“What? Warsky Alliance made another coalition?” I exclaimed in shock. “No wait, forget that. You gave up on the third territory? The entire point of this defense battle was to buy you enough time to take it!”

Ling Xueshang chuckled. “It’s fine. Geographically speaking, that territory was too deep in the west and too far away from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Snowy Cathaya. If the enemy successfully breached the teleportation formation, then no one could arrive in time to save us. I would rather wait for a new territory to spawn than grab one that is this geographically disadvantageous. Also, Warsky Alliance made a contract with Gods of Destruction and Mad Dragon, and recruited the aid of four guilds from Wind City. Even if we managed to take the territory in the end, we would lose too many people for it to be worth it.”

I looked at Lin Yixin, and she shrugged with a smile. “You know the saying ‘sacrifice the rook to save the king’, right? If we lose Dark Moon City, it will be a massive net loss for the three of us even if we got a new territory out of it!”

“Right!”

I nodded. While adjusting my grip on my tattered Cyan Netherworld Sword, I said, “It’s great to see you all. Those Hall of Immortality scums went fucking insane a moment ago…”

Lin Yixin smiled and beckoned Purple Marquis to her. “Take some men with you and wipe out that Hall of whatever. Also, secure the gates and make sure no one escapes through them!”

After the order, Lin Yixin examined my broken, tattered armor and blood-drenched cloak for a bit. Then, she pressed her lips into a smile and said, “No one bullies my Little Cheat this badly and gets away scot-free. Wait here while I get some payback for you!”

I grinned. I wasn’t sure whether to smile or cry.

……

Purple Marquis and the almost ten thousand strong Snowy Cathaya players behind him were both fresh and powerful. They instantly cut Hall of Immortality’s camp in half and almost caused Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch’s eyeballs to pop out of his eye sockets. He never thought that Snowy Cathaya and The Monarch Descends would appear in this fashion until they did, and he regretted deeply not destroying the magic crystal that fueled the teleportation formation while he still had the chance.

“Kill them!”

Gui Guzi shouted while keeping his spear high. The arrival of our allies injected a huge dose of morale into every Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls player who survived until now. The Cyan Tiger Cavalry under Gui Guzi’s leadership looked positively unstoppable as they charged in and out of the enemy’s formations!

Staring at the tattered walls and the literal hills of corpses all around us, Ling Xueshang let out a sigh of shock and admiration. “I can’t believe a single guild managed to hold out against the three guilds for so long. Even when the walls look like they might crumble at any moment, I see no one running away from the battlefield. Heavens, Lu Chen. What on earth is keeping your players going?”

I smiled a little. “Our dream is to conquer the world. If we can’t even beat guilds like these, then we may as well give up on our dream now.”

Ling Xueshang nodded. “I see. The path to becoming the king of China is a bloody one alright. The Monarch Descends is honored to have an ally like you!”

“Same here.”

I turned my sword and dove into a group of enemies again. This time, I went into the territory hall. There were only a couple of minutes left on the clock now, and it was utter chaos inside the town hall. The players of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya, the Monarch Descends, Hall of Immortality, and Throne Seeker were all mixed together with one another. The sky itself was shaking from the noises of battle.

……

“Kill! Kill them quickly! There isn’t much time left!” On his warhorse, Emperor’s Equal was shouting and glaring at his surroundings angrily. Throne Seeker didn’t have many players left, but they were still trying to occupy Dark Moon City.

Gui Guzi came up to me from behind before asking, “Boss Broken Halberd, wanna kill that Emperor’s Equal together? I’ll cover you while you kick his ass!”

“Okay!”

Gui Guzi charged toward Emperor’s Equal like a beam of light. He wasn’t trying to hide his attack, so the guild leader quickly noticed it and dodged to the right. The fact that Emperor’s Equal managed to dodge the Charge proved that his skills weren't too bad, but Gui Guzi already predicted that his Charge would miss. Allowing his momentum to carry him into the thick, Gui Guzi then blasted the players in front of him using Aurora Thrust!

Boom!

The group of Greedy Wolf Cavalry shook violently. Melee AoE skills were always a pain to deal with, especially when the attacker was someone like Gui Guzi. He might not be a 5-Strength magic knight, but with 150% boost to his Attack and Defense, his Aurora Thrust was enough to scare the living wits out of anyone.

Emperor’s Equal thought that he had escaped danger when he dodged Gui Guzi’s Charge. He was unable to react at all when I blitzed toward him with Thunderous Charge!

Thump!

A successful stun later, I slashed him four times across his chest armor without pause! Universe Break + Burning Blade Slash!

Clang clang clang…

Sparks flew everywhere as my sword cut his battle armor into pieces. Even his torso wasn’t safe from devastation as a string of damage numbers rose above his head—

27619!

9023!

14809!

22102!

Clearly, Emperor’s Equal didn’t have the Defense or the HP to withstand my combo even though he had a bard’s Physique buff on him. The man hit the ground like a rock and dropped a red-colored shield just like that!

