Whoosh!

A ball of flame appeared from the darkness, signaling the start of a great battle. Lian Xin had unleashed a blazing Firewall that burned 4 Blood Alliance assassins at once before pushing them right into Beiming Xue’s Spiraling Arrow Blade with Origin Force Fields. They were dead before they managed to do anything.

Swhoosh swhoosh...

However, 7 more assassins dashed out of the sea of flames, and their leader was none other than Assassin’s Creed himself. He then dropped fluorescent powder on the ground and reentered stealth once more. Meanwhile, the remaining assassins who broke through the wall of firepower toward us as if their low HP didn’t matter at all. In fact, it didn’t. They could be sitting on 1 HP, but they could still one-shot any class at the same level as long as they could find the right place and time to unleash their combo. That was just how the Assassin class was.

Through my Dark Pupils, I saw at least 20 assassins trailing erratic paths toward us at high speed. To say that it was a scary sight would be a massive understatement. Worse, the Japanese had already circled around the boss to charge at us. The closest player to me was a hidden red dot I couldn’t see with my naked eyes.

"Come out!"

I fired a Dragon Slaying Slash at the hidden Purple Thunder. He leaped backward and parried the energy blade before reentering stealth with a fluorescent powder.

……

Lin Yixin made a snap decision. "Sister Eve, go help Beiming and Lian Xin. Little Cheat and I will deal with God’s Domain!"

"Mn!"

While He Yi and her Snake King Little Qing charged toward Blood Alliance’s assassins, I summoned my own Phantom Wolf King to race toward a distant magic knight and clamp its teeth around his torso. It was strong enough to keep him busy for a time.

"Watch out for Purple Thunder!"

I charged toward Red Maple after shouting out the warning. Red Maple did the same with an equally savage expression on his face. Some people claimed that they could never come to an understanding with their enemies, but that wasn’t true. Sworn enemies understood full well that they hated each other, and it was a matter of time before they settled their differences. For Red Maple and I, that day was today.

Thud thud thud...

I changed my speed and direction repeatedly as I charged toward Red Maple. The instant we dashed past one another, I parried a swing, allowed the momentum to rotate me toward him, and dropped Icy Cyclone Domain to slow his movement speed drastically. Then, I charged straight toward the archer standing behind him and brought my sword down on her!

"Ah!"

The archer girl let out a surprised yelp but tried to parry my swing with both her dagger and her bow!

Chiang!

Red Maple was rotten in many ways, but his eye for talent definitely wasn’t one of them. Despite having been caught off-guard, the archer girl had parried my attack almost perfectly before leaping 20 yards to the back to avoid my follow-up Universe Break. She was still too close to me, however. She cried in despair when I made a hand seal and dropped Myriad Swords Obliteration right on top of her!

Crack crack crack!

Just in case she somehow dodged the rain of swords, I fired Burning Blade Slash. Just like that, she became my first kill.

Thud!

The battle was just beginning, however. I leaped away from my original spot just in time to avoid a Trapping Net. Before I could regain my balance, Cyan Frost the Ice Knight appeared behind my back and attempted to hit me with a ruthless Freezing Slash. The skill froze its target for 3 seconds, so I absolutely couldn’t allow it to hit me!

Chiang!

I stabbed my Chill of the Nine Provinces into the ground to stop myself from sliding into Cyan Frost’s Freezing Slash, and I succeeded. Astonishment flashed across her face for an instant. This was probably the first time she saw anyone pulling a move like this.

Whoosh!

However, I ultimately wasn’t able to stop a puff of maple leaves from engulfing me and dealing a massive amount of damage. There was only so much I could do against this many JGL Hall of Famers after all.

470298!

I wasn’t surprised by the amount of damage I received because Maple Kill was like Ancient Seal and its damage had both physical and magical components. On top of that, Red Maple must have had very high Tactics stat. He was the number one player of Purple Grape City after all. He would’ve been dethroned already if he wasn’t as strong as he was.

……

Chiang!

I took another hit on my shoulder. Red Maple had an excellent grasp of dynamics, and once he entered an attack rhythm it was often difficult to break it. Pushing past the pain, I swung the Cyan Dragon Shield backward to knock aside Cyan Frost’s attack before sweeping her off her feet with a spinning kick. She fell chest first and made the battle slightly more pleasing to the eye than it should’ve been.

After I flipped back to an upright position, I raised my arm and fired Ancient Seal at a certain spot directly in front of me. There, Lin Yixin was battling against Red Hot Vortex!

Boom!

712889!

The Ancient Seal had super high attack power. Red Hot Vortex lost a ton of HP despite being a high-level cavalryman, and the disruption was enough for the Fruit Knife Goddess to stab him in the chest and end his life right there.

"Dammit!"

Unusually furious, Red Maple chased after me and did everything in his power to kill me. By now, Cyan Frost had flipped back on her feet to chase after me as well. While running away from the duo, I dropped a couple of Ancient Seals on top of the enemy priest, mage and bards to shred their magical shields and allowing Lin Yixin to kill them all with a devastating Ice Flame Slash. Now, 5 of Red Maple’s party of 9 were dead. It was absolutely an unacceptable outcome for the Japanese general.

