I activated Dark Pupils and paid close attention to the minimap. It was mostly covered in the green dots that represented our guild members, but there was a single red dot about 25 yards to the front. He was a Level 184 a.s.sa.s.sin who had come to scout us. The guy must be feeling very bold to try something like this right under our noses.
Chiang!
As I unsheathed the Purple Ying Sword, He Yi asked me, "What are you doing?"
I shot her a smile and abruptly rushed toward the a.s.sa.s.sin. A sword throw and a draconic roar later, the a.s.sa.s.sin hiding in the darkened bushes ate Coiling Dragon Revolution to the chest and died screaming.
"f.u.c.k, there was an a.s.sa.s.sin hiding in this place?" Li Chengfeng pursed his lips and said, "I suppose we were growing careless. Thank goodness Lu Chen has strong senses."
I looked at our surroundings before saying, "Let"s dispatch one Dragonlight Archer in every direction to scout the enemy. If they are discovered, they can simply stun the pursuer with Shock Arrow and escape. With the Dragonscale Beast"s movement speed, there"s no way the enemy can catch up to them. Also, all thousand-man parties are to dispatch between one to three players to do the same thing. We need to establish our own eyes and ears at this place so we won"t be pa.s.sive all the time."
Everyone nodded. A while later, almost a hundred Dragonlight Archers scattered in every direction and vanished into the forest. Archers had great perception and could see through an a.s.sa.s.sin"s stealth from a super long range. Mounted archers were even better because they had both the offensive power to threaten the enemy and the movement speed to escape. Therefore, in the current state of the game, the Dragonlight Archer was the best unit for scouting bar none. It was one of the areas we were better at than G.o.d"s Domain.
……
We slowly pushed forward. Less than ten minutes later, Beiming Xuet sent me a message: "Big bro, there"s a Purple Grape City party about at a 14-degree angle toward east, 3 km away. It probably belongs to the 27th guild of Purple Grape City. They"re about thirty thousand players strong with a diverse number of cla.s.ses such as knights, warriors, mages, archers and more, but the majority of them are mages. I counted around 6000 in total. Feel free to do with the information as you please! Also, I"ve spoken with the nearest mounted archers to me, and they don"t detect any other Purple Grape City player within 5 kilometers."
I couldn"t help but admire Beiming all over again as I read the message she sent me. It was such a comprehensive report that you wouldn"t believe that it was something a scout could come up with. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is lucky to have a genius like her!
"Noted, Beiming. Don"t alert the enemy and wait for us. I"ll be there with our men right away. We"ll surround them and kill them all in one go!"
“Mn. I"ll be waiting!"
"Okay!"
……
After the exchange was over, I stopped in my tracks, raised the Purple Ying Sword and declared, "Halt!"
Li Chengfeng asked, "What"s wrong?"
I pointed to the front and said, "Beiming scouted a 30k party around 15 degrees to the east. There is no reason to let them escape, so we"re going to wipe them all out!"
Gui Guzi smiled. "Give the order then, Boss Broken Halberd. Everyone"s waiting!"
"Mn!"
I nodded and said, "Chaos Moon, Xu Yang and I will charge them from the front with twenty thousand cavalry; the guild leader and Li Chengfeng will hit their left with another twenty thousand; Little Gui, Heaven"s Rain, Diamond Dust will hit their right; and finally, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, you"re the fastest rider of all of us, so take a thousand Dragonlight Cavalrymen with you and around them to attack from the back. Once I give the signal, we all attack together. Let"s try and win this with zero losses, okay?"
"Yessir!"
Everyone wore an excited look on their face, eager to kickstart the counterattack against Purple Grape City. We had suffered enough humiliation losing Floating Ice City already. It was time to begin our vengeance!
"Go!"
I spurred my mount forward with Chaos Moon, Xu Yang, Du Thirteen following behind me. After adding a thousand Dragonlight Cavalry to his party, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun activated Flying General and increased everyone"s movement speed to a whopping 500%. It wouldn"t be an exaggeration to say that they had taken off like the wind. So fast!
I had already marked the enemy"s camp on the minimap. I was fairly sure that many of them had logged out of the game for rest as well. After all, they had been throwing their weight about Floating Ice City for a while now.
When we were about 1 km away from the enemy, I raised my arm and lowered my voice, "Slow down to 50% movement speed, you all. We don"t want the enemy to catch the sound of our hooves if possible. Also, attack only after I"ve given you the signal!"
Everyone nodded and did as I said, patiently waiting for the slaughter to begin.
……
Rustle rustle...
Morning dew drenched my arms as I parted a bush. It was dawn inside the game, and the sky was still partially dark. It was the best time to launch a sneak attack. In the distance, we spotted around a hundred players sitting around a bonfire and laughing vulgarly at something. Even further back was a much greater number of players camping and resting on the open plain. I reckoned that there were at least ten thousand players within my view.
Chaos Moon blinked once as she stared at me, "Do we attack now?"
I nodded, pulled out my sword and shouted, "All units, kill!"
The Armored Ice Qilin Horse let out a mighty neigh and galloped toward the enemy at top speed. I used Thunderous Charge and tore apart the bodies of the dozen or so men closest to me before they even realized what was going on. Behind me, Chaos Moon, Du Thirteen and Xu Yang were doing the same thing as well.
Rumble rumble!
