Chapter 262: Six-Person Army, Terrifying Nightmare! (Bonus for Leader Years of Vicissitudes Dye Drunk)

Half an hour later, Xi Yue emerged with a Tiger Guard and an Eagle Guard trailing close behind, alongside a pack of five Dark Beetles; the sheer malice of this vanguard sent a collective shiver down the spines of everyone watching.

(Anyone who played the classic Legend of Mir knows that a Mage can tame up to seven pets.)

"Why can I only summon a single skeleton when Mages get to bring this entire horde?!" Jiang Xiaoyuan muttered, her eyes burning red with a volatile mix of envy and sheer jealousy as she glared at the legion following Xi Yue.

Of course, anyone who assumed that was the extent of it was grievously mistaken.

Fang Qi led his party back down into the depths of the Xiangshi Tomb, and once the chamber was thoroughly purged of ordinary monsters, nothing remained but a cluster of Evil Creepers.

The peculiar nature of the Lure of Light meant that the monsters enslaved by a Mage became akin to demonic servants, capable of elevating their own strength through the harvest of slaughter.

The tiny bats spawned by the Evil Creepers were the ideal prey for this—swift, helpless, and entirely devoid of peril.

Along the way, they felled another Zombie King, narrowly managed to wrest Fang Qi’s coveted Assassination Swordsmanship from its corpse, and even plundered a Soul Shield skill book; yet, the coveted techniques that lay beyond level thirty remained entirely out of reach.

Under the meticulous care and nurturing of Fang Qi and his companions, approximately two hours dissolved away...

"Guild Leader, where to now?"

"To hunt the Zombie King!"

Deep within the Biqi Mines.

"Your Highness," Commander Yu offered, a trace of awkwardness in his voice, "the level of these zombies is rather low; perhaps we should move elsewhere to continue our training?"

"What is left to train?" the Second Prince replied, his voice laced with displeasure. "This game clearly pales in comparison to the likes of Legend of Sword and Fairy. If you ask me, these past few days have been an utter waste of time."

"Not entirely a waste," Princess Royal Ji Yu remarked thoughtfully. "At the very least, our cultivation has progressed quite rapidly."

"Perhaps... we should switch to another game," the Fifth Prince, Ji Yang, suggested. "Coming here occasionally to train is well enough, but squandering so much manpower and resources in this place simply isn't worth the cost."

"Guild Leader, why did you bring us here anyway? The monsters are so low-level that Sister Xi Yue’s Tiger Guard kills them in two swings; we don't even need to raise a finger!"

"Is someone there?" At that moment, deep within the inner recesses of the Biqi Mines, Ji Yang and his men suddenly caught the faint murmur of voices echoing from the distant gloom.

Ji Wu gestured dismissively: "Send a few men to investigate."

Upon Ji Wu's command, a handful of warriors stepped forward into the dark, torches held aloft; they had not ventured far when several colossal, dark worms suddenly erupted from the shadows, hurtling toward them with terrifying speed!

"Monsters!" a warrior cried out in alarm, his blade lashing out in a reflexive strike!

What followed was as though they had disturbed a hornet's nest; five massive, dark worms leaped violently into the blackness, lunging forward with savage ferocity!

Simultaneously, the sharp, whistling crack of an arrow splitting the air rent the silence!

"Ah—!"

A single, agonized shriek cut short as the warrior crashed lifelessly to the stone floor.

An instant kill!

"What in the world?!" The remaining warriors surged forward, drawing their blades to strike frantically at the monstrous insects.

In the next breath, a succession of horrific screams echoed through the tunnels; in less than a minute, every single man lay dead upon the ground.

"What is happening out there?!" Ji Wu's face darkened as the chorus of agony reached his ears. "Could those bastards from the Morning Star Sea Realm have launched an assault?!"

"Form ranks and prepare for battle!" Commander Yu bellowed. "Warriors to the front, Mages to the rear, push the skeletons forward! Cast Fire Walls outward!"

Blazing walls of fire erupted, casting a flickering, crimson illumination into the surrounding abyss.

It was then that two bursts of flame—one a vivid red, the other a freezing blue—ignited in midair, twisting into two profoundly bizarre, glowing runes.

Only then did the five dark worms unleash a collective roar, charging forward in perfect, terrifying unison!

"They're too fast!"

"Thunderbolt! Keep the Fire Walls up! Force the skeletons to take the brunt!" Yu Chi commanded frantically, but before the words could fully leave his lips, a lethal arrow whistled out from the darkness.

