Zoe zipped around a player who swung his sword at her before driving her blade into his back, killing him instantly. She immediately received a kill notification from a player but ignored it while mentally dismissing the message. She had no time to read the kill notifications when she was already busy killing any enemies that approached her.

Just then, another explosion was heard, followed by a heavy tremor that shook the entire hospital building. While it wasn't enough to make the knight lose her balance, it did momentarily distract her, allowing one of the players to get close to her and swing their blades down on her.

Just before Zoe could deal with the enemy herself, her eyes widened when a sword poked out from his chest in front of her. She stood there motionless as the blade was pulled out, allowing the enemy player to collapse on the spot. When he did, she then got a look at the person who just saved her life, but it was the last person she expected to do such a thing.

"What?" Mara looked at Zoe with a hint of confusion and indignation. "No 'thank you' for saving your life just now?"

Zoe's brows creased irritably. "I would've killed him without your assistance, Grisel."

Mara smiled with amusement. "Yeah, I know. But I figured that since we're here and we are looking for a partnership, we should at least help one another as a way to strengthen our relationship."

The knight narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She knew for a fact that what Mara just said was nothing more than an excuse. All the black knight wanted to do was get on her nerves, using their partnership as nothing more than a cover to hide her real intentions. She could have easily revealed her intentions right then and there, but instead, she decided to hold off.

As for why...

Zoe looked behind Mara, noticing a player lunging at the black knight. Instead of saying anything, the knight player zipped past Mara and thrust her blade at the enemy. Her weapon sank deeply into the player's skull, and his body went limp in mere seconds. Mara looked back with wide eyes, surprised by Zoe's action.

When she turned back to face the dark knight, their eyes narrowed at one another.

"I knew that person was about to attack me, you know. So, you didn't need to jump in like that. Aside from that, all you really needed to do was warn me instead of pulling something like that."

"I know," Zoe said with a faint grin. "But as you said, I figured that we should find a way to strengthen our relationship. Was I wrong to do that?"

Mara glared at her for a moment, clearly annoyed by how she used her own words against her. However, her annoyance shifted into a laugh at the whole scenario.

"No, no, you are not wrong to do that. I guess it was my own ignorance and pride that didn't let me see your intentions."

Despite her words, Zoe knew the true meaning behind them. That was essentially Mara saying 'touché'. Before they could continue their back-and-forth banter, Kane suddenly appeared along with one of Mara's people as they took down a few more players.

Kane slammed his opponent against the ground before driving his fist into their stomach, while Mara's ally, who was the hunter, plunged his dagger into his opponent's skull. Once they were dead, Kane and the hunter then pulled themselves up before facing their respective leaders.

"More players are climbing up to our floor," Kane informed them.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"And there are around a dozen or so range-type players currently bombarding this building as we speak," The hunter added just as another explosion was heard and the rumbling of the building was felt. "We must leave while we can."

Due to the plethora of enemies swarming them, staying in the hospital building would only make things worse. Their best chance of surviving would be to leave this place and escape. However, Zoe couldn't do that. Not yet anyway.

Dolk had to be here. She was sure of it. Because Hazel and Astrid were the ones who told her that this would happen and that this dark elf would personally see to the ambush of the hospital building. This meant somewhere during this ambush, he was watching the scene unfold, waiting until he saw a chance to personally strike himself.

Zoe needed to wait until they found an opportunity to take him down, and that opportunity was Hazel Thatcher. While she was currently busy with the Orcs around the valiant guild's territory, she was only dealing with them until she got the signal that the ambush was happening. Which meant she should be on her way here at any moment. All Zoe and the others needed to do was stall and hold them off until then.

The annoying thing about this plan was that Zoe couldn't contact Hazel because they weren't part of the same party. If they were, then they would've been able to communicate through the chat room. Sadly, that wasn't the case in their current situation.

Zoe rushed over to where Anais was, which was down in the hallways and near a gaping hole in the wall. When he arrived, the knight hid behind a piece of debris before searching for Anais. She then found her a little way ahead of her, currently hiding behind a door that was leaning against the wall it was supposedly attached to.

Anais raised her staff before hurling a bolt a lightning out of the hole in the wall and into a large gathering of players in the opposite building from them. A loud crackle of thunder could be heard along with the sound of stone cracking and exploding upon contact.

"Anais...!" Zoe called out to her companion. "Do you see anything out there?!"

The sorceress shook her head. "Aside from players, I'm afraid not."

"They're completely surrounding us on all sides!" The scholar shouted, hurling a mana bolt into the swarm of players currently attacking the base.

Zoe clicked her tongue, feeling a wave of anxiety and fear wash over her. They were holding their own well, but she knew that it wasn't going to last long. How long could they endure until Hazel finally arrived?

"Dammit, Hazel. Where the hell are you...?"

...

Dolk and Esil watched as the other players from their guild swarmed inside the building, attempting to overwhelm the group with sheer numbers to wear them down and kill them. The pair stood next to one another, calmly witnessing the scene unfold.

Multiple spells erupted from inside the building, striking the players of their guild around them. None of those spells landed anywhere near the duo, but it wouldn't be long until one of them did.

Dolk crossed his arms, keeping his eyes glued to the hospital building. "It seems that at least two magic users are shooting down our members."

"Should we deal with them?" Esil asked, placing her hand around the hilt of his weapon, clearly eager to get into the battle.

Dolk shook his head. "Dealing with the mages is one problem. There are also the two Guild Leaders that we must take on as well."

After doing some digging, thanks to his spies, Dolk learned that the guild leaders of the Valiant Guild and Battle Breaker's guild were none other than the two prestigious knights in the Continent, Zoe Callahan and Mara Grisel. While he had never encountered them before, he was still aware of their reputation. Enough to know that they weren't going to be easy to take on without a little bit of assistance.

Even then, he feared that his forces weren't going to slow them down or even weaken those two knights. If they were strong and formidable before the system appeared in their world, then it stood to reason that they were even stronger now with the aid of the system.

Still, he couldn't falter now. Not when he had the chance to take down two guild leaders who would pose a problem to his future plans. Out of all of the guilds aside from his own, the Valiant Guild and Battle Breakers were by far the most powerful in this land. And if Dolk wanted his plan to succeed, he needed to get rid of them here and now.

He clenched his jaw tightly before turning to Esil. "Ignore the mages as best you can and only focus on Zoe Callahan and Mara Grisel. Once you kill them, the rest will fall soon enough."

Hearing this, Esil smiled evilly before pulling out his weapon with glee. "You got it, boss!"

Without saying another word, the dark elf warrior leaped off the building and soared toward the Hospital like a bullet. Back in the hospital, Zoe and Mara's team had no idea what was barreling toward them at that moment.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.