A Small Victory

In just a few minutes, his health had already dropped by more than two million. If the bombardment continued like this, he really wouldn't be able to hold on for another ten minutes. But he had a healing skill. With that thought, Xiao Yu flew directly to the sky above the army of Elemental Will, flapping his wings and looking down at the elemental army below. The elemental creatures also looked up at him.

Azathoth (Source of Chaos): "Wind, fire, ice, and earth, ancient Elemental Spirits, I summon you in the name of Azathoth! Obey the ancient covenant, accept my call, and gather into my body!" -- Elemental Siphon!

Immediately, the surrounding elemental creatures felt their elemental power rapidly and uncontrollably draining away, transforming into streaks of blue light. These streaks converged from the seawater, the air, and the bodies of the surrounding sea, Water Elemental, and wind elements, all flowing towards the Chaos Dragon in mid-air. Countless rays of light, like ribbons fluttering in the air, all entered the Chaos Dragon's body. In the air, the Chaos Dragon's health surged as if it had been inflated, only stopping when it was fully replenished. Due to the sheer number of elemental creatures around, a single Elemental Siphon absorbed over two million units of health, instantly restoring it to full health.

The surrounding Water Elemental and wind elementals were drained of their life force by Azathoth and blasted by lightning from the sky, resulting in the deaths and injuries of five or six hundred people in just a few dozen seconds.

Moreover, this meant that all the lightning strikes from before were wasted. Azshara looked at the fully healed Chaos Dragon, then glanced at the thinning clouds in the sky, gritted her teeth, sighed helplessly, and redirected the lightning strikes toward the beach.

Xiao Yu thought to himself, "Now you know how powerful it is!" Both Chaos Barrier and Elemental Siphon have a 60-minute cooldown. One provides a shield, and the other provides lifesteal. By alternating between the two skills, Xiao Yu is truly not afraid of anyone when it comes to fighting for health.

However, he didn't plan to stay any longer. That Azshara was already so powerful; who knew what other amazing moves she would make? He flew directly towards the Lost Island.

Azshara didn't continue her ranged attacks. She understood that killing a boss like Azathoth from a distance was nearly impossible. For the rest of the day, both sides fought fiercely, but none of the major bosses from either side made an appearance. They had essentially achieved their goal of testing each other's strength, so there was no need to risk an attack. After all, the value of a level three or four skeleton boss was far greater than that of thousands of small monsters like sirens.

The battle raged until dusk, when both sides finally withdrew their troops as darkness fell.

System notification: You have completed the story event, the Second Battle for Lost Island. Despite heavy losses, you repelled the Naga army's attack and achieved a temporary victory. Based on your performance in this event, you have gained 436 reputation points.

(Damn, after killing so many enemies and losing so many troops, I only got this little bit of reputation points?) Xiao Yu was speechless. It seems that the later the level, the harder it is to advance. Earning reputation is really hard. On the other hand, many of his BOSSes have advanced in today's battle, while others have been killed. Six or seven BOSSes of all sizes have died, and the troop losses are not small either. He lost three or four thousand troops, while the mermaids probably lost four or five thousand as well.

Adventurers also suffered heavy casualties. They could manage to finish off weaker monsters with relatively few deaths, but when they encountered high-level bosses, or even skeleton-level bosses, deaths were commonplace. Several guilds even suffered dozens or hundreds of deaths, or even complete wipeouts, after challenging overly powerful bosses. However, adventurers are not afraid of death.

Of course, many guilds also killed the BOSS and obtained treasures.

However, the situation was even worse for the Elemental Will and the Naga. Thanks to the help of the adventurers, many bosses were ganged up on and killed by the adventurers as soon as they landed, before they could even finish their lines.

Over the course of the day, thirty to forty bosses of varying sizes were killed or wounded, and the army lost thirty to forty thousand troops. Of these, five to six thousand were killed by Azshara by mistake, and more than twenty thousand were killed by adventurers. The number of those who actually died in the Merfolk/ the Immortals Alliance was probably only a little over ten thousand.

