1869 Dark Witch's Tower

As the magic barrier protecting Ancient Rock City disappeared, the distant spectating players' mouths fell wide-open. They simply could not bring themselves to believe that the three heavily injured Divine Magic Dragons actually destroyed such a powerful defensive magic array.

"Damn it! How is this possible?!"

Beast Emperor's complexion became incredibly gloomy when he saw the magic barrier disappearing.

The magic barrier was the protective canopy of Ancient Rock City. Without it, anybody could enter and leave the city freely, as well as rain destruction upon the city.

Before Beast Emperor could react, Aqua Rose raised her staff and commanded, "Miniature Ballistas, advance! Attack Ancient Rock City with everything you've got!"

In the next moment, all 200 Miniature Ballistas started closing in on Ancient Rock City.

When Heaven's Burial took control of Ancient Rock City, the Guild had repaired and constructed defensive structures around the city. However, after the Evil God's Temple took over, as Evil Demons and Evil Beasts lacked the knowledge and ability to control these defensive structures, these things all became decorations. As a result, the Miniature Ballistas could approach Ancient Rock City with impunity.

Ancient Rock City soon entered the Miniature Ballistas' attack range.

Xiu... Xiu... Xiu...

Immediately, 200 Exploding Arrows flew into the sky and pelted down on the buildings inside Ancient Rock City. Following which, a series of blasts reverberated throughout the city.

Just one volley of arrows already flattened many buildings in the city's outer area.

"They dare?!" Beast Emperor felt his heart bleed when he saw many of the accommodations for Evil Demons getting razed. He angrily commanded all of his Evil Beasts and Evil Demons, "Go! Destroy every one of those ballistas!"

At this moment, he no longer cared about the defense of the city. All he cared about was the destruction of Zero Wing's Miniature Ballistas.

Meanwhile, due to the Miniature Ballistas' attacks, the Evil Beasts and Evil Demons controlled by NPCs belonging to the Evil God's Temple also took action. These powerful monsters joined the Evil Beasts and Evil Demons under Beast Emperor's control in charging toward Zero Wing's army.

Suddenly, a swarm of monsters could be seen rushing toward Zero Wing's army.

This scene made the Zero Wing members handling the Miniature Ballistas shudder involuntarily.

However, Aqua Rose remained utterly unfazed by this situation, immediately ordering the activation of the movement-type defensive magic array. A moment later, a magic barrier enveloped the entire army.

"Miniature Ballistas, focus on those monsters! Everyone else, coordinate your attacks with the ballistas! Flying Shadow, your group will deal with those Mythic monsters!"

Everyone in Zero Wing's army responded quickly and started executing Aqua Rose's commands.

Although the monsters were numerous and high-leveled, their side also possessed a defensive magic array. As long as the defensive magic array held, these Evil Demons and Evil Beasts could not hurt them. Not to mention, their side also had the firepower of 200 Miniature Ballistas.

For a time, the Miniature Ballistas could be seen continuously firing Exploding Arrows at the approaching Evil Demons and Evil Beasts, the resulting blasts even sending the Great Lords stumbling backward. The Lords that got struck were immediately placed in a heavily injured state. As for the Chieftains, they got killed with just a few shots.

In the meantime, Zero Wing's members were also launching attacks in a frenzy from inside the defensive magic array.

However, despite Zero Wing's fierce offensive, the Evil Demon and Evil Beast army showed no signs of stopping. They assaulted Zero Wing's defensive magic array relentlessly, depleting its energy reserves.

As the Evil Beasts and Evil Demons died one after another, the energy reserves of Zero Wing's defensive magic array also declined rapidly. This forced Aqua Rose to replenish its energy repeatedly using Magic Crystals.

For a time, the sounds of roars, slaughter, and explosions became the main theme of this hilly land. In this battlefield, an individual's strength was extremely insignificant. Only the magical-class players capable of using large-scale Spells were slightly more useful than the average player.

The magnificent battle stupefied the spectating players.

The Dark Players, who had been planning to ambush Zero Wing's army, simply stood still right now, none of them daring to join the fray.

After all, the level of this battle exceeded their understanding of battles between players.

In this conflict, individual techniques were absolutely meaningless. If they dared charge into the battlefield, let alone reaching Zero Wing's army, just crossing the Miniature Ballistas' field of fire was already plenty difficult. With the defensive magic array up, they wouldn't even get to touch Zero Wing's members. They would only become live targets for Zero Wing's members if they entered the fray now.

...

Meanwhile, as Zero Wing's army was fighting a war of attrition with Beast Emperor, Shi Feng's team of 1,000 arrived at a location a short distance from the Dark Witch's Tower.

The Dark Witch's Tower stood next to a small lake inside a valley. The environment around the tower was considerably good. In fact, this place was originally a nice town. Unfortunately, an Undead Great Wizard had targeted the town and turned it into a place of death. The Great Wizard had also specifically constructed the Dark Witch's Tower here to research death magic.

As more time passed, the town here became a locus for the dark forces. At this point, it was already a resting place for Dark Players in the Ore Empire.

When Shi Feng's team moved within 3,000 yards of the Dark Witch's Tower, sirens in the town suddenly rang, putting every player inside the town on high alert

"Someone actually dares approach the gathering place of us Dark Players?"

"It should be a team that lost their way. With so many of us Dark Players here, who would possibly dare approach this place willingly?"

"Lost their way? Whatever. This is a good opportunity. I haven't completed my kill quest for today. It's not a bad idea to use these players as a sacrifice."

The Dark Players inside the Dark Witch's Tower all started laughing and chatting merrily, convinced that this team of players was a bunch of fools to have actually stumbled upon the Dark Witch's Tower. After all, these players had not investigated which places normal players should avoid in the Ore Empire.

As the dark forces were relatively weak on the continent of God's Domain, the dark forces' gathering spots in neutral maps would all have alarms set up to help the gathering spots' residents to take precautions to protect themselves. These alarms would give out a warning when over 100 normal players or NPCs entered a certain range of the gathering spot.

"They really came." A black-clad man covered in bandages, who was enjoying a glass of wine in the town's bar, could not help but smile when he heard the town's alarms going off. He then turned to look at the beautiful woman dressed in dark- blue robes sitting beside him and asked, "Will Commander Spirit take action first, or shall I do the honors?"

"Although I very much wish to repay Zero Wing for what it did to my adventurer team, I am more curious about how capable the treasured Apostle nurtured by Beast Emperor is," Veiled Spirit replied, smiling as she looked at the bandaged man beside her.

Nowadays, Beast Emperor was extremely famous among Dark Players. After all, he controlled an army of Evil Beasts and Evil Demons, a force that nobody could afford to underestimate. Meanwhile, although Dust Edge himself did not possess much fame, Beast Emperor had praised him highly and even agreed to cooperate with Dark Soul so long as the alliance provided Dust Edge with as many resources as possible.

Seeing as Beast Emperor was willing to invest so many resources in a single person, it was obvious just how much Beast Emperor valued Dust Edge's potential.

Beast Emperor and Dark Soul had been acquainted with each other for quite some time already, yet Dark Soul had yet to dig up any information on Dust Edge even now. Zero Wing's arrival presented Veiled Spirit with a good opportunity to witness Dust Edge's abilities. She naturally wouldn't let it go to waste.

"Fine, then let's treat this as the beginning of the mutual trust between our two sides," Dust Edge said, nodding. He then raised his wine glass and added, "They should be very close to reaching the town walls now. Let us head out, as well."

After saying so, Dust Edge stood up and left the bar. Veiled Spirit and the dozen or so subordinates that came with her followed after him.