Chapter 144: Time to Strike

Marcus stood on the edge of a breakthrough. Level 30 was close enough that he could almost feel it, just a thin barrier separating him from a far brighter future within Dominion, one that promised better gear, stronger enemies, and real influence in the wider game world.

He summoned his Mount, the Nightmare Dragon Steed, and tore across the open terrain until he reached the hunting grounds where Level 30 Tigers roamed. With a thought, he called out his Shadow-Stained Gryphon King to join him, unsheathed his Skeleton Blade, and threw himself into the final stretch of grinding with renewed focus.

Mounted atop the Nightmare Dragon Steed, Marcus charged straight into the pack. He rotated through skills and movement techniques almost reflexively, pushing himself to see how far the system would let him go. The sensation was disturbingly real. The world no longer felt like a game interface wrapped around numbers and animations; it felt like a living fantasy realm.

Every strike carried weight, every movement had inertia, and every adjustment of balance came instinctively. His blade sang through the air, his body responded perfectly, and the surge of adrenaline left his heart pounding.

For a little while, he let himself feel like some legendary fighter from an old story, blessed with insane skill and destined to carve his name into the history of this world through sheer force of will.

That illusion didn’t last long.

With both the Shadow-Stained Gryphon King and the Nightmare Dragon Steed fighting at his side, Marcus quickly found himself with very little to actually do. Their area-of-effect attacks were brutally efficient, tearing through the Level 30 Tigers in seconds and reducing entire groups to scattered corpses before he could even close the distance. His experience bar climbed at an absurd rate, but it left him feeling strangely sidelined. He actually had trouble finding a single monster that survived long enough for him to test his own close-combat strength.

The Nightmare Dragon Steed’s Dragon-Roar skill stood out the most. Every time it activated, it slammed a ten-percent debuff onto nearby enemies’ stats, weakening them across the board. It was terrifyingly effective. The system, however, didn’t bother distinguishing between Divine and Super Divine mounts, lumping them all together under the vague category of Divine Beasts. Marcus couldn’t help feeling that this cheapened his steed’s true value, though he knew that if other players realized he was riding a Super Divine-tier mount, they would probably band together into an actual mob just to hunt him down.

As the grind continued, he noticed a clear pattern. The higher a pet’s grade, the fewer skills it seemed to start with, and the slower it was to learn new ones. His mount hadn’t gained anything new in a while, which was a reminder that raising a true Divine Beast required deliberate investment rather than passive grinding. That said, most of the low-tier skills learned before Level 30 were mediocre at best, so he wasn’t exactly bothered by the delay.

Still, being power-leveled by two powerful companions was, frankly, incredible.

“Marcus, you need to get here now! Some jerks have Amber and me cornered. They’re saying gross stuff, and I think Amber’s gonna snap and attack them.”

The message hit him like a slap. Marcus had been grinding tigers for nearly three hours, his experience sitting at ninety-five percent of Level 29. He had just spotted another tiger in the distance, almost certainly the one that would push him over the threshold, when Lily’s voice came through, tight with grievance and barely contained fury.

“Don’t let Amber do anything,” Marcus replied instantly. “I’m coming right now.”

Anger flared hot in his chest. Someone actually thought they could harass his sister and his girl. Lily and Amber had barely left the starting zone and weren’t even Level 15 yet. They had no real combat ability, especially Lily, who was a Cleric with essentially zero offensive skills.

Dominion enforced strict anti-harassment rules. If a player didn’t want someone near them, the system issued a warning. If the offender ignored it and tried to force their way closer or pull anything inappropriate, a second warning would trigger, followed by an immediate lightning strike. The offender would be blasted back to the respawn point and lose anywhere from two to five levels.

The game demanded a baseline of decency. Marcus knew those thugs couldn’t physically touch Lily or Amber without getting fried by the system. That meant they were likely trying to provoke the girls into attacking first, hoping to exploit the chaos once self-defense flags were triggered.

“Lily, where are you?”

