Dead-end

Was Vice-leader Marco really on the side of the bandits?

Liu Ye couldn't help but wonder about the man's purpose in his quest. No one was this stupid to ignore the fire that would soon spread everywhere, burning the whole Bandit Camp. The named NPC was actually helping him with his actions. 

Receiving outside help to finish the mission actually made sense. Even if Liu Ye was Level 10 and mastered five abilities like suggested, he would still struggle to kill twenty-five Masked Bandits at the same time. Not to mention the three Berserkers which basically made this an impossible mission. 

Bang! 

Liu Ye kicked open the entrance door as soon as he reached them and stormed out into an open area. Just as he thought, the structure of the Bandit Camp was quite straightforward. The gathering area with a fire pit was situated near the base of the small waterfall, and the wooden buildings were built all around it.

"Find him!" the Berserker close to his left cried out as the sounds of footsteps intensified. 

Liu Ye was forced to give up on his thoughts of finding safety within the pool of water. With the incoming onslaught from the bandits, he wouldn't be able to reach it in time.

Up!

Liu Ye climbed on the wooden frames of the nearest house, reaching the straw roof just in time before multiple Masked Bandits came out from within the flames. The whole roof was tightly packed, allowing him to hold his ground, but he couldn't hide there for too long. 

"He is on the roof!" The Masked Bandits cried out when they spotted him and sent multiple Fire Jabs his way. Liu Ye could only hug the roof to dodge them as he calculated the distance for his jump. 

There was just a two-meter gap between the two houses so it was nothing to worry about. 

"Burn him down!" the Berserker ordered, bringing a smile on Liu Ye's face. That was exactly what he wanted. 

Swoosh!

The existing flames exploded upwards as all Firebenders fueled the fire. The flames grew so tall Liu Ye couldn't even see his surroundings anymore, yet he was calm. They didn't realize they would soon be trapped in the ring of fire they created on their own. 

Liu Ye gulped down two Medium Potions just to be sure and jumped right through the burning hell. 

[Ding! Fire applied burn. You will lose 10 HP every second for the next three seconds.]

The landing was soft, but his whole body awakened from the pain. He could punch a hole in the wall of fire with his water whips but that wouldn't let him perform his plan. Liu Ye didn't wait for the flames to extinguish and leaped to another roof as a human torch. 

'Good luck trying to extinguish it,' Liu Ye thought as he rolled on the straw roof to spread the flames. When the roof successfully caught fire, he jumped on another house and then waved at the Masked Bandits. 

"Haha! I'm here, idiots! Do you call that Firebending? You can't even hit me properly!" Liu Ye taunted with laughter, pissing the whole squad off. They momentarily rushed after him, not realizing three of their houses were already burning. 

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Multiple Fireballs slammed at Liu Ye's previous spot, but he was already gone, climbing onto another row of houses. Not all houses were close enough to jump but that wasn't an issue. 

"Is that all you have got? Do you want me to close my eyes to give you—" 

Swoosh!

Liu Ye paused his provocation to dodge the Berserker's fireball, only to laugh as he bent over and smacked his butt. "Haha, you need to aim a bit lower!" 

"Damn it!" the Berserker cursed, clearly fuming as he launched attacks ahead of others. "You are a dead meat!" 

Although Liu Ye was usually calm and collected, he had to throw his shame away. The sillier and stupider his taunting, the more effective it was. 

"Sir! The houses are burn—" The Masked Bandits finally realized the damage they caused but the Berserker ignored them. Liu Ye's eyes couldn't help but brighten at the sudden split up. 

"Stop running away and fight me!" the Berserker shouted angrily as he kept casting abilities, but Liu Ye had a different plan.

The other Masked Bandits stopped chasing and instead rushed towards the river to help the Waterbenders extinguish the flames. It left only one Berserker to deal with him, and it just happened this particular individual wasn't very smart. 

Thud!

Liu Ye finally found the right spot and jumped down, turning around to welcome his opponent.

"Hahaha, you dropped into a dead end! You can't escape anymore!" The Berserker laughed out loud as his palms burned with flames. "Any last words?"

[Berserker - Lvl. 9]

[HP: 500/500]

[MP: 30/150]

Liu Ye smiled when he saw the Berserker's Mana. 

"You know, there is a saying within the community," Liu Ye spoke calmly while preparing his three whips. "No matter how high your HP is, you will always be useless without Mana." 

Liu Ye launched himself forward and slapped the incoming fireball with his whip. The Berserker followed up with panicked Fire Jabs until he ran out of gas. His face immediately paled as he reached out into his jacket for a Mana Potion, but Liu Ye had already closed the distance between them. 

Pa!

His water whip slapped the potion from his hand and it smashed against the wall, spilling the liquid all over the ground. Instead of attacking right away, Liu Ye pulled on the Berserker's arm and switched their places. 

"This is indeed a dead end, but not for me!" Liu Ye yelled as he began a merciless slaughter. 

-15

-15

-15

Water whips smacked the Berserker from all sides, and he could do nothing other than crying for help while blocking the attacks with his arms. His armor provided him with extra protection, blocking four more damage, but that couldn't stop him from his incoming death. 

[Ding! You killed the Berserker. You received 500 Experience and 50 silver.] 

[Ding! Congratulations! You reached Level 7!]

[Ding! Your Elemental Mastery bar is full. You received one Elemental Point.]

Several notifications updated his feed as the Berserker collapsed on the ground. It was unfortunate the opponent didn't drop anything, but looking at his Luck value, Liu Ye wasn't surprised that his drop rate was so low.

Liu Ye glanced down at the Berserker's dead body without even feeling anything despite the realistic arrangement of the game. It was scary how used he was to such scenes; in the dark world, such views were his everyday life. However, this might not be the case for the rest of the players. Liu Ye didn't even want to think about the change it would bring to real life. The players' personalities were bound to be affected, whether for better or for worse, nobody knew.

"Oh my, that's brutal." 

Liu Ye immediately turned around at the sudden voice and saw Vice-leader Marco blocking the exit. Looking at the three water whips aimed at him, the bandit smiled and raised his arms in surrender. 

"Calm down, I'm on your side," Vice-leader Marco assured. "Tell me, were you sent here by the Village Lord?"