The Grand Duelist

"Soundwaves attack incoming! Veer to the right! Knights, stand your ground!"

A dignified voice tore through the battlefield.

"Crimson, take care of the monsters around us! Dark Flame, focus your firepower onto the BOSS! We cannot let him have any time to breathe!"

William dished out several orders at once and the experienced players of Crimson, Dark Flame, and his own Knights of Justice hurriedly moved and obeyed his orders.

Even Vladimir who usually wanted his Crimson to be in the front lines didn't give any objections and proceeded to execute the orders that he received from William.

He knew that this wasn't the time for complaints.

The BOSS was about to reach its first phase and once that happened, everything would drastically change.

"Focus! Focus! Focus!" Nie Yan cried out.

Magical runes surrounded his body as he silently chanted the strongest skill that he has available within his arsenal. 

"Way lain pinakagwapo, ang nagsulat ra!" His guild members stood firm and chanted with him.

In just a blink of an eye, several dozens of magical runes materialized around the bodies of the members of Dark Flame.

As soon as these magical runes appeared, the eyes of the Great Wandering Bard turned to look at them.

"Gulp..." Nie Yan subconsciously gulped a mouthful of saliva. But he remained steadfast in the face of the Great Wandering Bard's threat. He knew that their firepower was necessary for the success of this operation so they would definitely be protected by Crimson and the Knights of Justice.

But Nie Yan still felt intimidated by the BOSS.

This goes to show how high the Dignity Stat of the Great Wandering Bard was. 

But a high Dignity stat was useless in a battle like this.

In the end, the members of the Dark Flame managed to complete their chanting and a gigantic Spear made out of fire almost filled the entire passageway leading to the Palace Halls.

If not for the fact that every player in the area was in a party connected with the Dark Flame.

They would've probably been turned into ashes when that Spear made out of fire materialized.

"Stand your ground! Don't let the bastard interrupt Dark Flame!"

William gave an order and the Crimson Guild moved in front of Dark Flame. From the serious expressions on their faces, it was clear that they'd rather die than let the Great Wandering Bard interrupt the Dark Flame from their chanting. 

In battles, mages always attracted the aggro of BOSSes whenever they were chanting.

This was the reason why despite their firepower.

Mages were considered as glass cannons in raids.

It was also incredibly hard to protect them because unless someone had his Chanting Mastery leveled to the maximum.

One would be immobilized while chanting...

In other words, Mages who were in the middle of their chanting were sitting ducks and if you wanted to protect them. You must be willing to block the attacks of the BOSS who wanted to interrupt the chanting of the Mages.

Bang!

A loud explosion signified the arrival of the Great Wandering Bard's attacks. 

"Hold it!"

William stood at the helm of it all with his huge shining shield propped up in front of him. When the soundwaves struck his shield. The vibrations traveled through the shield and into his body, causing him to cough a mouthful of blood.

If not for the fact that his Healers had quick reflexes.

He would've died at that moment...

Under the fierce attacks of the irritated Great Wandering Bard. His Health was merely nothing but a speck of dust on a desk. But this mere speck of a dust Health was actually fighting against the damage that the Great Wandering Bard was dishing out.

"You... You bastaaards!!!" The Great Wandering Bard roared towards the skies. He lifted his left hand into the air, an indication that he was about to send another soundwave attack towards the intruders.

"Irritated Phase, Insta-kill attack! Interrupt!" Nie Yan who stood at the farthest from the front line saw the greenish light gathering around the ukulele that the Great Wandering Bard held in his hands.

He swiftly gave his commands and the Spear of fire floating above the air flew towards the Great Wandering Bard.

The Great Wandering Bard noticed the disturbance in the air and his hand descended on his ukulele.

A soundwave, thick enough that it became visible to the eyes, flew and struck the Spear made out of fire directly on its tip. A battle of attrition began in the airspace above the players, but the players took this opportunity to attack instead of retreating.

"Charge!" 

William cried out and the members of the Knights of Justice followed suit.

Crimson was the second, while Dark Flame started on chanting their attacks once again.

Bang!

The Spear made out of fire finally exploded. Sending debris flying in all directions. Miraculously, the debris made out of fire didn't do any damage against the players in the passageway. They only dealt damage against the monsters that the Great Wandering Bard summoned.

"Attack! No holds barred! Don't give it any time to relax!" William cried out.

The Crimson Guild and Dark Flame went crazy on their attacks. They were attacking as if the concept of Mana Conservation wasn't even important nor it existed for them. But the truth was that they really didn't need to conserve any Mana.

As the strongest guilds within the Kingdom of Nether, they had a lot of Alchemists that made a lot of Mana and Health Potions for them every day.

Their stockpile when it came to potions were ridiculous, so these three guilds didn't give any reservations when it came to attacking the Great Wandering Bard that was until...

The Great Wandering Bard suddenly froze.

He stretched his hand behind him and a dagger with a sharp glint could be seen.

"Retreat!" Vladimir who was the nearest to the BOSS gave a command to retreat.

"What the hell are they doing?" William who stood behind the Crimson Guild's offensive line couldn't see what Vladimir could see so he was astonished when he saw their actions.

At first, he thought that Vladimir was purposely doing this to sabotage them but his eyes constricted when he saw the dagger in the Great Wandering Bard's hands.

