Chapter 215-1: Infiltrating the Enemy’s Nest, Already a Big Shot (1) |
Cavern World, Curse Source scene.
At the pinnacle of the tallest building in the city, eight figures stood like specters.
The black robes they wore snapped in the wind, and each face was hidden behind a ferocious ghost-face mask.
The leading figure casually stuffed his hands into his pockets, the hem of his coat whipping in the wind. Standing at the summit of the scene and gazing down, he looked like a king who ruled over everything.
“Boss, do we move?”
Behind him, a burly figure with the word Stone carved at the upper right of his ghost mask asked in a low voice. His black clothes were stretched tight, packed full by explosive muscles, every inch of fabric about to tear.
Gazing far into the distance at the tiny moving figures below, he folded his arms across his chest. His thick muscles arched high, his feet planted steady on the edge of the high-rise like a pine rooted on a cliff. No matter how the gale howled, it could not shake him in the slightest.
From behind the mask, golden eyes shone through the eyeholes, shooting out a bloodthirsty chill.
“No rush.”
As he spoke, Yang Xiu’s gaze swept toward the figures still searching below.
After waiting a long time, those figures seemed to give up and began searching for curse traps again.
At this moment Yang Xiu said in a deep voice.
“Black Serpent stays behind to snipe. The rest follow me.”
With that, Yang Xiu leaped from the rooftop.
The other figures flickered like ghosts and followed, vaulting from the high-rise.
The remaining graceful figure raised the sniper weapon in her hands: Poison Sting.
Though called a sniper weapon, it was not of mechanical construction.
Its main body resembled a slender white scorpion with a streamlined exoskeleton. Its surface was covered by a layer of flesh that could change color according to the environment.
The barrel was a hollow chitin tube with spiral rifling within. The scope was a kind of insect compound eye composed of many independent ommatidia.
The woman called Black Serpent lowered her face to the stock. The living compound eye extended and linked with Black Serpent’s right eye.
At once, the world seen by Black Serpent’s right eye changed.
Her vision dimmed yet became exceptionally clear. Within an ultra-wide-angle view, the once-invisible wind gained flowing trajectories.
Black Serpent set her finger on Poison Sting’s trigger.
The trigger was a bundle of tough muscle fibers.
When pulled, a mantis-shrimp-like elastic launch mechanism formed within Poison Sting, using the elastic potential energy stored during muscle contraction to instantly fire the loaded bone spike.
The bone spike was the bullet.
Upon impact it secreted neurotoxin, and barbs would pop out on its surface to lock onto the target.
When entering combat state, Poison Sting extended several tendrils to connect with the woman’s body. Like a living thing, it drew her blood to charge itself.
The woman’s eyes shifted to her moving teammates, seeking a chance to coordinate her shot.
Elsewhere, after landing, Yang Xiu led his teammates in rapid leaps down the street, racing toward the player squad that was cracking the curse.
“Gargoyle, you go first.”
“Understood.” The burly man called Gargoyle nodded in a deep voice. After taking a deep breath, the muscles on his body swelled as if inflated.
Yang Xiu’s gaze swept across the figures approaching the light ring, then he nodded.
“Go.”
“Kill.” The man called Gargoyle pitched his body forward, snapped his head up, stomped with his right foot to shatter the stone slab, and shot toward the player squad preparing to crack the curse like a shell out of the barrel.
“Keep up.” As Yang Xiu spoke, his figure blurred into a phantom and moved from another direction.
The other figures also moved according to their prearranged deployment.
At this time, the player squad outside the aura scanned all around with vigilance. After confirming safety, they escorted the teammate afflicted by the curse into the light ring.
Just as the curse energy was rapidly being cleansed, the Owl-Headed Fiend in the team suddenly warned.
“Everyone be careful, pirated dogs incoming!”
No sooner had the Owl-Headed Fiend finished than a shrill sound of air being torn rushed in.
A bone spike instantly punched through his forehead, leaving a bloody hole at the center of his brows. His body crashed down and scattered into mist.
