A dense volley of arrows materialized in the sky, plunging downward.
Lila knew the sight all too well. It was Phantom Barrage.
Nyria, of course, also recognized Kael’s signature skill. She instantly adjusted her position, moving to stand in the gaps between the falling projectiles to negate the damage. But Lila wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip by. She closed the distance in a heartbeat, unleashing a Dragon Slash.
Nyria knew she was trapped. Kael’s Phantom Barrage from above, Lila’s Dragon Slash from the front. She couldn't dodge both. Ti to pick my poison.
She triggered her second defensive cooldown: [Tidal Guardian].
Lila's attack landed, but the damage number—a massive 30,222—was completely absorbed by the guardian.
Lila teleported to the residual blade energy left by her Dragon Slash, triggering another [Seismic Slam] from her boots. While Nyria was slowed, she brought her greatsword down in a heavy overhead chop.
By now, the Phantom Barrage had passed. Freed from the threat of the arrows, Nyria prepared to dodge to the side. But just as she initiated the jump, her feet froze to the ground. An arrow zipped past her face, so close she could feel the displaced air.
In that sa instant, Lila’s Dragonbane struck ho.
The attack crunched into Nyria. A damage number of 29,701 flashed as the guardian absorbed the brunt of the hit—a critical strike for 1.5x damage—but 1,000 damage still bled through to Nyria’s health bar.
Her last line of defense was gone. Nyria knew she couldn't survive an assault from both of them. It was ti to retreat.
But as she turned to flee, another of Kael’s arrows landed at her feet, blocking her path. Lila’s greatsword was already cleaving down again.
Nyria twisted desperately, avoiding the blade.
This ti, however, Kael's arrow found its mark.
-63,942
Nyria cried out in pain and collapsed, her shrunken form flickering and expanding back to its original size.
Wary of any tricks, Lila approached cautiously, Dragonbane held at the ready. After a mont of observation, she was certain.
Nyria was dead.
Kael slung Galeharrow onto his back and walked over, his stride relaxed.
Nyria didn't Release Spirit. Her character lay on the ground as she typed a ssage to them.
"2v1, really? La."
Kael chuckled, gesturing at the scores of player corpses littering the area. "Funny, I thought it was 2 vs. 500."
"..."
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Nyria didn't say another word. Soon, her body began to fade, turning translucent until it vanished completely. Around them, the other players also began to Release Spirit, leaving the Hidden Realm one by one.
Lila stared at the spot where Nyria had disappeared, then let out a long sigh. "Damn, she was tough."
Kael just smiled, not saying a word as he turned and headed towards the mines.
After clearing the remaining ants along the path, they arrived at a Recall Stone.
"Let's head back," Kael said. "Clear our bags, restock supplies."
"Okay." Lila nodded, and together they teleported back to Gemspire.
As soon as they arrived, they ran into two groups of people.
The first was the rest of the House Myrden players. When they saw Kael and Lila, they shot them looks that could kill. In contrast, Nyria and Eldric, who were also there, seed perfectly calm. Nyria simply t Kael’s gaze for a brief mont before leading her followers away.
A thought suddenly occurred to Lila. "Hey, are the guards here gonna jump us for all that PvP in the realm?"
Kael shook his head. "Hidden Realms are contested zones, kind of like the sieges we did before. Kills in there don't count towards your Infamy score."
"So, are Nyria and her crew going to co back and grief us? I heard they have a ton of those scrolls."
"They might send people to cause trouble, but Nyria won't be leading them. Once you're kicked out of a Hidden Realm, you're on a four-hour lockout before you can enter again."
"Four hours? Then we should hurry. There's still so much of that place we haven't explored."
"No rush," Kael said calmly. "Take it slow. Look, here cos Draco and the others."
Lila looked up to see Draco approaching with the other guild leaders from before, all of them beaming.
"Sir Dawnbreaker! GL Lila! Huge congrats!"
The group had spent the entire afternoon doing nothing but sitting in a private room at the tavern, waiting for news. As veteran gars, they'd naturally planted a few of their own people in the lower ranks of House Myrden's guilds. They couldn't get access to core secrets, but getting battlefield reports from inside the Hidden Realm was easy enough.
Their intel told them that Dawnbreaker had slaughtered the 500 grunts, but Lila had been on the losing end against Nyria. The guild leaders had even started a betting pool on who would win the duel.
Then, they got the ssage from their spies in the safe zone: Nyria had respawned at the graveyard. They were ecstatic, imdiately rushing out to congratulate Kael and Lila.
"Dawnbreaker, are you confident you can take the quarry in the Hidden Realm?" one of them asked.
Kael shook his head. "No guarantees. The [Tydrisa’s Quarry] Hidden Realm is massive. There's no way to know if we'll find all the clues."
Hearing this, the guild leaders' faces fell.
Kael hid a smile at their transparent disappointnt. "My advice? Start talking to the other guilds. You'll only be a real threat to House Myrden if you're united."
A few of them laughed awkwardly. It was obvious they had already tried and been rejected. Kael knew these local players needed to see concrete results before they’d seriously consider an alliance with the "immigrants" from Earth.
He said no more, bidding them farewell.
He and Lila went to the bank to empty their bags of gems and gear, then restocked their supplies. Finally, they logged off, grabbed a quick dinner at the ss hall, and logged right back on, returning to the Hidden Realm.
They spent another three hours exploring, with Kael leading Lila through the winding tunnels of two separate mountainsides. The whole ti, Lila couldn't stop thinking about the fight.
She kept prodding Kael. "Kael, for real, you can't beat Nyria? I feel like you were sandbagging."
Kael stopped and looked at her. "You really want to know?"
"Yeah. I don't buy it. For you, hitting her in that tiny form should be like shooting a fly. A really big, slow-moving fly."
Kael glanced around, then pointed at a mosquito buzzing erratically through the air. "See that?"
Lila imdiately focused on the insect, quickly hitting her record button. The mosquito was just part of the environnt, not a monster with stats, but it moved quickly and unpredictably.
Kael drew his bow and let an arrow fly with a soft thwip.
In the sa instant, the mosquito vanished.
Lila's eyes went wide. She couldn't tell if he'd actually hit it or just scared it off. She imdiately opened her video capture software to check the footage.
Slowing the playback to one-eighth speed, she finally saw it.
The arrow hadn't scared it off. It had passed clean through the dead center of the mosquito.
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