Chapter 273 Sacred Snowy Mountain (Part 2)

The other players of the party were shocked. The Ranger was almost able to swing his lasso over the Snow Horse’s neck. The sudden appearance of a hostile player might lead to wasted effort.

Despite their initial shock, the party was a veteran of such situations. They did not panic, and the rest of the party with the exception of the Ranger began regrouping on the Rogue’s position.

“It’s a player from a hostile continent. Be careful, if he can make it here alone, he must be really good.” said the Rogue as he backed away from Ye Ci and entered Stealth.

Unlucky! I still got discovered despite my best attempts to avoid that! With the way they’re trying to encircle me, I don’t think I’ll be able to talk myself out of this. I guess I’ll have to take them out quickly before more trouble comes my way. Ye Ci sighed internally.

She dashed out from her hiding spot and fired off a few damage over time skills at the Cleric. It was always the same in every fight. The Cleric was always the priority target in a fight, as they were the ones keeping their party members alive. This was why Clerics had the highest casualty rate whenever there was a large scale conflict between players.

The Cleric immediately healed himself up and began maneuvering in a zigzagging pattern. Goddamn it! Thought the Cleric, A couple of hits and I’m almost dead? His damage is unreal! And the Cleric’s face paled when he took a look at the combat log, “I think we should fall back.”

“What is it?”

“The one who attacked me is Gongzi You! It’s Gongzi You of the Eastern Continent!”

“What!”

The worst thing to happen in a fight is distraction and fear, and the Cleric was being affected by both. He was immediately reduced to a corpse lying on the ground in the next second. Ye Ci spared no attention to the Cleric’s dropped item. She had to take care of the remaining players as soon as possible.

“I think we should retreat and get some reinforcements.” The party’s Hunter knew that he was outclassed by Gongzi You.

“Ranger, are you done?” The Warrior knew that they were at a disadvantage, and that it was in the best interest of the party to retreat once the Ranger had successfully captured the horse.

Death would mean a loss in experience points and equipment.

“I need 15 more seconds, hang in there! Grab the Cleric’s stuff, don’t leave them for Gongzi You!” the Ranger called out to his teammates. He was the leader of the party, and it was his responsibility to minimize the losses suffered by his party.

“Lead Gongzi You to me. If I can land a Staggering Blow on her and stun her, we’ll be able to make quick work of her!” shouted the Rogue who had been maintaining a 20 yards distance behind Ye Ci. If the members of his party could force Ye Ci to move at least 5 yards in his direction, he would be able to close the distance between them and hit Ye Ci with his Staggering Blow.

“Understood, leave it to us.” Despite their fear of Gongzi You, the Hunter and Warrior of the party understood very well that hesitation would mean death. They began chugging down potions while herding Ye Ci towards the Rogue.

Ye Ci did not react to the rest of the players with overwhelming force out of the need to conserve her arrows. She opted instead to pepper them with lower CD skills that consume less arrows and eventually wear them down. It was like fighting with one of her arms tied behind her back.

A smile appeared on her face as her attacks landed on the Warrior and the Hunter. There’s still a Rogue lurking somewhere behind me. What is he trying to do? Is he going to hit me with Staggering Blow? I must not underestimate the prowess of the Rogue. Thought Ye Ci. She knew that her identity was exposed the moment she launched her attack on Cleric. This meant that she could summon Ol’ Four into battle without much of a worry.

A whistle rang out followed by the appearance of Ol’ Four. Tyrannosaurus Rex could be said to be one of the best pets second only to Dragons, and they possess the ability to intimidate pets of other life forms. As the Hunter’s cheetah pounced on Ye Ci, it was swept away by Ol’ Four’s tail. The cheetah landed on the ground some distance away curling up into a ball and whimpering in pain. It was apparent that it had sustained a large amount of damage.

The Hunter was stunned. Gongzi You was the role model of Hunters, and it was common knowledge that her pet was formidable. He had seen a lot of videos of Ol’ Four in action, but fighting against Gongzi You’s pet in actual combat was still an entirely different experience. He could already feel a pressure weighing down on his shoulders when they engaged Gongzi You in combat. And with Ol’ Four now summoned into the battle, it felt as if the party would buckle under the pressure at any moment.

Gongzi You did not engage them with her high damage skills, and instead chose to harass them with some of her more basic skills. They did not dish out massive amounts of damage, but they were still extremely lethal.

They were instant cast skills with low CD. Despite their significantly lower damage, these skills were deadly if they were used int he right way.

Ye Ci fired off Scorpion Stingers at the Warrior and Hunter in front of her, and directed Ol’ Four’s attention to the Rogue. Despite his size, Ol’ Four had an impressive reaction time. He was more than a match for the Rogue due to his level penalty.

“What the hell? What’s with that Scorpion Stinger? My mana is almost completely drained!” the Warrior who had finally closed his gap with Ye Ci was dismayed to find that his mana was almost drained. The character classes in Fate needed mana in combat, and a character’s MP was something that was more important than its HP in combat. Having sufficient MP meant that one could still carry on the fight, but once a character’s MP was depleted, it meant that the fight was over.

