Rustle rustle rustle…
The sound of hooves and boots trekking through snow rang incessantly. We were making our way toward the energy screen. It was frigid, but everyone looked like they were full of energy.
I took a moment to tally our numbers. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls still had about 200,000 players after clearing out the necropoleis, but the other guilds could only do worse. Both the mobs and the bosses were no joke, and only the strongest parties could defeat the corpse eaters and the undead mages without losing anyone. Even more people died inside the tombs where the bosses usually resided.
There was also the fact that nearly all of the best guilds in all the servers were gathered in Sainthelm Ruins. Rival guilds within the same server would love nothing more but to bash each other’s faces in, much less rival guilds between different servers. After we exited the snowy valley, I learned that both Warsky Alliance and Candle Dragon had fought against a couple of Northern Alliance guilds to the west side of the ruins.
……
"We’re almost there…"
The snowfall lessened, and the stifling stench of death grew thicker and thicker as we approached our destination.
About a hundred meters away from us, a crimson light screen was fading away to reveal what looked like an ancient city that had been frozen for at least 10,000 years. I figured that the reason the city was called "Sainthelm" was because it looked like a broken helm beneath the glaciers.
"Sainthelm City…" Li Chengfeng sucked in a deep breath before saying, "Everyone who played Spirit of Grief would know that Sainthelm Ruins used to be Sainthelm City, the main city of the USA server. To think that it had become an undead ruin…"
I nodded and glanced at the direction of Vienna’s Sorrow and the American players. They too seemed to be recalling the great wars of the past and preparing themselves for the new battles to come.
"Big bro…"
Beiming Xue gave my cloak a tug before pointing at Sainhelm Ruins. "The city’s not all the same as before. You see that? There’s a whole new wall blocking our entry to the city…"
I shuddered and looked real closely. It was just as she said. There was a circular wall surrounding the entire former Sainthelm City, and it almost looked like a giant bowl with some ice in the middle of it. Only the Purgatory Sovereigns and their countless enslaved corpse eaters could pull off such a massive project.
"Dragonspeech Glacier…" Lin Yixin said in a trembling voice, "I’ve been here before. I’m pretty sure it didn’t look like this when I came here at the beginning of the game…"
A kind of crimson plant that looked like geckos was covering the entire glacier head. Purple fruits that looked like upright wild gingers were also growing out of their stems. They were filled with some sort of purple juice that was most likely poison, and occasionally the fruits would explode on their own and spill their juice on the glacier. It looked strange to say the least.
……
Chiang!
He Yi unsheathed her Suppressing Fire Sword and declared, "The mobs are climbing up the walls. Prepare for battle!"
The Dragonlight Cavalrymen at the frontline all unsheathed their weapons. A couple of high-level Bone Dragons were circling above the city, and I reckoned that they were at least minibosses. Countless dark elf archers were also aligning the walls and aiming their arrows at their own kin. After the undead took control of the dark elves, they became the undead legion’s strongest ranged forces.
It was at this moment countless NPC armies appeared from behind us. Beneath a gorgeous Silver Moon Alliance banner, a still wounded Karinshan ordered in a low tone, "Begin constructing the siege weapons. This is the final battle, so make sure to seal off all exits around Dragonspeech Glacier. We will destroy the entire Purgatory Legion once and for all!"
Ziyan nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. By the way, Lady Sophia and Lady Sophie’s armies have already arrived. When should we begin the assault?"
"In two hours."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
……
The NPC legions began spreading around the entire Dragonspeech Glacier. The ground hadn’t stopped shaking since they appeared, and the sky was filled with griffon riders. Each one-thousand-man square formation was protecting a huge catapult, and these catapults surrounded the entire Sainthelm Ruins. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the Silver Moon Alliance was investing nearly all of their forces into this war. It was do or die!
Meanwhile, the player faction had also surrounded the Sainthelm Ruins. The first one to lose their patience was God of War of Cyan Earth City. One moment there was silence, and the next he was pointing his sword toward the sky and shouting, "It is time! We will invade the city, kill Lin Na, and claim the Purgatory Legion’s divine arms!"