“We just reached the West Gate of Dragon’s Peak Citadel,” she replied quickly. “We’re right outside the walls, but they won’t let us pass. Marcus, hurry. Amber’s reaching for her weapon.”

“Hold her back. Don’t let her do something we’ll regret.”

He immediately messaged his sister. “Amber, stay calm. Ignore them. I’m almost there.”

He knew her temper too well. Even if the men were only circling them and talking trash, Amber wasn’t the type to swallow an insult quietly.

“Fine, I’ll wait,” Amber replied. “But hurry up, bro.”

She loved teasing him and giving him grief, but when things turned serious, she trusted his judgment without hesitation.

Marcus recalled both his Nightmare Dragon Steed and the Gryphon King into their storage slots, then crushed a Town Portal Scroll. The world twisted, and he reappeared in the heart of Dragon’s Peak Citadel. Without slowing down, he broke into a sprint toward the West Gate. Mounts were prohibited inside the city unless you had special clearance, and he didn’t have time to deal with permits.

Activating his Wraith skill, Marcus pushed his movement speed to its limit. He tore through the streets in a blur, moving nearly as fast as a galloping horse.

About two hundred yards past the West Gate, he spotted them. Four players stood in a tight circle, boxing Lily and Amber in and blocking every escape route.

“Marcus? Is that you? Over here!”

Lily and Amber had considered logging out, but once they knew he was close, they held their ground. He had already told them what his character looked like, and the combination of the Fluffy Rabbit’s Mask and the ominous Skeleton Set was impossible to miss. Amber waved when she saw him charging toward them.

“It’s me,” Marcus confirmed through a private message.

The four men began to turn at Amber’s shout, but Marcus was already there. He slammed through their formation like a battering ram and stopped directly beside the girls, forcing the thugs to stagger back.

“You guys okay?”

“Marcus… they wouldn’t let us leave,” Lily said quietly, her voice small and wounded. Seeing that expression on her face made his blood boil.

He turned slowly to face the four men. “You bastards.”

“Whoa, easy there,” the apparent leader said, a Warrior with a slick grin. “Don’t get the wrong idea. We just wanted to get to know these lovely ladies.”

The four of them had seen Lily and Amber by the gate and their jaws had practically hit the floor. It was like spotting a couple of celebrities in the middle of nowhere. For a second, they forgot about everything else, completely consumed by the dumb need to get their attention.

They assumed the girls must have maxed out their beauty settings, because surely no one looked like that naturally, but even so, the presence they gave off was rare. One was calm and gentle, with a smile that felt like a warm day. The other was all fiery spirit, grinning like she was in on a secret joke.

Lily and Amber had wanted nothing to do with them. They tried to walk past to find low-level monsters to practice on, but the men refused to take the hint. They surrounded them, bragging about how influential and important they were, convinced that if they talked long enough, the girls would eventually recognize their value. If the girls walked away now, they knew they’d never get another chance.

Even when Lily and Amber looked at them with open disgust, the four men clung to the delusion that they could still win them over.

Then Marcus had arrived, wearing a ridiculous rabbit mask and wrapped in skeletal armor. The leader immediately sensed that this wasn’t someone he could casually brush aside and tried to soften his tone, hoping to keep the situation from escalating.

“Get to know them?” Marcus said coldly. “You can get to know my blade.”

He could tell the Warrior wanted to de-escalate, but Marcus had no interest in mercy. Amber had already sent him the details. These weren’t clueless idiots. They were persistent creeps who had ignored multiple system warnings and refused to back off.

That was enough.

If he didn’t act now, he wasn’t a man. He usually kept his power hidden and avoided unnecessary attention, but some lines didn’t get crossed without consequences.

Marcus lifted his Skeleton Blade, the dark metal catching the sunlight, and swung it straight toward the Warrior’s head.

“You think you can block their path and walk away?” His voice was low and deadly. “I don’t care who you are outside the game. Rich, powerful, connected, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to make sure you never have a peaceful day in Dominion again.”

“Today,” he finished quietly, “you die.”

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