Woosh!

Izroth swept the purple blades generated by his Heavenly Descent out towards the charging Great Palace Shark. When he swung his Sword of The Storm, it released a strong sword intent that resembled that of an ocean wave crashing down on the shore. At the same time, there was a hint of purple lightning that resided in the sword intent targeted at the Great Palace Shark at the head of the sword.

​​

Crrrrrckle...!

-5,563

Izroth used the Fifth Sword Form: Receding Tides, however, it did not stop there as the effect of his Heavenly Descent, Lightning Chain, was activated. This caused a bolt of purple lightning to jump from the Great Palace Shark to one of the nearby Great Palace Seeker Fish.

Bzzzzt! Bzzzzt!

-5007

-4,450

-3,115

...

-1,669

The lightning continued to jump from one target to the next without pause. As long as the next target was within 15 meters, the purple lightning would immediately lash out towards them.

However, the damage of each lightning bolt weakened with every strike until it reached 30% of its original damage.

The moment Izroth made his move, Niflheim and Halls led the raiding party on the path that was being cleared out by Izroth as he drew the focus of the sea creatures onto himself.

'Good, they're moving.'

Izroth glanced over to see that the raid party had started to move in the direction that was planned. His main goal was not to completely wipe out the sea creatures present but to make sure their attention was on him.

After all, if he made a mistake and wiped out all the Great Palace Seeker Fish in one go as the raid party was moving through, it may potentially cause dozens upon dozens of explosions to take place. He did not forget that the Great Palace Seeker Fish possessed the explosion hardcore effect.

While having one or two explode at once would not pose any major threat - The same could not be said if a huge number of Great Palace Seeker Fish exploded simultaneously.

Besides, Izroth understood that if he cleared out the Great Palace Seeker Fish before the raid party moved, he would not have any reason to stay behind and observe that mysterious light he saw earlier. Plus, there was one more reason as to why he chose this specific course of action...

Since Izroth had to wait until the raid party reached safety, he chose to take on a more defensive approach after aggroing almost every single sea creature thanks to his Lightning Chain. But, even for someone with his speed and reaction time, it was no easy task evading the waves of monsters that attacked him from every direction. Of course, this only applied when he was not using a movement skill such as Flickering Steps.

Though Izroth was not worried about being surrounded any time soon. Thanks to his Light Feather Footwork, as long as he remained in constant motion, his movement speed would continue to increase.

CHOMP!

One of the Great Palace Sharks attempted to devoured Izroth while he was being attacked by four Great Palace Seeker Fish at different angles.

When the raid group saw Izroth's path of retreat cut off, they felt that he had been too overconfident in his own abilities. If only he was patient enough to wait for Niflheim to come up with a proper plan, then perhaps he would not have been eliminated so early in the raid. The core members of Blue Oasis could only shake their heads in disappointment.

"I thought he was going to do something amazing with that lightning - I guess I was wrong." One of the core members muttered.

"Even our Captain Abstract wouldn't be able to escape from that many enemies at once. It's over for him..." Another core member commented.

Niflheim furrowed his brows when he witnessed Izroth's unfavorable position. Should he try to lend a hand by redirecting the raid group? No, that would make him unfit to be a raid commander. He had to put the needs of many above the needs of one. All he could do was hope that Izroth was able to make it out in one piece.

A slight frown appeared on Luna's face, however, just as she was about to move off from the raid group, she felt someone lightly gripping the side of her cleric robe. She turned and saw that it was surprisingly Zi Yi who stopped her.

"I had a feeling you'd try to do something reckless." Zi Yi sighed as she gave a helpless smile and shook her head. To be honest, Zi Yi suspected that Guan Yu or Halls would be the first to charge over, however, she found that the two of them did not even bother looking over in that direction. It was as if they had total confidence in Izroth and focused entirely on their own matters.

When Zi Yi observed this, she felt that perhaps she was the one who had been too hasty in her judgment and underestimated the self-control of those two. But, on her way back to her original position, she noticed Luna's actions and decided to stop near her.

Zi Yi released her light grip on Luna's cleric robes and asked, "What do you intend to do?"

Luna remained silent in response to that question. Indeed, what did she intend to do? Rescue Izroth? Did someone like him even need rescuing? Was she acting too arrogant thinking that she could save him from a situation that even he was unable to handle?

No, it was not that she lacked confidence in Izroth's abilities. Luna knew him well enough to understood that those sea creatures were not enough to stop or defeat him. But, even though she knew and understood this, her body still moved on its own.

"Do you believe that man doesn't have a plan? Let me tell you, that guy has no intention of becoming a noble sacrifice for the sake of Blue Oasis." Zi Yi stated.

Zi Yi felt that Izroth was up to something, otherwise, he would not have volunteered so freely to draw the attention of the sea creatures.

"You're correct. I was too hasty. Thank you, Zi Yi." Luna replied. It only took her a brief period of time to sort things out and realize that Zi Yi was right to stop her.

Zi Yi gave a small nod as she said, "Let's speed up. We don't want to fall behind the others."

Luna took one last look at the mass of monsters that had completely obstructed any view of Izroth due to their sheer number.

"Stay safe..." Luna said quietly to herself as she, along with Zi Yi, picked up their pace.

A few moments later, the raid group arrived at the entrance into the underwater stream, however, there were still no signs of Izroth anywhere to be found.

Niflheim inwardly sighed as he stated, "Everyone, we may be separated after we enter. Remember not to take any unnecessary risks. Try your best to find a way out as quickly as possible. Let's go."

