Red Death was in the air, so she couldn't dodge. Her HP went down a good deal as she fell back to the ground. She gritted her teeth from the pain as she moved swiftly to dodge all the range attacks that followed.
What she was confused about was how Grace, an inquisitor who had no super jump ability, to catch her in mid-air. When she saw Wonderman near where Grace landed, she understood that Grace had used that man as a foothold.
Wonderman had willingly come inside Jennifer's Domain of Spear and suffered its damage out of Grace's order, before helping Grace to reach the height that caught Red Death off guard.
'She predicted my move?' Red Death thought.
Jennifer had come to her again, her HP was back to full again. With two healers in the team, it was not a problem to lose some health.
Aside from standard heal from advanced Healer class, a Reaver healed by using soul orb. Once someone became a Reaver, he possessed one soul orb. Whenever a Reaver dealt damage, it filled up this soul orb with HP equal to the damage dealt. Any excess healing received by the Reaver would also fill this soul orb. The soul orb could fill up to a maximum of 100% of the reaver's HP, the HP inside this soul orb could then be used to heal any target. If the HP in this soul orb was not used, then the HP inside would deteriorate as time passed.
Red Death activated Combat Clone, Assassin's level 45 skill. A duplicate of herself appeared. This clone could deal 80% of her damage. With her clone, she clashed again with her opponents.
But as time passed, it became apparent which side was winning. While Jennifer and the rest could fight without worry due to healers, Red Death didn't have that luxury. An Assassin didn't have body recovery ability, Red Death also couldn't use potions, so the HP she had lost stayed lost. She fought more reserved, but there were five opponents, all of which were not your run-of-the-mill players. She didn't want to admit it, but if she didn't flee, she would be done for.
When her clone disappeared, she decided it was time to retreat. But when she did, that inquisitor woman who was not around when she was fighting against Jennifer, Assured, and Wonderman, now stood in her escape path.
Red Death was riled, this was the second time this woman showed up when she attempted a retreat. She decided to force her way through. Inquisitors might have melee capability, but they were originally a Healer class, she didn't believe that she couldn't take care of this inquisitor woman.
Grace, who saw Red Death attempt a frontal clash, didn't back down. Her right hand was holding a mace while her left held a shield. She also activated Inquisitor's level 40 skill, Faith Armor. It increased her defense, elemental resistance, status effect resistances, and also regenerated her HP by 50 every second.
Red Death made a hard stab to Grace's left, which she parried using her shield. But when Grace felt the impact, another stab suddenly appeared targeting her eyes. The stab was too fast, she only managed to lower her head a little and the stab hit her forehead, dealing critical damage.
However, Grace didn't back down, she forced herself forward instead, ignoring the pain.
Red Death was startled by Grace's tenacity. She sidestepped while sending Grace another stab. Grace ignored the damage, she was protected by stronger defense and regeneration effect. All she had to suffer was just the pain. She smashed her mace down at Red Death.
Red Death deftly dodged the smash, but then she found herself encircled. Grace had managed to buy enough time for her teammates.
"You will be our first step towards today's victory," Jennifer uttered as she lunged forward.
*BANG*
A gunshot was heard. Jennifer felt her spear was hit by a strong impact and her stab swerved to the side.
Four rapid gunshots were heard next. Jennifer, Assured, Grace, and Wonderman were all hit by the shot. Damage numbers appeared.
Red Death didn't let this opportunity go to waste. She jumped high onto Wonderman's techno golem while its owner was still unsteady from the gunshot. She landed on its head before making another jump and escaping the encirclement.
The elven group tried to chase, but another shot was fired. Grace took point and used her shield for cover. There was coincidentally a blizzard forming not far away, Red Death ran into the blizzard at high speed.
Wonderman who had the fastest movement speed intended to continue chasing but Jennifer stopped him.
"Why? She almost dies. We should chase and finish her off," Wonderman uttered.
Jennifer shook her head. "We don't know if it was only the gunner at the place where she was fleeing. It could be their ploy to lure us to a place where they prepared a trap. All her teammates might be there to ambush us."
"We still have to face them sooner or later," Wonderman said with dissatisfaction.
