Infinite Realm

The reason that Sato believed that their defeat was approaching was simply because the Kobold King was that strong. Sato alone couldn't compare to it in a one-on-one battle as he needed the assistance of both Xue Yan and Seiichi to intercept the BOSS at critical moments. However, no matter how coordinated the trio was with their attacks, a 3 on 1 battle would be more difficult than a 1 on 1.

In a one-on-one battle, the combatant would only need to focus on his opponent and nothing more. All his moves would be to either attack or defend and they were all performed for himself/herself. But in a 3 on 1 battle, it was different, especially when the adversary was equal in strength to the combination of the 3.

From a layman's view, as regards to a 3 on 1 battle, the individual fighter would find things difficult since the number's advantage wasn't on his side but this wasn't true in all cases. A 3 on 1 battle, especially with an opponent who was on par with the combination of all 3, was harder for the 3 fighters than it was for the individual opponent. The 3 combatants would have to have seamless coordination to be able to contend with the opponent, being able to switch from offense to defense to prevent being picked off one after the other. In other words, unlike in a one-on-one situation where the fighter only focuses on himself, a 3 on 1 battle, where the individual opponent is comparable to the trio, sees the three teammates working on their attack and defence. Any slight mishap from one of them could lead to the death of the entire squad since the three teammates were necessary to contend with the individual opponent.

It was this very situation Sato currently faced. Since he was the only one that could go toe-to-toe with the Kobold King at least for a while, he had to make sure that it didn't leave his sights and go for any of his teammates. At the same time, Sato would have to withdraw from the battle once in a while to give himself some breathing space but at the same time, it had to not be too long of a break otherwise the others would suffer the consequences.

There would have been no problem with any of these if they could continuously deal considerable damage to the Kobold King but the problem was they couldn't. On the contrary, Sato had been receiving injuries each time he clashed with the Kobold King due to their difference in [Strength].

The Kobold King's defence was extremely tight that it would be difficult for a roach to get past it. Even for the times they managed to land a hit, Sato discovered that the Kobold King would shrug it off and the injury would even heal with the Kobold King recovering the lost HP. Without a doubt, this was the legendary HP recovery ability monsters possessed.

Sato wasn't new to such as other VR games also had a similar feature with their monsters. If one couldn't deal enough damage that surpassed the monster's recovery range, they would be unable to defeat the monster and would eventually die at its hands unless they retreat. From the current situation, Sato, Xue Yan, and Seiichi were unable to deal enough damage to cause an actual threat to the Kobold King but at the same time, retreating wasn't an option for them.

"Xue Yan, get me some space." Sato yelled as he blocked a stroke from the Kobold King.

"Okay." Xue Yan nodded before casting a [Fireball].

Once the spell was completed, she didn't release it but held it in place and kept pumping mana into it. After it had reached a saturation point, Xue Yan let go of the fireball at an appropriate moment that the Kobold King was forced a step back under Seiichi and Sato's assault.

"[Greater Fireball]."

With her improved affinity to the fire element, not only was the attack power of her fire-based skills boosted but the speed of her attacks had also seen an increase.

*Phew*

Though the fireball moved at a slower pace than the fire ray from before, due to the timing of the attack, it still managed to close in on the Kobold King just before it could respond.

"Hehe." The Kobold King sneered at the attack.

While any random move from Xue Yan was enough to give any player a headache and greatly affect the fighting power of monsters level 10 and below, against the Kobold King, her moves were just so-so and the same went for Seiichi's. If not for them purposely aiming at its weak points, the Kobold King wouldn't even need to dodge them. Now though, the fireball Xue Yan had realised was much bigger than normal and it also didn't target any weak point of the Kobold King, seemingly just going for its chest.

While it was true that this move wouldn't cause it much harm, it decided to block it nonetheless.

Swinging the bone saber at the fireball, the Kobold King intended to cut it in half and force it to dissipate when suddenly, Xue Yan smirked.

"[Fire Manipulation]"

Xue Yan immediately activated one of the skills of her [Aoefir], turning the fireball into 5 thick strands of flaming ropes that wound around the Kobold King.

"It won't last long!" Xue Yan yelled.

