Whoosh!

I bolted toward a Blood Armored Cavalry Leader and stunned him in the blink of an eye. When ice suddenly enveloped the surface of my blade and turned into an icicle, I stabbed the miniboss right through its chest and caused black blood to spill out.

3786!

I wasn’t done yet. Shrouding my blade with green light, I dragged my sword horizontally, dealing yet another deadly blow to the miniboss.

3459!

But the Blood Armored Cavalry Leader had a lot of HP. Its wilted eyeballs growing increasingly savage, the monster swung its spear and scored a long dent across my beautiful Purgatory War Armor. The good news was that it wasn’t able to pierce my Defense largely, and the attack only dealt about 400 damage or so.

I retreated as I fought so that the miniboss would enter the range of my archers and mages. An endless hail of arrows and ice magic immediately rained down on the poor guy and dealt all kinds of damage. Despite having almost a hundred thousand HP, the miniboss was killed in less than half a minute!

Pop pop pop...

The miniboss dropped a couple of items, but I had no time to check them out, so I just threw them all into my bag before charging the next Blood Armored Cavalry Leader!

……

As war raged across the battlefield, a pair of fat, big-eared giant beasts appeared atop the walls of Skull Castle. They swung their war hammers at the war drums made from Dilong skin continuously as fire covered the sky that began turning blood-red.

Beneath the city, countless Skull Cavalry and players clashed against one another. The battle at the eastern wall alone was terrible enough to turn anyone’s blood ice cold. The Skull Cavalry’s charge was stunningly powerful, and their blades were sharp enough to penetrate most players’ armor. They tore countless low-level players to shreds, and there were enough bodies to make a literal river of blood. Up until now, there were at least millions of bodies strewn around the entire city.

Clang clang clang!

He Yi swung her sword three times in quick succession and knocked back a Blood Armored Cavalry Leader with amazing grace. Protected by her Rock Shield, she spun around and followed up with a continuous thrust at another miniboss's head. Our beautiful guild leader was proving her strength before her guild members by soloing two minibosses herself!

"Eve, come closer to me!"

Murong Mingyue called out to her while swinging her scepter and healing He Yi back to full health.

On the other side, Gui Guzi was also activating Undying Shield and keeping a Blood Armored Cavalry Leader completely tied up. Every time he swung his spear, the miniboss screamed in pain, and the banner behind its back shuddered visibly from the impact. It shouldn’t take much longer for him to defeat that miniboss.

Not far away from him, the frontline of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls—Xu Yang, Chaos Moon, Du Thirteen, and other high-level warriors—were also engaging the minibosses bravely. They were barely staying alive thanks to the support of their guildmates. It was important to note that our high-level tactician, A Broken Smile, was continuously using his war drums to buff his allies with Encourage.

The battle was worryingly desperate, and the only way to win was absolute power. Night Creatures were infamous for their offensive power, so the only way to obtain true victory was to end their unholy life once and for all.

……

Clang clang!

After cutting down a Skull Cavalry in two hits, I stepped on its chest and looked around me. The sky was completely covered by smoke, and people were dying with each passing second. I couldn’t help but gasp at the horrible sight before commenting in the party channel, "This doesn’t look too good for us…"

He Yi followed my gaze before echoing in agreement, "Yeah. It’s a total collapse!"

Even Gui Guzi was shocked by the disaster happening around him. "Fuck, what is going on…"

……

The enemy’s cavalry troops hadn’t just hit our guild, of course. All the guilds next to us were also attacked by a seemingly endless horde of Skull Cavalry led by a small number of Blood Armored Cavalry Leaders. Their defense line—especially those small, unknown guilds—looked pathetically weak, and they completely crumbled upon first contact. The charge and the blades of the Skull Cavalry were so deadly that they practically trampled the player factions in just the blink of an eye!

It wasn’t long before most of the player factions around us were beaten back by the enemy. Soon, we were the only ones left who were still a couple thousand strong and fighting against the Skull Cavalry. Some of our players looked a bit shaken and demoralized as a result.

I saw it all and ran all the way to the edge of our formation. Then, I unleashed Thousand Mirage Slash and charged straight into the enemy formation. Lifting the Purgatory Sword into the air, I shouted, "Brothers of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, it is time to defend the honor of our guild! Remember those people who called us a sham? Now is your chance to silence their mouths with the blades in your hand! Stay brave, and attack!"

Xu Yang also raised his sword and shouted, "Follow Lu Chen and attack!"

Du Thirteen, Chaos Moon, Beiming Xue and more also charged the enemy. The plan was to attack the left and right wing while still keeping the Skull Cavalry directly in front of us at bay. If we simply defended and did nothing else, it was only a matter of time before the enemy devoured us all with sheer numbers!

The minibosses had all been killed by our top experts, so the only enemies we had to defeat were the Level 81 cavalrymen. Naturally, they were a lot easier to deal with!

Boom!

