Roderick's voice hadn't even faded when the mage behind him raised his staff, hurling a blazing fireball straight toward Lina.
At the same time, the archer's arrow hissed through the air, aiming directly for Kiriya's throat.
Battle erupted in an instant!
"Ice Wall Barrier!" Lina reacted in a flash, slamming her shield down hard against the ground.
BOOM! CRACK!
A solid wall of ice burst upward, perfectly intercepting the fireball and the incoming arrow.
The fireball exploded into a shower of sparks, shards of ice scattering everywhere, and the arrow buried itself deep within the wall.
The barrier trembled under the impact, but it held, stopping the opening volley dead in its tracks.
"Nice!" Kiriya growled under his breath, wasting no time. "Phantom Summon!"
Two perfect phantoms of himself appeared at his flanks. Almost simultaneously, the glow of "Phantom Resonance!" linked his body to his doubles.
He knew that against superior numbers, he had to break through with overwhelming force—if they got dragged into a war of attrition, the enemy's healer would make them untouchable.
"Take out the priest first!" Kiriya and Lina shouted the words almost at the same time. Their coordination was flawless.
"Stop them!" Roderick barked, his figure flickering before vanishing into stealth like a ghost. Both enemy knights roared and charged at Lina from either side, determined to pin her down.
"Not happening!" Lina's eyes flashed coldly. Instead of retreating, she surged forward, unleashing Frost Domain once more.
The freezing aura spread outward from her like a wave, dramatically slowing the charging knights' momentum.
"Your opponent is me!" she shouted, shield braced and sword swinging, holding back both high-defense knights all on her own—buying Kiriya precious seconds.
But the enemy mage and archer's second barrage was already incoming, fireballs and arrows arcing over the ice wall to block Kiriya and his phantoms' advance.
"Blink Step!" Kiriya's real body shot five meters forward in an instant, dodging the attacks with perfect timing.
His two phantoms, following his mental command, split right to flank the enemy from another angle.
"Phantom Slash!"
All three swung their blades in perfect unison, three massive crescent-shaped slashes tearing through the air.
The shockwave forced back one of the enemy knights trying to intercept—and more importantly, swept directly toward the backline mage, archer, and priest!
-1290! -1310! -1850 (Critical)!
Damage numbers floated into the air. The golden critical number over the priest's head sent his HP plummeting to half in an instant.
"Focus the swordsman! now!" The priest shouted in panic, scrambling to cast a recovery spell on himself.
But Kiriya's killing intent was already locked in place. His real body and two phantoms surged forward like arrows loosed from a bow, all aimed at the priest.
"Block him!" The enemy archer and another knight, just recovering from the Phantom Slash stagger, rushed back to intercept.
That's when Roderick struck—finally emerging from the shadows like a venomous snake, his twin poisoned daggers flashing as he lunged straight for Kiriya's back.
"Got you!" His face twisted into a cruel grin.
In that split second—
"Frost Barrier—Sacrifice!" Lina's clear, resolute voice rang out.
A brilliant, icy-blue halo erupted from her in all directions. An irresistible pull suddenly seized every enemy on the field!
Roderick's daggers hit an invisible wall mid-stab, his attack forcibly interrupted as his aggro was yanked toward Lina.
Even the knights and other enemies, just about to block Kiriya, were compelled to turn and focus on her instead.
"Lina!" Kiriya's heart lurched. He knew how much this skill cost—and that it meant she'd take all incoming damage.
"Don't worry about me—go!" Lina grit her teeth, tanking both knights' heavy blows and another fireball from the mage head-on.
Ice exploded from her shield as her HP bar dropped sharply. -655! -588! Yet her massive defense and skill effects held strong.
This chance was priceless—Kiriya wasn't about to waste it.
"Die!" His eyes turned razor-sharp, his killing intent boiling over. His real body and two phantoms moved as one, blades converging in perfect unison.
"Phantom Strike!" ×3
Three overlapping strikes—real body, two phantoms, all boosted by Phantom Strike—sliced through the priest in a blink.
-1620! -1620! -1620 (phantom)! -1980 (Critical)!
