1540

After that little intermission was over, Gui Guzi returned to the ground and led a party of Profound Wolf Cavalrymen out of the gate as we had planned earlier. Thanks to his Knight God, it took them less than ten minutes to divide the enemy’s front and rear forces in half once more.

In the air, flaming payloads continued to smash the puny players on the ground and deal massive amounts of damage. The White Marsh Catapults’ single-target damage was no less deadly than the Dragon Cannons’, so practically anyone who took a direct hit was one-shot by it. Moreover, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was the guild with the highest amount of White Marsh Catapults because Dark Moon City was Rank 11—meaning that it could accommodate more siege weapons—and He Yi was willing to spend the money. The engineers we hired had also worked tirelessly to churn out the siege weapons before the Nation War began.

……

"Big brother Little Gui and the guys seem to be taking more damage than expected…" Beiming Xue commented suddenly.

I frowned because I agreed with her assessment. Since the moment our Profound Wolf Cavalry rode out to meet the enemy, they had been showered with magic spells and arrows non-stop. In fact, Grief of the Dark was even ordering their catapults to target them. The payloads killed the Profound Wolf Cavalrymen in droves, and the only ones who could truly survive them was a super tanky player like Gui Guzi, or someone with over 20% lifesteal like High Fighting Spirits.

However, it was incredibly rare for a normal player to collect a set of equipment that gave 20% lifesteal or higher. Going by Sky City’s market value, a ring that gave 7% lifesteal could be sold for as much as 20k gold. This meant that it was highly unlikely to purchase a set of equipment that gave 20% lifesteal or higher unless your budget was 50k gold or higher. This price tag alone was enough to make over 95% of the players in the world stop in their tracks. That being said, you couldn’t perform well in a Nation War without good equipment. It was simply a matter of high investment, high return.

He Yi slowly pulled out the Suppressing Fire Sword and suggested, "We should help them. Otherwise, we might not even have Profound Wolf Cavalry to speak of when they finally return to the fortress…"

However, I shook my head and said, "No, that will be an overextension. We will lose even more troops if we surrender Fortress of the Iron Halberd’s excellent terrain advantage. Tell Little Gui and Eyes Like Water to stay within 100 yards of the walls. This way, our ranged players can help them somewhat, and they can still prevent the Northern Alliance’s follow-up troops at bay."

"Okay!"

……

Gui Guzi and Eyes Like Water’s 70k Profound Wolf Cavalrymen pulled back to the walls and killed nearly all of the Northern Alliance players who were preparing to scale them after He Yi had given the order. Their destruction also marked the complete failure of the Northern Alliance’s first and second attempt to overcome Fortress of the Iron Halberd.

"Form up!"

Gui Guzi raised his Ghostblade Halberd as he ordered the Profound Wolf Cavalrymen to form a thick shield formation beneath the walls.

Several thousand Steel Rhinoceros Cavalrymen slammed futilely against our shields before they were skewered by Barrier Breaks, blasted by magic spells, and turned into pincushions. Thousands were dead in just the blink of an eye.

"God…"

Grief of the Dark sucked in a deep breath before steeling himself for the big push. He yelled, "Fire Catapults, advance! Keep firing as you advance to provide cover for the Magic Crystal Cannons! Either Olympus overcomes Fortress of the Iron Halberd, or we all die beneath the enemy’s walls on this third wave! That is what we swore before entering this Nation War!"

Nearly a million players raised their weapons in response before making their move. I counted at least a thousand Fire Catapults and countless more cavalrymen approaching us.

"Hmph…"

Stranger of Three Lifetimes pouted. "Are they literally trying to scorch-earth all our Profound Wolf Cavalrymen with their Fire Catapults? Shameless, ruthless bastards!"

He Yi gritted her teeth. "The Fire Catapults have an effective range of 300 yards, and our archers had an effective range of 200 yards at best without Range. What do we do?"

"Use Range. It’s fine losing a bit of Attack. Also, since Olympus’ players are going all out, there is no chance Little Gui and Eyes Like Water’s 70k Profound Wolf Cavalrymen can stop them. They’re also too far away for our healers to heal them. Eve, take Chengfeng, Lian Xin and Beiming with you and assist them from the air. I’m going to rally several tens of thousands Dragonlight Cavalrymen and reinforce Little Gui!"

