Leo checked his watch once the righteous faction players began to slowly gather around his location once again, after his rout of the first batch.
'7 minutes to go….' he thought, as he cracked his neck from side to side and lazily stretched his arms.
Countering the rainbow shot had put a lot of strain on his body and had left a lingering feeling of slight discomfort, which was why he felt the need to stretch to return back to his best.
"This is not over….We must take him down anyhow today" one of the righteous faction players said, as he charged towards Leo, only to be slaughtered by Dumpy before him.
Just when it seemed like the fight was about to resume, with hoardes of righteous faction players trying to swarm and take down Leo, something unexpected happened.
*Thump*
*Thump*
*Thump*
The streets of StrongHaven began to reverberate with a rhythmic thumping sound, as from afar, Leo could notice the royal guards and the Unity Empire Army marching towards his position.
"BY THE COMMAND OF THE EMPEROR'S GUARDIAN, THE NORTH DUKE DENVER WILLOW, WE HEREBY ANNOUNCE THE IMPERIAL ORDER TO CAPTURE REBEL OUTLAW LEADER 'THE BOSS'.
SURRENDER PEACEFULLY NOW, OR BE SLAUGHTERED WHERE YOU STAND" Announced Sir Gareth, a Master Knight of the Unity Empire, as he marched with a righteous fury towards Leo.
Until now, all of Leo's interactions on his journey to StrongHaven City had been predominantly with players, with no significant involvement from NPCs.
However, upon finally reaching StrongHaven City and stirring up some chaos, Leo seemed to have finally forced the Royal Army into action.
Led by Sir Gareth, several regiments of infantry were dispatched to subdue him, with Leo immediately identifying how this attack by the NPC army could potentially become a big headache for him, if not dealt with promptly.
In his original plan, Leo had intended to begin infiltrating the castle the moment the common players logged out.
But with a large army of NPCs, including a master knight, marching towards him, Leo felt a growing sense of frustration.
If he didn't address this situation quickly, he risked wasting valuable night-time fending off Gareth and his forces, which would undoubtedly derail his main objectives, and hence, to avoid such a grim scenario, Leo decided to promptly take action.
"Master, Dumpy, cover for me for a couple minutes, I'll have to try something new–" Leo suggested, as both Dumpy and Ben nodded in acknowledgement of his request.
With his mana bar full, Leo began trying to recreate [Rainbow Shot] and although his total mana reserves were much lesser than when a group of mages collaborated to produce this move, Leo still managed to create an inferior but sufficiently strong version of the move.
"Move out of the way! Don't obstruct the royal army or you shall be charged with treason! Move–" Sir Gareth screamed, as he made way through the crowd of players as if they did not matter at all, with any player that did not move being arrested immediately and thrown into jail.
Suddenly, the entire spirit of taking Leo down fizzled off amongst the righteous faction players, as they turned from being the aggressor's to spectators, as they let Sir Gareth perform his duty unimpeded.
"Everyone give way to Sir Gareth! He's a master knight and can fight toe to toe with 'TheBoss'. The chances of him taking 'TheBoss' down are much higher than us–"
"Yeah guys! There's no need to die unnecessarily, let's just assist the royal army wherever they need our help from a distance"
"EVERYONE MOVE! MAKE WAY FOR THE ROYAL ARMY"
The various captains amongst the righteous faction players ordered, as they quickly evacuated the area around Leo and waited patiently to see the scene before them unfold.
[System Notification :- Today's gaming time is over, please find a safe spot and log out of the game within the next 5 minutes!]
A system message swept through the board, with all righteous faction players being given the warning to logout.
While a few logged out immediately, not wanting to show-up late to work, a few did not log out as fast, and waited for a while longer to observe the scene unfolding before them.
"Will the system allow 'TheBoss' to logout? Or will he be captured and detained before he can?" The righteous faction players wondered, as it was likely that the system did not permit 'TheBoss' to logout when he was not around a safe-zone.
However, 'TheBoss' defied their expectations once more, by suddenly having his body being covered in rainbow colored aura.
The beam of energy that he produced did not seem to reach to the sky like the mages before him, but still looked like a fairly tall skyscraper nonetheless.
