Chapter Sixteen: The Chaotic Battle

A few people huddled in the corner by the wall, voices overlapping as they discussed what to do next. Chu Cheng listened for a moment; none of them dared to take the initiative. They all preferred to wait, letting the kingdom’s soldiers and militiamen bear the brunt, so they could seize an opportunity amidst the chaos.

He pinched his chin and said quietly to the group, “I’ll go up and take a look.”

He pressed his hand against the wall for leverage and leapt directly to the second floor. With another jump, he reached the rooftop. The height of the second-floor roof was among the tallest in the town, offering a sweeping view of most of the settlement and an easy vantage point to observe the battles breaking out at the various alley entrances nearby.

He bounded across rooftops, quickly reaching the edge of the main street at the town’s center. There, he saw the wide avenue already engulfed in a melee between the defenders and the pirates. Together, at least seven or eight hundred combatants were locked in fierce battle along the main street and several adjacent alleyways.

The strongest among the defenders was a level 35 commander, while the pirates boasted two leaders above level 30, both elite templates.

“A battle of this scale!” Chu Cheng looked toward the port; the ship’s cannons were still firing, but only at the town’s houses, not at the battlefield itself. It wasn’t for lack of intention—by now, the two sides were locked in close combat, and with the accuracy of those cannons, the odds of hitting their own men were far greater than striking the enemy.

“I’d love to dive in and wreak havoc.” In a fight of this magnitude, charging in and eliminating a hundred or two pirates would be enough to level up. If he was bold enough, he might even gain two levels in a single surge.

But the thought was merely a reckless impulse—the risks were immense. There were so many bosses of level twenty and thirty gathered here; if he dared to leap in, the pirate bosses would immediately focus their attacks on him. Even with his health at a formidable 730, he couldn’t withstand so many bosses ganging up.

After watching for a while, Chu Cheng returned across the rooftops the way he had come. Wang Weilong casually asked, “Well? Any new ideas?”

Chu Cheng smiled, “I’d like to try my luck on the main street for some experience, but the risks are too high.”

Everyone rolled their eyes in unison. “Forget it—you want to, but the homeroom teacher would talk us out of it anyway.”

Chu Cheng...

“But honestly, what exactly is your talent? Can you give us a detailed explanation, so we know what we’re working with?”

“Hmm, I absorb any type of damage up to thirty points and reflect it back onto up to ten nearby targets.”

Their eyes lit up. “Doesn’t that mean you’re almost immune to all minor enemies?”

“More or less. The small fry only deal single-digit damage.”

“How much health do you have?”

“Over seven hundred.”

They all looked at him, slightly stunned.

“No wonder you were thinking that way! If your talent works like this, our strategy can be adjusted. We can afford to be a bit more aggressive,” Wang Weilong said, rubbing his chin. “The main street is still off-limits, but we could hit one of those smaller battlefields nearby, those with a hundred or so combatants. You take the lead, we’ll keep the pirate bosses off you, you handle the minions, then we regroup and focus on taking down the bosses together.”

“That’s a good plan.”

“I agree—it could work.”

All five members of the squad nodded. They moved out immediately. There was no need to scout; just ahead to the left was a small battlefield, where thirty or forty kingdom soldiers and militiamen were holding a narrow alley against a force of over a hundred pirates.

Rounding a corner, they came upon the chaotic scene. The five approached the squad leader stationed at the rear, who barked orders. Chu Cheng called out, “Commander, we’re willing to join the fight.”

The squad leader’s stern face broke into a thin smile; he shouted his approval.

Chu Cheng charged into the fray at the alley’s mouth. Wang Weilong, sword in one hand and shield in the other, followed close behind. Even Cheng Mingyue, the berserker, put away her two-handed greatsword and switched to a sword-and-shield set.

Different weapons for different battles—two-handed weapons dealt greater damage to bosses, but in large-scale skirmishes, sword and shield were more effective.

Chu Cheng, with superior strength, pushed past the front-line infantry and soon faced the pirates head-on. He broke through the ranks and dove straight into the pirate mob, where several swords immediately slashed down at him.

He raised his arm to protect his face. The scimitars struck his forearm, and a barely perceptible crystalline glow absorbed most of the damage, leaving only a few single-digit wounds that didn’t even break the skin.

But as his blade of reflected energy swept out, the ten nearest pirates instantly sported three deep gashes each. Two of them, already low on health, collapsed on the spot.

From the rear, Zhang Chunlei and Zhang Qing saw themselves awarded several points of kill experience out of nowhere, astonished.

“Damn, that talent is insane!”

“A leveling godsend!”

Zhang Qing’s mouth twitched. “Even more efficient than my spell-based area attacks.”

As they spoke, Chu Cheng, relying on his reflection talent, had already taken out a swath of pirates. Alone, he surged into the pirate ranks, and the surrounding pirates, heedless of their fate, continued to attack.

Though his talent could only reflect to ten targets at most, it was more than enough. The pirates were all around him; in an instant, four or five blades struck, and every few seconds he wiped out seven or eight more, ceaselessly.

The pirates’ advantage in the battle line evaporated with his arrival. Soldiers, though puzzled at the pirates’ rapid deaths, crowded behind Chu Cheng and pressed their attack.

The pirate leader soon noticed something was amiss. His first reaction was to gather a dozen pirates armed with flintlock rifles and focus their fire.

A barrage of gunfire erupted, and bodies dropped all around Chu Cheng.

This scene stunned the pirate leader. His already limited wits were thrown into confusion; he couldn’t think of a way to deal with this hedgehog-like adversary.

He couldn’t order his men not to attack.

Chu Cheng charged right in, blades swinging at their faces, and the pirates instinctively retaliated—there was simply no way to restrain them.

In barely two minutes, the pirates were on the verge of collapse.

The leader quickly ordered a retreat and called for reinforcements from nearby pirates.

But the two or three dozen who trickled in couldn’t change the situation. As Chu Cheng pressed deeper, more and more pirates fell inexplicably. The survivors, terrified, began shouting “demon!” and fled at the sight of him.

The pirate leader and his close followers tried to stem the rout, but so many were escaping that it was impossible to stop.

After slaying several deserters to no avail, the leader had no choice but to retreat as well.

But while others could run, he could not.

Chu Cheng bent his legs, gathered his strength for a second, and shot upward like a bolt of lightning, crashing down heavily on the pirate leader.

The leader rolled backward, dodging the strike, but several of his henchmen were caught. With a thunderous boom, a wild blast sent everyone sprawling, stunned.

“A golden opportunity—get ready to kill the boss!”

Wang Weilong, who had been sticking close to Chu Cheng, raised his shield and struck a pose. A flash of white light enveloped him as he charged like lightning, plowing through the fleeing pirates and slamming his shield into the stunned leader.

Then he raised his sword high, uttered a sharp command, and a layer of red light, like burning flame, flashed across the blade as he brought it down in a fierce blow.