Chapter 148 - 143 : Reinforcements Have Arrived

If Rolo and Reeves knew that Lu Zhen was still holding back, even in such a crisis, they would be astonished at his actions and decision. To be able to do something like that could only be described as foolish by the duo. However, it was still impressive that Lu Zhen could already hold on against the 6, without going all out. If he was able to last this long while holding back, one could only imagine what would happen once he goes all out.

As Lu Zhen was having an internal struggle, Rolo communicated with his original teammates. Due to the fact that Rolo's appearance was somewhat sudden, the two different parties weren't able to form a large party to cover them all. Rather than say that they weren't able to, it would be more correct to say that they both never planned on doing such, and for Rolo, this was a very good thing; almost like a pie dropped from the skies.

"You guys should get ready. Once we are done with these two, immediately strike those dummies." Rolo said to his teammates in the party chat. The reason he made such a decision was that the very moment Lu Zhen and Xue Yan both died, everyone's guard should drop at that time. Such an opportune moment would be more than perfect for an assault.

'Don't blame me for anything. You're just too stupid.' Rolo thought as he glanced at Reeves.

Unknown to him though, Reeves had also made the same arrangements with his teammates as he felt that Rolo might do the same. Hence it all went down to who would be the faster figure. But with the help he had called for, Reeves believed that he would be the victor who laughs last.

"Xue Yan. Keep running and don't stop no matter what. Don't even turn back to take a look." Lu Zhen yelled at Xue Yan. As he did so, he tightened his grasp on his dagger. He was stuck in an internal turmoil on whether to go all out or not but he ended up deciding to do so at the very last minute. This was because once he showed his full strength to these guys, they would be stunned and shocked by his strength. Such an opportune moment would give Xue Yan more time to escape.

'Unlike you, I'm only playing this game for fun so it's best you don't die here. Ai~ I should have listened to you back then and left earlier.' Lu Zhen smiled ruefully. 

As Lu Zhen was making such comments in his head while preparing to strike at the figure approaching him from behind, he suddenly saw a tiny glimmer up ahead.

"Huh? That's…"

*Phew*

Suddenly, with the whistling of the air, an arrow passed by Lu Zhen and shot towards the player that was closest to him. Because the player was never expecting such or rather because h was too focused on Lu Zhen, he was slow in reacting and couldn't dodge it. Before he could even move his hand to block it, the arrow pierced his chest and dug deep into his body, almost penetrating his heart.

"Argghhh."

-55 (55/110 unimportant ID) [Drill Shot]

A bloodcurdling scream arose in the forest as blood spilled on the floor, dyeing it crimson.

The player was an [Assassin] and that why he was able to catch up to Lu Zhen faster than the others. One has to remember that Lu Zhen wasn't running at his fastest, so as to cover up the rear for Xue Yan. As such, this player was able to catch up to him. As an [Assassin], the player wore leather armour over plate armour. This could be said to have been both a good thing and a bad thing for him. The bad thing is that because it's leather armour, it got penetrated by the arrow. The good thing though, was that the armour managed to relieve a bit of the force, preventing the arrow from reaching his heart. Nonetheless, his left lung was damaged but to a player, the effects are somewhat manageable; just somewhat.

[[ System notification :

You have been attacked by player. Retaliating against your attacker won't incur any punishment on you.

Your left lung has been damaged :

Stamina cost is now x1.5. 

You will be losing 1 HP every 5 seconds.

Due to an abrupt reduction in oxygen supply, vision is affected. ]]

"Who?!" Rolo shouted out. The reason he was infuriated was because the injured player was his teammate. With the player injured, his plan to ambush Reeves' team would be affected.

"Stop." Reeves hurried ordered his men. He was astonished as to what had just occurred. Normally, he would have been happy that one of Rolo's men was attacked but Reeves knew that neither Lu Zhen nor Xue Yan could use a bow after all, none of them were [Rangers]. He knew that it was only Lu Zhen and Xue Yan that had arrived here together so he didn't know who that was. The help he had also brought was not a [Ranger]. So the identity of this ambusher was unknown to him.

