Chapter 342 – Launching a Sneak Attack
Nie Yan commanded Lil’ Gold and the three Zombie Foremen to approach from a relatively safe path with plenty of cover to avoid detection.
None of the players noticed Nie Yan’s presence since they were too preoccupied with the Zombie Overseer. It sent a large portion of the frontline flying with every sweep of its giant machete. However, there were already Spectral Knights on standby to plug in the breach with impeccable coordination. It appeared they were quite experienced fighting this boss.
Many guilds hunted a Lord multiple times to farm for rare drops or parts of a set. They would station players to level nearby and wait for it to respawn, which usually took a day or two, after which a team would be dispatched to kill it.
Asskickers United also followed this method to farm Lords. With Bladelight, Lofty Shadow, Yi Yan, and the other powerful Fighters each leading a team, their efficiency was phenomenal.
Nie Yan wondered which guild this group of players belonged to. When he saw the dark eagle crest on their chests, his mind trembled. It was the emblem of Fallen Angel, the top guild in Necropolis City, which was the capital of the Undead Empire! He had learned about them during his research. Their guild leader was a Dark Incantist called Plenty, a master of curses and black magic and a hegemon of the Underworld!
Controlling Necropolis City was tantamount to ruling the entire Undead Empire. This absolutely wasn’t an exaggeration. Despite having over 31 cities in total, over 35% of the Undead Empire’s population was concentrated in Necropolis City. Guilds that rivalled Fallen Angel could be counted on one hand.
Due to the limited interaction between the Righteous Faction and Evil Faction, players rarely paid attention to what happened outside of their respective sides, with only a few guild leaders receiving the occasional update. Nie Yan’s knowledge of Fallen Angel was limited. And since the sources of his information were difficult to confirm, it was hard to judge their authenticity.
Nie Yan would be attracting the ire of Fallen Angel by ambushing this group. After thinking for a moment, he decided to go through with it. Their paths weren’t likely to cross again. He would probably end up somewhere else the next time he opened the Dark Portal. His goal for coming to the Underworld was simply to stock up on equipment which increased Night Vision. He would be leaving after five days anyways. Although Fallen Angel was powerful, it would be incredibly difficult for them to kill him, especially in this dark environment which bolstered his stealthing abilities even further.
As for the quests related to the Underworld, Nie Yan didn’t plan on attempting them yet. Their difficulty was simply too high for the current him.
Nie Yan no longer hesitated. The Zombie Foremen and Lil’ Gold were in position. He waited for the perfect opportunity to strike.
At this moment, the Zombie Overseer’s health fell to 5%. Its skin started changing into a peculiar black colour.
“The Zombie Overseer is enraged! Be careful! Casters, spread out!” Dark shouted. As soon as he gave the command, the nearby casters fanned out and took up suitable vantage points to cast spells from.
“Casters, maintain your damage!”
“Blood Scar, lock down its foot!”
After the Zombie Overseer became enraged, the frontline almost instantly collapsed. With a single kick, it sent several Spectral Knights flying. As it started moving towards the casters, a Spectral Knight clad in black armour charged forward and intercepted its foot.
After encountering an obstacle, the Zombie Overseer chopped down with its machete on the Spectral Knight called Blood Scar.
Blood Scar quickly raised his shield to block.
A shower of spells bombarded the Zombie Overseer’s body.
The casters were tensely firing their magic.
These players were dealing with the Zombie Overseer quite methodically. Without any outside interference, they could easily kill it.
Dark had a look of anticipation on his face. Blood Scar executed his orders flawlessly. Victory was right around the corner!
However, something completely unexpected occured. Three Zombie Foremen suddenly came barrelling towards them when they were in the middle of fighting the enraged Zombie Overseer. They swung down their hammers and took down a Dark Shaman each.
“Shit! Zombie Foremen!”
“Warriors! Get the Warriors to stop them!”
The group descended into panic.
Dark was taken aback. Prior to engaging the Zombie Overseer, he had personally seen to it that all the Zombie Foremen in the vicinity were cleared, so what hole did these three crawl out from? Not to mention their emergence was simply too abrupt! There was no time to react at all when they charged out of the darkness! Even stranger was them coordinating perfectly to take out three Dark Shamans at once. He felt his blood run cold. The chances of his team wiping increased significantly for every Dark Shaman that died.
