Thud thud thud…
A couple of Northern Alliance foot soldiers stumbled backward in astonishment. Feeling deeply humiliated, Blade of Kings spat angrily, "Pooh! What are you afraid of, you cowardly c.o.c.kroaches? Get up there and kill him already!"
They obeyed his order and moved toward me cautiously.
I tossed Icy Cyclone Domain right in front of me. The icy spikes bursting out of the ground instantly deleted huge chunks of their HP and scared the living wits out of them.
"Grr…"
A puffed up Phantom Wolf King crouched low next to the Armored Ice Qilin Horse and let out a guttural growl.
……
Blade of Kings pointed his axe at me and shouted, "Kill him!"
A troop of cavalry behind him activated their Charge. Even more archers rushed forward and nocked their arrows the moment they got close enough!
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…
The cold glint of enemy weapons surrounded me, and I was past caring about the enemy"s arrow fire at this point. Tanking the damage head-on, I sped up and swung the Cyan Netherworld Sword three times in a row, hitting the enemies in front of me with Burning Blade Slash. An empty s.p.a.ce appeared in front me as countless magic knights toppled onto the b.l.o.o.d.y floor.
"Snort!"
My mount snorted loudly as I abruptly slowed down and galloped to the sides. Then, I fired Thousand Ice Slash that took out a group of archers who were shooting at me at the same time the Phantom Wolf King launched an attack from the wings. This was a critical battle, so I chose to go all out and control both my avatar and the Phantom Wolf King at the same time. I made sure that the Phantom Wolf King always escaped to safety after it landed a successful hit so that it would take minimal damage and remain in the battle for as long as possible.
Swhoos.h.!.+
That wasn"t all. I waved my arm once, and my apparition charged into a group of enemies and crushed them all with Burning Blade Slash + War Crush.
By now, I had been shot or hit in the chest almost a hundred times already, my HP dipping below half in no time.
I raised my arm and surrounded myself in a column of red light, healing myself for 25% instantly with Tenacity of the Dead. At the same time, I threw my sword forward and used Sword Boomerang.
I charged left, right, forward and backward, but I never moved beyond 20 yards from the Life Barrier. It was to suppress the enemy"s ranged attacks and prevent the Life Barrier from getting attacked. The only thing to do here was to buy as much time as possible, or the sacrifice of the tens of millions of Chinese players would be all for naught. There was no other option.
……
"Mad. You"ve all gone mad!"
Blade of Kings uttered coldly, "What the h.e.l.l do you guys think you"re doing, letting a single guy kill you left and right like that? Archers who"re above Level 150, gather here now and focus-fire that f.u.c.ker with Shock Arrows! Grief of the Dark, you go too and decrease his HP with Galaxy Storm!"
"Got it!"
The high-level mage approached me while being escorted by a dozen or so magic knights. A while later, a devastating Galaxy Storm engulfed me!
17378!
G.o.d d.a.m.n, it almost felt like I was being burned alive!
I pointed a finger at him and used the G.o.d Binding Art. However...
MISS!
G.o.d dammit, I knew that G.o.d Binding Art wouldn"t be able to shackle a s.h.i.+elded mage. Worse, both my Burning Blade Slash and Thousand Ice Slash were incapable of one-shotting the guy. There was absolutely nothing I could do to stop this!
Left with no other choice, I pretended as if I wasn"t being bombarded with Galaxy Storms and continued slaughtering every enemy I could reach. My survival was all up to the 10% lifesteal of the Cyan Netherworld Sword now!
Despite the ferocious counterattack, I was able to go on a rampage for almost three minutes until finally, inevitably, an arrow erupted across my chest and stunned me. Who are these f.u.c.king high-level archers? Their stun success rate was almost unbelievably high considering that it was me that they were shooting!
Boom boom boom...
Galaxy Storms, Spiraling Arrow Blades, Devil Piercing Arrows and Dragon"s Roars. .h.i.t me in rapid succession. My HP immediately started dropping like crazy.
