Martial Online.



Thud—the rough-sounding player frowned and looked up to the dimly lit upstairs. He was certain that he heard something.

"What is it, Miguel?" Jock asked.

"I swear I heard something." Miguel said and turned to the sharp-haired player. "What about you, Leroy? Did you hear it as well?"

"Nah, man, I heard nothing." Leroy said while picking on his nose.

"Hmm, maybe I misheard it." Miguel shook his head and looked away from the house. "Yeah, what I was saying, I think we should go and make Narnia run after us instea—"

Thud—a loud crash came from the upstairs as if someone had fallen from the bed.

Jock, Miguel, and Leroy flinched and instinctively drew their swords out of their scabbards. They weren't mistaken anymore—there was someone or something making noise upstairs.

"W-where did Narnia place his temporary spawn?" Leroy asked with shakiness in the tone of his voice.

"He put it in the living room..." Jock said and pointed his chin towards the upstairs. "Miguel, let's go check out the upstairs."

"Roger." Miguel stepped inside the house with a longsword in hand. He was the tallest and most muscular person in their current group, with a history of street fighting.

"What about me?" Leroy asked and looked around the yard with a gulp.

"Wait here." Jock said, he was certain that with Miguel, it shouldn't be too big of a problem. It was still unclear whether it was a rat that made the noise.

They approached the stairs, and Miguel went up first, followed up by Jock. They soon had reached the upstairs and began searching through the rooms.

Leroy stood by the door, looking upstairs. "Hey, guys, what was it that made the sound?"

After receiving no reply, he gulped. "G-guys?"

The upstairs looked desolate, and there was no sight of Miguel or Jock.

"Guy—" Leroy gasped in horror as a dark blade burst through his throat. With shaky eyes, he saw the dark blade right in front of his vision with blue blood dripping from it.

He wanted to cry for help, but he couldn't utter anything, not even breathe.

His health fell to zero, and his body transformed into a cluster of small, grain-sized pixels.

[You killed a Player!]

[400 XP Earned!]

A hooded figure looked at the dropped item on the ground, picked it up, and then turned towards the upstairs with a deep look. 

He stepped inside the house, and instead of going upstairs, he walked past the stairs and walked towards the kitchen.

At upstairs, Jock and Miguel looked around the desolate room and went to the windows to see whether they saw anything moving outside. They saw nothing.

"What could have possibly fallen even?" Miguel asked Jock. "There ain't any furniture either. Maybe here is an attic we haven't seen?"

"Not sure; let's check other rooms just in case." Jock said and left the room with a sword in hand. However, when he was about to walk past the stairs, he noticed that the doorway was empty.

"Leroy?" Jock frowned and looked downstairs. "Leroy? Where the hell did you go?"

Miguel stopped beside him and gulped. He felt like there was something odd going around but couldn't tell what.

"Check the rest of the rooms." Jock said to Miguel and began walking downstairs. "Leroy? Answer me!"

Miguel quickly went to check the other rooms with a sword in hand. 

After reaching downstairs, Jock walked out of the house and then looked left and right. The yard was empty, but then he saw something shocking.

"I-Is that blood?" He crouched, and there was indeed a little bit of blood splattered across a small spot on the porch. 

His expression turned into horror, and he was about to scream for Miguel, but then his head turned upside down as if gravity had flipped.

Through his horror-filled eyes, he saw his headless torso and a dark, cloaked figure holding a blood-stained sword. 

The head fell to the porch and turned into pixels with the headless torso.

"Jock, there isn't anything in her—" Miguel walked out of the last room and stopped talking once he saw what was happening downstairs. 

He saw a dark cloaked figure holding a black-bladed sword with headless torso turning into pixels in front of him.

"W-who the fuck are you?!" Miguel screamed and rushed downstairs, raising his longsword to strike at the unknown figure.

"Basic Slash!" He screamed and smashed his longsword down.

The cloaked figure, holding the Black Sword with one hand, blocked the strike without showing any sign of struggling.

"Raaaah!" Miguel screamed, lifted his sword up, and smashed it down repeatedly as if he were trying to kill an ant. 

The cloaked figure dodged each blow and blocked them all with ease.

"S-shit, die!" Miguel took a step backward and put his sword into a rather strange stance. He pulled his right elbow right back and then thrust it forward, aiming for the cloaked figure's chest.

"Huuu..." Ambrose, showing a calm demeanor under the hood, breathed calmly and used "Basic Parry" to parry the strike. 

Miguel stumbled to the side; his balance crumbled to pieces.

Seeing a chance open up in front of him, Ambrose charged forward and drove the sword through the man's chest. 

The man fell back with a thud, but he was still alive, barely. He was breathing roughly and was trying to stand up.

However, Ambrose didn't plan on giving him the chance. He pulled out a red sword from his inventory and stabbed it through Miguel's forehead. 

The man finally fell silent and turned to pixels.

[You killed a Player!]

[525 XP Earned!]

"Whew..." He heaved a sigh of relief and wiped the blood off his swords. "After intentionally making noise upstairs, I jumped down from the window and ambushed the first player.

"Luckily, they weren't part of the party, or it would have been very troublesome. Luckily, those other two separated, and I got a free kill, but then the last one noticed me. I didn't expect him to search through the remaining rooms so quickly.

"Did he do that out of fear of the unknown? He didn't want to be alone, especially knowing that something might have happened to the first player. I didn't take that to count, but it still worked fine."

...

"Have you cleaned your room?" A middle-aged woman's shout came from downstairs.

"Yes, mom!" Narnia, a young man from Death Blade, shouted and closed his room's door with a slam. 

He turned to his tidy room, with books neatly shoved inside the bookshelf, the bed properly tidied up with a blanket, and the floor cleaned up with a dustpan and broom.

'Damn, I hope I am not too late!' Narnia thought anxiously and grabbed his VR headset from the side, then sat down on his gaming chair. 

He pressed the button and saw the scenery change around him.

After a while, he reappeared in the middle of the desolate living room, which had ugly gray wallpaper.

"Yo, I am back; sorry for being late!" He immediately apologized and turned to the front door. To his surprise, there was no one there. The whole house was empty!

"Wait, did you assholes leave without me?" Narnia yelled at the empty house. He was very angry, but then he noticed something on the ground. 

He crouched beside the stairs and saw a piece of paper with a note written on it.

"Look behind you..." Narnia frowned and looked around.

Swoosh—he saw a dark, cloaked figure swinging a black sword. The sword slashed through his face, killing him as soon as he logged back in.

After turning to pixels, he dropped something beside Ambrose's feet.

He picked it up and raised an eyebrow. "He dropped a brown ring? What is this, I wonder?"

It didn't show any description.

'What does this do?'

Ambrose shrugged his shoulders and tossed it into his inventory. He also received a longsword, a red cloak, and a pair of boots from the players he killed.

'They didn't drop any silver. Are they storing all their money somewhere?'

Ambrose stepped outside and breathed the fresh air into his lungs. He opened his eyes wide. "At least, I have to warn the farmer and his family.

"They have time to escape before they come back." Ambrose said as he began running towards the farm.