The battle grew increasingly terrible as countless riders were fed to the grinder to keep it going. The Northern Alliance had started pushing its support troops and long-range attackers into Dawn City. They could do so with impunity because most of our arrow towers had been destroyed. Once those boulders started raining down on us, we knew that those arrow towers were done for. Even sacrificing our lives wouldn’t be enough to save them.

……

"Yeah, we’re done here. Form a fighting retreat! Once you reach the walls, go up and help out in the defense! We need to give up the arrow tower formation, our losses are too heavy…" Hot and Sour Noodles gave those orders with a grim look on his face.

In truth, most of the players who had been defending the arrow towers had already been killed, so Hot and Sour Noodles orders were merely a formality at this point.

"Retreat! We’re retreating!" I shouted as I waved my sword high in the air. After that, Gui Guzi, He Yi, and I led the rest of our troops to the second gate within the city. When our troops passed the gates, Hot and Sour Noodles immediately shut it behind us. The inner city was well-prepared for a siege too.

I spurred my horse up the walls and I saw that Beiming Xue, Moonlight Stone, and Stranger of Three Lifetimes was already lined up there with the rest of our elite long-range players. All of them sucked in a deep breath as they stared at the onrushing horde of Northern Alliance players.

"We still have to hold on for fourteen more hours. Can we really hold out for that long…" Stranger of Three Lifetimes said in a worried voice.

Hot and Sour Noodles clenched his fists tightly as he shouted, "Let’s just do our best! Let’s try so hard that even the heavens and the earth will acknowledge our efforts!"

Gui Guzi laughed as he said, "Yeah, let’s just give it our all! As long as we can say that we died without any regrets, right?"

He Yi chimed in, "Definitely. At the very least, I can proudly say that Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls have already done our best!"

……

"Archers! Bows up at forty-five degrees! Prepare to fire at any moment!" Beiming Xue shouted in a loud voice. All of the archers along the wall instantly raised their bows up and pulled back their arrows.

After she gave a shout, the players let loose in unison with the arrow towers inside the inner city. The huge swarm of arrows blotted out the sun as they rained down on the enemy and washed the streets with their blood. Many white beams of light shot up into the air as thousands of Northern Alliance frontline fighters died in that salvo.

Stranger of Three Lifetimes planted her foot against the edge of the wall as her staff danced in the air. Her eyes were filled with grim determination as pillars of violent flames dropped down onto the Northern Alliance army from the sky. She instantly turned an entire area into a sea of scorching flames, halting an entire division of Northern Alliance riders in their tracks. They knew just how terrifying this lady mage was, so no one was willing to test her magic with their bodies.

However, most of the enemy cavalrymen had arrived at the walls. Vienna’s Sorrow immediately ordered them to rush the arrow towers and even though they lost tens of thousands of players rushing forward, the riders finally charged into the arrow towers and started wildly hacking away. The arrow towers started collapsing to the ground one after the other. God damn, these arrow towers are way too fragile!

Vienna’s Sorrow surveyed the battle as he sat astride his wargoat. His eyes were sharp and cold as he shouted, "Comrades, we do not have much time left! I want you to break through this second line of defense like a pile of rotten wood! Charge into the city and invade the palace! As long as we manage to capture or kill the NPC ruler of this city, it will be counted as our victory! Tsk, I even heard the Dawn City is being ruled by a queen! I’ll be deathly envious of the rascal who has the good fortune of capturing her and bringing her back to Hero City!"

A group of Hero City players instantly broke out into great laughter as they charged toward the inner city. They escorted their engineer players toward the wall and braved the deadly fire that rained down on them. Once the engineers reached the base of the wall, they immediately got to work. The sound of hammers rising and falling started to fill the air as they swiftly began to construct cloud ladders.

We could only watch as these cloud ladders were constructed right below our noses. We couldn’t destroy them once they’ve begun deploying them. The only option we had was to kill the enemy players that climbed up them.

