Chapter 814: The Blazing Forest

Inside the forest, Therribus and his army continued to give chase to Prince Alonzo. The trees inside the forest were not so dense that they could still give chase using their steeds. Their movements slowed down, though. But Alonzo's group similarly slowed down as well.

Beside Therribus were several high-level officers. Rayne was amongst them but he rode some distance away. One of the officers directly beside Therribus was a bow-wielding commander. Unlike the other soldiers who rode horses, the bow-wielding commander's steed was a large panther. The bow he carried was especially large. He was aiming his bow as his panther ran at high speed, veering through the trees with nimbleness.

The bow-wielding commander's name was Robin. He was a level 63 rare elite knight commander. He doesn't seem to mind all the erratic movement of his panther while aiming. His arrows were shot occasionally. The arrow shot from his giant bow traveled unusually far, much further than a standard elite marksman's range. His accuracy, however, decreased due to riding and shooting at the same time, but they still struck near Alonzo's group which hindered their advance. The distance between Alonzo's group and Therribus' chasing army was decreasing as time passed.

"Hm?"

"What is it?" Therribus asked Robin who seemed to notice something.

"… Let me make sure," Robin shot another arrow. But this time, his aim was not at Alonzo's group. His arrow was shot with a skill. His arrow exploded and produced a wind torrent that blasted everything in the vicinity of its detonation.

There was a pile of leaves where Robin had detonated his exploding arrow. The leaves were scattered away, revealing a large red-colored barrel.

"A war fire!" Robin exclaimed. "Nobody uses fire attacks!" He shouted to the soldiers behind him, who then relayed his order to the other soldiers."

Robin then said to Prince Therribus, "Your Highness, I've noticed a large number of these piles of leaves all around this forest as we passed through. I suspect this forest has been filled with them."

This forest was the one that John had requested the Black Cloak guild to guard. The Black Cloak guild had killed all the monsters here after they arrived. Luckily, the monsters in this forest were below their average levels. They also killed and chased away any intruders that wandered into the forest. They did it covertly, of course. Most of the time the killed players didn't even know how they died. They attributed it to the deed of some invisible monsters in the forest. This way, no one suspected anything was going on in the forest.

Once the war fires arrived earlier today, they had set them up all around the forest in preparation for tonight's operation. The prince's attempted escape was a feigned retreat tactic, to draw Therribus' main army into the forest, where the war fires were waiting.

"There must be some enemies lurking around ready to light these war fires. Spread out and flush them out!" Therribus gave the order to his officers.

The order was quickly relayed. The chasing army separated again. A small portion searched around the forest while the remaining maintain their chase of Prince Alonzo. The troops that encircled the forest on the outside also received the order and soon carried out a search.

To the war fires themselves, Therribus didn't instruct his soldiers to do anything. These items were too heavy and they were in the middle of a chase. As long as no one ignited them, there should be no problem.

The players that were supposed to ignite the war fires were waiting for the signal that Prince Alonzo had reached the edge of the forest before they carried out their tasks. If they ignited the war fires too soon, Prince Alonzo would be caught inside the burning forest as well.

It was fine when the soldiers were simply paying attention to make sure that Prince Alonzo didn't slip out of the forest, but when their attentions were shifted to searching for people in hiding, these players were soon found out.

"There! On the tree," One of the hiding players heard a voice. He turned to the voice and saw a soldier pointing at him. Several other soldiers were aiming their bows at him.

"Holy shit…," The player uttered before getting bombarded with arrows. He was an Elementalist. He didn't last long under the attacks.

Every player that had been tasked to ignite the war fires was an Elementalist. They were meant to ignite the war fires from afar with their Fireball spells.

The Elementalist was not a class that can survive or break from an encirclement, they had low HP and couldn't move fast. Hence, when they were found out, they were as good as out.

One Elementalist cast his Fireball spell despite not yet receiving the signal. He figured it was still better to carry out the plan before he was taken out. However, one soldier ran and used his body to cover the war fire, preventing it from being ignited. That Elementalist was still cursing when he was forcefully pulled down and ganged upon.

*

"F*ck! I shouldn't have given the task to these second-rate players," John cursed. "How the heck did they hide? Such amateurs!"

