1555

I looked down from the wall of Fortress of the Iron Halberd. The ground was crawling with Northern Alliance players, the cloud ladders were propped all around the arrow loops, and the walls were covered in so many arrows that they looked like porcupines. The battle had continued for 21 hours without pause, and yet Fortress of the Iron Halberd still refused to fall. It was without a doubt the MVP of this war!

"Who is sieging us right now?" I asked.

Stranger of Three Lifetimes answered while blasting the enemy players on the ground with Ice Blast, "The fourth-best guild of Hero City ‘Seven Heroes’, the second-best guild of Titan City ‘Blood Spirit’, and the third-best guild of Seven Star City ‘Conqueror’. They are all incredibly powerful, and at least 70% of their main force has yet to be mobilized!"

I nodded. "Got it. We must protect the fortress no matter what. If Fortress of the Iron Halberd falls, both Wind City and Dawn City will be fully exposed."

"Yeah, we’re all doing our best…"

……

At a section of the walls, Dominating Heaven Blade looked behind him and shouted after killing a player who had scaled up the walls using a cloud ladder, "Where are the archers and mages? Get your asses over here and do your jobs properly! Don’t let the enemy scale the walls without resistance!"

Dominating Knight God was also running back and forth and clearing out any Northern Alliance players who had made it up to the walls.

Dominating Archer God was shooting his arrows, and Dominating Mage God was firing his spells non-stop. None of these players was first-rate, but they gave it their all to defend the walls anyway. They were exactly the kind of people we needed right now.

I nodded in approval before descending toward the ground. The more havoc us divine players caused, the lesser the pressure the defenders would have to endure.

……

Some time later—and it definitely had been some time because I’ve used Xuanyuan Art a few times since—I checked the international contribution ranking and wasn’t surprised at all to find myself in first place. Everyone’s score was pretty high too since this was the first Nation War to involve all the servers in the game!

1. Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (China) Points: 5,187,680

2. Lian Xing (China) Points: 3,987,720

3. Breeze and Rain (India) Points: 3,816,290

4. Luo River God of the Capital (China) Points: 3,618,770

5. Wind Fantasy (China) Points: 3,348,820

6. Beiming Xue (China) Points: 3,313,900

7. Red Maple (Japan) Points: 3,219,880

8. Flowing Cloud (India) Points: 3,109,720

9. Candlelight Shadow (China) Points: 2,987,660

10. Lui Lok (India) Points: 2,876,510

……

My contribution was way higher than even first runner-up’s, Lian Xing’s, thanks to my Xuanyuan Sword. I was certain that I would accrue over 10 million points when this Nation War was over. I wondered what kind of reward I would get for my achievements? On a related note, Vienna’s Sorrow, Tear Stain, Shabby Castle and more top-tier players hadn’t shown their faces since the start of the war, which meant that they had accrued almost no contribution points at all. That they were sacrificing their chance to become the MVP showed just how determined they were to conquer our main city.

Cyan Beast’s Breeze and Rain and God of War were fighting the China server’s main force directly, so their contribution points were pretty high. Elephant City’s Flowing Cloud and Lui Lok were attacking our forces from the flank, and Swallow Ear Canton’s Red Maple was pushing back against them as well. It didn’t take much imagination to realize that Candlelight Shadow, Warsky and Lin Yixin weren’t having a good time. Even we couldn’t claim to have an easy time if we were the ones who had to fight against the full force of the India and Japan servers. Right now, our server was strained as taut as a guitar string. The only unknown factor left was the Northern Alliance’s true assault!

The walls shook again and again as the enemy’s catapults continued to throw their payloads against them. In fact, the hole-riddled northern wall of the fortress looked rather like a blood-coated beehive right now. The despawning bodies stacked beneath it were literally several meters high.

"Here they come!"

Beiming Xue suddenly pointed to the horizon. "Look, big bro! The three great guilds are finally sending out their cavalrymen for a strong assault!"

"Not only that…"

Lian Xin looked to the east and said, "I see a dozen or so ghost ships flying toward Dragonbone Mountain Range over there. Are they planning to fly past Dragonbone Mountain Range and hit us from behind?"

I nodded. "That’s highly possible!"

Gui Guzi asked, "What do we do then?"

