"f.u.c.k…"
Li Chengfeng sucked in a deep breath as he counted the enemy troops. "I see at least 30k Wildfire Riders led by Red Maple, Cyan Frost and Purple Thunder themselves. Meanwhile, we only have 10k Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen. This is bad…"
Heaven"s Rain blinked once and asked me, "Vice leader big bro, can"t we win against them?"
I nodded. "No, the Cyan Tiger Cavalry is just too weak compared to their Wildfire Riders. We cannot avoid this fight, however. Whatever the outcome may be, we must fight this out until the end!"
I abruptly unsheathed the Purple Ying Sword and pointed at the enemy. I yelled, "Brothers and sisters, we need to buy enough time for our allies" siege parties to break through the Great Wall. We may die here today, but it is for a good cause, so don"t be ashamed of it! And above all else, we will have given it our all and left behind no regrets!"
Everyone unsheathed their weapons at the same time. Although the Cyan Tiger Cavalry was the second-rate cavalry of our guild, everyone here was an elite in their own right. Some of them were even better individually than some Dragonlight Cavalrymen, because they refused to fall behind and constantly honed themselves. And what better time than now was their time to prove their true worth?
I moved my POV a bit and noticed that at least ten battering rams were pounding away at the one and only gate of the Impa.s.sable Great Wall. Its durability was decreasing steadily despite its support players" best efforts to repair it. If we could hold off G.o.d"s Domain long enough for them to break through, the gate would fall, and the battle would instantly turn in our favor.
"Kill!"
I shouted as I charged straight toward Red Maple. The heaven"s warrior also declared with murderous intent, "Do not leave a single one of them alive!"
Both sides accelerated to full speed and slammed into one another, causing a series of crunching noises that was better left undescribed. While the mounts were knocking each other silly, their riders launched Barrier Breaks and their foes and tried their d.a.m.nedest to kill the other party as quickly as possible. It wasn"t long before the battle line dissolved into chaos.
Boom boom boom!
I slayed the group of players in front of me with Burning Blade Slash before firing 7 Ancient Seals in a line to even the odds for my fellow Cyan Tiger Cavalry. They would need it because their Cyan Battle Tigers were way inferior to the Wildfire Horses, boss-tier mounts.
"Roar roar…"
A b.e.a.s.t.i.a.l roar erupted from one side of the battlefield as High Fighting Spirits swung his axe around and unleashed Xiezhi Howl. Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi were tearing through their foes as well. The good news for us was that our Famous Generals were superior to the enemy"s in both quant.i.ty and quality. The Divine Generals especially tore through the Wildfire Riders like nothing.
……
Chiang chiang chiang...
However, Red Maple also boasted an insanely high kill rate. After cutting down a dozen or so Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen in the blink of an eye, he unleashed 5 Maple Kills that killed almost a hundred at the same time!
Gui Guzi raged, "Li, Boss Broken Halberd is too far away from Red Maple. I say you and I go kill him ourselves!"
"I"m with you!"
Li Chengfeng activated Battle Soul Possession and rode side by side with Gui Guzi toward Red Maple. Not only that, He Yi"s basic attack range thanks to G.o.dslaying Blade caught Red Maple off-guard and cost him 52773 HP. That was something for Red Maple to consider as well.
Red Maple dared not face Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi and He Yi all by himself, so he backed a dozen or so steps away from the battle line and let his Wildfire Riders protect him. Meanwhile, he fired Thunder G.o.d Ball from range and one-shot almost every Cyan Tiger Cavalryman who had the misfortune of being targeted by him.
A cavalry battle was a battle of steel and blood. We had charged each other at least 3 times during the 20 minutes of bloodbath. Finally, the scales of battle tipped to one side completely.
"Hah! Hah!..."
I panted heavily as I clutched the reins of my Armored Ice Qilin Horse with my left hand and the Purple Ying Sword with my right. A shockingly thick glob of blood was sliding down the blade. I honestly couldn"t remember how many Wildfire Riders I had buried with this sword of mine, but I do know that our losses were probably just as severe.
I side-eyed High Fighting Spirits and noted that his right shoulder armor was almost completely wrecked. The wounds on his arms were the game"s way of telling us that they had suffered too much impact in a short amount of time. Li Chengfeng"s white cape was stained with so much blood that it was almost fully red, and the blade of his Dark Blade was chipped all over. Considering that he killed almost as many people as I did, his Dark Blade"s durability had to have fallen below 50%.
He Yi was breathing a bit heavier than normal, and her cheeks were red with exertion. There was also a trace of blood on her neck, although it obviously belonged to someone else. The Seven Star Veluriyam Spear was covered in blood. Her G.o.dslaying Blade was one of the greatest factors of this battle. Not only did she have increased attack range, even her basic attack dealt 50% splash effect. The enemy had tried to take her out, but she was an all-rounder with both great offense and great defense. Not even Red Maple was able to one-shot her despite multiple attempts.
Chaos Moon, Heaven"s Rain and Diamond Dust were covered in blood too, but contrary to their appearance their eyes were burning with excitement. The battle was b.l.o.o.d.y, but it was an exhilarating one especially because the enemy was stronger than us. It was the kind of achievement you would want to boast about with your friends later.
