Chapter 7: Greed

"That is a terrible idea."

She quietly watched from the sidelines as those harsh words of denial cast a grave silence in the thrones room.

"Why would you suggest that? Do you even realize how dangerous would that be?"

The vampire wasn't even trying to sweeten his words, addressing his companion as if he were a complete fool. In his eyes she could see the determination of a man that wouldn't step down without a fight.

"Is this some kind of personal vengeance? Do you want us to risk our lives on a grudge?"

The flurry of criticisms directed at the living shadow seemed destined to continue forever, an actual possibility given that both of them had likely achieved immortality, but the avian sorcerer sitting at their table interrupted Abelkin before he could do so.

"Actually, I think this isn't such a bad plan. It is unconventional, but I honestly believe we could manage."

The unnaturally pale undead sighted at Govan's words. It puzzled her, he shouldn't have needed to breathe; maybe it was a vestige of his past humanity, or he more likely just wanted to emphasize his next words.

"This isn't about whether we can. It's about whether we should."

The feathered mystic wavered at those words, incapable to properly answer the undead. As for her, she just wanted to get up and leave; but considering the importance of the role she was supposed to play it was merely wishful thinking. She had no alternatives but to keep quiet and listen to what the vampire was saying.

"Fighting anyone always constitutes a danger, let alone a dragon. Regardless of whether we can win or not, we must first consider if it is necessary to take the risk in the first place."

"But there is no risk."

Everyone's eyes went to the only other girl in the room.

"As long as it's only the eight of us we are risking nothing, in the worst-case scenario we will just die. I have already finished my experiments with resurrection; I could bring us all back to life in a few minutes, then we will only need to get back our equipment and level up."

Izora's cheerful declaration was met with cold eyes and doubtful expressions. In response to her words, Abelkin's hand clenched in a fist, betraying his ill concealed frustration. The vexation that had been building up for the past few weeks suddenly exploded in an exasperated shout.

"This is no longer a…!"

The vampire managed to stop his words before they could form a complete sentence. On the opposite side of the table, floating close to the guild master's throne, the hand of the kings stopped writing on his massive tome. Ever since their arrival, the word "game" had yet to be transcribed on Alkadeias' record.

After Abelkin's storming emotions got swiftly swept away like leaves in the wind, the unliving vice guild master restructured his sentence so that it would be more open to interpretation.

"I'm just saying that after what happened fifteen days ago, delicate techniques such as resurrection could function differently on us than how they used to."

The ability to quickly raise others to life on the spot at the expense of a single level was one of the greatest benefits of having a maxed level cleric in a party; but Izora was the only one completely certain her powers would still work on them as usual.

Having a fictional body slayed and resurrected only required faith in a few lines of code, but when the body was your only real one and "magic" the best explanation available, you would be needing the kind of faith you would only put in a god. Until the day a player passed away and she brought him back to life, they would never honestly count resurrection among their options.

The vampire stared at Izora for a long moment, his crimson eyes carefully studying the unfazed priestess. He then slowly shook his head and addressed his guild-mates once more.

"We have no reason to fight the dragon. We are more than capable to keep going on like this."

Once those words were spoken, the human sitting between the priestess and the assassin immediately backed Abelkin's point from a different prospective.

"We have never faced an opponent this powerful with so few people. Normally we could count on a raid of thirty-six combatants for opponents on his level; now there are only eight of us, and failure will enrage the dragon even further. Now he isn't looking for us, but it won't last if we attack."

She listened to Zaiho explaining his point of view; it made sense.

Once they attacked, any outcome aside for slaying the dragon could spell their doom. It was true they were hiding, but it wasn't like they crouched in the deepest part of a cave, ate raw mushrooms and stayed away from the sun's light; they were in a majestic flying castle, with treasures, servants and luxurious lives that could very likely be eternal. Why should they risk throwing it all away?

"It won't last even if we don't attack."

The human-shaped darkness interrupted her train of thought before she could give herself an answer. Everyone was now looking at the best estimation of where Raal was.

"The dragon already wants us dead. In fact, he was the first to attack."

The hand of the kings kept psychically moving his quill to save their every word for posterity.

"We will fight. Maybe not in a couple of days, maybe not for decades, but at some point we will clash. With my plan we can finish this two days from now, half a minute at most. Otherwise we can spend the rest of our lives waiting for the dragon to attack us one by one when we least expect it."

That was a bit too melodramatic; the reason he was tasked to spy on the dragon in the first place was to never get caught off-guard, and their base could always just fly away if the dragon got too close. Besides that, half a minute? That was a pretty bold declaration.

"I don't know…"

The tengu spoke once more; there was now hesitation in his words.

"I can see your point, but going with only the eight of us seems a bit…"

Govan seemed far less willing to follow unorthodox plans after being reminded that resurrection was off the table, but the towering figure at his right swiftly decided to fill the silence he had left in the room.

"I'm in. If we don't kill the dragon no one else will do it for us."

The monk's words were filled with confidence. Shen hadn't stopped looking for a fight ever since they arrived, he wouldn't let this one slip through his fingers.

"And on top of that, once he is gone his territory becomes ours. I'm sick tired of hunting in the deepest parts of the forest to not get spotted."

On his throne, the guild master was massaging the small horns growing in the lower part of his mandible. He looked at his guild-mates with his ember eyes, spending a long moment on each of them.

Being stared by an arch-demon seemed to never get less disquieting, and telling herself that it was still the same Azul somehow made things even worse.

Alkadeias was patiently waiting half-meter from the ground, his book and quill floating in front of him, ready to record what the king of kings would say next.

"As we cannot seem to find an unanimous agreement and time is an essential factor in the plan, this dispute will be settled by majority vote."

She couldn't help but to sigh internally. They had come to solve practically every issue with majority vote. Back when there was over a hundred of them it was both fair and efficient, but with only eight people it had turned into a nerve-wracking activity. The less people were involved, the more each individual vote counted.

"In favor or against? Raal?"

Azul hadn't wasted a moment and was already taking their votes.

"In favor."