I was already leaping down to the fortress grounds while He Yi was nodding in response.

The Dragonlight Cavalrymen were full of impatience when I descended in front of them. Tiger Leopard Knight said, "Are we finally going to head out, Lu Chen? The enemy’s coming at us in full force!"

I nodded. "Yes. All Dragonlight Cavalrymen over Level 245, 90k base Defense and 1.5 million base HP, you guys are following me to meet the enemy in battle! Bards, please buff all the Dragonlight Cavalrymen who meet the criteria I specified!"

It wasn’t long before over 30k Dragonlight Cavalrymen had assembled. They were the best of the best cavalrymen we had, and they were all itching to head into battle. After the bards had buffed them all, I asked our first-rate tacticians to buff them with the stratagem, War Blood. War Blood was a common Level 100 tactician skill that increased max HP by 20% up to a maximum of 200%. However, only tacticians with over 1,000 Tactics could achieve that effect. There were over 100 tacticians in our main guild and subguilds combined who met the requirement, but it was enough for my current purposes!

The bards’ buffs boosted all their stats by 120%, and the tacticians’ buffs boosted their HP by 200%. After they buffed themselves with a 150% HP card, everyone was sitting at 8 million HP or higher. Now, there was little chance the Fire Catapults could kill them in one hit!

"Alright, let’s go!"

The gate opened, and I flew out with the Dragonlight Cavalrymen trailing behind me. Tiger Leopard Knight, Xu Yang and everyone else had been raring to go since a while ago, so they moved and spread out into formation as quick as lightning. Also, I had told them to keep near to the walls so that the priests on the ramparts could heal them.

……

Gui Guzi shot me a glance before breaking into the grin. "Hehe, we have a much better shot now that you’re with us, Boss Broken Halberd! How many Dragonlight Cavalrymen have you brought?"

"30k!"

"Sounds good! It should be enough for this battle!"

I smiled. "Yes. It’s not a big number, but it’s enough to annihilate Olympus!"

……

The sound of wheels crushing debris seemed to ring from every direction as the enemy slowly pushed the Fire Catapults toward us. They stopped about 250 yards away from our battle line before Grief of the Dark waved his scepter and shouted, "Ready! Fire Catapults, attack and burn these Chinese elites to death!"

I was shouting my own orders at my players, "Magic knights, raise shields and use Holy Shield Protection! The rest of you, use Guard and do your best to survive the first bombardment! Drink a health potion if you think it’s necessary, and priests, do please give us your best shot! Make sure you heal whoever lost the most HP and are directly in front of you!"

Not a moment too soon, the Fire Catapults launched their fiery payloads at us and dealt around 500k damage per player. At the same time, the ground turned into an inferno that constantly ate away at our HP.

I was fine thanks to Battle Astral Wind and Unusual Physique, but the Dragonlight Cavalrymen around me couldn’t claim the same thing. The explosion and subsequent burn damage had deleted around 50% of their HP, and they hastened to drink their HP potions while the priests on the walls healed them. It wasn’t easy, but we just barely managed to hold our ground.

"Ahhhh…"

The Dragonlight Cavalrymen might be tanky enough to survive the Fire Catapults’ bombardment, but the Profound Wolf Cavalrymen were not so fortunate. Hundreds of Profound Wolf Cavalrymen burned into ashes in the blink of an eye and dropped piles and piles of potions and equipment. No one tried to pick them up though. The foremost thought in their minds was to plug the holes and sustain the battle line.

Above the fortress, Beiming Xue rained infinite arrows with her Xuanming Bow, and Lian Xin endless spells onto Olympus as they advanced toward us.

Li Chengfeng attempted to fly close to the Fire Catapults and execute a Dragonblade Revolution + Dragonbone Flurry combo. While he succeeded in dealing a good amount of damage, he was too close to the enemy’s ranged units and ate a shower of arrows and spells for his efforts. After he managed a frantic retreat, he complained, "That goddamn firepower! Their so-called ‘frontliners’ are all ranged units!"

Gui Guzi uttered through gritted teeth. "This isn’t good. The Fire Catapults still hurt too much despite our preparation. We won’t be able to hold the line like this!"

