Chapter 29：A Sensational Ambush

"We suffered a sneak attack from the Warring Dragon Guild." The Queen of the Night injected a simple explanation.

Ye Chen nodded. If the Queen was in the party, even if the adventurers were not elite, there was no way they were mediocre. For them to be almost completely annihilated, the only possible scenario would be a sneak attack.

"You all caught wind that the Warring Dragon Guild was coming here for a mission?" after some thought, Ye Chen asked.

"I heard some news, although uncertain, from a friend. I have some personal feud with Warring Dragon Guild, so I just came to wait here anyway. And also level a little within the Gray Stone Forest. Lucky for me, the Warring Dragon Guild did come in the end. But, their numbers were too big. We could not even get close, much less disrupt their mission. When the mission was triggered, we were about to find the special equipment, but they found us first and attacked." Dharma sighed

"They're coming!" in an undertone, she said. The Queen's eyes narrowed as several silhouettes rustled about within the forest. 

"You plan on ambushing their Priest from here?" looking at the enlarging figures of the Warring Dragon Guild members, Ye Chen asked.

If they chose to hide and escape, choosing this rock as a cover was plain ridiculous.

"That's right, the Warring Dragon Guild formed their teams with two groups in each. If we don't take out their Priest first, killing the others would be too difficult. Both the Queen and I are equipped with speed-boosting shoes. We can run like a rabbit who's tail got stepped on after killing their Priest. Then, we toy with the rest till they die!" With a devilish smirk, Dharma laid out their cunning plan.

"Good thinking. But are you sure you can kill the Priest with the two of them looking out for each other?" Sceptical about the possibilities of success, Ye Chen probed further.

Level 20 was a turning point for the Priests. As long as their equipment were not too shoddy, and they consciously chose some HP boosting equipment, their HP could easily cross 400 points. While the Queen of the Night had changed to slightly better staff, and her attack power increased by a tad, Ye Chen was still doubtful about the effectiveness of her attacks on the Priests. After all, Priests generally had high spiritual attributes, and their Magic Defense would be rock solid. Even if the Queen was a Spatial-Type Mage with the highest magic attack, she would face difficulties. Most likely, a single hit from her would only deal 120+ damage. 

On the other hand, Dharma was an Archer at Level 18. With the Sniper skill, he could deal heavy blows onto the low Defense Priests. However, owing to his lower level, the damage would only be around 170. As such, unless the Priest had a staggeringly low HP or the duo's luck was astronomical, they would never kill the Priest in one blow.

"Ugh… you never know till you try!" Diffidently, Dharma turned and looked away. He had also considered the impossibilities of their plan. However, their success rate felt impossibly possible. He was not a veteran like Ye Chen, knowing the data and skills inside out. 

"I learned the skill, Void Ripples." This one sentence jolted Ye Chen's attention.

Void Ripples was a rare skill that all Spatial-Type Mages craved. The area of attack and lethality were both absurdly high. With this, it indeed turned the tables. They had a chance to kill the Priest now!

As for how the Queen learned the ultra-rare skill, Ye Chen had an inkling. Most likely, it had to do with her long time spent within the arena. When he was on the forums, he had conveniently searched up some details about this skilled Spatial-Type Mage. From his findings, he knew that she had spent an incredible amount of time within the arena and was pretty perplexed. Now, all his questions cleared up.

"Dharma, do you have any AoE skills?" Ye Chen glanced at the Archer. If he had an AoE skill, wiping off both teams from the region would be a walk in the park.

Heaving a deep sigh, Dharma replied, "Nope. Arrow Rain is a skill limited to Archers above Level 40." He was highly discouraged. Arrow Rain was critical for a beginner Archer, being one of the most essential AoE skills. However, he had to more than double his level before he could get his hands on it.

"I see, follow my orders later." Hearing it, a plan had surfaced within Ye Chen's mind.

Dharma was alright with that arrangement. Firstly, Ye Chen was his senior by at least two years. Secondly, Dharma had sensed a firm and grounded confidence from Ye Chen's mannerisms as they spoke. 

More surprisingly, the Queen did not voice any objections, and it was perplexing to Dharma. Mostly, the Queen lived up to her name. A lady of little words, always wearing an emotionless expression with frost-filled eyes. She was pompous and supercilious in nature yet, this ice-cold Queen did not reject Ye Chen's self-assumed leadership.

"That's it!" A sudden realization dawned upon Dharma. "The Queen had accepted Page of Lingering Dust into the party without question. Could it be that they were already acquainted beforehand?"

Yet, their interactions were still unnatural and awkward, utterly opposite from friendly.

"Focus, they're coming!"

At this time, tons of questions swelled within Dharma. However, the enemy was fast-approaching. With a deep breath, he buried his thoughts and focused his mind on surviving this potentially fatal battle.

