<h4>Chapter 499 - A Gathering Of The Strong</h4>


    Shadow observed from a distance as he tried to find patterns and weakness in Rudra''s attacks that he could exploit . When he was startled by a hand tapping on his shoulder.


    Shadow jumped a little as he saw an unknown face smiling at him , as he prepared to engage inbat.


    However when he sensed 5 more people surrounding him , with every single One of them being in aparable level range like himself , he understood that these people were here for the same reason he was.


    As the only people who could near level 190''s at this stage of the game could only be the top rankers.


    Although shadow was a mysterious and unsociable person , as his face was new to these other rankers, however to him the other 5 yers , except the ranker who tapped on his shoulder were all familiar.


    Guild leaders of huge dark faction guilds or famous warriors who had won glory in the VR Olympics .


    Rank - 10 , Nero the necromancer , an ex ally of the target shakuni in the event the national battlegrounds , and one of the most difficult opponent to have on the other side of a guild war.


    Rank -9 , Rafa the Dark Warlock , A dark warlock by profession , Rafa was the epitome of death and destruction as he mastered both the ways of the mage and that of a warrior. Making both PvE and PvP fighting a part of his arsenal.


    Rank - 4 , Raven ze , Guild leader of the super dark faction guild , death zers , a guild controlling 7 major cities and 2 capitals under their control .


    An infamous Dark mage specialising in PvEbat of mass destruction. Rumored to have mastered a peak tier 4 spell that could wipe out a whole vige at once!


    Rank - 3 , Dark Knight Vader , The poster boy for the role of incredibly handsome yboy covered in tattos that will steal your women''s hearts.


    Yet being cold and aloof he was the heartbreaker of the century , with his dark swordsman ss and his pitch ck obsidian swords.


    Rank 2 - Roygar the pyscho , there guild leader of the only guild inside the darkfaction that had gotten thewless dark faction yers beg for some civil security as his guild called '' ck bandits '' , was the most infamous open crime organization in the dark territory.


    Looting , piging , murder , were the warmup routine of the members from his guild , as erratic and psycho was the only words that could be said to describe this one of a kind guild leader of that guild.


    Infamous to have bitten the nose off a dungeon boss , he was seen grotesquely chewing on it as he stabbed his sword in the hole created by him biting off the monsters nose.


    A dark knight by profession he was at level 193 at the moment , only behind Shadow by 3 levels.


    Adding shadow into the mix , there were 6 of the top 10 rankers gathered in one ce and a mystery man that shadow did not know about , however at level 189 was sure to be a ranker as well.


    While shadow did not know the reason why these people were together and here , he wanted to know how the man sneaked up on him without him ever finding out , as he said " Shadow , rank1 , you are?".


    Shadow extended his hand towards the man who startled him , as the man said " Lorenzo , rank 6 ". As he shook his hand with a smile .


    Rank -6 , Lorenzo Gaffa , dark ninja , The stealthiest assassin with his own mercenary organization of talented assasins highly reputed to finish Any mission with a 100% sess rate .


    A master of one hit kills , he was known as the one punch man of the dark world . However it was rumored that he used a special mask that altered his appearance every single day , making it impossible to ever know what his true face was.


    Lorenzo said " It''s a pleasure to meet the famous shadow , as you can see i am gathering the 10 of us toplete this mission , as i think that the chances of us seeding in the mission and subsequently getting out of the light faction territory is incrementally higher If we all work together to take this foe down .


    While the promised rewards are astronomical , splitting the job will actually be more beneficial to us in my opinion as even when split 10 ways , the reward offered is significant


    Soo are you in or are you out?".


    Shadow was surprised by this invitation as a million questions popped in his mind , with some of them being


    1) why is the 6th guy acting like the leader here? And why is everyone else Okay with it?


    2) Can i really trust what he is saying?


    3)How did you all find me?


    However he voiced none of those questions as he said " Alright I''m in ".


    Having been scouting Rudra for a while now , shadow knew that his chances to win against someone like Rudra one on one were less than 5% .


    Hence not having enough confidence toplete the mission alone he decided to band up with the others . As although he was on alert and wary of the others , since 6 unrted people were in this scheme then the Lorenzo guy must have some merit .


    Hence the alliance of 6 expanded to 7 , as the number one ranker joined the cause of taking down Rudra as a team.


    While he was busy fighting in leisure taking down arge city with his guild and the Russian mafia , an unknown threat got bigger and bigger for him to face .


    While Lorenzo was off to rope in the other 3 members into the alliance . The others shared information about the mission , and what they felt about approaching the target.


    Shadow being the quite one , just observed as he could feel the overbearing attitude of everyone around him. As the top rankers all coborated to take down one single man . However for some reason it got his blood pumping as he eagerly looked forward to it!


    /// Next chapter is number 500 . A long one and a special one , for me personally and for the book overall .


    I will try deliver my best on the next one , i hope you all enjoy it ! ///