Cyan Earth City began to move. The perimeter of Sainthelm Ruins was at least several kilometers long. It was definitely big enough to accommodate all the players.
Not far away from us, Laughing At The Heavens was raising the banner of Warsky Alliance in the air while Warsky broke off toward the wall. The guild leader raised the Immortal Blade and roared, "For glory, for Warsky Alliance’s future, charge!"
In the sky, a fire dragon also let out a mighty roar before Candlelight Shadow ordered, "Candle Dragon, attack!"
"Should we begin?" Lin Yixin and Stranger of Three Lifetimes looked at me at the same time. Our three guilds were teamed up for the moment, so of course we were going to attack the city together.
I made a small nod before saying, "We haven’t brought any siege weapons with us, so we can only scale the walls with the cloud ladders. The Dragonlight Cavalry will go first and provide cover for the engineers. We’ll talk about the specifics after we set up a hundred cloud ladders!"
Lin Yixin smiled. "Alright, I’ll provide the engineers then. We have more than enough cloud ladders to spare."
"Mn!"
I then said to Lu Buyi, "Buyi, you know the drill. Have your wife carry you while you turn on Purple Dragon and carry the rest of us. I’ll be joining your party as well. For now, just make sure you don’t die until we set up the cloud ladders. There are a shit ton of archers and mages on the walls, and not even the Dragonlight Cavalry may be able to survive their bombardment if they target one specific area."
Lu Buyi replied confidently, "Understood, guild leader."
The beautiful knightress next to him blushed. "Vice leader, I’m not his wife…"
Me: "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let’s go!"
"Okay!"
I gathered an entire platoon of magic knight Dragonlight Cavalrymen for Lu Buyi because they had high HP and the ability to equip shields. Once they were buffed by Purple Dragon, they would become the perfect candidates to soak up the mobs’ ranged damage!
……
Meanwhile, the battles happening about 1,000 yards away from our formation were going much, much worse than anyone had expected. The guild leader of Nation Guardian, Wild King was charging the walls with 5,000 Divine Elephant Cavalrymen to provide cover for his engineers, but a single shot from the enemy archers dealt over 100k damage. As a result, all 5,000 Divine Elephant Cavalrymen were dead in less than two minutes, and not a single engineer was able to make it to the walls. Wild King was so shocked he literally couldn’t close his mouth, "What the fuck is this Attack?!"
Breeze and Rain ordered through gritted teeth, "Change of plans. We’re going to have our bards buff our magic knight legions before sending them forward. Archers, try and stun the mobs on the walls and do whatever you can to suppress their firepower. Otherwise, we’ll never be able to make any progress!"
It wasn’t just Cyan Earth City. Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance were suffering massive casualties as well.
"Heavens!"
Gui Guzi clenched his fists tightly. "The mobs’ Attack is absolutely crazy…"
I captured an archer’s stats before replying, "They’re Level 315 deity-rank Dark Archers with a maximum Attack of 70k. Of course they are going to do massive damage. Anyway, we’re moving out after all the Dragonlight Cavalrymen are buffed. Little Gui, remember to take turns healing the men with me, or we won’t be able to make it to the walls either. We just need to make it to the area within 20 yards of the walls. That’s about 72 meters of distance we need to endure. Once we get in, we’ll be safe from at least 80% of the enemy’s firepower!"
Gui Guzi nodded. "I know!"
"Alright, let’s go!"
I climbed onto the Ancient Divine Dragon and gave its butt a pat. Then, we made a beeline toward the city. Behind me, every engineer was protected by 2 or 3 Dragonlight Cavalrymen. They moved at the pace of a foot soldier.
……
The sound of hooves thundered against everyone’s heart. The walls were jam-packed with so many deity-rank Dark Archers that even I couldn’t help but feel wary, and it was clear that we weren’t meant to assault the walls without the NPC legions’ help. Even so, we would defy the odds and preferably breach the city before the NPCs could make their move!
