Chapter 48. Red Haired Ranger

As he snuck closer, he could hear them talking. One of them asked the critical guy why he didn't take medicine to replenish his health. He said he had already taken all the medicine he had.

Bigarm was just about to give him another medicine, when Scarface forbade it.

"No!" He said, "Our stock of potions and medicines is limited. He had his portion, if he's already used it then too bad."

One of the others suggested that the critical guy should go back to the City Park to recuperate. The critical guy was forlorn when he heard this. They were quite a distance away from the safe zone. If he started back alone and met another monster, he would not survive.

Another team member offered to escort him. Fox, who was casting Mana Bullet onto one of the monsters, immediately roared, "Don't be ridiculous! I didn't join you and spend my Tracking Stone just to fail this operation because you guys bailed on me! If he wants to go back, he can go back by himself!"

Scarface cut the discussion short.

"No one will go back. You just stay out of the fight and you'll be fine. When we reach our target, the ten of us should be enough. Fox, where are they now?"

'Uh-oh,' Jack thought, 'If the tracking is set on me, I'm screwed.'

"I don't know about the others, but the girl is around ninety meters south of here," Fox replied. "She has been stationary for a while; probably fighting monsters again."

"There is no reason for them to split up. All right, let's finish up here and head over there. It was bad luck that we got jumped by Goblins here, but we can still complete our objective."

'So it's Flame who's being tracked.' Jack breathed a sigh of relief.

'It seems that Fox is still holding a grudge against Flame. Her hatred was enough to make her leave Weary Wolf and join the group from Death Associates. Most probably because Weary Wolf didn't want to antagonize the White Scarfs guild.'

It was clear now that they only knew Flame's position, not his or Bowler's. Jack thought of an idea. He took out his magic staff. The gang downed another Goblin; only two left. Their focus was still on the monster fight, so it was easy for Jack to sneak close.

When he thought he was close enough, he pointed his staff at one of the Fighters who was having a melee fight with a Goblin. He cast Mana Bullet and quickly moved to the side, staying low and out of sight. He then cast Energy Bolts. Since Energy Bolts had a tracking feature, he didn't need to aim it. He just hoped the bolts wouldn't chase after the monsters instead of the gang members. He kept moving while staying out of sight. He heard people screaming.

"It's that Magician, he's hiding around here somewhere!"

Then he heard Scarface bark out an order, "Bigarm, take two people with you and eliminate him! The spell came from that direction."

As Bigarm's team broke away from the group, Jack finally revealed himself. He charged to their rear line where, coincidentally, he found Fox.

"You..!" Was the only word she managed to utter before Jack's Power Strike crashed onto her. She flew away like a kite with its string cut loose, and slammed against the front wall of the building on the other side of the street. Jack then went after the critical guy.

"I'm sorry," Jack said as he slashed the poor guy. His remaining health faded away and he fell to the ground.

Jack then moved on to the next closest person, who happened to be a Magician. Stunned by the ambush, the Magician had only started to raise his staff as Jack arrived. Jack easily used his left hand to halt the staff, preventing the Magician from aiming a spell at him. He struck with his three circling slashes technique to deal rapid damage. The Magician's comrade beside him, who was also a Magician, managed to cast Magic Bullet at Jack. But Jack simply ignored it. He only lost 18 HP, which was nothing to his massive 590 HP. Jack drove another two fast slashes into the wounded Magician, ending his life.

As Jack was about to continue towards the other Magician, he caught sight of five Energy Bolts coming his way. He was surprised by the number of bolts, but that didn't slow his response. He used the method Boulder had used and made rapid slashes to interrupt the oncoming bolts. But even with his speed, he only managed to slash three bolts, the other two hit his body and scored 22 damage and 21 damage.

Jack was shocked, the damage was quite high for the Magician's Energy Bolt skill. If all five bolts connected, the damage might have even been higher than his Power Strike. He looked at the Magician who had attacked him; it was Scarface. How high had he leveled up his Energy Bolts and his magic staff? Jack wondered.

Before Jack could retaliate, he saw a shadow coming from his flank in a high speed. He turned just in time to parry a dagger that was aimed at his heart. His attacker was a beautiful woman with flowing red hair. Her eyes were cold, completely in contrast with her bright burning hair. Although her ambush didn't succeed, she didn't pause her attack. She struck with a series of rapid thrusts switching her dagger from her right hand to her left and back again. This series of attacks was not a game skill, and yet it was much harder to defend against than most high power skills. Jack managed to block a few thrusts but still suffered five hits which took around 12 to 15 HP each. Jack couldn't let this go on, so he used his larger size to force his advance and slashed at the woman. She broke away with a back somersault and completely evaded his attack.

'Bloody heck, she's a martial arts expert!' Jack cursed.

He then saw a Fighter running towards him brandishing a large two-handed axe. Jack slashed at the Fighter, who ducked and swung his axe at Jack's legs. Jack barely managed to jump upwards and avoid the axe. He quickly fought back with a Power Strike while still in the air. The Fighter parried the attack but couldn't avoid the force behind it and was sent skidding backwards. Though the damage was slight, Jack gained some room to maneuver.

'Another expert,' Jack thought, 'not as good as the Ranger woman, but enough to be troublesome if they attack together.'

Jack knew that fighting the whole gang while he was on his own was not to his advantage unless he revealed his Magician class, but he didn't plan to do that yet. Currently his enemies was divided into three groups: one was dealing with him, another was still fighting the remaining two monsters, while the third was searching for the imaginary Magician. If he lingered any longer, they would regroup and he would be surrounded, which would be troubling. So he decided this current ambush had done enough; taking out two opponents and reducing another one to half health.

Jack started running. His opponents were still split up and their formation was a mess. So it was not difficult for him to break away. Though Fox was still dazed at the side of the street, he still had to barrel through the barrages from Scarface and the other Magician in the gang. He completely ignored the spells from the last Magician, the damage he could inflict was not powerful enough to bother Jack, but he parried or cut through the stronger spells from Scarface.

The Fighter with the axe was not fast enough to chase him, but the Ranger woman's dash caught up to him while he was busy weaving through the Magicians' spells. She unleashed a fast thrust which Jack blocked. But before he knew it, she had swept his legs out from under him with a round house low kick. Jack was headed for a face plant but he managed to stop his fall with his hand and sword and push himself back up. When he regained his feet, he loosed a Swing skill. He didn't expect the skill to hit the red haired Ranger, but its wide area of effect would provide a decent hindrance for anyone else chasing after him. He didn't bother to continue fighting with the woman, instead he ran away at high speed. Seeing him pull away, she didn't continue the chase.

"Red, why are you not chasing?" the Fighter with the axe asked when he arrived.

"Forget it, I won't catch up to him," she said.

"How so? Is he as fast as you?"

"No," the woman answered. "He's faster."