Reign of the Hunters
chapter-190

In a battle, the ability of a commander to grasp the situation was more important than the teamwork between players. This was especially true in an unexpected battle, where players barely knew each other and could barely work with each other. In situations like this, the capability of a commander was very important.

The commander’s grasp of the overall situation, his or her ability to form players into effective combat units and the commander’s ability to always stay ahead of his of her opposite number would always decide the outcome of a battle.

Of course, the outcome of a battle would also be swayed by any sudden events that could turn the tide of a battle in the blink of an eye. However, things like these were very rare and could hardly be accounted for.

For the Northern Continent players to be able to reorganize in such a short time, they must’ve been led by a very skillful commander that was more experienced than Purity Essence. The person was definitely a veteran.

Apparently, despite Purity Essence’s potential as a battle commander, he was still lacking in terms of experience.

That was not the only discovery made by Ye Ci. During her tour around the enemy formation, she was astonished to discover that there were 2 Clerics among the Northern Continent players that were in possession of the Resurrection skill. That was why the front line of the Northern Continent did not collapse. The 2 Clerics have been busy at work, enabling the Northern Continent players to marshall their strength once more in such a short notice.

Resurrection is a very rare drop. Ye Ci did not know how many Resurrection skill books have dropped since the opening of the Fate server, but she knew that there would be not more than 3 Resurrection skill books dropped in the entire Eastern Continent, with one of them belonging to Fruit Jelly, another one belonging to Sir Ditty’s personal assistant while the last one was obtained by Four Seas of Blank Space. She did not expect 2 of the Northern Continent players to be in possession of such an ability. Just how many Resurrections are there in the Northern Continent?

This gave Ye Ci a headache.

It was such a headache to go up against an opposing continent with multiple players in possession of Resurrection. They would be able to sustain their lines better than their opponents. This was a fatal blow for continents with lesser Resurrection skill book drops.

This matter, however, was not an immediate cause for Ye Ci’s worry. After all, the Eastern Continent have only recently beaten back an invasion by the Western Continent. The Northern Continent would not be able to invade the Eastern in such a short time.

Of course, how could Ye Ci allow the 2 Clerics with Resurrection to stay alive? She reaped their lives with well aimed arrows, sending them back to the spawn points. With the 2 Clerics gone, the Northern Continent will be hard-pressed to maintain their momentum. This gave the Eastern Continent room to breathe.

Combatants from both sides were locked in bitter combat.

Just then, Ye Ci noticed that the already gloomy surroundings in the Swamp of Sorrows had grew darker. The low rumbling of thunder could be heard from the distant accompanying flashes of lightning.

The change of weather is a very common occurrence in Fate. The gusting winds, heavy rain, as well as lightning and thunder were a very common sight. Even disasters like earthquakes, typhoons and floods would happen once in a while. That was why no players in the Swamp of Sorrow paid attention to the sudden change of weather. Most of them assumed that it was just the coming of a storm, and paid it no heed.

Ye Ci was the only exception.

If Ye Ci was also a player new to Fate, she would’ve reached the same conclusion as the rest of the players in the Swamp of Sorrows. She was, however, not new to Fate. When the sky turned dark, Ye Ci thought that it was about to rain. But when the rumbling thunder followed, she knew that she was wrong. It was not the signs of rain.

It was an omen. An omen of the coming of the Dragonia.

The Dragonia is an ancient race in Fate. They are a proud, cunning and vicious race. Even after offering their allegiance to Dark Lord Naga, the Dragonia still don’t act subservient to him, while the Dark Lord was unable to conquer them due to their unprecedented strength. This made the Dragonia a very unique existence in the history of Fate.

They were the most magnificent beings, placed above all creatures in the world. The Dragonia even had their own civilization that fractured as some of them refused to swear their allegiance to Naga. These magnificent life forms will only appear in the later stages of Fate as the ultimate BOSS in lvl 120 party dungeons.

Based on the statistics collected by players in Ye Ci’s last life, even the lowest leveled Dragon was at least lvl 100, while the level of the highest leveled Dragon was an unknown to players. The Dragonia was the symbol of strength, and a symbol of an indomitable existence.

