Chapter 262: Red Tag Revealed

The Bandit’s attack struck Emma, leaving her Stunned, and Qin Ruo was consumed with guilt. When he saw that many champions doing battle, he should have taken them someplace else.

Even if there had been no sentries in place, Emma was not prepared to join in a battle of this level! Anyway, whichever side won out, it would be of no benefit to him—in fact, since none of the champions belonged to the Bauhinia Clan, he had absolutely no business here at all!

It was a good thing that Emma was a warrior, and because of Qin Ruo’s shout of alarm, she had just managed to avoid a slash across her throat, which would have been the worst possible fatal blow. Although she had now fallen under the Stunned condition, Qin Ruo could summon Poochie to her rescue.

A small brown creature streaked across the distance!

Suddenly the ambusher was the one being ambushed, and Poochie hit him so hard that he went flying.

Then came another surprise…

After the Bandit had been Stunned by the Shadow Strike, but before Poochie could do anything more, there was a splash of blood, and another Bandit appeared over the first one. He raised an oddly shaped short sword, dripping with blood, and stabbed it into the heart of the prone Bandit with lethal precision.

There was a flash of white light!

Oh, damn you! Qin Ruo silently cursed the uninvited interloper, the Bandit of his Angel Faction. He had half a mind to teach him a lesson, especially after he noticed the emblem upon the Bandit’s chest—a burning ghoul claw.

Again with the Netherspirit’s Claw! That was my Honor Point , and my loot!

Qin Ruo was very certain that a Bandit of such obvious skill would not be short of Honor Points. If only he had not stolen the kill, Qin Ruo could have picked up that Honor Point for himself, finally getting rid of his accursed red tag ¹ .

Instead, the Demon Faction Bandit was suddenly slain right before his eyes, and there was no system notification of him receiving any Honor Points. The other Bandit smugly picked up a Gold item from the ground, infuriating Qin Ruo further. Fuming with rage, he began thinking about how, if one day he had the power, he would get his revenge against this dastardly scoundrel.

‘When I’ve got a haul of Honor Points of my own, and a full set of Dark Gold equipment, I’ll kill anyone who looks at me funny. That’ll put you in your place, you shameless rascals!’

***

As Qin Ruo continued to stew in his frustration, something was beginning to change in the eleven-man battle nearby.

Poochie’s successful interception, followed by the swift demise of the Demon Faction Bandit, not only drew their attention over here, it also caused the five remaining Demon Faction players to show their first signs of doubt!

At first, they had thought that the noob Swordmaster girl would meet the same fate as the rest, instantly slain by a sneak attack from the Bandit, hidden in the shadows beyond the battle. Who knew that their Bandit would slip up, and what’s more… the newcomer seemed to have brought an unusually ferocious Pet with her.

This was no simple matter. So soon and she had her own Pet already!

This single fact alone was enough to put them all on their guard. Just like that, the Ignis Swordmaster known as Emma was remembered as a previously unknown elite player, wandering around on her own.

Although they had no idea how she had resisted the Stun effect from the sap attack, now that the Bandit had failed to deal with her, the scales of battle were beginning to tip away from them, and they needed to disengage quickly.

***

“You want to run? So you Death Cult people have your moments in the crapper too, haha! Why don’t you stay?” The loud voice of the Berserker rang out again, doing his best to pin down the Terra Swordmaster who was trying to withdraw from their duel.

“You think you can hold me down? Think again!” the Swordmaster muttered in reply, “Where I go, no one can stop me!”

A dull brown light flashed from his broadsword—flickering and quivering, rumbling with power, it leaped out as the Berserker attacked with his Brilliant Staff!

“Curses, this trick again!” the Berserker spat, suddenly uncertain. His worried eyes darted to the side, noticing the real danger, and he allowed the incoming shockwave to pick him up and toss him away, hurriedly downing a large HP potion as he tumbled through the air.

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What the Berserker was truly worried about was a great black sphere that had suddenly appeared over the battleground! The moment it appeared, every one of the players there cried out in alarm and scrambled to get clear.

