Chapter 1393: Guardian
Chapter 1393: Guardian
Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was pushing forward while all the other guilds were still defending against the Spirit Devouring Devils. Large groups of Dragonlight Cavalry slowly and carefully escorted the engineers forward so that they could begin their work. One engineer built a Bloodfiend War Drum so that everyone’s Attack would be increased slightly. The rest constructed White Marsh Catapults, ballistae and more at the heart of our chosen main position so that they could be used against the mobs on the walls, or the hostile forces on the ground such as Cyan Beast, the Northern Alliance, Swallow Ear Canton and more.
……
At the fortress, the sound of clinking metals and roaring mobs intermingled with each other as multiple lifts rose up from behind the walls. Soon, an innumerable amount of Level 300 fiend-rank succubi archers appeared on the rampart and began shooting at us.
"Do we try to scale the walls now, or?" I asked.
He Yi shook her head. "Of course not! We’ll take heavy losses if we do that. You, Li Chengfeng and Gui Guzi may be able to survive everything the mobs throw at you, but the rest of us are just going to die. Let’s leave the engineers to smash like 50% of the mobs with the White Marsh Catapults and ballistae first before we think to scale it with the cloud ladders. Remember, we’re here to earn experience, not die for nothing!"
I chuckled. "The boss is wise!"
He Yi raised her arm and declared, "All White Marsh Catapults, catapults and ballistae, aim at the mobs in front of you and fire at will! Let’s use up 50% of our ammo first before we decide what to do next!"
The engineers all nodded and responded, "Yes, guild leader!"
The sound mechanical twangs, and the sky became filled with flaming rocks, normal rocks and giant arrows. The White Marsh payloads crashed on top of the rampart, tore the succubi archers to shreds, and burned their bodies to a crisp. It was basically one-shot-one-kill for any mob that took a direct hit. The White Marsh Catapult was so powerful that it remained the China server’s number one siege weapon to this day.
……
About 10 minutes of non-stop bombardment later, most of the succubi archers on the wall were either dead or almost dead. Now was the time to scale the walls and reap the experience and loot we rightly deserved. There wasn’t a single person in the guild who wasn’t delighted by the display of overwhelming power, especially since we had been fighting with our flesh and blood up until this point. It was thrilling to finally be able to use some artillery and bomb the mobs back to hell!
Chiang!
When I deemed that the time was right, I unsheathed my sword and ordered, "Go! It’s time to set up the cloud ladders! Dragon knights, are you all fully buffed? If you are, follow me to provide cover for the others!"
The Ancient Divine Dragon let out a mighty roar and took to the sky after I leaped onto its back. He Yi, Gui Guzi and Li Chengfeng joined me soon after, and the four of us flew straight for the walls.
Swhoosh!
I activated Battle Astral Wind since I had no desire to be turned into a flying porcupine. As if on cue, a group of succubi archers aimed their longbows at me and loosed their arrows.
"Die!"
Flame exploded around the blade of the Chill of the Nine Provinces as I executed Burning Blade Slash. The succubi archers were low on health after the artillery bombardment, so the skill easily one-shot them all. Not only that, I raised my arm and dropped 20 Ancient Seals along the wide rampart. Not only did my Divine Energy Points go down, it jumped like crazy alongside my experience bar. Thank goodness that artillery support was a thing in this game!
Not far away, Li Chengfeng, He Yi and Gui Guzi were flying back and forth across the rampart and killing the succubi archers as well. Our HP dropped rapidly as a matter of course, but Gui Guzi and I predicted this would happen and timed our Xuanyuan Art and Shennong Tastes Grass accordingly. When both our powerful heals had gone into cooldown, all four of us remained safe and sound, and the cloud ladders were mostly set up. In fact, High Fighting Spirits had already leaped onto the rampart and was slaying the mobs right behind Xu Yang.
It took only the blink of an eye for the number of Dragonlight Cavalrymen on the rampart to swell to a thousand. However, the mobs responded by dispatching a ton of hammer-wielding Dark Beastmen up their lifts to engage us. It was definitely a challenging experience to become the first guild to reach the walls.
……
Swhoosh!
Suddenly, a swift shadow entered my vision. It was far too late to dodge out of the way, so I raised my Cyan Dragon Shield to block it!
BANG!
It felt like my torso was about to be ripped in half. In fact, whatever hit me was so powerful that I crashed through a parapet behind me and started falling uncontrollably toward the ground. I was in Fusion Armor form right now, and I wasn’t sure if I could summon it in time. In my panic, I activated Heavenly River Transformation and forcefully halted my descent with the power of my Domain. A jump later, I just barely made it back to the wall.
I checked my health and noted that I had lost a total of 970k HP. What the hell just hit me?
I narrowed my eyes and looked until I saw a black machinery rising up slowly from the center of the fortress. A dozen or so brawny giants were pulling back a steel bolt as thick as my arm with a rope that was at least ten meters long. No wonder it felt like I was hit by a truck.
He Yi assessed calmly, "There are only two things we can do in this situation. We either destroy it, or guard against it."
