When the two groups on the arena wondered how the ten of them were going to fight in this small arena, two silvery portals appeared before them.
Pallas said after the portals appeared, "As mentioned, team battle will take place in a constructed arena dimension. Each group enters the portal in front of you. It will take you to your starting positions. From there, you will have to advance to search and defeat your opponents. Now enter! May the courageous be the victors!"
Both human and elf groups entered their respective portals. After the last member disappeared inside the portal, the portal vanished. Three giant images appeared in the sky. The top one showed the map of a region, while the two others each showed the five participants who had just appeared out from a portal.
The spectators looked at the map image. The region was a frozen tundra, sometimes there were swirls of ice clouds appearing at random spots. At two opposing edges of the map were five small icons. They surmised these icons represented the group of humans and elves. The map was very large, the two that appeared on opposing sides won't see each other right away. They needed to travel some distance before they met.
"Let the team match begins!" Pallas declared.
*
Inside the arena dimension, under chilly air and surrounded by a desolate frozen landscape, Jack and the others came out of the portal. They looked around. Their opponents were nowhere to be seen. There were several visible routes that they could take. In the distance, they saw blizzards forming and dispersing.
Pallas' booming voice was soon heard from the sky, telling them the match had begun.
"No wonder they give two hours for the time limit," Giant Steve said. "So, what should we do?"
"Okay, let us all start proceeding forward and… hey! Where are you all going?" Jack called when he saw Red Death, Yellow Death, and Princess Purple all went in different directions.
"The sooner we finish this, the better," Red Death said and dashed off.
"I don't care what you do, I will do whatever I want," Yellow Death similarly took off using another route.
Jack was speechless at the two. He then turned back and saw Princess Purple walking around before finding a suitable rock and sitting down.
"…"
"Are you going to just sit there?" Jack finally asked Princess Purple after some time.
"My job is only healing, right? If your HP is low, come back here and I'll heal you," She said nonchalantly.
"The heck… What if I need healing mid-fight?"
"Then break away from the fight and come back here."
"…"
"Uh… What should we do?" Giant Steve asked again.
"F*ck this! Steve, you stay with her. I know she is aggravating, but try your best not to kill her and protect her instead," Jack said.
Giant Steve sighed and took position next to Princess Purple.
"Uh, what a mess," Jack uttered. He then took the path straight forward from where they came out of the portal. He figured that should be the shortest route towards their enemies. He was not truly bothered by his teammates actually, he never thought of playing team himself. Once he encountered the enemy group, it should be over by then.
He checked his radar. It's not working. It was considered a tool as well. He tried sending messages to Giant Steve, he received notification that messaging is disabled within this dimension. 'Okay, let's do this search the old-fashioned way then.'
*
The spectators outside were baffled by the scenes. The human group separated from each other right from the start. The one image showing the human group now broke into four smaller images, showing each of their movements.
"Is that human team's tactic? Spread out to cover more ground in search for their opponents?" One of the spectators muttered.
The projection only showed images, they didn't project voices. So they didn't hear what the participants said inside the arena dimension. The others might not know what happened, but the human representatives understood.
Jeanny sighed, "This is what happens when opposing people are forced into a team."
"Can't help it. We are enemies, after all. It will be a miracle to ask them to work together," Selena remarked. She was sitting beside Jeanny. Although their two guilds were enemies, these two women still respected one another.
"Look! Unlike the human team, the elf team proceeds together. From the way they are moving, they will meet that red-haired human woman soon," a spectator commented.
"Good, I hope they meet soon. I want to see action," another spectator said.
"But she is just scouting, right? She should now be informing the others and wait for the other to arrive before engaging that elf group."
"She should be."
As they watched the image. They saw The elf group and the red-haired human spotted one another. When they were expecting the red-haired human to turn and run, she instead charged straight into the group.
"Huh?" Everyone was baffled.
