Martial Online.

Keiran raised his sword high in the air and summoned several boulders that rained down on the platform.

"Aaaah!"

The players screamed and scurried away to safety, but a few of them got their legs crushed by the boulder, losing one of their limbs in the process.

"Shit!" Gxel saw it all transpire and felt his heart drop to the bottom of his stomach.

'This fucking rift is making it impossible for us to reach him.' Ambrose thought and turned to the rest of the members of the party, who were clearly struggling under the constant onslaught.

'I guess I'll help them instead!'

With Formlessness, Ambrose rushed to the rest of the party and slashed through two of the black-skinned creatures.

As his sword went straight through them, they turned into shadows and got sucked back to Kieran. The rest of the party looked at him in awe, grateful for his help.

"What's the plan?" Miss Broken asked him while slicing through the creatures with her nimble dagger.

"We can't approach Kieran currently. It is hard, even for me." Ambrose said while defending against the creatures.

The creatures slashed with their creepy claws, but Ambrose managed to fend them off with his crimson shortswords.

Clang, clang, clang!

"Well, lettry." Miss Broken said with a smile.

"Huh?" Ambrose raised an eyebrow.

Miss Broken defended against one of the creatures, and then she spun around and decapitated it with a swift strike.

She then sliced through the next one in one fluid motion, managed to run past the encirclement, and started running towards Keiran.

As soon as she neared him, the rift started pulling her in.

However, against all odds, she was able to run with her feet firmly planted on the ground.

She was already within arms length of the rift, yet she was able to run right past it.

'How is she doing this?' Ambrose wondered, curious about her ability to ignore the pulling force of the rift.

Kieran slowly moved his gaze over to the short-haired woman and swung his sword down in an attempt to stop her from reaching him.

As soon as he finished his swing, she vanished into thin air, leaving him standing there with his sword ready.

"?!" Kieran exclaimed, surprised by the sudden disappearance of his opponent.

At that moment, the sword in his hand also vanished into thin air.

Swoosh!

Instantly, Broken appeared in the air above Kieran, his sword in her hand, and swung it directly towards his head.

Kieran quickly blocked it with his shield and then moved his free hand towards her.

A miniature version of the black rift appeared on his hand and started pulling Broken towards him.

Broken narrowed her eyes, vanished again, and reappeared behind him with the sword in hand.

Then, she stabbed it behind her and grazed Kieran's waist with the blade, barely enough to spill blood.

[HP: 48%]

'Only that much damage?' Broken looked surprised. 'He got much more injured in previous attacks.'

'Humanoid Imperfecta has already been purified, so Kieran is in his normal state now.' Ambrose thought.

Kieran smashed his shield across Broken's face and retrieved his sword from her before kicking her viciously in the stomach.

Broken held her numb face and quickly dodged Kieran's strike before reappearing over his head.

Kieran immediately followed up with a slash, but Broken quickly drew her dagger and smashed it against the sword.

However, Kieran overpowered her with his physical strength and sent her flying like a kite.

"Ngh!"

Broken gritted her teeth, and she was going to fly as far as the edge of the platform, but then Ambrose caught her mid-air and put her gently down on the ground.

"That's tough…" Broken said with a sigh. "I am not a one-versus-one fighter."

"You're more of an assassin?" Ambrose asked.

"More like a thief." Broken said. "I don't fight much against armed individuals. I prefer to sneak around and finish off my opponents quickly and quietly."

"Your ability is indeed intriguing." Ambrose said. "You're not effected by the rift and can 'steal' his weapon like nothing, just like you did with my earring.

"You've got special class, don't you?"

"You might be surprised, but my class' nis Thief." Broken said with a giggle. "It makesa master thief."

"With two of us, we might be able to defeat Kieran." Ambrose said. "If you steal his weapons, I might be able to strike him down."

"How can you reach him?" Broken asked. "You had difficulties reaching him before."

"I'll strike him from afar." Ambrose said and his swords started glowing with a golden light. "Keep him busy."

