The Almighty Ring

The Bandits and Assassins should not be a problem for the near future as there was no respawn point for players from the Light Faction anywhere close. To get back to where the convoy was, they would have to respawn on the Light Faction map, make their way to the logistics officer to receive a free set of equipment and run all the way back.

In Faction maps, dying would not deduct a player’s experience points. However, they would still lose all their equipment. Even though the NPC would provide players with free equipment, it was only a Green graded tier with sh*t tier attributes. It was so bad that some White graded equipment might have been better. However, it was free and it was better than running into the battlefield butt-naked. In a large battle, confident players would go in with their best equipment, with confidence that they would not die. Anyone else would unequip their own personal equipment and store it somewhere else and put on the free equipment given by the NPC. Dying with the free equipment dropped would not be a loss. With this idea, the Bandits and Assassins that were killed by Empyreal Dragon had dropped nothing but Greens.

The equipment that were dropped were so worthless that they had only cost one copper coin. It would not even be used for Dismantling to be broken down into something useful. It was truly a trash tier equipment.

Billy Boy sighed heavily.

“Seems they will try and use the zerg swarm tactic,” said Billy Boy when he noticed a sea of Green graded equipment lying on the ground. He understood that the enemy will not mind dying as long as they could deal some damage to the convoy. It was a good strategy since they had nothing to lose. While they could respawn, again and again, they would not be losing anything but time while the manpower of the Empyreal Dragon will be slowly chisel away.

Ignoring the threat of the Bandit and Assassins, for now, Billy Boy returned to focus on the formation since he will be expected a wave of players coming to them. At this point, Jiang Fei and a few of other range attackers were cleaning up the remaining NPC soldiers.

Before they could even finish mopping the battlefield, a new batch of 40,000 NPC soldiers had spawned.

“So soon?” Jiang Fei roared angrilly. If waves of soldiers will only keep on spawning like that, the convoy would not be reaching their destination by the time the server shut downs for the day!

Being mad was useless since the NPC soldiers will only keep on coming. In no time at all, before the tanks of the Empyral Dragon could even fully recover, the NPC soldiers had already start to come close.

Jiang Fei had no choice but to charge in. The same tactic was applied this time as well.

…

However…

“I spotted him! He’s right there! Sandwiched between the Empyreal Dragon and the NPC soldiers!”

“Go get them!”

“Let’s do this!”

“Have no fear, we have more players on our side! We will kill him today!”

“Heck yeah! We can die 10 times over and drop nothing but trash! As long as we can kill Jiang Fei!”

…

Jiang Fei had spotted the incoming sea of players that was emerging from the horizon. All of them were from the Light Faction and they were at least 300,000 of them.

These sea of players were only the first and fastest player that had managed to party up. They mainly consisted of small to medium sized guilds and a few other pug players that ganged together. They were weak and greedy to the core. They fear that other larger guild will take down Jiang Fei before they could and would not wait any longer to strategize properly.

“This is bad. Little Rain, how long until the next Forbidden Spell?” cried Seven Star Warrior when he spotted the sea of players. Even though they were weak, they had the numbers! 300,000 against 50,000 was nothing to be relaxed about. If Billy Boy did not give out the order, no one is allowed to fight back. In accordance with Jiang Fei’s order, they must stay with the convoy to protect it at all cost!

“15 minutes!” cried Little Rain with a bottle of mana potion dangling at the side of his mouth.

“F*ck this. We’ll go all out! Tanks, circle formation! DPS, healers, prioritize enemies that are closer to the tanks!” cried Billy Boy. He quickly conveyed his order to Seven Star Warrior and have him to coordinate with him. It was a test of cooperation and teamwork. Even with superior equipment, skill, and player level, being outnumbered had placed them in a tough position.

“Bandits and Assassin are to come back to the convoy right now!” said Seven Star Warrior in the party channel. There were too many enemies coming at them. Even if the Bandits and Assassins could take down players, they will be killed as soon as they had killed someone. If was not a good trade since the Empyreal Dragon will be giving out superior equipment in exchange for a few enemies lives!

“Look! Hah! It’s really only 50,000 players!”

“Heh. If we destroy only one cannon, it’s 200 million experience points! Alright boys, the jackpot is right there!”

“Heh! That bunch of pipsqueak had dared to call themselves the best guild? All of them are just dogs raised by Jiang Fei! Let’s kill them all and get their equipments for ourselves!”

“Let’s go!”

“Yeah!”

“…”

“…”

“Why aren’t you going?”

“Why should I?”

“You’re much stronger than I am! You should lead the charge!”

“Stupid! I don’t want to become the cannon fodder!”

…

Even though they clearly had more players on their side, the army of players had dared not to charge into the fight! They were all cowardly players that even in a herd, they had dared not to step forward. All of them wanted to take advantage of the situation and let anyone else to be the cannon fodder while they would reap the benefits for themselves.

“Heh! Delay! Delay! In 10 minutes, I’ll blast all of you to hell!” cried Little Rain when he saw how the players of the Light Faction were arguing amongst themselves.

“Hmph. Spineless cowards…” Billy Boy scoffed. If they were not tasked to protect the convoy, Billy Boy had the utmost confidence in defeating the army of 300,000 players!

…

“Why are we stalling? If the Empyreal Dragons had dealt with the NPC soldiers, we would only be digging out graves!”

“Good idea! Please lead the way. We will be right behind you!”

“Behind my butt! Why are you not going?”

…

Everyone knew the concept of becoming the cannon fodder and no one was willing to charge first. That was the disadvantage of being a pug player without a dedicated guild. There was no teamwork, no leader, no commander… Pug player fight for themselves and no one else. Hence, even though they know that if the Empyreal Dragon had cleared the NPC soldiers, they would only be losing their real cannon fodder, yet none of them would willing to go.

By the time the NPC soldiers had less than half of them left, someone amongst the army of 300,000 players had come out.

“A bunch of sore losers,” said that player. He was the guild master of a medium sized guild. Without waiting, he commands his own army of 50,000 players to charge into the battlefield.

“Look! A guild has taken the lead! Let’s go! Go!”

As soon as the mid-sized guild had taken the lead, the other pug players instantly followed behind. From afar, they looked like they were coming in an arrow formation…

Even though no one wants to be the cannon fodder, there were only 20 cannons in the convoy. If one guild that had taken the lead destroyed them all, there would be none left for the others. Being greedy to the core, they would not allow them to reap all the benefits to themselves.

“Stop,” said the guild master in his guild channel as soon as he had entered the attack range of Empyreal Dragon.

He had already predicted this. He had only wanted to give the impression that he will be taking the lead. Hence, when he saw that his plan was working, he stopped right at the crucial moments to let the other stupid player behind to charge in front of him!