Chapter 18: [18] : The Guild Blockade, Void Blink

Declan walked forward and pushed his silver bubble of clean air right up to the edge of the Sovereign Syndicate camp.

The guild setup was impressive. They had over five hundred players surrounding the sunken stone temple.

They weren’t wearing the cheap mismatched garbage that the Black Vanguard wore. Every single member of the Sovereign Syndicate wore polished matching gold and black armor. Their weapons glowed with high-tier enchantments.

They had dozens of Mages maintaining a massive wind barrier to keep the toxic fog out. They had rows of archers and heavily armored shield-bearers standing in perfect military lines.

And in the center of the camp, sitting on a literal velvet folding chair, was a guy who looked completely out of place. He wore a pristine white suit that didn’t have a speck of mud on it. He was sipping from a crystal goblet.

A floating name tag above his head read.

↳ Caldwell, Guild Master

"That guy looks like a massive tool," Declan noted casually.

"He is Caldwell," Sloane whispered frantically. She stayed low behind Declan’s coat.

"He is the heir to some massive real-world tech conglomerate. He basically treats the Grid like his personal playground. Declan, we cannot fight five hundred max-geared players. It’s impossible."

"I’m not going to need to fight them," Declan said. "Look at what they’re doing."

Declan pointed past the army toward the sunken temple.

The temple courtyard was a massive arena of bubbling mud. Standing in the center of it was the World Boss.

Gargantua, the Rot-Walker.

It was horrifying. It was at least forty feet tall and made entirely of rotting wood, rusted metal, and decaying corpses fused together into a towering humanoid shape. Massive vines pulsed with toxic green light wrapped around its limbs.

Every time it took a step, the ground shook violently.

[Target Information]

↳ Name: Gargantua, the Rot-Walker

↳ Level: 15, World Boss

↳ HP: 50,000 / 50,000

But Caldwell wasn’t attacking it with his elite army.

Instead, the Sovereign guards were violently shoving small groups of low-level unarmed players into the arena. These were desperate newbies who had clearly been captured or bribed to be here.

The newbies screamed and ran into the mud. The moment they crossed the invisible aggro line, Gargantua roared.

The boss raised a massive rotting fist and slammed it into the ground. A huge shockwave of toxic green spikes exploded outward and covered the entire arena. The unarmored players were instantly impaled and melted into pixels.

"Cannon fodder," Declan said. His voice was cold.

"The boss has a massive area-of-effect attack that triggers on proximity. Caldwell doesn’t want his expensive guild members taking the hit. He’s throwing trash mobs at the boss to drain its mana and force its skills on cooldown."

"That is sick," Kendra muttered as she gripped her bow tightly.

"It’s incredibly inefficient," Declan corrected her. "It’s taking them forever."

Declan stepped out from behind a dead tree and walked directly toward the Sovereign barricade. His silver Aura of Cleansing pushed the fog away which made his approach very obvious.

Instantly, ten Sovereign guards turned and leveled heavy crossbows at him.

"Halt!" a guard barked. He wore a shiny gold helmet. "This zone is locked down by the Sovereign Syndicate. Turn around and walk away, or we will delete your avatar."

Declan didn’t stop. He didn’t pull out his cleaver. He didn’t summon his halberd. He just kept his hands in the pockets of his pitch-black Predator Coat.

He glanced at his stamina bar.

[Biological State]

↳ Stamina: 100 / 100

His mutated skill, Void Blink, cost exactly 15 stamina per cast. It can teleport him 15 meters instantly and ignore all physical obstacles. With 100 stamina, he could cast it six times back-to-back before his stamina bottomed out.

Six times fifteen was ninety meters.

He looked at the distance between himself and the towering World Boss. It was roughly eighty meters.

Perfect.

"You deaf?" the guard yelled as he stepped forward with his sword drawn. "I said halt!"

Declan looked over his shoulder at Sloane and Kendra. "Stay here. Enjoy the show."

Then, he looked back at the guard. He smiled.

"Void Blink."

The world turned pitch black.

Declan vanished from his spot. The guard’s sword swung through empty air.

Instantly, Declan materialized fifteen meters ahead. He appeared directly behind the front line of shield-bearers. Before they could even turn their heads or shout in alarm, he cast it again.

"Void Blink."

Another flash of nothingness. He skipped fifteen meters deeper into the camp and appeared right next to a group of mages casting wind spells. The sudden displacement of air made their robes flutter. Declan didn’t attack them.

"Void Blink."

He vanished again. He was moving way too fast for the human eye to track. To the Sovereign Syndicate, he was just a blur of black leather flickering through their camp like a glitch in the server code.

"Intruder!" someone finally screamed.

"He’s bypassing the line! Stop him!"

Caldwell stood up from his velvet chair and spilled his crystal goblet. "What is that? Shoot him!"

Dozens of crossbow bolts and fireballs were fired in a panic. They all hit empty air. Declan was already gone.

"Void Blink."

He teleported straight through Caldwell’s command tent and appeared right at the edge of the boss arena. The bubbling mud of the courtyard was right in front of him.

He had about forty stamina left.

"Void Blink."

One final jump. The darkness enveloped him and spat him out directly in the center of the arena.

His +10 Spiked Striders hit the mud with a soft squelch. Because of his Aura of Cleansing, the mud instantly hardened under his boots like solid concrete. The toxic air around him was pushed away in a perfect ten-meter bubble.

Declan slowly stood up straight. He rolled his shoulders.

He was standing exactly at the feet of the massive forty-foot-tall Rot-Walker.

Back at the barricade, the entire 500-man army of the Sovereign Syndicate fell dead silent. Caldwell stared at the lone figure in the black coat with his jaw hanging open in sheer disbelief.

Nobody just walked into a boss aggro zone alone.

Gargantua slowly looked down. Its glowing green eyes locked onto the tiny human standing at its feet. The boss let out a deafening mechanical roar that shook the entire swamp.

Declan didn’t flinch. He just looked up at the towering monster.

He reached into his inventory. The heavy dark iron shaft of the +10 Warden Halberd materialized in his right hand. He rested the blunt four-hundred-pound axe head casually against his shoulder.

"Alright big guy," Declan smiled as he looked up at the boss. "Let’s see what you got."