Chapter 13

The quartet of boys waited patiently at the back of the cave, in front of the boss's room. They chatted quietly, blissfully unaware of what was happening behind them, until one of them asked the fateful question.

"Don't you think they are taking a little too long?"

"Naahh... Among them is the leader, they'll be fine."

"Then why aren't they here yet?"

"Wait till I ask my crystal ball...ah, right. I forgot it at home, unfortunately."

"Yes, yes, funny. I am seriously worried and you joke about it."

"If you're worried, why don't you go check it out yourself and make sure? Maybe they're just having a picnic and invite you to sit down, who knows."

"No, thanks. I'm fine here."

"That's what I thought, coward."

"What did you say to me, you coward of a coward?"

"Just the truth, you coward's head!"

"I'll show you who the coward is, coward child of a generation of cowards!"

Suddenly, a rumble behind the boss's door was heard and they all jumped up in fear.

"What was that!"

"Do we have to find out?"

"I would say no."

"We all agree."

Loud knocks on the door began to sound. The four boys could clearly see how that door moved violently because of those beats. The quartet's faces immediately whitened.

"Please tell me it's just because of the bowl I smoked just before I came in."

"I'm just telling you I don't smoke."

"Holy shit..."

"We are so fucked..."

Unconsciously, everyone took a few steps back.

The door continued to shake for a good minute, until the beating ended.

There came complete silence, no one daring to even breathe a word.

"Are we safe?" Whispered one of them.

"I don't know, but I suddenly have an urge to go and check how the others are doing. You know, just in case."

"I'll go with you. You never know, right?"

"Good things come in threes. I'll come along. You stay here."

"What? No way!" He exclaimed, still maintaining a low tone of voice.

"Someone has to check the boss's room."

"And you tell me why the motherfucker should be me."

A scream was all they heard before the door swung open like it was made of Styrofoam. 

The boys all jumped into each other's arms in fright, creating a human tower nearly ten feet high. If the scenario had been different, someone would have been laughing.

Out of the smashed door came a living skeleton with a huge bone build, two or three times larger than the human body. The height was no joke either. It far exceeded that of the human tower now before him.

The four boys, facing the monstrous boss made only of bones and with an axe to match his literal size, shouted sharply at the top of their lungs with their eyes threatening to pop out of their sockets.

Immediately, the boy who was on the lowest floor of the human tower turned behind and ran as fast as he could, leaving a trail of dust rising behind him.

Samuele, Marco and Sofia still stood in front of the Adventurer who had just slaughtered two of his companions. The two younger ones backed away a few steps.

"What have you done, Claudio?" Marco asked in an incredulous tone. One of his longtime comrades whom he thought he knew quite well had done something monstrous. And all with that evil smile plastered on his face.

"I killed them, of course." He said, still maintaining that evil grin. "And it was good. Much nicer than killing monsters."

"No, you are not like that. You like killing monsters, but you've never hurt any people."

"And I regret not doing that before. Fuck how much I enjoy it!"

Samuele and Sofia stood on the sidelines, standing still. They listened to their conversation and hoped for the best, even though deep down they knew how it would really go. 

Samuele thought hard about what to do, but nothing more came to him than just fighting. 

'Mr. Terranova and Claudio are on the same level, so in a fight they should be more or less equal. Plus, we have the numerical advantage on our side. Ours is an almost assured victory, but then why is Claudio showing such confidence? He should understand that he has little or no hope of victory against us. Why doesn't he back down? What on earth is going on?'

A familiar little bell rang in all their heads.

[WARNING!]

THE CAVE BOSS IS NO LONGER IN HIS ROOM.

Everyone there opened their eyes wide in terror. Not only because of the bad timing in which it had happened, but also for another reason.

'The boss shouldn't be allowed out of his room unless it has been opened... Those idiots! I can't believe they did such a thing, them of all people.'

"Please stop. We can still work this out." Said Marco in a pleading tone. The situation had become far too dramatic at that moment. He had to solve this problem before dealing with the boss. 

Claudio raised his head and shook it, laughing sadistically. "Oh, no... I'm just getting started!"

With quick step he reached in front of Marco and struck him with a slash of his broadsword, with the latter parrying it with extreme difficulty. With a great demonstration of sheer strength, Claudio managed to displace Marco's body by about ten centimeters, who was sweating profusely in order to counter him, failing miserably.

'How can he be so strong? Marco wondered internally.

Claudio's heavy sword repelled Marco's sword, causing him to back away and almost lose his balance.

"It is useless to try to resist, but go on. I have more fun with those who really try to defeat me, you know that."

"That's exactly why you have to stop. You are not yourself! You kill monsters! Despite what you say and show, you would never hurt people! I know you better than anyone else!"

