Mountain Pass

The Mountain Pass was a giant tear through a rocky mountain, but the path was not as straightforward as one might think. While there was only one entrance and one exit, the inside of the mountain split into many routes and passageways.

But it made it easier to defend as all Blue Light had to do was to set two barricades on both sides, and they would be able to block anyone from entering. The only exception to the rule would be NPCs, as while no merchants passed through the Mountain Pass because of the monster infestation, adventurers did come by to try and resolve the problem.

Today, however, as the sun started going down from the sky, the Blue Light members watching over the entrance saw someone approaching.

The leader of the battalion posted to guard the entrance warned, "Possible intruder incoming!"

As the figure approached, he managed to spot the man's ID.

[Runefather Odin, Level 10, Runic Mage]

He frowned as the name felt familiar, until he heard one of his subordinates cry out, "That's the guy who attacked Elder Euron! He has 100 Gold on his head!"

He felt stunned for a second, before a grin broke out on his face as he raised his right hand, ordering, "Archers!"

Four of the men behind him, their archers, nocked their arrows, aiming for the intruder.

"Fire!"

Four arrows were fired, all emitting a dark hue as they sped through the air.

Felix, who was the target of the arrows, could think of a number of ways to deal with it, but remembering he was here for a show, he grabbed his spear from his back and continued walking.

As the arrows reached him, Felix took a step to the right, and parried the only arrow that would still hit with his spear.

The other side paused as their first wave of attacks failed, but while the most intelligent thing to do now would be for Felix to rush at them, he had an act to play.

A second barrage arrived, but Felix dealt with it just as easily as the first. To the normal player, following even a single arrow fired from a similarly leveled player would be hard, never mind twenty fired from players at least ten levels higher.

However, compared to Cailin's sword strikes when she used her full strength, the arrows felt ridiculously slow.

Probably understanding that the arrows wouldn't work, the 20 or so players guarding the valley went for another tactic.

All the players started shining with a dark light as Felix felt a surge in Mana in front of him. From the group, two players wielded staffs, probably the ones at the origin of the spell.

Since they were done with range attacks, Felix decided to strike while they were all in the same place, and sped towards them. His Agility wasn't exceptional, but he still managed to reach the group before they could split off.

As he got closer, two bolts of Dark Mana were fired his way, but a single swing of his spear was enough to block the two as the warriors of the group came to him.

Now that he had gotten closer, Felix was able to see the classes of his enemies.

4 Tanks in front, 7 DPS right behind them, 4 Archers, 2 Mages and 3 Priests. The names were slightly different, all oriented towards darkness, but Felix only cared about knowing the attacks he would have to face.

Since they had received buffs, Felix did not hold back as he started off not with a physical attack, but a magical one.

Before the tanks could reach Felix, a blue circle of light appeared above him. It was quite intricate in the way it was made, as in its center was a 'Stasis' Rune, and most of the circle was filled. However, there were six blank spaces, all surrounding the 'Stasis' Rune.

Quickly after the circle manifested, the blanks were quickly filled, and only when they were all filled did the whole thing start to shine even brighter.

As Felix and the Blue Light players were about to clash, a stream of flames was suddenly fired from the Runic Circle above Felix.

The flames hit the tanks, and even moved through them as they burned the DPS behind them.

Felix, who had been about to clash with them, took a step back, to not get hit by his own flames, and created a second spell right behind the first one.

It took him half a second to make the spell, and the moment it activated, a strong gust of wind was created, which fanned the flames, making them spread even more.

In an instant, half of Blue Light's forces were engulfed in fire as they screamed in pain, their formation falling apart.

The ones behind tried to do something, the priests healing the ones taking damage as best as they could while the mages tried to attack Felix, but they were blocked by their own men.

The players under fire tried to move away from the flames, and two of the tanks managed to do so. However, for the other two, the moment they got out of the flames, they were met with Felix.

His spear whipping out so fast the two were left unable to react, the spearhead passed precisely through the small gap between their chest armor and their helmet, the blade cutting through soft skin of the neck as easily as the chain mail protecting it.

