"Hey, doesn't he look familiar?" Ignite wondered as he watched a random player launch attacks at Karma.
"Hmm?" Cauldron saw the pale, sickly face and remembered a certain person they killed, but had a vague memory of him. "I guess we have killed him before."
"Oh, I remember him." Anthon spoke from the side and touched his shoulder. "He landed one attack on me, but that is pretty much it. He will die."
Swing, swing, clang, clang—Karma effortlessly weaved through the barrage of attacks and deflected the ones that would have hit him otherwise.
"Haaah... haaah..." Ambrose breathed heavily while sweat beads appeared from his pores and fell to the ground. 'This attack is draining me out of stamina. Come on, land at least a few attacks!'
"This is pointless." Karma pulled his daggers back and weaved through the sword strikes while approaching Ambrose. Once he was within arms' length, he spun his daggers around and stabbed them into the black-haired player's chest.
The players groaned as they saw him getting stabbed. They wanted him to delay Karma a little bit longer while they retreated.
Ambrose's eyelids turned heavy as darkness swallowed his vision. His health bar was blinking red, and there was almost nothing left. As blood poured out of his wounds, his health dropped even more.
Karma removed the daggers from the flesh of his opponent and knew that the fight was over. He then turned over to the rest of the players and showed a crazy smile.
'Not a single attack landed...' Ambrose thought while he succumbed to darkness. But then his arms started moving robotically, as if they were controlled by someone else.
He squinted his eyes open and saw his arms moving again. This time, he could feel his hands tightening around the hilt of both swords. Before, he couldn't feel anything.
At that moment, a message appeared before him.
[Kill - Completion Rate - 100%]
'Wait, you also have to reach the peak of your completion rate to use your own created skill?' Ambrose's eyes widened in shock, as he didn't expect that.
This meant he was fighting this whole time against Karma with only a fraction of his power in use.
[Your skill "Kill" has acquired a rank!]
[Kill - Rank: Rare]
'A rank? How come I haven't heard about this anywhere? Those basic skills had no rank, unless their rank was permanently basic. I wonder how high of a rank "rare" is, but it sounds powerful!'
His vision cleared up, and a blinking red health bar hovered in his peripheral vision, but he ignored it and didn't care what his health was. His attack was still ongoing, and he couldn't stop even if he wanted to.
His swords moved in the direction of Karma, who had already turned his back on him and was approaching the pale-faced players.
At that moment, Ambrose allowed the skill to take whole control of his body without fighting back. His legs started moving faster until he was fully running.
"Hmm?" Karma looked over his shoulder as he heard footsteps approaching him and saw a scene he didn't expect. A bloodied figure approached him with two swords in hand and an icy-cold look in his eyes.
Killing intent!
Karma's body froze as if it were dipped in an ice cold river. The intense killing intent made his thoughts sluggish, and he couldn't think of anything but the fear of death.
"Wait, how come he is still moving?!" Ignite cried out, as everyone thought that Ambrose was long dead. His health should have been way down by now, and when health turns lower, the player's vision and movements become sluggish.
However, Ambrose moved faster than ever before!
Ambrose launched a barrage of attacks with all of his might behind each strike.
Spurt!!
Karma's eyes shook as the blade slashed his shoulder, almost separating the shoulder from the body.
"What the hell..." Karma gritted his teeth and wanted to move both his daggers to deflect the strikes, but he then felt immense pain in his right arm. He turned to his right arm's shoulder and saw that it was heavily bleeding; therefore, he couldn't move his arm!
Ambrose swung the left-handed sword in a wide arc and slashed across Karma's chest, leaving behind a bloody cut and an everlasting scar.
Karma's vision was filled with his own blood, and he fell to his knees. He tried to gather his thoughts, but they were very sluggish. It was something he had never experienced before.
The players expressions varied from shock to amazement as they saw the unbeatable-looking existence kneeling before a player.
Ambrose stabbed both swords into Karma's chest and impaled him on the ground.
"Cough!" Karma coughed blood and screamed hoarsely.
"W-wait, isn't he going to die?" The players looked at each other and back at Karma. They unsheathed their weapons and rushed straight to the boss of this event, wanting to deliver the final hit!
"These fools are going for the final hit!" Cauldron shouted.
"Let's go!" Anthon shouted and lunged forward. Because of his past as a track and field athlete, he was faster than most of the players, but several players were closer to Karma when they started running and reached him first.
'Huh?' Ambrose raised his head and saw screaming players running at him and Karma.
"I WON'T DIE HERE!" Karma screamed, grabbed both sword blades with his bare hands, and pulled them out of his body. He then kicked Ambrose in the chest, pushing him away, and then picked up his dagger from the ground and slashed through the players throats.
Anthon flanked him from the side and slashed upwardly at his face, but Karma dodged it by shifting his body's balance and then delivered several sharp strikes at Anthon's chest.
Anthon staggered backward with blood gushing wounds on his chest.
He was about to strike again when Karma grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and threw him to the ground.
Anthon's back of the head hit the ground harshly. If he were an ordinary person, his head might have cracked in half.
Karma breathed heavily and launched an unstoppable onslaught on the players. He was like a mad beast, killing everything in his sight.
A sudden figure then appeared behind him, with two swords approaching him.
Karma moved the dagger above his head and blocked both swords, then delivered a quick horse kick backwards and felt his boot landing on the chest of a person who had been a huge pain during this fight.
Ambrose staggered backward and fell to the ground. He breathed heavily but then saw his health bar disappear suddenly.
'Ah, if those players hadn't come... I might have... been able to kill him...' His body disappeared into pixels, leaving behind a wooden sword on the ground.
Karma screamed while deflecting the strikes from dozens of players. Anthon, Cauldron, and Ignite continued to deliver powerful strikes, putting him under great pressure.
RedBand looked from the sidelines and remembered those three young men. His grip tightened on his weapon.
'Those three. I will have my revenge one day, but for now, the final hit will be mine!' He lunged forward and attacked Karma with his party members.
Karma panicked while trying to dodge and deflect all the attacks, but more and more wounds appeared on his body. He could only use one arm because his right shoulder was almost hanging from his body.
Swoosh—several arrows crossed the distance and stabbed through Karma's body. He let out a loud scream, and at the same time, five swords stabbed through his chest simultaneously.
All the players rushed at him and hacked their weapons at him.
Karma dropped his dagger and looked blankly in front of him while feeling all sorts of weapons stab into his body. He felt nothing but coldness, and a certain face appeared in his vision.
'If it wasn't for him... I didn't expect there to be a lunatic like him here. Fuck...' Karma closed his eyes and felt a sword stab into his heart. His body slouched down to the ground, and after several seconds, his body slowly vanished into pixels.
After the second of his defeat, an announcement appeared on the orange sky of Amaterasu. However, it didn't only appear there. All the players on their respective cities and towns saw announcement appear on the sky.
Martial Online's first-ever World Announcement appeared.