Tempest Shadow lifted his iron spear as he looked down at the group from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and roared with arrogant laughter. “Fucking hell, come at us if you have the balls. Stop bitching and whining if you’re real men! Come at me!”

Blue Sky Scar was holding a longsword radiating green light. He laughed and said, “Weren’t you guys from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls acting really cocky before we arrived? Why are your balls shrinking now? Come at us if you have the guts! Candle Dragon will be waiting for you right here! Lu Chen, didn’t you say that you wanted to trample over us? Then come at me bro! This is your big opportunity!”

Blood rushed to my head as I brandished the Cyan Netherworld Sword and started to take a step forward.

He Yi’s voice immediately rang out from behind me. “Don’t let his words get to you, Lu Chen. We need to have a plan before we attack them. If we just rush at them stubbornly, we’ll eat a huge loss. It might even spell our defeat!”

He Yi continued in an animated voice as she stared at the players on the city walls. “Golden Age Hero, Blood Slash, and Song of Pig’s Famous General Skill, Soul of the Foot, is way too strong when it comes to sieges and all of them will be able to boost their party members’ Attack and Defense by 70–100%. Lu Chen, have you realized that Candle Dragon’s city defense strategy is different from Hall of Immortality’s? Hall of Immortality primarily used archers and mages to defend their city, but Candle Dragon is relying on their warriors. They are practically daring us to assault their walls. Candlelight Shadow has always been a sly and cunning person. He’s definitely doing this to lure us toward his walls so that he can kill all of us in one fell swoop!”

Li Chengfeng nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, I second what the guild leader just said. Candlelight Shadow’s totally trying to bait us into attacking the city. Once all of us get up there, he can pull their frontline back a little and coordinate with his long-range players to decimate us. He just needs to get rid of a few of our Famous Generals to greatly reduce the chances of our success.”

Chaos Moon sucked in a deep breath as she said, “Candle Dragon really is quite shameless…”

High Fighting Spirits hefted the battle axe in his hand as he asked, “So what should we do now?”

He Yi giggled as she responded in a supremely calm voice, “We need to settle on a strategy to break their defensive formation. If we can’t think of a plan, our chances really won’t look very good. Remember, Warsky Alliance assembled such a strong force, but they couldn’t even hold out against Candle Dragon for thirty minutes. It’s possible that we won’t be able to do it either.”

Gui Guzi said, “How should we approach this?”

He Yi shook her head and replied, “I actually haven’t figured it out yet, but I do know that charging at them with ladders isn’t a viable option.”

I said, “Let’s wait for the siege towers that Stranger of Three Lifetimes prepared for us. Once those dozen siege towers arrive, all of our elite players should board them and attack the city together. We need to wrest control of the city walls from Candle Dragon in a single instant. Once we accomplish that, we’ll just have to defend the walls from Candle Dragon’s attacks. If we can hold on to those walls, we’ll have nothing to fear from Candle Dragon.”

Li Chengfeng chimed in, “Don’t forget one point. There are over a hundred P2W arrow towers in that city, so we have to be stronger than Candle Dragon if we are to conquer the city walls while they are pressuring us.”

“Don’t worry, we will be!”

“Yeah!”

……

We waited outside the city for nearly ten minutes before the twelve siege towers prepared by Stranger of Three Lifetimes stopped a hundred yards away from us. All of them were completely plated with metal armor and they looked extremely sturdy. The front of the siege towers seemed to be covered with an even thicker metal shell than the rest of it and it looked as if there was a giant shield fixed to the front of each of them. This “shield” was also bristling with blades and spikes that looked sharp enough to skewer players with ease.

Creak, creak...

The siege towers let out the creaky sounds of an old, shabby cart as teams of magic knights slowly pushed them forward. Stranger of Three Lifetimes was standing on top of one of these siege towers and she waved her magic staff in the air as she yelled, “Magic knights protect the… err… protect the second division commander. I want a group of our warriors to advance together with our friends from Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! We need to launch a fierce attack on the city walls to draw fire from the enemy and create an opportunity for our siege towers. If not, the enemy mages are going to wreck those siege towers!”

