Arcanic Shield!
The Arcane Mage quickly shielded himself as a dark barrier enveloped him. This was the most powerful defensive spell available in his arsenal. Besides shielding him from a large amount of damage, it also granted him immunity to all crowd control effects. He believed it would have no issue holding out for a few seconds, buying him enough time to rescue himself.
However, reality proved to be a cruel mistress.
As Zennarde's Blade fell, the Arcanic Shield instantly shattered into pieces, with the Arcane Mage's health suffering the same fate.
It was an instant kill!
Even in death, the Arcane Mage's expression was one of complete disbelief.
Out of the many battles he'd been through, this was the first time a Thief actually managed to kill him even with Arcanic Shield up! Nirvana Flame was simply too inhuman!
His eyes gradually lost their light. Even though he felt unwilling, he could only resign himself to his fate in the end.
After killing the Arcane Mage, Nie Yan plunged Zennarde's Sword into the Blaze Hawk's skull.
"Skreeeh!" the Blaze Hawk cried out miserably as it was swiftly dispatched by the Darkwing Dragon.
After eating the Blaze Hawk's Life Core, Nie Yan sensed the Darkwing Dragon changing in various ways. Its black scales turned into a shade of dark violet and grew even more translucent. It was almost as if a layer of glaze had been applied, giving it a sleek and glossy look.
The Darkwing Dragon also grew stronger on top of its defenses getting tougher.
Though still a far ways off from ranking up, the Darkwing Dragon's growth was definitely noticeable.
Gazing at the landscape below from atop the Darkwing Dragon's head, Nie Yan felt like a god overlooking the world.
At this moment, Natural Fiend had just finished up the battle on his side. Battered and bruised, the Azure Winged Albatross was covered in blood. Whether this blood was its own or the Demonic Butterfly's, no one knew. In any case, it had clearly come out on top, with the Demonic Butterfly's corpse lying on the ground.
"Boss, I got a Life Core!" Natural Fiend breathed out a sigh of relief. He looked worse for wear. One tiny mistake, and it would've been him and the Azure Winged Albatross on the ground, not the enemy.
Clutched tightly in the Azure Winged Albatross' claws was a blood red Life Core which emitted a dim glow.
Of the six flying mounts belonging to Alliance of Mages' side, four had died. These were the results of the first aerial battle in Conviction.
Nie Yan's Darkwing Dragon and Natural Fiend's Azure Winged Albatross would leave an everlasting mark in the annals of Conviction's history. In a two versus six engagement, they had killed four and routed two. Such an achievement was extremely impressive.
Nie Yan had the Darkwing Dragon ascend higher into the sky. Looking back down, he discovered the battle below had also concluded.
「How'd you guys fare on ground level?」Nie Yan asked. As he scanned the battlefield, he saw the ground littered with corpses, most of which belonged to Alliance of Mages while only a few belonged to Asskickers United.
「So far, we've killed 2,560 enemies, with Crazy Magic leading the remainder away from the battlefield. Those bastards flee pretty quickly. As for the casualties on our side, we've lost about 370 people,」Bladelight replied with a faint smile. This was their cleanest battle yet, having preserved much of their strength. The opponent was the elites of Alliance of Mages, Divine Protectors, Direwolf, Bloodfiends, and other large gaming organizations. Logically speaking, the two sides should be roughly equal. However, they had come out of the battle with far better results than expected.
「Thankfully, we whittled away quite a bit of their forces beforehand. Then when the Sea of Fire and Ice Spike Traps took out a large portion of their backline, their ranks completely collapsed. It was impossible for them to reorganize for a counterattack, especially with us pursuing them so relentlessly!」Smoke Stub chimed in. Near the end, it was mostly just them chasing the routed enemy, killing them one after another. None of Alliance of Mages' forces dared to stand their ground and fight. Any of the stragglers were immediately killed. At that time, the players of Alliance of Mages deeply regretted the fact that they weren't born with an extra pair of legs.
Even though Crazy Magic and the rest fled, their fates were already sealed. Losing five levels was unavoidable. As long as Asskickers United's forces occupied ten castles for one hour, Alliance of Mages would be defeated. It didn't matter if they hid until the very end.
The next step was for Asskickers United to hunt down the remaining forces of Alliance of Mages. Nie Yan took to the skies on his Darkwing Dragon. If he encountered any survivors, he would immediately have the Darkwing Dragon dive bomb them. Bladelight, Xie Yao, Tang Yao, and the others split into 11 teams and were tasked with leading them. It was a race to round up and surround the remnant forces of Alliance of Mages.
