ALL NOVEL Chapter 56: Kill Steal
As Maria and Lilah were making their way stealthily in the clouds, BlackMoon had just received word that his aerial team was being hindered by the Fallen Angels and Maria was currently chasing after them.
He trained his sights in to the skies, but he couldn't find the silhouette of the girl. He ordered his men to keep a vigilant watch of the skies and their surroundings.
They had already lured the Abyssal Golem to their intended hunting spot and the guild members were currently doing their best to burst the thing down.
Despite having people watching the skies, most of them were still focused on the battle against the boss and would only occasionally take a look up at the skies in turns, but thanks to Lilah's pinpoint instructions and timing, Maria was able to hide herself from view in between the clouds and was never spotted.
Lilah told her to maintain her current altitude and stay put where she was. Maria's current location was just right above the Abyssal Golem. Occasionally, Lilah would tell her to shift her position as the cloud below her passed by and she'd have to find cover somewhere else.
However, Lilah made sure that her master's position stayed right above the Abyssal Golem's location.
When the HP of the golem reach 8%, the Fallen Angels had finally caught up with them and the Eclipse guild had to spare some of their manpower to hold them off.
The damage on the boss was cut down to some degree, but the HP bar was still going down nevertheless.
"Hihihihi~ how dare you imbeciles take something that belongs to my Master, let's see how you'll like it when it's taken away right before your very eyes!" Lilah evilly chuckled.
When she saw the HP of them golem hit 3%, Lilah immediately informed her master to get ready for the spell.
"Master, the boss' HP is at 3%! Get ready!"
"Alright!"
Maria immediately grew excited when it was finally time for her to get into action. She held her axe aloft and began her chant.
"Master, NOW!"
"—[RUIN]!"
The boss' HP had hit 1% and it just coincidentally coincided with the finish of Maria's incantation.
Down below, BlackMoon and the Eclipse Guild were busy dealing with the Fallen Angels and were hastily trying to bring down the boss.
"It's almost dead! We win this one!" BlackMoon hollered. He turned to look at the Fallen Angels' guild master, Lisbet, and couldn't help but smirk derisively at her.
"Hah, you took the dungeon record away from us last time, now it's our turn to one up you guys."
"Fuck..." Lizzy couldn't help but swear under her breath as she quickly cut down another Eclipse player blocking her way.
"Tsk, shit. Fuck you BlackMoon! You just wait! Don't think we'll be taking this lying down!"
Lizzy was just about to spew out more profanities and threats to BlackMoon, but suddenly, a large ray of light descended from the skies and landed square on the Abyssal Golem and everyone 5 meters around it.
While all the players who were tanking the golem had completely died, the monster itself still had a sliver of its HP bar still intact. While everyone was stunned by the sudden wipe of their tank players, a demonic axe descended from the skies.
A silhouette of the grim reaper accompanied it as it slashed down on the Abyssal Golem's body. The large axe cut straight through the golem's large body from top to bottom and it bisected the monster entirely.
[Execute has been activated]
[26,790,000 Exp received (x10 multiplier)]
[Level Up! Lv.25 → Lv.26! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points]
[Level Up! Lv.26 → Lv.27! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points]
[Level Up! Lv.27 → Lv.28! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points]
[Level Up! Lv.28 → Lv.29! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points]
...
...
[Level Up! Lv.32 → Lv.33! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points]
[Your pet [Lilah] has leveled up! Lv. 34 → Lv. 43]
There wasn't even a howl of defeat or death. The monster just collapsed in two parts onto the ground and the demonic axe that was stuck on the ground began radiating an ominous aura as it channeled the life force and mana from the monster into its master.
The drops from the monster began to materialize all around the axe and before anyone could react, multitudes of flaming black feathers rained from the skies and struck everyone that was about to lunge for the loot.
Black flames also engulfed some of the players around. The sudden attacks that were raining down from the sky immediately killed the players or cut their HP bars down to dangerous levels. This deterred anyone from making a move on the boss' drops.
[World Announcement, congratulations to the Fallen Angels Guild for being the first to clear the area boss, Abyssal Golem of the West Summit, your achievement will forever be recorded in the annals of history.]
[Rewards: Level +1, 100 Gold, Random Class Skill Book, Random Class Equipment Box, Weapon Enhancement Gem x5, Equipment Enhancement Gem x5, FSP +10]
[Level Up! Lv.33 → Lv.34! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points]
[Your pet [Lilah] has leveled up! Lv. 43 → Lv. 44]
Maria descended from the skies and landed just next to her axe. She smirked at everyone around her said, "Hihihi~ it's bad to steal y'know~?"
