Rose Thorn"s brave and decisive move to attack Mad Dragon with the Purple Thunder Cavalry resulted in an overwhelming victory in favor of the defenders. She managed to destroy all of Mad Dragon"s siege weapons—shredding both engineers and half-deployed catapults to pieces—and slaughtered almost ten thousand people with minimal losses.
Rose Thorn was the spearhead of her party. Buffing her and her allies" attack power with Encourage VII, she cut down all the enemies in front of her with Storm Slash and looked more like an invincible, unstoppable general. The 5000-strong elite cavalry she led was also very skilled, and they ran through Mad Dragon"s formation four times before losing just 100 riders. Rose Thorn then ordered a retreat and went back to the city.
……
A furious Roaming Dragon screamed atop his Corrosive Armor Earth Dragon for his Earth Dragon Cavalry to chase after Rose Thorn, but Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch on the walls raised his sword and ordered, "Archers, Far Shot these r.e.t.a.r.ds to h.e.l.l!"
Tw.a.n.g tw.a.n.g tw.a.n.g tw.a.n.g…
The sounds of bow tw.a.n.gs filled the air as a hail of arrows covered the sky. The elite archers of Hall of Immortality were gathered on this front, and hundreds of Volleys, Spiraling Arrow Blades, Multi Arrows, and more drilled holes into the players" bodies, eliciting countless bloodcurdling screams. Almost a hundred cavalrymen were knocked off their horses upon first contact.
Worse, the arrow towers also launched their arm-thick, spear-long steel arrows at the cavalry and dealt even more damage!
Thud thud thud...
The steel arrows penetrated the riders" armor and exploded into showers of blood. The Mad Dragon parties who chased Rose Thorn and the Purple Thunder Cavalry to the gate suffered ma.s.sive casualties as a result.
Roaming Dragon"s face turned green as he held his s.h.i.+eld in front of him and blocked a couple of steel arrows himself. He was lucky his equipment was good, or that one volley would have been enough to delete him from existence.
"Guild leader, we can"t hold on for much longer! If we don"t reconsider our a.s.sault plan at length we"re going to lose a ton of people!" Inconstant shouted while raising his own s.h.i.+eld.
After his general gave him the excuse to back off, Roaming Dragon shouted, "Retreat!"
Just like that, the parties attacking the city withdrew. The brief clash had cost them almost thirty thousand players, and the biggest reason behind the loss was undoubtedly Roaming Dragon himself. The idiot wasn"t bad at hiring people, but to ask him to lead his subordinates and fight a virtual war of courage and wits was simply too much.
……
This time, Roaming Dragon listened to Inconstant, Iron Pardon, and Coldmoon Rose"s advice and rearranged his troop formation. The magic knights stood at the forefront, the tamers and the archers stood behind the magic knights, and finally the mages and priests stood behind the tamers and archers. They protected their remaining dozen escalades and organized a specialized party to attack the walls.
Of course, their battle plan was idealistic at best. In a real battle, no one could predict what might happen next.
The war horns were blown again after ten minutes or so. This time though, it was the players of Immortality City who blew the horn of a.s.sault, not the players of Mad Dragon!
Creak…
The sounds of rattling chains and creaking gates filled the air for a moment. Shockingly, the east gate, south gate, and north gate of Immortality City all opened in unison. The army at the east gate was still Rose Thorn and her Purple Thunder Cavalry. The army at the south gate was Emperor"s Equal and his Greedy Wolves. Finally, the army at the north gate was Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch and his 10000 Ghost Riders. The Purple Thunder Cavalry charged Mad Dragon"s formation directly from the front while the other two cavalries attacked from the sides. The elite cavalries of all three guilds had emerged from the city to destroy Mad Dragon!
Finally realizing what was going on, Roaming Dragon swore loudly, "f.u.c.k! Those motherf.u.c.king trash guilds aren"t stopping the army from the north gate and south gate at all! Are they planning to make us fight three armies ourselves!"
Some distance away, the guild leader with a pointed mouth and thin face who made an agreement with Roaming Dragon earlier was laughing loudly. "Mad Dragon is 140k players strong, so surely they aren"t afraid of mere tens of thousands of riders, right? Come on, fight them and show us how strong an ally you are, Mad Dragon!"
Iron Pardon clenched his teeth hard enough to shatter them. "f.u.c.k! We"ve been deceived! Those f.u.c.kers and Immortality City are on the same side! They were bribed by Hall of Immortality from the start!"
Inconstant shouted, "Boss, make up your mind quickly! Are we fighting, or are we withdrawing?"
Roaming Dragon raised his weapon high and declared, "For the honor and glory of Mad Dragon, attack! If Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls could defeat these Purple Thunder Cavalry, Greedy Wolf Cavalry, and Ghost Riders with just 3000-strong Cyan Tiger Cavalry, then we, Mad Dragon can do it as well! Fight for glory, Mad Dragon!"
Mad Dragon"s battle preparation was alright, but their overall strategy and deployment were abysmal to say the least. Not only was Hall of Immortality, Throne Seeker, and Rose of the Holy Domain attacking Mad Dragon together, even the fighters and archers holing up inside the city had emerged to a.s.sist their cavalry troops. Of course, the three elite cavalries probably didn"t need the a.s.sist because they were the deadliest troops of the army. The combined a.s.sault easily tore Mad Dragon"s formation to shreds. To put it bluntly, Mad Dragon had great numbers but zero quality.
Blood and the light of skills filled the battlefield for a moment. The soil turned into rivers of blood as the players of Mad Dragon did everything in their power to resist. Unfortunately, they were unable to stop the enemy"s march, and half an hour later, the main bulk of Mad Dragon"s army was basically destroyed. Less than 20000 players were able to retreat to safety under Roaming Dragon"s guidance.
