"Back off, Chaos Moon!" Li Chengfeng suddenly shouted.

The girl obeyed the advice and retreated back to the battle line safely. She was being bombarded by Spiraling Arrow Blades and Galaxy Storms, so she would have died in less than three minutes had she chosen to stay at the frontline.

High Fighting Spirits, Li Chengfeng, and Xu Yang also followed her lead soon after. Staying close to the battleline meant that our priests were close enough to heal us. On the other hand, it also meant that our archers, tamers, mages abd more could enter the enemy’s range. There was no avoiding it though. Whatever we did, we were definitely going to sustain some heavy losses this time.

……

Bang!

The Stormy Waves War Boots shook the ground as War Crush ravaged the dozen of Hall of Immortality fighters around me. The triple-hit skill was still pretty powerful, even after all this time.

I held my Cyan Netherworld Sword in front of me and assumed a Guard stance. At least dozens of arrows hit me before I broke out of it and launched a Thousand Ice Slash at the enemy. The mages and archers shook like leaves, and any archer who was caught in the blast zone was basically as dead as a dodo. Some mages survived just barely thanks to their Magic Shields.

Behind me, Chaos Moon asked, "Aren’t you coming back, Lu Chen?"

"No!"

I answered firmly. I was currently at the center of our defense line and about 15 yards away from our formation. If I stayed here, I could cause havoc to the enemy and make them feel like there was a fishbone lodged in their throat. But if I withdrew, then the four subguilds would be able to come together as a cohesive unit and attack us with everything they got. Therefore, I had to stay there and protect my guild by denying them a chance to organize.

Seeing that I was unwilling to retreat, Chaos Moon smiled and ordered, "Moon Dew, grab twenty priests with you and heal Lu Chen indiscriminately!"

Moon Dew nodded. "Got it!"

……

"Attack! They’re going to break any moment! Charge!" yelled a subguild leader with his sword raised.

A group of evil-looking dudes immediately heeded that order and charged. They were actually able to pass through our firewall of arrows and spells and engage our fighters at melee, but their bravery was met by a thousand cold steel wreathed in flaming cones. They were all Barrier Breaks!

Thud thud thud...

The sound of metal tearing against flesh was absolutely melodious. Thanks to my Strength Supplement, more than half of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ players had learned Barrier Break. Nearly a thousand Hall of Immortality players were one-shot almost the second they crashed against our battleline. It was natural. Since they were at melee range, our archers and mages could hardly miss them. Even if some of the enemies were tanky enough to survive their attack, the Barrier Breaks most certainly made up for it.

Screams filled the air as hundreds and thousands of players dropped like flies. Everyone’s heads were alight with magical shimmer as countless fireballs landed on both sides. The battle was intense and bloody, and because both sides held a key advantage of our own—the enemy had superior numbers, and we had superior power—the amount of lives lost was positively insane!

Li Chengfeng’s eyes were so red it almost looked like they were bleeding. He angled his sword and shouted mightily, "Reverse Scale Slash! Get back to your homes…"

Boom!

The skill stabbed into the enemy crowd with a draconic roar, killing a lot of people. He immediately followed up with a Dragonbone Flurry that deleted a couple of low-health magic knights who had survived the Reverse Scale Slash.

Li Chengfeng was furious, and High Fighting Spirits was no different. Ignoring the dozen of Blazes sinking into his body, he marched forward, summoned a powerful gale and unleashed his signature move, Xiezhi Howl. It was as if a hurricane had descended to the earth as all the enemies around him were diced into bits.

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh...

However, the subguilds of Hall of Immortality weren’t lacking in combat awareness. They lined up. A dozen or so magic knights timed their Charges and successfully stunned High Fighting Spirits. At the same time, the mages and archers immediately turned their firepower on him in hopes of deleting a key player from the surface of the earth.

High Fighting Spirits could do nothing but glare angrily at the enemy. Suddenly, a cyan, rock-ike energy wave hit the magic knights surrounding the barbarian warrior and elicited painful screams from them. It was none other than Chaos Moon’s AoE skill, Rock Crush. A follow-up Mountain Stagger Slash from Xu Yang later, no one was left standing any longer!

The three great experts of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had annihilated almost a hundred players in an instant. The counterattack was so ridiculous that the Hall of Immortality players who saw it actually forgot what they were doing for a second. No one was expecting Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls to pack so much firepower they seemed to outdo even Candle Dragon in this department.

……

"Attack! Kill the noobs on the battle line first and focus down their priests next. Without healing, even their greatest fighters are just trash!"

An angry-looking subguild guild leader shouted while waving his staff, "There are only 7000 of them! Our four subguilds will be the laughingstocks of the city if we lose to them! Do you want to disappoint our leader, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch? No? Then fight till your very last breath!"

I couldn’t help but grit my teeth. Motherfucker, I should’ve known that these guild leaders weren’t idiots. Their plan was simple but deviously effective: wipe out our low-level frontliners first and kill our priests second, no matter the cost. Well, he was spot-on. Without healing, even the best of us were just trash in the face of overwhelming numbers.