"You're wrong, you don't know me at all. I always loved the fact that people looked at me in terror... You don't know anything about me, you don't know what I went through. I hate people. Until now I've only ever vented about monsters, but now I realize that it's useless to keep repressing these negative feelings of mine. I have to release them, and what better way than to directly destroy the source of all my hatred? You don't know how relieved I felt when I killed those two unfortunate idiots."

"Killing won't solve anything! Get out of here what are you going to do! How do you think people will react to the fact that only you survived a level 15 portal!"

"This is not a problem. Lately, strange portals have appeared in the world, you should know. High-level monsters in low-level portals--and then it's not like there are cameras to prove my guilt." His smile grew disgustingly gigantic. "You are the only evidence, and I will destroy you piece by piece."

From afar a commotion was heard coming toward them and getting louder and louder. They all turned toward that source of noise and saw something strange.

A human tower made up of the four Adventurers who were supposed to remain in front of the Boss's room and were running hard. Or rather, the boy below was running. The others huddled above were giving him directions as the poor man could see nothing ahead.

"Run faster!!!"

"If you would come down to me I might as well!"

"No, thanks! I'm fine where I am!"

"Then shut up!" The running boy was out of breath.

"That monster is behind our ass!" Said another, looking behind him and seeing how that skeleton was only a few steps away from them, sword wielding left and right to try to hit them.

"He will shave and aftershave us with that sword if we don't hurry!"

"What do you think I'm doing down here, huh?! I'm not breeding ponies here!"

Samuele and the others saw the huge skeleton behind those guys and immediately knew it was the boss.

"Guys, what the hell did you do?!" Shouted Marco at the human tower.

"We didn't do anything! He broke down the door without us moving a single muscle!"

Marco and the other two comrades opened their eyes wide in surprise. It was not possible for a boss to walk out of his room of his own free will without first opening the door.

Samuele, for the umpteenth time since he had the System, cursed his bad luck.

Claudio walked forward with a murderous smile. Marco, who saw him, moved into a fighting stance. With each long but slow step he took, he got closer and closer to him.

"Claudio, stop!" Ordered Marco Terranova, but he did not listen. He gritted his teeth in nervousness. From behind, the boss's footsteps could be heard getting louder and louder, closer. They were practically surrounded.

But Marco was surprised by Claudio. He walked past him and passed him.

'I'm not his target...' He thought inwardly, immediately turning to watch his every move.

Claudio stopped, watching intently as the quartet of boys headed toward them with the quest boss in tow.

Marco understood. He was watching the boss. He was his opponent at that very moment.

He let the human tower overtake him and prepared to strike the skeletal boss, but the latter did not even dignify him with a glance and overtook him as the Adventurers had done. Claudio trembled with rage. His face grew redder and redder.

"How dare he...?!"

The skeleton had now left behind the quartet of Adventurers, who had taken refuge a few meters behind the Leader, and was now aiming at Samuele. The boy raised his shield to shield himself from the blow it would throw at him, but there was no need.

To everyone's surprise, the skeleton was disintegrated by Claudio's heavy sword, which looked at what remained of the monster without even a hint of pity.

"These are my prey ... know your place, insect." Affirmed Claudio intensely.

Marco took advantage of the situation and spoke to everyone else.

"The boss is dead! Get out of here immediately and call for reinforcements, quick!"

"What?!" Shocked Samuele asked. "There are nine of us against one, we can beat him!"

"That may be, but someone will die and I can't allow that. Mine is the safest solution."

"Is it really that strong?" Sofia asked, nervous. Marco cast a glance at his old comrade who now wanted to kill them all. He was still looking proudly at the remains of the boss.

"He rejected me without any problem, even though we have the same class and level. I don't know what happened, but now he is at least twice as strong as before. That's why I need you to get out of here and call for reinforcements."

Samuele and Sofia looked at each other without saying anything and came to an understanding. Their gazes returned again to their leader and they nodded to him.

"All right!" 

"You hold on! We will be there as soon as possible!" Sofia and Samuele exclaimed respectively in a determined tone. Soon after, they ran back to reach the portal, with the quartet of Adventurers having reassembled and was now following them.

Marco watched them go, before turning his gaze back to Claudio, who looked at him with a calm expression.

"Do you really think you can buy time for those poor weaklings?" Claudio laughed at him.

"I honestly don't want to find out, but you leave me no choice." He said in a resigned tone, in a fighting stance with his sword at head height.

"If you think you can last even ten seconds against me, then you are a deluded man who cannot see the difference in strength between us." He affirmed, resting his broadsword on his shoulder. Marco clutched his sword tightly.

"I won't let you touch a single hair on those guys' heads."

"Such determination... Killing you will be more fun."

The two old comrades clashed. Marco's sword met Claudio's, with the former gritting his teeth, straining to manage to keep the clash of strength even.

