Linda might have gone, but the guild players with their guild army control platforms were still there. Jack was now looking at them as they looked back with gazes that were both confused and worried. Everything had happened so fast. They were still wondering what the hell happened just now.
Jack didn't let them wonder for long. He used Field of Sword. Multiple blades thrust out of the ground around Jack, impaling all the guild players. Since his Storm Breaker's Overlimit was still active, the damage from the Field of Sword was boosted. It also dealt chaos damage.
None of the guild players used any defensive skills due to their confusion. They were all killed when the multiple blades pierced their bodies. Their guild army command platforms disintegrated following their demise and the guild armies fighting outside were unsummoned.
*
Master received Linda's report after the war table was destroyed. At the same time, he noticed all the guild armies vanished, including the ones from his guild.
He gritted his teeth. It was the Themisphere king again who single-handedly did the most damage to his plan. He barked some orders and turned back. He flew at his top speed toward Balgadur's main entrance. He ignored the battle between the armies. He didn't show it, but he was furious. He had to tear this Themisphere king to pieces!
*
John also received the report from Jack. Jack told John that he failed to kill Linda, but he managed to destroy the war table and get rid of the guild armies.
"That is very good," John replied. The objective was for Linda to lose control of the army. This objective had been achieved.
Linda might try to give orders manually, but such an endeavor had many limitations. She could only instruct the troops in her direct vicinity. She could try sending messages to other players in the other divisions to relay her instructions, but there would be a huge time gap between her sending the instructions and the time her instructions were carried out. Not to mention, the players who received her messages might misinterpret her instructions. Thus, she was no longer effective in aiding the Liguritudum army.
John took this advantage to the fullest. Now, the Liguritudum was acting based on their own judgment. One side of the army wouldn't know what the other side was doing.
He sent instructions to the illusionists via the war table. These illusionists started producing illusion copies in bulk. These copies were then sent to the enemy. They led the enemy in one direction while the actual troops hit the enemy on its flank or rear.
They also moved around haphazardly within the enemy's midst. Because they were illusions, the enemy couldn't do anything to them. Having their visuals impaired by these distractions, they had difficulty identifying their real opponents and had trouble defending themselves from actual attacks.
When Linda was still operating the war table, this strategy was useless. The illusionist copies didn't show up on the war table's projection screen, so Linda wouldn't be fooled. She would command the troops to move as if there were no illusions there. Now, the troops were moving based on the information they received from their eyes, which were vulnerable to illusions.
The situation started to turn. Before, the Themisphere army lost their numbers at almost the same rate as Liguritudum. Because the Liguritudum army had more troops, such an equal loss slowly tipped the balance away from the Themisphere army as time passed. Now, the Liguritudum army lost their number at twice or thrice the previous rate. If this condition could be maintained, the Themisphere army could grind down the Liguritudum army until they were equal numbers. From there, it would be even easier to maintain their advantage.
Master could use the Necronomicon to replenish the Liguritudum army's number, but he won't be able to fight effectively while using the Necronomicon. Any disruption would cancel the process and he would have to restart again. Hence, John had tasked people to pay attention to Master. He wanted to disrupt Master if Master tried to bring back the dead.
However, everyone reported that they couldn't find this enemy leader.
John thought for a bit before sending Jack a message. "Heads-up, expert. I think the big dog is coming your way."
*
After slaying the guild players, Jack and Therras had been fighting the defenders who were guarding the entrance to the outside.
The defenders in the tunnel that went into the capital were still busy defending against the demon horde. Since there was no more war table to give them an instruction, these defenders continued to execute their last instruction, which was to defend this tunnel from the demon horde. They would continue to do that until they were beaten or were too scared to stay, or until a superior came and gave them the order to leave.
Hence, Jack only had the defenders from one entrance to worry about. He planned to head out after beating these defenders and joined the battle outside.
John's warning came then.
Jack looked at his radar and there was indeed one red dot heading over. That dot must be Master.
Under normal situations, he wouldn't shy away from fighting the enemy boss, but he was currently deep behind the enemy's line. He was alone. Fighting Master under equal ground was already strenuous. If he had to fight under unfavorable circumstances, it would be pushing it.
He looked at the dot and at the defenders he was fighting. He could force his way through and made a run to his army, but Master was rather close already. If he was somehow stopped, he would be finished. He decided this was the time when he shouldn't take risks.
He looked back. 'Well, that is also a risk,' he thought.
He didn't waste his time thinking for too long. He unsummoned Therras and cast Double Clone. He left one clone to continue fighting the defenders. His authentic self and second clone flew to the tunnel he had come in from. One was on gold dragon wings, and the other was in supreme dragon form.
Too bad his invisibility spell was still on cooldown. He could use reset but he decided to save that spell until he was truly out of options.
The defenders on the back of the tunnel saw the two Jacks flying toward them. They turned around and prepared to engage Jack. Jack greeted them by sending Lightning God Barrage their way. While they were still paralyzed from the lightning explosions, he rushed straight into the tunnel.
