Twang twang twang…

The sound of mechanical springs unloading entered our ears, and a moment later countless rocks erupted all over the place. As it turned out, the Northern Alliance had grown so frustrated that they actually started bombarding the battlefield regardless of friendly fire. Clearly, they weren’t expecting mere tens of thousands of people to put up so much resistance that they couldn’t approach the palace entrance at all.

"There isn’t much time left. Dispatch all our troops and hold nothing back! All forces are to focus down the northern entrance to the palace and occupy it within an hour!"

Vienna’s Sorrow pointed to the front and declared grimly, "I refuse to believe that tens of thousands of people can hold back our twenty-million-strong army!"

……

The war had entered the annihilation phase since a while ago. Most Chinese parties were slaughtered like prey, and our numbers dwindled rapidly in just a short time. There were nearly 7 million of us before the walls were breached. That number had dropped to 70k+ in just an hour, while the enemy was still 22 million strong. There was just no comparison.

Purple Marquis and Moonkiss never came back. I didn’t even have a clue where they were right now. The remnants of Snowy Cathaya were blocking in front of the entrance and coordinating with Beiming Xue and Luo River God of the Capital to create zones of suppressive fire, squeezing out every ounce of strength from their bodies to protect the Life Barrier. It was literally the last barrier standing between us and defeat.

"Charge forward! Slaughter the group before you!"

Some distance away, a mounted player carrying a blood-red banner and war axe with the ID "Blade of Kings" pointed at his enemies with a smile. "Knights, take turns charging and stunning the enemy. Archers and mages, I want you to hit the guild leader of Righteousness with Mountain Stagger Arrow, Devil Piercing Arrow and Dragon’s Roar. I heard that he’s the supreme tactical commander of the China server, so taking him out will destroy the enemy’s morale!"

The man himself charged toward Hot and Sour Noodles after giving the order.

Chiang!

Hot and Sour Noodles was in the middle of pulling out his weapon out of the chest of a Northern Alliance player he stabbed when the “Stunned” icon appeared above his head. It was a Heroic Bannerman, Blade of Kings, who had stunned him.

"Protect the guild leader! Protect the guild leader!"

The few remaining Greedy Wolf Cavalrymen tried to rescue their guild leader, but Blade of Kings swung his war axe and left a trail of fire in its path, knocking back the Greedy Wolf Cavalry and deleting at least 20k HP per person. His Attack was simply too high.

Swhoosh!

After that, Blade of Kings summoned a fiery cone at the tip of his weapon and thrust it at Hot and Sour Noodles without hesitation. The supreme commander’s defense was torn to shreds, and a giant damage number floated above his head—27837!

Hot and Sour Noodles’ eyes widened, but there was absolutely nothing he could do while he was still stunned. He recovered after taking an axe to the shoulder that cost him 10k+ HP, but another three blurs rushed in and stunned him yet again. Blade of Kings’ subordinates had very good coordination, it seemed.

Thud thud thud...

After three Barrier Breaks pierced Hot and Sour Noodles’ body, Blade of Kings laughed and hit him with one last Triple Slash, "Die, you dogshit supreme commander!"

Crack crack crack!

The battleaxe bit into the supreme commander’s flesh repeatedly. Hot and Sour Noodles never had the best Defense to begin with, and his opponent was a super expert no less. There was no chance he could turn this around.

The destroyed supreme tactical commander fell off his horse and died just like that.

……

"Uncle’s… gone!" He Yi informed me.

I nodded, the sense of helplessness in my heart expanding even greater than before. Although the enemy was grinding down our forces to paste, we couldn’t spare the energy to save anyone. The Dragonlight Cavalry had to charge the enemy’s formation repeatedly to keep their ranged players at bay, so they were literally a kilometer away from Righteousness when they were attacked. They couldn’t save Hot and Sour Noodles even if they wanted to.

A mad laughter broke out from the crowd. "Hahaha, taste my power and be crushed!"

A Level 162 sixth-promotion mage was swinging his scepter and killing droves of Chinese players with just one Galaxy Storm. He also carried a blood-red banner behind his back. He was the Heroic Bannerman "Grief of the Dark"!

Just like Blade of Kings, Grief of the Dark was a peak-level player from Titan City and an absolute headache to all those who had to face him. The number of Heroic Bannermen had been decreasing steadily since the war entered its final phase, but due to natural selection all those who came this far were almost as good as Vienna’s Sorrow himself. As a result, the pressure on our shoulders kept increasing instead of decreasing.

Bloodcurdling screams filled the air, and the remaining hundred or so players of Righteousness all died in the hands of Blade of Kings. With this, Righteousness had been annihilated and officially knocked out of the Nation War!

"Kill!"

Gui Guzi shouted as he charged left and right and penetrated enemies with his spear again and again. He Yi, Chaos Moon, me and the rest of our frontliners had been tossing out their AoE skills freely, controlling the amount of enemies in the area in front of the palace entrance. We were literally the last line standing between the enemies and our backliners such as Beiming Xue and Luo River God of the Capital.

Suddenly, Chaos Moon pointed to the horizon and cried out, "Hey, look! Someone carrying the banner of China is coming over from the wing? Who’s that?"

