A faint glimmer of cold light appeared behind Orson.
Without turning around, Orson's feet traced a six-pointed star, and a fiery red shield appeared around him.
A sharp blade struck the shield, sparks flying, the shield rippling with force, and more than ten fire serpents shot out from it, locking onto the attacker.
The shadowy figure behind him danced and weaved, their agility on full display, performing flashy maneuvers as they managed to block all the fire serpents.
"Don't dream. You have no chance," Orson said indifferently.
The thief revealed herself. She had a slender figure, with alluring eyes that seemed to speak of temptation.
"One slash. Just one crit, and I can end this," Blank said coldly, before vanishing again into stealth.
Orson had been grinding away at Pilgrimage Ancient Road for four days straight, never leaving this place.
Blank had watched him from a distance, waiting for the perfect moment, seeing him focus solely on monster farming with no sign of movement.
But after switching into a set of 30-level legendary gear yesterday, her confidence soared. She thought her chance to take down the notorious Orson, the guild master of Godslayer, had finally arrived.
But this was only the beginning of her nightmare.
"Blank-chan, you can do it! Our guild master is going down soon!"
"Blank-sama, this time, you have to break his defense! I can't bear to watch you struggle anymore."
The nearby casual players looked at Blank with sympathy, and Orson frowned. "Stop whining or I'll send you back to mining!"
"Please, let Blank-chan kill him just once! She's so pitiful!"
"Yeah, yeah! Guild Master is such a monster! Can't you just let the lady get one kill?"
Several female players puffed their cheeks in dissatisfaction, upset because their guild master wasn't playing fair.
Blank launched fourteen consecutive assassination attempts. Besides two where she frantically used potions to escape, she died twelve times at Orson's hands.
Her level dropped from 36 to 34, all her grinding efforts down the drain. Yet, she didn't give up. She learned from each failure and enhanced her skills by fusing them with her Soul Seal, increasing her chances of triggering crits and bleeding damage.
Now, all she needed was one hit—a critical hit—and Orson would be forced to log out crying!
Blank's figure flickered as she launched an aerial ambush, feinting a move in the air to try to bait Orson into using a skill.
But Orson didn't even raise his staff, shaking his head lightly. "Sure, bleeding damage is terrifying, but you need to hit my real body first."
"Fire Demon Eruption."
Orson whispered the spell, and fire spread around him as the red shield appeared again.
B-grade Fire Magic: [Fire Demon Eruption]
Effect: Consumes 500 MP to summon a fire barrier, with 1000+ magic attack points as the shield value. When taking damage, releases 12 fire elementals to counterattack, each dealing 5% of Orson's attack power. The barrier consumes 400 MP per second and has an 8-second cooldown.
This was one of the fruits of Orson's grind over the past few days. This skill was far stronger than Sun Shield. Although the shield value wasn't as exaggerated, it offered complete protection.
Once Blank's fire serpents latched on to the shield, it would also trigger the Blazing Burn effect, a solid combination of offense and defense.
Blank's short sword emitted a ghostly blue glow as she activated her special S-Class hidden job skill, attempting to violently shatter the magic shield.
The legendary sword gave a low growl, and a ghostly blue two-headed wolf sprang out.
"Hm, nice," Orson remarked, as his shield, worth 3200 points, shattered instantly.
"Enough with the show... Die already!"
Blank's eyes gleamed with joy. This move was designed for sustained damage, meant to tear through enemy defenses. If it landed, it would guarantee a 100% critical hit.
But it required three seconds of charging, and it couldn't be interrupted, or she would have to restart the process.
This man in front of her was strong—undeniably so. But he was too arrogant!
He would fall to his own pride.
"You're too confident, Orson!" Blank thought as she prepared to strike.
But just as the legendary short sword was about to pierce Orson's heart, he spoke again: "Water Magic Protection."
A blue aura surrounded Orson's body, and Blank's mouth dropped open in disbelief.
Orson smiled as the fire element swirled around him, and the four Sun Shields activated in front of him, blocking the two-headed wolf's strike.
"Water Magic: [Water Magic Protection]"
Effect: Consumes 800 MP to summon a water barrier, adding a fixed 2000-point shield while reducing the attacker's critical hit rate and piercing damage by 40%. Cooldown: 30 seconds.
With over 100,000 MP, Orson could casually maintain his triple-layered shields.
Even if he was surrounded by assassins, he could summon his Mirror of Folding to escape and counterattack.
Blank gritted her teeth as she drove her dagger forward. To the shock of the onlookers, the damage value appeared:
Critical Rate Reduction!
Blank froze, staring in disbelief. She had finally broken through his defenses, but the damage was only -1?
Her two-headed wolf let out a howl before vanishing, as if embarrassed to face the damage it had dealt.
"Why didn't I get a critical hit?" Blank's eyes were wide with shock.
Orson raised his staff, giving her a sharp look. "You need more practice."
He then unleashed a Chaos Ball right to her face.
21x Critical Hit -43,000!
A number appeared that filled Blank with despair—this was her fifteenth failed assassination attempt.
"You wait! I won't give up!" Blank's corpse was lying on the ground, but she still muttered defiantly.
"I don't have time for your nonsense. We've got some VIPs coming to our district," Orson said with a faint smile.
Blank, sensing something was off, stopped pursuing and quickly teleported back to the fountain.
"Ugh… that was close. If I had gotten critted, I would've been done for."
Orson let out a relieved sigh. He almost ruined his cool act.
Though Blank's Double Demon Slash had broken through all his shields, if not for the Water Magic Protection, the last defense would've been enough to save him from being killed by her bleeding damage.
He checked his skill panel.
B-grade Water Magic: [Water Magic Protection]
Effect: Consumes 800 MP to summon a water barrier, adding a fixed 2000-point shield, while reducing the attacker's critical hit rate and piercing damage by 40%. Cooldown: 30 seconds.
With over 100,000 MP at his disposal, he could always maintain multiple shields.
Even if he was surrounded by numerous assassins, he could easily counterattack. The Mirror of Folding magic eye could teleport him away for a counterattack.
"Crazy, huh? They keep attacking us non-stop!"
"Help! These players are disgusting! They killed me once and then revived me just to kill me again!"
"Saint Maiden City coordinates 126.22—attack in progress!"
"Purple Thunder Fortress, the public dungeon [Toxic Assassination]—a large group of UJ players is slaughtering us!"
"Purple Thunder Fortress, outskirt monster farms—SSR players are indiscriminately killing everyone!"
Suddenly, the guild channel flooded with messages. Orson stood up, his eyes flashing with sharp determination. "Has it started?"