Martial Online.

Chapter 33: Players Vs. Darkness

Swoosh!

A sword slashed across the air, leaving behind a trail of dead crows.

"Haaah..." Ambrose breathed heavily as he watched the crow's corpse fall to the ground. He was wielding both of his swords and was very effective in eradicating the crows.

'Soon, I have reached another level.' Ambrose looked across the empty streets, but then he heard another scream and immediately rushed towards the sound. He came across an alleyway with a dead end.

A player was lying dead on the ground with a dozen crows clawing at its body. The player's corpse vanished into a cluster of pixels and seeped into the pavement.

The crows screeched after losing another food source as each player they killed suddenly turned into strange light pixels.

However, some of them caught a glimpse of a black-haired young man at the entrance of the alleyway. It didn't take long for each crow to notice him.

"Shit... that is many." Ambrose took a step backward. He also had to fight carefully so he wouldn't get scratched by the crows and get infected by the Black Smoke of Verhan.

The crows screeched menacingly and soared into the air. They already had their black claws ready to attack him.

Ambrose escaped behind the corner and continued running wildly down the street. The crows left the alleyway, turned around the corner, and chased after him.

Their speed was vastly superior against someone like Ambrose, who wasn't either a runner or an athlete in real life. He also hadn't used a lot of agility, as he didn't deem it important for now.

He didn't deem it important because of a single fact—he never planned to focus his fighting style on speed and agility. There were only 10 stat points to use after each level, and each point was important.

He currently wanted to focus on endurance and his techniques to overcome his foes. However, it wasn't the perfect strategy against crows. Agility would be good, but he didn't plan to start crying over spilled milk and start focusing more on his agility.

"Haaah..." Ambrose took a deep breath and clenched both swords tightly. He then turned around without any warning and moved both swords above his shoulders. "Dual Basic Slash!"

The two swords slashed across the air and sliced through the murder of crows. Several crows died straight away, a few lost their wings, and several others survived without any damage.

Ambrose raised his feet and smashed them into the fallen crows heads, crushing them. Then, several crows closed the distance with their claws in an attacking position.

"Basic Parry!" Ambrose quickly placed both swords on either side of his body and tried to block the attack.

[Dual Basic Parry - Completion Rate - 1%]

"Ugh!" Ambrose crashed into the building's wall. He realized that he should have just used one sword to parry and not both because he was far from mastering Dual Basic Parry.

A crow screeched and thrust its claws forward. Ambrose quickly tilted his head to the side, and the crow's claws scratched the wall right beside his face.

The crow screeched, and this time it tried to take a bite off his face.

Ambrose's face showed signs of panic, and out of habit, he closed his eyes and just did the first thing that came to his mind—he pulled his head slightly back till it touched the wall and then smashed it forward.

His headbutt landed on the crow's face and pushed it away. The crow recoiled and had a hard time continuing to fly.

"Argh..." Ambrose opened his eyes and noticed he had lost a little bit of HP. His body was far from durable enough to do physical attacks.

He then noticed the crow trying to fly back to the sky, but he didn't plan to allow that to happen.

He lunged forward and smashed his right-handed sword straight into the crow's body. The crow crashed into the ground, and its neck snapped at the same time. It died immediately after.

"Huu... huu..." Ambrose sighed and looked towards the sky. There were crows circling in the sky, right on top of him.

At that moment, a message appeared in front of him.

[LEVEL UP!]

[Level 4 -> 5]

[XP: 0/200]

"Haah... I guess I have garnered enough experience points now..." Ambrose breathed a sigh of relief and turned to the crow-filled sky. He didn't mind dying now, as he had already reached his goal. 'I must have killed nearly 200 crows. Yet, it looks like their amount has only increased.'

The crows screeched loudly, as if they were announcing their intention to kill the black-haired young man.

Ambrose took a comfortable seat on the pavement and stored his swords in his inventory.

'I hope I don't lose one of the shortswords.' He thought as he waited for the inevitable death.

At that moment, a strange, cold power swept across the entire city of Amaterasu. Every player, NPC, and even animals felt the primordial darkness within that coldness.

The crows all turned to the source of all that coldness and didn't even hesitate to fly in that direction.

The sky was a sight to behold as thousands of black-feathered crows flew in the same direction. The blue sky was nowhere to be seen, as it seemed like night had fallen out of nowhere.

Ambrose frowned and stood up. "Where are they all going?"

He wasn't the only one with that question. Every single player watched in confusion as the crows flew across the buildings with pitched and steep roofs.

"Hey, who is that?!" Suddenly, a female archer on top of one of the roofs shouted while pointing towards the city's entrance.

All players near the entrance turned in the direction she pointed.

On the entrance, a black-haired man covered in a black-feathered cloak was standing with a grin on his face. He didn't look like a player or any other common NPC.

At that moment, the players noticed that the crows were flying towards him!

The crows flew circles around the man, creating an enormous black hurricane that was seen all the way to Mt. Sword.

On top of Mt. Sword, a bald-headed man with a sheathed katana in hand looked towards the black hurricane, which swept across the wheat field and nearby area.

"A truly dark power." Kiryu thought alone and returned to the dojo, with no intention to intervene.

"Master, shouldn't we do something?" Inside the dojo, a middle-aged man donning silver armor stood in front of nine other Silver Knights.

"No." Kiryu shook his head and sat in his usual position—at the end of the dojo on top of a comfy pillow.

"Whatever happens, it is all a matter of destiny and fate." Kiryu rested his sheathed katana against his shoulder and gently whispered. "Whether players or the dark creature win, it is all according to fate."

...

The players started approaching the entrance, and soon a crowd had gathered near the black hurricane. There were many familiar faces in the crowd.

Such as Prince and his friends. Barbarian and his friends, who also had similar muscular bodies. Then there was RedBand, surrounded by his new party members, and further away from them were Anthon, Ignite, and Cauldron, who looked at the scene with narrowed eyes.

In total, there were a thousand players gathered.

At that moment, the black hurricane was sucked back into the black-haired man's body. He took a deep breath and looked like he was in ecstasy.

"Hahaha!" His laughter bellowed across the city.

A name bar and health bar appeared on top of the man. All the players gasped in shock, some in fear. Whenever they cast their eyes on the man, they felt their bodies go numb, as if they were taking damage just by looking at him.

[Dark Magician - Karma]

[HP: 3,000/3,000]