Second World

Bowler read John's message again, making sure he didn't read wrong. He then replied, "dude. This is not the time to be joking around. If we let them through, it will be like a broken dam. We won't be able to halt their tide anymore."

"Are you the strategist or I am? Just shut up and do as you are instructed!" John said.

Bowler was fuming. Could this guy be any more abhorrent?

Before he could send any retort, Jeanny joined the chatroom, "it's ok, Bowler. Just do as he asked."

"But… that will give the enemies a straight path to the wall entrance," Bowler still protested.

"He must have his reason. It's not just your checkpoints. He also asked for a few others as well," Jeanny said.

"Please note that you need to open them at the same time when I say so, is that clear?" John added.

It took a few seconds before Bowler replied, "fine! Give me some time to relay this command first."

"Make it quick," John simply said.

'This guy really knows no courtesy,' Bowler complained in his mind. He still proceeded to relay the instruction to the others. As expected, The Man had a thousand questions regarding the validity of this command. Bowler simply told The Man what John had said to him, shut up and do as was instructed.

"Okay, now!" John sent the command to several selected checkpoints. The native soldiers moved back first as they were directly controlled by John. The others followed suit despite uneasiness in their heart.

As the members of Everlasting Heavenly Legends retreated from a few chokepoints, the members of the coalition were left puzzling. A clear path was suddenly left in front of them. They could even see the Guild Headquarter's wall entrance from afar.

One of the leaders of the teams in these chokepoints, Health Holder, looked at the clear path with a frown. He was the branch leader of Six Rings of Prosperity in Themetus who had led his team to journey all the way here to aid his guild members in Thereath. They were intent on claiming Everlasting Heavenly Legends' Guild Headquarters. He was a Knight at level 31.

Beside him was Luck Holder, who was killed by Jack during the battle of Crestfall Plain. He was behind the others at level 27. He was now wearing an Amulet of Rebirth on his neck. In fact, most of the others also wore one. They had learned a painful lesson of arrogance from the previous battle. Now they always wore one during high-risk operations.

"What do you think?" Luck Holder asked. No one had moved to cross over the chokepoints because of the sudden retreat of the enemies. It was too deliberate that anyone will suspect that there was a trap.

Health Holder thought for a moment before saying, "what's there to think? Let's charge!"

"But… Aren't you afraid there is a trap?"

"What trap can there be? If they have trump cards, they would have used them already. Why wait until now? They are clearly just copying the empty fort strategy from Kong Ming. Do they think they can fool us like that? They think none of us ever heard of the story?"

He then lifted his sword high and shouted, "Brothers and sisters! The path is clear. It is time we claim this headquarters for our own. Don't get left behind by the other guilds!"

With that declaration, they charged. The others at the opened chokepoints after seeing the Six Rings of Prosperity people charging out, couldn't afford to be left behind. So they charge as well.

As they were running to the headquarter main gate entrance. They saw that not all chokepoints were opened. Only the one that brought them into a straight path to the main gate. If they turned to the side and hit the ones that were still holding the chokepoints, they could decimate the enemies and allow more of their allies to enter. But why would they do that? Only one guild who dealt the most damage to the guild core would gain ownership of this headquarters after the core was destroyed, so why did they want to share this gain with the others?

They continued to run with fervor towards the gate entrance, trying to compete with the teams from other guilds who had also been let through.

When they almost reached the gate, they saw a lone figure charging out of the gate entrance.

'What can one man do?' Health Holder laughed inside seeing the scene.

"It's him!" exclaimed Luck Holder who was running behind him.

"Who?" Health Holder asked.

"The demon!" Luck Holder answered.

"What demon. It is just one person. Let's just trample him and charge inside!" Health Holder yelled with a gusto. He even increased his running pace, wanted to show his valor to inspire his comrades. But he couldn't help but slow down when he saw numerous large balls crackling with electricity appear around the lone figure that was charging at them.

"What the…" Luck Holder only uttered those two words before he was stifled when he saw those innumerous crackling balls suddenly shot at them with high speed. The last thing he remembered before he was engulfed by pure whiteness was the feeling that all his hair stood on ends and the tingling sensation all over his body.

What was witnessed by the people outside though, was the lightning balls spread out as they detonated one by one around the crowd that had been rushing forward. Everyone else in the vicinity stopped their fighting as they watched the phenomenon.

Jack had spread all his lightning balls in a wide area. Previously he had always focused all his twenty balls on a single target to maximize the damage because the ones he was fighting were natives with high HP pool. His targets this time though, were players whose even for the highest HP amongst them, the level 31 Knights, were 1500. The Lightning God Barrage that Jack shot out with his current level 40 Storm Breaker and a few basic buffs, produced damage around 1800 each ball.

Each lightning ball caused an explosion of electricity in a five-meter radius area. So Jack spaced them out at five meters between each other along the road where the charging mob was traveling. The visual effect ended as if the entire mob was getting carpet-bombed by lightning bombs.

By the end of the explosion, the whole area was quiet. The one still standing after being caught within this carpet bombing was only one person, Health Holder. The others had their bodies lying on the ground unmoving, carpeting the path towards the gate entrance.

The battlefield turned still for a few moments. Even the sole survivor, Health holder, looked around him in disbelief. He was one of the knights with the highest HP. He only managed to survive because he had activated a rare skill he had gotten from a quest, Enduring Toughness. The skill granted him an increase of defense by 100% for 30 seconds and the next one attack received had its damage reduced by 30%. The increase of defense didn't do much as Jack's attack was elemental damage but the reduction of one attack had allowed Health Holder to just barely survive with a sliver of health.

While Health Holder was still standing there, stunned by the sudden turns of event, he heard a voice by his side. "It was amazing that you have managed to survive that attack."

The voice snapped him out of his daze. He turned around with his weapon swinging. However, while he was turning intending to strike at the source of the voice, he felt cold pain in his belly. It was only an instant where he caught the glimpse of the demon who had just sliced his stomach using a long black sword. His vision turned grey as he fell and then he saw nothing but darkness.

While the battlefield paused, John sent messages to the guild members to leave behind the chokepoints and regroup at the gate entrance. They were to concentrate their remaining forces to defend this last chokepoint.

As the others started moving, Jack turned around and looked in direction of the empty gate entrance. He stared at it for a while.

"What is it?" Peniel asked.

"You are not sensing it?" Jack asked back.

"sense what?"

"Hm, no wonder you almost made me fail in unraveling the rune diagram that kept Pandora prisoner. Your mana sensing is rather bad."

"I never say I am good at mana sensing!" Peniel defended herself. She then looked at the place Jack had been looking at. Did he sense something there? His improvement was unbelievable if he was able to sense something from this far away. "Is it something there?" She asked.

Instead of answering, Jack turned back to face the coalition army. "Never mind. It is just one. Gramps will take care of it," he said.