Second World Chapter 287 - 287. Dust Cloud

The two guilds who had just arrived slowly get into formation. They moved steadily as they approached the coalition army. The players of the coalition had seen the new troops approaching, but most of the top players who they took command from were at the other side dealing with Jack's Pyro Lynx. The ones that were slightly higher in rank hastily organized the players to face the newcomer troops.
Both parties soon clashed. Both sides started with range spells and attacks before their melee class charged into each other.
Scarface watched the two sides clashed with trepidation. It was true that they still outnumber the enemy force by twice. If it was only facing against the two guilds, their current state should still be more than fine. After all, most of their top experts were still alive and kicking. But what if they still had to face Jack? When Jack was alone, they had already barely managed to cope with him. Now another force had shown up, their situation was actually more precarious.
With great unwillingness, he finally uttered the words that he thought he would never say today, "let's retreat."
"What? Are you kidding?" Prideful Josh immediately showed his disapproval.
"Yes, we still have many members. There is no reason for us to yield!" Queen Magenta exclaimed.
"Retreating now will severely hurt our reputation, how will we gain more members if everyone heard of this?" Fat Gregory chimed in.
The other guild leaders also expressed their objection to Scarface's suggestion.
Manager Steelhand was silent, he glanced at Jack who was still standing behind them. Although they were observing the coming of White Scarfs and Saint Edge groups, half their attention was still on Jack. After all, how could one relax when such a frightening opponent was standing not far away?
Manager Steelhand's thought was the same as Scarface's, he would choose to retreat under the current situation. However, most of the coalition leaders had opted to continue fighting. He couldn't sway the group's decision with just the two of them, even if they were two out of the three main leaders of the coalition.
Scarface was also feeling helpless, the situation had indeed turned to the worst. Leaving now would indeed be very bad for the coalition's reputation. Perhaps they should bet on fighting till the end.
"Very admirable show of valiance, you lots," a snarky comment was spoken amongst them. It was Blackjack, he did not go down there with the other top experts because he did not consider himself under the coalition's order. He was only here to watch the show.
"You are here just a guest, I suggest you watch your words," Prideful Josh said.
Blackjack simply smirked at the remark.
"What's that?" One of the guild leaders pointed out at the distance.
It was the direction of the forest where Jack had come from. There was a low but dense cloud of dust on top of the row of trees in the forest. It was still far behind the forest, but it seemed to be moving closer.
They observed the phenomenon for a while before someone gave his opinion, "it looked like something was moving behind the forest."
"Not something, a lot of things," Another guild leader said his piece.
"It couldn't be…" A realization came to Manager Steelhand, before he said with a serious tone, "we have to leave!"
"What? Not you too? But…"
Manager Steelhand interrupted Fat Gregory's objection crudely, he said, "do you remember about the message I received about Saint John?"
Fat Gregory was confused at first, he tried to remember what they have talked about before his eyebrows raised in realization, "wait, you are not suggesting that dust cloud to be…"
"I think that is what it exactly is," Manager Steelhand again cut off Fat Gregory's sentence. "I don't know how he managed to rile up so many independent players, but looking at that dust cloud, their numbers were not small."
The others who were still oblivious, came to understanding after hearing his last words. They looked again at that cloud of dust. A force that could produce such dust cloud upon their marching, would indeed be not minuscule.
"Let's retreat," Manager Steelhand repeated Scarface words, but this time none were showing objection.
Scarface turned to Jack and said, "we will settle this another time."
Jack replied with a shrug.
"Let's go," Scarface said to the others. They started walking down the hill.
All the leaders sent out messages to their subordinates in the army below as they walked. Most were not aware of rapid footsteps from behind them. Scarface was in the middle of typing his message when his instinct warned him and he made an abrupt turn.
Jack was already nearby, his sword lifted, and was about to cut down. Scarface did not have enough time to react. However, another person suddenly appeared in front of him and clashed with Jack's downward swing. The person was sent flying and bumped into Scarface as he was sent tumbling away again.
Scarface quickly rose after the fall and saw that the person that had saved him was Blackjack, who quickly took out a potion to recover his health.
"You…!" He snarled at Jack.
"Damn, if only I have Silent Step skill like Ranger," Jack uttered, lamenting his failed ambush.
"What's the meaning of this? Do you have no honor?" Manager Steelhand exclaimed.
"You have the guts to talk about honor after kidnapping my friends?" Jack retorted.
"So you plan to continue fighting with us?" Manager Steelhand brandished his weapon. The others followed suit.
"Never intending to stop actually," Jack admitted. "Just thought I can get a free kill this way. Also, I never said anything about stop fighting, I simply ask you the question. You don't think I'm a nice guy now, do you? I'm nice to my friends, but I can be nasty to my enemy. I still regret the time when I let go of Bigarm, I thought he could really die at that time. I guess I'm not ready to be a murderer yet then."
"Are you ready now?" Scarface said as he readied his magic staff.
"Oh, I'm not sure. Since you don't really die here in this world no matter how many times I kill you. I will never really know now, won't I?" Jack replied.
"Then there's nothing further to discuss!" Scarface said as he cast Energy Bolts.
An arrow flew past Jack aiming at Scarface as he cast his spell. One of the guild leaders who was a Knight, saw the arrow attack and went forward to receive it using his shield. Fierce Flame continued to fire her arrows at random targets amongst the guild leaders.
Bowler aided by casting his range spells as well. While The Man charged forward targeting one particular guild leader, who at the time was actually continuing to retreat towards the coalition army. The Real Man was running, ignoring the other guild leaders who had engaged in combat with Jack and the others.
"You coward! Where are you running off to?!" The Man called out to the fleeing The Real Man. No one could blame the cowardly guy though, he was still a Fighter at level 14 after all. He would stand no chance in the fight back there, so all he could do was run to where his subordinates were.
"We can't stay!" Scarface called to the others as he continued to throw range attacks. He briefly glanced at the dust cloud that still lingered above the faraway forest.
"Tell that to these a*sholes!" Queen Magenta replied. She fought as fiercely as her male counterparts.
"We will continue to fight as we retreat, I've called for a division to come to face them," Manager Steelhand said.
"I don't think one division is enough for that guy," Fat Gregory remarked.
The Man had come back, he could not continue chasing after The Real Man. He joined in the fight against the guild leaders. The guild leaders themselves weren't pushovers, all of them were experts in their own right. Most notable were Scarface and Prideful Josh, both of whom were level 20 Mages. Though they did not seem to be on good terms with one another, their expertise allowed them good coordination. Their spells had managed to put a level of restriction upon Jack's movement.
The fact was, it was not only the two mages' good coordination that restricted Jack. At the moment, he did not dare to just charge recklessly like before. He could move freely when he was fighting alone, but now he needed to protect his three friends as well.
He had chosen to save them at the last moment after he received the message that reinforcement was near, precisely because he did not want to get bog down by them. If he rushed over and the guild leaders decided to focus their fire on one of his friends, it would be really difficult for him to keep them alive. It would be a shame to let them die after going through the trouble of saving them.
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