Everyone from the Eclipse guild wanted to shout 'Like you're one to talk, you freaking thief!!!', but they couldn't since she had her wings poised to attack. One of the braver fellows peeped a little, but was suddenly struck down by multiple black feathers in the next instant.
Lilah began to collect everything on the ground and it all went into Maria's inventory. The girl began smiling happily when she saw that she had grown 10 levels from killing the boss. Antagonizing that level 60 boss monster was totally worth it!
"Now—" Maria stomped on the blade of her axe and flipped it into the air before lightly catching it, "—shall we continue our dance?"
Maria readied her axe and was just about to attack, but Lizzy immediately yelled at her from afar.
"Mary! That's enough! We've got the monster so we should head back now!"
"Hm?"
BlackMoon was incensed at seeing his guild's monster being stolen from him. He immediately began roaring out orders to his guild. "Kill her! Kill the girl and make her drop the boss' loot! Aerial unit lockdown the skies, don't let her escape!"
"Ohohoho~ so we're fighting? We're fighting?!" Instead of being scared, Maria was elated at the prospect of fighting all these players. She was growing bored with the game lately, so the subsequent exciting events which were happening to her in the span of 1 afternoon were very much welcomed.
"Mary, no! Get your ass over here before I get angry! Or do you need me to shove my foot up your ass before dragging you back with me?!" Lizzy called out half in exasperation and half in anger when she saw the girl readying her axe once again.
"Aww...alright..." Being reprimanded and threatened by her friend, Maria had to drop it. She was a little scared of having Lizzy's foot up her ass.
"Th-there's no way it'll fit..." Maria looked at Lizzy's boot before grabbing her butt and grimacing.
Once Lizzy saw that Maria had put away her axe, she immediately called for everyone to make a retreat down the mountains. Maria didn't force herself to follow after them. She was surrounded so she instead took to the skies and left the Eclipse players behind in the dust.
The flying players couldn't keep up with Maria's flight speed and were gradually left behind. Lizzy kept instructing her in the chat to stay close to the large mass of blue dots on her minimap so she wouldn't get lost.
The flight speeds of players in Unitale were dependent on their AGI stat and how well they manipulated their wings. Maria's AGI was high for a priest and depending on how she used her wings she had 2 types of flight mode.
Her high speed mode which required her to beat her wings until she gained a certain speed before folding them and shooting away in a single direction. And finally, her normal mode which even then was still faster than the inexperienced players.
In her high speed mode, she couldn't turn nor move around agilely so she would use this to swoop in for an attack or run away. She learned this by copying the bird type monsters that she fought inside the game.
She also read up on the internet and in her school books about how birds fly and the mechanism of their wings. Maria was smart so she had long since tested these things out in-game already which thus led to her superior flight speed and aerial combat experience.
The Eclipse guild were pursuing the Fallen Angels, but after quite some time, they eventually gave up and decided to just head back to the city or split up and grind some monsters. Today's operation was a total failure, but this cemented the antagonism the Eclipse Guild had for the Fallen Angels.
Since it was like this, both guilds had declared each other enemies. So as the situation stands, the two guilds would probably be at each other's necks when their members meet each other out on the field.
******
In a Neutral City near the dark faction's territory called Zerzura, the Fallen Angels were all gathered together in a large building that had their guild emblem decorating the face of said building.
This was the Fallen Angels' headquarters. Since some of the players inside Fallen Angels weren't all dark faction players, but also some from the neutral faction, they had to have their Guild Home situated in the neutral territory to accommodate for everyone.
Currently, inside of the guild leader's office, Maria was kneeling down with large slabs of stone squares piled up on her lap.
"I'm sowwy..."
"Mary, you're my dear friend, but your actions today nearly lost us the boss."
"...uuuhhh..."
"Well, it's been 30 minutes, you can stop now Mary."
"Uwah, finally~" Maria immediately stood up and stretched her legs a little. The rest of the Fallen Angels' higher ups were staring incredulously at this girl.
She was like a war goddess on the battlefield, but she was nothing more than a meek girl in front of her friends. She was also a little airheaded at times and yes, she almost lost them the boss, but she had turned things around and let the Eclipse guild have a taste of their own medicine.
"Now Mary, since you've also contributed a lot to the guild on your first day, I'll overlook the other mess ups. So, let's confirm our rewards!"
"Alright!"
Maria immediately opened up her inventory and dumped all the loot she acquired earlier onto the table in the middle of the office.