Chapter 5

The force from impact pushed Zheng back half a step but he knew he couldn’t back anymore. Their ranged and special ability attacks were behind him. All the other close range combatants went with Xuan. The players behind him and the elves would die if he backed again.

“Ah!” Zheng roared and activated Explosion. He slashed horizontally and cut off the trees these three Ringwraiths were standing on. The Ringwraiths jumped. The anti-gravity attribute allowed them to descend by running on the falling leaves. Three dark swords hacked toward Zheng’s head. Just then, a green arrow blasted one of the Ringwraith’s shield. The shield exploded and the Ringwraith was sent flying backward.

Zheng skimmed the psyche scan image and saw it was the elves’ leader using explosive shot. It was a surprise that the elves could use Heng’s special technique. Zheng took the opportunity and jumped. Tiger’s Soul crashed into the remaining two Ringwraiths’ dark swords. Clank! The light blade shattered and so were the black mist covering the swords.

The Ringwraith that was sent flying abandoned Zheng and charged toward the elves. Zheng couldn’t stop him due to the other two Ringwraiths clinging onto him. He entered the second unlocked stage and using Explosion to its full potential. He was giving his best aside from using Destruction. However, it wasn’t only his team here. So if he exhausted himself from his most powerful technique and the other teams had ill intentions, the cause of death would be silly. He could only fight using what he had.

The Ringwraiths’ strength was lower than Zheng’s but their speed was at least on par with his. Their attacks came from the most inconceivable angles. They could stand on a leave or a branch. The fight was difficult for Zheng and several cuts appeared on his body before long.

The light blade couldn’t cut through the dark swords but it cut trees and rocks like tofu. Since the Ringwraiths could stand on any object, Zheng began slashing everything he saw to clear the area. Once he finished, he would be able to take on these two Ringwraiths. The three of them were distancing themselves from the elves and the other players as they fought.

“These Ringwraiths are too fucking powerful. How are we going to kill them like this? And this is only them at five Ringwraiths. If they grow even stronger, are they going to wipe us with just one Ringwraith?” Zheng thought to himself. He felt anxious when he thought of the other players having to fight three Ringwraiths.

The two Ringwraiths stopped in place. Their heads looked upward. This was obviously the action when a Ringwraith died. They were going to grow stronger.

“Let’s just use Destruction!”

At the same time, many of the players and elves were killed. The players were better off as they were prepared for the fight. Kampa and WangXia dragged Heng to the back when the Ringwraiths charged at them. Zero and the others followed. They didn’t have to the power to fight the Ringwraiths so protecting themselves became the priority.

The other two teams did the same thing. Hawfor and Gungnir crushed the energy stones in their hands. Everyone tried to protect themselves. The elves were fearless in contrast. Over half their archers charged at the Ringwraiths with their close range weapons. Their leader drew two more arrows for an explosive shot. They were a real army compared to the players.

A rain of arrows fell on the three Ringwraiths who didn’t have shields anymore. They had to swing their swords to fight off the arrows. The elves leader fired an explosive shot at the nearest Ringwraith. The arrow penetrated the horse’s head and into the Ringwraith’s chest. It was so fast that the sword couldn’t block the arrow in time. Pah! The arrow carried the Ringwraith off the skeleton horse and pinned him onto a tree.

“Chance!” The devil fruit users were overjoyed. The Ringwraith was still alive which meant finishing it off would grant points and ranked rewards. They both charged at the Ringwraith and crushed an energy stone. The power of their devil fruits buffed substantially. An ice and a lightning attack shot at the Ringwraith. The lightning attack traveled faster. It transformed into a spear and headed toward the Ringwraith’s head. But the ice attack was more powerful. It turned into a hand and smashed downward.

The elves didn’t expect such attacks from the humans. The elves leader shouted. “Don’t kill it! They are going to grow…”

But the spear had already pierced the Ringwraith’s head and almost instantly, the ice hand smashed the Ringwraith and tree on the ground. The whole area turned into ice and a stream of mist rose to the sky.

The elves leader closed his eyes and sighed. Then he yelled. “Gather all the forces of nature onto me. We can’t kill these Ringwraiths. If they become one, no one can stop them!”

