Ding~!
System Announcement: Attention all players, Heroic Bannerman "Soothsayer" (Germany) has been killed by player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" (China)!
……
The system announcement resounded through the entire Dawn Valley and hammered against the hearts of the Northern Alliance players again and again. Soothsayer was one of the best experts in Chariot City and the leader of their strongest guild. Naturally, his loss was a heavy blow to their morale.
Absolutely furious at the loss of their leader, the Behemoth Cavalry glared at us hatefully and shouted, "You will pay ten times over for the murder of our boss!"
The vice leader of Prophecy and a Heroic Bannerman was also a middle-aged uncle. He shouted, “Behemoth Cavalry, hunt down the Dragonlight Cavalry! Don"t let even a single one escape! I swear I won"t rest until every last one of them is dead!"
The fact that I was still holding up Soothsayer"s head must fill them with shame, even though it was already starting to fade from existence. For obvious reasons, the game wouldn"t allow me to carry an enemy"s head like a trophy.
"What are you doing drawing all the hate on yourself, Lu Chen? Are you trying to kill yourself?" Chaos Moon yelled.
I said in a quiet voice, "The Behemoth Cavalry is too strong to be allowed to roam free about the battle line. The Northern Alliance will crush Dawn City faster than they already are if we don"t draw them away from the main battlefield and find a way to kill them one by one. Besides, is there anyone who"s more qualified than us to eat this 100000-strong Behemoth Cavalry? Hmph…"
Chaos Moon pouted. "Are you sure we have the teeth to chew through all this prey, dear?"
I laughed. "Let"s go. We"ll be surrounded if we dilly dally any longer!"
The Armored Ice Qilin Horse let out a long neigh before charging out of the enemy"s encirclement. There was no one in the world that could stop the Cyan Netherworld Sword, and by extension the Dragonlight Cavalry. We swiftly left the battlefield with a hundred thousand Behemoth Cavalry breathing behind our backs!
It felt like an earthquake was chasing after us as the Behemoth Cavalry chased after us. Chaos Moon, Heaven"s Rain and Diamond Dust were all a bit pale with fright because of it. The Behemoth Cavalry shouted in anger and gave chase like they would chase us to the end of the world, "Give us back our guild leader"s head!"
In reality, Soothsayer"s head had vanished a long time ago, but I took out a helmet I had gotten from an enemy and wrapped it in my battle robe and hung it beneath my armpit to pretend that I was still carrying it. It didn"t affect my ability to fight, and it made sure that the Behemoth Cavalry would keep chasing after us.
"Where are we going, Lu Chen?" He Yi asked.
I was checking the map in a hurry. Winter Pine Forest was pretty huge, and there was a swamp to the southwest called "Sunset Swamp”. It was a pretty broad map.
Wait… swamp… cavalry…?!
My eyes lit up immediately. "Eve, I got an idea. Let"s take the long way and take the Behemoth Cavalry on a tour around Winter Pine Forest, shall we? Don"t worry, this 100k Behemoth Cavalrymen will be ours for sure. Everyone of them are carrying a sizable amount of contribution points, and their 10% will shoot us up the rankings like crazy!"
He Yi didn"t know what I was thinking, but she gave me a smile and replied, "Sure, whatever you say!"
At the same time, I opened a channel with Beiming Xue—
"Where did you escape to, big bro?" Beiming Xue asked in an urgent tone.
I smiled. "It"s called a tactical retreat, not an escape, get it? It"s the same concept as the Long March of the Red Army."
I saw Beiming Xue"s portrait sniffing in the dialog box. "Fine, tactical retreat it is. What are you planning to do?"
I looked at the coordinates on the map and said, "Beiming, I want you to take over command temporarily and lead our forces next to coordinates (18237, 7999). That place is Sunset Swamp. I want you to hide yourselves in the forest next to it and wait until I draw the Behemoth Cavalry into the swamp. Mounts and even players" movements are greatly reduced inside a swamp area, so the Behemoth Cavalry will be stuck like a pot of porridge. Once that happens, our ranged players will be free to blast away to their heart"s content. Now go!"
Beiming Xue broke into a wide grin. "Hehe, you"re so smart, big bro! I love you to death! I"m going now, I"ll live up to everyone"s expectations for sure!"
That was the end of my conversation with Beiming Xue. After turning off the communicator, I blanked out for a bit as the Dragonlight Cavalry and I galloped along the edges of Winter Pine Forest.
……
Some time later, Xu Yang galloped up to me and He Yi and reported, "Boss, we suffered quite a bit of losses just now. We lost almost 200 Dragonlight Cavalrymen, and we only have 1545 Dragonlight Cavalrymen left. Our numbers are slowly but surely diminis.h.i.+ng."
He Yi nodded in acknowledgment. "Got it. Have we heard anything from Li Chengfeng yet?"
"Yeah!"
Xu Yang nodded strongly. "Li has already engaged the enemy. The good news is the Cyan Tiger Cavalry is still good enough to get the job done and deal a sizable blow to t.i.tan G.o.d. I also heard that Li is fighting against t.i.tan G.o.d right now and going about even with each other. As you are aware, pure cavalry battles usually take a while to determine the victor."
He Yi smiled. "Understood. I"m sure Li Chengfeng won"t disappoint us."
"Yeah! Li is an amazing player!" High Fighting Spirits clenched his fists and laughed from atop his mount. "I"m absolutely certain he"ll return to us with the t.i.tan G.o.d"s head in his hands!"
