While we were fighting, Beiming Xue shared the live feed of her own battle with us. 5000 Dragonlight Archers were utilizing the hit-and-run tactic to kite the fuck out of God’s Domain’s 50000-strong cavalry. The dark archer was already an intelligent woman in her own right, but she also had a wide vision that enabled her to always pick the best direction to kite the enemy. As a result, she was always able to hit the enemy where it hurt the most without being caught. There was also the fact that the 50000 cavalrymen God’s Domain dispatched was just a troop of mixed cavalry instead of their best Wildfire Riders.

Red Maple knew full well that China had begun their counterattack, and that any Wildfire Rider killed within their own borders couldn’t participate in the defense of their city anymore. Moreover, the Wildfire Riders were literally the strongest units God’s Domain, no, the entire Japan server, possessed. That was why he hadn’t deployed them.

……

Chiang chiang chiang...

The sounds of blades smacking against shields filled the air as we fought. Despite my success with Purple Dragon Howl earlier, countless high-level NPCs were still blocking our way to the palace. They seemed to be aware that our final objective was to kill their king. After all, once their king was dead, we would gain the right to do whatever we want to this city!

"We just need to kill a couple hundred more enemies to get through!"

Li Chengfeng’s Dark Blade smashed into an NPC’s armor again and again as he growled, "I refuse to believe that five thousand of our best elites isn’t enough to breach one tiny Ice River Canton!"

Instead of answering, I fought harder and dropped a couple of Icy Cyclone Domains on top of the enemies, slowing them and dealing ice damage to everyone within its range. Besides that, I unleashed Burning Blade Slash + War Crush combo that devastated even the Level 200 NPCs.

Many more Burning Blade Slashes later, I finally broke through the NPCs and became the first player to enter the palace. Li Chengfeng, Chaos Moon and Gui Guzi stepped over the dead Golden Guards and ran toward me. Outside the palace, countless Ice River Canton players were trying to kill us, and commander-level players were shouting on top of their lungs, "Charge them! Kill them!"

Unfortunately, High Fighting Spirits, Du Thirteen, Xu Yang and more had stayed behind to keep them at bay. They mounted a couple of charges on their own and killed enough enemy players to intimidate them. After all, the so-called Dragonlight Cavalry was actually riding the Dragonscale Beasts,Earth Rank Boss mount whose stats were as good as my Armored Ice Qilin Horse’s. Anyone who tried to force their way through usually died without being able to do much damage at all!

……

After we entered the palace halls, another group of NPC guards rushed toward us. They were led by a Level 220 Immortal Rank Boss called Shadow the Legend of Ice River. A general. He had to be the strongest or the second strongest NPC in Ice River Canton, and we couldn’t treat him as if he didn’t exist.

"Do we kill him or not?" Chaos Moon asked hesitatingly as she looked back at the hundreds of Dragonlight Cavalrymen that just entered the palace. We had to split our forces to deal with the dread-rank NPC guards, the endless stream of Ice River Canton players and now an Immortal Rank boss. Even for us, things were really starting to get dicey.

I fired God Binding Art at Shadow and successfully immobilized him. After I resummoned the Phantom Wolf King and sent it after the boss, I shouted, "Ignore the boss and take out the mobs first! Just make sure that the right person has the boss's aggro! Chengfeng, Chaos Moon, you two come with me to kill the king!"

"Mn!"

We raced up the stairs until we reached the throne room. We saw a dozen or so civil and military officers standing on the two sides of the throne, and sitting on the throne was a middle-aged man who looked to be around 40 years old. He was the king. He abruptly rose to his feet, glared at us and shouted, "Who are you? How dare you attack Ice River Canton! Men, kill them all!"

"Kill yourself!"

I fired two Ancient Seals on the spot. Together with Li Chengfeng’s Dragonblade Revolution and Chaos Moon’s Rock Crush, we were able to one-shot the civil officers instantly. They weren’t combat NPCs, so of course they didn’t have the Defense or the HP to survive our attacks.

However, the 4 miniboss generals proved to be far more capable than their counterparts. Dozens of Dragonlight Cavalrymen surrounded them and hit them with everything they got, but they weren’t strong enough to penetrate the minibosses’ Defense, and vice versa. It would be a long while before a victor was decided among them. That was fine though. All we needed them to do was to keep the generals busy until we killed the king.

The king grabbed his sword and glared at us menacingly. A couple lines of shiny text floated above his head—

King of Ice River, Duke Auneau (Immortal Rank Boss NPC)

Level: 225

Introduction: Duke Auneau, the protector of Ice River Canton was one of the few true experts who ruled the eastern continent. During the decades he ruled Ice River Canton, its people prospered, and its army grew strong enough to keep even the Night Creature Legion from invading the land.

……

"Kill!"

Li Chengfeng and I activated Great Earth Transformation without hesitation and charged the king from both sides. The very first skill I used was Universe Break, locking the boss's aggro on me instantly. Universe Break had great damage and generated a ton of threat, so it was the skill to use when fighting against a boss. Also, I was more suited as a tank than Li Chengfeng because I had superior survivability and the Dragon God Shield.

