Chapter 279: Encounter in the Canyon

Gana Continent, Central Desert, Twin-Tail Rift.

The red sun hung high, the world as scorching as a furnace!

Sand and wind whistled through the rift, whipping up layers of rolling yellow sand, as if playing the war drums in advance.

The great army of the Armored Dragon Kingdom was advancing slowly across the sand plains, pushing toward the Twin-Tail Rift like a black torrent.

One hundred thousand Armored Dragon warriors were arrayed in neat ranks; looking out, they resembled a long snake moving across the earth.

They wore vine armor embedded with obsidian shards, reflecting a piercing, cold light under the sun. Obsidian spears and greatswords were gripped in their hands, their serrated edges like the gaping maws of giant beasts, swaying back and forth with their marching steps like wild beasts grinding their teeth!

At the front of the formation marched the noble officers of the Armored Dragon Kingdom. Some wore gilded feather crowns, others had jade holy symbols hanging at their waists; their armor, besides being hung with obsidian plates, was adorned with shimmering gold threads and ornaments, as dazzling as an open treasury.

They strode with heads held high, their gazes full of arrogance and disdain, as if victory were already within their grasp.

And right at their very front, a dragon turtle draped in heavy armor moved slowly forward, and the knight on its back was none other than the leader of the Armored Dragon Kingdom's war generals—Bakaer.

He wore heavy armor, obsidian and gold interwoven into armor like giant dragon scales; his physique was as sturdy as a mountain, his face like rock carving, and war seals flickered between the scales, as if divine blood were flowing within his body.

"... Haha, General Bakaer, I dare to bet with you that the vermin of the Sand Ridge tribe have likely already been scared out of their wits upon hearing your name! Otherwise, they wouldn't still be cowering behind the dunes without showing a shadow by now."

Riding at the side of the dragon turtle, a noble war general straddling a short-legged dragon beamed with joy, his tone full of flattery.

"His Majesty the Holy King is still too cautious, to trouble you to take action for just these few vermin. If you ask me, there is no need for you to take the field yourself; you need only give a single order, and we can penetrate deep into the desert belly for you, chop off the heads of that group of color-changing freaks, and present them to you!"

"It has nothing to do with caution; this is His Majesty the Holy King's punishment for them, or rather, the divine punishment sent down by Lord Dragon God... Blood debts must be paid in blood. His Majesty the Holy King personally instructed me to wipe them from this land in the most cruel way possible."

Bakaer sneered, golden light flashing in his eyes like a predator, his tone cold as he spoke.

"Those low-class bugs wandering in the sand actually dared to slaughter my mission; it seems they think they have lived too long."

He looked down at the sand beneath his feet, making no effort to hide the killing intent in his words, as if he had already seen the enemy's heads paving the rift.

"I will wash the 'Matriarch's' skull clean, inlay it with gold edges, fill it with lead, and place it at the highest point of the Dragon God Temple, letting her watch with her own eyes how we ravage her clansmen... and all of this is because of her stupidity."

That noble laughed, the corners of his mouth curling upward, his teasing voice carrying a hint of obvious sycophancy.

"To be able to have one's skull placed at the highest point of the Dragon God Temple... for that bug, it can be considered an honor."

Bakaer let out a laugh, lifted his chin with immense heroism in his chest, then pulled the reins, standing high to overlook the vanguard, his clanging voice rolling like thunder.

"Warriors!"

"These traitors in the dunes have not only abandoned the ancient oath and colluded with foreign races from beyond the sea, but they also cruelly murdered our envoys!"

"Today, we will wash the rift clean with their blood, build a bone wall with their bones, and bring their Matriarch back to the Holy City—before the Dragon God, slice open her sinful heart!"

"Fight for the Holy King!"

"Fight for the Dragon God!"

The roar of the one hundred thousand Armored Dragon clansmen shook the firmament, and with the weapons shaking in their hands, it rose layer upon layer like waves, as if only this unstoppable obsidian torrent remained between heaven and earth.

Just at this moment, movement suddenly came from the vanguard scouting unit.

A scout riding a short-legged dragon galloped over, rushed to Bakaer's side, pulled the reins, and reported: "General, four figures of unknown identity have appeared in the sand dust ahead of the rift... they don't look like monsters from this land."

"Figures?"

Bakaer frowned, but that furrowed brow soon turned into a light laugh, his eyes carrying obvious mockery.

"Likely outsiders from beyond the sea," the noble riding the short-legged dragon beside Bakaer lifted his head arrogantly, his tone disdainful as he mocked, "It seems the Sand Ridge tribe colluded with those fellows long ago; it's likely they were the ones who led those people here!"

