After Li Chengfeng left with 15k+ cavalry, I continued the negotiations with Hot and Sour Noodles. I demanded Sky City and Wind City to dispatch their cavalries and carry the food supply we desperately needed to Dawn City. There was no way I was going to make Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls fight on an empty stomach.
……
Winter Pine Forest was a desolate map with polar climate. Its plants were needle-leaved because of the coldness of the earth, and sometimes it snowed even though it was located right next to the ever-hot Horse Hoof Valley. The map was designed to be a weather phenomenon in the game.
I rode at the front as we made our way across Winter Pine Forest. The map was incredibly huge, and we managed to take out a couple of Northern Alliance parties we ran into on our way. However, we couldn"t help but feel a sense of unease at the sound of distant battles cries coming from somewhere.
"Lu Chen, do you really think Li can fight the t.i.tan G.o.d himself?"
High Fighting Spirits licked his dry, cracked lips once before continuing, "Li only has 5000 Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen and a bunch of riders with random mounts. t.i.tan G.o.d is a famous veteran, and he is protected by a team of elite cavalry. He might even have reinforcements. When I checked the surroundings of Horse Hoof Valley earlier, I saw many regiments of Northern Alliance cavalry roaming the perimeter of Dragonbone Mountain Range. It won"t be hard for them to slip into Sky City or Wind City"s domain."
I exhaled a little before replying, "Trust in your brother. I have faith that Chengfeng will not lose to t.i.tan G.o.d!"
Gui Guzi nodded as well. "Yeah. Li is a guy who can beat me over 80% of the time. There"s no way he"ll lose to a nuisance like t.i.tan G.o.d!"
I smiled and fell silent once more.
……
Dawn City as a whole was so gigantic that, even after all the Northern Alliance players that had crossed the border and entered its domain, we could still spot some mobs here and there in Winter Pine Forest. Of course, no one was interested in grinding right now. It had almost been half an hour since we reorganized, and the itch for battle was starting to creep up our fingers again. The sooner we found a Northern Alliance party to kill, the better.
I looked at the players beside me. I had sent away most of the Cyan Tiger Cavalry and riders to aid Li Chengfeng, so there were only 1700+ Dragonlight Cavalrymen, 20k riders and 20k foot soldiers left in our party. The archers, mages, priests, bards, tacticians, a.s.sa.s.sins and tamers also added up to a total of 40k+ troops.
Ling Xueshang pointed a finger to the front and said, "We"ll be reaching the zone The Monarch Descends is responsible for guarding in ten minutes or so. The battle is incredibly fierce, and we are joining hands with Snowy Cathaya to repel the enemy forces. Tens of thousands of Northern Alliance players have filled up the supposedly empty plains at the front and are taking turns to charge our defense line."
I nodded and felt my heart growing heavier. This war was far more desperate than anyone could"ve imagined.
……
Suddenly, a cacophony of thundering hooves came from the distance. A short while later, a swarm of elite cavalry with blood-red IDs appeared at the horizon where the forest lay. The cavalry belonged to the Northern Alliance; the Korean cavalry of Burning City to be exact. There were about twenty thousand of them or so!
"Prepare for battle!" I raised my arm and barked out.
Beside me, Ling Xueshang said while staring to the front, "Hmph, I knew this would happen. While Hero City and Chariot City are mounting a direct a.s.sault, the Koreans are circling around the back and looking for an opportunity to ambush Snowy Cathaya"s backliners. I guess Beauty Lin is too busy to notice this."
The corner of my lips curled upward as I tightened my fist and yelled, "Alright, let"s save Snowy Cathaya from this crisis, everyone! It looks like the enemy hasn"t spotted us yet, so hide yourselves in the forest to our left and right now! Cute Little Naughty, I want you and the eighth subguild to spread out and ambush them after we disrupted their formation with Shock Arrows. Dragonlight Cavalry, charge the enemy when they least expect it. Mages and archers, give it your all when the battle begins. We must annihilate them all in ten minutes at most!"
