Chapter 1113: Southern Barbarian Elephant (1/2)
”Roar roar…”
A Mad Lion Beast slowly collapsed as Warscar pulled his axe violently from its throat. ”The way is clear. All we need to do now is to go forward, and we’ll be crossing into Frost Stained Canyon. Should we march right in and head straight to Dragonsnake Devil’s Den, or should we send a couple of scouts to check out the area first, guild leader?”
I made the Ancient Divine Dragon rise slowly into the air while answering, ”I’ll scout. You guys wait here until I give you all a signal. More specifically, I’ll be maintaining contact with Hickey while I’m inside the map, so just do whatever Hickey tells you to do. Frost Stained Canyon is a new map, and we don’t know what kind of mob resides in this map. Entering carelessly may result in huge casualties.”
”Mn.”
Warscar nodded. He would never question my order.
Hickey cautioned. ”Be careful, boss!”
”I know.”
The Ancient Divine Dragon let out a guttural growl, and we vanished into the sky as a beam of dark silver light.
The wind howled beside my ears as I crouched behind my dragon’s back. I could barely keep my eyes open as I gripped my sword with one hand and held the vine with the other. I also activated Dark Pupils while moving the Ancient Divine Dragon to about 500 yards above the ground where the clouds were. Those on the ground had a slim chance of spotting me, but I could definitely see them with the aid of Dark Pupils.
……
The ground was covered in a lush ancient forest. It was as if the whole map had been unearthed from the underground. Many high-level monsters were lurking beneath the large trees and swaying leaves, and while I couldn’t see them clearly from above Dark Pupils gave me a clear insight to their stats—
Cyanblade Tiger, a Level 248 fiend-rank mob with super high Attack and low HP. Its body was covered in armor that looked like cyan-colored blades.
Southern Barbarian Elephant, a Level 250 fiend-rank mob with super high HP and pretty good Attack. It was a hard-hitting tank, and it wouldn’t be easy to defeat.
Dark Hunter, a Level 250 fiend-rank mob with a humanoid appearance. It was a wandering assassin with concealment abilities, and it killed its opponent by ambushing them with a dagger.
……
Basically, the mobs here were much stronger than both the mobs in Bonecrush Forest and Zephyr Valley. The average player would find it difficult to traverse this map, but thankfully the Godkiller guild had surpassed the average line a while ago, not to mention that we had 21k Zephyr Cavalrymen and a good number of priests. At the very least, they wouldn’t be one-shot by a Level 250 fiend-rank mob.
I flew almost five kilometers before drawing a route on the world map. Then, I shared it with Hickey and said, ”Follow this route to the point I marked, Hickey. Relatively speaking, it’s the route with the least amount of mobs. Also, tell everyone to avoid killing the mobs as much as possible. We are for the Ascension Proof in Dragonsnake Devil’s Den, not grinding the new map.”
Hickey replied, ”Got it. Stay in touch!”
”Yeah!”
Suddenly, a bunch of red dots appeared from the southwest corner of the map. They were obviously players.
I immediately turned a corner and flew toward their location. When the clouds parted in front of me, I was greeted by the sight of a ton of unaffiliated players. They numbered around twenty thousand, and they were led by none other than Beast Trainer himself. The Beast Soul players were slowly pushing their way through an area that was overflowing with Southern Barbarian Elephants, a Level 250 fiend-rank mob. This wouldn’t be easy for them.
”Roar roar…”
A Southern Barbarian Elephant let out an earthshaking roar as it thrust its sharp tusk upward and skewered an unfortunate player. It then raised its forefeet, used a skill called Stamp and killed an entire group of magic knights. The Level 250 fiend-rank mob possessed an incredible Attack, not to mention that the average level of Beast Soul’s players was only 180 or so, and a large majority of them weren’t even seventh-promotion. There was no chance they could’ve survived a Level 250 fiend-rank mob’s rampage.
”Stop the seven elephants over on that side! Archers, work harder! Slow them with Freezing Arrows and CC them with Shock Arrows! Mages, focus them down with Touch of the Dragonkiss! Don’t let our frontliners die for nothing! Also, do not steal the dead’s equipment, you fucking idiots! Who do you think is tanking the elephants for you? Those who died, run back to your corpse as soon as possible and continue tanking the mobs! The guild promises to compensate you 100 gold for each time you die!”
Even from where I was, I could see green veins popping on Beast Trainer’s face. He continued ordering, ”Make sure you attack in echelons! No matter what happens, we must enter Dragonsnake Devil’s Den ahead of Godkiller and become the first guild to have a Divine General in Iron Skull Wilderness!”
Next to him, his vice leader, an archer, asked, ”What do we do if the Indians come to Dragonsnake Devil’s Den too, boss? We may not be a match for them, and they gave us 1000 Beast King mounts when we signed a contract of alliance with them. Are we sure we want to go against our own ally?”
Beast Trainer sneered. ”Ally? A contract of alliance is just a method to deceive your opponent. From the beginning, Breeze and Rain was just using us to put a dent on Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand’s growth in Iron Skull Wilderness. Let me put it this way: if Breeze and Rain tries to take Dragonsnake Devil’s Den from us, then they are the ones who break the contract first, not us!”
The archer smiled. ”I understand. The guild leader is wise!”
……
I stifled a chuckle as I eavesdropped on their conversation. The country bumpkins of Beast Soul had no idea about the kind of trouble they were walking into. This was just the edge of Frost Stained Canyon, and they were already dying in droves. So what if they ultimately managed to enter Dragonsnake Devil’s Den ahead of us? All that would achieve was the boss camping their dead bodies. Beast Trainer was right to say that a contract of alliance was just another method to deceive one another though. Good power and judgment were the two elements that truly determined the winds of war, not an ally’s promise.
I sent a message to Hickey: ”Beast Soul has entered Frost Stained Canyon. They’re close to coordinates (11237, 00387), which isn’t too far away from our forces. Be careful, and try to avoid crossing paths with them as much as possible. There is no need to waste any energy on them when the mobs will take them out for us.”
Hickey chuckled. ”Got it!”
With that done, I turned the Ancient Divine Dragon around and flew toward the center of Frost Stained Canyon. Even from afar, I could see that a sheen of silver that looked like some sort of frost stain had covered the ground. It was obviously how Frost Stained Canyon came by its name. The ground was crawling with all sorts of animals and worms, and there was a necropolis to the right where countless undead creatures roamed the land. There was a tall mountain range at the heart of the map, and at the bottom of it was a pitch black cave with seemingly no end. It was obviously the Dragonsnake Devil’s Den.
I was about to order the Ancient Divine Dragon to get a closer look when an unnatural gust of wind suddenly blasted my face. A dozen or so flying mobs had detected our presence and were attacking us! They were bats with sharp teeth and a wingspan of about two meters. They made screeching noises, and the text above their heads stated—
Dark Bats (Fiend)
Level: 255
Attack: 19000~25500
Defense: 22000
HP: 2500000