......

    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh

    Berdugo, Ken, and Asesino quickly moved after realizing that this was not going to be an easy battle, especially when they saw the domain skill that Shin had used.

    Shin remained standing on his spot even after seeing the three of them move. His eyes closely watched their movements while his other senses monitored the changes in the environment.

    He watched Berdugo charge straight at him with great momentum while dragging his hammer-axe weapon behind him and leaving a deep trail on the ground behind.

    Ken also turned into a flickering silhouette that left a series of afterimages behind. He circled behind Shin, seemingly planning to do another coordinated attack along with the other two.

    Asesino entered stealth for another time while hiding his presence as much as he could, trying to avoid being discovered. He had already gotten a rough understanding of Shin’s sharp senses, so he was making sure that he was controlling his aura and restraining it to the best of his abilities.

    Whoosh! Whoosh!

    Seeing the incoming attacks, Shin calmly stepped side to side, dodging the invisible sword flashes that Ken had thrown with his Sword Qi.

    Clang!

    Before raising the sheathed [Yamato] in front of him, blocking something that could not be seen by the naked eye.

    Ken then suddenly materialized before Shin while trying his best to press his katana forward, which was now being blocked by the sheathed sword.

    His previous actions were just to confuse Shin and trick the latter about his ambush from behind. But given the current situation, it seemed like such a trick would not work against someone of this level.

    Shin then turned his wrist, letting the sheathed sword move upwards. His actions were so fast that it did not give Ken any time to respond when the tip of the sheathed sword hit his chin and sent him flying in the air.

    It did not deal that much damage, but the impact was strong enough to send him hovering in the air for a couple of seconds. It was as if he was hit by a powerful uppercut, which shook his head and made him dizzy.

    Swoosh! Swoosh!

    After that, Shin spun to the right and ducked, dodging another ambush from Asesino, who tried to take advantage of the situation.

    He then leaped in the air to avoid the follow-up attack from Asesino, letting it miss with the slightest margin.

    Shin leaped over Asesino, who was ducking forward, and borrowed the momentum of his spinning motion to send out a roundhouse kick, which then landed on Ken’s waist. Find your next read at empire

    Bang!

    "Ugh!"

    As that kick sent Ken flying in the opposite direction, Shin twisted his body in the air. He adjusted the movements of his body midair to gain additional movement for his next course of action.

    Swoosh!

    He did a spinning roll in the air before sending a downward kick that landed on Asesino’s back, slamming the latter flat on the ground.

    Bang!

    "Argh!"

    The series of actions was so fast and smooth, which made it impossible for the two to properly respond.

    Their figures repeatedly appeared and disappeared as they ran rampant on the battlefield. A few seconds had only passed, but Shin had already exchanged multiple blows against the two.

    Roar!

    When Berdugo finally freed himself from the chilling force, he quickly rejoined the battle. He coordinated with the two, trying to suppress Shin. But they were never able to pin him in a single place, much less trap him in their formation.

    He was so slippery that he always managed to slip through their battle formation. The slightest gap was more than enough for him to escape, making the trio feel a little helpless.

    Even with the advantage they had in terms of overall stats, which were comparable to Boss Monsters of the game, they were still unable to suppress him.

    They had never touched even the tip of his cloak in the entire battle while they had suffered huge damage every time Shin landed a clean attack.

    If not for their insane regeneration skill, and their working together, then the accumulated damage was more than enough to kill either Ken or Asesino.

    If it was a one-on-one battle, then any of them would have been killed already.

    This signified the huge gap in their strength, which reminded them of their team commander.

    The commander of their Adventurer Team might not be as powerful as those top-rank gods of the virtual world, but his current strength was more than enough to hold himself against any of them.

    Even if he had been converted into a Plague Race, the strength that he had gotten from the incident was something that they could not disregard.

    Even someone like them, who were only at the average level when compared to the apex experts of the game, became so powerful after their transformation, much less their team commander who was the most powerful and skilled player in their adventurer team.

    Axion had grown a lot after accepting a portion of the inheritance of the fallen king during their transformation, which also enlightened him by a great margin.

    When the three realized this, they knew that it was impossible to defeat this monster even if the three of them worked together.

    It was unless they gathered more Plague Energy and further strengthened themselves, which would enhance their stats and boost other areas such as their senses, speed, and raw power.

    Thinking about this, the three knew it was pointless to stay here longer. If they insisted on holding Shin down and trying to defeat them, those top gods fighting the chieftain-rank Plagued Monster would most likely notice the commotion and realize something.

    The problem was they could not run away from Shin as he could burst down their insanely high HP Bars with just a clean cycle of skills, no matter how high they were, if he focused on attacking alone.

    This could only mean that one of them had to stay and prevent Shin from going anywhere while the other two escaped.

    "Leave it to me. I am the slowest anyway, so I can’t outrun him," said Berdugo through their team channel.

    "That is more than the reason why you can’t be left behind. He can just try to stick to either Asesino or me while dragging you behind," refuted Ken as he added. "Asesino can’t be left behind either as he is the only one who can construct such a meticulous plot among us. It is too risky for him to stay."

    "It is better if it is me, so you two should escape," he said with full resolution.

    ...

    Shin noticed that the three of them were secretly discussing something while fighting him, but he did not do anything about it.

    It was because of the sudden appearance of an overwhelming presence not too far away.

    Whoever it was, they were confident in themselves as they did not bother to hide their aura. It was as if they were purposely announcing their arrival, albeit only directed to him.

    He did not know who they were, but one thing was for sure. That person was with these people as they were emitting a similar foul aura of the plague that the three had.

    ......