Swhoosh!

I spun around like lightning and pressed my sword against Shangguan Wan’er’s chest. However, she withdrew almost just as quickly, so I had no choice but to use a basic attack instead of a skill like I had planned to!

Puchi!

The tip of the blade penetrated Shangguan Wan’er’s chest and drained all the blood from her face!

3209!

Had I been able to hit her with a skill, even one as weak as Ice Ray, she probably would be dead already. In fact, an average assassin would’ve been one-shot by even my basic attack. The Heaven-stealing Sword was that powerful, and she survived only because she had sufficient Defense and HP.

I ran after her and swung my sword at her neck. One of them must die for me to win this duel!

However, someone suddenly appeared behind me and stunned me! At the same time, the combat log updated and displayed a terrible news—

Beep!

Combat Log: Player "Farewell Song" used "Poisoned Weapon Kill" and stunned you for 3 seconds!

……

Farewell Song!!? Why is he here? And why have I failed to sense him even though he’s only Level 96?

At this point, I was certain that Farewell Song’s stealth skill had been somehow enhanced like my skills, and it made him even harder to detect than before. This was bad!

Farewell Song launched a fearsome attack on me. He swung his dagger twice and used Blooddrinker Slash + Blade Vortex!

2985!

1302!

1487!

MISS!

Three of the four attacks hit me for over 5700 damage, but 10% of it was absorbed by the Obsidian Dragon Scale Armor and converted into HP. Therefore, the real damage I took was around 5000 or 60% of my total HP. Farewell Song looked a bit disappointed because he thought he could one-shot me.

Little Piglet didn’t let the opportunity slip by. He dashed toward me, swung his sword in a wide arc and used the Ice Breaking Slash!

2985!

My health instantly dropped to the red. Not everyone could endure the attacks of three top-tier experts for three seconds and still be alive. The good news was that Little Piglet was a bit too far away from me when he initiated his attack, so I had already broke out of the stun when he tried to follow up with an Ice Ray Flurry. I immediately used Tenacity of the Dead and drank a health potion to heal myself, and used Guard to minimize the damage I took!

+2050!

+3000!

……

It was always nice to stay above 50% HP. Gripping the Heaven-stealing Sword tightly and glaring at Farewell Song, "What is the meaning of this?"

Farewell Song smiled and replied, "What does it look like? I’m challenging the amazing Falling Dust, that’s all. Why do you ask? Is my timing not to your liking?"

At the distance, He Yi said loudly, "Farewell Song, Lu Chen is dueling Little Piglet and Shangguan Wan’er right now! If you’re smart you’ll stay out of this while you still can!"

But Farewell Song wasn’t intimidated. "My guild leader ordered me to kill Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, and I will carry out his order. I couldn’t care less about your circumstances!"

I looked at Little Piglet and Shangguan Wan’er, but neither of them looked like they wanted to say anything. I guessed that meant they didn’t mind Farewell Song "interfering" with the duel and turning this into a 3v1. Well shit, if this fight wasn’t dangerous before, it was now. All three players were super experts, and victory or defeat could be decided in a single instant. Farewell Song’s sneak attack especially was terrifying even for me.

……

But I couldn’t run away. Not only would I be accused of cowardice since I was the 12th ranker on the CGL Hall of Fame, both my and the guild’s reputations would suffer tremendously. In that case, the only way to deal with this was to smile and overcome the challenge before me.

So I smiled and held my sword in front of me. "If you want a 3v1, then a 3v1 is what you’ll get. You didn’t think this is enough to scare me, did you?"

Farewell Song chuckled as his dagger gleamed menacingly. "You’d better get ready then!"

……

Some distance away, He Yi, Murong Mingyue, Beiming Xue, Du Thirteen, and the others watched us with bated breaths. A lot of people had turned on their recorders to capture the epic battle as well. After all, this wasn’t something you got to see everyday.

The trio moved to the corners and surrounded me in a triangular formation. I pointed my sword to the ground and waited calmly for them to come at me first.

Little Piglet abruptly shouted, "Go!"

All three players moved in unison. Farewell Song was dashing toward me from an odd angle and aiming for my back like a venomous snake. At first glance it looked like a probing attack, but in reality I would suffer huge damage if I allowed it to hit me!

At the same time, Little Piglet and Shangguan Wan’er also attacked me from two different directions.

I made up my mind in just the blink of an eye. I bent my body just enough to dodge Farewell Song’s attack and shuffled my feet to the right at the same time. It was such an odd movement that I actually lost my balance and almost fell on the ground. Thankfully, I managed to stay on my feet and parried away both Farewell Song and Little Piglet with two strikes. At the same time, I lifted my leg and kicked Shangguan Wan’er right in the stomach!

Bang!

The beautiful assassin let out a muffled groan and stumbled backward. The kick actually dealt over 1200 damage to her!

Thud...

I regained my footing after my lightning quick movements bought me a bit of time. Then, I roamed to the left and slashed Shangguan Wan’er’s pet, the Purple Butterfly King, vertically!

8041!

It was a one-shot. There was no way her pet could survive my attack.

……

Little Piglet and Farewell Song looked furious. They didn’t realize that I had forced them back just to kill a pet, and they felt both humiliated and played because of it.

Little Piglet raised his sword and used Charge!

