There are a total of sixteen enemy players, one of them is Tigar who leads the other fifteen.
All enemy players ride horses along the edge of the swamp towards the cave location. However, not far from the cave, they have to dismount from their horses and continue their pursuit by swimming through the swamp.
The cave where the Sun of Lion Knight's hideout is located has only one side touching the swamp while the other side touches the land.
But, there's only one way to enter the cave. The entrance is in a hole high above the swamp, while the rest is all covered with sharp rocks, and some are poisonous. Fortunately, the swamp near the cave is shallow.
That's why, even though Sun of Lion Knight can use this cave as a hideout, Preta knows that if all the members of Hades of Hells attack them, they will definitely lose. So, Preta wants to finish off their enemies as quickly as possible.
A small group from Hades of Hells, led by Tigar, slowly but surely begins to approach the cave entrance. Meanwhile, on the cave side, the four members of Sun of Lion Knight who can launch long-range attacks are ready with their respective weapons.
When Tigar's group has entered Crocils' attack zone, Crocils signals to Preta, who is standing boldly on the edge of the cave, staring at the approaching enemies. The signal Crocils gives is just a fist that Preta sees.
Enemies getting closer, all members of the Sun of Lion Knight with ranged attacks have signaled Preta.
"Attack!"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Gans on the left side of the cliff is hiding behind rocks, shooting arrows directly at the Tigar group. Unfortunately, his stats aren't good enough for critical hits, even most of Gans' attacks miss or only cause minor injuries.
Realizing they are under attack, Tigar orders his troops to raise their shields. However, he doesn't know that the attack he's facing isn't just physical but also a spell that goes through the shield.
"Visual blocked," Zhendra, who is on the right cliff near to Natasha, says. His position is the highest, but he also finds it challenging to see the enemy. "I'm moving."
"Got it," said Crocils, positioned far to the left of the cliff but having the most open spot, providing a clear view of the enemies' position. Even though he was quite exposed, the chances of the enemy knowing Crocils' whereabouts were slim because it was opposite to their direction and not their main focus.
"Spend only half of your ammo, and reduce the attack intensity after that. Keep it tight," Preta advised.
The Tigar group was getting closer, but they faced another challenge. They had to climb the cliff, meaning their protection had to be opened, giving an opportunity for Gans.
When an enemy player opened their shield and started climbing, Gans seized the moment. Although his character's stats were far from impressive, his skills were good enough to handle manual attacks well. Gans successfully shot his arrow into the enemy's neck.
Unfortunately, Gans' position got exposed, and the enemy archers took advantage of it to attack Gans. The first shot missed and hit the rock above Gans, but the second hit him right in the shoulder.
Hexon, positioned on the left side of the cliff, can see if Gans is under attack from enemy archers. "Looks like Gans needs help."
Preta glances toward Gans and agrees with Hexon's observation. "So, we'll dive in and wreck their defense. Is it sounds good?"
"Are you sure?" Hexon asks.
Preta considers the worst-case scenario, "Not."
"Well, what should we do then?"
Tigar begins to realize that the attack on them isn't just physical but also involves spell attacks. He orders his troops to keep an eye out, forcing the Crocils to hide.
An enemy player spots the Crocils peeking from his hiding spot and immediately informs Tigar. Unfortunately, the player has already become a target for the Crocils and getting hit one after another.
Tigar then instructs his troops not to bother with their shields and quickly climb the cliff. This way, they can run and avoid spell attacks since Tigar knows for sure that the enemies' spell attacks have a limit on visibility.
Unfortunately, Tigar's decision came too late. Before the shield protecting them above their heads was lowered, three pretty daring, silly people jumped from the cliff towards them.
Preta has a weakness in body attributes, causing 4 damage and leaving it with 6 HP. Luckily, due to their landing on the raised shield, the fall distance for Preta was shortened, preventing any specific conditions. Preta is still fit for an attack.
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Hexon and Dens, both having strength in body attributes, only took 1 damage, leaving them with 11 HP. Just like Preta, they can immediately launch their attacks on their enemies.
The unexpected assault made the enemy troops scatter and abandon Tigar.
The fleeing enemies, leaving their own protection, became easy targets for Crocils, Vector, and Zhendra, who had already repositioned and started attacking again.
Meanwhile, only four players and Tigar are still standing.
Dens successfully pulled off a maneuver by targeting the neck of the player in front of him, ensuring lethal damage and taking down that player.
Meanwhile, Hexon had a tough time holding off and attacking two enemy players at once. Fortunately, after Dens finished his business, he immediately helped Hexon.
