Chapter 1123: Escape From Hell
Translator: alyschu
Crack!
Two blades sailed toward one another, and Flowing Cloud was the one who altered her attack trajectory first. She aimed at Hickey’s waist and forced the latter to bend backward so much that she dismounted from her horse. Before Hickey’s feet even landed on the ground, she locked onto Flowing Cloud and activated Charge. On foot, her turn rate was much higher than Flowing Cloud’s.
Realizing the danger she was in, Flowing Cloud made the snap decision to dismount as well. After parrying Hickey’s attack with her sword, she raised her free left arm and punched Hickey’s shoulder using a skill called Blazing Hammer.
31298!
Hickey was sent flying to the back, but she was able to retaliate with Earth Shattering Slash that dealt 50k+ damage.
....
The two girls’ battle was fierce and bloody. In the end, both of them were able to drop their opponent to below 25%, but because of the priests present on the battlefield, neither of them was really able to land the fatal blow yet.
Natural Flow’s vice leader, a magic knight, was the first to lose his cool first and raised his spear. "White Horse Cavalry, charge and destroy all opposition!"
Hooves resounded throughout the cavern as the White Horse Cavalry stormed toward our troops. Although the cavalry wasn’t as powerful as the Beast King Cavalry, they made up for it with their extraordinary Defense. It was why Natural Flow was able to dominate Elephant City.
I slowly lowered my dragon on the frontline while casting Summon the Storm and Rise of the Guardian Dragon at the same time. Hundreds of White Horse Cavalrymen were delivered to kingdom come just like that. They could have the highest Defense in the world, and it still wouldn’t be enough to withstand my power.
Not done yet, I fired Dragon Slaying Slash at Flowing Cloud next!
"Ah?"
Sensing danger, Flowing Cloud abruptly looked in my direction before jumping to the back. An instant later, the Dragon Slaying Slash erupted where she stood with visual effects that suggested that it would’ve been a critical hit. She would’ve died if she hadn’t dodged the skill in time.
"You ruthless bastard!"
Flowing Cloud shot me a distant glare before ordering, "Lightning Archers, you may attack now!"
I had no choice but to move backward as lightning-infused arrows rained down on my position. The Ancient Divine Dragon could fly at any altitude, but the problem was that I was inside a cavern right now. There was nowhere I could fly that was out of the Lightning Archers’ shooting range.
Thud thud thud..
The last group of Zephyr Cavalrymen was stunned by the Lightning Arrows and trampled by the White Horse Cavalry. They were torn to pieces in the blink of an eye.
"Ugh.."
Hickey also took three arrows to the chest and froze where she stood. Just like the others, she was temporarily paralyzed and couldn’t do anything to defend herself.
Pu!
Flowing Cloud’s pierced Hickey’s chest and caused a spurt of blood. As the war goddess slowly pulled out her sword, she said, "You deserve your title as the number one war goddess of Iron Skull Wilderness. If only you had more troops.."
Hickey slowly collapsed as she stared at me with dilating pupils. "Boss, I.."
....
I gritted my teeth. It wasn’t even that long, and before I knew it I was the only Godkiller player left in the entire Dragonsnake Devil’s Den. What could a single guild leader possibly do anything?
Flowing Cloud pointed her sword in my direction.
A hail of arrows immediately rained on top of me. I darted here and there and tried my best to dodge, but there were just too many enemies and only one of me. In the end, I caught a Lightning Arrow to the shoulder and was paralyzed where I was!
The White Horse Cavalry instantly surrounded me and Barrier Break’d me. Just as my HP was about to bottom out, I awoke from the stun and one-shot everyone around me with War Crush + Rise of the Guardian Dragon combo. I was back to full health, but my situation hadn’t improved in the slightest.
Thud!
Again, I was stunned before I could do much of anything. There just wasn’t enough space in this goddamned cavern for the Ancient Divine Dragon to maneuver around. As an entire hail of Mountain Stagger Arrows struck me, Flowing Cloud charged in with her sword at the ready. Once she got into range, she unleashed the Mountain Stagger Slash!
