Second World-Novel

After the twenty minutes break, everyone returned to the spectator seats, except for the ten participants of the second team match. The words in the sky showed these ten participants.

*

Team Section Match 2: Ethereal Vs Dwarf

Ethereal Team

Edmond, level 46 Sentinel

Sparkle, level 46 Mage Knight

Snoop, level 46 Archmage

Notnewbie, level 46 Elementalist

Reaper, level 45 Reaver

Vs

Dwarf Team

Longstick, level 46 Paladin

Hideout, level 45 Bard

Sierra, level 46 Elite Marksman

Jet Hung, level 46 Beastmaster

Outdoor, level 46 Druid

*

Same as yesterday, Pallas opened two portals for the two opposing teams. The two teams entered their respective portals. Images appeared on the sky showing an overview of the map and the zoom-in view on the ten inside the arena dimension.

"Cool," Jack uttered when he watched the screens on the sky. He was inside the screen yesterday, so this was the first he saw them.

The landscape, however, was different from the icy terrain yesterday. This one was a jungle region with some rivers flowing randomly around the landscape.

Like yesterday, the two teams started from two opposing corners. The ethereal team started moving forward taking the central path, which was the shortest to their opponents.

When they approached the row of trees with lush foliage, spectators started to bemoan the landscape. It was still fine for the zoom-in screens, but on the overview map which showed a bird-eye view of the entire map, all the participants would be covered by the tree foliage once they entered the jungle.

When they were complaining, the ethereal team went under the tree and the foliage turned transparent, allowing everyone to still see the players underneath.

Those that complained out loud shut their mouths in embarrassment, while those that complained within were glad they kept their mouth shut. Those that think of nothing simply admired the view, one of which was Jack, who again uttered, "cool."

The dwarf team on the opposite corner, stayed in their initial position, not moving. One of their team, the level 45 bard, Hideout, suddenly turned slightly transparent before separating from the team and moving forward, taking a path slightly to the left. The others waited for a while before following the same path.

"Is that a skill? What is a skill that made someone slightly transparent? What use is it?" Jack asked.

"There is no such skill," Peniel answered.

"He is not slightly transparent, he has become invisible," Paytowin explained. "The scene showed invisible players in that way, so we as spectators can still see them. For those who are inside, they won't be able to see him at all."

"Cool!" Jack said for the third time. "That's not standard Bard skill, right?" Jack said to Peniel.

"No, I think he is using Hide skill," Peniel answered.

"Like the one used by Life Runner? I thought you said it is a very rare skill?"

"Two persons have the skill amongst so many people is still considered very rare, isn't it?"

"Well… I suppose you are right."

*

Inside the arena dimension. Four of the five dwarfs, two men and two women, were waiting for their leader's instruction, the elderly dwarf, Jet Hung. They had wanted to rush ahead once they came through the portal but Jet asked them to wait.

"Hm… As I thought, we can't send messages here," Jet said. "Which is good."

"Good? Why good?" Longstick asked.

Jet didn't answer.

"So, what should we do?" Sierra, a dwarf woman, asked.

"As we have discussed last night. Hideout, use that Hide skill of yours. We will follow your powder trail. Once you find the enemy, change the powder color of the trail. We will then know the enemies are moving in front of us with their backs to us. If they are heading towards you, then imitate a bird's whistle, so we will hide."

Hideout nodded. He then moved away from the group before turning invisible.

The others stayed behind. While waiting, Jet said, "As you see from the words in the sky, the enemies mostly consisted of magic classes with only one defender. If we can take them by surprise and prevent them from casting spells right from the start, victory will be ours."

"Yeah!" The others were inspired hearing Jet's plan.

"All right, Hideout should be a distance ahead now. Let's move!" Jet said. The four started moving ahead while lowering their backs to have their presence less visible.

"You know… we are dwarfs. We are low enough already even without lowering our backs…," Outdoor, the other dwarf woman, uttered.

"Right… Force of habit," Longstick said.

