"Two! Don't rush like that! Princeling and his group have all be annihilated. Only one guy managed to run away."
Two, who was charging in front of everyone slowed down a little bit and turned toward the speaker. The player's IGN was Firecracker, but his real name was Richard and he used to be a tycoon. As a result, all his close friends called him Richie.
"What did you see, Richie? You are usually not that cautious," asked Two. Firecracker has been one of the few players to wholeheartedly agree to work with him. Although he did not fully trust him yet, there was no harm in hearing his advice.
"Although that player sided with the dark side, he is not a nobody. He must have considerable backing. In just the space of a few minutes, he took out at least 30 different items that all cost a few gold. Furthermore, he has already used more than 10 spells. I don't how he got the harpy, but it is obvious that she is his familiar. He must have a big guild behind him; we might end up offending them," prudently answered Firecracker. They were all knights who chose to join the church for resources, but Firecracker managed to obtain a skill called [Long Distance Vision]. The skill was rather useful and turned Firecracker into the scout of the team.
"It does not matter how strong he is or what his background is. This is a game and he cannot do anything against us. We have the church to back us up here. They cannot make a move on us unless they want to anger one of the major forces of the game. Besides, there are so many of us; he can at most take down one or two," replied Two.
"Two, you don't have to worry about it. As long as I am here, nothing will happen to you. The church will protect you. There is no time to lose, we need to get rid of the evil." A woman's voice sounded.
Firecracker looked at the speaker and frowned. Her name was Sophia. She was a pretty young blonde who always followed Two around. She wore a thin cloak that hid most of her features and held a long shiny staff, clearly indicating that she was a Cleric. The surprising part was that Sophia was not a player but rather, an NPC.
Sophia was the only NPC who joined the group of players. Before leaving the church, the trainers there organized a small tournament to determine who would lead the different teams on the subjugation missions. The prizes that were put up were all extremely enticing, ranging from powerful weapons to even unique skills. All the players fought for the prizes but in the end, Two ended up at the top.
To everyone's surprise, the organizers added a special prize to the prize pool: For the duration of the mission, Two will be accompanied by a female attendant that would help him in his daily chores and fight at his side.
Everybody was immediately stunned and envious of Two. Just by fighting, he not only obtained a bunch of useful items but he also got a beautiful NPC to play with during the whole mission. Sophia was a level 30 Cleric, she was 10 levels above the average player. With her by his side, Two was guaranteed to come back alive.
Even Firecracker was jealous of Two. Who would not want to have a pretty girl by his side? However, like many, Firecracker acknowledged Two's strength and decided to stay near him. Maybe the female Cleric would save a few spells to help her other teammates.
"Charge!" Two yelled loudly as he activated the skill with the same name. He was chosen to lead this time in defeating the evil forces, he needed to be the one leading the way.
***
"Found him!" Five turned his attention at the group of players charging toward him. Contrary to his expectations, finding Two had been extremely easy. When he was cursed, Five believed that Two was a Shaman or a Cursemancer but as it turned out, Two was one of the Knights leading the charge!
"He might have acquired a unique class that allows him to use curses. It is such a pity that they changed the Gunpowder, or else, this fight would have been so much easier."
Five sighed. He lamented over the fact that the crafting system had been modified. Gunpowder was the first item Five ever crafted in the game. It was thanks to its powerful effect that he was able to escape from Kroff's grasp.
However, at that time, Five was still below level 10 and the crafting system of the game did not apply to him. The game was programmed for players to be able to obtain professions once they left the beginner's village. This only occurred once they reached level 10; before that, the players' situation was ambiguous.
When Five tried to mix the components of the Gunpowder, he was immediately alerted by a system prompt:
[System prompt: Error! Player must have reached Grade 2 Engineer to successfully craft this item]
At the same time, a failure message appeared, resulting in the loss of the material. Five was stunned, he did not immediately understand what went wrong. After some research, he discovered that Engineer was a profession that could only be obtained at the capital of each empire. Alternatively, players could also learn Engineering from other races like goblins and gnomes.
When he looked at the forum, Five saw several players complaining about the crafting system. Even if they had high-level recipes in their possession, they could not use them before advancing their profession. It meant that before Five could once again make Gunpowder, he would need to start as a Grade 0 Engineer and level up to a Grade 2 Engineer. This was an almost impossible task for Five who was banned from all the towns of the empire.
Since he could no longer make Gunpowder, Five had to resort to buying items directly from the dungeon shop. It was more expensive, but they were also more effective. By the time he left the dungeon, he had less than 10000 DP left.
