To the southeast side of Sky City, there was a vast, foggy canyon in the middle of the mountains. It was very early in the morning inside the game, and everyone"s vision was reduced to the point that they couldn"t see anything past 20 meters. It was a nightmarish environment to operate in for any archer or mage. Without vision, they wouldn"t be able to get a lock-on with their skills, meaning that long-range attacks were left wanting in most cases. Things weren"t much better for melee cla.s.ses either. What could they do when they couldn"t even see if there was a mob right in front of them?
……
Clang!
I pulled out the Heaven-stealing Sword and yelled loudly, "Everyone, bring up your minimaps and pay attention to the dots around you! I want everyone to gather around me, now!"
Almost a thousand of us had come to this valley. We had elites of every cla.s.s, and we were a sizable threat to any force. I was happy that the guild had come this far. We wouldn"t be helpless even if we ran into a powerful guild.
A ton of blue dots was starting to appear on the edge of the minimap. They represented the players who didn"t belong to our guild, and they were moving rapidly toward the center of the canyon where the boss was. No one had expected the Death Lord to sp.a.w.n at such a remote location.
Inside the guild channel, I heard Gui Guzi saying, "Boss, back off a bit. I think Little Piglet is planning to kill you…"
"Mn," He Yi responded.
We all tensed up when we heard this. f.u.c.k, the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds from Hegemon Palace got here before us. Have they fought He Yi and Gui Guzi already?
Still running at top speed, I asked, "What"s the situation, Little Gui?"
Gui Guzi replied with heavy panting, "Boss and I encountered the boss first, but thousands of Hegemon Palace players suddenly appeared almost right next to us. We fought each other for a while, but we had to retreat because there were too many of them. We also lost the aggro on the boss!"
"That"s fine. Back off if you really can"t hang in there. We"ll be arriving in 5 minutes at most!"
"Okay!"
……
We continued moving through the fog. For a couple of minutes, I trekked across small bushes and tiny rocks while wilted leaves covered my shoulders. I was at the forefront of the group because the Barbaric War Boots gave me a lot of movement speed. Behind me, about twenty meters away, High Fighting Spirits, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, Xu Yang, and the others were following closely.
"We"re here!"
A huge clump of blue dots suddenly appeared on the minimap, and they were surrounding a giant red dot. The red dot was clearly the boss!
A rider riding a white horse suddenly appeared from the fog right in front of us. It was none other than He Yi. While she was escaping, she suddenly turned around to fire an energy beam at a pursuing archer, skewering him where he stood.
Gui Guzi stumbled out of the fog right behind as well. The blade of his spear was dripping with blood, and his ID was just as red. Only he could tell us exactly how many people he had killed before meeting up with us. They were being pursued by a group of Hegemon Palace players, and it was at this moment a beautiful figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stunned him!
It was Shangguan Wan"er"s Ambus.h.!.+ Her timing was truly impeccable!
At nearly the same time, Little Piglet burst out of the fog like lightning, stepped on Gui Guzi"s Armored Swordback Dragon tail and ran up the mount"s back skillfully. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d was annoying, but there was no denying how good of a player he was. His sword turned icy, and he stabbed Gui Guzi in the back three times in a row. It was none other than Little Piglet"s signature skill—Ice Ray Flurry!
Bang bang bang! Gui Guzi"s HP dropped rapidly—
3762!
3651!
3409!
Unfortunately for Little Piglet, Gui Guzi had over 20k HP, and he was buffed by He Yi"s Famous General Skill, Royal Road. Ice Ray Flurry dealt 10k damage to Gui Guzi, but Undying s.h.i.+eld healed the latter for 5K HP, effectively negating half the damage. Little Piglet probably felt like killing himself right now.
However, a bunch of Hegemon Palace mages appeared at the back and chanted their spells. A moment later, Ice Dragon Howls fell from the sky and deleted over half of Gui Guzi"s HP in an instant!
They"re not killing Gui Guzi today!
I snorted and raised my sword imperiously, shouting, "Charge!"
I locked onto an enemy mage and activated Thunderous Charge. The second I entered their formation, I stomped the ground and used War Crush. The mages had already activated their Magic s.h.i.+elds, but it still wasn"t enough to negate the full power of my skill. They groaned and fell to the ground, dyeing my ID even redder than before!
I looked to the distance. I was Level 115, so I could see slightly further than most players. When I saw a group of players emerging from the fog—they were obviously Hegemon Palace"s reinforcements—I immediately hit them with a Thousand Ice Slas.h.!.+
Boom!
The unfortunate players collapsed in droves. Behind me, Little Piglet was charging me with Vajra and Strength of Divine Arms turned on. He growled, "Remember me, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand? Hahahaha…"
"Get lost!"
I spun around and thrust my sword at him with everything I got. Little Piglet reacted even quicker and attempted to parry my attack. Unfortunately for him, my Famous General Skill was an offensive pa.s.sive, and his, a defensive pa.s.sive. His strength was inferior to mine, so what should"ve been a successful parry turned into a failed parry instead!
Bang!
The impact was so great Little Piglet was sent sliding toward the back, his feet leaving a pair of deep gashes on the ground. Before he could steady himself, Li Chengfeng attacked him from the side and slashed him four times in a row. Unfortunately, he wasn"t able to one-shot him where he stood.
1763!
1678!
1548!
2172!
