Without a word, I took several steps back with the Purgatory Sword, quietly reaching the edge of the forest. I was prepared to retreat.

At this time, a Level 81 warrior called Little Frog next to Warsky came out with his battle axe and shouted, "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, you think you can leave just like that? Damn, you dare to challenge our Farewell Song? Then leave your life here. I'm telling you—our Warsky Alliance rules Sky City!"

As he spoke, Little Frog activated his Charge skill, locked onto me.

"Ha!"

Seeing the other's impulsiveness, I smiled. I saw the whole charge-up animation. The moment his skill activated, I quickly moved two steps to the right to dodge the skill’s CC. Instinctively I continued to move, my blade headed for the place Little Frog would appear after the Charge!

Crack!

Desperate Gambit. Thick hue of red wrapped around my blade and slashed into the other's chest armor!

4178!

Accompanied by a scream, Little Frog fell down and died instantly. This Level 81 warrior clearly was of the type who allocated 5 stat points into Strength at each and every level-up. His HP was too low compared to the top experts like Laughing At The Heavens!

……

"Damn! He killed Frog..."

The group of Warsky Alliance players were furious. Before Warsky even gave an order, the melee players charged each of them howling. Their blades had either flame or ice, the prelude to Blaze and Ice Ray attacks. This group of people were very arrogant and did not conceal their intentions to attack at all.

"Die!"

I took several quick steps back, and raised my hand for a Thousand Mirage Slash!

Clang!

My sword energy split into eight and poured into the crowd. The Warsky players screamed, and enormous damage numbers flew above their heads—

4012!

3874!

3902!

……

Immediately, four warriors were killed, and three magic knights and a wanderer only had a bit of HP left. Such a powerful Thousand Mirage Slash struck them dumb.

But I wasn’t done yet!

I dashed forward, my sword raised high. I suddenly jumped up and hacked down!

Boom!

War Crush's power rampaged everywhere. The four melee players howled, as they fell to the grass and became cold corpses.

I held the Purgatory Sword and stood in the wind, my cloak flapping. I pointed my sword at the Warsky Alliance crowd and said, "Sky City doesn’t belong to anyone yet. If you want to challenge me, go ahead!"

“Gulp!”

Warsky's gaze was harsh. He swallowed and said, "Retreat! We've just entered Sky City and don't want to fight any factions. Let's leave all the grudges until the territory system is opened! Hmph, Lu Chen, remember what you said today. One day, I will make you learn who Sky City belongs to!"

Then, Warsky left with October Rain, Farewell Song, Laughing At The Heavens and others, leaving behind eight corpses. Clearly, Warsky Alliance would lay in wait and gather their power. They didn’t want pointless deaths. Actually, I was already at the borders of the forest. I could retreat there at any time and employ guerilla tactics and deal with them with hit-and-run. On open land, I was obviously not their match, but in the forest, they had no chance of winning. None of them could match the 12th place of CGL Hall of Fame in single combat, not even Farewell Song.

In the previous battle, the reason I had been in such a sorry state had a lot to do with being ambushed. As an assassin, Farewell Song had an advantage of initiative due to their ambush potential. Without that however, it wouldn’t be a fight at all. I could kill him in two attacks while he needed to expend great power to deal with me. It was the classic class counter.

An assassin's advantage was in zone control and CC. Farewell Song’s Silent Punch stunned for 1 second, Cold Poison Strike for 3. Adding the CC recovery animation, he could keep the enemy in check for 5 seconds. It was enough for him to kill most experts, including Lin Yixin. This was the power of Assassin. Stunlock to death, not give your enemies a chance to retaliate. With the element of surprise on their side, assassins were kings of open-world PvP.

……

I opened the big map and found Warsky and the others had walked far away. I didn’t bother paying them anymore attention and continued on my quest!

I came to Dry Town. The second group of townspeople had finished preparing, and the countdown started immediately after I arrived. I escorted the group to the temporary supply camp.

This time, the attacks of the Hellhounds were madder. Without walking far, a large pack of Hellhounds leapt toward us. I naturally met them head-on and used Thousand Mirage Slash to attract their aggro. Surrounded by the Hellhounds, I drank a health potion and used Tenacity of the Dead to barely manage to hold on.

