World Online

Jake took some time to calm himself. 

He walked aimlessly around the sparse battlefield, trying to walk toward his own guild\'s position. 

In the fight against the zombie giant, he was tossed around the battlefield so much, he actually ended up in the wrong end. 

In a few minutes, he was back in the right wing, facing the forest. Even now, there were a few walking from within the forest. Some were dragging themselves, were others were perfectly healthy. 

But one thing was certain. After this one fight, all the momentum from the previous fight was gone. Everyone had ashen faces. They just understood that they weren\'t invincible. 

They finally understood why so many guilds before them had failed this expedition, and they were faced with the real possibility that they might fail too.

"This… how did this happen. We were about to win." Jake gnashed his teeth as he looked at the person who took command of the right wing in his absence. 

"Myriad." He said with a low voice, drawing Myriad Arrows\' attention. 

"Shadow King. Looks like you finally got here." Myriad Arrows heaved with relief. 

"I thought that you were about to… well, die. You were so close. Your health bar was in the red. Luckily, some from the Roman Empire shielded you and healed you." Myriad Arrows said. 

"Forget all of that. Tell me what the hell happened. Why do I not remember what happened in the last few minutes? What happened after I went in for the attack?" Jake asked. 

"The attack? On its head? Well after that, you were blown back. You and Kierch, both. But since you were closer, and because that monster seems to hate you so much, the brunt of the force was dealt to you." Myriad Arrows said. 

"One shockwave almost killed you. But it seemed to do a lot of damage to it as well, and all the other zombies around it looked like they lost all of their energy. After that happened, they just walked over to the zombie leader and lifted it, taking it away."

"I don\'t know where they went, but they are gone now. They just retreated, like the wolves. Looks like all of the monsters that we face are retreating." Myriad Arrows sighed.

"Luckily, we were able to defeat at least one of the tribes. With those women monsters gone, we won\'t be facing that mist anymore. That was the only reason we were in this situation right now." Myriad Arrows said. 

"That monster that we faced…" Jake said with a sombre tone.

"That was one of the stronger ones. And it was able to transform multiple times. If that kind of monster is under someone, then we all have to be prepared." 

"That was what I was thinking as well. There is some king that we will have to defeat. I don\'t know if we can, but we will have to try." Myriad Arrows said, nodding. 

"I don\'t think we will deal with it right now. That king will probably be something for the second or third checkpoint. I just know it." Jake said. 

"So for now, our goal must be to recoup our losses and march forward." Jake said. 

He glanced to his left, where the other guild masters were taking care of their own guilds. 

"How many did we lose?" Jake asked. 

"We do not know yet." Myriad Arrows said, shaking his head. 

"What do you mean, we do not know yet? How can we be so unorganized?" Jake snarled. 

"Don\'t blame me. We are in the right wing, remember? Where the pink mist came from in the first place. We can\'t exactly blame our people for accidentally wandering into some place that they don\'t understand, and getting lost." Myriad Arrows said, sighing. 

"So we don\'t even have a count for how many died, because we don\'t know how many are still in the forest? It has been a while since the pink mist disappeared. How can people still be stuck in the forest?" Jake snarked.

"I don\'t know. Don\'t keep blaming me for things that I can\'t control." Myriad Arrows shook his head. 

"Fine. Leave it. You are not at fault." Jake shook his head and sighed.

"After this, we will have to discuss a course of action." Jake said. 

"It is obvious, where we are going to go, isn\'t it?" Myriad Arrows said. 

"Yes. It is obvious." Jake nodded. 

"We will have to follow those dogs to whichever den they ran off to. And this time, we will march on them with full force." Jake rubbed his hands.

"Now then, can someone please tell me why I was facing the boss of the entire field on my own? Until Myriad Arrows and Kierch came in to help me, I had to face that thing on my own. Why did none of the archers and the mages come in to help me?!" Jake suddenly shouted as he glanced at the rest of the guild. 

"I would think that the other guilds were trying to use their resources to help their own guild leader or something. But my own guild? What the hell were you all doing?" Jake asked. 

"That…" one of the swordsmen in the front paused for a second. 

"What do you mean, that? Did I stutter?" Jake remanded him instantly. 

"We couldn\'t, guild master. We wanted to, but we couldn\'t. Everyone who was on the battle field before you arrived couldn\'t physically intervene. We all received a message that we weren\'t supposed to intervene in that battle." A confident voice stepped up and said. 

"Faceless Darkness." Jake nodded. 

"So you are saying that all of you got a message that you couldn\'t intervene." Jake mused. He then looked at Phoenix\'s direction. 

"I guess I have to thank one of her men for saving my life then." He said, smiling. 

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