Most of the Thunderstorm Mines surrounding the Armoured Catapults were cleared away, leaving only the 3,000 or so players from Bloodlust Blades to defend. Their defense was extremely frail.
Countless players from Asskickers United charged toward the Armoured Catapults. The Crypt Lord along with hundreds of Carrion Scarabs also swarmed forward. With so many enemies closing in from every direction, the Armoured Catapults had no way of stopping everyone.
Soaring Angel urgently requested for support from Alliance of Mages and Divine Protectors. If the Armoured Catapults were destroyed, what little chance they had at victory would be extinguished.
Holy Empire and Sapphire Shrine's blockade had been broken through. More and more players from Alliance of Mages and Divine Protectors were converging here.
Nie Yan received word about the enemy's movements from Sleepy Fox and Fa Lan. It would be troublesome if the reinforcements from Alliance of Mages and Divine Protectors arrived before he could destroy the Armoured Catapults. He needed to hurry up!
Nie Yan had the Crypt Lord charge forward, entering the range of the two Armoured Catapults.
「Boom! Boom! Boom!」Ten red-hot shells fell from the sky and struck the Crypt Lord, engulfing the surrounding area in powerful flames. More than 20 Carrion Scarabs were killed in the inferno. The Crypt Lord was also knocked several steps back by the impact.
The Crypt Lord was stopped dead in its tracks.
The Armoured Catapults were extremely powerful. The 10 shells had dealt more than 700,000 damage total. However, since the Armoured Catapults were focused solely on the Crypt Lord, they had no time to deal with the oncoming forces from Asskickers United, leaving the players of Bloodlust Blades to fend for themselves. They were forced into constant retreat.
「Bang! Bang! Bang!」Thunderstorm Mines exploded across the battlefield, blasting countless players from Asskickers United into smithereens. However, more players would rush forward to replace the fallen.
Taking advantage of the downtime between attacks, Nie Yan had the Crypt Lord charge directly for the Armoured Catapults.
"Quickly withdraw! Retreat 30 meters back!" Soaring Angel anxiously ordered the players from Bloodlust Blades. As long as they could hold out, a large amount of reinforcements from Alliance of Mages and Divine Protectors would arrive, and the pressure on them would lessen by a lot. The formidable might of the Armoured Catapults gave him a trace of hope. As long as they were protected, it would still be possible to kill the Crypt Lord!
The Crypt Lord was a nightmare for Bloodlust Blades!
From the moment it appeared, the Crypt Lord was invincible, sweeping through every enemy in its path with its domineering might.
Tallying everything up, Bloodlust Blades had suffered over 43,000 deaths, of which the Crypt Lord was responsible for more than 7,000. More importantly, its presence alone had thoroughly wrecked their morale, causing them to lose all will to fight.
The Crypt Lord was rapidly approaching the Armoured Catapults, only 200 meters away.
"Fifth to Seventh Fighter Division, stop the Crypt Lord!" Soaring Angel shouted. Under his command, three teams of close to 200 Fighters formed a human wall in front of the Crypt Lord's path.
It would be difficult for even the Crypt Lord to break through this solid blockade.
Nie Yan glanced at the Crypt Lord's skill bar. Impale wouldn't be off cooldown for another minute, and it only had roughly 30% mana left. He was spamming skills too much in the beginning. Looking at the other skills, Corpse Eater was still available. He activated it and saw the Crypt Lord swallow several corpses whole in one go, recovering over 300,000 health and 30% mana! What an amazing skill!
Impale was about to come off cooldown soon. With Impale, the Crypt Lord could sweep through the Fighters up ahead. A human wall was useless against Impale!
The Armoured Catapults once more targeted the Crypt Lord.
At this moment, the players from Asskickers United were also making headway, with Bladelight and his group approaching within 30 meters of the Armoured Catapults. They had already entered the safe zone.
Armoured Catapults had a maximum range of 500 meters, but they also had a minimum range of 100 meters. Unable to attack anything within that distance, they could only continuously retreat as Bladelight and the others closed in.
With his excellent equipment and high defense, Bladelight clashed with three Fighters, one of whom was class advanced, from Angel Corp. The three of them had no way of stopping him.
Shield Bash!
Bladelight rammed his greatshield into one of the Fighters, who was sent flying back by the powerful impact. The Fighter attempted to struggle to his feet before ultimately collapsing dead to the ground.
Bladelight was actually this powerful!