At this time, the War Crush skill was extremely important. Its quick three-hit combo was able to almost instantly kill all the Hellhounds and my grinding and leveling speed had been increased greatly!

To my joy, when I was killing monsters, the townspeople would stop moving. This way, there would be almost no deaths. Otherwise, if I was killing monsters and they continued to walk, they would be massacred by the next pack of Hellhounds, and my quest would officially fail!

After a chaotic battle in which I killed numerous Hellhounds, the wolf pelts in my bag reached over 400, making the fight even more pleasing!

When I sent the second group of townspeople into the temporary camp, the third wave came.

I slowly came to the town entrance and frowned. In the previous wave, two NPC guards had been killed. Fortunately, none of the civilians had died, so it didn’t affect my quest.

"Respected warrior, your sharp sword will protect our lives. I represent the people of the town to show our respect to you!" An old man with a cane came forward and said respectfully to me. “Mayor of Dry Town” hung above his head. Very good, after protecting two groups, even the mayor came to give his thanks.

A group of old and young came out holding hands. I continued to guard the front while the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf wagged its tail and followed. It was neither near or far, it didn't participate in battle, but it still leeched experience. Yes, in order to get this thing to level up quickly, I sacrificed nearly half my gained experience with hopes of it not disappointing me in the future!

I left the town. There weren’t many Hellhounds within this third wave. I felt slightly depressed. In the second wave, there had been over 300 Hellhounds attacking. Would there be less in the third wave?

Just as I was puzzled, I heard rustling sounds from the dense forest ahead. Even the leaves started to tremble collectively. I was shocked and hurriedly raised my sword, shouting, “Stop, there is an enemy attack ahead, stop advancing!"

Before I finished speaking, a wave of Hellhounds poured in. Clearly, the quest design was to have them gather their firepower on me. This was good. They had to kill me before they could touch the townspeople. The glorious sacrifice was the fate of warriors!

Clang!

I pulled out the Purgatory Sword and charged forward, attacking into the Hellhound horde without any regard for my life. I activated Ghost Deity Armor, and opened the battle with a Thousand Mirage Slash. Streaks of sword energy lashed out, and a pack of Hellhounds became corpses in the blink of an eye. My experience shot up quickly!

Soon, I was surrounded by Hellhounds. The sharp claws left marks on the Obsidian Dragonscale Armor. Fortunately, this Dragonscale Armor was a high-grade item and any small dent would heal on its own. The Hellhounds’ damage wasn’t that great either, and I still had that 10% damage absorption property. This leveling speed was great!

Once again, War Crush!

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, your War Crush has ranked up!

……

Very good, War Crush II. Would it be even more powerful now?

Facing the packed Hellhound horde, I used the Rank 2 War Crush after seven seconds. Among the furious howling explosions, more than thirty Hellhounds died amid pitiful howls. Tsk tsk, its range seemed to have been increased?

I looked closely at the skill details. As expected, after reaching Rank 2, War Crush could damage all targets within a 6x6 yard square. Killing over 30 monsters at once was within expectations.

Therefore, facing the fierce attacks of over 500 Hellhounds, I used Tenacity of the Dead and health potions in order to survive. Thousand Mirage Slash and War Crush were already spectacular trump skills, but with the splash damage, they became the greatest monster-killing machine!

Originally, I needed at least 2 hours to finish killing monsters, but with this increase in AoE, I was done in 30 minutes!

Bang!

After my Purgatory Sword cut off the last Hellhound's head, I finally exhaled. The monsters were so densely packed together. If they had not attacked the townspeople first, I would have been crying.

I saw the dropped stones and tattered equipment. While I knew the equipment wasn't anything good, I still felt pride. I killed a group of monsters on my own, and I was a melee player. This was so great!

I walked around, and the Death Plunder yielded another great haul. More than 800 pelts appeared in my bag. I could only imagine how many more I’d wave if there were two more waves!

I looked at the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf. After half an hour, the little guy had reached Level 27! I checked out its stats—

Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf

Level: 27

Attack: 540

Defense: 486

HP: 5400

Agility: 510

……

The powerful growth was astounding, and its Defense was near 500. I believed this pet could already be of use when it reached Level 50. Its Attack was high, and it was like a bull with its HP. It would be dumb not to use this pet as an offensive meatshield.

At this time, I heard a beep. He Yi sent a message: "Lu Chen, check the forums!"