Chapter 168 - 168. Crushed By Underlings
While Bowler was gloomy with the condition, he noticed a shadow moving swiftly behind the man he was kiting. The man's body jerked as the shadow backstabbed him. When the shadow stopped to stab the man, Bowler could see the person clearly. It was Fierce Flame, she had arrived in the nick of time!
The man backstabbed by Fierce Flame turned around and swung his sword, but she ducked from the swing while delivering another two stabs swiftly. The man's HP kept on falling rapidly. The man cleaved down, but Flame had already rolled away, she was just too quick for him. Bowler did not stay idle, he continued barraging the man with his spells and range attacks while the guy was busy with Flame.
When Fierce Flame got up from her roll, she surprisingly took out a blue short bow and an arrow. She made a quick draw on the bow and released the arrow, which traveled in a straight line and lodged accurately at their assailant's forehead. The guy got critical damage, which emptied out his HP pool. The body fell limply on the ground.
"Bow?" Bowler asked.
"Later!" Flame uttered, he took out another arrow and started firing at the people who ganged up on The Man.
Bowler followed suit. The two of them fired from afar. With the interference of range attacks, the three assailants lost their advantage. The Man did not let the opportunity go to waste as he fought back even more fiercely. One of them got their HP depleted not long after. The leader of the enemy team, seeing that the situation had turned for the worst, decided to turn tail and run. His friend who was still fighting was dumbfounded by his leader's action.
"I will avenge you!" The selfish guy still had the gall to utter a remark.
"Coward! Stay back!" The Man exclaimed with contempt. His body shot forward, his foe who was still in melee with him was knocked aside by his move. It was the Charge skill that he had acquired after becoming a Warrior. The skill brought him rapidly towards the fleeing guy. The guy obviously did not expect this move. There were still not many people who had managed to become a Warrior, so this class' skill sets were still largely unknown to most people.
The Man's Charge bashed onto the fleeing guy's back and caused him to trip and fell on his face. The Man did not show any mercy, he stomped on the guy's back, preventing him from getting up, while kept on hacking him with his axe. Bowler shivered seeing The Man's brutality. Fierce Flame, on the other hand, was oblivious of it, he kept shooting at the other guy who The Man had knocked over when he chased after the fleeing guy.
The remaining two assailants were soon killed off by the three of them. As the battle ended, their corpses vanished, leaving behind a few items. Never had the four of them expected that they would be the ones getting sent back to spawn point with all their levels and items reset.
The Man sat down and drank recovery potion after they dispatched the attackers, allowing his Natural Body Recovery to also add onto the recovery. Bowler went around collecting the drops. He did not forget to ask Flame about his previous question, "you used bow?"
"I am an advanced class now," Fierce Flame replied. "I am an Archer."
"Wow. I have thought at first you will be choosing the melee Rogue class instead," Bowler commented.
"And why did you think that?"
"Well, um… Because of the way you fight? You being so aggressive and all…," Bowler answered with some hesitation.
Fierce Flame rolled her eyes at him. Her expression soon turned stern. Bowler thought at first that Flame would be scolding him for his comment, but she lifted up her bow and shot at one of the bushes. The arrow flew straight and sank into the bushes, a metallic clang was heard.
A man with a large frame soon appeared. "I've never thought to see another advanced class here. If you are not a woman, I would have tempted to ask you to join our guild," he said.
"Hmph, even if I am a man, I will not bother to join your stinking guild," Fierce Flame retorted.
The large man's face darkened after hearing Flame's insult on his guild.
"Goliath!" The Man exclaimed, he stood up and brandished his axe.
The Real Man came out from Goliath back, followed by numerous players who emerged around them. They had been surrounded.
The Real Man smirked, "I should commend you for managing to dispatch five of my people, although that would only serve to infuriate me. I will make sure that you and your friends pay for them now!"
"They have nothing to do with our quarrel, let them go! This is just between you and me," The Man demanded.
"That was still a reasonable request if before, but after they assisted you in killing my people. Don't you dare to expect that they will be spared!"
Goliath laughed, "not that you plan to let them go anyway, right?"
"True," The Real Man said with a smug smile. "Those that befriend you will face the consequences. We will see if there are any other people that are still willing to be your friend after this. Don't you worry, after you, we will take care of your remaining underlings who are calling themselves members of that upstart gang of yours, Men of Solidarity. You will soon find yourself in a gang with only one member left, yourself!"
"Pah! Quit your yapping, you dimwit!" The Man spat. "You and all your scheming, you have no place to call yourself Warriors of Solidarity. If your old man knows of this, he would be turning in his grave."
"You and that old fool are the same! Both old-fashioned dolts! If we kept on following those outdated principles, the guild will just keep on declining. It had already been difficult in the past when the guild was just for games and money-making avenues, now this world is like the real one. If we don't improve, many will target our guild to devour it!"
"Heh, you are just trying to justify an excuse for your cowardly and selfish acts. Stop trying to delude yourself like you are doing something for the good of the guild."
"You stubborn old fool!" The Real Man was fuming with a red face.
"Why are you wasting your breath," Goliath interrupted. "Just get this over with."
Bowler was depressed, he had the urge to scold the crap out of that Goliath guy. He was hoping that this verbal bickering would last longer. At least it would give them more time to wait for Jack's arrival.
The Real Man seemed to calm down after the reprimand. He nodded. Why did he get angry over that old fool's words? "Get them!" He gave his command to his people.
His lackeys had been waiting for the order, they lunged forward immediately once the word was given. Bowler and Fierce Flame responded by throwing their range attacks at them. Since they were all melee fighter class, they could only eat those attacks while making their way over.
When they got close, The Man didn't shy away. He met them head-on. This time he did not use Swing immediately. Instead, he rammed his body onto the closest one, stunning the guy. The others assisted at once by sending attacks on The Man.
The Man ignored the first round of attacks, he executed Swing when all of them were hitting at him, trading life with them. The Man was higher in level and was of stronger class, his gears also completely outmatched his opponents, hence his one attack dealt much more damage to them compared to their individual damage on him. However, since there are so many of them, their total damage combined also caused substantial HP loss to The Man.
Some of the players came after Bowler and Fierce Flame, as too many were already ganging up on The Man. Flame could still contend with the Fighters when they came in range as she could still use her dagger and her past Ranger skills. Bowler, on the other hand, had to retreat to keep them in range. The battle shifted to being fought on three fronts. The Man, Bowler, and Fierce Flame could not help one another. They could only fend for themselves the best they could.
The Real Man and Goliath were just standing a distance away, they did not even need to involve themselves.
"See, you are too worrying. There is no need for me to interfere. He is no longer good enough in his age," Goliath said.
The Real Man was laughing when he saw his opponent's condition. Nothing felt better than seeing the person opposing him got crushed by his underlings.