Part 1 of 2

“I see. I see. So that happened huh. That’s sad news.” Winter mused.

“Then at least please get off my back, dammit!”

Winter’s seat squirmed in retort. He was sitting on Daffy’s back.

[How mean.. I approve wholeheartedly!] Reki texted. She raised her right thumb up to her approval physically. She proceeded to squat down and began poking on Daffy’s head like she was doing it on something entertaining. This sent Daffy’s sense of humiliation soaring. He spewed random words and curses that got censored by the system.

Winter ignored him. Daffy was not going anywhere while both of his legs were missing under the shins. He tried to run and Winter had to give quite a chase. When Daffy’s speed buffs ran out, Winter chopped off Daffy’s legs in annoyance, which resulted in his current circumstance. He was forced to stay down and endure Winter’s questions… or have other limbs chopped further.

Daffy was so tempted to just log out, but Winter promised he would stick around… for as long as it takes! Looking into Winter’s eyes that gleamed with madness, Daffy had not a single shred of doubt that he would do it and then some. Therefore he resigned himself to being sat on like some stool and told Winter what occurred between their parting to their current meeting…. with Winter chopping his legs when they recovered. The severed limbs now reached his knee!

Daffy was forced to tell the story quickly, else Winter promised the chopping would come closer… and closer… to the important region of his avatar….

It was a heinous threat. While an avatar’s injury never translates to a real life situation, the mental trauma could affect real life, though only mildly. It was a well documented fact that what affected the mind affected the body. What happened to Daffy was tantamount to his experiencing a waking nightmare plus the feeling of his limbs missing from his senses were quite an unpleasant experience he wished to avoid repeatedly.

He told his story in short, terse words rapidly. He was done within 15 minutes. He only got his legs chopped twice!

Samuel and Rinne finally caught up after Winter immobilised (read as Chop off) Daffy were not fazed at what they saw. If Rinne used to be a generous soul, she was now tempered by a good bit pragmatism. She believed Daffy deserved what was coming and then some. Probably. They were not very sure after they had good look at Winter dismembering Daffy’s legs not to mention sitting on his back, occasionally tickling (stabbing) him. They missed the first show and they were not sure they want to stay for the encore.

Luckily Daffy that was always quite fast on the uptake finished his story.

“Repented you say?” Winter asked. His right hand was practicing firing <> to the sides of Daffy’s neck and head. It was also very effective intimidation tactic when you appeared to have a laser gun at your fingertip.

“Yes! Yes! I repent! I quit! I was wrong!”

With every shot that got closer to his head, inch by inch, Daffy’s profession of repentance became louder. Winter wondered how it felt to be shot by one of his Rays. Cain never nailed him with this particular one yet.

‘Would it feel like a burn?’ He wondered.

*Flash*

“Ah.”

Winter, who was bored of his intimidation game and was lost in his own thoughts was not paying attention. His shot hit the back of Daffy’s head for which he squealed like a little girl. Okay. At least he knew it was not fun, in fact might be pretty painful.

The shot left a smoking patch the size of a quarter.

“Oops. Sorry there.”

His words were ignored by Daffy that was tossing all over the place while holding the scorched spot with both hands. Winter got off his new (temporary) ride quickly. Daffy that finally managed to fully turn around rolled a few times like the action would put out a fire. Winter could only shake his head at the scene.

“Wee.” Reki said in monotone voice while miming an action of rolling Daffy away like a bundled carpet. The silence that ensued was deafening, but none dared to say that it was a bad jibe. Thus it was ignored.

Feeling somewhat satisfied, Winter began walking away.

“Alright everyone. Show is over. Time to go. Chop chop.”

“Aww. It was getting good too, Master.”

“Yeah, man. It was getting fun too! Spoilsport.”

Zorya and Samuel protested at his quick departure. Rinne was silent though her eyes probably told enough. She wanted to have a few more minutes of fun but was too dignified to say it out loud.

‘Could it be our nice princess might be turning a little bloodthirsty?’

That was some food for Winter’s thought. He was about to insist on leaving Daffy alone as he thought he had enough when Daffy spoke himself.

“Wait! I want to join you!”

