Gridhacker watched his radar. He was standing at the back with four natives at the front, forming a wall. These four were all level 55 special elites. The one remaining native was a distance away, he was standing on the roof of the shrine. That one native refused to follow any of Gridhacker's commands. He was here because his God ordered him to help Master, and Master told him to guard this place. So that's all he was doing, and he would do it his own way.
Gridhacker himself was a level 53 Archmage. He cast Barrier and Magic Field when he saw the two black dots were almost upon them. Rows of shrubs were in between them and these incoming players. So, they were not visible yet.
Perching on his shoulder was a black raven. It was his familiar. It was one of the rare familiar that could do standard attacks albeit very weak attacks. Its skills mostly enhanced its owner's offensive capability to allow it to deal better damage. Its passive boost increased the power of its owner's offensive spells by 10% and also increased the range of its owner's standard attacks by ten meters.
On his radar, several red dots suddenly appeared around the two black dots. 'Their number increased? Is one of the players a summoner?' He wondered.
"Get…," Gridhacker didn't manage to say 'ready' when one of the black dots and three red dots suddenly moved at a very high speed.
Those four had already burst out of the shrubs. It was the lightning boy as expected, although the gears he wore were now vastly different from the past, they looked like a set. Beside him was an ice-covered demon with skeletal wings, a large beast with horns and armor, and an elegant man with an aristocratic vest. The pale skin of this elegant man informed Gridhacker that the man was of the vampire race.
Gridhacker was not surprised by the colorful allies that Jack brought. What surprised him was the unnatural speed the four exhibited. It was as if the four moved at a different time stream compared to them. In just a short while, the four were already upon them.
Jack had cast Acceleration on Arlcard, Therras, Ice Demon Fiend, and himself before beginning his assault. That spell could now affect four targets, so he chose the most battle-capable ones in the group.
Therras activated his armor's supersonic mode, turning even faster than it already was. It also used Tyrannical Charge. The native who Therras was targeting didn't even have time to react when Therras headbutted its horns onto him.
It then zipped around the other natives with its supersonic speed enhanced by the acceleration spell. Its opponents didn't even manage to catch a glimpse of Therras as they kept on getting hit. Ice Demon Fiend and Jack each picked one native and focused their attacks on them. Arlcard cast his Perpetual Sword of Death from the get-go. The dark energy swords produced by the spell flew around striking all enemies in the vicinity.
Within a few short seconds, the four natives had been battered by countless attacks. Gridhacker who stood further back was also struck by Arlcard's Perpetual Sword of Death. His Barrier didn't last long. He cast Magic Wall but that was soon shattered as well.
He ran out of defensive spells. When the next energy sword came at him, he felt himself getting pulled back. He fell backward as he saw the back of his comrade. His comrade's blue spear was shining with a radiant glow. The blue spear thrust forward and crashed with the dark energy sword. Multiple energy swords came again but the blue spears accurately struck each one. His comrade received small damage with each impact but they were too little to be of concern.
"You!" Jack uttered after seeing the one who saved Gridhacker.
"How are you doing? Domon doesn't come here as well?" Spring Crown replied with a smile. His spear never stopped striking Arlcard's energy swords that came at him and Gridhacker.
The 25 seconds duration of Acceleration had ended, but they had dealt much damage to the four natives in this initial clash. Two were even close to death. Jack left the four natives to his three minions and advanced towards Spring Crown. His wolves had also arrived and assisted in fighting the natives.
Spring Crown, who saw Jack drawing near, moved back. Arlcard's energy swords were too hectic. Even for his reading ability, dealing with Jack while paying attention to the energy swords was too much.
Gridhacker followed Spring Crown in retreating. At the same time, he cast Tracing Beams at Jack. Jack defended by casting Magic Wall. He then countered by casting the same spell, Tracing Beams.
Spring Crown took position near Gridhacker and activated Assaulting Frenzy, increasing his attack speed. His spear then turned into a blur as it struck each of Jack's ten beams. He was forced backward with every impact, but none of the beams scored a direct hit.
