Chapter 197: Light In The Night
“An AAA-level quest?”
“Why can this main quest still dynamically increase?”
“Could it be that the game developer thinks we have not been challenged enough along the way and plans to raise the difficulty here?”
All the players looked at the sudden quest warning on their smart watches, feeling very surprised. They had not expected that the game’s task difficulty could still increase.
“It seems this should be the final trial of the main quest.” Fang Zhen looked toward the distance where the continuous rumbling came from, clearly feeling the strong tremors from there. He licked the corner of his mouth and said, “Up ahead is probably the boss fight.”
“This time the task is for us to protect the safety of the martial arts hall NPCs. One is the hall master, and the other is the newly arrived coach. Then we will split into two groups in a bit: one group will assist the hall master, and one group will assist the coach. If one group cannot hold, the other group will quickly provide support,” Luo Wu Shang said.
“I agree. The hall master’s side is likely more dangerous. Those of us whose physiques are close to intermediate martial artists will follow the hall master. The others will follow the coach,” Ye Qinglu also said.
Immediately, Luo Wu Shang and the others assigned people. Luo Wu Shang, Ye Qinglu, Li Ranxing, and Fang Zhen would follow Lin Qi at all times, while the other six would follow Meng Wei.
In the forest, the more than five hundred martial artists of the entire convoy felt increasingly alarmed as they drew closer to the center of the sounds.
They saw traces of battle everywhere in the woods. These traces clearly were not something organ refining realm martial artists could have caused; even the terrain itself had undergone some changes.
Moreover, there were corpses of monsters and city guard members everywhere. It was obvious that the people of the city guard had had a very intense battle with the monster horde.
“No! Something’s wrong!” Morton looked at the monsters and people lying all over the forest floor, his expression solemn as he said, “The battle traces here are not new, and these monsters and people have been dead for quite some time. Judging from the number of the garrison, at least one convoy of the garrison died here. Everyone be careful!”
“Was more than one convoy taken out?” Lin Qi, who was following along, could not help but observe the surroundings as well.
He discovered that at least one convoy had indeed been wiped out. Although night had fallen, he could still vaguely see in the distance a large number of B6-level armored transport vehicles that had been rammed and destroyed, obviously not matching the fierce battle sounds coming from the center.
If that was truly the case, then their current situation was extremely dangerous. After all, these convoys had already proven that this group of monsters had the ability to wipe out a convoy, and not just one.
“We’ve arrived!” vice captain Rake suddenly shouted. “Everyone advance in the agreed-upon battle formation. No matter what happens, do not break away from the team, otherwise there is only a dead end!”
With vice captain Rake’s order, the intermediate-level and above martial artists led by Morton stood at the very front, while the beginner martial artists were in the back row, carefully guarding the surroundings as they quickly charged toward the convoy already locked in a stalemated battle.
At this time, in the convoy being attacked by monsters, although there were no bone forging realm martial artists, more than half of the city guard were still alive, and over three hundred accompanying martial artists also remained. Upon seeing reinforcements, they all broke out toward them.
In this attacked convoy, Lin Qi also saw some familiar faction members.
Martial artists of the Gorilla Gang, Bei Ao, Peiwen, and Bei En.
However, the martial artists of these four major powers were currently in a very miserable state. Altogether they only had fourteen martial artists left, more than one-third fewer than the numbers publicly known for the four major powers.
“As expected of the four major powers that have stood firm in the suburbs for many years. There are actually two high-level martial artists alone.” Lin Qi looked at the tall, burly, red-furred giant gorilla and the slightly hunched old man in the crowd, and could not help but marvel at the foundation of the four major powers.
Among the various factions in the suburbs, just having a martial artist sitting in town was already impressive, and having intermediate martial artists made a faction incredibly formidable. Yet the Gorilla Gang and the North Ao Family actually had advanced martial artists hidden away. If they took one step further, they could move into the city proper.
But right now, the situation of the martial artists from the four major powers was not good.
Although there were two advanced martial artists, and both advanced martial artists wore B4-level battle armor, and there were as many as five intermediate martial artists in the team, in terms of strength they were no weaker than a team of the city guard.
