Second World

When Garland's HP dropped to zero, Jack's Runestone of Luck was still beside him. Garland's body which was floating just a few feet off the ground, fell back to the ground. Several items fell with it.

Jack swooped in and picked all the items up without bothering to check them. They were still in the middle of a battle, after all.

"Garland, no!" Claudius uttered after seeing his partner's fate. He realized then that they had been too confident. Garland had seen the eye-catching flock of Eagle Rider Hunters and proposed to Claudius to come to exterminate them. The two of them then forced themselves behind the enemy's line, that's why they had so little support while being outnumbered. They thought that their troops would arrive soon, but the incidents where the army inside the fort came out and the prince escaped to the western hills had taken away their troops' attention. Hence, the support they expected to come, never did.

Claudius decided to not prolong the mistake. He used a charging skill and broke himself away. He was withdrawing in the direction of his troops.

The duke told everyone to not chase after Claudius. They were all exhausted and wounded. Laurent came and heal them. Peniel helped as well.

"Where is Miller?" Bailey asked.

"I'm sorry… He is gone. His body was completely destroyed, even Laurent won't be able to resurrect him," Jack said.

"No…," Bailey's expression turned very sad. But it was soon turned to anger and resolution, "Come, we still have this battle to win," she said.

Jack wondered what the relationship between the two was. Miller was also extremely upset when he saw Bailey was killed. Duke Alfredo told Jack softly that Miller was Bailey's brother.

The fight continued for a while. The reinforcement army was being pushed back until suddenly the pressure eased up a lot. Lots of Therribus' army had turned and ran off to the East, leaving only a portion to deal with the reinforcement army.

"They have seen the real prince!" Jack uttered.

The duke nodded. "Let's capitalize on this chance before the troops that chased after the fake prince to the West returned."

Jack pondered for a while before saying, "Duke, I will leave everything to you. I want to go and make sure the prince successfully escapes."

The duke paused and looked at Jack. He then said, "Go, we will deal with this."

"I will follow!" Bailey said. Her relationship with Prince Alonzo was also not shallow. She would very much like to make sure that the prince was safe.

"Um, can you keep up with my steed?" Jack asked.

"… Go," Bailey said. She had seen the speed of Jack's nightmare.

Jack left Arlcard here, the vampire would be happy with this opportunity to collect exp. Arlcard could unsummon himself back to where he originally was if he wanted to. Jack unsummoned Therras, because he didn't feel safe leaving the pet alone, also because a pet would be automatically unsummoned if it was too far away from the owner.

He then summoned Pandora, his dragon form had run out of duration. With the Nightmare, he rushed to the East. It was actually more beneficial for him to stay in this battle. The left-wing army was still under him. If he left, he wouldn't get the benefit of their exp reaping. Still, he felt like he had to make sure of prince Alonzo's safety. If prince Alonzo died, all their effort would become pointless.

As he rode Pandora, his dragon eye picked up a human wrapped in a fiery suit some distance away on the front line. He had a better look and realized it was not exactly human. It was a humanoid tiger. Leavemealone had also reached level 50 and had upgraded his Fire God Blessing.

He saw his grandfather fighting fiercely beside the fiery tiger. For one who advocated fighting only for self-defense, that geezer seemed to enjoy himself awfully much.

As he was watching them, he realized somebody stood in his path. He stopped his steed abruptly.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked the person.

"You are going after the crown prince, aren't you?" Red Death asked.

"No, I'm going after the third prince. I want to make sure he is safe," Jack answered.

"The crown prince is going after the third prince. I will go with you!"

"Can your steed keep up with mine?" Jack asked the same question he asked Bailey.

"No, but you can carry me," Red Death replied.

"Uh…"

The two stared at each other for some time, Jack wasn't sure what to do.

"I will be furious if you leave me here," Red Death said.

Jack sighed. He requested permission from Pandora before asking Red Death to climb to his back.

Blackjack was running to them. "Red! So, this is where you have gone to. Where are you going?"

"I'm chasing after Therribus," Red replied.

"No, we are chasing after Prince Alonzo," Jack corrected.

"Take me with you!" Blackjack demanded.

"Dude, can you ask a reasonable request? do you see any more space here?" Jack said.

"I will follow you," Blackjack said and summoned his steed.

"Good luck," Jack replied and ran off.

Blackjack, who just wanted to urge his horse to go forward, saw that Jack's steed was already very far away. He was speechless at the sight.

