Chapter 1524: Dragon Cannon

"What new tactic?" Li Chengfeng grinned. "It must be a pretty disgusting tactic for you to smile like that."

I looked at the sky and said, "It’s not that disgusting, but it will disorganize them for sure."

"Disorganize?" He Yi repeated in confusion.

"Mn."

I nodded and said, "Divine players have Flight and incredible movement speed, right? Chengfeng and I will fly up to the clouds and hide there. When the time is right, we’ll dive toward the ground and execute our combos. We’ll be moving way faster than even our normal flight speed due to inertia, so I expect us to reach the ground in at most 3 seconds. Our landing will be explosive, literally. What are the chances Era of Strife’s 50k Holy Mages will be able to keep it together when our 10k elite Dragonlight Cavalry charge them at the same time?"

Li Chengfeng laughed after hearing the plan. "Not bad! Everyone’s busy fighting right now, so not many people will pay attention to the sky, if at all. Now that I think about it, this is practically the enhanced version of the airdrop tactic, isn’t it?"

I licked my lips. "No, it’s even better than that. This tactic is especially effective against land-bound top experts, so I think it’s more apt to describe it as ‘air-sniping’. Take a crowd control-type expert like Ye Yuse. Normally, she would be able to inflict massive damage before we could even get to her and kill her. We’ll suffer far less casualties if we air-snipe her though."

Li Chengfeng nodded heavily. "Should we go then?"

"Yeah. Let’s go!"

Thud thud! Two pairs of mini cyclones spun on the supply cart’s shell as Li Chengfeng and I took to the sky. Chaos Moon stared at the streams of air trailing our backs and commented, "These mules…"

Pure Love chuckled. "Yes, they are mules who do everything by themselves, and succeed. It is how Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls rose to the top of the world, isn’t it?"

He Yi hid a smile behind her palm, and she looked so gorgeous in that moment that the Dragonlight Cavalry surrounding her looked like they would ascend to heaven. Our beautiful, mature and wise guild leader was why our guild was incredibly united[1].

……

Li Chengfeng and I stared at the ground as we flew side by side inside the clouds. The Holy Mages’ square formation looked like a small dot from where we were. I opened the map screen, marked two spots and said, "I’ll hit the right dot, and you the left dot. I’m going to count down from 3, but you will descend when I say 2, and I will descend when I say 1. It’s because I want the two of us to hit the ground at the same time!"

Li Chengfeng nodded. "I get what you’re saying. You’re the BMW, and I’m the Jiangnan Alto. That is why I need a head start…"

"Er, I think you’re exaggerating a little. If your Blue Crystal Dragon is a Jiangnan Alto, then my Ancient Divine Dragon is at best a Wuling Sunshine…"

"Haha! Long live loser cars!"

"..."

I contacted High Fighting Spirits. "Fighting Spirits, get ready to charge the enemy in 10 seconds!"

The berserker had been growing impatient since a while ago. "Got it!"

Hooves began thundering against the ground once more. At the distance, God’s Domain, Tail Feather Palace and more guilds were being run down by Heaven’s Rain, Diamond Dust and Gui Guzi’s Dragonlight Cavalry. In fact, their battlefield was the main battlefield. That being said, High Fighting Spirits’ 10,000 Dragonlight Cavalry versus Era of Strife’s Holy Mages was a more interesting show right now.

"Let’s go! 3, 2, 1!"

Li Chengfeng dived first, and I followed him a count later. I made sure to activate Profound Armor, Battle Astral Wind and more skills just in case the enemy’s firepower turned out to be greater than expected. The moment I burst out of the clouds, I unsheathed the Xuanyuan Sword and chuckled to myself. "Let the fight begin!"

On the ground, the Holy Mages were swinging their scepters and casting spells at the Dragonlight Cavalry. High Fighting Spirits was swinging his axe and approaching the enemy’s frontline.

Swhoosh swhoosh…

It was at this moment Li Chengfeng and I cut through the air like a pair of lightning bolts.

