Reborned Top Gamer: Spell-Swordman Rule the World

22 Inside Information

“Scott, what are you doing here,” Walt said. Everyone had their weapons pointed at the invader and were only waiting for Walt’s permission to strike.

“Look, I’m not here to fight,”

“That’s kinda hard to believe, given the company you keep…don’t you think?” it was Miranda who replied. Her throwing stars were out and she was eager to use them again. Scott sighed and lowered his hands then looked at Walt.

“Look, Barnett doesn’t know who you are. He may be cruel and vindictive but he’s an i***t. He wants to take away your equipment and suck your blood, so he sent me out to scout your location and it was not hard to find.”

“Why are you telling us this?” Walt asked, his sword still raised.

“Well, you see…I, uh…I don’t know. What I know is, you’re a good person and I’m sick and tired of the way Barnett runs things. So I’m here to warn you,” he said. Walt lowered his weapon and signaled the others to do the same. Scott sat on the forest floor and started to tell them about Barnett’s plan to follow them the next day and ambush them at night. Ailsa was still apprehensive about trusting the guy but Walt seemed to have let his guard down and was listening to everything that he had to say.

“Why are you doing this?” Ailsa asked, “aren’t you betraying your teammates this way?” Scott looked down for a minute, then looked back up into her eyes.

“My teammates are bad people-”

“Does that not make you a bad person? You know, by association?” Miranda said with slight mockery in her voice. Scott looked at her then looked down again, saying nothing. After a minute of the silence, he got up and looked at Walt.

“I’ve done what I can, the rest is up to you,” he said and disappeared back into the forest.

“Well, that was something,” Michael said then looked at Walt “what do you think? Do you believe him?”

“I-I don’t know…I think so,”

“Don’t be ridiculous Walt,” Miranda chipped in “I remember Scott, he was and probably still is a simp. Barnett most likely told him to do that,”

“Barnett did not recognize me, how could he have told him to say all that?”

“Maybe Scott told him who you were later,”

“Miranda…”

“Look, all I’m saying is…we should not just trust his word blindly,”

“She’s right,” Ailsa said. The others agreed as well. Walt nodded and they decided to set a trap for the Plunder team if they did what Scott said they would and they put another plan in place to ensure that they are not tricked.

The next day, their plan was set in motion. In the morning, Walt told Miranda to hide in the shadows and watch what was going on behind them. When she returned, she told them that they were being followed by the Plunder team, just like Scott said. The second part of their plan started. They had to pretend like they did not know they were being followed and say things that would trick their opponents.

“I would sure love a bath right now,” Jenny said, a little loudly. It was almost nightfall when Scott said that his team would attack.

“Yeah, a nice hot bath would be good,” Ailsa replied and flew up “look, I think I can see a hot spring up ahead. We could have a bath there.”

“Should we really stop? It’s almost night and I would prefer to sleep in a hotel this time,” it was Miranda who spoke.

“Let’s camp by the hot spring, it would be pretty nice,” Walt said and they walked towards the hot spring, all of them now fully aware that they were being followed. When they got there, Ailsa used the steam from the spring to create a fog around them.

Above them, up in the trees, Barnett and his teammates moved as stealthily as they could. Only Scott knew that their targets were aware of their presence. Barnett lifted his hand and signaled them to wait. He did not think much about the fact that they could hardly see the people that they intended to ambush and nodded to Barry, giving him the go-ahead to attack. The mad warrior swung down from the trees, wielding his swords in both hands. Barnett waited for the sounds of swords clanging but he heard nothing. He gritted his teeth and then nodded at their swordsman, Saxon. Saxon unsheathed his sword and swung down from the trees also. Barnett waited again and heard nothing.

“What the hell is going on?” he whispered, gritting his teeth “let’s go,” he said to Scott and they both swung down from the trees, right into the middle of the fog.

Michael, under Walt’s instruction, had set up a sound barrier that prevented Barnett and Scott from hearing the fight while they were up in the trees. So, the moment they landed on the forest floor, they were ambushed by Jenny and Hogan. Barnett was taken by surprise and could barely return the attacks. Scott quickly moved out of the way and watched the battle unfold before him.

Miranda fought against Barry, teasing him easily with sly and fluid moves. She kept her back to him and used her claws to s***h at him. He was a mad warrior, so he had a lot of rages and was attacking her without much thought which made it easy for her to dodge his attacks and return hers.

Barnett managed to push back Jenny and Hogan. He looked around until he located Ailsa who was shooting arrows in Saxon’s direction. With a growl, he started to run towards her, pounding his choice weapon – boxing gloves – against each other but before he could reach her, Walt appeared right in front of him and slashed him with his sword. The blow sent Barnett flying back, hitting his back against a tree. Walt was not satisfied and ran towards him. He was stopped by Saxon. They were both swordsmen and started to use a lot of the same moves, but Walt was a spell swordsman and was far stronger.

He quickly defeated Saxon and was heading towards Barnett but he stopped in his tracks in horror. Barnett had his teeth sunk into his team mate’s neck and was sucking him dry. Walt felt repulsed as he watched Barnett drink his fill then drop his teammate. He stood with his eyes closed and a cynical smile curled on his face. Then he opened his eyes and it was gleaming red. Walt gasped, realizing that Barnett had used Barry’s vitality to restore himself.

“Hyah!” Saxon screamed from behind Walt, attempting to attack him but Walt quickly dodged the attack and kicked him. Saxon landed next to Barnett and they stood together, poised to strike.

“Walt!” Ailsa screamed and the rest of his team appeared right behind him.

“We’ll take this bastard down together.” Michael said and pointed his weapon towards their opponent. The others followed suit.

Barnett launched the first attack, he had become incredibly strong ad moved with great speed. Michael shot fireballs at him, Ailsa flew up and shot her arrows. Saxon attacked Jenny with his sword, Jenny used a lot of her defense skills but ended up drawing her huge longsword, swinging it down on him with all her might.

Barnett managed to dodge Ailsa’s arrows and ran straight for Walt. He and Walt started to battle, both of them throwing powerful blows. Because of Barnett’s blood-sucking, he was very strong and was lose to striking Walt with a strong punch when Miranda kicked his face. The kick only sent his head back, when he snapped it back, he locked his sight on her.

“I’ll kill you!” he screamed. Miranda widened her eyes and flipped back away from him but he came after her. She flung her throwing stars towards him but he caught them in his boxing gloves and threw them on the ground. When she saw this, she extended her claws and ran towards him. As she tried to s***h at him, he caught her arm and punched her until she could not fight back.

“I told you I’ll kill you,” he said. Miranda watched through her foggy vision as Barnett bared his fangs at her, about to suck her blood. She closed her eyes and waited for the pain. Then she felt something warm spill on her face and she was dropped from the air wolf’s grip. She opened her eyes and saw Scott standing over her, with a dagger in his hand. Shifting her gaze to the ground, she saw the gloved arm that was punching her lying there.

“You traitor!” Barnett screamed, holding the stump that was spilling out blood. Scott said nothing and stood very still. Ailsa ran to Miranda’s side and held her. Barnett looked around him and saw that he was surrounded. Then, he let out a howl that made them cover their ears.

“Get him!” Walt screamed but the air wolf ran and disappeared into the forest, Saxon following him.

“We’ll get him,” Scott said silently, then he turned around and fell to his knees beside Miranda “Are you alright?” he asked. She looked up at him, her vision was blurry but she could make out the full moon. Then everything went dark.