While the scythe wielding bringer of death Praecomors was distracting the two twins, Volucerdeo had taken the opportunity to sneak around the two, relying on his ability to become invisible to sneak past. He approached the bronze jar silently, resting his left hand on its side. Volucerdeo paused as he quickly went over the methods to disable the Pandora's Jar in his mind.
The first allowed one to open the jar easily, but it required gaining the permission of the player who activated the jar. Ephialtes and Otus were unlikely to give up their prey, so he immediately dismissed that option.
The next was to completely overwhelm the jar with damage. Each Pandora's Jar could only be used once, and had a set amount of durability. If a player were strong enough, they could even break out on their own. The stronger a player was compared to the one who used the jar, the faster it would be to destroy it.
Upon seeing how the player in the jar, GodOfWar, was not even trying to break out, Volucerdeo could surmise that the player was much weaker than the twins and felt it would be easiest to just wait for the duration to run out.
The total duration of the Pandora's Jar was usually around 10 minutes, which was enough for PKers like the twins to easily kill the captured players. Now that Praecomors was distracting the two PKers, Volucerdeo could deal enough damage to the jar to reduce that time to a minute.
He began to use various skills to silently strike the jar, quickly reducing its durability. Volucerdeo was a rogue, with a subclass of thief, so his skills didn't attract the attention of the twins, who were focused on fighting Praecomors.
The scythe wielding guild leader fought efficiently, combining both physical attacks and his skills to attract the full attention of the twins. The twins were at a high enough level to be considered a threat to some of the top players, so he didn't dare hold back against them.
He wove between them, dodging their attacks. In the game, attacks could accidentally hit a teammate, and that was what he was aiming for. Alone, he knew that he could not deal enough damage to defeat the both of them. But if they attacked each other by accident, it would cause additional damage that would begin to add up as the battle went on, as well as causing tension between the two.
Right as Praecomors caught attacks by the twins against the handle of his scythe, Volucerdeo finally broke open the Pandora's Jar. As GodOfWar, the player that was previously trapped in the jar, was about to speak, Volucerdeo grabbed him and activated a movement skill that teleported the both of them to the nearest safe zone, an area where pvp was forbidden.
Noticing this, Praecomors quickly disengaged from his battle and activated the same skill. His goal was mainly to distract the two PKers so that Volucerdeo could disable the bronze jar, not defeat them, so he was fine with leaving combat as soon as his goal was complete.
As he entered the safe zone, he saw GodOfWar thanking Volucerdeo, though he seemed quite embarrassed. As Praecomors walked over to the two, GodOfWar turned to thank him as well. "It's no problem at all. Anyways, my username is Volucerdeo, and that over there is Praecomors, though he also goes by Reaper." Volucerdeo introduced himself and Praecomors cheerfully, although since they were both prominent guild leaders, there were only a few players who didn't already knew who they were.
~~~~~
(A/N: End of Flashback)
Ares chuckled softly, clearly embarrassed about how they had first met. "I was surprised to see you and Volucerdeo. You guys were some of the top players at the time, while I was practically a nobody. Hey, what ever happened to the two PKers?"
"Ephialtes and Otus? Well, I think SilverMoon finally got fed up with them constantly PKing her guildmates, so she just kept hunting them down and killing them until they got fed up with it and quit the game." Hades responded, feeling a shiver crawl up his spine as he remembered top female player of Solace Online. SilverMoon was the leader of a guild of all female players. If a male player tried to trick her into being able to join, she would instantly slay him without hesitation.
"She's a fierce one. I almost feel bad for the twins." Ares echoed Hades' thoughts not even a second later. "Volucerdeo is still playing Solace Online, right?" Hades nodded. "Last I heard, his guild is now the top guild, as well as the biggest. The guild I left to my second-in-command seems to be doing fine as well."
Just as Thanatos was about to open his mouth to ask about the unfamiliar names the two players were talking about, Ares glanced up to the road ahead, noticing their location. "Up ahead. That farmhouse is the location of the quest."
The two players quickly urged their horses to go faster, Thanatos following slightly behind them.
The farmhouse was old, but seemed fairly well kept. The wooden walls were painted a dull grey, but the paint seemed well kept and fairly new. Behind the house was a large barn, and further along was a large field full of a variety of crops.
The crops looked like they were ready to be harvested, and most of them seemed untouched. Yet the crops closest to the farmhouse were crushed and scattered by an unknown being.
Waiting for them in front of the farmhouse was an old man with eyes that were clouded over. Hearing the hoofbeats of their mounts, the old man turned towards their direction. "Ares? Are you back here to help me?"
Ares dismounted and walked over to the old man, pulling off his helmet. "Old man Phineas, I've brought some of my friends. We are here to help you with your monster problem."
The old man turned towards him with unseeing eyes, a smile stretching across his wrinkled face. "Ah, thank you very much my boy. Will you introduce you friends?"
"I brought my companion Hades, as well as his retainer Thanatos. I've known Hades for a while, and would trust him with my life."