*
Inside the arena dimension, Jennifer had taken her team to the right-side route. She thought the central route to be too obvious. Not long after, she saw Red Death coming at them. Jennifer had information about Death Associates, so she was aware of Red Death's expertise. She asked everyone to stop and observed their surroundings. Could this be a ploy where Red Death took their attention while her other teammates attacked them from behind?
The land where they were was mostly flat. Not an ideal place to lay an ambush. When she saw that no other humans were around, she concluded that Red Death was truly intending to take them alone.
"How arrogant!" Jeanny uttered, but this would be a good opportunity for them. She then gave her orders, "Assured, with me! Wonderman, lay traps behind her, cut her escape path! Grace and Omen, you two supports!"
Grace started by casting Empowering Prayer. Assured used Spectral Projection, his copy now stood beside Jennifer while he stayed behind and cast Spectral Discharge, giving him range attack capability. Wonderman summoned his Techno Golem, which was a yellow clunky-looking robot.
When Red Death was near, Jennifer, Assured's spectral projection, and Wonderman's techno golem came forward to receive her. Wonderman put two traps next to each other behind Red Death, sealing her escape path as was ordered. One of these traps was Immobilizing Trap, another was Lightning Trap. The lightning trap came from his level 35 skill, elemental trap, he had to choose an element when he first received this skill. He chose the lightning element, which made the skill become Lightning Trap. If opponents step on it, it would deal lightning damage as well as cause paralyze.
Jennifer used Piercing Spear. Red Death easily dodged that ranged attack. Jennifer followed up using her family spear art, Serpentine Swift Spear. Her spear spun deceptively before delivering a deadly strike. Yet, Red Death vanished just as her spear was about to hit.
"Behind!" Assured exclaimed when he saw Red Death materializing. He shot the energy accumulated using Spectral Discharge from his left hand, but Red Death disappeared again before his attack hit.
"What? Didn't she just use Phase Strike?" Assured uttered.
The one Red Death used was Back Shift, her non-standard advanced skill that he had used before when dueling Jack. It was a feint before she execute Phase Strike. These two skills back-to-back allowed her to shift position twice, fooling her opponents.
When she appeared the second time, she attacked for real. Jennifer however, was not a novice, she brought her spear to her back and blocked Red Death's stab. As she did, she saw a phantom dagger shift through her spear and stabbed into her mid-section.
The phantom dagger was Assassin's Unblockable Stab. The attack ignored Jennifer's high defense armor and also scored a critical. Red Death, however, frowned. The red damage number shown above Jennifer was 1400. Yet, Jennifer's HP was only lowered by half that amount.
Red Death could also sense mana, she sensed a link between Jennifer and someone further away. Bad Omen, the level 45 Reaver. She knew then what had happened. Jennifer was soul-linked to Bad Omen.
Soul Link was Reaver's exclusive skill that the class received upon passing the class trial on the first try. When a Reaver selected a target to be soul-linked, the caster and target's HP will always stay at the same percentage. Damage and healing received by both caster and target will also be shared. It was similar to Sentinel's Share Damage skill except Sentinel's skill didn't share healing, while Soul-link didn't reduce damage as Share Damage did.
Wonderman's techno golem came punching down at this time. Red Death backflipped to evade. Her figure was then divided into three, it was another of her non-standard advanced skill, Trinity Assault. The three figures stabbed forward at Jennifer, Red Death was intend on taking out the enemy's leader first.
Jennifer stabbed her spear into the ground. The ground in a five-meter radius around her lighted up. She was using Dragoon level 45 skill, Domain of Spears, numerous spears pierced out from the ground. The spears stabbed around the area, including allies. But the allies inside her domain were only Assured's spectral projection and Wonderman's techno golem, so it didn't matter.
Red Death's three images were useless since the spears stabbed all three. She ended up using her super jump high into the air to retreat from those spears.
While she was in the air, she suddenly sensed something on her left. She turned and was surprised to find Grace by her side. Grace's glowing mace came and struck her side. It was an attack done with Inquisitor's level 45 skill, Judgement Strike.. This skill dealt massive damage against undead, darkness, and demon creatures, but still dealt decent damage against all others.
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