It was inevitable. Little Piglet"s Famous General Skill had a base skill effect of 40%, and after factoring his Tactics in, it boosted his Defense by 80% at least. It made sense that Li Chengfeng wouldn"t be able to one-shot him easily.
Ding!
Little Pigletused the knockback from Li Chengfeng"s attack to jump further to the back. Before he vanished into the fog, he said, "The boss belongs to Hegemon Palace. Come at us if you dare. Time to withdraw, Shangguan Wan"er!"
The next moment, both warrior and a.s.sa.s.sin vanished completely into the fog. I should"ve known they wouldn"t stay around and fight.
……
Li Chengfeng, Xu Yang, High Fighting Spirits and the others wisely chose not to give chase. Gui Guzi and He Yi quickly regained their HP after a group of priests tended to them.
Gripping the Heaven-stealing Sword and summoning the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf to my side, I said, "Eve, Gui Guzi, the two of you should lead the way again. The rest of us will follow behind you. Don"t worry about being too slow and just focus on safety. A Level 145 Spirit Rank boss won"t be easy to kill, especially since you guys managed to draw Little Piglet and Shangguan Wan"er away for a moment. Without them, Hegemon Palace doesn"t have the strength to defeat the boss in a short time."
"Mn."
He Yi urged her mount forward and raised her s.h.i.+eld in front of her. Both her and Gui Guzi took point as the rest of us slowly marched forward under Li Chengfeng and my lead. We dared not move too quickly because our max vision range was only 20 yards or so, while archers and mages had an attack range of 40 yards. It would be terrible if we were ambushed without warning.
It wasn"t long before we heard the chaotic sound of movement and fighting. We were very, very close to the boss now.
……
"Wait!"
Beiming Xue suddenly raised her arm and stared to the front with her purple succubi eyes. Her ears moved back and forth for a couple of seconds before she said, "There are a lot of people in front of us. Magic knights, raise your s.h.i.+elds and move to the front now!"
Dozens of magic knights immediately obeyed her order and formed a s.h.i.+elded line in front of us. Then, they slowly pushed forward.
As Beiming Xue had predicted, a hail of arrows suddenly fell from above and hit the magic knights" s.h.i.+elds. Thank goodness Beiming Xue"s senses were sufficiently sharp, or we would"ve suffered some losses before we even engaged the enemy.
It wasn"t long before an entire group of archers and mages appeared in front of us. They also had two rows of magic knights standing at the front to hold the battle line. There were at least a thousand people at this place, and it looked like they had been waiting for us for some time.
I glanced at Beiming Xue, and my intelligent sister nodded with a smile. She and a hundred elite archers moved to the front as she activated her Famous General Skill. Bow G.o.d had a base skill effect of +50% Attack and +20% attack speed, and with Tactics it was probably around +100% Attack and +40% attack speed. It was ridiculously powerful to say the least!
"Give me your Volley and Multi Arrows. Draw your bows, and loose!" Beiming Xue ordered.
All one hundred elite archers let their Multi Arrows and Volleys loose in unison. For a moment, the sky was covered in arrows until they thudded against the magic knights" Holy s.h.i.+elds. It was just the first volley, but nearly half of the enemy magic knights had perished where they stood. They simply weren"t tanky enough to withstand the boosted attack!
Beiming Xue and the rest of our archers had improved attack speed thanks to Bow G.o.d, so they were able to follow up quickly with another volley of Multi Arrows. Usually, an AoE attack only dealt half the damage of a basic attack, but with Bow G.o.d it was effectively as powerful as a basic attack. Moreover, it was a hundred archers launching the skill at the same time. Only a handful of players would be able to survive this!
The enemy"s defense line crumbled in just 30 seconds. Not far away, w.a.n.g Dongliang exclaimed in shock. "f.u.c.k, how are they so powerful?"
I raised my sword while smiling. "Charge and shred their defense to pieces!"
……
I and a bunch of warriors activated our Charges and dove into the enemy"s backline like wolves jumping into a herd of sheeps. Then, we all activated our AoE skills without even needing a signal!
Thousand Ice Slas.h.!.+ Reverse Scale Slas.h.!.+ Xiezhi Howl! Green Wave Slas.h.!.+ Rock Smas.h.!.+
Not only did our AoE skills annihilate over half of the enemy mages and archers in an instant, they also shattered w.a.n.g Dongliang"s fragile heart. Hundreds of players worth of firepower gone just like that.
It was acknowledged server-wide that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had the best frontline in the China servers. If even a top guild like Warsky Alliance couldn"t stop us, then what could a second-rate guild like Hegemon Palace possibly do?
……
A ray of sunlight penetrated the clouds at this moment. The fog was finally fading away.
At the distance, we saw the Death Lord in his armored glory riding a mighty-looking skeletal mount and swinging his blade all over the place. His sword left a trail of fire wherever it went and murdered any and all frontliner from Hegemon Palace like they were nothing. Even better, he still had over 70% HP. Hmph hmph, Hegemon Palace might not have been able to beat this boss even if we hadn"t interfered with this battle!
High Fighting Spirits raised his battle axe with a grin. "Come on, let"s go get our boss back!"
……
"Wait!"
But the dragon warrior suddenly raised his arm in warning. "Look over there!"
We looked to the distance, and a group of players suddenly appeared on a hill beside the canyon. They all belonged to the same guild, and their leader was a beautiful female archer. The archer examined the battlefield for a moment before smiling, "There are at least millions of players who are fighting to kill this boss. Looks like we should observe a bit longer before acting…"