Chapter 404 - 404. Stopping The Outlaws’ Advances
John had beaten him to this situation and said, "Okay, six melees with the highest damage go and attack at will. The other melee will serve as a foothold to the ranged class so they can fire from above."
The Man was protesting. All of his men were melee, so most of his men were getting reduced to foothold roles. His mood had been down since being denied the battle with the outlaws. Now getting reduced to be footings for others to stand on, it was getting on his nerves.
Jeanny persuaded him and offered herself to be a footing as well since she was a melee too. John advised against it since Jeanny's damage was amongst the top for melee and she also used a spear, so she could actually stand behind the six melees and stab through the gap. Jeanny gave him a glare to shut him up. The Man was not a stone-headed guy, he saw Jeanny's sincerity so he swallowed his pride and asked his subordinates to do as John had instructed.
Jack was about to head over to the stone stele when John stopped him. "No, not you. You stay back," he said.
"What?! Why?" Jack was confused. "In case you haven't noticed, in terms of damage, I am numero uno."
"I'm fully aware of your freakish damage. But you are also our best fighter, so you will serve as our protector."
"Huh?"
"Any outlaw that forced itself over once we gang-bang this stele. You have to put yourself on its way to prevent that outlaw from reaching us."
'Damn it! Getting reduced to a bodyguard role,' Jack complained in his mind. The Man who saw his dissatisfied expression said, "Boss, do you prefer to be a foothold instead?"
"Uh… no, thanks. I'm good," Jack replied. He started casting a spell. When he saw the others took position and were about to hit the stele, he yelled, "wait, wait!"
The others looked at him with puzzlement. Jack's spell was completed and two identical Jack appeared. "Okay, go nuts!"
Jack also cast Barrier when the six melees sent their Power Strike onto the stele, with the range players propped up sent their Mana Bullet or Precise Shot all at the same time. The combined damage blasted at the stone stele, but they were surprised that the HP of the stele only went down around 2%.
"Shit! This is going to take some time, Attack at will! Attack at will!" John exclaimed, then to Jack he uttered, "you, pay attention to any stray!"
Everyone started to attack frenziedly. Jack returned his gaze to the fighting soldiers and outlaws, and he immediately spotted a change. All the outlaws had looked over to his side, more correctly, the stone stele side. They ignored the soldiers and tried to head over to protect the stone stele.
Since their main objective was to protect Jack and the outlaws at the moment were heedlessly tried to charge over to where Jack was, Matias and Diego quickly issued the order to stop the outlaws. The fighting shifted from trying to deliver damages as much as possible to try to hinder movements as much as possible.
Luckily after the passing time, the outlaw's numbers had diminished as the soldier's numbers increasing as more soldiers coming up the stairs. So, the soldiers could more or less keep most outlaws in check. However, the main problem was the three outlaw leaders, Uruk and his two Special Elite Deputies.
Out of his two deputies, the dual-dagger-wielding outlaw had very fast movement, many Knight Lieutenants had to work together to pin him down. While the other outlaw deputy was a nimble archer type. He ran and jumped around amongst the soldiers as he shot several arrows toward the players who were assaulting the stone stele.
Jack quickly put himself in the arrows' ways. He cut the ones he could while deflected with Magic Shield another portion, the remaining he stopped using his body protected by the barrier spell.
That archer was going to be a problem, Jack thought. But then he heard a sudden boom and saw a huge shockwave threw many soldiers away, including the two Knight-Captains. In the middle of the shockwave was Uruk who was holding his huge club with its tip on the cracked floor, which was still shining with leftover energy. That outlaw leader had just unleashed a skill.
Uruk then charged towards the stone stele.
"Stop him!" Matias shouted while trying to get up.
Many soldiers put themselves on Uruk's way, but one swing of Uruk's club sent them all flying. Jack came up in front of him in an attempt to block the ravaging outlaw.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Diego called out as he tried to rush over as well.
Uruk's club slammed down without mercy upon Jack's head. The club smashed directly onto the floor. Uruk watched Jack who was still in front of him, unharmed. He then saw another two Jack at different places. He realized he had been had. He bellowed an angry roar and was about to continue his charge when Diego came upon him.
Diego's bastard sword slashed at the unsuspecting Uruk from the side, but Uruk ignored the attack and continued to advance. Matias also arrived and put himself at the front. Uruk swung his club to blow him away, but Matias was ready, he lowered his stance and crossed both his saber and shortsword to block the blow. He was pushed away one step but remained in front of Uruk. Uruk had no choice but to stop and deal with the two. The other Lieutenants came to support the two Knight captains. Uruk remained their biggest threat.
At this time, the dagger-wielding deputy took the opportunity when many of the lieutenants were heading over to deal with Uruk, to slip through the gaps and dashed over to the players. Jack came to stand in front of him as well.
The deputy had seen how Jack fooled his leader, he was not getting duped by the same trick. He used his body to ram forward at Jack. Whether it was fake or real, the outworlder would not stop his advance. As expected, his body passed through Jack effortlessly, but another Jack came to his side and made a slash. He could feel the pain from that slash, this one was real!
He quickly swiped his two daggers in a wide arc, but Jack dashed away with extreme speed, evading the swipe before suddenly dashed back again in a flash and made another slash which was covered with flame. This second slash connected as well, the deputy felt a great pushing force. His feet skidded on the floor as he was unwillingly pushed back. Soon many soldiers took this chance to came upon his front and blocked his advance.
Jack's combination of Shooting Dash and Flame Strike had managed to alleviate the danger posed by the dagger-wielding deputy, but then he saw the archer-wielding deputy again kicked over the soldiers and used them as footholds to jump up into the air. Several arrows headed at the players again.
Jack was too far away this time. The arrow struck the melees whose backs were facing the fighting crowd. Luckily all the arrows were just normal attacks. None of them died, but their HP went down significantly. The Man was amongst them, he yelled, "Hey, boss! Where is that protection?!"
"Shut up! I am by myself here running back and forth!" Jack replied as he used Charge and put himself onto the arrows' trajectory again. "Hurry the hell up, will you people?!"
It's not like they were not in a hurry though, they had been attacking the stone stele like crazy since they started. Save from using AOE skills or spells which could also damage the six melees, the range players had used everything in their arsenals, but they still had 40% to go.
The archer deputy super agilely stepped on the soldiers' heads as he continued to jump forward, continued to shorten his distance from the stone stele. All the while continued shooting.
More arrows that cannot be cut or deflected, hit Jack's body and his Barrier finally popped.
The archer deputy made one last kick at a soldier's head and suddenly his body was launched far and high.
'Shit! It was that famous boss' leaping skill again,' Jack exclaimed in his mind.
That jump skill caused the archer deputy to suddenly appeared in front of Jack as he landed, leaving behind all the soldiers' barricades. Jack was face to face with the archer who was grinning.
'What the hell, do you think I am afraid of you just because you are higher level? You are still a ranged type, moron!' Jack exclaimed in his mind as he sent out a slash.
The archer again showed his nimbleness. He ducked down with superb speed, evading the slash, while at the same time his body rotated and had his leg swiped at Jack's feet. Jack lost his balance as the archer lifted his bow up and had one of its sharp ends impale down at the falling Jack.