Purple Dawn looked so confused that I almost felt pity for him. This idiot was the leader of a few thousand troops and it was highly probable that there were more players from Candle Dragon’s first subguild in Dawn City. He was definitely itching to kill all 2000 of us. After all, if Candle Dragon’s first subguild managed to eliminate Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls’ crack cavalry unit and most of its Famous Generals in a single battle, they would surely make a name for themselves.

However, Purple Dawn had no choice but to carefully calculate his chances of victory. Even 10000 elite players might not be enough to overcome a bunch of steely veterans like us, let alone Purple Dawn and his noob brigade.

……

Sensing Purple Dawn’s hesitation, He Yi urged her Dragonlight Spirit Beast forward. The three horns on top of its head glowed like a blazing flame and looked exceptionally formidable. Our beautiful leader brandished her Blade of the Earthen Soul and laughed gently. "Purple Dawn, you’re one of Candle Dragon’s top commanders. Since we are at a standoff, I have a suggestion that I hope you will consider."

Purple Dawn nodded his head and said, "I’m all ears, Guild Leader From Water."

He Yi pulled at the reins of her mount and as it turned around, she pointed her sword to the center of the canyon. Smiling, she said, "Why don’t we settle this dispute over here with a friendly match. Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls will send a hundred riders while Candle Dragon’s first subguild will send a thousand. How about it? If Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls wins, you’ll let us pass through the Windy Trail. If we lose, we’ll turn around and go back, deal?"

"What?! A hundred of your riders versus a thousand of mine?" Purple Dawn blinked his eyes in shock before laughing heartily, "Guild Leader From Water, don’t get too cocky. Even though I must admit that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls riders are top-notch, how certain are you that your hundred riders will be able to emerge victorious?"

He Yi giggled and held up her five fingers in front of her chest before clenching them tightly into a fist. "I am a hundred percent certain!"

"Alright then, I accept this challenge!"

Purple Dawn gripped his bow in one hand and said, "But I have a condition. Lu Chen, Gui Guzi, Chaos Moon, Li Chengfeng and you are not allowed to participate. Is that alright?"

"No problem!"

He Yi turned around and glanced at us with a smile. Laughing gently, she said, "Heard that? Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust, take a hundred riders with you into battle! Don’t let me down alright!"

The two Knight Generals nodded their heads with a sweet smile on their faces. Dressed in their Dragonblade equipment sets, they brandished their blades and spurred their mounts forward. They then proceeded to quickly pick a hundred players from the Dragonlight Cavalry, a dozen of whom were also wearing the Dragonblade equipment set. Heaven’s Rain placed them at the forefront of the troops, making our formation look extremely impressive. I nodded my head in approval when I saw how well-versed these two Knight Generals were with battle tactics. It was time to sit back and enjoy the show.

I laughed internally as I knew He Yi’s intentions all too well. This was clearly a ploy to test our newly-formed Dragonlight Cavalry’s strength. Moreover, our opponents were the riders from Candle Dragon's first subguild. They were definitely not weak; suitable target practices for all intents and purposes!

……

"Wait a moment!"

Purple Dawn raised his bow abruptly and shouted, "You can’t use Famous General Skills either! Not even Knight General!"

"How troublesome…" I pursed my lips into a thin line before shouting, "Little Rain, activate Encourage VII. That additional 20% increase in Attack will still be enough to kill those retards. Hah! A hundred riders vs a thousand! You can do it! Today, all of you are the representatives and spokespeople of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!"

One by one, the hundred riders lifted their swords in the air and laughed. "Don’t worry, vice leader. We won’t let Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls down!"

I had absolute confidence in them as almost twenty out of the hundred riders were wearing the Dragonblade equipment set. Their Attack and Defense stats were much higher than a normal player’s. Not to mention that their Dragonlight Armored Horses were top-tier boss mounts which increased their Attack and Defense by 30% and added another 8000 to their max HP. To add on to that, their mounts had an additional skill, Hoof Trample. With all these advantages, the Dragonlight Cavalry could easily eliminate 99.9% of any other cavalry in the game. Haha! Purple Dawn would never be able to predict just how powerful these hundred riders were, not even in his wildest dreams!

We had only completed our Dragonlight Cavalry less than 24 hours ago and this was our first time riding the Dragonlight Armored Horses into battle. No one had any intel on our newly-formed cavalry and even the onlookers were puzzled by our prestigious and majestic mounts. Other than the dragon scales covering the mounts from head to toe, no one else had any clue about them.

