Even players of ordinary talent and middling strength could keep the Ghost Swordsmen in check by working together.
For players with real strength and flawless teamwork, it was nothing at all.
Just like in another corner of the battlefield.
Demon Knight Ling Xiao held it in melee;
Dark Wizard Ruthless Iron Blood handled crowd control the whole way;
Physician Fat Dahai kept the buffs maxed out;
and Sharpshooter Han Ruoxi, Elemental Mage Xia Wanwan, Chaotic World Zhuge, Rogue Skinny Monkey, Sword and Shield Warrior Qin Feng and the rest stacked every armor-break and penetration skill and buff, dragging the Ghost Swordsman's defense to the floor, and then went all out!
Under the all-out, united assault of a dozen or so experts ranked within the top thousand, even the top hundred, of Purgatory City's Heaven Ranking, a Ghost Swordsman was beaten to a wreck.
"Let go of that ghost!"
"Let me!"
With a shout,
Sword and Shield Warrior Wang Junjie, flames buffing his blade,
swish!
finished it with an S-Rank heavy slash and at last killed the Ghost Swordsman.
He kicked over the dead Ghost Swordsman, which was still kneeling upright.
Wang Junjie hoisted his greatsword over his shoulder, full of himself. "Pfft, that's it?"
"Level 100 Ghost Race monsters, and that's all they've got!"
The moment he finished,
Skinny Monkey said, sweating, "Damn! That's all they've got? Even the BOSSes we normally fight don't take this much effort!"
Fat Dahai nodded along. "Yeah! This is just a lowly grunt of the Ghost Race, and it's way too tough! We put in all that effort and only killed one..."
Wang Junjie still wasn't impressed. "Tough, my ass! It's just a high level, right?"
"I'm only Level 78 and I can kill them, and you call that tough?"
"When I hit Level 100, no! When I'm just in my 90s, I'll beat the hell out of them!"
"If they've got guts, let them come then! One comes, I kill one! Two come, I kill a pair!"
As soon as he said it,
whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
countless white lights shot up on every side.
The next moment, a dozen or so Ghost Swordsmen closed in to kill.
Wang Junjie went pale.
"Holy crap!"
"I was just talking! I didn't tell you to come now!"
"You actually came, damn it!"
Qin Feng looked at Wang Junjie, whose legs were shaking. "Dude, didn't you say one comes, you kill one, two come, you kill a pair?"
"Your chance to show off is here. Go on, kill them!"
Wang Junjie's face went ashen.
"Yeah! Two come, I kill a pair!"
"Don't you see how many came? What the hell am I supposed to kill?!"
"Damn it! That's not playing fair!"
Slash, slash, slash, slash!
Blood-red killing intent erupted from the whole group of Ghost Swordsmen, who gripped their greatswords and charged at Wang Junjie and the others without a word!
Wang Junjie instinctively shielded Han Ruoxi behind him. "Don't be scared, Ruoxi! I'll protect you!"
The next second,
"Protect me!!!"
He had only shouted it offhand.
But to his surprise, a huge group of armored guards really did charge in from the rear and block the Ghost Swordsmen's attack!
He looked closer and saw they were Purgatory City's NPC guards!
Defending Purgatory City wasn't just the players' duty.
With the alarm sounding across the city,
Purgatory City's NPC city guard quickly assembled and marched out with the players to meet the enemy!
"Defend Purgatory City!"
"Don't let those monsters get into the city!"
"Brave warriors! Charge!"
At the sword-wielding command of the NPC city guard captain, Level 100 Tier 6 BOSS-class [Ailian],
whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
a large force of Level 100 NPC archers quickly took position atop Purgatory City's walls.
With the double range the walls gave them, they fired from a distance of a hundred yards at the Ghost Swordsmen that had broken through the defensive lines outside and were trying to get into the city.
At the same time,
large numbers of NPC cavalry and infantry, under the covering fire of the archers, charged out of the city and into the enemy lines.
The ones helping Wang Junjie and the others hold off the Ghost Swordsmen were a squad of NPC guards belonging to the city guard.
The NPC soldiers worked together and cut down the Ghost Swordsmen one by one in short order.
Seeing the NPCs kill Ghost Swordsmen so easily, Wang Junjie gasped, "Holy crap! These NPC soldiers are this badass?"
Chaotic World Guild's strategist, Chaotic World Zhuge, adjusted the glasses and explained, "Sure, these Ghost Swordsmen are Ghost Soldiers, the second rank in the Ghost Race above Ghost Beasts, but when it comes down to it, they're not that big a deal."
"The only reason they seem so strong to us is that they outlevel us by far. Their levels are way higher than ours."
"The NPC soldiers of Purgatory City are Level 100 just like the Ghost Swordsmen, so you could say they're evenly matched."
"You said it!" Wang Junjie nodded, forgetting the pain as soon as the wound healed, and started swaggering again. "I could've handled these Ghost Swordsmen even without the NPCs."
"With the NPCs helping now, I can't even imagine how we could lose!"
With that, Wang Junjie waved his sword and ordered the Chaotic World Guild players around him, "Brothers, kill them for me!"
"Once we wipe out this Ghost Royal Guard, I'll treat you all to a foot massage!"
At this, the Chaotic World players cheered and shouted in unison, "Thanks, Brother Jie!"
Just then, Han Ruoxi knit her pretty brows and asked Wang Junjie, "This foot massage of yours. Is it a proper foot massage?"
Strategist Chaotic World Zhuge hurried to explain on his behalf. "Totally proper, sister-in-law! Next time Brother Jie goes, he'll take you along to try it, and then you'll see!"
Wang Junjie hurriedly swore an oath too. "Ruoxi, I swear! Since I met you, every time I've gone to a foot spa it's been a proper foot massage, honest!"
Han Ruoxi mused, "So that means before you met me, it wasn't a proper foot massage?"
A chill ran down Wang Junjie's back, and he rushed to explain to Han Ruoxi, "No! Ruoxi, hear me out while I make my excuses!"
Han Ruoxi: "?"
"I don't want to hear your excuses."
Wang Junjie hurriedly shot Chaotic World Zhuge a pleading look.
"Strategist!"
"Save me!"
Chaotic World Zhuge couldn't help putting a hand to the forehead. "Brother Jie, I did what I could..."
...
Purgatory City had the numbers.
Add the help of the Level 100 NPC city guard,
and the situation on the field had already started to pick up.
But player casualties were unavoidable.
After all, the Ghost Royal Guard was made up of a full ten thousand Ghost Swordsmen.
It wasn't possible for everyone to keep outnumbering their opponents.
Once the human-wave tactic was disrupted, the situation would be upended in an instant.
Just like in one corner of the battlefield.
A big group of players was surrounding a single Ghost Swordsman.
Warriors and Knights held it!
Wizards controlled it!
Priests buffed!
Archers and Mages dealt the damage!
With a hundred or so players working together, the Ghost Swordsman's health had been falling steadily and was down to around thirty percent.
It looked like they were about to kill it.
Suddenly, another Ghost Swordsman broke through the lines and charged in from the outside!
Slash, slash, slash, slash!
The Wizard players in charge of crowd control hadn't even had time to react before the Ghost Swordsman rushing to its comrade's aid killed them fast.
At the same time,
swish!
the Ghost Swordsman, now free of control, spun its blade through a full 360 degrees and sent out a ring of sword light that pierced the several dozen players surrounding it.
Hits of sky-high six-figure damage, one after another,
without the least effort.
In moments,
the whole hundred-player group was wiped out into white light!