The fierce battle of Windy Trail still showed no signs of ending. The valley entrance had turned into a living hell full of blood and bodies at this point. The ground was also covered in equipment and potions, but no one tried to pick them up because that was usually how a fight got started and devolved into an inhuman meat grinder.

……

The sun slowly set on the west side of the mountain range. The ray of red shining on our faces and reflecting wildly off the surface of our blades almost looked like blood.

Chiang!

Gui Guzi stabbed his spear into the ground and wiped the blood and sweat from his forehead. He exhaled deeply before saying, "We’ve been fighting for 12 hours straight, and we haven’t allowed the Northern Alliance to set even half a foot in Dawn Valley. Hehe, we’re doing pretty well, aren’t we?"

"Not necessarily!"

Li Chengfeng pointed to the right. "Take a look at Candle Dragon!"

"Urk…"

Gui Guzi groaned when he discovered that Candle Dragon’s entire troop formation was crumbling bit by bit. Their enemies were the main armies of Hero City, Seven Star City and Titan City, and their casualties were severe to say the least. Even their allies—Hall of Immortality, Rose of the Holy Domain and Throne Seeker—had lost almost half of their overall numbers.

"Candle Dragon’s about to fall apart."

Li Chengfeng said with a cold glint in his eyes, "When Blue Sky Scar, Tempest Shadow and Transient Smoke and Clouds left to repair their equipment, Vienna’s Sorrow caught them with their pants down and killed almost 5000 Viper Dragoons in one go. Hero City’s players sure are amazing; they’re at least way better than the bangzi[1]!"

Gui Guzi asked, "What should we do? Should we send someone to reinforce Candle Dragon?"

Li Chengfeng spat on the ground. "Of course not! Didn’t you notice Candle Dragon withdrawing their formation and leaving almost half of the defense line to us? We were supposed to guard 33% of the entrance only, but now almost 50% of the gap is filled by our men! Sure their casualties are severe, but we’re not faring much better either! We’ve lost almost ten thousand magic knights in our main guild, you know? Those useless bastards, pooh!"

Xu Yang asked me, "What should we do then, boss, Lu Chen?"

Slicing apart a magic knight’s shield with her Blade of the Earthen Soul, He Yi looked back at us and said, "What else? Keep plugging the valley entrance, of course. If Candle Dragon’s defense line does crumble, we must fly over and save them. If we lose this entrance, the elite cavalry of the Northern Alliance will be able to ride straight into our domain unhindered. What can we possibly do to stop them then?"

I nodded. "I agree with boss. We are past the point of personal gains and losses now. While our losses may be severe, the Northern Alliance’s casualties are almost three times ours, and it will continue to be the case as long as we hold this pass. If they aren’t worried, why should we be worried?"

Xu Yang grinned. "Alright then, we have a decision! Everyone, keep your heads up and keep defending the pass! Also, let’s tell the core forces of Bloody Mercenaries to replace us temporarily! Our main guild could definitely use a 4-hour break!"

"Okay!" I nodded. We were just humans, and we had been fighting for over 12 hours. Countless people were so tired that they could barely keep their eyes open.

It was at this moment Hot and Sour Noodles showed up with a greeting shout, "How is Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls doing, Lu Chen?"

I pointed at the battle happening right in front of us and said, "It’s fucking crazy out there, we’re losing people every second, and worst of all, we’re all tired as fuck. Any ideas?"

Hot and Sour Noodles nodded. "That is exactly what I came here for. I’ve contacted Hunting Moon Dynasty, The Monarch Descends and Zero Pitch Sonata, and they’ll be replacing Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Candle Dragon and Purple Lily in an hour. You only have 7 hours to rest though. They won’t be able to hold on for too long."

"Good, that’s good, heh!"

"Well, that’s all I have to say. I’ll be checking out other corners of the battlefield."

"Okay!"

……

Hot and Sour Noodles turned his mount around and was just about to leave when the ground suddenly shook a little. The next moment, we heard the shrill noise of mechanical springs being discharged, and saw a hail of flaming rocks falling toward us! My pupils shrank. Holy shit, what is this bombardment?!

Bang bang bang...

The flaming rocks exploded amidst our players and caused bloodcurdling screams to rise everywhere. Almost 50 players were dead in an instant, and even Hot and Sour Noodles was sent stumbling backward by the shockwave. When a flaming debris scratched his shoulder, it caught on fire and caused him to lose over 10k HP! Who would’ve thought that even something so tiny could do so much damage!?

"What happened, Lu Chen?!" Hot and Sour Noodles exclaimed in shock.

I looked to the distance and uttered through gritted teeth, "Shit, it looks like the Northern Alliance decided to use their heavy artillery during our moment of exhaustion! I’ve read about this weapon on the forums before. It’s a siege weapon mass-produced by Titan City and Seven Star City, the Fire Catapult. It’s far stronger than a normal catapult, and it deals continuous burn damage. I thought it was just a rumor at the time, so you can imagine how surprised I am right now!"

On the hills, Beiming Xue said to me from above the branch of a low hanging pine tree, "Big bro, I spot almost 100 of those Fire Catapults from up here, and they’ve all been set up into formation already! Be careful!"

I looked up and asked, "Beiming, do you think you can reach them? The Fire Catapult’s HP and Defense aren’t too high, so a single concentrated volley should be enough to one-shot it!"

But Beiming Xue shook her head and said, "It’s too far away even for my Range stratagem, unless…"

"Unless?"

