"What else are we waiting for? Let’s kill them already! It’s just a thousand Beast King Cavalrymen…" exclaimed excited Warscar again.

Hickey immediately threw him a death stare. "Did your insanity get hold of you again? Unless you and your brothers want to die, don’t make an order without going through the guild leader!"

Warscar coughed embarrassedly. "R-right. Maybe there’s some sort of variable I’m not seeing here."

……

I scanned our surroundings with Dark Pupils and saw no enemy except the less-than-2000 Beast King Cavalry within a 3-kilometer range. For once, Warscar was right. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"Don’t worry, it’s safe. Let’s kill them all right now!" I ordered.

Warscar and Hickey happily received their orders, and we took off toward the Beast King Cavalry as three armies. The enemies immediately shat their pants when they noticed us.

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…

This was a cavalry-versus-cavalry battle, and we had the quantity, the quality, and an overwhelming amount of Trapping Nets to keep them from escaping. Also, my Martial God boosted everyone’s Attack by 200%, and Warscar and Hickey’s Knight General boosted their party members’ Attack by 135%. The enemy party leader only had Encourage VII, and their Tactics was so low that their party members’ Attack was only boosted by 87%. Naturally, it was a massacre.

……

Battle cries filled the air as the Godkiller players surrounded the Beast King Cavalry from all sides. This time though, I hovered in the sky and didn’t participate in the battle for two reasons: one, I wanted to gauge exactly how strong the berserking Zephyr Cavalrymen were, and two, I wanted to keep an eye on my surroundings just in case the Indians made a move. I was certain that God of War and Breeze and Rain had heard of our coordinates the moment the battle broke out, so I needed to watch out for whatever battle plan they came up with to deal with me.

There was a saying "a plan can win a battle a thousand kilometers away”.God of War was the man who conquered the India server, but he had lost multiple times in my hands. This battle was the perfect opportunity for both him and Breeze and Rain to take revenge against me, so they would definitely do everything in their power to kill me to Level 0. Even if that might prove to be impossible, they would want to defeat me decisively at least once to sate the desire for vengeance stewing in their hearts.

Pu pu pu...

Hickey fought like a butterfly who couldn’t be caught. Her battle philosophy was extremely similar to Lin Yixin’s in that she always strived to use the minimum amount of power to strike down the strongest enemy. When she acted, she never missed, and most of the time the strikes were also fatal. Wherever she went, bodies dropped like bundled wheats.

On the other hand, Warscar’s battle philosophy was much more forceful. His Berserk talent massively enhanced his strength, and his axe crushed the enemy’s shields to bits like furious thunder. Every Beast King Cavalryman who had the misfortune of going up against him was almost always decapitated.

However, the isolated detachment of Beast King Cavalry proved themselves to be incredibly elite despite not being a part of the main force. Working together in groups of threes, fours or fives, they hit the Zephyr Cavalry with coordinated Barrier Breaks and were almost always able to kill them. It was a technique the Zephyr Cavalry simply didn’t possess right now.

There was no need to rush things, however. These berserking babies had just begun embarking on their journey of conquest. I could teach them how to work together in small groups after they had learned the most basic offensive and defensive formations. In fact, I didn’t need to do this alone. Hickey’s 1000 Zephyr Cavalrymen were going equal against the Beast King Cavalry, indirectly proving how excellent a commander she was. I was very glad to have her. She made my life a lot easier than it would’ve been.

……

The battle ended less than ten minutes later. Not a single Beast King Cavalryman was able to escape. Some of them tried, but I had cut them all down myself.

After the battle was over, Hickey watched her surroundings carefully while saying, "The closest graveyard to this location is the one 20 minutes away from here to the south, so they won’t be able to revive immediately. Still, we should withdraw right now, or they may keep us tied up long enough for their reinforcements to arrive. That would be bad."

"Yeah. Let’s go!"

We escaped to the west and continued roaming the battlefield for better attacking opportunities.

……

A few minutes later, Hickey returned from her scouting with a smile on her face. "There’s a ten-thousand-mage party about 1 kilometer away from here. They’re guided by almost 3000 Beast King Cavalrymen. They’re on the move, so we have at most ten minutes to do something to them. So? Do you think we should test this iron plate?"

Warscar clenched his fists and looked at me with excitement. "There’s no need to think about this, guild leader! We are all looking forward to a real fight! Also, if we keep ambushing the Indian forces like this and avoiding their main force, they’ll always look down on us even if we win the battle in the end! We need a real battle where we fight them head-on and crush their spirit by force!"

I frowned deeply, but Warscar was right. We would never be able to threaten the enemy’s morale unless we engaged them in a true fight.

So, I clenched my fists and declared, "Very well, you will have it! We don’t have much time, so we’ll travel at full speed to the east as five 4000-man parties! We will attack them from five different directions! But remember, don’t try to tango with the Beast King Cavalry! Just immobilize them with Trapping Nets and focus on Barrier Breaking the mages! Every kill we score is a step closer toward total victory! Also, always be on the move and don’t linger in one place! The mages will trap with you their ice magic otherwise!"

Warscar laughed excitedly. "Roger that!"

……

The ground trembled visibly as 20000 Zephyr Cavalry charged toward the east at full speed. I led at the helm of the party to draw the enemy’s firepower and keep an eye on our surroundings.

"Roar!"

