Under the shade of a small tree, one with vibrant blue leaves and fruits in the shape of miniature swords, a man was sitting. His stature upright and his eyes closed.

His fair hands gently rested on his hips, touching lightly what seemed to be a meticulously carved out wooden sword.

His skin was partially covered from the dark leather armour he wore as it emanated a light blue aura, a mist even. The mist seemed to be slowly circling around him as it made his dark blue hair rise and fall occasionally.

The man was clearly in a state of meditation, his breathing stable as he slowly inhaled and exhaled.

*Crack...*

The sudden noise in the distance forced the man to exit his state of meditation, slowly opening his light blue eyes the man took a look at the surrounding area.

The small tree he was sitting under was situated on top of a hill looking more like a slope than an actual hill.

A field of yellow grass surrounded the small tree, as a light breeze accompanying the crack ruffled its leaves.

The yellow grassy field could be called anything but a regular field of grass, scattered swords of all types and sizes laying all over its entirety.

Sunshine fell on the man’s face. His icy gaze fixed far into the distance and towards the grey mist surrounding the place.

With a quick glance, the man checked the timer ticking down on the upper corner of his vision as he waved away the notifications in front of him.

[4:35:21]

[4:35:20]

[4:35:19]

[Meditation has reached beginner level 7.]

The grey mist itself seemed to be some form of boundary. Trapping or protecting what lay inside of it.

But it wasn’t the mist that caught the man’s attention. The mist was always there, quiet and never changing. On the other hand, the crack that was slowly spreading on it, like a tear in the fabric of reality, was a bigger issue.

“So, the time has finally come...”

The man whispered and stood up as he let out a small sigh.

His stature straight facing towards the crack, as he held the wooden sword tightly in his left hand.

*Crack..CRACK...*

The crack finally shattered revealing nothing but a bleak darkness on the other side. A massive hand with two golden rings on it grasped the edge of the darkness in a manner similar to holding onto a wall, as a figure emerged from the other side.

“AHAHAHAHAHA!!! We finally meet, Reizel! Or would Sword king be better? AHAHAHHA!”

The voice came from a man in his thirties. His words clearly indicating sarcasm.

He was close to, if not over two meters tall with a head full of silver hair and a pair of brown eyes that shined either from excitement or just the rays of the sun falling on them.

The man’s robust physique was outlined by the leather armour he donned. A heavy iron shield was strapped on his back, as he wielded a mace with his other hand.

“I see... What was your name again? Da..Daaa..something? Dargon? Dwarf maybe? Anyway, it should be something along those lines.”

The man, or Reizel from now on, took a step out of the shade and looked down on the barbarian in front of him.

“Hehehe!! For the Sword king himself to look down on me I feel honoured! AHAHAHA!! it is Dragnar, the man who will claim your head once and for all!”

“Man, don’t you people get bored of that? Do you know how many people have said the exact same words to me before they met their end?”

“Hahaha!! This time it will be different, Sword king!”

Reizel didn’t know whether the man was high or not? But he clearly looked to be in a state of ecstacy.

Reizel sighed and said.

“Yea, I guess you are right. This will be the last fight after all.”

Reizel began walking towards the man as he lowered the sword he was holding in position.

“Yes indeed, this will be the last fight! But what makes you think I would come alone?”

Reizel paused and stood still for a moment.

*Crack..Crack...Crack...Crack..CRACK!!*

Another bunch of cracking noises resounded; more cracks begun forming in the mist around him.

Reizel scanned around with his eyes as he thought.

‘13 more...’

The cracks quickly spread and more ‘gates’ opened up, a bunch of men and women stepped through them.

Reizel could recognise most of them.

‘The fiery witch Reichel, Garal the viper, Rahn the mad and several other famous or infamous people. All of them pretty high level.

“Hmph! You lot are seeking death!”

Reizel was getting angrier by the minute. He knew the reason behind all those power-houses joining hands to fight against him.

The server was about to close down its services and if they managed to kill the most acknowledged player, their fame would rise explosively.