Everything happened too quickly!
“Warriors, intercept them!” Dark quickly ordered his summoned undead to charge toward the Zombie Foremen.
The Zombie Foremen pounced toward the six remaining Dark Shamans, who scattered in every direction.
A silhouette emerged behind one of the fleeing Dark Shamans. He felt a searing heat as a blade shrouded in black flames appeared around his neck.
Cut Throat! A cold light flashed as Zennarde’s Sword streaked across the Dark Shaman’s throat.
The Dark Shaman wore an expression of disbelief before collapsing dead to the ground. His staff was half-raised in preparation to activate Life Barrier. A pity he was a beat too late.
Nie Yan’s critical hit instantly killed the Dark Shaman.
Dark happened to witness this scene. He was briefly dazed before shouting out, “It’s that human Thief! Catch him!” He waved his staff and cast Shadow Bind.
The shadows around him shot out toward Nie Yan.
Nie Yan activated Gale Step to avoid the Shadow Bind, then melted back into the darkness, disappearing in front of Dark’s eyes.
Dark was surprised his spell missed. For this fellow to have survived in the Underworld for this long, even after stirring up so much trouble, he definitely wasn’t normal.
“Be careful of his sneak attacks!” Just as he gave out the warning, he suddenly felt the magical energy in the atmosphere violently fluctuate. He scanned his surroundings and spotted Lil’ Gold hidden in the darkness. Less than half his body was visible. It was next to impossible to spot him in such a chaotic situation. However, it was already too late. Lil’ Gold finished chanting Meteor Drop.
A giant blazing meteor lit up the sky, crashing down towards the players.
“It’s an area-of-effect spell. Everybody, run!”
Piercing screams rang out from the crowd. The panicking players scattered outward, but even the fastest of them couldn’t outrun a falling meteor.
「Bang!」Flames splashed in every direction.
Everything in a 20 meter radius was engulfed in a raging inferno.
Pitiful wails sounded out within the blazing region but were soon cut short. Everyone within the blast radius was dead.
Glory Kill! You have obtained 3 Glory for killing an enemy civilian.
Glory Kill! You have obtained 5 Glory for killing an enemy civilian.
…
Nie Yan glanced through the notification log. Over 20 players had died.
However, since the Meteor Drop hadn’t touched the Zombie Overseer, its aggro was still firmly locked on the remaining Fallen Angel players.
“Retreat! Everybody, retreat!” Dark screamed after seeing the situation getting out of his control.
The surviving players scattered like rats.
Seeing his comrades hastily retreating, Blood Scar also gave up on fighting the Zombie Overseer and quickly pulled back. However, how could the Zombie Overseer allow him to leave just like that? It delivered a powerful kick to his shield with unmatched momentum and sent him flying away.
Blood Scar flew out for over 10 meters before crashing into the ground. He staggered back to his feet, with only a sliver of health separating him between life and death. Unfortunately, the Dark Shamans were running for their lives. They had no time for him.
A silhouette suddenly emerged behind Blood Scar.
Blood Scar was alarmed. He tried to swing around and guard with his shield. But his opponent’s movements were too quick. Before he could even comprehend what happened, his vision blanked as he felt a sharp pain in his back.
At Level 47 with the full Dark Aegis Set, Blood Scar was among the top three Spectral Knights in Fallen Angel. This was quite impressive considering the number of talents in Fallen Angel was no less than in Asskickers United. His reaction speed was top-notch. It was a pity he encountered Nie Yan.
After being kicked by the Zombie Overseer, Blood Scar had been inflicted with a dizzy status effect. His Reflex and Speed were at rock bottom. Every small move was difficult. Even if he was a godly player, it would still be impossible for him to guard himself in this situation.
Nie Yan had an accurate grasp of the overall situation. He naturally wouldn’t pass on such an easy target, especially when it was the enemy’s main tank.
Nie Yan appeared behind Blood Scar and delivered a precise blow to the back of the head with Smothering Strike, then followed up with Backstab and Lacerate, shaving away the remainder of his health.
Blood Scar collapsed to the ground and dropped a black greatshield when he died.
With an expression of pleasant surprise on his face, Nie Yan picked up the shield and put it away in his bag.
