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Blind Abyss Empire, Ancient Ruins

The Undying Guild finally pushed the Central Order to the corner and forced them to initiate a full retreat.

Legolas, who was leading the forces that were facing the Undying Guild Army, had no other choice but to order all of their forces to retreat towards the nearby forest since he knew that could no longer re-enter the defensive formation now that they turned their backs at the Nameless Swordsman.

And since there were no enemies blocking their path, the Undying Guild forces could now freely attack the defensive formation protecting the inner part of the Ancient Ruins.

Seeing that, the remaining army of the Central Order inside the Ancient Ruins also decided to yield since they all knew that there was no point in continuing this losing battle anymore.

So, they also chose to immediately retreat instead of suffering more losses from battling the Nameless Swordsman and Sickarius.

All they could do right now was to reunite with the Legolas and others before heading towards the site where the Superior Mana Vein was located.

At this point in time, the only thing that they could do was to extract as many Mana Stones and Crystals as possible from that Mana Vein.

Naturally, Immortal was fully aware of such an obvious move, so he sent a detachment from their main army to chase after the fleeing army of their enemies and another detachment to circle around the latter to set an ambush.

On the other hand, the other Powerhouses who were waiting for the outcome of the war also saw that scene. And that sight made them hesitate whether they want to continue their plans or observe the situation a little more.

They thought that they just made their moves right in time – but the moment they arrived at the Ancient Ruins, they were immediately greeted by the sight of the Central Order being slaughtered by the members of the Undying Guild.

And seeing such a brutal scene forced them to halt their steps and continue to watch from the sideline.

Meanwhile, Shin was currently watching all of that from the highest point of the Ancient Ruins where a broken steeple was located.

He was watching the undead monsters assaulting the barrier created by the defensive formation with all their might. And from what he could see, each of those undead monsters was as strong as High-level Overlords; there were even some that were as strong as King Class monsters.

Knitting his eyebrows, Shin couldn't help but feel a little trouble as he was not sure how they were going to deal with this current situation.

The whole formation was being attacked from every direction which made the barrier tremble very intensely. Sooner or later, the barrier protecting the place was going to collapse, and these hordes of monsters were going to swarm at the whole place with unstoppable force.

Thinking about this, Shin immediately sunk in deep thought to find a good solution for their current predicament. "There were only 30 minutes left before the ceremony became complete. That is quite short but I am not sure if it is enough."

"Based on the current state of the outer barrier, it is going to be destroyed around 10-15 minutes from now. And that will leave us another 15 minutes to defend the hall at the very least," he added after taking another look at the huge dome-shaped barrier.

"If I put it that way, then it is more than enough for us to complete this mission. But the problem was Immortal himself and his Apostles. I'm sure they also have a special means to get through the second barrier guarding the innermost part of the ruins just like those guys who broke through earlier."

"With Hanzo's help, the outer barrier is able to reject any kind of spatial teleportation skills that are trying to sneak inside it, but it is a different case for the inner barrier since it is a stand-alone barrier whose only job is to defend. We barely managed to modify it with our Hanzo's current powers, so it can't reject any kind of high-leveled spatial teleportation skills."

Shin further squinted his eyes while watching the army of undead and necromancers outside the barrier before teleporting himself back inside the corridor where Arthur and Leonard were waiting.

"Yo! Still bored?" asked Shin right after walking out the void gate.

Hearing that, Arthur gave him a sharp glare before complaining at Shin with full of annoyance. "Yo, my *ss. You monopolized all of the fun on yourself and didn't leave anything for us. Do you know that we are about to die in boredom here?"

Shin just chuckled softly when he heard that before replying. "Who would have thought that Immortal is not going to send his apostles straight to here? I'm expecting him to send at least a couple of them despite the presence of the special defensive formation surrounding the ruins."

"Heh! You are underestimating that guy's strategic thinking a little too much. You may have outsmarted him a couple of times earlier, but you can't expect him to fall into your traps repeatedly. He is not ranked at the Godly Strategists List of the game for no reason," sneered Arthur while taking a more comfortable position on his deck chair that nobody knew where it came from.

The corner of Shin's mouth suddenly twitched the moment he took notice of that chair. 'Where the heck did this guy get that thing from? Don't tell me he always brings such things wherever he goes, even inside the game?'

Meanwhile, Leonard immediately changed the topic the moment he noticed Shin's sudden change of mood. "So, how is the situation outside?"

Hearing him, Shin immediately took a deep breath to collect his thoughts before answering. "It is still manageable so far. But the outer barrier can only hold out for 15 minutes at most. And once it was broken, I'm sure that Immortal and few of his Apostles are going to arrive here immediately after."