Jack couldn't blame John. With how stretched they are with manpower, it was the best they could do. They needed their best for the fighting, after all. They could only leave this simple task of igniting war fires to the mediocre players.

"Jeanny, where is Prince Alonzo's position?" Jack sent a message. Jeanny was amongst those that stayed with Prince Alonzo as they fled.

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"We are not far from the rendezvous point, but there is this archer commander. His arrows keep on hindering our path. Some have struck several of us. Those that struck received a strong debuff and lost their movement speed. We have no choice but to leave them behind. Now, there are only four of us left. Prince Alonzo, Samuel, me, and another soldier," Jeanny replied.

"Even if you reach the rendezvous point, it doesn't mean shit if the war fires are not ignited. F*ck!" John cursed again.

'Not far,' Jack thought. All right then, Jack had Pandora aimed towards the forest.

"Where are you going?" Red Death asked when he saw Jack rushed towards the forest filled with soldiers.

"Got to take care of something. Just hold tight!" Jack answered her.

Jack's unusual steed that produced a fire trail as it ran immediately caught the attention of the soldiers watching the edge of the forest.

"Enemy!" Shouted the first soldier who noticed Jack's approach. All the other soldiers immediately took position and readied themselves to block Jack's advance.

Archer and mage soldiers stood behind the shield soldiers. They fired at Jack once he was in range.

Jack cast Barrier and then Magic Weapon. He used the Formless Flowing Sword style to deflect as many of the attacks as possible. The remaining battered his Barrier.

Pandora's speed was so fast that the ranged soldiers only managed to make one volley before Jack was already upon them. Her fear aura caused extreme discomfort to the defending soldiers.

As the shield soldiers braced themselves as Pandora was about to crash into them, the nightmare leaped. Even the tall walls of Heavenly Citadel and the noble district could be leaped over by Pandora, what more of these soldiers? With only one leap, Pandora landed behind the soldiers.

The soldiers looked back with consternation as Pandora rushed into the forest.

Jack passed through some soldiers that were spread around the forest, but Pandora was too fast and her fear aura caused the soldiers' reaction to becoming slow. So, none of them did anything as they saw Jack pass them by.

"Where is it?" Jack looked around. He was a little regretful now that he gave the Runestone of Detection to Grace. His radar couldn't detect objects, the object had to be in his line of sight before his monocle told him something unusual was there. Hence, he couldn't tell for sure where the war fires were.

However, John had informed him that the war fires were arranged thirty meters from one another, and they were covered by a pile of leaves. So, he paid attention to any mounds of leaves. Soon, his monocle marked something in one of these mounds.

"There!" He had Pandora headed over there. The speed of Pandora's approach created a wind that blew the leaves away, revealing the large red barrel.

Staying on top of Pandora and without stopping, Jack's Storm Breaker swooped down with Flame Strike, hitting the barrel. The barrel exploded upon contact with Flame Strike. Jack's Barrier was still on, but it was depleted after being hit by the explosion. Jack still lost some HP but not much since his barrier had soaked up a portion of the damage. He received Burn status, though. He ignored it as he urged Pandora to run out of the forest. Pandora was completely unfazed by the explosion. She was immune to fire damage.

Chain explosions were soon heard.

The war fires produced an explosion that hit a large thirty-meter radius area with fire damage. That's why John had instructed the war fires to be put within thirty meters from each other. Only one war fire needed to be ignited. The explosion from the first war fires would hit the others in its vicinity, and those war fires would ignite the next ones, and so on.

John had put all three hundred war fires spread out around the forest. It covered almost the entire forest. Within an instant, the forest turned into a sea of fire.

The long constant fire damage started affecting the trees. The leaves on the trees and the shrubs on the ground were the first to catch fire. Soon, everything caught fire.

The soldiers inside the forest ignored the flame at first due to their high HP. But as time passed, the burning damage multiplied. Soldiers of the basic grades found their HP went down at a worryingly rapid rate. They looked around for an escape, but everywhere they looked, it was filled with fire.

When these basic soldiers succumbed, the elite grades found themselves to be in a similar predicament.

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