"Ancient Sword cavalry, engage the enemy and make a short charge!"
Li Chengfeng raised his sword high and brought it down on the enemy s.h.i.+eld in front of him hard. Then, he led a short charge and successfully drove back the enemy a little.
Suddenly, a group of players led by a beautiful girl showed up behind our formation. When she raised her scepter and fired an Ice Blast, everyone caught within the explosion of icicles lost at least 20k HP. Some players were even one-shot where they stood.
There were only a handful of players in the entire China server who possessed this level of magical power, and among them, the only one who could spare a hand to help Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls right now was of course Stranger of Three Lifetimes of Blazing Hot Lips, our reliable ally.
Eyes Like Water rode up to the first battle line and gave He Yi a smile. "Blazing Hot Lips has finished resting and we"re prepared to earn some contribution points. Do you mind, guild leader From Water?"
He Yi smiled back. "Of course not, there are way too many contribution points and too few hands to collect everything. Feel free!"
Our mage party was still the guild"s biggest shortcoming, so Stranger of Three Lifetimes and her several thousand strong elite mage party was the perfect complement to our weakness. Stranger of Three Lifetimes especially could suppress a hundred-meter battle line with AoE spells all by herself, and that was exactly the kind of firepower we needed right now!
"Kill them!"
At the front, Xu Yang was spurring his Dragonlight Armored Horse and shouting out skill names as he performed them, coordinating attacks such as Mountain Stagger Slash with his comrades. He looked every bit the part of a fierce general.
Countless fireb.a.l.l.s and arrows were flying above everyone"s heads, and the battle line where frontliners clashed against frontliners was where the firepower was most concentrated. Everyone who remained standing and fighting despite the seemingly endless baptism of steel was an untouchable angel.
……
Suddenly, a group of cavalry appeared from our wings and approached us. It was the guild leader of Righteousness, Hot and Sour Noodles. It would seem that he was patrolling the battlefield with his subordinates.
"Lu Chen, how is the battle going? Can Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls hold the southwest area of Dawn Valley alone?" Hot and Sour Noodles shouted from beyond our formation.
I replied, "We"re doing fine. Don"t worry, we"ll eat up any troop that comes our way, and we won"t lose the southwest area no matter what. The real question is, can Candle Dragon hold the center?"
"It"s going to be hard!"
Hot and Sour Noodles shouted, "Righteousness and Purple Lily all spared some troops to reinforce the center as the major guilds of Hero City and Seven Star City just wouldn"t let up on the a.s.sault! It looks like their first objective is to wipe Candle Dragon from the surface of Dawn City, those ruthless b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"
I smiled. "Why are you still patrolling then? Go help Candle Dragon already?"
"But…" Hot and Sour Noodles frowned. "It looks like your guild is facing quite the pressure yourself. Are you sure you can hold this land yourself? Their Fire Catapults are about to show up!"
I laughed. "Don"t worry!"
……
It was at this moment we heard a loud mechanical tw.a.n.g from the distance. A flaming rock hit the battle line and crushed a dozen or so players immediately.
"f.u.c.k, speak of the devil…" Li Chengfeng uttered through gritted teeth. "Hot Sand City didn"t have this many Fire Catapults, but I heard they agreed to a military order with Vienna"s Sorrow and borrowed over 20 Fire Catapults to a.s.semble their formation of 30. They"re absolutely trying to bury us with those siege weapons!"
I raised my eyebrows and ordered confidently, "All Dragonlight Cavalry, move to the left and stand by! Everyone, move the formation 1000 meters to the back right now! Make sure the line is intact and don"t panic! Withdraw now!"
Hot and Sour Noodles panicked immediately. "Did your brain burn out, Lu Chen? How could you disrupt your formation after you"ve engaged the enemy? This is suicide!"
"Calm down!"
I leaped onto my horse and moved to the left side myself. Not ones to waste time, our 1800+ Dragonlight Cavalrymen and Famous Generals such as Li Chengfeng, Gui Guzi and Chaos Moon were all there.
The Northern Alliance chased us every step of the way as we withdrew. The cavalry rushed to the forefront and hacked away at the s.h.i.+elds at the back as if they were having the time of their life.
However, unbeknownst to the Northern Alliance, their 30 Fire Catapults had become separated from their main army immediately. It was exactly as I had planned. The siege weapon"s movement speed was less than 10% of their cavalry"s, so it would be a miracle if they could keep up with them. This was our chance. Having lost their cavalry, archers and mages" protection, the Fire Catapults were completely exposed!
Chiang!
I abruptly unsheathed the Cyan Netherworld Sword and shouted, "Alright, this is our chance, brothers and sisters! Dragonlight Cavalry, charge the Fire Catapults and destroy all 30 of them! Cyan Tiger Cavalry, encircle the enemy"s army from the wings and stop them from intercepting our troops!"
"Got it!"
Du Thirteen departed with his orders.
With my sword pointed in front of me, I squeezed the Armored Ice Qilin Horse and rushed forward like the wind. Behind me, the Dragonlight Cavalry burst out of their forested cover, killed everyone in their way and charged straight for the Fire Catapults!
