Chapter 86 - Attack Commencing
The plan to eradicate Past Deeds began to be implemented methodically. The manpower allocation, grouping, attack route, and field research needed time and preparation.
Dusky Cloud and the gang were old hands at this, so Sword Demon did not need to instruct them himself. The only worrying factor in all this was keeping the plan under wraps. All their efforts would be wasted if Past Deeds caught wind of this. However, Dusky Cloud and his buddies thumped their chests and assured him of their respective guild mates' loyalty.
Meanwhile, the spy that they had sent over to Past Deeds' side kept them updated to the guild's every move. The players of Past Deeds were currently grinding, questing, or generally enjoying themselves, completely oblivious to the trouble headed their way.
After every player taking part in the scheme had been screened under an hour, the representatives of Yueye City's various small guilds gathered in Will-low's house once more to report their numbers.
"Here's what I got in my guild. Seventy-four players made up of 13 Warriors, 11 Mages, 11 Archers, 10 Priests, 14 Thieves, 10 Knights, and 5 Fighters." With Dusky Cloud starting things off, the rest also reported their player compositions. Will-low faithfully recorded the figures by the side. Collating the various guilds' numbers, the final tally was 465 players.
In total, they had 83 Warriors, 76 Mages, 79 Archers, 65 Priests, 80 Thieves, 61 Knights, and 21 Fighters.
Sword Demon felt relieved upon seeing the final breakdown. He had initially been worrying about them not having enough players to form one or two groups out of the planned five, as that would have made enacting the plan to isolate and suppress each of the job classes impossible. Dusky Cloud and the lot were indeed experienced gamers; their guilds forwent numeric superiority in favor of a balanced job class composition. Hence, except for the guilds' sparse amount of Fighters due to the job class' unpopularity in Parallel World, the rest of the six job classes were comparatively even in numbers.
Actually, the problem about the Fighter job class was not the job class itself but rather its higher degree of motion requirement, which the average players needed time to get used to.
When the game officials added this criterion to the Fighter job class' description, many people conscientiously avoided choosing the job class. Since they could only own one account in Parallel World, they naturally did not want to squander that one chance by owning a difficult-to-handle job class. In fact, hardly any of the current level 30 Fighters in-game could pull off their job class' skills that required them to perform bombastic acrobatic moves.
This caused several Fighters who had been attracted to their job class by its combo attack ability to cry rivers of tears in dismay. They firmly believed that the game officials had overestimated the capability of a real brawler.
"This is the amount of people we have at the moment," Dusky Cloud said to Sword Demon, "Those that we managed to get online are included in this tally as well."
Another advantage of having these guild leaders do the preparations for the upcoming fights was their power to persuade the offline members to come online. This move effectively bolstered their forces by another fifty plus people. Meanwhile, the Past Deeds' players were still unaware of the storm brewing; telling their own offline players to come online would be too late and too difficult to achieve when the fighting finally commenced.
The next step to their plan was the forming of groups. While this might seem easy, it actually required a lot of work. After all, it was not ideal to gather the four hundred sixty-five players at once and divide them accordingly, as it would be too conspicuous to others. The only way to do the dividing clandestinely was to write it down first. If listing down all the four hundred sixty-five players at once was already an insurmountable task, it was hard to imagine just how tedious things would be for the different guild leaders, as they were obliged to jot down the different levels and job classes of their guild members. Celestial Pig, the runt, crassly asked whether listing down the players' equipment was needed or not, causing him to receive a ruthless beating from the guild leaders who were already stressed out. Dusky Cloud whacked him the hardest; he had the most men, so his workload was the greatest.
It took them another hour to accomplish the task of assigning their guild members into six groups - one group higher than their previous estimate. Sword Demon had made the plan with four hundred players in mind, with each group having eighty players. That number was more than enough to eradicate the thirty to forty Past Deeds' groups. With the current four hundred sixty-five players, each of the six groups would have seventy-seven players instead. Although each group was three players less of the originally planned eighty, it was not a big deal at all.
Everyone had gotten more spirited as the plan started to take a definite shape, and the tasks corollary became lighter.
