Infinite Realm

Though Sato held back a bit against the Kobold King, it didn\'t mean that he wanted to drag out the battle. Sato knew that the longer the battle went n, the more impatient the two teams behind would get. But since he didn\'t have any idea how to handle them yet, he had to drag out the battle for as long as possible while he thought of one. While he did so, he sneakily sent a message to Seiichi and Xue Yan. Sato guessed that they still weren\'t so far from his position as Fudo and the others, plus, Xue Yan was needed to complete the mission.

\'Hmm? They can\'t wait anymore.\'

Since both he and the Kobold King weren\'t doing their best, Sato was able to partition a portion of his senses to the \'fishermen\'[1]. He noticed that they had changed their strategy and begun to surround the two of them. This was most likely because they got impatient an wanted to end the battle quickly to prevent any risks from occurring.

\'Guess I\'ll have to use it then.\'

[Linear Strike]

Just before Silver Wolf and Azure Dragon could give the command to attack, Sato\'s aura suddenly burst as he thrust his sword in the side of the Kobold King.

Though the Kobold King had its guard raised against him, it still focused a bit on the two teams behind. As a result of this, its response speed was slower than usual. 

-157 (1364/10000 Kobold King\'s HP)

\'What?!\' The Kobold King was shocked at Sato\'s actions. 

In its opinion, it was suicide to battle both it and the team watching them. It would have been wiser if Sato was looking for an opportunity to escape rather than engaging in a life or death battle with it.

"Hmm? He wants to finish it off? Stop him!" Silver Wolf yelled.

While the true benefit in slaying the Kobold King laid in the loot it would drop, the Experience points reward was still going to be massive and it was only rewarded to those involved in the battle. The bigger the role played, the more Experience points one would gain. 

Silver Wolf didn\'t simply intend on just getting the last hit it also eliminating a reasonable proportion of its HP, that way, the amount of Experience points he would gain would be enough to reach level 10 and maybe go over.

The long range players in the Howling Wolf Battalion squad, all took aim at Sato and launched their attacks.

Sato ignored everything that came at him as he focused on the Kobold King. The arrows arrived first due to their small size and aerodynamic shape. One by one, 5 arrows hit Sato\'s armour and while some did manage to pierce through it, none of them dealt Sato any damage. 

Before anyone could react to that, the magical attacks came over. Unlike the arrows, the flaming balls had special effects like [Burn] or a push-back effect, so Sato couldn\'t simply let it hit him lest it affects his battle.

\'Since it\'s time to end this, no holding back. [Gratitude of Races].\'

[[ System notification :

[Gratitude of Races] skills has been used.

[Gratitude of Races] : Active Skill 

Receive a temporary boost to abilities and skills +1

All attributes +5

Defence increases by 10

Attack Speed increase by 10

Damage dealt multiplies by 1.5

Healing Speed x1.5

Duration : 15 seconds

Cool-down : 3 days

System description : The gratitude of a race shouldn\'t be taken lightly much less that of multiple races.

Note : This skill is upgrade-able so far as certain conditions are met.

]]

Sato immediately activated his berserk skill which also happened to be the most OP in the game. Berserk skills were quite common but since they were skills that had the ability to easily turn the tide of a battle, their effects were limited and the duration were short. However, [Gratitude of Races] was a special one that wasn\'t as limited as the others and it\'s duration was more than double the usual.

The skill could be said to be perfect for any physical class user as not only did it cover attack speed and power, but it also boosted one\'s defence and healing ability. When partnered with an Expert player at the very least, a killing machine would be born. It would take either an extremely strong and talented individual to take down the target or a lot of players attacking all at once, albeit with sacrifices sustained.

But when the skill is complimented with a player of Sato\'s caliber and level, the end result was far above the previous. Taking down such a player would be almost impossible for other players.

"Die."

With [Gratitude of Races], Sato need not fear the attacks from the mages so he focused on the Kobold King.

The Kobold King was both incensed and stunned as it never expected its \'partner\' to suddenly turn on it.

"Human, are you crazy? We will both die at this rate!" 

Sato ignored its words and thrust his sword through its side. With the added 5 points to his main attributes, Sato was stronger than the Kobold King to the point he could suppress it.

-148 (1216/10000 Kobold King\'s HP)

Blood spilled as the Kobold King scrunched its face in pain and indignation. If it had known that this would happen, it would have escaped long ago, even at the cost of another grievous injury.

Just as this thought passed through the its mind, the fireballs landed on Sato. 

*Boom*

Normally, the explosive effects of these attacks weren\'t much but as there were a lot of them aimed at one target, it created an explosion louder than usual. Sato was still close to the Kobold King so the creature was also within range of the explosion. The space a metre around the duo had turned black due to the flame sand as smoke dissipated from the spot.

Azure Dragon frowned at the sight as he felt something strange had happened there. The explosion was bigger than normal and the effect of superimposition, which a bunch of guilds had yet to figure out, was displayed there. It wasn\'t as if no one else had tried to combine attacks like that to create a much larger effect; even Emperor\'s Might had tried such. However, none were successful; at least from what he knew. 

Superimposing attacks, which was the art of combining one or more spells or attacks to create a much larger and powerful effect, had yet to be realised in IR. Simply attacking at the same time and spot wouldn\'t necessarily achieve it as the two or more attacks might end up canceling each other. However, that hadn\'t happened when the fire [Elementalists] of the Howling Wolf Battalion had attacked together.

"That\'s a secret." Silver Wolf smirked. He could easily guess the reason for Azure Dragon\'s confusion but there was no rule that stated that he had to clarify the riddle. It was after all, a secret of their guild; an advantage that would improve their chances of ruling Black Rock province. Considering that he would end up as enemies with Emperor\'s Might very soon, it was even more understandable for him not to say.

\'Maybe letting them be now isn\'t the best option.\' Azure Dragon thought as he realised that Battle Wolves was becoming more of a dangerous opponent than before.

"What?!"

Azure Dragon was suddenly woken from his thoughts by the surprised screams of his teammates.

"What\'s going on?"