Quite unsurprisingly, the one proposing a plan agreed to enact it.

"Zaiho?"

Wasting no time, Azul had already moved to the next person on the table.

"Against."

And with that, the first two votes had just cancelled each other.

"Izora?"

"In favor."

…That absolute confidence used to be out of character for her. She had no idea what lead her friend to change so much in just a couple of weeks. Not being affected by gaining epic powers was impossible, but she seemed way more affected compared to the others.

"Abelkin?"

Was it just her impression or voting seemed to be going faster than usual?

"Against. We don't need this fight."

Here it comes…

"Ayaki?"

Her turn.

She was petting one of her tails below the table, trying to not let the others see how stressed she was.

Meeting once a day and voting at least a couple of times per meeting, she had come to understand the dynamics of her group. The four before her had never voted all for the same thing, and cases where they completely cancelled each other's vote like just now were common occurrence. As for those coming after her, Shen was never shy in telling his opinion on any matter while Govan was the kind of guy that would always follow majority; when it was his turn he rarely picked the side with fewer votes.

This lead many times to situations where she had much more influence over the final outcome than just one eighth of the decision. For example, if right now she were to say "In favor" there would be at least five votes to carry out the plan. By agreeing, her vote alone could tip the whole balance in that direction.

There was but a single problem, it wasn't the direction she wanted.

"Against."

Her role in the plan was far too big; a single mistake on her part would mean the failure of the entire operation. If she could do anything to avoid such overwhelming responsibility, she would.

"Govan?"

"Against."

As expected, he went with the majority. After him, Shen would vote in favor and cancel her vote; ultimately leaving the final decision to the guild master. If he were to vote against, the plan wouldn't pass five to three; if he instead voted in favor it would be a tie, making the plan pass due to him being the tiebreaker. Either way the final decision would be entirely in his hands; all she could do now was to hope for Azul to vote against the borderline crazy plan of fighting the dragon with just eight of them.

"Shen?"

"In favor."

He didn't hesitated for a second.

Now it was four against and three in favor.

All eyes were on the arch-demon.

Ayaki held her breath, nearly hugging a few of her tails below the table.

Against. Against. Against. Please, say against.


The room was small, yet comfortable. A small fireplace in the corner gave the place a very peaceful feeling, while the large sofa on the opposite side of the room seemed the perfect place to spend a relaxing evening.

One of the room's occupants approached a small table upon which bottles of wine and other beverages had been prepared. Grabbing one of them without looking, he removed the cork with his teeth and approached the window as the floor creaked at every step.

In the plaza outside, a large crowd had gathered shortly after the sun rose. One would have expected a considerable hubbub from so many people reunited in a single place, but few of them seemed interested in conversation.

"Get away from there."

The monk took his eyes away from the plaza and looked behind him. Zaiho was standing by the entrance, nervously eavesdropping on the door in case someone approached from the other side. The metallic fingers forming his claw had merged in a single blade and his human hand was tightly gripping a gold-like urn, ready to release its power at any moment.

Rather than tense, he was one misstep away from a mental breakdown.

The monk looked back outside with an uncaring smile stamped on his face; he sipped the bottle's content and then responded without looking at the crafter.

"I can sense no one but us in this building; we have already looked for everything that could be searched and warded the room with spells and items, it's safe. Just sit down and relax, Raal said we are running no risks in here."

Why did he have to bring him in this? When had he ever said there were no risks? And how dumb could he be to tell to someone on the brink of panic to "just sit down and relax"?

Quickly setting those questions aside, Raal rushed to defuse the situation before either of them could do something extremely stupid, like keep talking.

"I have cast [Image of calm], [Greater isolate] and [Aura of the unremarkable] on the room, while Govan used [Mage's private sanctum], [Greater secrecy] and [Widen spell: impenetrable veil]. Izora is using her [Secret temple] and [Hide from faithless], while Shen is observing the area with his [Ki vision] and we are using items to further conceal us. Furthermore, in the unlikely case we are found, we will easily have enough time to teleport back to the castle before we can be attacked. We are as safe as it is possible to be." Though there is no such thing as absolute safety.

With the crafter now further away from mental breakdown than he was a moment ago, Raal brought his attention back to the monk. He was drinking alcohol while looking outside without a care in the world.

While it was true that a normal wall wouldn't make much of a difference if an opponent could see through all their layers of concealment, Shen was clearly just being reckless for the sake of it.

After considering that people like him stubbornly got more reckless when they were asked to keep caution, he concluded it was better to just let him be and focus on the preparations.

Raal observed the other occupants of the room. Eight individuals of incomprehensible power were all sharing the same small space.

Azul and Abelkin were standing in the center a few steps from each other, ready to react if anything were to happen. They were tense, but dealt with the situation considerably better than Zaiho.

The arch-demon was nearly as tall as the ceiling, dominating the room with his presence. A fiendish-looking long-sword and a massive war-hammer were on his back, while a whip strapped to the belt rested on his side. The vampire was instead wearing a complete set of heavy full-plate armor as black as the night, with a one-handed sword on each side and kite shield on his back.

Govan was sitting on a wooden armchair in a corner; his staff leaned on the wall behind him. Raal still hadn't completely gotten used to read non-human faces, but the way the avian spell caster constantly shifted his weight on the chair and kept his hands on the [Greater teleportation] scroll suggested that he wasn't completely calm.

On the sofa, Izora had a calm smile on her face, a stark contrast with the expression most of the other occupants showed. While he personally would have appreciated that his plan could inspire that much confidence in someone, he had solid reasons to assume the source of her positive attitude was something far less reliable than his extensive research and careful planning.

Lastly, sitting on the other side of the sofa, Ayaki was inspecting the conditions of her bow. She had been doing so for the last twenty minutes, as she previously did with the items concealing the room and with the piece of paper where she had written a few notes on the plan.

She appeared to be perfectly collected; calmly verifying everything was ready before the dragon's arrival. None of her actions showed even a glimpse of worry, but her movements were far too polished to be natural. He had spent too much time studying kinesics and nonverbal communication to not recognize an artificial behavior right in front of him.