"Shields up!" William waved his sleeve and gave an order.

He raised his own Shield and the experienced Knights of the Knights of Justice quickly understood what he wanted them to do.

In an instant, a defensive line was formed before the Great Wandering Bard.

"Healers, Ready!" When William gave his second order.

The Great Wandering Bard had already moved.

He appeared in front of the defensive line and hacked away against his enemies.

Peng! Peng! Peng!

The sounds of metal clashing against metal continuously rang out.

The Knights didn't care about anything anymore aside from keeping up their defense.

All of them raised their shields in an angle in front of them.

The Knights who stood at the first row of the defensive line felt their shields bouncing back and forth.

Blocking these fierce, heavy, yet swift attacks greatly affected their movements.

Furthermore, their Healths were also haphazardly jumping up and down as if their Healths were the bitcoin prices sorted by the hour in a graph, even though there were dozens of Healers supporting them from behind.

In this kind of situation, their Health was the least of the Knights' worries.

In fact, they were even more worried if they can keep up this defensive line instead of their Health.

Thankfully, the Great Wandering Bard's fierce attacks only lasted for a few seconds.

When the Great Wandering Bard retreated with a step backward. A fierce cry rang out from behind. 

"Gunners, fire! Others, flank! We're going hot!"

While the Great Wandering Bard was in the middle of unleashing a barrage of attacks using his dagger.

The other players who weren't in the front lines were busy doing their own thing.

The members of the Crimson Guild, particularly those specialized in long-ranged warfare formed a circle around the Great Wandering Bard.

As soon as they heard the signal to fire. Countless sparks appeared in the distance along with several dozens of sonic booms that tore through the air itself before tearing through the flesh of the Great Wandering Bard.

The Special BOSS coughed a mouthful of blood and he staggered backward.

He was about to send another attack, but another wave of fire landed on his body.

This time, it came from Dark Flame who had already completed their chanting.

"Guaaah! Curses! You bastards! I will definitely not let you go! It's either you or me that will die today!" The Great Wandering Bard screamed, his anger boiled and his eyes gradually turned red.

At this moment, his shirt was already ripped off, and even though he still looked like an elderly man.

He wasn't a hunch-back anymore.

"Careful! Second Phase! Retreat, observe patterns!" William gave an order and the three guilds made a temporary collective retreat. The contents of William's order was simple. It was for them to retreat and probe the BOSS in its new phase in a careful and considerate approach.

A Special BOSS in the Boiling Anger Phase was incredibly dangerous. They had several attacks that may look simple in the eye but actually had damage that could instantly kill anyone in the world of Victory. The retreat that they made was reasonable but Vladimir became angry at their actions.

"What the fuck are we retreating for? We should've kept the momentum of our attacks! By retreating, we are giving that bastard some time to breathe!" Vladimir angrily cursed.

William raised an eyebrow and said, "Vladimir, this is not the time for us to scold each other. From now on, we must carefully analyze the new attack patterns and skills of this bastard..."

"Haven't you noticed, yet? We have already lost about a fourth of our force! If we keep on being reckless like this, there's no way for sure if we can even succeed in killing this boss!"

Nie Yan also had a frown on his face.

Vladimir visibly trembled. He opened up his Party List and he was astonished to see the names of several dozens of his members greyed-out. In other words, they died somewhere in the middle of battle.

Vladimir couldn't refute William anymore. He was right and it was also useless to continue this argument for they were in the middle of a battle against an extremely powerful Special BOSS.

Vladimir heaved a deep sigh and retreated.

He gave an order to his subordinates and soon, the entire Crimson Guild had retreated.

It was at this moment that a dignified, yet somewhat mocking sounding voice rang out in the air.

"Hah! To think that I would see the three strongest guilds of the Kingdom of Nether retreat at the same time in the face of a BOSS that's already in the brink of death! How shameful, and you all even call yourselves as the strongest in this Kingdom?"

The mocking voice sounded incredibly familiar to everyone.

No...

It'd be strange if that voice wasn't familiar.

After all, that voice and the owner of that voice frequently popped-up within every Victory-based Media Stations around the world.

The man behind that voice could be considered as the Ambassador of the world of Victory to the outside world, for not only he was the voice of Victory.

He was also considered as the strongest player of Victory.

Number One within the Universal Rankings, the one and only Legendary Class Player, Kristian...

The Absolute Monarch.

"M-Monarch..." The faces of every player from the three guilds paled.

But it wasn't only because of the presence of the Absolute Monarch.

It was also because whenever the Absolute Monarch went.

His army or guild members followed.

The number one guild in the entire world of Victory.

He was the Guild Leader of the Guild, Strongest Under Heaven.

It was an incredibly arrogant name, but no one dared to mock it...

No...

No player was qualified to mock nor criticize this guild.

All of their members were players within the Universal Rankings.

It was clear how powerful they were.

Now that they were here and it was clear that they planned on stealing the Special BOSS from the hands of Crimson, Dark Flame, and Knights of Justice. Vladimir gnashed his teeth, he clenched his fists and stared right at the majestic figure of the Absolute Monarch.

Kristian clad in a delicate, yet intricately designed robes descended from the skies.

He stared at the Great Wandering Bard and uttered.

"You are standing in front of the Great Monarch."

"Kneel..."