Chapter 257:
They quickly approached the battlefield, which had already turned into a huge melee.
In just 10 minutes, over 20 little players had rushed over from all directions, already outnumbering the Wolfsbane vanguard by more than 2 to 1, not to mention Brother Stick’s 30-man team that was moving towards this area.
The only pity was that they were too far away and would likely be unable to arrive before the battle ended.
Compared to other random players who came to join the fun, Meow King’s team was formidable. The addition of their 7-man proficient T1 squad to the battlefield was absolutely overwhelming.
The 7 or 8 Wolfsbane vanguard had already entered the stage of fighting and running to break through, but as soon as Meow arrived, he started with a group Root Bind for crowd control. Then the 3 charges from the team’s one tank and two swordsmen all precisely locked onto the same target. Combined with Old Tune’s long-range sniping, one wave of focused fire left the opponent at low health.
Another reckless Wolfsbane swordsman waved his sword-staff and tried to come up to rescue, but as soon as he charged forward, a small hand jumped out from the shadows and threw a handful of flash powder in his face.
The tall Wolfsbane vampire who had already revealed his Wilderness Transformation howled and covered his eyes as he stumbled backwards. As a result, the bloodied Brother Mao stabbed him through the heart from behind with a sword thrust. That wasn’t the end of it – Little Ashina glided over, raised her Iron Warden, and fired a shot almost point-blank, blowing off half the Wolfsbane swordsman’s head.
With two more casualties in an instant, Stander Korando’s heart sank sharply.They couldn’t stay here any longer!
Even though he had already entered the Silver rank, seeing these Transia maniacs joining the battlefield in endless waves and charging at them fearlessly round after round made him feel extremely uneasy.
Although he could certainly overwhelm and kill all these guys with his Overwhelming Strength, he couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t alert the few remaining elites of the Blood Vulture Clan.
Moreover, he was carrying important information at the moment.
They didn’t have convenient items like Computation Beads to relay messages, so he had to escape before his squad was wiped out.
But one thing must be stated clearly!
He wasn’t scared – these armed Blood Servants and new vampires weren’t worth fearing.
“Don’t linger in battle! Go!”
Having made up his mind, Stander let out a whistle, summoning more Astral Wolves to cover for them.
He himself pounced over to pick up a teammate whose leg tendons had been cut, while the others charged fiercely in one direction under his command.
With the Astral Wolf pack as their vanguard, the little players were currently unable to withstand the impact of this elite group.
A gap was torn in their encirclement, and they could only watch helplessly as those few “rare elites” mounted Astral Direwolves and ran off towards a more distant place.
Some little players didn’t want to let these low-health monsters get away, and followed with shouts and yells.
“Don’t go! They’re too tough, you can’t handle them!” Brother Mao kept shouting from behind, but the players who had already gotten fired up weren’t listening. Anxious, he mounted his horse to chase after them but was stopped by Meow King.
“You stay here and guard. We’ll go take a look.”
Seeing that this “veteran” Meow King had spoken up, Brother Mao naturally went along with it and watched as the group of 7 chased after them.
He looked back and saw Dog’s Paddle and Tiger’s Howl “collecting the corpses” of Wolf’s Prowl, while Lion’s Roar was cursing as he executed the few Wolfsbane vampires who had been left behind.
It was the same with the girls’ team.
Lumina was “collecting the corpses” of Lady Aqua and Fatal Orchid, while Little Ashina and Sister Pomegranate were sitting on the ground catching their breath.
Brother Mao himself was also very exhausted.
The fighting style of these Wolfsbane elite vampires was completely different from the Blood Vulture traitors they had dealt with before.
Their direct combat power was ridiculously strong, overwhelming the current little players in strength and endurance. They could also summon Astral Wolves to assist in battle, basically creating a PVPPP situation when encountering one. If you weren’t careful, you’d easily be taken out.
“If this is the true power of the vampire clans… tsk, it won’t be easy to deal with.”
Brother Mao sighed and sat down to rest, taking out his water skin for a few sips.
“Hey! Come get your loot.”
Sister Pomegranate called out from the side.
She was tired too, but still forced herself to call out to the little players who were still guarding nearby.
This sister was very generous, all the equipment from the four Wolfsbane vampires left behind by the players had been stripped off and thrown on the ground.
Even four vampire hearts were laid out.
The players gathered around to take what they needed most, of course the most precious vampire hearts were not given out.
The random players didn’t have any objections to this.
Although everyone had come to help, these four elites were basically taken down by the girls, the Soldier Strike team, and Meow King’s group. They were already satisfied to get a few pieces of equipment for just assisting.
Little Ashina and Lumina hadn’t lied when they asked for help in the world channel earlier.
The equipment on this group of Wolfsbane elites was indeed powerful, with the worst being Veteran grade and occasional Masterwork pieces. However, due to their fighting style, these looted items were more suitable for melee fighters.
