Chapter 308: Flame Explosive Arrow
"Boys, the White Dog Rat King’s back to full health. Don’t touch it. Let it grind the Savage Wolves down a bit first."
Marcus’s lips curled into a sly grin as he sent the message through the mercenary chat channel to DragonBlade and the others. There was no reason to rush things when the battlefield was already working in his favor. If anything, he intended to squeeze every last bit of value out of those White Dog Rats before stepping in to finish the job.
"Peach Blossom Slash."
Without a hint of urgency, he raised his hand and began casting from a distance. The skill he had obtained from the Peach Blossom Soul manifested in soft, petal-like arcs of energy that drifted forward with deceptive elegance, slicing cleanly through unsuspecting targets. From afar, Marcus looked less like someone in the middle of a battlefield and more like a noble idly passing time in a garden, calm and composed as he picked off Savage Wolves one by one.
"Hmph..."
Fifty men, and they thought that was enough to take from him? The thought alone was almost insulting.
Did they have any idea who they had tried to rob? The top-ranked player in Dominion was not someone you surrounded and bullied. Today, they were learning that lesson the hard way.
Watching the Savage Wolves and the White Dog Rats tear into each other was, in its own way, deeply satisfying. There was a rhythm to it, a brutal kind of balance, and Marcus found himself enjoying every second.
Then the situation tilted even further. The effect of the Earthen Wall Talisman faded.
The yellowish-brown barrier that had been protecting the Savage Wolves flickered and disappeared, leaving them suddenly exposed. Their defense plummeted, and against the relentless assault of the Level 35 White Dog Rats and their king, the fragile balance they had been clinging to finally shattered.
Their formation broke completely.
Archers and mages, already vulnerable, were the first to fall. One after another, they were dragged down, their cries cut short as claws and fangs tore through them.
At the same time, Drunkard and Invincible Strong had already reached the backline. Moving with ruthless precision, they carved straight into the clerics trying desperately to keep their teammates alive.
Drunkard’s Bone Boar Burst Stinger flashed again and again, each strike carrying brutal force and frequent critical hits. Against that kind of damage, the clerics had no chance. Two hits, maybe three at most, and another one dropped.
Panic spread through the rear ranks. The remaining healers scattered, shouting and stumbling over each other, their composure completely gone.
"Stonehaven, you... if you’ve got guts, fight me one-on-one, don’t—"
The voice came from the middle of the chaos, strained and furious.
SavageWolf_Slayer.
He stared at the battlefield in front of him, at the wreckage of what had once been a coordinated force of over fifty elite members, now reduced to a scattered, collapsing mess at the hands of just eight people from the Mad Lion Mercenary Group.
His eyes were red, his voice shaking. He looked like he might break at any moment.
He did not even get to finish his sentence. A longsword flew through the air, It struck cleanly through his chest.
Just like the Savage Wolf Alpha before him, SavageWolf_Slayer dropped instantly, his body hitting the ground without another word. Desperate Strike left no room for resistance.
Marcus did not even bother hiding the disdain in his eyes.
’Pathetic. You come to clear zones, to kill players, to take what you want, and the moment things turn against you, you start whining about fairness? If you lose, then accept it. If you die, then die quietly.’
From that moment on, Marcus made a simple decision. Anyone from the Savage Wolves he encountered in the future would be killed on sight.
SavageWolf_Slayer had done one thing right, though.
He had managed to annoy him.
Marcus switched back to the Bat Dragon Cloud Sword, nudged his Flame Charger forward, and surged straight into the battlefield.
When monsters killed players, the penalty was predictable. A level lost, maybe a piece of equipment.
But when Marcus killed someone, with his absurd Luck stat, the outcome was far less certain.
"Heh..."
If something dropped, that was fate, If not, then it was just bad luck. Either way, it had nothing to do with him.
"Hundred Phantom Strike."
His blade moved.
It did not matter whether the target in front of him was a Savage Wolf or a White Dog Rat, whether it was a player or a monster. Everything that entered his range was cut down without hesitation, falling one after another as if swept aside by an invisible force.
There was only one thing that bothered him; killing players gave no experience.
A small annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.
"Damn it!"
Not far away, amidst the chaos of clashing bodies, the mage SavageWolf_Star was struck down by the White Dog Rat King. His death was swift, leaving only one of the four Savage Wolf brothers still standing.
SavageWolf_Wind.
The archer’s shout tore through the battlefield, raw with grief and disbelief. He had never imagined it would end like this.
These were their elites, the backbone of their group, and yet they were falling one by one as if they meant nothing. Watching it unfold, SavageWolf_Wind felt something inside him snap.
"Screw this!"
His voice rose sharply, almost like a declaration. In that moment, something changed in him.
Fear gave way to anger. Hesitation burned away under the weight of loss. His entire body tensed, his focus sharpening as his fighting spirit surged to the surface.
If this was how it ended, then so be it.
The wind over a cold river carried no warmth. A true warrior did not flinch in the face of death.
"Stonehaven! I’m taking you with me!"
He roared the words toward Marcus, then turned to the few remaining fighters still circling the White Dog Rat King.
"Move! All of you, move!"
He did not wait for a response.
"Blazing Explosive Arrow!"
From his bag, he pulled out a pair of arrows wrapped in flickering flames. The moment he activated the skill bound to them, the air around the arrows seemed to distort with heat.
In one fluid motion, he fired three shots in rapid succession at the White Dog Rat King.
-2,840.
-2,910.
-2,870.
Each arrow carried quadruple damage.
In the blink of an eye, over eight thousand health vanished.
The White Dog Rat King reacted instantly. Its attention snapped away from the Savage Wolves around it, locking onto SavageWolf_Wind with a furious, predatory gaze.
"Stonehaven! DIE!"
Seeing that he had drawn its attention, SavageWolf_Wind did not hesitate. He turned and sprinted straight toward Marcus, deliberately leading the enraged beast away from what remained of his teammates.
"Blazing Explosive Arrow!"
Mid-run, he spun on his heel and fired his final two Flame Explosive Arrows directly at Marcus.
He had already made peace with the outcome.
If he was going to die, then he would burn everything he had left. The penalty no longer mattered. All that mattered was dragging Marcus down with him and giving the remnants of his squad a chance to survive.
-2,910.
-2,960.
The numbers appeared and SavageWolf_Wind froze.
That was it
Two arrows. Eight times total damage, and all they had done was deal just over two thousand damage combined.
Marcus did not even stagger.
For a moment, SavageWolf_Wind could not process what he was seeing. The confidence he had forced himself to hold onto shattered instantly, crumbling into disbelief.
He had tested those arrows countless times in the arena. A single Blazing Explosive Arrow, with its quadruple damage, could deal between twenty-five hundred and three thousand damage to their toughest tank, SavageWolf_Stone.
That was enough to kill him outright.
Marcus’s defense was higher. He knew that, that was why he had used two arrows.
Two arrows should have been more than enough, and yet...
"SCREW THIS!"
The shout tore out of him, but it sounded hollow now. If only he had fired three arrows at Marcus instead. Or if one of them had landed a critical hit. Either would have been enough to finish him.
The regret hit hard, cold and immediate, draining the last of his resolve.
But he understood why it had turned out this way.
To protect the remaining elites, he had needed to use as many Flame Explosive Arrows as possible on the White Dog Rat King. Drawing it away had been the priority.
And, if he was honest with himself...
At no point had he ever considered the possibility that two arrows would not be enough to kill Marcus.