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“There must be a way to stop it,” mumbled Shin as he thought about the solution to their current predicament.

It was at that moment when he thought of something. “If they want to gather all the life force from the kingdom, then they have to store it somewhere. Now, the question is, where is that place?”

While Shin was in deep thought, he suddenly received a message from Tinker, who was stationed at the back of the Maze Forest.

Tinker: Young Master Shin, you’ve guessed it right. Those guys are trying to enter the forest through the back door.

Tinker: It is funny how they are trying to detour around the Maze Forest and break through the high-level map behind it.

Tinker was laughing hard as he watched the view being projected in front of him. He had scattered some mechanical birds in the forest and let them enter the nearby maps around the Maze Forest.

Through them, he was able to see what was happening on three different battlefields while also monitoring the neighboring regions.

Behind the Maze Forest, there was a hunting map that was yet to be fully explored due to its high requirements. The monsters there were all elevated to the third evolution, which was equivalent to the Tier 3 Class of the players.

This region was one of the maps that was supposed to be explored once the players finished their promotion quests. This was the map that the players were supposed to explore if they failed to fill up all the qualifications to enter the Awakened Continent.

Such maps were scattered in every Kingdom and Empire within the first continent, the Aurora Continent.

Usually, it would be hard to enter such maps since the monsters there were too powerful for the current level of the players. But since the Big Three had a horde of strong monsters on their side, which were the Corrupted Monsters and Demonic Creatures that were left under their care.

They were confident that they would be able to break through the monsters within the map and reach the Maze Forest that was next to it.

Unfortunately, they had underestimated the might of these monsters. They suffered a great loss when they entered, and it was already too late to back down at that point since the sacrifices that they made would be in vain if they did.

The good part about this was they only had to sacrifice most of the Corrupted Monsters and Demonic Creatures that they had brought with them. Most of the members of their guilds that came with them had also been killed by those powerful monsters on the map, leaving them with almost under half of their main forces.

But for the three leaders – Kellin, Heckles, and Fenix – all of these were worth it. Those were necessary sacrifices to achieve their goal.

And they were right. They arrived at the edge of the map, right at the border between it and the Maze Forest.

They could now start their real operation and take down the base of the opposing side.

They might have lost quite a lot of people, but they still left with more than enough number that could invade the opposing side.

With that, they fearlessly entered the Maze Forest while having decent morale. They were expecting an easy victory when they entered the base of their enemies.

Or so they thought.

They were not expecting that every move that they made would be monitored by the mechanical birds that Thinker had scattered in every corner of the forest.

Right after the forces of the Big Three entered the Maze Forest, they felt something strange. But they mostly ignored it since they just went through a very difficult map. They did not believe that this forest would be much worse than that.

When they went deeper into the forest, Fenix, who was carefully observing their surroundings, finally noticed something odd.

But before he could warn the others, mechanical sounds suddenly rang from every direction, surprising everyone.

Casting their gazes at the sources of those sounds, they saw a large number of mechanical guns scattered in every direction; some were hiding behind the bushes, others were attached to the tree trunks, and the rest were hanging on the branches above them.

These mechanical guns were pointing at them, aiming for their lives.

“Turtle Formation! Knights, cover every direction and use ‘Shield Wall’!”

“Mages, cast ‘Magic Barrier’ now!”

Kellin and Fenix shouted almost at the same time as they were first to recover their composure.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It was at that moment when mechanical guns started firing. They poured the group with a rain of bullets.

“Ah!”

“Urgh!”

“Argh!”

The fast ones were able to react in time and set up their respective defenses, saving themselves. But those guys that were slow to react were immediately shot and suffered serious damage.

The damage of each bullet was not that strong, but they were painful enough to disrupt their formation. Moreover, with the number of mechanical guns surrounding them, the accumulated damage that they had was more than enough to make them suffer.

The continuous damage and the constant pain that they were receiving, we more than enough to throw them into chaos.

Fortunately, the three leaders were experienced enough to deal with their current predicament.

Once the Knights were able to cover a decent defense and the Mages managed to save their healers at the center of the formation, they immediately issued a series of commands one after another.

“Marksmen, you guys shot those mechanical guns. It doesn’t matter if you are not able to destroy them in one shot, damaging it is more than enough!” shouted Fenix as his two guards protected him from the bullets that were flying everywhere.

“Mages cast ‘Ice Wall’! Buy enough time for the marksmen to destroy enough mechanical guns before proceeding! Healers, keep the knights’ HP Bars healthy!” yelled Kellin as he saw that everyone was standing to regain their composure.

Heckles, who was sharply scanning the surroundings waved at the frontline members. “Berserkers and Swordsmen, charge ahead and make way for us. We must prepare to break through once the firepower of these toys decreases.”

Each group responded to the commands given by the three leaders and executed them well. They were quite quick to respond and were able to achieve their goals within a couple of minutes.

But when they were about to heave a sigh of relief and continue moving forward, the Berserkers and Swordsmen that had separated from their formation earlier to pave a path ahead suddenly shouted and cried in pain.

“Ah!”

“Awk!”

“Argh!”

