Divine Protectors had occupied Kalond from day one. There were no powerful enemies in the several neighbouring cities. So, they were fairly safe, with no guilds daring to siege the Karukes Stronghold. Though Asskickers United had this strength, with enemies in every direction, they were too preoccupied with their own problems.
「Who raised the alarm?」Divine Flame asked in the guild chat.
「It was Moon Seal. When she was riding back on her flying mount, she spotted foreign players flying over the Karukes Stronghold!」
Divine Flame knitted his brows. Guilds often had their aerial forces attack first during a siege. He didn't dare to be careless. He immediately mobilized the troops in the Karukes Stronghold.
「Are there any enemy forces approaching Karukes?」
「We haven't discovered any yet.」
「Expand the search range. Everyone else, assemble in the central square! Gather all the flying mounts, and prepare the anti air magic cannons!」Divine Flame ordered.
The entire Karukes Stronghold prepared for battle.
"Come out with me to take a look," Divine Flame said.
Crazy Magic, Bloodlust Mad Blade, and Heaven Breaker nodded. Right now, they also belonged to Divine Protectors. Even though they were unwilling to follow, they had no other choice.
As the four prepared to walk outside, three large explosions rang out, shaking the entire stronghold.
Divine Flame's face paled.「What's going on? What happened? Is the enemy already inside!?」
...
Not far from the Divine Protectors guild headquarters, Lei Su, Bladelight, and Smoke Stub fell from the sky and crashed into the roofs of several shops.
Lei Su, Bladelight, and Smoke Stub's physiques had undergone dramatic transformations after reaching Master Class. Their innate abilities greatly reduced damage. Regular fall damage no longer had any effect on them.
Lei Su landed firmly on the ground, bending his knees to cushion the impact. The bluestone floor of the shop he crashed into was already smashed to pieces.
Some players happened to be browsing in the shop at this moment. Seeing Lei Su suddenly crashing down from the sky, they all stared at him in shock.
After confirming his whereabouts, Lei Su brushed the dust off himself and swept his eyes over the players in the shop. "Lei Su from Asskickers United here, I'd like to ask all unrelated players to please leave. We'll only be killing those from Divine Protectors!" he announced in a heavy tone.
The ears of the surrounding players rung at Lei Su's booming voice. He stood a head taller than everyone else. Clad in thick, heavy plate armour, which glistened brilliantly under the sunlight coming down from the hole in the roof, he resembled a lofty deity. They all had to crane their heads up to look at him.
"It's Asskickers United!" The players were stunned. They didn't expect Asskickers United to have already slaughtered their way into the Karukes Stronghold!
BANG! BANG! Two spells struck Lei Su.
Block!
Block!
Lei Su turned his head toward the source of the magic. Two Mages were staring at him in shock, instant regret in their eyes.
"So you want a go at me, huh!?" Lei Su shouted. He slashed down his greatsword, firing out a crescent shaped sword beam. The two Mages had no time to dodge and were struck, wailing out in pain as they transformed into rays of light. The wall of the shop was split in half by the slash, sunlight shining through from the breach.
With no more Divine Protectors players left here, Lei Su headed over to the nearest wall and sent his fist flying forward. KRAAASH! Rubble flew out everywhere. A large hole was made in the wall. He casually stepped through it and walked out onto the street, leaving a dozen players staring at his departing back dumbstruck.
Bladelight and Smoke Stub came walking over from elsewhere and regrouped with Lei Su. Any Divine Protectors players they encountered on the streets were slaughtered with impunity, leaving countless bodies in their wake.
"Should we wait for Nie Yan and the others?" Lei Su asked.
Bladelight shook his head. "Divine Protectors' guild headquarters is nearby. Let's go there first!"
"We'll crush anyone in our way!" Smoke Stub declared.
Karukes had a population of more than 1,000,000 players. However, only 10% belonged to Divine Protectors, and they were scattered all over the stronghold. Likely most people had no idea Lei Su, Bladelight, and Smoke Stub had already slaughtered their way in here. Given how large this stronghold was, locking down three people would be near impossible.
The alarms attacked their eardrums, the loud explosions their footing. Most of the players in the Karukes Stronghold had no idea what was going on and descended into mass hysteria.
Lei Su casually chatted with Bladelight and Smoke Stub, when 100 players from Divine Protectors appeared from behind a corner and rushed over toward them.
