Chapter 88 - The Ninth Team
The Past Deeds Eradication Army currently had fifty players stationed at each of the five spawn points that they had seized, with another thirty players stationed outside the Priest Academy. These two hundred eighty players were needed to keep up the pressure in the six spawn points. Thus, Sword Demon could not deploy them to another location even if he wanted to.
Without these two hundred eighty players, Sword Demon’s group and the sixty-man group assaulting the underground prison could only form a team of about one hundred eighty men at Yueye City’s north gate. Conversely speaking, Past Deeds would have somewhere around one hundred players if the team situated in the underground prison could join the team in Youye Valley. Sword Demon did not know how many players were needed for his group to make up for the gap in terms of skills, gear, and other factors with the enemy team. After all, this was the first time he had taken part in such a large-scale fight in Parallel World.
However, there was one point he was aware of: The fewer opponents they needed to face, the better the odds would be for them. Thus, Sword Demon decided to have his group attack the Past Deeds’ players first to prevent the enemies from improving their odds of victory.
Unfortunately for Sword Demon’s group, a large portion of them had low Agility. The Thieves, Archers, and the other job classes had to match their speed with the Warriors and Priests’.
Every job class counted in such a large-scale PvP, after all. In other MMOs, it was rare for the different job classes to have varied speed. Therefore, the Thieves and Archers in Sword Demon’s group fervently wished for their Warriors and Priests to grow an extra leg or two in order to hasten their pace.
Fortunately, Sword Demon and his team did not receive any news from Dusky Cloud of the enemy group managing to form up, as they marched onward. Dusky Cloud, who was in charge of monitoring the Past Deeds’ movement, excitedly told Sword Demon that he could now see the latter’s squad from his location of a few hundred meters away.
That’s great! Sword Demon thought to himself. He assumed that the Past Deeds’ thirty-man team must have taken a detour to not arouse suspicion, increasing the time they needed to form up with the team in Youye Valley.
After a while, Dusky Cloud sent another message, “That’s odd. I’ve been searching for a long time in the team I’m monitoring, yet I can’t seem to find that shrew, Vast Lushness. Has anybody seen her?” Dusky Cloud bore a deep grudge against Vast Lushness. Not only did he want to lead his brothers to a new future, he wanted to ‘settle’ his grudge against her along the way as well.
“I don’t see her here, either!” the people holding the fort at the Priest Academy reported.
“G*dd*mn! Where did that shrew go?”
“She’s a woman! Maybe she became scared of the upcoming fight, so she retreated under the comfort of her blanket while hugging a pillow?” someone ridiculed. Dusky Cloud was not the only one holding a grudge against Vast Lushness, after all.
Dusky Cloud furrowed his brows. He knew that Vast Lushness was not that simple-minded. Actually, she was very similar to Dusky Cloud and his buddies: hot-blooded, bloodthirsty, and loyal. The only difference between them was that Vast Lushness was a woman, so she did not curse as much as them.
If Dusky Cloud were her, he would fight until his level was reduced to zero. He would never choose to retreat or hide from a fight. Undoubtedly, the like-minded Vast Lushness would be the same.
“Big Boss Sword Demon, it’s very unusual for that shrew to be missing. Something’s not right here,” Dusky Cloud privately messaged Sword Demon.
“What?” When it came to familiarity with the local players’ thought process, Sword Demon could not compare with Dusky Cloud. After all, this was not Sword Demon’s home ground.
“That shrew is not the type to retreat. I’m still waiting to fight with her to death! I think that there’s a scheme in play here, since she’s nowhere to be found,” Dusky Cloud speculated.
“Who are the core members that you can see over there?” Sword Demon asked.
“I only see Vice Guild Leader Blue Ease over here,” Cloud Demon replied.
“Are there few Thieves in that team?” Sword Demon asked, thinking of a possibility.