However, facing a large encirclement of mid-level golden winged snakes, it was already good if the two advanced martial artists could block five or six. The remaining seven were absolutely not something five intermediate martial artists and seven beginner martial artists could handle.
“Uncle Wright, save me!”
Bes, covered in golden hair and wearing B2-level battle armor, had barely managed to block one golden winged snake’s attack with his heavy shield when another golden winged snake lashed its tail at him. Its strength was so great it could swat away a mid-level monster like a wind seeking wolf; a beginner martial artist like Bes could not possibly withstand it.
The red-furred gorilla Wright flashed in front of Bes, raising the B3-level heavy shield in his hand to block.
Bang!
The massive snake tail collided with the heavy shield. Wright retreated half a step before he steadied his body, but his expression was extremely grim.
“Damn it! Why are there so many golden winged snakes? We can’t kill them all.” Wright looked at the large number of golden winged snakes rushing out of the forest not far away and could not help but frown deeply.
From the moment their convoy was attacked until now, he and Bei Ao’s Kai Dewen had already killed no fewer than ten golden winged snakes, and the various teams of the city guard had killed even more.
By now, the number of golden winged snakes taken down had definitely exceeded three hundred, yet their numbers had not decreased and even showed signs of increasing.
Even with reinforcements arriving now, if they kept fighting like this, let alone a beginner martial artist like Bes, even advanced martial artists like them would probably die.
“Wright, you are too far from me. I can’t withstand so many golden winged snakes alone.” Kai Dewen, who was barely blocking four golden winged snakes, could not help but roar.
As a peak high-level martial artist only wearing B4-level battle armor, he was already at his limit facing three golden winged snakes in one breath. Against the attacks of four golden winged snakes, he simply could not hold.
Seeing this, Wright stepped forward again, raising his heavy shield to block and pinning down one snake, which finally eased the pressure on Kai Dewen.
“Wright, we cannot keep fighting like this. Give up what should be given up and quickly move closer to the reinforcements, otherwise we will all die together.” Kai Dewen glanced at the few golden winged snakes charging from afar and reminded him in a low voice.
With their strength as advanced martial artists, if they truly focused on fleeing for their lives, a dozen golden winged snakes could not stop them. The only reason they had held on until now was that Wright was protecting the beginner martial artist Bes.
After hearing this, Wright hesitated, while Bes, who heard it as well, grew tense.
“Family head, among the people coming to support us over there, there seem to be people from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.” The giant man Deluo Ke, an intermediate martial artist, looked at the reinforcements in the distance, suddenly spotting some familiar figures and could not help but speak.
“The Obsidian Martial Arts Hall? What a narrow road for enemies.” Kai Dewen also glanced at the reinforcements with the corner of his eye and laughed. “I thought only we four major powers would be wiped out this time. It seems the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s luck is not so good either. Falling into this encirclement of golden winged snakes, they will soon be like us, waiting to be worn to death here.”
Although their chances of getting out alive were slim, seeing that the hostile Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was also here gave them some small comfort.
As the support team arrived, nearly three hundred golden winged snakes that had been surrounding and attacking abruptly had half of them surge toward the support team, with more than fifteen golden winged snakes directly charging at Lin Qi’s group.
“Damn it! Why are there so many!” Morton felt his scalp go numb as he watched the fifteen golden winged snakes rush over.
Although their team had four advanced martial artists, it was already good if they could handle twelve or thirteen at once. After all, golden winged snakes were stronger than wind seeking wolves of the same mid-level, their snake skin was harder than diamond, and a sweep of their tail carried at least ten tons of strength, something intermediate martial artists could not withstand.
The fifteen golden winged snakes were now less than fifty meters away, a distance they could cross in less than a second at their speed.
At that moment, Morton suddenly saw streaks of crimson beams shoot out from behind, lighting up the night sky and striking the golden winged snakes in less than the blink of an eye.
They watched as the supposedly indestructible snake skin, along with the snake heads, were directly pierced through, leaving bowl-sized bloody holes.
In the instant after those crimson beams ended, more than half of the fifteen golden winged snakes collapsed on the spot, leaving only five golden winged snakes that stopped. Their golden vertical pupils, each several times larger than a bronze bell, stared at the fallen snakes, and in those pupils there was an extremely rare look of fear…
