Fang Raon looked at Junior and his friends, who stood before him, and the stairs that led up to the second floor.
Those stairs led to some kind of door, and above it, it read "Second Floor" with glowing letters.
"…No hard feelings, buddy. Betrayal and player killing are all part of the game."
Junior said with a smile and nodded at his friend.
Rich stepped forward, lifted his shield, and activated Intimidation.
Within Fang Raon's body, his heart started rapidly beating against his chest, and he felt like he was facing his worst nightmare.
Intimidation skill wasn't a joke!
He was so terrified that he couldn't move.
Junior and Alexis flanked him and swung their swords at him.
The steel shortswords neared his throat, and anybody else would've already closed their eyes, and resigned to their fate.
'I will take at least a few of them with me!'
Fang Raon's eyes turned bloodshot, and he suddenly lifted his sword.
"Basic Parry!"
The wooden broadsword touched the side of Alexis' shortsword and pushed it aside with a sharp clang.
Fang Raon then swung his shield and met Junior's sword swing, but the steel blade went straight through the wood.
The shield shattered into pieces upon impact.
[Durability: 0/100]
[Wooden Shield has Broken!]
Fang Raon thrust his sword towards Junior, but he parried the strike and tried chopping off Fang Raon's head.
With a quick duck, the steel blade grazed over his head, and Fang Raon quickly started hammering his sword against Junior's shield.
The steel shield effortlessly stopped the wooden blade.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
"Sword Stab!"
Alexis drove his blade towards him.
Fang Raon saw it coming from the corner of his eyes and quickly chopped his sword down to block the attack.
The steel blade got deflected just enough to miss his body.
"Basic Slash!"
In that moment, Junior brought his sword down with a cold gaze.
[Countdown: 1 second…]
[0 seconds…]
"Basic Parry!"
Fang Raon smashed his wooden sword at the steel blade.
In that moment, Junior's lips curled into a sickening smile, and he cut through the wooden blade as easily as if cutting through butter.
"You fool, you are relying on Basic Parry far too much! It is a shitty skill, so you really think you can parry my attacks with that?"
Junior laughed.
"…"
Fang Raon looked at his broken sword with a heavy expression.
[Durability: 0/100]
[Wooden Broadsword has Broken!]
In that moment, Alexis and Junior both swung their swords at him. It was aimed at ending the fight.
At the last moment, Fang Raon rolled out of the way and picked up Dewrey's steel daggers from the ground.
They felt very foreign, as if he didn't even know how to use them.
"Those are Assassin-only weapons, you fool. When Warrior tries using them, it will be a hundred times harder.
"You couldn't win us with swordsmanship, so what could you possibly do with those?"
Junior asked.
Fang Raon simply smirked and started turning right, heading towards the bow-wielding Fritz.
Fritz was in the middle of picking up the arrows that he used in their fight against Red Orc.
Most of those arrows broke when they hit Red Orc's thick, hard skin, but a few survived, and he didn't have enough money to let those arrows go to waste.
"Fritz, look out!"
In that moment, he heard a shout and turned around just in time to see Fang Raon running straight at him.
Intimidation!
Rich used Intimidation to try to stop Fang Raon, and it did affect him, but he just gritted his teeth through it all.
"Argh!"
Fang Raon swung the daggers, slicing through Fritz's flesh, and the blood spewed forth in a river of crimson.
"Ah?"
Fritz's eyes shook in surprise.
"Heal!"
Marcia used the healing spell on him, but Fang Raon kept slicing, and cutting him at speed faster than she could heal.
In the end, Fang Raon stabbed the daggers through Fritz's ears, and into his brain. The last thing he heard was a deafening silence.
Fritz dropped to the ground—dead.
[You have killed Player Fritz]
"You bastard!"
Junior slashed forth and cut into Fang Raon's neck, but it was a shallow wound that barely bled.
[-5 HP]
"?!"
Fang Raon's eyes shook, and he then gritted his teeth and ignored Junior, and this time around, went after Maureen!
She was standing at the back, as she didn't have any more mana.
When she saw him running after her, she turned around and started running away.
"Help me, he is coming after me now!"
She tried screaming for help.
Fang Raon was quickly catching her.
It seemed like she didn't put much importance in Speed stat—she only put one stat point into it—she put most into her mana and stamina.
It backfired now, as she couldn't run away from Fang Raon.
Junior and Alexis had four stat points on Speed each. It was the same as Fang Raon.
Therefore, they couldn't catch him in time.
Fang Raon caught her, and he stabbed the dagger through the back of her head. She was still alive when the dagger went through.
Players didn't feel the pain of the real world in Black Online, and all they could feel was numbness whenever they got stabbed, hacked, or slashed.
However, the psychological trauma of experiencing such violence was very real and often left lasting scars on the players.
Maureen teared up in fear and then fell dead.
"And now… You!"
Fang Raon turned to Marcia with a cold gaze and ran straight at her, but in that moment, Rich stepped in front of her.
"You are not touching her!"
Rich shouted, his shield raised and legs spread in a defensive stance.
Fang Raon slid between his legs, which he left them open foolishly, and cut through Marcia's throat.
The strike was lethal.
"Ah…"
Marcia collapsed to the ground.
"He slid under me?"
Rich could hear the disbelief in his voice.
"…"
Fang Raon looked at the daggers in his hands, and they turned to dust as the durability dropped to zero in both.
Whenever someone with a different class than those weapons were suited for used them, they would lose durability rapidly because of "mishandlement."
In that moment, he noticed the treasure chest lying on the ground and quickly picked it up and started running towards the stairs.
"Don't let him get away!"
Junior screamed.