MMORPG: The Elementalist

After seeing the Lich, everyone from the Hall of the Exalted realized that they had tipped Netherclaw over and now he had shown his hand.

The Tier 6 Megaboss’s Sealed Core would require a high-tier Summoner who had the skill Soul Binding completely to craft; other than that, to craft it, one would need to expend at least a hundred Mana Cores that were of the same tier. This would cost at least billions of gold coins.

Netherclaw’s bet with Bruvver was a million of gold coins. Sending out the Lich would mean taking a loss even after Netherclaw won the war.

In other words, Netherclaw was now determined to take down the Hall of the Exalted.

No matter the cost!

***

To mere Tier 5 players, the Lich was as wrathful as natural disasters! It didn’t matter if the opponents were Tier 5 newbies or veterans. If one were to face off this monstrosity alone, they would be facing death rather swiftly.

With over 600 points of Magic Attack stats, the Lich could kill any lone player with a point of a finger. Now, this wrathful Lich was controlled by a player. Its destructive capabilities were now infinitely multiplied.

With the aid of Netherclaw’s smarts, the Lich instantly decimated all the darn enemies that were on Netherclaw’s tail earlier.

One man and one monster.

Their wrath was immeasurable.

Like bombers raining hell from above the sky.

In less than twenty seconds, Shadow Magic attacks enveloped the battlefield, killing enemies everywhere they went. The Hall of the Exalted’s men were not able to withstand such a devastating onslaught at all. In a blink of an eye, over 200 men had fallen on the battlefield.

Seeing the Lich’s arrival and Netherclaw’s counter-strike, everyone on the Netherspirit’s Claw’s camp had now regained their fighting spirits.

“Yeah! Blast all those Hall of the Exalted bastards back to the city!”

Over ten thousand people roared enthusiastically as they gathered their strength to give their enemies another round of scuffle.

It would seem that there was still hope for the Netherspirit’s Claw’s camp.

However…

The four League Leaders, who were spectating over the city walls, couldn’t help but frown after seeing this.

Things weren’t looking good for Netherclaw…

Indeed, Netherclaw was able to regain a few grounds with his desperate counter-strikes. Yet, the Hall of the Exalted didn’t seem to be hugely affected by this–they were only slightly fazed by the counter-strikes and then regrouped in a rather short time.

In the League Leaders’ eyes, even if Netherclaw was able to fight back now, it was merely a desperate attempt. When the Hall of the Exalted had fully organized and launched their assault, Netherclaw and his Lich’s efforts would be all for naught.

Although the Lich was quite powerful, it was now controlled by a player–its actions and attack patterns were now fairly predictable when they know who the puppeteer was.

At least, to Qin Ruo, killing a Lich wasn’t even that hard. All it took was a few capable Tier 5 Veterans… heck, he could even take on a Lich alone without breaking a sweat.

If the Lich and Netherclaw were defeated, it would not be long before Netherspirit’s Claw faced its doom.

Having thought this, the four League Leaders sighed. The gap of strength between the two warring factions was quite immense. It seemed that Netherspirit’s Claw indeed had suffered a lot in this “ship-jumping crisis”.

It was then, Scarlet Bauhinia spoke.

“If Netherspirit’s Claw is defeated, I suppose his League would be disbanded soon…”

Then, he glimpsed at Qin Ruo and Majestic Hero… Seeing no response from them, Scarlet Bauhinia didn’t say anything further. All he could do now was to look at the desperate Netherclaw and his Lich on the battlefield.

***

And it was as expected.

In just three minutes, the Netherspirit’s Claw’s advantage was all but diminished by a huge “black net” that was shot at the Lich from afar.

It was as expected of the filthy rich Hall of the Exalted. In just minutes, they were able to acquire a huge amount of Shadowmesh Arrows, and those were sent straight to the hands of their Bowmasters. In an instant, hundreds of Shadowmesh Arrows rained upon the Lich.

The Shadowmesh Arrows indeed had a low rate of success in encapsulating a Lich. However, this time they were released by hundreds of Bowmasters… the low success rate was now made insignificant by the sheer quantity of arrows raining from above…

Thus, the mighty Lich was instantly bound and trapped!

That was not all.

From the crowd that the arrows were firing from, Qin Ruo and his fellow League Leaders could see very clearly that there were Snowmelt and Dark Dragon among their ranks!

That was such a despicable tactic!

Having these two former allies take on Netherclaw would not only be highly effective in terms of tactics, seeing that they knew Netherclaw’s attack patterns reasonably well, it would also be a massive blow on Netherclaw’s psyche.

With the combined effort of several dozens of other Champions…

It was checkmate!

And sure enough, in seconds, Netherclaw was blasted off from the sky… at the same time, the ensnared Lich too vanished into thin air.

“These filthy bastards!”

Knocking his fist into the city walls, Black God bellowed, “They even sent these two to spite Netherclaw! I’m not going to sit and watch anymore, gang!”

He quickly turned his furious, fuming eyes at his three fellow League Leaders.

“So, what’s our plan? If you want, I can summon my men over in this instant…”

It would seem that Black God intended to aid Netherspirit’s Claw in his war against the Hall of the Exalted.

Hearing this, Scarlet Bauhinia calmly replied.

“The Hall of the Exalted should never have existed in Honor and Glory in the first place.”

