In my hand, the blade of the Cyan Netherworld Sword was gleaming intimidatingly, and the indigo energy that was the dragon"s soul kept spinning around it. The Armored Ice Qilin Horse was so quick that I outsped everyone almost immediately. Its hooves thundered across the land as the Phantom Wolf King followed right beside me.
A ghastly energy spread to my surroundings as I turned the Apparition Ring. I pointed my palm to my side, and my body double took shape beside me. It was of course the Apparition effect of the Apparition Ring. Just like me, it was riding the Armored Ice Qilin Horse and wielding the Cyan Netherworld Sword. The only difference between me and it was that its stats were 25% lower than mine, and it didn"t have its own Phantom Wolf King.
Right now my stats were absolutely crazy, so a body double with only 75% of my power was still incredibly powerful. This was especially true for its Attack stat. It wouldn"t be an exaggeration to compare it to the incarnation of a G.o.dslayer.
……
Meanwhile, the 5000-strong fourth subguild of Hall of Immortality was a.s.sembling at the edge of the forest. Columns of riders occasionally rode past their formation. Suddenly, an archer looked behind himself and felt his pupils widening in fear, his expression contorting into deep fright. He shouted, "Holy f.u.c.k, Ancient Sword"s Cyan Tiger Cavalry is charging us! We need to a.s.semble a defense line right now! f.u.c.k, those shameless f.u.c.kers didn"t even give us a warning…"
In front of the archer, a Level 142 high-rank magic knight carrying a cyan circular s.h.i.+eld on his left arm let out a growl. "s.h.i.+t! That man riding that black frost horse is the sixth-promotion Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand! And there are two of them! This is so f.u.c.king stupid…"
A high-level mage that managed to keep a cooler head than the duo shouted, "No one is allowed to trample on our dignity, even if that person is Lu Chen himself! Get into position and get ready to send him and his riders back where he came from! Warriors, magic knights, wanderers, form a defense line as soon as possible! Mages, get ready to fire your Galaxy Storms! Archers, shoot them with Mountain Stagger Arrow and knock them off their horses! They are just weaklings without their mounts!"
It looked like the fourth subguild of Hall of Immortality wasn"t a complete pushover. At the very least, they were able to form a defense line and prepare for our arrival very quickly.
The enemy archers raised their bows and got ready to fire their Far Shots at a moment"s notice.
As the man leading the charge, I made sure to maintain me and my double"s speed at 50% or so not to step out of our line. It was still incredibly quick though.
The captain of the archers read my movement and shouted, "Loose!"
Bow tw.a.n.gs filled the air for a moment, and many of them were Mountain Stagger Arrows. The skill book was rare, but nowhere rare enough that it was available to a handful of players only. Since Mountain Stagger Arrow was a skill that drastically reduced a mounted player"s mount tenacity, it was an absolute nightmare for any mounted player to face down a party of archers with the skill.
However, I was prepared for the enemy"s reaction. I abruptly cranked my movement speed to the max and moved so fast that my figure was a blur to anyone who was watching me. The archers could only watch with stunned expressions as their Volleys, Mountain Stagger Arrows, Devil Piercing Arrows, and more missed entirely. They shouted, "Really? Really now? This Lu Chen is way too sly! Magic knights, wanderers, warriors, watch out!"
I activated Charge the moment the enemy frontliners entered my skill range!
Swhoos.h.!.+
I disappeared from my original spot and slammed into the s.h.i.+eld of the magic knight right in front of me hard. Size-wise, my Armored Ice Qilin Horse was a whole head taller than the enemy"s mount, but the Strength difference between the two mounts was even bigger. I raised the Cyan Netherworld Sword and fired Thousand Ice Slash right away!
Boom!
My mount increased my attack range, and Thousand Ice Slash was no exception. The size of the skill was increased by nearly 100% as it splashed down atop the enemies in a cone shape, dealing over 20k damage to all the affected. The archers, tamers, and priests were one-shot where they stood, and even the tanky magic knights lost half their health due to the sheer amount of splash damage they took. They couldn"t help but stare at the bodies of their companions in shock.
