Second World

After Jack came down from the roof, he decided it was time to rendezvous with Bowler and Flame. The distance between them and the Death Associates team was too short. Itʼs not enough for him to do multiple guerilla assaults. He opened up his Friend interface and was just about to send a message when he heard Penielʼs voice.

”Are you going to send a message to those two friends of yours? If so, better do it through party chat, this way, both of them can receive it at the same time.”

”Oh, I can do that?” Jack shifted the Party page. There was a chat option below the page next to the invite option.

”Do I need to pay coins as well?” He asked.

”Of course,” Peniel answered. ”But itʼs cheaper in comparison to messaging a Friend.”

”Oh? Then itʼs better to just use this function for messaging rather than using the Friendʼs one.”

”Thatʼs true as long as your friends always stay near you. The Party system would dissolve if your party members were far from you for a long period of time. And unless in special condition, if you go to a different region from the other party members, you will be kicked out from the Party. Additionally, you can only have limited members in a Party. So there are many limitations in using the Party chat compared to Friend message.”

While listening to Penielʼs explanation, he also input the message into party chat as time was short.

”Flame, you are being tracked by some kind of a tool from that Fox woman of Weary Wolf. They are coming towards your position at the moment. Find another hiding place thatʼs a bit further up the street from where you are now. Bowler, stay at the second-floor terrace but keep yourself hidden. When I give my signal, you fire at them at will. Flame wait until they are distracted before making your move. We will strike them with a three-pronged attack.”

A moment later, he received replies from them in the Party chat.

”Roger.”

”Okay.”

Jack saw on his radar that Flame moved as instructed. When he reached the Shopping mall, he could see a glimpse of Flameʼs figure before she disappeared into a corner. He took over Flameʼs original hiding place. He then looked at the radar, the dots indicating Scarfaceʼs team were approaching slowly, guessed they were advancing much more carefully now that they had been ambushed twice.

Hm? He looked at the dots and just noticed the color on them was different than before. It was black.

ʼHey, Peniel. Why are the dots of those Death Associatesʼ people in my radar are black?ʼ He asked through his mind.

”As I said, I donʼt know anything about that monocle of yours,” Peniel answered. ”But if they are black, then that means the dotsʼ colors are the same as the ones represented in the Map system. Black is indicating Enemy player. Before, they were blue, after you attacked them, they become black. Your allies, on the other hand, should be green instead of neutral blue.”

He observed the dots representing Bowler and Flame, and found out they were green as Peniel mentioned. This was good actually. In this way, he would not confuse between his allies and enemies when trying to determine their positions. He could now also differentiate between hostile players with hostile monsters which were red.

At that time, the black dots had come into his vicinity. He hid in a concealed place, so he was not able to see Scarfaceʼs team which had arrived as well. He relied on his radar to determine the timing of when to take action. Scarface and his people went past his hiding place towards where Flame was hiding. He could hear Foxʼs voice from his hiding place.

”She is over there. She changed her position a while ago, probably thought she could fool us. That stupid bitch, she must still not realize I can know her position all the time.”

Scarfaceʼs voice was heard next, ”Fox, Stay inside formation! Everyone, remain alert for an ambush!”

He must applaud Scarfaceʼs commanding skill. He could still keep everyone in line even after suffering losses from the two ambushes. Guessed he wouldnʼt become one of Death Associatesʼ leaders if he did not have a capability. Jack kept on waiting until they got into a more ideal position. He said in his team chat.

”Get ready.”

When they were closed to Flameʼs position, he heard Fox shout out, ”bitch! I know you are there, you can either come out or we can go and drag you out!”

Jack gave the signal.

”Now!”

Bowler rose from his hiding place and immediately cast Mana Bullet, Energy Bolts, and then threw out standard range attacks from his staff while his spells were on cooldown. Scarface who was originally paying attention to the rear, turned his attention to where Flame was hiding after hearing Foxʼs voice. He was just about to give the order for his people when torrents of spells came raining down on them. He looked back and saw Bowler was busy shooting at them.

”Up there!” Scarface cried out. He immediately returned fire with his own spells. Fox, whose focus of grudge was on Flame was conflicted. She looked at Bowler and back to the place where she had tracked Flame to, unable to decide where to attack. The other Magician in the team followed Scarfaceʼs lead and provided cover fire, but because Bowler was hiding behind steel railing and was positioned in upper elevation, the only attack that might reach him were only Energy Bolts which could track. The other attacks all missed or hit the railing.

”You two, get up there!” Scarface ordered the remaining two Rangers in the team other than Red Death. They had the fastest movement speed to get to the Magician.

In the meantime, Jack said through the team chat to Bowler, ”be careful of Scarfaceʼs attack! His damage is high. Try to hold out and continue attacking. I will let you know when the two rangers came near you.” Bowler, hearing Jackʼs warning, cast his Magic Shield to block Scarfaceʼs Energy Bolts.

Jack then came out from his hiding place which was on the opposite side from Bowler, Scarfaceʼs team still didnʼt notice him. He rushed to the Magician in the team apart from Scarface and Fox. He needed to reduce the pressure on Bowler. The Magician was caught completely off guard by Jackʼs sudden attack using Power Strike. He was thrown far off separated from the rest of his team. Jack chased after the Magician and continued attacking him.

Red Death whom reaction was fastest, immediately rushed to where Jack was hacking on the Magician. But she was too late, the Magician had been wounded to begin with, he had also suffered additional damage when Bowler made the sneak attacks. Jackʼs Power Strike then put him in critical condition. Jack simply followed up with a couple of normal attacks before the Magician lost his remaining health. By the time Red Death arrived, Jack had turned his attention on her.

”That will be the last of our members you kill!” Red Death told him as he performed Rangerʼs Swift Strike skill.

Jack was aware that the skill had a very fast attack, and he also knew this expertʼs precision would make it hard for him to evade the attack. So he never bothered to dodge the skill from the start. He made his attack at the same time as the dagger went through him. The suicide attack caught Red Death off guard, she was hit by Jackʼs attack for the first time.

Despite Jackʼs attack being just a normal attack, the damage was higher than Redʼs skill attack. She suffered 59 damage while Jack only got 24 damage. She was shocked, one hit had taken out a quarter of her life. She was also pushed back by the attack force, she could feel that Jackʼs strength attribute far surpassed hers.

Big Arm and Stonecleave were rushing over to support Red, while Scarface continued firing at Bowler. Scarface was worried about Bowlerʼs high damage attack, little did he knew that the high damage from the ambush of magician spells he previously witnessed were not from Bowler but from Jack instead. He thought that if he released the pressure on Bowler, they would instead be torn apart by his range attacks. He did not notice that the damages from this magician just now were much less than the ones from previous ambushes.

”What are you standing there for?!” Scarface yelled at Fox in annoyance as she still had not joined in attacking.

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