She was concealing her stress, and there was quite a lot of it. It was natural to be tense in her situation; a large part of the plan's success rested on her shoulders.

Raal looked outside the window, it was about time. He once again invoked the power of the magic crown he wore; images of his target appeared in his mind. The dragon lord of wilderness was already crossing the hills south of the city.

He looked at his guild-mates through his pale mask.

"Let's get started."

Following his words, the kitsune suddenly halted her movements. She stared briefly in front of her with a calm smile on her lips, any less experienced observer wouldn't had noticed the fear in her eyes; she then stood up with forced calm and moved a few steps forward.

"[Greater luck]."

Following the incantation, her body was surrounded by an intense arcane aura.

"[Greater full potential], [Paranormal intuition], [Magnify elements]…"

As she continued to cast long-lasting buffs, Izora stood up as well and pointed her holy symbol toward the vulpine bard. The chants of her divine blessings swiftly followed.

"[Sacred guidance], [Blessing of elements], [Divine might]…"

Govan was now holding his staff and had also begun to cast spells at her.

"[Extended Magic: Penetrating blows], [Greater haste], [Heightened magic: Preternatural accuracy]…"

The three of them casted a seemingly endless series of spells whose purpose was to maximize the deadliness of her attacks in the next few minutes, brightening the room with the lingering lights of their magic. As opposite magical attributes would cancel each other and many effects would not stack, they had previously spent several hours figuring out which combination of spells, items and skills could produce the highest amount of damage in a single attack. The final result was a total of forty-three spells divided between Ayaki and her bow, five different items and seventeen skills that did not overlap with each other.

Back in the game it would have been impossible to fight any boss using that many buffs at once. All the obstacles on the way to the final room would, in a way or the other, make them waste the long lasting spells, while spending too much time buffing up in the dungeon's last room would render the group vulnerable.

Assuming the party really put an effort into it, having a single overly-buffed member against a boss was technically possible; but after the wrong video became viral on the socials, most bosses were programmed to respond to such approach with [Superior anti-magic field] and [Widened spell: Mage's Disjunction].

Though the strategy was no longer available in the game, it wasn't necessarily impossible for them now. Challenging a boss in a dungeon meant they were fighting him on his terms, on his battlefield and with him in his top form. Now they could catch their foe off guard and attack him before he could disrupt the buffs.

"1500 meters."

The monk's words caused a brief interruption in the cascade of spells. The dragon lord of wilderness was now within the range of Shen's [Ki vision].

Everything was going as planned. In the time spent studying the dragon Raal learned it would still take him over another minute before landing, and he wouldn't cause unnecessary damage to the cities paying their tribute.

While the last spells were being cast on Ayaki's divine-grade bow, Zaiho quickly took an arrow out of his inventory and brought it to the warriors standing in the middle of the room.

It was a little over eighty centimeters long, entirely made of a silver-like metal and with a small dark crystal mounted in it. The arrowhead's shape was puzzling, a long rhombus slightly elongated toward the point; on one side there also was a deformation meant to make the arrow function as a hook, making it nearly impossible to remove once it penetrated the flesh.

Raal couldn't help but question whether such materials and design were actually suited for an arrow, but he had already seen it being used effectively back in the game. Most high-grade equipment seemed to function only by virtue of being magical, and if that wasn't the case one of his own blades ought to be even less practical.

Holding the arrow by the metallic fletching with his shape-shifting claw, Zaiho begun to use his skills to increase the arrow's power.

"[Bestow special ability: seeking], [Bestow special ability: penetrating], [Bestow special ability: heart-piercing]…"

As a crafter his combat abilities were lower than the other people in the room, but it was in situations like this that he could be at his most useful. Rather than specializing in one type of weapon he chose to focus on those made of metal, limiting the range of items he could work on while increasing the types. Combining this with his quick-forging skill, he could bestow a considerable number of extra weapon qualities to metal-made items even if he wasn't the original crafter; including cash-shop items such as the arrow.

The arrow was one of the most dangerous items in their possession, a [black crystal arrow]. Like other items made of [Black crystal], it was able of greatly affecting the ability to use magic and supernatural abilities. When fired it could ignore magical and supernatural defenses, including immunities and resistances; upon a successful hit, the crystal would break in the target's body and inflict a fifty percent chance failure on every spell and supernatural skill or ability until removed. A single one of them could turn the tide of a battle.

While the metal-shaper was bestowing abilities to the arrow, the balor lord pointed his palm toward it and activated one of his skills.

"[Hellish mark V]."

Azul inscribed his demonic symbol on the projectile, causing it to gain extra demonic effects. It was unusual for a barbarian to possess support abilities, but some of the most powerful racial classes were surprisingly versatile. Since the arrow didn't had the "evil" subtype the mark would vanish in a few minutes, but it would be more than enough time for Ayaki to attack the dragon.

As a large shadow suddenly flew over the window, the room abruptly fell into darkness. The light returned immediately after, followed by a loud thud that shook the entirety of the building.

The following moments passed in absolute silence. No one was talking, no one was moving. True silence dominated those instants.

Then, a distinct, proud and slightly fearful voice could be heard from outside.

"Welcome, oh mighty dragon lord."

He had arrived.

One minute from now he would start devouring the tribute and the plan would begin. Raal looked at Ayaki, all the spells had already been cast.

"[Blood magic: Infuse spell – Touch of undead]."

Abelkin had already returned to work on powering up the arrow. His words shattered the stillness of the room like a rock thrown on a window, bringing the others' concentration back on the matter at hand.

"[Blood magic: Infuse spell – Energy drain]."

"We are honored you have chosen to visit us in this humble city whose creation you allowed."

While outside the speech to greet the dragon earned them the time they needed, the work on the arrow was quickly completed. Azul seized it immediately and handed it over to Ayaki.

Now it was time to use her arcane archer skills to apply the final bonuses to the [Black crystal arrow].

"Please, accept this gift as a token of our everlasting gratitude to your immense self."

She nocked the arrow on her bow. Raal could feel his heart beating faster and faster.

