Chapter 339: "The Fatui Are Clearing the Area! Everyone Fall Back!"
....
BAM!
The massive willow branch slammed heavily into the ground, kicking up an absolute storm of dirt and shattered concrete.
The destructive impact instantly drew the sharp focus of everyone nearby. Emerging through the rising dust, a young man dressed in a sharp black suit materialized, casually resting a heavy alloy staff over his shoulder as he stood firmly in front of the Supernatural Military Corps.
"You are..."
The captain of the Supernatural Military Corps stared at him, completely dazed. He didn't seem to recognize the individual standing before him at all.
The young man in the black suit merely narrowed his eyes into a calm, knowing smile, remaining perfectly silent. But just as the crowd began to whisper in deep confusion...!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
One after another, hundreds of towering silhouettes began to materialize out of thin air! Every single one of them was uniformly dressed in the exact same sharp black suits, instantly capturing the absolute undivided attention of the entire street.
Some stepped out calmly from the surrounding alleyways, some cascaded down directly from the sky, while others leaped gracefully from the rooftops and streetlamps.
The sheer volume of the black-suited crowd rapidly multiplied by the second. Ten... twenty... fifty... one hundred... one thousand... five thousand... until finally, a staggering army of roughly ten thousand combatants completely packed the sector!
Upon arrival, they confidently claimed positions across the area—perching atop light posts, scaling massive billboards, lining the rooftops, standing over abandoned cars, or forming solid phalanxes across the main highway.
Witnessing a spectacular deployment of this magnitude, the fleeing civilians and the soldiers of the Supernatural Military Corps were completely shell-shocked. A profound realization suddenly struck their minds, leaving their hearts pounding with awe.
Right at that microsecond, the military captain opened his mouth to speak, but the young man in the black suit beat him to the punch, declaring with a beaming, confident smile:
"The Fatui are clearing the area! Everyone fall back!"
The high-pitched, thunderous shout echoed through the streets, leaving every bystander utterly frozen in their tracks.
It was them! The incoming army belonged entirely to the number-one guild under heaven—the Fatui!
And the staff-wielding youth standing at the absolute vanguard was none other than one of the elite prominent officers within the guild ranking: Old Twenty-Eight!
"It's the Fatui!"
"Holy crap! It's actually the legendary Fatui guild! Are they seriously here to hunt down the World BOSS?!"
"Isn't that obvious? The guy leading them is literally Officer Old Twenty-Eight himself!"
"Good grief! Is the Fatui guild completely fearless? There have to be at least ten thousand high-tier players packed into this sector!"
"No idea, man! Just look at their metrics!"
"To be fair, the average level of these Fatui players is absolutely insane! Practically every single one of them is at Level 98 or 99, and there are dozens of Level 100 max-tier powerhouses holding down the flanks!"
"..."
The fleeing crowd engaged in a frantic wave of hushed whispers, utterly stunned by the Fatui's sudden, highly aggressive intervention to suppress the BOSS.
Old Twenty-Eight didn't pay the chatter any mind. To prepare for this monumental world integration event, the Fatui Executives had systematically distributed high-tier buff items and resources to every single guild member ahead of schedule.
Although Seito and the core Harbingers hadn't explicitly issued a mandatory directive forcing the guild members to act, the players themselves had zero intention of sitting idly by like useless freeloaders while their world evolved. Consequently, they had collectively organized to assist the Eastern Country in suppressing the newly mutated flora and fauna BOSS units.
During a campaign of this scale, casualties were mathematically inevitable, but the army stood completely unfazed. Why? Because they were the vanguard of the Fatui! And the Fatui was the absolute number-one guild across the entire universe! If they couldn't even handle a minor localized hitch like this, they had absolutely no right to carry the guild emblem on their profiles!
"Little brother, does your squad require our unit to coordinate an offensive loop?" the military captain asked hastily, eager to pitch in. With such a massive wave of elite reinforcements arriving, he certainly wasn't going to reject the help.
"There's no need!" Old Twenty-Eight replied with a gentle smile. "Uncle, you and your squad should withdraw from the immediate perimeter first. Once the high-tier brawling kicks off, our units won't be able to guarantee the safety of anyone caught in the crossfire."