Finally, the time to inform the participating players of their group allocation arrived. Nobody yelled these instructions on their guild channels to prevent information leakage, choosing to message each member privately instead.
"Player A, add Player B as a friend. Listen to his/her orders later," was the only sentence uttered. The guild leaders were thrown into a tizzy, sending a message out singly and fielding the questions from their members. Celestial Pig once more had it the easiest, as he had the least men to inform. Dusky Cloud, in contrast, was still the most pitiable among them, as he had the most members to notify.
"Hang in there, everyone!" Sword Demon encouraged them sympathetically.
Every guild leader was exhausted beyond belief after accomplishing this stage of the plan.
"I think I'm going to throw up," Dusky Cloud said, "I never knew privately messaging many people is this hard."
"Are we done with our preparations?" Sword Demon asked.
"Big Boss Sword Demon, please don't make us confirm everything once more," someone wailed miserably.
"Only the group leaders have to confirm with each member they're bringing," Sword Demon said.
"Stop complaining and just confirm everything once more. This is a once-in-lifetime opportunity, so get your m*th*rf*cking a*s*s into it!" Dusky Cloud declared. He was among the group leaders for this operation. No one else dared to complain anymore after hearing his passionate words, as they all knew very well how much work he had done thus far. Once more, they opened up their friends list and privately messaged each group member according to Will-low's sorting.
Out of boredom, the players not chosen as group leaders for this operation started to make funny faces at the six leaders busily messaging people. These bored players imagined that they were watching a monkey show right now.
And with this, the final phase of their operation was completed. The players' expressions inside the room steeled. After all their work, the success of their attack now hinged upon what would happen from here onward. Their fighting spirit was at an all-time high; their lips set in a tight line.
"Okay, get ready!" Sword Demon announced.
All nodded their heads, clasped their comrades' hands, and patted each other's back.
"Alright, m*th*rf*ck*rs! Let's roll out!" Dusky Cloud bellowed. Everyone left Will-low's house in high spirits.
"Miles, it's time to depart from Youye Valley," Sword Demon messaged Gu Fei.
"Oh?" was Gu Fei's only reaction, as he did not know the particulars of the plan.
"We're about to take care of Past Deeds once and for all," Sword Demon explained.
"Directly overwhelming them from the get-go?" Gu Fei asked, as he began to make his way out of Youye Valley, "What's going on?"
"I'll explain everything when we head back. Take care!" Sword Demon replied.
"The coordinates moved! 27149's coordinates changed!" A few players of Past Deeds quickly shouted Gu Fei's newly updated coordinates on the guild channel.
After receiving this news, Vast Lushness promptly sent a message to Young Master Han, "We've seen movement!"
"Roger that," Young Master Han replied, "You guys should get into position."
"Alright!" After Vast Lushness sent this reply, she issued orders to her fellow guild members.
Past Deeds' top brasses had long finished assigning their guild members to man each of the ten locations. Seeing that Gu Fei was on the move, a few of them already made their way toward their respective positions.
Under Vast Lushness' orders, the rest of Past Deeds' online members in Yueye City covertly headed toward their assigned locations.
"The team by Youye Valley, don't make a move right away. Wait until 27149 leaves the map before blocking the entrance. Those who accidentally cross paths with him, act like everything's okay!" Vast Lushness emphasized.
Gu Fei fought his way out of Youye Valley with Coward's Savior in tow. The spot where the two had stayed and roasted meat previously had a lower respawn rate for monsters. It was only after Gu Fei had dominated the respawn rate of several monsters that he started to have an easier time dealing with the monsters in the valley.
Since Gu Fei never added points toward Intelligence or learned AOE spells before, he currently possessed neither the necessary AOE spells nor a great amount of mana to sustain a long period of grinding at this high respawn rate map. While Gu Fei could contend with the level 50 monsters, it was still not efficient for him to grind levels inside the valley.
Nonetheless, Gu Fei had spent almost seven hours in Youye Valley in relative peace, merely fighting monsters and eating his fill of meat. He was also accompanied by a kung fu aficionado who was more than happy to discuss the martial art with him. Hence, when it was time for him to say goodbye to the valley, Gu Fei actually felt some reluctance inside.
