Chapter 286: The Successful Hunt

Watching the scythe-wielding warrior charge straight toward him, Ash001 felt a crushing wave of frustration press down on his chest.

No one wanted to be a coward. No one wanted to cower behind others like a cornered rat. In other games, Ash001 had built a reputation for himself. He was bold, reckless, the kind of player who thrived on danger and never backed down from a fight. People respected that. They called him a man’s man.

If this were any other game, facing an opponent like this, a warrior radiating such overwhelming presence, he would have felt his blood ignite. He would have laughed, shouted his approval, shoved his own men aside, and charged forward without hesitation. Three hundred rounds, win or lose, it would not have mattered.

As long as the fight was good, death was a price he could accept.

But here, in Dominion, he was doing the exact opposite.

He was retreating.

Step by step, Ash001 shrank back into the crowd, putting bodies between himself and the approaching figure. The contrast was not lost on him, and it made the bitterness in his chest twist even tighter.

His gaze flickered over the Inferno Clan members surrounding him, and the knot in his stomach grew heavier. Officially, he, Blaze001, and Rock001 were the leaders of this group. In reality, they were the weakest.

And it was all because of that knight. The one in the rabbit mask.

Two PK encounters. Two level drops. Two full sets of equipment lost.

What had once been the Furious Three had fallen behind their own guild, reduced from elite enforcers to a pair of jokes constantly chewed out by their leader, InfernoRider001. The humiliation still lingered, raw and unhealed.

Ash001 glanced down at the bodies of Blaze001 and Rock001 lying on the cold stone floor. Without thinking, he moved forward to collect the items they had dropped. In Black Rock Spire, outside the jurisdiction of the Six Great Cities, dying to another player meant losing at least one full level.

Infuriating.

When they returned, InfernoRider001 would tear into them again. That much was certain.

But right now, something else weighed heavier on his mind.

Fear.

As the scythe-wielding warrior drew closer, Ash001 could not suppress it. The memory of those two crushing defeats at the hands of the rabbit-masked knight surfaced unbidden, replaying in his mind with painful clarity. He knew exactly what it meant to die here, to lose another level, to spend hours grinding just to claw his way back.

At higher levels, every loss mattered. Ten hours of effort, gone in an instant.

His thoughts raced as he retreated further, while the Inferno Clan moved to intercept. Knights stepped forward to block the path, forming a defensive line, while Archers and Sorcerers behind them began preparing their attacks, spells and arrows ready to be unleashed at a moment’s notice.

Then, suddenly, the warrior blurred.

He moved before their attacks could even be released.

“So fast!” Ash001 gasped, his eyes widening.

“Hundred Phantom Strike!”

Hidden among the crowd, Marcus allowed himself a cold, quiet smile. At his command, Pebble moved.

The Temple Knight swung the Lizard Scythe in a smooth, fluid arc. In an instant, a three-meter radius around him was swallowed by a storm of overlapping blade shadows, each one cutting through the Inferno Clan’s formation with ruthless precision.

“What speed!”

The reaction was not Ash001’s alone. Every Inferno Clan member caught in front of Pebble felt the same suffocating pressure. The attack came too quickly, too cleanly. There was no time to think, no time to react. By the time they realized what was happening, the scythe had already passed through them.

Instinct was all they had left, and instinct was not enough.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A chaotic flurry of counterattacks landed all at once, but it came too late.

-3,000! -2,800! -3,100! -2,900! -3,000!

The damage numbers erupted in a cluster.

’Satisfying.’

The Hundred Phantom Strike had triggered a critical hit. Every player within range was instantly cut down, their health bars wiped out in a single sweep. A chorus of choked cries filled the air as bodies dropped and equipment scattered across the ground.

“Stunning!” players nearby shouted, unable to hide their shock.

-170! -0! -120! -150! -180!

He’s insanely strong.

That realization flickered through the minds of those falling, just before everything went dark.

Even with Marcus having deliberately lowered his defense, and despite Pebble’s naturally lower durability, the Inferno Clan’s counterattacks barely scratched him. Most hits struggled to reach even two hundred damage.

“What a monster…”

“Incredible… just who is this guy!”

The surrounding players erupted into chatter, their attention completely captured by the spectacle. Some were so distracted that they neglected their own fights, only to be struck down by the monsters they had been hunting moments before.

