Jack then picked up the pace.
There was no monster in the vicinity. Areas closer to the capital had always been more sparse in terms of monster activities. Another reason was probably those unknown hiding players had cleared out the monsters around, so as to give them better control of the environment for their ambush.
As Jack approached the blue dot closest to him, he saw from the corner of his vision that there was a tree in that location. Said player was probably hiding behind its trunk or hiding above amongst its branches which were covered by thick leaves. Jack continued walking normally, pretending to not be aware of those players hiding around. He was vigilant however, prepared to make a move once he detected their hostilities.
The blue dot stayed still as Jack went past it. Could he really be just overthinking the matter? These hiding players were probably here for a different reason. Jack continued forward and passed the second closest blue dot. There was still no activity from them.
It was still fine when he passed the third. He was roughly halfway through their circumference. The fourth blue dot was hiding behind a huge boulder on the left side of the road. Jack continued to walk past as if he was having a leisure walk. He was almost convinced that it was just a misunderstanding and was just about to give the others a message asking them to just come out from their hiding places, when the blue dot behind the boulder suddenly made its move. Jack saw in his radar where it sprinted at a fast speed towards his back.
Jack was surprised, but he had yet to let his guard down, so he immediately spun around as he took out his black sword. He saw a blur of shadow when he turned, he didn't think too much as he slashed towards the incoming shadow.
The shadow was startled as his prey had found out about his ambush, and was making a slash at him using his long sword. His weapon was a short dagger, even if he managed to stab his prey, he would also get hit by his opponent's slash. Trading health was not his style, so he altered his stabbing trajectory and aimed it instead at the oncoming slash.
Sparks flew as two metal weapons collided with a loud clang. The attacker was shocked when he found out that he was pushed back by a massive force and suffered 61 damages. He opened his legs wide as his feet skidded to a stop a couple of meters back. He looked at his prey with wide eyes.
"Who are you? Why you attacked me?" Jack asked the attacker, who had his face covered with a cloth mask.
"Are you from Death Associates?" Jack asked again.
The mysterious attacker kept his silence. Jack was confused, what's the point of using a face mask? Players could simply use Inspect skill to find out about the other's identity. He used his God-eye monocle to Inspect.
Blackjack (Ranger, level 13)
HP: 230
Blackjack? Wasn't him the one Silverwing had mentioned before? The one that was Red Death's martial brother? He was not a member of Death Associates, but he certainly had ties with the guild. So it was really them targeting him again.
Jack saw Blackjack lifted his left hand up high. He was giving a sign? Jack then immediately sent a chat message to his friends, "now!"
He saw the green dots which symbolized his allies started to move towards the black dots, which had changed color from the previous blue once Blackjack made an attack on him. The black dots were also started moving, but nine at the most outer perimeter were intercepted by green dots and stopped advancing, the remaining five were coming towards him.
Blackjack seemed to have received a message from his party members as well, as he looked at Jack in consternation.
"How did you guys find out?" He asked.
Jack didn't answer, he returned back his opponent's previous silent treatment.
"Never mind, you will still die today," Blackjack said as he was joined by two players, one fighter and one Magician, both faces also wore cloth masks. Another three Jack saw in his radar were approaching from behind, one was still a little distance away, the other two were close enough.
Jack spun to his back as he executed Swing. His sword created a crescent-shaped light that swept horizontally. The two that were planning to attack his rear were instead caught off guard. Both of them were rangers, and both of them were hit squarely on their chests, suffering 83 and 86 damages respectively. The force from the move threw them flying backward, passing the Magician who was still making his way towards Jack. The Magician was just about to cast a spell before he was stunned by the spectacle.
"So the information is true," Blackjack commented, "you really do possess monstrous attributes."
He then gave hand signals to his comrades. The fighter who was holding a large two-handed axe advanced towards Jack, while the two Magicians stayed in the distance and cast Energy Bolts. Eight bolts of energy rushed towards Jack from the front and back. Since the bolts have tracking ability, Jack didn't bother to dodge. He made rapid slashes at the bolts coming from the front and completely ignore the ones coming from the back as they slammed onto his back. Five damages ranging from 24 to 28 appeared above him as he also missed one out of the four bolts coming from the front.
By the time, he finished dealing with the Energy Bolts, the fighter had arrived by his side. Jack made a short glance at where Blackjack was a moment ago, and was surprised to find that he was no longer there. Jack couldn't afford it too much thought as the large axe wielded by the fighter was speeding towards his waist.
Jack spun his body to give his sword enough momentum before it clashed with the axe. Despite he was using one hand while his opponent was swinging the axe with two hands, the collision threw the axe wielding fighter back as Jack stayed in his position. But then he felt pain in his back, he could guess that it was done by the missing Blackjack. He had somehow made it to his back silently while Jack was distracted. Jack received critical damage due to the backstab.
Jack slashed his sword backward but Blackjack had retreated several meters away. At this time the two Magicians fired Mana Bullets. Jack jumped to the side and rolled on the ground. His roll was not as elegant as the Ranger's skill, but it still served its purpose as he evaded both the Magicians' bullets.
He rose and about to rushed to one of the Magicians as they were easier to kill, but Blackjack arrived next to him as if he had predicted Jack's move. He sent a Swift Stab at Jack. Jack had had experience fighting against Red Death, so he was treating Blackjack as a similar expert. He didn't bother to dodge Blackjack's attack but instead slashed at his chest, adopting an eye for an eye method. He received 38 damage as Blackjack suffered 69 damage.
Only Jack could use this method to fight depending on his large capital of HP pool. After suffering so many hits, his HP bar was still 60% full. While his opponent's HP bar had fallen to less than half with just two hits, and both were even only Jack's normal attacks.
Blackjack immediately stepped back to put some distance after witnessing Jack's high damage output.
Seeing as the ranger was reluctant to approach, he left him and ran towards the Magician again. The Magician panicked, he tried to run away, but his movement speed was utterly lacking. The fighter with an axe wanted to chase and provide support but his speed was also not a match to Jack. Blackjack who realized he had made a mistake for allowing Jack some freedom to move, immediately ran forwards. But even though he was a ranger, he failed to catch up to Jack.
Jack came up to the escaping Magician in less than three seconds. During his chase, he received two hits from the other Magician's standard attack and one stab from Blackjack's Weapon Throw. He completely ignored them as their damages were slim. He sent Power Strike onto the escaping Magician's back, which caused critical damage. Jack had intentionally aimed his Power Strike downwards, which sent the Magician crashing to the ground. He then followed it up by delivering several rapid slashes to the helpless Magician lying on the ground.
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