CHAPTER 113: EVENT RAID- STAGE ONE

The teleport hit like a truck of lightning.

Xavier’s body blinked out of the waiting hall and reformed in midair—then thud, boots slammed onto ancient cracked stone. He was standing on a battlefield floating in the middle of the void. Huge stone slabs chained to each other stretched across the darkness, glowing red runes pulsating beneath his feet like the heartbeat of some dying god.

Hundreds of players were popping in across the platform. Warriors, mages, summoners, archers, walking weapons of chaos — all flexing their gear, mounts, and cosmetic auras. Half the chat was just emotes and trash talk.

Then came the system message:

[EVENT RAID: BLOOD GATE ASCENSION — STAGE ONE]

Objective: Eliminate Corrupted Beasts

Time Limit: 15 Minutes

Minimum Server Kill Count: 3000

Contribution Ranking: Top 100 players will receive exclusive rewards

[Countdown: 00:30]

Xavier flexed his shoulders, gripping the hilt of his mythic sword — Astral Breaker – Sword of the Rift. It hummed like it wanted to be unsheathed and unleashed. His armor shimmered with an eerie, divine glow — half of it laced with mythic gold, the rest layered in sleek black shadowmetal. Every piece screamed boss-tier drop.

He took a few steps, but the movement felt clunky.

"Tch... controls are slippery," Xavier muttered. He jumped. Too high. Swung. Too late. Switched targets — overshot.

Around him, players were already warming up, some spamming flashy skills like they were practicing combos for a YouTupe clip.

"Yo, who’s the guy with the god armor?"

"Bro’s glowing like a final boss."

"Is that a hidden dev account?"

Xavier ignored it.

He was trying to focus.

A group suddenly arrived behind him in tight formation. They marched like a military unit — synchronized, perfect spacing, not one step out of line.

All wore the same crimson cloaks.

[GUILD DETECTED: Crimson Vow]

Xavier turned slightly.

Front and center stood Lucas — red-gold armor, twice-polished, shining like a mirror. On his back: a two-handed spear with a flaming edge.

[Rank 99 – Lucas – Level 99 – Crimson Vow Guildmaster]

Beside him, hooded in obsidian robes, holding a glowing tome and enchanted staff — Ethan.

[Rank 100 – Ethan – Level 98 – Crimson Vow Strategist]

"Damn," Xavier muttered. "They’re still riding the top together."

The best part?

They didn’t even recognize him.

Of course they didn’t.

Xavier’s face was hidden behind the Veil of Endless Night, a mythic-class helmet with a featureless, glowing mask. His ID tag was disabled — system default for new entries unless toggled on. And with all his mythic gear? He didn’t look like someone from Earth Server.

He looked like a raid boss that glitched into the player list.

[00:03]

[00:02]

[00:01]

[STAGE ONE BEGIN.]

BOOM.

Black portals exploded open all across the arena. Corrupted beasts clawed their way out — twisted wolves with molten fangs, demon-wasps, hulking spiders with mechanical legs.

Some Portals ripped open in midair, black and red like the jaws of a beast. Monstrous creatures crawled out — obsidian hounds with acid dripping from their teeth, spider-centaurs, horned ravagers with molten eyes.

"Let’s go," Xavier muttered.

He ran forward — stumbled.

Swing. Miss.

Roll. Too slow.

"Shit—"

He got clipped in the side by a spider’s leg and almost faceplanted. His instincts were there — reflexes solid — but the feel was off. No aim assist. No visual cues. Pure manual skill.

He dodged again. Late.

A fireball from some other player blasted the mob instead.

He growled.

Around him, other players were destroying the field. One guy flew past riding a dragon, raining fire. Another used some weird spear-chain combo to yank mobs and one-shot them. The Crimson Vow guild was stomping — fifty players sweeping a corner of the map like a raid-cleaner.

Meanwhile, Xavier was flailing like a baby.

But he wasn’t stupid.

He backed up, calmed his breath, and watched.

He observed how the assassin-type dodged mid-animation. How the tank delayed his taunt to body-pull better. How the mage baited aggro just to lead mobs into a damage circle.