"Are all of you in place?" Vast Lushness asked on the guild channel to confirm the placement status of the Past Deeds' members.
"Archer Range in position."
"We've got the Warrior Encampment surrounded!"
"Thieves' Union is covered as well."
The status of the various groups was being updated with each passing moment on Past Deeds' and on Sword Demon's side. Both sides remained focused. Finally, the sentence "Youye Valley has been blocked off" was sent out.
"Begin the massacre!" Young Master Han said to Vast Lushness.
"Good luck!" Vast Lushness replied, not knowing that Young Master Han's words had a different intention altogether.
"Begin the massacre!" Sword Demon said to his newly met comrades, which was precisely the real intention of Young Master Han's command.
The Past Deeds' players that had been sent to Yueye City's various spawn points found themselves surrounded by many players. However, this did not bother them. Whenever Past Deeds moved in such a grand scale, many curious onlookers would often gather near them. In fact, their hearts thumped with elation at the sight of these onlookers, thinking of showing off to them.
It was only when the gathered 'onlookers' had taken out their weapons and rushed toward them that the Past Deeds' players realized that something was off.
By the time they realized that something was amiss, half of them had already been annihilated.
Sword Demon had overestimated the number of Past Deeds' players present. Past Deeds had only managed to rally a maximum of thirty players to each of the nine locations in Yueye City.
Hence, the numerical superiority of the seventy-seven players easily covered the difference in quantity that they had against the Past Deeds' players.
Right now, different types of battle unfolded in front of every spawn point.
The mass of Warriors in front of the Thieves' Union clashed noisily, their weapons clanging like thunder, against their opponents.
Outside the Mage Academy, a sudden wave of arrows peppered the Past Deeds' members from every direction until they could no longer find their bearings.
Cries of anguish reverberated from the mouths of the Past Deeds' players outside the Archer Range as countless Thieves had suddenly materialized beside them and frenziedly stabbed them with their daggers.
Mages had lifted their right hands outside the Warrior Encampment and countless wheels of flames descended from the sky, engulfing the area in a sea of fire. Since there was an extra group out of the originally planned five groups, the Past Deeds' members situated in the Warrior Encampment had the privilege of being the first target of this extra group.
In the blink of an eye, the Knights' Barracks and Fighters' Dojo were seized, albeit the assault on these spots was not as showy as those on the other spots.
The real battle had just begun after this initial assault. It was still unknown whether everything would proceed as planned or not.
Chapter 87 - Racing against Time
Two minutes. That was how long it took for the different groups of Past Deeds' members to be sent back to their respective spawn points, looking perplexedly at one another. They could not make heads or tails of what had just happened. Regrettably enough, none of them escaped death when Sword Demon and his hordes of players assaulted the six spawn points.
However, the more regrettable fact here was that a sizeable portion of the Past Deeds' players remained wholly flummoxed of the situation. These players bewilderedly walked out of the spawn points and pulled out their guild channel to inquire about what had just happened. But before they could send out a message, they were once again instantly killed and sent back inside to respawn by the Past Deeds Eradication Army that had been lying in wait on both sides of each of the spawn points' entrances.
Sword Demon's idea of preventing the players from aiding one another proved to be a bit excessive; their attack was just too sudden for the enemy groups to react properly. At this same moment, the Past Deeds' guild channel was flooded with the members' crying, hollering, cursing, and pleading. But while there were all sorts of reactions on the guild channel, none of the members knew what had really happened. They were also at an absolute loss on what to do next.
Vast Lushness, Blue Ease, and the other top brasses of Past Deeds had to spend several minutes sorting through the chat logs to identify the main issue. Within these several precious minutes, eight out of the nine Past Deeds' groups stationed inside Yueye City had been wiped out by the Past Deeds Eradication Army.