Shwing!

My sword escaped from its sheath with a steely hiss as I spurred the Ice Qilin Horse forward and shouted, "Protect the city, and kill the enemies as they come! I don’t believe that there’s really no end to these big noses!"

Everyone unsheathed their weapons at this moment, their naked blades glimmering in the snow.

Thud, thud, thud…

Countless Northern Alliance cavalrymen dismounted and started clambering up the cloud ladders. The magic knights who led the charge had already positioned their shields over their heads with practiced ease to block any unnecessary damage.

I brandished the Cyan Netherworld Sword as I watched a magic knight climb up the walls. Once he got within range, I fiercely thrust out my sword and hit him with Universe Break. The Cyan Netherworld Sword sank through his chest with a sickening crunch and sent him straight to heaven.

A berserker leaped up from the cloud ladder beside me. Just as his feet were about to hit the ground, High Fighting Spirits rushed forward and kicked him in the crotch. He yelled, "Get lost, you son of a bitch!"

Blades flashed in the air as the defenders began to chop the players who were scaling up their walls. The sound of metal striking metal rang in the air as the snow on top of the walls was swiftly dyed a bright red.

Stranger of Three Lifetimes eyes were deathly calm as she shouted, "Mages, archers, focus your fire on those siege tanks! Every siege weapon we get rid of will help preserve our defenses for even longer!"

That’s right. Even though these siege tanks weren’t large, the damage they had done to our outer walls had been outstanding. They had been instrumental to the destruction of Dawn City’s first layer of defense. If they weren’t around, we would have been able to hold out for even longer.

……

The twanging sound of uncoiled springs could be heard as the catapults started launching huge boulders at our inner walls. The fighting had grown white hot all around the inner walls. The royal palace was inside these inner walls, so the Northern Alliance’s catapults could actually reach them now. Boulders howled over our heads as they smashed into the palace behind us. The ground shook under the impact of these huge rocks and many of the NPC palace guards were killed or wounded by them.

I stood at the edge of the wall and took a flurry of arrows to the face as I started casting Icy Cyclone Domains into the horde below me. The ice spears started to skewer the enemy players as I hurled out my Cyan Netherworld Sword. Sword Boomerang swept through a group of players like a buzzing chainsaw, one-shotting a group of archers who had been hit by it. One of the mages who had just barely survived the lethal attack exclaimed in fright, "Fuck! That warrior can use a super long-range attack himself! That’s way too scary! Hey, it’s that CGL Hall of Famer! Fuck me, it’s that damned Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand! That undying spirit who killed so many of our Heroic Bannermen…"

The commanders of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls exchanged grins with each other when they heard that frightened shout.

It was at this moment that Li Chengfeng’s voice rang out in the guild channel: "Damn it, I don’t think I can hold out for much longer…"

I anxiously asked: "Chengfeng, what’s happening?"

He replied: "That bastard Titan God simply won’t let us go and it seems as if he has an endless supply of players to throw at us too! Fucking hell, we’ve already killed more than a hundred thousand players but there’s no end to them!"

"More than a hundred thousand…" Xu Yang muttered with a stunned look on his face.

After that, he said: "Chengfeng, that bastard Titan God supposedly ordered his own guild and subguilds back to Breeze Canyon just to deal with you!"

Li Chengfeng exclaimed, "Fuck! He really thinks that highly of us, huh!"

I asked: "How many men do we still have?"

Li Chengfeng’s voice grew strained: "The riders from the other guilds have all been killed and the Cyan Tiger Cavalry only has three hundred men left. We’re currently trying to find a way to spring ourselves from this death trap. God fucking dammit, the players from Titan God’s guild, Olympus, really did come! There are currently more than 20000 players trying to encircle us…"

Chaos Moon replied, "Olympus has just a little over 200000 players altogether. He’s already dispatched 150000 of them to Breeze Canyon just to deal with you. Li Chengfeng, you’re frigging awesome. You actually led a troop of 12000 riders to kill more than 80% of his guild…"

Li Chengfeng replied in a pained voice: "Ah, stop talking about it. I’ve nearly lost all of the troops I commanded. God damn, I don’t think I’ll last much longer myself. Guild leader, Lu Chen, comrades, I think I’m going to go ahead of you guys!"