Bang!
Finally, the Ancient Divine Dragon let out a terrible wail and disappeared. It was too big in a place that was too small, so the enemy was able to empty my mount tenacity.
There was no time to steady myself, so after I dropped to the ground and stumbled backward, I locked onto an assassin and used Charge.
Pu!
I skewered him through the chest but didn’t pause to admire the scenery. The moment I jumped out of the exit and temporarily out of view, I used Earth Escape and slipped underground. At this point, every second I lived was a second longer than I deserved. I also made terms with the very real possibility that I would die here.
Some distance away, God of War, Breeze and Rain and the Beast King Cavalry were still battling the boss. Their human wave attack was nothing like the shoddy ones employed by the likes of Mad Dragon. Several thousand Beast King Cavalrymen had died to the Blood Dragon God already, but the boss had also dropped to just 40% HP.
....
Meanwhile, Natural Flow’s players finally showed up to search around the area. Everyone looked pissed off because they had lost way too many people to my Rise of the Guardian Dragon and Summon the Storm.
"Where? Where is that sonuvabitch?"
"When I find that fucker, I’m going to stab him 108 times before sending him to hell!"
Flowing Cloud swept her gaze across the surroundings before stopping at the spot I was hiding at. At first, I thought she had spotted me when she walked toward my direction. Instead, she sat down on a broken totem just three meters away from me before pointing to the south and the east, ordering, "You guys, go search for him there and there. I’m going to take a break!"
"Yes, guild leader!"
....
On the stairs leading up to the Dragon God Hall where the boss battle was taking place, Breeze and Rain turned around to shoot Flowing Cloud a glance before asking, "What happened? You brought 50000 players and 4000 Lightning Archers with you, right? Don’t tell me you still couldn’t kill Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand?"
Flowing Cloud replied in an indifferent tone, "We killed every Godkiller player we encountered, but Lu Chen’s Defense is just too high. He managed to escape and use his stealth skill.."
"Fuck me.."
Breeze and Rain swore through gritted teeth before saying, "We’d better search the area as soon as possible then. All mages and archers, use your AoE skills to sweep the area around you! Don’t let Lu Chen killsteal our boss! Oh right, Natural Flow, you don’t need to clear the area within 100 yards of the boss.This we will handle ourselves!"
Flowing Cloud pressed her lips tightly. "Are you that worried that Natural Flow will steal the Ascension Proof from you, Breeze and Rain?"
Caught off-guard but undeterred, Breeze and Rain shot her a placating smile and said, "It’s not like that. It’s just that we agreed beforehand that Natural Flow will clear the surrounding mobs, and Cyan Beast will claim the boss and the Ascension Proof, right? I don’t think that my order affects that agreement at all, does it?"
Flowing Cloud snorted but stayed silent. She continued sitting on the totem alone while everyone else was carrying out their business.
Galaxy Storms and Spiraling Arrow Blades were exploding everywhere. Just as Breeze and Rain had ordered, they were doing their best to sweep every inch of the map and prevent me from kill-stealing the boss.
Relatively speaking, Flowing Cloud’s location was the only spot that was safe from the sweep. One glare was all it took for her to stop the archers from shooting their Skypiercers at her location.
It was at this moment she leaned backward and whispered softly, "The boss's HP is only 15% now. Don’t disappoint me, Lu Chen."
I shuddered from head to toe. What the hell did she mean by that? Did she find out where I was at the beginning? Was that why she was covering this location and covering me from exposure?
However, what could I do even if I managed to kill the boss and steal the Ascension Proof? I neither had a return scroll nor a city to teleport to. I wouldn’t be able to escape even with an invincibility skill.
It was at this moment Flowing Cloud rose to her feet and slowly walked to my location. She glanced at several players at the distance and ordered, "Why are you guys just standing and doing nothing? Sweep the east side again just in case."
At the same time, she dropped a red-colored scroll right beneath her feet and whispered again, "Hold this, Lu Chen. Do your best to get the Ascension Proof. If you succeed and manage to escape, I’ll meet you at the north side of Iron Skull Wilderness, (147387, 900989) in half an hour.."
