Chapter 1402: Nepotism
"Here it comes!"
The Chill of the Nine Provinces shivered in my hand. At full durability, it was perfectly ready to kick this battle off. From a distance, it looked as if a black sea was surging toward us. At close range, the Corpse Eaters looked like cheetahs running on all fours, except that their mouths were agape, their ugly heads swiveled loosely around their necks, and the white drool constantly splashing out of their mouths gave them the appearance of a starved predator who just found their prey. And who was the prey? Why, it was everyone in this temporary fortress of course.
He Yi ordered in a low tone while gripping her Suppressing Fire Sword tightly, "All units, Guard where you are and act with caution. We’ll see what we can do after we survive the first charge!"
Everyone smashed their shields against the ground and assumed a Guard stance. At the same time, Beiming Xue ordered from the walls behind us, "All archers, raise bows and Far Shot your Shock Arrows! On the count of 3, 3! 2! 1! Let loose!!"
Twang twang twang…
A rain of arrows shot over our heads amid a chorus of rhythmic bow twangs. They rained on top of the sea of mobs and stunned many Corpse Eaters, causing them to trample over each other and crumbling their formation. For this first charge at least, the pressure our players had to face was massively decreased.
……
It took only the blink of an eye for the first group of Corpse Eaters to hit us. Not only did they possess high Attack, their bodies were small but wiry. This meant that every cavalryman on the frontline had to tank at least 3 to 4 Corpse Eaters at the same time. Even I had to play it safe and summon my Cyan Dragon Shield. When I thrust it forward to bash the Corpse Eaters, they actually clung to the piece of metal, swiped and bit at it like rabid animals. Several damage numbers rose from my head—
17298!
14287!
20184!
……
The mobs could only do between 10k to 20k damage to me, but the same couldn’t be said for everyone else. Even an elite player like High Fighting Spirits was losing between 60k to 120k HP per hit. Worse still, the Corpse Eaters had insanely high attack speed, and occasionally they would dish out seven to eight hits in rapid succession. High Fighting Spirits turned green when he saw his HP dropping to the 50% mark all too quickly and shouted, "Fuck, these puppies hit like a truck! Heal harder, priests!"
The Dragonlight Cavalry’s job was to grit their teeth and endure the Corpse Eaters’ assault. The mages and archers’ job was to bombard the mobs to hell, and the priests’ job was to AoE heal as many people as possible, and single-target heal those frontliners whose HP had dropped dangerously low. Even then, at least a dozen Dragonlight Cavalrymen weren’t able to survive because they were unlucky enough to eat multiple critical hits in a row. Of course, they were quickly replaced by the frontliners standing behind them.
Swhoosh!
I abruptly moved the Cyan Dragon Shield away and executed Burning Blade Slash + War Crush + Myriad Swords Obliteration combo. Since I was using my Martial God to boost my Attack by 200%, and the Fire War God Card to buff my offensive power even further, I was able to crush the Corpse Eaters like ants. Their small frame actually worked to their disadvantage here because it meant that my splash effect dealt way more damage than it would’ve against a larger opponent. One Burning Blade Slash was enough to do at least 3 million damage to every Corpse Eater within its area of effect, and the follow-up Myriad Swords Obliteration and War Crush just obliterated them all and transformed them into sweet, sweet experience and contribution points. Once again, I couldn’t help but admire how each strike of Burning Blade Slash dealt more damage than the previous. It was without a doubt my best offensive skill!
Dozens of meters away from my position, Gui Guzi was sitting on his Dark Crystal Dragon and unleashing his own halberd-style Burning Blade Slash against the mob. His damage was pretty high, but he could only deal around 1.8 million damage to each mob because the splash effect of the Ghostblade Halberd wasn’t as great as that of the Chill of the Nine Provinces. It was by no means a poor showing, however. A normal Dragonlight Cavalryman could only dish out several hundred thousand damage per skill. He might as well be a god compared to them.
There were a couple more players who also had higher DPS than Gui Guzi. He Yi was one such player. While she was firing a triple-hit Stormwind Break into a group of Corpse Eaters, the last hit triggered her passive skill and engulfed them all in a continuously damaging storm. She immediately followed up with Stormwind Slash that reduced the Corpse Eaters into chunks of flesh and blood. It was an incredible amount of DPS for sure.
Li Chengfeng’s prowess needed not be said. As a 5-Strength dragon warrior and a skilled player in his own right, his DPS was even higher than He Yi’s. Chaos Moon, High Fighting Spirits, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and more were throwing out their AoE skills and murdering the shit out of the Corpse Eaters as well. In a battle like this, the rate at which the mobs died directly translated to increasing our chances of survival and contribution points. When the event ended, I fully expected all of us to be showered in an infinite amount of riches and bitches by the system…
……
It took a while, but we eventually found our rhythm and stabilized with our berserker-style defense. The priests on the walls had also gotten to the Corpse Eaters’ attack pattern enough that we weren’t bleeding Dragonlight Cavalrymen anymore. And of course, the Holy Mages and Dragonlight Archers were the MVPs of this wave. Their superior DPS murdered the Corpse Eaters so quickly that their corpses quickly stacked on top of each other like hills.
Boom!
I dished out Thousand Ice Slash and encased a group of Corpse Eaters in ice. After Summon the Storm had killed them all, I inhaled and absorbed all of the undead soul spark left behind by the surrounding Corpse Eaters. I was slowly but surely becoming an Asura God.