Well, even though Reizel was angry, the grin forming on his face betrayed his actual feelings. After all, there is no bigger battle maniac than him in the entirety of the server.

The blue aura surrounding him seemed to burst out as he grinned. A few of the players around him had shivers running down their spine as they found the lump stack on their throats hard to swallow.

The madness in Reizel’s eyes; Obvious to everyone as he prepared to unleash his fury upon them.

Even though most of them were scared no one backed out. This was their last fight after all. Win or lose, they came prepared for casualties.

Most of them would die today and yet they still came, their greed for fame overshadowing their fear.

Dragnar saw the situation and quickly raised his voice along with the spirits of his group.

“Reizel you might be stronger than any of us, but even you can’t win a fight against so many. Why don’t you surrender quietly and save us all some time?”

“kukukua...AHAHAHA!!”

Mad laughter escaped Reizel’s throat as he heard what seemed to be the biggest joke in the entirety of his life.

“Surrender you say? Hahaha... I can’t... I can’t... My lungs are failing me haha! Whether your lot dies first or me? Don’t you find it exciting?! Man, I am so glad you actually came! I am overjoyed! Come, let us fight! Hahaha!”

Reizel shouted as an almost evil grin formed on his lips. With the whistling of wind, he run straight towards Dragnar, a sword laying peacefully in the grassy field was picked on the way.

The distance between them was not small, a bit over 300 meters and yet Reizel covered half of it in less than 3 seconds.

*Whoosh*

The sound of a fire ball being launched came from the side, Reizel was forced to jump back as it crashed between the two of them, blocking his way forward.

He quickly turned his gaze to the woman responsible of sending the fireball making her shiver at his cold stare.

“Reichel...”

He gritted his teeth as he continued.

“And here I thought we were something like friends? Guess that was me. Well no matter...”

Reichel didn’t say anything but her facial expression showed her hesitation. Did she really want to fight against Reizel?

Meanwhile, Dragnar who was standing on the other side of the now burning field let out a sigh as he raised the hand holding the mace.

“Minions, Forward!”

“Ki!Kik!”

Accompanying his shout, a small green monster came out of the dark portal behind him. Then, the next one followed and slowly, one after the other goblins came rushing out of the portal. Most of them were armed with knives and lousy iron armour while a few of them held bows with quivers on their backs.

In a similar manner, creatures of all kinds came rushing out from the rest of the portals.

Skeletons, harpies, lizardmen, hounds and a bunch of other similar creatures made their way into the yellow fields as they rushed towards Reizel.

“Hah! You think numbers will work against me?! Don’t make me laugh!”

“Kukuku Nah. They are here to slow you down.”

Garal said as several of his skeletons prepared fireball and icicle attacks.

Reizel put on a solemn expression as focused.

‘Aura of swords, Ruler’s weaponry, activate.’

His mana surged as the blue aura around him expanded to cover an area of over ten meters. With a raise of his right arm, the swords lying in the field trembled with excitement at their master’s call leaving the dirt behind and hovering around him in circles.

A wave of Reizel’s hand and tens of swords left the circle, whizzing through the air as they stabbed their way through the monster horde. Each of them killing several mobs before returning back in the circle.

Reizel grinned at the silver haired man Dragnar, as another fireball made its way towards his head with a whoosh.

Two of the floating swords left the circle, blocking the fireball aiming for their master and turned back to their original position.

The sword aura around them weakening a little but quickly turning bright again.

Sadly, this was just the beginning and far from being the end of it, as a few more fireballs were being cast by skeletons, goblin mages and players alike, getting ready for launch.

Reizel glared at the casters as he rushed into the monster horde, or more precisely the masters of the monster horde.

As he run, arrows, fireballs, icicles and all kinds of magic attacks were aimed at him. Most of them were blocked by the dancing swords, while few of them were dodged by Reizel himself. As for the ones that managed to graze him, they never touched his vitals. His health points staying strong.

