Ray cursed when he missed by an inch. The wave of green energy travelled through the air and passed just an inch from the body hardening guy’s shoulders and blasted the whole house into rubble.
"Shit, we missed him." Paige had an annoyed expression when she saw the guy get away, then asked, "What should we do? Should we chase?"
Ray looked towards the way the body hardening guy vanished, then towards the respawning area. "No, we should head back."
They decided to join Satoshi and Saud, who were now stuck at the respawning area. Paige didn’t question him and began following him.
As they drew closer, they could hear noises of gunshots. While coming closer to the area, Ray’s eyes first landed on the man who had unleashed a colossal dome of shimmering blue energy, trapping the Saud and Satoshi within its vast, translucent walls.
"What is that skill?" Paige whispered near Ray while looking at the dome-like structure.
Ray also had his eyes on the dome. "Don’t know what it is, but from looking at how they’re using it, it seems to be a skill to trap enemies."
He came to such a conclusion because Jack and others could attack Satoshi and Saud who were trapped inside the dome, but when Saud attacked back with his bolt crossbow, his attacks bounced off the dome and ended up losing their effect.
Paige began counting the number of enemies. Including Jack, there were two other people.
One had a spear in his hands, one of the guy’s Ray had met before. While the second one had a peculiar skill that allowed him to project small, glowing orbs of energy that would explode on impact, creating minor concussive blasts.
"I’m going to aim for Jack and the other one," Ray decided to attack. "Paige, can you handle this guy?" He pointed at the closest of them, the guy with the enemy trapping skill.
Paige nodded, "What’s the plan?"
"Plan! We can plan once we gather together. For now, I’m going to blast them in one shot." Ray had missed the previous shot, but he was determined to make up for that missed shot with this one.
The tip of his magic gun glowed with green energy as the wind array in the guy thrust a powerful gale energy towards Jack and the energy ball guy.
Jack and his teammate turned their heads when they sensed some shiny thing traveling towards their way with lighting speed, but before they could make any decision or comprehend things, their heads blasted simultaneously.
"What?" the remaining guy with the enemy trapping skill startled when he saw his teammate and Jack blasted into nothingness.
This gave Paige an opportunity to use her magic and kill him with her ice spikes, while Ray ran towards Saud and Satoshi who heaved a sigh of relief.
[Red Team: 12 Kills] [Blue Team: 4 Kills]
Satoshi was first to reach Ray with a smile on his exhausted face. "You came back? What happened to those people?"
He asked about the encounter during which he was killed by the shadow binding guy. Paige was the one who snorted, "We killed two of them but that one guy with body hardening ability got away but we still managed to get three kills."
"Two kills, not three." Ray corrected her as one of those guys he killed was from his own team. Then just as he spoke, Jack spawned back; however, he had horror expressions on his face.
Satoshi had his katana on Jack’s neck. Saud, Paige, and Ray also had their weapons pointed towards him.
With a creepy smile, Jack was about to speak when Saud’s crossbow released the bolt arrow at the exact middle of Jack, killing him again.
"Oh no!" Paige looked at Saud with angry expressions.
While Ray and Satoshi cursed, "Shit!"
[Red Team: 13 Kills] [Blue Team: 4 Kills]
Ray had serious expressions on his face, "You don’t have to kill him; it’s just like gifting free points to the enemy."
Saud, with a resolute expression, looked at the spot where Jack had respawned earlier. "He backstabbed me; I had to take revenge on him."
"Oh, fuck your revenge. If you are really pissed, then kill him when he is out of this place. Right now, killing him means nothing." Satoshi, who had a smile on his face, now had irritated expressions.
Paige nodded while Ray stopped them, "Leave it." Then looking at Saud, "Don’t repeat this again. Also, as long as you don’t kill him, you can do many things which are worse than death."
He had a sadistic smile when Jack once again respawned. "Wait! We are teammates."
"Oh, you remembered this! That we are teammates." Satoshi spoke while pointing his sword at Jack, his face matching Ray’s sadistic smile.
Upon seeing their faces, Jack surrendered while reasoning with them, "If you kill me then they’ll win... so...so...."
"Oh, don’t worry, we won’t kill you." Paige smiled then she took the first step and plunged the tip of an ice spike on his thighs.
Jack cried in pain, but then he felt the same pain on his next thigh. Now with two ice spikes on his thighs, tears welled up in his eyes.
He looked at Paige who shrugged, "Don’t look at me with those teary eyes; I might regret doing this and kill you again."
Ray chuckled, while Satoshi left things to Saud. "He is yours, but make sure not to kill him."
"Oh Ray, don’t you think it’s too silent out there. They should have charged on us at this moment." Satoshi, leaving Saud’s side, joined Ray who had the same thought in his mind.
Paige glances over the gaps to see anyone but couldn’t see a single one of them. "They must be coming up with a new plan as their old one was now failed."
"That could be the case. Thankfully, this isn’t a time-based mini-game. It means we can take as much time as we can; however, there must be some hidden rewards if we do this with bare minimum time."
Ray explained what he had thought, especially after encountering hidden rewards and conditions in his previous mini-games.