MMORPG: The Elementalist

After learning that Black Flame Valley was being attacked by the Ten Great Leagues from three points and that the Three Great Leagues from the Hall of Heroes were unable to send any reinforcements, Qin Ruo thought about many things in the Underworld…

Right then, he suspected that something was amiss and carefully devised a plan after everything was accounted for, especially the events that followed… Such coincidences further strengthened his belief that the incident was not as simple as it seemed. The whole chain of events screamed of a conspiracy! He had neither the intention to allow other Clans or third parties to poke their nose into the Fallen Angels’ affair, nor the desire to allow the evil forces behind the scenes to have their way!

If they thought that a bounty of only forty billion gold coins could take them down, then they had underestimated the Fallen Angels League…

Considering the principle of zero confrontation set down earlier, they were backed into a corner and could not continue to concede. Hence, Qin Ruo was left with no choice but to devise a risky and dangerous battle plan!

He gave strict orders to all members from Level 57 up to Level 59 to stay in the Underworld and prohibited them from taking part in this incident, lest they arouse the interest of outsiders to jump in…

At the same time, he did not bother requesting assistance from the Four Great Leagues!

By mobilizing only part of the Fallen Angels’ force, any other party—smart or otherwise—would have no excuse to interfere…

Since this was a vendetta between the Fallen Angels League and the Ten Great Leagues, it should be kept that way!

Other than that!

The absence of the Four Great Leagues’ reinforcements meant that significant manpower could be mobilized by the Fallen Angels in times of need…

The Ten Great Leagues would not dare to blindly attack at full force without first confirming the whereabouts of the bounty’s targets. Besides, they were already wary of the Five Great Leagues who were suspiciously absent.

The Ten Great Leagues may have been formidable foes to some players, but to the old-timers of the Five Great Leagues, they were merely an oversized gang of wannabes!

As long as no unrelated Clan decided to play busybody, Qin Ruo was confident that he could stall until the Ten Great Leagues were dispirited…

To be exact, when the League War erupted!

From that point, there was just roughly one hour forty minutes left and counting…

Provided that the Fallen Angels could persevere, be proactive and show no sign of weakness during this period of time, no matter how many men the Ten Great Leagues sent later on, they would just be asking for trouble—those who were slain by opposing Clans in a League War risked losing their equipment!

Once that happened…

The fun would begin!

***

“We’ve got company! Two hundred meters away from here… They’ve probably found out that we’ve wiped out everyone here so they’re stopping to assemble!” Fateless reported.

Qin Ruo nodded with a faint smile. “All’s well as long as they stop advancing. Twenty more minutes and the effective resurrection period of the corpses over Black Flame Valley will expire…”

“But there are still many dead bodies over here. If a fight were to break out here, they might snag the chance to resurrect.”

Fateless glanced around at the thousands of corpses surrounding him before he gazed at the nearby grounds, which were shrouded in Darkmist. At least two thousand more corpses lay there in silence.

From Tier 5 onward, the Experience Points required to gain a new level rose sharply. It took several days of grinding just to gain one level, while the most hardcore of players had to spend half a day. Regardless of whether they dropped any equipment or not, they may feel lucky and wait for someone to come and resurrect them.

However, the Fallen Angels would not allow that to happen, of course, in order to prevent them from becoming the deciding factor in the upcoming League War!

Qin Ruo sighed for a moment. “How many Ancient Ghostvines do we have left?”

“We only have about twenty left in total… But it’s still possible to seal this area,” Fateless answered.

Qin Ruo frowned.

They only had enough for one more use…

The Ancient Ghostvines were their trump card against the Ten Great Leagues. In the complex surroundings of the forest, it was almost impossible for anyone to find a way to workaround it within a short period of time.

It was actually quite a good idea to seal the area and along with it, thousands of adversaries who consisted of Aerial-type Pet masters, Summoners, and Priests. However, if all of those perished players decided to respawn at the nearby city to regroup and launch another attack, thus avoiding the area shrouded in Darkmist, the Fallen Angels would be in hot water.