Niflheim was the first to enter and was soon followed by the others. As for Halls, he would be the last to enter just in case any stray monsters arrived as they were headed inside.

One by one the members of the raid group made their way into the underwater stream. Now, the only player who had yet to enter was Izroth himself.

...

Meanwhile, at the heart of the Great Sea Palace inner layer...

There was a room in the inner layer of the Great Sea Palace Raid. The room itself was incredibly grand and looked as if it were a place where gatherings were usually held.

At the center of the room was a giant clam with its shell closed. However, there was strange energy leaking out of the enclosed shell that gave off an eerie feeling. Though besides the giant clam located at the center of the room, there were no other signs of life present.

On a table made of beautiful rainbow-colored marble were a total of 14 aqua-colored orbs, however, only 4 out of 14 of the orbs were lit up with a gentle glowing light that was each its own unique color. It was silent inside the room until a distorted voice came from one of the glowing orbs.

"The oversiders have already managed to bypass the first layer of the Great Sea Barrier and entered into the Sprite Dwellings. They are moving faster than we anticipated." An almost distorted voice sounded from one of the orbs with a faint green glow around it.

"Temp and Ord's defeat are understandable, but - How did they overcome the Relic Guardians and break through the Great Sea Barrier this fast? Also, to survive Ooudamu's Great Tidal Wave... What are they doing letting oversiders enter the core of the outer layer?" This time, the voice came from the orb with a silver glow.

"It matters not. They may have been able to resist Ooudamu's Great Tidal Wave, but it is not necessarily a good thing for them. Do not forget the place they have trespassed in to." A voice rung out from an orb with a red glow.

The voices from the orbs fell silent at that remark. Indeed, they were practically forfeiting their own lives by daring to set foot in the Sprite Dwellings!

"The others are still in their Torpor state and I myself must now enter at this unfortunate time. Therefore, in the meantime, it will be up to the three of you to safeguard the Great Sea Palace. Since Ooudamu has not contacted us, the matter is not out of their control. So, for now, we will leave these oversiders to Ooudamu - Agreed?" The voice from the red orb stated as its light began to dim.

"Agreed." The voices from the green and silver orbs responded after a brief pause.

As for the fourth orb... It remained quiet throughout the entire exchange as it released a faint aqua glow. It was the orb that belonged to Ooudamu.

...

'Good, they're all inside.'

Izroth executed the active skill to Light Feather Footwork and gained a brief but massive boost in movement speed. He used this small window of time to weave and slip through the countless monsters that surrounded him and escaped from the encirclement.

'I don't have much time remaining on my Heavenly Descent. I should end this quickly.'

Izroth swept his gaze over the wave of sea creatures that did not waste any time charging his way. Since he was the only player left to attack, needless to say, he was now the main focus of every single sea creature in his vicinity.

All of a sudden, Izroth's silhouette began to flicker as it soon turned into a blur. At the same time, an overbearing aura was released from Izroth's Sword of The Storm as he appeared before one of the Great Palace Seeker Fish.

The sea creature did not have any time to react as its HP instantly dropped to zero.

-21,670

The Great Palace Seeker Fish exploded after its HP was depleted, however, Izroth had already moved out of the explosion range. He also received a few alerts from the system which caused a carefree smile to form on his face.

〈System Alert: Congratulations, you have defeated Great Palace Seeker Fish!〉

〈System Alert: You have been rewarded 87,060 EXP!〉

What was the other reason Izroth wanted to do this alone? The experience points! With a full raid group, each Great Palace Seeker Fish only granted somewhere between 2,700 to 3,600 shared experience depending on how much one contributed towards its defeat. In other words, it was always divided among the raid group as a whole.

However - What would happen if the entire raid group disappeared out of experience range? What if there was only one player there to receive it? The answer was obvious. Izroth gained 87,000 EXP from defeating just one Great Palace Seeker Fish! 87,000 EXP!

It was even more than usual due to the fact that it was also a hardcore raid. Although it seemed simple, it was no easy task. After all, how many monsters could a player hope to kill while being assaulted from every angle? They'd be lucky just to take one or two down with them! In the end, it was not worth the danger. However, Izroth was no ordinary player.

There was just a bit over 100 Great Palace Seeker Fish in total. The amount of experience he could reap from this was astronomical! Using a rough estimate, not including the Great Palace Sharks, Izroth calculated the amount he could gain to be somewhere close to 9,000,000 EXP! That may just be enough for him to reach level 49, or maybe even 50 in one go!

If Blue Oasis wished to believe that he was sacrificing himself just so they could succeed in the raid, they were simply daydreaming. Izroth was not a saint by any means and he would not allow such a grand opportunity to slip through his fingers.

Izroth's First Baneful Sword: Destruction's cooldown timer reset after eliminating the first Great Palace Seeker Fish. The Lightning Chain skill was also activated and caused devastating damage throughout the school of fish.

Izroth's silhouette flickered throughout the gathering of sea creatures and with every swing of his sword - Death soon followed.

〈System Alert: You have been rewarded 87,060 EXP!〉

...

〈System Alert: You have leveled up to level 47!〉

〈System Alert: You have been rewarded 87,060 EXP!〉

...

〈System Alert: You have leveled up to level 48!〉

〈System Alert: You have been rewarded 87,060 EXP!〉

...

Using Flickering Steps, Lightning Chain and First Baneful Sword: Destruction, Izroth decimated the population of the sea creatures in just a few breaths of time. As for the experience points he gained... They were practically free!