Du Thirteen ordered loudly, "High Fighting Spirits, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, take 500 people with you and come with me! We’re going to stop Red Maple’s Wildfire Riders from making their way in! The rest of you, withdraw into the palace. Once you’re out of combat, teleport back to Sky City and stand by for further orders!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun guffawed while holding an orange-colored blade. "Mn, we’ll come with you. By the way, we’re going to die, aren’t we?"

"Die my ass! No one is allowed to die!" Du Thirteen laughed as well.

……

Chiang chiang chiang...

Sparks scattered everywhere as Duke Auneau, the king of Ice River Canton, kept hacking away at Gui Guzi and my shield. Even with our Defense, we didn’t have the best time tanking his hits. Li Chengfeng, Chaos Moon, Xu Yang and more had deployed their pets to hasten the battle, but almost all of them were one-shot by the boss. As expected of an Immortal Rank boss.

Pu!

Duke Auneau’s sword plunged into the stomach of the Green Praying Mantis King and pulled out greenish juice and guts. It was one of Xu Yang’s pets, and its owner angrily retaliated by hitting the boss's back with Mountain Stagger Slash. Dozens of us were surrounding Duke Auneau and unleashing our attacks.

Li Chengfeng spurred his mount to move three steps backward so he could charge his skill safely. Once the silver dragon coiled around his Dark Blade was ready, he chuckled and brought his weapon down in one mighty swing. The silver dragon killed everything in its path as it surged toward Duke Auneau.

142837!

"Damned invaders!" Hurt, the powerful king shouted, "I swear I will slay you all with the sword in my hand!"

Chaos Moon abruptly descended from above and hit the boss's weak point with Rock Crush, dealing over 200k damage. She asked coldly, "Who did you say you want to kill again?"

Duke Auneau immediately turned around to attack Chaos Moon with a skill, but Chaos Moon was able to cross her sword in front of her and perform a half-parry. It was a move that saved her life even though she still lost around 50% HP and was knocked backward. Considering the judgment, speed, angle and force behind her parry, she probably deserved to be ranked among the best experts of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls now.

The boss wasn’t the only thing that was hit when the Phantom Wolf King attacked with his Claw of the Storm and Purgatory Storm. The beautiful decorations inside the palace and even giant totem pillars were turned into shreds as well. The palace of Ice River Canton was all but destroyed by our attacks.

At the inner hall of the palace, Dragonlight Cavalry were pulling out their return scrolls and teleporting back to Sky City. Their survival left me with a sense of deep relief because they were all the core players of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, and we still needed them to attack Purple Grape City. If we lost too many Dragonlight Cavalrymen that it became impossible to deploy them in the upcoming battles, it could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

……

I could hear High Fighting Spirits’ roars all the way here. The berserker was currently battling the Wildfire Riders at the palace entrance. After he tore 5 Wildfire Riders to pieces with Xiezhi Howl, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun seized the moment to mount a short charge and rocked the ground with Rock Smash, showing off his might as a general of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Even my brother, Du Thirteen, was starting to show a glimmer of expertise, charging back and forth to weaken as many enemies as possible without killing them. He did this so that the comrades close to those weakened enemies would have an easier time of killing them.

Suddenly, a person shouted from among the enemy troops, "Out of my way! I’ll kill them myself!"

It was a voice we were only too familiar with. Red Maple, the guild leader of God’s Domain, the man who was worshipped like a god in Purple Grape City, looked as furious as hell itself right now. He probably didn’t think that we would be bold enough to launch a raid on Ice River Canton. Even better, we were only moments away from completing our objective!

After Red Maple made his way to the frontline, he struck two Dragonlight Cavalrymen with less than 25% HP and killed them both. Not done yet, he summoned Wind Blade Cyclone and dropped an entire group of full-health Dragonlight Cavalry to half HP.

Gaining momentum, he somehow pushed back against the shield pressing down on him and unleashed Fire God Flurry at the same time. The skill hit another three Dragonlight Cavalrymen and one-shot them all.

"God dammit, why is this bastard so tough?!"

A hundred-man Dragonlight Cavalry corps commander swore while charging toward Red Maple. He was an expert Chaos Moon had personally brought into the guild and an old friend of hers. He was nowhere near her level, but he was one of the better players we had.

Chiang!

Unfortunately, Red Maple was able to parry the corps commander’s attack with ease before shouting, "Do you want to die?"

Swhoosh!

A fiery cone surrounded Red Maple’s sword, causing the commander to grit his teeth grimly. "Fuck!"

He crossed his sword in front of himself and prepared to parry the Barrier Break. Judging from his chosen angle and force, there was at least a 60% chance he would parry the skill successfully.