“Dino?”

Qin Ruo looked at Dinosaurcerer, one of the two Summoners in Violet Army Clan. The Summoners were responsible for performing Soul Binding on the Ancient Ghostvines. Naturally, the Mana Cores were entrusted to him for safekeeping.

Dinosaurcerer reached into his pocket and took out the Mana Cores, then he shrugged. “There you go… It can’t be helped, Mana Cores for Divine Monster Summoning are hard to come by and you know it. I only have these few pieces left.”

“Well, that’s better than nothing.”

After he thought it through for a while, Qin Ruo finally made the hardest decision. “Fateless, Xin Yu, unlock the Mana Cores! Use them frugally. I want this whole area covered in Darkmist!” he commanded in a resolute tone.

Fateless accepted the Sealed Mana Cores without hesitation.

“The rest of you, follow me!”

Qin Ruo waved at everyone. “They’ve assaulted us countless times, but not anymore. They shall not step an inch onto our land again! This time, we’ll take the battle to them! They may outnumber us but we outclass them! Today is the day we prove ourselves! Today, we shall live up to our name! Invaders shall not pass! Not even the gods themselves!”

The Chimeras roared in the sky, inspired by Qin Ruo’s speech.

“Prepare for war!”

***

“The Fallen Angels have already grown so strong?”

A suffocating tension filled the air in the Ten Great Leagues’ private meeting room…

Whilst their main force of more than one hundred thousand players had arrived on the battleground, one after another, and started to assemble as well as brace themselves for war, the Ten Great Leagues were deeply disturbed by the setback they faced at the battlefront.

An army of more than eight thousand players…

Not only did they fail to beat the Fallen Angels that only numbered in the hundreds, but most embarrassingly, they also did not manage to last for more than ten minutes… This dealt a huge blow to their manliness. The outcome of the battle had once again caught them by surprise!

Despite the fact that the Fallen Angels were a force to be reckoned with, they found it hard to swallow defeat while the number advantage was on their side.

“We should rejoice…”

“If we had acted any later, we wouldn’t have been able to catch up with the Fallen Angels now.”

Black Emperor slammed the desk so hard that the sound reverberated throughout the room.

All of them nodded in agreement. There was some truth to Black Emperor’s statement. As ambitious League Masters, they could not tolerate having their Leagues being relegated to second-class or even third-class by the masses.

It was especially so when they were perennially viewed as inferior to the Fallen Angels even though they ruled a similar amount of high-tier players. No one could take it easily.

“Speaking of Qin Ruo, what’s that guy thinking? In a situation like this, not only has he chosen not to get help from the Four Great Leagues, but he has also not mobilized many people from his own League.”

“Yeah, but that’s what I fear the most too; to be able to stop us by only mobilizing minimal manpower. If this is what they are capable of with just a few hundred men, I dread to think about what he can do with his full army…”

“I concur.”

The League Masters who attended the meeting voiced their concerns.

“To add fuel to the fire, before first resurrecting the fallen vanguards, we lack the air power necessary to counter theirs… Without air supremacy, we’ll be playing a dangerous game.”

Upon hearing their concerns, Terminator eagerly cut in, “There’s no need to worry about that, guys! Since the battlefield is the woods, air superiority will not play an important role. Besides, if the Fallen Angels want to deny us access to the bodies, they’ll be forced to battle on the ground.”

“And if they’ve decided to battle on the ground, heh heh, then there’s nothing to worry about…” Golden Blood Lion said, laughing. “The forest is the Chimera’s domain and battles on land are its speciality. Even if we feed them our cannon fodder, they’d eventually be exhausted to death with those little Tier 6 players on their side.”

“The Fallen Angels will surely beg for reinforcements this time!”

However!

Not even one minute after they predicted their adversary’s next move, scouts from the frontline reported sightings of a mysterious Darkmist on the battlefield. They lost visual on most of the dead bodies as the Darkmist slowly consumed them like a hungry dark beast…

Bang!

