The Kingdom Watcher

"What on earth are you talking about!" Xixi snapped, glaring at the girl.

"Alright, no more joking. They're still fighting up ahead; we'd better get moving too."

"Mhm."

The roars of players, the shrieks of monsters, and the thunderous echoes of various explosions reverberated across the sky for a long time.

...................

Countless twisted figures looked like burnt sticks, letting out wretched wails within the flames.

The long whip in Xu Xiaoyou's hand slit a rat-man's throat; simultaneously, she quickly coiled it around another player's waist, yanking them toward her to save them from being crushed into meat paste by a falling club.

Feeling insulted after the strike missed, a rotting troll let out a sky-shaking roar. Xu Xiaoyou casually fed it a Fireball Bombardment, blowing it into a shower of falling gore.

"Thanks."

The player shouted their gratitude and plunged back into the fray.

Xu Xiaoyou walked along the scorched, searing walls, issuing orders to stabilize the situation while pinning a lunging monster underfoot and blowing its head off with her Rose Rifle.

As their numbers grew, the previous management style had become too chaotic, so she had organized the guild's forces into five squads.

They were, in order: Heifeng, Red Glow, Death Watch, Sighing Wall, and White Kite, which she personally led.

The Red Glow and Heifeng squads were led by Akabane Tsubaki and Shadow Weaver Poem, respectively. Composed of the guild's elite stealth classes, they were responsible for intelligence gathering, infiltration, and assassination.

The Death Watch squad was led by Tyrant Bear, with members consisting mostly of attack-oriented attackers. Due to Angelina's mental instability, Xu Xiaoyou had abandoned the idea of letting her lead that squad.

The Sighing Wall was primarily made up of support buffers. Its leader, Golden Beetle, was the first guardian in the guild to reach the grade 4 threshold; he would lead this squad to become the guild's most solid backbone.

As for White Kite, the primary recruitment criterion was aesthetic appeal.

If anyone asked for a reason, there was naturally a very legitimate one.

Jokes aside, if she wanted to command with a clear head, Xu Xiaoyou certainly didn't want to be surrounded by rough, burly men.

Anyone's mood would be much better if they could see a cute face the moment they opened their eyes, right?

She had to admit that even though these little cats of the King's Clan were suppressed to grade 3 by the dungeon rules, the combat capabilities they displayed were more than a little better than those from Light-Chaser Garden.

Their situational judgment, reaction speed, tactical awareness, and mental fortitude were far superior to her own armed forces. They would never make low-level mistakes, such as getting carried away by the thrill of the kill and charging in alone, losing cohesion with their teammates.

Just like now, with only one buffer and two attackers, they were making a fool out of the elite lord defending the city through seamless coordination, leaving the creature to roar fruitlessly at the sky.

Though she was reluctant to admit it...

In a battlefield of the same level, one member of the King's Clan was enough to match five of her own people.

Once this battle was over, she would have to find a way to tighten military discipline, Xu Xiaoyou mused.

Seeing that the front lines were progressing smoothly and everyone was triumphantly pushing toward the depths of the bastion, the leader of the Death Watch squad staying in the rear, Tyrant Bear, suddenly requested a video communication link.

As soon as the connection was made, Xu Xiaoyou saw his blood-covered face. A hideous gash from a slash appeared on his broad chest, and he was kneeling on the ground like a man made of blood.

Behind him, a member of the Death Watch squad screamed in terror before being cleaved in half by a double-edged spear from above!

Xu Xiaoyou's expression turned grim instantly.

"What happened?"

"Guild leader, a world boss... there's a world boss in the bastion," Tyrant Bear gasped for air.

"It's called the 'Kingdom Watcher'!"

"Why didn't you inform me the moment you encountered an enemy? I clearly said to do so," Xu Xiaoyou frowned.

"I thought... we could handle her... ourselves!"

Tyrant Bear's face twisted in pain as the double-edged spear whistled through the air from behind, violently piercing through his chest!

The communication curtain fell to the ground, its surface cracking.

Beyond the pale moonlight, Xu Xiaoyou saw a tall figure, nearly eight meters in height, clad in heavy knight's armor and shrouded in a thick bloody aura. Behind every notch on that armor seemed to lie a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. This Kingdom Watcher stood atop the city wall, gazing over this gradually falling kingdom.

Even from several hundred meters away, through that heavy knight's helm, Xu Xiaoyou could feel the lonely eyes behind the vertical slits of the visor.

The woman stood in the moonlight at the peak of the tower, facing her from across the distance. Beneath her broken knight's gauntlets, her silver skin was dazzlingly pale. A strand of crimson crest on her helmet fluttered like a river of blood, with countless spirits thrashing and struggling within that river, letting out piteous cries of pain.

She moved, raising the double-edged spear toward the sky and letting out a beastly roar. This female general had long since become a half-living, half-dead ghost; that heavy armor had become an incubator for pestilence, imprisoning her soul while disgusting, toxic pus leaked from every gap.

As the roar thundered across the area, the monsters that had been routed and were fleeing just moments ago seemed to have been injected with stimulants. Their eyes flashed with frenzied light as they launched a second offensive against the main body of players, instantly suppressing the previously advancing players and forcing them back step by step.

Because there were too many monsters rushing up at once, the players' line was instantly shattered. The reacting players fought for themselves, while those nearby quickly shifted from offense to defense, forming a tight circle to protect Xu Xiaoyou in the center.

"Roar!" Several rat-men excitedly swung their sharp claws, slamming their bodies against the shield wall in an attempt to tear Xu Xiaoyou's face apart.

The latter calmly retracted her gaze and pushed forward under the protection of several players.

"Guild leader, what's the situation?" Shadow Weaver Poem's uneasy voice came through the communicator. "These monsters have spotted us, and they all seem to have entered a frenzy!"

"The Death Watch squad has been heavily hit. There's a world boss in the bastion, and the enemy intends to flank us from the rear to trap us here."

Xu Xiaoyou transmitted the information to the members of the King's Clan as well.

"Accelerate the breakthrough."

"Understood!"

The female general lit the beacon tower beside her. Pitch-black wolf smoke billowed upward, quickly shrouding the sky above the barbican where everyone was located.

As if responding to her call, countless beacon towers were lit simultaneously. Along the city walls spanning several kilometers, scattered sparks of fire flickered at first, but in the next instant, the flames spread like a wildfire, surging toward the sky!

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

In an instant, the entire bastion was alerted. Standing on the barbican walls and facing tens of thousands of pairs of crimson eyes, they truly felt like turtles trapped in a jar!

Flames erupted from the distant city walls, tiny sparks rapidly enlarging as a following shriek shattered the silence of the night sky!

"Not good," someone roared. "Get out of the way!"

Boom! A shell shrouded in thick black smoke exploded on the wall beneath their feet, instantly blowing a gap in it. The kicked-up stone fragments were like a horizontal downpour of rocks; like a hurricane passing through, it destroyed everything in sight!

Some players had their bodies torn apart by the debris, while others couldn't react in time and were blown away on the spot, falling into the boundless night.

Gazing at the network of fire lighting up the dark night and rapidly descending toward them, everyone realized that an unavoidable, vicious battle was about to begin.