...
Atlas World, Frozen Kingdom
The members of the Earners Mercenary Groups were currently gathered together as a lot of bodies of players lay around them. Some of the fallen bodies were also turning into specks of lights that dissipate in the air after a few moments.
Flouree swept her gaze in the surrounding before waving her hand. "Clear up everything. We are leaving in five minutes."
After that, she turned around and walked towards a nearby boulder and sat on it. From the air surrounding her, anyone could tell that she was currently in a bad mood.
Seeing that, one of the members of her group leaned over the nearby member and whispered. "Hey, the boss is in a really bad mood, right? Are we going to be fine?"
"Tsk! What can we do? We have let our guards down, causing us to lose three of our members," replied the other guy as he recalled what happened earlier.
They were supposedly slaughtering the Sweepers of the Pandemonium Descendants sent to deal with them. They already killed quite a lot of members from the other side, so they knew that they hit them really hard.
The skill level of the Sweepers was much higher than they had expected as they received a lot of trouble during the battle. Based on their experience, they should be a hidden rank within the Sweepers as their strengths varied from one to another.
They also discovered a few of them. Some of the Sweepers were very skilled in one-on-one battles while some of them were highly trained at working together.
The ones who were experts in isolated battles couldn't kill the members of Earners but they were troublesome enough to buy enough for the rest of their team to finish their respective jobs. It seemed like these guys were purposely trained to hold their target in place and let the rest of their group deal with the respective assignments.
Even the members of the Earners, who were Monster Class Players, were having a hard time finishing them off due to the variety of movement and lifesaving skills that those guys had.
On the other hand, the ones who were trained to work together were the real problem. It seemed like they were used to hunting down highly skilled players with their seamless teamwork.
After exchanging blows with them, the members of the Earners understood that these groups were used for hunting down players who were more skilled and powerful than them.
Aside from those guys, the rest of the Sweepers were cannon fodder. They were neither too strong nor weak for the standards of the Earners, but they were useful enough to serve as a distraction at the most critical time.
But despite that being the case, this batch of Sweepers couldn't pose a threat to the members of the Earners. It couldn't even be called a warm-up session as the mercenary group slaughtered the opposing side one-sidedly.
Everyone was going smoothly until a particular group of Sweepers joined in. They didn't belong to the categories that the Earners had discovered. They were just skilled at it.
One of the members of the Earners was caught off-guard at the ambush and unable to retaliate until he died.
The other two members managed to fight back and quickly adjusted to the sudden appearance of the newcomers but they were still taken down by the combined forces of those guys.
It was only at that time that the rest of the Earners reorganized themselves. Everything happened a little too fast which was why the three who died previously failed to protect themselves, but the moment when took the matter seriously, the opposing side couldn't touch them anymore.
Regardless, they still lost their comrades in battle. Even though the Sweepers suffered a devastating blow in the process, none of the Earners members felt good.
This was the cost of their arrogance. They became overconfident in their strengths and underestimated their opponents a little too much.
Their mercenary group was pretty famous among the powerful guilds and organizations. The success rate of their commissions was also pretty high, making them get recognized as one of the most powerful groups within the Mercenary Guild.
Well, they had the strength to back up their arrogance. After all, each of their members was highly skilled and recognized within the circle.
Unfortunately, this was also what caused their current situation.
They still hadn't failed this commission but the fact that they suddenly lost three of their members out of nowhere annoyed Flouree.
She repeatedly warned her members to be on guard every time but they just didn't listen to her. Their egos always got over their head since their a little too strong compared to most of the players of the game.
"It looks like a hellish training is waiting for us once we return to the headquarters," another member as he picked up the dropped items on the other ground.
"Tsk! The training is one thing, but her scolding is on another level. It looks like we are going to get an earful once this commission is over," whispered the other while avoiding the sharp glare of their captain.
In the meantime, Flouree was currently wearing a deep frown while thinking about herself. "This won't do. I will not stop until we let those guys pay more."
"This is those three's fault. If only they listen to my orders and stop playing around, then this is not going to happen. It looks like they become too arrogant lately, I guess I need to humble them a little once we go back."
After that, she suddenly remembered something and opened a virtual screen, displaying the details of each member of the Empyrean Talons and the rest of the guys who were working with them.