There was no suspense. The priest's HP bar emptied instantly, his body bursting into white light as he died, dropping a piece of gear onto the ground.
[System Notification: You have killed a player. Sin Points +100. Current Sin Points: 100 (Orange Name). ]
"One down!" Kiriya didn't pause, immediately locking eyes with the mage. "Next!"
"Bastard!" Roderick's eyes went bloodshot. He hadn't expected Lina to have a forced-taunt skill—let alone Kiriya's burst damage being this monstrous.
As soon as he broke free from the taunt, he shrieked: "Focus the female knight! She's out of skills!"
The mage and archer instantly switched targets, raining attacks down on Lina. Her pressure skyrocketed, her HP slowly ticking lower despite her solid blocks—facing multiple attackers at once was still brutal.
Kiriya's chest burned with urgency. He had to relieve her pressure, fast! He and his phantoms dove for the mage.
But the enemy warrior and the second assassin threw themselves in his path, stalling his advance and pinning down his phantoms.
With their lower defenses, the phantoms quickly began to fade under the concentrated assault.
"Cut down his clones first!" Roderick snarled, personally leaping at one phantom.
Amid the chaos, the enemy archer took a few steps sideways for a better shooting angle—just far enough to slip out of Lina's Frost Domain slow effect and slightly away from his allies' protection.
Lina, despite the crushing pressure, caught the opening instantly.
She absorbed a knight's strike, spun with the impact, bashing another sword aside with her shield—and her blade flashed with a glacial light.
"Frost Thrust!"
But instead of stabbing the knight in front of her, she lunged forward, thrusting past him. The blade became a freezing streak of light, crossing the gap at shocking speed and striking the archer square in the chest.
-1850 (Critical)!
The archer never expected the "defensive tank" to suddenly deal a fatal ranged blow. His expression froze in disbelief as his HP hit zero and he dissolved into white light.
[System Notification: Your teammate Lina has killed a player. Party Sin Points +100. ]
"Beautiful!" Kiriya's spirit soared. Lina's precision strike was nothing short of clutch.
"What?!" Roderick was furious and shaken. He had never imagined this shield-bearing knight could hit this hard—or kill this precisely.
With two enemies down, their pressure lightened dramatically. But Kiriya's phantoms finally faded, their duration over. Lina's Sacrifice Barrier wore off as well.
Now it was two versus four—Kiriya and Lina against Roderick, two knights, and the mage. Both of them had most of their skills on cooldown, and their HP and MP were far from full.
"Kill them! Avenge our brothers!" one knight roared.
Roderick's face was dark as night. He glared at Kiriya like a man possessed. "Good. Good! The two of you—don't think you're walking out of here alive. If your core doesn't drop, I'll strip every piece of equipment off your corpse. Especially you," he snarled at Kiriya, "I'll corpse-camp you until you delete your account."
"You can try." Kiriya sneered, backing up to regroup with Lina. The two stood back-to-back, panting hard, feeling each other's tension and pounding heartbeats. The gorge wind swept past them, reeking of blood and death.
"My MP's running low," Lina said quietly, her shield covered in deep gouges.
"Same here." Kiriya's eyes flicked over his skill cooldowns. "But we've got one last push in us."
Roderick wasn't about to give them time to recover. All four enemies charged again.
Kiriya's eyes flashed coldly—he made a bold choice. He deliberately left himself open, taking a direct hit from the mage's Ice Arrow. The slowing effect made his movements hitch—
"This is it!" Roderick and the knight's eyes lit up. They launched their strongest attacks.
But it was a trap.
"Blink Step!"
In the instant their attacks were about to connect, Kiriya blinked sideways—not to evade, but to line himself up so that the mage stood almost perfectly behind Roderick in a straight line with him.
"Phantom Slash!"
He swung his blade without hesitation.
The arcing slash roared out, tearing through Roderick first—
-1450!
Roderick screamed as his HP plummeted, but the slash didn't stop—it ripped into the mage behind him as well.
-1840 (Critical)!
The mage's robe split apart, his body dissolving into white light before he could even cry out.
