"Hmph! These rotten tomatoes and potatoes think they can stop us? Kill them all!"

Flowing Cloud declared imperiously as she charged toward Gods of Destruction, Mad Dragon and Hegemon Palace’s troops. To be fair, her deduction was completely right. The Ivory Tower point-defense tactic was powerful enough to threaten even us, and the three guilds didn’t have a super-mobile ranged party like our mounted archers. Naturally, they were at a disadvantage even though the White Horse Cavalrymen were wounded and tired.

All kinds of skills exploded in between the two sides. It illuminated even the rainy night.

Blood and rainwater mingled together and flowed across the grass. All the players who died here wouldn’t be able to enter Purple Grape City domain again, meaning that they were basically out of this war.

A screaming Little Piglet activated his Divine General Skill, Great Conqueror and did conqueror things, murdering White Horse Cavalry left and right wherever he went. It was to the point where the enemy was starting to avoid him. Unfortunately, Little Piglet was the only one among the three guilds who was crushing the opposition. Everyone else was going even at best or losing to the White Horse Cavalry. After all, the enemy was riding a Level 180 Earth Rank mount.

……

"What do we do now, Boss Broken Halberd?" Gui Guzi asked.

Xu Yang laughed. "Do you even need to ask? Their butts are literally pointing toward us! Let’s plow them already!"

He Yi looked at me for confirmation. "Lu Chen? Should we continue, or…?"

I replied immediately, "Of course we do! There’s no way Hegemon Palace, Gods of Destruction and Mad Dragon will be able to hold out for long, and Natural Flow only has 50k+ White Horse Cavalrymen left! We know that this is all the troops they have, so we might as well wipe them all out! Little Gui, Xu Yang, Fighting Spirits, Chengfeng, take a couple ten thousand Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen with you and hit them from the back! Dragonlight Cavalry, we will circle to the front, block their retreat, and wipe out all 50k White Horse Cavalrymen! If necessary, we will take out Flowing Cloud as well!"

"Yessir!"

Everyone got their orders a few seconds later. He Yi, Chaos Moon, Heaven’s Rain, Diamond Dust, Du Thirteen led the Dragonlight Cavalry into the forest to the side so we could circle around to where the battle was taking place. Gui Guzi, Xu Yang, High Fighting Spirits and Chengfeng and the Cyan Tiger Cavalry hit the White Horse Cavalry directly from behind. Speaking of which, Lin Yixin and Purple Marquis were already chasing after the escaping White Horse Cavalry even before we decided what to do. They were currently neck-deep in the action.

……

The downpour grew stronger. The already poor weather had turned into a full-blown lightning storm!

Crack!

A lightning bolt struck an ancient tree right in front of us and caused it to erupt into flames. It didn’t faze me though, and I passed by it without pause while giving out the next set of orders, "We’re going on the offense later, so no need to defend yourself. Also, save your pets until we engage the enemy. We’re going to release our Ghost Chariots at once and destroy the White Horse Cavalry’s high Defense with Ghost Chariot Slash! They will learn to fear the might of our Ghost Chariot Legion!"

Everyone guffawed and nodded at the plan. "Yes, vice leader!"

It didn’t take long for us to emerge from the forest and return into the clearing. After spreading out into an attack formation that was almost 500 meters wide, I ordered, "Charge! Kill them all!"

The Armored Ice Qilin Horse let out a long neigh, and we charged at full speed toward the enemy. We could already see the flashes of skills and the Gods of Destruction, Hegemon Palace and Mad Dragon players escaping from the forest ahead of us. Earlier, their 150k-strong cavalry had been utterly torn apart by the White Horse Cavalry, so now they only had 20 to 30k players left at most. There was no chance they could have withstood the enemy’s assault.

Pillar of the Nation asked with a frigid expression, "Have we lost again, Little Piglet?"

Little Piglet wiped the rainwater on his face and answered, "Meh, I don’t care. All I know is that I’ve profited since I’ve killed enough enemies to enter the Top 10 of the Nation War leaderboard!"

Pillar of the Nation: "..."

Dominating Heaven Blade was looking back as he rode, "Did you see Arrow God, Knight God? I thought he was with you?"

Dominating Knight God replied darkly, "He was one-shot by that bitch Flowing Cloud!"

"Fuck!"

Dominating Heaven Blade uttered through gritted teeth, "The power gap is just too huge. We really have to update our main cavalry after this, or we’re nothing more than prey in a battle of this scale!"

"I know. We lost so many brothers and sisters at the beginning that we could barely put up a fight afterward. What do Elephant City get coming all the way to Purple Grape City and sticking their hands into our business anyway? Fucking busybodies!"

Dominating Knight God said sadly, "This is just too miserable!"

……

It was at this moment they spotted our Dragonlight Cavalry. Dominating Heaven Blade’s eyes lit up. "It’s Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! They’re even led by Lu Chen himself! Hell yeah!"

Dominating Heaven Blade raised his blade and called out to me, "Lu Chen!"

Still traveling at full speed, I roared in reply, "All Chinese players, turn around and fight! Today, we’ll wipe out every last one of these White Horse Cavalrymen!"

"Alright!" Dominating Heaven Blade looked like a drowning man who just found his life-saving straw.

Little Piglet practically bristled with excitement as he shouted, "All Hegemon Palace players, change your attack mode to Nation War attack mode now! We’re going to kick the enemy’s ass with Ancient Sword!"

