MMORPG: The Elementalist

When Qin Ruo, Majestic Hero, Scarlet Bauhinia, and Black God arrived at Moonrise City, the battle had already started–smoke shrouded the sky as fires burned wildly on the city walls; wailings and whimpers of agony were heard everywhere as battle cries roared profusely on the battlefield.

It was chaos everywhere!

As soon as they stepped out of the city’s Warp Portal, Qin Ruo and his friends could see over ten thousand players clashing fiercely outside the city walls, raining down powerful tides of magic spells and attacks onto their opponents. Looking up to the sky, they could see corpses of players and pets fell from the sky from time to time too.

Qin Ruo and his fellow League Leaders were also bringing a few dozens of their Winged Champions from their Leagues with them. The group’s sudden appearance from the Warp Portal immediately drew attention from the warring parties. Before they were able to fly toward the city walls to have a look, flashes of light shone from the Resurrection Portal nearby as the recently deceased players hurriedly rose up to continue where they left off on the battlefield; these newly revived players took a quick alarming glance at Qin Ruo’s party, worrying that this was the enemy’s reinforcement, and sighed in relief as they saw the insignias on their chests. In a hurry, they quickly flew out of view and toward the chaotic battlefield outside.

Sneering at the players from Hall of the Exalted and Netherspirit’s Claw, Black God commented with a belittling tone, “Heh, these dull cucks! Don’t they know it’s in-fighting they’re doing here? I’ve never seen these idiots fought so valiantly when they’re facing the Demon Faction.”

“No, this is different,” Observing the warring Angel Faction players with a calm look, Scarlet Bauhinia replied coolly.

“The Demon Faction is the Angel Faction’s public enemy–fighting them is like fighting the specters or monsters in the field. It’s business as usual. But this is different. The Hall of the Exalted had crossed a line this time, trying to cut the other Clans and a League into small bits and pieces. They can’t sit quietly and watch as the Hall of the Exalted humiliate them like that. This time… it’s personal. ”

“…”

Hearing Scarlet Bauhinia’s view, Majestic Hero could do nothing but frown; however, he did not retort–this was exactly what was happening after all, whether he liked it or not.

“So which side do you think will win?”

Sensing Majestic Hero’s uneasiness, Qin Ruo quickly switched the topic.

And the three League Leaders quickly replied, without hesitation.

“The Hall of the Exalted, of course.”

“Netherclaw’s in a pinch right now. He might not win.”

“Heh, Clawy’s going to eat the dirt. You’ll see!”

And their opinions were the same as Qin Ruo’s.

Even though Netherspirit’s Claw had gathered a dozen more Clans to join their cause–glaringly outnumbering the Hall of the Exalted, they suffered a huge decline in their Champions’ number. Most of their powerful lieutenants and Champions had jumped ship to the Hall of the Exalted.

Other than that, the Hall of the Exalted didn’t just accept anyone into their ranks. The ones who were scouted away by the Hall of the Exalted were all Tier 5 players. Their equipment and combat prowess were all top tiered too!

And what did the Hall of the Exalted offer them for them to betray their original Clans and League? A monthly payment of at least 50,000 gold coins! And this was just for the “ordinary members”! The Tier 5 Field Commanders were offered a monthly pay of at least 200,000 gold coins.

Surely enough, the Veteran Champions were offered millions and millions of gold coins for their allegiance! Some of them were even offered a place to build and manage the cities that they were planning to build in the Underworld.

Snowmelt and Dark Dragon forfeited their loyalty for Netherclaw because of this. The temptation was too great!

Hall of the Exalted, with its rapid expansion and growth, could very well devastate Netherspirit’s Claw and these mid-tier Clans in this League War.

This was quite obvious to everyone who wasn’t involved in the war. As for the ones who were involved, they were too blinded by hatred and vengeance that they could not see the overwhelming disadvantage they were carrying on their shoulders.

***

Of course, there was something peculiar that did not escape Qin Ruo’s observation. His League had planted eyes and ears at various places in the game and according to his informants, after taking down Netherspirit’s Claw, the Hall of the Exalted’s next target would be Fallen Angels.

When the time was right, these pay-to-win bastards would surely clash with him and his Fallen Angels, competing for the top League of the Angel Faction.

Such ego! Such arrogance!

As he thought of this, Qin Ruo could not help but frown in disgust.

Seeing Qin Ruo’s expression, Scarlet Bauhinia cleared his throat and continued speaking his mind out loud, “You know… I’m really saddened seeing Netherclaw like this. We were sitting together and discussing our plans to commence our Project Pioneer last night. And yet, no one thought he would be attacked and violated like this today. If it weren’t for my plans to commence Project Pioneer, I would definitely round up my boys and kick these Exalted bastards’ arses!”

Black God and Majestic Hero weren’t too surprised by Scarlet Bauhinia’s Project Pioneer plan. After all, Scarlet Dynasty was the next biggest League after Netherspirit’s Claw.

Yet, they shared Scarlet Bauhinia’s worry too. They could not afford to postpone Project Pioneer.

Even though the Hall of Exalted had definitely crossed the line this time, the other Leagues could not afford to hastily get themselves involved in Netherclaw’s fight. At the rate the Hall of Exalted was expanding at the moment, it would not take long before they recover from this League War. And when that was to happen… the retaliation… the wrath that the Hall of the Exalted would bring could definitely leave them in ruins.

No one could afford to wage a war against the Hall of the Exalted at this time–it would harm their Leagues in the long run.

