MMORPG: The Elementalist

After Dinosaurcerer furiously rushed to seal the Soldier Ant, Qin Ruo had also entered the Mythical Mirage. Quickly, he flew up to the sky above Jebel Pangolin and its Pangolin army.

As usual, Jebel Pangolin, as if to show his power and might, wrecked the forest around him as his underlings rushed out of the forest with strong murderous intent. Pointing their eyes sharply at their target, the Pangolins followed Qin Ruo eagerly to the beach, ahead of Jebel Pangolin…

When they’d gotten near the beach, the Tier 5 Overlord Boss stopped cautiously. They were, after all, land creatures. They didn’t like going into the water as it would slow down their movement and attack speed.

In the two times they clashed earlier, Qin Ruo swept over the ocean to ditch Jebel Pangolin. This time, however, Qin Ruo wanted to poke and try out the Pangolin horde’s offense and defense capabilities. This was to help him gauge and have a better feel of how fierce the upcoming battle would be.

As he spread his Angelic Wings, Qin Ruo slowed down his airspeed and started to dive downwards.

As he got into the range of thirty meters above the ocean, Qin Ruo linked his Mana with the ocean water. As time passed, more and more water elements below started to get psychically linked to Qin Ruo.

It was not Qin Ruo’s first time directly manipulating water elements like this.

Back in Aricus’ Underground Ruins, Qin Ruo had defeated several Gorefiend Spiders using the same trick. There was no other player who possessed more control and understanding of water element manipulation than him.

In just two seconds, Qin Ruo had lost over 60 MP like water flowing down the drain. This amount of MP was enough for him cast six Tier 5 AoE Magic Attacks in two seconds!

The enormous MP cost was quite overwhelming for Qin Ruo. As a result, 60 diameters of water was quickly released from him beyond his control. Although he now had only about 60 diameters of water under his manipulation, Qin Ruo’s MP was still spending 12 MP per second. To maintain his Barrier, Qin Ruo had no choice but to gulp down a huge bottle of Mana Potion.

This huge Mana Potion was quite costly, about 180 gold coins.

However, it was money well spent.

Then, Qin Ruo retracted his wings and stepped on the ocean water inside the area that was under his control, in front of Jebel Pangolin and his army.

As his feet landed on the water, several ripples were formed under his feet. The water surface was solidified with a layer of sturdy compressed liquid particles, stabilizing Qin Ruo’s body on top of the ocean. It felt as though stepping on actual land.

This was indeed high-tiered Aquamancy… changing the density of the Water Element and making the ocean surface as sturdy as the land. This was the temporary battle ring that Qin Ruo had covertly prepared for the upcoming battle, one that was not done on land or in the air. By relocating their battle to the ocean, he was able to maximize his advantage of being an Aquamancer.

Yet, the Jebel Pangolin and his army were still standing at the beach, cautiously observing Qin Ruo. The Pangolins were raising their shells and scales, as if parading their battle spirits to entice their enemy to come back on land!

Seeing this, Qin Ruo frowned and took in a huge breath. He then started to walk towards the beach.

It was quite expected of Jebel Pangolin to not pursue him towards the waters. The area where Qin Ruo “stood” on was the deep waters, deep enough to submerge two Pangolins that overlapped one another. These creatures were smart, knowing that following him to the waters would be suicidal.

Qin Ruo knew it was not easy to lure them to the waters. In fact, he was quite happy that Jebel Pangolin didn’t walk away with his underlings at all.

As he got near Jebel Pangolin who was about forty meters away, the Overlord Boss and his metallic Pangolins finally started to become more and more excited for battle! In the first row, the Blackscale Pangolins ashen eyes suddenly turned blood red as several layers of black blurry luminescent halos started to form around their bodies. As the Pangolins hung together suspended having that glowing radiance looming around them, looked as though they had all turned into one huge dragon. It was quite a sight!

Surprised, Qin Ruo immediately investigated with his Water Elemental Perception.

And it seemed that the blurry light that encapsulated the Blackscale Pangolins had similar effects as the players’ Combat Aura. However, the Blackscale Pangolins themselves seemed to possess “berserk” abilities too.

“What on Earth?!”

As Qin Ruo was surprised by this discovery, the Blackscale Pangolins had acted again…

Hundreds of Blackscale Pangolins raised up their pointy heads, towards the sky, and opened their mouths. Loud deafening roars instantly echoed in the area! These roars seemed to be their war drum, loud and filled in wild, boiling blood.

Even the waters near them were affected as tides of water were shoved up by the deafening roars.

