Jack couldn’t keep on being passive anymore in this valley, it would take too long of time for them to complete the quests otherwise, not to mention the others were having trouble fending off these flying monsters. When Jack sent his attacks, the Green Harpy and Bald Eagle started to fall down in droves. These monsters were high level compared to the other field monsters they had encountered, but their HP was low, probably compensating for their flying ability. Hence with Jack’s high damage, it just took him a few hits to kill one harpy or eagle.
Jack could feel the respect in the glints of his team members’ eyes, except Warpath. The guy still had the illusion that he was the main character. He kept on chasing after the Green Harpy, who flew low, bringing him away from the team. Suddenly another Green Harpy swoop in from behind. Its two large claws grabbed onto Warpath’s shoulder.
Warpath tried to turn to strike at the harpy grabbing onto him, but the claws were like iron grip preventing him from moving his arms too much. He heard the flapping of wings and felt the rush of air around him. He soon felt his body became weightless as his feet separated from the ground below. He looked up and saw the Green Harpy, grinning savagely showing a row of yellow sharp teeth while lifting him up into the air.
The other harpy which he was chasing previously, clawed at his defenseless torso, enjoying her sweet revenge. Warpath could feel the pain as his HP ebbed away at the attacks. He screamed and struggled, but he could not escape from the grip, his body dangled helplessly in the air while the other harpies feast on him.
All his martial art skills were useless under his current sealed position. He was unwilling, he had worked himself hard to get back to level 12, even at the cost of spending half of his nights to continue on grinding for experience. Did he have to restart again?
A large blast sounded nearby him with an explosion of light, he then felt the claws holding him got loose. His heavy body fell to the ground below. The other harpies chased after him but he immediately rolled away once he touched the ground. He could see from the corner of his eyes, several balls of light went past him as he rolled and struck the harpies that chased after him.
He quickly determined the position of the team and run back to them while he took out a basic healing potion to drink.
When he arrived, Bangstick said to him, “you should thank the leader, his spell was the one that struck the harpy that was holding you.”
Warpath looked at Jack instinctively, Jack took the opportunity to say sternly, “if you run off again like before, I will just let you die the next time.”
As a matter of fact, Jack did indeed think of letting the guy die when he saw him dangling in the air among the harpies. Why must he save someone who obviously had a grudge against him? It would just be nurturing an enemy for the future. But if he lost a team member in this first mission, he was afraid that it might affect the guild’s opinion of him. So, he reluctantly intervened.
After seeing what had happened to Warpath and witnessing Jack’s damage power, the group was more vigilant and more obedient to Jack’s orders. The four melee players stood around the three magic users in a circle, swinging their weapons at the harpies and eagles that flew near. With the close protection, the two magician girls had an easier time sending their range attacks.
Jack himself had no trouble dodging when the avian monsters swooped down, he even took the chance to knock the incoming eagle using his staff, causing it to fall to the ground. He then called Suckit over to finish the poor bird off.
“Why don’t you pick someone your own size, fattie?” Bangstick teased.
“Why don’t you just suck it!?” Suckit retorted.
“Cut the crap! Focus on the fight,” Jack reprimanded. The guys could joke again meant they were feeling relax again, which was not necessarily a good thing. Overconfidence would cause them to make mistakes, thus Jack had to play the strict instructor role.
When they got deeper into the valley, another monster showed up, the Giant Worm. It burrowed inside the ground and only came out to attack when it was near. This monster was contrary to the flying harpy and eagle, which mostly required range attackers to deal. This burrowing monster instead was difficult to hit with range attacks.
They could see the ground bulged up as it moved closer to them, but when they shot the moving soil, it only broke up a little bit of the soil, the Giant Worm behind it didn’t suffer any damage. They could only attack after it was close enough that it came out from the ground and revealed itself. At that time, the monster was already in melee range. Hence range attackers were instead having trouble dealing with this monster.
Because of the situation, Jack split them up. The two Fighters dealt with the Giant Worms while the Magicians dealt with any flyers that came by, with Bangstick keeping an eye to prevent any flying monster from snatching them. Suckit protected the two Magician girls while they continued to attack the flying monsters.
Jack moved freely as he attacked whatever that came near, he didn’t have any trouble even when a Giant Worm burst out in front of him. He could knock the large worm around using his staff and shield before blasting it with his magical attacks.
Once they got used to the monsters’ attack patterns, they could kill them more efficiently. Once they filled up the quota for the hunting quests, they went out of the valley from its East exit. They continued East until they came to a small rocky hill. The hill was home to Fire Jackals, another type of monster under Jack’s hunting list. They were the highest level monster on his list, being level 15 and possessed fire element. Their clawing attacks could cause burning effect on the skin while they could also breathe out a small burst of fiery breath.
Two Fire Jackals were coming at them for trespassing into their territory. Jack asked the lot to stay back while he studied the jackal’s attack patterns. The others followed Jack’s instruction as they stood a distance away, except for Warpath.
He might be at a disadvantage against the flying enemy who could ambush suddenly from behind, but he was confident against this land-based enemy, even if it had a higher level than him. He engaged one of the Fire Jackals as Jack was tangling with the other.
Warpath used two swords on both hands. Because his off-hand weapon damage was minuscule, he mostly used his left-hand sword for defense. Even though it was more effective if he used a shield instead of a sword, he still chose to use a sword, because dual-sword wielding had been his style since his past VR games.
He deftly evaded and parried the Fire Jackal’s attack. Due to his low Dexterity attribute as he was only level 12, he was having difficulty dodging. He had to give his full concentration in order to predict the creature’s movements and took the initiative to move first in order to have enough time to dodge the creature’s attack.
He occasionally landed some attacks, but the damages were really low. The swords he wielded were only common swords, hence his damage was low. He not yet had the luck to acquire a better grade weapon, and Death Associates had not yet considered him as important enough despite his martial art expertise, hence they only gave him standard common equipment which they bought from city shops.
He suffered some hits from the deadly Jackal when he slacked off, and was in critical situations several times. He had drunk two basic healing potions in the process. He only had one more bottle left in his stock.
He had blisters all over his skin, some part of his body was even still burning from the jackal’s attack. He yelled in frustration, but he refused to give up, his pride wouldn’t allow it. Such a weak monster was nothing if he had good enough equipment. He persevered and continued to battle the Fire Jackal.
After another intense minute, he finally managed to take down the monster. When the monster fell, he heard cheering from behind. He turned back and saw Jack with the others were looking at him while clapping their hands. The bastard had finished his fight a while ago and was just watching him all the while with the others!
