Second World

Jack continued to try sending messages and using skills and spells. None of them worked.

'How did they do this to me?' Jack asked Peniel inside his mind.

'There are several possibilities. Most likely they possessed one unique artifact, Hex of Power Restraint. It prevented anyone within a set area to be unable to use any active skills or spells. See how they also don't use any skills or spells?'

'You are right!' Since he couldn't cast a spell, Jack had exchanged his magic staff with a second sword. He had been moving around and clashing with the crowds using only his martial arts.

'No wonder I see so few magic users in the crowd,' Jack came to a realization. Scarface himself had retreated to the back of the crowd. Jack also understood now why they only used players here. Native soldiers without skills are only good for tanking due to their high HP. For this fight, Scarface required players with martial experiences, who were still deadly even with just normal attacks. This fight had turned into an old-fashioned brawl without skills and spells.

Jack's three classes' attributes still trumped everyone, allowing him to contend while being so outnumbered. But the inability to use skills had taken a large chunk of his edge off. A lot of his opponents were decent martial artists, with several being top-class ones. Jack couldn't continue to go on like this.

'You also can't use your healing spells?' Jack asked Peniel.

'I can't,' she answered.

'Damn, f*ck! How did they get their hands on this powerful artifact? They could have used this artifact on me in yesterday's battle.'

'They can't. This artifact required one hour to power up before activating its effect. It is also not movable during power-up and activation. So, they had to make sure their target would have to be at the place where they wanted it to be.'

'I see… Such a tool will not be practical in a war unless you play the defensive side. Damn! That's why they made me wait and took me into this warehouse. Motherf*ckers! I fell right into their trap!' Jack cursed. 'Can I stop the artifact's effect if I destroy it?'

'You can't destroy it, but it will stop its repression if you hit at it. However, I don't think they place it in this room. The artifact was rather large. We should be able to see it if it is. It is most probably placed outside, its area of effect can still cover this entire warehouse despite being outside.'

Seeing no option to cancel the artifact's effect, Jack continued to slash and repel all attackers that came his way. Although he couldn't use active skills, his passive skills were still in effect. His Hard Power Gauntlet increased the knockback effect on every attack. With his already powerful strength stat, almost every opponent was smashed away even when he was not using Flame Strike. This caused the opponents to be unable to completely swarm him even with their superior number.<br/><script>ChapterMid();</script>

His Eight Diagram Illusory Steps had also undergone much improvement, as well as his advanced mana sense and superior dexterity. Most of the attacks coming his way missed. He slipped in and out of everyone while continuing to counterattack.

Without skills that caused tremendous damages, his standard attack could not kill the players in a single strike. Especially those opponents that had also changed to elite classes. These opponents after getting damaged, hurriedly move back to the rear before drinking recovery potions. They then returned again.

Against such unending attacks, Jack didn't think he could continue for long.

'F*ck! I can't see any exit. There is no window. This warehouse is different from ours. That door had a wooden plank barring it. It looks strong, I don't think I can break it while so many people ganging on me,' Jack said within his mind. Any guild structures after being built would follow a standard design, but one can modify it as long as one spent resources. But such a modification was purely cosmetic, normally competitive guilds wouldn't waste resources to do it at this stage.

'I will try to look around. Although they can make modifications, there should be at least one mandatory window,' Peniel said as she came out of her hidden dimension and started flying around.

Some arrows and bolts soon came flying her way. It's a good thing she was small and her flying was not slow, so she could dodge. Yet all these attacks still caused her to unable to focus on looking for possible exits.

Arrows and bolts also came at Jack. Despite his excellent mana sense and evasion capability, he was still struck once in a while. The opponents didn't allow him the chance to drink recovery potions. His passive recovery ability was slowly unable to keep up with these endless attacks.

'This is bad,' Jack thought.

The most troublesome were the four expert martial artists, Warpath, Grimclaw, Stoncleave, and the pretty yet deadly Red Death. And then there was also the gunner, Yellow Death, whose bullets contributed the most in hitting Jack while he contended against the four melee experts.

"Buzz off, you three musketeers!" Jack exclaimed as he executed forty-eight burst slashes. Warpath, Grimclaw, and Stonecleave were forced back by the technique.

Red Death, who had circled behind Jack, attempted a backstab. Jack moved away with eight diagram illusory steps before the stab hit. Yet, Red Death followed closely, she moved and stabbed with deadly precision. Even Jack's illusory steps had a problem dodging every stab.

