"Now, the two of us are what's left." Yuki said as he looked around at a mess of a place they were in.

The exact place that was once a booming forest and now nothing but mud land full of potholes.

An apparent aftermath of the battle that just took place here just a second ago.

"We are so close to winning," Sasaki said with a sigh as he look at the diminishing sword in his hand. "... and yet, we were never there."

In the battle that just ended, Sasaki's team obviously lost as his whole party died, leaving only him as the sole survivor.

At first, Sasaki thought that the battle will be hard, but he didn't know that it would be this hard.

After losing their core members, the Tank and the Wizard, they all started playing cautiously. Thinking that their loss will be evident if they still play the same tactic of being aggressive.

In the first phase of the battle, Sasaki's team got the upper hand for a bit due to their sudden switch of tactics.

This caught Raizel a bit off guard but it didn't last long before he started getting used to their attacks and eventually, formulated a counter-attack for them.

They used the Hit and Switch tactic that will let them deal damage to Raizel while also being safe. Though they don't deal damage as large and as fast as their first tactic, which is literally "Pin him down and attack him furiously", at least they are consistent this time.

But in the mid-phase of the battle, they all started having a hard time and be more disorientated because Raizel is now actively fighting them back.

Hit and Switch is basically a hit-and-run, multiple cars edition. One guy will attack Raizel and then immediately retreat whether he succeeds or not. After that, another Guy will also do the same thing and then repeat. All guys on the party will do that until it all goes back to the very first guy that made the first attack.

And then Repeat. The cycle never ends.

But now, due to Raizel's insane agility, outpacing him once they close the distance is so impossible. Earlier that's possible since there would be another teammate to take the agro off once they make the attack, but now, a [ Vengeful Spirit ] is keeping the others at bay so a follow-up attack is so hard to do.

Raizel is also now used to their encirclement, so trapping him in the center of their formation is now also hard.

For some reason, as the fight goes by, Raizel is also getting much faster and faster, making the already hard fight, even more harder.

Sasaki's party managed to hold off for a couple more minutes after the Mid-phase, but it all started crumbling down when one of them died.

That one missing Player in their party, immediately broke their already disoriented formation.

And due to this, one by one, they all started falling down like a group of intoxicated flys.

A group of Players that started fighting off as a team, has now become a group of independent Players fighting off a single battle.

That phase only lasted for a good couple of minute before the current moment arrived right in front of everyone's eyes.

The moment where the two of them, Sasaki and Raizel, are the only ones that are left.

" I'm glad, yet I felt insulted at the same time," Sasaki said as he faces Raizel who was standing at a not-so-far distance from him.

" Huh?" Raizel muttered "... What is it this time? I did fight you seriously didn't I?"

Hearing this, Sasaki smirked.

"... Yeah, that's exactly why. You're playing with us... seriously."

Sasaki already knows the outcome of this fight ever since the very start. If the beast king, despite having a Legion of Players, still lost, what can their little party do?

But still, he still believes that there's still a slight chance to come out of this place as the winner since he has very high compatibility with the guys he's with today.

That if they have a solid strategy and good teamwork, they'll be able to defeat him.

But alas, it's all nothing but false hope.

Even with all the might of their party, with all this synergy, teamwork, and strategy, Raizel didn't even have the need to fight them seriously.

Raizel fought them seriously, but with the restriction that he had put on that is.

Sasaki can tell that Raizel is fighting them with one of his legs and hand, tied to his back. With that condition, he really is forced to fight seriously.

No matter how much of a beast you are, fighting a disadvantageous fight is really taxing.

Plus to that is the fact that Raizel already said it himself...

"... Well, the fight is more fun that way you know?"

"... Not really. I mean, after this, fights will surely be boring so... you know, might as well enjoy it while it lasts."

He's making it like this because he wants the thrill of a real fight before everything around him, becomes boring.

Raizel can surely end the fight here and there if he wants, all he needs to do is just to unleash his whole arsenal. But where's the thrill on that? This is the last thing on his goal so might as well enjoy it while it lasts. That's Raizel's thought process on this one, and Sasaki knows it pretty well that's why he decided to ride along with it.

But now that he's the only one that's left, there's just no choice for him but to face the evident defeat.

"... So shall we end this now? It's getting pretty late now you know?" Raizel said as he impatiently taps his great ax on the ground.