Rock Crush and other AoE skills crashed into the group of enemies like the rain. When the tremor caused by our hooves turned into an earthquake, the sleeping Purple Grape City players finally woke up and tried to react. An enemy magic knight mounted his horse and shouted, “All cavalry, get onto your mounts and prepare for the counterattack now! Mages and archers, move to the back and give us covering fire! Priests, get ready to heal us! Bards, give us your buffs! Don"t panic, and we can—"
Unfortunately, Xu Yang hit him before he could give out his final orders. The brawny man slashed him right across the throat with Mountain Stagger Slash while shouting, "Get down, animal!"
The skill immediately deleted the guy"s mount tenacity, causing him to fall to the ground. One Barrier Break to the chest later, he was killed and knocked out of the battle!
As one of the very first elders of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Xu Yang was famous for his bravery and straightforward fighting style. He might not be among the strongest players we had, but his presence inspired the others to do better. He was an essential component of the guild especially in large-scale warfare!
Behind us, our cavalry activated Charge together and trampled over the completely unprepared enemies like a hot knife through b.u.t.ter. At the same time, the sounds of battle started from the south and the north side of the battlefield as well. It was He Yi and Gui Guzi"s party of course. In less than five minutes, the Purple Grape City"s guild was losing players at an insane rate without being able to resist at all.
……
"Ahhhhh… How are these Chinese so powerful!?"
A high-rank enemy mage with the guild leader emblem on his shoulder ordered loudly, "All fighters, form a s.h.i.+eld wall and protect the backliners! The rest of you, retreat with me! G.o.d"s Domain is just at the edge of the abandoned city. Once we meet up with them, we"ll be able to turn this around!"
Unfortunately for them, they didn"t run far enough before Du Thirteen killed an archer and summoned a stream of rapid water from the ground, blocking their retreat path completely. It was Du Thirteen"s Famous General Skill, Poseidon, and it was incredibly useful in a big war like this.
Not only that, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun changed his stratagem to Encourage VII and ordered with a hearty laugh, "Don"t let them escape, brothers and sisters! Leave no one alive!"
Surrounded on all sides, the guild was unable to mount any form of meaning resistance. Li Chengfeng activated his Famous General Skill, Blitz, and weaved in and out of the enemy"s formation like a lightning bolt. Wherever he went, corps commanders found their throats pierced by his Dark Blade. It wasn"t long before Li Chengfeng single-handedly murder every corps commander in the party. Even that high-level mage was instakilled by Reverse Scale Slash + Dragonbone Flurry combo.
It was over. The ma.s.sacre lasted 20 minutes or so. We were able to annihilate a 30k party with just 70k players.
……
After we cleaned up the battlefield, Xu Yang walked up to me with his face flushed with excitement. "That was such an exhilarating battle! We annihilated thirty thousand players at the cost of less than three hundred! Can you imagine that!"
I shot him an understanding smile before ordering, "Let"s proceed. Our goal is still G.o.d"s Domain"s main force, so pay close attention to the scout"s reports. Also, remind everyone not to let a victory over a third-rate guild get into their heads. The enemy will punish us if we grow complacent because of this!"
"Yessir!"
……
We moved on. We encountered a couple more resting guilds along the way and killed them all. It felt like the screams of death were never-ending.
"Hey boss, take a look at that guild…"
Suddenly, Gui Guzi pointed at the enemy and said, "I recognize their emblem. They"re the third-strongest guild of Purple Grape City and an ally of G.o.d"s Domain. Do you think that"s their main force?"
I followed his finger. There were around 9000 j.a.panese riders watching us warily from the plains.
Not one to let an opportunity slip by, I unsheathed my weapon and shouted, "C"mon! Let"s take them out!"
"Got it!"
We charged them. The enemy chose to leave behind 1000 riders to cover their retreat. It wasn"t long before we cut down all of them and continued pursuing the remnants.
After we caught up with them, the enemy left behind another 1000 riders and escaped again. Again, we were able to annihilate them all.
After Xu Yang picked up a stack of potions from the ground, he said with a laugh, "Is this really the third-strongest guild of Purple Grape City? Hah! Still, this chase is getting tiring. Let"s split up and surround them this time!"
……
"Stop!"
However, I abruptly raised my voice and stopped everyone dead in their tracks.
"What"s wrong, Lu Chen?" Xu Yang asked.
I replied calmly, "Haven"t you noticed yet? What kind of idiot would wait for us to catch up to them after 1000 players had sacrificed themselves to cover their retreat? This is a setup. They"re trying to lure us into a trap."
Li Chengfeng clenched his fist and swore, "f.u.c.k, the rumors say that Red Maple is as cunning as a fox, and it looks like they"re spot-on!"
I nodded. "Mn. If I"m not mistaken, even the 30000-strong third-rate guild we slaughtered earlier was just a bait to lure us in. Red Maple knows that we"re here, so he"s trying to lure us into a deadly trap and possibly kill us all in one go…"
"Seriously? 30000 people as bait? What a ruthless b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Xu Yang exclaimed in astonishment.
He Yi said, "Candlelight Shadow himself is famous for his ruthlessness and iron fists, but it looks like Red Maple is even more ruthless than Candlelight Shadow ever was. No wonder Candle Dragon lost."
Gui Guzi asked me, "What should we do now? Should we continue or withdraw?"