Chapter 23: A Clash of Titans Amidst the Melee

Nightfeather felt that his own combat techniques still had some shortcomings, so he made several modifications to them. Against pure offensive-type sword players, this combat style of his was ninety percent effective.

Because of its high versatility, adjustments could be made on the fly during the heat of battle. Nightfeather only needed a few more minor tweaks to this style, and it would be perfectly suited for dealing with pure offensive sword players.

An excellent, well-rounded String-type player is able to perfectly utilize their skill set to bridge gaps and respond to various situations. Compared to pure mage classes, the String class doesn't have many standout features; although they are "glass cannons," they are still more durable than pure mages. However, they are also not suited for pure defense, so the String class can be said to possess both offense and defense, while also being able to share some of the support burden of the Healing class.

Therefore, as long as a player understands the three major areas of responsibility for the String class, they can be considered an excellent String player. Nightfeather had studied the String class positioning to an incredibly meticulous degree; theoretically, he had already reached the ranks of high-end String players, and now all he lacked was the accumulation of practical combat experience.

"Are you two done yet? I've already finished off 'Chanting to the Moon' all by myself."

Nightfeather looked somewhat absent-mindedly toward Huang Hong and Qu Zheng, who were dealing with 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' not far away.

Huang Hong's battle was quite easy. Because he had configured his custom talent skill tree to excel at facing multiple enemies—his attribute bonuses grew stronger the more opponents he faced—he had deliberately left the party to maximize his stat buffs when confronted with this many opponents.

In the world of *God's Fall*, the game design was close to reality, calculating all damage based on everything possible, including collisions, levels, and friendly fire. Especially regarding friendly fire: if you aren't in the same party, the friendly fire mechanism is activated. This applies even if you are in the same guild; unless it is a guild dungeon or event, the mechanism ignores guild relations and only calculates based on the party.

Under these circumstances, it wasn't certain that Huang Hong was at a disadvantage. In terms of numbers, it didn't necessarily mean that Huang Hong, alone, was at a disadvantage.

Nightfeather rested his long spear on his shoulder. Several players had already fallen at his feet, and his figure appeared arrogant and peerless for a moment, looking down upon the crowd with absolute dominance. With the spear in hand, he was invincible against thousands.

Huang Hong stomped on the ground and swung his long spear, the shadow of the weapon dazzling to the eye. Suddenly, armor manifested on Huang Hong's body, wreathed in a crimson luster. Although the armor looked quite ordinary and common, it exuded an incredibly imposing sense of power on him.

Huang Hong stepped forward, his figure flashing like a flowing shadow. The long spear danced, red light flickering as he charged into the crowd. The terrifying shadow of the spear flickered; every attack instantly killed an opponent. Under such formidable pressure, even though the opposing side had superior numbers, their morale plummeted. They couldn't track Huang Hong's movements, and their reckless attacks often ended up hitting their own allies.

Eventually, no one dared to attack, and those who did were struck down by Huang Hong in the next moment.

"A bunch of rabble! Even though you are elite members of the guild, you lack sufficient experience and know nothing about me. Since you won't choose to retreat, I'll let you lie down one by one!"

Huang Hong's voice echoed through the crowd like the call of a reaper. For every person he passed, one would fall to the ground.

The elite members at the very front were knocked aside by Huang Hong's powerful charge, and then Huang Hong, wielding his spear, easily waded into the crowd with attacks that were like a chaotic dance. No one could withstand the damage dealt by each strike.

With over a hundred people, Huang Hong's attribute bonuses had long since exceeded the range they could handle. A single blow was enough to instantly kill a player. The high damage output caused the group of rabble to lose their conviction of victory, and having lost their morale, they began to retreat step by step.

In just five minutes, Huang Hong had finished off nearly fifty players. Then, he retreated sharply, held his long spear up, and pointed the tip at the remaining fifty elite members of [Saints of the World] and [War Song]. A smirk curled on his lips, but the battle intent in his eyes never wavered.

"Do you dare to continue?"

Huang Hong's words undoubtedly intimidated the remaining fifty players. As they looked at this madman of a spear player, it was as if he had transformed into Lu Bu among men in the blink of an eye.

Just as Huang Hong was intimidating the remaining fifty players, Qu Zheng was already engaged in a fierce battle with 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind.'

Although 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' was a sword player, he belonged to the type that excelled in both offense and defense. This type of sword player is relatively tricky; he possessed some defensive skills as well as two support skills, making him a difficult opponent to defeat.

Unlike standard pure offensive sword players, this type can sustain combat. In such prolonged battles, their attributes can increase as the fight continues, which is why many sword players choose this playstyle.

"You know, attacking the people of [Loyalty Eternal] was a last resort. I don't want to be involved in this either, but you don't understand—the power behind [Saints of the World] is extremely strong now. You could say that in the [Xuantian] server, there is only one guild that can stand against them."

'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' chatted nonchalantly with Qu Zheng, his opponent. The expression on his face was quite relaxed, and he even had a faint smile on his lips.

"Actually, you know what? As a chatterbox myself, I don't accept others being chatterboxes too. And someone as talkative as you is very annoying in my eyes."

At this point, Qu Zheng's expression no longer held the slacker vibe he had when he was with Nightfeather and the others. Instead, his face was serious, and his eyes were replaced by a gaze that constantly exuded cold, murderous intent.

"You don't understand. 'Eye-Catching Cat' from [Loyalty Eternal] is such a good girl—I find it a pity that she chose to follow a useless Witch King. I was just saying this because I saw you, but since you've said that, I guess I'll stop."

