Chapter 990 Reading The Opponent Like An Open Book (Part 2)
…… πππππππο½.πο½ο½
Black Hand who was currently hiding in one of the frozen buildings of the city slightly peeked at the ongoing bating in the distance.
He originally planned to rely on guerilla tactics when facing Immortal and his gang. After all, those guys were still quite a strong group and they had the advantage in numbers, so they would be having a hard time facing them in a head-on collision.
Instead, relying on their familiarity with the city and the top agility-based experts, like Shin, Zero, and Faker would be a more ideal approach. With the three of them constantly harassing the opposing side while the rest were being the main ‘bait’ in that situation, Immortal and the rest of his gang would definitely suffer great losses.
Moreover, there were also Lawless and Simba who were familiar with that kind of strategy. And with the innate abilities of the Beastman Race, their threat shouldn’t be any lower compared to those three.
In fact, they might even perform much better. After all, Beastmen specialized in hunting.
But after hearing the suggestion from Shin, Black Hand couldn’t help but become more impressed. Taking advantage of the fact that their opponents didn’t know the existence of their powerful supporters, namely Lycan Steel and Duke Bellion, the strategy that Shin had presented could give them better results.
They could use the lack of information on the opposing side to their advantage. And by setting an ambush point away from the battle, they could prevent Immortal from investigating their real situation.
Then they would slowly reveal their cards during the battle to give the opposing side the false impression of not having enough manpower.
By utilizing this strategy properly, they could take down as many members of the opposing side as possible before they realized what happened. This was the reason why this initial ambush was very important for Shin and the others. It was the only time they could deal the heaviest damage to Immortal and his group.
This initial damage that they deal to the opposing group was the strongest that they could do given the current circumstances.
Once Immortal and the rest figured out what was actually going on, it would be much harder for Shin and their group to deal with their opponents later. After all, these guys were not an ordinary bunch of players, they still lived up to their names as top experts of the game.
Black Hand had to play their cards right for them to reap the most benefit that they could get.
…
Seeing Shin, Faker, Simba, and Lawless having a hard time, Black Hand knew that it was now the time to reveal their next card.
He opened the party chat channel and give out the instructions. “Miss Ember and Sir Ravier, it is now your turn. Miss Charlotte, you also have to be on standby and wait for the right opportunity to strike.”
Seeing his message, the two quickly made their moves. They didn’t immediately walk out from their hiding place as they chanted out their spells. And once they were done, they used their respective ‘Mana Sense’ Skill to lock on the targeted location before releasing their spells.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
A rain of fireballs and a hail of icicles suddenly came out of nowhere and started pouring down on Immortal and his group. The sudden appearance of the spells didn’t completely catch Immortal and the others off-guard as they were already expecting such a thing to happen.
All of them quickly responded to the incoming spells falling down from the sky. Some of them defected or blocked, the others dodged, while the mages and priests used their barriers.
At the same time Flouree, who was a Magic Freak, quickly used her superior Mana Sense to feel the surroundings. She read the mana flow in the air while looking for the source of the spell. And not long after, she found the locations where Ember and Ravier were hiding.
“The casters are hiding on the roof of the houses on both of our sides!” she shouted, informing every member of the group.
Hearing her words, the people who had the freest role on their side quickly made their moves.
The guy who was known as the ‘Lightning Fist’ quickly disengaged from the battlefield and headed in the direction that Flouree had said. He arrived at the roof of the building with a series of maneuvers and saw Ravier already waiting for him.
Without further ado, he quickly launched himself forward and threw a punch toward the mage. He already fought this guy during the previous ambush in the forest, he couldn’t do much at that time since Ember was also present at that time.
But it would be different this time. Now that Ravier was alone, he was confident that he would win.
Ravier quickly cast ‘Blink’ to get away from the sudden charge of his opponent before sending a barrage of frost arrows to Lightning Fist. The Frost Arrow was just a basic spell and could not deal large damage, but its cooldown was very short and very convenient to use in battle, especially with its slowing effect.
Alongside the special trait that Ravier had, this spell almost didn’t have a cooldown, making it look like a normal attack.
Ravier didn’t stop in there as he continuously distance himself from Lightning Fist, not bothering to hide his intention.
Lightning Fist could see through the plan that their opponents were using. They were planning to lure him away so that he would be isolated from the group. And by following the basic strategy, there was most likely an ambush waiting for him if he continued his pursuit.