"[Greater gravity blow], [Absolute strike], [Predator's will: dragon]."

She stretched the bow. They waited.

As the dragon walked the few steps separating him from the large pile of food, Raal held his breath. Looking through his crows' eyes he saw the new governor, Gerber el Nehim, being ignored by the dragon lord of wilderness while making the first public speech of his mandate.

The beast launched himself on the food like the animal he was, swallowing rather than eating.

Now. Twenty seconds.

Every time the monster opened his gigantic fangs, a small mountain of the city's provisions vanished down his throat. The dragon was so ravenous that he growled between one bite and the other.

Twelve seconds.

Shen lowered his stance and clenched his fists; the seriousness in his eyes was in stark contrast with the amused smile on his lips. Ayaki's tails were enveloped in elemental radiance.

Eight seconds.

Raal drew his spiral blade, ready to use it on a moment's notice. With mere seconds separating them from the opening attack, he couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva. The elemental power gathered in the kitsune's tails flowed toward the arrow.

Four seconds.

Despite the cacophony of the dragon gorging on the tribute less than thirty meters from them, Raal could clearly hear Ayaki slowly inhaling and holding her breath. Her arrow was now shining, simultaneously charged by the power of nine different elements.

Two seconds.

Through his crows Raal saw the dragon already halfway through the mountain of offerings, devouring a colossal bite after the other.

One.

Zero.

The dragon's claws suddenly dug in the stone floor, opening long cracks in the plaza. His muscles tensed up, an abrupt swipe of his tail demolished the façade of the nearby city hall.

With a low growl, the dragon's fangs were for all to see.

The monster pushed with his anterior paws and erected himself in all of his height. His colossal wings stretched from one side of the plaza to the other, dwarfing the terrified onlookers below.

The roar shook the walls of the entire city.

The poisons had been released.

Raal's class levels were only in assassin classes, but his [Master assassin] class could convert them in alchemist levels to craft poisons. In this very narrow field of crafting, he could produce almost every poison of the game. The ones he sneaked in the tribute had been imbued with the "undetectable" special ability, concealing all presence and symptoms of ingested poisons until twenty seconds after consumption.

Ingested poisons were amongst the most powerful, though they were far harder to use in the game. One could use them only by sneaking them in another player's food before consumption or tricking others in ingesting them, rare considering the players that actually needed to eat did it in their guild bases; but the dragon lord was an easy target in this regard.

Panting heavily and growling in pain, the monster's body was slowly turning black. Large stains were appearing on his chest, while blood was pouring out of his jaws.

Some in the plaza were running to safety, but the majority of them were too terrified to even move. The sight of the angered dragon had completely frozen their bodies in horror.

Roaring in rage, the dragon's horns begun to shine. Like an immense lighthouse built in the middle of the city, they bathed the surroundings in their blinding light. Countless luminous orbs were willed into existence to fill the sky. As the human onlookers were forced to avert their eyes, the mystical spheres begun to dance around the dragon.

The spiral of light moved faster and faster around the deer-like behemoth, creating a vortex as tall as the sky.

And then, as the luminous tornado was violently rising from the city, Ayaki slowly exhaled and loosened her fingers, letting the arrow fly through the air.

Imbued with the last abilities the moment it left the bow, the black projectile phased through the wall as if it didn't exist.

It ran toward the dragon's chest at unnatural speed, inexplicably altering its trajectory to match the monster's movements.

It passed through the spiraling orbs as if they were nothing but an illusion, dissipating them with a touch of the crystal sliver.

An explosion of light filled the area.

Then, silence.

The shining orbs had vanished from existence as suddenly as they were weaved in it.

The arrow was no longer moving, frozen mid-air only mere meters from the dragon.

No wind blew.

Nothing moved.

The citizens were but motionless statues, immobile parts of the frozen world that had overtaken reality.

With blood still leaking from his jaws and eyes, the dragon returned on four paws. He gave a hasty look at the arrow frozen over him, then lowered his gaze until it stopped close to the building they were in.

His scaly lips curved in a feral smile. He thrust open his jaws, wide enough to easily swallow a grown man whole. A sea of fire flooded the plaza, rushing toward them; then it violently flowed through the window.

In the following seconds, a flaming storm burned in the room at over a thousand degrees. The rock-melting flames whirled in the room with incredible intensity, insinuating in every fissure and corner.

When the fire finally died, the room was no different than it was before.

The arch-demon lowered his smoking arms, revealing a face twisted by fury.

"Raal!"

In response to his shout, an amalgamation of darkness in the shape of a hooded man left his shadow.

Azul stared at the assassin, rage filling his eyes.

"What. Is. Happening?"

The unholy warrior made sure every word of his question conveyed his full dissatisfaction with their current predicament; however the answer came from somewhere else

"It appears time has stopped."

Even though the tengu's answer came from his back, Azul didn't avert his eyes from the shadow.

The plan Raal created hadn't survived its implementation, and as the guild leader he wanted to make him perfectly aware of who was responsible for this failure. The balor lord was furious, but Raal's mind was no milder than his.

Seventeen days. That was how long they had lived in the new world and that was how long he had been planning and preparing for this day.

He had been imprisoned, burnt and forced to fight for his life. He had seen death in the eyes twice. He had spent sleepless nights with the feeling of fire on his skin and the image of his melting flesh burned in his mind. The growing hatred endlessly burning in his body hadn't left him one moment since the day they arrived. When his morality crumbled to pieces as he spied, manipulated, stole and killed, revenge was the only thing that pushed him to go forward; and now it had all been for nothing.

His plan was perfect. Avoid the dragon lord's unpredictable magic by pushing him in a situation where casting a spell he had already seen was the most logical outcome, deal as much damage as possible when in the middle of the casting to break the spell and weaken him, follow up with a [death attack] when he is heavily wounded and all the variables are against him and finally claim the soul before he can self-resurrect.

Everything was going as planned. He had managed to convince the others to help him, the governor he put in power handed him all the management details, the arrow could have one-shot the majority of the game bosses and the dragon behaved as he expected until almost the very end.