This time, Leonard and Arthur suddenly turned serious as they were fully aware of the gravity of their current situation. And when Shin sensed the sudden change in their current moods, he immediately asked. "What do you think?"

"It is indeed going to be troublesome, but it is not going to be impossible if our only job is to guard this place. And if we go all out, we can at least hold our ground against them within the time you have estimated," said Leonard while falling in deep thought.

"And if they are only going to send a few of Immortal's Apostles, then our odds of winning are not that low," added Arthur noddingly.

Hearing their thoughts, Shin immediately said. "Since the Central Order chose to head at the location of the Superior Mana Vein, I'm sure that Immortal is going to send at least 5 of his apostles to chase after them since Legolas and the other Godlike Players of their guilds are still alive."

"If he didn't send at least that number of his apostles, then Immortal can forget about stopping the Central Order from reaching the Mana Vein. After all, Legolas and his fellow Godlike Players are not that weak," he added after a slight pause.

On the other hand, Arthur was still lost in his thoughts, thinking about their possible opponents. A moment later, he suddenly said. "Immortal at least has 12 Apostles in total. So, if he is really going to send 5 of them to chase after the members of the Central Order, then that will only leave us with 7 apostles to deal with."

"But our problem is who among the Apostles are going to lead the army detachments and who are the ones that are going to face us."

"If we are going to face them with the first three direct Apostles alongside Immortal, then this is going to be even more problematic than what we can think off," he added with a heavy tone.

Hearing that, Leonard suddenly turned quiet once again since he understood what Arthur was implying.

On the other hand, Shin was quite clueless about what they were talking about. After all, he was still a complete rookie compared to these two.

Moreover, both of them were veterans who played quite a lot of games already. So, it was natural for them to be familiar with fellow experts of the game.

Due to that, Shin left the two for the time being to give them some time to think.

A few moments later, Arthur turned his head at his brother before asking. "Do you think you can handle Immortal on your own?"

"Of course, I am not asking you to defeat him. All you need to do is to hold him for as long as you can while we are dealing with his Apostles," he added immediately to clarify his question.

Hearing that, Shin just shrugged his shoulders while saying nonchalantly. "I'm not sure about that. After all, I still can't tell the exact difference between our strengths."

"But at least, I'm pretty sure that I'm still not his match based on our previous battle. Especially when he summons that giant dragon of his," he added with a helpless tone.

Arthur couldn't help but knit his brow when heard that since it was rare for Shin to admit that he couldn't defeat someone.

"Then just summon your own majestic dragon," he said with full of contempt. He was still jealous of Shin for being able to summon such a badass dragon

Shin felt even more helpless when he heard. "Too bad, I can't do that. I was only able to summon that Eclipse Dragon due to the special circumstances of that duel. So, I'm afraid that I can no longer summon it again – at least, for now."

Arthur could only take a helpless sigh after hearing those words before complaining to himself. 'Such a lucky b*st*rd! He is always getting all of the good stuff unintended.'

After that, he turned his head at Leonard before saying. "Then that leaves you to take that job. Stall that lunatic for now and let me babysit this guy," while pointing at Shin.

"Babysit your face!" refuted Shin with words but didn't complain about the suggestion.

After that, the three of them started formulating a last-minute plan on how they were going to face their opponents.

...…

Meanwhile, outside the Ancient Ruins, the outer barrier finally collapsed at the 13-minute mark just like what Shin had estimated. And due to that, the army of undead quickly swarmed inside the ruins like a horde of hungry beasts. They razed the whole place to the ground as they didn't care about the ruined structures blocking their path.

A few moments later, the charging army of undead was blocked by another defensive formation. Seeing that, the Necromancers of the Undying Guild quickly ordered their undead monsters to halt their charge.

With that, Immortal walked towards the forefront of their army and stared at the formation barrier with a deep frown on his face. "Such a meticulous fellow."

But he immediately smirked after a moment before muttering to himself. "But I wonder how are you going to stop us with the few of you alone."

He then turned his head to the side, looking at one of his subordinates over his shoulders before giving out his command. "You guys can start attacking this annoying barrier now.

After that, Immortal took out a special scroll from his inventory before saying. "Meanwhile, you twelve are coming with me. You can deal with the other two but leave that annoying pest to me."

"I have a score to settle with him," he added while suddenly releasing a flash of killing intent from his eyes.

And that was when he ripped the scroll on his hands, teleporting himself and the twelve hooded figures surrounding him beyond the barrier blocking their path.

Right after appearing on the other side of the barrier, Immortal immediately gave out his order to the group. "Make sure to do it right this time. We can't afford to suffer yet another humiliation."

...…