Battle at Black Rose City

Keslote's peaceful morning was shattered by a deafening boom. The Noble Temple's Legendary Knight opened the war with a heaven-shaking, earth-splitting slash.

Hill and Alice tossed aside their breakfast and rushed together to the living room's porthole to look down.

The fire-element Legendary Knight cleaved out flames that filled the sky. Unfortunately, he was facing Undead who had spent over a month charging through fire and being scorched by it.

When the Legendary flew into the air, blazing red all over as he prepared to unleash his ultimate move, the Magi standing in the rear did not hesitate to cast fire barriers over the shield-bearing Knights.

Every Undead Mage player who had fought in a city siege had learned this fire-protection barrier spell.

After sacrificing several dozen Undead Sky Knights, they easily blocked the Legendary Knight's full-power strike without even activating the city wall's defensive magic.

Amid the Undead's cheers, the Legendary Knight furiously slashed down several more times. Unfortunately, the tens of thousands of Sky Knights carrying massive shields endured them all beneath the fire barriers, paying only a few hundred more lives.

Dionysio did not let the Legendary continue embarrassing himself in the sky and swiftly replaced him with a Metal Law Legendary Knight.

This one truly dealt far more damage. Over a thousand Undead died at once. Unfortunately, people quickly emerged from the little houses behind them to fill the vacant spots.

"Meow~ How many people are in those houses?"

"More than a hundred thousand, probably!"

"Meow?"

"This deity governs space. Opening up enough space in those houses to hold over a hundred thousand people is easy."

"So powerful! Meow! Is this the one Hill is afraid of?"

"I'm afraid of every god!

This one is just a little more terrifying.

Look down. See that row of more than ten thousand Magi behind the Knights? Every one of them is on the same level as my grandfather!"

"How could that be? You're lying! Meow! They can't be that powerful!"

"Because they only just became Magi! They haven't even learned many spells yet. Once things settle down, they'll have time to study. So you can't go running around, understand? They're outsiders, so they aren't afraid of nature's aversion. Even if they kill you and earn the world's hatred, making them unlucky every day, they can simply return to their own world!"

"They're only a tiny bit stronger than Hill!" Alice said stubbornly. "I'm almost as strong as Hill! Meow! I can run away! Meow!"

Hill looked at the argumentative little cat. "There are hundreds of thousands of Magi among them!"

"Wuwu~~ I'll behave. When we go back, I'll stay in the territory."

He carried Alice back to the sofa. "Finish eating quickly. Then we'll go upstairs. The view is clearer from up there."

"Meow~ The ship's moving."

Hill tilted his head and looked outside. "We're heading for Undead territory. They can't really fight here anymore. William hasn't even shown his face. We'll wait until the end to watch the Divine Descent!"

The floating ship was extremely fast. By the time Hill carried Alice to the upper hall, it had already reached the skies above Black Rose City.

Hill glanced down. The fighting here was much livelier.

Most of the idle and hostile players had probably gone to William's side.

Black Rose City, which had never held the most people to begin with, only had fifty or sixty thousand players left.

Fortunately, the Legendary Knight leading the attack here was also fire-element. Behind the city walls, the Black Rose Family had set up scattered wooden platforms as tall as the walls, with over ten thousand Priests standing atop them.

Looking down, Hill spotted a little girl Priest hopping nimbly between the platforms as she directed the Priest players.

He turned to ask Falan, "Grandfather, can we hear the sounds below?"

Falan fiddled with the crystal ball a few times. "Let's see. There aren't any Legendary Mages, so we can descend a little."

The floating ship glided gently beneath the clouds and slowly stopped where the people below could see it by looking up. The voices from the sound-amplification array gradually became clear.

The ship finally stopped above the block of Priests. Hill noticed that the players below quickly spotted the floating ship.

Amid the noisy clamor, he heard someone shout, "Bald Boss! A busted ship's appeared above the Priests. Should we shoot it down?"

Hill quickly climbed to his feet, went out onto the deck, and waved down over the railing.

"It's fine! That's Hill! He's here to watch the war!" Baldy's broken-gong voice rang out.

"Did you get a picture? That beautiful young man holding a white cat!" a loud female voice called.

Hill sucked in a sharp breath. He had forgotten he was still holding Alice! He hurried back inside.

A chorus of regretful sighs rose from the girls below.

Adrian asked with a smile, "What are you afraid of? This ship flies fast. They can't hit it."

Falan cut in, "You're not even as sensible as Hill. Those ten thousand Magi haven't cast anything but fire barriers!

Who knows what they have prepared.

That idiot down there had better not get himself killed."

Hill said, "I'm not worried about the ship failing to escape. I just don't want to test someone else's move by taking the hit for them."

The female voice that had shouted about the white cat rang out again. "Left side! Dispel! Dispel! Can't you hear me? I said dispel!"

Hill looked down and saw that the fierce little girl was called Old School Striking King.

She leapt about nimbly, monitoring the health bars of the Sky Knights at the front.