Alliance of Mages had long since been utterly defeated. Their remaining forces had scattered and were fleeing for their lives. They could only try their best to stay out of sight, hiding in some obscure corner without a single thought of leaving. It was impossible for Crazy Magic to get these people to regroup. Now, he himself had also become a stray dog. Even after fleeing for more than several thousand meters, he still didn't dare to stop and rest, not with Sun pursuing him like a vengeful spirit.
Crazy Magic had no teammates by his side. He was stuck wandering alone in the forest.
"God damn Asskickers United!" Crazy Magic cursed. He raised his staff and shot out a fireball in a fit of rage.
With a bang, the fireball caused a tree to collapse.
He wanted to vent his anger. Regarding Alliance of Mages' future, he was also at a loss. At this moment, Asskickers United's catapults, along with their army, were marching towards Moonlight City. They had already suffered heavy losses in the Realm of Death. Now they were going to lose five strongholds, possibly even more on top of that? Like this, Asskickers United could set up a base in Moonlight City, able to attack or retreat whenever they please.
The terms of the agreement made Crazy Magic want to kill someone. Ceding five strongholds and not being able to take them back for at least a month. During this time, Asskickers United could take advantage of these five strongholds to do many things! Asskickers United could lay siege Alliance of Mages' main stronghold without worry!
At this moment, the calmness of the forest caused a strange eerie feeling to overtake him.
He quickly switched out his high quality set of equipment with a garbage set. A second later, a dagger appeared in front of his throat.
The end was finally here. Crazy Magic closed his eyes.
With a pshh sound, blood flew everywhere.
Seeing Crazy Magic's corpse on the ground, Sun had a look of doubt on his face. He thought Crazy Magic would duke it out with him to the death. He didn't expect Crazy Magic to just give up.
Crazy Magic understood that it was futile no matter how much he struggled. It would be better for him to quickly die and rush back to Moonlight City. With Asskickers United making such large movements, Moonlight City's fall was a foregone conclusion if he wasn't there.
Crazy Magic had given up. Only around 60 players still remained, all of them belonging to Direwolf and Bloodfiends. They relied on guerilla tactics to fend off Asskickers United. Even though they understood defeat was inevitable, they felt it was better to fight until the bitter end than simply resigning themselves to fate. They could also recoup some of their losses by collecting the equipment of any Asskickers United players they killed.
Several dozen Asskickers United players had been killed by group. Their losses also weren't small.
King of the World stealthily travelled through the forest. He spotted a eight players in the distance. Leading the group were Direwolf's Krow and Raven.
"Crazy Magic gave up," Raven said after looking at his notifications.
"That son of a bitch. We got screwed over by him. We can't even run away in this damned place," Krow cursed. His shaky Chinese was laced with a few English profanities.
"Let's just try to make the best out of this situation. I think we'll have no issue finding more Asski- Hmm..?" Raven said, gazing at some distant trees.
「What's up?」Krow asked in private chat, noticing Raven's peculiar expression.
「We're being followed. It's a Thief!」Raven said. Even though the other side was extremely well-hidden, he had still sensed them.
Raven had a habit of leaving sensor sigils wherever he passed. By leaving these sensor sigils on trees, he could sense whether or not they were being followed.
Thus, King of the World's position was exposed. Raven knew his whereabouts. However, capturing him still posed a certain degree of difficulty.
With the expressions of Raven, Krow, and the rest remaining the same as they continued advancing forward, the two Thieves in their group gradually entered stealth.
Seeing the two Thieves in the group disappear into stealth, King of the World furrowed his brows. He sensed something off and wondered if he should keep tailing them.
As the Direwolf players proceeded further and further, King of the World hesitated for a moment before ultimately deciding to continue following them.
「Nie Yan, I'm currently tailing some players from Direwolf.」
「Follow them closely. I'll be there with others in a few minutes,」Nie Yan said. He was currently having the Darkwing Dragon slaughter one Alliance of Mages player after another.
While King of the World was reporting to Nie Yan, specks of dust suddenly filled the air around him . King of the World's heart tightened. It was Disillusioning Powder! Nie Yan had shown him this item once before. But it was too expensive to be used. Nevertheless, he was very familiar with its effects!
The specks of dust stuck to King of the World's body. Gradually, his figure was revealed.
King of the World was completely exposed!
Just as King of the World wanted to flee, two Thieves appeared out of nowhere and pounced on him for a pincer attack!
"Let's see where you can run!" one of the Direwolf Thieves chuckled sinisterly.
Not good! King of the World's heart sank. Two sharp daggers stabbed towards him, flickering with a chilling light that seemed beckon the reaper.