Chapter 90: Stop them!
Scarlett had been doing her best to take down the towers as fast as she could. Slowly she was starting to be more accurate with her hits taking down the NPC knights with a couple of arrows each, as she would hit the head more often.
Finally, she had taken down the first tower and quickly started to move onto the next.
"Phew!" Scarlett said as she checked the status screen.
She could see that all of her teammates were still alive which was a good sign.
*****
With the Hershel team temporary stunned by the message that appeared, it gave the chance for the Montem team to regroup. The knights had all been defeated and the tower was no longer in danger.
The Hershel team was waiting on Frank's command on what they should do next. Alex knew that Hershal had two choices. They could choose to continue fighting five against four and capture the flag before Ashley reached their flag, or they could go back as a group to protect their tower.
In all the games Alex had watched so far, Hershal played with confidence. It wasn't like nobody had ever done this strategy before. But they always chose to fight it out 5 vs 4 if this situation arrived. Alex was hoping Hershal would do this exact thing as this would give them the most time to hold off Hershal, while Scarlett pushed forward.
The Hershel team stood still momentarily, then Frank gave the command.
"Fall back, protect the tower."
Alex's eyes felt like they were about to pop out of his head as he saw the Hershal team retreat back. This was an unexpected move that they had never done before, so why do it today?
Frank knew he had two choices and if it was any other game, he would have chosen to attack but there was something telling him to be cautious. After watching the match with Eton and feeling Novis's power in person. Frank had a feeling that the team in front of him, wouldn't be as easy to deal with as everyone else thought.
As Alex saw Hershel retreat, he needed to make a decision fast. Originally, Alex hoped they would be able to stay by their tower. When a team was a player down the tower acted as a good defence, it was almost as if you had a fifth player on your team.
But if Alex and the team went to stop Hershal from advancing, then it would truly be a 4 vs 5 situation.
"What do we do?" Ashley said looking at Alex.
Alex readied his shield and sword and shouted.
"Attack, don't let them get to Scarlett no matter what!"
The Hershel team was suddenly surprised when they heard the sound of footsteps from behind them. As they turned around, they could see a spear flying through the sky Infront of them. Frank was the quickest to react lifting up his shield just in time deflecting the spear.
Montem needed to be aggressive and full-on with their attack. Otherwise, the Hershel team would be able to just run away and hide behind their tower. If the Hershal team managed to retreat back in enough to get into range of their tower, then it would be all over for Montem.
The battle was fierce, Novis constantly would switch between his duel blades and chain blade. The chain blade would often be used to stop Hershal from retreating. Every time they would slightly fall back, Novis was able to attack with his chain blade, using its range.
Alex would help to deflect attacks that were targeted at Novis. As Hershal could straight away see Novis was a problem target. Ashley was also doing well manging to attack fearlessly and avoid the strikes but she was sweating heavily and didn't know how much longer she could keep it up.
On the other hand, Dan was struggling the most. It was important for him to get up close and personal to the warriors he was fighting. The problem was Dan's reaction time seemed to be slower than usual. Causing him to get a few scratches here and there.
While the Hershal team were busy fighting, Frank the leader was assessing the situation. After watching everyone fight for a while, Frank determined that If they wanted to retreat, they needed to get rid of Novis first.
The order for retreat was cancelled.
"Forget about the fist user, deal with the chain guy!" Frank shouted.
Frank new once they got rid of Novis the whole match would be over. Suddenly, there where three people on Novis instead of two. Novis had managed to fend off two well so far but three was a bit too much.
Frank decided that he alone would be enough to deal with Dan and Alex. Although Frank was only a sliver player, he knew how to play defensively. He was able to use his body and shield and attack at just the right time. This way Novis was unable to receive backup from his teammates.
Novis was doing the best he could to fend off the three attacks with his duel blades but he was constantly getting pushed back. Finally, one of the Hershel team managed to knock Novis off balance with their shield.
At the same time, Dan was watching the whole thing from the side. Frank had been doing a good job from stopping them from giving Novis any support but Dan also knew that currently, he was useless to the team.
Dan charged forward without care for himself. Frank saw this and went for a slash strike against Dan's stomach but Alex too had been watching Frank closely and managed to figure out his attack patterns.
"shield block!"
At the same time as the strike, Alex dashed forward using his shield block skill causing Frank's sword to bounce off.
Dan continued to run over to Novis as fast as he could. Novis could now see one of the team's swords in front of him ready to pierce his head.
"Dammit! Are we really going to lose, after everything we've been through?"
Just before the sword was able to reach Novis. A body had jumped in front of him causing the sword to hit the body instead. A second later and the body had burst into a bunch of blue particles.
Dan had been killed.