Child of Destiny

Chapter 859: A Race against Time and a Hidden Threat (Part 1)

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When Shin came back to his senses, he was immediately greeted by a chaotic battle where his teammates were struggling to fight Lupus.

Arthur and Leonard were working together to lock the werewolf in place so that the others could deal as much damage as they could. But despite them doing everything they had, they were still having a hard time doing the job.

The speed that Lupus currently had was too much for the two of them to handle. They might have great foot techniques that they could use to match it up, but it was still not enough to totally locked the werewolf in place.

Fortunately, Faker has that kind of speed and was able to catch up with Lupus whenever it broke away from the two.

But it was still not enough.

He might have the speed to match the werewolf, but he obviously was not Lupusʼ match when it came to strength. But Lawless was always there to cover his back.

With Fakerʼs speed, he could momentarily stop Lupusʼ tracks. Then Lawless would immediately catch up and forced the werewolf to stay with them. This bought enough time for Arthur and Leonard to reorganize before doing a pincer attack with the two as they re-establish the aggro.

Zero was lurking around them and throwing wind blades and sword waves from time to time, dealing a considerable amount of damage.

The rest of the group, on the other hand, was also doing their best to match the fast rhythm of the battle. Cloe and Alice didnʼt have any problem with it since they were skilled enough to keep up with this pace.

It was the same for Ravier, Ember, and Seven. After all, these three were already used to working with godlike players since they had been fighting alongside such players for a long time already.

This was when the lack of skills and experience of S.Tigrisʼ trio started to affect the overall teamwork of the group negatively.

In the eyes of average players, the trio was already skilled since they were part of the elite group of the Wingʼs Alliance, a powerhouse guild.

They should be experienced enough to be called veteran players of the game, especially for S.Tigris and Black Hand who were a Maverick Ranker and a player who ranked as one of the top strategists of the game respectively.

This two couldnʼt help but feel ashamed as they were being a burden to the team. And this situation struck their ego and made them reassess their skills. Even Alucard who was not particularly ʼfamousʼ, was doing better than them since he was adjusting pretty well at the current pace of the battle.

If only they knew the truth about Alucardʼs identity, then they would definitely think differently. He was someone who dominated a particular virtual game before, so keeping up with this kind of battle was a normal occurrence.

Fortunately for Black Hand, his main role was to assist the frontline with his Buffs and Heals. With such a skilled lineup of their team, he didnʼt need to worry about the arrangement of their formation and attack patterns, unlike he was doing their guild operation.

Right now, he only needed to dedicate himself to the current role that was assigned to him.

In the meantime, S.Tigris was afraid to get in the way of the others, so he chose to refrain from joining the frontline and just stayed in front of their support group so that he could protect them if Lupus unexpectedly broke away from the combined forces of the top gods of the game.

It was pretty unexpected for Lupus to constantly target Cloe. Fortunately, the frontline of the group was persistently clinging to it and refusing to let it get away from them.

Everyone was feeling the pressure that Lupus was giving them, which was why they kept their concentration at its peak. But this was not the real reason why the group was on edge, it was because of the howls and roars of different monsters that were coming from every direction.

This put the group in an immediate crisis. They were not only fighting an Emperor Rank Monsters Boss, but they were also rushing against time since if they were a little too slow at taking Lupus down, then they were going to be trapped in this place and get slaughtered by a large number of monsters bosses on the same rank as this one.

They wanted to do it fast, but unfortunately for them, the system was too cruel. As if the insane speed and powerful strength of the monster boss were still not enough, it made Lupusʼ already troublesome regenerative abilities even more problematic.

It made their powerful attacks look insignificant despite the massive damage that they were dealing with.

Well, they were still strong, but with their current situation where they needed to finish this battle as soon as possible, that kind of regeneration was too insane.

Fortunately, they only needed to fight a single Emperor Rank Monster Boss instead of two, unlike what they were expecting.

Shin and Lycan suddenly stopped moving after what happened earlier. They didnʼt know what exactly caused it, but they were sure that it was a good thing.

They were thinking that Shin triggered something to turn Lycan into their ally. And they were right.

...

Shin quickly swept his gaze at the surroundings to assess the current situation. He saw the group struggling at fighting Lupus and also heard the loud roars of different monsters coming from every direction. He also tried to feel their auras and immediately discovered how strong those monsters were.