"Is that?..... Could it be?" The righteous faction players wondered, as for a moment they could almost not believe their eyes.
How could 'TheBoss', who was not even a mage, recreate the Rainbow Shot? An attack that took the collaboration of several highly talented mages to produce! It did not make any sense!
Yet, he somehow seemed to defy the odds and do it anyway, as many players observing this found their minds turning numb witnessing his limitless potential.
**********
(Meanwhile Dumpy)
While the righteous faction players retreated and scurried away like ants after the arrival of the royal army, Dumpy stood tall and proud under the bakery building, as he carried out his duty as his master's vanguard with absolute sincerity.
Since his master had asked him to not let a single opponent pass for the next few minutes until he was done trying something new, Dumpy felt more resolute than ever to not even let a single opponent pass by him.
"Move away, beast! Or you too shall be slain" Sir Gareth warned, when he finally arrived within a fifty meter vicinity of Leo, only for Dumpy to scoff at his words in disgust.
"Fucking Mongrel, do you not even understand who you are talking to? I'm an ancient swamp frog you filthy human, grovel at my feet for mercy, or I shall SLAY YOU where you stand–" Dumpy said arrogantly, as his words surprisingly had no effect on Gareth.
"So you chose death–" Gareth said, jumping towards Dumpy with confidence, only to be taken aback by his strength when the two actually crossed blades.
*Shinggg—*
*Crash*
With a single swing of his sword, Dumpy sent Sir Gareth flying back into his army of soldiers, knocking down a few rows of men with ease.
It was only at that moment that Sir Gareth realized that the beast standing before him was no normal being but a beast having the strength of a master warrior at the minimum.
"What the hell? Where the hell did such a creature come from?" Gareth wondered in surprise, his eyes growing wide, as he became more wary of Dumpy.
*Inhale*
Taking the initiative to strike first, Dumpy started to Inhale a large amount of air and inflate his lungs, as he prepared for an AOE move.
The attack he wanted to launch was called [Acidic Poison Blast] and it was an inherent racial move for the ancient swamp frog, where he blasted his enemies with an extremely corrosive and poisonous liquid that could cut through both metal and skin.
"SHIELDS UP—" Gareth said, ordering his knights to prepare for the incoming attack, but it was for naught.
As when Dumpy finally launched his move, there was not a single shield that could protect the royal army, with everyone splattered by the acid feeling intense pain and suffering.
*Screams*
*Sizzling metal sound*
His acid melted straight through the common metal shields of the knights and even melted through Gareth's own epic ranked shield, as Dumpy slaughtered a few dozen men in the most painful way possible.
"What is this beast?" Gareth wondered once more, as dropping the melting shield in his hands, Gareth paused for a moment to recalibrate his whole fighting strategy.
He came here to fight Assassin's, but Dumpy was not in his calculations, which sadly threw him off his game.
Unfortunately for him however, by now, Leo was already done with his preparation of the [Rainbow Shot], and hence, by the time he could recover or figure out what to do next, Gareth suddenly found himself neck-deep in trouble once again.
*SHUA*
An arrow the size of two Dumpy's stacked one over another, traveled at an extremely fast speed towards Gareth, as Leo launched the attack successfully.
[Single Blade, Cross Slash]
Using an attack of his own, Gareth desperately tried to nullify the incoming blow, however, his attack was no match for the Rainbow Shot, which decimated the cross slash with ease.
*SPLAT*
The arrow embedded itself into his chest, passing clean through as he spat a mouthful of blood.
"Not good…." He muttered, realizing the disadvantage he was in, however, before he could recover, he felt a cold hand grab his chin, as a silent Assassin slit opened his throat.
"Goodnight, brave knight" said Ben, as while Gareth was focused on defending against the rainbow shot, Ben seemed to have snuck-in behind him, taking his distraction as an opportunity to strike.
In the end, the brave master knight died without getting the chance to even display a slight portion of his true abilities, as the dangerous trio never gave him the chance to even get going in this fight.
The three of them together were an unstoppable menace, and the ease with which they defeated a master level opponent was a simple proof of their unstoppable dominance.