But beneath the awe, there was a growing danger.

Individually, the attacks against Pebble were weak. Together, they were not.

He had been struck by more than twenty players at once. His health bar plunged, dropping by over half in a single exchange. The situation was turning precarious.

Even an elephant could be dragged down by enough ants.

“Keep going, Pebble,” Marcus murmured under his breath, his focus sharpening. If it were him on the front line, he could have used a Super Health Potion to recover instantly. Pebble did not have that option. And Ash001 was still alive.

The objective was not yet complete.

“Fall back! Everyone fall back!” Ash001 shouted, his voice tight with urgency as he stared at the devastation in disbelief.

The critical hit had wiped out a full three-meter circle of Inferno Clan members, most of them frontline fighters. With their tanks gone, the formation had collapsed inward, leaving the fragile Archers and Sorcerers exposed.

Panic rippled through the group.

Against an opponent with such overwhelming attack power, even their strongest defenders had crumbled. Their backline had no chance in close combat. The only option left was to treat this enemy like a boss, to kite him, to keep their distance and attack from afar.

They had already taken more than half of his health. With proper coordination, one more volley might be enough to finish him.

Unfortunately, they had misjudged one critical thing.

His speed.

Before Ash001’s order had fully spread, before the formation could properly disengage, Pebble was already among them.

“Hundred Phantom Strike!”

The scythe whistled through the air once more.

-1,500! -1,700! -1,800!

Another sweeping arc carved through the group. This time there was no critical hit, but it did not matter. Against the low-defense Archers and Sorcerers, even a normal strike was fatal.

More bodies fell.

Another empty circle opened within the Inferno Clan’s ranks. It was chaos.

Ash001 felt his mind slipping as he watched it unfold. And then he realized, with a jolt, that he was standing right at the edge of that newly carved void.

Directly across from the scythe-wielding warrior.

“Oh no…”

His heart skipped. The warrior’s gaze locked onto him, cold and certain. There was no doubt anymore. This man had come for him.

“Kill him! Attack now!” Ash001 screamed, his voice breaking into hysteria, but it was too late.

After cutting through the remaining guards, Pebble surged forward without pause, closing the distance in a blink.

Area attacks were efficient, but this was the finishing move.

“Triple Surge!”

Pebble moved like a streak of shadow. By the time Ash001’s command reached his men, the scythe had already fallen.

-1,300! -1,200! -2,000!

Three strikes landed in one seamless motion. The final blow flashed as a critical.

Ash001’s health dropped to zero instantly.

For a brief moment, as his vision dimmed and his character began to collapse, a single question echoed in his mind.

’Why?’

Why had this warrior targeted them so precisely? The ambush, the clearing of his guards, the final execution. None of it was random.

This had been planned.

Then, in that fading instant, realization struck. That style and that presence.

The overwhelming aggression, the precise control, the combination of area attacks and decisive finishing blows. He had seen it before. He would never forget it, It was the same.

’It’s him…’

The rabbit-masked knight.

Everything clicked into place at once. The battle at the Spotted Jackal King. The way that single knight had turned the tide for the Soulfire Guild. The humiliation the Inferno Clan had suffered that day.

And now, here again, at Black Rock Spire, the same man had shattered them. That cursed knight…

Rage surged through Ash001 even as his consciousness faded. But one question lingered.

When had that knight become a warrior?

Then the answer surfaced; the Treasure Map.

’Our Treasure Map.’

Back in the Newbie Village, when they had tried to rob him and failed, they had dropped it. That had to be it. That map must have been the key, the reason he had pulled so far ahead of everyone else.

It should have been theirs. Everything he had should have been theirs.

In his final moments, Ash001’s hatred burned fiercely, carving itself deep into his thoughts.

’I’ll kill him… I’ll drag him back to zero… I’ll take everything back.’

The vow formed, bitter and absolute. He never once considered that it had all started with his own greed.

“Good work, Pebble.”

Hidden within the crowd, Marcus watched as Ash001 fell, a quiet note of approval in his thoughts. The final of the trio was down.

Almost immediately, the remaining Inferno Clan members swarmed Pebble. Without support or recovery, his health hit zero, and he vanished from the battlefield.

Marcus did not mind, a faint smile tugged at his lips. The hunt had been a success, and he had barely needed to lift a hand.

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