She then separated the guys who were supposedly present in this region before comparing them with the remaining members that they had. "If the information that we have is right, then our current strength should be able to match these guys."
She paused for a brief moment before shaking her head and continuing. "No, we are actually at a slight disadvantage now. We are missing a single member to even out the battle prowess of our groups."
She then became even more annoyed and shouted out frustratedly. "Urgh~! This is those idiots' fault!"
The members of her group suddenly paused what they were doing and simultaneously turned to her due to the sudden outburst.
Then they quickly turned their heads away and went back to their jobs the moment they saw Flouree sweep her sharp glare at them.
At the same time, Flouree calmed herself down and reminded herself to focus. Then her eyes turned even sharper as she also remembered her other purpose for accepting this job. "Just you wait, Siegfried! I'll show you that your decision is wrong!"
********
In the meantime, on the other side of the Frozen Kingdom, Arthur suddenly felt a shiver that ran through his spine, almost costing him to lose his rhythm.
"D*mn! What was that? Is a hidden boss hiding somewhere or something?" muttered Arthur to himself as was caught off-guard.
But after sweeping his gaze at the surroundings, he failed to find the source of his sudden unease. This made him wear a deep frown. "D*mn! I have a bad feeling about this."
Seeing that Arthur was slightly getting distracted in the middle of the fight, Justin became even more enraged and started throwing a powerful flurry of attacks. "You dared to lose focus in our battle? You are underestimating me a little too much, Siegfried!"
Bang! Bang!
Cling!
Boom!
Unfortunately, Arthur blocked each of his attacks with ease and causally replied. "Hey! Are you really not going to use that contract or something? The one that Jugo and Elise used?"
"This is getting a little boring you know?" he added with an urging tone.
Justin didn't reply immediately and just continued to attack. It was not he didn't want to use his Demon's Contract. He really wanted to use it right now and shut Arthur's mouth, but he couldn't reveal that trump card right now.
Moreover, his contracted demon was a little too strong. Unlike Jugo and Elise who would be fine after the duration of their Demonification ended, he would suffer a serious backslash if he used it now.
As much as he wanted to teach Arthur a lesson, he couldn't forget their real purpose in coming here. He would only use that trump card at the final battle.
"Ah!"
While Justin was focusing on his battle against Arthur, he suddenly heard a painful cry from one of his teammates, making him take a quick glance in that direction.
Then he saw Zero killing one of his opponents and was about to proceed to his second target. Not long after, another member of their group died at the hands of the Sword God.
It didn't end there, Lawless also killed one of his opponents and continued his onslaught, riding the momentum.
Swoosh!
Almost at the same time, Justin sensed a powerful presence rushing towards this place at unbelievable speed.
Focusing his senses, he discovered that that person's aura was very familiar. It belonged to the guy that he wanted to kill the most.
Justin had the urge to break away from Arthur and head over to where Shin was coming from. Unfortunately, he also knew that they already lost this battle and would only worsen their losses if he persisted.
Gritting his teeth, he could only swallow this defeat once again and ordered their retreat. "Disengage in battle, we are falling back!"
Hearing that, Arthur quickly rushed forward, planning to stop Justin. "Not so fast!"
Unfortunately, a huge demonic hand appeared from the ground, forcing Arthur to retreat due to how threatening it was.
"We are still not done, Siegfried! We are going to meet again!" said Justin as his entire body was grabbed by that huge hand and pulled toward the ground.
Seeing that their leader was retreating, Jugo, Elise, and the rest of the Silent Night also used their special means to escape despite their unwillingness.
They lost five of their members in this battle, three from the guys who were fighting Zero with the priest surviving while the other two were the ones who were battling against Lawless.
They wanted to at least take down a few on the opposing side before retreating, but given that Lawless and Zero were basically free to do whatever they wanted, the group understood that they would only lose more members if they persisted to fight.
In the end, the most logical choice was to give up and retreat. They might still have a chance once they regroup and reorganized themselves.
In the meantime, the opposing side could only watch them escape as understood that it was already too late to stop those guys the moment when they use such a high-end escaping tool.
Regardless, they already achieve their goal and weakened the battle prowess of their opponents, which could give them a lot of room for the next part of their plans.
The next time, they encountered those guys, they would make sure to end things properly.
...…
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m