At his order, the ten muscular-built ogres charged towards the expedition members with their hammers, clubs, axes, greatswords, and other sets of deadly weapons. Meanwhile, Yahtorn just stood where he was with crossed arms and a smirk on—very much complacent about the whole situation as if victory was already in hand.
"Tunok, Nixon, do it now!" Gaius suddenly shouted.
Hearing this unexpected call-out, Valedd hurriedly turned his head around and witnessed his men being surprise attacked by the three Tikbalangs.
"Gaius! What the hell are you guys doing?!" Valedd yelled out.
Alas, Gaius and his gang didn't pay him any heed whatsoever. Pulling back the string of his longbow, Nixon was the first one to launch an attack at one of the NPC guards.
"Metal Piercer!"
A glinting dark-gray arrow imbued with the sharp power of the metal affinity shot out of his longbow as it whistled across the air. While the dark-gray arrow flew like a bullet, it left a clear trail when it parted the mist and fog, desiring to reach its target as well as pierce through them at very high speed. The attack almost seemed like it was unavoidable at this point, and that the NPC guard would definitely get an arrow struck on his head any second now.
"Soro Clone!"
THUCK!
"W-WHAT?!"
Nixon was flabbergasted by what just happened in that split-second or instant. Instead of seeing the NPC guard's head being penetrated and then spilling out a shower of blood—Casanova's form was the one shockingly pierced through by the arrow.
"HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET THERE?!"
Casanova grinned savagely while red dripped down on his furry chin. In the next moment, he puked out blood and quickly vanished from existence. On the other hand, the NPC guard that was just saved regained his bearings, then ran towards Nixon like a madman with bloodshot eyes crimson from fury.
"You damnable Tikbalang; how dare you betray Young Master Valedd! I'll get your bloody horse head for this!"
"Tch!"
Nixon clicked his tongue in annoyance before drawing his longbow once more, but then, he shockingly heard a voice that he thought the owner of was already supposed to be dead.
"Blasted Flames!"
"You've gotta be kidding me! How can you still be alive?!"
He turned his head to the side, his mad and fierce eyes burning on Casanova. A stream of heated orange flames roared in his direction. It was impossible for him to dodge it since he was caught completely off guard.
"ARRRGGH!!!"
Transpiring at the same time, Gaius and Tunok were approaching their targets from behind in a rush. Tunok lifted his double axes and smashed them down together on the NPC guard that he designated as his prey.
"Axe Cleave!"
"Dark Matter Impact!"
Surprisingly, another voice was heard, directly superimposing with his. A couple of dark laser beams banged his side, forcing the cancelation of his activated skill, as he was blown away from its strong impact. Tunok crashed headfirst onto the ground while his right side bled profusely from a major injury.
"Goddammit…!" He cursed.
"Payback's a b**ch, ay?"
Tunok grunted and made an effort to pick himself off the ground. Afterward, he was clutching his bloody arm while glaring daggers at the vampire who was a fair distance away from him.
"Draken, how the f**k did you know I was going to attack that NPC guard?! Your magic shouldn't have been able to touch me before I could finish the job!"
"Well, you're correct about that. My skill 'Dark Matter Impact' does take a considerable amount of time to charge, and yet, why was I able to strike you down at such impeccable timing?" Draken gave a carefree smile as a response to his blood-filled expression. "It's easy, really. I was able to figure out you and your two other friends' intentions from the get-go."
"What?! How! That doesn't make any f***ing sense!"
"Hahaha! As a matter of fact, it was you, Tunok, that helped me notice that something was amiss. The way you stood behind one of the NPC guards while having such a troubled expression really disturbed me, you see. It was like you were hesitating about something as you looked back and forth to the ground and then at the back of the NPC guard. And that's when it clicked; you couldn't have been more obvious."
Listening to his answer that was full of contempt, Tunok gritted his teeth so hard that he thought it might break on the spot. Was it actually his own fault that their surprise attack failed? In reality, he was indeed indecisive of whether or not what they were doing was the right thing. His moral conscience pricked at him, and he hated the fact that he was about to do something as dirty as betraying someone. It was so bad that Draken was even able to pick up some clues due to his erratic body language.
Tunok closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, taking the time to calm his mind. After expelling the turbid oxygen from inside him, he snapped his eyes open and abruptly charged towards Draken in a burst of speed.
"I admit. I may not be suitable for serving up surprise attacks, but I sure as hell am good with direct confrontation!"
Holding up one of his axes to the air, he threw it with such great force that the axe spun around like a rotating saw blade.
"Eat this! Axe Severing Rotation!"
"Oh, Christ!"
The extreme velocity of the whirling axe couldn't possibly be avoided. Furthermore, he was just a mage who spent all of his attributes on intelligence and wisdom; maybe only agile assassins could move quickly enough to elude themselves out of harm's way. As for him… it was nothing short of a death sentence!
'I thought he only threw axes just for show… but he's actually got such a lethal skill hidden all along.' Draken woefully thought as a bitter smile painted across his pale lips.
Was this really the end for him? In actuality, he could barely survive this attack somehow, but it wouldn't be enough as he instinctively knew that the rampaging horse in front of him was gonna swoop in for the kill afterwards.
'I guess this is it for me… Dammit, I thought I was gonna die before Casanova. I would have loved to see that bastard wailing in anguish firsthand.'
Alas, nothing could be done; that was life for a squishy mage like him. Maybe next time, he should think about spending some of his attribute points or AP on his vitality stat.