"Ariel, I found him. He is the man leading the other players. His armor is very different from the others; there a strange insignia on his armor plate, do you see who I am talking about?" asked Five.
"Yes, do I need to take him out?" promptly answered the harpy. Her eyes were much sharper than Five. She floated next to her master while preparing to charge at her target.
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"Yes, but use your ranged skills. It is dangerous to get near them. There are so many players. Even if you have a larger health pool than them, if they all attack at once, you will die before even reaching them," warned Five.
Ariel did not respond to Five's warning, but she nevertheless started to float higher and higher. She was well aware that the situation did not look very good. It was two people against an entire army. Even if Five could send a deluge of spells at one target, the enemy's mages and rangers could also do the same at him.
The Wind Wall has already expired while the Light Bulwark would not last for very long. Ariel looked in the distance at Noon's fight with the Commandment of Faith. She did not understand why Harriet had yet to appear. Clearly, the situation was not in their favor at all. The harpy queen has said she wanted to expose Five to some danger but this was simply too much!
Five has already told her to be careful and to escape if needed but Ariel was unwilling to do so. Just a few moments later, the Knights finally got within Five's range and without a doubt, the latter activated all his off-cooldown spells.
Ariel floated high in the sky as she watched the colorful stream of spells fly straight toward Two. Ariel herself did not hesitate and used [Violent Twister], to push back the attackers. However, Two was a strong Knight wearing a robust armor. To top it off, he had a beautiful Cleric that easily buffed and healed him accordingly.
The harpy frowned and bit her lips. None of the Knights were taking a substantial amount of damage. Their magic resistance was simply too high and they had too many Priests healing them from behind. To successfully kill Two, they would need to deal a massive amount of damage in a short period of time.
Five also seemed to have noticed that his attacks were ineffective. He deactivated the [Roots of Magic] and took out a short sword from his inventory. It was not that Five was more confident in his physical skills but by fighting directly, he would not be so exposed in the open and would not be an easy target for the mages and rangers. At the very least, they would need to take into consideration hitting their own teammates with their skills.
Five firmly held the short sword as he charged toward the players. He knew he would immediately lose in a direct confrontation, but it was his only chance at killing Two. As soon as the latter would die, the curse would naturally dispel and Five would be able to use the Escape Scroll he had. The Escape Scroll was a useful item that would teleport its user at a random location 1km away. If it was not for the curse, he would have long used it.
"You finally ran out of mana, huh? You cannot escape now!" Two shouted as he swung his broad sword at Five. As he was the one leading the charge, he was naturally the first one to clash directly with Five. Unfortunately, he had been forced to cancel [Charge] to use [Divine Shield]. Without this defensive skill activated, the damage he would have taken would have been much more significant.
Five blocked the first sword strike and took a step back to dodge the second one. He knew he would soon be surrounded by the other players, he needed to end this fast. He had been lucky till now, but it would not last for very long.
[Frenzy]
The only buff skill that Five still had off cooldown was immediately used. He immediately felt the strange cold force flow inside his body.
Two immediately noticed the change in Five. He did not know what buffing skills his opponent used but it was definitely very effective. [Frenzy] reduced Five's Intelligence and Wisdom by two points while increasing his Strength and Dexterity by 3 points.
In this situation, [Frenzy] had the same effect as boosting Five by 6 levels! In a direct physical fight, only Strength and Dexterity were relevant. As Five was level 18, he now effectively had the strength of a level 24 character and could match Two who was also at level 24. Neither of them invested heavily in strength and dexterity, resulting in a fairly equal battle.
"You are strong! But you chose the wrong side!" said Two as he pushed back Five's sword with his shield and applied pressure on him. "Why did you choose to join the demons? I know this is just a game and most of the characters are only NPCs but is it a reason for you to join a group of madmen? Have you seen what the demons have done to the poor NPCs? They are just monsters that need to be destroyed! Your life was probably hard when you were still in the real world but that is not a reason to now vent yourself on all the others!"
Five frowned, 'What is he talking about?'
Five was very cautious about Two. When he saw his name, Five immediately thought of how he himself obtained his IGN from Gaia. It was very likely that Two also received a name from the AI and could very well be a real lunatic that stayed behind the bars for who knows how long.
"What are you talking about? You are not in the best position to comment on the side I chose and it's not as if I had a chance to pick. You should realize that this is just a game; don't mix it with reality..."
