World Online

Jake felt his sword get pushed back. This was strong. Stronger than anything that he had ever faced.

"Damn it. Why is this so powerful? This one strike feels stronger than any other thing that I have faced in this expedition." Jake cursed.

This felt in no way, similar to when he battled the wolf king, or when he handily took care of the monsters who had a woman\'s upper body.

The shadow that he saw had closed in to attack him in mind numbing speed.

Slowly, the pink mist parted to reveal who Jake was battling.

"Damn this. Why am I forced to see something so ugly." Jake cursed as he pushed on the sword to retreat a few steps.

He was looking at a true beast. One that stood up on two feet, like a human, and stood up like a human. It was holding a rusty sword, with a humanoid figure.

Except, it certainly wasn\'t a human. It was a zombie. That much was absolutely certain.

Its face was completely deformed. It had a grey face, with one eyeball completely visible while the other was threatening to drop down.

There was little to no skin holding the important parts of the face together. It was like someone decided to carve out a human face and this was the result.

"What kind of graphic artist decided this was the right monster to show in a game where there are actual children?" Jake shook his head as his sword shone.

"Despairing strike!" Jake called out as his sword arced beautifully in the air to try and cut down the zombie\'s head.

Clang!

The zombie was fast. It reacted almost immediately, and its rusty sword met Jake\'s own.

"That is clearly a common sword. Yet, it can clearly block my attacks with such ease. This really is a pain. To think that it has such strong reflexes." Jake muttered.

"Do you need my help. You look like you are struggling with that thing." Phoenix called from behind.

"Watch my back. Who knows what could attack when I am not ready? We are in enemy territory. Who knows how many of these things there are?" Jake reminded her.

As he said this, he glared at the opponent\'s eyes. Like he was about to tell it something. Then, he moved.

His body seemed to vanish.

The zombie froze for a slight second, trying to turn around. But it was let back by the slow movement of its rotatory cuffs.

It couldn\'t turn around in time.

"Slash of Hunger!"

A yellow ochre flash of lightning connected with the zombie before the zombie could barely react.

Jake\'s sword looked like the weapon of god at this point, with sparks flying, and the metal shining. It had none of the old rusty look. It truly looked divine.

And Phoenix could see this. She was as frozen as the zombie that faced the attack.

"I am not sure if I can block that attack. And what is with the weapon? It feels like it is better than even my weapon. How could I not see the purple glare on it though? Is it a special type of weapon, not ranked?" She thought.

"Could it be, he has a legendary weapon? No. That is just not possible. He must have something that is class specific, and that is why it is so special." She decided.

Meanwhile, Jake twirled the sword and struck it straight through the zombie\'s head, which was clearly the weak point of every single monster in this expedition.

The zombie completed its turn with the sword sticking straight through its head. Its sword dropped from its hand, and it looked at Jake with an expression of sorrow.

"Are monsters really capable of such emotions? This is just the game messing with me. I should stop thinking about this." Jake told himself as he pulled the sword out before he lost the hilt in the turn.

"Y- y- o"

The zombie opened its mouth, like it was trying to speak. But whatever it was trying to say, it certainly wasn\'t legible.

"This thing can speak? The last time I remember a monster being able to speak… well that thing was the ninth follower I think, and the ninth is supposed to be a human!" Jake suddenly remembered what happened a month ago.

Speaking was something that was reserved only to the strongest of monsters. Not to some random zombie that appeared in the middle of the expedition. This was a monster that appeared not at the end, but at the beginning of the expedition.

It was certainly not a big part of the expedition, and yet, it was trying to speak?

Jake was truly interested in what it had to say.

"Y-o - o - u. You a-r- -a-r-e go-"

Before it could complete the sentence though, the zombie fell to its knees. A gaping hole was visible through its mouth, where the sword struck.

Slowly, from the arms up, the zombie started pixelating, disappearing off the face of earth.

"That was a pity. I really wanted to see what the zombie wanted to say." Jake paused.

"It was a really interesting monster to battle. It was fast and skilled, but it was led back by its body, which was too slow. It if could turn around fast enough, then it would surely block that attack and it would have taken me a little while to take care of it." Jake muttered.

"Why would a monster this strong appear so early in the fight? None of this makes any sense to me." He muttered.

"Shadow King? We have a problem." Phoenix suddenly called out.

Jake turned around to see a faint silhouette in the pink mist that was calling out to him.

"That is weird. The pink mist didn\'t thin out like it was supposed to."

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