The Dragonia was an arrogant race that thought themselves as the highest tier life form in the world. They could not tolerate the existence of other inferior life forms in their presence. Whenever the Dragonia appears, they would spout Dragon Breath, raining death to all the living beings below, wiping them out of existence.

In Ye Ci’s last life, there were only a few course of actions that players could take when they ran into a Dragon. They could either go into Stealth or Camouflage, go offline, or hide themselves in places that were out of sight of the Dragon. Appearing in the Dragon’s field of view would automatically spell death.

As there used to be a Dragon nest in the Mournful Mountains adjacent to the Swamp of Sorrows, the Dragonia would appear in the Swamp of Sorrows from time to time. However, such occurrence would only begin after the release of a certain patch. There was no known sighting of the Dragonia during the earlier stages of the game when players were still at lvl 30. It seems that Ye Ci would still run into things that were not known to her after her reincarnation.

After all, the world of Fate is vast. Even if she was like a living encyclopedia when it came to Fate in her last life, there were still things that were not known to Ye Ci. She was a human, and was unable to remember all the tiny details about the game.

Ye Ci had originally planned to sneak away, but with so many players still fighting in a battle that was indirectly caused by her, she sent a message to Purity Essence. “Get everyone to either find a place to hide or retreat back to Dark Clay City!”

“Eh? You mean you want us to fall back?” Purity Essence was confused by Ye Ci’s words as the battle was slowly turning in the Eastern Continent’s favor, “If things continue as they are, we’ll be able to achieve total victory in less than half an hour.”

Without bothering to explain fully, Ye Ci spoke up calmly, “There’s something wrong with the weather. It does not look like it’s going to rain. There’s something scary going on.”

Purity Essence immediately looked up at the sky, and noticed the faint rumbling of thunder. He then directed a question at Cactus, “Say, does it look like it’s going to rain?”

Cactus looked up into the sky and nodded, “Sure looks like it.”

Suspicion clouded Purity Essence’s mind. As he lowered his head, he began noticing that the player’s mounts and pets have began showing signs of anxiety and fear. What the hell is happening?

Is there really something wrong?

The thunder grew more audible, while bright red lightning split the skies. It was almost as if the sky was scorched red by the lightning. As he listened more carefully, Purity Essence realised that the rumbling sound was not resulted by thunder, and was instead the growling of an animal. He creased his eyebrows. The growling was very similar to a certain creature. It sounded just like Gongzi You’s pet!

It is very likely that the darkened skies was not due to an impending rain. But just what the hell is going on?

Purity Essence gritted his teeth as the clouds descended. He immediately shouted out into the Command Channel, “All hands, fall back now! Find a place to hide or flee back to Dark Clay City. If you’re dead, do not respawn, remain in spirit form!”

His order caused an uproar among the Eastern Continent players. As the players were unable to speak in the Command Channel, they immediately began spamming the Map Channel with messages. Most of them were asking for explanations, while some of the more radical players even began to question Purity Essence’s loyalty towards the Eastern Continent, accusing him of being a spy for the Northern Continent, abandoning the victory that the Eastern Continent players had worked hard to gain.

“I know many of you do not understand what is going on. Look at the weather. It does not look like it’s going to rain at all. There are many sudden events in Fate that we are not able to forsee. So why not take precautions against such an event? If something bad happens, wouldn’t it be bad for all of us if we die and lose our levels? We can still fight against the Northern Continent players in the coming days. We don’t have to die to any sudden events in the game, am I right?”

A number of players began to notice the abnormality of the weather after listening to Purity Essence’s words. To Purity Essence’s dismay however, a large number of players began cursing at him.

Just then, he received a message from Gongzi You, “We’re all strangers coming together by chance. You don’t have to feel sad for the people who refuse to heed your advice. You’ve done your part. Hurry! Go offline or find yourself a place to hide!”

A sliver of warmth crept into Purity Essence’s heart. But, he shook his head and replied, “Thank you for your concern, but I am in command of this battle. As long as somebody remains on the battlefield, I will not abandon that player. You should leave now. You have a very high level. It’ll be bad if you die.”

Despite remaining silent, Ye Ci was deeply impressed by the man’s character.

For this person to not be recognised as one of the best commanders in her last life… It was such a waste.