...…

While Arthur and Leonard were keeping their respective opponents occupied, Sildra was starting to get frustrated with the battle on his side. Not only Archimedes did improve since the last time they fought, but the Archer Wingman seemed to also pick up a couple of tricks under his sleeves that were catching him from time to time.

His original plan was to overwhelm Archimedes with his natural speed alongside the skills that he recently received from the Serpent King.

At the same time, he was also planning to force his rival to use his wings and fly up in the air so that he could use the locked down skill from arsenal before following it up with an execution skill.

But no matter how much Sildra baited Archimedes, the latter still refused to bite it and persistently stayed on the ground while keeping a considerable distance away from his opponent.

Realizing that there was no point in staying here any longer, Sildra wanted to get away from this place and proceed to his original objective. And that was capturing the souls of Garuda and the Serpent King once they weakened each other enough.

Moreover, staying here was not a good idea for him given that the other side had a 'monster' that he was sure that he couldn't take on. And to make it even worse, another 'monster' with an equal strength suddenly arrived.

Now that those two were still occupied with dealing with the top experts of the Primal Kingdom, it was the right time for Sildra to escape.

Unfortunately, Archimedes seemed to be able to read what was running inside his head and started a restless assault, preventing Sildra to run away.

"Tsk! Such a persistent bird!"

Due to the rapid attacks that Archimedes was sending at him, Sildra couldn't create enough breathing space for himself to create a path for his escape.

He needed to retreat as soon as possible, but he also knew that the moment turned his back around, Archimedes would surely grab that opportunity to snipe him down. Even with the cover of his stealth skills, the Archer would still be able to spot him and lock his aim using his special observation skills 'Hunter's Eyes'.

He fell victim to those skills multiple times already when they fought each other at the Azure Kingdom. Just like how he was baiting Archimedes to fly in the air for his trap, he was sure that the latter was also waiting for him to turn his back and run.

Caught with this difficult dilemma, Sildra was now stuck with Archimedes as he already lost his chance to escape due to his hesitation.

But while both sides were trying to feel their opponents, an unexpected guest suddenly joined the party.

"I finally found you, Dragonoid!"

Hearing the unfamiliar voice, both Archimedes and Sildra suddenly stopped attacking each other before turning their heads towards the direction where that voice was coming from; they wanted to know whether it was an ally or foe.

From the distance, they saw Mammon walked out from the shadow of a boulder while playing with his huge butcher knife and scimitar dagger.

At the same time, Arthur and Leonard suddenly paused their respective battles by forcing their opponents to back away from them.

"Tsk! Here is the most troublesome part," said Arthur while clicking his tongue.

"So, how are we going to deal with this?" whispered Leonard on the voice party channel.

Arthur was knitting his brow as he was trying to decide whether to stay on his spot and continue dealing with opponents or leave them behind and charge towards Mammon.

But while he was still deciding what to do, both of them suddenly heard Shin's voice from the channel, saying. "Finish what you are doing on your side, let us buy you some time."

Arthur was silent for a moment before sneering at Shin. "You've grown some balls now? Are you sure you can handle that guy?"

"F*ck! Don't you dare try me! You may be stronger than me inside the game but I can at least beat you to a pulp in Real World!" cursed Shin after hearing those words.

"Hehe, but we are currently talking about in-game stuff here," chuckled Arthur before turning his attention back to his opponents while saying. "But I'm up for a little spar in the Real World when we are done with this."

After that, both Arthur and Leonard resume their battles not caring about Mammon anymore.

...

Meanwhile, Archimedes and Sildra felt their bodies were frozen in place the moment they felt the cold aura that Mammon was currently releasing; they both knew that this new guy was as strong as Arthur and Leonard.

Cold sweats broke out from different parts of their bodies as Mammon continued making his way towards them. "Let me give you a piece of advice, hand over the container for the Dragon Soul before I forcefully take it from you."

"Such items are guaranteed to drop when its holder dies, right?" he added as a warning for Sildra while more killing intent leaked out from his body.

Archimedes, on the other hand, was still heisting whether to attack Mammon or not. Based on the words that the latter just said, he was sure that this guy was not on the same side as Sildra. But from the threatening feeling that he was getting, he knew that this person was not on their side either.

Seeing that he was not getting the response that he wanted, Mammon suddenly disappeared from his current position before reappearing behind Archimedes like a ghost.

"Since you guys still don't understand your current situation, then let me put you as an example first," said Mammon as he brandished his butcher knife at the Wingman.

Archimedes' eyes suddenly turned wide as he couldn't respond to the speed of his opponent. He tried to escape his current predicament but his body refused to budge due to his reflex not being able to keep up with the sudden attack.

Shing!

Clang!

But before Archimedes' head was severed from his shoulders, a saber unexpectedly deflected the blade of Mammon's butcher knife and saved the Wingman from the clutches of death.

"Tsk!"

Seeing the unexpected turn of events, Mammon couldn't help but clicked his tongue before quickly retreating from his current position, dodging a couple of slashes from the owner of the saber that denied his assassination earlier.

"You again? You are starting to get on my nerves for getting in my way since earlier," said Mammon with a frown as he saw Shin standing behind Archimedes.

Meanwhile, Shin smirked at his words before replying with a sneering tone. "I don't care if I get on your nerves since it can only mean that you can no longer ignore my presence anymore."

"You know? It quite upsets me that you always run away from me when I'm itching to fight someone at your level," he added provokingly.

Mammon suddenly wore a deep frown as he could sense the insult from Shin's words. "Me? Running away from you? Kid, it looks like you're misunderstanding the leniency that I gave to you."

"I'm just too lazy to fight someone as weak as you, but it looks like I now need to show you the difference of our strengths," he said with a heavy tone before releasing a much denser killing intent.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

At the same time, three more people arrived beside Shin before quickly getting into a battle formation.

But before they could start casting their spells, Shin suddenly raised one of his sabers and prevented them from making any sudden moves.

Confused, Cloe knitted her brow and asked. "Don't tell me you are planning to fight alone? This is not the right time for your so-called Martial-Artist's Pride!"

Hearing her complaints, Shin chuckled a little before replying. "Don't worry, I know my limit. And I'm not planning to fight him with a gentleman's agreement anyway."

After that, he looked over his shoulder and gave out his orders, assuming to be the one in command. "Luck, go deal with those guys running towards this side. Make sure that no one is going to get near the battlefield."

He then paused for a moment to take a quick glance at the Wingman standing on his other side, checking his current state. "Daulla, go help Archimedes capture Sildra – use the imprisonment cube that I gave you earlier."

Daulla opened and closed her mouth, trying to say something but she immediately swallowed back her words when she saw Archimedes' exhausted state. She could only nod her head silently before casting her gaze at Sildra.

Meanwhile, Cloe was glaring daggers at Shin's back, making him smile bitterly.

– 'Don't you dare put me on the same task Chaotic Luck,' – were the thoughts that Shin was getting from her as he could only sigh helplessly.

"You are going to protect me, right?" said Shin with a meek smile after considering the words that he wanted to say.

"Hmph! At least you know what's good for you," replied Cloe before quickly casting a couple of buffs for the group.

"Go!" said Shin with a soft voice right after receiving the buffs. And as a response, the others nodded their heads as they headed over to their respective tasks.

...…