"Look, another hurricane is moving toward us! I wonder what kind of mob we"ll fight this time…" said Li Chengfeng with a nervous yet excited lick of his lips.
I declared with a smile, "Doesn"t matter, they"re all free experience!"
Chaos Moon shot me an odd look before saying, "Maybe, maybe not. I just received news that Eternal Love City is currently under attack by a flying undead legion led by an undead dragon. Long story short, their skies are overtaken by bone dragons, and they are on the verge of collapsing already. Vienna"s Sorrow had to dispatch 100000 Mystic Alliance mages to save them after hearing their pleas for reinforcement. I expect us to face the same level of pressure very soon."
"Seriously? France is about to lose their main city?"
"Yeah."
"d.a.m.n!"
……
It was at this moment two hurricanes—a big one and a small one—struck a corner of Sky City"s walls and crushed countless bricks into smithereens. Once the blood hurricanes spread out, a new kind of mob started raining down on the empty ground outside the walls. It looked like a black panther, but it was way bigger than normal, completely rotted, and tattered to the point where some of its bones were visible. They bared their teeth and snarled at our players menacingly.
Rot Eater (Dread)
Level: 210
Attack: 10500~12500
Defense: 12000
HP: 1,000,000
Pa.s.sive: Undead Control. Ignores 15% of the target"s Defense.
Pa.s.sive: Bloodthirsty a.s.sault. Attacks the enemies three times in a row.
Skills: Devour, Bite, Death Swipe
Introduction: The Rot Eaters are violent, hateful beasts that roam the land of the dead and feed on animal carca.s.ses. Cursed by the undead, they became Night Legion"s p.a.w.ns. With their sharp teeth and claws they can tear apart even iron s.h.i.+elds with ease. Throughout all wars against the undead, Rot Eaters were always remembered as literal walking nightmares.
……
"Level 210 dread-rank monsters with equal Attack to the Ghost Chariots, I see. This is going to be "fun". The Rot Eaters have armor-piercing and triple-hit attacks, so watch out! Priests, be ready to heal the frontliners at a moment"s notice!" I shouted.
The horde of Rot Eaters rushed us like lightning. They were even faster than the Dragonlight Cavalry at full gallop. Their roars sounded like they came from the depths of h.e.l.l itself.
Chiang chiang chiang...
As the Dragonlight Cavalry put their s.h.i.+elds in front of themselves, Gui Guzi raised his Spear of the Knight G.o.d and shouted, "We will halt their charge here, people! It"s a knight"s duty to protect our brothers and sisters!"
I too crossed my sword and waited for the mobs to make contact with the defense line.
"Roar roar roar…"
The first group of Rot Eaters reached us in just the blink of an eye. When they slammed into our cavalry, a lot of them were actually knocked back a couple of steps. He Yi, Gui Guzi, and a couple more exceptional magic knights were the only ones who remained as immovable as a rock thanks to their equipment.
The Rot Eaters triggered their pa.s.sive, Bloodthirsty a.s.sault, and struck our players three times in a row. Immediately, three Dragonlight Cavalrymen let out a groan and dropped dead. The damage numbers rising above their heads were positively shocking—
78232!
72626!
80109!
Holy s.h.i.+t! What the h.e.l.l is this attack!? I can"t remember the last mob that had the Attack to one-shot a Dragonlight Cavalryman!
It was at this moment a dozen or so Rot Eaters charged straight toward me. Not waiting for them to arrive, I executed Burning Blade Slash + Thousand Ice Slash combo and fired Ancient Seal into the sky. The mobs groaned as over half of their health was deleted in an instant. Still, they ignored their wounds and continued to charge me.
After the Rot Eaters entered melee range, I swung my sword again and again while they swiped at me with their claws. The good news was that the Rot Eaters could only deal 10k+ damage to me per hit, not to mention that Moon Dew was healing me from behind, and Pure Love made sure that my bard buffs were always up. I could tank three Rot Eaters at once and be nowhere close enough to losing my life.
"Give em h.e.l.l!" I shouted.
Arrows immediately rained from the sky as Beiming Xue and the Dragonlight Archers took action. The Spiraling Arrow Blades did an insane amount of damage to the Rot Eaters, but our defense line was no longer the impenetrable line it used to be. Our Dragonlight Cavalry kept being one-shot by two or three attacking Rot Eaters because the Level 210 dread-rank mobs were just too d.a.m.n powerful!
Next to me, High Fighting Spirits let out a cry of surprise before retreating to the back. As it turned out, a Rot Eater had successfully brought his HP down to one-third or so. Judging from the purple complexion of his face, he wasn"t expecting the Rot Eaters to deal as much damage as they did. I hurriedly ran over to the hole he unwittingly created, took out two Rot Eaters with War Crush and let the Phantom Wolf King deal with the third. After the situation stabilized somewhat, I shouted, "Fighting Spirits, get yourself healed now!"
"Got it!" High Fighting Spirits withdrew to safety and accepted the healing of several priests.
Behind me, Lu Buyi called out to me, "Give me a party of Dragonlight Cavalrymen, Lu Chen!"
