Chapter 340 Charge With Me!
Edward jumped, but recovered quickly to instruct Mufasa so that he escort the wood elf elders away from the battlefield.
After all, the relationship between the wood elves and the Players were still in a delicate phase—though the elven queen sided with the humans, the wood elves still disliked humans overall speaking. As such, if anything happened to their elders under such circ.u.mstances, a rift would certainly come between the wood elves and the Players even if the elven queen remained on their side.
“Tch. The question and answer session lasted for so long, but all I’ve learned is something weird…”
Edward couldn’t help muttering to himself while watching Mufasa escort the wood elf elders away.
After all, knowing what the Elven Synchronized Intellect Nation (SIN) meant was not at all helpful for the current situation. In fact, the Players’ spirit might be affected if Edward simply revealed it to the others, which was why he didn’t post it in the forums as usual to keep information going both ways.
Steering his dragon, he simply went off to fetch his party and told only them what he knew—that said, with Gou Dan dying without being revived in time and Jessica staying with the elven treasure Sefarim and never having joined the current quest in the first place, Edward’s party consisted of only Joe and Eleena, who just joined the battle.’
“The undead elf’s obsession must be to complete the Synchronized Intellect Nation, and the tortoise colossus is a miniature version of that world fortress. Logically speaking, the high elves should have left some information inside… No, we just don’t have enough details to deduce what that thing is trying to achieve by controlling the tortoise colossus.”
Edward couldn’t help becoming frustrated as the tortoise colossus continued to move.
“You’re distracted,” Joe said, frowning at him. “You need to calm down, Edward.”
“What?” Edward was certainly taken abackhe never expected that the day would come for Joe, the very definition of a brute to call for calm.
“I might not know what the undead elf is planning or what the d.a.m.ned tortoise is going, but in the end, we only have one job.”
Joe added, flashing a confident, dazzling smile and a thumbs up, before leaping off the dragon. “And that is stopping them!”.
He spread his arms as if to embrace the ground, the cape attached to his armor spreading like a flying squirrel’s skin flap, keeping him streaking forward in a smooth curve instead of falling in a straight line!
It was only when Joe came close to the colossus’s head that he changed his pose. Drawing the greatsword Giant’s Toe that was slung over his back, his spirit familiar appeared out of thin air and turned itself into a light that latches over Giant’s Toe, buffing its damage!
Hence, Joe maintained his course of descent, bearing the acceleration of gravity to increase his momentum, thus swinging his sword fearsomely at the head of the colossus!
And then he was swallowed by the colossus.
(Player Joe has died. He is tortoise food now.]
Edward: ???
Fine. Joe was feeding, but at least he was right.
Now that things have come to this, the undead elf’s intentions no longer matterthe one thing they have to do was stop the tortoise colossus from advancing.
“Eleena.” Edward glanced at the girl who was the only other surviving member of his group. “Hmm?” The girl who had been staring daggers at the tortoise’s head turned to him, puzzled.
“I’ll do whatever I can to stop them… but there’s not much chance of success. If I die too, you should quickly retreat with the other Players and do not linger here.” Edward said solemnly. “You’re not like us. You are the Saintess of the Church of Games —it’s fine no matter how many times we die, but you have to live.”
While the rank of saintesses would differ depending on the religion-such as certain cult saintesses who ‘accommodated’ all followers by being part-time harlots. That said, they are still a symbol of most orthodox churches of the fellowship’s own purity and sovereignty.
And unlike most Players who had less of a heart, Edward who had long since become a true believer truly cherished the Church of Games, which was why it was reasonable for him to see Eleena in a different perspective.
“When I come back to life, I’ll get in touch with other players who are revived, deduce the path of the colossus’s advance and a.s.semble a second perimeter to stop it. I’ll then announce the location on the forums, so you don’t have to worry. Just run.”
“But…”
Eleena was about to protest, but Edward would not hear of it. Instead, he had his black dragon put her somewhere far from the battle, before summoning it back to him and began to provoke both the undead elf and the tortoise colossus.
As a Skyfire Herald who could freely control flames, Joe was much more versatile than Gou Dan and Joe—by continuously changing the form of his flames, he managed to bog down the undead elf for a long time. It was only over a dozen minutes when his blue bar was drained dry that the undead elf saw its chance and froze one of Edward’s hands. Unable to drink a Pepsi to recharge and missing his chance to run, he ended up being vaporized by a blast from the Pyrocrystal Cannon on the back of the tortoise colossus.
And it wasn’t just Edward.
By that point in the battle, many first-rate Players were already killed in battle. If the Players’ spirit themselves were not far beyond the other fighting forces of this erain fact, if they were any other army, they would probably have already fled, scattering into the wind.
Hence, Eleena had every intention to follow Edward’s instruction to retreat for the time being, and head to the second perimeter which they would prepare.
That was when she noticed that many Players were still there, beneath the feet of the tortoise colossus to fight back as hard as they could while protecting any citizens who had yet to escape.
Most of them had yet to change cla.s.s or were newbies who changed cla.s.s very recently. But even if they were fully aware that their attacks wouldn’t affect the colossus at all, they were fighting to buy the slightest chance to save the peasants.
All of them were still trying their best.
Eleena was speechless.
Was it right for her to abandon the believers of Church of Games, just because she held the t.i.tle of Saintess and therefore flee in the name of self-preservation?
She couldn’t help hesitating.
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Simba was at his limit.He had used every last bottle of potion and most of his skills were in cooldown. But even if the other players fighting by his side were throwing every last skill at the colossus, its looming feet that were coming down towards them never slowed down.
This was it.
Sure, he and the other players could come back to life, but the citizens who had believed in them and followed their instructions as they tried to evacuate was not getting away.
Simba felt an indescribable misery at that very thought. He felt like he had let them down.
The mountainous tortoise bore down, and everyone’s vision turned dark at once.
But the expected impact never came. Simba couldn’t help opening his eyes, and found that the leg was stopped by a barrier of light-even if fractures were cracking all over it, the barrier had stopped the brute force of the tortoise!
Then, Simba followed the source of light to find a silver-hair twintails girl who was clearly younger than himself, but beneath the illumination of the holy radiance and as her silver hair dance, she was every bit as awe-inspiring as the Valkyries of legends. “I am Eleena Meredith, Saintess of the Church of Games! Followers of the G.o.d of Games, if you have even a bit of fight left in you, raise your weapons and charge with me!”
“O Master of Games, grant us new life!”