Old Meredith clearly appeared doubtful towards what the Players were saying, convinced that they were bragging away.
However, he didn’t do anything in the end when he saw that his granddaughter was standing by the Players, merely sighing lengthily before shambling to the side to give way. While this place here were accessible from all sides and the Players would be able to enter the cavern reaching into the Deep Wall Stratum, the old man’s gesture showed that he trusted the Players.
And with him giving the way, the net of light that had been blocking the crater crumbled and disappeared. The monsters that had been kept beneath it hence rushed out at once, giving the impression that it was a black, oppressive wave!
A closer look would reveal that those monsters came in many different sizes, but there were only two that really threatened the Players.
One was the horse-sized monsters that were pitch-black like crows that were rather numerous.
Where their heads should have been were chunks of flesh that keep wiggling away, just as the belly had plenty bird heads embedded on it. The eyes on those heads were opening and closing too, their beaks crying out and clearly working normally.
Looking carefully, the name above those creatures’ HP Bar would show its name: Nine-headed Bird.
According to the old man, the Nine-headed Birds were creatures native to the Deep Wall Tunnel and commonly found in it.
“One, two, three, four… there really are nine heads…” Joe muttered after counting the bird heads.
On the other hand, the other creature was massive as a double-decker bus and resembled the love child between a massive Megalograptus and a Anomalocaris, a steel-green weird insect that soars freely in the air.
But what puzzled the Players was that the monster that should be called a ‘XX bug’ or a ‘XX beast’ was named ‘Sky High’.
It also turned out that the Sky Highs were visitors from the Dark Sky Stratum and the most unstable element at the moment. Back when they used to show up on the Faint Crystal Stratum, every autonomous weapon would focus fire on those monsters.
“There are around forty Nine-headed Birds and three Sky Highs…”
Gou Dan quickly take a count of the enemy numbers and informed the others.
“I’ll grab the attention of the Nine-headed birds, the rest of you clear off the Nine-headed Birds first.” Edward promptly made a decision, raising his hand to summon a Blackfire Dragon-he was the only Player who could fly around freely after all.
“Bring me along,” Mufasa said, leaping on the dragon’s back as well in his pink flatfish head mask. “Attacking from above would be more effective.”
Hence, the other players prepared to fight off the monsters as told.
While Old Meredith had entrusted everything to the Players with his silent approval, he did not actually leave, and watched the fight from the distance.
Moments later, the only lanky automaton that the old man had left appeared beside him.
“How was it?” The old man asked.
“Unbelievable…” The automaton replied. “Aside from several long-range units, the rampaging automatons are all indiscriminately destroyed.”
“What?!” The old man frowned—he had been fighting against the rampaging automatons and knew very well that they were no trash that could be destroyed by just anyone, and were quite powerful (or he wouldn’t have just two automatons left). Worse still, normal attacks wouldn’t even tickle those rampaging automatons…
But now, these believers of some unknown good who could easily destroy them in seconds might be more powerful than the old man imagined
What if he asked Edward and the others whether it was happy to believe in the God of Games and becoming a Player?
They would answer with utmost solemnness and sincerity: You would never imagine how happy we are!
“Moving shot! Pierce! Poison! Nature’s course! Full buffs, and here’s Multi Chain Shot!”
Gou Dan had opened his AWM and changed his crossbow to gatling mode, its bolts now smoking with blue fire and its bullets easily piercing steel skins!
The Nine-headed Birds that noticed the Players’ presence and was about to come for their meal did not even have the time to react when they were blasted into fried chicken. Their mushy bodies (compared to dragons) were easily pierced by the crossbow bolts, which in turn stayed on their wounds to rapidly grow into buds while absorbing the creatures’ lifeforce, rendering the hosts immobile while vines soon covered their bodies.
The poison laced on the bolts would then directly extinguish the last traces of life in the Nine-headed Bird, melting its corpse into stinking yellow pus!
In fact, the Nine-headed Birds were mostly cleared away before the others could move, with black feathers drifting across the air like snow.
Mufasa, seeing that he might not have a chance to kill some monsters if he didn’t act, took aim at one particular Nine-headed Bird which was flying quite high and leapt off the Blackfire Dragon, stabbing his blade into the chunk of flesh which was supposed to be its head. Then, using it as a jump pad, he would leap twice to blindside another Nine-headed Bird, and then leaping to another new target – dispatching five Nine-headed Birds before landing!
But compared to the other players who were having an easy time, Edward was having problems on his end.
When he first saw the Sky Highs drifted out of the crater, Edward had assumed that those shell creatures that looked like steel juggernauts would move very slowly. He therefore decided to rely on his dragon’s mobility to keep them occupied, or kill them if the opportunity presents itself.
And yet, when Edward flew past one of the Sky Highs and they noticed him, their speed increased by a hundred flow, darting so rapidly that Edward could not see them at all aside from massive black blurs!
In several exchanges, the Blackfire Dragon had a hole in its chest and missing feet. If it had been a real creature and not something Edward fashioned out of flames, it would probably have been dead!
It was therefore fortunate that Edward wasn’t fighting alone-after clearing off the Nine-headed Birds and the other abnormal small fry, the other players all came to his aid.
And the greatest support was still Eleena.
After all, Mufasa can’t fly and catch up to the Sky Highs even if he could clearly see their movements. Likewise, Edward could fly and could set traps with the flames he could summon as a Skyfire Herald, but he couldn’t see the enemy’s movement.
Even if they worked together, the enemy would be gone by the time Mufasa would pinpoint the Sky High’s heading for Edward. Nonetheless, even as the Players debated heatedly about how they should defeat the Sky Highs, Eleena had directly casted Chains of Penance and wiped out all three Sky Highs, fully displaying her virtuous tendency of kill stealing.
Hence, the Players easily destroyed the monsters coming from below, even wanting another wave since the elven arcane text drops were not enough.