I hastily healed myself for 25% of my HP with Tenacity of the Dead after the stun faded, but I was still taking too much damage. In the end, I hit my limits!
Squelch!
A magic knight rode up to me and plunged his weapon right through my chest.
I felt my body relaxing as death took over me, but Resurrection Art allowed me to revive at perfect condition. When I grabbed the hilt of the magic knight"s sword, he screamed in shock, "What? How the?!"
Thud!
The Cyan Netherworld Sword burst out of his back, and I activated Burning Blade Slas.h.!.+
Boom!
The magic knight"s body rocked like a leaf as the flaming energy tore him and the Northern Alliance players behind him to shreds. Dying once had boosted my attack power by 10%, and it would remain so until I logged out of the game!
……
Blade of Kings was clearly growing anxious. He waved his battle axe again and shouted, "How many Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalrymen do we still have? Send everyone! Tie him up and kill him!"
The remaining nine thousand or so Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalrymen immediately emerged into the open and thundered toward me!
I couldn"t help but feel a coming headache. f.u.c.k! Not them again!
Rumble rumble rumble!
The Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalrymen used their Blaze and deleted huge chunks from my HP before they even got close to me. I couldn"t just stand where I was and let myself be killed, so I spurred the Armored Ice Qilin Horse forward and cut to the right without warning. Taking advantage of the chaotic battlefield, I recovered 17% HP with lifesteal from War Crush and Thousand Ice Slash.
Roar roar roar!
I didn"t even have a millisecond of respite as the enemy"s Dragon"s Roars had been chasing my back all this time. However, my head felt clear, and I was fighting at almost my absolute peak. Still on the move, I cut into the incoming Bloodthirsty Beast Cavalry and cut down many elite riders.
Swhoos.h.!.+ Swhoos.h.!.+
Unfortunately, I was stunned yet again after two enemy Charges. The next moment, I felt a tearing sensation as nearly a hundred Dragon"s Roars. .h.i.t me. Again my avatar relaxed and dropped a level, and again my Attack was boosted by 10%!
"Die!"
I launched Sword Boomerang at a nearby group of s.h.i.+elded mages and killed them all. This time, even Grief of the Dark couldn"t help but retreat in astonishment, "What the f.u.c.k? His Attack is getting higher and higher! Is he even human?!"
By this point, I stopped resummoning the Phantom Wolf King. Instead, I summoned my apparition every time I died and came back to life and ordered it to use Purple Dragon Howl, Burning Blade Slash and War Crush. After that? Well, there was no after that. The apparition was simply too fragile to survive a battle like this for long without Ghost Deity Armor.
……
While I was charging back and forth the area in front of the Life Barrier, Luo River G.o.d of the Capital, Chaos Moon and the others were speechless with shock—
"Lu Chen… is so strong!!" Chaos Moon muttered.
Luo River G.o.d of the Capital nodded. "If Purple Lily had a general like him, our cavalry wouldn"t have been routed as quickly as it did…"
Chaos Moon said, "That fool, he"s literally giving away his life for this battle. Does he really think he can buy three hours" worth of time with his levels? It"s impossible. No one can hold back the enemy for that long…"
He Yi"s eyes burned with anxiety as she tightened her grip around her Blade of the Earthen Soul. "Can we… can we really stand here and do nothing while Lu Chen protects us?"
Murong Mingyue put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Eve, I"m well aware how anxious you are, but no one here has Lu Chen"s stats or his Resurrection Art. Right now, the best thing we can do right now is to watch his back and avoid adding more burden to his shoulders. You once called Lu Chen our Divine General, and now is the time for him to prove his worth!"
He Yi bit her lips and said nothing. Her eyes were still br.i.m.m.i.n.g with worry and reluctance.
……
Chiang chiang chiang...
