Chapter Fifteen: A Powerful Counterattack

Chapter Fifteen: A Forceful Comeback

While the others were still frozen in surprise, Lin Zheng struck as well! He charged forward in two steps and brought down a Stomp. Damage numbers of more than three hundred immediately floated above the heads of two mages. He swept out with his dagger—346 points of damage.

“Urgh!”

One of the mages gave a muffled groan, a bloody line appearing across his throat before he collapsed to the ground.

“Damn it!” A musketeer cursed when he saw this, raised his weapon, and opened fire at Lin Zheng.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Lin Zheng bit into a piece of bread. Charging into the hail of bullets, he struck the other mage and finished him off, then rushed toward the musketeer who was firing at him.

By then, the Proud Sword warriors had already turned around and were preparing to sandwich Lin Zheng and Yang Qi between them. Unfortunately, they had completely overlooked You Xi and the other two girls—and the consequences were tragic.

A crackling sound of electricity rang out. You Xi had thrown out a Chain Lightning spell, and several warriors immediately began howling as currents coursed through them. Damage of nearly four hundred floated above their heads.

“Damn it! You three, go over there and deal with those women!”

The one giving the order was a greatsword knight named Proud Sword Windless. He seemed to be the leader of the group. Yang Qi noticed this and decided to take him down. Once their leader was gone, the enemy would be thrown into chaos, and the situation would become much easier to handle.

When Proud Sword Windless saw Yang Qi charging toward him with the Black Crow Sword in hand, he gave a contemptuous smile and shouted, “Nobody interfere! I’ll personally test the skills of the third-ranked expert on the Heavenly Ranking! Heh heh! I never imagined that Red Dust Misty Rain would be such a beauty! Come over here and let Big Brother have some fun!”

“You’re definitely going to have a lot of fun!”

Looking at his lecherous expression, Yang Qi smiled. She might have had some reservations if everyone had attacked her together, but this idiot actually wanted to challenge her one-on-one!

Watching Proud Sword Windless zigzag toward her, Yang Qi laughed.

“Hah! You want to compete in technique? I’ll be happy to oblige!”

Proud Sword Windless gripped his sword with both hands and advanced toward Yang Qi. He thrust viciously, aiming directly at her throat. Both the timing and the placement of his attack were excellent. An ordinary player would have no choice but to take the blow head-on.

But Yang Qi had already prepared to evade the moment he raised his sword. She pivoted on her right foot, and Proud Sword Windless swept past Lin Zheng with a whoosh. A large, glorious MISS appeared above him.

Yang Qi, naturally, did not let the opportunity go to waste. She kicked Proud Sword Windless in the calf.

Smack!

He dropped to one knee and lost more than a hundred health points.

Proud Sword Windless had been knocked down in a single exchange. The members of Proud Sword were completely caught off guard. They had originally imagined that the two experts would trade dozens of blows before one of them achieved a hard-won victory. That was what a true master’s battle was supposed to look like!

If Yang Qi had known what they were thinking, she would have laughed herself sick. What kind of expert was Proud Sword Windless? He was merely a little higher in level. His technique was barely passable. Take that last attack, for instance—he had clearly overextended himself. Otherwise, Yang Qi would never have been able to kick him to the ground so easily.

A true expert would not make such a low-level mistake.

His greatest error, however, was overestimating himself while underestimating Yang Qi. The result was that Yang Qi brought down two slashes and hacked him to death where he lay.

“Damn it! That woman killed Brother Windless! Brothers, get her! Avenge Brother Windless! Tear her apart!”

With that, a whole group of warriors charged over. An armored warrior was the first to reach Yang Qi.

Yang Qi gave a cold laugh. “Greatsword Thrust!”

Sword energy burst from the Black Crow Sword, taking the form of a gigantic blade. Seeing this, a heavy-sword knight immediately shouted, “Retreat! Watch out—you’ll be knocked back!”

At level one, Greatsword Thrust dealt 150 percent physical damage and knocked the target backward. The Proud Sword armored warrior charged straight into Yang Qi’s attack.

Boom!

A burst of air exploded outward, sending him flying. Although the players behind him had been prepared, several were still knocked to the ground when the armored warrior crashed into them.

“Ah!”

On the other side, the musketeer attacking Lin Zheng had been blocked off. One Low Kick greatly reduced the musketeer’s movement speed. Unable to run and facing Lin Zheng’s ferocious attacks, he could offer no resistance and was killed in two strikes.

“Gather together! Fire a volley! Shoot that bastard to death!”

At the command, Proud Sword’s mages and archers quickly gathered into a group.

“Damn it!”

Lin Zheng cursed under his breath. The enemy mages had already begun channeling Chain Lightning, so he immediately darted behind a tree. Once they lost sight of their target, the mages’ spell channels stopped as well.

“Damn it! That guy is using the terrain too quickly!” one of the mages shouted angrily.

“Charge! Let’s see where he can run!”

“Right! Charge!”

Hearing the chaotic sound of footsteps, Lin Zheng took a deep breath behind the tree. He pulled out another piece of bread, bit into it, and then burst out.

His dagger flew from his hand and struck a mage squarely in the throat, startling everyone into stopping in their tracks.

“Attack!”

A musketeer was the first to recover and shout the order. Several others reacted at once and began firing. Lin Zheng’s health plummeted rapidly beneath the storm of attacks.

At that moment, a healing light descended upon him. It even triggered a critical effect, instantly restoring nearly a thousand health points. Lin Zheng swallowed another Nectar Pill, and his health was almost completely restored.