Watching from the sidelines, Qin Ruo shared their apprehension, cursing the audacity of that spellcaster even as he himself retreated hurriedly!

A Tier 5 AoE spell!

What foul luck… to think that someone amongst them was a Tier 5 champion!

He hadn’t noticed earlier, so it seemed that the enemy player had actually used a Tier 5 Magic Scroll to cover his escape!

When Qin Ruo realized that these six players from the Angel Faction probably also included a number of Tier 5 pros, his spirits sank.

Sparing no thought for Emma—who had just come out of being Stunned—he retrieved Poochie (already out of combat) and fled! Before that Tier 5 spell came down, the further he could get away from here, the better.

There were still a few minutes left on his Wanted time. If he was snapped out of his Aquamorph form now, and his red tag was revealed for all to see, then things would really get exciting. Avoiding your typical player was easy, but elite players were another matter… and hiding from a Tier 5 champion would be basically impossible!

Too bad Qin Ruo was just a little too late—that champion from the Demon Faction had used a magic scroll for a Tier 5 AoE spell!

In response to Qin Ruo’s interference, the enemy champion had reacted instantly with the biggest spell he could throw out. With a single action, he’d produced a tremendous blast of magic—far beyond the magic of the Gargantuan Demoncroc he had encountered in the Devil’s Swamp!

The glossy black sphere expanded rapidly over the forest clearing, exerting a terrifying force of gravity. Other than the members of the enemy party, who were exempted from the spell’s negative effects, there was only the one Tier 5 champion on the side of the Angel Faction who was unaffected by it.

Even so, they were all at the top of their game, resisting the effect of the spell with all the might of top-tier players, so that they were actually faring much better than Qin Ruo himself. In a moment, all the champions of the Angel Faction had managed to escape the area of the spell’s effect.

Qin Ruo was profoundly displeased. The sudden burst of magic caught him in its grip, forcing him out of Aquamorph form. He popped into view, highlighted all in red against the surrounding forest.

He was in despair. This was the worst thing that could possibly have happened.

Slayer’s Heart had already told him before: Against a Tier 5 champion, all Tier 4 concealment techniques were useless. Qin Ruo realized that he was nothing like a certain crazy Tiger Cub he knew, with both Stealth and Camouflage techniques!

Now that his cover had been blown, there was going to be trouble!

Not only did he notice two of the escaping warriors turning their gazes to him, but he’d also been spotted by that Bandit from the Netherspirit’s Claw, who had been fleeing right in his direction. Qin Ruo could clearly see the sudden delight in their eyes!

Next moment, there was a silent bloom of dark light! At the center of the explosion, the Tier 5 dark magic had left a massive crater in the ground!

At present, Qin Ruo had zero interest in the state of the champions’ battle. The moment he was forced out of his Aquamorph form, he turned and fled, throwing up a Frostrampart behind himself, and summoning Poochie back to him. With the Demon Faction players scattering away, he need not worry about Emma’s safety for the time being.

Sure enough, the moment the effect from the Tier 5 spell had worn off, that Bandit from the Netherspirit’s Claw immediately began racing after him. There was no question about what he was after.

‘Asshole, I haven’t even paid you back yet for what you did earlier, and here you come looking for trouble on your own. Fine.’

Qin Ruo’s eyes turned ice-cold!

Quickly, he took stock of the two champions coming after him: an Ignis Swordmaster from the Hall of Heroes, and a Beastblood Berserker from the Netherspirit’s Claw. His Water Veil technique, specially designed to deal with Bandits, rose up from the ground in his wake.

Poochie alighted on his shoulder, and seemed to be able to sense the hostility from the incoming Bandit. Departing from its usual adorable manner, it tensed its body, ready to spring into the attack at his command, chittering non-stop with menace.

“Snowblind! Stand down!”

At first, the two chasing after him had simply been eagerly in pursuit of a red tag who had suddenly appeared. However, once they saw the little creature on his shoulder, prepared to mount a fierce defense, one of them finally realized that this was the true owner of the Pet they had seen earlier—not Emma the Swordmaster, but this red-tagged Aquamancer—and he frantically called out for the Bandit to stop.