Everyone hid themselves behind the foliages after receiving my orders. The a.s.sa.s.sins of the eighth subguild spread out and a.s.sumed positions as well.
By now, the Korean riders were getting closer and closer to our position.
Creaaak…
Beiming Xue drew her Dragonbone String until it resembled a full moon and waited for the enemy to arrive. Beside her, the archers did the same with the light of Shock Arrow br.i.m.m.i.n.g from their arrow tip. Shock Arrow was much more useful than any other archer skill when attacking a cavalry troop that was on the move.
"Big bro?"
Beiming Xue turned around and requested permission to begin the a.s.sault with her eyes.
I waited for almost ten seconds before finally giving her the nod.
Beiming shouted, "Loose!"
Shock Arrows immediately flew out of both sides of the path and stunned the enemy magic knights!
Bang bang bang bang…
The riders at the back couldn"t reined in their horses in time, so they instantly rammed into their companions in front of them and fell into disarray for a time. A rider with a blade scar on his face swung his weapon and shouted angrily, "Ssibal! Ambus.h.!.+ Charge them and take out these archers!"
The riders were just about to turn around and make a move when red lights exploded from the back of their heads. It was Cute Little Naughty and her a.s.sa.s.sin party making their move. First, they dipped their weapons in poison and hit the enemy with Blade Vortex after stunning them. Then, they CC"d them even longer with Blind and Cold Blood. No cla.s.s was better than a.s.sa.s.sins when it came to dis.h.i.+ng out single-target damage, and the enemy cavalry fell into even bigger disarray because of it.
Chiang!
I pulled out my sword and ordered with a smile, "Dragonlight Cavalry, the time to continue our conquest and annihilate these bangzi is now!"
I rushed toward the enemy with He Yi, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and the others right beside me. As usual, the Dragonlight Cavalry was buffed by Royal Road, Martial G.o.d, Knight G.o.d and Knight General. Since there wasn"t enough Dragonlight Cavalrymen to use all our buffs, I added another 300 mages into my party. Martial G.o.d"s 200% attack power boost applied to Magic Attack as well, so even the lousiest mages could transform into great weapons of destruction.
The Dragonlight Cavalry rammed into the enemy and cut down everyone in our way. The ranged attacks from Stranger of Three Lifetimes, Beiming Xue and Ling Xueshang were especially deadly, filling nearly every corner of the forest path in Spiraling Arrow Blades and Galaxy Storms.
"Ssibal!"
The humiliated Korean riders charged toward Beiming Xue, but a single Evil Spirit Volley was all it took to send them back to Burning City.
The slaughter took no time at all, and in fifteen minutes, all 20000 Korean riders were killed in the path. They probably didn"t expect a group as powerful as ours to ambush them, and it was possible that their intel on us was inaccurate. One mistake was all it took to cause the death of this elite cavalry troop.
After looting everything we needed from the battlefield, I pointed to the east and said, "Snowy Cathaya is over there, so we"ll head over and meet up with them. Prepare to fight a full-on battle!"
Everyone nodded. The exhaustion on their faces was clear, but no one looked like they wanted to call it a day. That being said, some people strongly requested a toilet break, so we had to rest in the forest for 30 minutes. Everyone logged off to go to the toilet, drink water and fill their stomachs. It had been almost 29 hours since the Nation War began, and we hadn"t had a real opportunity to log out of the game until now.
Murong Mingyue, He Yi, Beiming Xue and me also logged out of the game to take care of our business. However, there was no time to eat a proper meal, so we all ate a loaf of bread and swallowed it down with warm water for now. The celebration could wait until the war was over.
……
Swhoos.h.!.+
Thirty minutes was over in the blink of an eye, and almost everyone except a handful of players had come back online. When we called these players to check in on them, we discovered that they had fallen asleep on top of the toilet.
