The ballistae had the high ground advantage over us, and there was no point running back into the canyon because it was a straight line with no cover. We would have to do this the hard way.

"What do we do? Do we back off?" Xu Yang asked with bloodshot eyes.

"Like hell we are!"

I raised the Purple Ying Sword and shouted, "Think not of retreat and charge, my brothers and sisters! Retreat wasn’t an option from the moment these animals chose to massacre Floating Ice City! Break through their trap, destroy the ballistae, and wipe out all traces of Purple Grape City from this map!"

The Dragonlight Cavalry’s equipment was starting to look broken and tattered, but their fighting spirit was still sky-high. Raising their blades and urging their mounts to go faster, they charged through the forest terrain at incredible speed. Luckily for us, the Dragonscale Beast was one of the few mounts that could ignore the terrain restrictions and maintain most of its speed!

……

The Purple Grape City players responsible for firing the ballistae turned pale when they saw our movement. A player with a monkey’s face swore angrily, "Fuck, these Chinese cavalrymen are insane! I can’t believe they’re attacking our base head-on!"

Another person raised his weapon and said, "What are we waiting for? Fire at will and take them out!"

……

Twang twang twang!

The sounds of the ballistae being shot was terrifying, and the black steel bolts flying toward us were even more so. I raised the Dragon God Shield in front of myself to block a bolt, and a loud clang later, my entire left arm turned numb as I lost over 50k HP. Its damage is just insane!

Pu pu pu...

Next to me, three Dragonlight Cavalrymen were shot at the same time. They only had half health to begin with, and there was no priest to heal us. Naturally, there was no way they could survive the ballistae attack. The only good news was that the ballista the enemy was using was just a basic ballista that fired three steel bolts at once, not a unique ballista like the Zhuge Repeating Ballista.

"Full speed ahead!"

I ordered while raising the Purple Ying Sword. The only way out of this was to destroy the ballistae set up on the ridge before they destroyed us. Otherwise, we were all going to die here.

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh...

Steel bolts fell on us like lethal raindrops. Entire groups of Dragonlight Cavalry dropped dead as they screamed in pain. The weapon was just way too powerful, and normally I would never order a direct charge like this without priest support. Practically anyone who ate a full volley or three bolts at the same time was one-shot where they stood.

My heart ached because that one discharge had killed almost a thousand Dragonlight Cavalrymen. Even if we won this battle, it could only be counted as a pyrrhic victory.

"Get them!"

I shouted and summoned the Level 192 Phantom Wolf King. It darted in between the enemy players and hit a ballista with Purgatory Storm and Claw of the Storm, instantly shredding it into pieces. Thankfully, a ballista only had around 100k HP or so. It was a goner the moment we got close enough to hit it.

Pa pa pa…

Behind me, Beiming Xue abruptly dismounted and darted into the forest. Her mount slowly faded into thin air, and her attire turned back into her usual archer outfit. She immediately fired a number of shots that destroyed three ballistae in one go. Lian Xin was doing the same thing. After she ran into the forest, she Blinked away out of a concentrated fire that would have taken her out before retaliating with Dimensional Storm and other skills, disintegrating the ballistae.

Their performance greatly lifted everyone’s spirits. At a critical moment, the two beauties of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had stepped up and increased the assault’s chances of success. Beiming Xue especially was able to dish out a lot of damage and pull a lot of firepower away from our units at the same time. She was technically an easy target that would die to a single ballista shot, but she was too fast for the enemy to lock onto her. Like a fairy of the forest, she kept darting left and right and never stayed in one place long enough for the enemy to get her.

Meanwhile, I was leading Gui Guzi, Li Chengfeng, He Yi, Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits, Du Thirteen and Xu Yang toward the attacking ballistae. Almost everyone on the forefront was a Famous General. Just like how we tackled the Black Marsh Catapults earlier, we maintained full speed and only hit the ballista once before moving onto the next target. On a related note, ballistae couldn’t be fired if an enemy got too close to it, so they were just sitting ducks waiting to be destroyed once we approached them.

"Protect the ballistae! Go go go!"

About a hundred Wildfire Riders charged toward us from an elevated position.

I activated Great Earth Transformation and went all out!

Bang bang bang!

Thanks to my increased resistances and Strength, all I needed to do was hit the Wildfire Riders with a basic attack to knock them backward or sideways. It almost felt like batting a fly since my Strength stat was at least 50% higher than theirs. There was just no comparison.

