Such Power in a Single Strike

Fire flashed, and an Assassin flew backward in the same classic "headshot" pose! The others shuddered inwardly and hastily retreated a few steps.

Goddammit! These two bastards were shameless, and their moves were even worse! One kept making people kneel, while the other kept blasting them in the head... Sure, it wouldn't kill anyone, but nobody liked the feeling, right? A man wasn't supposed to kneel lightly. Having to keep bowing down to someone was no way to live.

An Assassin quietly nudged Cold-Hearted and whispered, "Brother Cold, should we keep pushing forward?"

Cold-Hearted glanced back and said in frustration, "Forget it. Fall back for now and wait for an opening."

The cave entrance might have been narrow, but there was plenty of space inside. The War Hero Family's melee fighters had forced their way a little over twenty meters in before they dared go no farther.

The thing was... this formation required them to advance steadily, without getting greedy and charging ahead! After all, the second team's healers couldn't leave the entrance. If one of them got carried away and followed the melee fighters inside, he would be on his own-the first team's healers couldn't reach him at all.

Earlier, a few impatient youngsters had rushed forward to burst Brick down, only to be held up by Sky... Ye Fengxing had been even more ruthless. Ignoring the melee fighters entirely, he used Blink and Wind of Freedom to race toward the entrance, then unleashed a barrage of Flame Arrows and Magic Missiles at the War Hero Second Team's healers!

Faced with such a rapid target switch, they had lost two people even with several melee fighters hurrying back to help.

The first team's healers, stuck outside the entrance, had no idea what was happening inside. All they knew was that their teammates' health bars were dropping alarmingly fast! One who couldn't stand watching anymore poked his head in for a look, only to be hit immediately by Flame Devours the Body. Terrified, he pulled straight back out.

[Raid][Kuang Dao]: Tomb Gloom, what the hell are you doing?! Have you forgotten the formation? You want to go inside? Fine, go on and charge in!

With Brother Dao's warning, the others were even less willing to "get greedy and charge ahead"... And rightly so. Once the enemy tore their formation apart, all the advantages of this strategy would vanish.

These War Hero players were all guild elites. To put it bluntly, ordinary players would have considered every one of them an expert. They certainly weren't lacking in MMO experience, so how could they fail to understand the importance of formation?

They stubbornly held their position twenty to thirty meters in. Even when they occasionally attacked, they would immediately blow all their major survival skills after dealing a little damage, then turn tail and sprint back! With the second team's healers healing frantically, there was nothing Ye Fengxing and Sky could do to opponents like that, no matter how well they could shoot.

On the surface, Ye Fengxing's trio looked mighty impressive, holding the enemy at bay with just three people. But Ye Fengxing knew perfectly well how damned insidious this strategy was...

Brick was a Missionary. His healing was decent, but he hadn't advanced to Light Priest yet, and his equipment wasn't particularly good either-at the very least, it was nowhere near Xiao Xiaoxian's. War Hero only needed to send three to five melee fighters to make Brick's life miserable. He couldn't even finish a cast, so how the hell was he supposed to heal?

Without Sky and Ye Fengxing keeping the enemy occupied, Brick would have died several times over already.

Sometimes, "keeping the enemy occupied" meant physically taking hits for him. Brick was simply too fragile. One coordinated attack from the opposing melee fighters would force him to burn all his major skills.

Ye Fengxing didn't have a good solution either. No matter how many powerful skills he had, they still had cooldowns. Once Brick's health bar started dropping too quickly, he and Sky had no choice but to step in and take the hits, letting the freed-up Brick heal them and keep their health steady.

That exposed their little party's weakness: none of the three played a class with high defense or a large health pool. Just imagine three squishy characters together. Even if they took turns shielding one another, the damage would still pour in.

All those lost health points became Brick's responsibility-the poor little fatty had to restore all three of their health bars again and again. As time dragged on, his mana grew desperately low...

The War Hero Family, on the other hand, had brought in an entire reinforcement raid and was operating at full strength. The bastards had even begun sending ranged classes into the cave, apparently planning to attack from both near and far.

"How much longer can you hold out?" Ye Fengxing fired several Flame Arrows in succession, blasting an Assassin into turning tail and fleeing. Using that brief breathing room, he looked toward Brick and asked quietly.

"Hard to say..." Brick took several ragged breaths. That Assassin had been having a grand old time stabbing him in the ass. If Ye Fengxing hadn't arrived in time, he would definitely have been lying on the ground already.

"Brother Ye, this isn't working. Looks like they've got reinforcements. They're taking turns attacking so we can't rest. Brick's always sucked at PvP. If he keeps healing like this, he's really going to run out of mana." Sky knocked a Warrior away with an arrow and retreated as well.

The young man's hands were shaking from exhaustion. He wasn't in the mood to mess around with headshots anymore. After all, Flameburst Arrow's headshot effect required the player to hit the opponent's head precisely. Sky wasn't on the national shooting team. Taking time to aim now and then was one thing, but how could he spare the effort to show off at a moment like this?