"This..." The captain hesitated for a brief second, but looking at Old Twenty-Eight's perfectly calm, relaxed composure, he gave a heavy, resolute nod. "Understood! Fall back!"
Hearing the confirmation track, Old Twenty-Eight smiled faintly. Spinning his alloy staff in a fluid, expertly practiced flourish, he boldly marched toward the epicenter of the monster's perimeter.
[Ancient Vampire Willow]
[Rank: Level 100 World BOSS]
[HP: 50 Billion / 50 Billion]
Judging strictly by the interface metrics, this particular BOSS simply boasted an exceptionally high pool of defensive stats and health parameters. As long as their vanguard squads managed to cleanly sever the incoming willow branches the exact microsecond they entered their striking zones, they wouldn't suffer any real damage.
"Everyone s! Charge!"
Shifting from a measured stride into an explosive sprint, Old Twenty-Eight led the assault with his staff leveled! The moment the command track registered, the ten thousand members of the Fatui guild moved in perfect, devastating unison!
"Go! Tear this oversized weed to pieces!"
"The Eastern Country belongs entirely to the descendants of the Humans—no alien entity is permitted to encroach upon our soil!"
"Execute it!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"..."
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!
Stomp, stomp, stomp—!
The massive tide of Fatui players surged forward like a black tsunami, trailing closely behind Old Twenty-Eight's aggressive vanguard track. To the stunned onlookers standing near the perimeter, the entire Fatui army looked like a solid spearhead as they slammed head-on into the Level 100 World BOSS!
BOOM!
RUMBLE!!!
A spectacular array of high-tier combat skills instantly exploded across the battlefield, rendering the dark sky into a brilliant canvas of multi-colored energy flares.
"Healers! Keep the active vanguard topped off!"
"Damn it! This overgrown tree's bark is ridiculously thick!"
"We're going to have to settle into a prolonged war of attrition to slowly shave down its HP metrics."
"Fortunately, its base offensive scaling isn't overtly broken, otherwise our frontline wouldn't be able to sustain a head-on trade like this!"
The Fatui guild members shouted back and forth in an incredibly loose, confident manner. Their current status tracks were perfectly stable, and their tactical loops ensured practically zero casualties early on. However, as the clock ticked away and the boss entered its later phases, the stability of the raid metrics remained a volatile variable.
Over on the sidewalks, the fleeing civilians stared blankly at the intense combat loop unfolding before them, completely lost for words as a profound, burning emotion swelled deep inside their chests. After all, the members of the Fatui guild were actively risking their lives to cleanly eliminate this toxic, world-class cancer for the sake of the general public!
"Son of a gun! I've reached Level 70 myself, which means I'm far from a weakling! I'm joining the fray to back them up!" a middle-aged man suddenly roared, spitting curses as he pulled a glowing broadsword from his inventory.
The moment those words echoed out, the veteran high-level players standing nearby snapped out of their daze, their eyes flashing with fierce resolve as they sprinted forward one after another.
"I'm a Level 80 player! My damage output is more than enough to help clear the branch arrays!"
"Hmph! As an elite Level 90 high-tier veteran, if I die today, so be it! I'm going in!"
"A man only has one life to live! My Level 69 high-tier priest build is stepping up to provide support!"
"..."
Practically every single citizen who possessed a high baseline account level charged straight into the active red zone! They all shared the exact same baseline parameter of a single life; why should they cowardly hide away and let another group shield them from the storm? Their pride simply wouldn't allow it!
The lower-level citizens remained stationary in silent awe. They desperately wanted to march forward to assist the vanguard, but their baseline stats simply lacked the required durability to survive a single hit. Instead, many pulled out their smartphones, activating their recording software to document the engagement. No one stepped in to halt them; after all, the heroic actions of the Fatui guild deserved to be witnessed by the entire world!
"Move out! Our squad is joining the frontline offensive!" the captain of the Supernatural Military Corps barked, his face twisting into a fierce, proud grin.
Damn it! They were the official, designated vanguard army of the Eastern Country! A mere mutant BOSS was nothing more than a target dummy! If even ordinary civilians were boldly sprinting into the jaws of death, the military had absolutely zero excuses to lag behind!
In a flash, a massive, historic world-scale war exploded into full fury!
....
Thank you for reading.