I took a moment to check how the other guilds were doing. Warsky was struggling alone in the first defense line—everyone else had died—while the Gold Cavalry in the second defense line were trying to reorganize themselves. Their priests were run-ragged just trying to keep everyone alive, much less healthy. Warsky shouted furiously, "Hold! Hold! Don’t hesitate or retreat! If Ancient Sword can stop the Corpse Eaters, we can too! These mobs are nothing to us! Now cha—"
October Rain interrupted him from the walls, "Did you forget that the Dragonlight Cavalry are riding Immortal Rank mounts, while our Gold Cavalry are only riding Earth Rank mounts? Also, you may have the Immortal Blade, but the rest of us are just normal players. Archers and mages, go all out and suppress the Corpse Eaters with superior firepower just like Ancient Sword. We must disrupt the mobs’ attack formation if we are to have a chance holding this wave."
Warsky Alliance’s defense line was about 200 meters long. It looked like it was just a couple of steps shy of a total collapse.
Next, I checked out Candle Dragon. Candlelight Shadow, Tempest Shadow, Blue Sky Scar and more elite players were fighting at the first defense line, and they were countering aggression with even greater aggression just like us. Candlelight Shadow especially was charging back and forth on his fire dragon and spamming his Outer Flame like it was free. His efforts reduced much of the pressure bearing down on his players, and so far they had lost only a couple thousand cavalrymen. The real reason Candle Dragon was doing so well though was their tamer legion, however. Every single one of them had Life of the Tamer and between 2 to 3 Lantern Girls. God’s Dance barked orders from the walls, "Lantern girls[1], aim toward the front and Far Shot your God Devil Breaks!"
The God Devil Breaks exploded among the Corpse Eaters and killed them with unbelievable ease. The Lantern Girls were high-level pets with impressive magic growth, and their Intelligence was on par or higher than a Level 220 mage with a full set of Immortal-grade equipment. Naturally, a dumb monster like a Corpse Eater was incapable of withstanding their power. Candle Dragon’s tactic was definitely much more effective than Warsky Alliance’s.
Snowy Cathaya and Blazing Hot Lips were doing relatively well under Lin Yixin and Stranger of Three Lifetimes’ leadership as well. Their losses weren’t insignificant, but at least they held their ground.
On the other hand, Purgatory Mad Dragon’s frontliners were dropping like flies. The only one who was holding firm and maintaining above 70% HP all the time was Ray of Sunshine on his Cloud Devil Panther[2]. Every time he lost HP, he simply needed to execute Dragon Flame Flurry, Triple Slash or other flurry skills to steal some HP. His skills dealt over 300k damage per hit, and the Heaven Suppressing Necklace gave 100% lifesteal. Therefore, it wasn’t even surprising that he was at full HP for most of the time. A Ghost Armament like the Heaven Suppressing Necklace was perfect for killing mobs and bosses.
……
It was a tough battle, but the China faction was ultimately able to hold back the first monster wave. Meanwhile, the gang was chatting in the guild channel—
Chaos Moon: "These fiend-rank Corpse Eaters are so strong. Their DPS is even higher than Tiger Leopard Knight’s…"
Tiger Leopard Knight’s heart skipped a beat as he let out an awkward laugh. "Beauty Chaos Moon, you… you’re not implying that I should be kicked out of the Dragonlight Cavalry, are you?"
Gui Guzi laughed. "Relax, bro. You’re Moonlight Stone’s older brother! You won’t be kicked out thanks to good ol’ nepotism!"
Tiger Leopard Knight: "..."
High Fighting Spirits: "Seriously though, not only do these Corpse Eaters have insane DPS, they’re small and packed together like sardines. I wonder how the other gates are doing?"
Li Chengfeng chuckled. "Hero Alliance and Cyan Beast’s losses are within acceptable range, but I heard that God’s Domain lost over 10000 players in just ten minutes. Well, losing your main city will do that to you…"
He Yi said, "Yeah. Purple Grape City is still occupied by Sophie…"
I said, "Red Maple is growing arrogant because of the Crimson Dragon Arm though. Not only did he taunt us repeatedly at our borders, he sometimes even invaded our land and massacred some newbies. The Japan server hates us like crazy right now. I have no doubt they would crush Sky City beneath their feet if given the opportunity…"
Gui Guzi sneered. "That’s perfect! When this patch event is over, we’ll preemptively attack Wallow Ear Canton and deny them even their remaining shelter!"
I corrected him. "It’s Swallow Ear Canton, bro…"
Chaos Moon: "Gui Guzi is sooo doing this on purpose!"
Gui Guzi: "I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just copying you guys…"
Chaos Moon: "Pooh! Denial is futile!"
Gui Guzi: "..."
……
The Corpse Eater wave lasted about an hour before it finally petered out into almost nothing.
Deeming that my presence was no longer necessary, I sheathed my sword and withdrew from the frontlines. I asked Chaos Moon, "Can you tally our casualties?"
"I’ve been doing it the whole time using the system…" Chaos Moon stuck out her tongue at me before answering, "We’ve only lost a total of 2078 Dragonlight Cavalrymen, some potions, Magic Consumables and cards. Overall, it’s a pretty good first wave… You know, I heard that Warsky Alliance lost over 30000 players in total. Warsky’s face had almost turned a shade of green when he heard this…"
I laughed. "Not bad, not bad at all…"
……
Suddenly, Beiming Xue called out to me from the walls. She was looking toward the south when she said, "Big bro, a boss just appeared from the south! It’s a giant Corpse Eater, and it’s moving toward God’s Domain!"
1. T/N: that moment when you realize that you’ve been reduced to your pet ☜
2. E/N: Guess he switched his random Ink Qilin from the ending of 1395/beginning of 1396 pretty fast… Which only confirms author was high when writing it, and he wanted Ray of Sunshine to be the flame version of Little Piglet so much he even forgot Ray’s mount back then and copied Little Piglet’s, lol ☜
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