I replied: "Yeah, I expect that we’ll join you soon enough! Chengfeng, you’ve exceeded all expectations this time! All of us are proud of you!"

"Hahahaha…" Li Chengfeng’s laughter echoed in the guild channel as he turned off his chat messenger.

……

"Ah, that punk Chengfeng is just too stubborn. He won’t let us send even a single player over to help him…" Xu Yang grumbled with a scowl on his face.

Chaos Moon replied, "That’s because he knows just how precious every player is to the defense of Dawn City right now! We really can’t spare any troops to reinforce him right now…"

I split open a magic knight’s shield with my sword before dispatching him with another mighty blow. I gasped for breath before I said, "Let’s all work hard then! We won’t let our comrades or heaven down!"

"That’s right! We won’t let our comrades or heaven down!"

Hot blood surged in our veins as we continued our ferocious attack. Even though our comrades were slowly falling to arrow and spell, not a single one of us faltered.

……

Soon we suddenly heard the sound of a system announcement reverberate in the air.

Ding~!

System Announcement: Player "Legendary Brave" (Sky City)" has accumulated enough Kill Points to learn the Great Earth Transformation! After killing an enemy, they became the second Divine General of China! They have gained Luck +3, Tactics +6, and an exclusive Divine General Skill, "Battle Soul Possession"!

Battle Soul Possession: The power of the Battle Soul swells in your body, greatly boosting your Attack, Defense and Magic Resist! Your attacks will also be imbued with divine power and this effect depends on user’s stats. This skill is exclusive to Legendary Brave.

……

"Fuck, it’s a Divine General Skill! That punk Li became a Divine General…" Xu Yang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. His mouth had flopped open in shock and he looked like a dead fish right now.

I was overjoyed. "Heh, He’s one lucky bastard! So that means that Chengfeng possesses the buffs provided by Great Earth Transformation now, right?"

Li Chengfeng’s voice rang out in the guild channel: "Fuck me, this Great Earth Transformation is insane! I think I can last a little while longer! Who cares if there are too many of them, let’s all die together!"

He Yi giggled: "Keep up the good work, the first Divine General of Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls!"

Cheers rang out along the walls. This system announcement had greatly boosted the morale of the Chinese players. As for Ancient Swords Dreaming Souls, we had finally gotten our first Divine General, the first one to appear after Lin Yixin! This Battle Soul Possession was a buff, and it sounded like an incredibly powerful one at that!

I took a quick glance at the contribution rankings. As expected, Li Chengfeng had swiftly risen to the fourth place. He was only lagging behind Luo River God of the Capital, Stranger of Three Lifetimes, and I right now. Only the heavens knew just how many enemies this punk had killed!

Hope started to swell up in my heart as well. It looks like killing players also counted as one of the conditions for becoming a Divine General. That was great! I had killed even more players than Li Chengfeng, and my unparalleled Luck stat meant that I had a very good chance to become the next Divine General after Li Chengfeng!

……

The crazed slaughter continued for what seemed like an eternity and the inner walls were already riddled with holes. However, all the Chinese players were determined to hold on until the bitter end. The players around me continued to dwindle in numbers and most of the Dragonlight Cavalry had died as well. All of us had sacrificed far too much to defend this city.

As I stared into the horizon, I saw that a large group of players had appeared at two separate entrances to Dawn Valley. Those were the entrances that led to Wind City and Vanished God City respectively. All of the IDs of those players were tagged with the bright red flag of China! Alright, the Avengers had finally arrived!"