"Doesn’t matter what it is. All we need to do is to break through by force and kill them all!" High Fighting Spirits said.

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Everyone, follow Fighting Spirits into the forest. But before you do that, take note that this unknown enemy isn’t a player. The red dot on the minimap is 3 times larger than a player’s, when even a mounted player is just 2 times larger, so watch out. Now then, spread out and surround the enemy from all sides. Once I give the order, we’ll move in together and crush them in an instant!"

After the party was ready, High Fighting Spirits and I rushed into the forest side by side. I even activated Great Earth Transformation just in case.

Whoosh!

High Fighting Spirits lifted the leaves blocking our way and rushed forward with uncanny agility. I fired Ancient Seal into the air!

Boom!

The golden seal illuminated the overcast, wet forest and revealed about 20 or so arrow towers. They were only 3 meters tall, very small and possessed a fairly weak Attack, but their attack speed was very high. They were especially deadly to any single target if more than 10 of them were put together in one place.

"OMG, it’s the Ivory Tower!"

Chaos Moon’s eyes widened. "I read about this when I was looking for information on the main cities yesterday! The Ivory Tower is one of Elephant City’s unique items. Each player can carry up to 6 of them and place them on any 3-yard patch of flat ground. It’s meant to be used as a temporary defensive structure, but Flowing Cloud turned it into an offensive structure [1] instead. She really is quite intelligent…"

I said, "It’s fine, Ivory Tower only has 50k HP. Destroy them all!"

I unleashed Burning Blade Slash and tore apart an entire clump of Ivory Towers myself after giving the order. A few seconds later, the Dragonlight Cavalry destroyed the rest.

……

After we emerged back into the open, Chaos Moon looked at the distant forest and said, "I bet there are Ivory Towers everywhere inside the forest. It will be suicide to charge in recklessly!"

I nodded and said, "Tell Beiming and the 5000 Dragonlight Archers to come over. I just did a quick check, and I can confirm that the Ivory Tower has an attack range of 50 yards only, which is shorter than our Dragonlight Archers’. We’ll have them clear out all the Ivory Towers the enemy have set up and force White Horse Cavalry to engage us in a decisive battle!"

"Okay!"

At the same time, I received battle reports from the two parties led by He Yi and Gui Guzi respectively. Both of them had lost a dozen or so Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen, but they were cautious enough not to force their way through. By now, everyone had figured out why Gods of Destruction, Hegemon Palace and Mad Dragon had lost as many troops as they did. It would be stranger if they survived the Ivory Towers set up at strategic locations by the White Horse Cavalry.

Ten minutes later, we arrived at a clearing. He Yi, Gui Guzi, our cavalry and even Lin Yixin’s Snowy Cathaya had come together. We stood at the edge of the forest and stared into the seemingly impenetrable darkness ahead of us. A flock of alarmed birds took to the sky and informed us that there were god knows how many Elephant City players hiding in there. Not only that, each one of them could carry up to 6 Ivory Towers, and they could battle as normal after they placed the structures on the ground. It was a devious tactic for sure.

Our counter was on the way though. On the world map, I saw our 5000+ Dragonlight Archers riding through the forest behind us. It wasn’t long before a beautiful mounted archer clad in leather armor and carrying a bow that glowed like a frozen moon burst through a bush and arrived at the clearing. It was of course Beiming Xue. Not only that, she had brought Lian Xin with us. The duo had been inseparable as of late, not that I minded our number one mage’s presence at all. I’m sure we could use her skills in the upcoming battle.

"What’s the plan, big bro?"

Beiming Xue asked me with a big smile as the Dragonlight Archers followed behind her.

I pointed to the forest at the front and said, "A ton of Ivory Towers have been set up in the forest, but they only have 50k HP, and their attack range is only 50 yards. So, I want you and the Dragonlight Archers to increase Skypiercer’s range to 100 yards or so using the Far Shot mode and destroy them all! We will force Flowing Cloud’s White Horse Cavalry to meet us in a decisive battle!"

He Yi nodded as Lin Yixin said to Beiming smilingly, "We’re close enough to protect you in case anything happens, so just shoot to your heart’s content, Lil Beiming!"

"Mn, got it!"

First, Beiming Xue changed her stratagem to Range and more than doubled everyone’s attack range. After ordering the other party leaders to do the same, she continued, "Aim at the west forest and use Skypiercer only. We’ll move 30 yards forward after every 5 Skypiercers!"

The mounted archers nodded in unison before performing a full draw. For a time, the sound of tightening bowstrings filled the air. Then, without even waiting for an order from Beiming Xue, they released it at the same time and loosed a volley of arrows into the thunderclouds above. When the arrows had reached peak height, they split up into even more arrows before falling toward the ground!

Thud thud thud thud!!