The battlefield was covered in bodies. The storm of blood and death was over for now, but no one could tell how long the temporary equilibrium would last.
Roaming Dragon felt extremely defeated, and his gloomy expression was a reflection of that. Inconstant and Iron Pardon consoled him, "Guild leader, victory and defeat is commonplace in military operations. This time we lost because we were deceived by sc.u.mbags, but next time we"ll definitely pay back both the princ.i.p.al and the interest! Hall of Immortality, hmph! f.u.c.k their sisters!"
Roaming Dragon gritted his teeth and nodded. "Right!"
……
Beneath the city, the three guilds spent a short moment to sweep the battlefield before withdrawing back to the city.
The main force of Mad Dragon was completely destroyed, and only a handful of Earth Dragon Cavalrymen survived the battle. The funniest thing about this whole fight wasn"t that they lost horribly, but that not a single guild thought to help them during the hour Mad Dragon was trampled. There were at least a hundred guilds in the area who could"ve lent them a helping hand or at least attacked the city while it was empty, but everyone just stood by and watched until the three guilds were done ravaging the s.h.i.+t out of Mad Dragon. It showed just how infamous Mad Dragon was.
Roaming Dragon still wasn"t able to accept defeat despite having withdrawn all the way to the edge of the desert. Looking back at Immortality City, he said in a helpless tone, "G.o.d dammit, why is this happening? It was 140k vs tens of thousands at most. How the h.e.l.l did these three guilds beat us so quickly…"
Iron Pardon hummed for a moment before replying, "Guild leader, our party formation and composition is flawed, and I noticed that our members are too afraid to perform their roles without hesitation. That is why we lost as quickly as we did. When we head back, we really should consider how to improve our players" morale."
Roaming Dragon nodded. "Mn, what you said makes a lot sense…"
Coldmoon Rose pointed to the east and said, "Look, a new group of players just emerged from the desert. Is it just me, or is their guild emblem familiar to you?"
She wasn"t wrong. The group of players Coldmoon Rose was pointing came from Sky City, and they all carried the same guild emblem.
"Hmm?!" Roaming Dragon"s pupils shrank suddenly. "f.u.c.k, they"re… Flower Room! That r.e.t.a.r.ded Li Le is here too?"
Iron Pardon immediately crossed his blade in front of him. "Prepare for battle!"
At Sky City, Mad Dragon, Flower Room, Hegemon Palace, and G.o.ds of Destruction didn"t fight against each other because they all shared a common enemy, namely Snowy Cathaya and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. However, they weren"t allies either. To put things simply, their relations.h.i.+p was so bad that they would"ve murdered the s.h.i.+t out of each other if we weren"t around!
It took only a short time for Flower Room"s cavalry to reach Mad Dragon, and they looked surprisingly elite. Every single rider was mounted atop a Cyan Battle Wolf, the mount that had made waves on the forums recently. The Cyan Battle Wolf was a powerful Level 125 Dark Gold–grade mount, and it was clear that Li Le had been planning this for a while. Rumors said that he and his subguilds monopolized the wasteland to the north of Floating Ice City and grinded 20000 Cyan Battle Wolves to create his cavalry troop. Even I had to admit that it was some impressive effort. No wonder the people on the forums were spreading the quote: “The Cyan Battle Wolves emerge, and the world trembles in fear!”
Of course, whether or not the quote was true remained to be seen, but I knew for sure that the Cyan Battle Wolf Cavalrymen were averagely skilled at best. After all, Flower Room had always had mediocre players, and all they got going for them was impressive numbers. Our players could be riding wild donkeys and still challenge any adversary without fear.
……
Protected by a group of Cyan Battle Wolf Cavalrymen and carrying a flaming sword by his side, Li Le rode up to Roaming Dragon and laughed at him. "Brother Lu Chao, I heard that Mad Dragon suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of Immortality City? This little one is truly sad to hear it!"
Roaming Dragon"s face turned green. "You dare delight in my misfortune, Li Le?!"
A dark gleam flashed across Li Le"s eyes before he said in a sincere tone all of a sudden, "Brother, we are both guilds from Sky City, so how could Flower Room stand by and do nothing after the horrible humiliation you suffered in the hands of Vanished G.o.d City? Don"t worry, I, Li Le, promise that I will take revenge for you! Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch won"t even be able to cry when my Cyan Battle Wolf Cavalry is done with him!"
Roaming Dragon was moved by the touching words. "Are… are you speaking the truth?"
"Of course! In fact, why don"t you join us on our conquest of Immortality City? Let us defeat those two sonuvab.i.t.c.hes, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch and Emperor"s Equal together and claim Rose Thorn as our mistress of the fort!"
"Very well!"
Blood pumping with pa.s.sion, Roaming Dragon and his players joined Li Le and turned back toward Immortality City. A large group of Cyan Battle Wolf Cavalry immediately ran over and merged as one with Mad Dragon.
……
"Huh, that"s strange…" He Yi frowned slightly. "This can"t be right. Mad Dragon and Flower Room have never seen eye to eye, and now they"re joining forces with each other? Something"s weird about this…"
Chaos Moon chuckled. "Who knows, maybe Mad Dragon and Li Le are f.u.c.king each other in secret?!"
I shook my head. "Nope, there"s definitely something else going on here. Look at the Cyan Battle Wolf Cavalry"s formation!"
"What?" Chaos Moon exclaimed in surprise.
……
When Mad Dragon and Flower Room"s players returned to Immortality City again, Li Le suddenly raised his sword and shouted, "Brothers, the time to take revenge for Night Sorrow is now! Murder these f.u.c.kers who only think with their lower half!"
Clang clang clang!
The Cyan Battle Wolf Cavalry suddenly turned toward the center and attacked the remaining Mad Dragon players!