Chapter 226 – Berserk Power
As the sun set, Twilight Forest would go through a long period of twilight during which a large number of Level 80 ghosts would spawn. At this point in the game, these ghosts were completely undefeatable. Because of their power, no one ever dared to linger in Twilight Forest when the sun was down, giving it its name.
Despite the danger of Twilight forest at night, it was very safe in the daytime. Only Level 25 monsters would spawn under the sun.
A crowd of over five hundred Azure Falling Sky players were busily farming mobs in Twilight Forest. Most of them were around Level 25 and could be considered elites within the guild. Moreover, about a hundred of them were even stronger, being from the Azure Falling Sky gaming organization. Theoretically, such a large force of players farming in the wilds was completely safe. After all, only the major guilds would be able to do anything to their group.
Unfortunately, over five hundred Withered Leaf Gaming Organization players clad in full sets of Gold equipment were heading their way to show them what a massacre was. Like a massive metal monster, their group slammed into the mob of Azure Falling Sky players with incredible momentum and instantly took out almost a hundred enemies. Then, they proceeded to viciously slaughter the remaining enemies.
The remaining four hundred people, with the professional players in the lead, began to fight back against Aqua Smoke Stub’s force. Both sides continuously suffered casualties, but Azure Falling Sky had over a dozen times more losses than Withered Leaf.
The people of Withered Leaf demonstrated extremely coordinated teamwork. A squad of Thieves circled around to the back unnoticed and took out the Priests in an ambush. At the same time, the Warriors in the front lines once more charged with renewed ferocity as they were bathed in the holy light of Indomitable Will. Despite the best efforts of the enemy, the Azure Falling Sky players were pushed back again and again in retreat.
According to Aqua Smoke Stub’s plans, their first move would be to quickly wipe out this group of five hundred players. Then, they would immediately retreat from Twilight Forest and look for a place to clear their red names before once more looking for opportunities to take care of Azure Falling Sky.
However, just as they had killed around two hundred players, something completely unexpected happened.
The moment he heard the news, Azure Falling Sky’s leader, Clear Sky, had immediately notified his nearby subordinates to rush over in a rescue mission. He had been lucky, as over a thousand players had been grinding in the area and were close enough to help.
These people had originally been scattered in small teams ranging from five to fifteen players each. When Withered Leaf’s scouts first probed the area, they had ignored these small teams of players. After all, each group was just a small team and they couldn’t possibly go through the entire forest with a fine-tooth comb. However, even though they were split into small teams, there was a great number of Azure Falling Sky players spread across the map, and they kept flooding in to reinforce the group. As almost a thousand people amassed in the area, they were even able to hold off Aqua Smoke Stub’s attack, stopping his momentum and completely foiling his original plans.
More Azure Falling Sky players kept streaming into the battle with every passing second, which caused Aqua Smoke Stub to become increasingly anxious about the situation.
“Boss, there’s more and more of them! We’ve killed over five hundred of them but lost fifty of our own as well,” Cold Peak Absolute Blade said as he repelled an incoming Azure Falling Sky Berserker with a well-placed Cleave. The Berserker, struck by his powerful blow, was sent flying.
Aqua Smoke Stub calculated the time that had passed. If they stayed there for long, Azure Falling Sky’s main forces would arrive soon. Even though each member of their strike force was an elite who could take out multiple Azure Falling Sky players, they still weren’t enough to eliminate an unending tide of thousands of players on their own.
“We’re moving out! Everyone keep up!” Aqua Smoke Stub roared. He slammed into two enemies and knocked them flying with Charge. Then, he took a second two-handed greatsword out of his bag and activated Berserk Power. With this boosted strength, he wielded a greatsword in each hand as he fought.
Whirlwind Slash!
Swinging the two swords horizontally at the eight Berserkers surrounding him, he burst out with over five hundred damage to each.
This terrifying damage made them unable to do anything but look on in horror.
Aqua Smoke Stub stood tall, clad in an intimidating suit of spiked armor. Like a steel giant, he wielded the fearsome greatswords in his hands like one-handed swords, sending an opponent flying with each strike.
The Berserk Power skill allowed Aqua Smoke Stub’s strength to increase several times in one go. This skill was a set bonus from his War God’s Doctrine Set. A while back, five hundred people had gone together to explore the Level 30 Temple of the Dark God map, but he was the only one to come out alive with this extremely powerful set of armour as his reward. This set, which could be worn at Level 25, boasted absolutely incredible properties. Just the set bonus of Berserk Power was enough to make it extremely powerful. Berserk Power drastically increased Aqua Smoke Stub’s strength as well as allowing two-handed swords to be wielded with one hand. Other skills’ cooldowns would shortened, but his defense and health would be decreased by 30%. The skill lasted for five minutes and had a cooldown of two days.
The effects of this skill were shocking. A two-handed greatsword often had around 60% higher stats than a one-handed sword of the same level. As a warrior, he could add 50% of his secondary weapon’s attack to the weapon in his primary hand.
A greatsword in your dominant hand would automatically have massive attack. Once the 50% boost from an auxiliary weapon with similarly high attack was added to it, the primary weapon would rise to insane heights. No one would withstand such a ferocious attack!
With another Whirlwind Slash, another circle of sharp sword-lights flew out, causing another half dozen Berserkers and Fighters to collapse simultaneously.
There were already no Priests left in the back of Azure Falling Sky’s forces, and the scattered Priests that had arrived later were nowhere near enough.
Having taken down the Warriors in the front, Aqua Smoke Stub moved on to the Mages behind. Cutting his opponents down as if he were a merciless meat grinder, the Berserker looked to be completely undefeatable.
