MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

"None of you will leave this place alive," A deep voice reverberated through the surroundings, momentarily hushing even the lively swamp as the massive Wyrm began to shrink in size.

As the monstrous wyrm began to transform, its massive form began to contort and twist, shrinking its massive frame into a towering humanoid figure, with his transformation sending shockwaves through the swamp, the very air crackling with dark energy.

In mere moments, the once large creature transformed into a towering humanoid figure that stood nearly four meters tall.

Its once sinuous body now took on a beastly human appearance, its features twisted into a grotesque semblance of humanity.

Its appearance was nothing short of terrifying, as its draconic features were still evident, with a pointed chin and snarling lips revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth.

Glowing with an otherworldly vibrant light, its eyes shone in the dim canopy of the swap darkness with a fierce intensity, reflecting the rage and power that simmered within.

Massive, webbed claws adorned its hands, each capable of easily tearing through flesh, and a spiked tail lashed out behind it, poised to strike at any moment. Webbed ears twitched atop its head, picking up on the slightest sound of movement in the swamp.

The creature's bulging muscles strained against its dark, scaly skin, which still bore the same deep hues of green, purple, black, and blue.

With a roar that echoed through the swamp, the creature launched itself forward, with its massive fists clenched in fury as it charged toward Alex and his team.

Alex moved forward, not backing down from a clash of strength, his sword and beastly claw meeting mid-air, with the two exchanging multiple moves in mere moments.

Andrei stood ready, waiting for the opportunity to dive, while behind him, Venedikt and Saahira remained poised, prepared to provide support from a safe distance, with Ravyn having vanished into the shadows, preparing to strike from the darkness.

Alex pushed the creature back, displaying the clear disparity between their strength, which enraged the creature to no end, so as he was pushed back, it bellowed in fury, unleashing a stream of potent, toxic energy from its gaping maw.

Venedikt's space magic formed a protective barrier, warding off the poison and creating distortions that momentarily immobilized the creature.

Saahira's healing flames manifested around the suspended figure of Andrei, providing him with buffs ranging from healing, mental clarity, pain resistance, and many more.

Andrei, a raging juggernaut, not missing the opportunity, tore through the poisonous onslaught, landing a crossed slash with his dual axes squarely on the creature's chest.

Meanwhile, Ravyn moved with silent grace, appearing behind the creature who landed in the murky swamp water, delivering 'Hollow Execution,' a skill that ignored all defense, one sickle moving for the creature's head and the other for its heart.

The creature jerked his head to the side while also twisting his body, and he did so out of his honed instincts, yet even then, he was only able to avoid the sickle aimed at his head.

The Wyrm roared in agony as he felt a blade materialize right in his beating heart, slicing through his veins and anything that was around the blade before he felt the sickle getting pulled out of his body, doing even more damage.

The Wyrm bellowed in agony and fury, raising his arms high above his head before slamming them down with immense force, causing a thunderous boom and sending rising waves of water rippling outward from the impact.

In an instant, pillars of dark, murky green energy erupted from the surroundings, tearing through the water and algae with a deafening roar, their toxic essence pulsating violently as they multiplied, numbering a few dozen in total.

As much as the team dominated the Wyrm, he was still a beast King and a strong one at that, so even with his heart receiving a critical strike and in a weakened condition, he was still a powerhouse through and through.

Ravyn appeared behind Alex, his armor bearing the symptoms of corrosion as poison ate away at it, but his completion was as cold as ever, showing no signs of poisoning.

Alex advanced ahead, leading the charge but not overdoing his part and letting his teammates have their moments.

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It had been four days since the last stage of the event began, and Alex and the team faced little to no problem as they hunted three to five creatures each day, earning any were between three to five million event points each day.

No team came looking for trouble, even though their location was not hidden, because the small few teams who could match their strength knew that even if by combining forces they eliminated them, Zero would make sure the stars of the event get the lucky respawn and be present at the final battle.

The Mire raccoon was an excellent guide even outside the poisonous marsh biome, as he used his nature to make deals with inhabitants of other biomes and gain all there was to know about its rulers.

The raccoon was doing all that hard work because he was rewarded in the form of remains of the hunted beasts that were of no use to the team, as they couldn't collect anything from their carcasses even though they had immense value.

It would have been great if Alex could devour the essence of mythical creatures and push his stats to newer heights, while Andrei could have created the wildest avatars of cannibalism, boosting his strength by a great margin, but sadly, they could do no such things.

Besides spending the time needed to locate and hunt the creatures, Alex focussed on the void walk as he grew ever closer to learning it, a skill that would add new meaning to his speed and maneuverability.

While the process of using the void walk was similar to the phantom walk, learning to execute it, even after meeting the requirement, made the latter look like child's play.

Alex needed to use his mana to manipulate the surrounding light, cloaking his figure and moving at the very instant the process was completed to ensure he wouldn't disturb the finishing cloak of light or the created mirage of him would be a twisted mess of light particles.

However, to use the void walk, the first steps were identical, with him using his mana to bend space instead of light to cloak his figure, but instead of moving just before the cloaking process finished, Alex needed to move just after the space fully cloaked his being, and physical speed played no role at that time.

As the space fully cloaked him, Alex was temporarily free from the bounds of space, giving him the ability to use his mana to mana to control the surrounding space to phase through its folds, appearing at a location he could see or sense using his void sense.

While cloaked in space, Alex was temporarily free of the bounds of space, but he was also frozen in place, and although he could break free with little effort, it would result in him being back to square one.

So, to execute the skill correctly and not become a sitting duck, Alex needed to complete the preparation of the second step in milliseconds.

If he did everything as he should, Alex would depart behind a perfect mirage and emerge tens or even hundreds of meters away in an instant with little delay, but doing it in seconds was extremely challenging, let alone milliseconds.

'Still no good,' Alex thought as he felt the space not moving to his will in time, making his efforts turn to nothing.