"What are the ones in the middle doing? Don't heal recklessly! Save your mana!"

"Heal the left! Dispel on the right! Is my voice not loud enough? Can you listen to someone for once?"

Hill looked at Baldy, who was hiding at the front and directing the Sky Knights to raise their shields. He did not dare say a word.

He only mechanically repeated, "Raise shields! Fill the gaps!"

Old Age's savage voice followed. "Those reviving, move faster! Are your legs shorter than mine?"

Adrian suddenly sighed. "Undead women..."

Hill wanted to laugh. Had Adrian remembered the days when female players flirted with him?

Falan had no interest in the two of them and kept watching the players in the city.

Adrian asked in confusion, "Teacher, what are you looking at?"

"Their Mages are slowly moving. That fool only knows how to hover in the air and slash. Knights really have no brains! Is he not even looking down? They're spreading out according to attributes!"

Hill quickly lowered his head and studied the scene carefully.

It was not really the Legendary Knight's fault that he had noticed nothing.

The players were not obediently wearing Mage robes. Dressed in all sorts of outfits, they strolled slowly through the city like ordinary residents taking a walk.

The Legendary would probably get angry after only two glances. No one was taking his attacks seriously at all.

If he had been a Legendary Mage, then upon seeing crowds gathering at six points, he would have become alert no matter who was below.

Pentagram arrays and hexagram arrays were always what Mages were most sensitive to.

Pentagrams were generally used for defense, while hexagrams were for attack.

Hill drew in a breath. "A hexagram array using over ten thousand Magi as anchor points should be able to easily kill a Legendary Knight, right?"

Falan tapped the window. "They built a Mage Tower in the center of the city. The one disguised as a clock tower."

Hill looked at the glittering crystal clock tower. He could not see it at all, but if Falan said so, he must have noticed something.

He examined it bit by bit. Players truly had countless clever tricks. Magic lamps radiating light within the crystal walls made the outer curtain wall reflect a dazzling blaze of light.

Anyone who looked at it would instinctively turn away, only glancing at the clock at the very top.

The refraction was perfect. They really knew their physics!

Yet it was the enormous clock that made Hill sense faint flashes of magical Runes whenever its hands turned.

Anyone unfamiliar with alchemy spells might easily mistake those for the Runes naturally found on an alchemical clock.

Only a high-ranking Alchemist like Falan could keenly notice something wrong even in such a tiny detail.

Falan quietly said, "If this is Undead technology, then they learn astonishingly fast!

If they were not still unfamiliar with setting up arrays, and there weren't people constantly calculating array connections atop the clock tower, I would not have noticed it either."

Adrian sighed deeply. "None of us would have thought to make a Mage Tower into a clock tower!

Mage Towers exist to intimidate others! No one has thought of hiding one for tens of thousands of years."

Hill said, "They fight each other often and know one another too well. That's why they like using underhanded methods."

"It looks like they prepared it for their Undead enemies. I didn't expect they wouldn't get to use it?" Falan muttered. "Perfect. They can use it on that idiot Knight instead."

Adrian suddenly said, "Could every one of their cities have something hidden like this? If they know each other so well, they would all need to be on guard."

"As long as they have money, their thinking is rather lively," Hill said. "It looks like they won't use it today, though?" He saw the gathered people slowly disperse again.

"That fool still has plenty of strength left! He's a Legendary, after all. Killing him won't be easy." Falan sneered. "Once he gets tired and his reactions slow, the Undead should be done practicing too."

Hill noticed a group of Mage players put on Mage robes and replaced the Magi who had been constantly casting fire barriers atop the walls.

"This really is quite a show! They even know to put on Mage robes to fool people."

"Anyone attentive would still notice. They've been fighting for over a month. How could there possibly still be ordinary people staying in this city?" Falan pointed at the fire-element Legendary Knight. "Fire-element Knights tend to be simple-minded. They only know how to charge in and fight. Metal Law ones are better. Earth-Element Law ones generally focus on defense and won't come out to attack others."

"The Undead Sky Knights standing at the front are also fire-element and earth-element," Adrian said. "Their commander understands that well enough."

Falan said curiously, "Who is commanding their Mages? They can even use a hexagram array."

Hill shook his head. "I don't know. Jijiyaya is the academic type and prefers brewing potions."

"The Priest commander is fierce enough!" Adrian suddenly said.

All they had heard from their position was Old School Striking King's furious scolding.

After watching for so long, they had begun to understand the tactics. Since Revival seemed to take time, any Knight whose health dropped to one-quarter would be ordered to retreat and give their position to another.

Yet some always wanted to hold on until the end. Unfortunately, every one of them was singled out and cursed at.

"Back, back, back, An Idler! Want to die? Or do you expect me to chase after you with heals? Dream on! Get your ass to the back!"

"Daduoduo! Ababa! Let's see how you two want to die!"

Resting his chin on his hand, Hill spent the day smiling amid the Sanda King's scolding.

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