"It’s simple!" I looked at Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and said, "You and Yun! I’m giving you 5,000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen. Activate your Flying General, chase after those ghost ships, and kill everyone that tries to drop down! A ghost ship can hold several thousand players at most, and none of them are a match for the Dragonlight Cavalry. Go!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun nodded. "Yessir!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun leaped down to the fortress ground and mustered 5,000 elite Dragonlight Cavalrymen quickly. They then galloped out of the back gate and toward the ghost ships. I might’ve given him more troops, but I couldn’t afford to split up our forces too much right now. Also, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun was a Divine General. His Divine General Skill might be very situational, but he shouldn’t have any problem sweeping the enemy with 5,000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen.

……

I narrowed my eyes as I watched the rolling smokes below.

"What are you thinking, Lu Chen?" He Yi asked.

I curled my lips. "I count about 1.5 million enemy cavalrymen in total, and they are escorting large siege weapons over from the sides. We may not be able to hold the fortress if we allow them all to reach the walls. There are many parts that are too damaged to handle another battering ram or two."

"What do you want to do then?"

I answered, "I’m heading out. Rally all of our Dragonlight Cavalrymen! We’re going to engage the enemy in a head-on battle!"

"Got it!"

Beside me, Chaos Moon asked for clarification, "Excluding the ones we’ve given You and Yun, we still have 130k Dragonlight Cavalrymen left. Do we take them all?"

"Yes, let’s!"

I raised my Xuanyuan Sword and declared, "All Dragonlight Cavalrymen, go get your buffs and ready your cards and positions. We’re heading out to defend Fortress of the Iron Halberd and Dawn City!"

……

The iron chains pulled the gate open once more. All 130k of our elite Dragonlight Cavalrymen rode out of it and spread into formation in no time. Behind them, 70k Dragonlight Archers led by Beiming Xue and He Yi had appeared as well. I had decided to strike out with all of our elites because losing the city would put us on the passive completely. We had endured many hardships to finally strike out at the enemy, and we weren’t withdrawing our fist now!

Standing at the forefront, I slowly unsheathed the Xuanyuan Sword and pointed to the front. I said in a low tone, "The cavalrymen of the three invading guilds are right before us. Prepare to charge and take them all out!"

Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls might be the only guild in the world who could boast about annihilating an army of 1.5 million with just 130k players and make it a reality.

Less than 100 yards away from us, the Northern Alliance players unsheathed their swords and raised their weapons in front of their chest as a sign of respect. Although we were enemies, everyone here possessed at least a warrior’s honor.

A Level 255 spear-wielding magic knight called Ice Wing stepped forward. He was none other than the guild leader of Seven Heroes. He watched us for a moment before yelling, "Gamers from the China server, we will soon battle each other for our main cities and pride, but it is just the battle between fellow gamers on opposite sides of the barricade, not enemies. We won’t be playing games forever, but we can be friends for a lifetime! I hope that everyone here understands that!"

Li Chengfeng nodded in approval.

I raised the Xuanyuan Sword and responded in a solemn tone, "In that case, we shall give it our all for pride, my friends from distant lands!"

Ice Wing also raised his spear and declared, "Seven Heroes, Blood Spirit, Conqueror, give it your all for pride and youth[1]!"

……

Thundering hooves rocked the ground as both sides began charging toward each other in full force!

Flying at a low altitude and keeping my sword low, I waited until the time was right before shouting, "Trapping Net!"

The Dragonlight Cavalrymen immediately threw out their Trapping Nets and immobilized many of the enemy cavalrymen. The enemy commander had ordered the same thing, but only a small number of Dragonlight Cavalrymen were affected by the skill. The disparity between our resistances was pretty huge.

"Kill!"

I unleashed my Xuanyuan Slash and the Xuanyuan Art at the same time!

A huge number of Northern Alliance players dropped to low health after they were affected by the Xuanyuan Art. Those who weren’t killed by the Xuanyuan Slash died to the Dragonlight Cavalrymen’s charge afterward. Li Chengfeng, Lian Xin and other divine players also unleashed their combos and their Ancient Divine Skills like crazy. Blood ran like a river from the moment we made contact with each other!

Pu!

A Dragonlight Cavalryman stabbed an enemy in the throat, but the latter’s teammates immediately retaliated by one-shotting him with their Barrier Breaks. As the melee fighters traded lives with one another, our Dragonlight Archers Far Shot their arrows into the enemy ranks non-stop. It kept the Northern Alliance on their toes at all times.