The remaining teammates acted decisively, spreading out around the light ring.
In their field of view, several black shadows rushed in fast from three directions.
The burly figure directly ahead was shrouded in black airflow, bearing down with heavy pressure like a tank at full speed.
The team’s damage bearing player took a step forward without hesitation, raising Rock Shield to brace for the impact.
Yet just as the two sides were about to collide, the Ecstasy player called Gargoyle heard his captain Yang Xiu’s voice at his ear. He suddenly rolled forward, vanished for an instant, then popped out of the crevice space less than a second later and slammed into the team’s spellcaster.
Bang.
The spellcaster was caught off guard and knocked down on the spot.
Gargoyle clamped a hand around the spellcaster’s neck and pressed him to the ground with one hand. Driven by inertia, he scraped the spellcaster’s head along the ground for several meters, then his left fist shot out and crashed hard into the spellcaster’s skull.
Boom.
Under the consecutive blows, the spellcaster turned into black mist and dispersed.
Meanwhile, on the rooftops on both sides of the street, several figures swooped down like birds.
They moved with fluid motions. With a light tap of their toes on the building walls, they could quickly adjust their posture in midair.
One of them flipped in the air, borrowed the force of the fall, and thrust a dagger at a melee player.
“Courting death.” The player jerked up his Force Savage axe to meet him.
But the figure stepped on air to jump again, vaulted over the melee player’s head, then forward-rolled in the air. A Heavenfall Slash crashed into the melee player’s back and tore through his Vital Qi defense.
Blood sprayed. The melee player staggered two steps but was not killed.
He spun and released Blood Chain Pull to latch a chain onto the assassin’s ankle, yanked him in close, and swung the Force Savage axe in a chop carrying the Heavy Hammer effect.
Before the blow could land, another chain lashed in from the side and wrapped around the figure’s waist and abdomen, yanking him away from the axe in the nick of time.
By now the Low level Crystal Source within the aura was forming rapidly.
The other Ecstasy players entered the fray.
Yang Xiu, at their head, had a clear target and swiftly sneaked to the front of the light ring.
The player who had just lifted his curse immediately stretched out his right hand, wanting to grab the Crystal Source that was about to condense and toss it into his inventory.
But Yang Xiu was faster. He kicked the player’s wrist inside the light ring, forcing him to loosen his grip on the freshly grasped Crystal Source.
The Low level Crystal Source tumbled through the air.
Another Ecstasy assassin had already predicted the crystal’s falling trajectory. He pounced like a leopard, caught the crystal steadily, then retreated fast.
The other Ecstasy assassins converged toward the teammate who caught the crystal, forming a tight defensive line to block the players’ counterattack.
The body technique of the Ecstasy assassin group was elegant. In combat they prioritized evasion first, counterattack second, completely different from the players’ fighting style.
In the opening exchange, the player squad was fully suppressed. Under the Ecstasy assassins’ offensive, they were beaten back step by step.
At this moment, an Ecstasy assassin circled behind a support player and drove the dagger accurately at his neck.
Right then, Light Shield suddenly formed behind the support player.
To the support player’s disbelief, the assassin seemed able to predict it. In the very next second after he cast Light Shield, the assassin rolled forward.
After the roll-flash, the assassin popped out of the crevice space already in front of the support player.
The black-glow dagger slipped into the support player’s neck without obstruction.
The support player reacted quickly as well, decisively activating Life Link to transfer the damage.
Gah.
The attacking player immediately coughed blood, then a chain wrapped his waist and abdomen and his teammate yanked him back to the team.
Another ghost-faced assassin appeared beside the support player. The short sword in his hand danced like a traveling dragon, sword shadows flashing, and he shaved off the support player’s last sliver of health.
As the support player dissolved into black mist, a whistle sounded and the Ecstasy assassin group rapidly withdrew.
The team’s tank wanted to give chase, but again heard a shrill tearing sound. He jerked up Rock Shield toward the direction of the sound and intercepted a bone-spike bullet.
When he looked up again, the black shadows had already gone.