Purple Dawn was merely puzzled that we had not arrived with our Cyan Tiger Cavalry. Little did he know, these mounts before him were so powerful that they could eat the Cyan Battle Tigers for breakfast!

A thousand riders from the Candle Dragon's first subguild stood in formation, awaiting orders from Purple Dawn. Not all of the thousand riders had the same mount, and nearly a hundred of them were made up of the Viper Dragoons. Heh, those Viper Dragoons gave the Cyan Tiger Cavalry a hard time during the battle of Immortality City, so this is the perfect opportunity for us to take revenge!

"How shameless! That’s 1057 people!" Diamond Dust pointed a finger at the enemy riders in front of her.

Purple Dawn turned red with embarrassment and said, "Goddammit, get rid of 57 people right now! You useless bunch of idiots, can’t you even do simple math…"

Our opponent quickly rectified their mistake and kicked 57 players out of their party and completed their battle preparations. Meanwhile, many players had started to gather around us, of which quite a few of them even hailed from Vanished God City and Sky City. As I glanced at the growing crowd, I noticed that a few elite players from Purple Lily, Snowy Cathaya, Warsky Alliance were among the crowd. The crowd of people continued to increase, forming a gigantic circle around us.

……

"Haha, this is interesting…" October Rain toward the front, emerging from the crowd of Warsky Alliance players. With her bow in one hand, she smiled and asked, "What kind of cavalry is this? It looks so impressive! Tsk tsk, is the Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls gonna use Purple Dawn’s guild as a training dummy?"

Zi Chuanyu from the Snowy Cathaya carried his sword in hand and laughed heartily, "I’m afraid that even a thousand men of Candle Dragon's first subguild would not be able to withstand the attacks of their opponent’s hundred riders. The riders trained by Lu Chen are surely top of the crop!"

The crowd continued to increase as many people were intrigued by this battle. The Nation Wars were imminent and the main forces of many guilds had decided to permanently reside at Dawn City. There were many high-leveled mobs at Windy Trail and it made perfect sense to grind levels and scout the territory at the same time. Thus, many players from Purple Lily, Peach Garden and guilds from all cities had gathered for a good show. In less than ten minutes, word had spread and ten thousand players had gathered around us. Even the elite players from each guild had decided to join the crowd and watch the match.

Pooh!

Dominating Heaven Blade spit out a mouthful of saliva as he gripped his sword and laughed. "This is so interesting! Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls is so fearless and domineering. I can’t believe that they would publically issue a challenge to Candle Dragon's first subguild just like that. I wonder how Candlelight Shadow will ever show his face again if Purple Dawn loses…"

Among the crowd, God’s Dance turned red with anger and pointed her staff at Dominating Heaven Blade. "Hey, you! The bold guy over there! What do you mean by that?! Are you asking for a fight?"

Dominating Heaven Blade was taken aback at her words as his face turned ashen. "Hmph, I’m just here to watch the show. Besides, I only said a few careless words. What, can’t bear to accept the truth? Then come at me! I’ve got hundreds of thousands of comrades to back me up!"

God’s Dance glanced behind him and saw a large group of Gods of Destruction players. Even though their guild was no longer ranked among the Top 10, Gods of Destruction continued to remain united. Dominating Knight God, Dominating Warrior God and Dominating Archer God followed Dominating Heaven Blade loyally. At his command, all of them would attack without hesitation. Meanwhile, God’s Dance had only brought a hundred players with her and she definitely could not afford to act rashly.

"Hmph! You old asshole!" God’s Dance swallowed her anger and did not engage in a fight.

At this moment, a Level 153 magic knight at the front of Candle Dragon's first subguild’s cavalry pulled his pike out and shouted, "Hey! Those black-armored riders of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls! Are you gonna fight or not?"

Chiang!

Heaven’s Rain pulled her sword from her sheath and pointed it at her opponent before shouting in a commanding voice, " Dragonlight Cavalry, charge with me! Let’s tear these morons into pieces!"

Instantly, the earth started to shake as the Dragonlight Cavalry started to charge forward. The Dragonlight Cavalry were standardized mounts and thus, they moved at the same speed. The riders followed the two Knight Generals, Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust and charged forward fearlessly, buffed by Encourage VII as a ring of light circled each of them. This group of elite riders had already gone through their sixth class promotion. Their stats and individual prowess were definitely not something that the opponent could handle.

