While Jack ran forward to the front line with Paytowin, he noticed some group of soldiers who looked different. They wore bright golden armor. Paytowin who saw Jack’s gaze said to him, “Those are the knights sent by the God of Courage to assist in this battle. They are a different breed from the other soldiers here.”
“Shouldn’t we go to where they are then?” Jack asked. “If they are much stronger, they should last the longest in this battle, right?”
“If your objective is to last longer, yes,” Paytowin answered. “After I played this ancient battleground several times, I have learned that joining those golden knights do make me last longer. No sweat to pass the three-hour mark. However, getting a kill is another matter. Those knights’ damage is high. Unless you are very good in your timing, most of the kills would be bagged by them. It will be very difficult for you to score the one-thousand-kill mark you need. I find it easier to score the kill if I fight amongst the regular soldiers.”
“Okay, let’s fight away from those golden knights then,” Jack said.
By the time they arrived on the front line, the black armor mutated humans from the opposing forces had started clashing with Themisphere’s soldiers. Since the narrow pass forced everyone to pack so tightly, it was difficult to proceed forward. Jack and Paytowin just waited near the front line. Jack scanned these black armor mutated humans and found them to be mostly level 40 to 45 basics, a small portion was elites and special elites with higher levels, but none was higher than level 50. He had expected to be unable to inspect those with levels too far from him, but he could inspect them all.
“Hey, my inspect is still boosted by my monocle but why my radar isn’t working?” Jack asked.
“Are you asking me? Do I need to remind you that your monocle is an alien entity?” Peniel replied. “My guess is probably the radar function is considered as tool’s ability so it is muted but your inspect buff function is considered as equipment’s passive ability.”
“That’s weird,” Jack commented.
“Don’t ask me!” Peniel uttered.
While Jack was still wondering about his monocle, a large black troll suddenly barged in, it was a level 48 rare elite. It swung its gigantic club and smashed the soldiers on the front line flying. A flood of black-armored humans rushed in through the gaps.
The soldiers quickly covered this gap with the higher-rank soldier dealing with the rare elite troll, but the wave of enemy soldiers that had broken through the gap wreaked havoc behind the front line. Jack and Paytowin immediately joined in fighting these enemies.
Jack summoned his Therras Beast to gain exp as well. Paytowin had heard of Jack’s Beastmaster class, but he was still impressed when he saw Jack’s medium-sized pet.
Paytowin didn’t want to get left behind, he threw his techno golem ball and a shining golden robot appeared. It had a mechanical head resembling a lion. It was named Brave King. From its HP, Jack estimated it was around special elite grade, similar to Wilted’s golem.
“Not bad!” Jack commented while dealing with multiple enemies. Most of the enemies were basic grade so he had no problem fighting while talking.
“Thanks! I used up lots of my gathered points just to get the parts. They were exclusive parts only available in this faction,” Paytowin said.
“This faction had things for Technocraft as well? I thought they are exclusive factions for knights and warriors?”
“No, this faction is for all classes. Most native members of this faction indeed had classes similar to knights and warriors, since those classes deal with enemies directly so they exhibit courage more easily which is the main value of this faction. But it doesn’t mean other classes has no value in courage.”
“The faction directly under God and Goddesses are all top-notch factions. They won’t just cater to one or two classes,” Peniel added. “That being said, the parts available for techno golem is also numerous, you are very good to be able to select through the parts and choose the best combination.”
“Hehe,” Paytowin beamed at the compliment.
Brave King smote through the enemy with ease. Although its speed was nothing much, its strength was impressive. Any opponent that received its punch got sent flying. The mechanical lion head opened its mouth, a stream of blue flame poured forth. Most of the enemies hit by this flame got burnt to dust. Those who survived received Burn status with very high damage per second.
“Impressive!” Jack uttered. With that blue flame breath, Paytowin’s kill count was not any less than him.
“By the way, we are a party, so do we count the one-thousand kill counts individually or together?” Jack asked.
“The one-thousand mark is counted as the combined number we kill as a party,” Paytowin explained. “But once we went past that mark, the score we received from each kill will be counted individually. I won’t get any score from the enemy you kill once we are past one-thousand kill.”
“Good, meaning we should be able to cross that mark faster,” Jack exclaimed.
