Lightning bolts, flaming arrows and bursts of frost collided midair. The swamp itself trembled as spell after spell went off in succession finally its HP bar showed 0, though some were even spamming after the boss died in case it had hidden mechanism.
Then—
the screen froze for a single, blinding second.
[System Announcement]
Field Boss "Lurking Leviathan" has been slain by Guild: The Vultari.
(Contributors: Zack, Haze, Obi The Limit-Breaker, PointAndShoot and IrisVale)
The swamp went dead quiet. Even the water stopped rippling.
Thousands of avatars stood motionless, the echo of the boss's death roar fading into the heavy silence settling over the swamp.
Then, the chat detonated.
[World Chat]
IronCask: WHAT THE— again?!!
LilZinny: It's the damn Vultures!! Every. Single. Time.
QuestLessHero: How do they always get last hit?!
SwampDad: Someone ban them already. Or nerf their luck stat.
NoobiusMaximus: Anyone got a photo of their faces? Or like… their addresses? I just wanna talk.
RekTier: Don't uninstall, just join them. (Oh wait, they don't recruit peasants.)
WhaleTank: I cannot, my fragile soul can't take another 'last hit' announcement.
FlameHawk: Guess the vultures scavenged again… Uirask: You vultures son of b*ch*
Aeirad: How the hell do they do it every single time?! Can we make a raid and just hunt these M**ers down?
HexJunkie: No shot. No actual f***ing shot. ShadowBane: This game's cursed.
Rackoon: Rename the server: The Vultari Online.
***
The moment the boss collapsed, a bright marker flashed above Haze's head... basically a giant announcement saying "Hey everyone, the loot's right here!"
Players immediately started turning toward them.
"Haze, RUN!" Zack shouted and the whole party scrambled to create distance.
Haze blinked at the glowing halo above her. "What— oh…" she muttered, but she didn't waste time.
She fired off her mobility skills and bolted south; straight toward Verdant Frontier, just like they planned.
Zack and Obi fell in behind her; even with their mobility skills, all three ran hard, doing whatever they could to slow anyone trying to close in. Obi blasted openings with his charge skill, clearing a path for Zack. Haze focused only on running, taking as little damage as possible, while Zack healed her whenever he got the chance.
Obi raised his shield as he ran. "They're coming from the left!"
"No stopping" Zack said. "Only take care of the fast ones."
Arcane Surge II pulsed through him, his magic output spiking instantly.
Next skill: guaranteed crit.
An Assassin closed in.
Zack pivoted without losing speed and raised his staff.
Ice Lance II.
A bright flash—
–1,521! (CRIT)
The Assassin's HP evaporated before he even finished his leap.
Chain Lightning II.
–1,498!
–2,112! CRTI
The bolt ripped through the archers and assassins chasing them, erasing them in one sweep.
Boosted by Adrenal Rush and Arcane Surge, Zack's damage was far beyond what their fragile builds could handle, they fell instantly. The last one tried to flee but the lightning leapt again and finished the job.
Obi glanced over his shoulder and instantly grinned.
His hair stood on end, but not from fear.
More like… excitement.
"Yo—Zack!" he yelled, practically vibrating. "That's at LEAST five hundred people! And I'm not even counting the Defenders, Priests and Mages… those guys are way back because they're slower!"
Instead of keeping his head down like a normal person running for his life, Obi twisted mid-stride, jogged backward for two steps and threw both middle fingers high like he was leading a parade.
"HEY! PICK UP THE PACE! I'M NOT SLOWING DOWN JUST FOR YA!"
Haze nearly stumbled ahead of them.
Zack had made Point and Iris stay back as it was pointless to include them when their mobility was practically zero.
Point and Iris were already waiting for them to regroup, having spotted, Haze at full sprint, Zack close behind and Obi splashing through the Swamp Marsh like he was auditioning for a comedy skit.
Mud flew with every step and behind them surged a wall of five hundred furious players slipping, tripping and screaming death threats.
Point's eye twitched so violently she nearly fired a spell at him. She nearly cried from sheer disbelief.
"YOU JUST TURNED FIVE HUNDRED PLAYERS INTO OLYMPIC SPRINTERS!"
She cupped her hands again and screamed—
"KICK THAT IDIOT BEFORE HE GETS ALL OF US KILLED!"
Haze didn't even know whether to laugh and cry. She just ran and also noticed Iris and Point also running away now.
Zack trudged through the mud beside Obi, even he wanted to shove this guy and see what the crowd would do to him but in the end shook his head— he needed Obi to tank damage and clear the path for him with his molten charge.
Obi shrugged, still facing the mob. "Motivation! Look at them, they're running harder already!"
As if on cue, the forest behind them erupted with furious shouting and renewed footsteps.
Zack didn't look back. He didn't need to.
Not sure if this game will kill me… but this guy? He's going to get me killed eventually.
Point groaned loud enough to echo.
"I SWEAR—IF WE MAKE IT OUT OF THIS, LET ME KICK HIM JUST ONCE. ONE GOOD KICK!"
Iris also shouted back, "WHEN WE'RE SAFE, YOU GET FIRST RIGHTS!"
Obi puffed his chest proudly. "Team spirit!"
Zack side-eyed him. "This is why half the server wants you dead."
Obi grinned. "Only half? Don't worry—I'm working on the rest."
Zack: ''...''
His class wasn't built for mobility and the heaviness of the staff only added to the difficulty. In this circumstance, a lighter weapon or perhaps even a dagger would have been significantly more useful.
Obi, despite wielding a shield and mace, had invested heavily in both Strength and Agility. Even with the weight restriction, those stats let him keep pace without much difficulty.
Though Zack was a bit sluggish, his boots and adrenaline rush helped him close the gap.