A magic knight hit my shoulder with Triple Slash and dealt almost ten thousand damage to me. I immediately grabbed the blade of his sword and hit him with Universe Break!
47266!
The increase in Attack was very useful. My Universe Break had almost one-shot the unbuffed magic knight. After securing the kill with a basic attack, the Armored Ice Qilin Horse raised its forelimbs and struck the ground three times in a row, staggering or killing the enemies around me and restoring my HP by the tens of thousands.
Bang bang bang…
Feeling a volley of scalding arrows punching into my back, I turned around and retaliated with Sword Boomerang and Dragon Slaying Slas.h.!.+
The Sword Boomerang chopped down a ton of players like weeds and met up with the Dragon Slaying Slash to instakill a Level 157 archer. High-level, well-equipped players like him must be given special treatment to prolong my own survival for even a second.
The enemy wasn"t idle despite my success as a matter of course. I kept being hit by Galaxy Storms and Mountain Stagger Arrows, but I didn"t dare to cancel my mount because I would be reviving dismounted if I died. Moreover, I wouldn"t be able to resummon it in time considering how dense the enemy"s firepower was.
Boom!
A red fiery Fire Blast tore apart my Crimson Rock Dragon Armor and dropped me to my knees. This time though, I triggered the free revival of Immortality!
……
"f.u.c.k this s.h.i.+t! Is he unkillable or something?" someone shouted.
Blade of Kings simply said, "Hmph! There"s only so much firepower a person can take, so keep attacking and don"t let up! He will die permanently eventually!"
"Get lost!"
I shouted and sent an entire group of magic knights flying through the air, killing most of them. The reason I was able to defend the Life Barrier until now wasn"t because I was immortal, but because my attack power had stacked up to a point where no one could penetrate the line of death I created with my attacks.
……
Time pa.s.sed slowly, and one hour almost felt like forever. An hour later, I had died 10 times, stacked up a 100% Attack boost, and triggered Immortality 13 times. That meant that I had died a total of 23 times and dropped to Level 150 until this point. Right now, the Northern Alliance was absolutely hating my guts because I had single-handedly killed tens of thousands of players and delayed their advance by an entire hour.
"Move out of the way! I"ll deal with him myself!"
Finally, Blade of Kings could stand this no longer. He approached me from the distance while shouting, "Give me some cover! Archers, stun him with Shock Arrows!"
Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh...
Amazingly, I was actually stunned by the arrows he called!
Swhoos.h.!.+
Blade of Kings charged me with his war axe raised high up in the air. He then hit me with a Barrier Break and Triple Slas.h.!.+
27616!
17633!
18229!
17387!
I was dead even before I recovered from the stun, but thankfully I triggered Immortality and got a free revive. Had I been forced to use the active revive, I would"ve fallen past Level 150 and lost any chance to learn the Great Earth Transformation, much less a Divine General Skill!
Thud!
I grabbed Blade of Kings by the collar before he could react and scanned him with Dark Pupils. After noting that his right shoulder was his weak point, I plunged my sword into the area and used Barrier Break and Burning Blade Slas.h.!.+
Bang bang bang!
A chaotic whirlwind of light racked his body. Blade of Kings groaned and died immediately!
Ding~!
System Announcement: Attention all players, Heroic Bannerman "King of Blades" (USA) has been killed by player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" (China)!
To my pleasant surprise, another system announcement entered my ears and warmed my whole body, as if a deity was possessing it—
Ding~!
System Announcement: Player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (Sky City)" has acc.u.mulated enough Kill Points to learn the Great Earth Transformation! After killing an enemy, they learned the Great Earth Transformation and became the third Divine General of China! They have gained Luck +3, Tactics +6, and an exclusive Divine General Skill, "Ancient Seal"!
Ancient Seal: Summon the power of the divine and create a seal that deals area of effect damage. The attack power depends on the skill user"s stats. Skill exclusive to Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand.
……
I had finally ascended and become a Divine General!