What went wrong? Who messed up? Was it Ayaki's fault? Was her timing wrong? No. The timing was perfect. It was the spell. Time stop. Was the casting time shorter? Could the dragon lord cast quickened spells? When had him given any indication he could do that? And who would even think of stopping time when poisoned? Everyone's first instinct should have been to remove the poison. Why has he…

No.

Below his mask, Raal bit his lower lip. His fangs penetrated deep in the flesh, interrupting the storm of questions in his mind through pain.

One thing at a time. There will be time for questions later.

With his mind rid of superfluous thoughts and his lacerated lip already regenerating, Raal quickly assessed the situation.

Since nothing can be affected when outside the flow of time, the room and the items within hadn't sustained damage.

The anti-detection and stealth abilities were still working; meaning the dragon currently had no way to determine if his attack had been effective.

No one had died in the fire. They had all managed to evade the scattered flames or take only minor damage.

Ayaki, Izora, Abelkin and Zaiho were making use of passive anti-time-stop countermeasures. They were frozen in time, but they could subtract the lost period from the casting of any ability they possessed. When time would return to normality, they would be under the effect of a powerful yet normally unusable buff that would give them an edge afterward.

He, Azul, Shen and Govan instead used active countermeasures. They had ways to move while the time was frozen, giving them the task to prevent the opponents from simply over buffing themselves in the stopped time so that their unmoving allies wouldn't be overwhelmed thereafter.

Right now Raal's priorities were: getting out of the fight alive, not getting lynched by the guild and prevent the death of as many allies as possible. If reasonable, kill the dragon lord of wilderness.

He looked at the guild leader, still staring at him with furious eyes and waiting for an answer.

Let's start with not getting lynched.

"It is true no one thought of the possibility a [time-stop] could be used in the ambush, but this plays to our advantage."

Raal breathed regularly and altered the tone of his voice to appear more confident than he was. Through the fissures that were arch-demon's eyes it was still possible to see his fury, but after hearing his words at least he stopped showing him his fangs.

Now that it was less likely to be cut in half in a fit of rage, he had to tell him all the positive sides of the situation. If any of the downsides was mentioned, there was a non-negligible possibility the guild leader would strike him down.

"I am seeing through my crows that the dragon wasted a considerable amount of power to stop time, and it is clear he don't know the workings of his own spell. He chose to attack when we were the least likely to take damage, and instead of pressing on with his offensive he is wasting time trying to confirm the attack's outcome."

During a [time stop], acting quickly was even more important than it normally was. Even taking blind shots would be a better alternative than doing nothing.

"We, on the other side, are nearly unharmed and still protected by our layers of anti-detection; with half of us about to receive a powerful buff. The dragon hasn't even taken any step to hinder our escape, in the worst case scenario we can just wait for the time to return normal and teleport to safety."

Azul's face was dominated by disappointment; but considering it was the alternative to murderous rage, disappointment was fine.

Raal now just needed to remind him that voting implied shared responsibility.

"We lost little to nothing. The limited costs in case of incidents was among the plan's selling points when we voted for it."

With the balor lord still staring at him, Raal prepared to tap into his mystical abilities and escape in the dark world. Considering the possible arch-demon's attacks and the distance between them, he should be able to shift in the obscure plane of existence before any lethal attack could reach him.

For a long moment no one in the room dared to break the silence; then Azul closed his eyes and sighed, lifting the tension that had been building up in the room.

Raal found relief in that reaction like a drowning man would find in air. He was ok for now, but it was only temporary. The discussion had only been postponed for later, and unless we wanted a fate worse than actually drowning he would need to find some rock-solid arguments by then.

All fancy words aside, what had they actually lost?

The cash-shop items weren't one-use, aside for the arrow. That was gone, and also precious; they only had other three left. Maybe he could manage to retrieve it if time remained frozen long enough.

It was also good no one had died yet, but they were irreparably compromised. The dragon had been attacked and it had been in Ulovale. If they couldn't come up with a way to kill him now they would need to start again from zero, wasting all the progress of the past weeks.

Maybe he could convince them that relocating would have been in their best interest anyway; like bringing up that the resources in the forest were running out or something along those lines.

He should give those points some thought.

Meanwhile Azul had turned toward the other two, asking a question to no one in particular.

"How long has it been?"

The monk approached him while providing a concise answer.

"A little over fifty seconds."

Azul looked toward Govan, a clear message in his eyes. The feathered wizard immediately stood up and moved toward them.

"Govan, how long before time returns to normality?"

The avian caster answered while giving a quick glance outside the window.

"Hard to say. The shortest a player can stop time is twelve seconds, while normally one could last up to a minute and a half. The record for a single player with supporting items and specialized classes is six minutes, but the mini-boss [Elli, of the old] in the Utgardar castle could halt it for twelve."

They looked at their frozen comrades, each surrounded by magical effects slowly covering their bodies. The longer they remained in the frozen time, the more powerful they would be once they could move.

Azul clenched his fist and looked at them one by one, weighting the possibilities in his head.

"The situation has gone too far off from what was planned. We will wait for the time to return normal, grab the others and…"

"Out! Now!"

Half a heartbeat after Shen's shout, a concentrated beam of blinding fire burst through the window and inundated the room in flames. It grew in power and intensity with every second, forming a fierce cyclone of scorching annihilation in the unchanging room.

The fire burned with preternatural power, the flames capable of meeting the melting point of any conceivable material.

As the flaming tornado engulfed the place, Shen appeared over the rubbles of the destroyed town's hall. Briefly after, following a flash of light, Azul and Govan materialized on the rooftop of a nearby building. They were greeted by the sight of the wilderness dragon lord hurling his beam of concentrated fire at their window.

The deer-like behemoth closed his jaws to interrupt his fiery breath shortly after their appearance and looked at the three of them with eyes glowing of magical light.

Before a word could be said, the monk charged forward.

