The moment the human wall along the road was blasted apart in an instant, everyone in the Star Ring Guild froze, staring rigidly at Qi Guang, Silent Blade, and the others. They had already been shocked by the way the group dodged the rain of arrows, but now even "shock" was an understatement.
"Are they monsters?!"
The thought sprang unbidden into the minds of the Star Ring Guild members.
The front-line defenders were all genuine second-rank class experts, each outfitted with 55-level Mythril Rank equipment, and a rare few even had one or two pieces of 55-level Gold-grade gear—equipment that ordinary expert players could only dream of.
Even if thousands of players attacked simultaneously, they probably couldn't have budged this layer of defense.
Yet now, barely a dozen people had broken through it with ease. If someone told you that, you wouldn't believe it.
Not far away, the free players and the Hundred Flowers Palace assassins conducting covert reconnaissance were equally stunned. The steel-like defense had simply been breached. What was even more incredible was that those second-rank class MTs had been sent flying one after another—the sheer power was terrifying beyond words.
But after that brief silence, the Star Ring Guild members—all seasoned experts themselves—quickly began reinforcing the second wave of defense while their ranged players launched supporting attacks.
The contempt they had previously held for Qi Guang and the others had vanished entirely.
However, the change in the Star Ring players' attitude didn't do them any good. When Qi Guang and the group charged into the crowd, they were like lions among sheep—technique was no longer a factor. All that remained was pure, overwhelming violence.
The Star Ring Guild's expert players had indeed prepared well, but Qi Guang's group possessed equipment that went beyond merely "good." The worst among them were 60-level Mythril items, and there was no shortage of 60-level Gold-grade or even Dark Gold-grade gear. In terms of base stats, they were at least two full tiers above the Star Ring experts.
That wasn't even counting the additional power from their second-rank magical skills. The gap in combat strength was easily three tiers or more—a difference even wider than the gulf between ordinary players and experts.
Every casual strike from Qi Guang's group sent Star Ring players flying through the air. First-rank class players didn't even have the ability to struggle—they simply died from the collateral damage of the magical skills alone. Second-rank class experts, without their skills to support them, could only flail a few times and let out a few screams before dissolving into a streak of white light and vanishing.
The Star Ring Guild's second defensive line was broken through again in less than ten seconds. Wherever Qi Guang and the others passed, players lay strewn across the ground...
"Am I dreaming? That's hundreds of experts from the Star Ring Guild. Are they really even players?"
The free players in the distance stared at the Star Ring members littering the road, jaws agape, completely unable to believe what they were seeing.
They had seen plenty of guild battles between players, but they had never witnessed anything like this.
A dozen players chasing thousands.
Slaughtering the Star Ring Guild's experts was like wringing the necks of chickens in the wild—one strike, one kill, one strike, one kill, without so much as blinking. They had carved straight from the first defensive line all the way to the second line sixty or seventy yards out. Even when the Star Ring players managed to land some damage on Qi Guang's group, a single sustained healing effect was all it took to extinguish that last flicker of hope.
Even though the Star Ring Guild normally made these free players despise them, they couldn't help but feel sympathy for them now. Some even wanted to cheer the Star Ring players on, if only to comfort themselves against the sheer terror and absurdity that Qi Guang's group had brought.
"How is this possible? Could they not be the bait set by Hundred Flowers Palace? Could Tiger King's Black Cloud Army be the actual bait?" Xuanyuan Sansha stared at the broken second defensive line, his mind churning with confusion.
"Boss Xuanyuan, they're about to reach the third defensive line. If that one falls too, stopping them afterward is going to be extremely difficult," Lan Shanke said urgently, watching the deep-in-thought Xuanyuan Sansha. "Should we send our people in?"