Pure instinct made him wrench his torso aside, narrowly sparing his heart.

Thwack!

The arrow embedded itself deep into his shoulder, the immense force of the impact nearly slamming him bodily into the dirt.

A level-seven Eagle Guard!

Immediately afterward, a warrior clad in yellow military armor, wielding a massive broadsword, charged into their midst.

"Hold them! Hold them back!" Yu Chi screamed from the ground, a cold dread washing over him as he saw his health pool instantly halved.

He gasped in sheer disbelief.

"We can't hold!" A royal guard warrior cried in terror as the Tiger Guard’s blade bit into him. "What kind of monstrous entity is this?! A single blow almost finished me!"

The Tiger Guard possessed a naturally frightening agility, but now, under human direction, it had shed its former erratic savagery for a disciplined, lethal precision; flanked by the five Dark Beetles, it utterly shattered the defensive line of over a dozen warriors in an instant, tearing straight into the cluster of Mages.

"Spells don't seem to affect them!" a Mage shrieked in absolute panic as several bolts of lightning struck the beasts, causing them to pause for a mere fraction of a second before they surged forward with even greater velocity.

Such speed made them nearly impossible to hit under normal circumstances, let alone in this absolute darkness.

"Wear them down!" Yu Chi roared desperately. "I refuse to believe dozens of us cannot exhaust a handful of monsters!"

No sooner had his voice fallen than several beams of Healing Light cascaded upon the very insects that had just sustained damage.

The Healing Light required a subject to accept its power without resistance to take effect, meaning it could never be used to heal wild monsters.

Many within the Royal Guard had tested this absolute law themselves.

Yet now, why were the healing rays bathing the crests of these beasts?!

Furthermore, these monsters seemed cloaked in an inexplicable shroud of energy, causing both magical and physical assaults to lose a massive portion of their lethality.

Had it been a single beast possessing such a trait, it might have been endured, but every single one of them bore this terrible blessing.

Coupled with their immense vitality and unnatural evasion, the combined forces of the guard yielded a pitifully negligible effect.

And with the Healing Light mending what little damage was dealt, the battle became an exercise in futility; their minuscule wounds were instantly erased.

Simultaneously, they watched in horror as their own summoned skeletons were utterly annihilated by two rival skeletons whose bony frames glowed with an eerie blue light, leaving nothing behind but a carpet of withered dust.

To their dread, these two blue-lit skeletons then lunged into their formation; a single stroke of their blades cleaved away half a man's life, and any Mage unfortunate enough to take a hit was instantly brought to the brink of death.

Their own summoned skeletons were merely at level zero or one, capable of being trained to level three at most; these two apparitions, however, had clearly transcended such limits, likely standing at the pinnacle of level seven.

"What kind of demons are these?!"

As the survivors watched the slaughter unfold in sheer terror, another figure armored in green plate and a black cloak lunged forward; with a sweeping slash of his sword, a massive crescent of sword qi erupted, striking a fleeing Mage before he could even take five paces, throwing him violently to the ground.

A second swing, and the Mage lay entirely still.

At this moment, though Fang Qi did not possess a full set of supreme-tier gear, he had at least equipped himself with a substantial array of professional equipment—Heavy Armor, a Horse-Chopping Saber, a Skeleton Ring, and various other armaments; bolstered by the protection of Divine Armor and Soul Shield, his physical and magical defenses were heightened to the point where he moved through their ranks like a wolf among sheep.

Of course, in this pitch-black environment, visibility was virtually nonexistent, and Fang Qi had no inkling of who exactly he was hacking apart; he only knew that since they had raised weapons against him, they were to be cut down without hesitation.

Yet, the true nightmare remained the warrior in yellow armor wielding the great saber; he slaughtered Mages with a single strike per man, projecting an aura of sheer, destructive malice that seemed even more terrifying than a Great Saber Guard.

By now, their numbers had been effectively cut in half.

And the remaining half were crippled, broken, and utterly incapacitated.

Ji Wu watched in unadulterated horror as these monsters swept through their ranks like a plague of locusts; their elite vanguard of thirty to forty men had been whittled down to a mere dozen in a matter of moments.

Fang Qi glanced at the timer, noting that Xi Yue had barely two hours left before her session concluded: "Stop wasting time, move straight inside!"

He knew all too well that once she logged off, these level-seven pets would vanish into thin air.

"Are those... actually players?!"

How could this possibly be a player?!

Seeing that several other players were still following closely behind, Ji Wu was so terrified that his jaw dropped in sheer disbelief!

.