"It's Asskickers United! Kill them!" A Fighter holding a greatshield led the vanguard and charged over toward the trio. He wanted to overwhelm them with numbers.
As the Fighter and other Warriors closed in, Bladelight let out a heavy grunt and greeted the enemy with his greatshield.
A heavy pressure bore down on the Fighter. His heart tightened. He hurriedly hoisted his greatshield up. KLANG! The two shields clashed.
The Fighter's greatshield was like a piece of driftwood. It instantly shattered into pieces. A powerful force rammed into his body, completely knocking the breath out of his lungs.
Bladelight took another step forward and slashed down with his sword. A ray of light flashed. The Fighter was instantly cut down.
A Priest at the back still tried to heal the Fighter. But before he even finished chanting, it was already too late.
A Level 95 Fighter was killed just like that. The Priest was dumbstruck.
From Lei Su and the others' point of view, these players were nothing more than ants. There was a distinct difference between Masters and Adepts. Thanks to their innate abilities, their defense was more than double that of other Warriors. Ordinary players could only deal triple digit damage to them at most, not to mention the attacks were often blocked. Each of them had at least 70,000 health. A tank like Bladelight even had 120,000 health. They were basically walking fortresses!
"Scram back to Divine Flame, and tell him Smoke Stub is coming over to collect his debt!" Smoke Stub shouted. Slashing down with his greatsword, he sent three Warriors flying. He then changed forward, knocking several more Warriors aside, and broke through into the backline.
The dozen or so Mages panicked. They wanted to flee, a way out. But it was already too late.
Berserk Whirlwind Slash!
A violent tempest of sword energy erupted from Smoke Stub, instantly killing the dozen Mages in the vicinity.
Smoke Stub, Lei Su, and Bladelight's attacks were too powerful. Several dozen players had died in the blink of an eye. The rest were completely routed and fled with all their might, cursing the fact they weren't born with a second pair of legs.
After cleaning up the stragglers, the trio looked around. The ground was littered with corpses.
Lei Su glanced at the equipment on the ground. "Should we collect the loot?" These pieces of equipment were trash in his eyes. However, there might be players in Asskickers United that needed them. So, he asked Bladelight and Smoke Stub.
"Only pick up the Dark Gold-grade ones or higher. We can leave the rest," Bladelight replied. They didn't have too much time to waste picking up equipment. So, they would only select the best.
About 15 minutes later, the trio had already arrived outside the Divine Protectors guild headquarters.
The guild headquarters' entrance was sealed shut. The solid metal gates stood over five meters tall and were covered in spikes.
Lei Su walked up to the entrance and started gathering his strength. With a heavy grunt, he struck out with a punch. All the power in his body surged into his fist.
Lei Su had learned this technique from Nie Yan. It allowed him to focus all the power in his body into a single point. But unlike Nie Yan, he was a Strength focused Sword Saint. So, the amount of force he could generate was far more frightening.
BOOOOOM! The gates were smashed open and toppled to the ground. The trio charged into the Divine Protectors guild headquarters.
At this moment, Nie Yan and the others had also jumped down from their flying mounts and infiltrated the Karukes Stronghold.
Tang Yao and Lustboy were extremely excited. To them, the Karukes Stronghold was their destructible stage!
"Divine Protectors bastards, cry out in fear, wail in anguish, tremble with piss in your pants, your old man Sparrow Hawk has come!" Tang Yao cackled. He waved his staff, sending black flames raining down from the sky. Blood-curdling screams rang out in the air.
Seeing Tang Yao act like an evil final boss in a video game, Nie Yan and the others couldn't help but wryly chuckle.
Discovering Nie Yan's group had broken into the stronghold, Divine Protector's forces immediately moved to surround them.
Lustboy chanted out two syllables. BOOM! An enormous thunderbolt crashed down from the sky, completely flattening two buildings and wiping out more than 100 players in the distance.
Nie Yan climbed up a nearby tower. Sweeping his eyes over the surroundings below, he could observe the general situation in the Karukes Stronghold. His gaze immediately focused on a silhouette dashing through an alley 600 meters away.
Nie Yan's eyes narrowed. He couldn't be more familiar with this player. It was the guild leader of Divine Protectors, Divine Flame.