We spent a moment reorganizing the parties before officially departing to the east. After we pa.s.sed through a dense forest, long stretches of Snowy Cathaya troops abruptly entered our view. Not only that, we saw Purple Lily, Mad Dragon, Rose of the Holy Domain, The Monarch Descends, Baidicheng and even Warsky Alliance as well.
Warsky Alliance only had tens of thousands of troops left, but that didn"t stop their leader from fighting on the frontlines and laughing. "Beat these cowards and send them back where they came from! Don"t let them enter Winter Pine Forest!"
I spurred my mount forward and reached Snowy Cathaya in the blink of an eye. However, I saw everyone—Clear Perfume, Purple Marquis, Shadow Chanel and Zi Chuanyu—except Lin Yixin. I hadn"t been able to meet Lin Yixin when she repelled the t.i.tan G.o.d and moved back to Dawn City, and now I still wasn"t able to meet her. I couldn"t help but feel a sense of growing disappointment.
"Qingqing!" I shouted.
"Oh?" Sun Qingqing stopped shooting and turned around. When she saw me, she gave me a smile and said, "Ohh, Vice Leader Lu has finally returned to us? I heard that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls fought a beautiful ambush at Horse Hoof Valley earlier. The battle was even streamed live on the gaming channel and praised by everyone, hehe~~"
I was in no mood to entertain this subject, so I simply looked around and made an inquiring noise. "Hmm?"
"Cut it out, you…" Sun Qingqing rolled her eyes at me. "Yiyi logged out of the game half an hour ago. Both she and her father left for the hospital because her mother will be receiving some very important treatment today. It"s highly probably that she"s not going to log back into the game until the Nation War is over, so after delegating the defense of the city to me and Purple Marquis, she logged out at the entrance of Dawn Valley."
What could I even say? "Ah…"
"Ah, what? Anyway, stop loafing around and prepare for battle already. Everyone"s suffered huge losses, and we can definitely use Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls" aid. Hmph hmph, Candle Dragon is an interesting bunch. They withdrew almost all 300k of their players into Dawn City claiming that they need to rest and defend the city, when really they"re just avoiding the fiercest battle of the day…"
I nodded and said, "Let"s continue!"
"Mn!"
……
I sent our cavalry and warriors to the frontline and spread out our formation. Then, we began engaging the Northern Alliance players in battle. We swung our weapons at each other in practiced fas.h.i.+on almost as if we had rehea.r.s.ed this before, and the resulting deaths were innumerable. The battle line was a hundred meters wide, and flesh and blood was spilled all across the battlefield as parties fought against parties.
About two hours later, I suddenly heard a cry from the front, "Not good, Hegemon Palace has lost the battle! Even Little Piglet is almost killed…"
"What?" My eyes widened.
I looked to the plains and saw a group of defeated players running toward our direction. It was none other than the remnants of Hegemon Palace. I thought they were slaughtering the ranged parties of Hot Sand City, so what happened, and how did they lose this quickly when they had several hundred thousand troops?
……
Suddenly, the ground began to rumble threateningly. It obviously didn"t belong to your usual cavalry. When He Yi and I looked to the horizon, we were shocked to discover a stretch of giants riding toward our direction! They were cavalry riding on giant beasts, and the emblem on their shoulder marked them as players of Chariot City. They were Germany"s elite cavalry!
"Wh… what the h.e.l.l are those things?" He Yi said in a shaky voice.
The giant beasts had claws as huge and powerful as a lion"s and full body scales that looked like dragon scales. They also had a long tail and an incredibly ugly head. They walked on three limbs, and one of them floated slightly above the ground. I could see a stone cone embedded between its claws.
……
"Behemoth…" Hot and Sour Noodles" pupils shrank into needles. "It"s the Behemoth Cavalry, the trump card of Chariot City! Behemoth is a Purple Gold Rank Boss mount that can only be found in Chariot City, and they are intelligent enough to attack without direction from a player. It"s over. The Germans used their last trump card on this Nation War…"