Half an hour after the battle ended--

Inside the Elemental Will meeting room, a group of people sat together with worried expressions, especially Monari, whose face was filled with obvious distress.

After a day of fierce fighting, the Elemental Will lost 15,000 troops. Although the participating bosses gained some reputation points, which was a small gain, it was nothing compared to the price paid.

Keep in mind that these lost troops represent a significant amount of money, and many of the bosses who died were players with the Elemental Will.

It took Monari two years to accumulate such a small fortune, and half of it was wiped out in one major battle. Monari's heart ached so much that his stomach hurt. If Gonggong hadn't promised to compensate him, he would have cried long ago.

Monari (Sea Elemental Lords): "This can't go on! Azathoth has adventurers as cannon fodder, so he's not afraid of a war of attrition. If we fight two more times, our entire army will be wiped out."

Gonggong (Frost Titan): "Don't worry, we will compensate you. Our clerk will calculate the losses of those who participated in today's battle and provide appropriate compensation. We won't let anyone bleed and cry at the same time."

Houtu (Earth Elemental Lords): "How about Zhurong and I go help too? If the four of us work together, I don't believe we can't take him down!"

Zhurong (Elemental Lords): "No, although we can use our true forms to go to the Prime Material Plane, the exits from the Fire Elemental Plane and the Earth Elemental Plane to the Prime Material Plane are too far from the Lost Island. If we go to the Lost Isle, we'll be besieged by countless adventurers along the way, and we can't swim, so going there is simply impractical."

The Elemental Lords discussed among themselves for a while, but couldn't come up with any good ideas.

Tianwu (Elemental Lord of Air): "How about this? We're not good at attacking yet, but we can easily besiege it. As long as we don't let any ships carrying adventurers reach the Lost Island, Azathoth won't be able to make money or go out to earn reputation. Everyone plays games to make money, so if we can keep this up for a while, he'll have to give in sooner or later."

"That's one way," said Zhurong, the Elemental Lords. "We can use this time to try our best to integrate the player groups from various Elemental Plane and expand our power. The number of players who have joined the Elemental Will has now exceeded 50,000. I estimate that the total number of players in the Elemental Creature template should be around 500,000, but the most active ones should only be 100,000. We just need to bring in these 100,000."

Having agreed on the plan, the Elemental Lords concluded their meeting.

Meanwhile, in the Water Elemental Temple of Yarvis City, Xiao Yu had just finished counting the troops lost in the battle. However, he was not particularly distressed by today's losses. Firstly, the Immortals suffered relatively few losses today. Secondly, he had not yet established a concept of the value of power. Thirdly, with the Lost Island as a treasure trove, the loss of several thousand troops was nothing to him. In any case, as long as there were materials, more troops could be trained, and as long as there were adventurers, there would be no shortage of materials.

However, he also had a headache. This battle could be considered a victory, but the main force of the Naga army and the Elemental Will remained intact, so it was temporarily impossible to relieve the siege.

Therefore, we must be prepared for a protracted war. If there are frequent major battles like today, adventurers will naturally be happy to stay. However, if the enemy adopts a strategy of besieging the city without attacking, the adventurers will inevitably become impatient and leave after a while. So we must find a way to bind them to our war machine. That's where the tactic we prepared earlier comes in handy.

As Xiao Yu was thinking, the gates of the Elemental Temple suddenly opened, Lady Xiwadelin Xiao Yu before him.

Lady Xiwadelin (Naga Tidecaller): "Congratulations, Lord Azathoth, your strength seems to have increased again. Did you summon me here for something?"

Azathoth (the Source of Chaos): "Of course, there's something I need you to do this time. Starting tomorrow, you must do this and that."

Lady Xiwadelin gave Azathoth a strange look, staring at him in disbelief. After a long while, she sighed, "Very well, I will do as you say."

PS: Only one update today.