Pandora took his two riders at an incredible speed as they traveled Eastward. On their way, Jack saw Ahab's right-wing army was in the worst shape. They were the ones that first engaged the full brunt of Therribus' main army. Jack estimated Ahab might have lost half of his troops.

Jack circled around the fighting armies so that he didn't get dragged into the fighting. Pandora's speed should allow him to still catch up to Prince Alonzo despite taking the long trek. After he moved away from the battling armies, he caught sight of Therribus' army heading to the East.

Therribus had brought a large army, probably half of his entire army. Did he truly have to bring all that troops to chase after a small fleeing squad? Jack wondered. But this was all within John's prediction. Prince Therribus wanted to ensure that they won't be caught off-guard if there were hidden troops where Prince Alonzo was heading. He only left enough troops to hold the reinforcement army from interfering with his chase.

Jack sent a message to John, "Hey, is everything ready? They will be upon the forest not long now."

"Our troops are currently heading to the killing zone. They should reach there before Therribus and Alonzo arrived," John said. He was still at the reinforcement army's camp with the other guild leaders. The guild mobile platform couldn't be moved once summoned. They had sent their troops away following John's instruction but left a few melee soldiers behind to form a protective circle, just in case any remnant of White Death's troops decided to return.

"What about the war fires?" Jack asked.

"The war fires are set. We just need to ignite them," John replied. "I have left a few players there to do the deed. They will take action once Therribus' army entered the forest."

'It should not be long now,' Jack thought.

In the distance, he saw Prince Alonzo enter the forest.

Therribus, who saw it, instructed a small part of his army to spread out. His thought was that Alonzo was trying to have them lose sight of him inside the forest and then sneak out from one side. He ordered his troops to cover both sides of the forest. No matter where Alonzo tried to sneak out from, he won't escape.

"Hey, they are spreading out. They have some troops encircling the forest," Jack told John.

"That is to be expected. It doesn't matter, those troops outside won't be able to do anything once the forest is on fire," John replied.

"By the way, how do you know the trees in the forest can catch fire? For all we know, the rule here will have only the war fire burning for three minutes as it was meant to. We will be f*cked if it is so, those three minutes of burning damage won't give the army much trouble."

Jack had asked Peniel about war fire's property. It was a war tool that functioned as a trap. It couldn't be put inside inventory and was very heavy. Thus, not an ideal tool to be moved around. It needed to be set before its target arrived. This war fire was ignited by hitting it using a fire attack. Upon detonation, it dealt fire damage in a thirty-meter radius area. The area would then be aflame for three minutes. Anyone within this flaming area would receive continuous fire damage every second.

"Don't worry. I've tested it on a portion of the forest outside Heavenly Citadel. Trees in this world can catch flame when they are subjected to it for a long duration. Three minutes is enough to set a tree aflame. Not only that, but we also tested that the longer ones remained inside a burning area, the fire damage they received will increase by the minutes. Of course, we used a high HP pet for that test. Players won't last inside the fire for long to get accurate data."

"A portion of… That was you?!" Jack had received a report of several charred trees in the forest within their guild's territory. "What if the whole forest is burnt? You know we still need that forest for wood production, right?"

"Who do you think you are talking to? Of course, I have thought of a safe way to test. I have a few mages cast magic walls to block that portion of the forest, so the fire didn't spread. They take turns casting the magic walls until the fire dies down."

"You can tell him that instead of burning the forest near Heavenly Citadel, he could have just learned about it if he asked me," Peniel said to Jack. Jack relayed the message, to which John replied, "But it won't be as fun, would it?"

Jack decided to not discuss the issue with the psycho anymore. He paid attention to Prince Therribus' army. They were starting to enter the forest.

Jack sent the report, "They are in, except for the troops that circled outside the forest."

"I know, the players who I task to ignite the war fires have let me know as well," John said.

So, it won't be long now, Jack thought. He was expecting the forest to go ablaze anytime soon. However, he received a message from John, "Bloody heck!"

"What?" Jack asked back.

"The players that were supposed to ignite the war fires are found out! They are getting slaughtered."

Jack looked into the distance. There was indeed commotion with the troops that were encircling the forest. The players that were tasked to ignite the war fires positioned themselves at the edge of the forest, so they could run away from the flame once they do the deed. These players had instead been spotted by the encircling troops.