The Beastman Empire. Ancient Rock City.
Hordes of evil beasts and evil demons swarmed the barrier Zero Wing had erected, attacking with frenzied fury, while Zero Wing's members did everything they could to cut down the incoming enemies. Two hundred small ballista carriages fired almost nonstop, and explosions rang out one after another across the entire battlefield of Ancient Rock City.
Five legendary evil beasts and three severely wounded Sacred Demon Dragons fought each other to a deadlocked frenzy, utterly demolishing the surrounding terrain. Within a three-hundred-yard radius, not a single player or other evil beast could even approach—the aftershocks of their battle alone were enough to send the earth quaking.
Both sides fought with savage intensity, the sky and earth seeming to blur together, and the players watching from afar felt their blood racing.
"Unbelievable! Is this what a faction war looks like?"
"There are so many evil beasts and demons in Ancient Rock City! After fighting for this long, I'd say at least thirty to fifty thousand have fallen, yet the number pouring out of the city still doesn't seem to have diminished at all. I honestly can't understand how Zero Wing dares to attack Ancient Rock City."
"Zero Wing's already incredibly impressive—look at how many evil demons and beasts are swarming them! Any other major guild would've been wiped out by now, but Zero Wing hasn't suffered a single casualty."
"Zero Wing hasn't lost anyone, sure, but that magic barrier must be burning through mana at a frightening rate. Once they run out, they're done for. These evil beasts and demons are all level sixty and up, with no shortage of Great Lords past level seventy. With Zero Wing's hundred thousand players, they wouldn't last five minutes against that kind of force. The only question is whether Zero Wing's mana runs dry first, or whether Ancient Rock City's forces are wiped out first."
Neither side had expected the battle to play out this way.
The evil demons and beasts under the Beast Emperor were forces that no current players could easily contend with, whether by level or by sheer numbers. Yet Zero Wing had managed to fight the Beast Emperor to a draw using their mobile defensive magic array and small ballista carriages—and had even broken through Ancient Rock City's defensive barrier.
That was something even many of the supreme powers probably couldn't have pulled off.
The dark players who had been preparing to ambush Zero Wing now watched in complete silence from afar, not daring to draw a single step closer. The barrage from those two hundred small ballista carriages was simply too devastating—one volley would leave a carpet of dead evil beasts strewn across the ground, let alone players.
While many of the independent players present had come away with a drastically different impression of Zero Wing, the members of the various supreme powers watching from afar remained utterly composed—even somewhat gloating.
"This Zero Wing sure can hold its own. Too bad it doesn't matter anymore—the outcome's already been decided. No matter how long they hold out, it's pointless. That mobile defensive magic array burns through magic crystals at a ridiculous rate, and there are millions of evil demons and beasts inside Ancient Rock City. Trying to climb to the top by stepping on the Beast Emperor's head—Zero Wing's still way too green for that."
"Now Zero Wing should finally understand its own weight. If they still think they can hog all the profits from the Secret Stone Fortress, we'll have no choice but to make them vanish from the Beastman Empire."
"That said, Zero Wing did give us a nice little surprise. Who'd have thought they could force the Beast Emperor to use his trump card? When we go to take Ancient Rock City later, we'll need to think carefully about how to counter that kind of attack."
The members of the various supreme powers looked down at the Zero Wing forces from afar and couldn't help but sneer.
Ordinary players might not know the details about Zero Wing, but as supreme powers, they had conducted thorough investigations into the guild—especially regarding the mobile defensive magic array it had deployed multiple times. They even knew exactly how many magic crystals each use consumed.
So they were perfectly aware that Zero Wing was merely putting on a brave face.
While Zero Wing's performance had indeed exceeded their expectations, the idea of monopolizing the Secret Stone Fortress was something the various supreme powers would absolutely not tolerate—not after they'd seen what Zero Wing currently had to offer.
For a first-rate guild, it might be something to be proud of. But for supreme powers like them, whether it was a hundred thousand elite troops or two hundred small ballista carriages, they could crush it all without breaking a sweat, so long as they committed to the task. They simply didn't want to pay such a steep price unless absolutely necessary.
But the situation was slightly different now, because Zero Wing was simultaneously facing pressure from numerous supreme powers.
If Zero Wing refused to make a choice and still intended to claim the Secret Stone Fortress for itself, the various supreme powers would inevitably join forces to annihilate it. And when that day came, each supreme power would need to pay only a minimal price to get the job done—so they certainly wouldn't hesitate.