Swhoosh!

It was at this moment a shadow crashed against my chest. It was Purple Thunder’s Divine General Skill, Shadow Explosion!

BOOM!

It felt like I was being ripped apart by a man-shaped bomb. My HP dropped another 653939!

The explosion was so powerful that I was pushed back at least dozens of meters. Unrelenting, Red Maple raced after me and dropped 3 Maple Kills behind me! Both Maple Kill and Ancient Seal had no cooldown, but they couldn’t be used on the same location until 7 seconds later. However, it was a different story if the target himself ran headlong into them. The smart bastard was hoping that I would suicide myself against his Divine General Skills!

"Shit!"

I stabbed the Chill of the Nine Provinces into the ground again and forcefully altered my trajectory once more. Unfortunately, I still got hit by two Maple Kills and dropped below 20% HP!

"Die!"

Cyan Frost shouted as she dropped down from the sky and swung her sword at my head!

I hurriedly activated Cyan Dragon Scale and angled the Cyan Dragon Shield so that the attack would slide past it. However, I felt an unnatural chill approaching my back at high speed. It was the assassin, Purple Thunder!

Bang!

My shield was already in motion anyway, so I smashed it into the ground behind me and cut off Purple Thunder’s Ambush by force. While running a tiny arc around my shield, I drove Cyan Frost and Red Maple back with Burning Blade Slash and followed up with a Rise of the Guardian Dragon!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Dragon-shaped energies rushed toward the air. Cyan Frost and Purple Dragon were struck by the skill, but not Red Maple. Rise of the Guardian Dragon was in fact not an undodgeable skill, it just took an extreme amount of precision and skill to pull it off. Unfortunately, Red Maple was able to rise to the challenge and dodge all of its hits!

……

"Hah, hah, hah…"

When the skill finally came to an end, Red Maple’s forehead was covered in sweat, and his breathing was heavy with exertion. Not only did he save his own life, he managed to waste 1000 of my gold. It was quite impressive.

Unfortunately for him, neither Purple Thunder nor Cyan Frost had survived the attack. They had been battered and bruised by my Burning Blade Slash and Ancient Seal earlier. It was natural that they would fall to my Rise of the Guardian Dragon.

Red Maple unconsciously looked between his wristguards—the Seventy-two Ghost Armaments Crimson Dragon Arm—and my 19% HP bar. Judging from his defiant eyes, he clearly hadn’t given up on robbing me of my Chill of the Nine Provinces. I had a cure for him though.

Tenacity of the Dead + Rank 13 potion + Xuanyuan Art!

+636510!

+100000!

+1273020!

My HP instantly blew past the 75% mark and shattered Red Maple’s heart to pieces. The Crimson Dragon Arm guaranteed a critical hit, yes, but even then there was no way he could delete 2 million HP in one go.

Swhoosh swhoosh...

Suddenly, a couple of Blood Alliance assassins entered the fray. Assassin’s Creed was among them as well!

"Finally!" Red Maple’s face lit up with hope.

Lin Yixin skidded to a stop beside me and warned, "Be careful, Little Cheat…"

"No worries. Let’s kill the assassins first and deal with Red Maple later!" I said.

"Okay!"

……

As we split up, I couldn’t help but wonder how the other girls were doing. The fact that Assassin’s Creed and 7 other players had successfully broken through their line of defense meant that things probably were going as well as I hoped. Beiming Xue and Lian Xin were strong, but they weren’t metal-armor players. There was always a chance they might fall to the cruel assassins of Blood Alliance. Right now though, I was in no position to worry about them. I would have to defeat my own enemies first before helping them!

Chiang chiang!

Metallic sparks erupted in the air as Lin Yixin parried two hidden attacks in a row. Although the enemies’ stealth wasn’t dispelled, she was skilled enough to determine their location and attack angle just by observing the air flow and environmental disturbances. This was the judgment of a peak expert, and it was how Moonkiss and Farewell Song had dueled against one another. They probed, they whittled away at the enemy’s HP, and they launched a decisive strike when the timing was right.

"Die die die…"

Lin Yixin’s Holy Energy–empowered sword cut through the air and successfully killed two assassins in one swing. However, it came at the cost of being stunned by Assassin’s Creed himself. However, Beauty Lin wore metal armor, even if her Light Wanderer class was more fragile than Warrior or Magic Knight. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to instakill her, Assassin’s Creed left her alone, reentered stealth and charged toward me.

Rustling sounds appeared all around me. Red Maple was charging toward me as well. I knew what both Blood Alliance and the Japanese were planning. Both Red Maple and Assassin’s Creed were willing to pay 10 levels each on top of everyone they had lost so far as long as they could get me to drop the Chill of the Nine Provinces.

……

Inside the party channel, Lin Yixin whispered, "Dear, Frightening Slash!!!"

"I know…"

As I ran toward the boss, Red Maple declared with a malevolent gaze, "Don’t let him escape! Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand must die no matter what!"