‘Now, that I did not see coming.’

xXx

Daffy’s reasoning for wishing to join his ex-enemy’s party was simple. He has no one now. No allegiance, no friends to really speak of except Ian who was currently on the run. The rest of his friends in air quote disappeared quickly when they found out he was out of the guild. There was actually another still in his list. But he wrong that friend so badly that he was ashamed to even contact that person.

Thus, left with nothing else to go for, why not Winter’s group that was right in front of him? They could not be bearing any grudge after that torture session right?

Winter appeared to give it a thought for a few seconds before coming to a decision. He took out an item from his inventory and tossed it to Daffy.

“Here.”

Daffy caught the item. It was a <>.

“Open it.” That was all he said. Shrugging, Daffy brought himself to a seated position and began to deftly operate his lockpicking skill. Early in his guild, he spent a lot of time as a gofer. Among the skills he used the most was lockpicking that he was somehow pretty good at. He could not understand why his guildmates disliked doing it. He thought it was fun. Alas, he stopped when he got promoted. This was his first chance to get back to it. He disengaged the locking mechanism with a click less than half a minute, at least four times faster than average players with sufficient skill.

“I have not lost my touch yet. Here.” Daffy tossed the strongbox back.

With <> he knew there was 10,000 gold inside that box, a decent sum of money. He wondered where Winter got it as it definitely did not belong to him as it was locked but saw no need to ask. Not his business.

“Thanks. Goodbye.”

Winter that caught the box took in all the money. The box pixelated rapidly, its job done. His eyebrows were raised at the amount of money actually inside. He never expected that scumbag Campbell to actually put 10,000G inside.

“Hey! What the hell! I thought I passed your test!” Daffy who wanted to follow Winter that began walking away could not do so without embarrassing himself as his legs had not regenerated yet. He still has his pride as a man. He would not stoop to crawling!

“I never said it was a test. Bye.”

Daffy was dumbstruck. This was a cold bastard, he thought. He made use of people and just left them behind! Just like he was in the past. It was probably better for him not to follow after that man. He could not understand why the rest were following him though. Were they scared of him? They did not look like it. What was his secret?

Daffy who had given up was not going to ask again when someone else spoke up on his behalf.

“Wait! I want him in the team!”

The voice that spoke was a youth that looked more at ease belonging to a farming community. His skin was tanned and his demeanor, brash and unconcerned with things in general. It was the kind of rugged look commonly associated to someone that worked quite a lot. Daffy vaguely remember the avatar but not the name as he never asked. The girl next to the boy was much more memorable as she was easier on the eyes though Daffy did not know her name too as he was too busy trying to extort them. He could not imagine for his life why he tried to do so to such sweet, beautiful creature. He must have been mad back then!

He gulped when he saw Rinne’s smoldering look that did not regard him as a human being but a piece of dirt on the roadside. She was still smarting over her rough treatment. She thought Royal Road was a happy game, fun. Until she had her first run in with the darker aspect of it through Daffy. Rinne always had a delicate personality, thus her trauma ran deeper and meeting Daffy again brought that feeling back up.

Daffy who was not indifferent to whether he could join Winter’s party was simply waiting for his legs to recover so he could walk away from them. Yes. He was not listening to what this youth wanted to say. He just, by chance, had to stick around.

xXx

“What did you say, Samuel? You wanted him to be in the team?” Winter repeated after Samuel to be sure he heard him right. He could have checked his Chat system logs, but he never even knew such thing existed. Nor Samuel it appeared.

“Yes. I want him in the team, old man.” Samuel repeated again.

“But Samuel… why? He was not a nice man. I don’t think I want him near to me.”

That was Rinne that spoke a piece of her mind. Samuel nodded his agreement too. Reki shrugged her reply. Indifference. She was enjoying the show in silence. It was all up to Winter anyway as their unspoken de-facto leader.

“Yes. But he repented. And I want to believe him. I have to. Everyone need a second chance right?”

It was a simple but powerful statement from Samuel. Winter never expected the lad has this hidden depth within him! Even Rinne was taken over by his words. Only Reki remained the same. Winter and Rinne’s opinion on this ape of a human increased by a notch or two in a heartbeat.