Lu Buyi was slowly and carefully making his way to the battleline. A couple of Dragonlight Cavalrymen had stayed behind to protect him, but he yelled, "I can protect myself! You guys should chase after the guild leader and kill more enemies instead of hanging around me!"

He cast a Dragon Vein Art while saying this and one-tapped a quarter-health magic knight. It was almost unbelievable that a tactician could deal almost 800k damage with a single Dragon Vein Art.

……

Steel clashed against steel. Fiery payloads unleashed by the Fire Catapults kept crashing into our midst as well. Although we were dealing massive damage to the enemy, the Dragonlight Cavalrymen were also dying far faster than they were during the battle of Falling Goose Valley. Our opponents were the elites of the Northern Alliance, and they were giving their all. It was simply impossible to win this without any casualties.

A bunch of system announcements resounded across the battlefield as the battle continued. It grew to the point where we were almost numb toward it—

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" (China) killed the Heroic Bannerman "Fire Swinger" (India) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 142,779 points!

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Legendary Brave" (China) killed the Heroic Bannerman "Ice Wing" (USA) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 192,763 points!

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Candlelight Shadow" (China) killed the JGL Hall of Famer "Pioneer" (Japan) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 98,763 points!

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Breeze and Rain" (India) killed the CGL Hall of Famer "Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties" (China) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 212,766 points!

……

To think that even a super-tier expert like Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties would fall to the enemy. What on earth was going on at Swallow Ear Canton?

The battle lasted 4 hours straight. In the end, we were able to kill all 1.5 million Northern Alliance players at a huge cost to ourselves.

It was at this moment I received a message from Lin Yixin. "We have a problem, Little Cheat…"

"What is it, Yiyi?"

"Warsky Alliance and Soul Battle Robes’ 3 million main force was ambushed by the enemy…"

1. T/N: the youth here is mean to show that you are only young once, so don’t fight in a way that you’ll regret in the future ☜

I looked down from the wall of Fortress of the Iron Halberd. The ground was crawling with Northern Alliance players, the cloud ladders were propped all around the arrow loops, and the walls were covered in so many arrows that they looked like porcupines. The battle had continued for 21 hours without pause, and yet Fortress of the Iron Halberd still refused to fall. It was without a doubt the MVP of this war!

"Who is sieging us right now?" I asked.

Stranger of Three Lifetimes answered while blasting the enemy players on the ground with Ice Blast, "The fourth-best guild of Hero City ‘Seven Heroes’, the second-best guild of Titan City ‘Blood Spirit’, and the third-best guild of Seven Star City ‘Conqueror’. They are all incredibly powerful, and at least 70% of their main force has yet to be mobilized!"

I nodded. "Got it. We must protect the fortress no matter what. If Fortress of the Iron Halberd falls, both Wind City and Dawn City will be fully exposed."

"Yeah, we’re all doing our best…"

……

At a section of the walls, Dominating Heaven Blade looked behind him and shouted after killing a player who had scaled up the walls using a cloud ladder, "Where are the archers and mages? Get your asses over here and do your jobs properly! Don’t let the enemy scale the walls without resistance!"

Dominating Knight God was also running back and forth and clearing out any Northern Alliance players who had made it up to the walls.

Dominating Archer God was shooting his arrows, and Dominating Mage God was firing his spells non-stop. None of these players was first-rate, but they gave it their all to defend the walls anyway. They were exactly the kind of people we needed right now.

I nodded in approval before descending toward the ground. The more havoc us divine players caused, the lesser the pressure the defenders would have to endure.

……

Some time later—and it definitely had been some time because I’ve used Xuanyuan Art a few times since—I checked the international contribution ranking and wasn’t surprised at all to find myself in first place. Everyone’s score was pretty high too since this was the first Nation War to involve all the servers in the game!

1. Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand (China) Points: 5,187,680

2. Lian Xing (China) Points: 3,987,720

3. Breeze and Rain (India) Points: 3,816,290

4. Luo River God of the Capital (China) Points: 3,618,770

5. Wind Fantasy (China) Points: 3,348,820

6. Beiming Xue (China) Points: 3,313,900

7. Red Maple (Japan) Points: 3,219,880

8. Flowing Cloud (India) Points: 3,109,720

9. Candlelight Shadow (China) Points: 2,987,660

10. Lui Lok (India) Points: 2,876,510

……

My contribution was way higher than even first runner-up’s, Lian Xing’s, thanks to my Xuanyuan Sword. I was certain that I would accrue over 10 million points when this Nation War was over. I wondered what kind of reward I would get for my achievements? On a related note, Vienna’s Sorrow, Tear Stain, Shabby Castle and more top-tier players hadn’t shown their faces since the start of the war, which meant that they had accrued almost no contribution points at all. That they were sacrificing their chance to become the MVP showed just how determined they were to conquer our main city.

Cyan Beast’s Breeze and Rain and God of War were fighting the China server’s main force directly, so their contribution points were pretty high. Elephant City’s Flowing Cloud and Lui Lok were attacking our forces from the flank, and Swallow Ear Canton’s Red Maple was pushing back against them as well. It didn’t take much imagination to realize that Candlelight Shadow, Warsky and Lin Yixin weren’t having a good time. Even we couldn’t claim to have an easy time if we were the ones who had to fight against the full force of the India and Japan servers. Right now, our server was strained as taut as a guitar string. The only unknown factor left was the Northern Alliance’s true assault!

The walls shook again and again as the enemy’s catapults continued to throw their payloads against them. In fact, the hole-riddled northern wall of the fortress looked rather like a blood-coated beehive right now. The despawning bodies stacked beneath it were literally several meters high.

"Here they come!"

Beiming Xue suddenly pointed to the horizon. "Look, big bro! The three great guilds are finally sending out their cavalrymen for a strong assault!"

"Not only that…"

Lian Xin looked to the east and said, "I see a dozen or so ghost ships flying toward Dragonbone Mountain Range over there. Are they planning to fly past Dragonbone Mountain Range and hit us from behind?"

I nodded. "That’s highly possible!"

Gui Guzi asked, "What do we do then?"

"It’s simple!" I looked at Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun and said, "You and Yun! I’m giving you 5,000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen. Activate your Flying General, chase after those ghost ships, and kill everyone that tries to drop down! A ghost ship can hold several thousand players at most, and none of them are a match for the Dragonlight Cavalry. Go!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun nodded. "Yessir!"

Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun leaped down to the fortress ground and mustered 5,000 elite Dragonlight Cavalrymen quickly. They then galloped out of the back gate and toward the ghost ships. I might’ve given him more troops, but I couldn’t afford to split up our forces too much right now. Also, Eighteen Steeds of You and Yun was a Divine General. His Divine General Skill might be very situational, but he shouldn’t have any problem sweeping the enemy with 5,000 Dragonlight Cavalrymen.

……

I narrowed my eyes as I watched the rolling smokes below.

"What are you thinking, Lu Chen?" He Yi asked.

I curled my lips. "I count about 1.5 million enemy cavalrymen in total, and they are escorting large siege weapons over from the sides. We may not be able to hold the fortress if we allow them all to reach the walls. There are many parts that are too damaged to handle another battering ram or two."

"What do you want to do then?"

I answered, "I’m heading out. Rally all of our Dragonlight Cavalrymen! We’re going to engage the enemy in a head-on battle!"

"Got it!"

Beside me, Chaos Moon asked for clarification, "Excluding the ones we’ve given You and Yun, we still have 130k Dragonlight Cavalrymen left. Do we take them all?"

"Yes, let’s!"

I raised my Xuanyuan Sword and declared, "All Dragonlight Cavalrymen, go get your buffs and ready your cards and positions. We’re heading out to defend Fortress of the Iron Halberd and Dawn City!"

……

The iron chains pulled the gate open once more. All 130k of our elite Dragonlight Cavalrymen rode out of it and spread into formation in no time. Behind them, 70k Dragonlight Archers led by Beiming Xue and He Yi had appeared as well. I had decided to strike out with all of our elites because losing the city would put us on the passive completely. We had endured many hardships to finally strike out at the enemy, and we weren’t withdrawing our fist now!

Standing at the forefront, I slowly unsheathed the Xuanyuan Sword and pointed to the front. I said in a low tone, "The cavalrymen of the three invading guilds are right before us. Prepare to charge and take them all out!"

Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls might be the only guild in the world who could boast about annihilating an army of 1.5 million with just 130k players and make it a reality.

Less than 100 yards away from us, the Northern Alliance players unsheathed their swords and raised their weapons in front of their chest as a sign of respect. Although we were enemies, everyone here possessed at least a warrior’s honor.

A Level 255 spear-wielding magic knight called Ice Wing stepped forward. He was none other than the guild leader of Seven Heroes. He watched us for a moment before yelling, "Gamers from the China server, we will soon battle each other for our main cities and pride, but it is just the battle between fellow gamers on opposite sides of the barricade, not enemies. We won’t be playing games forever, but we can be friends for a lifetime! I hope that everyone here understands that!"

Li Chengfeng nodded in approval.

I raised the Xuanyuan Sword and responded in a solemn tone, "In that case, we shall give it our all for pride, my friends from distant lands!"

Ice Wing also raised his spear and declared, "Seven Heroes, Blood Spirit, Conqueror, give it your all for pride and youth[1]!"

……

Thundering hooves rocked the ground as both sides began charging toward each other in full force!

Flying at a low altitude and keeping my sword low, I waited until the time was right before shouting, "Trapping Net!"

The Dragonlight Cavalrymen immediately threw out their Trapping Nets and immobilized many of the enemy cavalrymen. The enemy commander had ordered the same thing, but only a small number of Dragonlight Cavalrymen were affected by the skill. The disparity between our resistances was pretty huge.

"Kill!"

I unleashed my Xuanyuan Slash and the Xuanyuan Art at the same time!

A huge number of Northern Alliance players dropped to low health after they were affected by the Xuanyuan Art. Those who weren’t killed by the Xuanyuan Slash died to the Dragonlight Cavalrymen’s charge afterward. Li Chengfeng, Lian Xin and other divine players also unleashed their combos and their Ancient Divine Skills like crazy. Blood ran like a river from the moment we made contact with each other!

Pu!

A Dragonlight Cavalryman stabbed an enemy in the throat, but the latter’s teammates immediately retaliated by one-shotting him with their Barrier Breaks. As the melee fighters traded lives with one another, our Dragonlight Archers Far Shot their arrows into the enemy ranks non-stop. It kept the Northern Alliance on their toes at all times.

Lu Buyi was slowly and carefully making his way to the battleline. A couple of Dragonlight Cavalrymen had stayed behind to protect him, but he yelled, "I can protect myself! You guys should chase after the guild leader and kill more enemies instead of hanging around me!"

He cast a Dragon Vein Art while saying this and one-tapped a quarter-health magic knight. It was almost unbelievable that a tactician could deal almost 800k damage with a single Dragon Vein Art.

……

Steel clashed against steel. Fiery payloads unleashed by the Fire Catapults kept crashing into our midst as well. Although we were dealing massive damage to the enemy, the Dragonlight Cavalrymen were also dying far faster than they were during the battle of Falling Goose Valley. Our opponents were the elites of the Northern Alliance, and they were giving their all. It was simply impossible to win this without any casualties.

A bunch of system announcements resounded across the battlefield as the battle continued. It grew to the point where we were almost numb toward it—

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand" (China) killed the Heroic Bannerman "Fire Swinger" (India) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 142,779 points!

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Legendary Brave" (China) killed the Heroic Bannerman "Ice Wing" (USA) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 192,763 points!

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Candlelight Shadow" (China) killed the JGL Hall of Famer "Pioneer" (Japan) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 98,763 points!

Ding!

System Announcement: Attention all players, player "Breeze and Rain" (India) killed the CGL Hall of Famer "Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties" (China) and obtained 10% of their contribution points, 212,766 points!

……

To think that even a super-tier expert like Wei-Jin North-South Dynasties would fall to the enemy. What on earth was going on at Swallow Ear Canton?

The battle lasted 4 hours straight. In the end, we were able to kill all 1.5 million Northern Alliance players at a huge cost to ourselves.

It was at this moment I received a message from Lin Yixin. "We have a problem, Little Cheat…"

"What is it, Yiyi?"

"Warsky Alliance and Soul Battle Robes’ 3 million main force was ambushed by the enemy…"

1. T/N: the youth here is mean to show that you are only young once, so don’t fight in a way that you’ll regret in the future ☜