Nightmare System

"A spellsword?" Dean asked with some worry apparent in his voice. "How did you even get into the city?"

It was clear the creature before him was a lot different from the imitations he fought before. After all, Hell had a far larger mana pool than any of his copies, which gave him a bigger arsenal to fight with.

Dean's body was screaming in pain. The way he operated was that he would make sure no one would even be able to scratch him. He wasn't used to feeling any pain, let alone what he was currently feeling. The immense pain he felt was instantaneous, but the aftershock his body was feeling was almost worse.

He inhaled a large breath of air and stood tall. He wasn't gonna lose against a monster. Not now. Not like this. He composed himself and took a fighting stance. His wacky attitude was entirely gone, right now.

Even though Dean wasn't the type to endure much, it was not enough to incapacitate you as long as you overcame that first immense wave of pain. If Nightmare System players knew one thing, it was pain and fear. He didn't know how it had happened, exactly, but he would be cautious this time.

"Listen, you idiot," Hell said. "I am human. I just walked in."

"Nice try," Dean scoffed. "But still, it is unlikely someone with such abilities would also be good at melee," he grinned and lunged ahead.

From Hell's perspective, the kid had almost disappeared when he threw himself forward. Even though his speed was unbelievable, Hell could still barely react when he used Quickening. The swords clashed, but Dean was the one sent back flying.

Dean barely found a foothold to stabilise himself. "Such a broken boss," he commented.

"Didn't invest any points into Strength?" Hell mocked him and used another 500 mana on his Gaze of Pain. It wasn't very cost-effective from what he could see, but Hell wanted to torture this kid a tad. He then used Fire Channelling right after and hit him with a blast of fire.

Hell then checked his mana with a mental command:

*Mana: 4002*

The system's voice echoed in his head. He was still all right. The recovery rate was too slow, but it seemed to be enough for now.

Dean couldn't escape this time and was hit in the c.h.e.s.t with a fireball which burnt through his clothes and his skin. Along with the Gaze of Pain, the pain was too much to bear, he fell on the ground again like a sack of potatoes.

"Do it, then!" Dean yelled hoarsely. It had also burnt his throat some, he wanted water.

Hell used his Short-Distance Warping to appear before Dean who laid on the ground with a burnt body. The pain was too much, and as Dean lost his willpower which had kept him going, he fainted.

"Miur!" Hell commanded again. "Take this idiot back. Learn what he knows. Don't kill him." He knew Miur would be here already. And as he had guessed, the all-too-familiar voice spoke back.

"As you command."

"Oi, Dean!" someone yelled from the other side of the abandoned building. "Don't you dare hog all the fun!"

The one who spoke this time was a man slightly older from Dean and had multiple short swords on his belt, each one ornate and widely different to others. They didn't seem to be a set. After seeing Dean already beaten on the ground, he froze.

"Dean!" he yelled. "Get up, what are you doing?!"

The man summoned two short swords different to the ones on his belt, but before he could attack, Dean managed to wake up momentarily and spoke a few words: "Leave me and run." After the words spilt out of his mouth, he fainted again.

"Right," Hell said. "That's enough chitchat here. Miur, take him away now."

Even though he couldn't compete with Hell, Miur was also quite fast. He quickly left the building after picking Dean up. Hell, before facing yet what seemed to be another player, covered the Sword of Blood with his blood again, as to retain the effects. If the blood dried up, he would lose the boost.

"Who the hell are you?!" the man said with a brittle voice, shaking. It was unknown whether he was shaking with rage or sadness. But it was obvious he was cautious.

"Very rude, shouldn't you give your name first before asking for another's?" Hell said in a mocking tone. These idiots had ruined his nap, but furthermore, they seemed to be very hostile against him. "Do you also think I'm a monster?" he added before strutting toward the man.

"Stay back!" the man said and threw his short swords at Hell with incredible speed. They whistled through the air as they shot at him.

