"Boss, your rival just hit the jackpot!"
Bun_Immortal clutched his bleeding head, swinging his bastard sword with one hand as he fought and retreated.
Fate was a funny thing. Just as the other player mercenary companies were enjoying their first night outside Pentos, the two arch-rivals, Storm_Dominator (Lin Yan) and Nebula_Breaker (Ming Yu), were attacked by bandits almost simultaneously.
While the Heroes Guild had successfully repelled a small group of mounted bandits, Nebula_Breaker's Thunder Hall was having a much harder time. Facing a dark mass of at least two or three hundred bandits, the Second Young Master Ming wanted to curse the developers.
He only had thirty men. If the players couldn't respawn, their camp would have been overrun in the first wave.
"Ah! By the Gods!" A ferocious bandit swinging an iron cleaver suddenly turned pale. The young man whose neck he had personally snapped just moments ago was standing up again. The corpse, with its neck twisted at a grotesque angle and spurting blood, stared dead at him.
Thuck!
Player Ghost_Rider drove his longsword through the bandit's pitiful leather armor without resistance.
At the same time, the bandits of the "Blood Axe Brotherhood" attacking the camp began to realize with horror that the enemies they had clearly killed were standing up again just moments later.
As the Guild Leader, Nebula_Breaker noticed this too and slapped his forehead. "I forgot about this advantage!"
"Brothers! Show them the power of the Undead Legion!" Nebula_Breaker roared, throwing his hand axe. It whistled through the air and embedded itself in the forehead of a bandit frozen in fear.
"Die!" A bandit thrust his iron sword into a player's chest, roaring to mask the fear beneath his ferocious expression.
But after a moment of silence, the player raised his head again. He grabbed the sword embedded in his chest with one hand, revealing a creepy smile as his lifeless eyes stared coldly at the bandit.
"Ah! Gods forgive my sins!"
The usually ruthless bandit's mental defenses shattered. He turned and fled in panic, crying out to the gods. He swore that if he escaped this battlefield, he would never be a bandit again.
Thuck!
Player Paradox_Gamer_Did_Nothing_Wrong, moving like the Stranger himself, chased the bandit down and hacked him to death with a wood-splitting axe.
The tide of battle turned in just a few breaths.
Realizing the NPC AI was comparable to real humans, the players lit torches so the bandits could clearly see them being killed and then standing up again.
Doro, the leader of the Blood Axe Brotherhood, known for his cruelty in Ghoyan Drohe, trembled as he watched. His men, who had been slaughtering the enemy moments ago, were now being cut down like stray dogs by demons crawling out of hell.
"Run!"
They weren't elite soldiers to begin with. These bandits were used to bullying the weak and fighting easy battles. Faced with the insane, fearless—and literally unkillable—players of Thunder Hall, the two or three hundred bandits scattered like birds.
Doro, riding a nag, knew his power was gone. A wolf who couldn't lead the pack to meat usually met a miserable end.
Desperate to survive, Doro spurred his old horse and fled in the opposite direction of his men.
Unfortunately, trying to hide in the darkness, Doro was quickly spotted by the hounds circling the camp. Responding to the Beastmasters' commands, the dogs whined and rushed forward, dragging Doro off his horse.
"Get away! Damn you!" Doro screamed hoarsely, trying to scare off the hounds tearing at his flesh.
But it didn't work. Even after one hound tore out his throat, the others showed no sign of leaving. Like hyenas on the savannah, they tore the Blood Axe's body to shreds.
"Ptooey!"
Nebula_Breaker, missing two fingers from an axe blow, stepped on a corpse and addressed his brothers. "We got careless this time. You guys fought hard. I'll send Red Packets in the group chat after we log off."
"Long live the Boss!"
"Boss is generous!"
The players, who had lost an average of two lives each, were excited but exhausted. Their cheers were weak.
[ SERVER ANNOUNCEMENT ]
> Guild: Thunder Hall has become the second team to defeat bandits.
> Rewards: All members receive 1 Iron Chest and 10 Kingdom Coins. Guild Leader Nebula_Breaker receives 5 Iron Chests and 25 Kingdom Coins.
"Tsk. Second place rewards are halved compared to the first place!" Nebula_Breaker was clearly dissatisfied with the second-place prize. But it was loot they fought for, and even mosquito legs were meat.
He ordered Vice Guild Leader Bun_Immortal to lead the cleanup while he stood there opening chests.
[ You have obtained: 1 Free Respawn. ]
Better than nothing. Nebula looked at the others. Seeing that most only pulled mediocre weapons, he muttered that the battle was a net loss.
After gathering the scrap metal left by the bandits as spare weapons, Nebula dragged over the old nag Doro had ridden and tried to figure out how to ride it.
In real life, the Ming Family scion had driven plenty of luxury supercars, but riding a horse? That was a first for the city boy.
---
Midday Sun.
Riding the old nag, Nebula_Breaker led his Thunder Hall brothers to a village, intending to negotiate for lodging.
Coincidentally, they ran into his arch-rival Storm_Dominator riding out of the village.
Upon contact, they realized that they hadn't been far apart the previous night. The two groups had been traveling on converging paths and finally met at this village.
"Old Lin, interested in merging our forces? We can take the lion's share of this mission together."
Usually, Nebula_Breaker would insult Lin Yan every chance he got. But now, barely a few sentences into the conversation, he threw his arm around Lin Yan's shoulder with a shameless grin that was hard to look at.
Storm_Dominator resisted, shuffling sideways. He used the excuse of taking a bowl of bread soup from a peasant woman to put more distance between himself and Nebula.
"Hey, don't ignore me. Divided we are weak, united we are strong. Aren't you curious about what kind of goodies might drop from the Silver Chest at the end of the mission?" Nebula scooted closer again when Lin Yan ignored him.
The moment he saw his rival's team, he decided he had to stick to them like glue.
His Thunder Hall was nearly wiped out by a bunch of bandits last night, and they weren't even that far from Pentos yet.
Given the Fireboy's nature, kills probably wouldn't count towards the final settlement unless they reached the designated location.
Most of his men had used up their two free respawns and were relying on Kingdom Coins to revive now. To be safe, he had to join forces with Lin Yan, even if he had to be shameless about it.
At least Lin Yan had scouts on horseback.