The only team left untouched was the one manning the underground prison, which was far from the other teams. Sword Demon swiftly arranged a group of sixty players to decimate the thirty players stationed in the underground prison and subsequently seize that location; the rest of the army was left behind to defend the seized spawn points. Besides the Fighters' Dojo, which they had ignored due to the low count of players belonging to that job class, the other six spawn points were successfully seized by Past Deeds Eradication Army. The spawn points for Warriors, Mages, Thieves, and Archers were easily suppressed by their respective job classes' arch-nemeses. Each group's excess manpower had been gathered as well. These surplus players were now waiting for the Past Deeds' guild members coming from Youye Valley to assist their entrapped brethren.
Meanwhile, the Past Deeds' guild members that had died in the various spawn points did not stay idle. A trickle of the revived players walked out of their respective spawn points, only to get instkilled in the next minute. Following their pointless deaths, about twenty to thirty extremely incensed Past Deeds' members gathered in one place to counterattack.
What ensued was hardly unexpected; the Past Deeds' smaller number and the job class suppression strategy that was employed on them made their charge a one-way ticket to their deaths - or should it be a two-way ticket, instead? After all, their return trip to the respective spawn points was instantaneous.
Sword Demon had a very satisfied smile on his face right now.
Three levels. The Past Deeds' players stubbornly stormed out of the spawn points, resulting into many of them getting killed for the third time since the start of the surprise attack. This was precisely what Sword Demon wanted: The first assault would drop them by a level; the second assault would drop the disorganized Past Deeds' members aimlessly walking out of the spawn points by another level; finally, the third assault would drop the now wised-up and planning-to-counterattack Past Deeds' players by another level.
The plan advanced very smoothly, causing the now level 27 Past Deeds' players to fearfully remain inside the various spawn points. Endless cries and curses could be heard coming from each of their mouths. They felt even more resentful by the fact that they still did not know who their assailants were despite getting killed thrice. Everything happened so fast that none of them had managed to get a clear look at any of their assailants' faces.
"How can this be?! What's going on?!" Vast Lushness incessantly asked Blue Ease, feeling utterly aggrieved.
Blue Ease's face was deathly pale. His quick mental calculation revealed that the losses they had incurred from the eight teams in Yueye City were devastating, considering that about two hundred players dropped three levels consecutively.
"Did we… get tricked?" Vast Lushness voiced her suspicion.
"You mean by Young Master Han?" Blue Ease responded with a question.
Vast Lushness frantically called Young Master Han. Despite the matter devolving to such a point, Young Master Han still managed to maintain his acting and asked very calmly, "What? I'm busy right now. I'm in the middle of a hunt…" His curt reply left Vast Lushness in a state of indecision.
"If they're the culprits, how did they recruit so many players? Aren't they from Yunduan City?" Blue Ease could not make sense of things as well.
"Are they really from Yunduan City?" the two asked the people beside them. Everyone affirmed that they had definitely not seen the five around the city before.
Brother Assist and the three needed not be mentioned, just the pair of Young Master Han and Sword Demon would definitely leave a long-lasting impression to the people they met. Since their members had not recognized any of the five men, it more or less confirmed that the mercenary group was not from Yueye City.
"If they aren't from this city, then they can't possibly have this much power," was the conclusion that they came up with.
"How's the current situation?" Vast Lushness asked Blue Ease.
"The eight teams are obliterated. They're stuck in the spawn points right now; unable to make their way out," Blue Ease reported.
"Let's not panic!" Vast Lushness advised, quickly calming herself down from her initial agitation. Several core members began to discuss how to cope with their current predicament through private messaging.
With the six spawn points already under the enemies' control, only the guild's Fighters were free to move about. The information from the Thieves' Union mentioned that about fifty to sixty enemy players were currently blocking the street outside the establishment's entrance. Only their guild mates in the Thieves' Union could check the situation through Stealth. As for their people in the other spawn points, they were immediately annihilated once they poked their heads out.
"Fifty to sixty players in each of the six locations would make their number to be around three hundred..." Blue Ease's expression became more strained by the minute. No more than seventy guild members were guarding Youye Valley with them right now.
"Let's clear each location one by one. They won't be able to contend with us with just fifty to sixty players," someone suggested.
