Second World

"Back away!!" Domon shouted.

Jet and Freddie followed the command. They were aware of what was going on. The other players were not so swift.

The air around Long's palms suddenly burst into flames. As it did, Long made a circular motion. The image of a giant flaming blade appeared following his hands' movement. The red scorching blade revolved around Long at high speed, cutting all those who surrounded him.

The energy of the slash radiated outward.

Domon focused his mana onto his glaive and slashed forward. His glaive collided with the incoming energy. The collision resulted in a fiery explosion and he was thrown further back.

Jet and Freddie also used their martial arts to block the searing energy and were met with the same result.

The regular players were not so lucky. They were hit directly by the flaming blade. The blade cut through their armor and depleted their HP instantly. Only one sentinel who happened to activate his strongest defensive skill managed to survive, but his HP was critical then.

The worst thing was, the ones whose HP was depleted had the animation where their bodies were split into two and their body parts burned as they fell to the ground. The one surviving sentinel shivered from the scene.

"Haha! It has been fun sparring with you, old people. Let's continue another time." Long jumped and turned away. With his speed, it was unlikely for Domon and the others to chase after him.

"Crazy-ass punkster… I've never seen a youngster as skillful as him," Jet uttered.

"He is indeed unusual," Domon said. "But this confirms the fact that he does not possess only one of the nine yang arts."

"That one just now is the Nine Yang Scorching Blade?" Freddie asked.

Domon nodded. "It is safe to assume so, it fits the description recorded in the ancient texts," Domon said. "We have to assume he has the last art of the Nine Yang Scripture as well."

"We will be in a whole lot of trouble if he does," Jet said. "But I didn't see him use it just now."

"That last art is supposed to be the most difficult to learn, isn't it? Maybe he has not yet managed to learn it," Freddie speculated.

"Let's hope it stays that way," Domon said.

*

As the enemies retreated, Jeanny issued the order to chase. The more players they killed here, the more they weakened the enemies for the next confrontation. They might have deviated from their original objective of slowing down the Liguritudum army, but they could continue that later.

Spring Crown was kind enough to inform their allied guilds who were fighting on the other side that they were retreating, so those guilds were aware of it. Otherwise, those guilds would be sitting ducks when the Everlasting Heavenly Legends returned. Those guilds also started retreating.

Those guilds weren't exactly having a good time. Many of them were defeated during the initial clash. When Everlasting Heavenly Legends disengaged to go meet the World Maker and World Ruler, they were already in a disadvantageous position. They hoped that the World Maker and World Ruler could quickly vanquish Everlasting Heavenly Legends so the two guilds could come to their aid.

Imagine their shock when they received Spring Crown's message about retreating. Each one of them just turned and ran, trying not to be the last.

Megan who replaced Jeanny in commanding this side also issued the order to chase. She had the same mindset of taking out as many enemy players as possible.

In the battle between Death Associates and True Death Associates, Killingred was killed by Red Death. Killingred was never Red's opponent. What's more with Red Death's special class, unique-grade equipment, and bloodline, the fight was just too one-sided.

Red Death held her own against her previous comrades, Yellow Death, Green Death, and Violent Death. Even with Queen Magenta and Princess Purple supporting them, they were still having trouble surviving against Red Death's rampage.

They had always known that Red Death was the best fighter among them, but they couldn't understand how the gap could increase this large. Then their shock was further amplified when Red Death conjured twenty large ice balls.

Seeing those twenty ice balls reminded them of a certain someone with unreasonable power. They immediately scattered. The ice balls shot forward and resulted in icy explosions. The ones who were caught in this explosion were immediately frozen in place. Even if they didn't die outright, they were vulnerable to the following assaults.

Green Death and Queen Magenta were caught in one of these icy blasts.

The call for a retreat came then. Everyone turned without hesitation, even Princess Purple. She knew that her mother wore an amulet of rebirth.

The battle turned into a cat-and-mouse game. The fleeing ones scattered in all directions. Each one hoped that the pursuers would choose the other person to chase. If they could run and hide long enough to disengage from combat, they could use the town return scroll to flee.

On the World Maker and World Ruler's side, they were cruel enough to order a portion of their regular members to hold the enemies down as they made their escape. This allowed the guilds' more valuable members a guarantee of escaping. These regular members had no choice. They knew if they disobeyed, being kicked out of the guild would be the lightest punishment.

As a result, even though World Maker and World Ruler could save most of their valuable members, they lost a large number of their regular members.

After a few hours of chasing around, the battle ended. The corpses vanished, except for the native companions who died.

The guilds reconvened. Though they had won, they were not without losses. They came back to pick up the equipment of their fallen members as well as pick up the loot from fallen enemies. These loots were gathered and divided among the guilds equally. This had been agreed before their working together. John prepared some rules of conduct for this alliance of guilds to reduce possible clashes as much as possible. He understood even small matters could be the spark for disagreement and disharmony when several parties worked together. Hence, a common agreement needed to be discussed and settled beforehand.

"Should we get back to chasing the Liguritudum army?" Megan asked Jeanny.

"They are nearing the Num Maldur Pass. There is no blockage slowing them down until the fort guarding that pass. I don't think they will attack that fort. They will most likely turn and take a roundabout way. They should be away already if we head in the direction of that pass. We will go in the direction of the roundabout way and catch them midway. We will resume our harassment there."

The others agreed with Jeanny's decision. Even if the Liguritudum army chose to attack the Num Maldur fort, which would be a stupid thing to do, it would take them some time to bring down the fort. They could easily change course and hit the Liguritudum army from the back if that happened.

With that agreement, the guild players moved again.