Suddenly, an idea popped into my mind. I unsheathed my sword and ordered, "All players on the first and second line, Charge the enemy and treat them to an Ultimate Strength Break! Retreat immediately after you do so though! Don’t try to fight the enemy!"

"Yessir!"

The frontliners immediately switched out their shields, pulled out their weapons, and Charged toward the enemy. No one liked being one-sidedly bombarded by the enemy’s artillery, so they didn’t hesitate to seize the opportunity to give some payback!

The Dragonlight Cavalrymen had high movement speed, so they were able to reach the enemy’s battle line in no time at all. They ignored the arrows and spells blasting away at their bodies and executed their AoE skill, Ultimate Strength Break!

Bang bang bang…

Every enemy mage and archer on the battle line lost over 200k HP or more. The Dragonlight Cavalry was the most elite cavalry troop in the entire world, and they had at least 5,000 Strength over any standard archer. Multiply that difference by 40, and what you've got was an explosive amount of damage. A great number of ranged enemies and even dozens of Fire Catapults were destroyed just like that!

After unleashing my Burning Blade Slash, I raised my sword and cast Xuanyuan Art!

Countless columns of bloody light descended from the sky and massively injured or killed the Olympus players. Beiming Xue and Lian Xin’s super AoE skills also arrived just in time to deal even more damage!

"Retreat!"

My thousands of Dragonlight Cavalrymen heeded my order and pulled back to the battle line as quickly as they could. Of course, we still lost hundreds to the enemy’s Shock Arrows, Touches of the Dragonkiss, and many more skills. It was just another price one had to pay during a war.

……

Grief of the Dark didn’t like the damage his side suffered at all. "All units, advance! Cavalrymen, advance first and tear the enemy’s defense line to pieces! Now!"

Warhorses neighed, and cavalrymen rode. This was exactly the moment we had been waiting for.

……

"The time to reap contribution points is now!"

I yelled loudly, "Hold the line! We have priests to keep us alive, and they don’t! We have Dragonlight Archers and Holy Mages to provide us cover fire, they don’t!"

After that little intermission was over, Gui Guzi returned to the ground and led a party of Profound Wolf Cavalrymen out of the gate as we had planned earlier. Thanks to his Knight God, it took them less than ten minutes to divide the enemy’s front and rear forces in half once more.

In the air, flaming payloads continued to smash the puny players on the ground and deal massive amounts of damage. The White Marsh Catapults’ single-target damage was no less deadly than the Dragon Cannons’, so practically anyone who took a direct hit was one-shot by it. Moreover, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls was the guild with the highest amount of White Marsh Catapults because Dark Moon City was Rank 11—meaning that it could accommodate more siege weapons—and He Yi was willing to spend the money. The engineers we hired had also worked tirelessly to churn out the siege weapons before the Nation War began.

……

"Big brother Little Gui and the guys seem to be taking more damage than expected…" Beiming Xue commented suddenly.

I frowned because I agreed with her assessment. Since the moment our Profound Wolf Cavalry rode out to meet the enemy, they had been showered with magic spells and arrows non-stop. In fact, Grief of the Dark was even ordering their catapults to target them. The payloads killed the Profound Wolf Cavalrymen in droves, and the only ones who could truly survive them was a super tanky player like Gui Guzi, or someone with over 20% lifesteal like High Fighting Spirits.

However, it was incredibly rare for a normal player to collect a set of equipment that gave 20% lifesteal or higher. Going by Sky City’s market value, a ring that gave 7% lifesteal could be sold for as much as 20k gold. This meant that it was highly unlikely to purchase a set of equipment that gave 20% lifesteal or higher unless your budget was 50k gold or higher. This price tag alone was enough to make over 95% of the players in the world stop in their tracks. That being said, you couldn’t perform well in a Nation War without good equipment. It was simply a matter of high investment, high return.

He Yi slowly pulled out the Suppressing Fire Sword and suggested, "We should help them. Otherwise, we might not even have Profound Wolf Cavalry to speak of when they finally return to the fortress…"

However, I shook my head and said, "No, that will be an overextension. We will lose even more troops if we surrender Fortress of the Iron Halberd’s excellent terrain advantage. Tell Little Gui and Eyes Like Water to stay within 100 yards of the walls. This way, our ranged players can help them somewhat, and they can still prevent the Northern Alliance’s follow-up troops at bay."