Gridhacker cast Mana Beam but Jack easily dodged this linear attack. Jack arrived before them soon. His sword clashed with Spring Crown's spear.
"I've told Domon that I wish to fight you someday. Seems like today is my lucky day," Spring Crown said, still smiling.
"Same here, number one gamer!" Jack replied. Four extra arms sprout from his back.
"Whoa! Six weapons against one. That is unfair!" Spring Crown uttered. "Let's even up the odds a bit, shall we?"
Eight different weapons materialized and floated around him. Each weapon was a different type of melee weapon. It was Weapon Master's level 50 skill, Weapons Festival.
Weapon Master possessed a special equipment interface that gave them nine equipment slots for each melee weapon type. When they changed their weapon, it was taken from one of these nine slots. Hence, they could change the weapon with speed instead of searching for the weapons inside their inventory.
When Weapons Festival was used, aside from the weapon the weapon master already had on hand. The other eight weapons were also summoned. Each weapon hovered around the weapon master and would strike any enemy in the vicinity, dealing 200% damage to the weapon's damage value. This skill lasted one minute at its first level. But knowing Spring Crown, Jack thought it's unlikely this skill was still at level one.
Spring Crown used Spirit Weapon as well, increasing the number of his weapons to ten.
Jack's six arms clashed with Spring Crown's ten weapons. Although Spring Crown's number of weapons was more, Jack's Asura skill also provided a boost in attacking speed and critical chance. Since Jack's base speed was already monstrous, the boost allowed him to easily cope with his adversary's superiority in terms of the number of weapons.
What troubled Jack was Spring Crown's degree of accuracy. The Weapons Festival was like the Spirit Weapon, it could be left to attack the enemies on its own or be controlled consciously. Spring Crown, of course, chose to control each one. Each weapon struck from different angles and with a different rhythm and style. They were also very attentive to any opening to Jack's stance. This made Jack feel as if he was fighting against ten experts instead of just one.
"… Did you cast a spell to lower my speed?" Spring Crown said amongst their clashes. "It's a very small change, but I'm certain I'm slower than usual."
"You can perceive it? As expected of the number one gamer," Jack replied. "It is not a spell, however. It is my passive ability."
"Damn! Then that means it will not end? Ain't that cheating?"
Jack felt mana build up underneath him. He used Whirlwind Slash and Ice Ring back-to-back, forcing Spring Crown and his nine weapons back. He then somersaulted back just as Gridhacker's spell that produced blue chains burst out of the ground attempting to capture him.
Spring Crown came at Jack again, his Weapons Festival had a shorter duration than Jack's Asura. He was not going to waste it.
As Spring Crown came, Jack also used his Spirit Weapon. His Storm Breaker's spirit weapon immediately went into melee mode and engaged Spring Crown.
"You can use Spirit Weapon as well? Do you have four classes now?" Spring Crown asked with surprise. "And what kind of Spirit Weapon is that? It looked more like a monster than a weapon. Man, do you hack this game world or something?"
"Or something," Jack uttered as he clashed with Spring Crown again.
With Jack's Spirit Weapon unleashing Formless Flowing Sword style together with Jack, it was Spring Crown's ten weapons who were pushed back in the direct clash.
There were commotions at the back at this time. Jack afforded a glance and saw two of the four natives had fallen. The remaining two were close to death as well. That was not the source of the commotion, the commotion happened because Arlcard's energy swords had somehow frozen in the air. They were then forcefully sucked into one spot before all the dark swords were broken apart.
Arlcard reeled back when his skill collapsed. He suffered damage to his HP and MP when that happened.
Their attention then went to a person in crimson vestment who was slowly floating down from the roof of the shrine. Jack recognized this native. It was Arlstraxx, the level 70 rare elite Cardinal of Phobos. The one who had possessed Winston in the past and also almost caught him during his first encounter with Fear.