A barrage of spells rained down on Aqua Smoke Stub’s body, splattering around him in a multitude of colors. With both his health and defense decreased, his health points quickly approached zero. However, right when he was about to die, a ray of white light shined down on his body and restored his health. His health bar fluctuated heavily, and he even fell down to just a couple of health points a few times. Fortunately, the Priests were always able to save him and he was able to continue his onslaught.
“Die!” Smoke Stub boomed as he carved a line of blood through Azure Falling Sky’s Mages. The frail magic users fell to the ground one after another under his brutal offense.
Powerful Berserkers and even tanky Fighters couldn’t survive two hits from his greatswords, so these cloth-armored Mages naturally were decimated within seconds.
Corpses piled up like mountains as blood flowed like rivers.
Aqua Smoke Stub’s name was so red that anyone who looked at it would shiver in fear. Azure Falling Sky players watched in horror wherever he went, and some were even terrified to the point of pissing their pants. Those in his way scattered like flies lest they be cut down like so many before them.
Who could possibly fight this sword-swinging behemoth?
Cold Peak Absolute Blade simply followed in Smoke Stub’s wake like a third greatsword. Azure Falling Sky’s Mages also fell like dominoes under his attack.
“Boss, there’s even more of them coming now! There’s tons of players rushing over from both the East and the South!
“We charge to the North!” Aqua Smoke Stub checked his team roster again, only to see that dozens more of his subordinates had died. Smoke Stub’s heart clenched in pain at the loss, because each and every member of his attack force today was one of Withered Leaf Gaming Organization’s strongest elites. In a fit of rage, he had ignored the warnings from his managers and brought troops here to unleash a slaughter. Now, however, he wasn’t sure if he had made a fatal error.
After all, the gaming organization’s only purpose was to generate a profit for its parent company, not avenge the deaths of its players. However, those who had been slain by Azure Falling Sky outside Bovine Prairie were all brothers he interacted with on a daily basis. These people had been surrounded and killed by sheer force of numbers, partly because of carelessness. Those brothers who would lose money due to this incident were all coworkers with families to feed, so how could Smoke Stub possibly swallow his anger?
「Today’s matter was a result of my own reckless actions. I’ve led everyone into being surrounded. All of the losses of our brothers, I, Aqua Smoke Stub, will take sole responsibility for them!」Smoke Stub declared in the voice chat. The savings he had accumulated over the years should be enough to compensate these brothers for the losses they incurred.
「Boss! We followed you of our own free will! You don’t have to feel guilty. Us dying has nothing to do with you!」
「At worst, we’ll lose our bonuses. We dropped a few levels and our equipment, so what?!」
All of the players who had died spoke out one after another in the Withered Leaf group chat.
「Even if all of us have to die, we still have to get the boss out of here safely! His War God’s Doctrine Set absolutely cannot be dropped!」 Cold Peak shouted. With a Berserk Slash, he sent an enemy Berserker flying.
Who among them hadn’t gone through great hardships to finally obtain the gear they were currently equipped with?
If they died while branded with a red name, they would drop every single piece of equipment on their body. It was tantamount to their efforts being all for nought. If they lost all their equipment now, their earnings in the future would definitely be severely reduced.
Aqua Smoke Stub now regretted his own impulsiveness. He hadn’t gathered enough information and considered enough possibilities before taking action. He hadn’t expected there to be so many Azure Falling Sky players farming in nearby regions.
「Boss, there’s almost 9,000 Azure Falling Sky players headed your way! You better get out of there fast!」a player who had died and respawned back in town frantically shouted in the guild chat.
Aqua Smoke Stub felt a chill run down his back. He hadn’t expected Azure Falling Sky to assemble its forces so quickly. It could be seen that Clear Sky was very experienced in leading his guild.
「Brothers, we’re going to break out of here! Hurry up!」
Smoke Stub swung his greatswords and sent several Mages from Azure Falling Sky flying. When he looked at the forest edge in the distance, he saw a group of brightly armoured Azure Falling Sky players moving to surround them, completely cutting off all route of escape!
Leading them was the guild leader of Azure Falling Sky, Clear Sky!
Clear Sky had a tall stature that was not the slightest bit inferior to Smoke Stub. He was a Paladin, clad in bright, silver-white armour which emanated a faint radiance. When he spotted Smoke Stub, his countenance flashed with a hint of sinister cruelty.
The hatred between Clear Sky and Smoke Stub ran very deep.
Smoke Stub was actually one of the founders of Azure Falling Sky. He used to own a 30% stake in the gaming organization. However, something happened that caused the two people to part ways, with Smoke Stub bringing a whole bunch of people away from Azure Falling Sky and founding Withered Leaf, which would then receive the financial support of the Tuoba Family.
Later on, because the two gaming organizations were competing rivals in every popular virtual reality game, the animosity between them only further solidified and deepened.
When enemies met face to face, their eyes would blaze with hatred!
The appearance of Clear Sky’s group completely brought Withered Leaf’s powerful momentum to a halt.
“Shit! It’s Clear Sky!” Smoke Stub stared at Clear Sky. He was grasping the greatswords in his hands so tightly that the veins in his arms were exposed, and his eyes were bloodshot like an enraged lion.
“Boss! All of our escape routes have been cut off, and several of our Priests are running low on mana!” Samsara Lord yelled. Azure Falling Sky players were streaming in from all directions.
In a while, almost 9,000 Azure Falling Sky players would arrive. When that time came, it would be certain calamity for Withered Leaf!