Second World

By the time Warpath arrived at where Jack was, most of the Warriors had already fallen. Despite the hatred and anger in his heart, he still gulped. He couldnʼt deny that the pressure exuded by Jack did intimidate him as well. He steeled his heart as he forced his anger to take over. Without any words, he gripped his twin swords, a set of rare weapons, and lunged forward.

”You…,” Jack said when he saw Warpath arriving before him.

.

”Taste my Shadowless Slash!” Warpath exclaimed.

This was Warpathʼs trademark martial arts. In his past clash with Jack, he couldnʼt execute this martial art because he did not have sufficient strength and speed. Just as what Jackʼs grandfather always said to him, without sufficient strength and speed, any technique was useless. Now that he had reached level 30, he had the required attributes to perform the art.

Each slash of his sword produced five sword lights that carried equal power. He slashed six times in rapid succession, creating thirty sword lights. They were pure martial arts, not game skills. The others who witnessed the display couldnʼt help but admit that the fame earned by Warpath in the past games was justified.

Jack, upon seeing an expert display his martial skill, decided to respond in kind. To test the extent of his martial skill, who else but a martial expert to be the most suitable opponent? He unleashed the burst attack of his Formless Flowing Sword style. Twenty-four slashes clashed with Warpathʼs thirty sword lights. Numerous loud clashing sounds were heard.

Though the number of Jackʼs slashes was less, the power was more. Each of his slashes could nullify two to three of Warpathʼs slashes. Warpath stumbled back from the exchange, unable to believe the outcome. He had always believed his loss the last time was due to Jackʼs superiority in attributes and collection of skills, and he was not wrong.

He believed that if they were to compete with pure martial arts, he would defeat Jack without a sweat. Yet, he knew for a fact the move Jack executed just now was a martial art as well. Although the reason he had lost the exchange was indeed due to Jackʼs attributes surpassing him, he could also see that the martial move Jack had performed was not shallow.

Warpath gritted his teeth. He would have preferred it if he had been defeated by one of Jackʼs unfair game skills. That way, at least he would have retained his dignity. He shouted a loud yell as he lunged back. Delivering continuous Shadowless Slash one after another. Jack responded in kind. The two twin swords clashed repeatedly. The others had trouble seeing the movements of their swords. All they saw was swords lights flashing continuously in between the two as loud clangs of metal against metal continued to resound. None of the others dared to approach such an intense display of sword fight.

Jack could have defeated Warpath if he wanted to. His strength and speed trumped his opponent by a great deal after all, but he held himself back. Exchanging move with Warpath gave him the same feeling as when he was going against the two mannequins warriors during the Blade Dancer class trial. He felt that his sword art would improve further if he could continue to spar like this.

But of course, it was not possible that his opponents just stood there watching. He could feel mana build up underneath his feet. He quickly made a downward slash as he forcefully nullified Warpathʼs attack. He then agilely climbed over his opponentʼs body before giving Warpathʼs head a strong kick. Warpath was pushed down as Jack jumped higher into the sky.

At this time, the ground underneath them flared brightly. Torrents of energies shot up and swirled around. Warpath was completely engulfed by it. The torrents, however, didnʼt reach high enough to where Jack was. It was the Arcane Turbulence spell, cast by a band of Mages, spread out in layers to cover a huge area. It was too late for Jack to disengage when he had felt the mana disturbance, thatʼs why he escaped upward.

Scarface frowned heavily seeing what had happened. He was the one that had organized the mages to cast the spell, hoping to catch Jack off-guard while he was still engaging Warpath. He couldnʼt think of a reason why Jack had jumped up even before the spells took effect. It was as if he predicted it?

Before Jackʼs body fell down to the ongoing spell under there, he took out a magic scroll, Wind Jet, and activated it. It shot his body far away to the backline where the mages and Healers were located.

When Jack landed. It was as if a wolf had jumped into a cage full of chickens. The chickens looked at the wolf with terrified expressions, before they ran haphazardly, destroying any semblance of formation that was in place.

Jack did not waste any time, the twin swords on his hands danced around. Jack only needed two normal slashes to kill each of these mages and healers. And since he was now using two swords on each hand, he only needed one swing to make the two slashes and claim their lives.