……
"Ah…"
I saw only a dozen or so warriors standing guard beside the closest Fire Catapult, and a dozen of engineers reloading the siege weapon with rocks and fuel. Not a single one of them was a worthy opponent. One of the warriors widened his eyes and cursed angrily, "s.h.i.+t, we fell for their trick! They lured our army away from us! Tell the guild leader and the others to turn around before it"s too late…"
But it was too late. I rushed right past the Fire Catapult and hit it with Burning Blade Slash. Every engineer around the structure was killed, and the Fire Catapult lost more than half its HP. I didn"t bother securing the last hit and moved onto the next Fire Catapult at the back.
My apparition followed right beside me, and this time I made it hack away like normal instead of using Purple Dragon Howl. It might only have 75% of my stats, but it was still powerful enough to kill the Northern Alliance players like nothing!
The Phantom Wolf King was also darting around the crowd like lightning and killing people with Claw of the Storm. It was an AoE skill, and it made life h.e.l.l for the heavy-armor players and the Fire Catapults as well.
"Someone, turn the Fire Catapults around to attack the enemy cavalry!"
I heard someone shouting the order, but they had missed their timing a long time ago. We were simply too fast for the slow-moving siege weapons, and one back and forth was all it took for us to turn all 30 Fire Catapults into piles of rubble.
There were multiple pails of black tung oil set beneath the siege weapons, and a chuckling Li Chengfeng came up with a devious idea. After lowering his sword and penetrating an archer"s chest with a Barrier Break, he touched the oil before the flaming energy of the skill faded and instantly set it on fire. The flames instantly devoured a Fire Catapult and drove back the engineers who were hoping to repair it.
Everyone copied his behavior, and it wasn"t long before 30 gigantic bonfires chased away the darkness of Dawn Valley and illuminated everyone"s faces.
By the time Eye of the Storm and his troops finally came back, all they saw were thirty burning piles of rubble. Face ashen with fury, he shouted, "Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls, it is either you or us!"
By now, the Dragonlight Cavalry was already circling back to our main army. On the way back, we realized that the enemy"s mages and archers hadn"t caught up with their cavalry yet, so we seized the opportunity to unleash a fierce a.s.sault. The Dragonlight Cavalry was so good that The Storm never had a chance to stop us, so like a hot knife through b.u.t.ter, we rode in and out of their army seven times until Eye of the Storm finally reached us. Only then did we run back to our forces to recuperate and resupply.
On an empty field, Hot and Sour Noodles and the several hundred players he brought with him stared at Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls blankly for a very long time. He murmured in a daze, "What a tactic… I finally understand what Lonely Grave meant when he said that getting either Falling Dust or Candlelight Shadow is enough to conquer the world…"
……
The war wasn"t over yet, so the moment the Dragonlight Cavalry was fully healed I immediately ordered the bards to refresh their buffs. All 1800+ of our Dragonlight Cavalrymen were buffed, and according to the rules of the Nation War, a portion of the contribution points we earned were shared with the bards who buffed us. It was an important rule that prevented the cla.s.s from going obsolete. Of course, priests could earn contribution points via effective healing as well. For example, I was currently the runner-up of the contribution ranking, and every time Murong Mingyue healed me for 50% of my HP, she would gain at least 100 kills" worth of contribution points from me. It was because I had killed so many people that I was metaphorically buried under a mountain of contribution points.
The a.s.sault was a resounding success. We destroyed all the Fire Catapults and lost only 4 Dragonlight Cavalrymen in exchange. This meant that the Dragonlight Cavalry was almost unscathed every time they set out for an operation. Knight G.o.d, Royal Road and Knight General were just simply too good, and the sadder the Northern Alliance was, the happier we became. It would be a waste not to deploy the Dragonlight Cavalry, so of course we were going to maximize its value by deploying it from the start until the end of the war!
Chiang!
I pulled out my sword again and shouted, "Brothers and sisters, if you"re done resupplying yourselves, we"re going to attack again! All those whose Satiety is below 40% should eat bread right now! How much longer can we keep this up?!"
Li Chengfeng answered, "We"re on our last loaf of bread. Personally, I"ll be entering a starved state in 8 hours, and I"m sure almost all of us are the same."
High Fighting Spirits swung his war hammer and declared, "It"s fine, I can fight on an empty stomach!"
But Chaos Moon shot him a glance and said, "Idiot, your Attack stat will be greatly diminished when your Satiety is below 30%. Are you trying to commit suicide?"
I smiled. "It"s fine, b.l.o.o.d.y Mercenaries is transporting our supplies. They"re returning from Sky Forest right now, so let"s focus on earning more contribution points and spread the Dragonlight Cavalry"s fame throughout the world!"
"Alright!"
Everyone pulled out their weapons in joy and attacked the enemy from the flanks. The charge resulted in the demise of an entire priest party. When that was over, we rode to the center of The Storm"s army next and ravaged the h.e.l.l out of an archer party. Eye of the Storm was absolutely furious because of this.
"G.o.d dammit, is this cavalry immortal or something? Who is their commander?" Eye of the Storm erupted.
Beside him, an archer answered, "Guild leader, I found out the news you wanted. This cavalry is called the Dragonlight Cavalry, and they are the ace cavalry of China"s third best guild, Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls. Their vice leader is that Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand, the 7th CGL Hall of Famer, and their guild leader is a powerful female knight called From Water!"
Eye of the Storm said with chilly eyes, "Everyone, follow me! We"re going to take out From Water and Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand!"