The two Warring Dragon Guild teams were neither fast nor slow, steadily approaching while keeping close together.

Before Level 25, most professions would not gain any AoE skills. Keeping close together was generally safe and allowed them to watch their backs mutually.

Ye Chen saw their sardine-packed formation and secretly rejoiced. Although his Durian Bomb Tree was very potent, it was still a challenge to take down twelve people with only three men. If these people were just a little more scattered, his Durian Bomb Tree would most probably only kill one, at most two of the Warring Dragon Guild members during the ambush. But now, the Warring Dragon Guild teams were so close together. When the Durian Bomb Tree rained the bombs upon them, it could quickly destroy three to five of them! The trio squatted behind the stone, peeking through the grass on the stone's edge. They had confirmed that two teams had entered their attack range.

"Shall we attack?" Dharma glanced at Ye Chen. All three of them were considered long-range attackers. Ambushing from afar followed by a tactical retreat with sporadic assaults was a go-to method.

"Don't be hasty. Wait for me to attack first. Queen, you launch your attack on the coordinates that i give you. Dharma, prepare to snipe. You will attack the adventurers that I point out to you." The side of Ye Chen's lips curled into a sinister grin. Ahead of them, there were two towering pillars on the glistening green pasture. The Warring Dragon Guild and the stone pillars were just two meters apart.

Tracing their line of movement, they would definitely cross the two pillars, as if they were a stone gate! If they really did, things would get awfully exciting!

As Ye Chen thought of the possibilities, his breathing hastened, and his grin grew on its own accord. Adrenaline was coursing through every fibre of his body, overwhelming his mind. He could already taste it, the intoxicating sweetness of wiping out tens of men. That feeling was uncomparable to the gratification of killing just one man. 

"Awesome… they really are going to pass through death's gate!" Ye Chen had to suppress himself, controlling the evil cackle that almost escaped from his mouth.

"Queen, when I signal to you, immediately attack around (2224, 1897, 3340)." Ye Chen dropped his instructions quickly to the Queen.

"Alright." While she was confused, the Queen did not question.

"What about me, what about me?" Watching the approaching Warring Dragon Guild members, anxiety was fluttering within Dharma.

"Get the ones with the lowest health. Listen to my command and be accurate. If you miss, someone will escape." Ye Chen explained carefully, preventing this overly pumped guy from carpet bombing. The levels of the three of them were not high. These attacks were their only means to victory. A single mistake would be a precious opportunity wasted and a chance of escape given away to the enemy.

"Wrong aim will lead to an escape? What is this guy talking about?" Dharma listened to Ye Chen's order and was utterly puzzled. But before he could question, Ye Chen's voice pierced through the silence.

"Single Transplantation! Illusions of Time!" Hearing the loud yells, Dharma turned, and his jaws immediately dropped. 

A humongous tree he had never seen before sprang to life at the center of the stone gate. Its enormous canopy cast a massive shadow over the Warring Dragon Guild team. Yellowish-green thorned durians came upon the Warring Dragon Guild team like a downpour, erupting into a sea of explosions upon impact. Instantly, patches of crimson numbers and several huge MISS dotted the area.

The twelve members of the Warring Dragon Guild were all between Level 18 and 21. With the effects of the Level Suppressions, Ye Chen's Durian Bomb Tree had a considerable miss rate of 10% to 30%. When bombing so many targets at once, the Level Suppression's effects were visible. Even so, in that short moment, three adventurers with lower HP were obliterated, dissipating into a ball of white light.

"FUCK! AN AMBUSH! What abomination is this fucking tree! Retreat! RETREAT!" In the distance, the Warring Dragon Guild members who had just crossed the stone gate immediately broke into a sprint, running for their lives, away from the Durian Bomb Tree's assaults.

The most significant disadvantage of plants, when compared to humans, was the immobility and inflexibility. Although Warring Dragon Guild suffered a devastating ambush, with at least ten of them taking enormous damage, all of them had already launched into a speedy retreat, less the trio who died under the first wave of bombs. 

However, underestimating the Durian Bomb Tree would not be wise. With the sprawling canopy, the attack range of the Durian Bomb Tree was far from small. During their retreat, two adventurers who were close to the Durian Bomb Tree could not escape their fate. They too turned into white light as their knees fell on the ground. If it was not for the level suppression, there would probably be another two fatalities.

"Queen, attack!" There was no time to grumble about the goddamn Level Suppression. Ye Chen quickly yelled within the party channel, signalling the start of phase 2 of their plan.

The Queen had already prepared herself. With a swing of the staff, a gray ripple suddenly emerged from behind the stone gate, right in the direction of the remaining seven people's retreat!