Chapter 16: The Duel

With the ordinary players no longer interfering, the regular cannon fodder units of Xubi Bloodthirst City and the Black Moonstone Guild collided swiftly. Three thousand harpies darkened the sky and swooped down upon the wolf riders who had already surged past the slow-moving half-orc axe throwers.

The wolf riders, however, paid no heed to the harpies overhead. They charged recklessly toward the three log fortresses, where the Black Moonstone Guild’s men had hauled in large quantities of timber and were reinforcing the grounded fortresses.

At this moment, the half-orcs, their bodies gleaming with a red aura, unleashed their full might. After three volleys of axe throws, these half-orcs used themselves as bait. When the harpies descended, four or five half-orcs would leap up and forcibly drag those proud denizens of the sky down.

In just this first exchange, Xubi Bloodthirst City lost twenty squads of half-orc axe throwers, while the Black Moonstone Guild’s painstakingly prepared three thousand harpies not only lost two-thirds of their number outright but also saw four squads of wolf riders break through their defenses and charge into the log fortress work zone.

Perched atop a royal griffin, Thousand Phantoms Icecloud was furious. While directing his subordinates to tighten the blockade against the wolf riders, he impatiently played another trump card.

At his command, over a hundred large catapults were wheeled out of the log fortresses and swiftly erected behind them.

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Hearing that the Black Moonstone Guild had deployed over a hundred large catapults, Old Xubi finally lost his composure. He quickly issued several orders, and for the first time, the legendary special unit of Xubi Bloodthirst City—the Thunder Eagle Knights—appeared before everyone.

These Thunder Eagle Knights split into ten squads and, with lightning speed, bypassed the few remaining harpies in the sky and positioned themselves above the catapults.

Li Bin noticed that the goblins riding the thunder eagles quickly produced small blue spheres, which, wherever they landed, invariably summoned strikes of heavenly thunder.

They destroyed more than fifty catapults of the Black Moonstone Guild. Before the Thunder Eagle Knights could return to the city, they were encircled by the furious harpies.

By now, the surviving harpies were at least at the level of harpy witches, nearly a thousand fifth-tier units weaving through the sky, depriving the Thunder Eagle Knights of their proud mobility.

Even the royal griffin circling above began to descend, and realizing that there was no hope of escape, the Thunder Eagle Knights each swallowed a blue sphere in their hands. Their bodies crackling with electricity, they fought valiantly against the harpies.

After all of the Thunder Eagle Knights had fallen, Thousand Phantoms Icecloud tallied the losses. The reported figures nearly drove him mad: in just ten squads, the Thunder Eagle Knights had slain over six hundred fifth-tier harpy witches and more than seventy sixth-tier harpy queens.

Though most of these died from paralysis and subsequent falls from the sky, the harpy force, already battered, was virtually wiped out—not to mention the fifty catapults destroyed at the outset.

Finally, a frustrated Thousand Phantoms Icecloud, after dealing with several harpy leaders, ordered that any further flying units must be enchanted with anti-electricity magic before taking to the skies.

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Meanwhile, within Xubi Bloodthirst City, even the victorious Old Xubi was in no good mood. After all, the Thunder Eagle Knights were his city’s special unit, produced at a rate of only three per week, and he usually kept them hidden. To lose them all at once was bitter indeed.

Surveying the situation outside, he saw that although the Black Moonstone Guild had suffered heavy losses, the three log fortresses were still being reinforced, and over forty catapults remained operational.

If things continued like this, the Black Moonstone Guild could quickly replenish their forces and heroes using these log fortresses, turning this decisive battle into a protracted war. Xubi Bloodthirst City might not be able to hold out.

So Old Xubi gave a grand wave, preparing to lead his troops out for a decisive confrontation with the Black Moonstone Guild. Li Bin, though aware that this was exactly what the Black Moonstone Guild wanted, did not know how to persuade Old Xubi otherwise and could only lead his own men into battle.

As the gates of Xubi Bloodthirst City slowly opened, Thousand Phantoms Icecloud, hovering midair, paused for a moment, but quickly realized Old Xubi’s intention.

With a keen sense of the battlefield, Thousand Phantoms Icecloud immediately ordered his forces to concentrate near the three log fortresses, preparing to use the terrain to annihilate Old Xubi’s main force.

However, what he did not expect was that Old Xubi had brought forth a large number of cyclopes. Unlike the ones Li Bin had seen at the Titan Soldiers, these cyclopes were armed to the teeth.

They were clad in heavy iron armor, wielding stone clubs as thick as a normal man’s waist, their single eye glowing red, appearing as if possessed by an excess of bloodthirsty rage.

Behind them were more than thirty cyclopes draped in black robes. If Li Bin hadn’t known that cyclopes had no mage class, he might have mistaken them for some kind of one-eyed sorcerers.

Old Xubi himself was even more striking. Though less than 1.2 meters tall, to be taller than the four-meter cyclopes, he rode atop a five-meter-high beast, massive as a mountain.

Anyone who saw this creature would gasp—it was the strongest unit of the barbarian tribe, a Behemoth.

Sitting proudly atop the Behemoth, Old Xubi basked in the admiration. This Behemoth was his pride and joy of recent years.

It was an exotic Behemoth cub smuggled from another continent. Due to its inherent flaws, its racial strength was only between levels six and eight, instead of the usual minimum of thirteen, and so it had not been recruited as a barbarian war beast. Thus, Old Xubi had managed to circumvent the system’s restriction that only sixth-tier units and fifth-tier players could appear on the novice continent, and acquired such a creature.

Though it was merely a Behemoth cub of the lowest tier, its bloodthirsty gaze left no doubt of its combat prowess. Thousand Phantoms Icecloud, hovering in midair, was now pondering how many more of these Old Xubi might possess.

Once the Behemoth cub had cowed the crowd, Old Xubi pointed toward the main camp of the Black Moonstone Guild, and the fifty-plus cyclopes in front drove their stone clubs into the ground.

Amid billowing dust, the cyclopes lifted massive boulders, each nearly two meters in diameter. Thousand Phantoms Icecloud finally snapped out of his shock at the sight of the Behemoth cub. He understood perfectly what the cyclopes intended: the three log fortresses were nearby, and if struck by these stones, there would be no chance for their survival.