Second World

Scarface continued to pay attention to the doppelganger. That fake Jack was now running straight at them.

”Something is wrong,” Scarface told the others.

”You bet something is very wrong,” Fat Gregory said. ”I wonʼt have joined this plan of yours if I know you are making us go against that monster. My guild lost a lot of good men down there!”

”Iʼm talking about that fake one!” Scarface explained to them while pointing at fake Jack who was coming closer.

”What about it? It is just an image,” Fat Gregory replied, his tone was completely undermining the alarm that Scarface was trying to indicate.

”He is right, why are you concerning yourself with a spellʼs after effect? We should be discussing how to defeat that real Storm Wind over there,” Queen Magenta expressed her thought.

”Leave it be, Scarface. It was harmless,” Manager Steelhand said.

”Let him waste his time as he like. Anyone else has called for reinforcements?” Prideful Josh spoke.

”I have one group that was doing hunting quests not far from here, they are on their way as we speak,” Manager Steelhand informed them.

”I have some people on the way as well,” another guild leader added.

Scarface saw no hope in relying on them as he heard their conversations. His eyes had never left the fake Jack, who was now at the foot of the small hill already.

Scarface walked away from them towards the path that doppelganger was going at.

”Hey, where are you going?” Manager Steelhand called out to Scarface.

”Leave him be, he had probably lost hope already about how to deal with this mess,” Prideful Josh uttered.

Scarface did not comment on their words. His attention was fully at the incoming doppelganger. He cast Mana Bullet at it. As everyone expected, the Mana Bullet went through fake Jack as if there was nothing there. He even used his best spell, the Entrapping Mana Claws, hoping that this unique spell of him had the effect of affecting the doppelganger.

”He has gone nuts,” Fat Gregory commented on Scarfaceʼs action. Prideful Josh laughed at the comment.

Scarface ignored them. He put himself in front of Jackʼs doppelganger as it approached. Scarface cast Barrier to protect himself and used his body as an obstacle. Yet the doppelganger still passed through him as everyone had expected.

”Fool,” Prideful Josh insulted him on his latest antics.

Scarface turned around and looked at the back of the doppelganger, who was now moving away from him. His eyes then landed in the direction where the doppelganger was heading at.

A realization came to him as he yelled to warn the others, ”he is going to save his friends!!”

The guild leaders were not putting much importance on Scarfaceʼs suspicion. Hence when he yelled, they did not really consider it to be serious and continued to ignore him. Not that it mattered anyway, because at the time when Scarface was yelling to warn the others, Jackʼs doppelganger was already very close to Bowler and the others. The three hostages were also confused by the scene of Jackʼs image coming towards them.

At that moment, the Jack which was fighting with the others a distance away, suddenly vanished, leaving only the Pyro Lynx in combat. The experts thought that he had used another unknown skill or spell again. They frantically looked around as they tried to locate where he had disappeared to.

After Jack activated his Body Double ability to change location with his doppelganger, he immediately took out two of his remaining three Disruptive Bombs. He threw the first one at the guards who stood behind Bowler and the others, for the second bomb he threw to the unsuspecting guild leaders.

Scarface who from the start had his suspicion on Jackʼs doppelganger, immediately put himself between Jack and the guild leaders. His Barrier was still active, he had no problem taking damage from the bomb.

That second bomb detonated after hitting Scarfaceʼs Barrier. Scarface was knocked back from the explosion but otherwise, he was fine. The other guild leaders did not suffer any damage as well. They had finally turned around after the sound of the explosion and saw Scarface who was stumbling towards them.

The first bomb that Jack threw at the guards also exploded. The guards were mostly oblivious, so they did not react at all to Jackʼs bomb. Jack had thrown the bomb a little bit away so as to not damage his friends. Most of the guards were killed by the explosion, only two survived, but Jackʼs slashes soon took away the survivorʼs remaining health.

