Chapter 30 – Slaughter

The four gangs all chose to gradually push their way in. All the melee classes formed a human wall in the front, while the other classes hid behind them and waited for their chance to attack.

As the four guilds advanced side by side, a few Skeletal Assassins were instantly revealed.

“Kill them!” Countless fireballs, ice bolts, wind blades, stone spikes and arrows rained down on them, easily dispatching all the monsters in one round of attack.

Zing.

A pillar of golden light illuminated the darkness and signaled that someone had leveled up. Due to the monsters being at least 20 levels higher than the players, the extra experience was enough to allow a lot of the players close to leveling up to directly do so.

When they pushed in a row more times a killed a few more Skeletal Assassins, two more people leveled up. Then, all of a sudden, a golden light shimmered and lit up the ghastly fifth floor, making it no longer seem like the land of the deceased, and instead like the players’ playground.

“Kill!” the four guild masters were overjoyed and felt like their trip was worth it. Even if they don’t manage to kill the boss, just the extra experience from killing all the small monsters was enough to make everything worth it.

“Brother Grubber, how do you think they’ll do?” TheFugitive asked Fatty in their corner.

“It’s tough. They have less than 1% chance of killing the boss,” Fatty squatted on the ground and held a red potion in one hand and occasionally took a few sips. When he did so, he sighed. “Ahh, the taste doesn’t seem that good. Some peanuts would be nice.”

TheFugitive twitched his mouth, then quickly turned around and ignored Fatty. He was worried that if he continued to talk with Fatty, he really wouldn’t be able to resist slapping Fatty’s chubby face.

“Boss, how could they have gotten in here without us making the way for them? How about we…?” One of the Fierce Dragon Gang members whispered to Fierce Dragon TheTalent when he felt an opportunity displayed itself.

“Don’t worry,” Fierce Dragon TheTalent sat down onto the ground. “Do you know why advanced boss monsters are called that? It’s not because they’re high leveled. Rather, it’s because they have high intelligence. The AI of advance boss monsters are at least as intelligent as players. Do you think you would fall for it if they tried this tactic on you when you had Phantom Messenger’s ability?”

“Of course not. I could easily dispatch them,” the player revealed a look of joy on his face. “So that means the boss is still ours in the end?”

“Who knows, let’s see,” Fierce Dragon TheTalent answered indifferently, then took a glance at the corner of the cavern. What he saw only made his expression stiffen. Those two bastards! Not only did they literally come out in plain sight, they’re actually drinking and watching the show.

…

“It looks like Fierce Dragon TheTalent really doesn’t like you,” Fatty took another sip of his red potion.

“You wouldn’t like it if you see your two enemies leisurely drinking potions and watching a show,” TheFugitive rolled his eyes. Tsk, whatever.

The alliance of the four guilds had already advanced fifty meters. During the process, they had killed twenty something Skeletal Assassins. Every single time one of those monsters were revealed, they would face a series of attacks, so they didn’t pose much of a threat at all.

The advancement was simple and carefree. Of course, that was aside from the Skeletal Assassin’s drops. As Fatty expected, Aside from one pair of common boots, everything else were just red potions.

“Say, why is a rogue bringing so many red potions around? Are they trying to fight a war of attrition with players?” one of the players joked.

“Hey, that’s possible. Or they might think that they’re actually knights,” a player sent a red potion flying with a smile.

When they advanced another fifty meters, deaths had finally begun to occur. Several Skeletal Assassins spawned behind the alliance army, and all of them killed a mage after a brief flash.

“Alter the formations!” Jiangdong’s LittleOverlord shouted.

Soon, all of the melee classes tightened their defenses, they stood side by side and formed a defensive ring to protect the ranged players within. With the ranged classes providing cover fire and damage, it was a pretty safe formation.

Cloud Dragon Sailing, East Gate Blowing Wind, Xu Quan and Jiangdong’s LittleOverlord all understood that just a single guild would not be able to take down the advanced boss. So they didn’t try any underhand actions against their allies. They merely worked together, allowing their circular formation to push forward by several dozen meters once more.

“Jaja, how long have I not fought for? I can’t actually remember. Ahh, how I miss the intense battlefield. Does anyone still remember the name of Aguero the Phantom Messenger? Ahh, I feel like my blood is turning cold. I can’t wait. I will use your blood to announce the return of the Phantom Messenger.”

The sinister and ghastly voice echoed through the main cavern of the fifth floor once more. Then, over a hundred Skeletal Assassins spawned with a flash of white light.

“Servants, use your murderous powers to announce the return of the king! Kill!”

“Defend, defend!” The four guild masters’ expressions drastically changed, and hurried their subordinates to tighten their defensive circle. So the Skeletal Assassins, who spawned inside the defensive encirclement, all died after killing several players.

Whoosh.

Over a hundred rogues stealthing together was truly a scene to behold. The originally cramped cavern instantly turned empty once more in the blink of an eye.

“Attack! Mages and archers, just attack anywhere.”

Before the guild masters finished giving out orders, the mages’ spells and the archers’ arrows bombarded the surroundings of their defensive circle. The Skeletal Assassins appeared like fresh bamboo shoots after the spring rain, only to turn invisible again moments later.

However, since the attacks were very close together, the Skeletal Assassins were quickly unstealthed by the attacks once again, so the players all rushed up to dispatch them.

Zing.

