Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Chapter 733 Paralysis

The barrier appeared in front of Kaizen at just the right moment, blocking the dark spears thrown by Azrakthar, but the Sentinel Guild tanks had to stand firm to resist the extreme force of the demon's attack.

Kaizen looked at them in surprise and heard Xisrith exclaim a few meters away:

"That's it, Sentinels, you stood up at the right time!"

The leader of the Sentinels, a player called Draken, grunted in pain as he and the others resisted the demon's force and said to Kaizen:

"We couldn't let our favorite player face this alone. Now, we're officially here and doing everything we can not to be a burden to you."

Not only did the Sentinel Guild players decide to act, but so did everyone else, inspired by Kaizen's courage.

Suddenly, three mages in the rear simultaneously shouted a basic incantation, but it was uttered with such anger and will that the magic as a result was massive.

"Explosion!"

A magic circle appeared above them and they pointed their staffs at Azrakthar, who was distracted by the Tanks. The blast magic hit him full on, with no chance to dodge or defend. The impact of the magic threw Azrakthar backwards, and as the blast passed between his fingers and he tried to resist, he let out a furious roar of exertion that echoed across the battlefield. A shockwave spread as the magic finally dispersed, causing dust to rise into the air.

Kaizen, seizing the opportunity, advanced again with the King's Sword in hand, because he knew that the demon hadn't just died from it.

"Cover me!" He shouted to the tanks.

At the same time, flaming arrows cut through the sky above Kaizen, and when the demon waved his hands to clear the dust cloud so he could see, he was hit by two fiery arrows. One in his right foot and the other in his left shoulder. This made him look down, but when he removed the arrow from his foot, he raised his head and was surprised.

"Don't underestimate us again!" Kaizen shouted and slashed with his sword towards the demon's neck.

The blade of the King's Sword was thick and because of its quality was probably capable of cutting anything living or non-living, except that the handling of the sword was careless and unprofessional, especially since Kaizen was using his attributes to the maximum to use an item of such a level. So when the sword came into contact with the demon's skin, this time in its most basic form and without using any additional magical abilities to increase the damage, all the damage applied depended solely on how much force Kaizen could put into it.

And for some reason, when the blade finally touched Azrakthar's flesh, Kaizen felt his mind reel. However, it was different from before, not an ability or a magical effect cast by the demon, but something even more normal than anyone else could imagine: fatigue.

Kaizen's eyes were looking at the top corner of the screen, and Kaizen's MP bar was almost empty. This feeling of exhaustion was more familiar than Kaizen wanted to admit, because at the beginning, when he was still evolving the skill <Telekinesis>, he always ran out of MP.

It was hard to accept, but running out of MP also meant running out of stamina in Rise Online, which is why when the MP bar was reset, players' bodies would freeze.

Kaizen therefore needed to analyze. This blow could be decisive for them to win this battle, except that if he chose to go all out and use up all the energy in his body, he would be paralyzed and unable to fight anymore. That was the kind of sudden decision that only someone like Kaizen could make. The ability to analyze, question and decide in a split second was an extremely rare skill and, in the past, it was precisely this that made Kaizen famous and recognized.

Internally, Kaizen went through this whole decision-making process and chose the thing that made the most sense to him.

At the same time, crowds were watching the battle on their monitors, cell phones and televisions all over the world. Some people in America were up until the early hours of the morning, unable to sleep until they knew the outcome of this event, while on the other side of the world young workers and students were already watching the battle on the subway or in their cars.

Whether they wanted to or not, the disappearance of players and NPCs from Mibothen had frightened all the RO players and that's why all eyes were on this battle. The battle that would define the course of Midgard.

So, when Kaizen's sword touched the demon's neck, many got up from their beds, excited, almost celebrating, and others who were eating their nails with nervousness stopped for a second. Static with anxiety. However, Kaizen suddenly stopped the sword, cutting no more than a thin layer of the demon's skin.

"He... stopped?"

"What?!!?!"

"Why did he do that?"

Most people wouldn't understand, but a very famous gamer called Khalil, who was livestreaming the battle, immediately analyzed what might have happened and explained it to his chat. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝓌𝑒𝒷𝘯𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝑜𝓂

"I'm not a psychic, nor do I have access to much information, but the only reason for someone to stop an attack like that is fatigue." He explained, raising his right index finger upwards.

In the same second, dozens of angry messages appeared on his screen. Most of them dumbly asked how fatigue was related to this, after all Kaizen had already made the move and wasn't paralyzed.

"It's hard to say, guys... If I were to guess, I'd say that Kaizen coldly analyzed the blow and the proportion of damage it would do, thus discovering that he wouldn't be able to kill Azrakthar with that blow, in other words, he wouldn't be able to rip the monster's head off even if he went all out. If he didn't succeed and exhausted his stamina with such a blow, even though it would take a lot of life out of Azrakthar, Kaizen would be paralyzed and the demon would still be able to move. It would be checkmate. Kaizen would be defeated by his own desperation for victory, by his own greed."