Days passed, and the bait operation continued night after night.
Darkness and a chilling fog blanketed the slum alleys of Soltaris. Sera, dressed in her signature maid outfit, kicked a pebble on the cobblestones with an annoyed sigh. She hugged her shoulders, perfectly acting the part of a terrified, trembling young woman, but her lips were muttering complaints only she could hear.
"This is the fifth day... Not even a stray dog has showed up. Did that psycho move to another city or something? This is so boring," the vampire girl sighed, beginning to think this entire operation was a waste of time.
But suddenly...
Hee... heehee...
A high-pitched, twisted giggle echoed from the deep shadows right behind her neck!
Sera froze. Her gamer instincts screamed that an incredibly dangerous entity had closed into point-blank range. She slowly turned her head.
Whoosh!!
A hooded figure exploded from the darkness at a speed practically invisible to the NPC's eye. In a flash, he scooped Sera off the ground, sweeping her up into a 'princess carry' with the force of a hurricane.
In that split second, Sera's instincts took over. Her fist clenched tightly, fully prepared to punch a massive hole straight through his skull. But she gritted her teeth, holding back her raw power by a hair's breadth. 'Remember, Sera... the plan... act weak!'
High above on a rooftop, Finn's owl widened its amber eyes, capturing the entire scene.
Down below in the darkest shadows, Talia, fully cloaked in High-Tier Stealth, instantly dashed after the killer without leaving a single trace. According to the plan they had agreed upon earlier, Talia would track the target to his destination herself, leaving Finn to coordinate the rest of the guild to follow quietly without alerting the Crimson Order.
Back to Sera. She was being carried at breakneck speed through the darkness. She frantically struggled, weakly beating her fists against his chest and opening her mouth to scream. However, her lips were instantly sealed shut by a dark aura. The [Curse of Silence] had been cast on her, rendering her completely mute.
When the killer finally stopped running, Sera realized she had been taken far outside the city limits. They were deep within an isolated pine forest. Before them stood a dilapidated wooden cabin, obscured by a thick, unnatural fog of dark magic. Out of the corner of her eye, Sera spotted Talia's silhouette silently perching on a tree branch nearby. 'Perfect... backup has arrived.'
Bang! The door was kicked open. The hooded killer carried her into the cabin and casually snapped his fingers, lifting the silence curse from her lips.
"W-What are you going to do to me?!" Sera shrieked, acting her heart out as she backed up against the wooden wall.
"Heeheehee..."
The psycho let out a shrill laugh. He didn't waste time talking. There was no villainous monologue. The absolute second Sera finished speaking, he immediately reached down and dropped his pants straight to the floor! He then lunged forward, reaching out to tear her clothes off.
Sera's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. Her patience snapped instantly.
'This absolute creep! He drops his pants right off the bat?! If I wait for Talia to breach the room, my cover as an NPC is going to be blown the second he realizes my stats! We're outside the city anyway... screw the plan!!'
Sera dropped the innocent act entirely. Instead of cowering, she countered with terrifying physical strength, grabbing his shoulder in a vice grip and sinking her sharp fangs directly into his neck!
[Vampiric Drain] activated instantly!
"Aaaarghh!!"
The hooded killer screamed in agony and shock as his HP plummeted. He violently thrashed and kicked, breaking free from Sera's grip and tumbling backward to gain some distance. His hand clutched his bleeding neck.
Sera didn't give him a second to breathe. She stomped her foot against the wooden floorboards, triggering her racial skill.
[Crimson Fog]
A violent gale erupted from her body, accompanied by a thick, blood-red fog that instantly filled the cabin and spilled into the surrounding forest. The skill didn't inherently debuff the enemy's stats, but the howling wind and dense red mist allowed Sera to move like a phantom, practically teleporting through the fog.
Swish! Swish!
Sera's silhouette flickered in and out of the red mist from every direction. Suddenly, she materialized right in front of him, pulling her legendary weapon from her inventory—a Giant Scythe with a long, curved blade that gleamed with a bloody aura.
CLANG!!
The sound of clashing metal shook the cabin. The hooded killer reacted just in time, pulling his own weapon from his inventory to block her strike. It was a massive, pitch-black Greatsword radiating a dark aura.
Sera backflipped, disappearing into the fog once more. Her crimson eyes narrowed as she analyzed his weapon and mana signature. The enemy's class was a [Dark Knight]!
