Rumble rumble…

The earth of Sky City suddenly rumbled with the sound of horse hooves. Then, hordes of Night Creature riders appeared from the spatial bridge and charged straight toward our allied NPC legions!

Cavalry troops! The last monster wave were cavalry troops!

The riders were high-rank Asuras in dark cyan armor. They wielded long spears in their right hands and rusted broadswords in their left hands. They wore helmets, but there was a slit in the metal that revealed their bloody eyes. Although they were undead, I could see that their skin was intact, and they had all the features a human should have. In that sense, we were very similar to each other.

Ding! As I had expected, a new entry in my combat log informed me that my Deterrence and the enemies’ Deterrence canceled each other out.

My pupils shrank when the first undead rider entered my range. I immediately shared its stats screen in the guild channel—

Coldblade Death Knight (Shadow)

Level: 155

Attack: 1950~2440

Defense: 2400

HP: 200000

Skills: Charge, Stomp, Blade Sweep

Introduction: Once the noble knights of humanity, the Coldblade Death Knights had been changed into the elites of the Purgatory Legion after their souls succumbed to the darkness. Their skeletons were enhanced, and they retained the skills they’ve learned when they were still human. They are the aces of Coldblade’s army.

……

“Fuck…” Li Chengfeng sounded a little dazed. “I know it’s a Level 155 shadow-rank mob, but this Attack is still ridiculous. This is going to be bad. I’m not even sure if the NPC armies can stop this…”

“Mn. Watch out for the Coldblade Death Knights’ charge. Priests, be ready to heal at first notice!” I barked out the orders.

The earth shook like thunder as countless Coldblade Death Knights rushed toward us. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, Snowy Cathaya, and The Monarch Descends—only 5000 of us left now—had joined together to form the strongest defense line we could make. The saying “without the lips, the teeth feel the cold” fitted this situation perfectly. Working together was the only chance we were going to survive this, and even then, it was only a small chance.

The tension was palpable as we waited for the Coldblade Death Knights to hit us. When the high-rank riders were about 50 yards away from us, they abruptly used Charge and hit our defense line indiscriminately. All our mounted players—Gui Guzi, He Yi, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and so on—held up their shields and withstood the Charges with everything they got. All was lost if they failed to withstand even the first round of assault.

I also raised my Heaven-stealing Sword and hit a Coldblade Death Knight’s spear three or four times in a row. However, my arm turned numb from the impact because the Level 155 shadow-rank mobs were just too powerful. If even I felt threatened by the charge, then it could only be worse for everyone else.

“Die for the glory of the infinite storm!”

A Coldblade Death Knight opened its mouth and shouted savagely. After the Charge, its two-handed broadsword burst into flames, and it slashed at a row of players and dealt an insane amount of damage—

6894!

7021!

4459!

……

Everyone’s Defense was different. I had high Defense, so I didn’t lose more than 3000 HP, but the others didn’t fare nearly as well. One of our players lost over 7000 HP after enduring just one Blade Sweep, and he wasn’t facing just one enemy. He was killed instantly when the rest of the Coldblade Death Knights activated Blade Sweep as well!

“Aaahhh…”

The screams of death filled the air. This was just the initial clash, and over 10 of our fighters had been one-shot already. Our priests never even got the chance to heal them.

It was because the Coldblade Death Knights’ Attack was too high, and they had the AoE skills to make use of it! Both of these qualities were terrifying to face in a battle like this!

My eyes turned red as I threw three fiery sword auras to the center of eight Coldblade Death Knights. Then, I froze them all with Thousand Ice Slash so that they couldn’t escape from our archers’ attacks!

It was worth noting that Beiming Xue had equipped the Burning Shadow Bow already. The Level 120 Spirit-grade weapon’s Attack upper limit was over 800, it had an Outstanding Property that enhanced critical damage by 20%. Beiming Xue’s total critical rate was over 25%, so she was able to deal critical damage to the mobs quite consistently. It wasn’t long before her DPS attracted the eyeballs of everyone who was paying attention. She dealt at least 15000 damage every time she scored a critical hit, and when she used Evil Spirit Volley, that number was multiplied by the number of mobs she hit! It was an epic sight to say the least!

Li Chengfeng curled his lips as he praised Beiming Xue. “The Dark Archer truly is one of the founding members of Bloody Mercenaries. Now that I think about it, the Dark Archer, the Undying Knight, and the Undead Swordsman were all in Bloody Mercenaries, right? Tsk tsk, without your prodigious workshop, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls would still be nameless to this day.”

I smiled. “I’m sure you can do more damage than Beiming Xue if you’re willing to put in the effort.”

“But of course…”

Li Chengfeng swung his sword once, and the Tempest Sword created a violent circle of whirlwind with a 5-yard radius in the middle of Cavalry Death Knights. The mobs shivered as the skill dealt over ten thousand damage to them. The Tempest Sword definitely deserved its reputation as a Level 120 offensive-type sword. Although its Attack was slightly inferior to Whirlwind, it was still very amazing.