He managed to heal himself while running and provided a buff to Haze, who was sustaining damage from random attacks; although she was nimble, the damage was accumulating.
As soon as she got within Iris's range, Iris activated Cauterize and Heal to regain her dangerously low health and quickly accelerated before Haze could catch up.
Many players were left speechless as they recorded the ridiculous scene. witnessing over a thousand players pursue a group of five, including Priests and Mages at the rear, followed by defenders, then fighters and finally archers and assassins; it was as if someone had sorted them into different classes.
By that time, Zack and his companions had made their way south, just beyond the edge of Verdant Frontier, where tall trees, slopes and curving mountains were prevalent.
The group felt pleased with their choice since visibility would be significantly limited, allowing them to endure the next forty minutes.
***
Leaves shook as literal wave of players flooded through the forest behind them, weapons raised, skills flashing like fireworks. Screams, footsteps and spell sounds blended into one chaotic roar.
Another group tried to cut them off from the right, hiding behind bushes to ambush.
Zack pointed his staff towards them.
Celestial Chains.
Glowing binds wrapped around them, linking all three together.
He didn't waste time: another Ice Lance II fired, critting thanks to Arcane Surge's. The damage transferred between the chained players, dropping all three at once.
Verdant Frontier was perfect for stalling: thick trees, uneven cliffs, narrow cave routes, everything a team could use to hide and buy time until the loot- timer expired.
Haze had already told them her recall stone wasn't working.
"With that debuff on her, even Gaia City won't be safe," Zack had told them. So running was the only option.
Their raiding party consisted of five members, Haze was the leader and Zack was the second-in-command.
Before they entered, they had agreed to set the loot to leader gain, so everything would go directly into Haze's inventory.
This wasn't a display of authority. Haze simply had the fastest speed in the group.
"She's the only one who can run circles around players and maybe not get killed," Zack had said and no one disagreed.
"Yeah, let the track star hold the shiny stuff" Point quipped, which earned a chuckle from others.
With a multitude of players in the vicinity, the strategy was straightforward: keep the loot with the person who could effectively flee danger, while the others ensured she wouldn't be overrun.
Obi blasted forward with Molten Charge, flames carving a path between moss-covered trunks as he bulldozed through roots and unlucky players alike.
Zack clung to his back like a stubborn backpack the moment the skill went off.
Obi jolted.
"BRO— what are you doing?" Obi blurted, his voice pitching high. "I don't swing that way, okay? At all. Zero. Nope. Just putting that out there!"
Zack's forehead twitched.
"It's for mobility. You're faster. Don't make it weird."
"That is EXACTLY what makes it weird!" Obi cried, feet skidding as he kept running. "Warn me before you lizard-cling onto my spine!"
He just tightened his grip because without it, his mobility cooldowns would have left him in the dirt. Zack and Obi tore across the field, the Molten Charge trail lighting up behind them as they closed the gap with Haze and Point.
Ahead, Point was already raining explosive spells into the treeline, blowing up every greedy opportunist waiting to ambush them from the sides.
Iris stood beside her, quietly supporting with buffs, while Haze, having doubled back after outrunning everyone, cut through frontliners blocking their path.
And every stealth class? Useless. Their stealth skill debuffed movement by 50% and some genius was camping ahead applying that debuff for bonus crit.
Assassins and archers were losing their minds, spamming movement skills and hurling abuses as they sprinted.
"STOP RUNNING AND DROP THE LOOT!"
"YOU THINK WE'LL LET YOU GET AWAY?!"
"SOMEONE CC THAT CAT GIRL!"
Haze could've outpaced everyone but going solo with half the server hunting them was suicide. And with both Zack and Point's names bright crimson, dying now meant catastrophic penalties.
So they bunched up, moving as a tight unit, shredding everything in their path. By this point, anyone chasing them knew exactly what they were dealing with.
Absurd damage.
Near-instant burst.
Zero hesitation.
Some players finally backed off.
Others yelled for reinforcements.
And innocent bystanders? Yeah… they didn't stay innocent for long.
Zack and Point vaporized anything that looked even remotely like a threat or a witness.
Global chat exploded.
[Global Chat]
BloodFang: WHERE ARE THEY?! COORDS NOW!!
SilverHuntress: Who the hell are these people? Why are they hitting for 2k ?!
MageLord: STAY AWAY FROM VERDANT FRONTIER, THEY'RE WIPING ANYONE IN SIGHT
SilentStepBro: I tried stealth and crit them, the one with loot but how come my damage and hers are so different? Speaking from graveyard by the way….
RaidKing: NEED REINFORCEMENT SQUADS. WE'RE FORMING BLOCKADES.
IsADemon: LoL, what is going on??
Zack closed the global chat before it could scroll any further. At this point, their names were popping up faster than he could read. He let out a quiet breath and looked over his party.
Obi was still wearing that stupidly excited grin, like he'd just discovered a new hobby, grinning like a maniac, steam still rolling off his armor from Molten Charge.
Point wasn't any better— eyes alight with the same wild gleam. They both appeared to flourish amid the frenzy.
Haze, meanwhile, looked two seconds from flicking both of them across the map.
She muttered under her breath, "This is… fine. This is totally fine. We are absolutely not doomed."
Iris wore the expression of someone who'd logged in for a relaxing session and instead found herself in a documentary titled "How Guilds Die Early."
Iris nodded weakly. "Why did we do this again…?"
She exhaled, shoulders slumping.
"…We wanted fame," she muttered. "Not a server-wide manhunt."
Obi perked up. "Hey— fame is fame."
Point shot him a look. "Not when half the region wants to skin us for loot, genius."
Iris nodded harder this time. "Exactly. I didn't sign up to be famous and dead."
Zack just sighed and kept moving.
They'd wanted visibility for their new guild.
They definitely got it.
Just… not the kind they planned.