Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

As Kaizen gazed at the part man and part wolf creature before him, everything went silent. The sound of the drops falling on the grass and the stream, as well as the sound of the small waterfalls, were in the background of his hearing, as if everything around him had become futile and no longer mattered.

This silence lasted only a few seconds, for after that brief moment, the huge, terrifying creature moved. On the edge of the stone, it stood with its two lower legs, like an ordinary man, and closed its eyes for a second. Then, when this monster opened its eyes, it jumped off the rock and fell right in front of the Copper Azucinating Monkey that was hiding in its shadow.

The monkey was in shock at being found and instinctively tried to run in a desperate effort to survive.

In the blink of an eye, the white-eyed creature caught him with a single hand, giving his prey no chance to escape.

Groaning in agony at being caught, the monkey practically begged for mercy, pity, or someone's help, only this was useless, as it was brutally torn in half by the beast. Not satisfied with just killing its victim, the black beast began to devour it right there and then, as if it were enjoying a delicious chicken.

In Klank's vision of this scene, after the silhouette of the invisible creature disappeared, there was a tremor near the large rock. Then the monkey that had been standing there was lifted into the air, and moments after that, blood flew everywhere.

At this moment, there wouldn't be a person who wouldn't be scared like Klank was. Regardless of the strength and level he had reached, how could he face a creature he couldn't see? It was impossible.

Kaizen, who was watching the whole scene as well, couldn't believe his eyes. He was paralyzed, but not with fear, but with elation. This was the first creature that he could see absolutely no information with the <Analyzing Eye>, no name, no attributes, no weaknesses, nothing. Facing something like this would simply be madness, he knew that, it was just impossible for him not to get excited at seeing something so strong before him.

'This is my opportunity. This is the time to test my limits, to see how far I can go!' Kaizen thought.

So Psyker got up from where he was thirsting to fight. His heart was racing, but he was determined to face this creature. Although he knew it would be a difficult fight, he was ready for the challenge and felt a chill in his stomach just looking at the monster.

Klank saw Psyker getting up and grabbed his pants, "What are you doing? It's still too dangerous for us to leave." He whispered.

Kaizen replied, with a firm tone in his voice, "Leave? I'm not leaving until I face this creature. I think I can defeat it."

"You can only be going crazy. That thing is on a completely different level than us. We have no chance of winning!" replied Klank. Although he didn't have an ability that allowed him to see the Classification of monsters, his experience in Rise Online told him how strong a creature could be.

Still, Psyker raised his right hand with the palm facing up and said:

"Maybe you are right, maybe I could even fail and die. However, what do I do with this adrenaline that is clogging my veins right now?" The fingers of Kaizen's right hand trembled, "If I don't fight this thing here and now, I don't think I'll get another chance anytime soon."

Psyker's words made Klank give up on stopping him, because there was no point in insisting on something that would not be changed. So Klank unfastened Kaizen's pants, leaving him free to do whatever he wanted. He had seen Kaizen do too many unbelievable things to doubt his ability.

Kaizen took a deep breath with his eyes closed, preparing himself for combat. He knew that there was not enough time to think about strategy or prepare better. His luck was that he was already fully restored from the fight against the Possessed Tree of the Woods and the fight against the Copper Azucrinating Monkeys he encountered earlier. At least his HP and MP bars were full.

When Klank saw Kaizen start walking forward, he wondered:

'How is he going to fight something invisible?'

To take advantage of the moment when the beast was dining on the body of the ape he had just killed, Kaizen would need to be quick. He had a chance to apply massive or critical damage first, and could take advantage of that to create a combo perhaps. However, he couldn't miss his first attack, so it was better that he used an ability that didn't even give the beast time to dodge.

In the midst of the storm Kaizen created a fireball in his right hand and threw it at the beast. When the fireball hit it, the creature briefly groaned in pain and looked over one shoulder at its rear. The beast saw that Kaizen was running towards it.

'I just threw a fireball at it, and yet this monster was only superficially wounded? HAHA! How much stamina does this beast have?' Kaizen thought, disappointed that he had lost his element of surprise with a paltry attack.

Seeing that Psyker was looking her in the eye as she advanced, the beast was surprised. This was unusual, definitely not for this monster.

As it ran, Kaizen was already creating another fireball to buy time to advance further, at which point the beast roared to frighten it.

*Graaaaaaurrrrrr!

Kaizen's survival instincts told him to run away from there, but he didn't back down. He knew that if he did, that creature would surely chase him.

Since Kaizen was not startled by the roar, this only made the beast more angry. It started running like a wolf in Kaizen's direction. Without a doubt, it was fast, very fast. For an ordinary person, it would be almost impossible to keep up with it with his eyes. Even Kaizen had trouble seeing the creature approaching, and when the beast disappeared from his field of vision, Kaizen already knew where it was.

Kaizen turned his neck up a little, so he saw the beast in the air. However, he was hoping that the beast had jumped up to attack him next, not that it could literally walk.

Kaizen stopped moving, as he had no way to move faster than the beast was walking on him. At this point, all the logic of the battle was confused, and he had to rely on his reflexes to keep fighting.

With quick thinking, Kaizen had an idea and used <Telekinesis> to force the beast back to the ground.

'Let's see if this will work!' thought Kaizen to himself.

The beast felt enveloped by something it didn't understand, a force invisible even to it. Then it was pulled hard against the ground. Even as it crashed against the ground, the beast was still able to move and furiously charged at Kaizen, who was not expecting such an aggressive move after the thud.

The beast's mouth swooped toward Kaizen, who, in quick thinking, used his own hands to defend himself.

Holding the top and bottom of the monster's jaw were Psyker's hands. Some of the creature's frontal fangs went through them and caused the Moderate Bleeding condition.

Kaizen felt a lot of pain. Nevertheless, he was determined to beat this creature, no matter what.

Taking advantage of the fact that his hands were already injured, Kaizen used his strength to the extreme to open the beast's mouth as far as possible, causing a lot of damage and creating a window of opportunity to get his hands free. He took a few scratches from the beast's claws as he did this, but all were superficial.

As soon as he had released his hands, Kaizen stepped back with a leap and quickly opened his inventory. His finger glided across the interface as if he were perfectly accustomed to doing this in the midst of battle. In his inventory, he equipped his strongest sword, the Snowy Limbo. This might not seem like the best choice at first, considering that it was a somewhat heavy sword and because he was fighting a fast creature, however, Kaizen had a plan.

Kaizen raised his sword face down, and despite this the beast, which was preparing to attack again, didn't stop.

Kaizen closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them, there was a different gleam in his eye, not a magical gleam literally, but a gleam of determination. He knew he could no longer go wrong from this moment on.

Before the beast could reach Psyker, he nailed the Snowy Limbo to the ground, generating an icy gale that froze everything it passed through. This attack was what killed Taznaar and froze him to death. However, this seemed like nothing to the mysterious beast. The monster passed through the gale like a summer breeze and easily broke through all the ice structures that formed along the way.

This was the first moment in Rise Online that Kaizen was truly intimidated.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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