Infinite Realm

*Woo* *Voo* (AN : Modified sound of blazing flames.)

'I guessed it wouldn't do much but this is even worse than I hoped for.' Sato thought as he stared at the monster in front of him with a solemn expression.

The Blood king was still wrapped in flames, however, a blood-red mist seeped out from its body, slowly quenching the flames. Even the DoT from the flames had stopped thanks to the presence of the red mist.

"Huhhhhh." Varg breathed out loudly as its crimson eyes took on a deeper sheen.

'I guess the big guy's angry.'

Sato faced the Blood king but he didn't plan on taking it on, yet at least. Just by the aura alone, the Blood king's strength was beyond his. The only way Sato could contend with it was either he went all out; which Sato didn't plan on doing yet, or he weakened it to a level he could handle.

The second option was the one Sato chose and he planned to achieve this with the help of Xue Yan's arrays.

"Come on big guy. I didn't think you were so weak. Look, just one shot, and you're all messed up. And you're supposed to be a king for crying out loud." Sato mocked from a distance.

"Roar!"

Varg yelled as it gripped the buster sword with both hands and swung it down at Sato.

[Twister Slash]

A blood-red gust of air charged towards Sato with terrifying momentum. It was like a mini-tornado comprised of a bunch of wind blades that were compacted within a certain area. If this place weren't the [Labyrinth of Helios] but the outside world, this gale would be able to tear down a couple of trees and create fissures on the ground.

"Hmph!"

Sato darted towards the side in a flurry, almost creating a blurry image of himself.

*Boom*

The gale attack from the Blood king crashed at Sato's previous spot, impacting the ground and making an explosive sound. The strange thing, however, was despite the loud sound produced from the collision, the ground didn't have any dent or mark on it. Even the spot where the Blood king was set ablaze only had some sparse burnt marks; the explosion from the array didn't even cause a dent.

However, Sato didn't have time to take note of this fact because he was soon to be under harassment by the Blood king who was sprinted towards him.

"Stth." Sato sucked in cold air as he grasped his sword-wielding arm with force. Right where he did so, at the upper arm, there was a wide cut that was bleeding.

After having gone through the results of the [Inspect] skill, Sato was prepared for a majority of the attacks of the Blood king but he still underestimated it a bit. This couldn't be helped as this was the first time he was encountering these skills. As a result, he still got caught by one of the wind blades from the attack. The good thing however was that the cut wasn't so deep so he could handle it. Just a few sips of his health potion would fix it.

The problem though, laid in the fact that the Blood king didn't seem to want to let him do so.

With its 7 metres frame, closing a mere 15 metres gap wasn't difficult especially as it had managed to force Sato to a stop with its [Twister Slash].

"Roar!"

Accompanying the massive frame of the Blood king was its 5 metres buster sword that came swooping down at Sato.

'Shit.'

Sato couldn't help but curse internally. On the outside, however, he had a calm mind as he prepared to face the sword. He didn't have much of a choice since he couldn't dodge the attack.

"[Parry]"

By now, the cool-down on the defensive skill was up so Sato resorted to it to block the attack. However, he didn't put the entirety of his strength into it as he planned to utilize the force of the attack to escape.

The sword was coming in a downward fashion but by moving towards the side a bit, Sato forced the Blood king to redirect the sword towards him. The end result was that the sword no longer came down vertically but diagonally.

While this didn't seem to change things much, it made it such that Sato could utilise the force of the sword to escape.

*Clang*

*Bang*

The two swords collided with a metallic clang, but before the sound could spread past the two, a figure was shot out with a bang.

*Thud*

Sato was sent flying by a few metres before he managed to regain his balance in the air, forcing his feet down and skidding to a stop.

-25 (90/150 Sato's HP)

'Strong.'

Sato suppressed the urge to puke out blood as he tried to neutralize the remnant force that left his hand numb.

