112 Chapter 112. Hide and Seek, Hit and Run

Most of the huts around Jack's current area had already been demolished. He ran to the other side of the encampment to hide from the two Lizardmen until the berserk effect on the Lizardman Chief expired.

"You should have attacked just now when you had the chance," Peniel came flying next to Jack.

"Why is that?" Jack asked while running.

"During that kind of berserk state, the monster's defense is usually weakened," she answered.

Jack glanced back. No, if the chief was alone, it might be a different matter. It was too risky while the Lizardman Archer was still around to interfere. He asked Peniel, "Please tell me that berserk skill of his has a time limit."

"It should," Peniel answered with a smile. She seemed to be enjoying the show.

Jack had no time to comment on her expression. He weaved through a hut, trying to break away from the two Lizardmen's line of sight. Luckily the Chief's berserk speed was still not faster than Jack's.

When he was pretty sure he had lost them, Jack stopped and tried to keep completely quiet. He could hear the Chief furiously demolishing every hut he approached to vent his rage and reduce the number of places Jack could use as cover.

Jack drank another Basic Healing Potion; the cooldown for using potions had long been over. He now had only two bottles left. He rested and allowed his Natural Body Recovery to heal his remaining HP.

Peniel hovered above Jack's hiding place to observe the two Lizardmen looking for Jack. Jack looked at her helplessly and whispered, "Lady, can you please stop flying above there? You are like a glaring sign. You will expose my position. Can't you just watch from your hidden dimension?"

She flew down and teased Jack, "Tee-hee, it is more fun watching directly. I will just fly over there instead, might even fool them and give you more time."

She then flew away, leaving Jack to recuperate further. Jack remembered that he had wanted to ask Peniel how long berserk would usually last, but she was out of whispering distance already. If he shouted to her, the Lizardmen might hear as well. So he just stayed quiet.

The two red dots were moving closer, and the sound of huts breaking was getting louder. Now that Jack thought about it, only the Lizardman Chief was breaking the huts. The Lizardman Archer didn't have enough raw power to do it. So he could determine which dot represented the Chief from the hut breaking sound.

With that as a reference, he crept silently around the Lizardman Chief and towards the Lizardman Archer. The Archer always stayed some distance behind the Chief. It certainly didn't expect Jack to have a radar system that allowed him to pinpoint their positions without seeing them.

Jack stopped several meters away from the Lizardman Archer; he would launch a surprise attack when the Lizardman Chief broke the next hut.

Here it came! Covered by the noise of another hut breaking, Jack stood up and attacked the Lizardman Archer with magic from his staff. But his opponent had fast reflexes and immediately noticed Jack and aimed its bow. The two of them shot at the same time. Jack's Mana Bullet passed right next to the thin arrow.

Although surprised by the Lizardman's counterattack, Jack still ducked in time to avoid the arrow. But to his astonishment, the Lizardman Archer also ducked and dodged his Mana Bullet.

'Crap! This one is more agile than the Shaman,' Jack cursed silently.

The Lizardman Archer screeched a warning to the Lizardman Chief. It immediately turned around and spotted Jack. Jack could see the Chief still had that red glow around it; the berserk effect was not off yet. It quickly came running towards Jack, brandishing its axe.

Jack knew he would never be able to deal with both of them while the Chief was still in a berserk state, so he immediately turned tail and ran away. Amidst a volley of arrows, Jack ran towards the few wooden huts that were still standing. His HP was being chipped away by each arrow. He swore he would get that Lizardman Archer next.

"How long will that berserk state last?" He asked Peniel, who had flown next to him.

"I don't know; it's different for each monster," she answered. "But the longest on record was five minutes, so it shouldn't be longer than that."

Jack glanced back as he continued to run. The chasing Lizardman Chief still sported the eerie red berserker glow. If what Peniel said was right, it should be coming off soon.

Jack dashed behind the first hut he came to; the arrows chasing him struck the hut's wall. Jack moved from hut to hut to lose his pursuers again. He soon heard another hut getting demolished. He had to defeat the Lizardman Archer before all the huts in this encampment were destroyed.

Pretty soon, only the giant main hut at the center would be standing, and Jack would not be able to play hide and seek with these Lizardmen anymore. It would be comical if he had to run around the main hut and kite the Lizardmen. This tactic was also only applicable if only one lizardman was left. With two of them, they could just break up and came at him from both sides.

Jack checked his radar and crept back towards the Archer along a route that kept him hidden from the Lizardmen. Now that he knew the Archer's agility, Jack knew he couldn't depend on ranged attacks; he would need to get closer and pull it into melee combat.

'The berserk should be off by now,' Jack thought, estimating the time when the effect had started. Still, he decided to wait another minute, just to be sure. Jack continued to stay close to the Lizardman Archer without alerting it to his presence.

Once Jack considered it to be safe enough, he came out and immediately cast Energy Bolts and Charge. Since the Energy Bolts had tracking property, the Lizardman Archer's agility was useless against them. As it dodged Jack's Charge, the Bolts chased after it and struck its body. Jack followed up with Swing; the agile Archer couldn't evade Swing's large area of attack.

Jack used his speed to stick close to the Archer and continued to slash at it. It was hard to hit the fast-moving Archer; Jack only hit him every other attempt.

The Lizardman Chief was closing in, but its berserk state had expired, so it took longer to come to the Archer's rescue. Jack fired a Mana Bullet to hinder it a bit. He then looked for a sure hit on the Archer and used Power Strike sending the creature flying towards the Lizardman Chief.

Jack then ran away again to hide among the remaining huts.

He repeated this hit-and-run tactic two more times, chipping another chunk of HP from the Lizardman Archer.

The Lizardman Chief was furious; calling up its spinning attack, it razed half the remaining huts. There were now only six wooden huts left apart from the giant one at the center of the encampment. Jack would soon run out of places to hide.

After getting ambushed several times, the Lizardman Archer now stayed close to the Lizardman Chief. In this way, even if Jack ambushed it, the Chief would be able to deal with him.

But the Lizardman Archer only had 20% HP left. Jack needed one more burst of attacks to destroy its remaining life. He was seriously pondering his chances of dealing with both monsters at the same time to kill the Lizardman Archer.