These swords would have been impossible to dodge for a normal person, but with Hell's Quickening, he was already prepared to easily deflect them both. As soon as the Sword of Blood touched them, however, a high-pitched sound came from the blades. Moments later, they both exploded.

Hell managed to escape from the brunt of the explosion by teleporting some distance away, but he could feel his clothes were singed. When he looked at the man again, he couldn't see him. It was a distraction, and it had worked quite beautifully.

"It still won't be enough," Hell yelled and flew outside of the building to get a better look at where he may have gone.

It was a good decision and he spotted the man quite easily. He was running into the slums of the city. They were already some distance away from the city centre. Hell quietly followed him to see where he was running to. Eventually, the man ran into a rundown pub and disappeared. Hell also went inside after him.

The man was worriedly talking to another who seemed like the boss. He had his own corner at the pub with some grunts surrounding him. It could be bad news if everyone at the pub were all players.

His mana was nowhere near enough to fight against a horde of players, with almost half of it gone. However, since he entered a pub with a 2-metre sword, he still immediately attracted the attention of everyone.

"Put your weapon in your inventory, lad," said an older man with a surly expression. "Other players are welcome, but they ought to abide by the rules."

The man who was talking to the boss suddenly pointed at him and yelled.

"It's him, Azra, he beat Dean into a pulp and kidnapped him!"

Entering a tiger's den without much of a plan was not smart of Hell at all. As soon as he declared it was him who kidnapped the one named Dean, most people at the pub got up, around 30 people. Hell could feel some faint energy from each of them.

He believed none of them stood a chance one-on-one, but it was worse than attacking a vampire base by himself, since you would never know what a player had up in his sleeve.

"Is that so?" asked Azra, his voice ringing in the pub. "Are you the one who kidnapped our Dean?"

Azra's presence exuding a sense of terror in many people, but Hell was more annoyed than anything.

"Wait a second," Hell said, looking around. "This is hardly fair."

Even though Hell wanted to add "for you…" at the end there, he wasn't that delusional. He could feel what he felt from the Elemental Monarch, even if not on the same scale.

Azra seemed like he would take on the challenge, but he was silently warned by the man with short swords.

"Catch him," Azra commanded and a series of spells shot forward at Hell, which seemed would kill him rather than catch him, had he been hit with any of them.

He immediately used his Short-Distance Warping to teleport outside of the bar and stood in the air using his Flying. As soon as he did so, he was hit by a column of fire from behind. Due to his Resistance of Fire he got during the battle against Lirger's army, he was only slightly more than singed and healed rapidly using Knight-Demon's Vitality.

"Aren't you versatile?" Azra talked behind him, suspended in the air. "Not many players can fly or teleport, there are even fewer who can do both."

"Well," Hell said, "I'd like to think of myself as a Jack of all trades."

"Not master of none, hopefully."

Hell quickly looked through his abilities and used another skill he had been ignoring. The other players were already outside of the bar eyeing him. Fire Arrow was a skill with great penetrating power, he cast two of them at Azra and teleported ahead to cut him down with Instant Slash.

When he executed his strategy, however, he only cut air while hearing the cackling Azra. He sent another column of fire at him from behind again, leaving him between Fire Arrows rapidly approaching and a column of fire burning hotter than he can bear for an extended period.

It was only fine if he could immediately leave the column that he could bear it. But even his resistance had its limit. Of course, teleporting away was always an option available to him, as well, so he did so.

"Why did you attack Dean?" Azra yelled in a taut voice as he sent another column of fire, forcing Hell to dodge again.

"He attacked me out of nowhere," Hell replied truthfully.

If Hell strayed too far from Azra, the players on the ground would do something to get him down. If he didn't this Azra person kept launching fire columns at him. "Just how much mana do you have, you bastard?" Hell mumbled under his breath.

"And you expect me to believe that? It was self-defence, is it?" Azra laughed. "I could smell your hostility from kilometres away."

