"He is a monster,"

"So, do you still think you will win without going all out," A figure adorned in white and golden robes with the appearance of a saint asked the hulking giant standing by his side.

"Maybe not, but I will find out soon enough," Killian replied, his eyes following the two blurs moving alarmingly fast, with the clash of weapons against fist echoing through the surroundings.

"If you want, I can help you from the sideline in dealing with him," The robbed figure, named Aetherius, said, and in an instant, thick killing intent permeated the air.

"After the recent Rank promotion, you've started to hold yourself in high regard, haven't you? Do you honestly believe I won't tear your head off if you continue to test my patience?" Killian's tone shifted abruptly, the once-friendly demeanor now replaced with an ominous edge.

"Master, I was just trying my best to serve you," Aetherius said with his head down.

"Killian, I have news for you," The female assassin announced as she materialized beside him, clad in a sleek, form-fitting suit.

"The Seven Star creature is an elemental known as the Corpse Eater,"

"It will manifest around the Crystal of Unrest, and according to my sources, the one in this vicinity will appear in six to eight minutes," Vesper said, drawing Killian's attention away from the fight for the first time.

"We stand no chance of defeating it, not without the entire team, and even then, victory is far from guaranteed." Vesper lamented, with slight annoyance in her voice.

"I can't let Zero spoil my fun," Killian said with a wide grin as he stood up, ready to act.

"Vesper, get ready to take out the mage and the crystal of unrest, and Aetherius, you will manipulate the emotions of the monkey to eliminate any chance of his survival,""Following that, you will take on the brute while Vesper will handle the assassin," Killian said as his dark cloak disappeared, replaced with armor, a weapon appearing in his left hand, and a war claw on his right.

Killian was already an imposing man, standing at 6.6, but in his dark and red armor, with part metal and part leather, with a twin wolf head covering his shoulders, which added to the aesthetic.

The dark seven-foot tall, broad war maul featured a heavy head with spiked protrusions and jagged edges ending in a pointed end, and the war claw was a massive gauntlet with five fingers, each with a foot razor-sharp blade attached to it resembling a giant metallic hand, and looked nothing short of incredible as well.

The only issue was that both weapons appeared to be larger and didn't fit Killian properly, but that issue was swiftly solved as he grew from 6.6 to 8.4ft.

"You will need a hundred and twenty seconds for the atomic bullet, so begin the preparation," Killian said as he took out a pitch-dark axe.

---------------------

'Everything is going great, and in three more minutes, I will be on the path to becoming the first and only individual to kill a Corpse Eater,' Alex thought, excited that things had gone even better than he wanted, and now victory was all but in grasp.

But before he could think further, he was brought back to reality as he felt an object moving at an incredible speed through his mana sense, aimed not at him but at the Rutharok king.

The creature also sensed the danger and moved instinctively, just as Alex did not even attempt to block the attack, and they both did it because of the dense presence the weapon carried.

Alex, in an instant, shifted to his void sense, and he did so just in time to see a figure appear behind the Rutharok king and plunge his hand forth, ripping through the flesh.lights

Alex's mind was on alert as his eyes focussed on the five dark razor-sharp claws coming out from the chest of the Rutharok king.

At the same, a crystal bullet moved at a lightning pace for Venedikt's head, and on impact, it exploded in a wide explosion of dense flame covering sixty meters in radius, engulfing him, the two Rutharok and the crystal in a dome of fire.

Alex heard the delayed sonic boom of the bullet that was shortly after engulfed by the concentrated explosion and the shock wave that came with it, and even though he knew the target location, he didn't shift his focus from the now bloodied Rutharok king.

For Alex, time was progressing in slow motion as his mind processed the situation, knowing one of the worst situations had happened, and while quite disappointed, he was prepared to tackle the situation head-on and either come out as a winner or die trying.

Alex was knowingly optimistic about his plan, but he knew better than to believe that things would go as planned, so he was prepared to get attacked by third-party players.

In the worst case, get ambushed by one of the other Rutharok kings, as it was not every day those giants had the opportunity to eliminate competition.

Alex had not received any notification informing him of any deaths in his team, so he knew that telling Venedikt to stay prepared to defend his life and crystal had paid off.

As these thoughts raced through his mind, Alex swiftly adjusted his grip on his sword, tensed his arm, and with little hesitation, hurled it directly at the Rutharok king.

The sword was thrown to force the Rutharok king to make a move, not realizing why a beast with vast control over flames was standing like a statue and retaliating.

The sword sank into the Rutharok king's chest with little resistance, which was a surprise for Alex, and, at the same, the ten-foot beast was lifted at an astonishing speed and slammed headfirst on the ground.

A spiked war maul moved like a blur and slammed into the defenseless Rutharok king face, who had just regained control of his messed up emotions and had released a wave of flames, but his life was sapped away before he could put up any real resistance.

Alex was taken aback by the unexpected turn of events and frustrated by the loss of his efforts, knowing well that the entire plan had crumbled with the demise of the Rutharok king.

However, he knew he couldn't dwell on the setback and without wasting any time, he quickly shifted his focus to the current situation.

"This monkey was experiencing overwhelming emotions of Selflessness, which was the reason he did not retaliate," Killian said, his light green eyes shifting to the area of the explosion, showing disappointment at the failure.

'Killian is here, and emotion manipulation means Aetherius the demon priest is present, and that was an atomic bullet, a signature more to Vesper the faceless,'

'If the whole team is present, then that would mean trouble, not that we can't handle them, but with the Corpse Eater present, it will surely be troublesome,' Alex thought as his mind worked on understanding the situation and formulating a plan.

"Now that the distraction is gone let's begin our battle," Killian words sounded, followed by an impact that was the sound of Alex landing on the ground.

'He is strong, not that I expected him to be weak,' Alex thought as he felt the force behind the war maul.

Alex used telekinesis to spread the space knives to their limit and began to shift his location to get the total number of members that Killian had brought because if it was five complete, then he needed to give the green light to Venedikt to let the gem be destroyed.

"We will go with plan B," Killian uttered aloud, confusing Alex as to why he did that when he could use team chat for a silent and safe message.