Allaryx lifted his glaive and slammed it into the ground, causing a fissure to form.
"Holy fuck!" Noala screamed at his screen, as Noa fell endlessly into the abyss opened under him.
After two minutes of falling, he died of fall damage.
- Hahahahhahahah, can’t make this shit up!
- Get f*cked, you loser!
- Lol, this is peak entertainment!
- Get me the lead developer of this game on the phone. I need to thank him!
Noala’s face was full of shame, but that was not enough to keep Noa down. He woke up at the nearest respawn point.
"Please be there, please be there," Noala muttered in prayer.
But his pleas went unanswered, and the short swords were also nowhere to be found.
He fell to his knees and banged his head against the seat of his chair.
"Why, God? Why? Why would you do this to me?"
- That’s the price of stupidity. Why did you even try to fight it again without any preparations?
- Told you, didn’t I? I told you, you should have researched him before fighting him!
"No," Noala whispered like a man turning to the dark side. "I can’t end it here."
He got up, sat back in his chair, and searched for Allaryx on the map.
"He is close to the capital."
He teleported to the respawn point closest to the capital.
"I will do it again," he said with eyes full of determination.
- Wow, to get up for more humiliation... You are a true masochist, Naola.
- My man got abused and developed a craving for it.
- This is self-harm. Seek help.
- Please, stop. I can’t see this anymore.
"This is my only chance to stop him from reaching the city!"
- I’ve got tears in my eyes.
- My man spoke like a true warrior.
- Bro is about to die again, gotta shed some tears.
- RIP, you were a good man, Noa.
- All this just to get beaten up again.
"No, this time will be different."
He used a limited item to respec his stats, equipped a blunderbuss as the only weapon, and placed traps on the ground.
"Magic traps, poison traps, acid traps—I have everything you can name."
He covered the entire region around the massive gates with explosives, crouched down, and waited for Allaryx to arrive.
Noa had his gun pointed towards the general direction of the rapidly moving marker. His vision grew sharper, and his periphery blurred.
A figure entered his sight, and without confirming the target, Noa pulled the trigger.
A loud explosion confirmed that the bullet was fired.
Surprisingly, by sheer luck, instead of losing its momentum or swerving to one side, it travelled straight towards Allaryx.
The bullet was enchanted with seventeen spells.
Some were buffs, and some would apply ailments and debuffs.
"Please lower his speed and defences. Please, please."
He wasn’t sure which of the seventeen spells would proc, but he wanted at least two to be successfully applied.
Yet the bullet never made contact with Allaryx.
The glaive he swung upwards split the tiny metal ball in half, leaving a tear in the clouded sky.
- No, you are f*cked.
- Hit my bottom, and call me honey. Because we are about to lose the lunch money.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Allaryx ran through the traps set up by Noa. The detonations around him did not so much as slow him down.
"Bro, chill!" Noala cried.
He reloaded his gun and aimed. But before he could fire, the red blade flew at him.
It pierced through his forehead, shattered the city gates behind him, and landed at the foot of the steps leading to the palace.
The player character, after their first loss to Allaryx, had two opportunities to intervene in his inhumane run towards the capital.
If they could kill him before he reached the city, there was hope for its citizens.
But no one had managed to do so, and no one was expected to do so.
Xinema knew three chances weren’t enough, yet they had cruelly provided them.
After the third death, chasing Allaryx would become an impossibility, as he would have reached his destination.
Celli, who was watching Noala’s stream, shrank in her seat.
"Is it fine for me to watch his stream on my stream?"
- It’s totally fine. This is normal.
- Have you not streamed much?
- You shouldn’t have any shame as a streamer.
- You wouldn’t be worrying over it if he weren’t getting beaten so thoroughly.
"It is a little hard to watch," she admitted.
Suddenly, the boss theme began. But something was different. It sounded less horrifying with exciting beats mixed in.
It felt like each moment was being stretched, each second lasting longer.
It was a song about destined tragedy.
- Did you write this one?
Celli’s ears perked up. "Yes."
Her gaze was stuck to the screen, where Noala was silently watching the cutscene.
He had spawned outside the city’s walls and had immediately returned inside, only to be met with a horrifying scene.
The capital of Riever Kingdom was in flames.
Houses had fallen, and bodies of soldiers were scattered on the streets.
Older stone buildings had managed to survive the fires, but toppled by force, they were covered in soot and blood.
Trees had been uprooted, and entire districts ceased to exist.
In the midst of this carnage, Allaryx nonchalantly moved towards the palace.
Once a hero, he had returned after three-quarters of a century as their enemy.
With each step he took, huddled figures in the shadows trembled. He was just as terrifying as they remembered him.
He had destroyed the entire city within minutes of his arrival and killed anyone who resisted. One after another, leaders, scholars, and generals had fallen to a man too fast for their eyes.
At the foot of the hill leading towards the palace, he picked up his weapon embedded in the stone floor.
Dragging the blade behind him, he continued up the stairs.