Chapter 374: Desert Battle

Translator: alyschu

"Vice leader, add me to your party!" Legendary Brave yelled.

I approved his party request immediately and added Gui Guzi, High Fighting Spirits, Chaos Moon, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, Xu Yang and other core experts as well. As a fourth-promotion player, I had the power to party a maximum of 19 players at most. It wasn’t much, but everyone I added just now were first-rate experts. With a 75% Attack increase, this 20-man party of ours was positively deadly!

......

Crack!

Suddenly, Farewell Song appeared next to Legendary Brave like a ghost and swung his dagger in a twisting pattern, a whirlpool of energy threatening to tear him apart. The dragon warrior looked apprehensive at first, but he let out a chuckle, spun around, and countered with a deadly swing to Farewell Song’s back!

"Hmph!"

Farewell Song withdrew immediately, but before he could put too much distance between himself and Legendary Brave, the latter abruptly raised his arm and summoned a column of cyan energy from beneath Farewell Song’s feet!

Dragonrise!

It was a magic-based, single-target, long-range offensive skill. It was slightly similar to my Dragon Slaying Slash!

3498!

Farewell Song lost a huge chunk of HP and was forced to withdraw even faster than he already was. The shocked assassin successfully turned himself invisible again with a fluorescent powder, and Legendary Brave didn’t bother chasing him. He turned toward a crowd of enemies and cut players down left and right.

On the other side, High Fighting Spirits was also charging a group of players and swinging his battle axe at them. His axe split the ground and caused cyclones to appear around him, which promptly turned into a circular-shaped shockwave—Xiezhi Howl!

Thud thud thud!

All the players caught within the AoE skill were murdered. High Fighting Spirits’ Attack was a lot better than when I saw him last time since he and the others spent every day grinding mobs or bosses. It was only a matter of time before he got a good item or two.

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun went deeper in the enemy lines than anyone else in our party. He actually managed to dish out a Rock Smash and push Warsky away. But Warsky was no pacifistic guild leader, and he immediately retaliated with a triple-hit combo that forced Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun to retreat. Xu Yang immediately replaced his position and knocked Warsky back again, shouting, "Warsky, you son of a bitch!"

Angered, Warsky clashed swords against Xu Yang and Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun in a 1v2. Surprisingly, he was able to go even against the two of them! Not bad!

......

It wasn’t long before all the little dunes around the big sandy hill were fully occupied by Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Warsky Alliance’s earlier offense was nasty, but there was nothing they could do against us after our reinforcements arrived, especially since they consisted of core players such as Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits and so on. On top of that, 75% Attack increase was just seriously broken. Their frontline couldn’t withstand our power at all!

We pushed back Warsky Alliance’s forces down the hill and all the way back to the desert where several thousand enemy players were already waiting for us. Heavy armor players occupied the frontlines, and back archers and mages waited for the signal to attack at the back. They were clearly planning to decide once and for all who the ultimate power in Sky City was on this desert plain!

I looked behind me and noted that about 3000 of our players had arrived to join the battle. It was enough!

All the players in my party squeezed their way to the forefront. They would be the strongest spear to pierce the enemy’s strongest shield. Warsky himself, Laughing at the Heavens and the rest of their core players had also moved to the frontlines to stop our charge. The clash of power was inevitable.

......

Gripping his sword and staring at the enemy formation with a smile, Xu Yang said, "In the end, there’s no avoiding this moment. Warsky Alliance had been itching to fight us for a long time now, so it’s only right that we fulfill their wish, right?"

"Heh!"

I chuckled in response before pointing my sword to the front, ordering, "We’ll be slow-pushing our way forward! Priests, get ready to heal our frontliners and keep them healthy! Beiming Xue, activate Range and prepare to Volley with our archers! Try and disrupt their formation!"

But my intelligent younger sister had already been on the move even before I gave the order. She quickly created a 10-man party of her own—all of them high-level archers—and activated Range. Once everyone’s attack range was increased by 25%, she immediately seized the initiative!

"Ready, aim high, loose!"

The archers drew their bows about 70 yards away from the enemy before loosing their bowstrings. A rain of arrows immediately fell toward the enemy’s formation!

Thud thud thud...

The enemy shields vibrated incessantly as the arrows hit them, but even more arrows landed squarely on the melee fighters’ heads. As a result, some of the lower health warriors were one-shot where they stood!

Warsky parried away an arrow aimed at his direction and spat on the ground. Then, he shouted, "Eyes up, everyone! It is time to push our formation forward! The day to destroy Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is today!"

As I thought, Warsky Alliance’s formation started moving slowly toward us.

I smiled and pointed the Heaven-stealing Sword at the sky. I shouted, "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, charge! Kill them all!"

We would be the ones to take the offensive!

The hundreds of fighters at the front started charging toward the enemy in high spirits. I myself waited until the enemy got close before I activated Thunderous Charge!

Swhoosh!

Once the Level 93 warrior I was targeting got stunned, I hit him with a Desperate Gambit before his priests could heal him!

5892!

He went down after another basic attack!

Not far away, He Yi was also charging the enemy frontline. The way her cape flapped to the wind looked incredibly attractive, as evident from the dumb expressions on the faces of the warriors who were facing her. In fact, the foremost warrior who was only a yard away from He Yi looked like he would keel where he stood when he saw her exquisite face!