Li Chengfeng scanned the fortress interior for a bit before clicking his tongue. "There are archers everywhere in this goddamned fortress. They only need ten seconds or less to shoot even Lu Chen into a flying porcupine, much less us."
I nodded. "Yeah, there’s no helping it. Keep an eye on that super ballista and try to minimize our damage taken as much as we can!"
“Yeah!"
Before I could even finish my sentence, the ballista fired again and penetrated a Dragonlight Cavalryman this time. The poor sod took 2.24 million damage and was one-shot instantly!
I let out a helpless sigh before shouting again, "Let’s kill all of the mobs on the wall first before we think on how we should deal with that ballista. In the meantime, pray really hard that it doesn’t target you. It fires once per five seconds, so that means…"
Everyone laughed. "It’s okay, Lu Chen! We can afford one death!"
……
Our several thousand cavalrymen did everything in our power to defend our corner of the wall. The super ballista was shooting at us, and we had to contend with a seemingly endless swarm of mobs from both directions. Although we lost a lot of men in the process, our contribution points—especially the top players—were rising like crazy as well. In just 50 short minutes, our players scaled the rankings like crazy, and the gap between me and Breeze and Rain had grown tremendously. It was something Breeze and Rain and God of War absolutely couldn’t stand as a matter of course.
Meanwhile, the Spirit Devouring Devils had finally run out of steam, and the other guilds such as Cyan Beast, Throne of the Wild, Candle Dragon, Snowy Cathaya, Warsky Alliance and more were finally able to scale the walls. Soon, nearly a million players were fighting on top of the fortress’s vast rampart. Hunger? Fatigue? None of that mattered right now. Now was the time we threw all our weaknesses behind and earned as many contribution points as possible because it would be converted into a corresponding amount of experience and equipment during the reward stage later. Also, it was rumored that the reward pool for players with 999,999 contribution points and 1 million were completely different, so there was even more of a reason to try hard. Long story short, the more contribution points earned, the better the reward.
Seven hours passed by in the blink of an eye. It was almost enough time for the mobs in the fortress to respawn all over again.
Boom boom boom!
While dropping 3 Ancient Seals and killing a group of Dark Beastmen, I checked my weapon and saw that its durability had fallen to 47%. It was a testament to how many mobs I had killed during this time. Not even the greatest of the Twelve Divine Armaments could withstand the abuse I was putting it through. On the other hand, it goes without saying that I was dominating the contribution point ranking, right? I was correct. I brought up the interface and allowed myself to bask in happiness for a bit—
Name Country Points
Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand China 1472880
Breeze and Rain India 1193070
Tear Stain Korea 1073990
Wind Fantasy China1053880
Vienna’s Sorrow USA 990770
Candlelight Shadow China 978430
Legendary Brave China 965360
Luo River God of the Capital China 924430
Lian Xin China 913340
God of War India 894420
……
The MVP reward was more or less in the bag unless I did something really stupid for the rest of this event. I wondered which of the Twelve Divine Armaments I would get? Even if I somehow failed to get first place, getting second or third in this event wasn’t a bad thing either. Some Ghost Armaments were as good as the Twelve Divine Armaments after all.
I also noted that Beauty Lin was currently at fourth place and not too far behind Tear Stain. If she pushed a bit harder, she should be able to enter the Top 3 and be rewarded with a Ghost Armament for her efforts!
……
I stood at the edge of the rampart and observed the clamoring mobs and players inside the city. Our Dragonlight Archers and Holy Mages were also shooting the melee-range mobs from the walls. Considering what we had gone through earlier, the one-sided massacre was just as blissful and relaxing of an experience as our rising levels and contribution points.
"What are you thinking?"
He Yi descended beside me before asking.
I shot her a smile before answering, "I was wondering about the system notice we received earlier when we entered the Godslayer Fortress map. It said that a terrible devil is slumbering in the fortress, but what is it? And when will it awaken?"
He Yi chuckled. "It’s obviously a boss. As for when it will awaken… I guess it will be when the fortress is conquered?"
"Yep."
I watched the beelines of players still pouring into the fortress. "If I’m not mistaken, it should be appearing very soon…"
"Tell everyone to get ready."
"Mn!"
……
Suddenly, the entire Godslayer Fortress began shaking like an earthquake. The temperature shot up unnaturally, and the next thing we knew dozens of pillars of fire had burst out of the earth. The entire city had turned into a sea of flames!
I hurriedly shouted, "Withdraw our troops right now!"
But it was too late. Hundreds of Dragonlight Cavalrymen had already evaporated into ashes. As it turned out, the fortress interior was like a giant incineration trap that killed almost everyone who dared to step inside of it. As far as I knew, Heaven’s Rain was the only one among the Dragonlight Cavalry who survived because she happened to be near the stairs when it happened.
……
Bang!
The earth burst open again, and the giant head of a brownish gray dragon emerged into the open. It spat out a jet of flames and one-shot an unfortunate group of Cyan Beast players!
Breeze and Rain gripped his sword and trembled violently. "What… the hell am I seeing?"
Tear Stain’s expression was deathly serious as well. "Are you kidding me? The guardian boss of Godslayer Fortress… is one of the Nine Purgatory Sovereigns?"