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…

At the back, Murong Mingyue and our priests were munching Dragon Meat Soup and healing the frontliners with everything they got at the same time. Our defense line would’ve crumbled a long time ago without them!

Fire rained from the sky as He Yi’s Firelight Mouse cast its spells. Its Magic Attack was comparable to that of a high-level mage, and its spells were AoE. Because of this, He Yi accumulated a huge amount of points in this war.

At the distance, Snowy Cathaya was fighting a hard battle. Purple Marquis and Lin Yixin were doing everything they could to aggro as many mobs as possible and protect their backliners, but the Coldblade Death Knights still managed to punch a couple of holes in their defense line and wreak havoc on the archers and mages.

Monarch’s defense line fared even worse. After the death of Purple Wind Chime, Mo Xiaoxiao and other elite fighters, the remaining frontliners were incapable of stopping the Coldblade Death Knights at all. The battle quickly turned into a massacre after their defense line crumbled, and tens of thousands of mobs swarmed them from every direction. Ling Xueshang wore a helpless expression because she knew it was over for them.

I frowned at the sight of our dying ally. It was too late to save them, not to mention that we were barely keeping it together ourselves. I ordered Gui Guzi, “Little Gui, take a few riders with you and protect Ling Xueshang! Escort her and anyone else who’s still alive into our formation!”

“Got it!”

I also sent Ling Xueshang a message: “Xueshang, round up whoever’s still alive in your guild and join our formation while you still can! You can continue the fight from there!”

“Got it!” Ling Xueshang accepted the offer without hesitation.

On the other side, Warsky Alliance wasn’t faring much better either. Warsky Alliance’s defense line was in chaos right now. Although Warsky and Laughing At The Heavens’ Famous General Skills boosted their frontliners just enough to hold on, there were still too many holes in their formation. With only a thousand players or so, it was only a matter of time before they crumbled completely.

“Aahh…”

We lost another row of fighters because a Coldblade Death Knight scored a lucky critical hit with its Blade Sweep. The skill was so powerful that anyone with slightly inferior tankability was one-shot without mercy. This was one thing our priests could do nothing about, no matter how powerful they were.

……

“Roar!”

My Silver Dragon Ring flashed and caused a Silver Dragon Storm in the area with the most Coldblade Death Knights, killing the low health ones instantly. Although they dropped a ton of equipment, Magic Stones, and other items, no one was crazy enough to pick them up. It was suicide to move out of the battle line, and even a super tank like Gui Guzi would die if he was completely surrounded by the Coldblade Death Knights.

Level 155 shadow-rank mobs were tough enough, but their stats were even stronger in a massive quest like this one. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this a quest in hell mode!

Still, high risk was usually accompanied with high reward. After the Silver Dragon Storm took out the 20 or so Coldblade Death Knights, my experience also rose by a whopping 3%. How insane was that? At this rate, I could probably hit Level 125 and equip the 6-star Outstanding Earth-grade item, the Soul Suppressing Cloak, in less than 20 minutes!

Joy and hope settled snugly in my heart as I continued to fight at the vanguard. The Heaven-stealing Sword’s durability had dropped to less than 15%, and He Yi’s Whirlwind was starting to glow red as well. The visual effect meant that the weapon was low on durability. However, the battle was so fierce that we couldn’t afford to conserve any energy at all.

In fact, most people had lost their weapons in the middle of the battle. However, they could almost always pick up a weapon from the ground and continue the battle immediately. For example, Chaos Moon was currently swinging a spear like a complete novice. Its Attack was obviously not as good as the sword she originally used, but it was still much better than fighting barehanded.

……

Time passed bit by bit, and our player count dropped from 1800 to 1500, and to 1000. Another half an hour later, only a paltry 476 players were still standing on the battlefield. Everyone who was still alive was creme de la creme, but the sacrifice of our comrades’ levels still hurt our souls deeply.

Our united army had shrunk to less than a thousand, and Lin Yixin was fighting by my side right now. She let out a bitter laugh and commented in a helpless tone, “So many people died in this monster wave…”

I nodded. “Not only that, there are still over 30% of the Coldblade Death Knights left…”

“Uuuu, what should we do…”

Suddenly, a system announcement dinged across all China servers—

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player "Lin Bing Dou Zhe (Vanished God City)" has successfully defeated the Spirit Rank Boss, Mountain Stone Giant King, and reached Level 120. They have also met the criteria to become a Famous General and become the eighteenth Famous General of China! They have gained Luck +1, Tactics +1, and an exclusive Famous General Skill, "Renown"!

Renown: Beseech the power of the battle soul and increase all party members’ Attack by 30% and Defense by 20%. Skill effectiveness depends on the user’s Tactics. Skill exclusive to player “Lin Bing Dou Zhe”!