Roarrr!!!!

Hundreds of metal Pangolins let out a powerful roar, thundering their way into Qin Ruo’s ears and heart. The terrifying roars and war drums drew waves after waves of vibrating rhythms in the water underneath his feet. Tides grew stronger by the minute before eventually forming tidal waves that were meters high, gushed down on him at full speed!

Yet, that was not all. As the Pangolins’ roars were getting more intense, the Blackscale “black metal wall” Pangolins started to roar again…

Using his Elemental Perception, Qin Ruo saw over thousands of blades forming on the Deathscale Pangolins.

Then suddenly, the blades all stood up on their bodies. In an instant, these Pangolins looked like hedgehogs that were getting ready for the battle of their lives. Looking at the radiating cold sharp blades, it felt as though they were stabbing right into Qin Ruo’s heart.

‘Damn!’

Qin Ruo couldn’t help but curse quietly.

‘Are these still Monsters? These are Super Monster Hordes!’

It was as expected from a leadership-oriented Overlord Boss. Even though the number of his underlings were less than that of the Ultimate Bosses, each of these Pangolins were definitely much stronger.

With hundreds of these Pangolins and this ground shaking predicament, they could very well swallow an Ultimate Boss whole…

They were definitely no pushovers!

As Qin Ruo was deep in his thoughts, a loud thundering noise suddenly shook the ground! Enticed by the Deathscale Pangolins, the Blackscale Pangolins charged towards the ocean with the speed and savagery of thousands of knights!

They stepped onto the ocean tides, ones that were hundred meters high, and trampled them to only a mere two meters in height!

Splash!!

Several hundred meters of frontlines forced the ocean tides to flow back to the sea. It felt as though the ocean itself was forcefully pushed back by this “black metal wall”!

***

Looking in awe at the sight of the behemoth Blackscale Pangolins pushing the ocean tides back into the sea, Qin Ruo almost forgot to brace himself for battle.

These darn Pangolins reminded him one of the most moving sights in film history…

The scene where knights rushed out of the gates to defend the great capital of Gondor, Minas Tirith in the epic “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of King”.

“Shit!”

As the huge tidal wave got close, it was then that Qin Ruo realized he had missed the perfect opportunity to strike.

The Pangolins’ attacks were so astounding that it sent a powerful tremor to the depths of his soul.

Knights!

The Jebel Pangolin had a legion of monster knights under its command!

Qin Ruo hastily released a charged Magic Attack at the oncoming legion…

A powerful surge of freezing breath swept over a thirty-meter radius on the sea surface!

Frozen Realm!

Freeze!

Even though he hadn’t yet used his Darkfrost Potions and Special Roasted Snails, Qin Ruo was able to hurl a powerful surge of AoE Magic Attacks with a tremendous force of freezing attributes.

Everything within the thirty-meter radius was instantly frozen solid!

Even the sea surface was affected. Fifty meters of around sea surface was all but frozen, transforming the areas further in the back into a freezing ice world.

However!

Qin Ruo’s target was not that far away…

While the great freezing took place, the darned Pangolin knights didn’t turn to ice! Shielded by the black radiant light, the Pangolins were able to tear through the ice with their metallic heads! With the combined might of all the Blackscale Pangolins, the frozen areas were instantaneously destroyed.

“Damn it. And I haven’t even put on my Elemental Ring too!”

This was Qin Ruo’s last thought in front of the Pangolin horde.

After that, several dozen dark beams pointed out of the Blackscale Pangolins mouths, tearing through the oncoming tidal waves and crashing onto Qin Ruo’s Barrier.

The physical long-ranged attacks by these high-tier monsters could kill any Elementalist in mere seconds.

In an instant, Qin Ruo’s Darkfrost Shield was crushed; his Frost Barrier slashed numerous times before crumbling to pieces.

As for Qin Ruo?

All he saw was that everything around him faded to darkness before he was sent straight back to the third level of the Mythical Mirage. He was killed… by the Tier 6 monsters.

Qin Ruo felt so bummed out. Yet, he also had an epiphany!

Recalling on how the Pangolins had the ferocity of charging knights, ramming through the Frozen Realm with sheer force! And then obliterating every single sturdy geographical defense that he had built… not to mention that superbly powerful joint-beam attack…

Sure, he could come up with various means to flee from such an onslaught but about the other ordinary players?

If… if the Fallen Angels had these “monster knights” under their control…

Excited by this epiphany, countless plans and thoughts started to swirl in Qin Ruo’s mind, all centering around this one objective.

To own a legion of “monster knights”.