Kaya configured his appearance to look like an average-looking player. With the current status of the empire, banners of his face as Vagabond had been spread from every nook and cranny of the empire. He was currently wanted for 500k gold coins or 50 Platinum coins. If they were able to locate him, they'd earn an easy 2 Platinum coins and if they were able to capture him alive, they'd obtain double the amount of the bounty.
Since he was just a single player, he couldn't threaten an entire empire so security was very lacking even though a dangerous man was on the loose. There wasn't anything Kaya could do to scare the empire and more than that to even carry out his plans of sneaking into the den of his enemies. It was practically suicide, he needed a plan in which he could lure the higher-ups to fight him but that in itself was hard. Although the powerful dark players were arrogant, they weren't dumb, they'd know if his bait was a trap or not, and added to the fact that he was alone. Only if he had a backup that could help him then maybe he could have a chance of luring them all out.
'I guess I don't have any other options but to infiltrate them from the inside.'
Kaya clicked his tongue as he entered the empire's capital. There wasn't much change in the capital's protection other than the oddly high numbers of players all over the city. The city which usually homed over 5 million players now had triple that number. Every nook and cranny of the city had bustling crowds of players. He couldn't understand why this was happening. It must've been the result of his actions but the majority of these players didn't look like they were affiliated with any dark guild which confused him more.
Kaya didn't mind this many people as this meant that it would become easier for him to blend in with the surroundings and infiltrate the Blood Carnival's base. As soon as Kaya arrived at the palace of the Blood Carnival Guild, he was taken aback at how fortified the security measures that was placed all over the palace. Arrays were being used as barriers that prohibited any outsiders from getting in without the higher-up's permission, hundreds of level 200 NPC guards stood guard at the walls, and they were even using a few hundred hound mounts to scour the place to smell any suspicious business going around.
Kaya looked around the palace walls but he could not find one part of the area that had not been protected. Realizing that his plans might have been in vain of infiltrating the inside, he decided to give up and thought of another plan.
'If only Roman was here...?'
While Kaya had been scouring the place, he had noticed a presence that had long been trailing him. He could tell that this presence came from a very powerful assassin due to how faint he could sense it's presence. It had completely hidden its mana and aura but it wasn't able to completely conceal its qi that's why Kaya could still sense it even from afar.
' Let's see who this person is.'
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The enigmatic guild leader of the Blood Carnival Guild had been one of the most mysterious players in the game. His infamy had only risen during the post-demon king catastrophe as he had become one of the fastest and strongest players that managed to rise in the Haven of God Unified Rankings. Before the fall of the Demon King Belphegor, he wasn't even ranked in any of the rankings whatsoever, he was simply another run-of-the-mill player. The speed of his rise of power managed to frighten many super guilds, a few months after the demon king catastrophe, an unknown guild managed to take hold of the entire Hawksbill Empire and before they knew it, this unknown guild became the overlord of the fallen empire overnight and managed to fix it's economy right away. This unknown guild was of course the Blood Carnival Guild, but that was not the only thing that surprised everybody, there was a lot of attrition with the guilds after the Blood Carnival Guild announced that they will ban any guild from obtaining any property of the Hawksbill Empire and had full open arms to allow dark guilds in monopolizing small parts of the Empire. The guilds had no power whatsoever to fight against a band of dark guilds and the Blood Carnival Guild had full control of the entire empire, they could only choose to fight back by using business funds hoping to bankrupt the empire but of course, that didn't work, just the geological advantage of the empire made it impossible to become an enemy since the shortest trade routes had to go through their territory.
They had no other choice but to accept the fact that Blood Carnival Guild had to become one of their business partners and if they didn't, they'd only lose more than what they could gain. All of this had been planned by non-other than the guild leader of Blood Carnival Guild, Butcher.
Butcher "The Blood Butcherer", was not only known for his highly intellectual mind when it comes to businesses, but his prowess alone also made him an indomitable figure to all the Dark players. He was currently ranked 23 in the Haven of God's Unified rankings at the level of 310. He is also the number 1 ranked dark player with over 30 million player kills. The dark player ranking was based on how many players they killed and not their levels. He was number 3 ranked in the Berserker class as his class was called "Blood Demon", a Unique class that branched with the main class Berserker. Rumors have it that Butcher had another hidden class and was far stronger than the class he had revealed. They believed this could be a Legendary class but that rumor had not been backed by any hard evidence so, in the end, it became nothing more but a rumor.
Nobody has seen Butcher's face in public since only the higher-ups, and a few of their close business partners had seen it. Many believed he was a shrewd old man, some thought he might be a very beautiful-looking man that was on par with a supermodel while some thought he might be just an average-looking guy.