His words resonated with many noble warriors of the Armored Dragon Kingdom, and a wave of mocking laughter spread all around.

"Haha... it seems they are already impatient, wanting to go on a pilgrimage to the Dragon God Temple early."

"Should we fulfill their wish as soon as possible?"

"Better give them a quick death; their blood will only dirty the water of the Holy Lake."

Listening to the banter of the officers and men, the corners of Bakaer's mouth also curled into a cold smile.

He shook the sand off his cloak, his tone cold and arrogant as he spoke.

"No matter who they are, anyone who dares to block our path will have only one road: death!"

Having said that, he looked at the noble warrior beside him and gave the order.

"Youge, you take a team of light cavalry forward and bring me the heads of those four bugs!"

"As you command!" The noble warrior named Youge had eyes flashing with excitement; he drew the obsidian greatsword from his back, gripped the reins around the short-legged dragon's neck, and loudly accepted the order.

As the words fell, he raised the obsidian greatsword in his hand and shouted to the troops behind him.

Soon, more than ten short-legged dragon cavalrymen separated from the vanguard, like a long sword suddenly drawn from its sheath, wrapped in rolling sand, and charged toward those four figures a kilometer away!

Watching those four small figures getting closer, Youge, who was leaning low, couldn't help but lick the scales at the corner of his mouth, as if he had already tasted the flavor of blood from the whistling sand and wind.

Come on—

My great sword is already hungry and impatient!

Facing the whistling sand and wind, he roared excitedly in his heart.

Yet what he did not know was that the four little players looking at him from afar were even more excited and agitated at this moment, to the point that their swaying soul fire almost turned into soul rings, shooting out from their skulls.

"Holy crap!"

"This wind! This sand! This lizard!"

"It's simply freaking awesome, isn't it?!"

All three sentences were said by 【Zhu Tou Ren Qi】 alone... or rather, a lizard.

At this very moment, he was playing the role of a Gecko tribe lizardman, his class was a warrior, and he was carrying a long-handled battle axe, his temperament from head to toe perfectly matching his character setting.

As for the one standing beside him, it was naturally the 【Niu Tou Ren Zhan Shi】 brother playing a skeleton warrior, as well as 【Ye Zhiqiu】 as a skeleton mage and the undead rat assassin 【Hu Wan】.

They had been teaming up for a while since the server opened, and after teaming up for so long, they had become long-term teammates.

As for why they were here, it was naturally because of the mission to support the Sand Ridge tribe.

"To be honest, these special effects are truly awesome; the atmosphere of the big battlefield is perfectly set!" Hu Wan sighed in his heart, admiring the technical strength of the "Disaster OL" development team to the point of prostration.

"Indeed."

Ye Zhiqiu, holding a monocular telescope, also nodded, the soul fire in his skull flickering with excited light, whispering in a low voice while suppressing his agitated tone.

"... Tens of thousands of NPCs in the same frame, and the modeling of each NPC can actually achieve subtle differences. I'm now even starting to doubt whether this development team is from Earth."

Is this something science can achieve?!

Although he was not an expert in the relevant industry, he still had some understanding of the development of electronic hardware.

In this era of globalization, research in frontier fields is often in a state of 'you have me and I have you'; in such a situation, wanting to be half a step ahead of the industry is quite difficult, but wanting to be a whole step ahead is even harder than ascending to heaven!

And the technical power displayed by "Disaster OL" could no longer be described as being one or two steps ahead; it was at least a generational gap of ten or twenty steps!

In short, he could not describe the surprise in his heart with words.

Even though this was not the first time he had experienced the shock brought to him by this fully immersive VR game...

"My great blade is already hungry and impatient!" The pig-headed knight excitedly leveled the long-handled battle axe in his hand, licking his lips lewdly and saying, "Get ready to go, brothers! Remember to leave the one at the very front to me!"

"Don't get excited, we agreed we are the bait, don't scare the other side away as soon as we go up—"

Before Hu Wan finished the first half of his sentence, the pig-headed knight, unable to suppress his excitement, was already howling and swinging his battle axe to launch a charge toward the galloping cavalry.

Seeing this guy who didn't know life from death not only not running away but actually daring to charge toward him, Youge, riding the short-legged dragon, excitedly waved his reins, clutched his greatsword, and took the lead to kill him, swearing to take the first lizard head of this war.

It's just a pity—

He clearly underestimated the strength of the Gecko tribe lizardman warrior before him.