The distance between myself and the Dark Archers grew shorter and shorter. I could see the undead energy circulating around their arrows. The next moment, they all loosed their arrows at me!
Swhoosh!
I flew at an altitude so low that the Ancient Divine Dragon could almost drag its feet. I changed my speed, zigzagged a couple of times and successfully dodged most of the shots. The barren ground behind me was covered in so many arrows it almost looked like the back of a giant porcupine. It reminded me of the story of Zhuge Liang "borrowing" arrows from the enemy using straw boats.
Chaos Moon cheered me on when she saw this. "That’s smart! Lu Chen’s attracting part of the enemy’s firepower for us using his superior speed! Keep it up, man!"
Contrary to her confidence, my forehead was covered in cold sweat. I was dodging at least 80% of the arrows, but the ones that struck still rattled my Cyan Dragon Shield and dealt around 5,000 damage per hit. One mistake, and I might have to pull off an emergency escape.
……
Behind me, the Dragonlight Cavalry finally entered the enemy’s attack range and began sustaining damage. The sounds of arrows pinging against shields suddenly grew a lot more rapid, and they all suffered around 50k damage per hit—
52,398!
49,127!
51,399!
……
Thanks to Purple Dragon and the Dragonscale Beast’s godlike stats, the Dragonlight Cavalry took at least 50% less damage than Cyan Earth City’s Divine Elephant Cavalry. Even so, too many players had fallen below 20% HP, and a few seconds later dozens of Dragonlight Cavalry and engineers dropped dead despite the former already activating War God Recovery to heal themselves.
"Little Gui!" Li Chengfeng yelled, "Shennong Tastes Grass!"
However, I overrode the order. "Don’t use it yet, Gui!”“Calm down, Li. At least half of our troops haven’t entered the death zone yet. We’ll wait a couple more seconds before using up our heals. Ancient Divine Skill cooldowns are precious, and we mustn’t use them willy-nilly!"
Rustle rustle rustle…
The sound of hooves and boots trekking through snow rang incessantly. We were making our way toward the energy screen. It was frigid, but everyone looked like they were full of energy.
I took a moment to tally our numbers. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls still had about 200,000 players after clearing out the necropoleis, but the other guilds could only do worse. Both the mobs and the bosses were no joke, and only the strongest parties could defeat the corpse eaters and the undead mages without losing anyone. Even more people died inside the tombs where the bosses usually resided.
There was also the fact that nearly all of the best guilds in all the servers were gathered in Sainthelm Ruins. Rival guilds within the same server would love nothing more but to bash each other’s faces in, much less rival guilds between different servers. After we exited the snowy valley, I learned that both Warsky Alliance and Candle Dragon had fought against a couple of Northern Alliance guilds to the west side of the ruins.
……
"We’re almost there…"
The snowfall lessened, and the stifling stench of death grew thicker and thicker as we approached our destination.
About a hundred meters away from us, a crimson light screen was fading away to reveal what looked like an ancient city that had been frozen for at least 10,000 years. I figured that the reason the city was called "Sainthelm" was because it looked like a broken helm beneath the glaciers.
"Sainthelm City…" Li Chengfeng sucked in a deep breath before saying, "Everyone who played Spirit of Grief would know that Sainthelm Ruins used to be Sainthelm City, the main city of the USA server. To think that it had become an undead ruin…"
I nodded and glanced at the direction of Vienna’s Sorrow and the American players. They too seemed to be recalling the great wars of the past and preparing themselves for the new battles to come.
"Big bro…"
Beiming Xue gave my cloak a tug before pointing at Sainhelm Ruins. "The city’s not all the same as before. You see that? There’s a whole new wall blocking our entry to the city…"
I shuddered and looked real closely. It was just as she said. There was a circular wall surrounding the entire former Sainthelm City, and it almost looked like a giant bowl with some ice in the middle of it. Only the Purgatory Sovereigns and their countless enslaved corpse eaters could pull off such a massive project.