On average, everyone present could get more than two pieces, but soon little players started arguing over the four cool sword-staves.
This kind of Exotic Weapon was considered a “exclusive drop” for the Wolfsbane Clan.
Apart from them, basically no other vampires used these things. The four sword-staves had a low-key and simple appearance, polished into the shape of black canes, all decorated with wolf head designs of different forms on the handle. Just press the mechanism and a thin long blade could be drawn out.
Although the Item Description of this thing had already warned that using an Exotic Weapon required special techniques, the little players didn’t care about that, as long as it looked cool!
You could still kill people even if you just swung it around blindly.
Moreover, this kind of cool and unique exclusive drop naturally attracted attention, so of course no one was willing to give it up.
“Stop arguing, stop arguing! We’re all brothers here, don’t hurt our relationships over these material things. The Wolfsbane vampires are right here and won’t run away. When we all level up in the future, we can rush over and kill them all! Then everyone will have one, right?”
Little Ashina, carrying an Iron Warden as tall as herself, came forward to “mediate”. She really enjoyed this feeling of being watched by others, so she immediately suggested:
“Why don’t we auction them?
We have four sword-staves here. Let’s auction the first one, starting price 10 gold coins, each bid must be at least 2 gold coins more, with a cap of 100 gold.
The second one will start at the final price of the first one.
The money from the auction will be split equally among all the brothers who participated in the battle. This way everyone gets something, how about that?”
“Good, good! That’s great!”
“Little Ashina is so clever!”
“Hey, little sister, are you selling that cool gun of yours? Why don’t we auction that too? I’ll go find people to pool money now!”
“My precious gun is not for sale, this is a quest reward,” Little Ashina shook her head vigorously and said, “But Grandma Marianne in the church district has the crafting diagram for ‘Iron Warden’. As long as you can afford the 100 gold crafting fee, she can make one for you.
That Dog brother, you have good speaking skills, why don’t you host this auction?”
“Oh, alright, I’m coming.”
North Forest Dog’s Paddle, who was invited, didn’t refuse.
He stepped forward and picked up a Wolfsbane sword-staff in a professional manner, looked at it in his hand, and then drew it out and waved it in the air with a very professional posture.
Then he said loudly:
“Wolfsbane sword-staff, Masterwork Veteran Quality, with special affix 【Damage Amplification】, compatible with the sword skill ‘Wolf’s Kiss’, requires Agility ≥ 7 to use!
Brothers, let me be honest, this thing is a bit form over function for us.
First of all, we have nowhere to learn the compatible sword skill.
Moreover, the sword-staff is more troublesome to use. You see it as one weapon, but it’s actually divided into sword and staff. The difficulty to learn this is too high.
Therefore, I suggest you don’t get too excited!
It’s definitely not worth 100 gold coins, I think even 50 would be overpriced, but if you buy it for collection, that’s absolutely no problem.
This thing looks very cool, and I estimate that in Transia, apart from killing wild rare elites, there’s no other way to obtain it.”
“That’s not right!” A little brother below immediately refuted, “Last night at the Fight Club I saw Lord Murphy use the Wolf’s Kiss sword skill when he was fighting Andrei, the Count of White Mountain. Lord Maxim was even guest commentating on the side.
I remember very clearly, Maxim said Lord Murphy’s Wolf’s Kiss sword skill had reached the Master level.
Since the developers designed this unique drop, they must have left a way, right? Maybe if you take this sword-staff to Lord Murphy, he’ll teach you?
It might even trigger a Hidden Quest.”
“That makes sense, brother.”
An older guy who was about to give up on competing suddenly brightened up and immediately raised his hand to shout:
“Then I bid 30 gold!”
“Cheapskate!”
Little Ashina had been waiting for this opportunity. She immediately raised her hand and screamed:
“I bid 100 gold!”
“Hey hey hey, you can’t play like this, Ashina, you’re breaking the rules! None of us have that much money in our pockets right now.”
“I’m not competing with you for the first one either, just leave the last one for me, okay? My little Sister Pomegranate is a martial artist, you know?
She mainly fights with her fists, but her swordsmanship is not bad either. She definitely needs to learn this sword skill. So, can everyone give me some face?”
“Then I’ll also bid 100 gold coins for one,” Brother Mao stepped forward and said to the other fellows, “The advanced profession I transferred to is ‘Weapon Master’. This profession requires me to master multiple weapons and sword skills to level up, brothers, give me some face.”
“That’s already 200 gold coins, plus the remaining two, if we split it evenly, everyone can get dozens of gold coins. Not a bad deal.”
The players whispered among themselves, and finally agreed to this distribution.
A few minutes later, the first and second sword-staves were sold for 45 and 75 respectively. Little Ashina and Brother Mao also paid and got their acquisitions. Then Brother Dog’s Paddle piled up the gold coins, waiting for Meow King and the other brothers to return before dividing them equally.