Vast Lushness shook her head, "Our opponents obviously planned this assault thoroughly, so they must have a clear understanding of our current predicament. I'm certain that our team's strength is within their consideration, too."
"Does that mean that they've got a group of a hundred men waiting to face us?" someone asked.
"I'm afraid that's very likely…."
"Where in Yueye City did such a powerful guild sprout?" everyone wondered, feeling dumbfounded.
"This whole mess still comes back to those guys!" Blue Ease retorted, "Maybe these players are also from Yunduan City?"
"No point in discussing that right now," Vast Lushness said, adding, "Have two fast players chase after Fugitive 27149's coordinates. See if those guys are truly hunting 27149. The rest of you, follow me back to Yueye City. Don't hurriedly engage the opponents when we meet them. Take cover and hide first. Update the other guild members regarding them. Instruct anyone who has dropped over two levels to go offline immediately. Log on twenty minutes later. If possible, use that time to make our offline members log on, too."
All nodded their heads. Past Deeds slowly began to initiate their counterattack.
"Many Past Deeds' players went offline," Sword Demon and the group leaders received this report.
"Cowards! They're usually domineering whenever they bullied us in the past. Now that the tables are turned, they've become nothing short of cowardly tortoises! Come out and fight with us to the death!" Celestial Pig exclaimed angrily.
Sword Demon laughed as he patted him on the back, "It's not the time to get overly emotional. The Past Deeds' players are calmly reacting to us. They've logged off in the hope of us easing up the pressure. Brace yourselves, guys. They're definitely planning a counterattack."
Celestial Pig nodded his head, "Big Boss Sword Demon, we'll do as you say." After the success of the initial assault, they no longer doubted Sword Demon's plan feasibility and capabilities.
"How long does it take to travel from Youye Valley to Yueye City?" Sword Demon asked.
"At least twenty minutes for the low-Agility job class," Dusky Cloud replied.
"With how things currently stand, they won't dare to split their group any more. There're twenty minutes left before they arrive. Unfortunately, we're not sure which route they're taking. Do we have anyone in that team?" Sword Demon asked.
Dusky Cloud shook his head regretfully, "No. Our spy was assigned to guard the city."
Sword Demon was stunned, "Where're they now?"
Dusky Cloud smirked, "It's not 'they'; it's just one brother who acted his role all the way to the end. He died together with the Past Deeds' members."
Sword Demon's expression changed, yet he did not comment. He looked all around him and said, "Have a few Thieves spy on the Past Deeds' movement outside the city!"
"I'll bring a few people along!" Dusky Cloud nodded his head in agreement. He chose a few other Thieves and sprinted toward the city gate with them.
Sword Demon became more and more anxious as time passed by. Although the initial assault was a great success, Sword Demon dared not regard their enemies lightly. After all, Past Deeds quieted down a little too quickly.
He had original deduced that the Past Deeds' reinforcement would head toward the Mage Academy, as it was closest to Youye Valley out of the nine places. Furthermore, Mages were an important firepower when it came to group PvPs; rescuing the trapped Mages would be the best option for Past Deeds. However, things might not be that simple, seeing how the Past Deeds had reacted thus far. Would their next move result into him falling into the enemies' trap?
In the end, we've overlooked some parts in the plan, Sword Demon sighed, I should've sent a Thief on Stealth to spy on the Past Deeds' group in Youye Valley. Just knowing which route they're taking would've made things easier. Right now, he could only hope that Dusky Cloud and the other Thieves rushing outside the city would be able to discover which direction their opponents had headed.
At that moment, Dusky Cloud and the three Thieves arrived outside the north gate leading toward Youye Valley. Dusky Cloud solemnly instructed each Thief before splitting up, "Try to gather as much information as you can even if you get killed!"
The three firmly nodded their heads, "We will, Boss Cloud. Don't worry!"
The four activated Stealth and chose a different direction each. The terrain outside Yueye City's north gate was not complex. Hence, Dusky Cloud was certain that it would be easy to spot a group of over seventy players moving together.
The Thief that had gone to Yueye City's northwestern corner was the first to send a report to Sword Demon. He discovered that the Past Deeds' group situated in the underground prison had already dispersed before their allied group even arrived.
