“That’s not his style. I said before he had gone against opponents even much more than this. He always moved around when he fought against numbers.”
As if answering Sunset’s question, Jack punched through the encirclement with a Charge while he cast Arcane Turbulence at the huddled opponents. These NPCs were not like the players who formed an interlocking human wall to block his path, so there were still gaps. Jack targeted one of these gaps.
Once he broke through, he used Shooting Dash to move away. He had endured the encirclement so that all his opponents were clustered at one place. Apart from putting a distance, he was also targeting the damage increase from the Shooting Dash skill. Added with Adrenalin Rush, he had stacked up quite a significant damage boost. He then unleashed the strongest skill he had just gotten not long ago, Lightning God Barrage!
Large balls of lightning materialized one after another rapidly around Jack. When all twenty balls were formed, Jack sent them all at the clustered Acolytes and Priests without pause. Those NPCs were still affected by Arcane Turbulence so their movements were slowed. The lightning balls struck consecutively, each ball exploded into a web of lightning. Since all of them were clustered together, every each of the Priests and Acolytes received the full brunt of the damage from all twenty balls.
Each ball dealt more than 1,000 damages. All twenty balls combined resulted in over 21,000 damages! All the Priests of Phobos were already killed halfway through the barrage. While the three Priests of Phobos were below 20% HP after the barrage. One even was at a critical because he had also endured Jack’s other skills and spells before. Jack sent a sword of Light, claiming that one Priests.
Out of the twelve NPCs, only two remaining with very low HP. Gridhacker, GraphicZ, and Sunset’s eyes and mouths were all wide open, couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed. This was the first time that any of them had seen a player took down so many NPCs simultaneously.
Jack himself was rather amazed by the result. The skill bestowed by the divine treasure was truly heaven-defying. Still, he didn’t pause. He ran forward, planning to finish off the remaining two NPCs before facing Gridhacker and the rest to force some answers out of them.
But his body suddenly became heavy. Several bone tusks suddenly erupted out of the ground underneath him. These bone tusks formed a crisscrossing fence around him, inhibiting his movement. Jack hit at these bone tusks using his sword. Damage number appeared, but his hit was not even 2% of the tusk’s full HP.
‘So sturdy? It will take a long time to break out from this,’ he lamented.
Before he could do anything more, ten other figures jumped out and landed around him. They were all Priests of Phobos, but they were all around level 40 to 50. Three out of the ten were special elite while the rests were elite.
Shit! There were still more of them? Jack was dismayed. He could see no way to break away from this line-up even if he managed to destroy his current bone prison.
“We meet again,” he suddenly heard a voice from above. Jack looked up and saw a man floating above. He was wearing an elaborate crimson vestment. Jack used his God-eye monocle to Inspect the floating man.
Arlstraxx, Cardinal of Phobos (Rare Elite Human), level: 70
HP: 720,000
Cardinal of Phobos? The thought of possessed Winston came back to him. Now that he observed clearly, the man floating above did resemble the shadow apparition above Winston when he was possessed.
“You have ruined my plan before in the Duke’s mansion, now that you fall into my hand, I will take my time with you,” Arlstraxx uttered with a wicked grin.
“Sir Arlstraxx, do not kill him! Our master needed him alive,” Gridhacker called out.
“Are you ordering me?” Arlstraxx glanced at the trio with dissatisfaction.
“I wouldn’t dare, great Sir Arlstraxx,” Gridhacker quickly changed his tone. “However, it was truly important that he is not killed. He had something that our master needed. As the agreement between our master and your God…”
“Do not speak of our God!” Arlstraxx’s voice boomed, silencing Gridhacker. “You are not worthy enough for that!”
Gridhacker did not dare to talk back.
Seeing that Gridhacker obediently kept his mouth shut, Arlstraxx said, “hmph, I will honor the agreement. What our God sees in you weak outworlders, it is not my place to question it.”
The cardinal then opened up his palm, a small purple item in the shape of an octahedron appeared in his hand.
“Oh no. Do not let him use that on you!” Peniel uttered.
‘Lady, do you think there is anything I can do in this condition?’ Jack complained. He had not stopped hacking at the bone tusks in front of him all this while, but he did not even manage to take away one-third of its life.
Jack watched helplessly as Cardinal of Phobos approached.
Suddenly the cardinal looked to the side and quickly extended his left arm out. It created a round shield in front of him just as an illusory giant hammer materialized and struck at him. The impact forced the cardinal to fly some distance away.
Numerous arrows appeared with stinging sounds as they flew towards the ten priests surrounding Jack. The priests had no choice but to block the attack. A shadow then dropped down in their center, next to Jack, and made a full circular swing. The light of the swing sent all the Priests back, while the bone prison that was immobilizing Jack, was cut cleanly in half.
Jack, however, was unharmed. He stared at the figure that had suddenly appeared. Relieved washed over him. “Commander!” He yelled.
It was commander Quintus that had come. Not only him, Duke Alfredo also flew above, putting himself amongst Jack and Arlstraxx. Laurent, Captain Salem, Lucia, Nicholas, and Samuel also appeared as they took up a defensive position around Jack.
“Everyone!” Jack was filled with gratitude as they saw these NPCs arrived. Luckily, he had used the Alert Beacon early.
“Are you that Cardinal of Phobos who had invaded my home the last time?” Duke Alfredo said to Arlstraxx.
The cardinal snickered at the mention, “heh, such a pity. I almost succeeded. If not for that meddlesome outworlder, the mission would have been a success.”
“Do you know the misery you caused to my butler? And also the life of my maid! I will claim these debts you owed me!” Duke Alfredo exclaimed as the air around him exploded with a myriad of colorful lights.
“Petty display!” Arlstraxx shot back as a long snake-headed staff appeared in his hand. His aura grew heavy as dark fogs started to form around him.
The Cardinal of Phobos was five levels stronger than the Duke, but Laurent from behind backed the duke up with his supportive spells. Commander Quintus and the others also readied themselves for a clash.
“My army is coming, you will all be surrounded soon,” Commander Quintus yelled.
Everyone indeed could hear incoming rumblings, indicating a large amount of force was enclosing. Jack saw the expressions on Gridhacker turned solemn. He probably understood that they had lost. If they still did not flee before the army arrived, maybe Jack could ask the army to apprehend them without killing, so Jack could interrogate them.
While everyone was about to clash, a soft voice stopped them. “All of you, do not move.”
The air suddenly turned heavy. Even Duke Alfredo and Laurent who were floating in the air fell to the ground. Arlstraxx didn’t seem to be affected, but when he looked up at the source of the voice, he immediately landed back on the ground and knelt. The other Priests of Phobos did the same. Strangely, Gridhacker and the two behind him mimicked the cult’s action.
Jack turned up to where Arlstraxx had looked a moment ago, and saw a man in a simple black robe floating there, slowly coming down.
“T–that… Oh, no…” Jack heard Peniel said.
“Who is that?” Jack asked, but Peniel made no further sound.
Jack felt the air grew heavier as the figure in the sky approached. Despite his Dragon’s Eye, Jack felt as if there was a veil covering the man’s features. Only when he was slightly closer, that Jack could make out his features. The man’s face was that of an elder, yet there was no wrinkle. His skin was pale and he had no eyebrows. He had very defined cheekbones that made his face look thin yet attractive. His eyes were as cold and dark as the night sky. For some reason, Jack felt a tinge of irrational fear surfacing in his heart as he stared at the man.
“I see you have the Lightning God Blessing within you. You have fused with that divine treasure, a pity,” the man spoke. His voice was soft yet clear. Jack’s body experienced involuntary shiver when the voice reached his ears.
