Chiang chiang chiang…

Rows and rows of heavy shields dropped on the ground as thousands of Cyanscale Cavalrymen formed a shield formation at the eastern gate of Gold City. It was evident that nearly all of them were buffed by recovery spells from priests and buffs from bards. Although the Cyanscale Cavalry’s individual combat abilities were far weaker than the Dragonlight Cavalry’s, the buffs had lessened that gap to almost negligible.

When Gui Guzi saw the Cyanscale Cavalry’s movements, he realized what Warsky was planning and roared from the sky, "What the fuck are you doing, Warsky? We helped you take out Candle Dragon’s main force, and you repay us by cutting off our retreat? Have you forgotten how we rescued you when Candle Dragon pulled the same thing on you at Dawn Valley?"

Li Chengfeng was also raging, "Are you stupid or are you just an ingrate, Warsky!? Dark Mercenaries is led by the traitor Amber Pupil himself, and they’re literally invading our borders right now! This is not the time to backstab a fellow comrade-in-arms!"

……

On the walls of Gold City, Warsky stared at the two dragon knights and I for a moment before saying in an apologetic tone, "Lu Chen, Li Chengfeng, Wang Xu. You are right. I, Warsky, have definitely done my former saviors a disservice today. However, Gold City is too important to Warsky Alliance, and Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is the ally of Purple Lily and Peach Garden. Call me a cynical person, but I simply don’t trust you enough to let you into the city. If nothing else, I have a responsibility to Warsky Alliance and the hundreds of thousands of brothers who believe in me!"

He then planted the Immortal Blade into a gap between the bricks, leaned against an arrowslit and ordered, "Archers and mages, prepare to attack any player who enters within 100 yards of the city who isn’t our ally. I’ve sent a message to our allied guilds at Vanished God City and Wind City and requested reinforcements of two million in total. All we need to do is to hold Gold City until then!"

On the ground, the Dragonlight Cavalry couldn’t help but curse and wave their fists at Warsky.

……

I frowned. Warsky was so determined to occupy Gold City that he was willing to borrow even Dark Mercenaries’ aid to wipe us out. We were an unpredictable element in this war, and considering his cautious personality, it was no wonder he would like to be rid of us. His guild wouldn’t even suffer any reputation loss since his guild technically wasn’t the aggressor.

Behind us, Dark Mercenaries’ players had already caught up to us. Their foremost riders were just reining in their mounts and taking a moment to reorganize themselves.

I spun and gazed at Heaven’s Rain, Diamond Dust, High Fighting Spirits and everyone else. Then, I declared, "Brothers and sisters, prepare to turn around and annihilate the enemy. Dark Mercenaries are the direct threat in front of us, so let’s take them out first and settle the score with Warsky Alliance later. Dark Mercenaries will pay the blood price for invading our borders! That dog on the wall will regret thinking that this mob will be enough to wipe out Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ strongest cavalry!"

I checked the time while everyone was raising their weapons and shouting their battle cries. There were still five plus hours before Lian Xin, Murong Mingyue and Lu Buyi’s armies would reach us. One way or another, our 9000+ troops must survive until their arrival.

Rustle rustle...

Meanwhile, Amber Pupil reined his mount to a halt after he reached the frontline. When he realized what was going on below the city walls, he let out a bark of laughter and called out to Warsky, "Well fucking done, Brother Warsky, hahaha! As thanks, I promise to slay your rival to the last man and woman!"

However, Warsky only frowned at him with deep disdain and said, "Who said you could talk to me, Amber Pupil? You are a stray dog who sold yourself to the Northern Alliance to take revenge against your own homeland. It disgusts me to even hear you say my name. Pooh! Just watch. The moment you’re done with Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, I’ll come out and kill the rest of you myself!"

Amber Pupil’s smile froze for a second. Unable to endure the humiliation, he waved his heavy sword and ordered, "Attack! Kill all Ancient Sword players!"

……

My players simply smiled and brandished their weapons at the enemy. Not a single person was afraid despite being outnumbered 10 to 1. So what if we all died here? We would’ve dealt a heavy blow to Dark Mercenaries nonetheless. If there was one thing I was unhappy about though, it would be that Gold City was looking to fall into Warsky Alliance’s hands. Warsky was a great manager, and he was supported by an intelligent beauty like October Rain. He had allied guilds all over the place, and he enjoyed a great reputation in the China server. Candle Dragon, Purple Lily, Peach Garden, Snowy Cathaya and the other top guilds might dare to challenge Warsky Alliance, but everyone else would leave him alone just because he was Warsky. It was the same reason why there were no longer any attackers left at Silver City.

"Kill them all!"

I activated the Xuanyuan Art again and removed 50% HP from the enemy players in front of me. The Dragonlight Cavalry immediately executed Barrier Break + flurry skill combos and destroyed them all before Dark Mercenaries’ healers could save them. My sword, even if it was merely a pseudo version of one of the Twelve Divine Armaments, was ridiculously powerful, and Amber Pupil could do nothing about it except ordering the surviving members to withdraw to the backline and heal back to full. Unfortunately for him, the Xuanyuan Art only had a cooldown of 6 minutes. Every time I used it, the enemy’s offense would be greatly disrupted.

Boom boom boom….