"Piss off! Like you're so great at PvP!" Brick shot back without mercy. He knew his and Sky's abilities well. They were both good at PvE, but when it came to PvP... sorry, that really wasn't their strong suit.

"Looks like the three of us might die here..." Ye Fengxing gave a bitter smile and said gravely, "They haven't found Adaric yet. In a moment, I'll charge over and dump every skill I have on them! Brick, don't worry about saving mana. Heal me with everything you've got. All three of us need to die near the entrance. I'll release, and you two stay where you are. Watch for anyone wandering farther into the cave. If someone does, tell me. I'll go straight to Angel Sister and resurrect on the spot to keep holding them up. Then you two resurrect too. We keep repeating that until Ironhead and the others bring help. Then we'll have a chance."

"Okay!" Brick nodded. "Let's do it!"

Ye Fengxing took the lead and charged out. War Hero's melee fighters were startled! After fighting for so long, both sides had grown used to maintaining their formations, retreating when the enemy advanced and harassing them when they withdrew. Seeing their opponent suddenly rush straight at them as though he didn't care whether he lived or died left them genuinely rattled...

Dodging blades coming at him from every direction, Ye Fengxing rapidly applied Flame Devours the Body to each opponent in turn. He had only run a dozen meters or so when every War Hero player inside the cave was engulfed in roaring flames. They looked as though they were all practicing the same exercise together. It was quite the "spectacle."

"Blow up!" Ye Fengxing bellowed viciously, his eyes wide with fury.

-1012! Explosive Impact!

-1024! Explosive Impact!

-1017! Explosive Impact!

-982! Explosive Impact!

-998! Explosive Impact!

A string of thunderous explosions rang out, and the entire cavern blazed with fire! The dazzling flames seared their eyes, forcing everyone to instinctively cover their eyes and ears...

An immensely powerful blast swept through the cave, launching seven or eight people straight outside and treating them to a free flight! The remaining dozen or so were hurled into different corners of the cavern by the shock wave, tumbling down in a scattered heap like dumplings dropped into a pot. They could only groan, unable to move.

Everyone's ears rang from the blast... Although the system had set the players' pain sensitivity extremely low when they entered the game, an excessively powerful sound wave could still leave their insides feeling awful. It wasn't pain, just discomfort-strange, unsettling discomfort...

As the caster, Ye Fengxing enjoyed immunity to his own spell and was naturally unharmed. Two other people were unaffected as well: Brick and Sky, who shared that immunity as his teammates.

Brick stood stunned. Sky stood stunned. Even Ye Fengxing stood stunned...

Despite being the one responsible, Ye Fengxing clearly hadn't expected this single strike to unleash such power!

Explosive Impact: Causes all targets affected by your burning effects to explode, detonating all damage-over-time fire effects on them and stunning them for 4 seconds. Spell range: 30 meters. Instant cast. Mana cost: 85. Cooldown: 25 seconds.

According to the skill description, Explosive Impact shouldn't have produced such a terrifying effect. Even if several targets were detonated simultaneously, it should only have stunned them all for four seconds. In fact, Ye Fengxing had only intended to use those four seconds to cause a little trouble. Who could have known he would set off something so earthshaking...?

Looks like a hidden effect. The trigger might be the enemies standing close together, and their numbers might matter too. Hmm, maybe the terrain has something to do with it as well. For example... could a relatively confined cave like this amplify the explosion?

Ye Fengxing truly was an MMO veteran. With just a little thought, he had come very close to the truth.

"What are you standing around for?" Seeing Brick and Sky still frozen in shock, Ye Fengxing shouted at them.

The two young men snapped out of their daze. One nocked an arrow, while the other raised his cross, and they began picking off the low-health enemies scattered across the ground. Nearly every target had only a sliver of health left anyway. Even Brick's pitiful attack power could finish them off in a couple of hits.

Ye Fengxing tossed a Sea of Flames into a cluster of enemies, then began picking off the healers one by one. After all, as terrifying as that attack had been, its stun still lasted only four seconds... nothing more. If they didn't hurry, things would get troublesome once War Hero's healers got back up.

In the blink of an eye, the dozens of War Hero Family elites inside the cave had suffered devastating casualties. A few survivors were still putting up a desperate fight. But Ye Fengxing and Sky were under no pressure now, so they were in no hurry to finish their opponents in one push. Those few were trapped anyway. Toying with them to vent their resentment over the earlier siege seemed like a fine idea.

Outside the cave.

"What happened?!" Kuang Dao helped up a Ranger who had been blasted out of the cave, his face full of confusion.

The fight inside had been going perfectly well. Several people had reported that the enemy healer was nearly out of mana. If they held on a little longer, they would definitely take down those three bastards! How had such a favorable situation been completely overturned in an instant?

Seven or eight people had flown straight out, while more than a dozen health bars had emptied instantly before turning gray one after another. Only a handful still had slivers of health left, and the enemy hadn't finished them off. Presumably, it was some kind of mockery or taunt... Whatever it was, this was a slap in the face! A vicious slap across the War Hero Family's face!

"One Leaf Windwalk, fuck your mother!" The furious Brother Dao sprang to his feet. Clearly, his inner cosmos had erupted in full...