Fate Online: Shadow

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When Michael and the team of players following behind him finally made a two hundred meter distance from Stormwind Fortress, he suddenly around and charge towards them, which startled the group of players who had been following him since the beginning, but they quickly got over it and immediately into a battle formation.

But when Michael was halfway towards them, he suddenly smiled and quickly turned towards the side of the road where there's a small forest, with low level players currently busy killing the small monsters like foxes and the like.

"After him!"

One of them quickly got over his shock at the turn of events and immediately yelled as he quickly followed behind Michael, with the others immediately following behind the Assassin who's leading the chase, and when those low levelled players saw these high level players suddenly barging on their leveling ground, they immediately made way for them, especially when they saw that they were chasing after an Assassin who's clad in a black cloak.

In fact, Michael wasn't trying to escape from them, as he was trying to make a detour towards Dosier Mountains, as he knew that there would certainly be an ambush waiting for him if he takes the main road.

But because there's no such thing as a map where the system would show players the enemies around them like the previous virtual games. Michael and all of the players would need to rely on their instinct and judgement to determine where their enemies are hiding.

And because Michael wasn't the only smart person in the world, the leader of the guild that's hunting him down already knew that he would certainly detour from the main road the moment he ordered his men to not even bother to hide themselves anymore.

That's the reason why he already spread fifteen teams at every possible location that Michael would escape through, and currently right now, all the teams far or near are moving towards the location that Michael is moving towards, where another team is silently waiting for him at the base of the Dosier Mountain Range from the direction that Michael is moving to, and that's the reason why the chasing team behind him are keeping their distance from him and acting like they were relentlessly chasing after him, even though they already knew what's going to happen later if Michael continues moving forward towards the ambush location.

"Boss, the target is only two hundred meters away from the nearest ambush location"

"Good, make sure to hold him down, the nearest team are already making their way towards your location. Remember to just hold him down and do not engage him recklessly, we'll kill him when four teams or more are gathered together so that he'll fail the quest after he dies"

The other members might think that it was an overkill for them to use four teams of players just to kill a lone player, but their guild leader doesn't think so, as it's better to be safe than sorry.

One of his beliefs is to never underestimate an enemy, be it they are alone or weaker than them.

Because underestimation is one of the biggest mistakes that a person could do. After all, you might never know that the person that you had looked before would become a successful and influential person after a few years, while you on the other hand is still stuck in your own dream that would never come true

Meanwhile.

A lone player and along with a group of players behind him are currently running through the woods, as the group of players chased behind the lone player trying to escape from them.

Michael had already noticed that something was wrong when he noticed that the players who's been chasing behind him is keeping their distance from him, even though they could have literally catch up to him after he slowed down.

'There's certainly an ambush ahead of me'

He thought, as Michael could feel his instinct telling him of the danger ahead, thanks to his high perception attribute.

But Michael didn't care as he predicted that it would probably be just a team or two, and he could still escape from them. After all, if he was the one commanding this, then he would certainly spread his men around like an encompassing net, where the net would tighten when the prey enters the scope of the net, and Michael had already entered their net, so he could only charge ahead to escape from their encirclement.

Ahead of him, Michael quickly noticed a huntress that suddenly revealed herself from behind a tree and leaned her back on it as she pulled the bowstring of her bow and aimed at Michael.

'Crap' Michael cursed when he saw her arrow getting covered in frost, and the only thing he saw was a flash before he felt a slight pain on one of his shoulders, which truly surprised him as he didn't even notice when the arrow left its bow.

"F*ck!" Michael cursed as he immediately marked that huntress as dangerous, and good thing he didn't decrease his speed and he even increased, or else he would have been hacked by sword light that came for his head from behind him!

But Micahel continued to charge forward, as he persevered through the attacks flying towards him from every direction, and he had already drank two Greater Healing Potion during this course of time, and he finally arrived at the spot where the first ambush was waiting for him.

And the melee fighters immediately came out of their hiding places and charge towards him. Now, Michael is suffering from attacks at his front and behind him, but ignored most of them as he put all of his attention at the huntress that shot him earlier.

