This was not the first time the Royal City had been the target of a violent attack, nor was it sure to be the last. Just as such an ancient city carries a burden, it also carries millions of stories and events.
However, receiving an attack during a war is a totally different thing from being attacked being in times of peace.
The last war the Kingdom of Tretidian fought was when it became involved in the famous Duchy War, when it chose a small duchy to help annex the others and finally annexed it, becoming as large as the two other human kingdoms. However, this conflict happened more than forty years ago, when the current King of Tretidian was just a brave, young and smart warrior, so it made no sense to have an attack on the Royal City after so long, and this fact made everyone understand that it was not the attack of another nation, but a synchronized terrorist attack.
In addition to the thousands of giant bats flying over various parts of the city and the points of fire, the streets were filled with despair at the sudden appearance of hundreds of walking corpses that were completely necrotic. These creatures were very similar to people, only they walked slowly and mumbled unrecognizable words.
"They're zombies! Attack!" A city guard shouted when he saw one of these corpses walking toward him, but when he looked back, he saw that his colleagues were running in the opposite direction. "Shit, you fearful people!"
Immediately, the guard drew his sword and brandished it against the zombie that was struggling to catch up with him.
"Take that!" He shouted.
The sword slid easily through the flesh of the corpse and the zombie's head was torn from the rest of its body in the same instant, making the guard smile with confidence, but as the guard watched the zombie before him fall to the ground, another had already approached him from the rear. By the time he heard the morbid groan, it was too late. The guard still tried to turn around to attack, at which point the zombie bit down hard on his right shoulder, tearing a chunk out.
"AAAAAHH!" He screamed in desperation and pain as he fell to the ground with the zombie on top of him still grabbing him. The zombie's bite was burning him as he felt his skin tear.
Suddenly the guard heard rapid footsteps approaching and in his vision appeared a tall man with blond hair, rectangular glasses and blue eyes who was wearing a blue tunic of enviable quality. This man was a gambler and carried a one-handed sword, with which he quickly cut off the head of the zombie attacking the guard.
The tearing pain that the city guard was feeling stopped at the same time and when he looked up he saw this noble looking man and for a single second he saw this player as an angel that fell from the sky.
"Are you okay, my name is Clissor, what is your name?" The player inquired, extending his left hand to help the NPC stand up, because with his right hand he was holding his sword.
"I-I'm fine. Really, thank you so much for saving me." the guard said, accepting Clissor's help to get up.
"That was nothing." Clissor said amiably as he helped the middle-aged man, but when the guard stood before him and put his left hand out to try to stanch the wound on his right shoulder, the player's face turned grim. "The zombie bit you after all, didn't it? That's bad news for you."
Before the guard had a chance to respond, Clissor swung his sword and ripped the NPC's head off. He watched still as the guard's body fell to the ground and then his head.
"If the zombies in this game are like the other games, I don't want to let the number of enemies exponentiate." Clissor said as he sheathed his sword. "Also, it looks like farming hidden missions by saving NPCs in distress during this event will be harder than I thought."
Clissor was confident that he would be able to gain not only a lot of XP, but also quests or even rewards during the event. However, he just didn't imagine that he would suddenly be grabbed by the shoulders and lifted into the sky at an uncommon speed.
"What! One of those bats got me!?' He thought as he saw his own feet cease to touch the ground.
When Clissor looked up, he saw that what had occurred was not one of the Emperor Bat monsters flying over the city, but a humanoid being with purple skin, neon-green scars that glowed brightly, as did its eyes of the same color. This creature had two large brown horns coming out of its forehead and giant bat wings on its back, which were so strong that they made it fly at high speed.
"Helloa~~." The creature uttered with a macabre smile, causing Clissor's countenance to transfigure into pure terror.
Soon after, this being dropped Clissor from the heights of the city and no matter how much the player screamed, he fell hard on top of a chimney.
[You died.]
[You lost 2 levels for dying.]
[An event is taking place near your respawn location. Wait for the event to end before respawning]]
Clissor was furious. He had never felt so humiliated. How the hell did a level 40 person die in such a mediocre way to an enemy who didn't even have a chance to react? To make matters worse, he lost all the items that were in his inventory.
The evil creature that killed him had many names, but the one he liked to be called the most was Zilgath, The Perpetual Fire.
As if he knew, Zilgath had made dozens of victims in the same way as Clissor, and most of them were players, but this was no coincidence. Zilgath's targets were those he thought looked the strongest, so he got very angry whenever he was let down.
"Shit, shit, shit! There are no strong people in this town like they said. People can't even survive a fall of a few dozen meters." Zilgath said in his shrill voice.
...
Edited by: DrHitsuji
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