"Unless we leave it to Autumn Carrot, the Candle Dragon archer with Eagle-eyed, a Famous General skill that boosts attack range by 200% to lead the assault team!"

"Got it!"

I hurriedly turned around to rush to Candle Dragon’s camp, but I was greeted by a sea of flames!

……

"Ahhhh…"

Candle Dragon had suffered a concentrated bombardment from the Fire Catapults, and people were screaming and dying everywhere. No magic knight was strong enough to withstand this many flaming rocks, and the first defense line of Candle Dragon was shattered instantly!

"Shit!" Hot and Sour Noodles clenched his fists. "Fuck! Candle Dragon’s about to break!"

I hurriedly leaped atop my mount and shouted, "Dragonlight Cavalry, ride with me! We’re all dead if we don’t take out as many Fire Catapults as possible!"

Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi and everyone else got on their horses, and the four great Famous General Skills of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls—Knight God, Knight General, Martial God and Royal Road—came to life once more. Two thousand vigorous Dragonlight Cavalrymen dashed out of the frontlines with me acting as the point. Stretching my arm to one side to summon my apparition and the Phantom Wolf King on the other, I carved through the enemy ranks like a hot knife through butter until I reached the center of the enemy’s formation. As expected, a row of Fire Catapults—they looked a bit like tractors from where I was—were aligned about 100 yards away from us, and rocks wrapped in oiled cloth were burning inside the buckets. Once the rocks were set alight, they were launched into the air to crush and burn the people on the ground.

……

"Attack!"

He Yi and I launched our AoE skills, Burning Blade Slash and Purgatory of Ice and Magma, at almost the same time. We also happened to be targeting the group of elite magic knights directly in front of us. The defense line was made up of the Northern Alliance’s best magic knights, and it was a fact that these magic knights had stood up against Candle Dragon for 5 hours straight. However, they were incapable of surviving my and He Yi’s attack, and over 70% of them were one-shot before they could bring up their Guard! The sound of equipment and potions dropping resounded for a few seconds!

Beside me, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun’s Rock Smash and Chaos Moon’s Rock Crush joined together and wreaked havoc amid the enemies. High Fighting Spirits also charged right into the center of the enemy formation and used Xiezhi Howl, starting a beastial hurricane that tore all surrounding players to pieces.

Our sudden assault greatly disrupted the Northern Alliance’s formation. A pale-faced, Level 148 magic knight staggered to the back in fear as he stuttered, "Fuck, this Dragonlight Cavalry is coming again. Dammit, just how many will they kill before they’re satisfied? Their Defense is so high that there’s nothing we can do to them at all…"

Suddenly, a sword burst out of the magic knight’s chest and killed him on the spot. He was none other than the front commander of the Northern Alliance, Vienna’s Sorrow. His comrade’s body still hanging from his sword, he shouted, "Slaughter these arrogant Chinese riders to the last! Show them what a knight’s oath really means!"

An entire troop of elite cavalry instantly responded to his command and counter-charged us!

When two people meet, only one will emerge victorious. I spurred my mount to move even faster and charged straight toward the enemy player in front of me, Vienna’s Sorrow. It’s time to decide a winner between the two of us!

I raised an arm and pointed at the magic knight behind Vienna’s Sorrow, shackling him with the God Binding Art. As a result, the magic knights behind him ran into the poor bastard and collapsed into an unsightly mess for a time. Vienna’s Sorrow instantly became the only rider to still be charging toward us!

"Let’s go! Kill Vienna!"

I shouted as I spurred the Armored Ice Qilin Horse. Vienna’s Sorrow didn’t underestimate me as he zigzagged for a bit before dashing toward me from the side!

"Heh!"

I reined in my mount and changed my speed, direction and accelerated in one fluid motion. My APM skyrocketed past the 700 mark, and every detail was executed to perfection. Thanks to the Armored Ice Qillin Horse’s impressive turn rate, I was able to maneuver behind Vienna’s Sorrow and fire Burning Blade Slash at his back!

"What?"

Vienna’s Sorrow didn’t expect me to be this quick, decisive and skillful. Even for him, the only thing he could do in this situation was to lift his sword and parry the skill. It was an ultimate duel of skills!

MISS!

27812!

34878!

To Vienna’s Sorrow’s disappointment, he only managed to parry my first attack. I had consciously changed the attack angle of my second and third strike, catching him off-guard. There was nothing he could do to stop them!

……

"Chengfeng, Little Gui, I leave him to you!"

I didn’t stop to fight Vienna’s Sorrow. After hitting him once with Burning Blade Slash, I continued to speed toward the Fire Catapults without pause. It was because our goal was to destroy the Fire Catapults, not dick around with Vienna.

Behind me, Gui Guzi and Li Chengfeng pincered Vienna’s Sorrow from both sides and cut off his path of retreat with Dragonbone Flurry and Aurora Thrust. Then, they used Barrier Break together and attempted to end Vienna’s Sorrow life once and for all.

"Fuck!"

Vienna’s Sorrow had never fallen into such dire straits before. He had no choice but to use his invincibility skill and protect himself from dying. He retreated to safety and called out to his comrades at the same time, "Fire Catapults, change targets and destroy these black riders now!"

……

Creak...

The Fire Catapults turned around and aimed at us. The next moment, countless flaming rocks flew toward the Dragonlight Cavalry!

1. slang for Koreans