"What’s that?" A Holy Mage looked up and felt his pupils widening. "Oh no[2]!"

Bang bang!

Li Chengfeng hit the ground at the same time and caused a shockwave that engulfed all the players around us. The ground itself depressed into a pit about 2 meters deep and 20 meters wide. I executed War Crush and dropped 17 Ancient Seals around me. Li Chengfeng activated his Divine General Skill, Battle Soul Possession to greatly increase his stats before firing his AoE skills everywhere. Countless Holy Mages died to our combined attacks.

"Kaka! This is fun! Go, brothers!"

High Fighting Spirits grinned from ear to ear when he saw the destruction we wrought. He and the Dragonlight Cavalry made a concentrated charge, and the next moment the firewall Era of Strife’s mages had tried so hard to maintain was broken completely. Not only that, they were able to split the entire square formation in half. The Dragonlight Cavalry’s Attack was so high that two Barrier Breaks were basically enough to kill one Holy Mage. It was no wonder they weren’t able to stop them.

"Huh? What’s that?"

Li Chengfeng suddenly looked up and said, "I’m sensing divine energy nearby. Is it Red Maple?"

I tightened my grip, "Perfect. Get ready to take him out!"

"Mn!"

However, the figure that burst out of the clouds had a pair of 34Ds, a dazzling pair of legs, and a unique sword imbued with the power of the wind, the Wind Severing Sword. Not one of these attributes could possibly belong to Red Maple!

"Oh look, your girl has come to your rescue…" Li Chengfeng grinned when he realized who it was.

I rolled my eyes at him.

As Lin Yixin descended, she pointed her sword at the ground and manipulated the air currents to her will. Dark clouds gathered, and lightning bolts erupted from inside. It was the skill Thunder Cloud Storm!

The AoE ultimately caused great pain to the Holy Mages. When the time was right, I turned my blade and cast the Death skill of the Xuanyuan Art!

A skill that removed 70% of the opponent’s HP was absolutely OP. An entire group of Holy Mages were one-shot just like that. Li Chengfeng couldn’t help but blurt out, "Fuck, I’m on your side, and even I feel like this is completely unfair. How is anyone going to counter this?"

I chuckled. It was true that this combo was nearly impossible to guard against. It could only be prevented by an invincibility skill or an Anti-Magic Potion. Without either of these things, only the absolute best players could potentially survive it.

Bang!

Lin Yixin landed with a bang just like us before sweeping the Wind Severing Sword around her. The sword gave all of her attacks 30% armor penetration, so the Ice Flame Slash easily killed a lot of players. Barely anyone around her was still alive after the skill was cast, and Copper Spear himself only had 17% HP left. He looked like he would collapse on his own as he muttered in despair, "How can this be… We were the ones who held the advantage… How can this be…"

Lin Yixin simply shot him a sweet smile and said, "The battlefield is ever-changing. If you don’t adapt, defeat is the only outcome. Now allow me to send you on your way…"

Swhoosh!

She threw the Wind Severing Sword at Copper Spear and killed him on his mount. Then, she raced up to her sword, pulled it out from the ground, and rushed toward the Holy Mages at the back.

……

Thanks to the power of three divine players, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was able to push 200 yards deeper into enemy ground. Not only that, we exploited the cover provided by the Dragonlight Cavalry and wreaked absolute havoc in the backlines. We weren’t this bloodthirsty during the battle at the outer lands because it was a civil war, and we never routed our enemy when our enemy was a fellow countrymen. The Japanese were no countrymen of ours, however. Our only policy against them was to kill them to the last!

"When are your players showing, Yiyi? We can use anyone we can get. They number at least 1 million players, if not 2 or even 3 million. All of God’s Domain’s elites are present in this fight!" I said after catching up to Lin Yixin.

After cutting down a group of noobs, she faced toward me and answered, "Soon. They’ll be here in 10 minutes at most. Don’t worry. Our guilds should be enough to defeat Red Maple and his goons!"