I backed away from him and tried to dodge out of the way. The one-second stun wasn’t deadly, but the follow-up stun from Farewell Song definitely would be.

Whoosh!

Little Piglet’s Charge only hit my afterimage after I did a double zigzag. That wasn’t the end though because I felt a chill from my right. Here comes Farewell Song!

Farewell Song thrust his burning dagger toward me, but somehow he was able to twist the direction of his attack from my chest to below my armpit instead. I raised my left arm horizontally to block the attack with my armor and fire a Dragon Slaying Slash at Shangguan Wan’er with my right at the same time!

"Ah…"

Shangguan Wan’er retreated to her battle line because she didn’t have much health to begin with. Wang Dongliang then ordered his priests to heal her to full health.

My expression grew even sterner than before. So annoying!

I swung my sword angrily and forced Farewell Song to withdraw. Unfortunately, I was forced to raise my arm at the same time to block an Ice Ray from Little Piglet. If I wasn’t a fourth-promotion player, I might’ve been dead a long time ago!

My HP continued to drop again and again. Thankfully, the 14% lifesteal from the Heaven-stealing Sword and some aggressive moves bought me a bit more time than I would’ve had otherwise.

Shangguan Wan’er was healed by her priests, so I didn’t think I could kill her instantly without considerable effort. It was time to change tactics!

At the same time, I whispered inside the party channel, "Eve, don’t just stand there and watch like an actual spectator! Tell our players to circle around Warsky Alliance’s main army and move to the heart of the Fire Desert! If we can seal off the entrance to the boss zone, we can ensure that the boss is ours even if I lose this fight!"

He Yi nodded immediately. "Got it. I’ll send the instructions to Xu Yang right away!"

……

I turned my attention back to the duel and quickly came up with a new battle plan. I pulled back toward my own battle line slowly, but it didn’t look like I was retreating or trying to bait my enemy into doing something.

Farewell Song and Little Piglet exchanged a glance with each other. A while later, Little Piglet blurted in realization and anger, "He’s trying to draw the battle toward his own battle line so that we’ll be exposed to his guild’s firepower!"

Farewell Song gritted his teeth and uttered, "Kill him!"

They ran toward me in an unpredictable pattern. From above, they probably looked like two venomous snakes crawling swiftly toward their prey.

Smiling, I took another few steps backward before charging toward Farewell Song without warning. The Heaven-stealing Sword burned with a bright light. Come, Thousand Ice Slash!

Farewell Song was caught off-guard by the random AoE skill during retreating, but it was impossible to dash out of the range of the skill in time. He gritted his teeth and used Guard to minimize the damage taken!

Boom!

The icy sword aura hit Farewell Song and caused an explosion of sand, but the skill only dealt around 1000 damage to the protected assassin. He was nowhere close to death!

I smiled. All I wanted was to stall Farewell Song a little, and in that regard the result was exactly what I wanted it to be. I then looked at Little Piglet and activated Thunderous Charge!

Whoosh!

I rushed toward Little Piglet while leaving behind a long line of lightning afterimages. Little Piglet had been trying to save Farewell Song, so he wasn’t prepared at all for my Thunderous Charge and got stunned in an instant!

Clang clang!

The Heaven-stealing Sword hit him twice on the shoulder and dealt a sizable amount of damage—

2985!

2894!

His equipment was high-grade alright. Even with my attack power, I wasn’t able to crush him like I would crush most players. Moreover, he was surrounded by a cyan energy that looked like a transparent metal armor, and if my estimates were correct, the skill had reduced the damage taken by at least 25%!

Farewell Song ran toward me in an attempt to save Little Piglet. He knew that five seconds were more than enough time for me to kill his comrade!

The corner of my lips turned up again, and Little Piglet immediately realized what I was about to do. He wanted to warn Farewell Song, but it was too late!

Farewell Song hit me again with Poisoned Weapon Kill and stunned me for 3 seconds!

But I also finished stomping the ground with my foot and used War Crush right before he stunned me!

Boom boom boom!

Three consecutive explosions later, Farewell Song hit the ground with a muffled groan and died. Little Piglet survived because he recovered from my stun just in time to drink a health potion, and because a couple of priests had caught up to him just in time to throw a couple of healing spells on him!

I smiled at Little Piglet and said, "Do you really think you’re going to get away just like last time?"

Little Piglet activated his Freezing Heat to increase his movement speed drastically before chuckling, "You think you can kill me? Then come. I’m sure Shangguan Wan’er will be happy to celebrate your death!"

……

Little Piglet was about to escape when a beast suddenly appeared in his way. My Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf had finally slapped that Ice Giant to death and come to my aid!

I didn’t make the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf attack Little Piglet because he had Freezing Heat on. It would only miss its target or worse, open itself up to a counterattack. Instead, I took direct control over the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf and moved it in front of Little Piglet! If he tried to run to the left, the Sky Obsidian Greedy Wolf would move in the same direction and block his path, and vice versa! At the same time, I rushed him from behind and went all out!

Little Piglet was stunned by my impeccable multitasking. He couldn’t stop himself from swearing, "Are you fucking kidding me?!"

……

Crack!

I slapped Little Piglet with Pardon before piercing his chest with Desperate Gambit!

MISS!

7036!