"Got it!" I agreed immediately and told High Fighting Spirits to make Lu Buyi his party leader. Stamp was a great Famous General Skill, but right now, the Dragonlight Cavalry"s job was to hold the line, not crush the enemy. Our mages and archers would do all the DPS for us. In this case, Purple Dragon"s 100% boost to all stats was far more useful.
The ring of the Purple Dragon stratagem s.h.i.+ning beneath his feet, Lu Buyi took some pressure off our frontliners with his Dragon Vein Art, but made sure not to go overboard and incur an unnecessary risk. It was truly our honor to have the best tactician of the entire China server on our side!
It took a while, but we eventually found our footing. Our pressure lessened as the number of Rot Eaters decreased.
After hitting a group of Rot Eaters with an AoE skill, Xu Yang commented, "Heavens, this one charge cost us almost a thousand Dragonlight Cavalrymen! This is insane!"
I nodded while firing another Burning Blade Slash into a group of mobs and one-shotting nearly 20 Rot Eaters. They filled me with experience, the little guy even leveled up, still sleeping peacefully as if it was not summoned and in its pet s.p.a.ce, not in the middle of a tumultuous battlefield—the little guy. Its nerve was worthy of its t.i.tle as an ancient divine beast alright.
……
It was at this moment He Yi reported with a white complexion, "Oh no, G.o.ds of Destruction, Heavenly Plan Palace and the rest of the guilds guarding the northern gate have been defeated. They"ve withdrawn into the city and are relying on the NPC legions to protect them instead…"
I nodded in acknowledgement. "I thought that might happen. It"d be a miracle if those guilds could hold out when even we lost nearly a thousand Dragonlight Cavalrymen. At this point, it"s obvious that this isn"t our war. It"s all up to Princess Karinshan now."
Li Chengfeng gripped his Dark Blade and said, "Yep, our job is just to reduce as much of the undead legion"s forces as possible, and grab as much experience and loot as we can. Take these Rot Eaters for example, they drop equipment often, and the best equipment I"ve seen so far is Outstanding Earth-grade! Tsk tsk!"
I let out a knowing chuckle myself before ordering the Phantom Wolf King to clean up the rest of the Rot Eaters. I dismounted and looked at the thick stacks of equipment, magic stones, and skill books in front of me. This would be an unnatural sight if I wasn"t a 70+ Luck player, hehe!
I picked up wristguards and inspected them. They were 4-star Outstanding Earth-grade metal armor that boosted Attack by 22%. Not bad. These days, any defensive equipment that boosted Attack by 15% or more was heralded as “G.o.dlike” as there were plenty of berserker-type players who preferred high Attack over high Defense. a.s.suming that every item on a player granted at least 10% Attack, they could easily acc.u.mulate a total Attack boost of over 200%. Players like these were exceptionally well received by random parties. A show of stats was all it took to be received by the party leader like family.
I picked up all the equipment I thought was worth something until there were almost a hundred pieces of metal and leather armor that boosted Attack by over 15% in my bag. I planned to unload them in Air Force One and bolster my stock a little. Technically, I could put these items in the guild warehouse, but, eh, I couldn"t be selfless all the time. Air Force One was a part of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls" economy lifeline too. Last time, the injection of capital from Air Force One created almost a hundred Dragonlight Cavalrymen on its own. It could definitely play a pivotal role when the time called for it.
I checked my bag and noted that I still had a ton of inventory slots to fill up thanks to the Nine Heavens Li Fire Bracelet, which I didn"t mind at all. Keep raging, Sophie! The more you rage, the more my bag and wallet are going to swell in size!
……
"Watch out, I think they"re dropping something new…" said Chaos Moon suddenly while pointing at the sky. Rot Eaters were still falling from the hurricanes, but this time, there was a bunch of black chariots that were shaped like tractors among them.
"What are those things?" Li Chengfeng asked in puzzlement.
I replied with a frown, "Ah s.h.i.+t, it"s a long-rage siege weapon! Sophie sure is one interesting b.i.t.c.h! This is the first time I"ve ever seen a siege weapon that was airdropped via a hurricane before!"
"Siege weapons?" Li Chengfeng laughed. "What kind of siege weapons do the undead use, I wonder? Do they use skeletons as ammo?"
I nodded. "They could, and don"t laugh, it might have enough power to one-shot you…"
"Bro, are you serious?" Li Chengfeng exclaimed in surprise.
I raised the Purple Ying Sword and shouted, "Maintain formation and prepare to be bombarded by the undead"s siege weapons! We ain"t retreating no matter what happens, understand?!"
Everyone unsheathed their weapons once more and readied themselves for the worst.
……
The mechanical noise of a siege weapon being fired entered our ears, and a hail of black, ball-like objects fell from the sky. Surprisingly, they bounced off our players" s.h.i.+elds almost all too easily. When we took a closer look, we were shocked to find that the projectiles were rotten human heads!
"Urp…" He Yi covered her mouth and looked like she might vomit.
Chaos Moon did the same while commenting, "Disgusting…"
Bang bang…
Another two objects bounced off my Dragon G.o.d s.h.i.+eld, and this time they were different, but not in a good way. It was a rotten human leg and an upper torso with its leg cut off. I could even see the maggots crawling all over the body parts!
Everyone turned green in an instant! It was all we could do not to empty our stomachs on the spot!