The arrows fell like meteors and caused a series of noises immediately. We even saw flashes of fire—it was the light of the animation of the Ivory Towers being destroyed—and the enemy players’ screams. Clearly, the first round of Skypiercer alone had killed a lot of players.

The downpour above our heads was both good and bad news. The good news was that the enemy couldn’t hear the Skypiercers until it was too late. The bad news was that we couldn’t hear them sneaking up on us either. Watching our surroundings warily, I ordered, "Cyan Tiger Cavalry, spread out and form a shield wall now. Flowing Cloud will mount a charge once we’ve driven her into a corner!"

The Cyan Tiger Cavalry nodded and formed an impenetrable shield wall under Xu Yang’s command in no time. Snowy Cathaya’s players worked in tandem with us as well. No one could tear through our formation without considerable effort.

"Argh, these goddamned Chinese mounted archers!"

As expected, a dozen or so Elephant City riders emerged from the forest, but they were just Greedy Wolf Cavalrymen with fairly low levels instead of the White Horse Cavalry we were expecting. They were the ones who were responsible for setting up the Ivory Towers, so naturally they were the first to lose their cool when the Dragonlight Archers took out the structures.

"Aim directly in front of you and continue the attack!" Beiming Xue ordered smilingly.

The bowstrings twanged again, and all the Elephant City players who charged out of the forest were killed in an instant. There were at least a thousand of them, but they were nothing before the Dragonlight Archers’ firepower.

……

"Alright, it’s time to move 30 yards forward before continuing the assault!"

5 Skypiercers later, Beiming Xue ordered the Dragonlight Archers to push forward.

At the same time, I gripped my sword hilt and searched around for a source of killing intent. Yes, I had a feeling that it was about time for Flowing Cloud to make her move. As the war goddess of Elephant City, she would never let us the tower formation she spent so much effort setting up without retaliation.

Chiang!

A thick bolt of lightning suddenly sundered the darkness to the south and revealed a female warrior in white garment. She rode as quick as lightning, and not even the downpour could conceal the thunderous hooves of the riders following behind her. We all turned serious when the ID floating above her head came into view—

Flowing Cloud LV-194 Great Earth Magic Swordsman (India)

Main City: Elephant City

Guild: Natural Flow

Position: Leader

……

Finally, the number one war goddess of Elephant City had deigned to reveal herself. She had gorgeous features and armor that made her look like a heroine straight from the fairytales. After letting out a battle cry, she charged into Snowy Cathaya’s square-shaped, 10x10 yard shield formation and used an AoE skill. Amazingly, she was able to annihilate most of them.

Flowing Cloud was trailed by 50k White Horse Cavalry at least. I had no doubt that they were the elites of the cavalry troop.

I raised my sword, turned my mount around and shouted, "Dragonlight Cavalry, ride with me! The decisive battle is now!"

Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon and the others heeded the order and faced toward the enemy. Xu Yang pulled out his sword and shouted, "Kill!"

The ground shook, and 14k+ Dragonlight Cavalrymen charged straight toward the enemy’s wing as a perfect square. This was the moment we had been preparing for so long!

Bang bang bang...

The Dragonlight Cavalry slammed into the White Horse Cavalry with a fleshy thud. The latter was famous for their Defense, but it was clear that the Dragonlight Cavalry was ultimately superior. Acting as the spearhead of the charge, I unleashed Burning Blade Slash + Thousand Ice Slash + Ancient Seal combo that instantly crushed one part of the enemy’s formation.

The three Divine Generals, Li Chengfeng, He Yi and Lin Yixin even activated Great Earth Transformation before charging into the fray. Lin Yixin and He Yi used their God’s Tear and Godslaying Blade to tear into the enemy. Li Chengfeng carved through the enemies in unstoppable fashion after activating Battle Soul Possession.

……

Crack!

After slicing three Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen’s armor in half with her sword, Flowing Cloud pointed to the right and cried out an ambitious order, "Tear down their right wing and create some space for us!"

The White Horse Cavalry did as commanded and broke through part of the defense line made up of Cyan Tiger Cavalry and Purple Dragon Cavalry instantly. Flowing Cloud herself was fighting at the frontlines and killing as many Chinese riders as she could.

Very soon, after losing several thousand White Horse Cavalrymen to push all the way to the center of our formation, Flowing Cloud gave her next order, "Do it now!"

Pa pa pa…

Suddenly, the White Horse Cavalry dropped a ton of Ivory Towers on the empty ground they created. 10000-strong Ivory Tower formation was created just like that!

"Fuck!" I swore.

As expected, the Ivory Towers started shooting, and droves of Cyan Tiger Cavalry and Purple Dragon Cavalry dropped dead in no time. Flowing Cloud’s aggressive use of the arrow towers was super effective [2]!

1. T/N: ??? it’s still a goddamn defensive structure, she’s luring you into range and letting it shoot you what are you talking about)

2. T/N: now THIS is an actual offensive use of the structure)