Soaring Angel, Mad Blade, and the others were chatting leisurely on the hilltop overseeing the battlefield. They were confident no mishaps would occur in this war. Even if they suffered some losses, as long as the Armoured Catapults remained in one piece, they could preserve their superiority.
At this moment, word came that Asskickers United was mounting one last charge inside the Cripps Stronghold. Furthermore, Sapphire Shrine and Holy Empire were also showing signs of movement, with roughly 100,000 of their players moving to surround the battlefield.
"Asskickers United is preparing for a final push. Get ready, everyone! What happens next will decide the outcome of the war! Protect the Armoured Catapults at all costs. Make sure they don't fall!" Soaring Angel ordered.
"Have Victorious Return and Radiant Sacred Flame intercept Holy Empire and Sapphire Shrine!" Mad Blade ordered. "Alliance of Mages and Divine Protectors are also sending over more reinforcements!" A hint of excitement flashed across his face. Thanks to the pressure from Cao Xu, Alliance of Mages and Divine Protectors were finally forced to take action.
Before Mad Blade could finish speaking, a deafening explosion rang out all the way over from the highest watchtower in the Cripps Stronghold. It was so loud everything else in the surroundings was drowned out, including the Armoured Catapults.
Soaring Angel's face paled as he turned to the source of the sound and saw a red hot round shell whistling through the air, heading straight for the Armoured Catapults!
「Sssshblam!」The round shell was slightly off-target and smashed into the side of one of the Armoured Catapults, setting it on fire and sending wood splinters and metal fragments flying everywhere. It then continued rolling and swept up several dozen players.
Mass panic!
The nearby players on the side of Bloodlust Blades descended into chaos.
"Someone put out the flames! Cast water magic!"
A jet of water blasted the Armoured Catapult and doused the fire.
The Goblin Magic Cannon had dealt heavy damage to the Armoured Catapult, which was basically half-destroyed. The wooden frame was badly broken, and one of the wheels was smashed to pieces.
"It's a Magic Cannon!" Soaring Angel had an ugly expression on his face after spotting the cannon muzzle poking out from the highest watchtower in the Cripps Stronghold. "Dammit! Pull back the Armoured Catapults!"
He never expected Asskickers United to come out with something like a Goblin Magic Cannon. Even the lowest ranking ones had a range in excess of 1,000 meters, greatly exceeding that of any Armoured Catapult!
Nothing was more important right now than getting the Armoured Catapults out of the battlefield as quickly as possible. Any delay might result in their destruction, then the outcome of the war would be a foregone conclusion.
At the command of Soaring Angel, two of the Armoured Catapults were slowly withdrawn from the battlefield. The remaining one was still in good enough condition to fire. But the attack by the Goblin Magic Cannon destroyed one of its wheels, rendering it immobile.
All of Bloodlust Blades' forces started retreating.
...
At the highest watchtower in the Cripps Stronghold. Bladelight was supervising the players operating the Goblin Magic Cannon.
"Fire another shot! Don't let the Armoured Catapults get away! Aim for the wheels!"
"Stop! Let the Goblin Magic Cannon cool down for at least 30 seconds, or else it'll blow up from overheating!" a Tinkerer warned.
Listening to the Tinkerer, they could only helplessly wait.
After 30 seconds passed, two Warriors lifted up a round shell and inserted it into the bore of the Goblin Magic Cannon. They looked toward Bloodlust Blades' forces. The two Armoured Catapults had retreated quite far away.
"Take aim!"
The players started calibrating the elevation and angle. None of them had operated a Goblin Magic Cannon before, so they looked bumbling and clumsy. Even so, though they were far from being an experienced artillery crew, they were doing pretty well for their first time.
It wasn't long before they aligned the Goblin Magic Cannon with the second Armoured Catapult.
「Boom!」A long tongue of flame shot out from the muzzle as a round shell flew toward the distant battlefield.
Since the two Armoured Catapults were constantly moving, the round shell was off-mark and landed into the surrounding crowd, instantly killing more than 100 enemy players.
The round shell didn't simply stop after landing. It continued rolling for about 50 meters, sweeping away everything along the way and leaving behind a trail of corpses in its wake.
Although the Goblin Magic Cannon failed to hit the Armoured Catapults, the attack still served as a heavy deterrent to the forces of Bloodlust Blades. With the Goblin Magic Cannon present, the Armoured Catapults couldn't approach anywhere within a 1,000 meter radius of the Cripps Stronghold.