The pig-headed knight's level was already "Steel Grade Great Perfection," which converted to the "Saint General Peak" of the Gana Continent!

Considering the players' high-intensity combat experience, even clashing with the top combat power of the Gana Continent, "God General Grade Experts," was not a problem, let alone these few vanguard war general grade guys.

A mere Bronze grade thing—

It was simply too weak!

Go sit at the kids' table!

The pig-headed knight didn't treat this lizard in front of him as his "road to come" at all, howling as he swung his axe, using force to break skill, hard-smashing the obsidian greatsword in the hands of the leading noble warrior.

Looking at the broken obsidian shards in his hand, Youge was shocked, his face changed drastically, wanting to turn around but it was already too late; the whole lizard hit the incoming battle axe by inertia, and just like that, together with the short-legged dragon under his crotch, he was cut into two pieces!

Sizzle—!

Hot blood splashed wantonly, spraying onto the scorching sand, roasting out a sizzling sound.

Seeing their boss get a lunchbox in an instant, the dozen or so cavalrymen around were all panicked, pressing down on the restless and fearful short-legged dragons under them, not knowing what to do for a moment.

There was no time for them to hesitate.

Just at the moment they crossed paths with the pig-headed brother and their charging momentum stopped, black stone bullets were like a storm, covering them in an instant!

"Whoosh whoosh—!"

Cannonball-like stones pierced through the vine armor interspersed with obsidian and gold ornaments!

Pitter-patter sounds drifted out from the boiling dust, followed by flying flesh and blood mist!

More than ten Armored Dragon tribe cavalrymen died on the spot, not even having time to figure out what had happened.

Only a few frightened short-legged dragons ran out, still dragging the incomplete lizardman corpses on their backs...

"Holy crap! Do you want to kill me too?!"

Looking at Ye Zhiqiu raising his magic wand to cast a spell, the pig-headed knight, still shaken, couldn't help but scream.

Seeing this guy's useless appearance, the bull-headed warrior carrying a greatsword sneered and mocked.

"You think brother Ye is you? He aimed before shooting, okay."

Ye Zhiqiu smiled faintly, then took out two vials of potions from his waist and drank them.

The cold oil liquid slid down his spine and was then absorbed by his bones.

The effects of the two potions were to increase basic mana recovery speed and increase basic magic damage respectively.

After replenishing his buffs, he continued to chant spells while aiming the two-handed long staff in his hand at the mighty army ahead.

"Time to work."

Clearly, the other side was not scared by the strength they displayed, and that mighty army was still advancing in their direction.

The bait operation was still effective.

Although the opponent's weakness made their careful preparations seem a bit self-indulgent...

Seeing that the pig-headed brother hadn't ruined everyone's plan, Hu Wan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Drawing the two daggers hanging at his waist, the ghostly soul fire in his skull flickered, his gaze locked on the clumsy dragon turtle not far away, and the Armored Dragon tribe general on the dragon turtle's back.

Judging from the attitude of the prominent lizard nearby toward him, that guy should be the main general of this unit.

At worst, he was a high-ranking officer!

"I'll take the one leading the charge."

"Hmm."

Ye Zhiqiu nodded slightly, watching the figure galloping away, and swung the two-handed staff in his hand, aiming the spell's landing point behind the dragon turtle.

"Sharp rocks, listen to my summons, gather in the gale, and turn into a rainstorm that crushes everything!"

"Group·Falling Rock Spell—"

"Crush them!"

As that two-handed long staff swung down heavily, the stones driven by the gale were like a torrential downpour, pouring toward the front of the mighty Armored Dragon army!

Facing the sudden bombardment, the vanguard in the middle of marching was caught off guard, just like being hit by a round of slingshot volleys; hundreds of Armored Dragon soldiers were shot until their skin was torn and flesh was mangled, falling to the ground with serious injuries in pain.

Watching Youge suddenly die and the undead casting spells with a magic wand, Bakaer, riding on the dragon turtle's back, was both shocked and angry.

Especially the sudden rain of stone bullets made his heart jump, and he could only roar and give orders with a stiff scalp.

"Everyone—charge for me! Use your greatswords to smash their rotten bones, crush these four ants for me!"

Although he vaguely felt that these four guys of unknown origin were not easy to deal with, he had no choice at this moment but to rely on numerical superiority to crush them.

After all, his one hundred thousand strong army couldn't possibly turn around for these mere four people.

That would be a devastating blow to the dignity and morale of the Armored Dragon Kingdom!