Reluctantly Rinne okayed it after throwing Winter an unsure glance. Winter, who did not believe in second chances, could not really say no when he looked at Samuel’s steady gaze. He was someone that has a rather weak personality and therefore him speaking up with such fervor came as a surprise to both Winter and Rinne.

“Are you sure about this, kid? He may just bring all sorts of trouble to all of us.”

“Yes. I am sure of this. In fact, I have never been surer of anything in my life.”

His gaze remained unwavering, Winter was forced to relent.

‘I guess this monkey can grow a spine too eventually. Oh well. I guess there was no real harm to it.’ Was what Winter thought. They could part anytime later should they change their mind. But somehow Winter has a feeling that Daffy would stick around even if Samuel has to glue him to their group.

“Alright, human scum, you are in.” Winter waved his hand to signify the issue was decided.

“Aww~ Master, can I at least play with him a little later?” Zorya asked, eyeing Daffy like he was a delicious piece of meat. She was still holding a grudge after being struck by an ambush when she was happily weaving quietly.

“What? No! I don’t want to be in your group! Hell no!” Daffy who suddenly had the opportunity thrust to him unexpectedly resisted vehemently. His legs would recover in another minute.

“Well, that is up to you. I am not going to wait around. You can follow us if you want to. If not, I am not feeling any loss.”

Not looking back, Winter began heading to the main road. Reki did not hesitate to follow. Rinne gave a backward glance before she followed. Zorya’s eyes promised a different kind of fun, but her bulk began moving away, leaving only Samuel that knelt against Daffy. His eyes were boring into Daffy. That direct gaze that his father possess made him nervous. He began to fidget.

“Look. I don’t really like you. But I don’t think you are really a bad guy, just someone that got duped and brainwashed. At least that was what I want to believe though I think you are rather scummy on your own. Anyway, since you repented and wanted your second chance, here it is. Take it or leave it, that is up to you.”

If Winter and Rinne heard Samuel speak this way, their opinion on him would increase by at least a couple notches on eloquence alone. Slightly flabbergasted, Daffy dumbly nodded.

“Good. Follow after us. Later!”

Daffy was having a good feeling for this Samuel character when his next sentence destroyed what good image he had built of him. If the rest of the team heard it, they would feel the same too.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Samuel stopped after a couple steps away. “You are now my biatch.”

Humming cheerfully Samuel headed to where the rest were going.

“What? What? I am? What does that mean? Hey! Wait!”

Daffy’s mind was confused. He could not figure them out at all!

The reason why Samuel wanted Daffy to be in the team was for him to replace his current position at the bottom of the totem pole. He had enough of getting teased and bullied by Winter though he somehow could not find it in himself to detach himself from the party. He had been convincing himself that it was because Rinne liked Winter, nothing else.

In Daffy, Samuel saw someone that would be in an even lower position than him should he joined. No way he was going to let the chance to not be at the bottom go!

Should a third party be reading such a story, they would all shake their head and think: “Winter, you are such a mean bastard.”

xXx

True to his words, Daffy was at the lower position than Samuel. Current ranking in the team goes like this.

Reki > Winter > Rinne - Zorya > Samuel > Daffy

Nobody expected that he would be useful so quickly though.

“This totally blows!” Daffy screamed.

And that was what exactly happened, literally. Daffy was laid up when the trap he disabled had another layer to of it and it blew up in his face. Sprawled on the ground in an undignified manner, everyone laughed at him except Samuel who gave Daffy a sympathetic pat on his back when he sat up and continued to grouse.

For some reason the fields on their way to the Eamen Jungle were seeded with a huge amount of traps. Normally traps were the realm of dungeons, but players with certain professions such as Hunter, subclass of Archer or Rogue classes can make some. Even mages can make magical traps and sentries provided they found the skillbooks for it.

But for the past two hours they had disabled over thirty traps along the road. There were even more around the roadsides. Winter was tempted to let Daffy disable all of them as practice. They were not in a hurry after all. Reki overruled him and he shut his mouth.

Pitfalls, arrow traps, poisoned spikes, exploding kind, various magical types too. There were even the guillotine and falling tree log kind. It was an impressive amount of traps laid along the road.

