...

    Shin exchanged a few more blows against Ken Asesino, who was giving their best to fight him. Unfortunately, despite the overwhelming difference between their stats, they were still unable to pose any threat to Shin.

    Instead, they were the ones who were repeatedly suffering. Their Health Points were steadily dropping as they were unable to withstand most of the sword techniques that Shin was showcasing.

    They were repeatedly getting hit, which chunk a massive portion of their HP Bars. If not for their having insane Health Points, then they would have most likely gotten killed earlier, especially when they did not have the same level of toughness and tenacity as Berdugo, who was the main tank of their group.

    In just a couple of minutes, both Ken and Asesino were almost reaching their limits. Seeing that they could no longer withstand any more exchanges, the two looked at each other and tacitly agreed with their previous arrangements.

    They felt that Berdugo had created enough distance by now, especially when that guy exhausted all his speed-boosting skills and positions he had in his arsenal.

    Asesino did not hesitate for a second as he unleashed all his speed-boosting skills to escape.

    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

    He transformed into a dark shadow that dashed toward the depths of the Plague Lands without looking back.

    Ken, on the other hand, gathered all the plague energy from the surroundings and channeled them toward his katana.

    Whoosh!

    He then pointed the katana toward the sky while chanting a series of eerie mantras, summoning an image of a hideous monster above him.

    His HP Bar also dropped at a visible rate, which signified that he was sacrificing his Health Points in exchange for this powerful skill.

    Meanwhile, Shin ignored Asesino as there was only under a minute before his ’Graveyard of Sword’ Domain Skill ended. He did not have the time to chase after that guy, especially when Ken before him was the immediate threat that he had to take care of first.

    Moreover, that power presence was also starting to affect his senses to a certain degree. Given that this person did not appear up until now, Shin knew that his initial guess was right – the other party had mostly likely been unable to interfere with the current situation due to a certain reason.

    Huu~!

    Taking a deep breath, Shin adjusted his breathing rhythm and summoned the twin tigers, Blackie and Whitie for their respective Elemental Spirit Possession.

    "Dark and Light Reapers!"

    At the same time, he also changed the form of the [Yamato], swapping it with its twin sword form – the Dusk and Dawn Blades.

    Swoosh! Swoosh!

    ’Elemental Spirit Possession (Dark): Abysmal Conqueror’

    ’Elemental Spirit Possession (Light): Sacred Vanquisher’

    The two elementals possessed the twin swords respectively, changing their forms. Explore more stories at empire

    Shin, who was standing in the middle of all of these, maintained his posture. The elemental storm became more violent as more time passed.

    Even the eerie and hideous fog monster created by the densest plague energy was shredded into pieces before slowly dissipating. It did not even manage to reach its target as it was immediately destroyed by the other layer of the elemental storm.

    Ken, who was only hanging by a thread by relying on surrounding plague energy, could not escape as the range of the elemental storm grew larger with every passing second.

    The plague energy that was originally filling the air and constantly corrupting the surroundings was also erased by this storm, which somewhat ’purifies’ the surroundings.

    Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

    The whole storm lasted for only a whole minute but the destruction that it had left behind was so devastating that it only left a massive crater behind.

    Everything was erased, only leaving Shin, who was standing at the center of the giant crater.

    With such a powerful storm, it couldn’t go unnoticed, especially when this place was only a couple of miles away where the gathered players were resisting the horde of plagued monsters.

    But Shin threw all of it at the back of his head as he walked toward Ken, who miraculously survived for some reason. However, the latter was barely hanging on his life as his body was completely shredded by the elemental storm earlier, only leaving some portions of his zombified body that managed to remain intact.

    Shin knew that once Ken died, his in-game avatar would be deleted as well given the nature of this event.

    He walked at Ken and looked at the stubborn expression that the latter had, unable to help himself from admiring the guy.

    He shook his head and asked. "You’re admirable. What are your plans after this?"

    Ken did not reply as he continued to stare at Shin – or it was also possible that the guy was unable to reply.

    "You guys have quite a lot of potential. If you guys decided to create another account and come back in the game after failing in this event-... to start over again-... go to the Gold Mountain of the Saint Heaven Kingdom and look for me," he said before turning around.

    He also looked in a certain direction and mumbled. "So, it is only a spiritual avatar."

    "He did everything he could to save his friend, but still failed in the end," he shook his head as he resumed his steps. "Anyway, I have already given them the invitation. I just hope that they don’t take this to the heart and accept."

    "After all, we just happened to be on the opposite sides of the event, so I don’t have the choice."

    He was not planning to invite them to the Empyrean Talons as he was too strict about picking their future members, but he could still give them a special potion at Gold Mountain. After all, these guys do have decent potential, especially that assassin with a crafty mind.

    He felt that that guy was quite interesting, especially after orchestrating a massive scheme that targeted the experts hunting in the Plagued Lands and schemed something to prepare for the next development of the event even if they failed.

    It was also meant to increase the hostility that the top forces had with one another.

    It was a multilayered scheme that covered quite a lot of targets.

    The more Shin thought about it, the more interested he became.

    As Shin was walking away, Ken stared at his back with unknown emotions in his eyes.

    .....