Jack then made a fast swing and cut at each of the magic ropes that restrained his friends. Thankfully, the ropes were not so hard to cut. One slash was enough to take away the bindings.

The three immediately rose and took out their weapons. They stood behind Jack, ready to back him up.

”Are we going to continue this?” Jack asked Scarface and the others.

Fat Gregoryʼs eyes were wide with disbelief. ”How did you…”

”It doesnʼt matter!” Scarface cut him mid-sentence. ”An enemy is standing in front of us, ready your weapons!”

”So we are still doing this?” Jack asked again.

”Do not flatter yourself, we still outnumber you! Wait till our reinforcement arrive, you still wonʼt be able to escape us!” Queen Magenta uttered.

”Not if mine arrives first,” Jack replied with a smile as he pointed in a direction.

They turned to where he was pointing at and saw a group of people coming over. It was the group from White Scarfs. There was also another guild on their side, Saint Edge. They numbered almost three hundred people.

”How…? Why are they so fast? It was not yet two hours,” Manager Steelhand said.

Scarface was also in disbelief, but what he did not understand was why his mole was not informing him that White Scarfs group was nearby already?

While Scarface and the others were watching White Scarfs and Saint Edge groups, Jack asked Bowler and the others, ”why canʼt I send you messages?”

”That bald dude got something that can jam messaging function,” Bowler replied, referring to Scarface.

Jack nodded, Peniel did mention an item like that before, so he did not find it strange. What he found weird was why Scarface jammed their message. If they sent him messages about them being caught captives, wouldnʼt it be more convincing that Bowler and the others were indeed in Death Associatesʼ clutches?

While Jack saved his friends on that small hill, Silverwing and the others had just arrived on the battlefield. William of Wellington, an elder of Saint Edge, who was also the current acting leader of Saint Edge guild because the other leadersʼ whereabouts were unknown in this new world, was standing beside Silverwing. The two acting leaders watched the scene before them with disquiet.

”Where are the powerful force that is battling the coalition?” William of Wellington asked.

”There are many corpses though, so a fierce battle was fought here, and still ongoing since the corpses have not vanished,” Silverwing said. ”Look over there.”

He pointed at a place where they could see a portion of the coalition army in battle with a seemingly small monster. It was not so clear from the distance and also because the monster moved at high speed, but the monster looked like a fiery cat. Many of the players that were fighting with that monster were also on fire.

”Did that single monster do all the killings?” William of Wellington asked

”I told you not to trust that fellow,” a level 20 female Knight spoke. She was Williamʼs aide, her alias was Radiant Phoebe.

”Saint John might have his flaws, but I donʼt believe he means us harm,” William said. ”And the coalition does seem to have suffered quite a loss here. If we can capitalize on it, we can put a dent in their growth.”

”They still outnumber us by at least twice though,” Phoebe said, as she tried to estimate the number of players that were still alive. Jack did have killed a lot of players, but he was still only one person after all. There were still more than six hundred of the coalition players on the field.

”Look over there,” Bluedaze pointed at a small hill not far away. ”There were some players there, they seem to be fighting.”

”Itʼs just a couple of people,” Radiant Phoebe snorted. ”I still donʼt see the powerful force that was mentioned by John.”

”So, should we do this?” Silverwing asked. ”We have come all this way.”

”We will announce ourselves openly as the enemy of the coalition if we do,” Radiant Phoebe warned.

”Are we not already?” Silverwing countered. ”When we decided not to join their coalition, they have already seen us as adversaries.”

”Brother Silverwing is right,” William said. ”The coalition has been growing stronger by the day. We need to clip their wings before they become too strong for us to handle. This is one of our chances. Their formation looked to be in chaos, most are still focusing their attention on that monster. We should be able to take advantage of their disorganization.”

Silverwing nodded, ”yes, we should strike from the other side, less we get entangled with that monster as well. Saint John had also promised reinforcement, he should not be far away. We can do this.”

”Let us ride to battle then!” William of Wellington gave the signal for his guild to charge.

😉