All ten of them changed their countenance at the same time.

Black Emperor hit the ceiling. He slammed his fist on the desk as the news jolted him from his seat. His anger got the best of him. He cursed and yelled like a madman, “Bastard! This trick again!” he cried out, panting.

It went without saying that those eight thousand fallen vanguards would not be resurrected any time soon…

They had been punished by the Ancient Ghostvines beforehand, and unfortunately, they had yet to come up with a countermeasure. They were helpless against it. They did not expect the Fallen Angels to pull the same trick again so soon! It was beyond their imagination that the Fallen Angels could afford to spend so many high-level Boss Sealed Mana Cores all at once.

The deceased Tier 6 vanguards from the Ten Great Leagues may not lose much since they could respawn in the safe zone and be teleported back to the battlefield without suffering a drop in level. However, the same could not be said for those Tier 5 players with aerial combat capabilities.

Their loss of Experience Points would take days to barely recover. If they were to stay dead, it would almost be impossible to compete for air superiority with the Fallen Angels. But if they were to resurrect… who would bear the responsibility of giving them the command to part with their valuable Experience Points?

What a headache!

***

It was a daily routine as usual for those in the Demon Faction. They were clearly unaffected by the Angel Faction’s internal power struggle…

However, it did not mean that they were clueless about what was going on outside! Some with reliable sources here and there were closely following the news on the Fallen Angels versus the emerging Ten Great Leagues.

In one of the Demon Faction’s cities located in the Underworld, Sinistress and other leaders were assessing the intelligence they had on the Angel Faction’s latest development at the battlefront while resting…

Zeus sneered for some time before he ended with a slight snort. “Should I call Qin Ruo an arrogant brat or those new Leagues idiots? Rather than capitalize on developing the Underworld to increase their strengths, they’ve chosen to fight a pointless war in the Mystical Continent,” he said disdainfully.

“You can say that again!”

Among the League Masters was Shaka from the Twelve Zodiacs. He appeared to have assumed the role of a veteran League Master in the Demon Faction. After Zeus had aired his opinion, he chimed in.

Sinistress looked at the two briefly, then shook her head. “Then you’re gravely mistaken. The Fallen Angels have territories in the Underworld right in front of our very eyes. I’m afraid that they know more about the Underworld than we do… As for those new Leagues, they’re not much different from those in our faction. Their decision is understandable.”

She paused for a moment before she resumed, “Qin Ruo’s method of handling this, however, reminds me of something…”

“Huh?”

The leaders of the Demon Faction were perplexed and inclined to continue listening.

“From what I know about him, he’s not the reckless type. Every time he takes an action, there’s a reason behind it. I have a feeling that he made a big deal out of the assault on his base for a purpose.”

“What do you mean?”

Black Widow was confused. “What’s there for him to gain from doing that? The Mercenary Guild didn’t even cancel the bounties on their heads or remove them from the Wanted list.”

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that!” Sinistress said, shaking her head. “But since he’s done this, there must be a reason behind it. As all of your have witnessed, so far, he hasn’t disappointed us in a single war yet.”

“Oh, yeah!” Zeus cut in suddenly. “Speaking of war, have you guys noticed the Tier 6 players from the Fallen Angels… It looks like most of them are wearing silvery-gray equipment! They resemble the Demigod Grade Equipment that Sinistress has!”

“Those are Demigod equipment? Impossible…” Shaka could not help asking, “So many silvery-gray equipment… Do you think this is a joke? If it was that easy to farm Demigod equipment, why is it that we only have two?”

Right after Shaka finished, Sinistress said in a serious tone, “Which is why I think Qin Ruo’s plotting something. I can confirm that those are legit Demigod Grade Equipment… though I can’t tell you how they laid their hands on them… But if the situation permits, I’d advise avoiding conflict with the Fallen Angels in the nearest future. Mark my words, we’re not ready… yet.”