"Chengfeng, you and Chaos Moon are the DPS, okay? I’ll be the tank!" I shouted.

"Got it. Be careful!"

Li Chengfeng dashed past Duke Auneau and stabbed his sides with a Dragonbone Flurry + Reverse Scale Slash combo, instantly dealing 300k damage. The boss let out a furious roar and tried to attack Li Chengfeng, but I easily drew his aggro back to me with a triple-hit War Crush. Then, I activated Dark Pupils and noticed a 3 cm long red line across the boss's right shoulder. It was his weak point.

While blocking an attack with the Dragon God Shield, I shouted, "Chengfeng, Chaos Moon, watch where I land my attack! It’s the boss's weak point!"

The weak point was only 10 cm away from his neck. I leaped into the air and brought down my weapon, using Pardon + basic attack combo to maximize my damage output. Duke Auneau was unable to dodge it because he was no Red Maple, Candlelight Shadow or Breeze and Rain. Amazingly, I triggered the Purple Ying Sword’s quintuple-damage passive at that exact moment, and the damage number that rose above its head stunned everyone—

1028950!

Chaos Moon’s mouth fell open as she knocked the boss's arm backward with Rock Crush, "Holy shit, this is the first time I saw a million damage…"

Li Chengfeng nodded in agreement. "Me too…"

Gui Guzi chuckled. "So that’s where the weak point is, huh? Got it! Here I come!"

Gui Guzi spurred his mount to leap into the air. As a result, more than half of his Spear of the Knight God became lodged inside the boss's body. His damage number was also pretty high—201984!

It was a double critical hit. Xu Yang arrived just in time to praise Gui Guzi, "Ooh, this is the first time I see Little Gui dealing over 200k damage. Not bad, not bad…"

Gui Guzi: "Fuck you…"

……

Despite our success, Duke Auneau’s retaliation wasn’t to be underestimated. Each one of his attacks dealt at least 50k damage to me, not to mention the others.

Swhoosh!

A red light surrounded me as I recovered myself with Tenacity of the Dead. After tanking another two hits from the boss, I dodged to the back and let Gui Guzi replace me for the moment. Out of everyone in the throne room, he was the only other player whose survivability was equal to mine. It was very impressive.

"You damned invaders!"

Duke Auneau abruptly raised his arm and chanted, "I, Auneau, beseech the power of thunder! Awaken from your slumber and punish the evil before me—Green Thunder Roar!"

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh!

Countless green lightning bolts fell from the sky and damaged everyone indiscriminately. At least 30% of the throne room, or every player within a hundred yards of the boss, was struck by the skill.

I activated Ghost Deity Shield. It was the only way to block a magic attack like this.

"Watch out, everyone!"

Li Chengfeng withstood the attack and successfully ran out of the skill’s range before it killed him. Chaos Moon, Gui Guzi and more were able to escape safely thanks to their high HP as well. Unfortunately, not all of our Dragonlight Cavalrymen could claim the same thing, and dozens of them dropped dead in succession. The skill was just way too powerful.

I tried to weather the skill with Tenacity of the Dead and Saint Spirit Potion, but it was a bit too much even for me. In the end, I activated my cloak’s invincibility active, Shield of Evening and made myself invulnerable to all damage for 12 seconds. I didn’t mind wasting it because I had a second, 25-second invincibility active skill called Divine Dragon Protection courtesy of my Dragon God Shield. There was an internal cooldown system for such active skills. It didn’t rely on time, but on player activity. Using active skills required charging up activity points. Since I haven’t been using these skills for a very long time, I barely had enough to use two active skills in a row; the meter had steeply diminishing returns.

……

The boss's spell disappeared after 30 seconds, and everyone rushed him again and hit him with Barrier Breaks. Slowly but surely, the king’s health bar was sliding toward the end.

Less than ten minutes later, his HP had dropped to 10% or so.

It was at this moment Du Thirteen and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun rushed in with an urgent report, "You guys need to be faster! Red Maple is rushing over with the Wildfire Riders right now!"

"The fuck? How is he so fast?!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun answered, "Apparently, there’s another Famous General in Purple Grape City with Flying General! As a result, he and 1000 Wildfire Riders were able to reach Ice River Canton in less than twenty minutes!"

Gui Guzi chuckled. "This isn’t necessarily bad news, right? We can kill Red Maple and his 1000 Wildfire Riders right here and make sure that they won’t be able to participate in Purple Grape City’s defense!"

Li Chengfeng looked to me for directions. "Lu Chen, what do you think?"

I gritted my teeth but shook my head in the end. "No, it’s not worth trading 5000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen for Red Maple’s life, and we cannot afford to stay here much longer! Even now, the NPCs are coming, and the arrow towers are shooting at us! Thirteen, take 500 players with you to buy time and send the rest of the Dragonlight Cavalry who aren’t in combat back to the city! Li Chengfeng, Chaos Moon and I will stay behind to finish off the king!"

"Mn!" Du Thirteen nodded.