That didn’t stop He Yi from attacking. She swung her Soul Stealing Spear and used Green Wave Slash!

Boom!

4858!

5083!

4875!

......

All the enemy melees hit by the skill suffered huge damage thanks to Martial God’s ridiculous attack buff. Even the mages, priests, tamers, and archers at the back who were caught off-guard by the range of the skill were one-shot where they stood. Green Wave Slash had an attack range of 40 yards, and it was enough to make the life of anyone caught in it a living hell.

After that, Legendary Brave, High Fighting Spirits, Xu Yang, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun, Chaos Moon, and everyone else also hit the frontlines and unleashed their own attacks, beating the enemy shields like a drum. Even worse, most of our core players had AoE skills such as Legendary Brave’s Reverse Scale Slash, High Fighting Spirits’ Xiezhi Howl, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun’s Rock Smash, and so on. The flabbergasted expressions on the faces of the players of Warsky Alliance were all that needed to be said about our devastating offense.

Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was no longer the guild it used to be a long time ago. Today, our guild was overflowing with experts and support, our first-rate experts numbered more than ten, and Beiming Xue, Legendary Brave, and I were super or even peak-level experts in our own right.

Usually, a guild only needed one peak expert to serve as the model and one spiritual leader to look up to. However, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had more than one of each, so we were really not inferior to Warsky Alliance that had three CGL Hall of Famers in their guild!

......

Magic spells and arrows flew everywhere. Both sides suffered huge losses so far. The frontlines of both sides were completely joined together, and even my armor was covered in arrows or dark, smoky patches caused by enemy magic attacks. I had lost almost half my health in just a minute despite my amazing recovery and Defense, meaning that everyone else only fared worse than me.

Wolf Fang, Alexander, and others had already died and were desperately "running" back to their bodies. The battle had devolved into chaos as both sides did their utmost to annihilate the enemy.

He Yi was sticking close to me so that we could cover each other’s backs. Unfortunately, it was like two brightly painted targets had merged together to make one giant target that drew everyone’s attention. The enemy mages stared at us with bloodshot eyes and shouted, "Over there, From Water and Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand are over there! The leader and vice leader of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! This is our chance to kill both of them at once!"

Below us a sea of flames covered our feet, above us meteors and ice attacks kept falling onto our heads, and around us wind blades diced into our armors as everyone partook in the terrifying danse macabre. In a sense, it felt absolutely incredible to be the center of everyone’s attacks!

The reason we were still alive was because Murong Mingyue was commanding a huge group of priests to heal us with everything they had, and somehow that was enough for us to endure the crazy amount of attacks coming our way and push back the enemy. What an exhilarating experience!

......

"Eve!" I shouted.

"Hmm?" He Yi cocked her head at me. "What’s wrong?"

"Did you notice? October Rain’s nowhere to be seen..."

"Huh, you’re right. I remember seeing her dueling with Lil Beiming just a while ago. Where has she gone to?"

Alarm bells ringing inside my head, I shouted in the party channel, "All generals, I want you to communicate with your subordinates and locate October Rain immediately! Don’t let her take us by surprise!"

......

A few minutes later, I finally got a reply from Gui Guzi, "Found her. Fuck! The girl’s circling around the sides and attempting to assault our flanks with 400+ players. She’s trying to catch us in a pincer! What a devious woman..."

I smiled. "Little Gui, I want you and Thirteen to intercept her with some of our brothers. Give her no chance to execute her plan!"

"Okay!"

Soon after, a small skirmish broke out at the wings of the battlefield as well.

......

The desert battle lasted for almost an hour, and there were bodies all over the place. Finally, Warsky Alliance could no longer hold on because their frontliners had almost been completely annihilated. Legendary Brave and I had the highest DPS out of everyone. Reverse Scale Slash and Thousand Ice Slash were always going to kill someone every time we used them, and our Attack stats were so high that the enemy melees could do nothing but escape or die.

Even CGL Hall of Famers didn’t seem as powerful as they used to be due to the scale of the battle. Although Laughing at the Heavens, October Rain, and Farewell Song were all amazing players who could solo ten enemies on their own, any more than that and it became too much for them to handle. Farewell Song was the biggest threat out of all of them because he was able to lurk amid our backlines and assassinate countless mages and archers until Beiming Xue finally dragged him out of hiding. He was then turned into a porcupine by a bunch of angry archers.

Gripping a blood-stained sword, Warsky growled. "Everyone, let’s withdraw to the inner area. Hmph! This isn’t over yet, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! Those who were dead, please revive as soon as possible!"

Not long after, Warsky Alliance slowly withdrew to the inner area.

......

Staring at the heart of Fire Desert where Warsky Alliance lay, Beiming Xue said, "It looks like Warsky has given up on trying to defeat us and decided to go for his other objective, the Desert Giant King, instead..."

Gui Guzi smiled. "He can dream on. The boss belongs to our 20-man party, am I right, boss Broken Halberd?"

I nodded. "That’s right, the boss is ours!"

"Hahaha!"

After we confirmed our new goal, we continued our pursuit of Warsky Alliance!

......

However, Du Thirteen suddenly shouted from our backline, "Fuck! Can we get some players over as soon as possible? Hegemon Palace just appeared behind us!"

My heart sank. What awful timing! Did Warsky Alliance make a deal with Hegemon Palace or something?