Who said we were companions?

"Motherfucking son of a bitch..." Ye Fengxing cursed bitterly as he watched the hulking black figure galloping toward him from a short distance away.

It was a level 75 Ghostly Knight Commander. Not only was its level terrifyingly high, it was also a goddamn boss! Ye Fengxing admitted that the moment he saw this bastard, he chickened out...

How the fuck was anyone supposed to fight this? Wasn't this a bit too much of a fucking rip-off?!

The Ghostly Knight Commander was a cavalry unit, and the Ghostly Warhorse beneath it was astonishingly fast-probably at least 25! Ye Fengxing had to admit that against an enemy like this, he could neither win nor escape. Getting it over with and dying quickly was the best possible outcome-save some time and get on with whatever else needed doing. Time was money!

"Damn it! Looks like it won't let me go... Leave now, my friend. I will always remember your kindness." Even now, that big oaf Adaric didn't forget to lay on the sentiment. Coughing, he drew a serrated longsword that glimmered red and planted it against the ground for support. He looked as though he could barely stand.

Before the Ghostly Knight Commander even got close, it shook its long lance and fired more than a dozen black lance shadows. They weren't actually afterimages, but genuine battle aura attacks! The aura was so densely concentrated that it formed beams, making the lance itself seem to extend.

Ye Fengxing wasn't sure just how deadly these battle aura beams were, but there were plenty of monsters around. Soon enough, some unlucky innocents answered that question with their deaths.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! More than a dozen battle aura beams fanned out, sweeping toward them! A few trees that had "failed to watch where they were going" were barely grazed, and the points of contact instantly exploded! Black flames swiftly engulfed the entire trees, setting them ablaze as though some kind of laser weapon had struck them!

The truly shameless part was that this "laser cannon" fired more than a dozen shots at once! And the bastard wielding this weapon of mass destruction, that thug, had opened fire from over fifty meters away... Fuck! Was this asshole melee or ranged? He was clearly cavalry, yet his attack range rivaled a caster's. Was anyone else even allowed to live?

Fine, the trees got hit. They'd been "failing to watch where they were going" for decades anyway. But some of those fellows with hands, feet, and wings really had no excuse...

-32489! Death Thrust!

-31978! Death Thrust!

-32624! Death Thrust!

A mass of damage numbers burst above the corpses of those "unlucky bastards." The sheer damage left Ye Fengxing inwardly speechless... Holy fucking shit! This skill was ridiculously badass! If Ironhead had been here, he would definitely have started yelling again.

The black battle aura beams reached straight toward Adaric and Ye Fengxing like tendrils extended by the Grim Reaper! Ye Fengxing was so frustrated he almost wanted to bash his head against a wall. The beams looked separate, like individual lines, but their damage didn't follow straight lines at all. It was a proper fan-shaped attack!

That much was obvious from the unlucky bastards who had died so horribly. The dozen or so battle aura beams spread from left to right in a roughly ninety-degree fan, leveling everything that stood above the ground within that area!

Of course, that area didn't include the sky. Its destructive reach only extended about nine or ten meters upward. The problem was that a certain someone was only level 15. Where was he supposed to get enough agility to leap nine or ten meters into the air?

This skill was practically a shining example of shamelessness taken to a whole new level!

Just think about it: an attack launched from over fifty meters away, covering a roughly ninety-degree fan. Its area of destruction could reach more than twenty-five hundred square meters! And even getting clipped by the edge cost over thirty thousand HP! That... for low-level players and monsters, a skill like this was downright inhumane!

Ye Fengxing helplessly accepted his fate. This move was too goddamn vicious! There was simply no dodging it!

At a critical moment like this, the small fry really could only step aside and behave. The big shots had to do the heavy lifting! Although their comrade Adaric was gravely injured, a certain someone's clumsy healing had restored a little life to him, bringing his HP back above fifty thousand.

After all, that certain someone had worked hard healing him for more than an hour, keeping those little HoTs ticking without a break. Enough grains of sand could build a tower.

After unleashing its Death Thrust, the Ghostly Knight Commander kept galloping forward! Its mount was extraordinary. Judging by eye, Ye Fengxing estimated its movement speed at no less than 25. In other words, it could cover those fifty-odd meters and be right in his face in two seconds!

At that desperate moment, Adaric suddenly kicked his sword up into a sweeping slash. Two blazing red arcs shot out like brilliant crimson ribbons, curling toward the Ghostly Knight Commander from the left and right!

The previously unstoppable Death Thrust immediately faltered upon meeting those blazing red sword arcs. They tore cleanly through it head-on, opening a huge gap in the middle!

Standing behind Adaric, Ye Fengxing was naturally safe. He was remarkably relaxed about it, too. He actually sat down with his back against a tree and settled in to watch...

Really, there was nothing strange about that. At his current level, he had no way to intervene in a battle of this caliber. Even if he reached level 75, he would still only be an ordinary player. Those two big shots were both bosses. There was simply no comparison...

