Chapter 429 - Struggle to the Bitter End

Nie Yan slaughtered to his heart’s desire, making sure he never got in range of the two Armoured Catapults. There would be plenty of time to deal with them later on. Besides, they were too cumbersome to keep up with the Crypt Lord. The enemy had two powerful war machines but no way to use them.

On this battlefield, Nie Yan had thoroughly crushed the enemy’s fighting spirit. All their elites had retreated. The ordinary players who remained couldn’t even withstand the attacks from the Carrion Scarabs, let alone the Crypt Lord.

Soaring Angel’s face was extremely unsightly. He had started gathering all his elites, specifically the Fighters. The main tank from Angel Corps was already on his way. Only Fighters could tank the Crypt Lord, albeit with great difficulty. The level difference was simply too great to overcome. Even so, if they could stall the Crypt Lord for only a brief moment, it would allow the attacks of the Armoured Catapults to land. This was their only hope for victory, no matter how distant and remote.

With the Palente Phoenix Longbow in hand, Soaring Angel was currently dashing between the players on the battlefield. He took out three arrows from his quiver and fired as several crimson streaks of light flew toward Nie Yan.

Nie Yan quickly picked out Soaring Angel from the crowd. He had Crypt Lord Bennett swing around as three arrows brushed past him. Sadly for the enemy, they weren’t homing.

In front of Crypt Lord Bennett’s unrivalled strength, Soaring Angel could only rely on his ranged attacks to harass Nie Yan.

Under Nie Yan’s command, Crypt Lord Bennet suddenly accelerated toward Soaring Angel.

Although the Crypt Lord looked large and clumsy, by no means was it slow. After all, it was a Level 100 Lord. It sped up, reaching a terrifying speed, and quickly caught up to Soaring Angel.

Seeing the mountain-like Crypt Lord barrelling towards him, Soaring Angel’s eyes widened in alarm. He never expected such a behemoth to move with such speed!

Soaring Angel sped himself up with a haste skill as he dashed through the battlefield. Elven Demon Hunters were innately quick on their feet to begin with. Add this on top of his excellent equipment, and he could rival even the fastest Thieves. Every now and then, he would turn around and fire a volley of arrows at Nie Yan.

Kiting around like I’m some kind of boss, huh! I’ll show you not to underestimate me! Nie Yan naturally wasn’t going to put up with Soaring Angel’s antics.

Nie Yan had the Crypt Lord continuously swaying back and forth to avoid Soaring Angel’s arrows. It sent countless players from Bloodlust Blades flying during the pursuit. Nothing could obstruct its path.

At this moment, a large group of Fighters rushed over and tried to intercept the Crypt Lord, only to be sent flying away by its spiked carapace. Only then did they realize how insignificant they were.

Soaring Angel seized this brief moment of respite, which was bought through the sacrifice of hundreds of lives, to flee far away.

Soaring Angel had absolute confidence in his skills. He wasn’t afraid of Nie Yan in a one on one duel. But the Crypt Lord was a different matter altogether. The gap in strength was so overwhelming that he couldn’t help but feel a profound sense of helplessness.

Although Angel Corps had many elites, they lacked a being that possessed absolute strength like the Crypt Lord.

Tsk, he flees pretty quickly... Nie Yan grumbled. In any case, Soaring Angel’s attacks couldn’t pose a threat to him. He continued to wantonly slaughter the enemy’s forces. The losses of Bloodlust Blades were severe. At this rate, they would soon be completely wiped out.

The Mages in the vicinity all started chanting their magic, preparing to bombard Nie Yan.

Nie Yan glanced at Crypt Lord Bennett’s skill bar. Impale was back off cooldown. The Crypt Lord sent sharp tendrils erupting from the ground, instantly skewering every Mage within a 50-meter radius.

Even though Nie Yan knew he had entered the range of the Armoured Catapults, he didn’t stop advancing. He planned to let the Crypt Lord tank a hit just to see how much damage they dealt. If it wasn’t too much, he would brave through the assault and destroy them.

The only way for the enemy alliance to kill the Crypt Lord was to lure it into the range of the Armoured Catapults.

As Soaring Angel ran, he ordered the players on his side to ready the Armoured Catapults. Before long, the Crypt Lord entered within 500 meters of one of the Armoured Catapults.

The Armoured Catapult launched five shells into the air.

Seeing the volley of shells flying in his direction, Nie Yan leaped off the Crypt Lord, ordering it to dodge as best as it could while he fled to safety.

