Hearing the admonition, Fox finally decided to join the attack on Bowler. She turned her back from Flame's hiding place, that's when Flame came out. When Fox was aware that her tracking target was moving towards her, Flame had already arrived by her side. Her casting was interrupted by Flame's stab on her side abdomen. When Fox turned her staff to point at Flame, Flame moved in a circular motion preventing Fox from targeting her, all the while continued to stab her dagger onto Fox's body.
"You bitch!!" Fox screamed in frustration due to the pain from the stabs and in being unable to aim at Flame.
Scarface turned and threw a ranged attack at Flame. He hit her and disrupted her rhythm, allowing Fox to finally aimed at her and cast Mana Bullet. The assault pushed Flame back. But as Fox was delighted to finally hit Flame and was about to continue her assault, she was struck in the face by another Mana Bullet and received critical damage. Bowler which was free from Scarface interference managed to aim an accurate shot on her.
"Bigarm, come here! Red and Stone alone are enough there." Scarface commanded as he cast Energy Bolts. The five bolts rushed towards Flame. Flame waited just before the bolts hit and she executed Ranger skill: Roll. Two of the bolts hit her during her rolling, the other three missed as they could not do sharp turns. During Roll skill, Flame's defense was increased by 100%, hence the damages were not significant.
Scarface caught a light approaching from the corner of his eye and jumped sideways as a ball of light passed where he was standing. It was the Bowler's standard range attack. He turned and saw Bowler cast his Energy Bolts which had just come off cooldown. Four Bolts came rushing, two came over at him while the other two spread out and went towards Fox and Bigarm who were running back. Scarface used his Magic Shield to defend against the incoming Bolts.
Meanwhile, Flame who was freed from Scarface's interference, had her roll ended near Fox. She resumed her assault as the enraged Fox threw her spells to retaliate on Bowler. Fox's stab brought her attention back, but she couldn't do anything to her. Flame's movements were too rapid for her.
"Use your Magic Shield, you dumb wench!" Scarface's shout snapped Fox's rationality back. She was too blinded by fury that she didn't pay attention to her HP bar. Now she had just realized that her HP bar was in a critical state already. She hastily summoned her Magic Shield to defend from Flame's attacks.
"Too late," Flame told her. She was confused, then she heard Scarface's shout.
"Look out!"
Fox felt two consecutive searing pain in her back. They were from Bowler's one Energy Bolt followed by an additional standard attack. When Flame sent her stabs to Fox, she had positioned herself opposite from Bowler, hence exposing Fox's back to him, allowing pincer attacks from both of them. As Fox staggered due to the hits on her back, she felt cold steel on her neck. Flame had made herself onto her in an instant.
"N–No!" She was unwilling as Flame's dagger cut through her throat. Her vision started to blur as she fell to the ground.
Bigarm who was running back halted his steps when he saw Fox fell.
"Damn it!" Scarface cursed, then told Bigarm, "you deal with her! I need to keep that Magician occupied until our two people get to him."
Jack on the other side was having an intense battle with Red Death. He continued using the suicide attack method since he knew he could not beat her in technique. He forcefully attacked her whenever she made her strike.
Red was frustrated, this was like newbie players hacking at each other without bothering to evade, a simple brawl where winning or losing was largely affected by the players' stats. With her nimble movements, she could still avoid most of those suicide attacks, but on the third exchange, she was hit again. Jack's speed was too fast for her to completely overcome. She had lost half of her life just from two hits, while the HP bar above her opponent had only lost one fifth even after her multiple stabs.
'Crap! How high is his total HP?' She cursed in her mind.
By this time, Stonecleave had arrived. She Jumped back to broke away from Jack as Stonecleave took over, and took out a potion to drink. The potion was crafted by the alchemist in their guild, which gave a better restorative effect compared to the common medicines they scavenged from deserted stores.
Jack didn't chase after Red, he received Stonecleave's attack with a swing of his own. Every clash of their weapon pushed Stonecleave back one step. Unlike Red Death, Stone's martial style mostly focused on heavy attacks based on strength. Thus, when he met with Jack's overpowering strength stat, he was completely dominated. Stone's HP was higher than Red because of his Fighter's class, but Jack could hit him more easily compared to Red. So Stone was losing his life at the same rapid rate.
Watching his comrade's situation, Red didn't dare to tarry longer. She joined the attack to reduce the pressure on Stonecleave. Jack, upon seeing Red approaching, sent a Swing that covered both his assailants. Stonecleave blocked using Parry, while Red expertly dodged by using Roll.
She rolled forward passing Jack and came up behind him, before sending a Swift Strike to Jack's back. Jack managed to turn in time to Parry Red's attack, but left his back open for Stonecleave's attack. Red had managed to expertly utilize her roll to positioned Jack in the middle of them for a pincer attack between her and Stonecleave.
Jack was having trouble defending from both sides, he tried to break away, but Red continued to anticipate his movements and blocked his retreat path. His high HP was whittled down slowly by his two assailants without being able to return an attack. Jack decided to let go of his attempt to trade blows with them and instead crossed his hands as protection then rammed his body forward while ignoring all the attacks landed on his body. He completely utilized his high HP advantage to withstand the damages.
Stonecleave which was the target of the ram was caught off guard by such a crude method. His footing was not stable enough and was sent flying away when Jack's body collided with him. Red, on the other hand, could only keep on stabbing Jack's back all the while.
Completely ignoring the backstabs, Jack squatted down. His body then sprang up and twisted. The sword in his hand made a fast 360-degree sweep, but Red noticed it and ducked in time to dodge it. As Red was about to get back up to continue her attack, she realized that Jack's twisting motion in the air had yet to stop.
In that instant, Jack's leg using momentum from the twist came sweeping towards her. She blocked it using her hand but was also thrown several meters away. The kick didn't produce any damage as it was not calculated as a valid attack but it still caused pain and forced Red to stop their attack rhythm.
Free from their encirclement, Jack immediately moved towards Stonecleave. The woman called Red Death was too difficult to deal with unless he fought her one-on-one or revealed his Overlimit or Magician skill. Stonecleave who had got back to his feet and was just about to drink his potion, stored it back when he saw Jack barreling towards him.
Unwilling to get rammed again, he jumped sideways. But Jack anticipated it and using his fast speed to get to him and then delivered his three circling slashes. The first slash was dodged, second was parried, while the last one grazed him, but the system still considered the graze as a valid hit, so Stonecleave still lost life. His HP was less than half now.
As Jack continued his assaults, he noticed the 2 black dots were enclosing on Bowler. He immediately warned Bowler through the Party chat.
"Bowler, jump down now! They are about to come behind you."
Bowler followed the instruction without hesitation. Before Bowler landed on the ground, Jack sent another follow-up instruction.
"Scatter! We regroup a hundred meters west of here. Use your map to observe others' movements in case you cannot make it there."
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