A ray of white light flashed through the air in the midst of the Skeletal Assassins. A knight at half health was split in half, and a figure even thinner and smaller in stature compared to the Skeletal Assassins appeared for a brief moment, then disappeared.

Bang.

Another knight fell down in a flash of white light, while his face still held the expression of disbelief.

Death was not terrifying. What was terrifying was a living person suddenly get separated into pieces in front of you.

“What a sly fellow. He actually sent his subordinates up as cannon fodder, while he hid away to make use of good opportunities,” Fatty exclaimed.

“This is truly an advanced boss,” TheFugitive said with a bit of after fright. “Thank god I didn’t have time to go and try to kill the advanced boss in the depths of the Greenery Mountains because of the Fierce Dragon Gang chasing after me. Otherwise, I would have died without them doing anything.”

“The chances are slim today,” Fierce Dragon TheTalent shook his head with a sigh.

“Boss is truly smart for not getting us to get involved,” the player who tried to urge Fierce Dragon TheTalent to snag the boss monster instantly complimented his own boss.

However, Fierce Dragon TheTalent ignored him and continued to ponder. After a while, he finally stood up as well.

“Boss, is it our turn?” The hundred Fierce Dragon Gang members all stood up with Fierce Dragon TheTalent and drew their weapons.

The four other guilds’ players felt troubled. Is a fight about to break loose before the boss has even been killed?

“Retreat!” Fierce Dragon TheTalent's order caught everyone else by surprise.

Even the Fierce Dragon Gang members thought that their guild master misspoke.

“Boss, that’s an advanced boss. It’s super rare. We’re giving up without even trying to fight it?” some of the players were rather reluctant to leave.

“Do you think we can beat an advanced boss that’s at least Level 30?” Fierce Dragon TheTalent questioned.

“Why can’t we? We’ve got lots of people. We can even bury it with people,” one of the players stood forth. Brothers, are you afraid?”

“No. Boss, give the order, we’ll go and kill it right now. Let’s show the Black Tortoise City guilds how strong we are,” some of the players chatted away. Only a few players looked down silently in deep thought.

“Trying to use the human wave tactic?” Fierce Dragon TheTalent smiled mockingly, then drew a circle in the air. “Do we have more people than the monsters here?”

“Uhm…” a lot of the players stopped speaking at that.

“I want to fight the boss monster too, but we have to judge our strength. When we aren’t sure, we shouldn’t do something that will cost us losses for no reason. We’re leaving,” Fierce Dragon TheTalent didn’t want to say too much, and merely ordered his subordinates to leave.

“The Fierce Dragon Gang's leaving?” the four guild masters were first surprised when they saw the Fierce Dragon Gang players walk back to the entrance to the fifth floor. Don’t they want to fight the boss?

“Who cares, maybe they realized that they can’t get anything easy out of it. Leaving is good,” Cloud Dragon Sailing chuckled.

“Fierce Dragon TheTalent isn't’ someone like that,” East Gate BlowingWind and Wind God’s World looked at each other. “Fierce Dragon TheTalent is an expert of many games. When I say expert, I don’t just mean that he’s strong. What’s even more important is his planning. The fact that they retreated is probably because they realized that we can’t kill the boss even with their help.”

“East Gate BlowingWind, what are you saying? We can’t kill the boss? We’ve pretty much cleaned up all the small monsters already. We’re going to take down the boss soon. If you’re afraid, then you can lead your people away first,” said Cloud Dragon Sailing.

“Cloud Dragon Sailing, shut your damn mouth. Afraid? It's just a single death at worst.” East Gate BlowingWind was incensed and was merely split seconds from stabbing Cloud Dragon Sailing.

...

“The Fierce Dragon Gang left?” Fatty commented with a sigh as he watched the Fierce Dragon Gang players leave. “Fierce Dragon TheTalent knows when to retreat. He’s truly a cunning one.”

“Him? Cunning? He’s more like a stupid bear” TheFugitive naturally did not have any praise for Fierce Dragon TheTalent when that person is the reason he had to run away to Black Tortoise City.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

Before Fatty could finish, over a hundred Skeletal Assassins spawned in the cavern once more.

“How’s this even possible? How could they have respawned so quickly!?” the various players watched in disbelief as the Skeletal Assassins went into stealth, then reappeared for assassinations.

This time, all of the Skeletal Assassins used Reckless Blow, one of the strongest moves that an assassin could use.

Boom.

As the players and monsters clashed together, countless droplets of blood flew into the air like when a wave hits a boulder. Over twenty Skeletal Assassins were instantly killed by the players, but even more players were insta-killed by the Skeletal Assassins’ Reckless Blow.

“Tighten the formations!” the guild masters shouted. The players immediately did as they were ordered and squished together, making the scene more of a mess.

“Jaja, jaja.” Phantom Messenger’s proud and terrifying laughter sounded out once more.

Then, a short monster even shorter than a ten years old child appeared at the entrance to the fifth floor.

“Crap, our escape path is blocked off,” Fatty said softly.

“Brother Grubber, the situation is dire right now. Lend me a Recall Scroll for now. I’ll pay you back later,” TheFugitive said urgently.

Fatty was momentarily stunned, then asked TheFugitive under the latter’s desperate gaze, “Recall Scroll? What’s that?”

TheFugitive felt like he was about to faint.

Meanwhile, when the Phantom Messenger appeared, the slaughter of players by the monsters had begun.