While the two managed to keep their heads, they stumbled backwards, their hands shooting to their neck desperately trying to stop the bleeding, but their HP was going down the drain.

Felix even used the two as a moving wall as he pierced deeper into their formation using the two as shields, and found a sword coming for his side.

Twirling around, Felix dodged the blade and directly reached the back line, where the mages, priests and archers were. The archers already had their bows tucked on their back, small daggers in their hands as archery in close combat wasn't exactly the best tactic.

Felix felt a wave of mana coming from the mages, certainly about to fire a spell, but the way towards them was blocked by the four archers. Although killing them would be easy, the mages would have the time to fire their spell, which would be harder to block or dodge than the earlier arrows.

But as the archers were throwing themselves at him, Felix made a double jump using an air platform, passing by the awestruck archers as Felix directly arrived in front of the 2 Mages.

Felix showed no mercy as he landed on top of one of them, spear first as he impaled him through the chest. The second one managed to fire his spell, but it miserably missed as Felix was too close and too fast now.

He didn't get to take a single step before a spear pierced through his head, killing him on the spot.

What followed was a massacre. The Priests were the next ones, followed by the archers. As for the Tanks and DPS, despite their number, they had faced his flames head on. The tanks, thanks to their Vitality, were relatively fine, but most of the DPS behind them had their eyes melt from the attack.

Combat in Epoch was realistically brutal, which was why it wasn't all about the numbers.

Surrounded by twenty corpses from Blue Light, Felix flicked the blood off his blade as he walked into the valley, Thousand Streams filming the whole encounter while hiding behind.

---

"Sir, will the preparations soon be finished?"

In a cave within the Mountain Pass, a player was addressing an NPC.

The NPC, who was standing in front of a dark basin filled with a strange, black liquid, replied, "A couple of days, at most. Do no worry, Isaiah. The Lord shall reward you for your actions."

[Isaiah, Level 37, Prophet of Izrath]

Isaiah warned, "We managed to hold things under control for now among Otherworlders, but my forces heard about the city preparing itself to take measures to deal with us."

The NPC, a middle aged man garbed in black, shook his head and said, "They won't act this fast. And if they do, you shall hold them back for as long as possible. While it would be inconvenient, in case of an emergency, we could activate it early. The power would be lowered, but it would be better than nothing."

Isaiah nodded, when he felt something vibrate in his pocket.

Taking out his Communication Token, Isaiah heard a voice say, "Someone intruded in the Mountain Pass."

Isaiah frowned and asked, "One person? What about the squad guarding the path? How could they miss the intruder?"

The voice replied with uncertainty, "It was a single person. It was the player Euron got killed by a week ago, Runefather Odin."

Isaiah looked at the token in surprise as he commented, "I thought we couldn't find him, and he came to us himself. What level is he at?"

The voice on the other side sighed, "That's the problem. He is only Level 10, but he wiped out the squad guarding the Pass. From the footage of the battle, he seems dangerous."

"Wait, footage of the battle?"

"Yes. The battle was published online, and it is making quite the sensation. People are laughing."

Isaiah's hands went to his nose, before freezing, as he said, "Find him, and kill him. We can't have him interfere."

"It will be done."

The NPC, having heard the discussion, asked, "This won't be a problem?"

Isaiah shook his head and replied, "He isn't part of any group, he must be here to take revenge on one of my men. Besides, he is only Level 10. It would be a miracle for him to go past the monsters we brought to the area."

The NPC nodded, but still warned, "Make sure he doesn't become a problem then. You are dismissed."

Isaiah nodded, bowing towards the NPC. As he turned around to leave though, a trace of scorn appeared on his respectful face. He left the dark cave, leaving the middle aged man alone.

[Deacon Andre, Level 40, Chieftain]

---

Ten minutes had passed since Felix had killed off the squad guarding the entrance, and a new figure walked through the bodies.

Garbed in heavy armor, the man looked at the carnage for a moment before shaking his head, muttering to himself, "I'm not sure whether this eases things or complicates them more."

A hand resting on his two handed sword's handle, he walked into the zone, intent on following the traces of blood. His intent, for now, remained unknown.