In a single jump he reached the dragon's frontal paws and kicked the knee on the side with all his might. Backed by the abundant Ki and the perfectly trained body, his kick had enough power to destabilize the huge beast. He immediately followed up with a second kick to the other paw, but without the charge's momentum his attack was ineffective against the dragon's nearly indestructible scales.

As the undiscouraged monk pressed on with the attack pouring a flurry of blows on the dragon's side, a few near-imperceptible words left the arch-demon's ajar lips.

"…God damn it Shen…"

He took his whip from the side and grabbed the long-sword on his back with his right hand, enveloping them in infernal flames as he quickly grew in size and a fiery aura emanated from him.

"Shen, to the back; flanking maneuver. Govan, support; I don't want other surprises. Raal, DPS; take every shot you see."

His bat wings opened wide on his back; pushing all the air they could move, Azul sprinted forward in a charge against the dragon. The flaming whip rapidly flew toward the beast's face, missing the eye only for the dragon's promptness of reflexes that allowed him to tilt the head in time; however the whip produced enough distraction to allow the balor lord to strike with his flaming long-sword using all his might right where the monk first struck. The blade pierced through the scales and penetrated the flesh, pouring a small river of blood onto the streets.

After he extracted the sword from the dragon, the infernal whip circled around the wounded paw as if gifted of a will of its own. The arch-demon quickly wrapped it twice around his hand and then pulled with all his might; but as the wounded limb begun to slip forward the deer-like monster pierced deep in the ground with his claws, blocking the drag attempt.

The dragon lord of wilderness immediately followed up the attack trying to devour the hellish outsider. His jaws fell wide on Azul with enough momentum to shatter boulders, only to abruptly find a far harder obstacle on their path.

"[Quickened magic: greater wall of force]."

A semi-transparent barrier rose from the ground, shielding the balor lord as the dragon crashed into the nearly indestructible wall with all his might.

Before the deer-like monster could have any time to process what trickery had neutralized his attack, a shadow spurt out of the statue-like crowd and slipped below the wall of force. By the time the beast felt the cut on his neck, Raal had already vanished among the time-frozen citizens.

Momentarily blocked behind the arcane barrier, the arch-demon looked at the only human in the fight. The monk was throwing several punches at each heartbeat, none of which seemed to have any effect.

"Shen! The scales give him damage reduction. Quality over quantity!"

Following those words, without a moment of hesitation, the monk jumped away from the dragon and dove toward a wall. The very moment after his feet touched the bricks, Shen was back in the air, once again charging propelled by a [Ki jump] toward the dragon. The impact with the posterior paw was fierce, further destabilizing the beast. Before the deer-like creature could have any time to recover, the shadow rushed in and exploited the opening by stabbing him in the side.

The dragon lord of wilderness attempted to strike them down with a sweep of his tail, but they had already gone outside its range.

A wrathful roar echoed in the plaza, followed by a glare growing down the dragon lord's throat. The same beam of pure flames they had seen but half a minute ago erupted from the beast's jaws and smashed on the transparent wall, causing the temperature on his side of the barrier to rise at abnormal speed.

As the blood leaking from the beast's jaws evaporated form the scorching heat, the pillar of concentrated fire kept growing in intensity. Shen suddenly materialized at Azul's side, covered in sweat and with heavy breath.

As Govan watched with a mixture of awe and fear the barrier he created blocking the immensely powerful attack, a cry left his beak.

"You've gotta be kidding me! [Extended magic: Mass superior circle of protection from fire]!"

Halfway through his chant, Raal emerged in front of him from a shadow and jumped in the spell's range.

A circle of white light surrounded each of them while the point where the beam was focused was turning dark. Azul put back his whip and long-sword and grabbed his giant war-hammer, enveloping it in hellish flames as he touched it. He then lifted his opened hand in the air for his companions to see and moved it vertically downward, signaling their next maneuver with a single gesture. Shen readied a stance, gathering Ki in his legs. Raal grabbed a dagger with each hand and moved at the head of the formation, his eyes fixed on the target.

The dark area on the barrier blackened rapidly. Cracks begun to appear throughout the surface. Govan opened his wings and rose a few meters in the air, pointing his staff at the fire breather.

Then, unable to resist any longer, the greater wall of force shattered into pieces under their very eyes. The barrier renowned in the game for being nearly unbreakable through sheer force and that had obligated players to find ways around it had been broken in twenty-four seconds with a direct attack. The pillar of fire reached them before they could even blink, spreading out after hitting the ground and swallowing the world around them.

Inside their circles of protection, the four of them looked at the flames enveloping everything in their path. Hadn't time been frozen, the city would no longer exist.

With only seconds before their only protection from flames of that magnitude discharged, they attacked with everything they had.

Raal jumped through the flames toward the dragon's head, slicing its side with all the strength he could muster when enveloped in such a bright light. Shen sprinted forward immediately after, reaching the dragon's lower jaw in a jump and kicking it downward while releasing large amounts of Ki to increase the attack's strength.

Their first two attacks hadn't dealt noteworthy amounts of damage; the power gap was too great for any of their attacks to individually inflict relevant results, but both had created favorable conditions for the one to follow.

Raal could only inflict superficial wounds, but he managed to lacerate a jowl; Shen had done little more than lowering the dragon's mandible, but now it was as open as the fire breather's anatomy permitted.

Azul opened his wings and pushed himself high as the two before him did. He gripped his hammer with both hands and then hit downward with all the power his massive demonic body provided.

A snapping sound spread through the area.

The flames ended, and then an indescribable cry filled the plaza. It wasn't a roar; it was more similar to what a talentless musician could produce with a broken instrument. It carrier pain, anger and suffering, but the sound's distortion stripped the howl of any dignity.

On the ground laid the massive lower half of the dragon's head, surrounded by broken teeth and with a twitching tongue above, forming a small crimson lake at his feet. Blood copiously flowed down from his mutilated head, painting the ground red.

With eyes filled with pain and rage the dragon went on a rampage, hitting the ground with his claws and rotating his tail in the air in a furious attempt to hit his opponents.

Flying above the deer-like behemoth, the feathered caster pointed his staff toward him. With eyes so cold that seemed of ice, he completed his offensive incantation.