"What's going on? Not even time to start that you're already in trouble?" Claudio sneered at him. Without any difficulty he drew Marco's sword away, leaving him defenseless, and, with a diagonal movement from the bottom to the top of his blade, he caught Marco squarely in the chest, severely wounding him.

Marco gritted his teeth hard and did not even cry out in excruciating pain. He touched his hand to the open wound from which a trickle of blood was now coming out and winced with a grimace of pain. He looked at Claudio, who had a huge smile on his face.

"I told you. You can't stand up against me."

Marco widened his mouth and screamed as a little bell rang in his head.

YOU HAVE ACTIVATED "ACTIVE SKILL: BATTLE CRY!"

[INFORMATION!]

THOSE WHO USE IT INCREASE THEIR STRENGTH AND VITALITY STATS BY 30%.

"You don't want to give up, huh? Just as well. I would have been disappointed otherwise." Said Claudio in a joyful tone.

Marco, without a word, launched himself at Claudio, activating another skill of his.

YOU ACTIVATED "ACTIVE SKILL: CHARGE"!

[INFORMATION!]

CHARGING AGAINST THE OPPONENT INFLICTS ADDITIONAL DAMAGE ON THE TARGET, WITH THE PROBABILITY OF STUNNING HIM VARYING DEPENDING ON THE OPPONENT'S STAMINA.

He struck Claudio with his sword, who, despite his quick defense, was slightly unbalanced by the blow. He took a few steps back and resumed his stance. Marco clicked his tongue at the wasted opportunity to be able to do some damage to him.

"Not bad." He congratulated Marco. "But that's all you'll ever be able to do!"

Claudio let his sword fall with full power downward, aiming for Marco's head, which he dodged sideways by a few millimeters. Swinging his body to the right, he moved his sword horizontally to at least try to wound his opponent, succeeding in the attempt.

A fairly deep wound graced Claudio's stomach, which looked at her with a calmly cold expression. He looked up at Marco, who, if a few moments before was rejoicing at the blow inflicted, was now trembling at the intense, murderous gaze Claudio was giving him.

Marco felt an icy sensation go up his spine. His forehead was drenched in sweat. He swallowed nervously.

"No more games." Announced Claudio deadly serious, with a clear murderous look. "You've pissed me off."

"Can one of you explain what the hell is going on!" One of the boys following Samuele and Sofia asked desperately.

"Yeah! I saw two of our teammates dead on the ground!"

"Don't remind me! I almost threw up!"

"What kind of Adventurer are you!"

"This is the first time I've ever seen dead people at such close quarters, so excuse me if this makes an impression on me!"

"Shut up!" Sofia ordered, shouting, and it worked. No one dared to say another word. "That fool Claudio Conti killed them and now we are going to call for reinforcements to stop him before he kills us too. Do you have any more questions or can we concentrate on running!"

Everyone, even Samuele, shook their heads, slightly afraid of her.

"All right, now get your asses moving!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

After a few minutes they reached the portal. They ran into it, but slammed, groaning painfully.

"What the hell?!"

"Why can't we get out?!"

Samuele looked at that portal, trying to figure out what was going on.

'The boss is dead, so why won't it open?' Then he thought of something and opened his eyes wide.

"The system..." Samuele mumbled, loud enough for Sofia to hear him.

"What?" She asked.

"When we complete the quest, the System alerts us."

"So what?" Samuele turned to Sofia with a worried look. 

"Why didn't any message come this time?" Sofia opened her eyes wide in realization. She had not paid attention before because of all that was going on, as did Samuele.

"But the boss is dead, we saw him!"

"I know, but then why...?

"The portal is closed? What a good thing." A voice behind them made their blood run cold. Of turned and saw right in front of them Claudio. "I lost some time with that weakling. I got carried away. Unfortunately for you, you were trapped from the beginning. Marco sacrificed himself for nothing." Claudio laughed sadistically.

Samuele's eyes went wide at the conclusion he had come to.

'What if the boss had left the room for a reason? What if that message was not about the skeleton but Claudio? Bosses cannot leave their room, but other monsters can. What if that skeleton had not been the boss, or at least not anymore? Could it be that the System recognized Claudio as the real boss to be defeated? But why? He is a human from our world. Can it ever be that he became the boss just because he killed his teammates?'

As his mind thought at the speed of a train about these questions, for a single second Samuele seemed to see Claudio with bloodshot eyes, as if he were a real portal monster.

END OF CHAPTER. 

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Here's another chapter for you. I have nothing to say about this chapter except that I had a lot of fun writing the comedy quartet scenes. One more thing: I am writing the last chapters of the first act. Once finished, I will try to publish them more frequently and more steadily. UNTIL the first act, at least. From second act... I still have to think hard about what to do. Definitely, I want to write with much more commitment, but I will see what to do with publication in due time. 

For now, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If so, please comment, review and donate your precious to me. Until the next chapter! Bye!