I picked it up and gave it a look. Tsk tsk, not bad—

Soul Breaker Shield (Earth-grade, Outstanding★★★): 895 Defense, 790 Magic Resist, Strength +140, Stamina +150. Increases user’s max HP by 4000. Outstanding Property: Soul Breaker, chance to knock back an enemy with a shield attack. Level Requirement: 130. Class Requirement: Magic Knight.

……

Not bad at all. I decided to throw it into the warehouse and put it up as a reward for those with enough contribution points. In fact, I was going to leave a note stating that it was a loot from the guild leader of Throne Seeker himself. Our players fought like hell to defend the city, so they had every right to receive a reward from me. I might not be rich enough to pay them a salary like Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch, but I had no problem rewarding them with an enemy’s equipment at all.

I abruptly decided not to hunt down the remnants of Greedy Wolf Cavalry. Gui Guzi and Heaven’s Rain could deal with them themselves. Instead, I set my eyes on my next target, the guild leader of Hall of Immortality, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch. This was the man who orchestrated this whole war. This was the man who wanted to conquer Dark Moon City and caused the deaths of over 80% of our players because of it!

Not far away, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch was hacking away at a couple of Snowy Cathaya players while urging his players, “Brothers and sisters of Hall of Immortality, do not give up until the very last moment! They don’t have many players left, and we are but one step away from conquering this city! There is absolutely no reason for us to give up now!”

High Fighting Spirits spat on the ground and said, “Pooh, I can’t believe that shameless bastard has the face to say that after everything. Chengfeng, Chaos Moon, wanna work together and take him out?”

But Li Chengfeng pointed down a certain direction. “Nah, there’s someone who wants to kill him even more than you do. Just cover for him, and he’ll get the job done!”

High Fighting Spirits looked at the direction Li Chengfeng was pointing and found me already running toward Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch. Judging from the killing intent in my eyes, I wasn’t going to stop until this fucker was dead.

“I’ll go first!”

High Fighting Spirits laughed loudly and charged Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch. To the surprise of no one, a couple of Hall of Immortality players immediately got into position and blocked his way. Undeterred, High Fighting Spirits summoned a cyclone of energy and let out a resounding Xiezhi Howl! The animalistic halo of light surrounding him was eye-catching to say the least!

Boom!

All the enemy players around him dropped to low health at once. Before they could react, Chaos Moon rushed forward and killed them all with Rock Crush. Because her Famous General Skill, Plunder was active, the players she killed dropped two or even three pieces of equipment. I was certain that her victims were absolutely crying and regretting their decision to participate in this siege battle right now. The WMD that was Chaos Moon was just too much for them to handle.

Xu Yang used his Charge after Chaos Moon and unleashed his Mountain Stagger Slash at the enemies. However, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch was able to parry the attack and knock him back with a retaliatory strike.

“Hahaha…” Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch swung his sword and laughed. “Hot Sun, do you seriously think a second-rate warrior like you can kill me? Dream on! I can kill you with my eyes closed! My Top 10 ranking in the champion arena of Vanished God City isn’t for show, you know!”

Xu Yang was furious, but he was bogged down by a couple of Hall of Immortality players before he could do anything else. He had missed his chance to attack Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch.

Well, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch was pretty skillful, but the main reason he was able to parry Xu Yang’s Mountain Stagger Slash with ease was because of his equipment. There were two factors that came into play during a parry. One, the player’s proficiency with the action itself. Two, the equipment power gap between the attacker and the defender. The bigger the gap, the easier it was to parry an attack.

……

I let out a growl after I finally reached them. “Let me through, people! I’ll kill him for you!”

Li Chengfeng and Chaos Moon immediately opened up a path for me. Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch’s face turned cold and angry as he yelled, “Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand?! Are you finally going to fight yourself?”

I laughed while running, “What the fuck are you talking about? I’ve been fighting since the beginning of this battle!”

I leaped into the air to get the height advantage. Then, I aimed a basic attack at Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch’s head.

“Hehe…”

Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch cocked his head to one side and knocked my sword away with his shield. Then, he counterattacked with a painful slash to my waist—10929!

As I thought, his equipment was really amazing. I couldn’t recall the last player who dealt this much damage to me with a basic attack.

I launched another attack before my feet could hit the ground. Thanks to Dark Pupils, I had identified a weak point in his equipment. It was the area just above his abdomen.

“You dare pull the same trick twice?!”

Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch tried to use the same shield parry + basic attack combo to counter me, but he saw the smile on my face too late. “Shit!”

I abruptly pulled my sword away and moved much quicker. Blood-red energy centering around my left fist, I punched the guild leader above the abdomen and followed up with a Burning Blade Slash. I doubted that Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch knew this, but every hit had landed on his weak point.

7902!

12048!

18089!

23678!

Surprisingly, the man was still alive after the quadruple strike. With only a sliver of health left in his health pool, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch was nothing more but a defeated dog before me. Panicking, he cried, “Priests, heal me, quick—”

I shouted, “What are you waiting for, Chaos Moon!”

Chaos Moon dashed past me and engulfed the guild leader and his mount with Rock Crush. Nice, let’s go!

Pop pop pop~~

The sound of equipment dropping out of a body popped in succession. Poor bastard, he was so unlucky that he dropped his shield, his heavy boots, and even his helmet!