"Holy s.h.i.+t, what the h.e.l.l is that attack power…" Not far away, a Level 141 magic knight exclaimed in shock while he tried to rush me. All around me, the half-health magic knights also tried to overwhelm me with sheer numbers. If they didn"t act as meats.h.i.+elds for their ranged players, then there was no way in h.e.l.l they could keep me down.
I couldn"t help but smile when twenty or so players tried to surround me. Swinging my sword in front of me three times in a row, three flaming sword auras swept across the group and one-shot them all! Again, my mount had drastically increased the skill range of Burning Blade Slas.h.!.+
"What the h.e.l.l, this is way too f.u.c.king broken!" Once again, the players of the fourth subguild of Hall of Immortality were left speechless by my a.s.sault.
Behind me, the Cyan Tiger Cavalry finally showed up only to discover I had created a kill zone all by myself. Dumbfounded, Gui Guzi said, "Boss Broken Halberd, can you tone down your OP-ness a bit? You"re going to crush their spirit if you keep this up…"
My body double unleashed its own Burning Blade Slash and Thousand Ice Slash while Gui Guzi was talking. Before the enemy could react, it ate a Saint Spirit Potion to restore itself to full, pulled its sword and summoned the image of a purple dragon! It was none other than the Purple Dragon Howl!
"Roar!"
The gigantic dragon merciless tore everyone in its path to shreds. If the Hall of Immortality players weren"t terrified before, they were now.
I could summon an apparition of myself every 20 minutes, and it always manifested with all their skills ready to go. What this meant was that I could now make my body double use Purple Dragon Howl every 20 minutes even if its Attack was only 75% of mine. That certainly was enough destructive power to make the Hall of Immortality players cry rivers of tears.
Gui Guzi charged into the enemy as Heaven"s Rain and Diamond Dust rode next to him like bodyguards. Escorted by the girls, he and the other 399 Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen in his party hit the enemy and screamed like banshees as if they could shatter the enemy"s courage with noise alone.
"Boom boom boom!"
All kinds of skill exploded amidst the enemy, but instead of finis.h.i.+ng off the survivors the riders kept charging and tore down every player who was standing in their way. At this point, the poor subguild had lost control of the situation completely. It was bad enough that their power was drastically inferior to ours, but they were even outnumbered by us, if just a little. They never had the chance to stop us.
The human players weren"t the only ones who were wreaking havoc too. Every time my Phantom Wolf King swung its claws, it would tear apart armor and flesh like they were nothing at all. Occasionally, it would trigger Claw of the Storm and shred the enemy with unstoppable wind blades. It was like a walking signboard that said “living things beware”.
"Will anyone join me? Archers and mages, let"s focus fire on that pet and kill it first!" a barbarian warrior shouted. He was a team leader, and he seemed to have a bit more influence than the usual lackeys.
Behind him, a large number of archers and mages raised their weapons in unison and aimed at the Phantom Wolf King. I immediately took control of my pet and made it howl. A moment later, the sky became darkened by b.l.o.o.d.y clouds, and the Purgatory Storm burst into existence right at the center of a group of enemies. For a time, screams of pain and death filled the air.
……
Gui Guzi was running his mount back and forth through the enemy formation like they didn"t exist. However, a gigantic icicle suddenly hit him in the chest!
Bang!
10992!
The spell had been conjured by a Level 143 mage called "Ximen Chuixue”. We were all caught by surprise because we weren"t expecting to encounter an expert of this level in a subguild of Hall of Immortality. Not only that, the rainbow lights s.h.i.+ning from the mage"s equipment made it pretty clear that most of his items were of Outstanding quality. His dragon-like scepter was especially eye-catching. It had to be a powerful mage scepter, or there was no way he could"ve dealt 10k damage to Gui Guzi.
