In the wide tunnel, Zero Wing's members charged straight toward the nearest group of Trial Warriors and Trial Elites without hesitation. The members of Violet Sword and Azure Commerce stood there dumbfounded, at a complete loss for words.
There were over a thousand monsters, and the lowest-level ones were Grand Lords at Level 120. They hadn't even discussed positioning or personnel arrangements in detail before charging straight in. Such command was simply unheard of—and yet every single member of Zero Wing followed orders without question.
"This is absolutely insane!" the Wildfire Berserker blurted out, watching Shi Feng ignore their opinions entirely. "That's over a thousand monsters! Even with the Mana Body unlocked, you can only absorb so much damage. It's not like an Extreme Precision expert can just dodge everything at will. If they wipe, there won't be enough time left in the allotted period…"
He had to admit that Zero Wing's members were high in level, and every one of them had unlocked the Mana Body, giving them an advantage over even Violet Sword's top experts when fighting monsters.
But the trials in this tunnel clearly tested player skill above all else—level and the Mana Body were secondary.
With only five days to begin with, time was already tight. Dying once meant wasting an entire day, and their current fighting force simply didn't have that kind of leeway.
"There's nothing we can do. We have to push through," Silent Red Star said with a sigh, watching Zero Wing's group draw ever closer to the monster pack. "I'll activate the magic array shortly. All remaining forces focus fire on the Trial Elites first. Once the number of penetrating attacks from the Elites drops, blocking the Trial Warriors will be much easier."
At this, Zui Yan and the others from Azure Commerce nodded in agreement, each leading their teams toward the Trial Elites within the monster formation, ready to take them out the moment combat began—hoping to relieve some of the pressure and reduce casualties for Zero Wing.
Just as Zero Wing's members entered the Trial monsters' attack range, the Trial Warriors and Trial Elites moved with the disciplined precision of veteran soldiers who had fought on battlefields for years.
Over four hundred Trial Warriors in the front rank formed a tight phalanx. Massive steel shields slammed into the ground one after another, locking together to form an impenetrable wall that completely shielded the thousand-plus Trial monsters behind them, making it nearly impossible for players to break through. Meanwhile, the other Trial monsters within the formation split into several ranks, drew their bows, and began launching volleys at Zero Wing's forces in successive waves…
Everyone stared, stunned, at the Trial monsters' remarkably organized assault.
Monsters capable of group attacks were hardly rare in the Divine Realm, but monsters this well-trained—whose coordination was on par with NPCs—was something none of them had ever witnessed.
Before anyone could react, wave after wave of arrows rained down on Zero Wing's members. Each volley consisted of over a thousand arrows, the interval between successive waves was razor-thin, and the arrows themselves were staggered with deliberate spacing, making it impossible for a player to block multiple shafts at once.
"It's over. Even peak experts would have a hard time blocking and dodging these arrows. With Zero Wing's people at the Extreme Precision level, they'll probably be wiped out in just a few volleys," the Wildfire Berserker said, his face draining of color as he watched the arrows fall.
At this point, it wasn't just Zero Wing's forces who wouldn't survive a charge—even a group of peak experts would be cut down in short order.
The arrow attacks were simple in nature, but they were fast. When the numbers were large enough and each shaft arrived with a slight time offset, even a Domain-realm expert could be killed before they could react. A player's response speed was fundamentally limited; there was only so much they could do within a fixed window. Exceed that limit, and even Domain-realm experts were powerless, forced to watch helplessly as death came.
The current arrow barrage wasn't quite strong enough to overwhelm peak experts—but it was close.
The reason was that these arrows forced a player to face more than ten simultaneous attacks at once, with some facing as many as twenty. Even if they could deflect some, the sheer volume exceeded what a peak Tier 3 expert could handle. Combined with the extreme velocity of the arrows, which made precise prediction nearly impossible, anyone below the Domain realm—relying solely on True Void-level perception—was highly likely to miscalculate and take a hit.
Just as over a thousand arrows were about to rain down, a voice rang out through the party chat.
"Vice Leader Silent Red Star, activate the defensive array!" Shi Feng said, watching the arrows descend without a shred of panic.
"Got it!"
Silent Red Star reacted at once, swinging his staff to deploy the magic array that had already been fully charged.