It only took him an instant to understand what was going on. ”Tsk! That burst of aura earlier most probably attracted the rulers of the neighboring areas!”

Their situation was too dire but they couldnʼt back down anymore. They couldnʼt advance since they needed to take down Lupus first before they could unlock the other areas. And it was also too late for them to retreat since this place was going to be a slaughterhouse the moment those powerful monsters arrived.

Shin tried to think of a solution for how they were going to escape this current predicament. It was impossible for the system to put them in a shitty situation without giving them a way to escape.

Based on what Lycan had told him earlier, they needed to buy enough time for the wolf before it could join them in the battle. It told him that it needed to gather enough strength to free itself from the illusion that the wolf had created.

In simpler terms, they needed to deal as much damage as they could to lower Lupusʼ Health Bar to a certain degree.

”Forget about everything else and give everything you have! Exhaust all of your skills, if possible,” shouted Shin as he joined the battle.

He jumped in the window that Arthur and Leonard had purposely created to lead Lupusʼ movements.

Bang!

”1,324,523”

An ʼEclipse Waveʼ was unleashed to deal a huge amount of damage. But immediately after that, a series of green numbers immediately appeared above the wolfʼs head.

”+30,000”, ”+30,000”, ”+30,000”, …

”What kind of healing ability is that?” muttered Shin as he coordinated with the others to lock Lupus in place.

”Youʼre awake? How was your sleep, prince charming?” greeted Leonard with a joking tone but wearing a solemn expression on his face.

Arthur, on the other hand, straight up cursed at Shin. ”Hey! We are working our *sses here when you are staring blankly in the air like an idiot earlier, and now you are ordering us to burn everything we have?”

”Then how are we going to deal with those f*cking monsters later?” he added with a very annoyed tone while stopping Lupusʼ tracks and forcing it to take a step back.

”Letʼs think about that later! We need to burn down the Health Bar of this Boss first. At least chuck it down up to thirty to twenty-five percent,” responded Shin as he threw another attack at the werewolf.

”What is your plan?” asked Zero in a calm tone as he joined the conversation.

Shin didnʼt immediately reply as he dodged a barrage of icicles and wind blades sent in his direction.

Swoosh!

He then created some distance between him and Lupus before answering. ”There is definitely going to be a slugfest here later when those monsters arrived in this place.”

”Those monster bosses are definitely the rulers of their respective areas. And the moment when they gather in a single place together and see their old rivals, a chaotic battle is bound to happen.”

The others immediately understood his thoughts and slightly nodded their head. Lawless even voices it out for them. ”So, you are planning to use that chaos to slip away from this place after we killed this werewolf.”

”Then what about our loots?” Arthur couldnʼt help but blurted as he frowned his brow.

Leonard gave him a weird look and spoke. ”You can still think about that even in our current situation?”

”F*ck! We work so hard just to take down this boss, and you are now telling me not to get any kind of reward?” refuted Arthur sharply while adding. ”We even killed a countless number of Lord Rank Monsters earlier yet not a single equipment drops!”

”That is why I am saying to give all you have to chuck down the Health Bar of this boss since we already spend a lot of time in this place!” said Shin as he threw a barrage of attacks at Lupus.

He paused for a moment to exhaust everything before continuing. ”Lycan will assist us later when the Health Bar of this boss reached a certain level.”

”Burn out everything, kill this boss, pick up all of the drops, then escapes – sound simple enough,” commented Lawless as he was the first one to unleash a series of powerful skills.

Faker immediately followed his lead and revealed his real strength, executing one skill after another with extreme speed.

The others also did the same, no longer showing any kind of hesitation.

With the group unleashing such powerful attacks, it would only be a matter of time before Lupus fell. The regenerative ability of the werewolf was still pretty strong, but it could no longer keep up with such unrestrained and coordinated attacks from the group.

In the meantime, there was standing behind the curtain of darkness created by the trees away from the battlefield and watching the group, struggle.

”This is just an early stage of the quest, so it is still not worth it for me to interfere. I will wait patiently until they reach the most crucial part of the quest before I make my appearance,” muttered the person with a smirking tone as he continued to watch the group from a distance.

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