New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live-Chapter 1084: Surrounded, But Not Prey

Alex knew he could break the formation if he damned wanted. However, the formation would be a boon to them if a fight broke out when they got to Gu Fang.

It would protect them from prying outer eyes.

He didn’t really care about who saw him use his powers at this point. But David, Kary, and even Kujaku had been vehement about keeping the secret for the time being.

He didn’t understand why it was such a big deal, considering a few places had started outing their awakened, and North Korea had even recently flaunted theirs, saying if they had been the ones to be attacked by intruders, their awakened would have thrashed them.

He wasn’t sure what they were talking about, with their intruder’s comment, but he had a feeling he could trample on most awakened players outside the game.

Maybe inside New Eden, they stood a chance, if they were among the top ten players. But out here, in the real world, they were a far cry away from having his amount of mana or mana control. freёnovelkiss-com

Lost in his thoughts, Alex realized a little too late that people had snuck around his party, and his gaze became cold.

"Everyone stop. We aren’t alone," he called out, raising his fist to motion them to halt.

Of course, most of his voice was lost to the wind, since everyone wore ear protection. But his gesture was recognized immediately, and by how stiff his body had become, a few of them already knew something was up.

As everyone stopped in their tracks, suddenly glancing around warily, Alex kept his gaze ahead, where he felt a familiar presence.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Alex tried expanding his senses further through the fog, putting more mana into them, but could barely gain an extra few feet. It was enough to see that the elder wasn’t alone, though.

Alex reached for his belt but remembered he no longer had a sword since he sold it to the Korean a few days back.

"Reaching for a weapon before you even know how many we are? That’s very unwise of you, Mr. Leduc. Then again, that fits our assessment of you and your demonic tendencies. Now, tell me. To what do we owe the displeasure of your intrusion on our mountain? Come to make true upon Mr. Magnus’ promise?" his voice echoed through the fog.

The others could barely hear a murmur, and since they couldn’t see the old man, his voice echoing strangely through the fog, the entire scene became eery.

"You know why we are here, Elder Bai. Give us back who you took, and no one has to get hurt. I would prefer it, even," Alex responded, his eyes still locked on the mana signature he recognized.

The elder could tell he was being stared at from within the fog. However, even with this truth, he also knew that the demon wasn’t paying attention to all the others with him, which was a grave mistake.

"Èmó, you come here armed, and with friends, and you expect me to believe you have no ill intention? You cannot believe we are this stupid, can you?" Elder Bai mocked.

Alex grimaced at the veiled insult, but he bit the tip of his tongue to keep himself from responding aggressively.

"We just want to get our friend back, and then we’ll be out of your hair. Is that not what you would prefer as well? I doubt you want to take the chance of us reaching the top of this mountain and laying waste to your base and all its people.

"Why else would you have come down here to meet us, accompanied by fifteen other men?" Alex said, waving to the fog around his group.

The elder was surprised for a second, since that was precisely the number of his men. But he quickly pushed that surprise aside, realizing that he was still skewed about their composition even if he had an accurate read on the numbers.

Elder Bai had only brought fourteen of his own disciples, and the last man was not a disciple at all.

From within the fog, Elder Yang took this as an opportunity to strike and lower their enemy’s numbers.

Masking his presence, the Elder pulled out four triangular-shaped objects with razor-sharp edges, and aimed at the tall man in the back, whose complexion matched the deceased.

With a quick whip of his arms, the four objects flew at his target, zipping through the fog like swallows diving to catch prey.

He grinned as he expected his movements to go unseen and his target to drop.

But a whistling sound blew past his ear, as the four thrown knives were knocked off course, hitting the ground around his pale-skinned target, a woman behind him suddenly holding a strangely shaped bow in her hands.

Behind David, Jin-Sil grinned as she locked on to the direction from which the knives had come.

She had merely reacted to the sound of something cutting through the wind and shot at the incoming objects using the reflexes she had honed within New Eden.

She was waiting for more to come, her bowstring already taut, but David looked down at his feet and then pushed her bow down.

"Swallow knives. I know that was you, Yang Shi. I’ve heard about you before. Supposedly one of the greatest assassins in Chinese history, recruited by the Zhong Kui as an Elder to train the new generation of silent killers.

"I heard you disliked taking orders from people that didn’t pay you. Why are you suddenly acting as a lapdog for the fox?" David mocked.

Inside the fog, Elder Yang frowned. His name held some kind of renown before, when he had indeed been a contract killer. But he was certain he had erased all traces of his previous life when he joined the Zhong Kui.

"What would you know of this, pale skin? Do not talk beyond your knowledge," Elder Yang spat, throwing two more swallow knives.

This time, though, David raised his hand and adeptly caught both knives between his fingers.

"This would have only worked with me unaware," he grinned, as Kary shouted over him.

"Circle formation! Now!"

The group went from a loosely positioned gang to a well-formed circle in seconds, the casters in the center, as those who could frontline stepped between them and the fog.

Alex glared at Elder Bai, even though he couldn’t exactly see him, and spat on the ground.

"Fine. If you want to fight this out, we’ll grant you your wish, old fogey."

But on his side, Elder Bai was already cursing his peer for attacking them before he could ascertain their purpose.

Seeing them fall into formation, the fourteen disciples he had brought with him reacted on instinct and launched forward to initiate combat while they still had the advantage of being unseen.

Two of them dashed toward Alexander, hoping to get some clean hits off him while the man was distracted by his conversation.

But Alexander had no intention of being lenient with them this time.

As the two young men appeared within his circle of perception, Alex didn’t let them reach him.

Two small stones appeared above his hand, their point sharp like a bullet, and launched toward them at high speed.

"Stone bullet," Alex mumbled, adding power to the spell.

Inside New Eden, it was a well-known truth that adding words to your spell acted like a catalyst for power and made any spell more powerful.

Some mages even made it their specialty to add long chants to even the most basic of spells, powering them far beyond the normal range of normality.

But Alex looked down on this as a crutch for the less powerful. He preferred silent casting, which allowed him to use spells on the fly, taking his enemies by surprise.

His power and control over mana made up for the lost power plenty. Sadly, outside New Eden, the same couldn’t be applied as much.

But adding even only two words boosted the power of the spell high enough to make it lethal.

The stone bullets flew forward, almost breaking the sound barrier as the air bent around them from the pressure of their speed.

"Dùn!" Elder Bai hastily chanted, raising two fingers to his mouth.

The barriers barely had time to form before the stones punched through them, shattering them like glass and hitting his two disciples in the forehead.

The impact had been robbed of most of its strength, but not enough to render the stone bullets useless.

The two men’s heads whipped backward, the stone bullets flying off into the fog after hitting them, but the damage was done.

What would have been two kill shots, turned into two wounds bleeding profusely on the young men’s foreheads, making them realize what they had tried going after.

Alex clicked his tongue in disappointment, realizing the old man was still as quick to save his allies as last time, and he focused back on him.

"I told you last time that I wouldn’t be as gentle the next time we fought. I hope your men are prepared to die," he said, his tone growing cold.

Elder Bai shivered at the threat. There was no hesitation in the man’s voice, and his killing intent was palpable.

"Everyone stand down!" he shouted, trying to keep his men in line.

But another voice drowned his, making his face drain of all its blood.

"KILL ALL THE INTRUDERS!" Elder Yang shouted, letting anger cloud his judgment.

The disciples roared in answer, lunging at the intruders on their sacred mountain. Battle instantly erupted.