His words had expressed his determination in aiding Netherclaw too.

However, Qin Ruo and Majestic Hero had a different answer.

“No, we should wait.”

The two of them looked at one another with a smile. It seemed that great minds do think alike.

Hearing their answers, Scarlet Bauhinia inhaled deeply and threw another glance at the battlefield. Then, he turned his attention back to Qin Ruo and Majestic Hero, wondering what their intentions were with a frown.

While Scarlet Bauhinia was trying to figure out what Qin Ruo and Majestic Hero had in mind, Black God wasn’t having any of it.

“Wait? Well, you can sit on my arse waiting on it!”

Black God’s eyes widened as he leered at the two heartless gentlemen in front of him.

“If we wait, Netherspirit’s Claw’s done for!”

If Netherclaw fell, the entire Netherspirit’s Claw would fall too. This was quite obvious to anyone at the scene. And if that were to happen, Netherspirit’s Claw would definitely be disbanded.

Even though Black God and Netherclaw weren’t always on the best of terms, there had been a lot of joint operations between the Five Leagues since the Fallen Angels established their city. Other than that, they were both Shadowmancers too. This had helped to forge a friendship between the two former enemies.

Black God could not stand to watch his new friend, Netherclaw, be destroyed like this…

Besides, Black God had some selfish reasons in wanting Netherclaw to win. If the Hall of the Exalted could stomp Netherspirit’s Claw into oblivion, they could very well pick on Black Prison next. It wasn’t hard for that to happen, seeing these former-Prinz’s super conceited attitude toward others.

Saving Netherclaw was, essentially, saving himself too.

Hearing Black God’s concern, Majestic Hero calmly replied, “This might not be a bad thing to Netherclaw too. Just be patient. This isn’t the time to act.”

“Huh?”

Black God was tongue-tied after hearing Majestic Hero weird mumbo jumbo.

Majestic Hero then continued explaining.

“Let’s not forget. This League War was started by Netherclaw himself. If we all join in and help him, what would the others say?”

“Besides, most Hall of the Exalted’s men are now in the Underworld. Are we going to combine all the forces of the Five League to bully this small crowd over here?”

Hearing this, Black God slapped his forehead, finally understanding what Majestic Hero was trying to say.

Yes, how could he forget? This League War was started by Netherclaw. They had no business in joining this war.

Besides, the Netherspirit’s Claw was seemingly outnumbering the Hall of the Exalted. If the other four Leagues joined in the fight, the ignorant outsiders would think that the Five Leagues were ganging up to bully a newly risen League.

The Black Prison League had a good reputation amongst the player community–joining in the League War might jeopardize his League’s name entirely.

Black God found himself trapped in a dilemma.

“Then… how long should we wait? Are we going to wait until the war’s over? Are we just going to sit here and watch Netherspirit’s Claw fall?”

“Of course not…”

“So, you’ve got a plan then?”

Black God was overjoyed when he heard Majestic Hero’s response. “If you’ve got a plan, then spill it! Fucking hell, always with the riddles! Who do you think you are? Gandalf?!”

Majestic Hero forced a smile as he heard Black God’s retort.

“What’s the hurry? The League War had only just begun. We’ve got plenty of time to sort this out…”

“Ah. I see.”

Black God responded with a shift in tone, “So, after leaving me hanging for this long… you’re telling me that you still haven’t got any plans at all.”

Hearing Black God’s roast, Majestic Hero could not help but smile bitterly and look at Qin Ruo.

“So, Little Qin. Have you got any idea to sort this out peacefully?”

“…”

Qin Ruo shook his head in response.

Sort out this “Hall of the Exalted Crisis” peacefully? He didn’t have any bright idea in sorting this out.

Why? Because he had never thought of sorting this out “peacefully”.

Indeed, he and Majestic Hero did agree that Netherclaw’s defeat might not be a bad thing to the latter. The Netherspirit’s Claw’s men weren’t too loyal to Netherclaw and thus not very unified when facing a crisis like this. Therefore, even if Netherspirit’s Claw lost its men to Hall of the Exalted and lost in this war, it wouldn’t be too difficult for Netherclaw to rebuild his League.

As for the Hall of the Exalted…

Qin Ruo had never really cared about how others thought of him and the Fallen Angels. He didn’t care at all.

The time he used his Disguise skill to fling the entire Demon Faction back to the Dark Age in the Siege of Sin City…

The time he used the Black Flame Steeds to place his men in the Top Ten in the Grand Tournament.

All of these were heavily scorned and criticized by countless players on the Honor and Glory’s official forum!

Yet, Qin Ruo didn’t care one bit…

In Honor and Glory, only the ones with power had the right to anything.

Majestic Hero’s peaceful methods were, in fact, polar opposites to his.

Therefore, Majestic Hero didn’t know that his friend Qin Ruo wasn’t thinking of solving this crisis peacefully. He didn’t really consider the ways of both saving Netherspirit’s Claw and putting the Hall of the Exalted in his place at all.

From the moment he learned that even Black Rock, an elder member of the Fallen Angels, was also contacted by Bruvver and offered bribery to betray him too…

From the moment he realized just how low and despicable Bruvver would go to achieve his “glory”, Qin Ruo had only one thing in mind, ‘To wipe out the Hall of the Exalted in the best way possible… once and for all.’