A dual-blade user was dodging perfectly — tap timing. A mage canceled a cast mid-chant to reposition faster. Someone else used terrain to funnel mobs into chokepoints.

’Okay... that’s how you move...’

He mimicked it.

This time, his swing landed. The sword ripped through three mobs in a blink.

[KILL +3]

[Skill Activated: Rift Slash]

[AoE Triggered]

BOOM.

A shockwave split the ground, slicing through five more enemies.

Xavier smirked.

"That’s more like it."

He blinked behind the ogre’s guard. Slashed once. Rift energy burst out and stunned it. He rolled through its blind swing and countered with a charged magic pulse from his hybrid class.

[KILL +1]

[Fusion Skill Progress: Rift Arc – 13%]

He got hit again. But this time, he recovered faster.

Another hound lunged — he teleported over it, pivoted midair, and slammed down the sword like a meteor.

[KILL +3]

[Kill Count: 39]

Still not flashy. But clean. Efficient.

A few players nearby stopped to stare.

"Yo... is that a Riftwalker subclass?"

"Nah, he’s not in a guild. Dude’s soloing this."

"What’s that gear even...? Mythic? All of it?"

He got faster. Cleaner. Jumped to a rock, used a mid-air dash, teleported behind a wolf, and cut it down in one stroke.

[KILL +1]

[Skill Mastery: 3% → 6%]

Meanwhile, Crimson Vow was crushing it. Their DPS team wiped entire sections in seconds. Lucas skewered monsters in lines with explosive spear jabs. Ethan floated mid-air, raining black lightning from his book like a walking apocalypse.

[Crimson Vow cleared sector 3.]

[Top 100 Contribution Leaderboard Updating...]

Lucas glanced around.

"Who’s the guy with the rift aura over there?"

Ethan followed his gaze.

"That one in the dark mythic set? Dunno. Name’s hidden."

"He’s good," Lucas said.

"Not ranked though," Ethan added.

"Must be a whale."

"Yeah."

They moved on.

Xavier watched them. Then smirked. "Not yet, you little snakes."

[Kill Count: 91]

[Current Rank: #223]

[Time Left: 09:01]

Xavier was sweating now — not from the fight, but from thinking. Every swing he adjusted, every cast he refined. His movement wasn’t perfect, but it was smarter. More reactive.

He started predicting mob patterns. When a corrupted beast roared, he already knew where to sidestep. He baited one into triggering a trap from another player, then finished the job for the kill credit.

He was playing dirty. And it was working.

He cleared a lane. Then another. Then soloed a corrupted mini-boss that took three other players to drop earlier.

[Kill Count: 203]

[Skill Mastery Increased]

[Current Rank: #141]

And finally — near the ten-minute mark — he hit a rhythm.

He combined a blink, a midair rift slash, followed by a passive-triggered magic pulse, then detonated a fusion skill right into a crowd of mobs mid-burst.

[Fusion Skill: Rift Arc – Level Up!]

[Area Clear Bonus: +10 Kills]

[Rank: #118]

[Time Left: 05:04]

Xavier stood breathing hard, sword humming with charge.

The kill feed glowed on the side of his screen. His numbers were respectable now.

Then the final mob wave came.

He blinked behind the frontline, dropped a summoning spell — one of the Spirit Host class skills — and let it pull aggro while he went on the offensive.

Mobs fell like dominoes. Burned. Slashed. And Disintegrated.

[Final Mob Eliminated — Total Server Kill Count: 3,087]

[Stage One Cleared!]

[You Ranked #103 in Contribution]

[5-Minute Intermission Before Stage Two Begins]

The monsters stopped spawning. The portals vanished. A wave of light swept over the battlefield, restoring health and mana to everyone. The blood and dust were gone in seconds — like the fight never happened.

Now, silence.

The arena shifted. Platforms restructured themselves, sliding and locking into new formations like puzzle pieces. In the center, a glowing zone appeared — a rest area surrounded by transparent shield walls.

[You may rest, prepare, or buff yourself. Stage Two will begin shortly.]