The appearance of the Dragonlight Cavalry had shone a ray of hope on the three defeated guilds where there was none. There was even the faint sensation of brotherhood, even though we all knew that it would evaporate when this Nation War was over!

……

Thanks to the downpour providing us with excellent cover, Natural Flow’s players realized that they were surrounded only after we pulled out our weapons and cut down the White Horse Cavalry who exited the forest. Their weak opponent had been replaced by a far stronger one, one they had no chance of beating at all.

I fired three flaming auras into the enemy and killed many. With the two girls, Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust by my side, I split apart the enemy’s formation and separated them from their comrades. To a cavalry troop, being split away from their group was the equivalent of a death sentence.

Not to be outdone, the Dragonlight Archers loosed their Skypiercers into the sky and watched them hit the White Horse Cavalry like meteors. Although the Dragonlight Archers only numbered a bit over 5000, they were without a doubt one of the biggest variables in this Nation War. The enemy dared not even chase after our mounted archers because they knew they would only be kited until they died, not to mention that they were led by the strongest archer of China, Beiming Xue the Dark Archer. Her grasp of distance and strategic thinking were among the best in the country!

Slowly but surely, the battle turned from being evenly-matched into a one-sided slaughter. Even Gui Guzi’s Cyan Tiger Cavalry was fighting the enemy bravely despite having inferior stats. So what if the White Horse Cavalry had high Defense? It simply meant it would take a dozen more slashes to kill them all the same!

……

When the White Horse Cavalry was close to being completely annihilated, Flowing Cloud finally lost her cool and cried, "First squad, ride with me to the southwest to break through the encirclement! Kill as many enemies as we can before we escape!"

Gui Guzi raised his shield and gave more or less the same order, "Kill every White Horse Cavalryman you see! Don’t leave a single one alive! That’ll teach them not to mess with our supply line!"

Chaos Moon looked at me. "Lu Chen, are we going to let them break through just like that?"

"Yep!" I nodded.

He Yi exclaimed in surprise, "But why?"

I replied with a smile, "Because a cornered animal is the most dangerous. We may lose more troops than we would like if we keep them surrounded. Don’t worry, I’ve identified two locations the enemies must pass through before they can make it to Elephant City, and dispatched Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust with around 3000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen each to lie in wait at those locations twenty minutes ago. Right now, our goal is just to protect ourselves and cut down the stragglers, so let them escape. The White Horse Cavalry will be annihilated soon anyway."

A sweet smile spread across Lin Yixin’s lips. "Yo, you’re growing more and more cunning, Little Cheat…"

I shrugged. "It’s the job, you see. I’ve never lied to you though!"

Nangong Lexi interrupted expressionlessly, "There will be no teasing our guild leader in front of us, thank you…"

Li Chengfeng chortled. "You sure? Your guild leader sure doesn’t look like she minds it at all…"

Nangong Lexi facepalmed and sighed. "So shameless…"

……

Our blades waved up and down and turned the White Horse Cavalry into dead bodies one after another. For tonight at least, Lost Forest was going to be their cold, watery grave.

About an hour later, nearly all 50k+ White Horse Cavalrymen had been killed. Then, Heaven’s Rain sent me a message: "I’m sorry, vice leader big bro!"

"Yes, Little Rain?"

"We managed to kill almost all the White Horse Cavalrymen who passed through Lion’s Ridge, but that Flowing Cloud is too powerful. She was able to escape with 7% HP left…"

I smiled. "It’s fine. As long as the White Horse Cavalry are dead, it doesn’t matter if Flowing Cloud escapes. We’ll leave the clean-up to the other Sky City players. Anyway, we’re setting off to our true battlefield, the Impassable Great Wall, soon, so come back as quickly as you can, okay?"

“Mn mn, Diamond Dust and I will be coming back in seven or eight minutes tops! Please wait for us!"

"Of course I will. I won’t leave anyone behind!"

"Okay, big brother!"

……

A while later, both Snowy Cathaya and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls regathered our forces on a large clearing. The downpour had finally turned to a drizzle, and the sun was peeking from the mountain ranges to the east. We had fought for so long that it was dawn inside the game again. It was well worth it though. The annihilation of Natural Flow’s 50k-strong ace cavalry had to be a terrible blow to Elephant City.

Li Chengfeng clapped me on my shoulder and said, "I just received news that new enemy reinforcements, a united army of 400+ Elephant City guilds, is coming this way. Their number could range from a couple hundred to a million. Do we want to stay here and enjoy the free contribution points, or head back to the frontline and duke it out with God’s Domain?"

I replied immediately, "There’s no choice to be made here. It’s the Impassable Great Wall or nuthin’!"

Li Chengfeng laughed. "That’s exactly what I was hoping to hear!"

Xu Yang walked over with a chipped blade and reported, "We lost over 300 Dragonlight Cavalrymen and over 17000 Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen in this battle. Snowy Cathaya’s casualties are about the same as ours. We lost a ton of people despite taking out the White Horse Cavalry completely. This is a pyrrhic victory at best."

I nodded. "I understand. Still, it’s absolutely worth trading the Cyan Tiger Cavalry for the White Horse Cavalry!"

"Heh, I know!"

……

Suddenly, I received a message from Hot and Sour Noodles: "Lu Chen, the worst case scenario you envisioned happened. Sunset Basin…"

I shivered when I saw this. "They really drowned our forces, uncle?"