Amidst the swirling red fog and roaring wind, the vampire girl tightened her grip on her scythe. The Dark Knight raised his greatsword into a combat stance. They locked eyes through the mist. The battle between Level 100 players had officially begun!
CLANG!! The sheer force of the scythe and greatsword colliding sent shockwaves that cracked the cabin's wooden walls. The Dark Knight instantly realized the girl in front of him wasn't a helpless victim, but a player!
Refusing to hold back, he immediately played his trump card. He slammed his black greatsword into the floorboards and unleashed his Ultimate Skill!
[Domain of the Void]
A spherical dome of pitch-black darkness exploded outward, swallowing them both in an instant. The wind and red fog Sera had summoned were completely erased, as if she had been dragged into another dimension.
From Sera's perspective, there was only absolute, crushing nothingness. It wasn't just the absence of light; her entire sensory system had been severed! She couldn't see, hear, or even smell. This wasn't just a trapping domain—it was an ultimate sensory-deprivation curse.
"Playing it like this, huh? Fine!"
Even entirely blind and deaf, the instincts of a top-tier player didn't waver. Sera sprouted a pair of massive, pitch-black bat wings from her back and launched herself high into the air. Taking flight put distance between them, making it significantly harder for a grounded melee fighter to reach her.
Simultaneously, the vampire girl unleashed her own Ultimate Skill!
[Blood Domain]
A massive pool of blood materialized from thin air around her, instantly condensing into thousands of crimson spears. Sera unleashed them in a blind, 360-degree barrage! Even without seeing her target, this carpet-bombing tactic left the Dark Knight with zero openings to approach her. Furthermore, every time a blood spear grazed or impaled the enemy, the Lifesteal effect continuously funneled HP back to her.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Despite Sera being airborne, the Dark Knight retaliated by swinging his greatsword, sending crescent-shaped waves of dark, cursed energy flying up at her.
Relying entirely on sheer instinct and the slight shifts in air pressure, Sera spun her giant scythe to deflect the unseen sword waves. Clang! Clang! She managed to parry several, but dozens more slipped through her guard, slashing into her body.
However, the vampire girl had already activated [Blood Armor], encasing her body in a thick layer of hardened blood. Combined with her insane regeneration, the wounds knitted themselves back together almost instantly. Whenever she felt the impact of a sword wave, she used her blood manipulation to fire a barrage of spears directly back at the source of the attack.
'Trying to blind me and chip me to death? Dream on!' Sera thought as she hovered in the void. 'Domain curses burn through mana like crazy. I just have to stall until your Ultimate runs out of time!'
The blind battle raged on fiercely within the void. The Dark Knight was entirely focused on dodging the relentless rain of blood spears and desperately swinging sword waves at the flying vampire...
He had absolutely no idea that his void had a fatal leak.
Because Talia had slipped into the area after the black dome was cast, the sensory-deprivation curse did not apply to her. To Talia, the dark domain was just a dimly lit room where she could clearly see the Dark Knight swinging wildly at the sky.
Using [Perfect Stealth], Talia erased her presence completely. She walked silently right up behind the Dark Knight as he raised his greatsword for another strike.
The eyes behind Talia's glasses gleamed with cold calculation. The Assassin class passive was activated.
[Fatal Mark]. The target was locked. A glowing red skull symbol appeared on the back of the Dark Knight's neck. The next attack would deal Double Damage!
Talia tightened her grip on her dual daggers. With ruthless precision, she thrust her blades directly into the marked weak point at the back of his neck!
Backstab condition met: [CRITICAL HIT!]
"Guh—!!"
The Dark Knight's eyes bulged. He violently coughed up a mouthful of black blood that splattered the inside of his hood. The astronomical burst of damage forced him to his knees. The concentration holding his Ultimate together shattered in an instant. Only now did he realize that his curse had only blinded the vampire, leaving him wide open to a third party!
SHATTER!!
The black void domain cracked and exploded like broken glass, returning them to reality!
However... the scene before them was no longer an old wooden cabin. The sheer destructive force of their chaotic battle, the sword waves, and Sera's relentless rain of blood spears had completely obliterated the structure. The cabin was reduced to absolute splinters, leveling the surrounding area.
As the dust and wood chippings settled, Sera gracefully floated down to the ground, her bat wings retracting. She stood tall, fully encased in her pristine, bright red [Blood Armor] without a single scratch on her.
And right in front of her was the psychotic Dark Knight, kneeling in a pool of his own blood, with Talia's shortsword pressed lethally against his throat from behind.