Everyone laughed with him, and the solemn, murderous atmosphere that was permeating the air earlier lightened a bit.
Heaven"s Rain asked, "Vice leader big bro, are we baiting Behemoth Cavalry?"
I nodded. "Yep. Little Rain"s a smart girl!"
"I am, but are they dumb enough to fall for it?"
"Of course not…"
I pointed to the west and said, "You see that? The Behemoth Cavalry has already split away about thirty thousand people to the wing. They"re trying to surround us!"
Xu Yang exclaimed in shock, "What do we do? We"re f.u.c.ked if they manage to succeed!"
"Your sister is f.u.c.ked!" I rolled my eyes at him. "We are faster than them. Therefore, there are at least a million ways we can escape their encirclement."
He Yi giggled. "Tell us one of them?"
"We slow down and let the enemy meet up first. Then, we slip through the cracks and circle back to the south!"
"Okay!"
I maintained a regular speed until the enemy had met up in front of us. Then, I turned around, sped up and easily shook off the Behemoth Cavalry"s attempt to intercept us. The fools swore loudly and swung their weapons in fury, but there was nothing they could do to us.
"Wait, it looks like they"re abandoning the chase," said He Yi while gazing to the distance.
I looked and saw that the Behemoth Cavalry were leaving just as she said. However, this wasn"t a problem at all. I swung my sword once and ordered, "Time to kill a couple hundred people at the sides and fan the flames of hatred a little, everyone!"
Laughing, we charged toward the Behemoth Cavalry, slaughtered a couple hundred people and returned to our original path. This time, the Behemoth Cavalry was definitely not going to let us escape until we were all dead.
Beep!
It was at this moment Beiming Xue sent us a message: "Big bro, we have reached the coordinates you mentioned and in position!"
"Okay. We"ll reach you guys in ten minutes at most!"
"Okay!"
……
I turned off the communicator and looked up just in time to see a swampy region emerging from the horizon. On the surface, the swamp looked just like any other gra.s.sland, but the real threat was the sticky water beneath it. Over 90% of the swamp was made up of water, and 5% to 10% was muddy terrain consisting of water plants. It was incredibly easy to make a wrong step and become stuck in the mud, which was why the entire Sunset Swamp was considered a death zone. This was before mentioning the starving giant crocodiles that inhabited the place for hundreds of years. Any player who fell into the swamp was more or less crocodile food.
In fact, the terrain of Sunset Swamp was so bad that barely anyone grinded in that map. Dying to a mob wasn"t shameful, but dying by drowning most definitely was. It was why the players preferred to call Sunset Swamp "Trap Swamp" instead.
I checked out Sunset Swamp for a moment and took note of a couple of browny, middle paths that stretched all the way to the center area. Solid paths like these were rare and unstable. It was very possible that the soil might crumble and sink into water on its own, joining the watery traps around and creating an even bigger death zone. This was especially probable with a couple thousand cavalrymen charging through them.
I activated Dark Pupils and observed the watery areas ahead of us, a.n.a.lyzing. As I thought, the murky pools were at least five meters deep, and the paths were really sapropel that would break apart with just a bit of force. It was why it was highly inadvisable to ride a horse through the murky waters since it was highly probable to fall in. That being said, the ground could definitely support a person"s weight as long as they didn"t stay in one place for too long.
After marking a couple of spots on the map, I shouted, "Everyone, follow behind me and don"t stray off the path! We"re going to ride through the middle route!"
I took off the second I gave the order, leaving some Dragonlight Cavalrymen with confused expressions on their faces as they chased after me. They didn"t know what I was planning, but they had a feeling that it was probably something great...
……
Behind us, the Behemoths roared like the giants they were as they chased after us. The one hundred thousand Behemoths didn"t even pause to consider the terrain around them as they stepped onto the sapropel path I led them onto. I could see them waving their weapons and hear them shouting about something, but they were too far away for me to know exactly what they were shouting about. It was probably some swear words.
We quickly reached the heart of Sunset Swamp, but that wasn"t enough. I continued to lead everyone forward until...
Pu…
Suddenly, both High Fighting Spirits and his mount fell into the swamp!
"What the f.u.c.k? What"s going on here? I can"t climb back up the road. Am I going to die here?" High Fighting Spirits exclaimed in shock.
I looked at Gui Guzi, and the kid wisely extended his spear to High Fighting Spirits. "Fighting Spirits, cancel your mount and grab onto my spear. I"ll pull you up!"
After High Fighting Spirits was dragged back onto the path, I looked around and noted that the flimsy path was starting to crumble atop our combined weight. I immediately shouted, "Everyone, cancel your mounts right now!"
"Ah?" Everyone was confused by my order, but they obeyed and got off their mounts.
……
Meanwhile, the 100000-strong Behemoth Cavalry we had lured into the swamp was already feeling the effects of the swampland. Countless people were struggling futilely in the mud, and the path they were standing on was turning flimsier than ever before. Finally, someone shouted, "s.h.i.+t, they tricked us! They wanted to lure us to a swampland where cavalry battle is impossible! There must be an ambush somewhere!"
……
Chiang!
I pulled out the Cyan Netherworld Sword and stared at the Behemoth Cavalry with fervor. I shouted, "Brothers and sisters, prepare for battle! Let us show these Germans that our cavalry is the strongest cavalry in the world, with or without our mounts!"