Chapter 278: Underground Lurker

Translator: alyschu

Pu!

A row of sharp, black spikes suddenly burst out of the ground and threw a whole column of warriors into the air. Despite their toughness, the attack still poked holes all over their bodies. A couple of them were even one-shot outright!

"The boss is here!"

Xu Yang pointed toward the front and yelled, "Archers, loose! Drag that boss out of its hole!"

The archers immediately responded to his order and launched a rain of arrows at the ground in front of them. However, the cheap arrows that cost only several coppers per either missed completely or dealt a series of 1s at a particular area.

I crunched the grass beneath my foot and launched myself toward the area where the archers did damage. One second later, I made an educated guess and plunged my Purgatory Sword into the ground, unleashing Ice Ray!

Swhoosh!

Ice appeared around my weapon before they merged together into an icicle and pierced into the ground. The skill had a reasonable amount of attack distance, so it should be able to hit the boss!

Puchi!

2876!

As I had expected, Ice Ray did quite a bit of damage to it. What I wasn’t expecting however was the ground beneath shaking and splitting apart like some giant was about to emerge from the ground. Holy shit, this boss is way bigger than I expected!

I withdrew myself from the area just in time to avoid a pair of steely pincers bursting out of the ground. The moving, cragged pincers were spinning like the drill of a boring machine. I noticed that they looked very similar to a scorpion’s pincers, and my educated guess was proven the moment the boss emerged fully from the soil.

The giant scorpion had a pair of femurs that were as big as tree trunks, a pair of spinning pincers, an ugly head and three pairs of walking legs that gave it a surprising amount of agility. It stared at us with a pair of greedy little eyes as it raised its tail and poisonous sting menacingly.

Underground Lurker (Dark Gold Rank Boss)

Level: 80

Attack: 880~1090

Defense: 700

HP: 175000

Skills: Strangle, Poison Spit, Wild Swallow

Introduction: These venomous lurkers of the underground were turned into assassins after they fell under the control of the Night Creatures. They often lurk beneath the human domain to spy or assassinate a key target.

......

"The boss is out! Attack!"

I shouted as I activated Charge. The boss was only Level 80, and its Attack 1090. At my current Defense it couldn’t deal nearly enough damage to threaten me, so I was just going to face-tank it and kill it where it stood!

Whoosh!

The stun was a success, and I quickly followed up with Pardon and Desperate Gambit!

MISS!

5654!

Not bad. With my current Attack, the Underground Lurker’s 700 Defense might as well not exist!

He Yi activated Charge next, and Gui Guzi third. While we were surrounding the boss, Murong Mingyue used Hellish Rockfall again and again and filled the landscape with giant rocks. Of course, no friendly fire occurred because the skill was considered a guild entity.

The boss's counterattack was weak to say the least. Its attacks only dealt around 300 damage to me, and 500 damage to Gui Guzi and He Yi. He Yi had Rock Shield, and Gui Guzi had Undying Shield. They were also super tanks with over 6000 HP, so there was no way in hell the boss would kill them in the foreseeable future.

The rest of the guild weren’t content to just sit by and watch, so they all tossed in their own DPS as well: Fireballs, wind blades, meteors, icicles, arrows, at-will magic spells and so on. The giant scorpion was a Level 80 Dark Gold Rank boss, but it was absolutely ravaged like a common mob. No matter how angrily it roared, there was no changing the fact that it was going to die today!

Clang!

My Purgatory Sword turned cold in my hands when I happened to hit one of its pincers. I immediately unleashed Purgatory Slash!

Bang!

The skill penetrated the boss and ended its life right there. Green liquid spilled all over the place as its humongous body hit the ground. It was both terrible and disgusting.

Pop pop pop...

He Yi picked up the equipment it had dropped, gave them a look and tossed them into Murong Mingyue’s arms. She said, "Put them all in our guild warehouse. Once this quest is over, we’ll distribute the best equipment to those with the highest contribution."

"Okay!"

In this regard, He Yi’s decision was very fair and praiseworthy. It was always important to be fair, especially when everyone was watching you.

Ding~!

System Announcement: Congratulations to player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" for successfully killing the Underground Lurker. 300 points are awarded to the player!

......

Very good, that was another 300 points into my pocket!

Not far away from us, the Gods of Destruction group was guarding the southeast corner. It so happened they were right next to us. From the way Dominating Knight God and Dominating Warrior God were shooting us jealous looks, you would think that they were plotting to destroy us and the boss at the same time.

Unfortunately for them, our courageous general, Xu Yang was standing right at the intersection point where our guilds might have clashed with a whole group of archers ready to let loose their arrows at a moment’s notice. Naturally, Gods of Destruction dared not commit suicide. All Dominating Heaven Blade could do was stare at us with displeasure. He surely knew that Gods of Destruction might not be strong enough to deal with the current Ancient Swords Dreaming Souls, especially since all our greatest experts were present.

