Chapter 734: Horse Hoof Valley

Translator: alyschu

I looked to the wing and saw a troop of high-level cavalry kicking up a cloud of dust and rushing toward us. When I saw that their leader was the Heroic Bannerman Eye of the Storm, I immediately said to Li Chengfeng, Chaos Moon, He Yi and the others in amusement, "It looks like Eye of the Storm can’t stand us anymore. Let’s lure him into a trap and kill him. It will destroy Hot Sand City’s morale for sure!"

"Sure!"

Li Chengfeng agreed. "Lu Chen will hit him from the right, and I, from the left. Boss, Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits, Little Gui and everyone else will charge him from the front. Let’s try and kill this Eye of the Storm in one go, yeah?"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun exclaimed dumbfoundedly, "Think of Eye of the Storm’s feelings, you monster."

......

"Turn around, attack!"

We turned our mounts around and counter-charged the enemy, the rest of the Dragonlight Cavalry copying our movements. They knew to keep formation because a stranded and out-of-position cavalryman was easy to cut down. Moreover, cavalry troops relied on their explosive strength and speed to charge the enemy formations, and it was impossible to plant a seed of fear in the enemies with small numbers.

I could see the anger on Eye of the Storm’s face. He was accompanied by another Heroic Bannerman who was also a magic knight, and they were riding side by side straight toward me.

Li Chengfeng couldn’t help but laugh. "Look at them! They are both attracted to you because your CGL Hall of Fame badge is too shiny! Hehe, they must think they can’t lose because it’s 2 Heroic Bannerman versus 1 CGL Hall of Famer!"

Chaos Moon giggled. "In that case, should we show him the power of nobodies?"

I nodded seriously. "Yes, you guys can kill them. I’ll stay my hand this time!"

"Wait, you’re actually not going to fight?" Li Chengfeng glanced at me in astonishment.

I nodded again. "Yes, I’ll be the bait this time. Everyone, get ready. I’m heading out..."

"Oh?"

I abruptly sped up and surged forward like a lightning bolt. The Armored Ice Qilin Horse was an Earth Rank Boss mount, so of course it was faster than the Dragonlight Cavalry. The moment I got close to the two riders, the magic knight next to Eye of the Storm immediately raised his spear in an attempt to skewer me!

Thud!

A beam of light about ten meters long burst out of the tip of his spear. Having expected this from the start, I pulled the reins abruptly and shifted to the side, narrowly dodging the attack.

Eye of the Storm barked, "You are courting death!"

His warhorse neighed menacingly as Eye of the Storm charged toward me and attempted to hit me with a knight’s Triple Slash and a basic attack. Surprisingly, each attack came at me from a different angle!

The corners of my lips turned up. I moved the Cyan Netherworld Sword to my left and right swiftly and parried both attacks. Then, I raised my right arm to block the basic attack. The last hit of the Triple Slash struck my Crimson Rock Dragon Armor, but that was fine because I already knew that I wouldn’t be able to avoid it no matter what. The skill’s attack speed made it incredibly difficult to parry perfectly.

17663!

The combination attack deleted less than 20% of my max HP, shocking Eye of the Storm. Before he could react, I moved past him and fired Burning Blade Slash at the riders at the back, killing a ton of The Storm players in an instant.

Behind me, Li Chengfeng and Chaos Moon passed by the other Heroic Bannerman and hit him a Rock Crush + Barrier Break and Dragonbone Flurry + Cyan Dragon Horn combos with near-perfect synchrony, deleting most of his health in an instant. The terrified man tried to retreat, but Gui Guzi caught up to him and executed his long-range Aurora Thrust!

Thud thud thud...

As it turned out, Gui Guzi had gotten much better at grasping his skill distance. The spear beams extended about 17 yards or so and hit the Heroic Bannerman squarely on the back. Everyone knows that the flame of an alcohol burner is hotter on the outside than on the inside, and Gui Guzi’s attack followed the same principle. The end part of the skill dealt the most damage!

"Ah..."

The magic knight let out a terrible groan and dropped dead instantly.

Ding~!

System Announcement: Attention all players, Heroic Bannerman "Celest" (Vietnam) has been killed by player "Gui Guzi" (China)!

......

Very good, it was an instakill. It looks like not even a Heroic Bannerman could withstand the combined assault of our braves!

Eye of the Storm turned white immediately. He thought that I was the only powerful and skillful player in my guild, and that everyone else was just relying on their equipment and mount advantage to tear down our enemies. Well, he thought wrong. Every one of our Famous Generals was as good as a Heroic Bannerman, if not better!

Swhoosh!

Unfortunately, Eye of the Storm managed to activate his invincibility skill before He Yi’s Blade of the Earthen Soul could claim his life. He shouted as he ran, "Just you wait, The Storm will return for vengeance!"

"Pooh!"

Li Chengfeng spat once on the ground as he stared at Eye of the Storm’s shrinking back. "And he calls himself an expert."

......

After that, I continued to lead the charge and wreak havoc to the enemy lines. Three hours passed by in the blink of an eye, and we killed so many players that our bodies were literally shaking with exhaustion. It was impossible to say exactly how many enemies we had killed so far, but 37 players from our Dragonlight Cavalry were in the Top 100 of our server’s Nation War contribution ranking. We’ve created a miracle for sure!

