Chapter 201 – Wall Broken
When her health reached a critically low point, Ice Witch finally regained the ability to move. She tossed a pill in her mouth and instantly restored her HP to full.
Clip-clop clip-clop! Team Ice raced over on their mounts, but Ice Witch only gave them a cold “step aside” before das.h.i.+ng toward the giant Puppet King once again.
Despite the roundtrip, the five hundred members of Team Ice hadn’t killed a single puppet. Instead, dozens of them were knocked from their mounts by flying rocks and insta-killed without even a chance to use their red pills. Per Rosethorn’s command, they simply retreated to the base with ashen faces.
“Raaaaawr!” The puppets wailed, and countless huge hands swept toward Ice Witch. As she slipped through the herd of puppets, the monsters couldn’t use long-ranged attacks and had to engage in close combat with her.
Fwiiis.h.!.+ The Stone Puppet King brandished its mace. Feeling a gale whip toward her face, Ice Witch slightly squinted. Just as the mace was about to strike, she dodged and slipped through a gap between two puppets.
She then raised her longsword and p.r.o.nounced, “Ice Dragon Break.”
With a hum, an ice dragon erupted among the pack of puppets and tightly coiled around the boss. The temperature in the area gradually dropped. With the dragon at the epicenter, a thick layer of ice materialized on the ground, covering a twenty-meter radius. All Stone Puppets in range were instantly slowed; some even slipped on the ice and couldn’t stagger to their feet no matter how hard they struggled.
Crrriik… The Ice Dragon constricted around the Puppet King with all its might. The dragon opened its jaws wide and exhaled a chilling breath. With a snapping noise, a crack appeared and crawled across the boss’s solid body.
Ice Witch paled a little after casting Ice Dragon Break; but, she immediately steadied herself and chugged down a blue pot. Gritting her teeth, the ice swordsman leaped upward and thrust her sword straight at the Puppet King.
“Frost Dance.”
Swiishh! A mult.i.tude of palm-sized snowflakes appeared out of thin air around the Stone Puppet King.
The hexagonal flakes rapidly twirled, like pretty ice fairies, and hurled themselves at the boss. The appearance of the snowflakes also accompanied a meter-long crystal ice sword three fingers wide. The weapon spun as it shot toward the Puppet King as well.
The whirling ice storm chipped away at the boss’s stony body. Layer after layer of stone dust fell and turned to icy lumps before they hit the ground. The simultaneous attack of the flakes and the sword dealt significant damage to the monster. When the Stone Puppet King’s health plummeted to only a third, Ice Dragon Break’s effect ended.
Regaining the ability to act, the boss let out a roar. With another roar, a golden glow appeared and formed golden armor that encased the King’s body. The immediate vicinity was dyed in the reflection of the golden light.
The ice sword and snowflakes clinked and clashed against the Puppet King’s metal armor, dealing much less damage than before.
“It’s not a Gold-tier boss after all. Its power’s just so-so.”
“So-so? You’re calling something that’s caused so much damage to the Ice Rose Alliance ‘just so-so’?”
“I see you haven’t noticed: The Stone Puppets are only level 40 monsters. Any of us could kill them one-on-one, just that it’d take a little while. But, in large quant.i.ties, who could defend against hundreds, nearly thousands of stones being thrown at them all at once? That’s why the damage is so big.”
“But, charging right into the enemy army all alone to kill their King, Ice Witch and her power would be ranked among the top in Black Tortoise City.”
“Of course! Otherwise, how would she dare be the first to establish a guild with only women?”
The distant chatter of the onlookers didn’t affect Ice Witch. After casting one ultimate skill after another, her body couldn’t take it anymore. Tearing a scroll, she vanished.
BOOM BOOM! The Stone Puppet King furiously smashed at the ground. Waves of air undulated in all directions. When they swept across a certain spot in the distance, a light flashed, and Ice Witch reappeared in a sorry state.
“Report: The eighth wave is coming. The monsters are a sledgehammer-wielding cavalry riding tigers, wolves, and similar mounts,” the rogue in charge of scouting the monsters reported to Rosethorn.
Receiving the intel as well, Ice Witch forcefully stopped her feet from retreating. She tore another scroll and tossed it at the Stone Puppet King. A huge formation appeared above the Puppet King’s head, swiftly followed by a chilling ice-cold breath. Innumerable ice shards sleeted from above, freezing the Puppet King into an ice chunk.
“Ice Storm,” Ice Witch softly called out. A white light shot from her sword and flew directly toward the Puppet King’s chest.
Pff! The attack hit its mark, but Ice Witch didn’t watch. She jumped out of the fray of the puppet army and headed for the gate.
“a.s.sist the Guild Master!” Waiting at the gate, Team Ice advanced and dug their s.h.i.+elds into the ground to create cover for Ice Witch.
Bam baam! Dozens of stones banged at the s.h.i.+eld wall, making it tremble until it almost collapsed. However, the wall created enough delay for Ice Witch to get inside the base just before her health hit rock bottom.
BOOM! In the distance, the frozen Stone Puppet King suddenly exploded. A mix of ice shards and rubble whizzed in all directions, and loot covered the ground.