「Boom! Boom! Boom!」Five red shells ruthlessly bombarded the Crypt Lord’s thick carapace as flames engulfed its entire body.

−82,727

−81,444

−86,539

−80,106

−80,025

What frightening damage!

The Crypt Lord staggered several steps backwards.

Although the range of Armoured Catapults was only 500 meters, not nearly as great as Goblin Magic Cannons, most of the threat came from the additional fire damage from their shells. Every shell underwent a special manufacturing process, and was inscribed with powerful magic runes that detonated on impact. The explosion radius was quite large, so it was difficult to avoid.

Asskickers United had suffered many casualities precisely to these explosive shells.

The impact of the shell along with the additional fire damage was a double whammy.

When the Armoured Catapult prepared to fire again, a group of 100 Fighters from Bloodlust Blades charged toward the Crypt Lord. Three among them were class advanced players, so their defense was quite high.

They wanted to lock down the Crypt Lord so that the Armoured Catapult could bombard it to death.

Nie Yan naturally wouldn’t allow their plan to go off without a hitch. There was currently no need to brave through the attacks of the Armoured Catapults. The area around them was boobytrapped with Thunderstorm Mines too. If a large number of these went off at once, they could deal considerable damage. It wasn’t worth it to make the Crypt Lord walk through this minefield.

Nie Yan ordered the Crypt Lord to retreat, causing the Fighters to miss their encirclement.

The Crypt Lord was still constantly spawning Carrion Scarabs. More and more of them were scuttling about. The ground was completely littered with corpses anyway, so there were plenty of summoning mediums. It could even be said there was an inexhaustible supply. Furthermore, Nie Yan discovered that the more corpses there were on the ground, the stronger the Crypt Lord became and the faster it recovered health. It was absorbing the death energy from these corpses to replenish its own health.

Under Nie Yan’s command, the Carrion Scarabs pounced toward the group of Fighters, cutting off their retreat.

“God dammit! It can even heal!? Why the hell is it so strong?” Soaring Angel cursed. He was truly feeling helpless.

Since the Crypt Lord was being controlled by Nie Yan, this was equal to it having intelligence. A Level 100 Lord with intelligence was much more frightening than an ordinary one!

The Mages from Bloodlust Blades unleashed a concentrated barrage of magic at the Crypt Lord. However, the damage they dealt was negligible, failing to even exceed its health regeneration.

Soaring Angel was at his wit’s end. It looked like Nie Yan was toying with them, purposefully staying just out of range of the Armoured Catapults while he massacred their forces.

As time passed, the number of casualties on the side of Bloodlust Blades piled up to frightening heights. Of the more than 50,000 players, they had lost more than half.

Every place outside of the 500 meter range of the Armoured Catapults was devoid of any players from Bloodlust Blades. They had all been wiped out. The players from Asskickers United had also found their stride. With morale at an all-time high, they displayed formidable fighting strength. After clearing out all the enemies in the area, some of them headed to the other battlefields to provide support to Holy Empire and Sapphire Shrine.

After about an hour, the Crypt Lord had spawned more than 600 Carrion Scarabs. This was a frightening force. One had to remember every Carrion Scarab had 12,000 health and 1,000 attack power.

What’s more, this army was continuously growing in size. Under the Crypt Lord’s lead, there was no enemy left alive in their wake.

Nie Yan turned his attention to the two Armoured Catapults in the distance. It was about time he dealt with them!

The more than 600 Carrion Scarabs spread out and started closing in on the two Armoured Catapults from every direction.

The Carrion Scarabs were expendable units that didn’t fear death. They charged forward one after another, setting off the Thunderstorm Mines in the vicinity.「Bang! Bang! Bang!」Successive explosions rang out in the air as they were blasted away and transformed into smoking corpses. However, more would swarm forward to replace them, triggering more of the Thunderstorm Mines further up ahead. In this fashion, more than half of the Thunderstorm Mines were destroyed. What took nearly half-a-day setting up by six Shamans was destroyed in the blink of an eye.

When the Carrions Scarabs cleared away all the Thunderstorm Mines, the Crypt Lord and Asskickers United’s forces in the back could safely advance forward.

After witnessing more than half their defenses being cleared away, the players from Bloodlust Blades could only struggle to the bitter end. They all knew it was too late for regret.

They were surrounded on all sides by the forces of Asskickers United.

One Armoured Catapult launched five flaming shells into a dense crowd of Carrion Scarabs. An explosion swept through and killed close to 30 of them.

At this moment, the Crypt Lord let out a thundering roar.

Soaring Angel’s face paled. What he dreaded the most was finally happening!