“We still have to survive past three hours, though,” Paytowin said.
By that time, another two spots in the defense line got breached as well. More enemies poured through. Several flying beasts flew high above and came down on the archers and catapults behind the defensive line.
“There are flying enemies?” Jack asked.
“It will only get worse as time passes,” Paytowin said.
In addition to the breached defensive line, several shadows shot up. These shadows jumped through the defensive line and landed behind it. Once they landed, Jack got a good look at these creatures. They looked like large monkeys wearing black armor and carrying sharp claw weapons.
While Jack was having trouble getting to the enemy when the fighting started, it was not so anymore now. There was no shortage of enemies. In fact, the defensive line was slowly getting overwhelmed by the enemy’s non-stop push.
Seeing the front line getting pushed back, Jack asked, “Hey, George. Does what happen inside this ancient battleground is seen by others outside?”
“No, why?” Paytowin asked back.
“Is the fight here being recorded?”
“No, why?” Paytowin asked again.
“Cool,” Jack said and used his Lightning God Barrage while activating Overlimit and all his buff skills. He sent the twenty balls of lightning beyond the front line. Decimating a large portion of the enemies. All basic and elite enemies were reduced to dust immediately, with the special elite receiving a large amount of damage.
“Holy smoke! That was one badass skill. Where do you learn that?” Paytowin uttered.
“Hehe,” it was Jack’s turn to beam this time. “Don’t tell any of the natives in your faction about this skill. It is a skill I learned from a divine treasure.”
“Divine treasure? Damn! And here I am, feeling proud for getting into a divine faction,” Paytowin uttered.
The two continued to accumulate more kill counts. Brave King exhibited another skill where its two fists detached from its arms. It shot forward and slammed everything on its path before flying back and reattached with the arms again. The skill drew another cheer from Jack.
Paytowin’s Energy Turret skill was also different from the one Jack had seen executed by Wonderman during the match earlier. Instead of shooting energy bullets, it shot a linear energy beam, striking multiple enemies’ on its path. The beam could also swing around to hit more enemies. The beam lasted two seconds, it then had a one-second cooldown before firing another beam again.
Paytowin informed Jack that he had evolved his Energy Turret skill using a seed he got from the faction’s treasury by exchanging his faction points.
“They even sell evolve seeds?” Jack asked with surprise. “This faction is kick-ass!” He uttered.
“It’s expensive, though. And the seed is a time-sensitive exchange. It didn’t available all the time. I was lucky that I have enough points when it came up on the list,” Paytowin said.
As they continued with the battle, they heard a commotion from the back.
“It’s starting,” Paytowin said.
Jack looked back. ‘It’s only one hour,’ He thought. The defensive line didn’t look good. Could they last three hours?
Jack didn’t let himself worry. He just focused on killing as many opponents as he could. He mostly picked on the basic-grade enemies. But as time passed, there were fewer and fewer of these enemies, most he found were now elite and special elites. He assumed all those weak basic enemies had been routed, leaving only the stronger ones.
His twenty blade orbs swirled around his two hands. He had been moving non-stop as his Formless Flowing Sword Style continuously slashing the enemies around him, with spells occasionally thrown. He cast Mana Bullet, Energy Bolts, and Magic Bind on the flying enemy that passed above. These flying beasts easily fell from one hit. Jack immediately slashed them to oblivion before they had the chance to fly back up.
Jack’s Therras Beast ran around butting and trampling any enemies it could find. Jack commanded it to cover Brave King which had slow movement. Jack also summoned his ten wolves and commanded them to circle Paytowin, giving him cover from enemies that were trying to approach his friend.
Paytowin himself used a gun on his right hand, like Wilted, but his left hand carried a dagger. The dagger was more like a miniature chainsaw, there were tiny blades that rotated around the dagger’s edges. Paytowin used this dagger on enemies that came close.
“Damn, you are starting to return to how I remember you, with lots of unconventional toys at your disposal,” Jack remarked.
When they almost reach the three-hour mark, they heard loud noises from behind. Jack turned back and was stunned to see a sea of black covering the backline.
“Holy shit…!” Jack exclaimed.
A few minutes after that, the sea was upon him.
He and Paytowin returned to the room where Myson was.
“Goodness! How can one survive three hours with a script like that?” Jack uttered.