……

Finally, after losing a great number of Dragonlight Cavalry, we were able to sweep through the forest and destroy all the ballistae. Red Maple had chosen to bring this particular siege weapon with him instead of the more powerful Black Marsh Catapults because they were a lot more mobile. He was also probably planning to deploy it as a secret weapon of sorts. Well, not anymore. We had to pay a terrible price, but it was worth it.

After all of the ballistae were destroyed, I arrived at the top of the ridge and looked down. At the plains on the other side of the ridge, several ten thousand Wildfire Riders were standing in formation and waiting for us to hit them. Red Maple himself was standing at the forefront of his formation and staring at me with a cold eye.

Beside me, Li Chengfeng licked his lips once before commenting, "That bastard, he’s waiting for us to come to him while we’re weakened and kill all of us, isn’t he?"

I nodded. "Obviously."

He Yi also trotted next to me with a blood-stained Seven Star Veluriyam Spear. The magic knight had killed a lot of enemies throughout this assault. Although her Defense was no match for Gui Guzi’s, her Attack was way higher. Examining the enemy’s cavalry and ranged formation with a critical eye, she said, "That’s almost 100k cavalry and 20k ranged troops. He’s planning to kill us all here, isn’t he?"

Li Chengfeng smiled. "He can try."

Xu Yang was the next person to walk up to us. He said, "Hehe, have you guys checked our casualty report yet?"

He Yi and I shook our heads at the same time. "No, not yet. Tell us."

Xu Yang reported, "The Dragonlight Cavalry was 14k strong at the beginning, but now only 9k is left, meaning that we’ve lost almost 40%. On the other hand, we barely lost any Dragonlight Archers at all. Finally, we lost more than half of our mixed cavalry, and of the 30k we brought with us only 14k or so are left. In total, we have less than 30k troops remaining."

Chaos Moon stared at God’s Domain’s formation and commented with a smile. "30k cavalry versus 100k cavalry is a bit harsh, but the challenge only makes me more excited!"

I said, "Well, tell everyone to heal themselves to full health. This will be the decisive battle!"

"Mn!"

……

He Yi looked at me and said, "Are we seriously going to just charge down there?"

I nodded. "Yep. Don’t look at me like that, there really is no other way. For starters, there is only this one way that leads to the enemy. Two, they’re clearly waiting for us to make the first move. If we retreat, they’ll definitely chase after us. If we attack, at least we’ll have the high ground advantage. A maximum speed charge from this position is no joke, you know. Finally, our people can resurrect from the nearby graveyard or from their corpse directly, but his troops are teleported straight back to the city if they die. We hold the attrition advantage here! Speaking of which, Xu Yang, tell our dead Dragonlight Cavalrymen to resurrect at their corpses as soon as possible. 40% casualty? Bullshit! We still have 14k Dragonlight Cavalry and 30k elite mixed cavalry!"

Xu Yang laughed heartily. "Oh, you finally figured it out?"

I felt the corner of my mouth twitching. "You always seem relaxed during the most critical moment. Anyway, tell our men to move their asses! We’re charging once everyone’s in position!"

"Got it!"

……

Behind us, all the Dragonlight Cavalry who died earlier got back onto their feet and ran toward us. They had only lost a single level and were still perfectly capable of fighting another battle.

During this lull, I contacted Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun to check on him, "How goes the battle, You and Yun?"

The Flying General panted heavily as he answered, "No time. You can check out my POV yourself!"

"Okay…"

After Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun shared his POV with me, I saw our elite cavalry engaging God’s Domain’s normal cavalry in a fierce battle. Everyone looked tired and injured. Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun’s blade was starting to become chipped in certain places. If the battle of Wild Pheasant Ridge was fierce, then the battle over there was bloody and desperate.

Purple Grape City had rallied between 5 to 10 guilds to attack them, pushing him and his men to his limits. Thankfully, Snowy Cathaya’s Purple Thunder Cavalry appeared from the distant forest just in time to assist them, and leading at the forefront was none other than the Fruit Knife Goddess herself, Lin Yixin.

"Snowy Cathaya, attack!"

The way Lin Yixin ordered the attack, you would be fooled to think that she was the one who had several times the troops over the enemy, not the other way around. This war was certainly growing more and more interesting.

……

Chiang!

Finally, our men were in position and ready to go. So, I pulled out my sword and ordered, "Ancient Sword, charge! Show these invaders the might of China’s strongest guild!"

Everyone laughed and unsheathed their weapons as well.

The sounds of hooves grew more and more rapid as we surged toward the bottom of the ridge like tidewater. I could’ve encouraged my people more, but I knew that it was unnecessary. Right now, everyone’s heart was burning with hatred toward Purple Grape City, and the only way to extinguish it and appease the poor victims who were murdered to Level 0 was to wet the ground with their blood!