Desolate World

A few moments before.

Seeing Peter walking towards an area where Dallas went, Ace then shifted his attention to East. For some reason, the two elite ghouls took the big golems near the ends of the formation for their targets. 

Then Ace knew why. It was because the guardians were crowded in the middle. It seemed they were afraid if the guardians weren't seriously performing their part. So they chose to flank the guardians and Lander at their back would observe the situation.

"If it is like this…." Ace murmured.

He then looked at Uriel who started to harass the ghoul archer. Continuous arrow shooting was not his expertise. His job emphasized on high damage output but could only release fewer shots. 

As for Lander, he was the opposite of Uriel. He released his arrows continuously with about 2 seconds intervals. He didn't know if Uriel could defeat him, as the two had almost similar levels. But, as an angel, he surely could constrain Lander for some time.

Ace then dashed toward the right side of the battle, where East was going. There, he found that the elite ghoul had been starting the fight. As expected of an elite. he had an advantage over the golem. He held two blades in his hands. Deserving for having a job as a blade dancer, He was very agile. The big golem didn't have a chance to catch him.

It could be said that the big guy was overwhelmed by the speed of East. Fortunately, the ghoul didn't deal too much damage toward the golem in his every attack. It was around 700 damage per attack. 

Didn't want to wait anymore, Ace then threw a card toward the ghoul from 20 meters away. It was so fast that the ghoul didn't realize that until they hit him.

*Boom*

-532

-700

Ace was lucky one of his cards exploded, it was 4 of fire card. Although it didn't deal too much damage, it was enough to shock the elite ghoul. He stopped for a moment and looked in Ace's direction with a frown.

"Didn't your mother teach you manners? Surprising an old man was impolite, you know?" East said.

Ace was stunned, so he canceled his next throwing. He thought he had heard wrong.

"Excuse me, did you talk to me?" Ace couldn't help but say.

"Yes. But let me deal with this big man, first. If you don't mind it?" East said.

Ace, who had overcome his shock then shook his head. He said, "Unfortunately, no. And by the way, you are undead. You didn't have a concept of age." 

The ghoul then showed an exaggerated expression. He opened his eyes wide and said, "Stinky brat. I will solve you after this guy."

Ace then smirked. Although it was impossible for the ghoul to see that as he had worn his mask. He said, "Sorry, but I can't let you do that."

Ace then threw his cards towards the ghoul. The ghoul tried to dodge them, but he couldn't do it perfectly. One of the cards still hit him. And the missed card then hit the zombie behind East.

"Damn you. Okay, I changed my mind. I will solve you first," East said.

His body then disappeared and it surprised Ace. Then he felt a very bad feeling. He didn't have any time to think. He then jumped sideways. 

East then appeared near the place he had stood up. His blades had slashed the empty space. 

Ace, who was less than two meters from him, was shocked. 

"So fast!" He said.

He knew it was not the right time to be stunned. He then jumped a few times behind.

As he was about 20 meters from the ghoul, Ace then realized that the ghoul then looked at him with awe.

"Wow! I've never thought you could avoid my attack. Impressive! But, if that was all you could do, then it is not enough. I will get you sooner or later," East said. 

Ace was alarmed by East's speed. He hoped it was just a skill that could quicken his speed. If not, no one could stop him.

Ace then threw his cards. Like before, East successfully evaded one of them. 

However, Ace didn't give him a chance to attack again. As the ghoul could go behind the formation of the golems, he was so dangerous. He could slay the ranged attacker and shadow priests easily. So Ace continued to attack him.

Maybe because Ace didn't give him too much time to prepare, the two cards successfully hit him.

After that, Ace and East roamed around the battlefield. Ace attacked him, and East tried to catch Ace. While they were playing cat and mouse, Ace realized that East never attacked anyone other than him. It puzzled him greatly, why he did that. A few times East hit ranged guardians who were in his way. But, he then just ignored them and continued to chase him.

Ace then realized that the ghoul was not too smart. If he became East, he would attack the weaker targets, either to give his enemies problems behind their defensive line and to force Ace to face him directly.

As it was an advantage for him and his side, he didn't think about it anymore. He just ran away from the ghoul while throwing his card to the elite ghoul continuously.

He then tried to lure East to enter the town. And as he had expected, the ghoul still followed him. Then their battle shifted to the abandoned town. After a few minutes of fighting in the town, Ace succeeded to shave his HP little by little. The ghoul's HP at the moment was just above 70%. 

In fact, Ace could do better, but because almost half of the cards that he had thrown were missed, he had to be patient. A few times he had to drink high-grade blue potions to replenish his mana, as his mana had almost bottomed out. Fortunately, he had a large stock of them. As a guild master, he brought many of them, as he didn't know when his guild members needed them.

At a moment, he then thought of something, 'Don't I have a dice that could slow someone down. Stupid me! Why do I just remember it now?.'

He then equipped the dice to his left hand. So he could only use his right hand to throw cards. He also assigned East as the target of his dice's attack. The way to use the dice was different from his cards. That he just had to throw them to his target. 

Using the dice was pretty convenient. First, you had to decide the target, then you had to just throw the dice, and the effect would be activated after the dice stopped moving. 

Ace had to say that this weapon was so easy to use. And the target couldn't avoid the effect of the dice, as long as he was within 100 meters radius of the caster.

Ace then threw the dice. As he was running at high speed, it was impossible to know the result of his throwing. However, he then felt East's speed had decreased. However, it was enough. Ace then turned his body and threw his card to the slow East. But somehow he could avoid it by rolling sideways. 

Knowing that his attack had failed, Ace cursed in his heart. He also turned his body and ran again as East began to chase him again. 

'What the heck? It's such a failure weapon,' Ace complained in his heart and unequipped the dice.

So he came back to use his cards to attack the ghoul. Even if only one of his cards could hit East, at least it could hit. Not like when he used the dice. As he could only use one card, it would be wasted if it couldn't hit the ghoul.

He then concluded that slowing someone didn't mean that he lost his reaction speed. Agility and reaction speed were two different things. Even if Ace succeeded to decrease the agility of the ghoul, East could avoid his card because he had a great reaction speed. So it was not a matter of stats but the quality of the person.

He then remembered that his brother could avoid his attack when they had sparring in the past. It meant although his brother's agility was low because of his job. His instinct and experience could make up for it.

As he knew that the dice was useless for him, he decided to give it to Aiden. Of course, not for free. He would be placed in a special item list that could only be exchanged with guild points in the guild shop. As it was an A-grade weapon its price should not be too cheap. 

'10,000 guild points should be right,' Ace said in his heart.

After going around the town, he arrived at the side of the town where the two armies were fighting at the other side of the stone wall. He then jumped directly to the top of the wall which was 5 meters tall. It gave him some time to check the war situation, as East must seek a way up first. So at least Ace had a minute to take a breath.

Ace then looked around the entire battlefield. The skeletons were still fighting. But, as their number had been reduced greatly, it would take some time for the fight to end. Ace even thought that Doom would do 'that' soon.

As he shifted his attention to the battle between the golems and the zombie, he saw an interesting thing just below the wall.

***