Chapter 118: Overwhelming Force (Part One)

“First, we need to clear out the undead lurking around the Cursed Fortress.”

“There are too many undead around the fortress, and clearing them will take a long time. To improve efficiency, we need to split into teams.”

Thunder’s gaze swept across everyone present as he said, “We have three main tanks now—Zhang Chaosheng, Chu Cheng, and myself. I plan to divide the group into three teams, each with five members. With our strength, small to medium-sized undead waves can be handled individually, while larger hordes can be tackled together. How does that sound?”

“No problem. How will the teams be allocated?”

“Our team will be Team One, Zhang Chaosheng’s group will be Team Two, and Chu Cheng will lead Team Three. The rest can choose which team to join.”

The tall Zhang Chaosheng slammed his thick shield on the ground, instantly radiating a sense of immense security.

Although Chu Cheng was also a tank, his physique had bulked up significantly due to heavy investment in constitution, but he lacked a shield. Moreover, everyone knew he was only level 27—far from level 30—so confidence in him was lacking.

The group exchanged glances. Immediately, someone raised a hand.

“I’m joining Team Two.”

“Ah, too slow! I want to join Team Two too.”

“Me too, Team Two.”

Almost everyone raised their hands simultaneously, eager to join Team Two.

Thunder was a bit speechless and waved his hand. “Stop. The first four who signed up join Team Two; the rest join Team Three.”

Those assigned to Team Three wore displeased expressions, but he reassured them, “Don’t underestimate Brother Chu Cheng. Although his level is a bit low, his strength is not weak. His health points surpass mine, and his defense is solid. He can easily handle small to medium undead groups.”

Chu Cheng said calmly, “I have tank talents. Monsters below level 30 can hardly break through my defense.”

“Hmm.”

Everyone turned to look at him, their eyes filled with doubt. The four assigned to his team still didn’t fully trust him but hid their displeasure. Zhang Chaosheng also put away his shield.

No one questioned whether he was lying—there was no point. Whether he was capable or not, they’d find out soon enough.

“Since no one objects, it’s settled.”

Thunder swung onto his battle bear and said, “Team One will head east of the Cursed Fortress, Team Two to the south, and Team Three stays here. Any issues, communicate via the channel.”

With that, he rode off with four teammates.

On the other side, Zhang Chaosheng’s team also mounted their mounts and departed, leaving Chu Cheng with four others.

After they left, Chu Cheng turned to face the four: all men, two melee fighters, one mage, and one archer—a reasonable composition.

As the core tank and by right the leader, Chu Cheng said, “We need to work together closely. To coordinate better, let’s introduce ourselves. I’m Chu Cheng, a tank, level 27.”

“Feng Lingxing, level 41 Star Mage.”

“Yao Ning, level 38 Weapon Master.”

Chu Cheng glanced at him in surprise.

“Zhou Yufeng, level 39 Windrunner.”

“Wang Jing, level 40 Berserker.”

“I’ll take the front, Wang Jing will support me. Feng Lingxing and Zhou Yufeng stay at the rear. Yao Ning, stay close to them to prevent undead from breaking through, especially to protect Feng Lingxing.”

“Got it.”

“Sounds good.”

“All right, let’s move out.”

Chu Cheng drew his twin swords and leapt down into the dry riverbed.

Many undead wandered beneath the riverbed, all targets for elimination.

He charged into the horde, swinging his twin swords to effortlessly cleave skeletons in half, sending bone shards flying.

The level 10-plus mediocre skeletons had only about 350 health points, far less than normal for their level, and negligible defense. His regular attacks dealt 593 damage, plus a weapon bonus of 30 frost damage. One swing was enough to kill with damage to spare.

Twin swords flashed, shattering bones.

The undead were too numerous to be cut down by sword alone; many were sent flying by his brute force—over 200 in strength—like a rampaging beast, unstoppable.

Yao Ning and the others caught up, exchanging astonished looks as they watched his unstoppable onslaught.

“You really can’t judge a book by its cover. He’s not even level 30, but his performance rivals ours.”

“That’s a good thing—the stronger he is, the safer we are behind him.”

“Indeed.”

“Enough talk, let’s go.”

Zhou Yufeng drew a magical arrow, aimed into the air, and after a brief charge fired. The arrow exploded midair, scattering into countless smaller arrows that rained down.

Like a storm of arrows, over a hundred damage numbers popped up instantly, and more than twenty undead collapsed within the arrow storm.

Next, Feng Lingxing raised his staff and began chanting.

Yao Ning drew two single-handed swords to guard him, while Wang Jing raised his hands, summoning spiked gauntlets. Clenching his fists, he jumped down into the riverbed and smashed a skeleton Chu Cheng missed into pieces, bone fragments scattering. He then kicked a zombie more than twenty meters away, causing an exaggerated damage number over a thousand to appear midair.

The Berserker was a melee class wielding gauntlets and claws. Their combat style was highly flexible—punches, palm strikes, claw slashes, kicks, elbow strikes, even shoulder charges and headbutts—very similar to monks but more brutal.

Meanwhile, after nearly thirty seconds of chanting, a bright light pierced the dark clouds, quickly expanding.

“Meteor Star!”

A blazing meteor with a long fiery tail streaked through the clouds, crashing into the dense undead mass deep in the riverbed.

“Boom!”

A fiery shockwave swept like a tidal wave, crushing countless skeletons and zombies utterly.

The fiery blast surged a hundred meters along the riverbed in both directions, soaring hundreds of meters into the air. Every undead within the range was utterly annihilated, leaving nothing but a few scattered loot chests.

Normally, only mages who had ascended to Archmage could learn Meteor Star. Feng Lingxing, as a Star Mage, could learn the spell earlier.

The cataclysmic explosion startled Chu Cheng, the scorching heat scattering the stench of death from the air.

However, the explosion also attracted more undead from other directions.

He hadn’t held his position long before Zhou Yufeng’s voice came through the team channel.

“Lots of undead incoming from other directions. Should we retreat to avoid being surrounded?”

“Agreed.”

Chu Cheng immediately changed course to retreat.

The few undead in his way were no obstacle; he withdrew at will.

Quickly collecting the scattered loot chests, he returned to the riverbank, where many undead had already surrounded them. The front lines were mostly skeletons and zombies, but mixed in were other undead. Several white shadows fluttered in the gray sky—most likely ghosts.

Ghosts were particularly troublesome: they could fly and were immune to physical attacks. Only magical attacks or magic weapons could harm them.

Magic weapons were those imbued with elemental damage. Chu Cheng’s Icebound and Frostbite blades both added frost damage and counted as magic weapons, so they could damage ghosts.

Typically, magic weapons dealt half their damage against ghosts.