Daffy was earning his keep by disabling them one by one, failing occasionally when it got too sophisticated or he made a mistake while disabling it. His failures were little though it was rather comic in its result. Like how the previous arrow trap was double trapped. It shot an arrow from the back when the front was disabled and Daffy got his left butt cheek pierced by an arrow and was dancing around for a bit.

Oh, there was also the kind that combined tripwire and a falling log that swept him sideways. He saw that coming but was too slow to dodge and got mowed down. The last one was a really elaborate triple trap that combined magic and mundane choice.

“Dammit! What the hell is this!”

Daffy complained after he stood up and brushed himself off.

“I disabled less trap in dungeons I visited. No way this is natural.”

It was an offhand comment, but Winter and Reki sobered up when they heard it. Looking at each other they nodded, considering the possibility that someone knew about their quest to Eamen and did not want them to reach it.

The truth was slightly different, but the fact was not really far from it. But that was for later.

For now, they were enjoying Daffy fumbling with the traps. They even cheered him when he went to disable the traps now…. for his failures that is. Apparently Thieves have massive damage reduction from traps, receiving as little as 10% damage according to proficiency of their <> skill. Something unexpectedly handy though useless most of the time. Winter guessed it made sense for such profession.

“Come on, Ducky!” Winter cheered. The nickname Winter came up with stuck. Everyone now called him Ducky instead of Daffy to his annoyance. Samuel was secretly shuddering. If Daffy never joined in, he could not imagine what sort of silly nickname Winter would saddle him with. He was lucky that ‘Farmboy’ Winter called him a few times never stuck. It might actually stay as even Reki began messaging Samuel with that name.

‘Sorry, Ducky. It is a harsh world.’ Samuel spoke in his heart while throwing even more looks of sympathy to Daffy that he gratefully soaked himself in. They were now fast friends in suffering!

xXx

Campbell gritted his teeth when he spied another trap being disabled. Aloine could not see it as she was not equipping the rare spyglass accessories Campbell was looking through, but she knew that whatever was planned was not going accordingly.

“Damn that Thief! Where did he pick up that absurdly good Disabler!”

Disabler was the common term players give to their trap breakers. Apparently Daffy was uncommonly good since he only failed 1 out of 10. Winter and everyone would not know that the normal failure rate was 1 in 2 as they never visited dungeons that were seeded with traps. Traps in dungeons were player’s nightmare as they were near impossible to spot and even if spotted, they could not disable it without the proper skill. Usually they put the party’s tank to plow through it. It was a grind for Rogue professions to be proficient in <> as traps in dungeons were deadly even with damage reductions. It was not unusual for Disablers to perish if they were careless. Could it be that Daffy was actually talented?

The Hunter, Magician and Rogue that set the traps were now taking bets on which traps they created would blow up. They were impressed with Daffy’s skill in spotting and dismantling their traps. They also thought it was rather funny request to plant so many traps on a stretch of road and areas surrounding it but shut up as they were well paid for it.

The hired players also thought it was silly as the best way to avoid the trap was to take a detour. And yet the party they were going to ambush were disabling the traps instead of doing so. The employer and target might be idiots, so they thought inside.

Whether Winter’s wish to not avoid traps laid for them as they were just in a game world could be considered idiocy, it was hard to comment. But Daffy finally made it through the section he complained as ‘freaking minefield’, ignoring cheers from mostly Winter and sarcastic remarks he received by text from Reki. Rinne who was too polite to cheer for someone’s failure had this gaze that was even more unsettling to Daffy than the words. He swore he would make it up, unable to take the accusing gaze continuously but forced to endure it.

“Okay! Get settled everyone! We will proceed with the plan!” said the annoyed Campbell.

Without any need to acknowledge the command, the team of 20 odd players scattered at various points, readied their ambush. Herbert stayed with his Master.

“Humph. I expected something more impressive. They were uninjured. So much for professionals.” Quipped Aloine.

Gritting his teeth, Campbell let out his best conciliatory smile though inside he was ready to throttle Aloine if she spoke even one more disparaging word.

“Now, now, sweetheart. Don’t say that. It is just a small setback. We are still going through with the plan. After all, they are outnumbered five to one.”

Aloine narrowed her eyes, unhappy she had to resort to such underhanded method to obtain her revenge. She was normally the sort of straightforward person, charging against the opposition from the front. She used her wiles to manipulate men, yes, but that was for social settings. Staying around Campbell slowly twisted Penelope Water’s personality and she had not realised it yet though she had some discomfort whenever she thought of what she was doing as cowardly.

