The corners of his lips curled slightly upward, but as he turned back to the crowd, they quickly returned to normal.
"The person before you," he declared, gesturing proudly, "Is an important mber of my guild. A powerful mage with a wonderful talent."
He paused, letting anticipation build in the silence.
"His talent... is to completely negate the effects of poison!"
The mont the words dropped, the crowd erupted again.
"No way!"
"Poison negation?!"
"That’s broken!"
"We’re actually gonna win this!"
So of the new players practically bounced with excitent.
Even those who had looked unsure monts ago now leaned forward with widened eyes.
"How’s he gonna do that?"
"Is it like an aura?"
"Wait, if he can completely negate, does that an we can actually fight inside the boss zone?!"
"I thought this thing was impossible to kill!"
Viren said nothing, only standing firm with both arms folded over his chest, letting the crowd soak in his presence.
Yano remained floating above them, feeling glad at how everything kept playing as he planned.
"Thanks to him," he said, "The battlefield will be safe. No longer will we be crippled by that toxic fog. And with my command, we will strike as one!"
The players cheered again, louder this ti.
Yano turned away from the excited players, narrowing his gaze at the boss monster in the distance.
The Crimson Blood Scorpion’s tail twitched slowly, dispersing another wave of thick red vapor into the air around it.
Without turning back, he gave Viren a small nod.
The blue-haired mage stepped forward in response.
His sharp grey eyes remained fixated on the red fog in front of him, and a faint smile spread across his lips.
’Let’s do this,’ he thought, and thrust his palms forward.
Fwoosh!
A shimring pulse of bluish energy surged from Viren’s hands, crackling as it shot across the field.
Though he never took a step toward the monster area, the pulse pierced through the boundary effortlessly—blazing across the fog with unnatural force.
The players gasped.
Before their eyes, the thick red gas began to waver. It hissed, thinned... and then, shockingly, began to retreat.
Within seconds, the entire poisonous fog that once filled the boss area rapidly peeled away, until it vanished, without leaving a trace.
The terrain ahead was now perfectly visible, and the monstrous red scorpion curled its tail in agitation.
"No way..."
"He did it..."
"That... that’s insane! He really cleared the fog!"
"What a powerful talent... it has to be at least A-rank!"
More than a few players clapped in awe, others cheered or bounced on their feet in excitent.
The boss area looked wide open now... and the monstrous scorpion appeared vulnerable than ever.
Yano turned back to face the crowd, floating slightly higher.
"Now!" he shouted. "Let’s charge!"
The response was instant.
Dozens of players yelled in unison, their weapons raised high.
"Let’s go!"
"Ti to take down the boss!"
"We’ll open up the city!"
The mass of players surged forward as one, charging across the clearing like a wave of chaos.
But—
The mont they crossed the system boundary of the boss zone, sothing unexpected happened.
Tiny white particles suddenly exploded into the air.
Dozens of players—mostly those below level five—instantly evaporated.
"Wha—?"
"Wait—!"
"AAARGH—!"
They didn’t even have ti to scream before their bodies broke apart and disintegrated, disappearing into nothingness.
Instant death—that was the punishnt for stepping into an area without eting the required level.
It had always been clear, but most of the new players hadn’t read through the ga rules yet, so they were totally ignorant.
Yano didn’t flinch despite the massive death, instead, his lips curled into a smirk.
He had always warned them earlier that only those above level 5 were needed for the boss raid, nothing concerned him if the stubborn idiots who refused to listen died.
As for the rest of the players—those that t the minimum requirent, they charged in unhard.
However, just as they crossed fully into the area, many of them suddenly halted.
Their bodies trembled, eyes widening in shock.
A red haze instantly clouded their vision, like blood had been sared over their eyes.
"Ugh...!"
"What... what’s happening?!"
"I thought the gas was gone!?"
They started coughing violently, so stumbling to their knees, others rubbing at their eyes in panic.
Then the system notifications started appearing before each of them, filling their hearts with dread.
[You have been infected with Blood Poison Gas]
[Your H/P will start dropping by 50 each second until nothing is left]
"What?!"
"Blood Poison Gas?!"
"It’s still here! The gas is still here!"
Their cries turned to screams as, within seconds, many collapsed.
Blood erupted from their mouths, staining their armor. So clutched their throats, coughing so violently it seed like their lungs would burst.
Among the mass of struggling players, a young brown-haired man stumbled backward, clutching at his throat as blood trickled from the corner of his lips.
He had been among the first to charge into the boss area at Yano’s orders, and was the sa person Riley t back at the restaurant.
However now, the Blood Poison Gas stung his lungs, and his head kept spinning. His heartbeat rapidly increased, to the point he felt it would burst out of his chest.
—50!
—50!
He coughed violently, barely able to focus on the notifications flashing across his eyes each second.
But still, he gathered the last bit of strength within him, turning around, and that was when he saw it.
Outside the boss area, standing just beyond the boundary, Yano Yeves floated mid-air.
But this ti... there was no trace of the calm, confident leader he had presented earlier.
Instead, a wide, sinister grin had stretched across his face. His black coat whipped in the wind, and his pitch-black eyes glinted with cruel satisfaction.
He wasn’t alone either.
The top ten mbers of the Noble Lions Guild floated at his sides, spaced out in a perfect arc formation.
Their expressions were calm, clearly unaffected by the poison gas tornting him and the rest of the players.
So had even drawn their weapons already, as if waiting for them all to die before starting their attack.
Hart’s eyes widened, a deep shiver running through him.
"You..." he rasped out, trying to shout but only managing a whisper.
He tried to raise his bow, but the strength in his arm failed him. Blood burst from his mouth before he could speak again, splattering onto the dusty ground beneath his knees.
He dropped, collapsing fully as his knees gave way.
"You bastard..." he coughed out, trembling. "How could you... Why would you do this...?"
He looked up again, just in ti to see Yano’s smile widen. The man’s mouth parted, but he couldn’t hear what he said.
The red mist thickened around him, swallowing his vision.
And in that final mont, through the haze of blood and poison, Hart saw one last thing.
The massive red tail of the Crimson Blood Scorpion swung downward from the fog, faster than anything he could react to.
Swishh!!
It imdiately cleaved him into two from head to groin, and his body imdiately exploded into thousands of white particles, scattering into the mist.
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