As the situation in the Cripps Stronghold settled down, the gates opened and the players from Asskickers United came surging out. Like a tiger descending the mountain, they rushed straight for the enemy.
Charge!
Indomitable Will!
"Slaughter those bastards!"
"Long live Asskickers United!"
"Let's start a bloodbath!"
A chaotic battle broke out as the forces from both sides collided head-on. Some places were still boobytrapped by Thunderstorm Mines, which exploded with lightning energy when the players from Asskickers United ran over them.
However, Asskickers United's momentum couldn't be stopped. They pressed toward the Armoured Catapults without regard for their own lives.
As the two undamaged Armoured Catapults beat a hasty retreat, the stranded one launched five explosive shells into the oncoming forces from Asskickers United, instantly wiping out nearly 100 players.
"Warriors, advance! Mages, destroy that Armoured Catapult!"
The several hundred elites guarding the Armoured Catapult started clashing with the forces of Asskickers United.
"Fuck these suicidal bastards!" a Great Mage from Divine Protectors cried out as he cast one area-of-effect spell after another. He had already killed more than 500 players of Asskickers United, but they just kept swarming forward like an unending horde.
Even a famed general could be overwhelmed by a mob!
The forces of Asskickers United blitzed through the battlefield with unstoppable momentum.
At this time, the Great Mage sensed magic fluctuations in the vicinity. He looked toward the source, spotting a Level 47 Elementalist with their staff raised chanting Meteor Drop.
"Dammit! Stop that Elementalist!"
All his spells were on cooldown, and everyone else was barely fending off the unrelenting assault from the players of Asskickers United! They were helpless to stop the Elementalist!
「Bang!」A giant meteor fell from the sky and smashed into the Armoured Catapult as a fiery explosion engulfed the Bloodlust Blades players in the surroundings. The Armoured Catapult was wrecked.
Even though Armoured Catapults could unleash untold amounts of destruction, they were relatively fragile, made out of wood reinforced with thin metal plates.
The Great Mage guarding the Armoured Catapult was also swallowed up by the inferno.
A famous Great Mage from Divine Protectors had died to the hands of an unknown Elementalist in Asskickers United.
"Good job, Lil' Dong!"
"Everybody, charge! Don't leave a single one of them alive!"
...
Morale was soaring.
One of the Armoured Catapults was destroyed beyond repair, and the remaining two were frantically retreating, unable to stop the advance of Asskickers United's forces.
After another 30 seconds passed, the Goblin Magic Cannon fired once more. The round shell landed just a meter away from one of the Armoured Catapults, burying 30 players in the dirt, among whom six were top ranking elites from Alliance of Mages and Divine Protectors.
Even if they were elites, no matter how high their defense was, none of them could withstand the might of the Goblin Magic Cannon.
Even a Great Fighter hunkering down with a greatshield would still be blasted into smithereens.
As the forces of Bloodlust Blades were in full retreat, the two Armoured Catapults had finally left the range of the Goblin Magic Cannon.
"First and Second Division, stop them!" Mad Blade anxiously commanded. He never thought they would be overrun so quickly.
At this moment, more than 1,000 elites from Asskickers United led by Nie Yan charged down from the foothills behind Bloodlust Blades' forces.
The Warriors rushed down the slopes like a tidal wave.
"Brothers, victory belongs to Asskickers United! Bloodlust Blades, Divine Protectors, Alliance of Mages, or Angel Corps, we'll send all those bastards straight to hell! From this day forth we stand as one. Bound are our paths. So too our souls! Till our presence is in all. For our glory is our life!" Nie Yan's fighting spirit was also ignited.
The Asskickers United elites rushed forward eagerly, hot on the heels of the retreating forces of Bloodlust Blades.
After noticing they were being pincered, Soaring Angel still remained calm and gave out orders. More than 1,000 elites from Bloodlust Blades, Divine Protectors, Alliance of Mages, and Angel Corps charged forward to meet Nie Yan's group of elites head-on. Mad Blade also mobilized over 10,000 players into a solid battle formation, repelling the forces coming from the Cripps Stronghold.
The two Armoured Catapults in the distance turned around, firing a volley of flaming projectiles that slaughtered more than a thousand of Asskickers United's weaker members.
After moving out of the Goblin Magic Cannon's range, the Armoured Catapults were still frightening existences on the battlefield.
Disregarding their lives, the players from Asskickers United kept charging towards the Armoured Catapults. Even though they were beaten back time and time again, they would still horrifically press forward, unafraid of death, with unrelenting tenacity.
Like this, the battle once more entered a stalemate.