Her family was a proud English family, containing Knighted men in her lineage. She used to extol them to the girls as conversation topic. No family line was more prestigious than her’s in the whole Academy. Campbell that was dastardly and manipulative, slowly wore that sense of honor and pride away, REPLACEing ‘necessity’ and ‘means to an end’ instead.

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Thus confused inside, Aloine did not disagree to spy on Julianne. It was near impossible to bump into someone that did not want to be found in Royal Road. You need inside information from someone close to them. Without that, you might as well try to catch the wind.

And this was the culmination of their scheming. Winter about to be caught by a well prepared ambush, never mind the rest of the players being unrelated to Aloine’s revenge. They were collateral damage. She wondered why she went to such a great lengths for some petty revenge. Even if Winter was dead, it was just a game. He could just shrug it off and move on. Yet… there was something she could not figure out.. something satisfying from seeing the dawning expression on who cornered the mature player and eventually killed him, never mind the future.

‘This is fine, right?’ she asked herself quietly. Staring at Campell’s gleeful expression, she was unsure. It was too late to change her mind now. The show was about to start.

xXx

Winter and Reki were alert. Samuel was consoling Daffy while Rinne was watching the exchange. Zorya who picked up on the slightly tense atmosphere (Author: Can pet NPC even do that?) looked left and right from her extra tall height. She stopped giving Daffy smug looks when she noticed her Master stopped picking on the newbie.

Reki was thinking that whoever set the traps was being silly, spending useless time watching them disabling it without coming in to ambush them. They might have cornered them if they actually spent time flanking them instead of enjoying the show. It was illogical that someone actually wanted to watch them tripping the traps instead of directly assaulting them, which was why Reki could not draw any conclusion.

She has no detection capability since she focused on concealment and damage. Best she could do was to use her nearly Advanced <> to watch the road ahead and occasionally check their surroundings. So far, nothing. Calculating the possible choices of ambush, there were way too many for her to predict where they would come from. The road was hemmed by rows of trees. She was not objecting to taking on the ambush not because she was confident on their winning through, but because she wanted to know who spent so much effort to do so. Winter who did not think too much on this too, wanted to know now that he realised this was not random roadside banditry.

Even expecting an ambush, Winter barely had time to react with <> as the players hiding had the necessary skills to conceal themselves well. Two archers shot their crossbows.

Winter sped himself up the moment he heard the telltale whistle of arrows in flight. Their aim was superb and from both sides of the road. A perfect crossfire that he barely dodged by twisting his body. Without <> there was no doubt he would have sprouted a horn from his head.

Scratch damage! -51 HP

Winter cursed from the mildly uncomfortable sensation. It was only a graze, but it felt like someone smacked his skin with a rubber band. His heart fell when he thought he was a wimp now, unable to take even a little pain. But that was for later.

Crossbows were suitable as an ambush weapon as they could be used while lying prone. They also pack a powerful punch. Its major weakness was its very long reloading time, and they cost at least five times more compared to normal bows. No bonafide archer would use anything but a bow. It was not impossible to do a one hit kill with this weapon if the player has the necessary skills and stats though.

The two shots were from players with specialised concealment capabilities that were pretty close to Reki’s. Their AGI was also not low. Winter’s AGI was unexpectedly about their number due to the bonuses he received from dodging deadly attacks 20000 times in a row. It stood at 414!

Aiming to the ambusher on the left, Winter got him out of his concealment by bumping him off with <>. He was thrown up with a yell. Winter dodged another projectile from behind like he had eyes on his back. His passive ability allowed him to feel where the attacks were coming from quite accurately. Stepping to his left, he dodged a knife thrown expertly, at his head.

While spinning, Winter erected his trusty barrier. He saw a large number of players blocking both sides of the road. They were essentially boxed in. Winter cursed again, not from pain, but his own arrogance. He thought somewhere he could outfight whomever laid the ambush. He was naive! They were not the two-bit thugs he expected if the way they were coordinating their attacks and equipment of the lead warrior was any guide. At least early 200.