What they knew of very well was his two wives: Ladybug and Rose. These two women were at the same level as the Vice-leader of the Blood Carnival Guild, Reaper. They we're well-known for being psychotic and gorgeous women. They enjoyed killing and torturing players as this made them vigorously horny. They'd masturbate as they peel the skin of a player from his body as he screams in pain from the torture. They'd sit on your face and rub their clits with it as their ass slowly crush your face to a mush. They'd even use your penis and eat them by biting through the skin down to the muscle and tearing it out. They'd use your thigh bones as a dildo just to pleasure themselves. They were women who find pleasure in torture, they were bold masochists. Although it might sound like a fantasy that many horny players hope to experience, trust me you don't want to experience it. All of their victims had been traumatized from their actions and had long quit the game. Their sex clips had been placed in the gore section of porn sites due to how bloody they do their bidding.
Concurrently, one of Butcher's wife had used concealment and had been on trail of a peculiar player whose movements looked distinguishable to the famous player. This was non-other than Rose.
'I guess I've found my new plaything.'
Rose licked her red lips as he continued to stalk Kaya's movements. When he saw Kaya suddenly leave the capital she was confused.
'Did he manage to detect me? There's no way. I'm using an Advanced concealing skill that not even that fat bastard could detect.'
Rose continued to follow Kaya and seeing that Kaya stood still unmoving on an empty plain made Rose's doubts about his actions seem to be true.
'So he did detect me. To think my plaything could be more sensitive than I had expected, he might just be as sensitive as that thin bastard.'
Rose didn't fret much about it as she had long guessed that Vagabond had more than what the naked eye could discern. From the clip alone, Rose knew that Vagabond had been holding back from that fight and had not even used his full power. She was only here to inspect and see how truly powerful Kaya was and as long as she completed that goal, she'd earn another reward from Butcher.
Rose stabbed three arrays on the ground and struck them on each other and soon, a giant invisible field appeared that concealed her and Kaya's presence.
"Are you Vagabond?"
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When Kaya heard the voice of the cloaked female, he decided it was useless to hide his identity. He changed his appearance back to Vagabond and quickly, Rose took a step further back seeing Kaya's beautiful face close-up.
"It is you. Now that I've seen your face, you are more beautiful than I expected. Do you wanna fuck first?"
Rose spoke in a seductive tone. She removed his cloak and revealed her alluring appearance. She was wearing thin see-through silk clothing that revealed her perky boobs and red panties. She had short crimson hair and red lips. A pale-brown skin and a curvy figure with an ass that if it clapped might cause a sonic wave. Her face showed her Asian ethnicity and she looked like a MILF version of the petite Bird.
"..."
Kaya didn't respond as he pulled out his purple sword from his inventory and posed in a battle stance. Rose could only grin at this sight as she too pulled out her blade. Her weapon was a 2-meter-tall katana that was screaming with bloodlust. With the glow it permeated, Kaya could guess that the katana was a legendary ranked weapon and it might be a tier 3 weapon.
"Don't worry, I'll be sure to fuck you once I cut off all four of your limbs. I hope you can endure it since I'm very rough in bed."
Rose licked her red lips and lunged toward Kaya in a split second. She thrust her katana right through Kaya's abdomen and Kaya responded with the attack by parrying it with his purple sword and dashing through the side. From what the information Kaya had obtained from Goodman, Rose was known for her Japanese swordsmanship that originated from Shushin-Ryu Iaijutsu which stems from Iaido, a sword style mastered by his great-great-grandfather Isao Machii.
It was one of the few surviving Japanese sword-drawing martial art known for its quick draw that can slice a bullet in half with accurate precision. Facing the Katana head-on was basically asking to die and the best way to fend it off was to evade the directions of the draws of the katana.
"Oho? You're able to block my first draw? As expected of the wielder of nitō Ichi-ryū, your swordsmanship is truly on par with your techniques."
Rose grinned and performed a kick that pushed Kaya away and she somersaulted back. Sheathing her katana, her body curled into a ball, she then unsheathed the blade as her entire body turned into a reddish fluid that trode towards him like lightning.
2nd-Draw: Bloody Cuts!
As soon as Rose phased through Kaya's body, hundreds of after-images of sword movement struck Kaya all over his body.
-1,000!
-1,200!
-3,500!
.
.
.
[You have been inflicted with Grievous Wounds! Regeneration has been weakened by 30%]
Kaya wasn't able to dodge any of the strikes and his health had fallen by 80%. His entire body had been filled with lacerations from the inevitable blades surprising him but nobody was more surprised than Rose whose eyebrows rise in disbelief.
