Jack could not shake off the rangers but they had a hard time chasing him as well, they could only shorten the distance little by little. On the other hand, Faithstooge and the other classes were getting more left behind as time passed, but they refused to give up. They believe once the rangers caught Storm Wind, they could hinder him long enough for them to arrive.
“You know, just now when you were fighting the crowd, it was a perfect time to use Disruptive Bombs. You could end the fight fast with it,” Peniel spoke out as Jack was running.
“That thing cost 60 silver each! You think I have mountains of coins?” Jack replied. “Unless I’m in a pinch, I’m not going to use them.”
“If you kept on holding back because you are unwilling to spend, it will be too late when you die suddenly. You will regret you haven’t used all the options available to you and end up losing everything instead.”
“Don’t worry, I know when I shouldn’t hold back,” Jack said to her. He glanced back to check on his pursuers.
When the rangers were about to reach Jack, he suddenly turned around. The rangers were stunned by the sudden reversal. Jack had in truth been reducing his speed to make sure the rangers thought they had the opportunity to catch up to him, and allowed them to come near him. Once Jack turned back and lunged at them, the rangers suddenly remembered why they had been staying away at a distance from him during their previous contest. They immediately regretted their decision to chase after this man so vigorously.
One of the rangers chasing after him was Mouse, Jack targeted him first. He came in front of him and said to his shocked expression, “you should have stayed clean after our last encounter. Please don’t make the same mistake again in your third life.”
Jack slew Mouse effortlessly. He used all of his melee skills which had gotten off cooldown, Swing, Power Strike, even Sword of Light to nail the other rangers that tried to run away. There were seven rangers that chased after him, only three managed to escape and regrouped with the main force.
Faithstooge and the others watched helplessly as Jack slaughtered the Rangers. They were expecting Jack to turn back and run again after finished with the bloodbath, but instead, Jack just stood where he was.
Jack waited for them as they approached. Faithstooge and the others slowed down their runnings as they came near Jack. Even though Jack stood alone, they could not help but get intimidated by the man. They looked around themselves, and found out that more than half of their original numbers had been decimated.
Including Faithstooge, there were only fourteen of them left at the moment. They suddenly regretted that they had chased after this monster, they should have left him be when he ran.
Faithstooge himself was not deterred. He came forward as if he was leading a bunch of righteous knights on a crusade to vanquish an evil lord. “Surrender, you devil! Or I shall purge you and punish you for your evil deed!”
Jack raised his eyebrows. He was speechless. He didn’t know what else to say to this self-deluded guy. So instead of responding to his quip, he simply just charged over to the group.
“Don’t be afraid,” Faithstooge encouraged his flock. “He is no longer using that red light skill, such strong skill surely has a long cooldown. We can win if we work together. Fighters and rangers to me, magicians support us from the back!”
Faithstooge started to organize the remaining players as Jack was charging over. He must admit that despite the guy’s weird trait, he was rather capable when leading people. Jack saw him gave more commands to the individual players around him, organizing them into a better fighting unit.
If the fellow had done that from the start, he might have to truly run away from them not long after the fight broke out. At this point, however, he was not too worried. There were only fourteen players with average skill left, even Faithstooge himself did not have much to show for his individual skill. Jack could measure his expertise after their initial clash, he was only a bit harder to kill compared to the others simply because of his Knight class.
Hence Jack dived into them without hesitation. Even without the Life Burning Art, his overwhelming attributes and equipment still caused them headaches. Jack used the same strategy of utilizing his speed. He was no longer in the middle of the group. He circled around the edge as he dodged, blocked, and slashed at the spells and range attacks coming at him, making his way towards the weaker magicians.
Faithstooge saw through his intention and sent the rangers to intercept, yet Jack instead focused on them again while ignoring the range attacks. He lost a bit of HP but managed to take down another ranger, before disengaging again when the Fighters arrived. Now they only had two rangers left.
“Face us squarely, you coward!” Faithstooge yelled in rage.
Unbelievable, Jack thought in his mind. The dude was attacking him with a large group and still had the guts to say he was the coward that didn’t fight fairly.
Jack ignored the guy’s raving and again made his way to the magicians. Faithstooge changed his formation due to Jack’s insistence on targeting the magicians, he stationed the fighters in a circle around the magicians to protect them. While he and the two rangers continued to chase after Jack.
Jack pulled away from them again and went out from the range distance of the magicians. He waited for Faithstooge and the rangers to come after him, but instead, they stood behind and waited for the magicians to come. Apparently, they had learned the lesson and not let Jack bait them to become easy pickings anymore.
Jack wasn’t discouraged when no one was rushing at him. He instead took out another basic healing potion and an energy drink to leisurely recover his HP and stamina.
Faithstooge was brimming with madness when he saw that. When will they be able to take this guy down at this rate? He urged the Fighters and Magicians to move faster, which they reacted by giving him odd faces. Their speeds were determined by their Dexterity stat, how the hell could they move faster?
Jack was not too hasty at dealing with them. He did not worry about them calling for reinforcements. He doubted that Faithstooge would swallow his pride and asked for help. Furthermore, he would be able to detect if a large force was heading here through his radar. He could escape any time he wanted to, none of them would be able to match his speed.
The night also worked in favor of him, his Dragon’s Eye skill allowed him to see clearly despite the lack of light, while his opponents had more difficulty in seeing him. This was another point that had allowed him to dance through within the crowds despite being encircled. His opponents had difficulty spotting him in the dark during such a hectic situation.
When the magicians came into range, they started throwing spells again at once. Jack charged forward, in a roundabout path avoiding Faithstooge. He rushed at the magicians who were guarded by the team of Fighters.
“Stop him! Stop him!” The magicians kept on shouting to the Fighters as they kept on shooting range attacks.
The Fighters moved forward to intercept Jack. Jack targeted one of them and sent him away using Power Strike. The other Fighters immediately covered the hole that the missing fighter had created. They would not let Jack reach the magicians. However, instead of forcing his way through, Jack turned and ran in the other direction. They were confused, but then realized after seeing the direction Jack was running to. He was running after the fighter that had been sent away by Power Strike.
They tried to go to the fighter’s aid, but they were too slow. Jack also ignored the attacks from the Magicians. He sacrificed a bit of his life to concentrate his attacks on the lone fighter, who couldn’t last more than a few seconds once he was separated from the others. His lifeless body fell to the ground soon.
Another one down. Faithstooge felt like pulling his hair. The guy was picking them one by one.
Jack was running around them again as he looked for an opportunity. He continued with the same tactic, using Power Strike to separate one of his opponents before finishing the poor fellow off.
Faithstooge was helpless to prevent it. He went from anger, to helplessness, to despair. There were now only eight people left after Jack continued to repeat the process.
The players around him were terrified. They couldn’t deal with him when their numbers were more than thirty, now there were only eight of them, how could they fight? One of the two remaining rangers decided to run away, but Jack used Sword of Light on him. He suffered a critical hit and died in one hit.
The others looked at Jack with a frightened gaze. The demon did not intend to let any of them to escape. He wouldn’t have bothered to attack a fleeing opponent otherwise.
