MMORPG: The Almighty Ring

When Bai Wanli took off with the five other elders, Jiang Fei nudged Ariel’s shoulder and said, “Let’s go with them.”

Ariel nodded and followed Jiang Fei on foot. The distance between the martial artists and the Mutants was no more than 5 kilometers. The two did need to teleport as 5 kilometers was a short distance for a martial artist. They took less than 3 minutes to cover that distance.

Concurrently, Vine Demon and his team of Mutants were hiding in the forest packed with trees. They felt truly safe from the martial artists since they knew that they had no access to tracking or surveillance technology.

Unfortunately for them, Jiang Fei, with the help of 0541, had already had their location locked on. He had fed that information to Bai Wanli’s group. There was no need to turn left and right. All they needed to do was to head straight in one direction and they would clash with the Mutants.

“Boss! Our position has been compromised! The enemy is heading our way!” cried the scout of the team, Hawkeye. When he had noticed the enemy, they were already within one kilometer.

“How many of them,” Vine Demon asked.

“6… wait. 8! There’s 8 of them! Based on their movement speed, I think they are at least Level 4!” said Hawkeye.

“A small team… You are right. We have been compromised! They know we are here!” said Vine Demon. Even though he did not know how they had detected them, it did not matter since it was more important to deal with them before they decided to relay the information back to their comrades! Who knew what would they do then?

“Boss, should we just call it?” said a Mutant named Rock.

“And leave the alien artifact to the martial artists? Are you kidding? Besides, there’s no way anyone of us could outrun a Level 4 martial artist,” said Vine Demon with a stern glare. Speed was one of the known fortes of martial artists. Besides a few other Mutants that had speed-related abilities, or could fly and teleport, there was no one amongst the Mutants that could outrun a martial artist at the same power level.

Vine Demon’s ability was controlling plants. The best place for him to fight was in the forest with plenty of trees and plants. If they left the forest, their combat prowess would drop significantly!

Knowing that escape was not an option, the Mutants decided to take a stance against the martial artists. Besides, they had the terrain advantage! There might be a chance for them to defeat the enemy!

Bai Wanli and the others arrived and slowed down once they were in the forest.

“They should be in there… somewhere…” said Bai Wanli.

“Hmph! What a cowardly place to hide! I’d say, they should just fight like men!” Zhu Tianfei roared.

“It matters not. Let them hide, there is no way I will allow them to run!” Ganming Zhenren declared proudly as he gripped his sword, ready to slash anything that moves.

“I’ll cover the back. Lead the way!” said Ding Tianqi, following closely from behind.

“Do we need to follow them?” Ariel asked, staying behind with Jiang Fei as the group moved into the forest.

“No need. Let’s just wait here and enjoy the show,” said Jiang Fei, smiling and leaning against a tree. He came along only to observe the fight and “steal” martial arts from the masters if he was fond of them.

Even though he was part of the alliance, he was not entitled to protect and babysit the rest of them. If everything needed him to get his hands involved with, he would be tired or worse, annoyed.

Bai Wanli’s group had the advantage of numbers. In fact, they were only slightly stronger than the enemy. Besides Bai Wanli and Ganming Zhanren being at the Pinnacle stage of Level 4, Ding Tianqi and Zhu Tianfei were Advanced stage of Level 4, and Mao Gongyu and Lu Gongzan were at the Intermediate stage of Level 4. The enemy had one Pinnacle stage of Level 4, two Advanced stage of Level 4, and two Intermediate stage of Level 4. To be fair, the martial artists could completely dominate the enemy without a single casualty.

“Look out!” Ganming Zhenren suddenly roared. Tree roots come out bursting from the ground, extending and accelerating towards them at high speed.

“HNNG!”

Mao Gongyu drew his sword and delivered a powerful slash. Unfortunately, he had only managed to leave a small cut on the roots.

“Get back!” Ganming Zhenren roared once more and drew his sword. With supersonic speed, the man danced around stationary for a split second. The roots that were extending towards them were sliced apart instantly.

Mao Gonyu and Lu Gongzan were only at the Intermediate stage of Level 4. To them, slicing the roots was almost impossible for them, but not Ganming Zhenren.

“Come out and fight like a man!” Zhu Tianfei bellowed madly. A moment later, he drew out his sword and charged it with so much Qi that it solidified and extended the sword for about one foot long. After that, he sliced towards a certain direction with everything he got.

CRASHH!

A giant tree was chopped in half. When the tree crashed to the ground hard, a humanoid wolf jumped away to safety from behind the tree. Right after he kicked off the broken tree, the werewolf disappeared in a blink of an eye.

“Huh?!” Lu Gongzan gasped as he noticed a powerful killing intent coming towards him.

An arrow whistled through the forest at intense speed, towards the weakest member of the group, Lu Gongzan.

“HMPH!” Lu Gongzan grunted as he quickly tried to deflect the arrow away with his sword. The arrow was successfully deflected but the impact force was so strong that Lu Gongzan was thrown five steps back. Before he could catch his breath, a root burst out from the earth and bound Lu Gongzan’s ankles.

“ARGH!”

Unfortunately for Lu Gongzan, he was not quick enough to dodge the root. Moreover, he was not strong enough to slice off the roots that were lifting him into the air upside down, like a dangling rabbit.

Shush! Shush! Shush!

Three arrows came whistling from afar that was coming for Lu Gongzan’s head!

“Do not fret! I will help you!” cried Mao Gongyu as he leaped into the air in front of Lu Gongzan and deflected the arrows away.

“HYAAH!” Bai Wanli roared as he stepped in to slice off the roots that were binding Lu Gongzan.

“I can tell that there are an archer and a plant-controlling user nearby. So it seems that we have stepped into their playground! We need to be careful!” said Bai Wanli as everyone stayed close to one another. Even without modern technology, they were still able to feel the enemy’s presence and comprehend the situation very quickly.

“This is getting interesting!” Jiang Fei snickered. With 0541’s proximity radar, he was able to detect the enemy better than Bai Wanli and the rest. Once locked, no one could run away from 0541!

Of the five Mutants, only two had decided to attack. The one using the roots to bind Lu Gongzan was Vine Demon and the shooter was Hawkeye. Even though he was at the Advanced stage of Level 4, his Mutant abilities were observation and scouting. His battle capabilities were extremely limited. So much so that his arrows were unable to truly be a threat to even the Intermediate level Level 4 fighters like Mao Gongyu and Lu Gongzan!

“Hmm. The real fight is about to start!” cried Ariel.