at the Lancer, I realized he was already at full health. "Bards are full on support characters. Their healing is unmatched."

The Crusader smirked as he knocked Soran back from their clash. "That's right! You have no chance of beating us!"

"I wouldn't be so confident if I were you…" Closing my eyes, I analyzed the situation. This douche-bag was playing the role of the tank while the Lancer was their main attacker and thanks to the lance's long range capabilities, it was a safe way to poke some damage into us. Gunslinger and Archer were the ranged attackers of their party while the Bard healed them from a safe distance.

Grinning, I raised my tachi to the side with both hands. "Orha, AoE attack!"

The Wizard understood and immediately raised his staff to bring down a rain of fire at the center of the enemy team. The area of effect itself was large, Wizards were known for that. The group scattered as I immediately went for the Crusader. However, he managed to block my attack with the flat of his large blade.

As I struggled to push his sword aside, I wasted no time in telling the others what to do. "Daize, trees! Soran, go for the Gunslinger!"

Nodding, our Archer leapt into the brush. The Guardian also followed up and sprinted towards the gunman who fired a couple of rounds into him, all of which ricocheted off of his shield like they were nothing.

"Um…" M stood there with his scythe raised, confused as to what to do since we kind of left him behind in the midst of the battle.

"Just back me up alright?" Orhaxum walked up to him as he aimed two more lightning bolts at the enemy Archer and the Lancer. As suspected, they were both extremely agile. The bolts met their mark at their feet as they barely dodged the attacks.

"I got just the thing! Shroud of Ice!" M held up his scythe and fired a blast that emitted blue smoke. The projectile landed right in front of the Lancer and blew up in an icy flurry. The blast applied the frozen effect onto him which limited his movement greatly.

"Right, I forgot about that. Bolt of Slowing!" Orhaxum charged up his staff and sent a light blue blast into the group, affecting everyone in its radius with another movement debuff. With that, the Archer and the Lancer were effectively pinned down.

However, that didn't stop the Crusader from flapping his gums. "Nice try! But that won't stop us as long as we-"

"Can we stop talking, please?!" I slashed left and right as he parried each blow. Swinging downward, I used the momentum to throw myself over his head and slash down his back. He grunted as he took damage from my attack.

"Jean, I need hea-" To his dismay, the Bard in question was trying to fend off Daize who was jumping from tree to tree, firing arrows each time. Thankfully, our Archer remained undetected as he closed the distance between him and his opponent using the tree line.

"Sorry, but I think your healer is busy!" I chuckled a bit over the advantage we now had over this group.

"Damn you!" Raising his great sword, the fight began once more.

I struggled as my shield was riddled with bullets. I know Wairuzu assigned me to take care of the Gunslinger because I had the best defense to do so but there was no way I could get near him at this rate. Looking behind my shield, I noticed that he was glancing at the Lancer and Archer who were hit by Orhaxum and M's slow blasts.

"Mercury's Blessing…" He immediately closed his eyes and sent another shock-wave across to them. As soon as it hit, they immediately regained their speed.

"What the hell?!" M raised his scythe and blocked the Lancer's weapon, immediately returning fire with a barrage of fireballs but ultimately missing. I started to rush towards them to help but was shot in the back. Grunting, I stood back up and glared at my opponent.

"Eyes on me, girlie!" The Gunslinger spun his pistol around his finger which provided the perfect opportunity for me.

"I am not a girl! Lightning Flash!" I activated my dash skill and made it to him in no time. My shield knocked the Gunslinger against the bark of a tree. He bounced off as I pulled back with my sword.

"Thunder Barrage!" Chaining into another skill, I sent a flurry of slashes flying across his body. I didn't stop until his health reached zero. As the Gunslinger turned into another blue cube, I spun around and activated a new skill I had gained just before we set foot in this marsh, Defense Posture. Raising my sword, a white glow shot out to the rest of my party. This white glow granted them a large increase in defense.

"Thanks for the assist, brave knight!" I shouted as I leapt out of the tree with my bow tightly clutched in my hands. The Bard fired even more music blasts at my direction. This time, however, I took the hit head on with the help of Soran's defense buff, it took out half of my health but that was all I needed to reach their healer. Spinning, I fired a power shot at the enemy who tried to shield himself with his arms. The arrow knocked him back as I landed. Sprinting around, I unloaded the rest of my quiver, taking his health down to a measly amount. Before I could fire the last shot, however, a giant sword swung down in front of me, forcing me to back off.

"Get away from our Bard!" It was safe to say that the Crusader was now absolutely fuming.

Swinging my sword, I tried to hit the Lancer but he was too fast. I exchanged my sword with my shield as I blocked the arrows coming from the Archer who had been shooting from the trees this entire time like a coward. Another circle of green light formed around us as Orhaxum casted his healing spell.

"I'll slow them down again!" M charged up another ice blast but he didn't realize that he was in the open.

The enemy Archer fired a purple arrow towards him. I stood in between them to block it but as soon as it hit me, it went through me and hit M with a large blast of dark energy, closing his dark portal as well. As he stumbled back, it was clear that Orhaxum's healing circle wasn't enough.

