Second World Novel

Most of the huts around his current area had already been demolished. He ran to the other side of the encampment, seeking to hide from the two Lizardmen first for the time being. At least until the berserk effect of the Lizardman Chief was over.

"You should have attacked just now when you had the chance," Peniel came flying next to Jack.

"Why is that?" Jack asked while running.

"During that kind of berserk state, the monster's defense is usually weakened," she answered.

Jack glanced back. No, it would still be too risky at this time, while the Lizardman Archer was still around to interfere. He asked Peniel, "please tell me that berserk skill of his got a time limit."

"It should be," Peniel answered with a smile, she seemed to be enjoying the show.

Jack had no time to comment on her expression. He weaved through the hut and trying to break away from the two Lizardmen's line of sight. Luckily the Chief's berserk version of speed was still not faster than Jack's.

When he thought they had lost him, he stopped and tried not to make any movement. He could hear the Chief demolishing every hut he got closed to out of fury, and also to reduce the amount of places Jack could use for hiding.

Jack took out another Basic Healing Potion and drank it, the cooldown for using potions had long over. He now had only two bottles left. He rested and allowed his Natural Body Recovery to heal the remaining HP.

Peniel was flying above where he was hiding while observing the two Lizardmen who were busying themselves looking for Jack. Jack looked at her helplessly and said, "lady, can you please stop flying above there? You will just expose my position. Can't you just watch from your hidden dimension?"

She flew down and replied to Jack with a tease, "tee-hee, it is more fun watching directly. I will just fly over there instead, might even fool them to give you more time."

She then went to the place she had mentioned, leaving Jack to recuperate further. Jack just remembered now that he wanted to ask Peniel how long usually that berserk would last, but she was out of whispering distance already. If he shouted to her, the Lizardmen might hear as well. So he just stayed quiet.

The two red dots were moving closer, while the sounds of hut breakings were also closer. Now that Jack thought about it, the one that broke the huts was only the Lizardman Chief. The Lizardman Archer didn't have enough raw power to do it. So he could determine which dot was the Chief from the hut breaking sound.

With that as a reference, he crept in silent around the Lizardman Chief and towards the Lizardman Archer. The Archer seemed to always stay some distance behind the Chief. It must not have expected Jack to have this radar system that allowed him to pinpoint their positions even without seeing them.

Jack was now only several meters away from the Lizardman Archer, he was going to make a surprise attack once the Lizardman Chief broke another hut.

When he heard the sound, he came out of his hiding and aimed its staff at the Lizardman Archer. But his opponent's reflex seemed to be rather fast as well. It immediately noticed Jack and aimed its bow. The two of them shot their ammunition at the same time. Jack's Mana Bullet passed side by side with the slim arrow.

Although surprised by the Lizardman's counterattack, Jack still managed to duck in time to avoid the arrow. But to his astonishment, the Lizardman Archer also ducked and dodged his Mana Bullet.

Crap! This one was more agile than the Shaman, Jack cursed in his mind.

The Lizardman Archer then screeched a warning to its comrade. The Lizardman Chief immediately turned around after hearing it. Jack could see the Chief still had that coat of red glow around it, the berserk effect was not off yet. It came running towards Jack with fast speed.

Jack knew he would never be able to deal with the two of them while the Chief was still in a berserk state. So he immediately turned tail and ran away. He ran towards the place where there were still some wooden huts standing, amidst volley of arrows. His HP was continuously chipped by each arrow. He swore he would get that Lizardman Archer next.

"How long will that berserk state last?" He asked Peniel who had come flying next to him.

"I don't know, it's different for each monster," she answered. "But the longest in record was five minutes, so it shouldn't be longer than that."

Jack glanced back as he continued to run, the Lizardman Chief was still chasing after him with the eerie red glow. If what Peniel said was right, then the berserk should be coming off soon.

He immediately dashed behind a hut once he reached one, the arrows that was still chasing him stuck on the wall. Jack moved from hut to hut to get out of their line of sight. He soon heard sound of hut getting demolished again. He had to defeat the Lizardman Archer fast. If not, all the huts in this encampment would be destroyed soon, except for the giant main hut at the center. Then he would not be able to play hide and seek with these Lizardman again.

He looked at his radar and crept back again. He was repeating his previous strategy to get close to the Lizardman Archer. But now that he knew the Archer's agility, he would need to get closer to pull it into melee combat.

The berserk should be off already by now, Jack thought as he made a rough calculation on the time when the effect had started. Still, he decided to wait another minute just to be sure, while continued to stay close with the Lizardman Archer without it being aware.

Once Jack considered it to be safe enough, he came out and immediately casted Energy Bolts and Charge. Since the Energy Bolts had tracking property, the Lizardman Archer's agility was useless. The Bolts chased after it and struck its body. It managed to dodge Jack's Charge though. Jack followed up with Swing after Charge, the large area of attack caused the agile Archer to unable to dodge this time.

He then used his speed to stick closed to the Archer and continued to slash on it. It was harder to hit the Archer as it had faster movement speed compared to the Shaman, Jack roughly could hit him once out of every two attempts.

The Lizardman Chief was closing in, but its berserk state had really gone, so it took longer time for it to come to the Archer's rescue. Jack sent it a Mana Bullet to hinder it a bit. He then looked for a chance to strike a sure hit on the Archer and used Power Strike, which send the creature flying towards the Lizardman Chief.

He then ran away again to hide among the remaining huts.

He repeated this hit and run tactic again another two times, chipping another chunk of HP from the Lizardman Archer.

The Lizardman Chief was furious, he performed the spinning attack again to raze the still standing huts down. There were now only six wooden huts left apart from the giant one at the center of encampment. Jack would soon run out of places to hide.

The Lizardman Archer had also wised up after getting ambushed several times. It now stayed close to the Lizardman Chief. In this way, even if Jack ambushed it, the Chief would be able to deal with him soon.

Good thing for Jack was that after his several hit and run attacks, the Lizardman Archer only had 20% HP left. He just needed another burst of attacks to take out its remaining life. He was analyzing if he should take the risk of dealing with the two monsters at the same time in order to kill the Lizardman Archer.