MMORPG: Rebirth of the Legendary Guardian

Wei Yan Er was rolling on the floor, laughing. She was completely out of breath, and she leaned against Sun Xin Yu1, clutching her stomach as she continued laughing silently, her mouth twitching wordlessly.

On the contrary, the people of Imperial Sky had turned as white as snow. Some of them looked as though they were about to get sick!

Fire Fountain was regarded as being second only to One Sword Stroke, a masterful player whose looks could be compared to the pretty boy, Blooming Ichor! Having brought in by One Sword Stroke to become an irreplaceable asset of the party, not only was he superb in managing his damage output, he shone best in PK battles!

But for such a superb player to die by the hands of of an idiotic healer who does nothing but heal herself while leaving all the work to {Putrefying Poison}? Anyone’s pride would be ripped to shreds!

Fire Fountain was still struggling to stay alive, constantly moving around the area while manipulating the 30 meter range rule, but Han Ying Xue had already suffered once and had learned from it. Currently all she did was to refresh the {Putrefying Poison} DoT on her opponent while keeping her HP constantly refilled!

‘-721!’

As the effect of the [Magician’s Brooch] had already faded, Han Ying Xue reverted to her regular magic damage. The damage of {Putrefying Poison} which kicked in every three seconds had been reduced to 700 points, but 15 seconds was enough to inflict an approximate damage of 3600 on Fire Fountain.

{Putrefying Poison} kicked in once again. It didn’t require any targeting at all on the part of the caster. Even if Fire Fountain ducked and roll, activated a 30 meter, or a 31 meter long ranged spell, nothing prevented the Poison from kicking in.

30 seconds later, the {Putrefying Poison} was triggered for one last time, causing a damage of ‘-752!’, Fire Fountain’s final humiliating struggle to keep his last drop health points came to an end, and he crumpled, dead on the ground. A pair of Gray-Silver gloves fell to the ground which was instantly picked up by a member of the Imperial Sky. Meanwhile, Han Ying Xue activated a {Brilliant Light}, her health back at its full state!

”Wow, cousin sister is mighty!” Wei Yan Er was still guffawing like a drunken old man.

Fatty Han and the rest were also showering her with endless praise. A healer killing anyone in battle was unheard of, and with full HP too, to add on to that.

Soul Striker of the Imperial Sky quickly revived Fire Fountain. Their party members were looking sickly, avoiding eye contact. Fire Fountain looked like one of the spectre-type monsters. He was dying for another round with Han Ying Xue. It had really been too embarrassing and depressing for him to lose like that!

Fire Fountain is a person who can accept failures, but to lose to Han Ying Xue in such manner, he wanted to bang his head against the wall just thinking of it!

But he also knew that even if he was given another chance, he would still be poisoned to death, it was inevitable as the difference in magic damage between the two of them was just too much. Furthermore, the opponent was a terrific healer, with loads of HP restoring skills! He could not help himself but to suspect, that even if both of them had the same magic damage output, would he stand a chance after all?

The second round had ended, but the two players from the first round were still playing hide and seek with each other!

One Sword Stroke stepped forward atop his Battle Wolf, and he said, ”Brother Zhan Yu, let’s get started!”

Zhang Yang laughed evenly, riding on his Whitey and said, ”Bring it on, let us have a good fight!”

The fellow members of the Imperial Sky had their uttermost faith in One Sword Stroke at securing his win of this battle at the beginning, but after seeing Zhang Yang producing a mount of his own, they figured that the opposition also possessed a Battle Mount. It diminished their hopes, but One Sword Stroke was still their leader!

”It isn’t capturing a Gray-Silver battle mount, Zhan Yu’s Battle Mount must be a Green-Copper grade, or even a Black-Steel! Can’t you see how lethargic that white bear is? It’s such a lazy animal!” the gang tried to comfort themselves, coming up with whatever reason they could come up with.

The two opponents locked eyes, sizing each other up. Nobody moved.

In a short period of 3 seconds, Zhang Yang initiated the first attack of the battle. Whitey let loose a loud roar, charging straight towards One Sword Stroke.

20 meters, 15 meters, 10 meters!

{Wild Charge}!

Whitey was charging like a stream of meteorite, rushing at the Battle Wolf at blinding speed!

In an instant, the body of the Battle Wolf suddenly flew into action. A miniature sonic boom formed as exploded off the ground at high speed, moving 3 meters to the side, evading the charge attack of Whitey!

”Impressive!” Zhang Yang was praising his opponent from the bottom of his heart. Although both of them did not have any knowledge on the attributes of their opposition’s Battle Mounts, they were able to obtain certain extent of understanding by comparing the Battle Mounts to the monsters they were apparently derived from. Therefore, One Sword Stroke had deduced that Whitey possessed some sort of {Charge} skill, and had used ‘Agility of the Wild’ to counter it.

[Agility of the Wild]: Increases movement speed by 50%, last for 5 seconds. Cool down time: 30 seconds. Consume: 20 focus points.

This was a universal skill, possessed by any wolf type, leopard type, tiger type and lion type monsters!

Both of them wielded their battle axes and charged forward!

Missed!

Missed!