“Yes!”

A squad of warriors from Blazing Hot Lips surged forward and climbed up a ladder as we watched with dumbfounded expressions on our faces. They were continuously harassed by the enemy mages and archers the entire way up, but not a single one of them retreated even as their companions started falling one after the other. They attacked as if they had no fear of death whatsoever.

Damn, every single one of these girls who had made it big were scary as shit. Stranger of Three Lifetimes’ ability to rally and command her troops was top-notch.

Thunk, thunk, thunk...

People kept falling to their deaths right above us and within the span of a few short minutes, the entire contingent of warriors from Blazing Hot Lips, a force that was several hundred strong, had been completely wiped out. Candle Dragon’s firepower was simply way too overwhelming. Tempest Shadow’s 120% Attack buff from Resolute and Blue Sky Scar’s 150% Attack buff from Frenzy were both gamechangers. Moreover, they had three other players who had Soul of the Foot, which buffed the physical Attack and Defense of all unmounted players by 100%. It wasn’t a stretch to say that Candle Dragon was currently at its strongest.

Gui Guzi waved his spear in the air as he yelled, “Brothers and sisters, we need to protect the siege towers. Quickly! They’re our only hope!”

A squad of Cyan Tiger Cavalrymen immediately responded to his call.

Finally, when the siege towers had gotten within a hundred yards of the city walls, the countless arrow towers within the city started unloading on them. A storm of thick steel arrows slammed into the metal carapace of the tower relentlessly, causing brilliant sparks to fly up in the air. The siege towers started to violently shudder under the fierce impact of the arrows and expressions of alarm appeared on the faces of the magic knights at the base of the siege tower. No one had imagined that the arrow towers would be this fierce.

Candlelight Shadow and his men, who were waiting for us on the top of the walls, finally sprang into action as well.

Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch gripped the handle of his sword tightly as he yelled, “Fuck, that girl from Blazing Hot Lips, Stranger of Three Lifetimes, is really rich, huh?! Where the hell did she finagle so many siege towers from? God fucking dammit, does she really want Hall of Immortality’s territory that much?!”

Rose Thorn giggled. “It’s not that. She’s just trying to gain Baidicheng’s trust. A trusted ally is priceless after all. Moreover, Baidicheng’s guild leader, Come See The Snow Tonight, is a CGL Hall of Famer too, someone with both fame and prestige. Her efforts today will be hugely beneficial for Blazing Hot Lips’ growth in the future.”

A smile flitted across Candlelight Shadow’s face as he chimed in, “Yeah, twelve siege towers is nothing special. Don’t panic, everyone. We just need to destroy those siege towers before they can get too close to us. Besides, even though those siege towers have extremely high Defense, they don't have any form of offensive weaponry. All of their offense will be reliant on the players inside. If we kill all of those players, what else is there to be afraid of?”

God’s Dance raised her magic staff in the air and said, “That’s right. There’s nothing to be flustered over. They’re only siege towers. Just a few days ago, you also used these things to attack Dark Moon City, but didn’t Lu Chen also manage to destroy them with ease?”

Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch’s face went ashen as he said, “That’s all dust in the wind now…”

Candlelight Shadow let out a hearty laugh before he started issuing orders to his commanders. “Blue Sky Scar, Tempest Shadow, God’s Dance, Transient Smoke and Clouds, Golden Age Hero, Blood Slash, and Song of Pig, I want all of you to choose a siege tower each. Once that siege tower starts to get close, I want you to launch an attack and destroy it if possible. We can’t allow Stranger of Three Lifetimes to have her way!”

“Yessir!” all of them cried out in unison.

……

He Yi’s elegant eyebrows started to knit together as a worried expression appeared on her face. “Candlelight Shadow looks really confident, but where does that confidence come from?”

Xu Yang shook his head and replied, “I don’t know. We’ll have to charge in first to find out!”

He Yi: “...”