With a swing of his wooden sword, covered in a blue aura, a goblin head was sent flying. With a slash, another one was split in half. Anywhere and everywhere Reizel’s sword reached blood was flowing like a river.

Dragnar couldn’t help feeling a little scared, he had heard plenty of rumours about the Sword king but this was the first time he witnessed him in action with his own eyes.

The more Reizel moved around the battlefield and wherever his aura reached, more and more swords were leaving the ground behind in order to join the circle around him.

In a similar manner, as the fight prolonged, the swords circling around Reizel shattered into pieces one after another. Having completed the duty of protecting their master before falling back on the grassy field or as fragments in the corpses of his enemies.

Thirty minutes into the fight and Reizel puffed and huffed as he raised the bloodied wooden sword out of a woman’s chest. Her eyes were wide open; disbelief along with a touch of relief was painted in them as the last thing before death embraced her.

‘One down, thirteen to go...’

Reizel was covered in wounds, most of them weren’t serious enough to warrant his attention but the rest would make most people break down in tears and beg for a healing potion from their teammates. And yet the grin on his face told of a different tale.

“Reichel NO!”

Dragnar shouted in a hoarse voice crashing his way towards Reizel as he deflected floating swords on the way. His eyes filled with bloodlust and hatred for his fallen comrade.

“So, you finally decided to show your sorry self! HA!”

Reizel let out an almost maniac laugh as he raised his wooden sword in the man’s direction, his focus entirely on him. Having done that, an archer seized the opportunity to fire a deadly arrow from his blind spot.

The arrow destroyed one of the swords defending him and pierced its way through his side until it was forcibly stopped by a rib.

The sneak attack made Reizel almost stumble and fall but he still held strong on his feet. He locked eyes for a moment with the archer who seemed to fade away after shooting him.

It was another quite infamous player, the assassin Set.

Moving his hand towards the wound, Reizel felt the arrow lodged inside his body.

Clenching his teeth and with a grimace on his face as he failed to control his emotions, Reizel held tightly onto the shaft.

*Snap*

A quick motion later and the arrow was broken in two allowing some ease of movement. Black blood was flowing out of the wound a clear sign of the poison slowly invading his system.

‘An assassin, no wonder... This will be tough!’

Meanwhile, Dragnar retreated with a grin on his face. Obvious to everyone, he had done quite a lot of research on Reizel’s fights and prepared quite a lot of tactics against him.

Fast forward an hour later and only ten of the original people were still standing. The blood of three more enemies covered the edge of Reizel’s wooden sword. One of them being the assassin Set’s.

Reizel was a mess, if an outsider saw him, he would find it hard to discern if the creature in front of him is human or not.

A slightly hunched figure dripping red from all the blood on it, no one knew if it was his blood or the blood of his fallen enemies. But, judging by the mountain of corpses he stood on, it would be easy to take a guess.

Hundreds, if not thousands of monster corpses littered the place around him and yet more and more came out of the portals. Making one wonder where the hell they kept coming out of?

Fear was apparent in the eyes of his enemies, humans and monsters alike. They no longer held the arrogance they first met him with, given by the advantage coming from numbers alone.

Reizel straightened his wounded body, no longer caring about his remaining HP or the status ailments inflicted upon him.

He raised the wooden sword that looked to be as heavy as a mountain high above him and then with a quick motion of his hand, threw away the dead body of a player in a mage robe still impaled on it.

Blood flowing down from the blade and onto the ground as Reizel stood motionless for a moment.

The hordes of monsters surrounding him no longer wished to face the abomination standing on top of their fellow creatures' corpses. But...

Sadly, their lords had other plans in mind.

The luckiest among them being the creatures of the fallen players, having lost their masters they were rushing back in retreat to wherever they came from.

Reizel’s eyes had purple circles under them, as the poison in his veins was taking effect faster and faster making his vision go hazy.

He tried to focus on the situation with all his might, coughing on the way and spitting out more black blood as he stared in front of him.