Five wanted to continue but in the corner of his eyes, he noticed one of the knights suddenly appear and smash a huge hammer at his face. Fortunately, under the effects of Frenzy, Five was easily able to dodge the attack and repositioned himself.
"Hah! I know very well that this is just a game but why side with the demons? Did you not read the lore? They plan to destroy all of humanity. Life will become hell if they succeed. How could you choose to help them? I chose to join the church to make this world a better place. I knew there would be people who would think that they could do anything since it is not reality. My mission is to stop them! And I shall start with you!"
Five looked at Two with a confused expression. The tall Knight looked very emotional for some reasons. He did not know why he was overreacting so much over such a small detail. "You are just trying to redeem yourself for your past actions, huh? Are you pretending to be a hero?" said Five. He was starting to be annoyed by the tall Knight. Whatever he was saying was completely irrelevant to the fight; what was even the point of this conversation? Was he trying to distract him?
Five knew he did not have a lot of time. Two other Knights attacked his flanks, but he successfully dodged them. He needed to quickly take down Two but the task looked almost impossible to achieve. Two was skilled in swordplay and could hold his ground despite Five's swift attempt at aiming for his weak spots.
"I don't care about your motivations. You don't know anything about me, what I've been through. Who are you to judge my decision?" exclaimed Five. He knew he needed to end it all here. He shouted and at the same time, lunged him and attacked with all his strength.
However, despite his strange words, Two was not chosen as the leader for no reason. He raised his shield, deflecting the blade aiming for his head. At the same time, Two twisted his body, slicing Five's right leg with his own broadsword.
Five saw his HP go down by 38 but he did not stop there. He spun on himself, once again aiming for Two's neck.
"Cling!"
A sword suddenly appeared, blocking Five's final attempt. Two himself was surprised to see someone intervening. He had already started leaning to the side to avoid the sword strike but in the end, it was an unnecessary move.
As soon as he saw his attack being blocked, Five knew that he had failed. His momentum had been completely broken and he had already been surrounded. What else could he do? Use magic? At such a short distance, he would be affected by the explosions of his own spells and considering how high the magic resist of the knights was, he would just be hurting himself.
"So this is how it ends... Well, it's just two levels..." said Five to himself. As much as he racked his brain, he could not figure out a way to get out of this sticky situation. He did not have high expectations to begin with; the moment he was cursed, Five knew that it was very likely that he will end up losing a few levels.
"I told you. You chose the wrong side. Leave the demons or the next time we meet, the outcome will be the same," Two solemnly spoke as he raised his sword. He could see that Five had given up but did not feel any pity for him. He chose to be a demonic player and had to pay the price for his actions.
However, as Two was about to lower his broadsword, he suddenly heard the flapping of wings above his head.
In his position, Five and all the other players also heard it. Five's eyes widened. He already knew who it was. "Why is she still here? Did I not tell her to leave?"
"Careful!" Another female voice sounded. It was Sophia. The beautiful Cleric raised her hands and activated [Sun Veil], creating a defensive layer above Two's head. The powerful level 30 spell would normally be considered to be unbreakable at this stage of the game.
However, to everyone's surprise, the [Sun Veil] was shattered by a single strike from the harpy.
During the entire fight, Ariel had been constantly gaining. She was well aware of the situation and knew Five ordered her to escape. But it was something she could not bring herself to do. Instead, she flew up for as high as possible.
When she finally thought that Five would no longer be able to hold his ground, Ariel took a deep breath before diving down at high speed. She activated a rarely used skill called [Sky Fall]. When used, its user would usually dive straight at their target. The higher their height was, the more damage they would cause.
The drawback of this skill was that even if it dealt a tremendous amount of damage, once activated, it could not be stopped. Furthermore, the user would effectively crush their target on the ground and would end up harming themselves in the process. Ariel knew she was risking her life but she had long made up her mind about it. Harriet told her that she would intervene at the most critical moment but since she did not appear yet, Ariel chose to act herself.
The [Sun Veil] exploded as Ariel smashed it with her right hand. Her right hand screamed in pain but she completely ignored it and used her left hand to attack Two's exposed head. She did her best to maintain her momentum; she was moving so fast that she was even leaving afterimages behind her.
Five looked up and saw the harpy's helpless and guilty expression. Before he could even say anything, Five watched as Ariel's left hand sliced through Two's neck. Under the terrified stares of the Knights, Two's HP bar that always remained above 50% suddenly plummeted down.