"Bring this bastard down!"
Junior hacked his sword at Red Orc and managed to shave off a few percentages' worth of health.
With anger in his gaze, Red Orc turned at him and threw fire at him, but Junior shielded himself behind the shield.
The fire burned the shield, and Junior felt the intense heat at the other side of the shield.
Dewrey and Fang Raon rained blows at Red Orc, and they felt hot just by standing close to the creature.
Red Orc's flesh alone was radiating immense heat.
[Red Orc: 3%]
Seeing the health so low, everyone's eyes became wide with anticipation, knowing that victory was within reach.
Maureen and Rosabella shrugged off the feeling of their heads splitting and cast one more Fireball each.
The Fireballs collided with the Red Orc, causing it to let out an ear-splitting roar, and it was distracted just for a moment.
"Basic Slash!"
Junior slashed across Red Orc's chest. It earned another cry from the red-skinned creature.
"Basic Slash!"
Fang Raon cut through Red Orc's waist like a hot knife through butter and saw his wooden broadsword drop to dangerous levels of durability.
The sword's durability dropped drastically whenever he tried cutting into Red Orc's thick muscle skin.
Dewrey jumped over Red Orc, slashed his daggers through his thick skin, and landed behind him.
"Ah…"
Red Orc took a step, then fell on his knees, and eventually collapsed to the ground, blood pooling around him.
[Red Orc: 0%]
It started glowing, and it turned to floating pixels that lingered in the air like stardust. It was finally over.
Red Orc left behind a single thing.
A treasure chest.
"Wohoo!"
Dewrey celebrated with a victory cheer.
After others gathered their breath, they also joined in celebrations, shouting and laughing as they approached the treasure chest.
"…"
Fang Raon walked towards Rosabella, who was crouching before Tessa's dropped items and was crying.
"I-I… I-It is my fault… I-I did not listen to you."
Rosabella looked up at Fang Raon with tears streaming down her face and hugged Tessa's healing staff against her chest.
"…It happens."
Fang Raon only said, putting a hand on Rosabella's shoulder and offering her a small smile.
He was also pretty pissed off that the gentle Tessa died in the raid, and they couldn't quite treat this as a victory with one of them dead.
"I-I will be going off… I need to make sure that she is alright!"
Rosabella opened her interface, tried logging off, but couldn't as a notification popped up in front of her.
[You cannot log off inside a Combat Zone]
"…Combat Zone."
Rosabella frowned.
Combat Zone appeared whenever there was a battle happening nearby, just ended, or inside designated areas like the boss room, such as this.
It ensured that no player would log off during the battle to avoid death.
"Let's head over to the second floor, and you can log off there."
Fang Raon said.
"…What do you mean you aren't giving us any loot?!"
In that moment, they heard Dewrey shout, and it looked like there was some kind of argument between him and Junior.
"You heard me. You couldn't have possibly defeated this boss without mine and my friend's help. We carried you, so why should we share this valuable loot with you all?"
Junior said with a scoff.
"We made a deal!"
Dewrey shouted angrily.
"…And I am changing the deal. I don't like your attitude, so now the three of you will give us all your coins and gear as well."
Junior said with a smirk.
"Why the fuck would we do that?"
Dewrey asked.
"Because I fucking told you."
In that moment, Junior pressed his steel blade against Dewrey's throat, and his friends also pulled up their weapons.
"Y-You will regret this!"
Dewrey said angrily.
"I highly doubt that."
Junior said with a smile.
"Give us your stuff, now!"
Marcia shouted.
She didn't seem like that gentle and quiet girl like before and seemed more like a spiteful witch instead.
"…Why are you doing this? My sister died helping you guys!"
Rosabella shouted.
"And you will follow her into death if you don't fucking listen to me!"
Junior shouted.
Dewrey and Rosabella gritted their teeth with anger building up inside them, and they opened their interface.
They were about to pull out their stuff, but in that moment, Fang Raon grabbed their shoulders to stop them.
"Don't do that. It is a trick. They are not intending for us to leave this room alive. If you give away your weapons to them, you are just making it easy to kill us."
Fang Raon said.
Junior looked sharply at him.
"…Why would they kill us? They don't gain anything by doing so!"
Dewrey shouted angrily.
"You might be hiding square coins and not giving all your gear to them. The only way they can make sure that they get everything is by killing us."
Fang Raon said.
"…It looks like there is someone with a brain among you."
Junior said with a scoff and suddenly swung his sword at Dewrey, but it quickly met the wooden shield that Fang Raon raised in defense.
"I will kill you all!"
Dewrey drew his daggers and swung at Junior, but his footwork was elegant, and he quickly moved out of the way.
Intimidation!
In that moment, Rich used Tank's skill—Intimidation—and staggered them.
"Ugh…"
Dewrey was left momentarily stunned by Rich's attack, and that was enough for Junior, who swung his sword and slashed at Dewrey's side.
The sword went cleanly through, and Dewrey's vision turned black as his body fell to the ground, dead like a leaf.
"Basic Slash!"
Alexis slashed through Rosabella, who screamed for help but also soon found herself falling to the ground.
Fang Raon shrugged off the Intimidation skill and retreated backwards.
"It is only dying on the first floor. It could be worse. You could've died on the 30th floor, and that is like many years of hard work down the drain."
Junior said.
"I'd rather die on the 30th floor."
Fang Raon said, moved his shield in front of him, and placed the sword at its side. It looked like a proper sword stance.
It didn't seem like Black Online was his first time touching a sword…