They previously has had someone who held a light, but we told them of our strategy of staying in the dark. When they snuffed out the light we began to move down the corridor.
We continued forward for ten minutes or so. All the while our new wary group mates shifted their eyes back and forth around the area. They were close enough to where I could see the turns of their heads every time we saw something in the hallway.
I did so as well and so did the rest of our group since except for looking out for danger; we were just walking extremely slowly. They were a lot more jumpy than we were though.
It would only make sense though, if you saw more than half of your group get slaughtered while still having that possibility happen to you wasn't a good feeling.
I was slowly letting my guard down when we turned a corner and saw group of five of them this time walking around ahead. One of them had a light talisman activated for some reason though.
They were walking down the hall towards us. We hid around the corner and awaited for them to be upon us or pass either or. Soon their voices came and began to increase in volume until coherent words began to be heard from them.
"-ou sure this is a good idea? Activating that light talisman, I mean. The chief said that if we do this those intruders might know where we are."
"Don't worry, it'll be okay he won't know! Besides this place is dark as hell! how are we suppose to find them when we can barely find ourselves? What are the chances of us even running into them? Why don't we just check in on the three man team up ahead and see if they found any traces."
"G-Guys we can't do this, you all agree with me right? How are we suppose to surprise them if they can see us from across the entire hallway?"
"..."
"Relax, relax, look if they do see us they probably wouldn't want to fight us anyway. They probably just want to leave at this point."
"So you're just making it easier for them to escape from us!?"
"Ehhh, Something like that."
"WHAT YOU- ...wait what is that?"
"Eh? Oh must of been the wind or some like that...
Huh, wait you're right who's robes are those sticking out behind the corner?"
"It might be an enemy!"
"Or just a dead body that's slumped up against the wall."
They're shuffles and foot steps echoed throughout the corridor. Soon their talisman light reached our around the corner and the person who was spotted by those sect members were one of the two best friend girls, her name's Xing Shun I think.
'Maybe everyone will just play dead and we'll stealth our way out of this. Actually if only we had a random box may or may not have any reason to be here.
We would all just hide inside of it until they disappeared then we'd just leave. I have a minor feeling that wouldn't actually work though for some unknown reason.'
"๐๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฏ ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐บ, ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ง๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ!" A voice unheard by the sect, but heard by us told of their 'plan' for our confrontation.
*tat* *tat* *tat*
The sounds of his movement was almost upon us now. When he passed the corner a wave of light washed over us. The light wasn't overwhelming, but it revealed our group all except for a few and Xing Shun who sat down as bait stood up with our weapons drawn and pointed at him.
The man who held the light stood dumbstruck looking at our group.
"Yeah, you're right about the body, I'm probably just paranoid about... them..." Another man appeared around the corner.
Finally someone moved and ending the awkward stare with the enemy. Yao Ya rushed at the second guy, intent on skewering him with her upon her blade.
The man ducked just in time though and the weapon missed. It wasn't a failure though as while it missed it's intended target another one took it's place stepping around the corner straight into her blade.
The blade pushed through the man's chest and at that moment the rest of the people began to clash. The man who dodged Yao Ya's first strike tried get a hit in on her by quickly taking out his weapon. I quickly extended my sword out though and parried the blow meant for her.
The man slides off her sword, now completely lifeless. A little bit of blood was seen at the corners of his lips as he fell onto the floor.
When the person slid off her blade the other two who hadn't come around the corner appeared at that time. They same as one of their own died just like that in the time it took for them to turn a corner.
*Thud*
The body hit the floor in a semi-slow motion like speed. After that action the others seemed to lose their minds reaching for their weapons as soon as possible. Once they had it gripped in their hands they violently charged forward.
"Argh, you bastards! How could you do that to him?"
"Damn you and your damn sneak attacks!"
"This is why we're killing all of you bastards!"
Yao Ya jumped backward into us and we formed a minor defensive line against their wild charge. Within a few seconds they were upon us. They swung their weapons wildly as we defended against their onslaught. Multiple people had to work together block their barrages of hits.
Yao Ya and Chen Huang managed to be able to defend themselves from their attacks by themselves though barely. I on the other hand had to work together with two other people to deal with one and another group of three did the some thing against another one.
The armless man and our medic stayed back just in case and Xing Shun still sat at the edge of the corner, she was getting up now though.
The way our group fended off their attacks was splitting up our roles into sections. I took the rightmost section, another took the leftmost, and the final middle section was for the final member to defend.
This system was completely made up when we were attacked, though with no verbal communication, we just knew what we had to do. we just happened to be in these specific spots and the man came at us three so we were obligated to protect each other as they would help as well intentionally or not.
While most people here were trying tp defend themselves I noticed that Xing Shun began moving over to us with her weapon drawn. Maybe she could break the stalemate and turn this battle in our favor.
She snuck up to the man who has been attacking us ever since their charge over. She quickly raised her sword and swung it down just as quickly. The man who's been attacking us non-stop finally stalled.
A gasp followed by a cough exited his mouth before he just began swinging wildly in all directions. The attacks which were now no longer focused on anything gave away a few weaknesses and opening which I took advantage of.
A few small wounds at first, but with each new wound his energy decreased. it was like every time I attacked I would sap him of some of his strength. Eventually it got to a point where his swings were pitifully weak. That spelled the end of his life as we all attacked him until we felt like he was done for.
Once that finished we split up going to to the remaining three groups. I went to Yao Ya who seemed to be just barely holding on to fend off his attacks.
She wasn't hurt in anyway, but her blocks or parries only happened at the very last second. She fought the man who came second and tried to attack her while she was distracted. When I approached behind her she was little surprised before continuing to defend.
I swung my sword on his right hopefully to distract him and give time for Yao Ya to counter. Before my blade could come too close to him he dodged to the side while still attacking Yao Ya.
'A bit of speed, huh? I think I have something like that too.'
Swift Steps is the movement skill I chose. It a simple boost to one's movement speed while the skill was in use, but the boost itself wasn't too significant. At least when compared to the other options available.
I picked it because it seemed simple and easy to learn, but in the end I kind of neglected the manual. Only practicing it as an after thought like whenever my arms hurt too much from the sword training. Usually by that time I would have already been fairly tired though, so not much time was spent of the training even then.
Still I needed to use this to help Yao Ya reduce some pressure. I felt my speed increase but not nearly as much as it once was, probably from neglecting the manual's existence. When I truly practiced the manual the speed was twofold what it was now.