After Jack came down from the roof, he decided it was time to rendezvous with Bowler and Flame. The Death Associates team was getting too close to them. He didn't have enough time for multiple guerilla assaults. He opened up his Friend interface and was just about to send a message when he heard Peniel's voice.
"Are you going to send a message to those two friends of yours? If so, better to do it through party chat, this way, both of them can receive it at the same time."
"Oh, I can do that?" Jack shifted the Party page. There was a chat option at the bottom of the page next to the invite option.
"Do I need to pay coins for this?" He asked.
"Of course," Peniel answered. "But it's cheaper than messaging a Friend."
"Oh? Then it's better to just use this function for messaging rather than using the Friend's one?"
"Sometimes. There are many limitations in using the party chat compared to Friend message. Party chat is only cheaper when your friends are near you. And a Party will dissolve if your party members are far from you for a long period of time. Also, unless there's some kind of special condition in play, if you go to a different region than the other party members, you will be kicked out of the Party. There's also a limit on the number of members in a Party."
As time was short, he inputted his message into party chat while listening to Peniel's explanation.
"Flame, you are being tracked with some kind of a tool by that Fox woman of Weary Wolf. They are coming towards your position at the moment. Find another hiding place that's a bit further up the street from where you are now. Bowler, stay on the second-floor terrace but keep hidden. When I give you my signal, you fire at them with all you've got. Flame: wait until they are distracted before making your move. We will strike them with a three-pronged attack."
A moment later, he received replies from them in the Party chat.
"Roger."
"Okay."
Jack saw on his radar that Flame moved as instructed. When he reached the Shopping mall, he caught a glimpse of Flame's figure before she disappeared into a corner. He took over Flame's original hiding place.
He checked his radar again; the dots indicating Scarface's team were approaching slowly, Jack guessed they were advancing even more carefully now that they had been ambushed twice.
'Hm?' He looked at the dots and just noticed they were different than before. They had turned black.
'Hey, Peniel,' he thought-spoke, 'why are the dots of those Death Associates' people in my radar black?'
'As I have repeatedly told you, I don't know anything about that monocle of yours," Peniel answered, a bit peevishly. "But if they are black, then that probably means the dots' colors are the same as the ones used in the Map system. Black indicates Enemy players. At first they were blue, indicating neutral players, but after you attacked them, they turned to black. Your allies, on the other hand, should be green instead of neutral blue."
He observed the dots representing Bowler and Flame, and found out they were, indeed, green, as Peniel surmised. This was good actually. In this way, he would not get confused between his allies and enemies when trying to determine their positions. He could now also differentiate between black hostile players and red hostile monsters.
The black dots had now made it into his vicinity. Staying concealed in his hiding place, meant he wasn't able to observe the enemy directly. He relied on his radar to determine the timing of their attack.
Scarface and his people walked right past his hiding place as they tracked Flame. He could hear Fox's voice from his hiding place.
"She is over there. She changed her position a while ago. Probably thought she could fool us. That stupid bitch, she must still not realize I know her position all the time."
Scarface called out, "Fox, stay in formation! Everyone, remain alert for an ambush!"
Jack felt he should applaud Scarface's command skill. The guy could still keep everyone in line even after suffering losses from two ambushes. Jack guessed he wouldn't have become one of Death Associates' leaders if he hadn't had such a capability. Jack kept on waiting until Scarface's gang moved into a more ideal position.
"Get ready." He sent in his team chat.
When they were close to Flame's position, he heard Fox shout out, "bitch! I know you are there, you can either come out or we can go in and drag you out!"
Jack gave the signal.
"Now!"
Scarface, who was originally watching the rear of their formation, turned his attention to where Flame was hiding after hearing Fox's taunt. He was just about to give the order for his people to roust Flame out when torrents of spells came raining down on them.
Bowler crouched in his hiding place and immediately cast Mana Bullet and Energy Bolts, followed by standard range attacks from his staff while his spells were on cooldown.
Scarface looked around and saw Bowler shooting at them from the terrace.
"Up there!" Scarface cried out, pointing to Bowler. He immediately returned fire with his own spells. Fox, whose grudge was focused on Flame, was conflicted. She looked at Bowler and then back to the place where she had tracked Flame to, unable to decide where to attack. The other Magician in the team followed Scarface's lead and provided cover fire. But, because Bowler was now crouching behind a steel railing well above them, the only attack that had a chance of hitting him was Energy Bolts with its tracking feature. All their other attacks missed or hit the railing.
"You two, get up there!" Scarface ordered his two remaining Rangers, other than Red Death. They had the fastest movement speed to track down the Magician.
In the meantime, Jack sent a team chat to Bowler, "be careful of Scarface's attack! His damage is high. Try to hold out and continue attacking. I will let you know when the two Rangers come near you."
Bowler, hearing Jack's warning, cast his Magic Shield to block Scarface's Energy Bolts.
Jack snuck out of his hiding place which was on the opposite side of the street from Bowler's position. Scarface's team was busy trying to protect themselves from Bowler's attacks and didn't notice him. He rushed to the gang's last Magician, apart from Scarface and Fox. He needed to reduce the pressure on Bowler. The Magician was caught completely off guard by Jack's sudden Power Strike attack. He was thrown far away and separated from the rest of his team. Jack chased after the Magician and continued his attack.
Red Death immediately rushed to where Jack was slicing the Magician. But even her great speed couldn't save the Magician. His HP was low after Jack's ambushes and he had suffered additional damage when Bowler made his sneak attack. Jack's Power Strike was enough to put him in critical condition. Jack simply followed up with a couple of normal attacks and the Magician lost his remaining health. By the time Red Death arrived, Jack was ready to turn his attention to her.
"That will be the last of our members you kill!" Red Death told him as she attacked Jack with the Ranger's Swift Strike skill.
Jack knew this expert's precision would make it hard for him to evade this skill's super fast attack. So he didn't bother to dodge the skill but attacked at the same time as her dagger pierced him. His suicidal response caught Red Death off guard and she took the full brunt of Jack's attack for the first time.
Despite Jack's attack being just a normal attack, its damage was higher than Red's skill attack. She suffered 59 damage while Jack only got 24 damage. She was shocked; one hit had taken out a quarter of her life. She was also pushed back by the attack's force; she could feel that Jack's strength attribute far surpassed hers.
Big Arm and Stonecleave were rushing over to support Red, while Scarface continued firing at Bowler. Scarface was worried about Bowler's high damage attacks, not realizing that Jack had made those attacks. He thought that if he didn't keep up the pressure on Bowler, his team would be torn apart by his range attacks. He didn't notice that the damage this magician was now inflicting was much lower than the damage from previous ambushes.
"What are you standing there for?!" Scarface yelled at Fox in annoyance as she still had not joined in attacking the Magician.