"Okay!"

……

Gui Guzi and Eyes Like Water’s 70k Profound Wolf Cavalrymen pulled back to the walls and killed nearly all of the Northern Alliance players who were preparing to scale them after He Yi had given the order. Their destruction also marked the complete failure of the Northern Alliance’s first and second attempt to overcome Fortress of the Iron Halberd.

"Form up!"

Gui Guzi raised his Ghostblade Halberd as he ordered the Profound Wolf Cavalrymen to form a thick shield formation beneath the walls.

Several thousand Steel Rhinoceros Cavalrymen slammed futilely against our shields before they were skewered by Barrier Breaks, blasted by magic spells, and turned into pincushions. Thousands were dead in just the blink of an eye.

"God…"

Grief of the Dark sucked in a deep breath before steeling himself for the big push. He yelled, "Fire Catapults, advance! Keep firing as you advance to provide cover for the Magic Crystal Cannons! Either Olympus overcomes Fortress of the Iron Halberd, or we all die beneath the enemy’s walls on this third wave! That is what we swore before entering this Nation War!"

Nearly a million players raised their weapons in response before making their move. I counted at least a thousand Fire Catapults and countless more cavalrymen approaching us.

"Hmph…"

Stranger of Three Lifetimes pouted. "Are they literally trying to scorch-earth all our Profound Wolf Cavalrymen with their Fire Catapults? Shameless, ruthless bastards!"

He Yi gritted her teeth. "The Fire Catapults have an effective range of 300 yards, and our archers had an effective range of 200 yards at best without Range. What do we do?"

"Use Range. It’s fine losing a bit of Attack. Also, since Olympus’ players are going all out, there is no chance Little Gui and Eyes Like Water’s 70k Profound Wolf Cavalrymen can stop them. They’re also too far away for our healers to heal them. Eve, take Chengfeng, Lian Xin and Beiming with you and assist them from the air. I’m going to rally several tens of thousands Dragonlight Cavalrymen and reinforce Little Gui!"

I was already leaping down to the fortress grounds while He Yi was nodding in response.

The Dragonlight Cavalrymen were full of impatience when I descended in front of them. Tiger Leopard Knight said, "Are we finally going to head out, Lu Chen? The enemy’s coming at us in full force!"

I nodded. "Yes. All Dragonlight Cavalrymen over Level 245, 90k base Defense and 1.5 million base HP, you guys are following me to meet the enemy in battle! Bards, please buff all the Dragonlight Cavalrymen who meet the criteria I specified!"

It wasn’t long before over 30k Dragonlight Cavalrymen had assembled. They were the best of the best cavalrymen we had, and they were all itching to head into battle. After the bards had buffed them all, I asked our first-rate tacticians to buff them with the stratagem, War Blood. War Blood was a common Level 100 tactician skill that increased max HP by 20% up to a maximum of 200%. However, only tacticians with over 1,000 Tactics could achieve that effect. There were over 100 tacticians in our main guild and subguilds combined who met the requirement, but it was enough for my current purposes!

The bards’ buffs boosted all their stats by 120%, and the tacticians’ buffs boosted their HP by 200%. After they buffed themselves with a 150% HP card, everyone was sitting at 8 million HP or higher. Now, there was little chance the Fire Catapults could kill them in one hit!

"Alright, let’s go!"

The gate opened, and I flew out with the Dragonlight Cavalrymen trailing behind me. Tiger Leopard Knight, Xu Yang and everyone else had been raring to go since a while ago, so they moved and spread out into formation as quick as lightning. Also, I had told them to keep near to the walls so that the priests on the ramparts could heal them.

……

Gui Guzi shot me a glance before breaking into the grin. "Hehe, we have a much better shot now that you’re with us, Boss Broken Halberd! How many Dragonlight Cavalrymen have you brought?"

"30k!"

"Sounds good! It should be enough for this battle!"

I smiled. "Yes. It’s not a big number, but it’s enough to annihilate Olympus!"

