Chapter 998: Black Marsh Catapult

Translator: alyschu

Creak... creak...

The turning of the wheels made shrill noises as tall, pitch black catapults about 4 meters tall appeared at the distance. I counted about a hundred of them. Each catapult had four rows or 16 wheels in total, and they required at least 20 foot soldiers to move. It had taken them almost an hour to prepare, but they were here in the end.

The catapults were made of refined steel; black steel that gleamed coldly under the light. The ammo they used was a kind of black rock that would probably explode on contact. How did I know that? That’s because I could smell the gunpowder even from where we were. The front of the catapult was a huge, ugly shield that was shaped like a serpent’s head. The purpose of the ornament was to protect the catapult from arrow fire. Without good enough aim, most archers wouldn’t be able to harm it.

Everyone sucked in a deep breath when they saw the catapults.

"Fuck!"

Eyes Like Water tightened her fists and shivered a little. She bit her lips and said, "I... I think that’s the rumored unique siege weapon of Purple Grape City, Black Marsh Catapult."

"Black Marsh Catapult?" Xu Yang voiced his puzzlement. "What’s that?"

I answered for her, "I read in the database that Purple Grape City’s unique siege weapon is the Black Marsh Catapult. According to the in-game background, ‘Black Marsh’ or ‘Hei Ze’ is a sacred beast of Japan with the ability to spit flames. It is the opposite entity of our sacred beast, ‘White Marsh’ or ‘Bai Ze’. The ‘Bai Ze’ brings blessings, whereas the ‘Hei Ze’ brings slaughter."

Eyes Like Water nodded. "Lu Chen is correct. The Hei Ze’s vile soul is said to possess the Black Marsh Catapult and give it a kind of AoE attack. If the rumors aren’t exaggerated, it deals extra damage to buildings, and it is even deadlier than the Northern Alliance’s Fire Catapults."

Purple Wind Chime clenched her fists again. "Purple Grape City sure is rich. I heard that it takes over five thousand gold to make 1 Black Marsh Catapult, and they just brought a hundred over like it was nothing!"

Gui Guzi smiled at that. "The more expensive, the better!"

Heaven’s Rain looked at me for orders. "Big brother Lu Chen, they’re going to attack the city soon. What do we do?"

Chiang!

I pulled out the Purple Ying Sword and declared with a smile, "What else? It’s time to move out! The Black Marsh Catapults have an attack range of 200 yards, so we must not allow them to get within 200 yards of the city no matter what. The moment White Rose Fortress turns into rubble, the enemy will be able to set foot Sky City’s domain as they please, so we cannot let that happen!"

"Yes, vice leader!"

All Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls players unsheathed their weapons with fear and excitement. After all the waiting, everyone was eager to get a piece of the action!

......

"Xu Yang?" I asked.

"Hmm? What is it?" Xu Yang looked at me.

"You and Chaos Moon are the ones who manage our logistics, right? How many high-level siege weapons do we have right now? You know, White Marsh Catapults or Black Tortoise Catapults?"

He smiled. "Those cost a lot of money, you know. That being said, boss is not a stingy person, so yes, we have a lot of catapults in stock. We have at least 50 White Marsh Catapults and 100 Black Tortoise Catapults in Dark Moon City. Do you want to deploy them now? We need to ask boss first though. Not even I can use those precious machines without her permission."

I nodded affirmatively. "There’s no time to hesitate. I want Li Chengfeng or Chaos Moon to escort 20 White Marsh Catapults and 50 Black Tortoise Catapults over personally. Without them, we won’t have a range advantage over the enemy!"

"Got it. I’ll contact boss right away!"

"Mn!"

A few minutes later, Xu Yang said with a smile, "Alright, it’s all done. Chaos Moon and 10000 riders from the subguilds will be escorting the engineers over. The idea is to have the engineers dismantle the siege weapons and rebuild them after they’ve arrived at the fortress. Also, you got more than what you bargained for. Besides the 20 White Marsh Catapults and 50 Black Tortoise Catapults, boss is also sending you 500 Catapults and 1000 Ballistae!"

Feeling a lot more confident than before, I turned around and ordered, "Little Gui, Heaven’s Rain, Diamond Dust, take command of our 4000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen and ride with me! We will take out as many Black Marsh Catapults as possible before reinforcements arrive! Xu Yang, I leave the defense of the fortress to you. All the Dragonlight Archers are yours to command!"

"Gotcha. Don’t worry about us, and be careful!"

"Mn!"

However, just as I set foot on the ground, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun suddenly appeared from the western street and rode toward me. "I have a new report, vice leader!"

I gritted my teeth. "Let me guess, Red Maple and God’s Domain have reappeared from the forest, am I right?"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun looked surprised. "Er, that’s correct. How did you know?"

"Ah, fuck. I knew Red Maple would be an annoying opponent. He’s trying to trap us in the fortress and slowly kill us all!"

"What should we do then?"

I thought for a moment before answering, "I’ll need to discuss this with Xu Yang later, but if Red Maple has siege weapons, take a couple thousand cavalrymen with you and attack their formation to buy time. If not, just shut the gates and defend from the walls!"

