The crater was still radiating a heat that distorted the air. Making the world look like a painting left out in the rain.
Sebastian stood in the center of the glass-bottomed pit. The ashes of the World Boss drifting around him like grey snow. In his hand, he held the golden [Guild Creation Token]. The object that every major power in the server had mobilized their armies to secure. Beside it floated a pulsing, dark-red organ the size of a human head—the [Heart of the Doom-Howl Wolf].
He looked up at the rim of the crater.
Twenty thousand pairs of eyes looked back.
For a moment, there was a heavy, suffocating silence. The players were paralyzed by the sheer impossibility of what they'd just witnessed. A single player. Wearing starter rags. Had annihilated a World Boss that an army couldn't scratch. The lingering image of the [Sun God's Lance] vaporizing the beast was etched into their retinas.
In the world of MMOs though, awe is a fleeting emotion. Greed is eternal.
The silence broke when the Commander of the Crimson Skull Guild, a heavily armored Warrior named 'Bloodaxe', stepped forward. His eyes weren't on Sebastian. They were glued to the golden token in Sebastian's hand.
"He... He has it," Bloodaxe whispered. His voice trembling not with fear. With avarice.
"The Token!" a voice screamed from the Golden Lion ranks. "He's just a Drifter! He used all his mana on that big attack! He's empty!"
The realization spread through the mob like a virus. They rationalized the miracle they'd just seen. It was a one-time ultimate. He's a glass cannon. He has no armor. He's exhausted.
"Kill him!" Bloodaxe roared. Raising his weapon. "The Token drops on death! Whoever gets the last hit owns the server!"
"CHARGE!"
The spell was broken. The truce between the guilds shattered instantly. Replaced by a chaotic, frenzied stampede. Not just the Crimson Skull. The Golden Lion, the Iron Covenant, thousands of unaffiliated solo players poured over the lip of the crater like a tidal wave of steel and magic.
Arrows darkened the sky. Fireballs whistled through the air.
"Zero!" Valerie screamed from the ridge. Her face pale. She was the only one not moving. Protected by her Blue Rose guild members who were too stunned to advance. "Run!"
Sebastian didn't run. He watched the approaching tsunami of players with cold, dead eyes.
He checked his mana bar. The [Sun God's Lance] had indeed drained a significant portion of his reserves. His [Void Ocean] passive was regenerating 100 Mana every second though. He wasn't empty. He was overflowing.
"You think I'm weak because the Boss is dead?" Sebastian whispered.
He raised his free hand.
"You are just XP piñatas."
The first wave of attackers—High-Agility Assassins hoping to steal the loot—reached the bottom of the crater. They lunged. Daggers glowing with stun skills.
"Dimensional Sever."
Sebastian didn't aim. He swept his arm horizontally in a wide arc.
SWISH.
A distortion line, razor-thin and impossibly fast, expanded outward from his body. It cut through the air. Through the smoke. Through the players.
No sound of impact. Just the wet thud of fifty upper torsos sliding off their legs simultaneously.
[Ding! You have killed Player 'Shadow_X'.]
[Ding! You have killed Player 'RogueOne'.]
[Ding! Killing Spree!]
The text scrolled so fast it was a blur of red.
Fifty deaths didn't stop a mob of twenty thousand though. The players behind them simply trampled the corpses. Driven by the madness of greed.
"He can't kill us all!" someone shouted. "Zerg him!"
"Incorrect," Sebastian replied calmly.
He activated [Army of One].
The space around him fractured. Ten copies of 'Zero' stepped out of the void. They stood in a circle around the original. Facing outward.
"Defensive formation," Sebastian commanded. "Free fire."
The clones raised their hands. They didn't cast the massive Solar Flare this time—that was overkill for squishy players. Instead, they channeled a mid-tier spell Sebastian had picked up from the Academy library in his past life's memories. Evolved through his Infinite Points.
[Skill: Chain Lightning] -> [Evolution] -> [Tier 3: Storm Grid].
CRACK-BOOM!
Ten bolts of blue-white lightning shot out from the clones. They didn't just hit one target though. They arced.
From player to player to player.
The crater turned into an electric chair. The lightning jumped through the tightly packed mob. Frying armor. Exploding mana shields. Turning the charging vanguard into twitching, smoking husks.
"ARGHHH!"
"My nervous system! I can't move!"
"Healer! HEAL ME!"
The screams were deafening. The smell of ozone and burnt digital flesh filled the Plains of Despair.
Still they came. The tanks of the Iron Covenant raised their tower shields. Forming a phalanx to block the lightning. They marched forward. Crushing the bodies of the fallen.
"Shield wall!" General Iron commanded from the back. His voice booming. "Push him! He can't break absolute defense!"
Sebastian looked at the wall of steel shields slowly closing the noose.
"Absolute defense?" Sebastian scoffed. "Clay taught me otherwise."
The original Sebastian stepped through his clones. He held the [Shadowfang] dagger in a reverse grip.
He disappeared.
[Skill: Void Walk.]
He phased right through the front line of shields. The Iron Covenant tanks braced for an impact that never came.
Sebastian materialized in the center of their formation. Directly behind the tanks. In front of the healers.
"God-Slayer's Edge."
He spun.
It was a whirlwind of black mana. The dagger, ignoring 100% of defense, sliced through plate mail as if it were wet paper. He didn't aim for vital points. Simply severed spines.
SLASH. SLASH. SLASH.
Tanks collapsed. Their armor intact. Their bodies destroyed from the inside.
"He's behind the line!"
"Turn around!"
Panic set in. The formation broke. Sebastian moved like a phantom. Appearing and disappearing. Leaving a trail of grey pixels wherever he went. He was one man. Felt like a legion though.
In the center of the crater, his clones continued to pour lightning into the Crimson Skull members. On the flank, the real Sebastian was dismantling the Iron Covenant.
Bloodaxe, watching from the ridge, felt a cold sweat trickle down his back. This wasn't a raid. This was a meat grinder.
"What is he?" Bloodaxe whispered. "Is he a GM? A Dev?"
"He's a monster," a lieutenant stammered. "Sir, we've lost 500 men in thirty seconds. We need to retreat!"
"No retreat!" Bloodaxe roared. Though his voice wavered. "The Token! Look, he's busy with the Covenant! Bombard the crater! Friendly fire doesn't matter!"
The Crimson Skull mages on the ridge began to chant. A massive rain of fireballs began to descend. Aiming to obliterate everything in the crater—friend and foe alike.
Sebastian paused in his slaughter. Sensing the mana spike above him. He looked up at the sky. Filled with descending fire.
He smiled.
"Finally," he said. "A challenge."
He dismissed his clones. He stood alone amidst the sea of corpses and terrified survivors.
"You want the Token?" Sebastian shouted. His voice amplified by mana. Reaching every ear on the battlefield. "Then catch me if you can."
He crouched low.
[Skill: Sky Walk.]
BOOM.
He launched himself upwards. He didn't run along the ground. He flew straight up. Piercing the cloud of fireballs. Heading directly for the open sky.