Meanwhile, Dusky Cloud, who was still outside the city, brought good news; he had located the seventy-man team of Past Deeds. Curiously enough, they did not head toward Yueye City but remained where they were originally stationed.
"They must be waiting to join with the underground prison's thirty-man team! Quick! Let's take this opportunity to head out!" Sword Demon swiftly rallied everyone to rush out of Yueye City and meet their opponents halfway for a final showdown.
With the additional thirty men, the opponents would have over a hundred players on their side. All were first-rate players who could overwhelm enemies even with the odds against them. Victory would be uncertain if Past Deeds was given a chance to form a team of one hundred men.
Chapter 88 - The Ninth Team
The Past Deeds Eradication Army currently had fifty players stationed at each of the five spawn points that they had seized, with another thirty players stationed outside the Priest Academy. These two hundred eighty players were needed to keep up the pressure in the six spawn points. Thus, Sword Demon could not deploy them to another location even if he wanted to.
Without these two hundred eighty players, Sword Demon's group and the sixty-man group assaulting the underground prison could only form a team of about one hundred eighty men at Yueye City's north gate. Conversely speaking, Past Deeds would have somewhere around one hundred players if the team situated in the underground prison could join the team in Youye Valley. Sword Demon did not know how many players were needed for his group to make up for the gap in terms of skills, gear, and other factors with the enemy team. After all, this was the first time he had taken part in such a large-scale fight in Parallel World.
However, there was one point he was aware of: The fewer opponents they needed to face, the better the odds would be for them. Thus, Sword Demon decided to have his group attack the Past Deeds' players first to prevent the enemies from improving their odds of victory.
Unfortunately for Sword Demon's group, a large portion of them had low Agility. The Thieves, Archers, and the other job classes had to match their speed with the Warriors and Priests'.
Every job class counted in such a large-scale PvP, after all. In other MMOs, it was rare for the different job classes to have varied speed. Therefore, the Thieves and Archers in Sword Demon's group fervently wished for their Warriors and Priests to grow an extra leg or two in order to hasten their pace.
Fortunately, Sword Demon and his team did not receive any news from Dusky Cloud of the enemy group managing to form up, as they marched onward. Dusky Cloud, who was in charge of monitoring the Past Deeds' movement, excitedly told Sword Demon that he could now see the latter's squad from his location of a few hundred meters away.
That's great! Sword Demon thought to himself. He assumed that the Past Deeds' thirty-man team must have taken a detour to not arouse suspicion, increasing the time they needed to form up with the team in Youye Valley.
After a while, Dusky Cloud sent another message, "That's odd. I've been searching for a long time in the team I'm monitoring, yet I can't seem to find that shrew, Vast Lushness. Has anybody seen her?" Dusky Cloud bore a deep grudge against Vast Lushness. Not only did he want to lead his brothers to a new future, he wanted to 'settle' his grudge against her along the way as well.
"I don't see her here, either!" the people holding the fort at the Priest Academy reported.
"G*dd*mn! Where did that shrew go?"
"She's a woman! Maybe she became scared of the upcoming fight, so she retreated under the comfort of her blanket while hugging a pillow?" someone ridiculed. Dusky Cloud was not the only one holding a grudge against Vast Lushness, after all.
Dusky Cloud furrowed his brows. He knew that Vast Lushness was not that simple-minded. Actually, she was very similar to Dusky Cloud and his buddies: hot-blooded, bloodthirsty, and loyal. The only difference between them was that Vast Lushness was a woman, so she did not curse as much as them.
If Dusky Cloud were her, he would fight until his level was reduced to zero. He would never choose to retreat or hide from a fight. Undoubtedly, the like-minded Vast Lushness would be the same.
"Big Boss Sword Demon, it's very unusual for that shrew to be missing. Something's not right here," Dusky Cloud privately messaged Sword Demon.
"What?" When it came to familiarity with the local players' thought process, Sword Demon could not compare with Dusky Cloud. After all, this was not Sword Demon's home ground.