Dusky Cloud thought of the same thing as well. Was it possible for their opponents to have already finished forming up and only appear few in number because the Thieves had gone on Stealth? However, this did not seem to be the case upon closer inspection, “Nope. All the job classes are present; the Thieves don’t seem to be lacking in number either.”
“Anyway, we’re almost there. Let’s talk about this more after we eliminate that team!” Sword Demon said.
“Alright! ...Hmm? OH, WAIT!” Dusky Cloud suddenly shouted.
“What?” Sword Demon had asked this question when he himself could already see what was happening in real time. On a distant field, seventy odd players of Past Deeds could be seen scattering and rushing from all directions in pairs of twos and threes. They were leaving the should-be battlefield in separate units.
“They’ve dispersed! What’s going on?!” Dusky Cloud hollered.
Past Deeds was already on the losing side with their smaller number, so only by joining together could they have a powerful combat strength. However, the Past Deeds’ seventy players still chose to split up right before the huge fight. What were they thinking? Sword Demon and his group only had to form a few strike teams of Thieves and Archers with Agility-based builds and they could easily take care of over half of the dispersing Past Deeds’ players! Sword Demon gazed at the heavily geared Warriors and low-Agility Priests running across the plains and could absolutely not understand what Past Deeds was thinking.
“Let’s go, Big Boss Sword Demon! We won’t lose as long as we take them down one by one!” someone beside Sword Demon suggested when he appeared to be hesitating. This bunch of people could not help but salivate upon seeing the Past Deeds’ players filling up the hills and plains before them.
This truly is not the proper time to be hesitating. Sword Demon nodded his head and raised his hand, bellowing, “CHARGE!”
“CHARGE!” everyone roared in unison. At this moment, the Thieves activated Fleetfoot and dove straight toward the scattering enemy players. The Archers sent arrows whooshing through the air as well. These two job classes became the main offensive force of Sword Demon’s group right now. From time to time, the Mages would throw out fireballs. As the Warriors and Priests, they mostly provided support from the rear.
Sword Demon bravely took the lead, heading for a player and plunging a knife using Backstab.
Although Dusky Cloud considered the Past Deeds’ players to be outstanding individuals, they were still incomparable to Sword Demon. Sword Demon had dug his dagger deeply into his opponent before the latter could even retaliate. And with two stabs under Fatal Blow, he made short work of the player.
“Big Boss Sword Demon is too domineering!” everyone exclaimed. Sword Demon had just killed off a Warrior, a job class that Thieves were weak against. An average Thief would usually get killed just from attempting to touch a Warrior. Warriors had high HP and defense, so Thieves that specialized in dealing physical damage found it hard to attack them. Equipment that increased the chances of Fatal Blow, like the dagger that Sword Demon possessed, was necessary for a Thief to deal physical damage to a Warrior.
Sword Demon waved at everyone for a bit, before hurtling himself toward another target.
Actually, Sword Demon did not randomly plunge his dagger into the Warrior; he had appraised the target first before coming to a decision to attack him. Nonetheless, it was a rather risky move on his part, since the probability of the Warrior turning around with Cyclone still existed. Although the Cyclone’s duration was dependent on a Warrior’s amount of Rage, it was still a skill that dealt the highest damage in Parallel World. Hence, any of the low-HP Thieves that received this attack would be insta-killed. Actually, only the absurdly skilled Gu Fei would consider Cyclone as an inflexible and easily defendable in-game skill.
After disposing the Warrior and raising everyone’s fighting spirit in corollary, Sword Demon targeted a Mage next.
Although fighting spirit was important in online games, it could not actually do something like tapping into the players’ inner potential. The least it could do was roused the players’ passion for violence, encouraging them to courageously fight even in the face of death.
The job classes with high Agility on the Past Deeds’ side were very fortunate, as their guild’s Priests, Warriors, and other job classes with low Agility had a hard time escaping the assault of Sword Demon’s group. Meanwhile, the more enemy players Sword Demon disposed of, the harder it was for him to figure out Past Deeds’ plan.