On the other hand, Gui Guzi, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and Du Thirteen were as grim-faced as they came. More than half of the Cyan Tiger Cavalry at the frontline were sitting between 30% to 50% HP, and our priest party wasn"t here to heal us. We were all running on fumes here.
Worse, the Cyan Tiger Cavalry kept dying, and a rough calculation told me that our 10000-strong cavalry had decreased to just 1000, and that was an optimistic estimation. We weren"t going to hold out much longer. Still, we stalled the enemy for half an hour and killed over 20000 of them, and that was a victory of its own. Red Maple, Cyan Frost and the other commanders" expressions certainly didn"t look like a winner"s. They thought that the Cyan Tiger Cavalry were just cannon fodder, but the bite they packed were fiercer than they imagined.
High Fighting Spirits abruptly raised his axe and shouted, "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls would rather die than retreat!"
Inspired by his bravery, everyone else also raised their weapons and shouted, "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls would rather die than retreat!"
I looked around me and smiled a little. "That"s the spirit. However, this only applies to the Cyan Tiger Cavalry, you hear me? No Famous General or Divine General is allowed to die here. If your health falls below 15% and you don"t have a way to heal yourself, use invincibility skill and teleport back to the city or roll off the wall and get yourself healed. We"re only at the first of the three milestones of our conquest, and Purple Grape City players aren"t the only enemies we"re going to face. Your life is no longer just your own, so for everyone"s sake you"re not allowed to die here. You must stay alive until the end of this war!"
Li Chengfeng, Chaos Moon, He Yi and the smarter members of our Famous Generals nodded immediately. "We get you. We"ll run away if we"re about to die, don"t worry!"
My rule especially applied to Famous Generals like He Yi, Chaos Moon and Heaven"s Rain. Their Famous General Skills were all going to play a role in the upcoming plains battle. It would be intolerable to lose them before we even conquered the Impa.s.sable Great Wall.
"Kill!"
I charged toward the enemy again, and this time Red Maple was there to face me. You could almost see the fire spitting out of our eyeb.a.l.l.s. We were warlords born to different factions in the same era. We were never going to submit to one another, and only one of us would remain standing when this rivalry finally came to an end!
Whoos.h.!.+
I changed direction a bit in mid-charge so that the Armored Ice Qilin Horse "glided" toward Red Maple almost like it was drifting. After I reached him, I slashed at the heaven"s warrior three times from three different angles. Red Maple"s eyes were cool and unfeeling as he moved his sword to parry my attack. He managed to block the first two slashes, but my third strike still landed on his neck and dealt 142667 damage!
"Ah!"
Red Maple exclaimed in shock, but it didn"t stop him from slapping Thunder G.o.d Ball to my back and dropping Maple Kill in my path. The f.u.c.king combo was just way too oppressive!
73887!
110299!
I hurriedly drank a Saint Spirit Potion and used Tenacity of the Dead to pull myself to around 50% HP. At the same time, I launched Thousand Ice Slash behind me without looking in hopes that I would get lucky and freeze Red Maple. If it happened, He Yi and Gui Guzi would surely be able to swarm and kill him.
Unfortunately, luck wasn"t on my side this time. Red Maple only s.h.i.+vered a little before moving out of He Yi and Gui Guzi"s attack range. Not only that, he wisely charged toward Du Thirteen, knocked the Famous General back and killed another three Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen with Fire G.o.d Flurry, absorbing a lot of HP in the process.
Bang!
I myself was one-shotting a thick group of Wildfire Riders with Burning Blade Slash and refilling my HP at an insane rate. 10% lifesteal in this kind of situation was just way too OP, and my HP returned to full in no time. Theoretically speaking, I could fight until forevermore as long as there were enemies around me. Of course, if someone landed Trapping Net on me and enemies kept their distance chipping away at my HP from range, no amount of lifesteal would be able to save me from death.
Speaking of which, the sky above our heads was positively jam-packed with skills such as Trapping Nets. Whoever had the misfortune of being trapped died most of the time. The magic knights weren"t particularly trying to catch a certain player, of course. There were too many people to aim properly.
Also, pets such as Crimson-eyed Mantises, Venomous Wasps, Ghost Chariots and more were tearing each other apart, but a pet"s firepower was limited as a matter of course. It didn"t take long for them to be trampled by the cavalry and killed. Gui Guzi raised his Spear of the Knight G.o.d and shouted, "Kill pets first! Don"t hesitate!"
Gui Guzi"s order was absolutely on point. Generally, equipment-less pets only had about half the Defense of their master and relatively low HP, so most of the time players would dump all of the stat points they gained from leveling up to Strength for both HP and Attack. What this meant was that pets were still fragile, but dealt a not-insignificant amount of damage if left untouched. Therefore, the best thing to do was to kill the pets first and fight the players later.
Pu pu pu…
Cyan Tiger Cavalry continued to die behind me, but we made sure that the Wildfire Riders suffered just as much casualties, if not more. At this point, we were literally numb from all the killing we did!