'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' clearly felt a bit regretful and shook his head slightly at Qu Zheng: "You're a Stealth-type player; you can't beat me. Although Stealth players are relatively good at countering classes with defensive buffs, and your skill chaining is quite good—I can see your custom talent tree has some moves for player-versus-player combat, and your stat buffs are quite decent—you are ultimately biased toward a PVE path. That proves you can't beat me. Your prelude is too obvious, allowing me to guess the direction of your skill chains."

"So? And then?"

After hearing the words of 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind,' Qu Zheng couldn't help but ask with a slight smile.

"So, and then? That means you can't hit me, and you'll be suppressed by me."

Upon hearing this, Nightfeather raised his eyebrows slightly, a subtle arc appearing at the corner of his mouth. He didn't answer 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind,' but instead drew the daggers from his waist.

"Hmm? It seems you don't intend to give up, right? And you plan to use dual daggers to fight me?"

'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' was slightly stunned to see this. Clearly, his attempt to persuade 'Qu Xiao Zheng Dang A Dang' had failed. Since the opponent wouldn't give up, he would have to beat him until he was lying on the ground.

"If that's the case, I'll just have to beat you until you're begging for mercy."

'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' spoke up. Qu Zheng ignored him, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes. He donned a mask—a pitch-black, hideous ghost mask.

"Ghost Dagger State."

Experienced sword-class players can judge an enemy's movement based on their combat trajectory. 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' immediately retreated with the wind, holding his three-foot blade in his right hand and beginning to swing it in front of him. A terrifying cyclone swirled into a circular hurricane; he was clearly channeling a skill.

The channeling speed of 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' was quite fast; apparently, he had optimized the channeling time of his skills in his custom talent tree.

"Wind-Swept Flowing Light Residual Cloud Sword!"

Qu Zheng had just finished a flash-step when he stopped in mid-air. His eyes reflected the sight of flying swords locked onto him by the hurricane, but he had no intention of dodging. Instead, he gripped his dual daggers tightly and began to swing them, standing his ground squarely in the center of the hurricane-enveloped flying swords.

Qu Zheng's eyes gradually closed. After a deep breath, the mask refracted a silver light. His hands moved with fluid grace, but because the movements were so fast, his figure looked like a phantom. Everywhere the daggers passed, they blocked all attacks from the flying swords within the hurricane.

'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' was naturally surprised to see this. From start to finish, the Stealth player had managed to block—and even parry—the attacks of his "Wind-Swept Flowing Light Residual Cloud Sword." Out of more than a dozen attacks, only three had landed, and they caused minimal damage, reducing his HP by only three percent.

After dealing with this move, Qu Zheng moved, shooting toward 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind.' The distance shrank instantly. Although surprised, 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' regained his composure and immediately activated 'Time-Out Mode' to deal with the sudden arrival of Qu Zheng, saying coldly, "It's useless."

But Qu Zheng did not answer. Beneath the pitch-black, hideous ghost mask, only his eyes, glowing with cold light, were visible. One could not discern Qu Zheng's emotional state at all. Stealth-type players possess an excellent skill for solo combat.

The Ghost Dagger State was a skill that allowed for close-quarters combat. Furthermore, by activating the corresponding Ghost Dagger skills, he could use wind speed to extend the damage area of the daggers to a three-foot length, matching that of a sword. It was quite terrifying, but the downside was that the Stealth player's defensive attributes dropped by five to ten percent, making it quite dangerous.

Qu Zheng was currently in a state that could be described as dual-wielding. With the "Ghost Dagger State" activated, the actual reach of the daggers was the same as a sword. Utilizing the rotation of his body, Qu Zheng unleashed a skill under the "Ghost Dagger State."

"Ghost Dagger Dual Spin Slash!"

However, with the help of the 'Time-Out Mode,' 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' was able to dodge this attack easily. Then, the three-foot blade in his hand thrust directly toward Qu Zheng's chest.

Seeing this, Qu Zheng did not show any panic. Instead, he faced it even more relaxed. After he finished executing "Ghost Dagger Dual Spin Slash," Qu Zheng unleashed four or five sword lights. Like crescent moons, the sword lights flashed out from the trajectory of his previous move, sweeping directly across the body of 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind.'

"Ghost Dagger Five-Light Moon Slash!"

'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' was caught directly by the sword lights. His clothes were shredded, and several bloodstains appeared on them.

'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' frowned in pain, having never expected to be hit by such an attack. As a result, he took ninety percent of the damage from Qu Zheng's "Ghost Dagger Five-Light Moon Slash." In an instant, his HP was reduced to seventy percent, and the skill he had been channeling was forcibly interrupted and sent into cooldown.

With half of his offensive skills now in cooldown, 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' had no choice but to use a defensive skill to deal with the situation. He swung his sword horizontally, and a wind wall formed by flowing air enveloped him.

"Wind Sword Flowing Light Shield!"

However, a glimmer of joy flashed deep in Qu Zheng's eyes. Clearly, he had already anticipated that 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' would choose to use a defensive skill. The previous "Ghost Dagger Five-Light Moon Slash" had merely been a move to bait out the 'Time-Out Mode.'

Qu Zheng then threw his dual daggers at the wind wall and shot forward like a phantom. His silver-like figure exuded a dazzling, blinding light, causing 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind' to instinctively close his eyes.

Then, a shattering sound echoed in the ears of 'Chasing Dreams with the Wind,' and a sense of panic surged in his heart.

How could he possibly have broken the "Wind Sword Flowing Light Shield"?