Lofty Shadow and Yi Yan were also leading their groups, closing in on the Armoured Catapults from different directions. Even if the Armoured Catapults could stop the Crypt Lord, these players from Asskickers United could also destroy them!
The situation had become extremely perilous. Soaring Angel ordered 300 players from Bloodlust Blades to stop Bladelight and the others. He also had no choice but to join the fray, starting off by taking out three arrows and shooting them at Bladelight.
Bladelight forced back a squad from Angel Corps and beelined toward an Armoured Catapult. He had an extremely powerful skill ready to go. Even if he couldn't destroy one, he would still deal a ton of damage!
Seeing the Armoured Catapults were only 10 meters up ahead, Bladelight grew excited as he hacked away even more fiercely with his one-handed sword.
At this moment, three arrows flew out from the gap between two Angel Corps players and shot towards him at lightning speed.
Just as Bladelight was about swing his sword, he noticed the three arrows from the corner of his eye. He hurriedly cancelled his skill mid-way and attempted to raise his greatshield to block.「Peng! Peng! Peng!」He was struck!
The three arrows were too fast. Even though he saw them before they landed, it was already too late. Three gouts of flame erupted and quickly engulfed his body.
Flame Shackles!
This was a special skill from the Palente Phoenix Bow. It could bind an enemy for five seconds.
These flames, like thick strands of rope, tightly bound Bladelight and prevented him from moving.
Seeing an opportunity, the several nearby Great Warriors started wailing on Bladelight, crippling him with Tendon Break.
In response, Six Priests hurriedly healed Bladelight, bringing his health back up to a safe level.
Bladelight and his group's advance was halted by the Fighters from Angel Corps.
There was also a commotion over on Lofty Shadow's side.
Several Mages from Asskickers United raised their staffs and shot fireballs at the Armoured Catapults.
The fire burst apart into flames after striking the Armoured Catapults, leaving deep scorch marks on the surface. However, they failed to do any real damage. These fireballs were simply too weak.
In order to avoid these spells, the Armoured Catapults were towed around 30 meters back. They once more launched 10 flaming shells at the Crypt Lord.
Impale!
The Crypt Lord slammed its claws into the ground, instantly wiping out almost all the 200 Fighters up ahead. Only three among them survived, and they had the best equipment out of all their peers. One of them was a class advanced player. Their defense allowed them to barely survive a single hit from the Crypt Lord. After being struck by Impale, they fell from close to 4,000 health to only several hundred.
They chugged down Advanced Health Potions and backed away while the several Priests in the back frantically healed them.
The Crypt Lord's attacks were far too horrifying. The three of them trying to block it was just suicide. Its unrivalled magic attack caused all the remaining players from Bloodlust Blades to scatter in fear.
The Crypt Lord easily cleared the blockade ahead of it and continued its pursuit.
Ten more shells bombarded the Crypt Lord, once more taking out over 700,000 health.
Over on Lofty Shadow's side, since the opponents trying to intercept them were fairly weak, he and the five other Fighters in his group were completely overwhelming the frontliners from Bloodlust Blades. A bit further in the back among the Mages, an inconspicuous Elementalist in gray robes stealthily raised his staff and started chanting. He wasn't outstanding, nor was he a famous player.
Because of the chaos around him, not a single person noticed him chanting a fire-type area of effect spell.
He whispered one syllable after another, so quietly that even he could barely hear.
His staff just happened to be hidden behind an Arcane Mage from Asskickers United. He was only 35 meters away from one of the Armoured Catapults. For an Armoured Catapult, it was extremely dangerous to allow an enemy Elementalist to get so close. Under normal circumstances, a Paladin would definitely rush up and silence him. However, with how chaotic things were right now, no one had noticed him.
When his friends noticed him chanting an area of effect spell, and an Advanced Magic at that, they quickly moved to cover him.
"You can do it, Upstart! You're almost there!" the Arcane Mage cheered. He clutched his staff as his heart was wracked with nervousness. Upstart had already been chanting for 12 seconds. They only needed to hold the enemy off for 8 more seconds!
Wisps of fire elemental energy swirled together, quickly converging in the air. Everyone could feel the heat as they passed.
littleshanks's Thoughts
If you're confused about how the end of Chapter 429 transitions into the start of Chapter 430, I am as well. I checked double-checked the official raws on Qidian, and there are no mistakes. I'm not sure if Mad Snail decided the Crypt Lord wasn't going to do something huge anymore or what. But I'm stumped on how to fix this.