Jack made zig-zag moves to make himself a harder target to hit while taking out recovery potions to drink. The players that followed him before were already enclosing. He could see them now. There were six of them. Eight if considering the two gunners.
This team had positioned themselves in a triangle with Jack at the center before executing their attack. That’s why they had taken some time before taking action. With two gunners attacking from a distance and six players attacking from proximity, they could continue to wear and hinder Jack’s movements, allowing the two gunners to land hits whenever possible.
“Good strategy!” Jack exclaimed to them.
“You still have the mood to chat, you are as laid back as was reported,” uttered the lead melee who approached.
Jack made a quick Inspect on the six of them, five melees and one ranged player. The lead who just talked was a Berserker. The ranged player was an elite class as well, Hidden Weapon Specialist. The others were still advanced class, two knights, one warrior, and one rogue. All of them were level 32 and were from the Death Associates guild.
‘Four elite class! This team meant business!’
While dealing with the six and at the same time continued moving to evade gun attacks, he asked Peniel telepathically, ‘what’s the range of those gunners?’
‘Gunner boasted the longest ranged attack. Their standard attack can hit until 80 meters away. But gunners had a standard skill called Shooting Stance, at level 1 the skill increased the range by 30 meters and additional 10% damage to every gun attack. The gunner has to get into a crouching position to activate this skill, moving away will end the stance. Aside from that, if gunners pass their trials on the first try, they will get Snipe skill. At level 1, it deals 300% physical damage at a range of 120 meters, this is not considered adding the shooting stance yet. That first hit you received should have been done by this Snipe skill.’
‘Meaning the first gunner was more of an expert,’ Jack thought. Although he was not an expert on firearms, he was pretty sure that real-life firearms provided more range. But he guessed if gunner class in this game-world could shoot as far as its real-life counterparts, it would very much provide an unbalanced advantage to this class.
‘What is the cooldown of that snipe skill?’ Jack asked Peniel again.
‘Three minutes.’
Jack decided to not drag the battle more, he had gauged this team’s skills. Although all of them were experts, especially the elite classes, they were not ones he could not overcome. He was having trouble simply because he had been placed in a disadvantageous position.
“Your strategy although good, doesn’t work on me,” Jack said as his magic shield disappeared. A spell formation with three runes was formed rapidly and two identical Jack appeared. The two copies ran in opposite directions, each towards one of the gunners who was still shooting from the distance.
He then replaced his magic staff with Whirlwind Falchion and performed Formless Flowing Sword style. Although he had not mastered enough Eight Diagram Illusory Steps to be used in a real fight, it still improved his footwork. He continued to move around as his swords danced between his opponents. He received a hit or two from the guns from time to time, but it was not so often that his Superior Body Recovery could still cope with.
The Hidden Weapon Specialist Threw three flying daggers at Jack. Although he dished out as much dagger as Anotherday in one throw, all the daggers flew on the same trajectory and targeted the same spot. It was clear that this Specialist was not at the level of Anotherday. Jack easily swatted all daggers in a single slash.
The Berserker on the team had activated his berserk skill, increasing his attack speed and movement speed, but he still couldn’t break through Jack’s swordplay despite the interference from his teammates and the two gunners.
Both the Berserker and Hidden Weapon Specialist didn’t use Heavy Cleave and Boomerang skills respectively. This informed Jack that the two did not successfully pass their elite class trials on the first try.
Even though the six failed to corner Jack, Jack also failed to kill any of them. Their cooperations were very good. It was clear that they were used to working together. The two Knights were also good at using their Enhanced Block skill timing, blocking Jack’s attack which should have hit them in a wide area, like Shredding Fang and Blitz Slash. They were quick to cover each other to allow their teammates to consume recovery potions.
While he continued to fight with the six, his two copies were getting closer to the two gunners. One was arriving at a row of trees and shrubberies which was where the second gunner was hiding in. Jack knew the location of the gunner from his radar, but his copy did not show on the radar, so he could only estimate whether his copy had gotten close or not. His copy still needed to look around to find the gunner.
The first gunner on the small hill, instead, was already in sight. This gunner was taking a position at its top as he continued shooting with a weapon that looked like a long rifle. He fired at Jack’s copy when it got close, but the bullet simply passed through.
When the copy was close enough, Jack made a switch and immediately did an Inspect before lunging at the gunner.
Yellow Death (Gunner, level: 33)
HP: 1540
Yellow Death? This was the person Red Death had warned him about, Jack thought in the middle of his attack. Yellow Death who saw Jack approaching, had a magic scroll in his hand. The scroll was activated and he vanished in a flash of light as Jack’s two swords swung down.
Although there was no visual cue of where Yellow Death had disappeared to, Jack’s mana-sensing ability felt a thread of energy heading into a direction. Jack looked over and saw Yellow Death materialized some distance away in that direction.
‘It’s the teleportation magic scroll,’ Peniel informed Jack.
Jack guessed that Scarface had informed this Yellow Death about his Body Double skill, as that man had experienced Jack’s skill himself. But the last time Jack exhibited this skill to Scarface, it was still without any star proficiency. His copies vanished after the one switch. This time, he could still switch a second time.
Jack’s second copy found the second gunner at this time, who was a woman. Even though they should not know about Jack’s ability to switch the second time, Jack still took precautions. He controlled his second copy to make an attacking move. The second gunner turned out also had a teleportation magic scroll. The second gunner used the scroll and vanished away.
‘Peniel, how long is the cooldown for the teleportation spell?’ Jack asked.
‘Two minutes,’ Peniel answered.
That meant they couldn’t use the scroll anymore for at least two minutes. Not to mention magic scrolls had become very expensive, he doubted the team have many such scrolls.
The team at the center, who realized that the Jack there was only an image, broke into two smaller teams and came to the two gunners’ assist. Jack ran to Yellow Death as three of the center team players went and joined Yellow Death as well.
The three were the Berserker, Knight, and Rogue. The Berserker still had his Berserk skill active, his black tattoo was all over his body. However, the situation was different now. Before, Jack was pincered from different directions. Now, his opponents had been halved, and his four opponents were all in front of him.
Jack easily used the three melee players as cover from Yellow death’s shots, all the while hacking at the three melees.
The Death Associates’ team soon found out how difficult to fight against Jack in a normal situation. Jack’s sword art combined with his skills quickly claimed the Knight and Rogue’s lives. But as Jack was about to finish the remaining two, he felt attacks coming from the back.
Jack quickly rolled away. He saw then the two players he had just killed were still alive, albeit with very low HP.
‘Sacrificial dummy again? This team is truly a big spender!’ Jack thought, but he suddenly realized something. Perhaps all these teleportation magic scrolls and sacrificial dummies were actually to counter his most devastating move, Lightning God Barrage.
Jack grinned. Do you think I need that move against small fries like you?
He switched place for the last time with his copy and his Body Double spell ended. He had brought his copy who was originally at the center to Yellow Death’s back. He was about to slash at the guy when Yellow Death suddenly swiveled and shot Jack point-blank.
Jack still managed to cross his two swords to block the bullet, but the impact sent him back some steps. With this one-shot, Jack was reminded to not underestimate ones with the name Death in their alias. He didn’t think the man had the ability of mana sense, but his situational awareness was commendable.
Yellow Death, who had just pushed Jack’s back suddenly displayed a surprised expression. “What?!” Then he looked at Jack, “You…! You trick us!”
Jack had no idea what he was spouting.