"[Triple intensified empowered maximized magic: rays of disintegration]."

Eighteen tiny orbs of faint bluish light were conjured around the raven-like men. They emitted a fine line that swiftly flew toward the dragon lord of wilderness. Over a dozen of them made contact with his body.

The left horn, the end of his tail, large portions of the wings, his posterior right foot as well as many large areas of the dragon's scales abruptly crumbled to dust, leaving behind nothing but bones and exposed bleeding flesh.

An incomprehensible lament echoed in the frozen world, a wail carrying nothing but pain and suffering. The maimed beast attempted with all his might not to fall on the ground.

Filled with newfound rage the dragon spitted fire out of his destroyed mouth, enveloping in flames the world in front of him.

Govan brought himself outside the attack's range with his flawless areal maneuverability coming from the combined use of magical flight and racial wings, evading the attack and flying to where his comrades were.

Before he could even land Shen had already charged forward, initiating another flurry of blows on the areas no longer protected by scales. Raal had also slipped back into the shadows, waiting for another opportunity to hit.

Azul immediately placed himself between the wizard and their opponent.

"Status report!"

"Our attacks were effective. [Life essence] indicates the dragon's HPs now are below half, but my last spell almost completely drained my mana, I have only five more high level spells."

The balor lord switched his equipment back to long-sword and whip.

"For how long can you move?"

"My three minutes are about to expire. I can get other three if I time a [Triple extended maximized magic: time stop] on the end of the previous one, but then I would only have three spells."

Azul opened his wings as he shifted his weight forward.

"Pin down the dragon, cast the time stop and then focus on keeping him still for as long as you can."

Leaving those words behind the arch-demon charged forward, his whip striking at the unprotected wounds and his long-sword hitting with all the momentum gained in the charge.

Readying his staff and taking the air to increase his mobility, the robed tengu pronounced his next incantation.

"[Intensified empowered magic: greater black tentacles]."

A pitch black stain appeared on the ground below the dragon, as if ink had just been spilled on the very fabric of reality.

Countless tentacles abruptly emerged from the blackness and moved to grab the wounded beast trapped inside. They grew in size, clutching to any hold they could find and pulling down with all their strength.

The deer-like monster fought to free himself from the entangling blackness that squeezed to crush him, but the assassin slipped from the shadows to the dark conjuration and unleashed a merciless series of powerful attacks from below. The balor lord joined the attacks shortly after with his whip, increasing the amount of damage the dragon suffered as he attempted to regain his freedom.

Even as wounded as he was, the might of a dragon lord's body remained superior to the one of the strengthened eldritch appendices. The bleeding beast freed the upper half of his body and spread his two pairs of wounded wings, ready to fly away from the magical restrains that were conjured around him.

Seeing this, Govan rushed to cast another spell to maintain the dragon lord of wilderness down before his time in the frozen world ran out.

"[Maximized empowered magic: Telekinesis]."

An invisible wave of force came from above and pushed the maimed monster back into the greater black tentacles, submerging him in the moving blackness.

Ignoring the distorted cries of rage and pain coming from the monster trapped in his spell, Govan immediately readied himself to cast the time stop.

Counting the seconds in his head, he began the chanting to make the spell match with the end of his previous one.

"[Triple extended maximized…"

When he was only halfway through the words of power, a blaze emerged from the tangle of mystical tentacles. Bursts of fire emanated from the blackness, randomly enveloping everything in the area in flames.

Finding him halfway through his casting and no longer surrounded by his circle of protection, one burst of flame fell on the feathered caster before he had time to fly away.

Even thought it was a lucky shot from a wounded dragon, the power behind it was still massive and the timing couldn't have been worse. Govan reflexively raised his arms to protect his face as he was about to be enveloped in flames, but the protection offered by his magical panoply wasn't powerful enough to negate the fire.

Flames covered his feathers; he lost control of his wings and fell on the ground, breaking the concentration required to finish his spell. And thus his time in the frozen world ended, leaving behind a statue instead of a combatant.

No longer pushed down by the invisible force, the dragon exerted himself and finally broke free of his restraints, taking the sky on his perforated wings to flee from the black tentacles.

Shen looked at the frozen wizard, unmoving like a photograph. His eyes then went back to the fire-breathing monster, flying away from his striking range.

Without hesitation, he gathered Ki in his legs to prepare a [Ki jump] to close the distance and bring the monster back to the ground. Before Azul could do anything to stop him, he was already rocketing alone toward the dragon lord, away from cover and assistance.

The dragon managed to intercept his straightforward trajectory with his tail, but the monk's promptness of reflexes allowed him to grab it with his hands and deflect his dive toward the dragon's head.

A wall of flames was ready to meet him.

With his body moving faster than he could think, he reflexively activated a skill capable of absorbing elemental damage at the expense of his Ki.

Once the flames disappeared, his body had taken no damage; it instead floated immobile in the air. The Ki he had been using to move in the frozen time had run out to protect him from the flames, stripping him of his only way to move in a world where nothing could.

Azul looked in silence at the dragon lord landing a few dozen meters from him. Their numbers had halved twice in just three minutes, first when time was stopped and then now.

The balor lord put his weapons away and grabbed his war-hammer.

"Raal!"

Below him, the edge of his shadow slightly twisted.

"I'm going berserk. Stay out of my way."

The shadow twitched once more, the arch-demon was alone.

He looked at the dragon in front of him. As he stared intensely at the enemy, a low growl resonated in the outsider's throat, quickly increasing in intensity with each passing instant.

Intense flames were now on top of his head, his mouth a well of fire and his eyes windows to the pits of hell.

His muscles twisted and writhed; hundreds dark crimson horns grew out of his flesh, forming an armor of bones attached to his body. His fangs and claws grew longer; his wings became thicker and got covered in hard dark scales.

He grew even further in size and begun to walk forward as rage corrupted his body, the growl now a furious scream.

Holding his flaming war-hammer with a single hand, the raging Azul charged at the dragon lord with a speed one would not expect of a demon over four meters tall.

