Downfall Planning

Through an ever expansive forest, two objects were moving at extreme speeds. As they chase each other, they brush past beasts, leaving them dumbfounded.

Looking closer, one would identify the objects as two beings running at extreme speeds.

'Tch... he's fast, but I can still go faster' Ferisa increased her speed as she thought this, trying to catch up to the man in front of her.

The previous wide gap between them began to shorten.

As she did this…

[Dude, she's moving faster now]

"Oh" Zephyr said.

'Well, two can play that game. Might as well go all out' Zephyr thought.

Immediately, the approaching Ferisa felt apprehensive as a large amount of pressure was being emitted out of the man's body, but this wasn't something she couldn't handle.

And then…

ZIIOOUUM!!!

And then…

BOOM!!!

The next step Zephyr took, the gap stretched unbelievably wider and a loud boom resounded as he broke the sound barrier ten seconds later, leaving Ferisa dumbfounded and awed at the same time.

The amount of force Zephyr had unintentionally propelled backwards forced Ferisa to completely stop running.

Luckily, the man had left a clear trail as his speed wrecked all trees in his way, which means she just has to follow the trail to find him. With his strength, he couldn't feel any pain while punching the trees ahead.

Rather...

"Woohoo!!!" He shouted like a lunatic as felt the winds through all parts of his body.

He felt freedom, to just keep running and, seeing no one behind him, he did just that.

But he had forgotten just how bad his luck was.

Meanwhile...

"Wait!" She shouted towards three beings about to kill her.

She was currently in a perilous situation.

Immediately after the man (Zephyr) ran and left her, three people attacked her.

Normally, she would have been able to escape or kill at least one of them. But she had used a lot of stamina while chasing after that man and, because of the man's sonic boom, she had halted to recuperate.

Who would have known that three people would immediately attack her just a short while later.

All three were more proficient than your average Joe.

Their skin housed a dark color with their face housing glowing amber eyes, no ears and teeth similar to a great white shark's.

One was short but packed with muscle, with large arms and feet but slow, another skinny and lacked stamina but fast and one dressed in a black cloak, whose ability to dodge baffled Ferisa but his stamina was limited.

She was trying to communicate with these beings, but they hadn't stopped to reply and only continued to attack.

She bit her lip at the bitterness of the situation as her eyes briefly had a glint in them before pulling out her sword to face her assailant.

One was trying to pummel her with gorilla-sized fists covered in gauntlets while another used a dagger to interfere whenever she was about to kill the first one.

Luckily for her, the man' s(Zephyr's) previous stunt had damaged most of the trees around them, so the surroundings were barren with no trees standing.

This forced the attackers into a frontal confrontation, with no trees to block out sunlight and no place to hide.

Clang!Bam!Shing!

Sword and fist clashed as both sides attacked with the intent to kill.

She activated her skill [accelerate] which increased her speed substantially, and followed it up with [Slash] and [Leap], but this only allowed her to contend with all three at once because they also used skills.

She didn't have any powerful skill that could tip the scales into her favor.

Hence the current stalemate. The gorilla-sized man would attack, while the other with a dagger kept looking for blindsports while interfering to make sure the other didn't die or lose any body parts.

As the battle went on for a full Two minutes...

'I can't kill these three right now'

'I'll have to run away for now'

While she was thinking of this, she suddenly felt a killing intent that made her stand on edge, then it hit her…

'Where is the third person?' she thought and immediately crouched down and rolled away, narrowly dodging the blade about to slit her throat.

She had dodged but in that moment, she lost focus on the other two. She had won the battle but lost the war.

A large foot kicked her directly through two trees landing on the ground.

'Shit' she thought while looking at her assailants approaching.

She couldn't fight anymore, she knew this.

With her current level of stamina, she also wouldn't be able to outrun them.

Not to mention the fractures the last maneuver had given her. She is in no condition to fight and she knew it.

'So...it has come down to this' she thought, immediately thinking of ways she could survive.

But she couldn't come up with any before she had her face forcefully held up as they pulled her up by her hair, making her come face to face with the gorilla sized one.

"She was a tough one" Lezar (Cloaked one) said while looking at her.

"Seriously, that other guy did us a huge favor by running at that time" said Erest (skinny one) with a creepy smile on his face.

"Yeah, it seems she was already tired when we arrived" Herean (gorilla one) said as he observed the girl while holding her hair up to look at her face.

"Wait, she fought like that when she was tired?" Erest couldn't help but ask, after all the woman had given them a hard time before they could put her down.

'But that was her when she was tired?' Erest ruminated again, as it didn't make any sense to him. He couldn't help but ask himself...

'What if she was at peak strength?'

'Would we have been able to win?'

'No, this only happened because we fought her openly' Erest soon thought after, but deep within his consciousness, he knew that he was only deluding himself.

Nevertheless, they had won and she had lost, it was time to claim their rewards.

But just as the Herean was about to kill her, she murmured in his ear a question that piqued his interests.

And the question was;

"Do you know the player 'Infinity'?"

"Huh?" was the response the man gave to the abrupt question, and like the abrupt switching on of a light bulb, he immediately began to move his hand touching seemingly nothing, before finally letting out an exclamation.

"Ah...of course I do, he's the number one on the Leaderboard, everyone knows him"

He said not understanding what this had to do with anything.

"Herean, what are you doing, let's go before the other comes back" said Erest while apprehensively eyeing the trail of broken trees.

He and his brothers had also sensed a sudden spike of energy when they were approaching, the pressure they felt made them halt in their tracks.

They only moved after making sure whatever caused it was gone.

"That man who ran through those trees, breaking them and leaving that trail is Infinity" she observed their facial expressions as she said this.

"Damn, now that I think about it, the pressure we felt from before couldn't be explained any other way" Lezar said.

They thought the pressure came from a very strong beast. But if that was so, then the woman in front of them should have died.

"And, he's Infinity, don't tell me you expect us to believe you, and even if we did, it doesn't mean you wouldn't die" Herean replied as he stared at the woman with her doing the same.

"I'm assuming you know that when you kill a player, his gathered strength would be yours to take" Ferisa said nonchalantly.

"Of course we do, why do you think we want to kill you, but judging from the fact that you know of it too means you've killed a player before" Herean said while still staring at Ferisa.

"Of course, I have, I was looking for my next target when I bumped into Infinity. He didn't tell me his real name but I used [Inspect] on him to find out" she said as a sick grin cut across her face.

Erest and Lezar found the story to be plausible, but...

"Why are you telling us this?" Herean said.

"All you've said doesn't change the fact that I'll kill you" Herean said.

"You should let a lady finish talking" she replied.

"I want to kill him, but of course, I can't do it alone" she said, still staring at Herean.

"So I'll need help, 'your help', we sho-" she got cut off by Herean's questions.

"Why should I help you?"

"What's in it for us? And what's in it for you?" He asked.

"You felt his power, he can't be left alone or he will grow unstoppable, and if he can't be controlled, he has to be destroyed"

"Plus, if you kill me, you'll be next to die. Or do you think he'll just let you walk away after killing his potential partner?" she raised an eyebrow as she asked.

It might look like normal conversation, but she was daring and threatening him.

Herean weighed the gains and losses before removing his hand from her hair.

*Cough*Cough*

Ferisa coughed before raising her head up.

"Okay, if we agree to do this, what's your plan?" Hearen asked.

"Good, good, now this is what I have in mind. I...…"

And like so, the two parties began planning for the downfall of Zephyr.

Things are about to get good.