Even if Frost Cloud workshop were to be excluded from the equation, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls still had Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon, Moonlight Stone, Pure Love and other extremely good players. It would’ve taken a considerable amount of effort to beat them. With our workshop however, their chances were abysmally small.

But clearly, Dominating Heaven Blade wasn’t planning to give up easily. He raised his sword and shouted, "Hold the line, brothers! Floating Ice City, our home is right behind us! Is it not a man’s responsibility to protect your comrades?! We will not be beaten by cowardice, and we will take down Skull Castle one way or another! Let us write a new chapter in the history of Gods of Destruction with our own hands!"

Murong Mingyue couldn’t help but chuckle. "Yo, Dominating Heaven Blade is beginning to raise his men’s morale..."

I nodded. "Yeah, this middle-aged man doesn’t know when to quit!"

Dominating Heaven Blade was obviously a man who knew how to endure. If this was Li Le or Roaming Dragon, they would’ve charged us and died like dogs already. But not Dominating Heaven Blade. He was a patient man who could choose to stay his hand completely if an excellent opportunity didn’t present itself. It was this predatory tenacity that kept his guild strong despite having to live under the shadow of Candle Dragon. Otherwise, they would’ve been wiped out from China a long time ago.

......

We had to wait a while before the gates of Skull Castle finally opened again. It was the Night Creature Legion’s fourth counterattack!

I turned pale when I heard the sound of horse hooves. I immediately raised my sword and growled, "Watch out, brothers! We absolutely must give our all if we are to survive this wave!"

Gui Guzi also turned pale at my words. "What monster is this wave made of?"

I stared at the distance as I revealed the answer. "Night Creature Cavalry!"

Du Thirteen asked, "Are they that OP, Lu Chen? You look like a frightened quail..."

I smiled at him. "There aren’t any Level 100 magic knights or wanderers in China yet, so everyone is fighting on foot. Without a spearwall, high-level cavalry can absolutely annihilate a foot soldier. That will be our fate if we don’t give it our all!"

"Fuck! They are that OP..." Du Thirteen said as his mouth fell open. He then raised his Ghost Ice Soul and shouted, "Brothers of Bloody Mercenaries, unsheathe your weapons and prepare for battle! We will defend this position even if this is the last thing we do!"

A huge group of gangster-like fighters immediately raised their weapons and laughed in response. "Let’s go! Today is the day we poke some undead anus!"

A horde of undead cavalry rushed out of Skull Castle, but to our surprise they took their time to assemble themselves beneath the city instead of attacking immediately. Soon, an entire formation of Level 81 elite mobs was ready to charge us! Sitting at 980 Attack, 750 Defense and 18000 HP, these undead cavalrymen were as powerful as they were tanky!

Skull Cavalry (Elite)

Level: 81

Attack: 850~980

Defense: 750

HP: 18000

Skills: Charge, Trample, War Stampede

Introduction: These undead cavalrymen who protect Skull Castle used to be the elite cavalry of the human empire. When the Night Creatures invaded, an endless plague turned them all into walking puppets, and they became a major obstacle in the human race’s efforts to push back the Night Creatures.

......

In front of the line of cavalrymen, around every ten steps or so were their leaders. They carried red banners behind them and wielded mighty-looking spears. They were Level 81 minibosses, and they were a lot deadlier than the other riders!

There were at least 1000 of these "Blood Armored Cavalry Leaders”. They would be the blade that punched through our defenses. If we wished to defeat this wave, we would have to get rid of their leaders first!

"Watch out, everyone. This wave isn’t going to be easy..." He Yi said while gripping the Abyssal Sword.

Beside her, Chaos Moon nodded before asking, "What should we do?"

He Yi turned at me, and I narrowed my eyes sharply before pointing my sword toward the front. "All warriors over Level 78, I want you to lock onto a Blood Armored Cavalry Leader and stun them with Charge. Archers and mages, I want you to destroy these minibosses before they can reach our formation!"

"Yes, sir!"

All the high-level warriors raised their swords and held their breaths in waiting.

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Right ahead of us, one of the Blood Armored Cavalry Leaders raised his spear and shouted in a way only a Night Creature could, "Warriors of Skull Castle, it is time to defend the pride of the Night Creatures. For the dead who are wailing in hell, let us crush everything in our path, be it corporeal or illusory! Charge!"

The cavalry troops abruptly took off and galloped toward us en masse. As they swarmed toward us like a tsunami, the Blood Armored Cavalry Leaders raised their spears and rode at the forefront. They cackled madly as their lips warped into a distorted grin!

"Hmm..."

Chaos Moon couldn’t help but take half a step away in hesitation. She seemed to be frightened by the minibosses’ ugly faces.

At least He Yi remained calm. She smiled easily and said, "Chaos Moon, I’ll take the one on the left. The one on the right is yours..."

"Okay!"

......

The moment the enemies entered my skill range, I locked onto a Blood Armored Cavalry Leader right in front of me and activated Charge!