"That shrew is not the type to retreat. I'm still waiting to fight with her to death! I think that there's a scheme in play here, since she's nowhere to be found," Dusky Cloud speculated.
"Who are the core members that you can see over there?" Sword Demon asked.
"I only see Vice Guild Leader Blue Ease over here," Cloud Demon replied.
"Are there few Thieves in that team?" Sword Demon asked, thinking of a possibility.
Dusky Cloud thought of the same thing as well. Was it possible for their opponents to have already finished forming up and only appear few in number because the Thieves had gone on Stealth? However, this did not seem to be the case upon closer inspection, "Nope. All the job classes are present; the Thieves don't seem to be lacking in number either."
"Anyway, we're almost there. Let's talk about this more after we eliminate that team!" Sword Demon said.
"Alright! ...Hmm? OH, WAIT!" Dusky Cloud suddenly shouted.
"What?" Sword Demon had asked this question when he himself could already see what was happening in real time. On a distant field, seventy odd players of Past Deeds could be seen scattering and rushing from all directions in pairs of twos and threes. They were leaving the should-be battlefield in separate units.
"They've dispersed! What's going on?!" Dusky Cloud hollered.
Past Deeds was already on the losing side with their smaller number, so only by joining together could they have a powerful combat strength. However, the Past Deeds' seventy players still chose to split up right before the huge fight. What were they thinking? Sword Demon and his group only had to form a few strike teams of Thieves and Archers with Agility-based builds and they could easily take care of over half of the dispersing Past Deeds' players! Sword Demon gazed at the heavily geared Warriors and low-Agility Priests running across the plains and could absolutely not understand what Past Deeds was thinking.
"Let's go, Big Boss Sword Demon! We won't lose as long as we take them down one by one!" someone beside Sword Demon suggested when he appeared to be hesitating. This bunch of people could not help but salivate upon seeing the Past Deeds' players filling up the hills and plains before them.
This truly is not the proper time to be hesitating. Sword Demon nodded his head and raised his hand, bellowing, "CHARGE!"
"CHARGE!" everyone roared in unison. At this moment, the Thieves activated Fleetfoot and dove straight toward the scattering enemy players. The Archers sent arrows whooshing through the air as well. These two job classes became the main offensive force of Sword Demon's group right now. From time to time, the Mages would throw out fireballs. As the Warriors and Priests, they mostly provided support from the rear.
Sword Demon bravely took the lead, heading for a player and plunging a knife using Backstab.
Although Dusky Cloud considered the Past Deeds' players to be outstanding individuals, they were still incomparable to Sword Demon. Sword Demon had dug his dagger deeply into his opponent before the latter could even retaliate. And with two stabs under Fatal Blow, he made short work of the player.
"Big Boss Sword Demon is too domineering!" everyone exclaimed. Sword Demon had just killed off a Warrior, a job class that Thieves were weak against. An average Thief would usually get killed just from attempting to touch a Warrior. Warriors had high HP and defense, so Thieves that specialized in dealing physical damage found it hard to attack them. Equipment that increased the chances of Fatal Blow, like the dagger that Sword Demon possessed, was necessary for a Thief to deal physical damage to a Warrior.
Sword Demon waved at everyone for a bit, before hurtling himself toward another target.
Actually, Sword Demon did not randomly plunge his dagger into the Warrior; he had appraised the target first before coming to a decision to attack him. Nonetheless, it was a rather risky move on his part, since the probability of the Warrior turning around with Cyclone still existed. Although the Cyclone's duration was dependent on a Warrior's amount of Rage, it was still a skill that dealt the highest damage in Parallel World. Hence, any of the low-HP Thieves that received this attack would be instkilled. Actually, only the absurdly skilled Gu Fei would consider Cyclone as an inflexible and easily defendable in-game skill.
After disposing the Warrior and corollary raising everyone's fighting spirit, Sword Demon targeted a Mage next.
Although fighting spirit was important in online games, it could not actually do something like tapping into the players' inner potential. The least it could do was roused the players' passion for violence, encouraging them to courageously fight even in the face of death.
