322 Chapter 322 - Dancing Flames from the Unknown (2/2)
”In that case, Brother Miles just has to take a high ground, such that even people outside of the circle can see you, right?” Oathless Sword suddenly suggested. Living up to his name as the leader of the number one guild in Yunduan City, he demonstrated his rather high level of intelligence despite the ordeal that they were in.
Gu Fei laughed bitterly as he shook his head, ”Guild Leader Oathless, do you want me to become the core of these thousand men and have everyone gather around me? I'm sorry but the range of my passive skill isn't that large. At most, it can reach maybe ten meters. Squeezing everyone within that area is just entirely impossible!”
”In that case, you can't even take care of one side at all!” Oathless Sword face darkened.
”Technically speaking, you're not wrong,” Gu Fei admitted regretfully. He was naturally clear of their situation right now, so he sincerely wished to do his part, but there was truly nothing much he could do.
Everyone could not do anything to help, either. This was when they heard someone from the side curse, ”F*ck me! They're back again!”
All of them turned their gazes over, just in time to see two white lights flashed in the direction of that voice. Four enemy Thieves in Stealth were back again. Quickly one-shotting two players, they immediately turned to flee. Having experienced this before, no one dared to physically chase after them and the Mages and Archers merely flung spells and shot arrows from afar at these four interlopers.
However, the four Thieves seemed to be very adept with what this sort of attacking style; after executing their attacks, each of them activated Fleetfoot the instant they dispersed in four different directions. They then dove into the trees after several steps and were quickly nowhere to be found. The Mages and Archers, who were planning to counterattack, only managed to position themselves to cast spells and nock arrows!
”F*CK!” Just as everyone was feeling disgruntled by this, numerous flame wheels appeared in the sky, all glowing brightly as their heat intensified....
”AHHHHH!” everyone screamed in fear as they dispersed as far as they could to escape this spell's AOE.
The over a thousand-strong army descended into chaos as the players ran helter-skelter. Anyone that fell was bound to be trampled by another, and the entire jungle was soon filled with cries of terror. Oathless Sword kept yelling for everyone to keep calm. This was when a panicking Warrior, who had been trying to evade the spells, accidentally dipped into the small circle Oathless Sword was occupying that was not covered by the mass of AOE spells and crashed into his back, nearly causing Oathless Sword to bite off his tongue. He turned around to glare daggers at the culprit, yet no one cared for his murderous stare as they were all watching this horrifying situation unfold.
The flame wheels came crashing down and a sea of flames surged all around them. Some immediately died from this magic assault, while many were heavily injured by their comrades' stampede.
It was inevitable, though. Plenty of Warriors had used Charge to get themselves out of the radius of the flame wheels that had been conjured out of nowhere. Nowadays, the Charge skill was no longer just being used by Warriors to attack opponents, and a majority of them had taken to using it to augment their movement speed for dodging or evading incoming attacks. There was simply no way to ensure that their Charge would not connect with an innocent person in this chaos.
Some were directly knocked right into the flaming sea, while others flew deep into the jungle – never to be seen in this place again. There were even some who were inflicted with the Dizzy status effect, collapsing to the ground without any response.
Quite a few even discovered a sudden pain traveling up their legs as they ran aimlessly, preventing them from moving any further, and felt utterly flabbergasted once they learned the source of this: they had been ensnared by the enemy Hunters' traps. ”Why are there even traps here?” None of them forgot that they were currently inside the enemies' web of traps, yet some of them still fell victim to these traps.
Young Master's Elite had always been hanging at the tail end of the expedition and were positioned in the outer circle when the army converged. It just so happened that the bulk of the magic assault was concentrated in their position, so they were duly bombarded with many spells. While it was not difficult for these veterans to avoid the spell bombardment, their flustered comrades nearby was a different matter altogether. In fact, their comrades' stampeding was far more frightening than the enemies' wave of magic attacks. Young Master Han was unfortunately knocked down to the ground by a comrade Warrior as he was making his escape.
Thankfully, the Dizzy status effect did not proc, so he sat on the ground and managed to keep himself alive in this initial fiery bombardment by relying on his superb Priest skills. Sword Demon and Royal God Call swiftly stepped in and dragged him out of the persistent flames of the Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno. Had they not done so, Young Master Han would have been trampled to death by their allies instead of being burned to death by their enemies.
The flames of the Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno lasted for another five seconds before extinguishing. The Mages' fire spells would usually be unable to cause actual fire inside this type of terrain because they burned quickly and dampened even more swiftly. Were it not for the spell's duration lasting for five seconds, the burning traces of Descending Wheel of Flames alone would be largely insignificant.
Nonetheless, the five seconds of burning managed to set the dry leaves and branches ablaze. These ignited detritus were easily put out, so no harm was done by them. All the players from Yunduan City were covered in soot and visibly drained from the ordeal, with some continuing to run aimlessly in their panic. Oathless Sword took care not to bump into anyone again as he shouted, ”Everyone, stay calm! Mercenary leaders, take charge of your men!”
There were no more than a hundred men in each mercenary group, so how difficult could it get to take charge of them when compared to the seven hundred fifty men of Traversing Four Seas? In actuality, those that were in utter state of disarray right now were the members of Traversing Four Seas. As the mercenary groups organized themselves, all the leaders did not forget to throw disdainful glares at Oathless Sword.
Gu Fei had long since located his fellow mercenaries. ”Are you guys alright?”
Everyone looked toward Young Master Han, as he was the only one among them who had been in any danger.
Young Master Han forlornly looked at the spot he had fallen moments ago. ”Such a pity. I've just taken out that bottle from my pocket, too.”
”How did this happen?” Gu Fei was looking all around him.
”Mages snuck up near us! To think we did not spot even one of them… These guys we are up against are very accustomed with PvPing in this type of terrain, and they're extremely familiar with this jungle here,” Young Master Han explained, declaring, ”We are in big trouble!”