260 Chapter 260 - Lure the Tiger Away from the Mountain (1/2)
The Black Hand's members tasked to search for Young Master's Elite went down the mountain, while the rest of the players stayed on the mountain and animatedly discussed the matter at hand. Those who were not exactly the brightest crayons in the box sighed, ”This is great! We should have done this from the start. No point in sending everyone to search for the enemies when we can just wait here for news!”
Group leader Black Index Finger eyed these foolish players rather contemptuously, ”It's pointless to do that since the enemies will just either kill or avoid our lone scout.”
”Then, why are we doing it now?” the members asked, nonplussed.
Black Index Finger laughed at the profundity of his decision, gazed at a certain figure climbing up the mountain, and replied, ”I'll fill everyone in soon.”
The person presently climbing up the mountain was the remaining player of the four-man team that that had guarded this vantage point earlier, Right Hand of Cool. He immediately headed to Black Index Finger once he got back to the mountain peak.
”Come; tell us in detail what happened earlier.” Black Index Finger gathered everyone to listen to Right Hand of Cool's account of what had happened moments ago and analyze it together.
”There are two points we can gather from this.” Black Index Finger raised two fingers after hearing Right Hand of Cool's account, ”First, our opponents can observe our movement, allowing them to attack us at the right moment.” As everyone nodded in agreement, he continued, ”Second, there's a path that allows them to get here without anyone seeing them.”
All looked down the mountain slope, as if searching for some secret path that that had eluded them all this while.
”Did they dash in from somewhere around here?” Black Index Finger pointed to a particular side of the mountain as he asked this question to Right Hand of Cool.
Right Hand of Cool nodded his head, as that was truly where he had first discovered Gu Fei and Sword Demon.
”Where did they appear from?” Black Index Finger asked.
Right Hand of Cool pointed to a large boulder, ”Two of them suddenly appeared from behind that boulder.”
Everyone was suddenly seized by anxiety, ”Could they still be hiding there right now?”
”Right under our very noses?”
”That's why people say that the most dangerous place is actually the safest!” everyone whispered this to one another.
Black Index Finger did not actually think that their enemies were bold enough to hide behind such a conspicuous location, but after hearing his men's words, he felt that there was a slim possibility of their enemies being outrageous enough to do just that. Could they have chosen to hide in that spot precisely because of its improbability?
Thinking that it was better to be safe than sorry, Black Index Finger ordered some Archers to ready their arrows for any fleeing targets and a few Mages to cast AOE spells on that boulder. The Mages' flame wheels struck the rock until it was entirely lit aflame, finally relieving them of the worry that their enemies were hiding behind it.
He then had some of his men investigate the surrounding flora and fauna and behind the huge boulder for any hiding players.
”This is where you saw the opponents appear from, and they immediately began attacking you guys after.” Black Index Finger touched the boulder as he continued, ”None of you discovered any sign of movement before this point?”
”Yes.” Right Hand of Cool affirmed, ”I barely blinked my eyes back then when they appeared from behind that boulder out of nowhere.” Actually, Right Hand of Cool had been chatting to the person beside him when Gu Fei and Sword Demon appeared! He had definitely not been conscientious enough to keep himself from blinking back then, either. Right Hand of Cool had in fact not seen Sword Demon or Gu Fei appear from behind the boulder the way he claimed, but his account was more or less correct judging from the evidence gathered about the earlier situation.
Black Index Finger looked down the mountain with his back against the boulder, ”Can this huge boulder block the line of sight of someone up here all the way down the mountain? I seriously doubt it!”
”They couldn't possibly use that method even if it's possible. I wasn't exactly standing still opposite to this boulder all the time; I was often walking around,” Right Hand of Cool said.
”So for you to not have seen them at all…” Black Index Finger and several other men looked around them and saw trees and rocks that could possibly obscure the players' line of sight from up here. ”Looks like they've used some cover to make their way up here.”
”Getting back to the point, there was only a Mage with Blink and a Thief with Stealth the first time around – they are the only ones in Young Master's Elite capable of using the sparse cover to climb up here without any of you noticing. When they got to this large boulder, there's no more cover left for them ahead, so they could only dash to you guys at the fastest speed,” Black Index Finger analyzed thoroughly.
All nodded their heads in agreement.
”If they truly wish to launch a surprise attack again, they'll definitely repeat what they have done earlier. I believe they're not far from us right now.”
When the surrounding players heard Black Index Finger's analysis, they looked all the way down the mountain side and gazed at all the things obstructing their view, imagining seeing through their six shameless and devious enemies.
”Continue searching the forests. Leave some men on this mountain peak and pay special attention to this direction. The rest of you, follow me down the mountain to begin searching for our enemies once more,” Black Index Finger commanded.
”Aren't we just giving them the chance to launch a surprise attack on us again?” someone asked.
”We won't be going far this time. We'll just search around the base of the mountain. If they dare assault the men left behind on this mountain, I'd love to see how they plan to escape us this time around.” Black Index Finger chuckled. After leaving several players on the mountain, Black Index Finger led the remaining seventy or so players down the path that they suspected the men of Young Master's Elite had taken.
The Black Hand's players carefully searched through all the possible hiding spots along the way. Each spot only seemed to lead them closer to the hiding place of Young Master's Elite.
Just as The Black Hand's members were no more than several meters away from Young Master Han and everyone else's hiding spot, the system suddenly announced that Young Master's Elite had obtained another kill point; The Black Hand had lost yet another man.
”Who's killed?!” Black Index Finger hurriedly checked the list of names. ”It's Xiaoying; over there!” Black Index Finger quickly gathered his men to rush toward the small forest. He specifically assigned each scout to a certain area for the purpose of reacting at the fastest speed in the case that their enemies made a move against one of his men.
”Xiaoying, how did you die?” the others asked him for further details on the mercenary channel as they ran toward his assigned location.
”I was searching the forest when I heard the sound of an arrow flying toward me. Just as I spotted the Archer, the Thief snuck up behind me and executed Backstab on me. And then, I was dead!”