Chapter IX - A PK?!?

Marcus was about to engage in the beetle when an arrow flew past his shoulder. He almost growled, turning around to a spear pointed at him "You would dare try to PK (Player Kill) me?!?"

The spearman replied "You can leave it alone and keep your life, or you can see if you can take all three of us and enjoy the first Death of the game!"

Marcus squinted his eyes in anger, he was seething, first he tried to help them and now they wanted to kill steal? This was ridiculous! Marcus pulled out his sword "What if I take the third option and I kill it and there's nothing you three can do about it?"

The spearman laughed "As if that's an option kid!" He yelled as he thrusted towards Marcus who tried to parry but was met with an arrow hitting him in his shoulder -5 HP. The swordsman charged in as the spearman fell back. As he swung his sword Marcus dodged again, all three being marked as PKers.

"You three don't even know how much trouble you're in, but I'll be happy to show you." Marcus calmly replied as he threw a slash faster than the swordsman could block -20 HP.

He was shocked, he was already down to 62 HP as he was the only one who sustained damage against the beetle, he had a bad feeling about this and hesitated and took a step back.

"What's your problem? Get him!" The spearman yelled but it was already too late to warn him as Marcus parried the thrust and breached his defenses hitting him with a critical hit slash across his neck, -80 HP!

The spearman fell down clutching his throat, he had never taken damage before so was not prepared for the sensation. It was if his throat was on fire as he released a blood curling screech that would put a banshee to shame.

Marcus lifted his sword and pointed it towards the girl. "Try that again and you're next!" He yelled towards the girl whose eyes were widened in shock. His fans at this point went wild his chat was scrolling too fast for anyone to read anything mocking the trio and hooting and hollering for Marcus.

"Help me grab him!" The swordsman yelled towards the girl as he tried to lift up the spearman. Marcus turned around and started to walk towards the rare monster once again before she ran over and the trio ran away, not knowing they all had received 10 Infamy for initiating a non-sanctioned PvP fight and were in for trouble when they returned to Vhul.

Marcus stood next to the Exemplary Giant Beetle and engaged it as he always did, stabbing it between the head plate and the wings…

Critical Hit! -10 DMG!

The beetle screeched and before Marcus to dodge it retaliated smashing him back into a tree -20 DMG. Marcus was shocked! Before Marcus was able to reengage the beetle took the initiate and began charging towards him. Marcus attempted to dodge but destroyed the tree in the process causing him to take chip damage in his escape.

Even in his past life he never encountered any Exemplary monsters, he had never killed them. He knew their stats but experience fighting them was something different.

Marcus took the initiate to try and hit another critical hit thrust dealing another 10 DMG! The beetle being below 50% activated it's special skill as it screeched really loudly reducing Marcus' evasion by 20%!

He was prepared for this and as he went to strike the beetle was able to evade and retaliate dealing another 20 DMG as Marcus staggered back a few steps. He had already lost 25% of his HP.

Marcus swung and dealt a measly 1 HP as he tried to dodge the beetle but was having coordination trouble due to his debuff as he began trading blows with the beetle.

-1 HP

-20 HP

-2 HP

-20 HP

-2 HP

Marcus knew he couldn't keep this up much longer as he was almost at 50% HP and the beetle was just over 25%. He was about to create some distance when his debuff had finally worn off, but it was too late, he was tackled head on knocking him on his back -30 HP. He only had about 60 HP left, the beetle 5…

His viewers were on the edges of their seats, this fight was even more exciting than the PvP! Marcus stood up slowly and coughed up some blood spitting it into the ground before charging the beetle. As it attempted to charge him again Marcus jumped over it quickly attacked it from behind twice -3 HP.

This caused the beetle to enrage as it was almost dead increasing its attack and speed by 15%. Marcus knew this was coming as every rare monster had this mechanic. It swung its horn catching Marcus off guard and disarming him of his sword -10 HP.

"WHAAT?!?! Okay 10 HP for hitting my weapon??? What cheatery is this!!!!!?" Marcus was losing his mind at this revelation. He was able to avoid the follow-up attack and quickly scrambled to retrieve his sword, it was now or never, he needed to end this now before he lost his life!

As he picked up his sword he was tackled hard from behind by the beetle knocking him forward -35 HP. Marcus was panting heavily, he was one hit away from death and the beetle was at best two hits away as he couldn't reliably hit twos.

He cursed his greed, he had to kill this monster, he had no other choice, the beetle charged and Marcus sidestepped and swung down with his sword as hard as he could exclaiming loudly -2 DMG

Exemplary Giant Beetle slain!

10 EXP

Level Up!

<Congratulations to Nobody, the first user to kill an Exemplary Monster! On this day the Holy Goddess shines down upon you>

Fame +5

Luck +1

<Congratulations to Nobody, the first user to reach level 5! The journey or the destination, it all begins with this step>

Fame +2

Status Point +1

Marcus collapsed next to the beetle's corpse panting heavily as the notifications rang off in his head. It wasn't that he was exhausted anymore as the level up restored all his stats, the adrenaline that was pumping through his veins had his heart pounding in his ears.

He knew he only had 5 minutes to get back to town with this corpse before it despawned. His chat was losing their minds at what Nobody had achieved as another notification rang, he had received another message from DewDrop congratulating him on his new achievements.

Marcus picked up the corpse of the Exemplary Giant Beetle after allocating his stats and began carrying it back to Vhul as he was on a tight clock…