Free Web NovelChapter 34: [34]: The Crimson Aegis Retaliation, Forty Against One
He dismissed his menus and turned toward the main road leading north. There was no time to celebrate his Nightmare dungeon clear. He had to level up faster. He had to monopolize the auction house, exploit every single SSS-rank fusion he could find, and push his numbers so high that even a God’s True Damage couldn’t touch him.
Levi broke into a sprint, his Boots of the Deep Tide tearing across the swamp water as he headed straight for the City of Thresholds.
Levi left the muddy, humid air of the Drowned Hollows behind and hit the main dirt road leading back to the City of Thresholds. His mind was still racing from the encounter with Isolde the Anomaly. Seeing a player casually delete a tree from the game’s code was heavily messing with his sense of security.
He needed to get back to the city, check his auction house sales, and immediately push toward the Level 20 zones.
But as he crested a small hill on the main road, he stopped.
The path ahead was completely blocked. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, completely cutting off the dirt road and spilling out into the tall grass on either side, was a massive guild formation.
There were forty players standing in tight, organized ranks. Every single one of them was wearing a black cloth tabard with a bright crimson and gold shield emblem on the chest.
Levi recognized the logo instantly. It was the ’Crimson Aegis’ guild. It was the exact same guild led by that low-level idiot Garret, whom Levi had completely massacred back in the Ashen Crypts a few days ago.
Standing at the very front of the forty-man army was a guy who clearly thought highly of himself. He was a Level 18 Paladin. Above his head floated his username and rank: `[Thorne - Guild Master]`.
Thorne was heavily geared for this stage of the game. He was wearing a full set of shiny, polished Silver-tier plate armor that probably gave him around 150 Defense. He held a massive steel tower shield in his left hand and a glowing mace in his right.
Levi just let out a long, annoyed sigh. He didn’t have time for this anime-villain nonsense.
Thorne saw Levi approach and slammed his mace against his tower shield. The loud metallic clang signaled the rest of the guild to stand at attention.
"Stop right there, Levi!" Thorne shouted, his voice echoing over the plains.
Levi didn’t stop. He just kept walking at a casual pace, resting his Gold-tier `[Sovereign’s Deathknell]` scythe over his shoulder.
"I said stop!" Thorne barked, his face turning red. "You’ve got a lot of nerve walking down the main road. Did you really think you could PK my officers in the Ashen Crypts and get away with it? You’ve been flagged with a guild-wide bounty for disrespecting our territory."
Levi stopped about twenty yards away from the frontline. He looked at the forty players. He saw ten heavy Shield-Bearers in the front, a mix of rogues and clerics in the middle, and about fifteen Mages holding wooden staffs in the backline.
"I didn’t disrespect your territory," Levi said dryly. "I just didn’t care that you existed. There’s a difference."
A few of the Crimson Aegis members muttered angrily in the proximity chat. Thorne sneered, taking a step forward.
"Big words for a solo player," Thorne mocked. "I saw the server announcement. Congratulations on the server-first Nightmare clear. I don’t know what kind of exploit or hack you used to solo a ten-man instance, but it ends here. We are going to farm you until your durability breaks, your gear drops, and your level drops back to zero."
Levi just stared at him. He opened his UI and checked his buffs. He checked his mana pool. He was sitting at a perfect 1020/1020 HP and 560/560 Mana.
Then, he ran the most important piece of math in the game.
He looked at the levels floating above the guild members’ heads. They were mostly Level 15 and 16. Thorne was Level 18.
Levi was Level 18.
There was exactly zero Level Suppression penalty. He wasn’t fighting a boss seven levels higher than him. He wasn’t fighting mobs that mathematically reduced his damage output by 35%. He was fighting players who were on his exact level. That meant his 410 Total Attack was going to hit them for full, raw, unmitigated damage.
"Forty against one," Thorne laughed, pointing his mace at Levi. "Even if you got some fancy Gold gear from hacking that dungeon, you can’t out-sustain our Mages. We have the numbers. You have nowhere to run."
Levi slowly lowered the heavy scythe from his shoulder. He gripped the haft with both hands, the dark, shadowy aura of his class flaring aggressively around the blade.
"You brought forty people," Levi said, his voice completely flat. "That just means I don’t have to aim."
Thorne’s arrogant smile vanished. He raised his mace and shouted his orders to the guild.
"Shield wall forward! Lock him down! Mages, drop Blizzard on his head! Do not let him move!"
The ten Shield-Bearers roared and charged forward, locking their heavy iron shields together in a phalanx formation. Behind them, the fifteen Mages began waving their staffs, chanting a synchronized spell.
A massive, glowing blue magic circle appeared on the dirt road directly beneath Levi’s feet. The air temperature plummeted instantly as a violent `[Blizzard]` spell started to form. It was a massive Area-of-Effect crowd control spell designed to apply a severe slowing debuff, freezing players in place so the tanks could crush them.
Levi didn’t try to run out of the blue circle. He just stood dead in the center of it.
"Hollow’s Ward," Levi said softly.
He dumped 150 Mana. Instantly, a massive, pitch-black shield made of swirling dark matter erupted around his avatar. The math was absolute: 500% of his 51 Intelligence plus 500 base HP.
A 755 HP shield locked into place.
The Blizzard spell crashed down on him. Hail and freezing rain battered the dark-matter shield, but the `[Hollow’s Ward]` Gold-tier passive effect completely nullified the spell. He was entirely immune to all status effects, crowd control, and slowing debuffs.
The ice just bounced off the black dome harmlessly.
Thorne’s eyes widened in horror as Levi completely ignored the massive AoE slow.
Levi didn’t wait for the Shield-Bearers to reach him. He gripped the Sovereign’s Deathknell and sprinted forward at 68 Speed, charging directly into the wall of iron.