Recasting <>, Winter quickly built a protective wall to block advances from three sides. So far none was attacked aside from him, but that may change soon.

Winter yelled at everyone to run. Sometimes Royal Road felt too real. It was what anyone would do when attacked suddenly. Run.

But none appeared to hear him. Well, almost. Daffy was new and his old reflex still stuck with him. He ran. And magic bolts of magic hit him. While dazed, swift running rogues slashed him. Three seconds in, Daffy was the first casualty, before the Archer thrown up the air even finished settling down from his fall. Rinne began screaming. Not from terror or surprise. It was a Bard skill for those specialising in Singing like her, <>.

Bards rarely have any attack skills. Most of their skills center around support. <> was one of those few defensive skills they were equipped with. She only learned it recently after her massive level up in Arcanum. The long cooldown prevented her from leveling it too much. It was also an inelegant skill with a short range of barely seven meters. Its effect though, was very useful.

75% chance of confusion on enemies for three seconds. The rogues that switched to target Rinne who was at the forefront of the group together with Samuel stumbled. All of them were not in the 25% that were lucky. The skill also unexpectedly revealed two more ambushers that managed to sneak within leaping distance of Winter.

Those three seconds were enough for Winter to build two by three forward bulwarks that blocked blasts of magics from the forward gap he deliberately left and bump off the two newly emerged enemies, buying them a couple extra seconds for response.

Samuel who was done being surprised expertly unslung his Lute and played a short tune, his fingers picking through the strings rapidly. A blast of <>, Samuel’s staple spell in close engagement instantly improved their movement speed by +20% where previously it was only 15%. He had not been idle while Rinne was improving. The buff would last for an hour. He deftly switched to another tune.

The first casualty from the ambushers unexpectedly came from Reki’s attack. She reasoned that the most danger came from the long range bombardment they experienced. Reki knew Winter’s capability. He was harder to kill than a roach even before his class upgrade. With his Battlemage capabilities she secretly checked on, he might be more resilient than Conan the Bacterium.

As proof, he was handling all the short and midrange enemies easily with spare time to build protections to both defend and funnel enemies. Combination of <> with zero cooldown was near cheat skill.

Peripherally Reki saw that Winter was done building their basic defense and began throwing seven colored missiles.

Though her forward view was partially blocked, Reki had no problem aiming for her target. Everyone had seen Reki shoot many times, but the process was still fascinating. They did not have a chance to observe it this time. She unslung he ornate bow from her back. Halfway between readying it and preparing her arrow, it grew longer and finally stopped when it was its original size, slightly taller than Reki herself. Her arrow was nocked and string pulled. Reki closed her eyes to summon her memory. Mages were not really for moving much, unlike Winter. They stayed around as long as they were safe. They were feeling pretty good with their forward vision blocked by Winter’s improvised wall. The same for Reki, but she had no problem.

A fraction of mathematical calculation settled her aim to near pinpoint accuracy. It might be a few inches off, but Reki thought that was acceptable. She ignored the exploding ball of fire. The splash damage injured her a little, but she barely flinched. Angling the shot for a falling arc, Reki let go of her arrow.

Aloine was cackling without any dignity. Should someone in the Academy ever see her this way, they would shudder at the incongruity from the image she always presented in real life.

She did not care. She finally has the chance to take her revenge!

Blasting with fire elemental spells that are her specialty, she nailed a running Rogue that was a new addition in her hated enemy’s party. She did not know who that player was. She did not care. She did not even know the other two females and male. Only Winter mattered.

Relishing the look of surprise and terror from the Rogue, she sequentially ran through her list of spells. The three other hired Magicians followed her lead. Before her spell managed to go through a third of her spell cycle of ten, their targets crumbled to dust. Dead.

It was unknown which of the four seven players party landed the killing blow. It did not appear to be Aloine’s as she did not receive any notification that her status changed to a [Murderer].

She was disappointed when she was forced to cancel her <> spell that has 3 seconds casting delay, her most powerful spell, and have to restart the chant. She was even more disappointed when her line of sight was blocked by a rapidly forming blocks of earth, preventing her from aiming her spell at the silver haired female bard and her male counterpart.

