The sudden arrival of the Golden Giant and the Rock Guardians threw the battlefield into a complete rout. The moment Shen Yin issued the retreat order, the members of Shadow Claw and Dark Hunters began scattering in every direction, fleeing for their lives.
However, Shi Feng had no intention of letting either adventure team off the hook. He ordered everyone to give chase, and while it was impossible to eliminate every last one of them, they would take down as many as they could.
If this sudden ambush had targeted any group other than a joint team of three major guilds—one composed entirely of Tier 2 experts—they would have suffered devastating losses.
Moreover, they had the two adventure teams' trump cards to thank for the fact that the outcome wasn't worse. If Dark Hunters had also fielded two hundred Tier 2 classes, all of them having drunk the Lesser Dragonman Potion, dealing with them would have been far, far more difficult.
The only ones who could guarantee a win were Bai Qingxue, Huo Wu, Ke Le, Ziyan Liuyun, Zhao Yueru, and Shuise Qiangwei. For everyone else, managing an even split in odds would have been a tall order—the vast majority would have been looking at only a twenty or thirty percent chance of victory.
And then there were Shadow Claw's Demon Soldiers, which could not be underestimated either.
Demon Soldiers were useless in small numbers. Ten of them couldn't remotely unleash their true power. It was only once you reached a force of a hundred or more that the magic arrays inscribed on their armor could be activated. At that point, even over twenty Tier 4 Legendary monsters would be beaten senseless by them.
In his previous life, when a hundred Demon Soldiers appeared on a battlefield of Tier 2 classes, it was nothing short of "gods blocking the way are slain, demons blocking the way are destroyed." They had single-handedly allowed a first-rate guild to stand toe to toe with a superpower—and hold a town, no less.
In the virtual reality game Divine Realm, winning a decisive victory in a single battle that left your opponent unable to recover was virtually impossible. After all, this wasn't reality—players who died could respawn. What it ultimately came down to was a prolonged war of attrition, steadily wearing down the enemy's strength until they simply couldn't hold on any longer.
Now that both adventure teams had scattered and fled, total annihilation was off the table, but at the very least they needed to weaken them as much as possible. That way, it would take the two teams considerably longer to recover.
However, with the Domain of Darkness dispelled, the terrain of the wetland jungle was extremely complex. The moment members of either adventure team plunged into the dense forest, they would vanish without a trace in short order—especially since they were all experts. Only Rangers and Assassins could give chase; other classes could do nothing but stand and watch.
In less than a minute, both adventure teams had disappeared into the jungle without a trace.
"Team Leader, the leaders of the other adventure teams say they're almost here and want to know how the battle is going," the female Priest said as she followed behind Shen Yin. "Should we respond?"
"How the battle is going?" Shen Yin's slender brows knitted tight, a murderous edge creeping into his gaze. "Tell them—if they want to fight, they can go fight on their own. Shadow Claw is done!"
"..." The female Priest was left speechless, though she understood her team leader's frustration well enough. This battle had inflicted grievous losses on Shadow Claw. It was the first defeat they had suffered since the team's founding. And the intelligence that the Star Navigation Consortium had provided had been sorely inaccurate—their team leader would have been unnatural not to fly into a rage.
The female Priest relayed the message word for word to the other approaching adventure teams.
"Team Leader, Shadow Claw's leader seems pretty furious. He says they're out—if we want to keep going, we're on our own. Dark Hunters have already pulled out as well. Are we still going in?"
"Now that's interesting. Looks like Shadow Claw and Dark Hunters both took a serious hit from the Zero Wing Guild. In that case, let's head back too."
…
The other adventure teams that had been en route received Shen Yin's message and one by one abandoned their plans to besiege the Zero Wing Guild.
Shadow Claw and Dark Hunters were two of the most formidable adventure teams within Dark Soul. If both of them had taken such heavy losses, the rest of them wouldn't gain anything by charging in either. There was clearly no further need to lay siege to Zero Wing.
And in front of the forest before the Eclipse Throne…