Even as the two pursuers were shocked, Xue Yan and Lu Zhen kept running forward until there was sufficient distance between them and Rolo's team before they stopped. Earlier on, Lu Zhen had spotted the arrow and from the way it was fired, it didn't seem like he was the target. Nonetheless, Lu Zhen still adhered to caution as he glanced at the origin o the arrow.

While the entire team had entered a temporary state of shock, a fireball suddenly appeared from the side and headed for the injured player. It was too fast as all of them were focused at the view in front. They never expected to see an attack coming from the sides; even more so a blazing fireball.

"What do you take us for?" One of Rolo's teammate, a [Berserker] who happened to be the closest to the injured player, roared as he hurried over to shield the player from getting injured any further. As a [Berserker], though his defensive abilities might be lacking when compared to a [Guardian] or even a [Paladin], his [Strength] wasn't. This player intended on countering the fireball with a slash from his sword. In order to reach his teammate quicker, the [Berserker] used his class' specialty ability, [Charge].

As the player approached his teammate, an arrow came whistling again. This time however, it not only came from another position in front, but the target was the Berserker himself. The skill [charge] is a very impressive skill that [Berserkers] use to dominate a battle. However, it has one inevitable weakness. Once activated, the player can only proceed in a straight line. This weakness might not seem much in comparison to its effect but in a battle of experts, if one doesn't take caution in how they use it, it could end up as double-edged sword. 

As the player was still in the midst of is charge, he could only move in a straight line and with the arrow heading his way, he only had two options. One was to halt his charge and stop the arrow while two was to ignore the arrow and keep going to save his teammate. He couldn't slash the arrow as once he did, the effects of the skill would be targeted at it and this would be no different than option 1. He also couldn't ignore the arrow(option 2) as doing so would lead to him getting hit, thereby canceling his skill. Hence, there was only one option.

"Bastard." realising this, the player cursed before gritting his teeth and swinging his sword at the arrow.

*Clang*

With a loud metallic reverberating sound, the arrow and the sword collided, with the arrow deflected over to another spot.

As for the player who was targeted by the fireball, there was no suspense there whatsoever. He got hit by the attack.

*Boom*

-72 (0/110 unimportant ID) [Fireball]

Dead. 

Just like that, with two hits only, Rolo's teammate died. The damage for the first attack was self-explanatory as the skill used on the arrow was the [Ranger] trump card, [Drill Shot]. Added with the fact that it was a surprise attack that almost lead to a critical hit, it was understandable that the skill took out half o the player's HP. However, the last attack was a regular [Fireball] spell. This was the weakest attack in an [Elementalist]'s arsenal, second only to the [Mana ball] spell. In fact, it was the same with the [Mana ball] spell as the only difference was that the [fireball] spell was elementally inclined towards the fire element. Though it was only the player who got injured that knew the skills used, everyone could guess that the last attack was the [Fireball] spell but they couldn't comprehend how such a simple low level spell ended the life of a player.

"Who the hell are you people?! Show yourself.!" Rolo yelled in frustration. 

It was easy to guess that there was more than one attacker from the two attackers, hence the address of 'people' and not 'person'.

*Phew*

The third arrow was fired and this time, the target was Rolo himself. But that wasn't all though. Another fireball appeared from the forest, heading towards him too and accompanying the two attacks was a voice.

"Didn't they tell you? The pig that makes the loudest noise gets killed next."

AN :

You might be wondering why I use [Assassin] over assassin, the same with the other classes. This is to prevent you guys from getting confused. I might mention assassin in any upcoming chapter or so. Here, assassin refers to someone that, well assassinates but [Assassin] refers to the class. A [Ranger] can assassinate someone.. As such, he will be an assassin but not an [Assassin].