Broken nodded briefly and then crossed her arms in front of her chest before launching forward with rapid speed. In almost an instant, she reached Kieran, who started launching attacks.

She weaved through the sword slashes and smashed the dagger at the hilt of his sword.

Like a snap of a magic finger, Kieran's sword again vanished into thin air and reappeared near the ceiling, slowly falling back to the platform.

Kieran clicked his tongue and swung his shield, but Broken jumped over it and touched it, instantly making it disappear along with sof Kieran's sleeve.

The shield appeared near the ceiling and started to slowly fall back towards the platform.

"Have fun~" Broken winked at Kieran mischievously and vanished into thin air.

"Grr…" Kieran growled lowly.

At that moment, bright light assaulted his eyes, and before he could react, golden light slashed through his chest, and a searing pain shot through his body.

"Raaaah!"

[HP: 40%]

Kieran, with a painful scream, clutched at his bleeding wound and fell to his knees, struggling to stay conscious.

Broken appeared near Ambrose and shouted excitedly. "It worked!"

"He still has a lot of health left!" Ambrose shouted and fused his two shortswords into the great sword and smashed it down to the ground, sending a large, golden slash towards Kieran.

Kieran's eyes shook, and at that moment, he shouted something in a completely different language.

The black-skinned little creatures heard that, and all of them immediately jumped in front of the golden slash, taking the full brunt of the strike.

The golden slash cut through the creatures like a hot knife through butter and killed them all.

However, the full force of the slash faded away, and before it could reach Kieran, it vanished into tiny particles that were barely the size of grains.

"Hmph." Kieran smirked at the failed attempt to harm him.

"Aaaah!"

Gxel, out of nowhere, jumped through the rift and tackled Kieran to the ground.

"?!" Kieran looked shocked, and at that moment, Gxel stabbed through his waist with his sharp blade, causing Kieran to scream in pain.

"What!" Broken looked as shocked as Kieran.

Ambrose's eyes widened. 'Gxel managed to fight through the rift's pulling force. Oh, I guess I underestimated our leader.'

Gxel pulled the sword from Keiran's waist, punched him across the face, and started pummeling him mercilessly.

Kieran couldn't do anything except helplessly grit his teeth.

His health started dropping drastically, and soon it was below 10%!

[HP: 9%]

"A-argh!" Kieran screamed with the fury of a thousand souls and pushed Gxel off him.

The push sent Gxel flying towards the edge of the platform!

'Ah, I am going to fall!' Gxel thought panickly, but at that moment, Ambrose appeared behind him and caught him before he could plummet to his death.

"A-Ambrose…" Gxel heaved a sigh of relief. "Thanks!"

"Good job." Ambrose said and put him gently on the ground.

Kieran stood up with a bloodied face and ragged clothes, glaring at Gxel with hatred in his eyes.

His body started to emit strange black smoke, as if he were undergoing another power up!

"Be ready; it ain't over yet." Ambrose said and raised his insanely heavy-looking great sword.

The other party members drank their healing potions and ate sfood to recover their health before the final struggle.

"You fucking maggots." Kieran growled in anger. "I am from the great land of Darkonia, the land of darkness and death. You guys have no chance against me!"

Ambrose narrowed his eyes, but at that moment, his and everyone else's expressions widened in true terror.

Kieran smirked, thinking that those expressions were because of him, but at that moment, a large shadow fell over him.

He slowly turned around, and his eyes widened in shock.

Slam!

A large hand, attached to a massive figure, landed over Kieran and squished him like an ant.

Ding, ding!

Ambrose and everyone else received a notification that Kieran was dead, and from the ceiling, a treasure chest dropped down.

They had shockingly finished off the quest successfully!

However, none of them didn't cheer or celebrate; instead, they were looking at the creature with shock in their eyes.

The massive figure looked like a giant knight, donning rusty armor with an enormous rusty sword on the back. The creature's face was hidden by a helmet that only revealed a portion of its grotesque mouth.

[The Twisted Mouth, Methuselah]