Zhang Yang and One Sword Stroke were both currently mounted, so they avoided each other’s attack at a greatly increased speed! Normal attacks were easily telegraphed and anticipated. Zhang Yang for instance must pull his axe back before he can swing it out in an attack!

Weapons with a longer time interval of attacking will be far slower and cumbersome, as their wielders needed to gain inertia by swinging such weapons back before they could be swung towards the enemy! On the contrary, lighter and shorter weapons such as daggers can stab a person in the blink of an eye, without any warning signs!

An attack from a heavy weapon was easy to read, with the movements basically being exaggerated! For Zhang Yang and One Sword Stroke, dodging enemy players’ normal attacks were just a walk in the park!

Everything came down to their respective in-game skills now!

Skills had no signs that gave them away prior to activation, as long as all the criteria to activate a skill were ready, players could just activate them and use their skills. Speed, that was one of the many advantages of using a skill! Some Skills even have an auto targeting system, making it impossible for players to dodge even if they intended to!

{Blood Rage}!

Instantly boosted with 30 rage points, Zhang Yang now 36 rage points in total.

One Sword Stroke had realized that Zhang Yang was definitely a master level player, as evidenced by how he evaded his normal attack, so he too immediately activated his {Blood Rage}.

The two guild leaders were on a collision course once again.

{Block}! +30 Rage points.

{Block}! +30 Rage points.

‘-0!’

‘-0!’

With both of them activating {Block} at the same instant, they successfully defended themselves. The reflective damage from {Block} on the other hand, was like a gnat trying to penetrate their defenses! Both players made the decision not to activate {Shield Bash} as the damage would be negated nevertheless!

The sheer speed of their mounts had sent them on an impasse, and they broke off, heading in opposite directions!

What an opponent!

With both parties know that the other had {Block}, they used {Cripple Defense} which not only consumed a negligible amount of rage points and only had one second of cool down to trick their opponent into using {Block}.

Shoof, both of them circled around to face each other again, and similar to jousting knights, they charged at each other again.

{Blast Wave}!

{Blast Wave}!

The similarity of their tactics was eerie. Both of them had been sent into stunned states. As the moment passed however, Zhang Yang and One Sword Stroke both used {Warrior’s Will} to recover, and they once again charged towards each other.

‘-4600!’ Zhang Yang ‘s {Destructive Smash}, critical attack!

‘-2040!’ Zhang Yang’s {Horizontal Sweep}!

‘-3508!’ One Sword Stroke’s {Destructive Smash}, critical attack!

‘-0!’ One Sword Stroke’s {Force Strike}!

The differences between skills and equipment of the two had been revealed immediately!

Zhang Yang had a defense of 920 and a damage absorption attribute of 930, while One Sword Stroke only had a Gray-Silver shield, a defense of 600 and a damage absorption attribute of 600! Furthermore, Zhang Yang had {Eagle Eye} to ignore another 300 defense!

One Sword Stroke was shocked! The superiority of his opponent’s equipment had exceeded his expectations!

Turning their respective mounts around once again, they charged!

The bear and the wolf passed by each other, but there was something different happening this time round! Zhang Yang suddenly made a sharp U-turn, demonstrating masterful control of the bear, following the tail of One Sword Stroke!

How, how did he do that?

Spectators form both sides were all stunned speechless! Just like real life, when a large object carrying a lot of momentum is stopped abruptly, it must then pause to regain its balance before heading in another direction. However, Zhang Yang had immediately turned a complete 180 degrees, as smoothly as a water stream, it was almost magical to look at!

Zhang Yang smiled vaguely, that was a specially designed skill -- {Backspin Step} -- just for Battle Mounts. Simply put, it does magical things to his inertia! This is a skill that all ground-based Battle Mounts must learn. However, in his past life, players would only discover skill half a year from now on, eventually becoming a staple part of Battle Mounted combat!

Tailing the ass of One Sword Stroke, Zhang Yang immediately pulled out his axe and started swinging, while Whitey could only use one of its thick and sturdy paws to slash at the rear of the Battle Wolf’s leg.

One Sword Stroke was racked between shock and intrigue at that moment, as he could not comprehend how Zhang Yang had managed to stick to his ass in such a manner! Still, there was a time and place for everything. All he could do was to focus on shaking Zhang Yang off his ass! But no matter where he turned, where he feinted, he still could not get rid of Zhang Yang! During the entire time, his graciously offered back was being hacked at!

After being sliced and diced by Zhang Yang for over 20 seconds, the health points of One Sword Stroke had sharply decreased from 19,000 points to only 5000 points. Finally, his pet mount’s {Agility of the Wild} had cooled down. He quickly activated it, and with a shoof, he finally managed to leap forward a great distance, getting away from Zhang Yang’s tailgating!

{Wild Charge}!

10 meters away from One Sword Stroke, Whitey instantly caught up. Checkmate!

One Sword Stroke did not have eyes on the back of his head. Under normal circumstances, he could have evaded the charge. A sudden slam from a certain white bear stunned him for a full second.

{Shield Wall}!

{Berserker’s Heal}!

‘+4992!’