The job classes with high Agility on the Past Deeds' side were very fortunate, as their guild's Priests, Warriors, and other job classes with low Agility had a hard time escaping the assault of Sword Demon's group. Meanwhile, the more enemy players Sword Demon disposed of, the harder it was for him to figure out Past Deeds' plan.
As Sword Demon pondering on this, a message came from within Yueye City; a thirty-man team had appeared in the Archer Range.
"F*ck me! What skill is this?!" the players blocking off the Archer Range cried out. Bad news arrived a minute later, "We were wiped out!"
"How is that possible?!" Sword Demon and the rest were flabbergasted. They had placed a fifty-man group at the Archer Range. Even if they could not fend off the thirty players dispatched by Past Deeds, they should at least not be losing so quickly, especially since they had numerical superiority.
With this, they no longer had control over the six spawn points. A majority of the allied players guarding the Archer Range were Thieves, so most of them revived over at the Thieves' Union. Since the Thieves' Union was one of the spawn points closest to the Archer Range, a lot of Thieves would go over there to provide reinforcement right now. At this point, the extraordinary thirty-man team that could wipe out a fifty-man team was only a minor concern for Sword Demon.
Sword Demon was more worried about the thirty men he had stationed at the Priest Academy, which was also not far from the Archer Range.
"The Priest Academy's team, quickly retreat and head toward the Warrior Encampment!" Sword Demon gave this order to their players in Yueye City's Priest Academy. He then proceeded to gather his group members who were running all over the plains. At this very moment, Sword Demon realized that it would be difficult to quickly assemble the troops chasing after the scattered Past Deeds' players again. It would definitely take some time!
Is this what they're after?! Sword Demon's heart squeezed.
Another report came from within the city at this point: "A lot of Past Deeds' players that were previously offline have begun to come online!"
"G*dd*mm*t! M*th*rf*ck*rs, move faster! Don't f*ck*ng kill anymore. We've got a big problem back in the city!" Dusky Cloud howled like a wolf out in the open, as he abandoned the group channel.
"We've got a problem!" Sword Demon quickly sent a message to Young Master Han, "What're you guys doing?"
"What's wrong? I'm drinking!" Young Master Han replied.
"M*th*rf*ck*r!" Sword Demon had obviously been influenced by Dusky Cloud and his buddies. He quickly relayed the issue, "A team of Past Deeds that we had lost track of before appeared and took back the Archer Range in just a minute."
"That's impossible. How many people did you leave behind? It only took them a minute?" Young Master Han asked, feeling shocked.
"Fifty men!" Sword Demon said, "We don't know where they are now!"
"B*llsh*t! Where else could they go after securing the Archer Range?!" Young Master Han retorted.
"Warrior Encampment!" Sword Demon finally got it. The job class' weakness was not something that only Sword Demon's side could utilize. Their opponents must have realized Sword Demon's plan of utilizing the job classes' weaknesses to suppress the relevant spawn points. Now that their opponents rescued a whole pack of Archers, they would naturally use them to attack the job class that the Archers had the most advantage against. Currently, the fifty-man group located at the Warrior Encampment was mainly consisted of Mages, whose arch-nemesis was the Archer job class.
"Newly respawned Thieves at the Thieves' Union, swiftly make your way to the Warrior Encampment!" Sword Demon immediately ordered. His heart rejoiced when he recalled that he had already sent the Priest Academy's defenders over to the Warrior Encampment.
"What's going on?" Dusky Cloud hurriedly asked.
After Sword Demon explained everything, Dusky Cloud quickly reacted, "Fleetfoot! Every f*cking one of you better activate your Fleetfoot!"
"They just dropped a level when they had respawned. Fleetfoot can't be used, anymore," Sword Demon reminded Dusky Cloud.
"M*th*rf*ck*r!" Dusky Cloud cursed, "Where did they get such a bullish team of thirty players? Did they form them slyly?"
Sword Demon did not think so. If they could form the current thirty-man group by gathering from two different locations, it should be possible for them to send more people over. There was no need to just form a thirty-man elite team.
Those thirty men must have been the ones previously manning the underground prison. In any case, Sword Demon and company were more bewildered by that elite team's fighting prowess.