Campbell warned everyone about Winter’s capability to repeat cast a spell rapidly. He hypothesised that he managed to find some secret skill book that was even more powerful than the known <>, the most sought after book for magicians at the moment. It allowed a triple casting capability. It was also possible he has some equipment that allowed it. Some Legendary items did double attack capability for warriors. It was not impossible for Winter to have found one from somewhere. None would ever guess that his secret was just pure bad luck from being cursed.

Aloine nearly managed to finish her chant when a falling star fell on her.

The description was accurate as the arrow was named <>. Upon descending from the apogee, it began picking up speed and streaking down like a comet while emitting a loud hum.

Indeed, Reki was off. Her shot pierced not Aloine’s chest but her belly. A player encountering a unusual skill they had never seen froze as their normal response. Aloine did. It did not cause a miscast, but she forgot to dodge, mesmerised she was by the sight of blue fire descending.

A narrow blast threw the rest of the mages, stunning them. Of Aloine, she was instantly dead since Reki’s level was so far ahead of hers. At 500% Fire damage even if Aloine has 15% fire element resistance, she was way outmatched, especially when Reki also has a high <> stat that cuts down defenses and resistances. It was instant death. Aloine could only shriek in anger upon being forcefully ejected from the Capsule.

‘This is bad! This is bad!’ Samuel panicked though his fingers still flowed deftly without his eyes even looking at what he was doing, so skilled he was at playing musical instrument that his state of mind did not affect his playing too much. The melody was slightly panicky like his mind, yes, but the system still accepted it as it was still near perfect.

He was watching a screaming warrior thundering at him. He could not disengage his strumming as he was nearly done and he was determined to finish it no matter what. He was grateful when he spotted a blue arrow landing in between him and the blond haired warrior in the lead.

Stepping within a meter of the arrow, the arrow instantly let out a blast of cold air, freezing the legs of the warrior to immobility. Samuel gratefully thanked the ever reliable Reki in his mind. No matter how many times he saw her archery, it was still amazing how accurate she could shoot. More blue shafts of <> that rooted its target for eight seconds landed in front of Samuel and Rinne, creating an impassable barrier. Three that failed to step away from the range of the freezing effect cursed as they were forced to appear threatening while waiting for the timer to finish. The lead warrior who should be handsome was especially pissed, roaring out his displeasure that made Samuel snigger.

‘Oops. Probably should not had done that.’

Samuel had no idea why they were ambushed by so many players. But he knew who he could blame everything on. That blasted old man, Winter. Someone within the group must have some vendetta against that crooked being masquerading as a human. Likely this blond headed quite handsome warrior that was not so handsome anymore with his face twisted so ugly.

Indeed, Winter was becoming a bad influence to even Samuel, who always resisted his selective bad attitude. He just mega pissed the warrior that heard Samuel sniggering. Campbell had temper problems against people that looked down on him. His father was a strict person, constantly disappointed in him. Not like he could help it since his mother always spoiled him. This brought quite an imbalance to his personality. Easily angered and arrogant while charming from his upbringing.

It was now personal between Samuel and Campbell. He could not wait to plunge his sword into Samuel who now realised he was in trouble. Three more seconds….

Herbert and a few hired warriors were not caught within the trigger range of the arrow. They were hindered instead by Campbell and another three that were caught. He was contemplating whether he should spare the two seconds to jump over the makeshift defensive wall when he instinctively dodged another falling arrow. Herbert was a consummate professional. He made playing Royal Road a living. He read up on as many articles as possible. This was his first experience with an Archer with high <> capability. It was an unpopular skill as it was costly to learn and improve on. The player needed to destroy their items to create arrows with special capabilities. Usually weapons and armors, to a set number of arrows.

There was too little information on this particular skill as very little players learned it. Herbert was slightly miffed that Campbell, his snotty boss, would be scolding him for failing to protect Aloine, the misguided woman. A single arrow. No way he expected that to kill. They underestimated the group, not expecting that the Archer was deadlier than even their best estimate.

Instead of the expected concussive blast, the black shafted arrow pulled all of the warriors together, piling them up in a tangle of limbs. They could not move! Herbert cursed, breaking his normally quiet demeanor. They’ve been had! He warned his boss that this was a bad idea. They had too little information for a proper ambush. Numbers were no guarantee. Even their target’s skill set was too vague. But no. The boss has to win quickly. Nothing else would suffice. And here they were.