The elves ran behind the their leader. They chanted in the elves’ language and strings of green light flew toward their leader.

The remaining two Ringwraiths didn’t stop. One charged at the devil fruit users. The other leaped over the elves and headed into the forest behind. His shield slowly recovered and it emitted a black aura. This aura corroded any arrows that came near. Soon, the Ringwraith disappeared from sight.

Hawfor looked delightfully surprised but Gungnir was furious. Before they could do anything, the Ringwraith’s sword slashed at them. His shield and armor had also recovered. The black aura enveloping the sword grew to three meters in length. It slashed down at Gungnir. Pah! The sword crushed through the ice and continued toward Gungnir’s face.

Gungnir was shocked and immediately ran into the ice. He could move between ice at will in his current state. The sword kept going for five meters into the ice before it stopped. It would have split Gungnir in two if he ran just a little slower.

On the other side, the elves leader were gathering the green light from the elves.

The Ringwraith cut through the ice and lightning field. The devil fruit users were inept with close range combat. They had neither the strength nor speed to compete. The skeleton ran through like a shadow and Hawfor’s head separated. Gungnir was crying in fear.

Right at this critical moment, the elves’ leader drew his bow and released an arrow of green light at this Ringwraith. The light hit the shield then started to spread outward as if it had life. The shield turned green in an instant. The Ringwraith wailed in pain. He abandoned Gungnir and pulled the lead rope. The skeleton horse jumped back and soon they disappeared among the darkness.

“We can’t simply kill the Ringwraiths. If they become one, no one will be able to stop them. He has to return to Mordor to dispel the life force so he can’t continue to go after you.” The elves’ leader seemed like he had aged ten years. He was panting as he said this.

Gungnir fell on the ground seemingly terrified.

Xuan and four more players were bringing the Hobbits to Brandywine River. They were actually not too far off from the river. Furthermore, everyone was veterans with multiple enhancements. The Northern European man transformed into a white wolf and the rest of the players each carried one of the Hobbits.

Everyone other than Xuan was an elite combatant in their respective teams. YinKong was the only person that could rival Zheng in close combat within team China, although that was in the sense of assassination. ChengXiao was taught ancient Chinese martial arts and he was the only medic in the team. Richard was the strongest member in team Africa with a self-created ability. The last man was a Druid. He looked nothing sort of a powerful fighter. Most importantly, they were all close range fighters. Zheng chose these people to be extra safe.

Carrying the Hobbits slowed them down a bit but the wolf was charging ahead without consideration of the others. As it almost disappeared into the forest, YinKong flicked something shiny from her hand. The wolf flipped over. It turned around and stared at YinKong ferociously with killing intent in its eyes.

“If you leave my sight, I will kill you. If you attempt to attack us, I will kill you. You can try to resist.” YinKong’s gaze was cold. Her hands were in the form of holding a sword. However, this sword was invisible to the eyes.

The wolf growled but after a few seconds, it subconsciously avoided looking into YinKong’s eyes. The coldness from those eyes couldn’t be described in words. It felt that the moment it moved even slightly, death would fell upon it. Then the wolf slowly walked back into the group. YinKong didn’t look at it again and moved on.

Richard was following behind Xuan. He could feel the intense killing intent during that conversation. This wasn’t something a normal person nor a normal veteran could have. Even the stronger players like him and Zheng could not obtain such aura, an aura of disregarding life.

Richard sighed. He continued running behind Xuan until Xuan suddenly stopped.

Xuan said with his eyes closed. “He’s here. A Ringwraith broke through their line of defense and coming after us. Furthermore, he’s several times stronger than previously.”

Xuan’s mind had been connected to Lan’s psyche scan this whole time. The Soul Link also included Zero. So he was looking over the battlefield at the assassin’s perspective. He knew from Zero that the Ringwraiths grew stronger with the death of each one.

A chilling air blew from behind. The neigh of the skeleton horse was getting close.