However, when Red Maple’s blade was 25 cm away from the corps commander’s arm, the heaven’s warrior abruptly changed the direction of his thrust and landed a hit on the weakest point of the parry. As a result, the parry was nullified, and the sword pierced through the corps commander’s torso dealing 290080 damage!

After the hundred-man corps commander was one-shot, High Fighting Spirits swore angrily, "Little Four! That mothrefucker killed Little Four!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun responded with equal fury, "Gang up on him and kill him!"

Red Maple cackled as he executed Maple Kill + Wind Blade Cyclone combo at the space between High Fighting Spirits and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, hitting them both. His mastery of distance had definitely reached the point of perfection!

Whoosh whoosh!

The swirls of energy nearly killed both our fierce generals. Forget Red Maple, they couldn’t even fight a normal Wildfire Rider in their current state.

"Fuck…"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun wasn’t someone who would go down without a fight, so he counterattacked with a vengeful Rock Smash. Red Maple moved to the back and Guarded, but he still took 40k+ damage because Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun’s Attack was boosted by 50% thanks to Dragon Soul Protection. It was just enough to deal a sizable amount of damage.

"Let’s go, Fighting Spirits!" Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun immediately retreated after scoring a hit.

Red Maple grinned maliciously. "Not so fast!"

He ran so fast that he looked like a lightning bolt. Both High Fighting Spirits and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun were caught off-guard by his speed.

Bang!

Right before he could kill the two Famous Generals though, Red Maple suddenly found his feet floating above the ground. Maybe it was because he tunnel-visioned onto High Fighting Spirits and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, but he had completely missed the person who rammed his sides. Not only that, the attacker had followed up with an undodgeable Barrier Break.

78028!

Red Maple gritted his teeth in fury when he saw the damage number. After he regained his bearings, he turned around and struck his mysterious attacker with a triple-hit Fire God Flurry, dropping their health to almost nothing and causing them to stumble away. As it turned out, the rescuer was none other than Du Thirteen himself. As the guild leader of Bloody Mercenaries, Du Thirteen just barely survived Fire God Flurry from Red Maple.

A group of Dragonlight Cavalrymen immediately surrounded Red Maple in an attempt to end his life there and then, but he was able to kill 5 and grievously wound 7 of them with a horizontal slash and Maple Kill. The bastard was just too strong for them!

"Oh, screw it!" Du Thirteen swore angrily. "If we die, we die! Go get ‘em, brothers and sisters! Worse comes to worst we’ll grind the A4 instance at Sky City!"

The Dragonlight Cavalry responded positively to the command and charged Red Maple and the Wildfire Riders relentlessly. However, they suffered huge casualties because they lacked a peak-level player who could suppress Red Maple. Hundreds of Dragonlight Cavalrymen were killed in just the blink of an eye.

……

It wasn’t all for naught though. Duke Auneau, the king of Ice River Canton, was close to death, and Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and I were hitting the boss with everything we had. We took hits for each other, and our health bars hovered dangerously between 25% to 50%. However, the boss wasn’t able to kill any of us no matter what he did. This was the power of a well-coordinated party.

Crack!

The Purple Ying Sword passed through Duke Auneau’s neck and deleted the final sliver of his HP.

"Ahh…"

An insane amount of blood poured from the wound on his neck. Dropping to his knees and staring blankly at the distance, he murmured, "I’m sorry, Purple Grape Empire. I can no longer defend your glory!"

"You can guard it in hell!"

I seized Duke Auneau’s hair and swung my sword one last time. The next moment, I was gripping his severed head and reading a system notice—

Ding~!

System Notice: You have killed the regent of Ice River Canton, "Duke Auneau the King of Ice River”. You may use his head to obtain the city’s inheritance and turn Ice River Canton into a vassal city of Sky City, or destroy Duke Auneau’s throne and turn it into a masterless city!

……

My hesitation only lasted for an instant. I raced up the steps and pierced the huge gem embedded above the throne. The next moment, all the buildings in Ice Rive Canton started crumbling, and the city turned into abandoned ruins!

Purple Grape City should’ve known that this might happen the day they massacred Floating Ice City!

……

After that, I got up my mount and ordered, "Alright, you guys teleport back to Sky City now! I’ll follow you after I rescue Du Thirteen and the others!"

Got it!"

Li Chengfeng and Chaos Moon were wise and unhesitating people. They immediately crushed their return scrolls and teleported back to Sky City. Gui Guzi was the only one who remained and said, "I’ll come with you, Boss Broken Halberd!"

“No, you should return to the city immediately. Don’t worry, I still have an invincibility skill left!"

"Fine…"

……

I raced out of the palace hall just in time to see Du Thirteen, High Fighting Spirits, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and dozens of surviving Dragonlight Cavalrymen riding my way. They were all close to death, and they were being pursued by Red Maple and several thousand Wildfire Riders.