Chapter 277 - 277. Hellish Explosion
The human walls from the front and back soon squeezed into him and limited his movement. The rangers from behind started stabbing through the gaps, nipping at Jack's HP.
Oh, so you want to play rough, eh? Have at thee! Jack screamed in his mind as he activated the Life Burning Art. His body exploded with a red aura as all his already high attributes doubled to a new height. He rammed at the human wall again. Different than before, the Fighter that received Jack's slam could no longer keep his position. He felt like his arms were being torn apart as they were forced to break away from his comrades' hold. A gap was created, and Jack did not waste it. He used Charge as he barged through everyone on his way, dealing damage all the way.
He looked at the Healers who were not so far away. Those healers instantly felt goosebumps after being stared at by that fiery demon. They turned around trying to run and create distance.
Sword of Light! The crescent light crashed into the back of a fleeing healer, directly claiming his life.
"Now that feels better," Jack said. He had no actual enmity with those healers, but it was just annoying having them disrupt his fighting patterns.
He took out a Heal scroll and used it. The Life Burning Art had directly taken 30% of his life and was still eating his HP slowly, while his fight from the start was not without wounds. He had suffered several hits and with the activation of Life Burning Art, he had less than half-life remaining. The Heal scroll immediately brought his HP to a safe level. He then proceeded to use the Regeneration scroll. His life started to recover by 5 HP per second. The Life Burning Art ate 1 HP per second while the Regeneration spell healed him by 5 each second. So he was still healing by 4 HP per second.
This was amazing, he thought. If he could keep using the Regeneration spell, he could sustain the Life Burning Art indefinitely!
'How long does this regeneration spell lasts?' He asked Peniel.
"1 minute," Peniel answered him.
That was short, but still, it meant he could have a free 1 minute long of Life Burning Art. Not wasting the advantage, he continued wreaking havoc amongst the coalition troop.
On the small hill where the leaders of the guilds were spectating the fight, Prideful Josh's expression was ugly. There were several of his men amongst those that died. Including the Knight that had tried to block Jack's advance. An advanced class player was still rare, it was not easy for one to pass the test. A loss of an advanced player was a heavy blow to a guild.
"Now do you understand why I called everyone over?" Scarface said to him.
"Hmph! He was just a bit talented. He will fall soon, no one will be able to fight an entire army by himself," Prideful Josh found admitting a wrong was beneath him.
"That's true," Scarface agreed. "However, we can't waste too much manpower to wear him down. Better to sacrifice some to bring this to a swift conclusion. We still have the White Scrafs group to deal with. We need to conserve our strength."
"You have a proposal?" Prideful Josh asked.
"Yes," Scarface said as he took out a dark red color magic scroll. He then told everyone, "have your people's advanced classes out of the battlefield! Only leave the ones that we have promised for compensation."
Before the fight, Scarface had asked each guild to inform their people involved in this operation that those who died will be given compensation. There will be a possibility as well that a sacrificing move might be needed. Those with the lowest level have the duty to hold back the enemy. At first, no one was taking it seriously. After all, the enemy was one man. Only if White Scarfs guild appeared then the move might be used. But it appeared that Scarface was serious about deploying that killer move now.
The others found this idea inconceivable. Yet, seeing their members dying continuously on the field below, they had no choice but to swallow this bitter pill. They either use that sacrificing move or they sent their elite members into the foray. However, doing that would mean a possibility of them losing said elite members. These elite members were the foundation of their guild. Losing them would cripple their guild's strength. They were not ready to take that risk yet.
Queen Magenta glanced at Scarface and couldn't help but wondered, 'is this the reason why he sent Red Death away? Because he was afraid that she might die in this battle?'
The instruction was soon relayed. Many advanced classes started to pull back and distanced themselves from where Jack was fighting. The only ones remaining were those with the lowest levels. They had bitter faces as they knew they were about to be sacrificed, yet they had no choice in the matter. At least they knew they would be compensated for their losses. Their equipment will be resupplied once they came back to life, and there would be a veteran from their guild that would power-level them back to their current level. For coins and their other possessions, they had submitted them to the upper management for safekeeping. They would get those back after they came back to life.
Jack was not aware of the enemies' movement. In fact, he found the fight becoming easier. He just thought that he was getting used to the rhythm of the battle, instead of registering that those that fought him at the moment were all low-level basic classes, until the red dots' movements in his radar caught his attention. Many red dots were actually moving away, leaving only a cluster of red dots around him.
What are they trying to do? Jack thought in puzzlement.
Jack then paid better attention to the players around him. After better observation, these players did not seem to be too intent on damaging him. Some were not even holding their weapons. They crowded around, interlocking with each other just like what the fighters had done when they formed the human wall. But this time all of them were doing the same, making it multiple layers of human walls.
They were trying to hold me down, Jack realized. What for?
He then caught the sight of someone familiar coming near. It was Scarface, he was accompanied by a few subordinates. The Mage was holding something that looked like a magic scroll.
"Dark red color!" Jack heard Peniel's worried voice. "That magic scroll he was holding was at the same level as the Chain Lightning you used previously, probably stronger."
Ugh, really? With all the high defenses his gears provide, combined with his high attributes, he wondered if it was possible for him to survive a spell of that level? It was not wise to try to find out. However, at this moment, it looked like he had no choice but to find out.
He saw Scarface unfurled the magic scroll. A string of runes was formed, which soon shaped into a spell formation with five runes.
"Oh no! It's the Hellish Explosion!" Peniel exclaimed as she recognized the runes of that spell formation.
'How strong is it?' Jack asked.
"Very! And your Magic Wall scroll will not be effective against it, it hit the entire area with a very wide range of effect!"
The magic scroll disintegrated as the spell formation came into power, the runes flared and a tiny whip of flash appeared in the sky above Jack. Jack made a decision and he activated Dragon's Eye skill.
The flash in the sky retracted into a tiny red dot before blowing out into a shuddering explosion. A deafening sound caused the ears of the others nearby to buzz, while Jack and the crowd surrounding him were totally consumed by a giant red ball of energy. Everyone could watch that giant red ball had torrents of energy spinning around inside it in a violent manner. A strong shockwave radiated out of it and pushed everyone in its surroundings away. Some with weaker constitutions fell to the ground due to the shockwave.
Scarface stood his ground, resisting the force of the shockwave, as his eyes continued to stay on that explosive spell. His guild had paid a high price for that scroll. It was the highest level spell available in that magic scroll shop. Its high damage and large area of effect made it the most effective spell to deal with an opponent with high movement speed like that Jack. The spell itself should already be enough, but he didn't allow any possibility of it failing, hence his instruction for those low-level members to sacrifice themselves in order to hold Jack down.
The ball of energy soon receded. The red gale that was swirling within the ball of energy started to diminish and slow to a breeze. The area which had been devastated by the spell was covered by a thick cloud of dust. Within the dust, shadows of people lying on the ground could be seen. The dust continued to dwindle as time passed. The outer parts of the destroyed ground started to be revealed. Numerous corpses littered the ground.