Since her level was much lower than the Kobold King's, her skills weren't supposed to have much of an effect on it. However, [Fire Manipulation] was linked with [Aoefir] which was a high-quality Low-tier Rare-Steel rank staff. Apart from that, Xue Yan's fire affinity experienced a 20% increase thanks to the various bonuses of her staff and even her control over her spells had also increased. Also, Xue Yan had to put her entire focus on the spell to be able to pin the Kobold King even just for a second. As a result, she was incapable of using any other one. All these added together made it possible for her to lock the Kobold King in place for only 2 seconds. But to Sato, that was more than enough time.

'[Inspect]'

Being the only one who had managed to deal damage to the Kobold King, Sato was capable of using [Inspect] on it. He hadn't done so before since the Kobold King was continuously targeting him.

[[ System Interface :

Kobold King (King)

Race : Kobold

Bloodline : Purer Descendant

Level : 15

HP : 10,000 (x50)

Physical Attack Power : 150 (+45)

Magical attack power : 45

Physical Defense : 80 (x2) 

Magical Defense : 40 (x2)   

Attack Speed : 51

Movement Speed : 40

Attributes 

Strength : 50

Endurance : 40

Vitality : 200

Agility : 20

Dexterity : 20

Intelligence : 15

Willpower : 20

Skills :

Razor Claws : Passive Skill : All claw-type attacks contain 150% of basic attack power.

Lesser Strength : Passive Skill : Though called Lesser Strength, this is in comparison to a dragon's strength or purer blood. All Strength-based skills and physical attacks possess 140% of basic attributes.

Tough Scale : Passive Skill : Defensive abilities against physical attacks increased by 40%. 

Bone Slash : Active Skill : Gather power into one strike to cleave down the opponent. 150% of attack power as base damage.

Cool-down : 5 seconds.

Wild Burst : Active Skill : Gather potential and momentum just to release it all in one strike. Attack power increases by 70%.

Cool-down : 10 seconds.

Kobold Supreme Roar : Active Skill : Under this roar, all kobold-type creatures and dragon descendants with lesser purity than the user have to bow. Refusal leads to a 15% decrease in all abilities. Non-draconic creatures are also exposed to the skill but with lesser effects. If the victim happens to be weaker in both strength and life order when compared to the user, they experience from 5% decrease in all abilities. Due to weak bloodline, the user would have both their potential and bloodline severely weakened, if not drained.

Cool-down : 30 seconds.

Fury : Active Skill : By burning the potential and bloodline within one's blood, all attributes increase by 10% for 20 seconds. With each usage though, bloodline purity and potential decreases. But this can be regained with the aid of high-quality ingredients.

Cool-down : 2 natural days.

Mudfall : Active Skill : Create a landslide with stalagmites randomly popping out from the ground in a radius of 5 metres. 

Cool-down : 7 seconds.

]]

Compared to the Kobold Chief, the Kobold King had the same number of skills with only [Mudfall] replacing [Slithering Strike]. but in terms of strength, the Kobold King was a large distance away from the former.

'With this kind of attributes, the current me shouldn't even be a close match with the Kobold King but I haven't lost much HP. Why?' Sato was confused.

"Sato!" Xue Yan yelled to snap him out of his state. Xue Yan couldn't hold it back anymore so the Kobold King had just broken the bindings on it. If Sato wasn't paying any attention, he might suffer a loss.

'I got it.'

Even as Xue Yan had screamed his name, Sato was still trying to solve the riddle. It was then that he had realised something. Ever since the battle began, the Kobold King had yet to use any of its skills. As for the reason why, when partnered with the fact that Sato was still safe under the Kobold King's assault, the answer was very obvious; it wasn't taking them seriously.

"Hehe. You friggin' lizard."

Even a Buddha will feel offended by such much less Sato. However, he didn't lose it straight away but realised this conceited behaviour of the Kobold King could be used to his advantage.

'Since you like holding back so much, I won't be holding back any longer.'

At that moment, Sato decided to go for broke and use everything he had to take on the Kobold King.

At that moment, Sato stroke the ring on his finger with his left hand. 

At that very moment, a great evil was about to make its debut after ten thousand years.