Bowler brought The Man further through the woods, but gradually they found the trees starting to get sparse. They then realized that they had been pushed out to the other side of the woods. When they were nearing the edge, they saw outside the woods was a wide savannah. A few men were standing outside the woods at a large interval between each other. They seemed to be watching the woods.
“I bet those people are also from Warriors of Solidarity,” Bowler said.
“Damn it! They really have thought this through,” The Man cursed. There was no tree or tall grass to use for hiding out there. We will be caught if we go out.”
“What to do? Cannot go out, we cannot go back as well…”
“Screw it to hell! Let’s just fight our way out!” The Man exclaimed, he pulled out the Chief Axe that he had gotten from Jack.
“Wait! Don’t be reckless. If we go out, they won’t fight it out with us. They will just hinder us until their main group behind us catches up. We will be surrounded by then.”
“Then what do you propose us do?” The Man said in exasperation.
Bowler could not reply. He looked at the savannah outside with a defeated feeling. Should they try their luck charging out? How did it come to this? He remembered he was hanging with The Man and his group a few days ago. The Man had just achieved level 15, he said he would be challenging the Warrior class then.
Afterward, they parted way. When they met again, The Man was still a Fighter. Bowler asked if he had failed the class change, he said he had not taken it. He said an adversary of his had taken it and gotten his level reduced by 1. He decided that he would take the prudent way instead and leveled up another two levels before he went at it. He did so and managed to become a Warrior just yesterday.
He invited Bowler to celebrate in the tavern. During their celebration, a group came in and sat at the table not far from them. The Man recognized the group and started to trash talk to them. Bowler did not know the group at the time but later found out that the group was from the famous guild Warriors of Solidarity.
It appeared that The Man used to be one of its members, but he had left the guild. Apparently, both sides still held a grudge against each other. The lead man from Warriors of Solidarity, someone with an absurd name called The Real Man, responded to The Man’s provocation. The verbal altercation soon ended up with them agreeing on settling their dispute with a duel somewhere outside the East gate. The Man, true to his manly manner, agreed upon it.
That was yesterday. The agreement of dispute settling was today’s morning. The Man brought only two of his underlings as it was supposed to be a duel. While Bowler came just because he was interested in the show. When The Real Man showed up, he was accompanied by a large number of people.
Bowler had felt uneasiness when he saw the large crowd, but The Man maintained his position. He still believed that the other side only brought the crowd as spectators and intimidation factor during the duel. Among their group was a large man they called Goliath, who was surprisingly also a Warrior and also level 17. Bowler and The Man first thought that this large warrior would be the one representing Warriors of Solidarity for the duel, since The Real Man was still at Fighter class.
But then everything went to shit from there. They ganged up on The Man’s small party. Evidently, they had been planning to abuse using their larger numbers right from the start. They never had any intention on a fair duel. Bowler and The Man could only manage to break through their siege after The Man’s two underlings sacrificed themselves. The area outside the East Gate was mostly open space, hence they had difficulty in hiding. The way back to the Capital was blocked by Warriors of Solidarity. They could only run to the small woods not far away. And they had been on the run since.
While Bowler was deep in thought, suddenly he heard the ruffling of bushes by his side. Has Fierce Flame or Storm Wind arrived? He thought with rising hope. He turned to the direction of the bushes and saw a short and plump man with a rough countenance coming out of it. The short man looked at them with an expression of surprise, before abruptly yelled out, “found them! They are here!”
“Motherf***er!!” The Man cursed and lunged at the guy, swinging his axe before the short guy managed to take out his weapon. The guy was smashed hard onto the ground, damage appearing on it. The Man released all his pent-up frustration on the poor guy, he continued to slash violently with his axe. The guy seemed to be yelling something while being chopped by The Man, but Bowler could not hear what he was yelling about as The Man was also screaming at the top of his lungs while he was swinging his axe. So much for hiding, Bowler thought helplessly.
Before long, the poor guy’s body stopped moving, his HP had reached 0. But his body did not disappear, meaning the battle had not yet ended. Several people came out around them.
“Hehe, looks like the reward will be ours,” one of them say.
“Yeah, let’s finish this before the other teams arrive,” another added. The group from Warriors of Solidarity seemed to have broken up again to form more teams with a smaller number in order to cover more ground.
“Good! I’ll take as many as you before that!” The Man shouted with fervor.
He executed Swing on the newcomers, but they had seen it coming, so they could avoid it easily.
“Haha, he is nothing! Didn’t the leader say he is a good fighter? Maybe in the past,” one of them started to mock The Man’s failed attempt.
Another of his friends was just about to join in the mocking when five balls of light came rushing at them. Bowler had reached level 15 at the moment and he had upgraded his Energy Bolts to level 8, allowing him to shoot five bolts when casting the spell.
The five bolts hit the four unsuspecting pursuers. They were told that they were chasing people from Men of Solidarity, which were all male with Fighter class, they didn’t expect one of their preys to turn out to be a mage. Out of the four, only one managed to avoid damage by slashing on the incoming bolt.
The Man took the opportunity while they were stunned by the Energy Bolts to dash in front of one of them and used Power Strike. The move sent the sucker flying and crashed onto a thick tree trunk. The other three were furious that they were losing despite being twice their quarry’s number, and started to gang up on The Man.
Bowler cast Mana Bullet and shot standard range attacks to lifted the pressure off The Man. One of their assailants who was also the one that had slashed at Bowler’s bolt previously, yelled to one of his friends, “you, go take care of that mage!”
The guy promptly broke out of the fight and turned to Bowler. The man who had just given the order appeared to be the leader among their team. He was also the one with the most decent fighting ability among the others. Despite being outclassed by The Man, he could still manage to keep The Man on his toes with the help of his other friends.
The opponent who had been sent flying to the tree was still alive, he drank a recovery potion and soon came back to join the bout. With three people ganging up on him, The Man was having difficulty. He kept on losing HP as the fight went on.
Bowler used the surrounding trees as he ran around and kited the guy that had been sent to deal with him. Luckily, the guy did not invest many points in his dexterity. But when he looked at The Man, his heart sank. With the way things were proceeding, they might lose the fight even before the enemy’s main team reached them.