Each time he hit them, a tiny shining orb swirled around his blade. As time passed, the number of these orbs increased. This was his inherent Blade Dancer ability that increased his damage as long as his attacks continued uninterrupted. By the end of the successful twenty slashes, he only needed one normal attack to kill the mages and healers.

He continued to move as his two swords spun around unceasingly. Those that knew no better would have thought he was dancing. The Formless Flowing Sword style was perfectly complimenting the Blade Dancer name. Everywhere he passed, a mage or a healer fell.

The number of casualties was already uncountable as the coalition experts tried to get to him. The order that they should prioritize on breaching the headquarters ʼ defense and only sparing some troops to hold Jack down was no longer in everyoneʼs mind. The ones that were closest to Jack were doing their best to run away, while those that were far away were trying to chase after him to provide help to their guildmates.

”I didnʼt personally see your fight in Crestfall plain, but I can say now that you are truly gifted in creating chaos, friend,” Jack heard Johnʼs words as he continued to weave through the enemies.

But sooner or later, he would run into an expert. Jack felt hot mana accumulating where he was about to head into. He stopped himself just before the ground flared up and torrents of fire swirled around in front of him.

Jack recognized the spell to be Arcane Turbulence, but one that had a fire element variety. Probably a spell that was evolved by a Fire Seed. Jack turned to look at the source and saw Selena. She was wearing a different garb now, distinct from the other mages. Jack did not doubt that they should be at least a collection of Rare grade equipment.

Jack remembered John told him that Selena was one of the few that had become an elite class, but that didnʼt deter him. He dashed forward to where she was standing, just as a very fast spell formation was formed. A familiar Fireball spell was unleashed from her staff.

Jack grinned, ʼletʼs see if your spell is stronger than my slash,ʼ Jack exclaimed in his mind as he used Cross Slash for the second time, just as the fireball was about to hit him. The enormous X-shaped sword light devoured the flaming ball as Jack continued to run through them. There was no damage on him. His physical slash was stronger than Selenaʼs Fireball.

He could see the surprise in Selenaʼs eyes. Perhaps the Elementalist had not expected Jack to use such brute force to get to her. But she was not a rookie who easily panic upon an unexpected situation. She rapidly cast another spell. Flame erupted around her just as Jack was about to arrive. Jack could feel the blistering heat. If he forced himself to get into melee with Selena, he would get burnt.

That was the Flame Shield that Selena had gotten upon successfully passing the Elementalist trial on the first try. Selena didnʼt just rely on the Flame Shield. It increased her defense but the spell did not exactly block any attack. She erected a Magic Shield as extra protection just in case Jack intended to ignore the fire damage and still forcefully get into melee with her.

Jack was indeed planning that, He didnʼt think the fire damage from that Flame Shield would be too dangerous for his high HP pool. But as he was about to advance more, he felt pressure coming at him from above. He quickly moved out of the way just as a large two-handed axe cleaved at where he was a moment ago. The axe caused the ground underneath to crack.

Jack recognized the wielder to be Supervisor Killmonger, another one that had become an elite class, a Berserker. However, his appearance was slightly strange. His exposed body, face and some parts of his arms, were covered by black tattoos. He remembered seeing similar tattoo ability from the Outlaws that used to occupy the bandit outpost here before it was turned into their Guild Headquarters.

ʼIs that the Berserk skill of the Berserker?ʼ Jack asked Peniel telepathically. She had gone back to her usual habit of hiding within her hidden dimension once this battle started.

ʼYes,ʼ he heard Penielʼs reply.

Supervisor Killmonger was then enveloped by a soft light. Jack turned and saw Princess Purple not far away. She had cast Protect on Killmonger, a standard spell received by Healer after level 25. It provided an extra defense to the target. The spell had effectively eliminated the only drawback of Berserk skill which reduced defense.

At that time, Jack also saw many other experts he had clashed with in the past. Assistant Manager Ironhand, Goliath, Grimclaw, Stonecleave, Slim Blade, Prideful Josh, Lustful Elly, Fat Gregory, Beauty Beholder.

Seeing all these experts were surrounding him, Jack couldnʼt help but wonder, ʼwhere is Red Death?ʼ

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