Replay (part 2)

As Manco ran toward the north, he glanced to the left and saw Galaad and SilentDeath approaching from the west.

Staying on course, he kept running toward the forest.

A fireball hurtled at him from the right, directly poised to burn him. He braced himself and took the full blast. It singed his hair and clothes, but he kept moving.

Mahn Li paused the footage and search the area to Manco's right. Eventually, he caught a glimpse of Morana's jeweled diadem in the tall grass. After throwing the fireball, she had ducked back down.

Manco apparently didn't see her and kept on his course.

Another projectile flew at him from the same source. This time, Manco dived forward and rolled on the ground to dodge, causing the shot to fly harmlessly over him.

'Good call, past me!' Mahn Li commented. This looked like a crowd-control spell, definitely should be dodged.

As he got up, Manco took the opportunity to quickly glance around, allowing Mahn Li to see the pursuers. BoneCrusha and Saarkas had circled around the wagon and begun pursuing him, followed by the ranger OneShot who's readying another arrow. Galaad and SilentDeath were approaching his left flank, the cleric only moments away from getting in range to cast spells. Morana was somewhere to his right.

At the moment Manco was about fifty meters away from the edge of the forest. Suddenly, he veered to the left and dashed toward the Cleric and Rogue. One of his hands readied a spell and the other a vial.

Caught by surprise, the duo skidded to a halt. The Rogue fired a crossbow bolt and the cleric shot an Ice Arrow at him.

Dodging the projectiles, Manco closed the distance. His left hand swung, letting loose the vial.

The vial burst open between the two pursuers in front of him, releasing a thick cloud of smoke which completely covered the two.

He leaped forward and activated the [Float] ability of the Wraith's Ring, letting him sail past the two and land without a sound behind them. Without missing a beat, he used the spell [Obscuring Fog], summoning a layer of thick fog that spread out in a twenty-meter radius between him and the forest.

'This should be enough to obscure their vision,' Mahn Li commented. The series of movements just now had somewhat broken their encirclements and put all the pursuers on Manco's back, giving him more options to escape.

As quietly as he could, Manco dashed toward the forest. When he was about fifteen meters away from the nearest tree, he used [Spatial Displacement I] and teleported himself obliquely to a rock near the tree.

'Wait, what was I doing?' Mahn Li was puzzled.

From the rock, he jumped to the tree and climbed up. Then, he navigated the forest using the tree branches.

'Oh…' Mahn Li said, 'no footprint. I was hoping to throw them off my scent. Except…'

Mahn Li checked the activity log. At this point, Manco had been inflicted with the [Mark of the Witch] status effect cast on him by Morana earlier. The spell would show his general direction to her. It made trying to hide completely useless.

From hindsight, with the benefit of the play-and-pause review footage, Mahn Li could easily see it. However, in the heat of the moment, he had overlooked that little status effect icon, resulting in him trying in vain to conceal himself to avoid Morana's team.

'Ah, what a shame. I had a good lead, too…' Shaking his head, Mahn Li continued watching.

As he was moving on the tree, Manco was significantly slowed down, allowing the team to catch up. Instead of engaging, the team spread out and attempted to surround him again.

Having been confident that their encirclement was complete, the team closed in. With a roar, BoneCrusha downed the tree Manco was on using a combination of several barbarian techniques.

'Show off!' Mahn Li snorted.

The ensuing melee was a lot more dangerous to Manco. he almost died twice to the Witch's devastating spells. On the flip side, she friendly-fired the ranger with one of the said spells, leaving him near-death. Mahn Li cackled as he watched Manco killed the poor guy and ran off once again while Morana cursed at the top of her lungs.

This time, Manco changed tactics. Instead of trying to hide or evade, he just straight up ran away. The group, which were down to five members, did their best to keep up. However, Manco left them in the dust.

Except for the rogue, he outstripped them all in terms of movement speed. the rogue was, from a purely theoretical standpoint, faster than him, having more points in both Strength, Coordination, being boosted by the cleric and witch and (presumably) equipping speed-enhancing items. However, the forest was a difficult place to navigate, with uneven grounds littered with holes, crevasses, overgrown with roots and vines. Also, Manco added to the list of obstacles with his own little traps.

Jumping over a log, Manco landed feet first on the tail of something. Turning, he saw that it was a Dire Bear.

"Sorry, buddy!" he yelled and threw an Ice Shard at its head, further angering it, "You shouldn't sleep out in the open like this!"

With a guttural growl, the creature stood up to full height, just in time for Morana's group to run into its view. Manco, meanwhile, quickly slipped out of sight with [Obscuring Fog].

There were plenty of vicious animals in the forest. Being disturbed in their territory, they grew defensive and attacked the intruders. Manco didn't tangle with them, and instead, leave that unpleasant task for Morana's team.

Mahn Li tapped his feet impatiently as he watched the group tripped, slipped, stumbled and fell as they dealt with the uneven terrain along with the predators.

Checking the map, he realized Manco was heading toward the section of the forest near the witch's hut. This part was heavily infested by the insect swarm. He probably intended to use the insect swarm as a diversion to somehow slip away.

"He's heading towards the lake!" He faintly heard someone shouting from behind Manco.

"Don't let him get there!" Morana replied as she threw a fireball. It hit a branch right next to him, showering him with burning shards of wood.

Manco could hear the faint buzzing of insects up ahead. He was probably several meters away from the insect swarm.

Suddenly, there were movements and a rustling ahead. He heard a *Twang*, then a crossbow bolt hit him. His whole body was lifted off the ground and slammed into a tree trunk nearby.

'Heavy War Bolt enhanced with Power Shot, Precise Shot and a whole lot of other things,' Mahn Li muttered as he saw OneShot standing up, readying another bolt. Having been killed earlier, the ranger had respawned in Broken Hill and moved into the forest to intercept.

A bright purple light enveloped the ranger and several dark bolts of lightning whipped about him. Then, with a loud "Crack!" he disappeared and Morana appeared in his place.

"Geo Swap? How?" Stunned, Mahn Li said out loud. [Geo Swap] was a Tier-5 spell that allowed the caster to exchange places with an ally.

As Mahn Li watched in disbelief, the witch ready another spell, while SilentDeath descended on Manco, daggers bared.

Caught by surprise, Manco failed to defend himself properly. Half a dozen of SilentDeath's strikes landed. He was quickly poisoned and partially paralyzed.

"Hold him!" Morana ordered.

"Is that really necessary?" SilentDeath questioned.

"Just fucking do it! I'm not taking any chances!" She gritted her teeth. Black miasma surrounded her body as she prepared what was probably something quite painful.

Groaning with displeasure, the rogue activated [Death Grip] and stabbed his daggers at Manco, holding both of them in place.

'This is gonna hurt!' Mahn Li muttered.

Ten seconds later, Morana unleashed the 'Death's Nectar.' Her throat expanded like that of a toad, then her mouth opened wide, spewing out a dark tar-like substance that clung to both Manco and SilentDeath.

The deadly substance quickly killed SillentDeath, who dropped the [Cloak of Concealment]. Manco was killed shortly after.

"Right. So that's how it happened," sighing, Mahn Li rewinded the footage to the part where Morana exchanged places with OneShot.

"That's definitely Geo Swap," he nodded to himself, confirming the use of another spell that was definitely beyond her level "so how did she do it?"