Feeling immensely refreshed, Lin Zheng charged straight into the attacking formation. His health was still more than half full. He used Stomp, gaining one charge, then struck a mage from behind with his dagger. Added to the charge points he had accumulated earlier, he now had five.

Within his field of vision, the skill icon for Explosion lit up.

Without hesitation, Lin Zheng let out a furious roar and stomped heavily on the ground.

“Explosion!”

Boom!

Flames erupted throughout the ten-meter-diameter battle zone. The ranged players who had gathered together were tragically caught in the entire blast. One after another, they watched in horror as damage numbers of nearly two thousand floated above their companions’ heads, leaving them with empty health bars as they collapsed to the ground.

“Whew! Finally done!”

Lin Zheng let out a long breath. Now that the ranged attackers had been eliminated, dealing with the remaining melee players would be much easier. Besides, he had already taken out all of their priests, while Lilith was still standing beautifully on the battlefield.

Yang Qi was not someone Lin Zheng needed to worry about, so he first ran toward the three girls. At that moment, three enemies were surrounding them. Xiao Meng was holding off two of them. With Lilith healing her, she had not fallen behind at all—whenever she lost health, Lilith restored it. The two burly men were growing increasingly frustrated.

You Xi, meanwhile, was unexpectedly agile. She easily dodged the attacks of a swordsman, occasionally slowing him with Ice Bolts before striking him with Fireballs. Her technique was astonishingly polished, and she tormented the swordsman until he nearly lost his mind.

Lin Zheng admired You Xi’s skill, then rushed forward to help. His Stomp stunned both enemies attacking Xiao Meng.

Xiao Meng immediately saw her chance. She raised her sword and hacked wildly, killing one of the armored warriors, who had been driven to the brink of madness by frustration. Lin Zheng stabbed the other to death in two blows.

Having defeated her enemies, Xiao Meng was filled with confidence and looked utterly invincible. The moment she saw someone bullying her precious You Xi, she gave a delicate shout and charged over.

She thrust out with her sword.

Lin Zheng instantly felt a tightening in his backside on behalf of the swordsman.

Damn! She had actually struck him there!

The damage itself was one thing, but the psychological trauma inflicted on the poor man was devastating. It was utterly unbearable.

The swordsman let out a furious, grief-stricken roar and turned around, apparently intending to fight Xiao Meng to the death. But did he really think You Xi was merely decoration?

A Fireball struck him squarely in the forehead. His remaining health vanished, and amid another furious roar, he collapsed to the ground in despair.

“Xiao Meng, that was wrong of you. How can a girl attack someone in that place? What if you leave him with a psychological scar?” Lin Zheng said with a completely straight face.

Xiao Meng stuck out her tongue adorably.

“I didn’t do it on purpose! I tripped and lost my balance, so my attack went off course. It was just a mistake! An accident!”

The swordsman, not yet revived, heard her words and was overcome with grief. He immediately revived and went off to find somewhere to heal his wounded pride.

“Ah!”

Another scream rang out.

Lin Zheng turned around and saw Yang Qi impaling a player through the body with one thrust. When she pulled out her sword, she took the enemy’s last bit of health with it.

Only six players remained around her. The ground was littered with corpses.

Although Proud Sword still had six people left—one more than Lin Zheng’s side—they were useless as a force. Twenty-one had come, and only these few remained.

The survivors panicked. After shouting a few threats—

“Remember this! Proud Sword will never let you off!”

—they fled in disarray.

There was no need to chase desperate enemies. Lin Zheng and Yang Qi had no interest in hunting down those cowards. After cleaning up the battlefield, they continued toward the quest map, thoroughly satisfied.

On the way, Lilith could not help asking when she saw how relaxed Lin Zheng and Yang Qi looked.

“I have to ask—both of you know about Proud Sword. They have considerable influence in Frost City. You’ve offended them thoroughly this time. Aren’t you worried about their retaliation at all?”

“We’ve fought them before. Why should I be afraid of them?” Yang Qi waved a hand dismissively. “Back when I played the first game, I even clashed with the Godslayer Guild, the number-one guild in the entire Chinese region. Did they ever manage to do anything to me? Proud Sword? Not to look down on them, but they’re simply third-rate. At most, they’re a bunch of rich young masters who joined in for fun. They can throw their weight around among ordinary players, but if they went up against one of the veteran gaming guilds, they’d be nothing more than paper tigers. Why would I be afraid of a guild like that?”

“Come on, sis! You’re an expert!”

Lilith rolled her eyes at Yang Qi.

“You’re strong and skilled, so of course you aren’t afraid. But what about us?”

“Well…”

Yang Qi was genuinely stumped.

It was true that she had nothing to fear. Lin Zheng was also the sort of person who kept his abilities hidden, yet he was clearly an expert as well. Neither of them would likely take Proud Sword’s retaliation seriously.

But there were three vulnerable young women with them. No one should assume that beautiful girls would be spared. There were plenty of perverts in games.

“Hey, why are you making such a big deal out of this?” Lin Zheng said casually. “What does Proud Sword rely on to act so arrogantly? Numbers, that’s all! Once you obtain a Heroic Order and make a public call from Frost City, just imagine how many followers you’ll attract with your status as one of the top three experts on the Heavenly Ranking. By then, will you still need to worry about Proud Sword? You could wipe them out completely!”

“You make it sound so easy!” Yang Qi snapped. “Do you think Heroic Orders are that easy to obtain? They only drop from level-seventy Silver bosses or stronger! They can rely on overwhelming numbers to wear a boss down, but what am I supposed to rely on? By the time I’m strong enough to get one, their guild will already be fully established! How am I supposed to destroy them then?”

“It’s fine! Good things take time.”

Hearing this, Yang Qi nearly collapsed.