I unleashed a Purgatory Slash into a group of mobs whenever it triggered its Outstanding property, and thanks to the extra splash damage, not even the healthiest of the Skull Cavalry could tank all the damage. An entire horde of mobs was one-shot by the skill, further lifting the morale of our troops.

Encouraged by my fearless charge, the players of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls shook off their hesitation and launched their own counterattacks. Countless Arctic Rains, Ice Dragon Howls, Volleys and more rained on the enemies while the fighters fought tooth and nail to keep our battle line intact. Our formation was as tough as a steel fortress, and not even the Skull Cavalry could break through this iron wall.

The only other force who still hadn’t fallen at the eastern wall was Gods of Destruction. At the distance, I could see Dominating Heaven Blade defending a hole in his guild’s formation while shouting, "Stay strong, brothers! We are the king and protector of Floating Ice City! We have no reason to retreat!"

"Aahh…"

Beside him, two Level 70 warriors screamed and collapsed to the ground after a Blood Armored Cavalry Leader used Flame Thrust on them. The skill was deadly to say the least.

One look told me that Gods of Destruction had around 1500 players left. The only good news was that they were all elite players. The strongest of them all, Dominating Knight God, Dominating Warrior God and so on were hanging at the front and attracting the minibosses’ attention to buy time for the players behind them to shoot them down.

The corpses strewn across the edges of the ongoing battle were thick enough to form walls of flesh, and they all had the Gods of Destruction’s emblem on them. It was bad, really bad. If even the second best guild on China’s Guild Ranking was doing this badly, everyone else could only be faring much worse.

Pu pu…

Another two Gods of Destruction warriors died after being stabbed right through the neck. Four Red Armored Cavalry Leaders were attacking their defense line, and it looked like their formation would collapse at any moment now!

I gritted my teeth and turned around. "Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon, Xu Yang, follow me! I also want some mages, priests, and archers! We’re going to join forces with Gods of Destruction and form a unified defense line across the entire eastern wall!"

Gui Guzi looked surprised. "You want to save Gods of Destruction, boss?"

I nodded seriously. "We must if we wish to hold out a little longer. If we don’t save them, there’s no way they’ll be able to endure the next wave. Failing the quest to reestablish the Violet Empire will cost us far more than what we’ll lose to protect Gods of Destruction!"

"Okay!"

Xu Yang, Chaos Moon and even He Yi and Du Thirteen joined me. Soon, all the elites of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had assembled into a group before charging under my command!

Murong Mingyue waved her scepter and summoned her falling meteors. Hellish Rockfall was such a useful skill in this situation; it only took two consecutive casts to kill an entire horde of Level 81 monsters!

I was at the forefront of the charge and tanking most of the damage coming our way. When we finally got close to Gods of Destruction, I immediately raised my sword and unleashed Thousand Mirage Slash!

Boom!

The sword aura split into eight before landing on the mobs and dealing an innumerable amount of damage. In fact, the longest streak of sword energy nearly cut off the tip of Dominating Heaven Blade’s nose before it slaughtered all the Skull Cavalry in front of him!

Facial muscles twitched on Dominating Heaven Blade’s visage as he stared at me and the dead enemies. Then, he said, "Thank you for assisting us, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!"

I nodded and said, "Dominating Heaven Blade, tell your men to spread out and form a line with us. If we continue fighting on our own, it’s only a matter before we all die! These monster waves are far stronger than any of us had anticipated!"

"Mn!"

Dominating Heaven Blade raised his sword and shouted, "Spread out the line and form up with Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! We absolutely must hold on, you hear me!? Also, tell our brothers who are still inside the city to come assist us, and that includes those who just came online!"

"Yes, boss!"

Dominating Knight God nodded and carried out the order.

……

20 minutes later, the Skull Cavalry finally dwindled into nothing. Countless Big Magic Stones and low-level equipment littered the ground, and everyone was excited. Somehow, we managed to defeat the fourth wave despite how powerful it was!

I turned around and smiled at what I saw. Du Thirteen, Gui Guzi, and Xu Yang were covered in blood. Their weapons were equally dirty. That had been an absolutely desperate battle, but Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls had been able to hold onto the initiative almost from the start to the end! That was the only reason we were able to weather the Night Creature’s fierce assault!

I checked the battle window and noticed that the number of players in the Violet Empire faction had decreased again. Less than five hundred thousand players had survived that terrible battle!

"A new boss has spawned!" Xu Yang reported. "Yeah, Snowy Cathaya’s Wind Fantasy is leading Purple Marquis, Clear Perfume, and Shadow Chanel against it. It’s a Level 83 Dark Gold Rank boss!"

"Mn!"

I nodded affirmatively before ordering, "Then let us take this moment to catch our breaths. All those who are out of pots, resupply now and prepare for the next wave!"

Meanwhile, He Yi asked with a frown, "Just how many waves are there?"

"Who knows…"

I stared at the eerie Skull Castle ahead of us. God knows how many more people would have to die before we finally took this stronghold down.