Zheng finally made the decision as he saw the two Ringwraiths grew again. Explosion couldn’t handle these two Ringwraiths anymore. Instant Destruction couldn’t kill them either and would strain his body so that he wouldn’t be able to use the complete Destruction later on. It was best for him to place all his bets right now and use his most powerful force to kill these two Ringwraiths at once!

As the Ringwraiths stopped in place, Zheng shouted. His Qi moved upward from his navel and his blood energy came down from his head. The two energies met at his heart.

At this instant, Zheng felt the falling leaves froze in midair. He stepped on the ground and charged at the nearest Ringwraith like wind.

His step was so powerful that the ground exploded. A half meter deep hole appeared at where he was standing. In just the blink of an eye, he reached the Ringwraith. Tiger’s Soul slashed at the Ringwraith.

The Ringwraith recovered from his trance state as soon as he was attacked. His speed and strength indeed grew stronger. He could still move his sword to block the slash despite Tiger’s Soul was coming so fast.

Clank! Zheng’s strength within Destruction wasn’t a force the Ringwraith could defend against. The light blade negated the black mist enveloping the sword then Tiger’s Soul struck the Ringwraith off the horse. He also lost the anti-gravity attribute at the same time and smashed on the ground

Zheng didn’t continue attacking this Ringwraith. Seeing that the Ringwraith lost over half his combat strength after falling off the horse, Zheng used Geppo and headed toward the other one.

This Ringwraith also recovered from the trance state. He raised his sword to block Tiger’s Soul but he still sat on the horse after the clash. The skeleton horse wailed. As Zheng readied another attack, he saw the tree the horse was standing on began splitting from the center. The horse transferred the force of his slash onto the tree. The Ringwraith pulled the lead rope. The skeleton horse ran toward Zheng by stepping on the wood chips. The dark sword was aiming toward Zheng’s left.

Zheng’s speed was faster than the Ringwraith. He could cut the Ringwraith and his horse in halves before the dark sword hit him but the inertia of the dark sword will not disappear. It will continue slashing toward his left arm. As he was about to back off, he saw the other Ringwraith trying to get back on the horse. If that happened, he would have wasted almost three seconds of Destruction without killing a Ringwraith.

Zheng bit his teeth. His right hand swung Tiger’s Soul upward and slashed the Ringwraith and skeleton from the center. The dark sword cut through 2/3 of his left arm.

“Killed level 6 Ringwraith. Obtained 5000 points and 2 rank C rewards.”

Zheng heard a notification but he didn’t have the time to think because the other Ringwraith was about to grow even stronger. He had to kill him before he got on the horse to avoid consuming more time in Destruction.

Zheng bent his body like a bow. He stepped on the Ringwraith’s half body, which hadn’t completely disappeared, and shot himself forward like a cannon. The Ringwraith and skeleton horse was kicked away. The Ringwraith was still three meters away from the skeleton horse but Tiger’s Soul was coming down from above.

The Ringwraith’s speed at raising the sword to block was faster. He could move the whole sword in front of him this time but the force from Tiger’s Soul smashed the Ringwraith into the ground with a bang. At the same time, the dark sword exploded. Tiger’s Soul continued forward as Zheng dropped down and cut the Ringwraith in two.

“Killed level 7 Ringwraith. Obtained 5000 points and 1 rank B reward.”

Zheng finally got to hear the notification attentively. Though it wasn’t time for him to feel happy. The first thing he did was exit Destruction. The fight took five seconds. Killing two Ringwraiths within five seconds was like walking on the edge of life and death. He only had ten seconds of Destruction. If his time was over, even a Hobbit would be able to kill him. Some blood vessels busted. He channeled his Qi throughout his body to suppress this injury.

“Got them. That was fucking scary. If they got to level 7 with their horses, then it would have taken seven to eight seconds.” Zheng was still feeling anxious.

As he was thinking of their horses, he noticed the skeleton horse was still standing there. It didn’t disappear along with the Ringwraith. Zheng got curious. Could the horse give additional points and rewards for killing? He carefully walked over the horse and grabbed the lead rope.

“Obtained movie creature, Skeleton Nightmare. Consumes none Yang energy such as blood energy, psyche energy, or magic. Ignores gravity. A magically created creature.”

“Eh?”