Chapter 181 - 175 : Face-off

"Hehe. Fine, we have ourselves a deal." Soran smiled. In such a situation where their live and death was an unknown factor, Soran had to make a proper decision.

Soran might be known as the Blood Beast but he wasn't as wild or reckless as the men of the Savage Tribe. When compared to the Maniac Chief Goro, Soran was a lot more sensible and reasonable. The only reason he had the title 'Blood Beast', was because of his hunger for blood and murder, but that those not mean that he would let his wild nature cloud his judgement so easily. This could easily be seen from the fact that despite continuously challenging him, Soran didn't kill Flood King. If it was Goro in his shoes, a different situation would sure play out.

Being a man with at least a good amount of awareness and insight, Soran knew that this wasn't the time to argue with the opposing party but to team up with them. Another reason was because Soran was annoyed that a third party had actually taken him as nothing more than cannon-fodder to hold back the boss.

'Wait till I get my hands on you. If I don't let you experience the ancient 'truth-seeking ways' of old, then I'm not worthy of being called the Blood Beast.' Soran thought as a sadistic smile appeared across his face.

"So what's the plan?" Soran asked Azure Dragon.

"I need to know how many men you have present." Azure Dragon simply said. Till now, Soran had yet to recall the players he had kept in hiding for an ambush. Having revealed his reason for coming and also busting his act, Azure Dragon was expecting that Soran would call those players back.

"Hehe. Return, men." Soran chuckled as he signaled with his fingers.

Without any delay, 5 silhouettes appeared from 5 different positions and angles. The place they hide before was very concealed that if one didn't pay close attention enough, they wouldn't even notice the shadows of the players.

Experts!

This was the word that resounded within Azure Dragon's head as he glanced at these 5 players. He wasn't that surprised that the personnel's dispatched by Heaven's Angels for this raid were Experts instead, he was surprised that these players weren't well-known.

Even though there exists player ranks above the Expert level, just reaching this level alone was enough for one to be taken seriously by a majority of guilds. At this level, one would already have a bit of fame and would even be paid a monthly salary of 1200-4000 ALDs. Such an amount of money has already surpassed the regular blue collar pay while still closing on to those of white collar office workers. In lower guilds, these players are even paid a bit more sometimes and this was because if the strength they possessed.

Having clashed with Heaven's Angels for a while already, especially the God's Retaliation battalion, Emperor's Might already had a list of most of their Expert class players. As a top ranking official of the guild, especially with the fact that they would have to compete against Heaven's Angels, Azure Dragon had memorized the list as ordered by the higher-ups. From his memory of the recorded Expert players of Heaven's Angels, Azure Dragon could recognize Soran and the other 9 but as for the 5 that just appeared, he never knew of them.

'I see. If not for this emergency, Soran wouldn't want to reveal their identities. It's seems like Heaven's Angels has completed their training program and might even have a few more talents hidden in the shadows.' Azure Dragon thought with a frown.

"Hehe. What's wrong? Is the esteemed Dragon surprised or confused?"

This statement didn't actually come from Soran but from Flood King. Ever since Azure Dragon arrived here, he had simply ignored him throughout. Apart from the one glance Azure Dragon gave him at the beginning, he had only been paying attention to Soran. For someone as prideful as Flood King, it would be a lie to say that he wasn't annoyed. In this conversation of the two top leaders, even Chesces had spoken up so why shouldn't he talk?

In this regard, Soran wasn't displeased at him for the first time, but actually glanced at him before chuckling.

Azure Dragon grimaced his face as he stared at Flood King. After going through the list from the guild's higher-ups, he already knew who this player was. It was just that despite being an Expert, his achievements weren't enough for Azure Dragon to take him seriously.

"Why would I be surprised at a mere addition of 5 players?" Azure Dragon clicked his tongue.

"Good." Flood King grinned.

"So do you have any plan ready now?" Soran interrupted them.

In the aspect of tactics and strategy, Soran's team had the lower hand when compared to the other side. There was Chesces and Azure Dragon who were both well-known for their intelligence. As for his side, there was only himself and Flood King who could barely make it. Hence, Soran relinquished the role of strategizing to them. However, this didn't mean that he would just let them turn his men to a couple of cannon-fodders on the battlefield.

Azure Dragon could obviously guess the reason why Soran was pressing forward to hear his plan. Without wasting anymore time, he replied.

"It's quite simple really. We just have to-"

"Roar!!!!"

A tyrannical roar interrupted them. However, the scary part this time wasn't the roar, but the fact that it sounded to be a lot closer than before.

"Could it be...?!" Chesces exclaimed.

. . .

. . .

. . .

While Sato had drawn the kobold chief and one of his guards elsewhere, Lu Zhen was being pursued by a maddened kobold wave that was led by a bodyguard of the kobold chief, suspected to be at least level 9. In Lu Zhen's own words, 'this might be a bit less than before but it's still fun'.

Originally, the gap between himself and Azure Dragon's team wasn't much and with the target having halted their motion, Lu Zhen eventually caught up to them.

"Guess what Santa got for you guys!" Lu Zhen blurted out once he saw Azure Dragon and the others' figures.

"That quick?!"

Azure Dragon was alarmed. He previously thought that it would take at least 5 minutes or so for this stranger to arrive with the horde. Even though they wouldn't be able to accomplish much, 5 minutes was better than nothing. He didn't know that with the stunt Sato had pulled back then, he ended up enraging the kobolds and with his absence, this rage was transferred over to Lu Zhen. With overflowing boiling blood in their veins, the kobolds desperately wanted to tear any creature to pieces. This ended up passively increasing their speed a bit, forcing Lu Zhen to do his best and also increase his pace even more. In the end, the estimated 5 minutes turned to 2 minutes.

"Damn it. Take formation. MTs in front, range players behind. Healers get on the go. Everyone else, attack with whatever you've got!" Azure Dragon barked out orders.

The members of the God's Retaliation squad were hesitating to follow the orders of a former enemy and so were a bit slower in reacting.

"What are you waiting for?" Soran glanced at his teammates. With Soran having expressed his stand, the rest didn't delay any further.

Azure Dragon had evidently noticed this but there was nothing he could do about it either. All he could do was frown at their actions while thinking that their slow reactions would eventually cost the team later on.

By this time, the kobold horde that was about 30 metres away had already noticed these new players. The rest glare in their eyes suddenly flared even more as they roared and growled loudly as if celebrating, while running a bit faster than before.

Previously, there was only Lu Zhen to release all their anger on. No matter how strong he was, Lu Zhen was but one individual. For an army of 100 kobolds to release their anger at one individual was impossible. Just 4-5 kobolds were more than enough to tear a player into pieces. Any more and it would be much difficult for everyone to get a fair share. That was why when they saw more of the strange creatures, they were suddenly joyful. Rather than dealing with one, dealing with a combined 31 was way better. At least everyone would have a much higher chance of feasting on the meat of these strange creatures. Thinking about this, some of them even began to salivate so excessively that saliva began dripping from their mouths like water from a tap.

"They take us as food." Flood King frowned. How could he? A proud son of heaven, be taken by such lowly reptilian creatures formed from data as food? He couldn't even stomach that feeling and wanted to attack immediately. Unlike in battles against Rock Golems, Flood King's combat prowess wouldn't be reduced against these monsters so he was itching to destroy them. If not for the distance limit of his spells, he would have already attacked long ago.

"Mages!" Azure Dragon yelled as he saw the kobolds closing in on the 15 metres distance.

"Attack!"