As Sword Demon pondering on this, a message came from within Yueye City; a thirty-man team had appeared in the Archer Range.
“F*ck me! What skill is this?!” the players blocking off the Archer Range cried out. Bad news arrived a minute later, “We were wiped out!”
“How is that possible?!” Sword Demon and the rest were flabbergasted. They had placed a fifty-man group at the Archer Range. Even if they could not fend off the thirty players dispatched by Past Deeds, they should at least not be losing so quickly, especially since they had numerical superiority.
With this, they had lost control of one of their spawn points. A majority of the allied players guarding the Archer Range were Thieves, so most of them revived over at the Thieves’ Union. Since the Thieves’ Union was one of the spawn points closest to the Archer Range, a lot of Thieves would go over there to provide reinforcement right now. At this point, the extraordinary thirty-man team that could wipe out a fifty-man team was only a minor concern for Sword Demon.
Sword Demon was more worried about the mere thirty men he had stationed over at the Priest Academy, which was also not far from the Archer Range.
“The Priest Academy’s team, quickly retreat and head toward the Warrior Encampment!” Sword Demon gave this order to their players in Yueye City’s Priest Academy. He then proceeded to gather his group members who were running all over the plains. At this very moment, Sword Demon realized that it would be difficult to quickly assemble the troops chasing after the scattered Past Deeds’ players again. It would definitely take some time!
Is this what they’re after?! Sword Demon’s heart squeezed.
Another report came from within the city at this point: “A lot of Past Deeds’ players that were previously offline have begun to come online!”
“G*dd*mm*t! M*th*rf*ck*rs, move faster! Don’t f*ck*ng kill anymore. We’ve got a big problem back in the city!” Dusky Cloud howled like a wolf out in the open, as he abandoned the group channel.
“We’ve got a problem!” Sword Demon quickly sent a message to Young Master Han, “What’re you guys doing?”
“What’s wrong? I’m drinking!” Young Master Han replied.
“M*th*rf*ck*r!” Sword Demon had obviously been influenced by Dusky Cloud and his buddies. He quickly relayed the issue, “A team of Past Deeds that we had lost track of before appeared and took back the Archer Range in just a minute.”
“That’s impossible. How many people did you leave behind? It only took them a minute?” Young Master Han asked, feeling shocked.
“Fifty men!” Sword Demon said, “We don’t know where they are now!”
“B*llsh*t! Where else could they go after securing the Archer Range?!” Young Master Han retorted.
“Warrior Encampment!” Sword Demon finally got it. The job class’ weakness was not something that only Sword Demon’s side could utilize. Their opponents must have realized Sword Demon’s plan of utilizing the job classes’ weaknesses to suppress the relevant spawn points. Now that their opponents rescued a whole pack of Archers, they would naturally use them to attack the job class that the Archers had the most advantage against. Currently, the fifty-man group defending the Warrior Encampment was mainly consisted of Mages, whose arch-nemesis was the Archer job class.
“Newly respawned Thieves at the Thieves’ Union, swiftly make your way to the Warrior Encampment!” Sword Demon immediately ordered. His heart rejoiced when he recalled that he had already sent the Priest Academy’s defenders over to the Warrior Encampment.
“What’s going on?” Dusky Cloud hurriedly asked.
After Sword Demon explained everything, Dusky Cloud quickly reacted, “Fleetfoot! Every f*cking one of you better activate your Fleetfoot!”
“They just dropped a level when they had respawned. Fleetfoot can’t be used, anymore,” Sword Demon reminded Dusky Cloud.
“M*th*rf*ck*r!” Dusky Cloud cursed, “Where did they get such a bullish team of thirty players? Did they form them slyly?”
Sword Demon did not think so. If they could form the current thirty-man group by gathering from two different locations, it should be possible for them to send more people over. There was no need to just form a thirty-man elite team.
Those thirty men must have been the ones previously manning the underground prison. In any case, Sword Demon and company were more bewildered by that elite team’s fighting prowess.