We waited in silence for around 20 minutes before we heard new activity from a distance again. Through my super long-range Dark Pupils, I saw a ton of red dots emerging from the end of the dark, long corridor. They were a troop of cavalrymen with all sorts of buff icons above their heads. Amber Pupil had returned with a much bigger and organized troop of elite cavalrymen, mages, priests, bards, archers and more classes. It was clear he wouldn’t allow some mob, no matter how overpowered, to thwart him.

"Do you see Blood Alliance?" He Yi whispered to me.

I immediately brought up my interface and matched the red dots on my map to what I could see with my Dark Pupils. I could account for 90% of the players I was seeing, meaning the 10% I couldn’t see on the map were stealthing assassins revealed to me because of my Dark Pupils. There might be even more that were still invisible to my Dark Pupils, who wouldn’t be shown on the minimap too.

"Blood Alliance is definitely here. I count at least 500 enemies, so we need to be careful. It’s probably all Dark Mercenaries players that have entered Bloodthirsty Castle in the past couple hours or so. If we manage to take them all out though, we should be able to grind in peace for a very long time," I declared with certainty.

"When are we attacking?" asked Lin Yixin while leaning against the wall and playing with her Dragonfrost. She was clearly itching for a battle.

I sucked in a deep breath before answering, "When the time is right. We’ll let them engage the mobs first. I’ll control the Phantom Wolf King and aggro at least 20 Undead Purgatory Mages from the sides. I will then suicide it into Dark Mercenaries’ formation. Once the mobs have engaged the enemy, we will jump out and kill them all."

Lin Yixin nodded. "Alright. We’ll wait for your signal."

……

The enemy party came closer and closer until they stopped just outside of the detection range of around 50 Undead Purgatory Mages. Amber Pupil then unsheathed his sword and ordered, "These undead mages will start summoning Level 305 fiend-rank skeleton warriors infinitely when they reach 35% HP, so watch out. We’re going to split into 50-man parties, and we’re going to save our high-cooldown high-DPS skills until later. When the undead mages fall below 35%, do your best to kill the undead mages in the shortest amount of time possible and give them no chance to summon their skeletal warriors. Now, begin!"

Things went way better now that they had a proper strategy and the proper party composition this time. The archers and the mages proved especially deadly against the undead mages, able to deal massive amounts of damage and instakill them before they could summon the skeletal warriors. At this rate, they would clear out this part of the map in 10 minutes tops, and we couldn’t allow it to happen.

I whistled softly, and the Phantom Wolf King entered stealth beside me. I then took control of my pet and manually moved it down a different passage, careful to avoid the archers’ 40-yard radius Clear As Flame along the way. My spirits went up when I saw nearly 100 Undead Purgatory Mages in the passage through the eyes of the Phantom Wolf King.

Pa!

My little wolf abruptly exited its stealth and bounded toward the mobs, zigzagging left and right like a lightning bolt. With its incredible speed, it was able to escape the mobs’ range before they could cast their Undead Blaze Blast. Then, with dozens of Undead Purgatory Mages behind its tail, it charged straight toward Dark Mercenaries’ flank.

……

"Guild leader!"

A Dark Mercenaries archer’s pupils suddenly shrank into pins as he pointed to the right. "Someone’s pet is aggroing a ton of mobs and moving toward us! Who’s the fucking idiot who did this!?"

"Not good!"

Now and Forever gritted his teeth. "What do we do now?"

Amber Pupil replied in a steely tone, "Get 200 people over to hold the line and remind them of our tactic. No matter what happens, they must never tackle more than 4 Undead Purgatory Mages at once. The cavalrymen can hold the aggro, but they must not damage the mobs so much that their HP falls below 35%. Priests, keep them healthy during this time. We just need 5 minutes to take out these 40 undead mages. As for that pet… hmph. Who else can it belong to except Lu Chen? For now, just ignore it and focus on the mobs. Archers, if you haven’t activated your Clear As Flame yet, do it now and keep an eye out for Lu Chen and Lin Yixin at all times! Today is the day Dark Mercenaries goes head-to-head against the executive players of Ancient Sword and Snowy Cathaya!"

I was surprised by Amber Pupil’s coolheadedness and logical reaction. The guy might be a bastard, but he definitely had talent in leadership. Otherwise, he would never be able to command the absolute bastards who roamed the outer lands.

Chiang!

I unsheathed the Chill of the Nine Provinces and whispered in the party channel, "Get ready. When I launch a frontal assault, Yiyi and Eve will attack one wing each. Just ignore the cavalrymen and do as much damage as possible to their archers and mages. Watch out for the magic knights’ Trapping Nets, because you’re dead the second they manage to immobilize you. Now, go!"

The girls unsheathed their weapons and followed me out of the dark smithy.

……

While this was going on, the Phantom Wolf King had already been killed by God Devil Break. It was the first price I had to pay in this ambush. Dark Mercenaries was composed of some of the best players in the entire Northern Alliance or even all the servers. Only a fool would believe that it was possible to annihilate that without casualties. It was the biggest reason I had chosen to ambush them with mobs first; to reduce the price we would have to pay as much as possible.

Rustle rustle...