"Got it."

......

It wasn’t long before the Dragonlight Cavalry gathered on the ground, led by none other than Gui Guzi and I. Eyes Like Water, Purple Wind Chime and several ten thousand cavalrymen also stood by in case the Dragonlight Cavalry got surrounded and needed immediate rescue. Otherwise, they wouldn’t move an inch from their location. Right now, we needed to preserve as much fighting force as we could. The grim fact was that we were surrounded from both sides, and the situation was looking pretty bad...

I raised the Purple Ying Sword and rode out of the gate first, shouting, "Let’s go! Our target is the Black Marsh Catapults! Maintain formation and don’t stray away! The enemy will kill you otherwise!"

Behind me, the Dragonlight Cavalry unsheathed their weapons and followed closely behind me. Right now, we were literally the strongest cavalry in the world, bar none. Thanks to Dark Moon City’s unique skill, Duplicate Mount, nearly every high-level mounted player in our ranks had been granted the super-powerful Earth Rank mount, the Dragonscale Beast. Moreover, Dragon Soul Protection also greatly increased their Attack and Defense. It would not be an exaggeration to say that our cavalry was one and only in the entire world!

It took an ungodly amount of resources and days, but Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls now had over 15000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen and 5000 Dragonlight Archers. The forces I was commanding right now weren't the main bulk of the Dragonlight Corps. These were currently fighting at Dark Moon City under He Yi, Beiming Xue, Lian Xin, Li Chengfeng and more, pushing back the forces of Cyan Earth City and Elephant City. Our cavalry was without a doubt the unit to look out for in this Nation War right now.

The moment we exited the city, we took a moment to admire the sheer number of red-named players crowding the canyon before us. Seriously, it took great courage to charge an army this big!

Keeping the Purple Ying Sword hanging beside my mount, I raised the Dragon God Shield and blocked the arrows and fireballs that were flying my way. Purple Grape City’s players hadn’t moved their formation yet. In fact, their frontliners had already formed a shield wall to block our charge.

"Kill!"

I activated Great Earth Transformation and Thunderous Charge’d them. The moment I slammed into a shield, I raised my sword and unleashed Thousand Ice Slash and Burning Blade Slash combo. The sword auras easily sliced through the bodies and one-shot an entire group of shielded knights. At the same time, I raised my sword and fired a line of four Ancient Seals directly in front of me. I did it to soften the enemy line and make it easier for my people to punch through!

The Dragonlight Cavalry roared as they slammed into the enemy’s shield wall. Thanks to Dragon Soul Protection, they were able to punch through the defense line with great strength and kill countless enemies with Triple Slash + Barrier Break. It was a bloody battle right from the get-go.

I didn’t pause to admire our handiwork. I kept bulldozing through the bodies without a care for the arrows and spells flying my way. Judging from the amount of damage I was receiving, these people were at best a second-rate guild in Purple Grape City and worse than even Tail Feather Palace. They were incapable of dealing a fatal blow to me at all!

Swhoosh!

I raised the Purple Ying Sword as a cyclone erupted around it. The next moment, an entire group of archers and mages were flung into the air by Coiling Dragon Revolution.

Not too far away from me, Heaven’s Rain trapped a seventh-promotion mage with Trapping Net and stabbed him right through the chest. After the kill, she shot me a smile and said, "Well done, big brother Lu Chen!"

I smiled. DPS-wise, I was the indisputable number one in this entire group!

The Phantom Wolf King wasn’t idle while all this was going on, of course. It kept landing Claws of the Storm on the closest players and engulfing ranged parties in Purgatory Storms. In a sense, the blood-red wolf looked more like a murderous god than I did.

......

After we tore a hole in the enemy’s defense line by force, I caught sight of a Black Marsh Catapult being loaded. The black, crystalline stone was as wide as two meters. I didn’t even want to imagine how it would feel to get hit by it.

"Let’s attack it together and destroy it!" Gui Guzi shouted.

I stared at the siege weapon with Dark Pupils active and gleaned its stats. Its armor was categorized as Fortified, and it greatly resisted basic attacks. Moreover, it had over 20000 Defense, a number that was beyond most ordinary players’ capabilities to penetrate, so I shouted, "Just Barrier Break it once and move onto the next target! Don’t worry, the Black Marsh Catapult only has a million HP!"

"Okay!"

Gui Guzi rushed over and rocked the siege weapon with a Barrier Break. At the same time, a huge damage number rose above the siege weapon—39873!

Not bad! Gui Guzi definitely had the Attack to pierce its Defense.

I did the same thing but felt a surge of energy coursing through the blade of the Purple Ying Sword. Oh damn, it’s Mountain Crush! This is going to be fun!

Boom!

I hit the catapult with Universe Break, and its light nearly penetrated the entire structure. A huge damage number rose above it—

193887!

"Heavens, that’s just crazy..." Gui Guzi exclaimed in astonishment.

The catapult eventually fell apart as we washed over it like tidewater. However, we also lost three Dragonlight Cavalrymen to a swarm of Galaxy Storms. For every Black Marsh Catapult we destroyed, we lost at least ten brothers in the process!