A spear got stuck in Dens' armor. Indeed, Dens had iron armor, but it could be considered a defect, making it easily breakable. Luckily, the spear only caused a small damage to Dens, reducing his HP by 2.
Taking advantage of this, Dens moved his body to free the spear from its user. And since the enemy was weaponless, Hexon, seeing this, seized the opportunity and swung his weapon towards the enemy's head.
While Hexon was swinging at his opponent and succeeding, he left himself vulnerable to attack, and one of the enemy players who saw it launched a heavy strike against Hexon, targeting the uncovered side of Hexon's body by the armor.
Luckily, Gans, who had shifted to the edge of the cliff, took advantage of the fight below to launch an attack. Gans's first attack successfully wounded the shoulder of the enemy player who was attempting to attack Hexon.
Due to the blow on his shoulder, the enemy player unintentionally released his grip, and his sword was tossed aside.
The thrown sword did hit Hexon, but it wasn't powerful enough to pierce the back part of Hexon's armor.
Taking advantage of the enemy player being newly hit by Gans, Hexon executed a maneuver with his longsword, splitting the enemy player's body into two halves.
Another enemy was down.
On the other side, Preta had to dodge a combo attack unleashed by Tigar and his troop.
Avoiding those attacks was tough, forcing Preta to grab a shield dropped by an enemy player multiple times. However, their shields were pretty weak, only capable of taking three to four attacks.
At least, Preta's move, even though it doesn't give him a chance to attack, but buys enough time for Hexon, Dens, and Gans to help him.
Gans shoots some arrows towards the two enemies. Out of the seven arrows shot, only two hit, and just one inflicts significant damage.
Dens helps Preta in defense, while Hexon takes down the enemy player hit by Gans' arrow.
Now, only Tigar remains. Knowing he's been defeated, he drops his weapon.
"I surrender, you guys are really tough. No wonder Nephoturo sent me to meet you and offer a deal," says Tigar, kneeling with his hands behind his back.
Preta unsheathes his sword and points it directly at Tigar's neck, "Thanks for the offer, but sorry, we decline."
Preta and his friends are actually quite surprised to hear Tigar's words. They all thought Tigar was after them to kill them for successfully tricking him.
So, Dens asks Tigar, "You send an offer, why?"
Tigar glances at Dens, still in his surrender position. "We don't want to die in this world, we just want to live. It's not a game anymore, it's reality."
Tigar's words make Dens smile, while Hexon and Preta chuckle.
Tigar just watches them, suspicious if they don't know what he has learned about this world.
"Relax, if you die, your progress isn't too far gone. You can start over," says Preta, pressing his sword and hurting Tigar's neck.
Tigar swallows hard, looking pale instantly. Sweat flows from his head to his feet. His breathing is heavy and sounds painful.
In his somewhat difficult-to-hear voice, Tigar tries to talk to Preta, who is still pressing his sword to Tigar's neck, "Yo...u... do...n't... un...der...stand, th...is is..."
Preta just smiles as he sees his sword pierce Tigar's throat, and when he pulls his sword back, Tigar's body falls limp.
Tigar experienced a slow and painful death, even though he had no intention of killing them. Nephoturo's order was clear to him —offer cooperation. However, Preta didn't care much about that.
For Preta, an experienced player, killing other players would earn him a high amount of experience points or EXP to level up. This way, he could become stronger, making him a character not easily defeated by enemies.
Zhendra, Crocils, and Vector successfully slaughtered all enemy players attempting to escape.
This was their first battle after the major update, and it was flawlessly won by the Sun of Lion Knight.
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After looting all the weapons and items left by the defeated enemies, they quickly gathered where their enemies had left the previously ridden horses.
They gathered the looted items in one place. There are four shields still intact and usable, though the quality of the shields is questionable. In addition, there are three extra healing items, and one that increases maximum HP by 10 HP for one day. They also got some new arrows to replenish Gans' used ammunition.
"Close combatants will use shields, so that's me, Dens, Hexon, and Natasha. Instead, all healing items are for the long combatants. So, how are you going to distribute them?" Preta said, taking the shields and handing one to each Dens, Hexon, and Natasha.
"I think everyone except me is a spells user, so what if I take the extra HP item?" Gans suggested, grabbing the item that increases maximum HP for one day.
"Okay, that makes sense," Zhendra replied, then took the healing item.
Vector and Crocils also agreed. They nodded and took healing items for themselves.
"Alright, then let's just pick the horses you want, and the rest we release to create fake tracks," said Preta, immediately mounting the horse he had chosen.
After they finished choosing their horses, they all urged their horses away from the scene.
By then, the day was starting to get dark as the sun had begun to set. The two main moons of Buarth, Mobu and Onlan, were already visible, though still very small.
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