Like a ghost, I dashed out of the darkness and dropped Thousand Ice Slash on top of the nearest group of archers, encasing all of them in ice. Then, I ran sideways to dodge a number of retaliations while following up a near-perfect Myriad Swords Obliteration, killing all 30 or so archers instantly. At the same time, the undead mages they were supposed to crowd control and kill began summoning skeletal warriors.

Swhoosh!

A cold gleam suddenly appeared from my left. It was an assassin attempting to Ambush me.

"Dammit!"

The dagger was moving too quickly to parry, so I had to rotate rapidly on my feet and block it with the Cyan Dragon Shield. While this was happening, the assassin’s right dagger had already slipped into my abdomen. Blood Alliance truly was a force to be reckoned with. I saw the assassin’s face and realized that it was one of their four elders, Cold of Spring.

I raised my leg and kneed Cold of Spring’s dagger with the draconic spikes on my Dark Magma Poleyns. Before he could react, I slashed his neck at nearly the same time my apparition stabbed its fake Chill of the Nine Provinces into Cold of Spring’s chest, killing him. Obviously, it was so much easier to defeat an enemy when it was a 2 on 1, even though I was controlling both characters.

This was a game, so different weapons had different attack speeds. In descending order, the weapons with the highest attack speed were daggers, swords, axes and finally spears. Axes and spears in particular were so slow that they took at least 2 seconds to attack once. Even my Chill of the Nine Provinces took around 1.2 seconds to execute one basic attack. Again, this was a game, so I couldn’t just pummel my enemy with a billion punches per second like Bruce Lee.

……

"Shit. Here they come!"

From a safe distance, Amber Pupil waved a hand in my direction and turned my surroundings into a sea of fire. It dealt a not insignificant amount of damage because he was a magic swordsman. His vice leader, Now and Forever, had also activated Yin Yang Mirror to protect himself. Their actions spoke volumes about their craven nature. The guild leader was staying far, far away from the threat, and the vice leader was doing the same AND still protecting himself with a shield.

In the air, my beautiful dragon riders hit the enemy’s wings with their Ice Flame Slash and Stormwind Slash at almost the same time. Lian Xin and Beiming Xue were also using the Far Shot mode to cast their Dimensional Storm and Skypiercer from afar with unerring accuracy. Dark Mercenaries’ players dropped like flies under their combined efforts.

We were never going to let Dark Mercenaries go scot-free especially after what they did to us during the battle of Gold City. Today, we would take revenge for all the brothers and sisters who had died in that battle!

I didn’t stop changing my direction and speed to avoid the rain of Trapping Nets even as I was affirming my own resolve. It grew to the point where the magic knights of the Northern Alliance couldn’t help but stare at me with flabbergasted expressions. "Shit! I know he’s the WEL MVP, but what the hell are these moves? It shouldn’t be possible to dodge the Trapping Nets like that…"

I glanced in Beiming Xue’s direction and noticed at least a dozen or so shadows moving toward her. I immediately turned around and ran to her aid while tossing the Chill of the Nine Provinces. "Watch out, Beiming, Lian Xin! The assassins of Blood Alliance are closing in on you! You must protect sis and Moon Dew!"

Bang!

My Coiling Dragon Revolution instantly one-shot 4 assassins—figuratively speaking—and stunned the rest. They couldn’t believe that I was able to see through their Assassin’s Oath–empowered stealth and even skewer some of them like satay.

……

Thud thud thud...

Crisis temporarily averted, I raced toward Amber Pupil and Now and Forever next. To defeat the bandits, you must first capture their chief. If one or both of their heads were dead, their morale would naturally deline.

"We’ll cover for you, Lu Chen!"

Lin Yixin looked like a fiery fairy wearing her new purple-red Cyan Rock Armor and riding the Crimson Crystal Dragon. She swooped down like a hawk, killed dozens of archers and mages and cut off Now and Forever and Amber Pupil’s retreat path all at the same time.

"Dammit!"

Amber Pupil knew this fight was another "broken halberd sank into sand" after he saw all the damage that had been wrought to his forces. Without hesitation, he activated his invincibility skill and teleported away using an escape scroll.

However, his vice leader, Now and Forever, didn’t see this coming. "The fuck?"

His surprise was my chance. I might not be able to kill Amber Pupil, but I could still take revenge against Now and Forever. Back then, this idiot had tried to backstab the China server and even ridiculed me during my "coronation ceremony" at Elephant City. Well, today is the day the "West King" gave him a taste of his wrathful strike...

……

I appeared in front of Now and Forever like a vengeful ghost and grabbed his throat with my bare hand. As I activated the Song of Freedom’s special skill, Chains of Freedom, red chains appeared out of nowhere and wrapped tightly around his neck. Then, I unleashed Burning Blade Slash against his Magic Shield and tore it to shreds.

Unrelenting, I cast Summon the Storm that dispelled Now and Forever’s Yin Yang Mirror even though the damage was reflected back to me. In response, Now and Forever Blinked to the back, activated his invincibility skill and pulled out a red escape scroll of his own. Did he think he could escape me?

"It’s too late!"

I already knew where he was going to Blink to, so I charged to an appropriate location before activating my Heavenly River Transformation. A pair of bloody wings spread behind my back, and a giant golden sword burst into the sky. Its light revealed Now and Forever’s fearful yet defiant features with perfect clarity.