While they were getting into position, they heard several clanking sounds. They turned back and saw Master was rummaging at the corner.
"What are you doing?" Naomi asked.
The place was full of unknown contraptions, with devices that seemed a bit too modern for their current world.
They heard a tug. They turned and saw that Master was yanking at something. A loud popping sound and in Master's hand was a pipe. He did that a few times until he had six pipes with irregular lengths. He threw the pipes onto the ground.
"Here," he said. "Use those pipes to fend off those worms. That fool won't be able to do it alone."
'Can you please stop with the fool word?' Jack wanted to say. He picked up two pipes.
Dina, Kramer, Kerry, and Winson picked up the rest. They then took position around the hole. Jack stood closest to where Glover was.
"Ready?" Naomi asked. He was holding to Glover who stood by the hole's edge.
Stefan had come to her side. He was still scared, but he should be able to help if it was just helping Naomi hold on to Glover.
"Wait," They heard Master say. "That sacrifice is still out of reach. It is pointless to try grabbing him now. You will just waste your energy fending off the lava worms. Wait until he is lower."
They thought it made sense, so they wait.
While waiting, Stefan said to Master, "Why don't you go pick up another pipe and come help? It's better than just standing there doing nothing."
"I'm not doing nothing," Master said. He was surveying the room. "Just do what you are told. I will give you the next instruction when it's time."
"The hell, man…," Stefan didn't like the way Master talked.
"Well, he is the leader," Naomi said.
"I never agree to that! It's this guy who said he is the leader," Stefan pointed at Jack.
Jack just shrugged. He had expected Master's attitude would be a problem.
"Hey, you think he is lower enough?" Kramer asked. More than five minutes had passed. Richard had been lowered halfway.
"I can probably grab him now," Glover said.
"Okay. Get ready, everyone!" Naomi called.
Everybody nodded.
Glover took a deep breath before leaning forward. Once he was lowered enough, the lava pond became restless. Some lava worms burst out and flew at Glover who was hanging above their territory. Glover instinctively closed his eyes when these lava worms came at him.
Several flashes of light crisscrossed the space below Glover. The lava worms that were about to touch Glover were smacked back into the pond, accompanied by damage numbers.
Those flashes were Jack using the pipes to perform the burst attack of his sword art. The damage number he produced was small, though. The pipes weren't a proper weapon. They didn't have a weapon's damage stat. Hence, after falling back into the lava pond, the lava worms swam back to the surface and jumped out again for another try.
As time passed, more and more lava worms burst out of the lava. There were too many of them that Jack had trouble trying to stop them all.
Luckily, he was not alone. The four with the pipes joined in by swinging their pipes at the lava worms.
As the intensity of the lava worms' attacks increased, a few managed to pass through the net of attacks and bit Glover. He yelled from the pain, but these worms were immediately slashed by Jack.
It's a good thing natives had a high HP pool. Glover was also a special elite grade and was level 61, so his HP was rather high. He didn't worry about his life from those few bites. Even so, these bites caused him trouble concentrating. His hand tried to reach Richard who was now in range, but he kept on missing. His fingers nudged Richard's hanging leg but were unable to get a firm grab.
Richard also tried to move his legs toward Glover but he was in a panic, so he wasn't of big help. It just increased the difficulty for Glover to grab him due to his constant movements.
"Richard! Stop flailing your legs!" Stefan yelled. Richard calmed down a bit after the yell.
"Raarggghh…," Glover roared as he focused his mind to ignore the pain from the lava worms' bites.
He forced his hand to become steady and finally managed to clamp the fabric of Richard's pants using his two fingers. He then slowly pulled Richard toward him by exerting his entire strength on his two fingers. Richard also pushed his legs in the direction of Glover's pull.
When Richard's legs were pulled far enough, Glover let go of this finger clamp and quickly grabbed Richard's leg with a full hand.
"Got him!" Glover shouted triumphantly.
"Now, pull!" Naomi instructed.
She and Stefan pulled Glover's body, which in turn pulled Richard. Jack and the others doubled their effort repelling the lava worms so nothing ruined this moment when they almost succeeded.
Richard's body was pulled to a diagonal angle. He was now tethering between Glover's pull and the chain from above. As the chain lowered, Richard's body could be pulled further to safety.
"Yeah!" Kramer shouted triumphantly. Fewer and fewer lava worms jumped out of the pond because Glover was now almost back to the side of the hole.
Suddenly, the chain that was binding Richard's arms snapped.
This was so unexpected that everyone failed to react. Glover was only holding Richard's leg with one hand. When the chain snapped, Richard was suddenly falling and Glover was unable to hold Richard's full weight. His grab slipped, and Richard fell straight into the lava pond.
Everyone heard Richard as he fell in screaming with a closed mouth. They could still see him for a second on the lava surface before the lava worms swarmed out and covered his body. They then dragged his body down into the lava.
Everyone watched the pond in disbelief, unsure of what to do.
While everyone had been shocked into silence, they heard Master's words. "As expected, this game is rigged."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