Wit their King dead, the army of puppets was at a loss. Some continued attacking the wall while some looked around, clueless what to do.
“This eases the burden a little.” Rosethorn sighed in relief. In less than half an hour, the Stone Puppets had caused great damage to the Ice Rose Alliance. The monsters killed nearly one thousand players in addition to blowing dozens of holes in the wall.
“Quick! Mages and archers keep attacking the puppets. Knights, use your s.h.i.+elds and escort smithy players to fix the wall. The next wave will be here anytime now!” Rosethorn only had long enough for a single sigh of relief before she was busy again. Up until now, the power of the invading monsters was moderate, which only made her all the more uncertain.
All of a sudden, the land rumbled. Countless cavalrymen dressed completely in black armor galloped in the base’s direction. Bare of gauntlets, they revealed skeletal hands that clenched weapons, making it readily apparent that the lot were all skeletons.
Many of the mounts were horses, tigers, and wolves. The rest were other unpopular monsters whose names no one knew. Each snarled and roared as they raced for the wall.
At the very front of the battalion, a dozen monsters over ten meters in height rode huge tigers. These monsters held ma.s.sive sledgehammers two to three meters in diameter. Looking extremely excited, they punched a path through the surviving Stone Puppets and howled all the way to the wall.
Rosethorn grew more anxious the longer she watched. When the leading monsters entered attack range, she instantly gave order: “Target the big guys at the front, attack!”
Whoos.h.!.+ The moment the players’ attacks fell, more than a dozen black lights flared and enshrouded the huge monsters out front. The first wave of attack pa.s.sed without dealing much damage to them.
“They have Dark Sacrificers!” someone exclaimed.
The ten-odd monsters quickly reached the wall, raised their sledgehammers, and struck. In an instant, the overburdened wall creaked where the hammers. .h.i.t, and a dozen cracks crazed across its surface. They expanded until chunks of wall crumbled away.
“Attack! Attack!” Rosethorn shouted, frenzied. No one could have imagined such ma.s.sive damage from this type of siege monster. One hammer hit was enough to collapse a long stretch of wall.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Various attacks a.s.sailed the dozen or so behemoths. They naturally couldn’t block such a fierce onslaught. Despite being constantly healed by the Dark Sacrificers behind them, the ma.s.sive monsters all died in the end. But, the wall was also tattered.
Bwaaaahn! A long horn resounded. The monster cavalry abruptly sped up and rushed toward an opening in the wall.
While the onlookers watched with relish, Liu Lan found Fatty vanis.h.i.+ng. “Where are you going?”
“Shush, don’t be so loud. There’s too much stuff out there. It’d be a pity if the system reset and they disappeared. I’ll loot some and save them for your dowry,” Fatty whispered. Lord Fatty came just for these items; otherwise, why else would I be here? The monster siege has nothing to do with me. After watching all this time, now’s when this Lord Fatty should take action.
Fatty Stealth-ed toward the battlefield. As though beset by a swarm of locusts, wherever he went was picked clean of items. When spectators saw the equipment eerily disappear, they even thought the system had simply wiped them.
A little farther and Fatty would reach the area where the battle was occurring. If he was careless for just a moment, he might be trampled to death by the monsters or accidentally killed by the attacks from Ice Rose.
“Money, oh, money!” Since no one else was looting, Fatty did so without any qualms. Dispensing with courtesy, he s.n.a.t.c.hed everything within arm’s reach. Yet, these were only small mob drops. He’d have to go even farther onto the battlefield if he wanted the superb equipment.
“Wheat.” Fatty found a discreet spot and summoned the rodent. They then Earthwalked slowly toward the battlefield.
“This way, yep.” The master and pet leisurely entered the war zone. Gazing up at the monsters rus.h.i.+ng past overhead, Fatty smiled smugly. You guys fight your battle. Lord Fatty is only here to make some coin.
The first thing the elementalist was gunning for was the loot from the Stone Puppet King. However, the items glowed with a faint white light, indicating that they were still under the duration of protection by the system. Thus, Fatty couldn’t take them yet.
The Puppet King had dropped armor, a scroll, and a yellow skill book along with the more trivial stuff that didn’t remotely enter Fatty’s eyes.
Along the way, the elementalist looted a great deal of equipment. While the majority was nothing special, the quant.i.ty made up for it. He could sell them for quite a sum even at a NPC store. If someone looked very carefully where the monsters died, they would see a chubby hand suddenly pop out to s.n.a.t.c.h up an item before quickly vanis.h.i.+ng. Then, the hand would reappear in another spot and repeat the action.
“Lord Fatty is a man who knows how to live his life meaningfully. Waste is shameful,” Fatty mumbled as he urged Wheat onward to find more equipment.
Swiish… The protective aura on the Puppet King’s drops suddenly disappeared, and Fatty instantly reached out to grab the skill book.
RRRRMMBLLE! At that very moment, a booming sound echoed from the base wall. More than ten meters of wall collapsed. Roaring, the monster cavalry rushed inside.
“The wall’s down that quickly?!” Everybody was surprised.