Taking advantage of the general lack of awareness of their arrival, Feng homed in on the two Redcloaks who happened to be facing their way and noticed them.

*Swish* *Thud* *Swish* *Thud*

Two knives flew through the space and slammed into the heads of Feng’s targets with unerringly accuracy and the dead corpses slumped and hit the floor with soft thuds.

At the same time, Roth made his entrance as he charged through the distance and jumped…

*BOOOOMMMMM*

The glow of an oppressive aura coated Roth’s entire body as he reached the apex of his leap… and CRASHED into the midst of the main group of at least eighty Redcloaks, crushing at least eight dead and injuring dozens.

The Redcloaks though thrown into disarray by the surprise attack quite recollected themselves and swiftly surrounded Roth only to be faced with a sudden decimation of their ranks as a horde of flying knives was sent at their backs.

All this was courtesy of Feng who had been collecting the standardized iron knives of the Redcloak and filling up his inventory, and he now kindly ‘returned’ his looted weapons to their owners’ friends… and fought off an urge to scream “UNLIMITED BL**EW*RKS” as he rained down knives on his foes.

The wall of red-cloaked enemies before Feng evaporated under the deluge of knives as he rained nearly sixty knives into their backs in quick succession.

The deaths of nearly thirty plus enemies revealed Roth standing firm within the circle of Redcloaks, spinning his long spear and sweeping away large swathes of the killers with occasional aura-powered thrusts blowing through entire lines of enemies.

Watching as a whole group of Redcloaks splintered off and sped toward him after his attack, Feng simply grinned as a diabolical idea struck him.

Feng’s savage grin vanished under cowl of his red cloak and he vanished with a single step into the enemy ranks surrounding Roth.

‘Are these guys even real assassins…’

Flickering in and out of the edges of the fight centered on Roth, Feng thought derisively as he silently sunk his knife through the back of yet another Redcloak. Vanishing with a quick step as the others begun to notice, Feng watched as confused Redcloaks turned on each other thinking that it was him.

Feng’s hit-and-run tactics worked admirably in creating confusion but in terms of kill-count, he lagged far behind Roth’s wide-area attacks taking out multiple Redcloaks with each attack.

Grimacing as his blood-soaked knives got stuck in the spine of a Redcloak; Feng grabbed the dying man’s knives from his weakened grasp and casually deflected a stab and threw a side-kick to toss the aggressor into the main fray.

Slinging his newly-looted knives at another two nearby Redcloaks, Feng rolled to the side as yet another pair of knives slashed at him. Grabbing hold of the latest aggressor’s arm and straightening it as he rolled,  Feng felt the twisted arm wrenching out of the man’s shoulder socket with a sickening pop.

Feng spun around and manipulated the now loosely hanging arm to thrust the knife deeply into a charging Redcloak’s torso before speeding away with a [Qing Gong] step as he begun to draw too many attackers.

Within approximately ten minutes of hard fighting, Feng and Roth had thinned the Redcloak ranks dramatically and the original horde numbering more than a hundred strong was reduced to barely thirty plus.

However the fight only got tougher as the reduced numbers allowed the Redcloaks to fight to their full potential instead of being hindered by lack of space.

Not only that, with the Redcloak corpses littering the ground and blood running in rivers, footing was hard to find and Feng was forced to stop using [Qing Gong] to flitter around after he stumbled over a corpse and was slashed deeply across his left shoulder.

Even worse were the injured or dying foes, the fanatical Redcloaks would simply run straight at their weapons and grab on to allow others a chance to strike at them.

Feng was tiring quickly as he was forced to dodge every single attacker closing in to avoid being tied down unlike Roth who simply allowed himself to be dog-piled with his aura-enhanced and superior armor… But even Roth was tiring being the focus of the hordes of Redcloaks who was throwing themselves at him as the sheer weight of their numbers and continual usage of aura took a toll on him.

With three Redcloaks surrounding Feng and more moving closer, Feng was forced to quickly dispatch the foes. He parried yet another knife thrust and deflected the charging man into another attack coming from the side, allowing them to collide bloodily with their knives outstretched…

As Feng prepared to finish off the remaining Redcloak and relocate for better footing… His instincts suddenly screamed at him and Feng jumped to the left, narrowing avoiding a… khopesh?

The curved sword whistled through the air dangerously close to Feng and his desperate dodge turned into an uncontrolled stumble as he slipped on the fresh blood coating the floor.

Feng landed with a bloody splash as he fell next to the un-hooded face of a dead Redcloak and was freaked out by the dead man’s glassy-eyed stare and the warm blood he fell into.

‘OH MY GOD!’

Blood splattering across his face, Feng was frozen for a moment despite the large amount of Redcloaks he slain… This was too up-close and gory especially as he fell out of the adrenaline-induced haze of combat.

