The four classifiers that were on the ground, all dead upon meeting with one of the forest guardians, the Water Bear, were the ones that had entered the rift shortly after Stark and talked about looting him if they came close.
He couldn't say they didn't deserve such a fate for trying to kill and steal from others, but they were supposed to help him get out of this situation.
And now…
"GRAWWWR!" the bear roared again, now getting on its four feets, slowly approaching Stark.
"OOUUOUUUHHH!" the gorilla was hitting its chest repeatedly.
"…" and the fox just walked around Stark, the fire on its back still powerful.
He was surrounded by the three most powerful beings of this forest, ones even supposed 'powerful' groups had died to.
"No more running, you little shits," he wouldn't get any help, and he wouldn't be able to out run the fox, so there was no use in running again.
He directed his gaze to the Water Bear to check out its status window using [Perception].
[Name: Water Bear (ELITE - FOREST GUARDIAN)]
[Level: 40]
[HP: 100000]
[Strength: 1261]
[Stamina: 371]
[Speed: 1182]
[Defense: 1892]
[Skills: Water Cannon, Nimble Steps, Deep Freeze, Aqua Strike, Aqua Shield, Intimidating Roar, Claw Strike…]
"FUCK ME…" Stark wasn't in a good spot. Three high-level guardians were on their way to deal with him, and he was completely outmatched.
He had no choice but to react and adapt to the situation at hand. Taking a deep breath, he braced himself for the upcoming fight.
"AURA SMASH!" he shouted, aiming his fist at the Water Bear.
"Aqua Shield!" a wall appeared before the crimson fist and stopped it before it could reach the bear.
':I' Stark looked at it with the blankest of expressions.
From all three directions now, the guardians were slowly but surely approaching him.
"Fireballs!" the fox began powering up his attacks.
"Water Cannon,' a blue sphere appeared above the bear's head, its eyes still burning with that same watery aura.
"Vipe Whip," dozens of the vines came from the gorilla's back and hurtled toward Stark.
~FWISH, BAM, BOOM~
The water jett from the canon came rushing toward him, several fire balls were launched in his direction, and all the vines hurtled to attack.
"INVINCIBLE DODGE!" he counted the seconds perfectly and avoided all the attacks using perfect timing.
Then without wasting time…
"CRIMSON SPEAR," he began running toward the fox while summoning his spears and launching them at the other two guardians.
The gorilla just took two of them by himself using his durable chest, but the bear…
"-7269!" the spear actually hit him, but it wasn't enough to do massive damage because of his high defense.
[Fire Fox (GUARDIAN) HP: 15247/140000]
[Vine Gorilla (GUARDIAN) HP: 107628/120000]
[Water Bear (GUARDIAN) HP: 92731/100000]
The point of those spears wasn't to hurt the other two guardians, but to stale for him.
After all, Stark noticed that the Fire Fox was the one with the least amount of HP, and one or two attacks from him would be enough to kill it: if he wanted to increase his odds of survival, he would need to get rid of at least one of them, and the fox was the best option.
Stark moved left to right to avoid both the fireballs, the water jet that was following him, and the several vines.
But he was getting closer.
"-1726!" a vine slashed his leg, but he didn't falter, his speed not decreasing at all.
"-1891!" the water jet hit him for a split second in his back, and it was enough to cause a third of life, but still, Stark didn't stop.
"I GOT YOU!" he jumped in the air above the fox, who was still launching fire balls and all sorts of attacks at him.
"Claw Swipe, Flame Burst, FIRE SHIELD!" feeling its impending doom, the fox tried everything in its powers to stop the boy.
But Stark focused his aura around his body and passed right through the wall of flames.
"-726!" it didn't hurt him much, but now… he got it.
~SLAM~
"-17261!" he punched the fox so hard that it was sent flying against a nearby tree, crumbling to the ground as its HP were reduced to 0.
[Touched 'Fire Fox', dealing 'Burn' effect for 10 seconds]
"-200! -200!…" he received 2000 damage from the attack, but had gotten rid of one of the guardians, so it was completely worth it.
[Dealt massive damage to 'Fire Gox (GUARDIAN)', regaining 682HP!]
But that wasn't all…
[You have slain "Fire Fox lv40 (FOREST GUARDIAN)", gained 245000EXP!]
This wasn't enough to make him level up, but it was good to know he had actually gotten rid of it.
And now… he had to deal with the other two.
"ROOOOAARRR~"
"OUHOUHOUUUH~"
The Vine Gorilla and Water Bear were looking at Stark with menacing eyes and striking menacing poses.
They had just seen the human defeat one of their own, and they were ready to kill him to avenge their companion.
But Stark was having none of that, he was tired of this shit already.
"You had it your way until now, but from now," Stark maniacally smiled, his entire body burning with crimson aura, "We'll play with my rules."
He frankly didn't know if they could understand him, but by their angry expressions, it was safe to say they could.
"CLONE FRENZY," Stark lifted his arm and the second clone he had appeared beside him.
Then he pointed at the Water Bear, "You take care of him using 'THAT', i'll take the gorilla."
The clone nodded, its eyes also burning with that same aura, a visible smirk on its face.
He was now ready to fight them off, it was all or nothing.
And he sure as hell wasn't planning to lose.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, a group of seven people were watching him from afar: they were the 'Wyver's Wrath' group, an up and rising one that have made big news because of their conquests lately.
And each of their members were now looking at the battle from afar.
"It's over," one of them said, recognizing that there was no chance Stark could win after being surrounded by three elite monsters (this was before he killed the Fox).
"…" the others nodded in approval.
They had been watching the four other classifiers to analyze their powers and strength, but they had all been wiped out, and right as they were about to leave, Stark appeared, followed by two guardians.
Now all they needed to do was observe that boy, wait for him to be killed (they had no intentions to help), then finish off those guardians.
"Hm~" but the most surprising thing of all about this group was…
That Stark's brother, the one he had first met in this world, was the leader.
"…" and for some reason, he didn't know why, even though that boy was wearing a mask, he felt strangely familiar, "Must be my imagination, let's focus!"