Just as his words fell, a stone bullet whistled over and hit his personal guard beside him with a "whoosh."

That personal guard could be considered to have the strength of a soldier grade, yet in front of that stone bullet, he couldn't even block it; half of his body was smashed into a bloody mess, and he fell off the back of the short-legged dragon without even being able to let out a scream.

Watching his trusted personal guard die miserably in front of him, Bakaer was furious, looking at the skeleton mage holding the two-handed staff in the distance, wishing he could shoot flames from his eyes!

"I'm going to mince you!" He roared, pushing the dragon turtle under him to take steps forward.

Yet at this very moment, he didn't notice at all that a pair of cold eyes had already locked onto his neck...

The vanguard of the Armored Dragon Kingdom was in a mess, like scattered sand, charging toward the four figures standing in the rift.

The bull-headed warrior swung his greatsword to meet the enemy, hacking down more than ten Armored Dragon tribe soldiers in succession, the sand at his feet a bloody mess!

The pig-headed knight was the same, the long-handled battle axe in his hand swinging like the wind, hard-tearing a gap in the charging torrent, not letting the Armored Dragon tribe soldiers get even half a step closer.

Ye Zhiqiu was still casting spells calmly, creating as much chaos as possible for the vanguard of the Armored Dragon Kingdom, and pulling back while waiting for an opportunity... while letting the chaos spread to the rear, leading the vanguard into the burial ground they had long prepared for this group of lizards!

On the other side, on a half-hill near the Twin-Tail Rift, stood more than a dozen figures.

Among them were players from the Great Graveyard, as well as warriors and generals of the Sand Ridge tribe.

Although His Majesty the Demon King didn't take the one hundred thousand strong army of the Armored Dragon Kingdom to heart, this force was indeed a devastating disaster for the thin-numbered Sand Ridge tribe.

In order to keep these allies who still had use value from dying too quickly, Luo Yan sent a small devil player to cross mountains and ridges, arriving in the central desert area according to the map provided by the Sand Ridge tribe mission, and depicted a temporary teleportation array here, then sent over one hundred players from the Deadwood Port area who had accepted the mission to reinforce the Sand Ridge tribe.

Their mission was simple—

That was to stop the one hundred thousand strong army of the Armored Dragon Kingdom from continuing to advance at all costs!

Of course.

There were also players who planned to take advantage of this rare opportunity to test the new equipment developed recently.

For example, the Great Graveyard's famous "I Reckon" group.

At this very moment, a hand-cranked Gatling gun with a huge, clumsy volume and a strange structure but coarse-in-fine details was placed in front of 【Yi Kou Men Le Hua Xue Chi】, the bucket-like metal gun barrel emitting a chilling coldness.

There were a total of five Gatling guns deployed on the position, distributed in a fan shape along the edge of the hill, shaped like an inverted bowl!

The styling of this thing could only be described as retro, and there was no standard ammunition available, and the loading steps were even more cumbersome... but it was more than enough to bully a group of natives.

Looking at that strangely shaped tube, Kasa, the main general of the Sand Ridge tribe, shook her tail uneasily, her face full of confusion.

"What... is this?"

"A useful thing!"

Yi Kou Men Le Hua Xue Chi didn't explain, deliberately selling a mystery, his tone mysterious.

"You'll know how awesome this thing is in a while... by the way, remember to stand by and watch, don't get to the front."

Kasa swallowed a mouthful of saliva, her eyes full of blankness, nodding half-understandingly.

She only had three thousand warriors under her, and this was almost all the elite of the Sand Ridge tribe.

Although she didn't want to gamble with the lives of her subordinates and the future of the tribe, the great army of the Armored Dragon Kingdom was right in front of her.

At this point, she could only trust this undead who didn't look very reliable...

Watching the Armored Dragon tribe army getting closer, the Sand Ridge tribe warriors crawling on the sand all broke into a sweat, praying silently in their hearts, nervously waiting for the upcoming decisive battle.

Brother Yi Kou was not nervous at all, unhurriedly greeting the cheap-hired newbies to take their posts and hold their guns, while he himself lay behind a gun barrel, tilting the muzzle slightly upward, ready for the shooting.

Seeing the murderous Armored Dragon soldiers enter the shooting range, he, who had long been unable to suppress his excitement, immediately shouted excitedly, and at the same time tried his best to turn the wheel handle in his hand.

"Brothers! The moment to offer loyalty to His Majesty the Demon King has arrived!"

"Shake it hard for me!"

"Howl howl howl!!!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 280 =====