Novis had managed to make it through the forest just in time to see Frank, just inches away from Ashley with his blade. Novis knew he had to act immediately and swung out his chain sword wrapping it around Franks weapon. All of sudden Frank felt like his arm was being pulled by a tow truck.

Frank tried his best to pull his hand forward but it wasn't budging an inch.

"Just what kind of monstrous strength does he have?" Frank thought.

Then Novis pulled on the chain harder pulling Frank towards him and at the same time Novis swung his second chain blade at Frank. Novis wanted to get rid of one of the members as soon as possible.

Alex had told them they were perfect as a team but when they played against the better teams, as soon as they lost one of their players it would all fall apart.

But Novis's second chain blade bounced back as another Hershel team member came in blocking the attack with their shield. Then another player whacked his sword against the chain sending a vibration down the chain to Novis's body.

The attack was surprisingly strong and Novis knew if he didn't let go his weapon would break. Once that happened, he would no longer be able to use the weapon for that whole game. It was one of the downsides of the chain blade.

Sword weapons in VSW were made with equal durability. When one sword hit another the system designed it so they both wouldn't break. This was also true for Novis's sword part of his chain sword weapon but not for the chain links themselves. The chain sword was considered a ranged weapon and in order to nerf the weapon a little, they decided to make the chains have weaker durability.

It was still able to block weaker attacks just fine such as arrows and daggers but when it came to a physical attack on the chain itself that was different.

While Novis was still holding onto the chain sword he quickly used his skill to switch the chain blade out for his duel blades. Causing his chain blade to go back in his inventory.

Ashley had now regained her footing and so did Novis. At the same time, the two of them went in for an attack.

"Defensive formation." Once again, the whole team went to their turtle-like shape not leaving an inch of space for Novis or Ashley to attack.

"How can that be fair? Can't any team just all select shield warriors and do that?" One of the Montem students complained.

"Fair, of course, it's fair, do you know how hard it is to pull something off like that? Each member of Hershal has to be able to move in sync with each other and not allow for a single mistake. If one person is behind in the formation then a team can take advantage of that. I can't imagine the hours they must have put in to practice a formation like this."

"Attack the knights!" Alex shouted.

Novis and Ashley fell back to the tower where the NPC knights were attacking. They quickly dealt with each one of them. For now, Hershal stood outside of the towers range and would wait until their NPC knights would arrive for their next attack.

"Where's Dan?" Alex asked.

"He's hurt so he's running a bit behind."

"Hurt what do you mean hurt?"

Alex didn't understand as all of Hershal team members were currently here. Then Alex thought back to the appearance of Dan when he first entered the room. He suddenly understood. This was bad not only was Hershel stronger than Alex had anticipated, but it also seemed like everything was going wrong for their team at the moment.

Finally, the 10 NPC knights from Hershal and Montem arrived. Hershal changed to their attack formation destroying the ten enemy Knights in an instant, allowing their Knights to move forward. Now they were in attack formation.

"I'll deal with the knights attacking the tower, you two deal with the Hershal team," Alex instructed.

It was a big task but Alex knew they needed to protect the tower, but what this meant was Ashley and Novis had to go against 5 members at once.

The Hershal team moved forward in their arrow-like formation with their shields in front of them. Novis and Ashley charged forward attacking trying to stop their momentum but it was useless. As they would attack one person, one would block and then the other would attack.

Their timing was perfect. This contained on for a while and slowly without realising it. The Hershal team had surrounded Novis and Ashley in a circle. Now there was no way for the two of them to escape.

This also left little room for the two of them to dodge which was how they were avoiding most of their strikes by now. Novis went in to attack and when he jumped back to avoid the strike, he found the sword of the enemy scratching his chest.

"If we don't get out of here, we're going to lose!" Novis shouted.

Just then Dan came running through the forest hitting one of Hershal teams' members from behind, causing a break in their circle formation. Giving a chance for Novis and Ashley to break free.

"Defensive formation," Frank shouted

And in an instant, they were back in their turtle-like shell. Dan was about to rush in and attack but Ashley quickly stopped him.

"Don't it's useless while they're like that."

Dan nodded in response. The truth was Dan wanted to rush in there and try to finish them as quickly as possible. Dan knew that he couldn't last much longer as the pain was only getting worse, not better. Dan knew if the fight continued on, he wouldn't be able to continue to play.

<Enemy tower destroyed>

Finally, Scarlett was able to destroy the first tower of the Hershal team and was currently moving on forward to the second tower.