"Dragonspeech Glacier…" Lin Yixin said in a trembling voice, "I’ve been here before. I’m pretty sure it didn’t look like this when I came here at the beginning of the game…"
A kind of crimson plant that looked like geckos was covering the entire glacier head. Purple fruits that looked like upright wild gingers were also growing out of their stems. They were filled with some sort of purple juice that was most likely poison, and occasionally the fruits would explode on their own and spill their juice on the glacier. It looked strange to say the least.
……
Chiang!
He Yi unsheathed her Suppressing Fire Sword and declared, "The mobs are climbing up the walls. Prepare for battle!"
The Dragonlight Cavalrymen at the frontline all unsheathed their weapons. A couple of high-level Bone Dragons were circling above the city, and I reckoned that they were at least minibosses. Countless dark elf archers were also aligning the walls and aiming their arrows at their own kin. After the undead took control of the dark elves, they became the undead legion’s strongest ranged forces.
It was at this moment countless NPC armies appeared from behind us. Beneath a gorgeous Silver Moon Alliance banner, a still wounded Karinshan ordered in a low tone, "Begin constructing the siege weapons. This is the final battle, so make sure to seal off all exits around Dragonspeech Glacier. We will destroy the entire Purgatory Legion once and for all!"
Ziyan nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. By the way, Lady Sophia and Lady Sophie’s armies have already arrived. When should we begin the assault?"
"In two hours."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
……
The NPC legions began spreading around the entire Dragonspeech Glacier. The ground hadn’t stopped shaking since they appeared, and the sky was filled with griffon riders. Each one-thousand-man square formation was protecting a huge catapult, and these catapults surrounded the entire Sainthelm Ruins. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the Silver Moon Alliance was investing nearly all of their forces into this war. It was do or die!
Meanwhile, the player faction had also surrounded the Sainthelm Ruins. The first one to lose their patience was God of War of Cyan Earth City. One moment there was silence, and the next he was pointing his sword toward the sky and shouting, "It is time! We will invade the city, kill Lin Na, and claim the Purgatory Legion’s divine arms!"
Cyan Earth City began to move. The perimeter of Sainthelm Ruins was at least several kilometers long. It was definitely big enough to accommodate all the players.
Not far away from us, Laughing At The Heavens was raising the banner of Warsky Alliance in the air while Warsky broke off toward the wall. The guild leader raised the Immortal Blade and roared, "For glory, for Warsky Alliance’s future, charge!"
In the sky, a fire dragon also let out a mighty roar before Candlelight Shadow ordered, "Candle Dragon, attack!"
"Should we begin?" Lin Yixin and Stranger of Three Lifetimes looked at me at the same time. Our three guilds were teamed up for the moment, so of course we were going to attack the city together.
I made a small nod before saying, "We haven’t brought any siege weapons with us, so we can only scale the walls with the cloud ladders. The Dragonlight Cavalry will go first and provide cover for the engineers. We’ll talk about the specifics after we set up a hundred cloud ladders!"
Lin Yixin smiled. "Alright, I’ll provide the engineers then. We have more than enough cloud ladders to spare."
"Mn!"
I then said to Lu Buyi, "Buyi, you know the drill. Have your wife carry you while you turn on Purple Dragon and carry the rest of us. I’ll be joining your party as well. For now, just make sure you don’t die until we set up the cloud ladders. There are a shit ton of archers and mages on the walls, and not even the Dragonlight Cavalry may be able to survive their bombardment if they target one specific area."
Lu Buyi replied confidently, "Understood, guild leader."
The beautiful knightress next to him blushed. "Vice leader, I’m not his wife…"
Me: "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let’s go!"
"Okay!"
I gathered an entire platoon of magic knight Dragonlight Cavalrymen for Lu Buyi because they had high HP and the ability to equip shields. Once they were buffed by Purple Dragon, they would become the perfect candidates to soak up the mobs’ ranged damage!