"How? That should've sliced your limbs off to pieces! How are you still alive?"
"I guess I'm just built differently."
Kaya responded as he watched the shallow cuts on his skin dripping with fresh blood. Anger struck Rose upon hearing Kaya's nonchalant response as he drew her katana again but this time, before she could unsheath the blade again, Kaya disappeared and reappeared behind the unknowing Rose.
Blink!
Consecutive Strikes!
With the effect of Retribution, his empowered Consecutive Strikes were sure to kill any player on the same level with ease as it bolstered Kaya's full unfiltered strength. Numerous strikes appeared on Rose's back and to her who had felt the word 'Shi' (Death) flash on her head immediately tried to parry the incoming strikes with her katana.
(Deadass wanted to write Death in kanji but webnovel doesn't allow it. What a bummer...)
-8,090
-6,890
.
.
.
The strikes managed to leave deep cuts on her body as she was one step too late in blocking the attacks. She could only parry the few remaining strikes in the end and ended up losing 40% of her health in an instant. She was surprised at how high the damage she received as she had prided herself on her defense that could be comparable to a meatshield player of the same tier. What's more, none of the strikes dealt a critical strike and if they had, her health would've dropped to a minimum.
'Shit! His strength is like that fat bastard!'
Knowing the direness of the situation, Rose quickly backed away from Kaya by activating a blink skill. As soon as she disappeared and reappeared 50 meters away from Kaya, Kaya had also vanished and arrived on her back but now with the purple sword impaled between her chest.
-40,000!
"You...bitch!"
The damage immediately placed down her health by 10% in an instant and she puked blood as a result. Her eyes turned blood red as the demon insignia right over her neck glowed brightly and her body turned to a style of red liquid.
In her form, she was untargettable, Kaya tried to strike his sword at her but none of it dealt any damage. Her health had visibly regenerated as it went from 10% back to 80% in an instant and as soon as she returned to her normal form, the wounds on her body had disappeared but this time, her entire body structure changed to that of a succubus. Her skin turned red, her hair became longer that was dyed in black, she had two protruding red horns on her forehead, she had demon wings and a tail and she had become naked revealing her entirety to be viewed by the eyes.
"I wasn't expecting you to forcefully activate my demonic insignia and shift me to my high-demon race. But now that you've seen me in this form, death is your only exit!"
3rd-Draw: A Thousand Lacerations!
Thousands of red waves appeared in Rose's wake as she weaved her katana in different directions. These waves flew at Kaya at the speed of a flying bullet and with so many of them that contained double the berserk strength of Rose, it was a sure-kill skill that couldn't be dodged.
"Heh.."
Kaya revealed a slight chuckle and decided to face it head-on.
'Is he crazy? Does he think he can block all of those waves without using any defensive skills?'
Rose could tell that Kaya wasn't trying to activate any skill and was trying to parry all of the waves with pure swordsmanship alone. He might be able to block 5 or 10 of it but the numbers of the waves ranged to a thousand that it had netted his view which made it impossible to block all of it. She scoffed at his decision and thought of how retarded and futile his endeavor was.
'Well, he's a dead man.'
Rose sighed as she couldn't even enjoy the spectacle that she was hoping for. She watched Kaya's helplessness and stupid decision-making and could only wonder why was such a sword expert thought this way. Was he retarded? Or was he just overly confident? She couldn't think of anything else.
But as soon as she thought of Kaya's rookie mistake and arrogance, he displayed swordsmanship that dazzled even an expert swordsman like Rose.
Peng! Peng! Peng!
One swing of his sword blocked a couple of waves and another slight movement blocked a couple more. Each wave looked like shards of glass breaking to fragments when it contacted with Kaya's sword and not one managed to hit or even graze him. The ground on where he stood turned into a crater as each wave left explosion after explosion but not one dealt a point of damage. Rose who was watching had her jaw hung through the floor and her eyes almost popping out of her sockets as she couldn't believe Kaya who was able to block all the waves with pure sword techniques and not once did he use a skill. This was just inconceivable.
"H-how...."
As soon as the smoke dissipated, what remained was Kaya's figure standing unharmed in the center of the deep crater on the ground. Seeing her dumbfounded stare at him, Kaya grinned and retrieved his sword. The reason why he was able to block the strikes with just his strength alone was due to the added effects of Belphegor's Boots which was the unique effect, Effortless. This increased his overall power output by almost 50% when he didn't use any skill that's why he resorted to using his basic attacks to parry the waves. He gazed at Rose with a slight chuckle and responded in a laid-back tone.
"I told you, I'm just built different."