One Sword Stroke was finally forced to activate his life-saving skills, but the negative effect of the {Destructive Smash} had reduced his healing effect by 75%!

The members of Imperial Sky still harbored hope that their great leader would still best his counterpart. But as the battle progressed, their faces were ashen white. It wasn’t a duel. It was a predator toying with its prey. Their glorious leader, One Sword Stroke was being toyed around like a cat playing around with a half-dead rat!

... this Zhan Yu, was the real deal! Their guildmaster, who could easily out maneuver them to their deaths without taking a single hit was actually tasting his own medicine now? This was really astonishing!

Slice and dice!

Zhang Yang did not hold back at all. He finished off his prey in no time at all.

The Battle Wolf wailed for a final moment, before instantly turning into a stream of blood-colored light which streamed into One Sword Stroke’s backpack. One Sword Stroke himself crumpled to the ground with an audible ‘Pak’, and he stayed dead on the ground. A pair of silver boots popped out of his corpse, quietly lying right beside its dead owner.

Well, it cannot be helped. Zhang Yang possessed the experience in terms of controls, tactics and awareness that exceeded even the existence of the game. He had several years of headstart. Furthermore, his equipment and skills also outclassed his opponent’s! If he did not manage to take out his opponent cleanly and easily, he should be embarrassed of himself!

It was another loss!

The members of Imperial Sky were crestfallen. Now, they only could ask for Blooming Ichor to try bringing credit to them by scoring a point, in order to avoid scoring a ‘duck egg’ (zero) against three, losing in a manner they will not be able to accept!

However, even that was too much to ask for!

Suddenly!

The shadow of Blooming Ichor was suddenly revealed from his stealth state, but there was a bunch of stars spinning around above his head, it was a stun state after having been {Ambush}!

Sun Xin Yu had also revealed herself right after that, consecutively wielding her two daggers with murderous intent. She carved out petals of blood from Blooming Ichor’s back. Right after {Ambush} ended, she activated {Kidney Shot} and continued to slice and dice without any signs of stopping!

The health bar plummeted straight down, and in just 10 seconds, Blooming Ichor lay dead!

At the same moment, Soul Striker had just resurrected One Sword Stroke! {Resurrection} had a 5 minute cool down, but they could only rely on other players with {Redemption} to rescue the others.

Three battles, three loses!

The members of the Imperial Sky were putting up their dull face, as they did not foresee the out come, not at all! To loose in such a bad manner!

One Sword Stroke indeed possessed the characteristic of a leader of one of the strongest parties in China Region, as they would have been in another future! He smiled brightly and said, ”Brother Zhan Yu certainly lives up to his reputation! I have learned much, I hope to learn more in the future! Let’s move!”

He tore a teleportation scroll up in that instant, without any signs of sloppiness. He indeed possessed the aura of an Ace!

As the remaining members of the Imperial Sky tore up their teleportation scrolls one after another, they gazed determinedly upon Lone Desert Smoke. They will have their rematch soon!

Shoof shoof shoof, as streams of white light passed through, members of the Imperial Sky were all teleported away from the scene.

”Cheh! So that’s all they were capable of, daring to claim being the second strongest guild in China Region!” Fatty Han spoke in contempt.

”That’s right! Absolutely right!” Wei Yan Er nodded to express her agreement, ”Noob tank is really a bad boy, not letting me join a fight when there is one!”

Zhang Yang smiled and said, ”Fine, fine, you will be the first to go up front when there is a fight in the future!” Wei Yan Er was instantly appeased.

Looking at the spot where One Sword Stroke disappeared, Zhang Yang could not help but admire the man, as he thought to himself, One Sword Stroke had remained composed throughout the entire course of events, never revealing his thoughts or intentions. Although he had suffered a disastrous loss, but he had not been shaken by it, he was indeed a strong opponent!

What advantage Zhang Yang had over other players were his additional five years of experience and understanding towards the game. But with time set in motion, that difference will only grow shorter and shorter! Other players will quickly improve with time, while he was highly limited in his room for learning!

Sun Xin Yu walked back up to him, giving Zhang Yang a scornful stare.

Zhang Yang smiled a little and said, ”No one is bothering us now, let’s clean out the remaining monsters and get ready to battle the boss!”

The gang was divided into two teams. With Zhang Yang and Endless Starlight leading each of the teams respectively, they quickly rounded up the monsters from both sides, clearing out every single monster on the third floor of the altar. It was fortunate that the size of the altar was just like the size of a football2. In just half an hour, the two teams had already met up with each other halfway through their routes. All that remained were the boss and 10 elite grade worshippers around it!

”Starlight, you shall be in charge of kiting those 10 elite monsters, will that be a problem for you?” Zhang Yang asked Endless Starlight.

”No problemo!” Endless Starlight answered, pounding his chest.

”Alright, when the battle begins, I will kite the boss, Starlight will lead the monsters away. After you guys take them out, come help me! Show him your worst!”

1. We are aware that Sun Xin Yu was supposed to be engaged in her own battle against Blooming Ichor at that point, but it is what it says. We simply translated it.

2. Size of a football: Author is trying to emphasize the size is very small, in a hyperbolic way.