……
Meanwhile, the battles happening about 1,000 yards away from our formation were going much, much worse than anyone had expected. The guild leader of Nation Guardian, Wild King was charging the walls with 5,000 Divine Elephant Cavalrymen to provide cover for his engineers, but a single shot from the enemy archers dealt over 100k damage. As a result, all 5,000 Divine Elephant Cavalrymen were dead in less than two minutes, and not a single engineer was able to make it to the walls. Wild King was so shocked he literally couldn’t close his mouth, "What the fuck is this Attack?!"
Breeze and Rain ordered through gritted teeth, "Change of plans. We’re going to have our bards buff our magic knight legions before sending them forward. Archers, try and stun the mobs on the walls and do whatever you can to suppress their firepower. Otherwise, we’ll never be able to make any progress!"
It wasn’t just Cyan Earth City. Candle Dragon and Warsky Alliance were suffering massive casualties as well.
"Heavens!"
Gui Guzi clenched his fists tightly. "The mobs’ Attack is absolutely crazy…"
I captured an archer’s stats before replying, "They’re Level 315 deity-rank Dark Archers with a maximum Attack of 70k. Of course they are going to do massive damage. Anyway, we’re moving out after all the Dragonlight Cavalrymen are buffed. Little Gui, remember to take turns healing the men with me, or we won’t be able to make it to the walls either. We just need to make it to the area within 20 yards of the walls. That’s about 72 meters of distance we need to endure. Once we get in, we’ll be safe from at least 80% of the enemy’s firepower!"
Gui Guzi nodded. "I know!"
"Alright, let’s go!"
I climbed onto the Ancient Divine Dragon and gave its butt a pat. Then, we made a beeline toward the city. Behind me, every engineer was protected by 2 or 3 Dragonlight Cavalrymen. They moved at the pace of a foot soldier.
……
The sound of hooves thundered against everyone’s heart. The walls were jam-packed with so many deity-rank Dark Archers that even I couldn’t help but feel wary, and it was clear that we weren’t meant to assault the walls without the NPC legions’ help. Even so, we would defy the odds and preferably breach the city before the NPCs could make their move!
The distance between myself and the Dark Archers grew shorter and shorter. I could see the undead energy circulating around their arrows. The next moment, they all loosed their arrows at me!
Swhoosh!
I flew at an altitude so low that the Ancient Divine Dragon could almost drag its feet. I changed my speed, zigzagged a couple of times and successfully dodged most of the shots. The barren ground behind me was covered in so many arrows it almost looked like the back of a giant porcupine. It reminded me of the story of Zhuge Liang "borrowing" arrows from the enemy using straw boats.
Chaos Moon cheered me on when she saw this. "That’s smart! Lu Chen’s attracting part of the enemy’s firepower for us using his superior speed! Keep it up, man!"
Contrary to her confidence, my forehead was covered in cold sweat. I was dodging at least 80% of the arrows, but the ones that struck still rattled my Cyan Dragon Shield and dealt around 5,000 damage per hit. One mistake, and I might have to pull off an emergency escape.
……
Behind me, the Dragonlight Cavalry finally entered the enemy’s attack range and began sustaining damage. The sounds of arrows pinging against shields suddenly grew a lot more rapid, and they all suffered around 50k damage per hit—
52,398!
49,127!
51,399!
……
Thanks to Purple Dragon and the Dragonscale Beast’s godlike stats, the Dragonlight Cavalry took at least 50% less damage than Cyan Earth City’s Divine Elephant Cavalry. Even so, too many players had fallen below 20% HP, and a few seconds later dozens of Dragonlight Cavalry and engineers dropped dead despite the former already activating War God Recovery to heal themselves.
"Little Gui!" Li Chengfeng yelled, "Shennong Tastes Grass!"
However, I overrode the order. "Don’t use it yet, Gui!”“Calm down, Li. At least half of our troops haven’t entered the death zone yet. We’ll wait a couple more seconds before using up our heals. Ancient Divine Skill cooldowns are precious, and we mustn’t use them willy-nilly!"
