"Wait, you're agreeing for me to join what guild?" Jack asked.
"What?" Faithstooge was flustered.
"I want to hear you say what guild you let me join. How can I know you are not tricking me and let me join some kind of subordinate or branch guild?"
Faithstooge's mouth twitched, this guy was truly annoying. If the guild wasn't in dire need of coins, he would have given the order to just slaughter this irritating person.
"Fine! After your work is done, we will accept you into our Corporate United guild, as an official member."
Jack gave him a wide smile. The others assumed he was happy after nailing down the deal. They heard him utter, "so you admit you are from Corporate United then?"
"What are you going at?" Faithstooge asked with a puzzled look.
"Damn! It took so long just to get you to say it. Hehe. Now we can get into the real business."
"What real business?"
"This!" Jack said as he executed Sword of Light to a magician, who was one of the four level 16 of the basic class. It caused 376 damage, which was already more than the magician's entire HP pool. His body slumped down lifelessly to the ground.
Everyone was stumped by the sudden attack. Before they could react, the players closest to Jack were hit by Swing. Ogre was among them. "Curse it! We should have just beat you right from the start!" He shouted angrily.
Faithstooge was dumbfounded, what's wrong? Wasn't the negotiation had gone well? Why did the guy suddenly attack after they agreed to his term?
Trustaide was quicker on the take. He remembered Jack's sentence before he suddenly turned hostile. He was doing the farce just to get them to admit their guild's name? But what's the point? As he said himself, there was no one around. But never mind, he never had high hope of getting back their stolen loots anyway. He preferred to just finish their offender as soon as possible so they could get back to their respective jobs.
He gave the signal for everyone to attack while Faithstooge was still in a daze. Trustaide never understood why this lame useless pretender could ever be his superior.
Everyone lunged at Jack, Jack used his speed to weave in between the crowded players, preventing them from coordinating with each other. The fighters couldn't swing their weapons wildly, while the magician could not target him as their line of sight was blocked. The Rangers tried to chase after him, but with much difficulty, and when they came near, Jack sent them knocking backward with his overpowering strength.
Jack cut at anyone he passed by as he moved. He never stayed at one place, to avoid his opponents from stacking on him and preventing him from moving. He used Charge to break away when there were too many opponents gathered around him. He would be done for if he lost his mobility. He could only chip away their HP a little at a time.
After a while, he felt weird. He had made sure to circle back to be able to attack the same players, so as to kill them. Normally he only needed three normal hits to kill a ranger or a magician, but he had been hitting the same magician four times, yet the person was still standing. He didn't catch them drinking any potion as well.
"Did you forget your opponent's advanced class?" Peniel's voice sounded in his mind.
Hearing Peniel's hint, he turned and glanced at the one he had just attacked. He caught a glimpse of white light showering the body of the person. It was a healing spell! Bloody hell, the Healer Trustaide had been healing the ones he had attacked all this time. No wonder he hadn't managed to kill anyone since the first one that died from his Sword of Light. He had to deliver a hit powerful enough to one-hit kill if he wanted to kill someone.
'How long is that healing spell's cooldown?' Jack asked Peniel.
"Only two seconds, but the guy needed to form spell rune, so it would have a longer interval between healings depending on the guy's skill."
That meant the healer could not spam his healings. He still had a chance if he stayed and focused on one person to deliver attacks fast enough to kill the target before Trustaide's could re-cast his healing spell. He looked at the healer while he was casting his spell, his rune forming was quite fast. It was roughly a second or less, the healer was slightly faster than himself when he cast his Barrier spell.
"You could also try to compete and see if his mana ran out first," Peniel offered her advice.
Jack took a glance and saw Trustaide drank a basic energy potion. Seeing that, he wouldn't put too much hope on the guy depleting his MP, he would most likely run out of his HP first before that. He might be fast, but it didn't mean he completely dodged every attack. He had difficulty fending off too many people. Even Mouse had scored one hit on him before Jack sent the skinny guy flying using Power Strike. He had not seen him since, must have been staying away to replenish his HP.
This is not working, Jack thought. The crowd itself was not a big deal, they were clearly just average players who didn't even know how to work together. Any players with experience would have made the attempt to form a decent formation.
If they did that, he would have a harder time dealing with them, but this lot seemed to just chasing him around like headless chickens. The problem was the Healer, he had underestimated the advanced class. One healer had caused him trouble. The Knight had yet to join in. He was still looking down from the small hill. He didn't see the need to involve himself.
"Aren't you going down there?" Trustaide said to Faithstooge.
"There is no need to," Faithstooge replied loftily. "There are more than enough men down there to take care of him."
"That's the point, we have so many men down there but how long has it passed? If I don't keep on healing, there would have been casualties already. Don't you see how high his damage is? I've already drunk two bottles of basic energy potion. It's not like I have an unlimited supply of the potion."
"So is he, his life bar is decreasing," Faithstooge was unmoved.
"Very little, and very slowly. Which is also very troubling, because I can't inspect him, not even his name. We can only see his life bar. It is very abnormal to only lose so little from a hit, his total HP could be off the chart."
"Hmph, you are overestimating him. Just do as you are now, he will be exhausted sooner or later," Faithstooge said. He was still miffed because of Jack's charade. Calling him lame, and then negotiated with him, even making him messaged his superior, and then suddenly he just started fighting them for no good reason? He would not grant this lunatic the attention he was asking for.
Trustaide could only shake his head helplessly and continued casting his healing spell.
Jack had decided. He was outnumbered and couldn't continue this for long. Since his opponents were getting healed, he just needed to deliver higher damage that overcame their healing speed.
He took out a basic healing potion and recovered back his HP to full, and then activated Life Burning Art. A chunk of his HP which he had just replenished was immediately gone again as a blood red aura burst out of his body, making him looked like a flaring demon. The display took all his attackers aback.
He made a normal cut and devoured 153 HP from a Fighter, then followed it with a Power Strike that caused 261 damage. The level 15 Fighter had died as he flew back, tumbling over several players behind him.
Trustaide was stunned, he had no chance to heal the guy. The damage amplification from the Life Burning Art was not as insane as the Overlimit skill from Jack's weapon, but it was still considerable. This art also increased Jack's speed and defense, allowing him to be more fearless as he ravaged around the crowd.
"Damn it! No wonder I felt that he was familiar!" Trustaide exclaimed.
"What is it?" Faithstooge asked. He was also shocked by the sudden twist. What skill was that?
"I know the guy," Trustaide answered.
"What? How? Who is it?" Faithstooge asked again.
"His name…," Trustaide tried to recall for a bit, before remembering, "Storm Wind! His name is Storm Wind. He is the one that had killed Warpath. I saw him in action when he did the deed. He used this same skill then!"