" Yeah, let's do that." Sasaki said with a light chuckle. "... I will humor you for one last time."

"Oh?" Raizel muttered, sounding very impressed. "... You have something more in your sleeves?"

"... I do, so you better prepare yourself" After this, Sasaki gets into a stance as he raises his diminishing light sword in front.

"... Cause if you don't, you might die."

" Hoo~ that sounds promising," Raizel replied with a playful tone as he brandishes his great ax.

After this, a sudden pause shadowed the two for a good couple of seconds before...

-VWOOM!

... before it was broken by Sasaki as he activated a skill.

Well, anyone can tell that he activated something because his already dimmed sword suddenly became brighter, even more brighter than before, and also his armor changed. Now, he looks exactly like how anyone would describe a light god if they saw one in person.

A person who's extremely bright and mostly made out of light.

(AN: Basically a Dawnbringer Riven when she ults.)

"Hoo, is that your final trump card?" Raizel asked, looking pretty amused by the current situation.

Though, he received no reply from the other side.

"..."

Raizel immediately thought that Sasaki doesn't have any plan to prolong this fight anymore and just want to get into action.

Having a complete understanding of the situation, Raizel too, prepared himself to engage.

He can't let the other party wait anymore, can't he?

So with that thought in mind...

"... Alright, just make sure that thi-"

So... he was about to make the first move after saying a little pep talk, but before he could even do that...

SWOOOSH-

Sasaki suddenly appeared in front of him and attacked Raizel using his sword.

"URK!" He tried to dodge, but the attack caught Raizel so off guard that it still hit him in the chest.

Everything just happened so fast. If it's a Player other than Raizel, they will surely not be able to react on time and just receive the entire attack.

Even Raizel who still managed to react somehow, despite being caught off guard, still got hit.

"... Haa~ didn't your mother teach you that it's bad to attack someone while they're stil- huh?" Raizel, who jumped away to recreate the distance between the two of them, paused mid-speech when he suddenly received a notification prompt that attracted his whole attention.

[ Your Ring of the Undying has been Activated ]

"What?" After seeing the prompts, Raizel was greatly confused.

One of his Rings, the Ring of the Undying, is an item that would immediately give him 100 Hp the moment his HP bar falls down to 0.

There's also another catch, this item will only be activated if there are no more ways for Raizel to be saved. It means that, this item is literally Raizel's last resort if he already used all of his sustaining spells/skills and items.

So right now, he's understandably confused.

Why in the world, would his Ring of Undying be activated? That just makes no sense.

1 second ago, his HP bar is just full. His Life-saving Spells and Skills are also still unused at this point.

He even peeked at his ability menu just to make sure that they're all up, and they're really up! So why?

At least, that's what Raizel thought to himself.

"... What happened? Where did that smugness of yours go?" Suddenly, while Raizel is having an internal crisis, Sasaki suddenly appeared above him and made an attack.

However, Raizel this time is on high alert unlike earlier so he dodged the attack easily and even made a counterattack.

Sasaki didn't expect Raizel's sudden counterattack. He thought that the attack just now will make him extremely cautious and that he'll just jump away again to dodge it, but turns out, he's wrong. So, seeing the upcoming attack, Sasaki instinctively jumped back.

"... Gotcha!" When this happened, Raizel's eyes gleamed. He didn't miss this slight opening that Sasaki made.

Even Sasaki noticed that he just made a blunder, and Raizel was about to punish him for it.

So with a click of his tongue, Sasaki immediately conjured a light shield in his other hand to block whatever Raizel was about to do.

-SWOOSH!

He heard a strong gust of wind.

'Here it comes!'

He braced himself for what was about to come...

'...'

He waited for it...

"..."

But nothing came.

And when he looked in front of him to check what was happening...

"..."

Raizel is nowhere to be seen.

(Cicada noises sfx)

Sasaki immediately crouched down and jumped high in the sky. Probably to look for Raizel.

And he's right. From there, he saw Raizel running away from a distance. Completely utilizing his Agility stats to their full extent.

"... This son of a b*tch!" Seeing Raizel's shameless action, Sasaki immediately rocketed himself towards the running Raizel.

"... HOW DARE YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME!"

It was then, that a chase between the two began

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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