Kai just stared with wide eyes as the green cloud dissipated slowly, revealing the menacing presence standing tall—a pile of loot littered around him. But it wasn't all for nothing. The blood-red enraged eyes of the Exodian lord now had bright green veins in them.
She gave him some kind of effect!
Deimos had died once already today. She would respawn near him in a minute. Killing the players again and again, the Exodian NPC boss had already seen how they came back repeatedly. He enjoyed blasting them over and over. It started to fly up again, most likely fixed in position for this ten-minute fight limit.
Kai got out of his cover and aimed at the Exodian's head. The arrow flew straight—the Exodian didn't even pay it an eye as his outstretched palm released another energy ball, blasting it to splinters. Well.. here goes nothing.
Kai climbed the biggest wreckage nearby and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Guys! Let's rush this bastard! That girl made him weaker.. We can kill it together!"
He shot another arrow at the NPC, which was ignored completely as it crashed onto the blue muscular chest and fell down without leaving even a scratch behind. Most players looked at Kai as if he had lost his marbles. Some did seem to be in the mood to do so, but they were all the naked ones, already respawned multiple times. However, when he added one more sentence, all of their eyes flashed.
"The mission will reward anyone who touches the guy in these 10 minutes.. With all of us together we can do it!"
Still, some were dubious, but the ones who didn't care much about levels were ready to go all at once. He just needed a few as a distraction.
"Let's go! Attack!" Kai shouted as he started running—over a dozen naked and some clothed players shouting behind him, charging ahead fearlessly. If any aliens saw this scene, they would not even be able to understand what level of idiocy this was, but such were the players who played for fun.
Kai deliberately slowed down his speed to catch up with the rest and carefully observed where the Exodian was sending his energy balls to move out of their path in advance. Blasts after blasts resounded in the burning village, but there was also a defiant roar—all ten-plus players shouting loudly as they charged head-on. The Exodian was blasting one after another, but they just pushed on fearlessly, denying its overwhelming presence over them.
Kai just smiled as he had reached under 100 meters to the levitating Exodian. Once again, the NPC descended to the ground, as if he was coded to face opponents head-on if they passed a certain range.
'Good! That will save me 2 MP..'
In the middle of the charging players, Kai shot an arrow, burying it in one of the guy's shields who was in quite the backline, and continued running in the middle of the charge. The Exodian started blasting each player from up close while also using his massive hands to send them flying when they came too close. Carefully avoiding his direct gaze, Kai circled back and moved closer behind its back. It was hard to say if the Exodian noticed him or not—but since Kai was still alive, guess he didn't.
Now he just had to wait. And it wasn't much longer. However, as Kai waited, he spotted and picked up the ring from Deimos's loot pile—he was already being rewarded! It was totally unexpected. He wasn't aiming for that at all.
Soon, the backline players—seeing they had no chance at all—started backing down, among them the player with the shield. Kai also moved a little back to get out of his detection range. With no one staying near the NPC, Lord Bloodthorne started powering the energy balls again and sending them at the backs of the retreating players.
When finally one ball was aimed for the player with the shield, Kai sprinted and jumped, grabbing the sharp tail of the dark blue Exodian. The ball was already shot towards the shield guy. The NPC also started to flick its tail with a lot of power to get Kai off, but before it could finish the motion, Kai used Godstep, exchanging himself with the arrow lodged on the shield.
In the next second, right in front of the shield bearer player, the arrow disappeared—and Kai and the Exodian suddenly appeared. The powerful tail finally threw Kai to the side with a lot of force. However, before the player or the NPC could understand what the hell had just happened, the ball of powerful energy crashed squarely into the chest of the Exodian, making him the target of his own attack.
The Exodian screamed loudly as the ball exploded on his chest, leaving a shallow flesh wound—dark purple blood dripping out of it.
Kai had expected the guy to receive more damage and hopefully even die.. that thing was a walking cheat!
Enraged beyond control, it stared at Kai, who had crashed headfirst on the ground at some distance. The NPC roared again in rage, releasing a massive surge of bright purple energy—obliterating the shield bearer player in an instant; the guy had barely survived the energy ball blast due to the Exodian taking its full damage.
The very next second, the NPC charged towards Kai with rage in its blood-red eyes laden with green veins. Kai barely had 10 HP, but he dared not eat or heal. He immediately forced himself up and started running around as best as he could. But it was nothing to the speed of such a monstrously powerful foe.
It caught up in a heartbeat and was just going to launch a devastating punch when suddenly a thick green smoke covered its face again, making him lose sight of Kai. He didn't think for a second what was going on and ducked down hard, running in the totally opposite direction from before.
He saw Deimos standing naked with censored parts nearby. He reached towards her—the Exodian soon rushed out of the smoke cloud and turned around, rushing towards them with another monstrous enraged roar.
Kai ran as fast as he could, even jumping in between. Deimos launched wave after wave of green energy at the enraged NPC. Kai was watching the greyed-out Godstep skill icon with his heart pounding hard. Dying was no big deal—but if he did so, he would lose the bow, ring, and everything in his inventory. And the enraged Exodian would never let them take those items back, spawn-killing them endlessly.
Just as the massive fist of the Exodian lord came meters close to Kai and Deimos, he leapt toward her with full power and crashed into her. Kai held his breath and waited for the icon to light up. It took two eternity-long seconds—but it finally lit up, and Kai used it instantly, falling hard on top of Deimos near the village entrance where he had shot his first arrow.
Safe! Finally!