Second World

”What are you planning to do?” Earmouth asked him.

”I will flank them,” Jack repeated. ”Itʼs impossible to go through that plant wall spell.”

”Yeah, no shit. Donʼt you think we would have done it already if we can? This place is like a maze, you can easily lose yourself if you wander off aimlessly.”

”Donʼt worry, I have a way to know the right direction,” Jack replied with a wink.

”Iʼm not worrying, and why the f**k did you just give me a wink for? I just donʼt want you to go off by yourself. I will need you here to help fight when the spell wears off.”

”Look at that guy,” Jack pointed at John who was at the top happily blasting the mob down there. ”Do you think thatʼs the face of one who is worrying about when his spell runs out?”

Earmouth didnʼt answer the question, his solemn face showed that he knew that point as well.

Jack continued, ”he had planned this, man. Ruining your meeting, riling you up. He had known from the start that you are coming for him, and he had prepared this trap beforehand. You will just play into his hand if your hope is on the spell running out.”

After a long moment of silence, Earmouth finally said, ”do you really think you can find your way to their flank.”

Jack clapped his shoulder as the guy had done to him before and added with a thumb up. ”Iʼm a cunning son of a b**ch, bro,” he said with a smirk. He then turned and left without waiting for Earmouthʼs comment.

Earmouth had a bad feeling, but not for Jackʼs safety. He had no care for the man. In fact, his bad feeling was on the man, he had been having the feeling since he started talking with him. He had always been good at detecting lies. His sixth sense had been blaring off since he started talking with the man. He had been talkative with him all this while, trying to see if he could make him slip and gave him a hint.

But then again, he couldnʼt deny that the manʼs argument made sense. If they just waited it out like that, and John still had a trick up his sleeve, they would end up getting decimated instead. If the news spread about how the three guildʼs large number of troops got wasted by a handful of unknown players, their reputation would go down the drain.

The leader of Corporate United team, the level 17 Warrior, had already fallen from getting ganged up by the enemy fighters while he was unable to move. Whichever way the battle here ended, the Corporate United would already be the laughingstock. He definitely cannot let that happen to Death Associates as well. He needed to keep as many of his guildmates alive as possible, and not let Johnʼs people escape alive, thatʼs the only way they could maintain their dignity.

He couldnʼt believe it would turn out like this. This was supposed to be an easy hunt, the many bullying the weak. But the reality in front of him was completely different.

Earmouth continued to observe the fight in front of him, or rather, the one-side thrashing in front of him. The three guild members that were trapped inside the rock alley kept on wasting their recovery potions. Some had even run out, they tried to hide behind their comrades to avoid getting attacked. It was still fine if they hide behind their own guild members, but when it was the other guild members, they instead ended up quarrelling among themselves. Things had gotten really chaotic inside. Casualties continued to increase.

When a long time had passed, Earmouth noticed the plant wall on the other end started withering, before they collapsed to the ground. The sight created a clamor to the players trapped inside. They bellowed a thrilled outcry as they rushed over to the open path. They finally could get their revenge on the people.

Yet, as soon they almost came out of the opening from the rock alley, vines sprouted out from the ground again. The foremost batch that was eager to escape from the alley got stuck at the wall of vines, just like their predecessors. The Fighters at the other side of the wall were grinning as they approached the trapped victims and started dishing out attacks.

”Motherf**kers! How many of that scrolls he has?!” Earmouth cursed out resentfully.

”What are those things?” One of his people that didnʼt rush in asked.

”It was a magic scroll, a tool that can be used to release high-level spells,” Earmouth explained.

”Why didnʼt our guild have them as well?” His people complained.

”We have them, but only the highest authorities hold them,” Earmouth said. ”Those things are expensive. Our guild needs coins for guild base, so expenditure is limited. That guy sure is royal, how the heck did he has enough coins to buy so many magic scrolls?”

While they were chatting, Jack had been halfway. He was not lying, he did able to determine direction by using his radar. Although the path was confusing and kept on branching out, he could check on the position of the players and know which direction he should be heading towards. As if a spectator with a bird-viewpoint was guiding him, hence the maze within this rock formation was not at all troublesome to him.

However, he was not serious about flanking Johnʼs party. After all, his original enemy was Death Associates, why should he help them? He should be helping John in decimating them instead. And thatʼs what he was planning to do. Even so, he would still prefer to keep up his guise inside the guild. Thatʼs why he separated himself from Earmouthʼs team.

He looked around to make sure that no one was watching. He then started casting a spell. A glowing rune started forming at the tip of his staff. After one rune was formed, it didnʼt stop. It continued until three runes were formed into a spell formation. The spell took effect and a shadow slowly took shape next to Jack. The shadow solidified until it formed a person that was completely identical to him.

He looked at the doppelganger in front of him. The Mage copy looked back at him. This Body Double spell of him took a lot of time to cast as he was required to form three runes. But it was not an issue, he didnʼt think this spell was a suitable spell to use within combat. He usually just used it to prepare for an escape route, so he could take his time in casting it before battle, under a safe situation.

Still, he was not using this spell as a mean to escape this time. He was planning to use it as an alibi.

”Letʼs see if this works,” he mumbled to himself.

He then deactivated the Orb of Disguise and reverted back to Storm Wind. He looked at his doppelganger, and breathed out a relief. The copy was still having the appearance of Unrivalled Arcaner. The black dots and green dots on his screen all changed into the neutral blue dots that represented players. His guild alignment as Unrivalled Arcaner was no longer valid once he transformed back to Storm Wind.

”All right then,” He said gleefully and guided his doppelganger to continue on his way towards Johnʼs people. He himself traced back to where he had come from after applying Whetstone to his weapon and ate one Sweet Dumpling to boost his damage output.

At the rock alley, the coalition of three guildʼs members had lost one-fifth of their numbers, with many members were without full health and had run out of their recovery potions. The Magicians above had prepared many mana recovery potions to keep their attacks at a steady pace. If this continued, the three guilds might really end up getting wiped out by the handful of these players.

Earmouth looked at the situation with grim expression. He couldnʼt continue on being passive.

”Spread out! Find a way to get up there,” he commanded his available underlings.

But before they moved, one of them uttered, ”look!”

They turned to where the person was pointing at, which was the other end of the rocky alley. The vines of the plant wall were not jam-packed with each other, so they could still see whatʼs behind it. The five Fighters of Johnʼs team were startled as an unknown player had suddenly appeared behind them.

”It was Unrivalled!” One of them exclaimed.

It really was him, the son of a b**ch truly managed to find his way there, Earmouth thought with a surprise. He saw Unrivalled Arcaner waving his staff around challenging the Fighters.

”What the f**k is he doing?” Earmouth cursed. The man was taking his melee fighting skill to a stupid level. Why didnʼt he just blast those Fighters to smithereens with his spells? Was he taking the critical situation at this moment as a game?

Unrivalled retreated as two of the five Fighters advanced on him. They were soon gone from view as they disappeared behind a rock wall.

Earmouth was still swearing his mouth off when he heard screams from behind.

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