“I don’t know! She might have buffs from her equipment. It’s that, or her skill’s level is very high!”

The Hunter was struggling to keep up with Ye Ci’s rapid movements. He was confused when even his most carefully aimed shots were all evaded by Gongzi You.

“Goddamn it!” with a surge of energy, the Warrior finally closed the gap and swung his shield at Ye Ci. His movement appeared to be clumsy, but it was a ruse that would normally fool a player.

But Ye Ci was not a normal player. She stepped slightly to the left as the Warrior raised his shield. The Warrior was confused when Gongzi You disappeared from his view, and he felt a sharp pain on the joints of both his legs in the next second that was accompanied by a system notification, “You have been crippled.”

The Warrior was depressed. His mana was drained, he missed his Shield Bash, and he was now crippled by Gongzi You. To add salt to the wound, he was not even able to react to her attack. He was confident that he was a decent player, so why is a fight against Gongzi You so one-sided?

Ye Ci had the need to conserve her Stamina and supplies, which was why she turned away from the Warrior once he was crippled. She eyed the Hunter who was at very low health, and finished her opponent off with an arrow. Her attention was then turned towards the Rogue.

The Rogue was, at the moment, fighting a losing battle against Ol’ Four. The beast was fast, its attacks were ferocious, and its defense formidable. Why do I have to fight against something like this! A Warrior would be more suited to handle a life form like this!

“Ranger, retreat as soon as you’re done! Don’t let her kill you or our efforts here today is wasted!” the crippled Warrior shouted at the Ranger.

With two of his party members dead, one crippled, and another barely holding on, there was nothing the Ranger could do, “I’ll get back to the city and return with reinforcements!” he sait through gritted teeth and fled for his life.

“Be careful, Rogue, Gongzi You is headed your way!” the Warrior could only watch helplessly as Ye Ci dashed after the Rogue and finished him off before he could even finish his sentence.

Ol’ Four wagged its tail at Ye Ci, excited by its chance to perform once again. Ye Ci threw a chunk of meat at Ol’ Four and decided not to give chase to the fleeing ranger.

The Warrior could feel the piercing gaze of Ye Ci’s cold stare as she made her way back to the southern cliff. Is this the strength of a top player?

He could tell that Gongzi You did not go all out during the battle, and the disparity of strength between Gongzi You and his party.

The Huntress showed no interest in their equipment. Her interest was on the Ranger who had managed to flee. How is he so fast? What is making him so fast?

The Warrior clenched his fist as he stared at Ye Ci’s silhouette. One of these days… I’ll become an expert player as well!

A figure in black clock was observing the battle with great interest from a hill some distance away. Heh, never thought that I’d run into someone like this.

Just then, realisation dawned upon him and he snapped his fingers, “Wasn’t the one who killed that Sorceress twice a Huntress? How could I have forgotten about it?”

The figure shifted his gaze towards the large dinosaur, “Aiya, Gongzi You, what a mischievous person you are! You made me a scapegoat…” a smile appeared on his face as he turned around and vanished into the bellowing snow.

Ye Ci could feel a gaze on her, but saw nothing but snow as she surveyed her surroundings. It must’ve been my imagination. Thought Ye Ci as she mounted Ol’ Four and made her way to the cliff.

The cliff was not the safest way to ascend the mountain. Most of the rocks had long since been eroded, but they were covered by thick layers of ice due to the cold weather. The ice and snow on the Sacred Snowy Mountain never seem to melt. The mountain had never seen a single summer, and even spring and autumn were short. They brought rain to the mountain, which would be frozen ice when winter came, adding a new layer of frozen rain water to the thick ice covering the mountain.

Ye Ci could see the sunlight refracting off the icicles into a myriad of colors as she stood beside the cliff. Despite the fog and the cold winds, the weather was perfect.

She swung her Cat Claw towards the cliff, and heard a loud clang. It was an indicator that the layer of ice on the cliff was too hard for even the Cat Claw to gain a solid grip.

Ye Ci was not disheartened. She continued to swing her cat claw towards the cliff from different spots in an attempt to look for a spot where the Cat Claw could take hold.

As Ye Ci was trying to ascend the mountain, the General Chat of the Northern Continent was in turmoil. It was flooded with news of a party’s encounter with Gongzi You. With the appearance of Spotless Autumn a hot topic, the two top-tier players immediately became the focus of attention.

The spectacle had even attracted the attention of the three major guilds.

Sangharama Shrine…..

“Guild leader, we’ve received news that Gongzi You had been spotted in the Sacred Snowy Mountain. Do we send some of our men after her?”

“Why would we want to do that?” Sangharama’s Grace glanced at Thousand Mile Dream before shifting his attention back to the map sprawled before him.

“But this is the second top-tier player to have appeared in our continent. Don’t you think that they’re up to something? Besides…” Thousand Mile Dream paused mid-sentence. The missing hoe was a topic that he wanted to avoid.

“So what if they’re top players? It’s just the two of them. Let them be. We must focus our efforts on the abandoned fortress. Nothing else matters.” Sangharama’s Grace would not risk the growth of his guild because of two players, “Send somebody over to monitor their movement if you have the time to spare. If they’re here to complete a quest, ignore them.”