Afterlife Dream

We knew that there would be trouble as soon as we saw Suzuran enter our map. By then she already leveled to 93. She seemed quite surprised when she came in and saw the six of us on the map. She took one glance at our party, gave HellWitch and ZhaoYun the stink eye, and left without saying anything.

I was hanging between the lowest and second level terrain at that time. I lowered my gaze and exchanged glances with HellWitch and ZhaoYun. They were so baffled by Suzuran's sudden appearance and disappearance.

HellWitch squinted at the light portal where Suzuran just appeared and disappeared within an instant.

"She will come back," she said.

"Who?" Livina, Lazarus, and DragonTalon asked in unison. They were killing at higher levels so they did not see Suzuran coming in at all.

"It was Suzuran, the Shinobi from Dominion," I answered.

"THE RAID AMBUSHER???"

All three of them climbed down in an instant.

"Yeah. I think she is alerting her guildmates. Maybe she is not satisfied with ambushing raids, she even wants to ambush those who are grinding in peace," HellWitch said through gritted teeth. Our opinion about the Dominion players could not go lower.

"I think so too. Do you guys want to move?" ZhaoYun asked.

"Why must we move? We were here first," I answered.

"Just wondering if you guys would rather avoid the confrontation. Otherwise, I am game for some ass-kicking."

"I am down for that," DragonTalon said. He climbed down and landed on the bottom level with a thud.

"Let's show Dominion guild that they do not own Afterlife Dream."

All of us gathered at the lowest level and waited for Suzuran and her guildmates to show up. They never disappointed. After waiting for around ten minutes, ten of them showed up. They had Ninja, the helmet and cloak thief, and PrecisionShot the Skill Reset Scroll thief with them. By that time they were already at level 120+ so naturally we were at a disadvantage, but that did not discourage us even a little bit. We were determined to show them our fangs, so we did.

DragonTalon summoned his Fire Dragon and launched an attack as soon as he saw the Dominion players emerging from the light portal. The Fire Dragon soared toward the sky before pouncing on the enemies with a mighty roar.

At the front side of the Dominion players was an Ice Elemental Mage whose eyes turned round in shock when the Fire Dragon opened its mouth wide and threatened to burn her alive. Luckily, she was alert and knew what to do right away.

"Ice Shield!!!" The Ice Elemental Mage shouted. A huge shield made of ice manifested out of nowhere and repelled the Fire Dragon attack.

"ATTACKKK!!!"

ZhaoYun and HellWitch charged at our enemies with a battle cry. What followed afterward was a full-blown brawl between the two guilds.

DragonTalon and Lazarus were the first ones to die from our side. They did not even know what hit them before they fell dead to the ground with a bunch of arrows and throwing stars embedded into their chests and stomachs. HellWitch and ZhaoYun acted quickly. They stood in front of me and Livina stood behind me. While HellWitch and ZhaoYun fought against the warriors ferociously, Livina kept throwing stars from behind me and hit the ranged attackers that similarly hid behind the melees.

Although we gave our all in this confrontation, we still had to bow before our enemies due to the huge disparity in level and strength. They killed my friends one by one but they spared me. I stood there glaring at them while they surrounded me like a bunch of tigers surrounding a deer. I felt extremely uncomfortable.

"If you want to kill me, do it fast," I growled.

It was going to hurt, but it was not my first time after all. If they thought that I was going to beg to be spared, they were sorely mistaken!

The ten players said nothing. They just surrounded me like that so I was unable to escape.

Then HinoKun and SakuraChan appeared through the light portal. I ripped my eyes open in surprise. Did these folks really call HinoKun over to execute me? What kind of sick practice was this? Dominion guild was full of sick perverts. I cursed under my breath while shooting daggers at the approaching HinoKun. The one at the receiving end of my glares did not even flinch or look the least bit guilty.

It was apparent that HinoKun had improved a lot since we last met, but I didn't expect him to be at level 148. He was going to be the next level 150 within a few days. I smirked internally as I assessed his equipment. BlackPuma had gotten the full set of end-game equipment, but HinoKun had only earned up to the Ice Dragon Cloak which he gained thanks to BlackPuma's help. They might be at the same level, but BlackPuma would always be better than he was.

"Hey, Antares," HinoKun greeted me. There were dark circles around his eyes. He looked extremely tired.

"Cut the lip services and tell me what is going on here. If you guys want to kill me, just go ahead. Don't tell me that you are keeping me here for chitchat."

"Actually, yes. I do want to talk to you," HinoKun said.

...

The hell?

"What is there to talk about between us?" I asked. "Honestly the Dominion guild is full of terrible people. Your guildmate here," I pointed at Ninja directly, "stole the Ice Dragon Cloak from Aurendiria. As if that was not bad enough, your esteemed guildmate here," I moved my finger to Suzuran, "went to ambush our Fire Golem and Queen Spider raids. What the fuck do you guys really want from us? Have you not done enough already?"

I gave PrecisionShot a look full of disgust.

"I haven't even mentioned the time when PrecisionShot stole the Skill Reset Scroll from DragonTalon. HinoKun, you sure are the protector of a bunch of villains."

HinoKun listened to me patiently until I was done with my angry speech. Then he asked, "Are you done?"

"Yes, I am done," I snapped. "Now tell me what you want."

"I want you to help fix the relationship between Twelve and Dominion."

My jaw dropped in amazement. HinoKun, actually asking for a reconciliation?

"Are you mistaking me for someone else?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "I am only a small High Priest in the middle of high-level players. You should talk to Ingenious, ArrowRain, and Aurendiria."

HinoKun gave me a tired look.

"I did, didn't I? That did not turn out well."

"And does it surprise you? HinoKun, I don't understand these guildmates of yours. Why must they drive us to the edge like that? Why must you fuel our hatred by ambushing us every raid?"

SakuraChan placed a hand behind HinoKun's back.

"Babe, let me answer."

The creases between my brows loosened slightly when SakuraChan appeared before me. She was a level 100 High Priest. Despite her relatively low level, she was one of the respected figures in Dominion. I recalled that I never saw her ambushing our raids with her shameless guildmates. SakuraChan flashed me a polite smile. Her long black hair was the color of the night. It stood in contrast with her fair skin and pink lips. She really looked like a princess from the animes I once watched.

"Antares, there are a few things that you don't know. After we returned to Dominion and recruited new and active players, we had around 15 helmless players with us. And then, 4 more helmless players from Twelve joined us. By the time Twelve only had 2 helmless players left, Dominion still had 10.

Can you really blame us if we want to give all of our members their helmets?"

"..."

"For your information, I as the organizer of the level 90 raid can testify to you that we have stuck to our time slot faithfully and never ambushed anyone. Ask your guildmates."

I indeed had not heard about any ambush at level 90 raid, but I thought that they did not dare to because they did not have enough high-level players to ambush us. Although SakuraChan's explanation made perfect sense, I still refuse to give in.

"Then why did you just ambush us just now, don't tell me that this is the only map you can find to train in that you could not help but kill all of us?"

SakuraChan had no answer for that, but a girl mage tugged at her sleeve insistently. It was the Ice Elemental Mage who summoned the Ice Shield to repel DragonTalon's attack. She mumbled something to SakuraChan in an aggrieved tone while shooting me a burning glare for an unfathomable reason.

"What...?" I asked her, furrowing my brows in displeasure.

"You guys were the ones to attack first..." she repeated. "Do you really expect us to just stand there and let ourselves be killed???"