“AAGGHHHH!”

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That moment of hesitation cost Feng dearly and he screamed in pain as he felt the heavy bite of the khopesh dig through his robes and leather armor.

Rolling away as the pain hit, Feng held in a moan of pain as the moment aggravated the long gash across his back.

Distancing himself with a quick [Qi Gong]-fueled leap, Feng turned back to [Observe] the owner of the khopesh who was quickly and silently closing the distance.

Redcloak Elite Killers

Type: Human (Elite)

Level: ~60

Attacks/Weapons: Red Steel Khopesh (x2)

Traits: *Skill Level Too Low*

Stats: *Skill Level Too Low*

Weak Spots: Eyes, *Skill Level Too Low*

Description: These Redcloaks are clearly superior to the rank and file in both training and equipment. With finely crafted steel chainmail peeking through their dark red cloaks alongside gleaming red steel khopeshes, these trained killers are made even more menacing with a full demon-faced helmet covering all but their eyes.

Feng cursed as he read the information window and ran away as he scanned the battlefield hoping that the situation is better with Roth. Instead, he spotted fiver other [Redcloak Elite Killers] engaging Roth and… they even had even gotten several hits on him, the dark armor showing long cuts seeping out green blood.

‘Damn it, can things get even worse…’

Tempting Murphy’s Law, Feng grimaced as he realized that with the elites came another squad of Redcloaks and a peculiar Redcloak wielding a long scepter with a sun-burst symbol mounted on top.

Seeing that the additional reinforcements seemed to be standing guard around the scepter-wielding Redcloak, Feng decided instantly that this was a high-priority target. However, his attempts to whittle down the twenty plus Redcloaks guarding the target was quickly rebuffed as two of the elites redirected their attention to him instantly.

“OH F*CK!”

The speedy elites gave Feng little chance to think as he was forced to use [Qi Gong] to stay ahead of them and all his attempts at throwing knives or [Far Strike] failed miserably in penetrating their chain-mail armor.

Thankfully, Roth seemed to be handling his three much better with one down and another injured though Roth himself have taken many cuts himself…

*BANG*

Another set of doors slammed open and the duo despaired at the thought of additional enemy reinforcements…

Only for a small figure to rush through and smash into the back of the Redcloak guards, sending limbs and body parts flying as it spun through them. The three elites on Feng’s tail immediately diverted towards the newcomer and clashed with the unknown figure.

“FENG! You came for me!”

Rania’s familiar voice rang out as the spinning white blur came to a temporary stop, trapping a pair of khopeshes between two large battle-axes.

Feng came to a complete stop as he stared at the small cat-girl wielding two large double-headed battle-axes the size of her entire body… and spinning them around her deflecting weapons and hacking through limbs and armor alike with ease.

“… Oi. What am I then Rania? Chopped liver?”

Roth called out grumpily as he finished off the distracted elites he was facing off with and backed up Rania, deflecting the third killer’s khopesh from Rania’s back.

“Oops.. Hi Little Ro!”

“Stop calling me that! Old hag.”

“MOOOUUU!! BAD RO! I am only two years older!”

“AGH! WATCH IT RANIA, YOU ALMOST TOOK MY HEAD OFF!”

Roth and Rania stood against the remaining elites and Redcloaks with contemptuous ease with casual bantering. As Roth took out the elites with swift deadly thrusts of his spear and Rania darted around a whirlwind of axes maiming or simply bashing them down and setting them up for Roth to finish off.

Sweat-dropping as the two adventurer veterans mopped up the remaining foes, Feng felt almost unnecessary as he simply scooped up knives and tossed them into the fray, picking out soft targets. However, all his attempts to take out the chanting staff-wielder failed as the fanatics dove in the way of the projectiles to cover for him.

“… RALOS!”

The Redcloak completed his chant ending with a shout of Ralos and abruptly… stabbed himself in the heart with his staff…

At his shout, the remaining Redcloaks similarly threw themselves on their blades at the same instant leaving the trio completely confused until they looked at the chanting Redcloak.

All the blood from the dead Redcloaks were gathering into small rivulets and then snaking into a large pool beneath that one peculiar Redcloak’s feet…

A cold sense of foreboding grew in Feng’s gut as the blood begun to snake its way up the Redcloak’s body and a deep crimson glow shone from the blood as it coated man.

Hurriedly throwing all the knives he could gather at the man, only to watch it sink deeply into his flesh but yet not a single sign of the glow and gathered blood stopping, Feng called out urgently to Rania and Roth who looked bemused.

“QUICK CUT HIM DOWN!”

However, it was far too late by then as the glow grew blinding and flashed forcing them to look away as the blood completely coated the Redcloak’s body.

“Hmpf. Useless fools. Calling on me to deal with scum like you.”