"Got it!"

……

It took less than 30 minutes to destroy Era of Strife utterly. Not one of their 50k Holy Mages lived to stand on the battlefield at the cost of just 5,000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen. Moreover, Xu Yang had arrived with another 90k Dragonlight Cavalrymen and 50k Dragonlight Archers and 70k Holy Mages. They were the true main force of our guild. Multiple major guilds fought against one another in Lost Forest and the ruins of Ice River Canton. This was practically a small-scale Nation War.

It wasn’t long before reinforcements from Blazing Hot Lips, Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends, Purple Lily and more arrived as well. As a result, the Japan server was being beaten back again and again.

I stood in the sky and looked at Red Maple. He matched eyes with me for a second before letting out a cold humph and ordering, "We can’t hold the ground any longer. Withdraw! Withdraw toward Purple Grape City!"

……

"Are they withdrawing? Have we won?" He Yi asked.

"It’s not that simple…" I activated Dark Pupils and looked around for a bit. Then, I pointed to the south and said, "I count at least tens of thousands of assassins in stealth in that direction. They’re clearly trying to ambush our convoy. Beiming, take 20k Dragonlight Archers with you, pierce their stealth with Clear As Flame and take them all out!"

Beiming Xue nodded. "Will do, big bro!"

Less than ten minutes later, all 10,000 Japanese assassins were dead with multiple arrows lodged in their bodies. The power gap between our Dragonlight Archers and them was just too huge. Not only were they unable to survive the Dragonlight Archers’ assault, our units were riding the improved Dragonscale Beasts. Their movement speed was considerable, and they could attack or retreat anytime they wanted. Any assassin whose stealth was pierced by Clear As Flame was as good as dead.

"Continue. Chase them all the way back to Swallow Ear Canton!" I ordered.

……

The plain where the battle had occurred was a bloody mess. At least 2 million Japanese players had died on this battlefield, while the China server lost only 500k players at most. The strength disparity was due to the Japanese’s loss of their main city.

Over an hour later, the sounds of battle disappeared more and more. Red Maple and about tens of thousands of God’s Domain elites had withdrawn to a canyon entrance that would lead to Swallow Ear Canton and stayed there.

"Should we launch a brute-force assault?" Li Chengfeng looked at the canyon entrance.

I shook my head. "There’s no need. That terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack. We will suffer considerable losses if we launch a brute-force assault."

"What should we do then?"

I frowned. "I wonder why Red Maple chose to hold this position. Had he let us into Swallow Ear Canton’s hitherland and worked together with the NPCs to attack us, we would’ve suffered even greater damage…"

"Maybe… they’re hiding something behind the canyon…" Lin Yixin’s eyes widened.

I nodded. "Yeah. Everyone, stay where you are for now. Divine players, follow me to scout the enemy!"

"Mn!"

……

We slipped into the clouds and looked down from above. The entire map looked motionless except the eastern corner. We saw a lot of NPCs and players moving in and out of a canyon.

Swhoosh!

I dived down until I was just several hundred meters above ground Level. It was then I discovered that the canyon was less of a canyon and more like a munition factory. There were two red dragons bound in chains on the ground, and directly in front of them was some sort of fiery red machine. A bunch of NPC mages were casting spells on a machine that was sucking the dragons’ energy into a container. The red dragons were groaning in pain as a matter of course.

"Fuck… this is…"

My eyes widened like saucers.

Lin Yixin and Li Chengfeng arrived behind me and saw the same sight as me. Li Chengfeng gritted his teeth. "Is this their secret weapon?"

Lin Yixin also bit her lips. "Dragon Cannon… It’s the legendary ultimate siege weapon that deals true damage to city walls…"

1. T/N: this is only what Lu Chen thinks. In the sequel, Li Chengfeng expresses that literally everyone else thinks that Lu Chen is the true center of ASDS ☜

2. E/N: The logical reaction of a JAPANESE player would be “wait, kamikaze is OUR tactic!” ☜