At this point in time, the siege towers were less than fifty yards away from the city walls, but all of us were feeling very nervous. The players on top of those walls were evidently feeling as nervous as we were, because once we got within forty yards of those walls, Bloodthirsty Battle Monarch’s furious roar echoed from them. “Focus your fire and destroy those towers!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Countless arrows and spells started raining down on the siege towers. Brilliant explosions of light lit up the night sky as skills erupted all around the towers. Fireballs and spears of ice slammed into them with a relentless fury and even the ground itself started to shake.

Unfortunately for the defenders, even this cavalcade of blows couldn’t shake the siege towers as they slowly advanced. After all, if one could so easily destroy a siege tower that required an obscene amount of money to build, then they wouldn’t be worth it at all!

Li Chengfeng brandished his sharp sword as he ran over and yelled, “High Fighting Spirits, follow me! We will charge in from the centermost tower. We need to get rid of those bastards as soon as possible!”

High Fighting Spirits let out a spirited yell as he hefted his battle axe and charged over. The two of them led nearly two hundred of our elite warriors into the centermost siege tower and prepared to launch their assault. Meanwhile, Stranger of Three Lifetimes got off a tower and activated her Magic Shield. She advanced ahead of us, her Magic Shield deflecting countless arrows. However, its durability was hardly going down despite the beating it was taking. Mages of this level really are overpowered!

The durability of a Magic Shield factored in the rank of the skill and, more importantly, Magic Attack of its user. The higher a mage’s Magic Attack, the tougher their shield would be. A strong mage’s shield wouldn’t waver even under a storm of spells and arrows. Stranger of Three Lifetimes was one of the best mages in the game, so breaking her shield would be no laughing matter!

……

I turned around and raised my sword in the air as I said, “I need a Famous General to charge in with me!”

Chaos Moon immediately leaped out and grinned. “Me! Me!”

“Okay, let’s go!”

The two of us led a few hundred players up one of the siege towers. We heard the sound of gears creaking and clicking as the siege tower started to trundle toward the nearest city wall. Huge metal chains held up a gigantic metal drawbridge that was ten meters wide. The moment we neared the city walls, the chains would release this drawbridge and it would slam into the top of the walls, allowing us to charge across it. Of course, that was easier said than done. Everything would be decided in the next few moments.

We could see the siege tower beside us through the gaps between the metal drawbridge. I could feel the energy radiating from High Fighting Spirits and Li Chengfeng as they eagerly waited for their siege tower to reach the city walls. They looked full of confidence this time. The previous attempt to use ladders to scale the city wall had put a huge damper on their mood, but the inexorable advance of these siege towers had raised their spirits once more.

We were inching closer and closer. There were only twenty yards between us and the city walls now. Everyone’s heart started thumping in their chest as the drawbridge in front of us continually shuddered under an unending barrage of fire and ice. The huge metal plate had been hit with so many fire spells that it started to glow cherry red.

Chaos Moon brandished her sharp sword as she stared at me with anxious eyes. Complex emotions were warring in those beautiful eyes of hers.

I glared at her and said, “What are you looking at?”

Chaos Moon rubbed a hand across her chest uneasily as she said, “I have a bad feeling about this…”

“Oh?”

……

Before she could even give voice to her thoughts, we saw God’s Dance activate her Magic Shield in front of us and raise her staff high in the air. Arcane and mystical characters flowed from her lips as the weather itself started to change.

“O’ great God of Storms, I beseech thee! Rouse the eye of the storm from its long slumber and let its destructive power rain upon this realm once more. Storm of Destruction!”

Boom!

A bolt of furious lightning fell from the heavens and split the ground apart. A gigantic storm immediately swirled into life as it tore apart the siege tower that was nearest to the walls. Broken parts, shattered woods, and fragments of metal swirled in the air as many warriors from our guild started wailing in agony.

……

“Fuck!”

My eyes widened into saucers. Li Chengfeng and High Fighting Spirits had been in that siege tower!

“God’s Dance, you bitch! Fucking hell, I’m gonna kill you myself!” I growled as my hand curled into a fist.