Azra had made a good point. Hell didn't care about simple rights or wrongs, he would kill everyone here if he could. Just thinking about the levels and skills he would get, his mouth was watering. The only problem was that this Azra timed his teleports and attacks perfectly with one another.

Hell also could warp in the battlefield, but he was very straightforward with his usage of the skill. This was truly an eye-opening experience for him. His opponent had only used two abilities thus far, and he was almost helpless against them.

"I am getting real pissed off at you f.u.c.kers," Hell finally said as he released the Bestial Aura he was holding in. It was a pure expression of his hostility against others, so he had curbed the ability in the pub.

"Wait! Don't attack him!"

Azra looked at the new arrival with a stupefied expression, who then turned his head to the guy with the short swords, who looked just as confused. "Dean? We thought you were kidnapped by this guy!"

Hell was similarly shocked to see him. He didn't know if this bastard had simply escaped from Miur, which was not likely. It seemed the only way he could do so was to kill Miur somehow and escape. With his speed, it may have happened if he had any regenerative abilities.

Dean looked at Hell's aura growing even livelier and a called out to him: "Not like I jumped off a building or something, I'm fine!"

"Lance?" Hell thought to himself as he saw Dean explain himself to Azra and the others. That he was hurt during a confrontation with another player and Hell only had his friend took him for healing purposes.

All eyes were on Hardy, the short sword user. The accusatory looks pierced into him as his embarrassment surfaced. When people don't know what's happening, they'd rather say it was a silly mistake rather than pursue their accusation on someone with no proof.

"I almost killed an innocent man," Azra said and slapped Hardy on the face. He then turned to Hell, saying, "Let me get you a drink, on the house."

The situation was defused for now as Hell was welcomed into the pub with smiles this time. Since he didn't actually harm anyone, there were no hard feelings. Azra also seemed far more amiable compared to the aura he exuded before.

"What do you say you join our faction?" Azra asked with a smile. "We are called Lux, I have already discussed with Magnus that we can be reinstated in a more official role."

Hell cursed that guy inwardly. "Just how many fronts is that guy playing at?"

"I'll think about it," Hell said, trying to avoid thinking about killing everyone here. If he were still so hostile, things would just revert to where they were. He sat with everyone for hours.

Azra was a man in his late 30s with messy hair down to his chin and a soul patch there. He had brown, protruding eyes staring into one's soul. Of course, had he been able to really do that, he wouldn't like what he saw there. He was a man of average frame and looked wise, like he had experienced a lot in life.

Then again, who hadn't experienced so much ever since the world went topsy-turvy? Hardy continued watching Dean and himself while he was in there, he ignored anyone hitting him on the head as they mocked his antics today. He was definitely suspicious.

Hell excused himself, saying he needed to go now and Azra asked him again, "We have a mission tomorrow, why don't you join us? Dean will be there, too."

"We will be moving at 10, don't be late!" Azra yelled behind Hell with a friendly tone, as if talking to a good friend.

"This may be the only time where I haven't killed or maimed anyone in a while," Hell began walking to his base, thinking.

"Good thing, you didn't, those were the soldiers I promised you," Dean said, having also left the pub after him.

"Azra may have a second opinion on following me."

"All in due time," Dean, or rather, Lance, answered. "You would be f.u.c.k.e.d if I hadn't saved you."

"I would be fine," Hell scoffed.

"Did Magnus tell you about your meeting with the Defence Minister?"

Hell was surprised, "Did you have a hand in that?"

"Just don't miss this chance, I am stuck as this guy for now."

As Lance returned posing as Dean, Hell went back to his headquarters. The place surely was cleaned already before Devlin arrived with Annette. They were worried about Hell's whereabouts at first, but Miur had assured them everything was all right. Hell said he was tired already and went to his bed, not forgetting to thank Devlin for the room.

----------------------------------

Hello guys! The author here.

Azra's proficiency with two simple spells was simply unexpected for Hell. What else does he have? What are some monsters or abilities from other players you would like to see in the following chapters?