The four straightened their backs and walked forward following a trail, a thin white-colored powder, left behind by Hideout. This powder was junk items they have bought from the city. Jet had thought of this scouting tactic since they were selected as the team to represent their country. They could finally put it to use.

After following the trail for a while, they suddenly heard a high-pitch whistle.

"Incoming!" Jet uttered. "Find a place to hide!"

They hurriedly ran to the side, away from the trail. The whistle meant Hideout had found the enemies and they were walking towards him. Since Jet and the others were directly following Hideout, this meant the enemies were walking directly towards them as well.

They went inside thick bushes and hid.

"You know, another advantage of being a dwarf is that it is easy to find a hiding place," Outdoor said.

"Sshhh…!" Jet shushed them.

They heard movements not far away. The jungle ground was soft so footsteps were not so audible, even for non-ranger classes. Most of the sounds they heard were someone or something brushing past the grasses or leaves.

They stayed for a while until the sound was completely gone.

"All right, let's go out and checked," Jet said.

They came out of hiding and went back to where the trails used to be. There was now another powder trail, red-color this time. Meaning that Hideout was now following the enemies from the back.

"Good! All five traveled together," Jet uttered. The red powder also meant that all five opponents were present. They had agreed that if the group Hideout was following had members missing, Hideout was to use blue-colored powder instead. So they who followed behind would take precaution as they might stumble upon the missing member.

"Okay, now we begin the phase to chase after the enemies. Be silent. Be mindful of your steps. Do not let the opponents be aware that we are behind them!" Jet said.

The others nodded their understanding.

*

"That dwarf team is good," Paytowin commented. The images on the sky showed how the dwarf team stalking their enemies and was now slowly approaching. It was like a hunter enclosing on its prey.

"That Jet geezer is not just a martial artist. He is also a hunter. He likes to live for a few months inside a forest and hunt using just bow and arrows for a hobby," Jack said.

"No wonder he chose the beastmaster class," Paytowin said. "I've been wondering why a martial artist chooses the archer class in the first place."

"He said jungle trekking and prey-hunting is one way for him in training his martial arts," Jack said.

"Weird way of training, if you ask me," Paytowin remarked. "By the way, he is a close friend to your grandfather, right? Is he as good as your grandfather?"

"Not as good, but still way better if you compare to any other standard martial artists," Jack said. "He is my grandfather's martial brother and they used to spar during their younger days. Anyone that can be my grandfather's sparring partner is not a normal martial artist."

"So, do you have confidence if going up against him? They will be your opponent if they win this match."

"Of course!" Jack uttered, but then the memory of Jet's confident statement during the break time came back to his mind.

*

Inside the arena dimension, the ethereal team continued combing through the terrain. They had come upon their opponent's starting corner but found no one there. They now took the side path and walked slowly as they paid attention to their surroundings.

"I don't like this terrain. Too many concealed places. You don't know what might jump out from the bushes! It would have been better if we have gotten the icy landscape like the teams yesterday. You can see opponents coming from a mile away," the Ethereal Elementalist, Notnewbie, complained.

"This disadvantage is shared by our enemies as well," the Sentinel, Edmond, said. "If we don't know where they are, they don't know where we are. Just stay sharp. We might stumble upon each other anytime. Just be ready to cast your spells. I will hold them down long enough."

Notnewbie suddenly whirled to her back.

"Something's wrong?" The others stopped.

"I thought I heard something," Notnewbie said.

"Probably just your imagination."

"Probably it's the same bird who whistled before."

"They are really good at creating this dimension, they even have birds inside here."

"Let's go. We only have two hours here. We need to find them before then," Edmond said, trying to get everyone to move again.

"Actually, why do we have to move around? Let's just hide and wait for them to pass by. That way we can make a jump at them," Snoop proposed.

"Hm… That's actually not a bad idea," Edmond said. "All right. Let's find a place with more bushes. We will lay low and…"

His word stopped short when he saw a short person jump out from the bushes behind Notnewbie.