This wait ended up lasting 30 minutes.
When Meow King and his team returned, they were in a mess. They said they went to chase, but it looked like they had suffered heavy casualties. On Meow King’s side, Old Hand had died tragically, while only two or three of the other random players were left.
“Those damned Wolfsbane are very powerful, they even ‘power up’ when they’re about to die!” Meow King cursed on horseback, “The brothers paid the price for their inexperience, but it’s okay, we caught up and killed two more.”
“Where are the sword-staves? Bring them out for auction! Quick!”
The other players shouted, leaving Meow King confused.
However, this matter ended with each participant getting two pieces of equipment and over 30 gold coins. Everyone was satisfied, exclaiming that the elites farmed in the wild were indeed generous, and they should find and farm more in the future.
Although people died.
But is this even an issue for players?
Just 3 days, bear with it and it’ll pass.
——
“You went with 11 people and only 5 came back?”
In the gnoll camp in Anderma Hills, in the small camp of the Wolfsbane vampires, Korando looked at his second son in front of him with anger. He slapped the table and scolded:
“No matter how many faction elites we have, they can’t withstand your wasteful use! When will that muscle brain of yours grow a few more strings? This is a secret infiltration, not asking you to go capture flags and kill generals!”
“We lost six elites, but the Blood Vultures lost even more elite Blood Servants, at least 18 died!” Stander retorted with his neck stretched out, “This is not an unbearable loss. I’m sure those guys are definitely Murphy’s elites. Although their strength is a bit inferior, that kind of fearless spirit is not ordinary.
You can tell at a glance they’re carefully trained. In this wave, their losses are greater than ours!
And I’ve already found out some information, there’s an internal conflict between the Blood Vultures and Thorns going on inside Crimson Citadel. Murphy humiliated Count Andrei of the Thorn Clan in front of the Blood Servants and humans.
It’s a fight to the death between them!
Most importantly, Father, I found the killer of my brother! It’s Murphy, that bastard lord, my brother’s sword is in his hands.”
“Are you stupid?” Korando was more helpless. His sons were truly capable fighters, but they were also truly stupid, not inheriting any of his wisdom beyond strength and brutality. He sighed and said, “How can there be such a coincidence? You just went over and saw Murphy humiliate the Thorns? Why don’t you think about whether this is them putting on a show for you to see?
We are vampires, child. We can’t rely on luck when we do things.”
“Of course I thought of that,” Stander shook his head and said, “If it was just this bit of information, I could have brought people back last night. But we infiltrated Crimson Citadel and looked around, and the Thorn Clan has stored a large amount of explosives around the city to ambush Murphy.
Their people don’t follow the rules of Crimson Citadel and were even put in cages. I used the power of midnight to charm a few people from the Blood Rat Gang.
They said with certainty that Count Andrei of the Thorn Clan is Murphy’s biggest competitor for the position of Governor of Transia.
And you’ll never guess the true identity of that Andrei, Father!”
At this point, Stander’s face was full of joy.
He stepped forward and whispered to Korando about the true identity of the Count of White Mountain. When he heard that Andrei was the half-brother of the Wolf Queen, Korando stood up abruptly.
A flash of excitement and anticipation also shone in his gray eyes.
This identity was incredible!
If we could capture him, we could exchange a lot of benefits from the Kingdom of Nordtov and the Thorn Clan. More importantly, if we hand over this heavyweight prisoner to King Louis… Hehe, whatever old Edward could get from the royal family, I could get too!
“I originally thought the only valuable target in Crimson Citadel was the Blood Vulture remnants, I didn’t expect there to be an unexpected harvest. Good, very good!”
Korando narrowed his eyes and quickly made up his mind.
He said:
“Gather the faction members!
I’ll go ask Kenport for people. Since the large number of ghouls in the third level of the sewers doesn’t allow for large-scale entry, it’s time to put this cannon fodder of gnolls that we’ve long prepared to use.”
“Should we also gather the clan members from the Cato region?” Stander asked, “It will take them at least 3 days to get here.”
“Why not?” Korando sneered, “Leaving them in that place is useless anyway. Withdrawing our members can also make the other factions let their guard down. The gnolls already know the defense situation there, that place is already doomed. After we seize Crimson Citadel, we won’t have to rely on others’ mercy anymore. Our ambition to break away from the Wolfsbane Clan and establish our own family will be within reach.
Since we’re doing something big, we must go all out like a lion hunting rabbits!
This time, the Greyclaw faction will fully mobilize! Send messages to your two sisters, tell them to bring the wealth and clan members from Greenleaf Island to join us in Transia.
We can’t stay with old Edward anymore!
Once we truly annihilate the Blood Vulture remnants, with our soaring reputation, that old fool will definitely hold them hostage. Hehe, even the Midnight Wolf King of the past has become senile and muddleheaded. It’s time for a younger alpha to emerge.
This is the rule of our Wolfsbane Clan.”