The Ancient Divine Dragon’s roar resounded in the air as it swooped over the forest and charged straight toward a group of running mages. Not waiting for a response, I unleashed Thousand Ice Slash + Burning Blade Slash combo immediately. The mages needed to take a nap at the graveyards as soon as possible, or the Beast King Cavalry would become even more threatening than they already were.

"Kill!"

Furious battle cries broke out from the forest behind me as the Zephyr Cavalry rushed to battle. Led by Warscar and Hickey, they attacked from five different directions, shredded the defense line made of 3000 Beast King Cavalry like nothing, and carved their way into the mages immediately.

Thud thud thud…

Countless mages became skewered by blazing blades. Berserk protected its user from all status effects for a short time, which was why the Zephyr Cavalry was able to disregard the enemy’s ice magic and run over them like lightning. The poor bastards could only stare in shock as the bane of their existence swooped down on them and claimed their heads as trophies. They couldn’t believe how fast we were moving at all.

……

"Lock down their charge with Touch of the Dragonkiss and Galaxy Storm! Fire at will!" a high-level mage shouted from the enemy ranks.

Obviously, the element of surprise couldn’t last forever. After the shield came to, it immediately started to defend against the spear in earnest. Countless Zephyr Cavalrymen died under the baptismal fire that was Galaxy Storm, but those who survived were able to tear through their attackers like they were nothing more than a wet tissue. The mages’ HP, Defense and mobility were all inferior to the Zephyr Cavalry’s. Even their one and only advantage, range, was nullified by the fact this was a surprise attack, not your standard positional warfare.

For seven minutes, we were able to destroy enemy ranks and rack up our kill count like crazy. Unfortunately, the very first reinforcements coming to the mages’ rescue consisted of God of War himself and tens of thousands of Beast King Cavalrymen. He shouted murderously as he waved his fiery blade, "These barbarians have plagued us for too long! Kill them and show them the true taste of war!"

"Shit!"

I swore in my head and I barked out an order, "Retreat! Retreat full speed to the east now! Don’t even think to linger!"

……

We lost a lot of people, but we also killed a large majority of Cyan Beast’s mages. It was also obvious from the enemy’s pale complexion that we had struck a real blow to their morale. They—or at least the common players—now knew that they weren’t the only powerful force in Frost Stained Canyon, and that there was at least one force that could challenge and even beat them in a direct battle.

Still keeping Berserk active, around 15k Zephyr Cavalry obeyed my order and escaped to the east immediately. While they did this, I protected the rear and killed every enemy who tried to pursue them with Summon the Storm and Myriad Swords Obliteration. Obviously, I needed to minimize our losses as much as possible. As God of War came closer and closer, he activated God of War’s Art and turned every one of his attacks into crits. In fact, he managed to deal 270k+ damage to me with just one long-range sword aura. It was truly ridiculous.

"Hickey!"

"Yes, boss?" Hickey looked back at me. "What is it?"

"Are our 10000 archers in position already?"

"Mn!"

Hickey brought up her own map and said, "They are lying in wait at Mist Forest right now. It’s currently early morning, and there is morning fog everywhere. Our archers can spot the enemy cavalry with their perception, but not the other way around. We have all the advantage here. In five minutes, we’ll reach Mist Forest and be ready to launch our counterattack!"

"Very good!"

……

It wasn’t long before Mist Forest appeared at the distance. The white fog that looked like a permanent attachment to the trees greatly impeded even my vision. Our 15000 Zephyr Cavalrymen quickly slipped between the trees as the Beast King Cavalry pursued closely behind.

"We’re here!" Hickey laughed.

I was frowning though. On our way here, I thought that I saw a flickering of red dots on the map while Dark Pupils was active. Was it just my imagination, or…?

A high-level archer with the Godkiller symbol on his shoulder stepped out of the forest and gave us a wave. "Over here, guild leader! We’re ready!"

"Okay…"

Hickey smiled from the distance.

It was at this moment a bloody gash appeared between the archer’s throat without warning. A huge "80128" damage number appeared from the wound, and the archer dropped dead just like that.

At the same time, a bloody figure appeared for an instant—the blood on his blade was as bright as day—before vanishing like it was never there. It was obviously a cavalryman!

……

"What the fuck? An invisible rider?!" Hickey’s jaw hit the floor in shock.

The archer wasn’t the only one who was killed. All of a sudden, bloodcurdling screams started resounding throughout the forest. A group or archers rushed out of their hiding spot and fired Spiraling Arrow Blades behind them, temporarily revealing the stealthed riders in bloody armor behind them. However, the riders vanished into thin air again in just three seconds.

It was a goddamned massacre. Over half of the 10000 archers we had hid here were killed in the blink of an eye.

……

Hickey stared at the scene slack-jawed for a moment before erupting, "Fuck! The rumors were true after all! I heard that Cyan Beast’s territory has reached Rank 10, and that their territory skill was something called the ‘Mist Rider’! They could train riders that could turn invisible whenever there was fog in the area! Fuck!"

Guilt tore away at my insides as I clenched the Purple Ying Sword tightly. It was my fault for underestimating the enemy. I should’ve predicted that Breeze and Rain would guess that we had ambushers around and come up with some sort of counter, and he did. He had used his Mist Riders to cripple our archer party completely. What do we do now? The Mist Riders were blocking our way, and almost 100000 Beast King Cavalrymen were nipping at our feet. What do we do?