Adaric and the Ghostly Knight Commander clashed, trading blows back and forth. The Tauren lived up to his status as a level 83 boss. With barely more than fifty thousand HP remaining, he actually forced his opponent into steady retreat! Ye Fengxing really liked this incredibly manly fighting style. It seemed his earlier efforts hadn't been wasted.

The main reason Adaric had been so weak was that the extensive wounds covering his body had caused massive blood loss. Out here in the wilderness, with no Shaman Witch Doctor around, who was he supposed to find to treat his injuries? Hell, forget a Shaman Witch Doctor-he didn't even have a bandage!

The Tauren wore a suit of armor, and even his underclothes were made of leather. There wasn't a single strip of cloth anywhere on him. If he had met Ye Fengxing just a little later, he would definitely have kicked the bucket!

Clearflow Mending wasn't much of a healing skill, restoring only around 200 HP over fifteen seconds. But it had a special effect that rapidly closed wounds and removed bleeding DoTs! And that effect was honestly a little overpowered!

Even with injuries as severe as Adaric's, a certain someone had managed to drag him back from death. Originally, there hadn't been a single intact patch anywhere on his body. He had over a dozen nearly fatal wounds, dozens of major wounds, and countless smaller ones...

An ordinary person might have recoiled from such a bloody sight, but who was Ye Fengxing...? Blood? Shredded flesh? Bone fragments? Sorry, he had seen plenty of all that. He could remain utterly unmoved by scenes ten or a hundred times worse.

After all, this was only a game. It couldn't be too bloody or violent. The developers had to consider the general public's sensibilities.

Although Adaric had recovered only fifty-odd thousand HP, the wounds all over his body had mostly healed, restoring the greater part of his fighting strength. However strong the Ghostly Knight Commander was, it was still only a level 75 boss. The weaker side couldn't overpower the stronger-that was all there was to it. Even if the stronger side was covered in Band-Aids...

Watching from the sidelines, Ye Fengxing was on tenterhooks. He silently prayed that Comrade Adaric would stay tough to the very end, crush the enemy, and then give him a quest! He couldn't let all that work go to waste...

Thankfully, the Tauren looked positively brimming with life. As he swung his serrated longsword, it resembled a furious dragon of flame, baring its fangs and claws. His fighting style was ferociously forceful!

The Ghostly Knight Commander, by contrast, was clearly no match for "Mr. Tough Guy." It could only rely on its cavalry speed advantage to dodge and parry with difficulty.

True, two legs couldn't outrun four, but their comrade Adaric was a Shaman Warrior. He had plenty of ways to attack with battle aura! So the Ghostly Knight Commander knew a move called Death Thrust? Did that mean good old Adaric didn't have anything of his own?

Adaric's ranged attack might not have been called Death Thrust, but its range was every bit as long! Blazing crimson ribbons packed with roaring flames swept left and right, covering above and below! The Ghostly Knight Commander's health bar kept pouring away, pouring away... like a goddamn waterfall!

-35246! Flame Slash!

-34952! Flame Slash!

-37625! Flame Slash!

Suddenly, a dazzling flash of lightning burst from Adaric's longsword. A brilliant web of lightning swept out with a mass of raging flames, engulfing the Ghostly Knight Commander completely!

-103789! Flame Dance, Thunder Splendor!

The number that burst out from that final strike was absolutely enormous! And the move itself was visually spectacular! Clearly, their comrade Adaric didn't just use fire attacks. He had lightning techniques too! What was more, he had combined both types into a single composite skill-Flame Dance, Thunder Splendor!

Ye Fengxing practically drooled as he watched from the sidelines... Unfortunately, this was a goddamn Shaman Priest skill, unleashed with a sword slash! As a mage, he... sigh. It looked hopeless.

Good old Adaric, "Mr. Tough Guy," really delivered. With barely more than fifty thousand HP left, he had actually killed the Ghostly Knight Commander! Ye Fengxing didn't know what to say about him. Sure, his opponent was "only" a level 75 boss, but did he really have to brutalize it so mercilessly...?

"Amazing! The illustrious reputation of Shaman Warriors is truly well deserved! Sir..." Ye Fengxing wanted to praise Adaric a little more, only to discover that the Tauren had already collapsed headfirst onto the ground... Apparently, the battle hadn't left him entirely unscathed.

"Mage, listen to me. 'It'... 'it' won't let me go," Adaric panted. "More pursuers will surely arrive tomorrow. Little mage, hurry and run for your life."

Run, my ass! After all that work, was I just supposed to sit here and get sentimental with you?!

Ye Fengxing was deeply frustrated. For the sake of that potentially nonexistent quest, he could only put on a show of emotion. "No! We Dragonkin would never abandon a companion and flee alone!"

"Who said we were companions? Get the hell out of here!" With that furious roar, Adaric abruptly stood up, and his name suddenly turned a vivid blood-red...