"Yes, but not following the trail they want us to. We should circle and come at them from the other side. See what they are up to. We can't afford to be reckless."
"I agree with Jennifer. We should be careful," Grace said.
"All right."
"Okay."
"I agree with being careful."
Jennifer felt like using her Domain of Spears again on them.
So they moved in another direction. Yellow Death's gunshots had stopped when Red Death put enough distance.
They continued moving while paying attention to the direction where Red Death and Yellow Death were supposed to be. As they moved, they noticed a figure approaching under a blizzard from an opposite direction.
"Hey, look. There is another one over there. Which means they are not together," Wonderman said when he noticed the lone figure.
"Yeah, that red chick is behind us, right? Or do they plan to pin us from two sides?" Assured asked.
"I don't see that red chick nor the gunner coming," Bad Omen said as he looked to their back.
"Wait! Isn't that the level 43 dude?" Wonderman exclaimed when the blizzard started dispersing and Jack came into view.
"Hey, you are right!"
"He is alone. What are we waiting for?"
"Yeah, easy picking! Let's finish him fast and then we will have only four players to worry about."
"Agreed. Let's go!"
"Wait! Don't go! We have to do it together," Jennifer called, but the three elven men had run forward with high speed already.
"Stop! Come back! Didn't I already tell you, people, that we have to attack that person together?" She continued to call, but the three ignored her completely. She turned to Grace, "Why didn't you stop them?"
"I didn't disagree. Let them finish that lecherous man and reduce our opponent's number. The two of us just need to watch the back in case his teammates come to ambush."
"No, you don't understand! That guy is not what he seemed to be," Jennifer said. Jennifer never saw Jack in action, but she had heard reports from Queen Magenta and the rest. Although she still thought that the reports were being exaggerated, she still understood that Jack had to be an expert to at least warrant such reports.
Grace gave Jennifer a look. Her expression showed that she didn't put Jennifer's words in high regard. This man was a coward who even tried to use a fake name on her, even when his real alias would be easily known once the match started.
Grace then heard a scream. She turned back and saw Assured was down on the ground. She thought at first Assured was simply fallen due to tripping or something, but she then noticed his HP bar was empty.
"Damn it!" Jennifer uttered and dashed forward. "Attack together!"
Jennifer activated his level 40 skill, Radiant Javelins. Five javelins made of light appeared around her before shooting forward.
Wonderman and Bad Omen were still in trance. They wanted to believe what had happened just now was simply an illusion. Assured's Spectral Projection and Spectral Discharge was still in cooldown, so he had cast Spectral Blade before he engaged the level 43 human. But when he arrived in melee range, the human easily swatted aside the spectral blades. The human then used Blade Dancer's Cross Slash or at least something that looked like it. The Cross Slash the human had unleashed carried dark energy. After that one slash, Assured was down on the ground.
"Snap out of it!" Jennifer yelled as he used Jump Attack.
The five javelins thrown by Jennifer shot at Jack. Jack's two swords danced around, smacking all the javelins aside. Jennifer appeared above Jack and thrust down. Jack lightly sidestepped to the side and used Flame Strike as Jennifer came down. Seeing her thrust missed, Jennifer immediately pulled up her spear to parry.
The Flame Strike connected with Jennifer's spear shaft. She was thrown away due to extreme force. Her feet skidded on the ground to resist the pushing force. When she finally managed to stop herself, she found out that she had lost half her life.
"But… I parried the strike," she muttered.
Jack looked around. "Hehe, everyone is here. Good. Time to end this!"
Spell formation appeared above him.
"What?!" Bad Omen cried. Grace and Wonderman were similarly stunned by the display.
"He is not just a Blade Dancer, he is also an Archmage!" Jennifer shouted.
Instead of absorbing the information, this news stunned her teammates further. If she had told them before, they wouldn't have believed it anyway. The spell formation was completed and Ice Ring radiated out. Wonderman was frozen, but not before he summoned his Techno Golem and used his level 40 skill, Energy Turret. A tiny tower came out from the ground and started shooting energy balls at Jack.
Jack used Magic Shield to block the energy shots, slipped past the techno golem, and gave the frozen Wonderman several quick slashes.
His techno golem and energy turret vanished when his body fell.