Everyone looked at the direction she was pointing in unison. It was Dominating Heaven Blade riding atop a black warhorse and leading his faithful generals and dozens of elites riding toward us. They all looked like they had been through hell; their HP half-missing and their weapons chipped and their armor torn in multiple places.

Dominating Heaven Blade shouted encouragingly as he swung his blades, "Our destination is right in front of us, everyone! Once we make it to the palace entrance, we’ll be able to meet up with Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Snowy Cathaya! In less than 4 hours, the Nation War will be over, so let’s give it our all to protect the palace entrance and keep Dawn City out of the hands of the northerners! Don’t even think about hesitating!"

However, the group barely made it to the perimeter when a Sea of Flames suddenly hit them out of nowhere. It was cast by none other than Grief of the Dark himself. The mage then chanted something we couldn’t hear and summoned a bunch of cyan-colored earth spikes from the ground!

Thud thud thud thud...

The AoE skill deleted Dominating Warrior God almost instantly. Dominating Knight God’s armor was shredded as he collapsed in a pool of blood with a look of clear reluctance on his face.

Dominating Heaven Blade roared in fury and swung his blade like crazy, but in the end, he couldn’t kill nearly enough enemies to save his men’s lives. They all died to the Galaxy Storms of the Northern Alliance’s mage party.

Bang!

When the last Fire Blast deleted Dominating Heaven Blade’s last sliver of health, Grief of the Dark lowered his scepter and sneered. "Fools. Do they really think they can defend Dawn City with that level of strength?"

……

Everyone was stunned by this turn of events. Gods of Destruction had already performed way beyond expectations by surviving this far, but in the end they were still instakilled by Grief of the Dark like ants. Clearly, this mage was far stronger than most of the opponents we had faced until now.

Boom!

A ferocious sword energy suddenly scattered the crowd. A new group of players showed up practically right after Gods of Destruction had perished, and they were led by a Famous General riding a black horse and clad in black armor. He was none other than the man whose stratagem boosted Defense by 200%, Little Piglet.

Surprisingly, Hegemon Palace’s troops were almost a thousand strong and relatively intact all things considered. It was all thanks to Little Piglet’s Vajra boosting their survivability to insane levels. Of course, whether it would be enough for them to survive this battle was up for question.

Blade of Kings’ eyes turned steely as he lifted his war axe. "Grief of the Dark, let’s work together and take out this group! No Chinese reinforcements shall reach the palace entrance!"

"Very well!"

The two Heroic Bannermen rallied a group of players and charged toward Hegemon Palace. The latter's thousand-man army looked incredibly fragile in that moment.

Little Piglet declared grimly, "Come at me if you dare, you bitches! I’m not afraid of you!"

He spurred his mount forward and charged the attackers right after he said that. A column of golden light fell from the sky, and it was none other than Little Piglet’s signature skill, Divine Weapon From Heaven. It was a skill that greatly increased his Attack and mitigated his only weakness, a lack in offensive power. At the same time, a storm of frozen swords floated around him as he activated Freezing Heat, drastically increasing his movement speed and attack speed for a short period of time. All things considered, Little Piglet was definitely some of the best players out there.

Chiang!

Little Piglet’s sword brushed past the enemy’s war axe. Then, he made a sudden turn and cut Blade of Kings for over 10k damage. Unfortunately, the fighter was surrounded by his priests, so his health returned to full in no time.

Blade of Kings’ PvP skills weren’t too far behind Little Piglet’s. After taking a hit from the Cold Wind Swordsman, he thrust his axe forward and knocked the guy back. However, he only dealt a paltry 4762 damage!

"Heavens, what crazy Defense!"

Blade of Kings’ eyes sharpened, but he quickly relaxed again and chuckled, "So what? I have a total of 120k HP. Do you really think you can kill me?"

"Is that so?"

Little Piglet charged toward Blade of Kings again. The moment he got close to the man, he abruptly split away from his mount and hit the enemy in the sides—Ice Breaking Slash!

Crack!

The skill actually froze Blade of Kings and his mount. For 3 seconds, no healing could reach him until he defrosted. Not about to let the opening slip past him, Little Piglet got up his mount again and stabbed the fighter three times in a row with Ice Ray Flurry. Not only that, his pet, the Ice Giant, raised its gigantic arm and smacked Blade of Kings right in the head!

Blade of Kings’ HP dropped to 50k or so after a series of blows. Behind him, Wang Dongliang and his men tried to come to Little Piglet’s aid, but a single Sea of Flames from Grief of the Dark was all it took to keep them at bay.

……

"Blade of Kings! Grief of the Dark!"

Suddenly, a loud voice broke out behind Little Piglet. It was none other than Vienna’s Sorrow himself. The man stabbed Little Piglet with his broadsword and used Beast Howl Slash!

39882!

Little Piglet let out a muffled groan. Directly in front of him, Grief of the Dark cast Dragon’s Roar and 2 Galaxy Storms in quick succession!

Pop...

His last sliver of HP departed his body, and Little Piglet hit the floor with a thud. Another famous Chinese player had dropped to Vienna’s Sorrow!