Jack sent her a slash to force her back. Her body split into two from the slash, or at least she appeared to.

She then stabbed Jack from the left. When Jack dodged away, the other image which Jack thought was an afterimage slashed from the right. Jack swayed his body back, hardly managed to dodge this other slash.

Jack then felt his legs getting swiped. He lost his balance and fell on his back.

Before he could react, he saw Red Death falling above him, her two daggers coming down on his face. He tilted his head away just as the two daggers came down and hit the floor. Red Death's body was on top of her at the moment, her head next to his.

"Southwest corner, small window," Jack heard her whisper.

Jack was puzzled by her words that he paused. Red Death suddenly jerked up and away as if being pushed.

'Eh? I didn't do anything,' Jack thought. But he quickly realized what was going on. He did a rising handspring back into a standing position before spinning his body around while slashing his two swords. Not exactly a whirlwind slash, but it still pushed everyone back.

'Southwest, southwest…' He thought as he looked around. Crap! He couldn't tell which way was Southwest. He then directed his thought to his little companion who was still flying around amongst the hail of arrows and bolts, 'Peniel, can you tell where is Southwest? There is supposed to be a small window there.'

'Southwest?' Let me see. She said and flew in a direction, obviously knowing where Southwest was.

Jack continued to fight as best he could. The three musketeers were back again. Grimclaw, using his long-reaching halberd, sent Jack multiple thrusts. Jack parried half and dodged the rest.

Stonecleave, who was using a two-handed greatsword before, had now changed to a spear. He joined Grimclaw in thrusting at Jack. Warpath came at Jack from the side with his shadowless slashes. Jack had to use his burst slashes again, but this move was seriously causing him fatigue if used too often.

Stonecleave, who saw an opportunity, changed his weapon again to a hammer this time. His passive Weapon Master's skill was in effect despite the artifact's repression. Jack couldn't dodge this heavy smash, so he crossed his sword to parry. Despite not being a power strike, the blow still pushed him away.

Jack felt multiple attacks coming from his back. Still unbalanced, he allowed himself to fall to the ground instead, evading those attacks. Before slashing backward, cutting the legs of those players who tried to backstab him.

'There are lots of boxes here!' He heard Peniel's words in his mind.

The boxes must be put there to hide the window, Jack thought. He didn't think Red Death was lying to him. She was not a stranger to dirty ploys, but she still preferred direct confrontation when against someone she deemed worthy, like how she issued him a duel in the past.

With a clear direction to go, Jack didn't dilly dally. He rose back and used his enormous strength to ram people over, receiving several hits at the same time. The players were rather surprised by his sudden forceful move. Jack managed to clear a small area due to this.

He then jumped. His super-human jump brought him high into the air. He was coming down on a sentinel. Seeing the opponent falling on him, the sentinel reflexively lifted his shield to cover himself. Jack landed on the shield and kicked, doing another super-human jump.

The next one he fell to was a knight who also had a shield. With the same reflexive cover, the knight provided Jack another foothold, so Jack jumped again. His jumps were not as graceful as when Domon did it during the fight with Crowds of Sins, but it still served its purpose. Jack's enhanced jumps afforded him to use the players as stepping stones even when he had less finesse compared to Domon. He only needed to target those with shields as the destination of where to jump to.

Arrows and bolts came at Jack. Some with the enhanced jump passive ability also jumped into the air, trying to attack Jack mid-air. But Jack's jumping speed was fast. Those who happened to come near him were easily sensed. Jack's one slash quickly sent each of them back slamming to the ground.

Scarface, who was observing everything from afar, immediately shouted, "Don't let him step on you, move away!"

The ones Jack was targeting, were knights and sentinels who were used to parry or block instead of dodge. So it was their instinct to block when Jack came down. Even after Scarface's shout, the next target Jack came to still lift his shield up. His comrade at the side had to push him away, just to not allow Jack another foothold again.

Losing the foothold, Jack slashed down instead on the guy who had done the pushing. He landed and then made rapid slashes while continuing to dance and move forward. He was not far from where he wanted to go already.

Scarface, who was having a better view of the whole situation, looked at where Jack was trying to go. He then looked over and saw Jack's fairy flying around the box near the wall.

"He can't be… How does he know?!" Scarface muttered with apprehension.