Thud thud thud...

All of us were soaked in blood by the time we returned to the camp. He Yi’s snow-white cape was dyed blood-red, and my Soul Suppressing Cloak was even worse—blood was literally dripping off the tattered fabric.

Drip...

The blood droplets bloomed like beautiful red flowers against the green grass.

I jumped off my mount and stabbed the Cyan Netherworld Sword on the ground next to me. Then, I leaned against a pine tree and closed my eyes. Bone-deep fatigue washed over me for a moment.

He Yi sat down next to me and said, "You look tired, Lu Chen."

"Mn."

"I’m tired too, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to get a break anytime soon."

"Yeah..."

I opened my eyes and looked at He Yi. With an exhausted look on her face, she took off her helmet and let her hair cascade against her shoulder like a waterfall. I gave her a smile and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "You’ve been working really hard for the past few days, Sister Yi. Keep this up, and you’ll become a famous expert in China for sure!"

He Yi nodded. "I know. Back in the days I couldn’t focus on the game, but now..."

"Now?"

"It’s different now, hehe..." He Yi replied noncommittally before leaning against my chest. "Lu Chen, you know you’re the current runner-up on the Nation War contribution ranking, right? You’re only 3% away from Luo River God of the Capital."

"Yeah. Sister Wang Luo is a mage, so it’s just impossible to beat her in this department. She can kill countless players with a simple spell, while all my AoE skills have cooldowns..."

"Yeah, it’s just unfair..."

......

It was at this moment a group of players walked up to us. They were Xu Yang, Stranger of Three Lifetimes, and Chaos Moon.

Xu Yang plopped his butt on the ground immediately after he reached us. "Boss, Lu Chen, the casualty report for the last five hours is ready!"

"Hit me..." I mentally prepared myself for the worst.

Xu Yang nodded and said, "We have 1755 Dragonlight Cavalrymen left, and it is the troop that lost the least amount of people despite killing the most enemies. We have 4578 Cyan Tiger Cavalry left. Including the Dragonlight Cavalry and the Cyan Tiger Cavalry, we lost a total of 13982 people in the main guild, or in other words, almost half. Our subguilds are doing even worse. Almost all of the magic knights in the first to third subguild are dead. The Northern Alliance possess too much firepower, and the Bloody Mercenaries had been fighting on the frontlines all this time, so their casualty rate is 87%. There are only a thousand or so of them left now. Roughly speaking, we only have 110k+ troops left that we can mobilize, which isn’t many at all..."

Stranger of Three Lifetimes added, "Blazing Hot Lips lost another 2000+ players in the battle just now, so we only have 7000 able-bodied players left in the entire guild. This has been a most costly war..."

He Yi said quietly, "It’s a bit unrealistic to think that we can beat several million enemies with just 110k. Moreover, the terrain we’re fighting on is quite open, and we’re losing too many mounted players. If this continues, we’ll be annihilated for sure."

Xu Yang asked, "But what else can we do except keep fighting?"

I opened the map and looked instead of joining the conversation. Behind us was a dense forest, and to the southwest direction lay a deep valley called "Horse Hoof Valley”. Just as its name might suggest, the valley itself was shaped like a horse hoof. It wasn’t a big valley, and it was so secluded that most people were dissuaded from grinding in it. Horse Hoof Valley had a narrow entrance and a wide interior, but it wasn’t a good place for cavalry battles.

I asked, "What is the strongest troop type The Storm currently possesses?"

Xu Yang answered immediately, "Riders. Just an hour ago, Eye of the Storm declared that he will flatten our guild with the one million elite cavalry he brought from Hot Sand City."

"Very well!"

My eyes turned steely. "We will annihilate this elite cavalry and send Eye of the Storm packing! We’ll do it like this: first, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will withdraw its mages, archers, bards, tacticians and other backliners to Horse Hoof Valley and move into ambush positions. After that, everyone will withdraw to Horse Hoof Valley except the Dragonlight Cavalry!"

Xu Yang asked in surprise, "What are you planning?"

I smiled. "Eye of the Storm couldn’t wait to see the Dragonlight Cavalry destroyed, so we’ll use the Dragonlight Cavalry as bait and lure their one million elite cavalry into Horse Hoof Valley! Once the enemy is in place, we’ll coordinate with our backliners, seal off the valley and annihilate all one million of their troops!"

Stranger of Three Lifetimes’ eyes lit up. "That’s a good idea! Cavalry can’t really charge inside valleys, and the terrain is usually narrow enough to force them to trample over each other. It’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel! Eye of the Storm will die for sure!"

I nodded and rose to my feet. "Give the order to begin the operation immediately. This is a critical battle for us because we cannot reorganize and aid Dawn City until we’ve wiped out all the Vietnamese players of Hot Sand City!"

"Got it!"

Xu Yang and went to discuss the details with Li Chengfeng immediately. After he gave the order, the troops at the back withdrew silently into the valley and left our 20000 riders to fend for themselves for a moment.

......

I climbed up my mount again, pulled out the Cyan Netherworld Sword and smiled at them. "Dragonlight Cavalry, whether or not we can defend our homeland successfully is up to you now. Kill the enemies for duty and glory!"