……

The sound of wheels crushing debris seemed to ring from every direction as the enemy slowly pushed the Fire Catapults toward us. They stopped about 250 yards away from our battle line before Grief of the Dark waved his scepter and shouted, "Ready! Fire Catapults, attack and burn these Chinese elites to death!"

I was shouting my own orders at my players, "Magic knights, raise shields and use Holy Shield Protection! The rest of you, use Guard and do your best to survive the first bombardment! Drink a health potion if you think it’s necessary, and priests, do please give us your best shot! Make sure you heal whoever lost the most HP and are directly in front of you!"

Not a moment too soon, the Fire Catapults launched their fiery payloads at us and dealt around 500k damage per player. At the same time, the ground turned into an inferno that constantly ate away at our HP.

I was fine thanks to Battle Astral Wind and Unusual Physique, but the Dragonlight Cavalrymen around me couldn’t claim the same thing. The explosion and subsequent burn damage had deleted around 50% of their HP, and they hastened to drink their HP potions while the priests on the walls healed them. It wasn’t easy, but we just barely managed to hold our ground.

"Ahhhh…"

The Dragonlight Cavalrymen might be tanky enough to survive the Fire Catapults’ bombardment, but the Profound Wolf Cavalrymen were not so fortunate. Hundreds of Profound Wolf Cavalrymen burned into ashes in the blink of an eye and dropped piles and piles of potions and equipment. No one tried to pick them up though. The foremost thought in their minds was to plug the holes and sustain the battle line.

Above the fortress, Beiming Xue rained infinite arrows with her Xuanming Bow, and Lian Xin endless spells onto Olympus as they advanced toward us.

Li Chengfeng attempted to fly close to the Fire Catapults and execute a Dragonblade Revolution + Dragonbone Flurry combo. While he succeeded in dealing a good amount of damage, he was too close to the enemy’s ranged units and ate a shower of arrows and spells for his efforts. After he managed a frantic retreat, he complained, "That goddamn firepower! Their so-called ‘frontliners’ are all ranged units!"

Gui Guzi uttered through gritted teeth. "This isn’t good. The Fire Catapults still hurt too much despite our preparation. We won’t be able to hold the line like this!"

Suddenly, an idea popped into my mind. I unsheathed my sword and ordered, "All players on the first and second line, Charge the enemy and treat them to an Ultimate Strength Break! Retreat immediately after you do so though! Don’t try to fight the enemy!"

"Yessir!"

The frontliners immediately switched out their shields, pulled out their weapons, and Charged toward the enemy. No one liked being one-sidedly bombarded by the enemy’s artillery, so they didn’t hesitate to seize the opportunity to give some payback!

The Dragonlight Cavalrymen had high movement speed, so they were able to reach the enemy’s battle line in no time at all. They ignored the arrows and spells blasting away at their bodies and executed their AoE skill, Ultimate Strength Break!

Bang bang bang…

Every enemy mage and archer on the battle line lost over 200k HP or more. The Dragonlight Cavalry was the most elite cavalry troop in the entire world, and they had at least 5,000 Strength over any standard archer. Multiply that difference by 40, and what you've got was an explosive amount of damage. A great number of ranged enemies and even dozens of Fire Catapults were destroyed just like that!

After unleashing my Burning Blade Slash, I raised my sword and cast Xuanyuan Art!

Countless columns of bloody light descended from the sky and massively injured or killed the Olympus players. Beiming Xue and Lian Xin’s super AoE skills also arrived just in time to deal even more damage!

"Retreat!"

My thousands of Dragonlight Cavalrymen heeded my order and pulled back to the battle line as quickly as they could. Of course, we still lost hundreds to the enemy’s Shock Arrows, Touches of the Dragonkiss, and many more skills. It was just another price one had to pay during a war.

……

Grief of the Dark didn’t like the damage his side suffered at all. "All units, advance! Cavalrymen, advance first and tear the enemy’s defense line to pieces! Now!"

Warhorses neighed, and cavalrymen rode. This was exactly the moment we had been waiting for.

……

"The time to reap contribution points is now!"

I yelled loudly, "Hold the line! We have priests to keep us alive, and they don’t! We have Dragonlight Archers and Holy Mages to provide us cover fire, they don’t!"