Unfortunately, Lightning Fist didn’t have a choice since Ravier would be free to throw spells at them if he was not marked which would give them a lot of trouble.
Lightning Fist had already experienced how annoying the ice spells of Ravier were from their earlier experience in the forest. And if left alone, this ice mage would be an enormous threat to them.
Gritting his teeth, he could only inform the rest of his group about the goals of their opponents before pursuing Ravier.
On the other side, Larc quickly headed over to the other roof where Ember was hiding. He was already waiting for Flouree’s words since earlier, so he was able to arrive at the roof within a short time.
But despite all of that, Ember already created a considerable distance between them as if she was already expecting his actions. There was even a barrage of fireballs greeting Larc right after his feet landed on the roof.
Dodging the fireballs skillfully, Larc quickly used one of his movement skills and chased after Ember after informing Immortal.
He was also aware of the intention of the opposing side so he would not continue chasing after Ember if she went too far, driving her away from the main battlefield was already enough. Without her constantly harassing the others with her explosive spells, the rest of their group would have an easier time.
Immortal specifically instructed the two to quickly stop their pursuit once they drove the two mages away far enough. He was already getting a bad feeling about their current situation despite re-establishing themselves. He felt that he might have to rely on his contingency plan, after all.
Little did they know, Ravier and Cloe were not planning to lure their pursuers too far. Isolating them away from the rest for a short period of time was already enough. Larc and Lightning Fist had no idea that they had already fallen into a trap right after their feet landed on the roofs.
Bang!
When Lightning Fist reached the center of the roof, the frozen tiles that he was stepping on suddenly collapsed, making him lose his footing. Fortunately, he was quick enough to respond and adjusted his position in the air before landing steadily on his feet.
He also swept his gaze at his surroundings right after he landed on the house. He vigilantly surveys the interior, looking out for a possible ambush. But despite waiting for a few moments, he failed to find any murderous intent directed at him or a presence waiting inside the room where he landed.
But despite that being the case, he didn’t dare to let his guard down as he already figured out that the trap came at him earlier than expected.
Seeing that Lightning Fist didn’t let his guard down, Ravier could only continue the bombardment of his spells.
Trapped within the room, Lightning Fist could only defend himself while finding to get back on the rook and escape. And when he finally found the opening, he immediately grabbed the chance and jumped into the room with quick movements.
But the moment he got out, he was immediately greeted by the edge of a shield, hidden behind the ice rampart where Ravier was standing.
Bang!
(-12,342)
The timing was so impeccable that it didn’t him give the time to react. The impact was also strong and put him in a daze momentarily, making it impossible for him to block the next attack.
‘Extra Skill: Heavy Strike’
(-21,443)
Lighting Fist was sent back to the room where he came from as a hail of icicles followed after him and continuously hit his body. And before he could even recover himself and stand, Owen jumped down from the roof and crush his body.
‘Knight Skill: Heroic Leap’
Bang!
From then on, Lighting Fist continuously received a beating from the two. Even if he was somehow able to break from being pinned down on the grand, he still had to endure the combined forces of the two, not finding the opportunity to properly recover, much less come back.
…
In the meantime, a similar trap was set on the other side where Ember and Larc were located.
With his assassin-related class, Larc was able to quickly adjust himself and tried to escape the moment when he realized that he was in danger.
Unfortunately, his retreat path was immediately blocked by Seven. With both of them having a similar level of skill and movement speed, Larc found it hard to break through. At the same time, Ember didn’t spare any effort at throwing her fire spells at him to make it harder to fight back.
Based on the current situation, it would only take some time before he was killed.
…
Immortal naturally noticed the commotion happening on both roofs of the builds, giving him a bad premonition. And before the others could even make their moves to check on those two, the sky above them suddenly showed some signs of magic movement.
The gathering of clouds and lightning sparks swimming on them clearly indicated that it was an advance and powerful spell.
Flouree, who was the most familiar with magic among the group quickly recognized the level of the spell that was being cast at that time. She also knew that it was already too late to find the caster and interrupt the spell.
If she was in her peak form, then she could only cast a powerful spell to counter it or a group barrier to defend themselves. She could even reverse engineer the spell and direct cancel it by messing up with the magic sequence.
But now that she was currently in her extremely weakened state, such things were definitely impossible.
All she could do was shout loudly and warn the others anxiously. “Quick, take cover! It is a Forbidden Spell Magic!”
Alas, by the time she shouted those words, it was already too late and the forbidden spell was already been cast by Charlotte.
Crackle!
Boom!
……