Yet…

Qin Ruo didn’t have the same worry as the other three League Leaders.

The Fallen Angels had already acquired their base of operation in the Underworld. They did not even need to stay in the Mythical Continent anymore too. All they were doing at the moment was just purely focusing on the development of their city in the Underworld.

They were steps ahead of everyone.

And Qin Ruo knew what Scarlet Bauhinia was doing–he was trying to bait him to give Netherclaw a hand.

Heh!

Needless to say, Qin Ruo intended to help Netherclaw anyway.

Netherclaw had helped him during Project Pioneer back then. So, it was natural for him to repay the favor.

Besides, the Hall of the Exalted was too conceited and haughty for their own good. If they were allowed to grow further, it would cause much turmoil in the Mythical Continent.

However…

There was something else that he needed to consider too.

***

Seeing Qin Ruo’s indifference, Scarlet Bauhinia could only shake his head in dismay.

Without the Fallen Angels participating in the fight, his Scarlet Dynasty could not offer any help to Netherspirit’s Claw. It would be too costly for him and his League.

Thus, the League Leaders could only observe the raging war on the city walls in silence.

Suddenly…

A dozen silhouettes that were fighting fiercely in the sky quickly drew their attention.

One of them was someone they knew. They could not believe their eyes as they saw him scattered around gauchely and flinging out Magic Scrolls in panic…

“Netherclaw!!”

***

Outside of the Moonrise City.

“Zero”, the Steel Berserker, was facing off the head of the Netherspirit’s Claw alone. Netherclaw’s guards had all been lured away by Zero’s veteran Elementalists.

Now, it was Zero and Netherclaw. One versus one.

The nameless Steel Berserker, riding his beloved flying pet, had now overpowered Netherclaw, forcing him to retreat to the city walls.

Netherclaw did not think that this “Zero” could withstand his powerful magic spells at all. Seeing his attacks being negated again and again, Netherclaw felt nothing but dread.

His Shadow Magic wasn’t able to deal a great deal of damage on Zero, who possessed an ungodly amount of HP. Other than that, all his Shadow Magic’s debuffs had failed to latch onto the Steel Berserker too–he appeared to be immune to every kind of debuffs.

Then there was also his flying pet… Netherclaw had been throwing AoE Magic Spells at the darn thing over and over again… and yet, none of the attacks landed on the pesky creature.

To add salt to the wound, his men were decimated in minutes right after being lured away. Thus, now he needed to worry not only Zero but also the other Champions who joined the fight.

In an instant, Netherclaw could do nothing but go on the defense. He was now a prey.

If it was not for his Magic Scrolls that took down several Zero’s men from the sky earlier, Netherclaw would most likely be slain and sent straight back to the Resurrection Portal by now.

Still, the battle wasn’t looking good for him.

Despite being able to stay alive, there were waves after waves of bad news being reported from the frontlines.

A powerful 500-men militia, led by Bruvver, Snowmelt, Dark Dragon, and other Veteran Champions of the Hall of the Exalted, had decimated most of the Netherspirit’s Claw’s forces.

Without Netherclaw and his Veteran Champions’ leadership, the Netherspirit’s Claw and its allies stood no winning chance at all–they were like ants being stomped on by a massive boot.

In less than ten minutes, over 6,000 men in the Netherspirit’s Claw’s camp had died!

And that was not all.

The city gates were now completely blocked off by the Hall of the Exalted too. These slimy bastards had blocked off access to the battlefield outside, making the revived Netherspirit’s Claw men trapped within Moonrise City–only a few Winged Champions and players with flying pet could return to the battlefield with their flight ability.

In the meantime, the Clans that were fighting alongside of Netherspirit’s Claw… many of them had cowered in the depths of the Mythical Battlefield after seeing no sign of Netherclaw around.

Netherspirit’s Claw, the once prideful Netherspirit’s Claw was now in a pinch…

The ones who died before were now trapped inside Moonrise City. Some of them didn’t even dare to rejoin the battle either.

The war had only just begun and yet their leader Netherclaw was nowhere to be seen. There was no way that they could gather enough courage to face the menacing Hall of the Exalted alone.

If they dared to step out into the battlefield, they would surely be slain again, dropping their precious equipment all over the place–it was no different than gifting their gears to the enemies.

Thus, morale ran low as minutes passed…

Warriors of the Netherspirit’s Claw had slowly, one by one, lost their will to fight…

This was the same as Satan’s Salvation.

When morale ran low, it would not be long before the entire League came crumbling down… without its members’ faith, the League would turn into rubles in no time.

“Die!! God damn it!”

Not being able to bear to see more and more members leaving his Clan and League, Netherclaw quickly took out a Sealed Mana Core from his backpack and injected a huge surge of Mana into it…

Rooaaar!!

In an instant, a Lich appeared in front of the desperate Netherclaw.

The mysterious, powerful, deadly Tier 6 Mega Boss hovered around Netherclaw, killing two Hall of the Exalted’s Elementalists as he teleported away.

“Lich?!”

Bruvver’s men glanced and yelped.

“Zero’s in danger!”

Yet, it was too late. They could not get back in time to save their mighty Steel Berserker.

After the Lich appeared, Netherclaw’s movement was quick as lightning! In an instant, he was able to slay several Elementalists while moving around like a ghost. Even Zero’s flying pet was killed in seconds!

Without any means to dish out Tier 5 AoE attacks, the Steel Berserker could only watch in horror as Netherclaw and his Lich leaped into view and extend their angry claws at him!