Together with the bonuses from his equipment, Sato's [Strength] was at 34, just 4 points higher than the Blood king's. However, in terms of Physical Attack power, Sato's 127 points(102 from [Strength] and 25 from [Astral Blade), was by far lower than the Blood king's 180 points. In other words, while in a battle of pure strength, Sato would surpass the Blood king, when utilizing their weapons, the Blood king's ability was beyond Sato's. As a result of this, added to the fact that Sato didn't use the entirety of his strength in blocking, there still a large amount of force that passed through the two swords, flowing from one of them into the other and finally, into Sato's body.

Due to the clash between the two, Sato's HP was closing in on the 50% mark, already at the 60% mark. If he kept on clashing head-on with the Blood king, he would eventually die from the force from the attack.

Sato knew this but since he had to pull some distance from the monster, he had no choice but to take the best possible option, even though it was risky.

Having achieved his goal, Sato didn't wait for the Blood king to catch up as he ran forwards once again, heading towards the 'entrance'.

"You're alive?" Varg stared at Sato with a hint of surprise in its deep crimson eyes.

Even though it was surprised at Sato having taken the hit, the Blood king didn't waste any second as it pursued after Sato once again. However, it didn't absentmindedly rush ahead as it did before but did so with caution.

'Trying the same trick again won't work.' Sato frowned as he saw the monster's behaviour.

His original intention was to lead it to another array but since it wasn't as dumb as those random monsters out on the streets, it obviously wouldn't fall for the same trick so easily again.

'In that case, I have to trick it to do so.' Sato's eyes glinted as he stopped running and turned around to face it.

Since he couldn't fool the Blood king into the other arrays, Sato could only move on to the next step of his plan; confrontation.

'[Inspect]'

[[ System interface :

Blood King [Varg] (Weakened Avatar's projection) (Elite)

Race : Demon-kin

Bloodline : ???

Level : 10

HP : 1393/2000 

Physical Attack Power : 120 (+60)

Magical attack power : 30

Physical Defense : 30 (+25)

Magical Defense : 17 (+25)

Attack Speed : 34 (-5)

Movement Speed : 25 (-5)

Attributes 

Strength : 30

Endurance : 30

Vitality : 200

Agility : 15

Dexterity : 13

Intelligence : 15

Willpower : 17

. . .

]]

The flame DoT had gone on for 6 and a half seconds, eliminating a total of 25 HP from the monster's health bar. While this didn't do as much as Sato's fanciful first few strikes, it still causes similar damage with the array strikes. In fact, the special feature of the array laid in the burning flames that would engulf the target. Sadly, due to the Blood king's strength, the flames didn't couldn't do much damage and also couldn't last much.

'There's still a lot of health.' Sato looked sullen as he glanced at his interface.

"Oh well, I might as well use this chance to exercise my muscles." Sato tightened his grip on his sword while he held a Health potion with the other hand. Just before the Blood king could reach him, Sato emptied the contents in his mouth, recovering 30 HP to his pretty much-endangered health.

The health potion was cheaper than the usual ones so the effects were much limited but still effective.

"This should be able to make me hold on for one extra attack." Sato muttered as the 7 metres figure came within 5 metres distance from him.

"Die!"

With a swing of its 5 metres buster sword, Varg cleaved towards Sato, intent on cutting him in half with this strike.

Unlike the previous one, this attack was in a horizontal direction making it so that Sato couldn't easily dodge it. Also, it was prepared for the event that Sato would try to exploit its attack to escape just like he did before. The very second such would happen, it would chase after Sato and at the same time, use a long-range attack on him while he is still in the air. Even if Sato were to somehow block it, he would be forced to land quicker and the Blood king would already aim to land the finishing blow.

This plan seemed extremely perfect and it was incredibly horrifying that a 'monster' was able to think up something like this. If every monster were this smart, most average gamers would suffer heavy losses at their hands, forcing them to quit the game.

However, Varg seemed to have underestimated the opponent before it. While the target was much weaker than it was, he was a pro player and not an ordinary one at that.

"[Linear Strike]"