When he arrived at the rendezvous point given by Earmouth, he was surprised to find a large group of players was already on standby there. There were probably more than one hundred players. There were still several groups at a distance from his place.
He was with the largest group, the others were only around twenty to thirty people. He scanned the groups and found out that they were from the collection of the three organizing guilds. He didn't expect the three guilds to have prepared so much manpower in the vicinity. They were certainly not visible when they first arrived at this ruin.
As he joined the largest group, those smaller ones started to depart. Each group went in a different direction. Jack wondered what this was all about. He was eager to find out about the content in the last part of the meeting, are they sending him out at this time?
The group was mostly consisted of basic classes with level 16 and 17, with a few level 15. They could be considered as the upper mainstream players. No wonder Warpath who was still at level 14 was not called here. There were two level 17 advanced class players apart from himself, a female rogue from Wicked Witches and a warrior from Corporate United.
He saw Earmouth amongst the group. He seemed to be one of the leaders of this group. "Okay, everyone is here now," he heard Earmouth said after noticing him. Jack had the feeling that Earmouth had intentionally removed him from the meeting, was he really suspicious of him?
This largest group was further split up into three teams, based on guild affiliation. Jack obviously joined the team filled with Death Associates members led by Earmouth. Earmouth then explained to them they would be going on a hunt. To chase the guild members that had left the meeting. Those scums had rejected their guilds' kind invitations and thus deserved to be punished.
Jack was amazed by this cult's reasoning, so people reject you and now you are gunning for them? Well, guilds were sort of the mafias of the game world, so it still made sense if they acted the way they did.
Jack took the chance to ask, "I see that our group has the largest number, are we targeting Black Cloak and Saint Edge?"
Earmouth replied, "no, those two are off-limits. Top brass wouldn't want a conflict with them, yet."
Jack then asked again which guild they would be chasing after. Earmouth only grinned and replied, "the one that deserved it the most."
Jack had no doubt as to which guild he was referring to. He had a struggle whether to inform John or not, that a group of players was coming after him. But he had a feeling that earmouth was suspicious of him. If they failed to catch John's group, Earmouth might suspect someone from the team was leaking information. He had no doubt that he would be the prime suspect.
His initial purpose of infiltrating Death Associates guild was to check on this meeting that they had arranged, so if following his initial plan, it should not be a big deal if he fell out with them now. However, he thought there might be a time in the future when he needed to approach this guild again to get insider information. Just like how he had learned that Death Associates had a high-profile spy within White Scarfs.
There was also the matter in which Corporate United had bothered to use a unique artifact to keep a secret of. He would need to stay as a Death Associates member if he wanted to learn of it. He looked back helplessly as they started to leave. He was curious about what the three guilds were up to with the remainder of the meeting, but there was nothing he could do.
On their way, he continued to struggle. Should he message John? Or should he not? He was not really that close with the guy. They only had a quest together once, one that he had been coerced to, even. Apart from that, they didn't really have any interaction until today when he saw the guy in the meeting. But Jack still considered him as a friend, so wasn't it the right thing to do to warn him of this attack?
He was struggling with the dilemma until Earmouth told them to pick up the pace. The scout that had moved before them informed that John's group had taken a rest at a nearby rock basin. It was a perfect chance for them to catch up to them and caught them unguarded.
Jack decided to throw away caution. So what if he got find out, it just meant that he lost the chance to spy on Death Associates. But if John got killed in the wilderness, he would lose everything. He couldn't let that be in his conscience, not if there's anything he could do about it. He sent a chat message to John using Storm Wind's account telling him that an attack was coming.
He received a reply soon after. When he opened it, he was dumbfounded by its content. I was a simple two words.
"I know."
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Jack was still mulling over the message when he got another message from John.
"It was easy to guess their intentions. Considering their egos, it will be weird instead if they don't send retaliation. What I don't know though, is how you also know about this. Don't tell me you are with the attacking party that is on their way here?"
Jack was impressed by the guy's intuition, but he was not going to admit it. He replied, "I have my way of knowing. Why aren't you guys running? The scout said that you are resting in a nearby rock basin. They will catch up with you if you are not moving."
"Because we are preparing an ambush here," John replied soon.
"An ambush? There are maybe a hundred people here!" Jack told him.
"I've expected as much, so will you lend us a hand then?" He read John's reply.
Jack felt pointless to have sent him a warning. The guy had figured out everything. He sent a message, "I might not be able to. I still think you should just run. I wish you good luck."
John replied, "I know you will not let us down, friend. We thank you beforehand for your assist. Let us crush them together!"
The crap! Jack cursed in his mind. Did the guy even read his message?
They were coming up to the rock basin soon. Earmouth informed that it was after the hill in front. They could see several rock formations behind the hill. The basin was at the center of the formation with the largest space. But to its left and right were several small alleyways formed by natural rock barriers. When they reached the hill and looked over, the rock formations looked like a naturally occurred maze. It was easy to lose your way around the place. Jack understood now why John chose this place for an ambush. Did he had planned this out before coming to the meeting? He couldn't help but wonder.
Earmouth urged them onwards, eager to get himself on the hateful prick who had ruined their guild's plan.
If they ended up clashing with John's people, what should he do? Jack was reminded of the situation. He could not just be a bystander. Earmouth and the others would question him. But he also didn't want to attack John's team. Could he just feign failed attacks? He doubted that Earmouth and the others would buy it, he was famous already in the guild as someone who had dueled against Scarface evenly. There was no way they won't get suspicious if he acted clumsy now that they were fighting an enemy.
He was in another dilemma now. The hell, why did that guy not just run away? Now he was caught in the middle of their stupid fight.
He slowed down his walk, he was around the middle part of the advancing team before, now he was at the rear. At least when the fight broke out, he would have the chance to be the last to take action. He might even use the opportunity for being at the back to avoid others from noticing him. He would feign an attack only if someone was looking his way. Yes, this could be a good solution.
He saw Earmouth looking around. His eyes stopped searching after landing on Jack.
"What are you doing over there?" He asked.
"I'm a Mage, I should be at the rear," Jack replied with a sensical answer.
"What nonsense is that? Come over here!" Earmouth yelled. "Everyone knows how you fight a fighter and a ranger in close range during your guild initiation test. You will be fine at the front."
Jack wanted to cry. Perhaps he had been too show-off at that time.