<> was a special arrow used to combat warriors. It supposedly creates a polarity centered around the arrow that pulled at the heavy metal armors and weapons warriors love so much. While Herbert was still puzzling what happened, another arrow was falling, making the whole tumbling body panic.

Winter was slowly getting overwhelmed. He drew the worst of the attacks. Dodging three slashes and two more arrows, Winter countered with <> that smacked one of the two archers to a tumbling roll and then shot off quick bursts of <> with his pointed left index finger in succession at two more enemies in front of him right to their eyes. They stumbled due to the blinding light. The spell has no such status effect, but bright light to the eye was still bright light to the eye. He used those spare two seconds efficiently by fighting dirty, the best and only way he knew. Shoving blinded enemies to block more attackers, he closed in and began laying slashes after slashes.

It was barely half minute into the fight, and yet he ran through a quarter of his mana already! Spamming skills were great, but it burned his pool like cheap beer. Yet without them, he doubted he could last ten seconds against the onslaught.

A distant thud that Winter felt through his feet instead of heard signaled another special arrow Winter saw Reki rarely use. She went to town with it this time. In his heightened perception, he had time to grasp how great Reki was as both an archer and player. She used appropriate skill to both defend and damage. Compared to Winter who only knows how to use brute force, her way of playing was artful.

‘Finally!’ Winter shouted joyfully in his head.

He had been laying damages left and right to any target. So far none had died, only suffering mounting damage. It finally began paying off. Another player died from a stab to the chest. He was worried about the rest, but now has no more time to turn his back.

The party might have had more holes in them if not for Zorya making the long range attackers dance with her bolts of dark element magics. Its damage was even higher than Fire and players obtaining such spells were rare though not unheard of. They range attackers were surprised to encounter a spellcasting pet. They were usually rather small and only had two or three spells maximum and a low mana pool. Harmless. That was the impression spellcasting pets gave, usually cuddly looking with low intellect. They faced instead a very capable pet that if they were not careful, could decimate them. They were frustrated, unable to do much under the suppressing fire but dodge. Unlike players, NPCs have very random limitations on their capabilities. With Zorya’s rapid spellcasting that was nearly as fast as Winter, none of the magicians and archers were willing to stand and land any attack. Those that stopped even for a shot got hit with a blob of sticky web that immediately put them out of combat temporarily.

This pet also has insanely fast dodge, they discovered. Its evasion was as good as standard player. Very battle capable. Their morale dropped when they saw how fast the crazy mage they got paid to kill was, whether in his spellcasting, swordplay or movement speed.

They would swear that he had eyes on his back based on how he could dodge attacks from behind flawlessly. They were not even sure whether to call their target a Mage. It felt like facing a cheat character. No wonder they got so highly paid, most of them thought.

Then there was that Archer, they all thought. Her shooting was unreal. They were not very sure if she ever missed. The paid Archers were salivating at Reki’s ornately carved longbow. They saw how it grew to a size larger than her. Epic item? Legendary item? Even an Artifact? They could not be sure of it, but they sure want to find out. Alas, a professional finishes their job first. And the blue haired archer was not the target. They will kill her for the small chance she would drop that beautiful bow.

“Dammit! What the hell!” One of the seven hired Archers that was peppering Winter with arrows swore. He thought he had the perfect shot from a fifteen meter range, damn impossible to miss, not to mention Winter was just done delivering a whirlwind of slashes. He was aiming for the gap between one attack to another where players slowed or stopped. He was not supposed to miss as he had done this so many times, not to mention the short distance.

Instead his target’s figure blurred like smoke and the arrow passed through an afterimage. Somehow Winter shifted half a step from his near kneeling position. He launched up to deliver more slashes, ignoring the Archer that was cocking his crossbow again. Winter had been dodging sure hits with <>. This was the first time he was forced to use it so many times in a row. His mana pool sloshed away like a glass of water. But so far none managed to land a clean hit on him yet, only scratch damages from close shaves.

The archer did not get another shot, neither did the rest of the crossbow wielding enemies as Rinne who appeared to have been mostly standing since her first spell finished humming a measured tune under her voice.