……

The Dragonlight Armored Horse moved at lightning speed toward their enemies. Before the opponent could react, Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust crossed their swords with amazing rapport and unleashed Barrier Break simultaneously. Two loud bangs rang out as their Barrier Breaks hit that Level 153 magic knight square in the chest, killing him instantly. He was simply unable to withstand the might of the Dragonlight Cavalry.

"Attack!"

With the elimination of their leader, Candle Dragon's first subguild’s morale plunged greatly. Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust took advantage of their low morale as they dashed into the enemy crowd and swiftly activated their mount skill, Hoof Trample!

Bang! Bang!

The ground shook as two consecutive waves of energy exploded among the enemy riders sending damage numbers popping up all over the map. The two Knight Generals stopped for nothing and continued their killing spree while the rest of the Dragonlight Cavalry caught up with them. Our riders activated Hoof Trample one by one with great rapport and even managed to stun the enemy riders!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The sound of a sword plunging into metal armor was like sweet music to my ears as both cavalries clashed in battle. The Dragonlight Cavalrymen could deal more than 7000 damage to their enemies in a single hit while their opponent could not even deal more than 3000. I struggled to maintain a straight face when I saw some of our opponents dealing triple-digit numbers. However, the onlookers were not so kind and burst out laughing without restraint. "So this is the extent of Candle Dragon's first subguild’s strength?"

In all honesty, it wasn’t that Purple Dawn’s men were weak. Our Dragonlight Cavalry was just simply too powerful. The Dragonlight Cavalry was so powerful that it exceeded the expectations of every onlooker!

Activating Hoof Trample caused the riders to glow brilliantly while they tore their opponent’s battle formation into pieces. Meanwhile, Heaven’s Rain and Diamond Dust were like two sharp swords, tearing their enemy’s defenses like they were wet tissues. The hundred riders continued to charge back and forth a couple of times, sweeping their swords at their enemy. Their swords pierced through armor and flesh, eliminating the enemy riders swiftly.

……

Everyone stared in disbelief at the scene before them. They had thought that this was going to be an exciting battle but it turned out to be a one-sided bloodbath instead. Cold metal blades continued to pierce through armor as the fields were covered in broken rocks and drenched in blood. Pitiful wails rang out as bodies continued to pile up in a heap.

Within a short span of just ten minutes, a thousand enemy riders had been eliminated. They were completely inferior to the Dragonlight Cavalry in terms of equipment, level, mount and skills.

Purple Dawn turned ashen as he stared at the pile of corpses in disbelief. "Fuck, how is this even possible…"

Heaven’s Rain hefted her sword over her shoulder with a smug smile and made her way to He Yi and I. Raising her sword high up in the air, she laughed and said, "We didn’t let you down and eliminated them all with zero losses!"

He Yi smiled gently and said, "You’ve all done splendidly! Return to your position!"

"Yes ma’am!"

……

I walked forward and said, "Purple Dawn, you’ll let us pass now right, as per our agreement? Hmph, if you still won’t let us pass, we’ll just have to force our way through. You’ve just witnessed the might of a hundred Dragonlight Cavalrymen. If you want to have a taste of all 2000, I’ll be glad to grant your wish!"

Eek...

Purple Dawn glanced to his right with a panicked look in his eyes, silently asking God’s Dance for help. God’s Dance sighed helplessly as she slowly walked out of the crowd. As the vice leader of Candle Dragon, her words certainly carried weight. In a gentle voice, she said, "Let Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls pass. We will defend this Windy Trail together!"

"Yes… yes, vice leader…" Purple Dawn’s eyes held a cold chill in them as he nodded his head with great reluctance. "Comrades, make way. Anyone may pass through and we no longer have to restrict this area. We’ll just see who will be able to withstand against the Northern Alliance when the time comes. God dammit…"

……

I gripped my sword and urged my mount forward. However, before we could continue much further, a bell sound rang out over the Dawn Canyon.

Ding~!

System Announcement: All players, please be informed that the server will be closed in half an hour. The server will reopen in twelve hours, officially kickstarting the Nation Wars system. Once the server data has been patched, the nation borders will disappear!

……

Countless pairs of eyes gazed at the sky above the canyon. The era of the Nation Wars had finally come!