"Is that? No…. It can't be"
"I've seen that face before! I'm sure I have, but that man is dead…."
"Did the world not receive a report that he died alongside the previous NPC emperor Julien D Evanus? How is he still alive?"
"Who is it? Stop talking in riddles? Just who the hell is that man?"
"He's Ben Faulkner, The KingSlayer, The notorious assassin leader of the Assassin Alliance, one of the strongest NPC in the game, and a retired legend. Him joining this fight is bad news for us—"
Murmurs spread throughout the player base when they noticed that Ben Faulkner was still alive, as although reports received by them so far did mention that 'TheBoss' was likely traveling with his pet beast and a man, nobody mentioned precisely that the man was none other than Ben Faulkner.
"But he was dead…. Everyone knows he was? Wasn't he? I mean what the hell is going on? Did he also kill Julien D Evanus?"
Many conspiracy theories began to emerge once Ben Faulkner's face was revealed to the masses, however, while a few players were scared of his pedigree, there were a lot that did not seem to give a fuck.
"What does it matter who he is? If he's with 'TheBoss', we kill him too! There's only 38 minutes left till the play-time runs out today and I don't want to drag this fight till tomorrow!" One ranker said, as instead of backing down, he took the lead and charged at Leo alone.
"Out of my way…. Beast" he said, as he tried to leap over Dumpy by using his massive shoulders as a jumping base.
However, the second his boots came into contact with Dumpy's skin, they began to sizzle and burn, as by the time he leapt over him and was mid-air, they disintegrated completely with a single drop of Dumpy's skin acid touching his feet.
"ARGHHHHHH—" He howled in pain, as his muscles convoluted at awkward angles.
As let alone touch Leo, he fell off the terrace hilariously, dying a painful and gruesome death, where none of his bodily muscles responded to his brain commands at all, making him die from the most painful of seizures.
"Pathetic mongrel…." Dumpy said, brushing the dust off his boots off his shoulder, as the sight of their friend dying such a horrifying death, made many players tremble in fear.
Over 90% of them did not even understand what happened? Or how their friend died, as all they saw was him leaping past Dumpy and then dying of a sudden ailment.
Most of them failed to notice the burned boot either, as they wondered just what sort of a spell caused him to die this way?
"What happened? How did he die?"
"What did that frog do? I'm sure he did not even move a muscle?"
"What's going on? Has 'TheBoss' hacked the game?"
The common players found their brain short-circuit at the lack of information, as Leo enjoyed the fear in their eyes with a soft smile under his mask.
From the corner of his eyes, he could see that over a 100 mages had gathered together, not even two blocks down from his location, and were collectively chanting a spell.
If Leo wanted, he could have disrupted their spell with ease before they ever cast it, however, he did not.
Using 'Copy' instead, he patiently watched what they did, as he understood that the rankers surrounding him were tacitly waiting for this exact spell to work-out before they took action.
"Is this it? Is no-one going to charge at him? He's right there? What the fuck are the rankers doing?" One common player asked, as he looked around frantically, but no-one seemed to respond.
At first glance, it seemed like everyone was reluctant to fight 'TheBoss' and die, however, that was not the truth.
The rankers smiling smugly thought that they were wasting Leo's time, while their strongest spell was being prepared, while Leo laughed smugly in-turn, having already seen through their strategy.
It was like a high stakes game of 4D chess, which felt hopeless to the pawns, however, incredibly interesting to the controllers.
And although the opponent thought they were winning, Leo was in fact two steps ahead of them all.
*BOOM*
A sudden surge of mana took everyone by surprise, as a vibrant rainbow pillar of energy, seemingly stretching towards the sky, shot up from the collective location, where the mages were chanting.
"IT'S DONE! WE GOT HIM"
"Hahaha… here it comes!"
"Quick, pin him down now. He must not be allowed to escape this attack–"
Suddenly, as the pillar of energy shot-up, the rankers finally made their move, as they rushed towards Leo from all sides.
The fighting, once again suddenly turned intense, as Dumpy found himself being swarmed by opponents on all sides.
"Come! Come at me mongrels, I'll show you the power of the great ancient swamp frog!" Dumpy said, fighting at his absolute peak potential, slaying enemies with his sword and spitting acid at their faces.
Surprisingly, he managed to hold off 7/10 opponents trying to get past him, as not even the rankers could escape his wrath.
Technically sound, physically strong, and trained by Ben Faulkner himself, Dumpy was much stronger than the average ranker who found themselves completely unmatched against him.
Meanwhile, Ben did the same, managing to hold off 6/10 opponents trying to get past him, as in the end, Leo only had to fight a handful of opponents at once.
With most of his focus, still on copying the spell being cast, Leo fought rather sloppily and as if he were distracted, as he put minimal effort in dodging, blocking and countering.
His goal now was to copy the best spell that his opponents were casting to completion, and hence, although he took a few close calls, Leo did not budge at all.
"That's it…. We got him exactly where we wanted!"
"The boss seems off his game today, we can take him down–"
"No mercy!"
The rankers around him shouted, as they hyped each other up, until the mages attack finally started to materialize in the sky.