"How dare you hit me, you motherf.u.c.ker…" Gui Guzi waved his spear and urged his Cyan Tiger Cavalry to run down Ximen Chuixue, but the mage moved in a unique way that kept Gui Guzi from catching up to him. Not only was he kiting Gui Guzi like a boss, the Galaxy Storm he threw at him dealt ma.s.sive damage to the riders next to Gui Guzi. Three Cyan Tiger Cavalrymenhad lost their mounts in less than half a minute.
Gui Guzi was wide-eyed with anger, but he couldn"t find an opportunity to Charge. The mage"s control was so perfect that there was always a 35 to 40–yard distance between the two of them.
Unable to bear the disgraceful sight any longer, I shouted, "Little Gui, go kill someone else! Leave him to me!"
"Got it!" Gui Guzi obeyed and moved away.
I gripped my sword and slapped my mount once. The Armored Ice Qilin Horse let out a sharp neigh before thundering toward the mage at high speed!
"Huh, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand?" The corner of Ximen Chuixue"s mouth curled up slightly. "Doesn"t matter who you are, you lowly warriors and magic knights will always be trash before a mage! I"ve been exploring the jianghu for decades, and I"ve never met my match. If I was online during the raid, Hall of Immortality would"ve slaughtered you all already…"
I grinned. "Nope, never heard of you before. Bye!"
Swhoos.h.!.+
I swung my sword right down on Ximen Chuixue"s head. The Armored Ice Qilin Hose was so fast that the mage simply didn"t have a chance to put his running skills to use. His failure was also partially due to the fact that he was busy slowing down Gui Guzi with his icicles up until a moment ago, so he was driven into a corner in no time at all. That being said, I had to admit he was quite a skillful player. He had calmly stepped behind an obstacle and avoided my attack!
Boom!
He stomped the ground once, and an inferno suddenly exploded from beneath my feet. The literal fire wall immediately deleted a huge chunk of HP from my health bar!
5990!
5389!
5523!
……
Fully confident in his abilities, a smiling Ximen Chuixue continued to kite me calmly while saying, "I guess this is as far as the seventh CGL Hall of Famer and a Heavenly King can go!"
"Is that so?"
I smiled, and the Ice Qilin Horse abruptly shattered the stone it was standing on. First, I launched two extended basic attacks to cut off the enemy"s retreat path. Then, I used the sixth-promotion warrior"s skill, Frightening Slas.h.!.+
Swhoos.h.!.+
A purply, ghastly aura surrounded my blade and penetrated the Ximen Chuixue"s Magic s.h.i.+eld in the blink of an eye. Instead of losing HP though, he lost a ton of MP—25792!
Very good! Not even the strongest mage in the world could have any remaining MP after this attack!
"Ah?!"
Ximen Chuixue obviously wasn"t expecting the skill. The loss of all his MP disrupted his original battle plan and stopped him from using Blink to get away to safety. I immediately thrust my sword forward and hit him with a devastating Universe Break!
Squelch!
29092!
It was a one-shot. Right now, there shouldn"t be a mage in all the servers who could withstand a Universe Break from me yet. Ximen Chuixue was holding a Magic Consumable right in front of his mouth, but he died before he could drink it.
……
Pop!
A scepter dropped from his dead body. I picked it up and saw that it was a Level 140 3-star Outstanding Spirit-grade item. Now I understood why Ximen Chuixue was able to deal so much damage to Gui Guzi and me. Still, he was dead, so he was no longer a problem.
After that, I turned my mount around and joined the others. Ten minutes later, every last member of the fourth subguild of Hall of Immortality had been killed and sent back to their cities.
Right on time, Come See The Snow Tonight officially submitted the Va.s.sal Token and started the raid. Just like last time, the system announcement urged us, the attacker, to take down Immortal City in 10 hours!
I rode my horse to the city and looked up at the wall. Hands pressed against an arrow tower and eyes staring at me in anger, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch shouted, "Just you wait, Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand!"
On one side, the guild leader of Rose of the Holy Domain, Rose Thorn, was holding a sword in silence. On the other, the guild leader of Throne Seeker, Emperor"s Equal, was present as well. It looked like the three guilds had come together yet again. In the end, there was no such thing as eternal enemies or friends in the name of profit.