[System Notification: You have killed a player. Sin Points +100. Your Sin Points have reached 200. You are now a 'Red Name' player! Proceed with caution! ]
A searing crimson glow erupted around Kiriya's entire ID, the mark of a high-infamy player.
The two surviving knights froze, staring at the red-marked Kiriya in shock.
Roderick, seeing the demon-like gleam in Kiriya's eyes and the unyielding resolve in the battered but unbroken Lina beside him, felt something he hadn't in a long time—fear.
They had kicked a steel plate… and not just any plate, but one glowing red-hot.
"Fall back…" Roderick growled through gritted teeth.
...
The battle was finally over.
The gorge returned to its deathly silence, the only sound the wind—its mournful wail now seeming even more sorrowful than before.
The crimson glow around Kiriya's head was blindingly bright, the system notifications flashing warnings at him one after another: he was now marked as hostile by all NPC guards, barred from entering cities or safe zones, and any death would result in doubled penalties…
Lina walked up beside him, her brows knitting as she looked at the ominous red light surrounding him."Two hundred points… this is bad."
"Yeah." Kiriya glanced at the potions and coins scattered across the ground from their fallen enemies, but didn't pick them up. In his red-name state, looting anything could further increase his infamy and risk."We need to get out of here. They might respawn and come back with reinforcements."
"Follow me." Lina nodded. She looked drained, but her eyes were still sharp.
"There's a hidden cave nearby—I found it once before."
Neither of them dared to linger. They quickly left the battlefield, still reeking of blood. Lina led the way, Kiriya following close behind, alert and on guard. The red glow above his head was like a glaring target in the dark gorge.
After winding through several twists and turns, Lina finally stopped in front of a rock wall thickly draped with vines. She pushed them aside, revealing a narrow opening hidden behind them.
"Let's go inside."
The cave wasn't large, but it was dry, and its depths were pitch-black. With the entrance concealed by vines, it was indeed very well hidden.
Once inside, both of them slumped against the cold stone wall, completely spent, breathing hard. High-intensity PvP was far more draining—mentally and mechanically—than any PvE battle.
After a few moments of silence, Lina spoke softly, her voice tinged with complicated emotion.
"…That last mage—I could've controlled him. We didn't have to kill him." She was talking about the strike that had turned Kiriya into a red-named player.
Kiriya cut her off, his tone low but unyielding.
"He had to die. Otherwise, we might've been the ones lying dead on the ground."He paused, then added, "And every single one of those fireballs was aimed at you."
Lina froze for a second, turning her face toward the faint light filtering in from the cave entrance. She didn't argue. After a while, she said, very seriously,
"During your red-name period, I'll stay with you."
Kiriya's head snapped toward her.
Lina didn't look at him, just continued calmly,
"I'll handle supplies, intel, and anything that requires going into safe zones. Two people being hunted is still better than one."
She paused, then made an awkward little joke.
"And besides… You do seem better at drawing aggro."
Kiriya looked at her profile—the unshakable determination in her expression—and felt a warmth rise in his chest that he couldn't quite put into words.
He was silent for a few seconds, then finally said, solemnly,
"…Thank you."
"No need to thank me." Lina shook her head and finally turned to meet his gaze. Her ice-blue eyes reflected both the faint light outside and the red glow burning on him.
"We're teammates," she said softly. Then, after a pause, she added with deliberate weight,"…accomplices."
That word made Kiriya's heart skip a beat.
He lowered his head, staring at his crimson-tinted hands, then slowly clenched them into fists.
"…Yeah," he replied quietly.
"…Accomplices."
Outside, the wind continued to howl. Inside the cave, the two of them sat shoulder to shoulder against the cold stone, sharing potions and water as they slowly recovered their strength.
The danger of his red-name state was far from over, and the road ahead promised nothing but more trouble.
But in this hidden, narrow refuge, something stronger than before bound the two of them together—a silent pact to share their fate.
In the stillness, Kiriya suddenly spoke, his voice quiet.
"That core… was worth it."
Lina blinked, slightly taken aback, then the corners of her lips curved into a faint but genuine smile.
"…Yeah. Worth it."