Another roar came from behind Primus. He threw the Shadow Blade at the creature. The short sword flew, and he appeared beside it just as it was about to pierce the abomination. His fingers danced nimbly as the blade drew two lines across the surface of the lion-like creature's neck, severing its jugular vein along with its head.
The beast's head fell to the ground with a plop and another roar resounded throughout the forest.
"Randall, they're surrounding us!" Primus barked.
He gripped the Shadow Blade tightly... then grinned crazily. Primus' body blinked out of existence before reappearing behind another abomination. His short sword cleaved the beast's head from its body and at the same time intercepted the talons of another attacking fiend. Primus was exceedingly exhilarated by the bloodshed.
It was in moments like this that Primus truly felt alive and couldn't refute his love for CR. In the real world, he wasn't too strong, nor could he do things like evade bullets, disappear, or turn into a fog. Cosmic Retaliation was his source of entertainment, his salvation.
Randall amputated the limbs of several beasts with his twin daggers, incapacitating them before Primus swooped into to finish them off, all the while receiving multiple interface notifications.
[You killed a Rank 2 Aarion.]
[You have received 30 exp.]
You killed a Rank 2 Aarion.]
[You have received 30 exp.]
You killed a Rank 2 Aarion.]
[You have received 30 exp.]
Primus' grin turned devilish. By the time they were done slaughtering the Aarii, he called up his status.
Primus frowned... he was still so weak.
"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Randall asked with an incredulous look.
"Just some martial arts training." Primus shrugged nonchalantly.
He absorbed the majority of the Aarii's Mana and left the rest for Randall. Primus dismissed the Shadow Blade and sighed wistfully. He'd had the high-tier item for as long as he could remember - Samane gifted it to him. Primus couldn't wait to meet his former guildsmen again.
"What's wro- Oh, that reminds me, you haven't told me your name yet." Randall suddenly remembered.
"It's Ghost... or the Silent Reaper. I haven't quite lived up to my name now, have I?" Primus chuckled lightly.
"Silent Reaper? Aren't you that second-rate player from the Occam's Razor Guild?"
"You sure do ask a lot of questions," Primus said before turning around, "What does it matter anyway?"
The duo continued their reconnaissance abruptly after their battle with the Aarii. Primus could sense that there were still a few beasts remaining, but none of them dared to confront him after witnessing their kin's one-sided slaughter.
After covering a short distance, the shades became much smaller, allowing sunlight to pass through and illuminate their surroundings. Randall pointed at a clearing similar to the one where the encampment was located and said:
"There. One of the rift Guardians slumbers there. If we want to seal the spacial rift, we have to kill that one. It can sense anyone's position within the Isle of Death."
Primus immediately frowned.
"I thought you said we could avoid all of the abominations and sneak into the isle unnoticed?"
"Yes, we can. But for us to do so, we need to kill this guardian first. Rewards are not without risk."
Primus began to grow suspicious. He hadn't thought much about it before, but now that he did, Randall's story seemed a bit too good to be true. Firstly, he wondered how a troop of fifty powerful guildsmen as well as two of the Thunderbird's Guild Elders failed to seal the so-called unstable spacial rift in the Isle of Death, and even if they did truly perish as Randall said, then how did he manage to escape?
Secondly, an attempt to seal the spacial rift would result in the assignment of a quest that if failed could not be attempted by the same set of people again, and although if what Randall said was true, the Thunderbird's guildsmen were most likely eviscerated but didn't actually die since Cosmic Retaliation was, after all, just a game. They would have supplied their fellow guildsmen with the critical information Randall claimed to possess necessary to seal the spacial rift and possibly even clear the Cursed Island, but none of the Thunderbird's guildsmen had attempted to seal the rift again.
It could also be that there was a powerful threat in the Isle of Death nobody aside from the Thunderbird himself and his co-leaders could afford to face. But if that was the case, then why was Randall so confident in his ability sneak past the enemy and seal the spacial rift?
Thirdly, Randall might've been pretending to be a member of the Thunderbird's Guild, and wanted Primus to assist him in getting to the center of the Isle of Death where the spacial rift was before eliminating him. Although it was costly, Guild Sigils could still be forged.
Primus was inclined to believe in the third possibility. His eyes glinted darkly as he observed Randall's figure from the corner of his eyes, the supposed Thunderbird's guildsman was intentionally unassuming.
They both moved to the center of the clearing where there was a huge hole that unnaturally negated singling and prevented it from penetrating its depths.
"The Desolate Carven," Randall gestured to the literal and figurative black hole, "You first."
He seemed to have caught on to Primus' suspicion. Nevertheless, Primus wasn't about to recklessly throw a level away, so he shoved Randall into the depths of the abyssal black hole without warning.