"Hold the line! Do not let the fucking trash take even a step past us!" High Fighting Spirits shouted on top of his lungs while swinging the Invincible.

The enemy guild leader immediately retorted, "Fuck you, you are the trash!"

"Oh yeah? You and your entire family are trash you trashy fuck!"

The verbal battle ensued just like that, and all the players on both sides started swearing all kinds of obscenities on the enemy. They only wished that they could turn their saliva into Galaxy Storms and turn their enemy’s face into a pulp.

……

Inside the guild channel, I heard Gui Guzi and our riders speaking—

Heaven’s Rain: "Ooooh, this battle is fiercer than I thought. How is Farewell Song so strong? Not only was he strong enough to fight against our Cyan Tiger Cavalry head-on, he single-handedly killed a dozen of us. He’s an assassin, for heaven’s sake! This is ridiculous…"

Gui Guzi: "Well, Farewell Song has always been amazing. Not even Boss Broken Halberd can maintain a 100% win rate over him. This is as far as he goes though. If it was Boss Broken Halberd we were fighting, he would’ve killed at least 100 of us before we finally killed him!"

I interrupted their conversation, "Hey, stop talking behind my back. Anyway, how is the situation over there, Little Gui, Little Rain, You and Yun?"

Gui Guzi answered, "We encountered Warsky Alliance’s main guild as expected. Warsky, Lin Bing Dou Zhe, Farewell Song. and October Rain and so on are all here. Their party is five thousand strong, and we’ve been charging them for almost half an hour or so. We managed to kill Laughing At The Heavens, Lin Bing Dou Zhe, and almost 3000 players. However, we also lost over 500 people."

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun added, "It’s not as bad as it sounds. On the contrary, we managed to send Warsky packing when we clashed against him, and when Lin Bing Dou Zhe stayed behind to protect the rear, hehe, Little Gui stabbed him five times in a row and deleted him from the game while Little Rain covered for him! It was amazing!"

I replied, "If you haven’t done it yet, I suggest you use Flying General when you’re chasing after them, and Knight God after you caught up with them. This alone should be enough to scare the shit out of Farewell Song and Warsky."

Gui Guzi laughed. "You are exactly right. We chased them like a train and hit them like a truck, and we killed almost ten thousand of their elite players and half of their main guild with this tactic. You know, You and Yun was like a fly who saw a dung every time he caught sight of Warsky Alliance’s main guild…"

The corner of my mouth twitched. "That’s one hell of a metaphor alright…"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun swore, "Fuck you, Little Gui!"

Heaven’s Rain giggled. "How are you guys doing, Lu Chen?"

I thought for a moment before replying, "Our casualties are approaching the 2000 mark. It’s fine, just keep doing what you’re doing. We should be able to hold on for another hour or so, so you’ll use your return scrolls and teleport back to Dark Moon City in an hour, no matter the battle result. Got it?"

"Loud and clear!" everyone replied in unison.

……

Boom boom boom!

The sky was alight with skills like Galaxy Storms and Spiraling Arrow Blades, and the ground was aflame with Barrier Breaks. Our fighters were so powerful that a lot of enemy players actually shied away from the frontline and just let their ranged players do all the attacking.

People were dying every second, and our guild was no exception. The good news was our offense was so powerful that Hall of Immortality had lost most of their players. We even managed to rout the first subguild of Hall of Immortality completely. Li Chengfeng had taken the risk of charging their guild leader and killing him with a combo amid their players.

Eventually, the enemy’s 30000 troops dwindled to less than 4000. Soon after, they gave up and withdrew.

The battlefield was overflowing with the stench of fire and smoke. The heaps of bodies were big enough, but the hills of equipment and potions were even bigger. No one was moved by the literal mountains of treasures, however. All I did was organize some people to clear out the area within 20 yards away from our formation. Surprisingly, there were a lot of top-tier Purple Gold and Dark Gold–grade equipment. Since I had brought my guild here to die, they definitely deserved some compensation.

……

Drip. Drip.

Blood trickled down my Cyan Netherworld Sword. The mountain wind only enhanced the mournful atmosphere of war further.

Chaos Moon’s metal armor was also covered in blood. She pushed aside the hair hanging in front of her head before letting out a sigh. "I didn’t know you can get tired from hacking at enemies."

Xu Yang said solemnly, "This is a harsh one. We killed over 20000 people, but we also lost almost 3000 as a result. There are less than 4000 of us left, and most of our casualties are archers and tamers. Finally, we lost over 300 frontliners in this fight. Our defense is severely lacking."

I nodded. "Prepare to fight to the death in the next wave. This time, the elites of their main guilds will show up for sure!"

"Mn!"

……

A ray of dawn broke from the horizon, and a lone rider slowly galloped toward us. He was the guild leader of Hall of Immortality, and a legend in Vanished God City. A couple lines of text floated brightly above his head—

Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch LV-137 Platinum Berserk Knight

Guild: Hall of Immortality

Position: Guild Leader

……

At the distance, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch raised a broadsword and shouted, "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls are at their death throes! Brothers and sisters of Hall of Immortality, march with me! Let us defend the glory of the guild and claim vengeance for our fallen comrades!"