Arthur pulls Howard by the collar to drag him away, as he tries to block the attack from the general but gets cut in the process. "Ignis" says one of the magicians as a fire attack comes towards the general. An explosion occurs and smoke fills the air. Nobody can see and it goes silent again. "Where is he?" "Porters". Are shouted out by the EVO's, Arthur appears out of the smoke jumping backwards to go out range from the general.
"Disperse" is said by a mage and the smoke scatters so that the general is visible again. A dual dagger fighter rushes towards it using her high agility, but the general moves fast and she follows. She throws her blade at where he moves and the general dodges it looking to it's right and looking forward again to find her in it's face. "Gotcha" she says to it with a sinister and hungry smile as she pounces on it.
She pierces it's Armor on the top left side putting her dagger in. The general writhes in pain and swings it's sword at her but she acrobatically gets out of there. With no weapons in her hands, the general goes at her with an enraged and murderous aura coming off it. She just stands there looking like easy prey but right before it gets close enough to swing she just smiles at it. "You were so close" she says as Rider jumps in and blocks it's attack and it gets pushed back and flies through the air from the force.
It says "Ahh" and coughs blood as it gets attacked by wind arrows mid air. It gets even angrier and goes at the mages now.
"When an intelligent monster loses it's sanity, it just rushes fiercely at the last person that attacked it" says Howard as he sits next to Arthur. They continue to each aggro the boss until it's whole body is covered with cuts and blood is oozing from all it's cuts. The general writhing in pain tries to crawl back to the throne, making noises and stretching it's arm out. Rider appears on top of it saying "Let's put the fun times to rest".
He thrusts his blade down through it's chest and the stretched arm stays out but stiffens at it dies. The body completes drops to the ground as they laugh and joke with each other. "They are the real monsters" whispers Howard to Arthur. "Yep" he replies as they look on ahead. Rider cuts out the boss' mana core and keeps it himself. Arthur and Howard stay where they are until they are told that they're all leaving.
"So how did you do that?" says Rider as he hovers over Arthur with a suspicious and angered face. He starts to leak malice and Arthur actives calm mind and simply tells him "I have been training on how to protect myself in rifts because of what happened last time". "But I mostly got lucky." "Because somebody shouted to watch out, I was able to save us both because of that".
Rider keeps staring at him, until Mia walks up and tell him "You're being too hard on them Rider" "Everyone is alive and good" "Let's leave this rift". Rider without saying a word, turns away and leaves them. "Let's move out" he says as they start to get out of the rift.
"Thank you all for the hard work today" "We will be doing this rift again in 3 days time" "Hopefully I can see you all then". Rider talks to the team before everyone disperses and goes there own way.
2 days later. Arthur goes on a walk through the market and just enjoys the atmosphere he is in right now. "Been a long time since I could just do this" he thinks to himself. "Because I was just closed off and angry all the time". "I knew that I was weak and could do nothing about it". Arthur picks up fruits and vegetables and different kinds of stuff and says "I've learnt how to be patient". "Knowing when the right time to strike is valuable and when you're weak..".
He looks over his shoulder and sees a figure staring, "They are also watching me". He continues to walk and says "My time to strike will come".
The day of the rift raid came again and it was the same rift. Everyone is hovering around the entrance and Arthur is at the back again, just watching everyone. "Do you know why we are doing this rift again?" a voice says over his shoulder. Arthur gets annoyed and humours him "Why is that Howard?".
"What?" "How did you know it was me" he asks surprised. Arthur just looks at him with a disinterested and worn out face. "Fine. It's because they want to trigger the secret boss". Arthur doesn't get surprised by the news, he just simply asks "Why is that?". Howard looks around suspiciously for a moment and then whispers "Because it has the better clear reward and is a higher rank".
"Let's move" shouts Rider as they make their way inside. Arthur and Howard hang back again waiting and then several minutes later go in. A battle by the castle gates ensues, but it was no difficulty for the EVO. Everything is the same but instead of going inside the boss room, the porters wait and then go in to see them bullying the boss again. Mia doesn't engage with it, instead she just ignores their behaviour.
The EVO start walking out of the boss room saying "Another Dud" "So weak and it called us pathetic" "I think it was talking about the porters". They start to laugh at them as they walk past them. "Well they are". They continue to laugh and it echoes inside of Arthur's ears. The memories coming back of him getting berated and beat, again and again. His anger swells up inside of himself. He is looking down at the floor as he grits his teeth and bawls his hand up into a fist.
A gentle hand on the shoulder and him saying "It's Okay" helps Arthur to compose himself with calm mind activating. Arthur leaves the boss chamber after them and while leaving says "Thanks" softly.
As they loiter around the gate again, Rider says "In 3 days, well you guys know the drill" and they all leave.
It goes by in a flash and the day of the rift raid comes again. Arthur grabs Howard and they both go off somewhere to talk. Mia sees this and follows them, several minutes go by and Rider says "Well let's go again". Arthur comes back first and says "Wait". Everyone looks at him, some with hatred in their eyes and he continues to explain "Don't kill the boss". "Why?" asks Rider. "Because why would the general before dying always try to go back to the throne." Some of them start to think and Arthur just says it "I know you want to summon the king and I think that the general is the key". An angered EVO walks towards him and gets his face with a scorn look and says "How do you even know anything about rift or monsters??" "You're not one of us". A look of pure disgust and hatred.
"Because i can read" says Arthur with a dumb founded face. "What did you say?" says the EVO as others start to laugh at him. He begins to get his blade out, but Rider stops him saying "What are you doing" with his eyes wide open and a death stare that scares him straight. He let's go of his blade and just spits in Arthur's face. "Dirty scav" he says as he walks away. "Let's go" says Rider as they start to go in.
The porters follow on behind.
Moments before Arthur and Howard talking.
"What are they trying to do?" "They keep going to this same rift even though they could clear it with their eyes closed" asks Arthur.
"Hmm" He looks up in the air and ponders on that question for a moment. Arthur turns around to walk away and Howard says "Ah.." as he has figured it out remembering what the general did before he died.
"THEY WANT TO FIGHT THE KING." He looks proud of himself for figuring it out and Arthur looks uninterested because he doesn't understand. "So basically, most rifts have a single boss and thats it, but other rifts have a hidden boss which are stronger so they get better rewards from the system." It clicks in Arthur's head and he opens his eyes wide and Howard continues by saying "Remember the EVO saying The system rewards the worthy". "Defeating a hidden boss can give you that".
Arthur puts his hand on Howard's shoulders saying "Not bad". "Listen to me carefully, i'll go ahead of you" "Don't go into the boss room, instead run back to the entrance gate and try to call for help". Howard's eyes open wide and he senses that Arthur is serious. "Trust me Howard" he ends it with before going out to the EVO.
Mia leaning against a tree hearing all of this.