The dragon met him with an intense wall of flames, but Azul charged straight through it.

The hammer hit the lord of wilderness in what was left of his mouth, resulting in ivory splinters soaring into the air.

Without wasting a single moment to rejoice or to feel anything beside rage, the balor lord immediately followed his first attack with a second one. The flaming war-hammer fell on the creature's nose with so much power that it pushed the head to the side.

Relentless and unstoppable, the arch-demon continued his ruthless series of attacks by grabbing his fiendish weapon with two hands and drawing an ample circle in the air, at the end of which was the heavily damaged dragon's knee.

The lord of wilderness attempted to lift his paw in response, but the damage to the head had slowed his reflexes and he was too late. The hammer hit the knee to the side, and in a snapping sound the limb unnaturally bent to follow its movement.

Leaping out of the shadows, Raal slipped past his raging companion and stabbed the dragon once more, only to immediately disappear back in the darkness to escape both furious monsters.

Incapable of finding the cloaked figure with his rage-dulled senses, the demon ignored the assassin and waved his weapon once more, perpetrating the offensive to the deer-like monster.

The hammer once more found its way to the dragon, sending blood and scales in the air, but the next attack didn't came from the balor lord.

The monster's claw hit the arch-demon with incredible power, throwing him in a building over twenty meters away.

Azul hit the time-frozen wall and fell on the ground, smoking blood flowing out of his furnace-head.

Using the war-hammer to regain his footing he slowly stood up, the entire left side of his bone armor had shattered into pieces.

A demonic scream of rage echoed through the battlefield; the horns forming the fiendish natural armor abruptly grew back, forced out by the hellish fury.

Still pushed by his barbaric rage, Azul charged forward once more.

This time, rather than wasting his forces with another wall of flames, the dragon swept his tail, hitting his target and pushing back the outsider berserk once more. Seeing the fire-breathing behemoth struggling to move with a broken paw and a disintegrated foot, Raal blinked out of the shadows while his companion was being swept away, leaving behind a fast counterattack and a draconic scream of pain.

The still-flying demon let go of his war-hammer, spread his wings to increase friction and grabbed the floor using both hands, his fiendish claws struggling to find a hold in the ground.

Once he managed to stop, the hellish barbarian charged once more, this time to the side. Circling around the dragon lord of wilderness, he grabbed his flaming whip and made it rotate in the air. Not loosing precision in its wielder's rage thanks to its semi-awareness, the whip swiftly moved toward the dragon's head and tied itself around one of the deer-like horns. Then the guild leader ran with all his might, dragging his opponent by the horn while flapping with his wings to pull with more strength.

The dragon lord tilted his head to the other side and shifted his weight in the opposite direction to resist the balor lord's drag attempt and turn it against him. Even though they were both giants in their own right, the lord of wilderness was still over six times as large as the hellish rager; but he was severely injured and fighting a warrior fueled by the very fury of hell.

The two were evenly matched.

They both tried to plant themselves in the ground with their claws, to push with their wings, to do everything in their power to gain an edge over each other; but they were blocked.

Capitalizing on the stalemate, Raal left the shadows and raced at the dragon lord. He instantly reached a weak spot on the dragon's posterior paws where the scales had been disintegrated and slashed the muscles.

Loosing what hold he had on the ground, the dragon slipped forward and lost his balance.

Azul immediately pulled the flaming whip with both hands to push himself toward the now prone beast, charging once again toward him.

In a final push, the raging balor lord drew his long-sword and pierced the dragon in the back. He then extracted his blade and prepared to stab him once more, but the dragon pushed down with his wings and rolled over.

The arch-demon fell off and the dragon lord immediately pinned him down with his claw.

Shouting in fury, Azul untied his flaming whip from the horn and used it to attack the monster above him.

Wounded, maimed and crippled, the dragon lord of wilderness looked at his immobilized opponent and made his best attempt at a smile without his mandible. His horns then begun to shine and the small orbs of light Raal found way too familiar were willed into existence.

Aiming for his primary two targets that were finally left unguarded in the spell casting, Raal left the shadows and rapidly flew with his blades in hand.

His full attention was on the monster's eyes. The magical light they emitted appeared to have an effect even greater than [True vision V], rendering all his illusions useless. As long as the dragon had them, Raal had no way to remain hidden in the light without physical cover.

If he could manage to blind him, then the fight would permanently shift in their favor. They inflicted massive damage, but they came in eight and now only two were still fighting. The dragon was not only still able to move but was even fighting back effectively, focusing on them one by one and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The entire battle up to this point had been a continuous back and forth; if he could take his sight, then they would be able to overpower him in a two to one fight.

The spiral blade reached the dragon's right eye with a speed beyond human comprehension, but the eyeball remained untouched; Raal's weapon collided with a lid of solid magical light protecting the eye.

The enchantment shattered upon contact with the dagger, hurling its fragments flying toward him. One of the pieces touched his hand before he could move away, dispelling the concealing spells he was enveloped in.

After Raal appeared in Azul's field of view he heard a furious shout; he managed to dodge the berserker's whip by mere centimeters.

Unable to form any complex thought, the raging balor lord attacked him once more, forcing his own ally to fly further away from the dragon.

Raal looked in horror as the orbs of light quickly condensed in a small sphere above the dragon lord. He rushed at him to break the spell, but once more the whip forced him away.

Then, as Raal charged in one last time, the shining agglomeration quickly flew at the raging balor lord.

Raal dodged the arch-demon's flaming whip and his blade finally pierced the dragon's eye, but it was too late to break the spell and his grip remained strong.

As the assassin flew outside of the dragon's attack range he looked at the guild-master, a furious statue frozen back in the flow of time.

The deer-like behemoth slowly lifted his paw and studied the surroundings with his remaining eye.

Raal landed in the middle of the time-frozen crowd.

The two looked at each for a long moment, as if trying to peer into the other's mind.

Raal then took three steps back, vanishing in the crowd of statues and melding into the shadows. The dragon raised his head, opening his mouth and inundating everything with a sea of fire.