My sword auras tore through armor and flesh and spilled blood everywhere. I and my Divine Generals would’ve been able to kill even more enemies if we hadn’t completely run out of Divine Energy Points, which led us to the biggest problem our cavalry was currently facing: a lack of decisive firepower. Forget using our Ancient Divine Skills, we couldn’t even maintain Great Earth Transformation. Even Gui Guzi could no longer maintain his Killer God Formation, and that was another 25% boost to all stats that our Dragonlight Cavalry couldn’t enjoy.

Not all hope was lost, however. We were 70k strong at the beginning, and our numbers had dwindled to less than 10k. However, everyone who survived up until this point was among the best of the best. Dark Mercenaries wouldn’t be able to defeat us without considerable effort.

The battle lasted for nearly one and a half hours. Bodies stacked on top of each other like blocks where our armies met. Dark Mercenaries’ number of able-bodied players had dwindled to less than 30k, and the Dragonlight Cavalry’s had dwindled to just 5k. However, the pressure on our bodies had actually lessened instead. It was clear that the Dark Mercenaries guild was going to lose if this continued.

"Impossible!"

Amber Pupil clenched his fists and swore when he finally realized that the impossible was about to happen. They were over 350k strong at the beginning, and they were about to lose to Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ 70k Dragonlight Cavalrymen! And that was after pretending that Candle Dragon hadn’t depleted our strength! Amber Pupil couldn’t accept this. How could they be losing when nearly every player in his guild was an elite chosen by the Northern Alliance itself!?

……

Buzz...

A black shadow fell from the sky before the painful howls of the Dark Crystal Dragon followed. It was Gui Guzi finally losing his mount tenacity and collapsing atop a pool of blood. He would have to wait 10 minutes before the Dark Crystal Dragon could be resummoned. He wasn’t deterred in the slightest, however. He immediately climbed back to his feet and charged into the fray once more.

It was at this moment Li Chengfeng pointed his Crimson Refinement Sword to the west. "Look, Lu Chen! Our reinforcements have arrived!"

"You’re joking. It hasn’t even been two hours," I said with a chuckle.

When I looked though, I realized that Li Chengfeng was correct. It wasn’t Lian Xin and Murong Mingyue, but Peach Garden who had come to help us. Indigo Collar himself had brought several thousand men with him, and they struck Dark Mercenaries’ sides without hesitation.

"Hot damn!"

I shouted, "Aren’t you attacking Gold City, Indigo Collar? Did you suddenly grow a conscience or something?"

Indigo Collar spat on the ground. "Shut up! Warsky Alliance’s reinforcements are too numerous, and they’ve even teleported siege weapons into the city! Almost all of my players were wiped out by their aerial advantage alone! Since conquering the city is no longer possible, I thought I might as well help you out and take out these motherfuckers instead!"

"Get killing then, hahaha!"

I replied with a laugh, "Once Dark Mercenaries are dead and our main force arrives, you wanna join us and try sieging Gold City again? Warsky backstabbed us earlier, so we ain’t giving him Gold City!"

"Sure! Are you giving the city to us or Purple Lily though?"

"We’ll cross that bridge when it comes!"

"Okay!"

……

The combined efforts of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Peach Garden proved enough to overcome Dark Mercenaries. In the end, there were only a couple thousand of them left cowering inside their forest.

Amber Pupil was frowning deeply and staring at us when he uttered, "Now and Forever, you told me we couldn’t lose if we kept holding this terrain! So why are we still losing despite having depleted all their Divine Energy Points?"

Now and Forever was hiding inside the forest and killing the Dragonlight Cavalry one by one with his ghastly flames. His lips split into a sinister grin as he answered, "Who knows? Maybe it’s because our guild is too new, and we aren’t running like a well-oiled machine yet. Be patient. When the Northern Alliance delivers their men and equipment, we’ll grow stronger than ever before."

"What do we do now?"

“We escape using our Escape Scrolls!"

"Got it!"

Amber Pupil, Now and Forever, and the executive-level players of Dark Mercenaries all crushed red-colored scrolls and vanished into thin air. They had probably teleported to another map. These people grinded in the outer lands, so I wasn’t exactly surprised they possessed items that we hadn’t even heard about.

……

The fight continued a bit longer, and finally there were no Dark Mercenaries players left on the battlefield.

"Kaka…"

Holding a bloody Ghostblade Halberd and standing in the middle of a sea of corpses, Gui Guzi let out a cackle and said, "Dark Mercenaries my ass! Maybe they’re strong enough to show off their biceps in the outer lands, but here? Idiots!"

Li Chengfeng asked me loudly, "What do we do now, Lu Chen?"

I pointed my sword at Gold City next. "There are still 15 hours left on the clock. We’re gonna join forces with Purple Lily and Peach Garden and uproot all of Warsky Alliance’s effective strength! There is no reason to gift Warsky the Gold City when he backstabbed us in front of the enemy!"

"Got it!"

……

Before we could do anything though, a new army suddenly appeared from the horizon. They were led by Wang Dongliang, Little Piglet, Shangguan Wan’er, Roaming Dragon, Iron Pardon, Coldmoon Rose and many more familiar faces. Purgatory Mad Dragon had withdrawn after getting their asses kicked by Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance ten hours ago, but now they were back with new forces!