His rationality and consciousness were slowly leaving him, as he felt everything going black.

“RRRAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWRRRRRR!!!”

With a roar similar to that of a beast’s, Reizel raised his sword and plunged into the battlefield again.

He could no longer discern or cared about what or whom he killed. He just killed anything and everything that stood in his way until no more foes were left standing.

The fighting didn’t stop for the better of three hours as the monster known as Reizel was finally reaching its last breath.

Covered in wounds from head to toe, arrows piercing his body in several different places. Burn marks that would make even third-degree burns look like a joke were proof of what had ensued.

Finally, the man fell on his knees as his legs were no longer able to hold his weight. The blue aura had long since vanished, his mana pool was as dry as a desert can be.

The swords that used to circle around him were nothing but broken pieces in the battlefield leaving a trace of what they once used to be.

The man was on his knees and yet enemies still surrounded him as he could no longer move.

The battlefield was silent for a moment.

Someone raised their bow aiming an arrow at him as they let it loose. The arrow easily pierced his torso without any form of resistance.

Dragnar raised his hand up and everyone stopped on their tracks, as he slowly made his way closer to Reizel.

He himself was covered in wounds all over. To his surprise, none of them were lethal although some of them looked to be rather deep.

“Nine out of fourteen people dead. Thousands of mobs extinguished to nothingness and yet you are still alive...”

The man stopped moving when he reached right in front of Reizel.

Dragnar raised the bloody sword in his hand. His mace was nowhere to be found as a sword overtook its place.

The shield he had strapped on his back at the beginning of the fight had long since been broken.

A piece of it was still hanging on his left arm along with the leather strap.

“No wonder they call you Sword king...”

Dragnar glanced at his surroundings only to find a mountain of corpses filling his vision.

“You really dealt a blow to all of us... But in the end, we still won. Don’t take this personally!”

With a smile on his face, he slashed the sword downwards and into Reizels’ shoulder. The sword quickly cut deeper into his body and inching towards his heart.

A few millimetres before reaching its target though, a hand blocked its way. The sword stopped right before Reizel’s heart as he held it tightly in place.

“Ha... Ha...”

The man heaved a sigh of relief as his senses slowly returned. He felt immense tiredness as several blue windows informed him of his body’s critical condition.

Dragnar was surprised to find he could no longer move the sword anymore.

As a voice resounded, almost like a whisper.

“Don’t take this personally... You say...?”

Blood was dripping out from every single pore in Reizel’s body. Holding tightly in his grasp the blade of the sword that impaled him, he slowly wobbled his way up.

The whisper turning into something everyone could hear

“Don’t take this personally?? You lot have guts; I’ll give you that... But after all this you expect me to forget this?!”

Reizel let out a sneer as he finally managed to stand up straight again. Whether he still had power left in him, or if he run purely on willpower alone? No one could tell.

“You lot came to raid my place for your selfish reasons and like the cowards that you are attacked me in numbers and you still expect me to forget this...?”

Reizel paused for a moment and looked around him at the stunned crowd or what was left of it anyway. He then focused on Dragnar again.

“But, after all you were right about one thing Dragnar...”

Reizel grinned at the man in front of him.

“There is so much a single man can accomplish. I’ll remember that for next time.”

Dragnar was scared shitless at the grinning monster in front of him. He released the sword in his hand and took two steps backwards preparing to escape.

“A..Archers!”

Was all he managed to utter before a sword cut his body in half, all the way from his shoulder down to his side.

“This is how you use a sword you piece of trash.”

Reizel looked down on the terrified face of Dragnar as he reached death’s door.

Reizel coughed another mouthful of blood as a hail of arrows pierced through his body from all sides.

A moment later and after the hail of arrows was over silence filled the battlefield.

Reizel raised his gaze one final time towards the sky and marvelled at how blue it was. With a light sigh, he closed his eyes and fell backwards as a series of notifications popped up one after another.

[Last stand’s time limit is over.]

[Hit points have reached 0.]

[You died.]