And when both people saw each other up close, they saw in their eyes that startled look.

'Solitary Tempest!?'

'Shadow!? So he's that anonymous player in the leaderboards!'

Both players suddenly burned with ferocity, as Solitary Tempest' attack speed suddenly picked up in speed, while Michael suddenly flickered towards her direction!

Michael's dagger suddenly glowed black, while his silhouette disappeared for a second and suddenly appeared in mid-air above them, his dagger had suddenly looked longer because of the black aura surrounding it.

Michael slashed it towards Solitary Tempest, under the shock gazes of the rest of the players!

"[Mortal Blow]!"

Mortal Blow

Your weapon would be covered in blade aura which would make you disappear for a second and appears again in midair to strike enemies on the ground with huge blade aura slash before landing back on the ground.

Effects: Deal 140% damage. Target is killed instantly if below 20% Health.

Mana Cost: 150

Cooldown: 30

A crescent moon like slash made from Michael's blade aura sped towards Solitary Tempest head like a charging arrow, but instead of panicking like other players would, her eyes were very calm like she was already expecting a surprise attack from him.

A grappling hook suddenly shot out from her other hand and coiled itself on a tree branch before she got pulled over, as she managed to slight dodge Michael's attack by a hair's breadth, but she still took a bit of the damage from it.

Everything happened so fast within a few seconds that those players who were supposed to be attacking Michael, just stopped and watched the scene in front of them, especially the two Assassins as their eyes glittered with excitement as they didn't know that an Assassin is actually this cool and more dangerous than they thought!

Michael landed on the ground, and immediately took the chance that all of them are still reeling in shock and bolted out of there!

Swoosh!

"Dammit! What you guys dilly dallying around for!? After him!" Solitary Tempest yelled at them frustrated, as she didn't expect that they would be this unreliable.

And the cat and mouse chase once again begun, while their guild leader is raging at them in the guild chat for their incompetence, while Solitary Tempest, or Amanda just ignored him as she was just a hired mercenary for them.

Amanda's blood is actually boiling with excitement, it was because opponents like Michael who have unpredictable movements are the best opponents that a person like her could hope for!

It was because she noticed that Michael wasn't even frantic when he was already surrounded earlier, and he even dared to attack her under the barrage of attacks coming from multiple players, showing how skilled he is from being able to dodge most of them!

And his eyes, it was so calm that she felt like he was looking at them with disdain like a king would be to his subjects!

And if they fought one on one, she wouldn't even mind using her skills of Krav Maga to fight him!

After all, there are only a few who could compete against her in game mechanics!

And those people...are the guild leaders of the nine major guilds!

But that was their limit, they couldn't even kill her when they had teamed up before from a previous game before Fate Online.

But that's also Amanda's limit, if she was gaming goddess in the gaming community, then in real life, she will only be considered an ant in front of a true expert! Even the weakest Five Blade assassin could kill her without her even knowing how she died!

In fact, Michael was so surprised when he saw her earlier. After all, the woman is clearly from Macedon, a small kingdom, two kingdoms away, south of Sunrise Empire, and of course, Michael might have learned about her earlier if he didn't turn off the system notifications when her attack landed on one of his shoulders earlier.

Meanwhile.

'Seriously, why is she here?' Michael thought, and he didn't even think that she joined the guild who's targeting as she clearly wasn't wearing their guild emblem, especially when he read some information about her that she had never once join a guild, and had always been a lone wolf most of the time.

'They probably hired her, or she's completing a quest with them, and if it's the latter, then is probably related to the quest I took from them'

And Michael didn't recognize that it was Amanda, because she was wearing a mask that covers half of her face, or he would be freaking out right now if he did.

*****

"F*ck! Does assassins even have a skill similar to a Wizards' Flicker!?"

A Barbarian yelled in frustration, when he saw Michael flashing before their eyes and appearing for another few meters away from them, as they continued to chase after him, while slowly ascending a part of Dosier Mountain Range.

Flicker

Teleports a short distance away. For 1 second after the teleport, the duration of CC effects against the you is reduced by 50%. This ability has a cooldown of 120 seconds.