Casting his gaze ahead, Heckles suddenly saw a group of hooded players attacking their people. From his observation, he immediately realized that each of these players was an expert. They were highly trained elites who underwent special training like the clubs within the powerhouse guilds.

In a matter of minutes, all the Berserkers and Swordsmen that separated from their group were quickly annihilated.

Noticing the same thing as Heckles, the other two leaders, Kellin and Fenix suddenly wore a grave expression on their faces.

It was not because the opposing side was powerful – their side also had the same number of experts on their side. It was also clear that the opposing side only had a limited number of people. Their side had the advantage in this area.

The problem was they saw someone walking forward from behind the formation of the opposing side. It was a man who seemed to have a class and race of Berserker Lionkin.

This man released an arrogant and savage air that suffocated everyone the moment when he entered the scene. Right after he stepped onto the battlefield, the focus of everyone seemed to be directed to him, which seemed to put the opposing side in despair.

Seeing the signature Lion Head Helmet that this man was wearing, the three leaders from the other side immediately realized his identity.

“War God Simba!” mumbled the three heavily as he saw him.

It was at this moment that they realized that they had overlooked these members of the Empyrean Talons who did not show themselves during the entire war.

How could they forget these people when they were legends that were out of their league?

They might have the advantage in terms of numbers and possessed a group of powerful Corrupted Monsters and Demonic Creatures, but all of these were nothing in the eyes of this person.

The number was nothing but a number in front of this legendary figure. One of his achievements was taking on a whole guild, which was comparable to the super guilds within this game alone.

What was crazier about it was he annihilated that guild all by himself!

They might have an army behind them, but the three leaders clearly understood that the person in front of them was more than enough to take them on.

But they could not back down right now, they had to continue moving forward if they did not want to be thrown away by their new master. They had already risked quite a lot when they turned their backs on their previous organizations and converted to the Evil Faction.

There was no turning back now!

All they could hope was for their side to defeat the rest of the people on the opposing party and let the monster break through them and continue moving ahead.

So long as these monsters broke through the defenses of the Maze Forest and caused havoc within the center of the forest, where the main base of the opposition was located, everything would be worth it.

“Kellin, support me. We will take on Simba and buy as much time as we can for the others,” said Heckles as he unsheathed his sword.

Kellin did not say anything and just nodded his head. He took out a pair of daggers as he quickly entered stealth.

Seeing the actions of those two, Leonard licked his lips under his helmet before mumbling. “Nightmare Swordsman Heckles and Untraceable Shadow Kellin, these guys shouldn’t be that bad.”

“I just hope that fighting two Maverick Gods with a decent caliber should be enough to entertain me,” he added as he turned to the side.

“You two and your people will be fine by yourselves, I guess?” he asked, looking over his shoulder.

“I suggest you do not underestimate our group, God Simba. We will be fine by ourselves,” said Aragorn as he repeatedly rolled his shoulders and gently twisted his neck left and right to produce a series of popping sounds.

“God Simba, since you have gone all the way to our side just to invite us, we must prove ourselves. We may be completely outnumbered by them, but our men are not that shabby to use that as an excuse,” said Legolas as he took out his bow.

He paused for a moment before smirking. “We have trained especially for this kind of occasion. We now have time to do some practical ‘training’.”

He then looked over his shoulder and said to the people behind them. “The one who died first will be doing paperwork for a month while the one with the lowest number of people to kill will be on cleaning duty of our workshop.”

The rest quite groaned when they heard those words. Some even started complaining.

“Boss, there are only punishments. What about the guys who killed the most?”

Legolas laughed when he heard that before saying it in a provoking tone. “Say that to me when any of you beat me and Aragorn in this contest.”

“Ah!”

The group seemed to come back to their senses when they realized that these two leaders would be joining them.

Seeing that they would be fine, Leonard turned his head back ahead of them before smirking. “Alright. I will be making my move first.”

Bang!

After saying that, he suddenly stomped on the ground and launched himself forward, fearlessly charging toward the huge army of enemies in front of him. It seemed like the combined forces of the players and monsters in front of him were nothing but a bunch of punching bags.

Swoosh!

Seeing him charging straight at them, Heckles did not hesitate and immediately poured all his strength on his sword as he charged ahead.

He infused a large amount of mana on his sword as he swung it down when Leonard was almost upon him.

Swoosh!

Boom!

It was a strike that seemed to be able to destroy the forest given the blinding light that it had. But to everyone’s surprise, Leonard just stood in front of Heckles while the sword of the latter was being held between Leonard’s fingers.

At the same time, his other hand was also stretched to the side seemingly pinching another sharp weapon in the air. .

It was at that moment when Kellin materialized right beside Leonard. It seemed like he was planning to launch an ambush on the latter when he was busy dealing with Heckles. But it was not so successful.

Maintaining his position, Leonard looked at the two before saying. “Don’t you guys have converted to Evil Faction? If you don’t use either Corrupted or Demonic Transformation now, then you will regret it later.”

After that, he made a pulling motion before throwing the two into different directions.

“If you guys don’t use everything you have now, then I will not waste my time here and play with the Dragon Centipede instead,” he added as he stood a few distance away from the opposing side with full confidence.

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