Stunned as I was, I accepted the scroll anyway and read its contents—
Escape From Hell Scroll: In three seconds, teleport the user away from the current map and to a random location of the previous map they were at.
....
Holy sh*t, this scroll was amazing! It would teleport me away from Dragonsnake Devil’s Den and to a random location in Frost Stained Canyon! Considering how huge Frost Stained Canyon was, the chance I would be caught before I could summon the Ancient Divine Dragon and escape to the air was practically zero! All I needed to do now was to grab that Ascension Proof..
"Flowing Cloud, you.." I finally broke my silence and whispered back to Flowing Cloud.
The Indian war goddess let out a soft chuckle. "Don’t waste it, seriously. It cost me 70k gold to buy this, and up until now, there is only one Escape From Hell Scroll in the entire Elephant City.."
"Mn."
historical
It took a while, but I finally figured out why Flowing Cloud was doing all this. And even if I hadn’t, the way Cyan Beast was unnaturally wary of Natural Flow showed me that Elephant City and Cyan Earth City were not as united as they seemed to an outsider. In fact, I now had good reason to believe that the river of grudge between them was deeper than even the one shared by Ancient Sword Dreaming Souls and Candle Dragon.
Now that I had the Escape From Hell Scroll, my confidence went from zero to a hundred right away. The Dragon God Shield’s Dragon Soul Protection would turn me invincible for 25 seconds, so unless I screwed up the execution hard there was no way this heist could go wrong. Now all I needed to do was wait for the right moment to killsteal the boss and steal the Ascension Proof.
....
At the Dragon God Hall, the Blood Dragon God was still ravaging the Beast King Cavalry like the Ancient Immortal Rank boss it was. Sometimes it summoned a lightning storm, and sometimes it summoned meteors that literally penetrated the ceiling of the cavern to smash the puny ants trying to kill it. It was a bloody battle to say the least.
However, Cyan Beast’s arrows and magic were slowly but steadily decreasing Blood Dragon God’s HP. It was a living representation of the saying "an army of ants can kill an elephant”.
God of War, Breeze and Rain and Cyan Earth City players were all waiting for the moment the Blood Dragon God’s HP dropped to 2% or so. When that happened, they would all unleash our strongest combos and deal the last hit.
....
Because I more or less guessed what my enemy was planning, I inched toward the boss until it had dropped to 4% HP. Then, I preemptively launched my assault!
Swhoosh!
The second I escaped the underground, I immediately activated my 25-second invincibility skill. Divine draconic power protected me from all damage as I Charged toward the Blood Dragon God in a straight line!
First things first, I stabbed the Blood Dragon God in the neck and used Purple Frost Concentration!
The skill immediately lowered the boss's Defense by 27%, which was way better than Yeye the Witch’s Nether Fire Arrow.
Then, I executed Burning Blade Slash + Rise of the Guardian Dragon combo!
Boom boom boom!
The ground shook like an earthquake was going on. The combo greatly decreased the Blood Dragon God’s HP and turned all the surrounding Beast King Cavalrymen into dead bodies.
....
It was only now that Cyan Beast’s players realized what was going on and shouted on top of their lungs, "That motherfucker is still around! He’s going to steal the boss! STOP HIM!"
Behind them, God of War and Breeze and Rain rushed forward to stop me. I only had less than 3 seconds left!
Thud!
I slammed my weapon into the ground and summoned the power of Purple Dragon Howl. As I swung my sword sideways, the purple energy rotated up the boss's neck, elicited painful howls from it and deleted its HP to almost zero!
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to land one last basic attack. Purple Dragon Howl left its user in an Exhausted state for 3 seconds after using it, so I only managed to deal a pitiful 1904 to it. However, it was enough to end the super boss's life!
....
Swhoosh!
A column of golden light surrounded me as I leveled up to 214. At the same time, I snatched a golden proof from the air and threw it into my bag.