The Lancer spun his spear around and gave themselves a red glow, indicating an increase in attack. He then rushed towards me and let out a flurry of stabs which started to take my health down fast, even if I had my shield out. As I was brought to my knees, another bomb arrow knocked me back and cleared the way for them to attack my friends. I struggled to get up as they ran past me...

As I rushed towards the battle with my tachi in hand, Daize was successfully evading the large sword that was swinging at him. Luckily, the sword's attack speed was slow because of its size. I took this chance and aimed for the Bard who was consuming some health potions. With my tachi at my side, I leapt up and spun around. The Bard immediately strafed to the left as my sword met the ground. After managing to pull it out, I was met with the blade of the Crusader yet again. I could feel its weight as he pushed it down on me.

"Die!" The leader shouted. Unfortunately for him, I wasn't a good listener. Grinning, I pulled out my Trump card. Overtime, I had learned how to activate this skill at will. It was like turning on a switch in my head, telling myself again and again that I couldn't lose no matter what. I never managed to learn how to keep it from draining me so I only used it in certain emergency situations. This was indeed one of them.

"What the hell?!" He started loosening the force he applied on me as my body glowed a bright orange. The flames themselves coated my eyes before surrounding the tachi in my hands.

"Enhance!" I swiped his sword away with one motion then proceeded to hit him with a barrage of slashes, draining his health down to zero.

As he knelt down in defeat, he uttered his last words before disappearing. "What are you…?"

I watched as his loot dropped onto the ground as another blue cube. Turning towards the Bard, he scampered back in fear while staring at my bright orange eyes.

"Stop! I give up! Just let me keep my Healing Gem! Please, it was a gift from a friend!" He pleaded with his hands raised in fear. Lifting my tachi, I did not feel any pity. In fact, all I wanted to do was kill the bastard. And so I did, with a single slice. He too disappeared into a blue cube. As I stood there with my body up in flames, Daize approached me slowly.

"Dude... don't you think that was a little bit too much?" The Archer sounded just as afraid of me as they were. Ignoring him, I sprinted towards the remaining two enemies. With ease, I cut them down.

The Lancer attempted to swing at me once more but I caught his weapon and shredded it with a few hits, the durability must not have been much. As for the Archer in the trees, I fired an energy wave that knocked him down, allowing me to stab him in the chest. Moving back to the Lancer, I held him down and pierced his abdomen as he spoke up.

"You… you're the Demon!"

The rest of my party gathered around me as I deactivated my self-named Enhance Mode. I had to stop since my head already felt dizzy from that short fight. Thankfully, I managed to strike them all down within the time frame we had.

"What the hell was that?" Orhaxum asked, finally showing a bit of emotion in his eyes.

"Nothing, just some skill I picked up a while back." I noticed that we were missing one person in particular. "Where's M?"

Behind them stood Soran who had a distressed look on his face. His armor was dented and his shield was thoroughly scratched. As we walked up to him, his eyes began to waver.

"I… I couldn't save him. I'm sorry." He clenched his fist in anger while his face showed shame.

"Hey, hey!" Daize immediately crouched next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "He'll just respawn. We can grab his stuff and give it back to him when we get back to Candetonn."

"I know but… if I can't protect you guys then what's my worth as a tank?" Soran's voice was wavering the same way it did in real life.

"What do you want us to do then? Wallow in sorrow?" I sighed as I stood in front of the Guardian with my arms crossed. "You did what you could so stop thinking you weren't enough, it's annoying."

Soran was always sensitive about his self-esteem. Even the smallest thing would bring him to tears. It really ticked me off whenever he put himself down like that.

"Look, let's just grab this loot and… Orha?" I glanced over to our Wizard who was standing suspiciously still. As he fell to the ground, we saw multiple glowing blue knives sticking out of his back. They were see-through like a hologram. We watched in horror as he disappeared along with the knives which burst into a blue light.

"What the-" Daize nor any of us reacted fast enough. In an instant, multiple blades hit the Archer and whittled his health to zero.

"Soran stick-" I found the knight with a large blue great sword lodged into his chest. The sword itself was also see through as it disappeared, leaving a gaping hole in his chest. Soran immediately disappeared into a blue cube as well.

Holding my tachi with both hands, I realized that he had stopped attacking for now. I scanned the tree line looking for the attacker but was only met with a deep and distorted voice that echoed throughout the marsh.

"You…"

"Show yourself, you coward!" I shouted back even if I was too scared to move myself.

"You're like me." A knife shot down in front of me. The blue flame-like aura surrounding it made me realize what he was talking about. The way the light covered the knife was similar to how my orange flames covered me and my tachi whenever I activated Enhance Mode.

"Who the hell are you?!" I got no answer from the trees. After a good minute, I came to the conclusion that he was gone. Was that the real Demon? He just killed all of my friends in a heartbeat. Just like I killed them…

'No! I'm nothing like that weakling fighting in the shadows!' That's what I told myself again and again. Unfortunately, I was too stubborn to accept the truth at that time. The truth being that there were two Demons in the game now.

Ending: Yume Sekai by Tomatsu Haruka

Next Episode: The Grand City

A/N: Had to reupload this episode since it wasn't appearing. Sorry for that.