Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

The two great armies collided, 50,000 versus 50,000. Both sides fought with no regard for their lives as casualties rapidly clambered up.

Nie Yan, Bladelight, and the rest led their respective forces into battle. Before long, their battle formations started helping them gain an advantage. Angel Corps’ forces were completely reliant on Soaring Angel’s command. However, before information reached him, it was already too late to react. In contrast, even though Asskickers United’s 25 groups acted independently of one another, they still managed to fight as a cohesive unit. They carried out a slaughter in the skies, displaying their astonishing might. The enemy’s flying mounts were quickly cut up into chunks.

When the casualties of Asskickers United finally broke through 1,000, Angel Corps had already lost in excess of 3,000 flying mounts.

Soaring Angel charged forward with a great number of flying mounts, forcing six of Asskickers United’s groups to scatter. However, before he could take advantage of the opening, the scattered riders quickly reformed into their groups. Those who couldn’t find their original group simply joined another one. This was a tactic Soaring Angel wasn’t familiar with and as such didn’t know how to respond to.

Soaring Angel became increasingly anxious. He shouted in voice chat,「Wing #1, Wing #2, Wing #3, follow me! Slaughter a way out!」

The Silverwing Dragon took the lead and charged out of the encirclement. Soaring Angel passed down the order to gather, with troops finding their place around him some time later.

Nie Yan looked over the battlefield from atop his Darkwing Dragon. Angel Corps’ army had been divided into 10 sections. Bladelight led Asskickers United’s elite aerial unit forward, employing a tactic to devour the enemy one bite at a time.

「Boss, we can’t hold on any longer!」Natural Fiend shouted anxiously. The group he was leading was clashing with Soaring Angel who led a group of the most elite force of Angel Corps. There wasn’t much he could do as their losses were climbing rapidly to critical levels.

Nie Yan had his Darkwing Dragon rapidly ascend. Looking down, he quickly locked onto a certain section of the battlefield. There he saw 5,000 flying mounts from Angel Corps rushing forward like a surging tide, threatening to swallow up three smaller groups from Asskickers United. At their head, Soaring Angel led his Silverwing Dragon in killing three Asskickers United flying mounts in a row.

「Bladelight, Smoke Stub, listen up. Bring your forces with you. We’re going to pay Soaring Angel a visit!」Nie Yan said as he had his Darkwing Dragon swoop down.

Bladelight and Smoke Stub immediately led their forces toward the location Nie Yan gave them.

The ground was just as hectic and chaotic as the battle up in the air, with scores of players scrambling for Life Cores.

“Look at the sky!” someone shouted.

Many players raised their heads to see what the commotion was about. Up there, 25 processions of flying mounts were charging forward. They split up Angel Corps’ army into smaller sections, gnawing at them bit by bit. Angel Corps was forced into the passive.

“It looks like Angel Corps really can’t compare to Asskickers United!”

“I wouldn’t say that so soon. Even if their forces are split up, it still won’t be easy for Asskickers United to eat them up!”

“Look over there! Soaring Angel’s Silverwing Dragon!”

The spectators looked toward the east, where a silver white dragon with several thousand other flying mounts in tow were slaughtering their way out of Asskickers United’s encirclement. The Silverwing Dragon tore several enemy flying mounts into shreds as his troops gradually managed to reconvene.

“Sure enough, Soaring Angel lives up to his reputation. I heard his Silverwing Dragon’s growth rate is the same as the Darkwing Dragon’s. If only their difference in rank wasn’t so great.”

Soaring Angel was about to break out of the encirclement, when two more groups of enemy flying mounts came flying over.

“It’s the Darkwing Dragon!”

“My god! It’s huge!”

From high within the clouds, an enormous black dragon came swooping down. It was more than eight times larger than the Silverwing Dragon.

These two dragons might have the same growth rate, but they were nothing alike. One looked like a grown up, the other like a child. At a glance, anyone could tell these two weren’t on the same level.

Everyone held their breath. Was the Silverwing Dragon going to die here?

“Brothers, kill!” Soaring Angel cried out hoarsely, oblivious to the fact a frightening flying mount had already locked onto him from above. He led his troops charging out of the encirclement, killing hundreds of enemy flying mounts, and madly attempted to gather his scattered forces back together. His eyes were completely bloodshot. Only a little further, and it would be their turn to be on the offensive!

“Boss, watch out!”

Soaring Angel’s heart trembled. He barely had to raise his head to see the enormous shadow blotting out his vision. It was fast as lightning.

Nirvana Flame! Soaring Angel lost all will to fight in the face of the Darkwing Dragon. It was more than eight times larger than his Silverwing Dragon. Its enormous claws could easily crush both him and his mount to death.

This speed! The Silverwing Dragon had no way of dodging in time! Soaring Angel despaired.

“Boss, escape!” Stone Splitter shouted anxiously. There was no time to hesitate. He let out a roar and had his Vermillion Garuda ram the Silverwing Dragon out of the way!

BANG! The Silverwing Dragon was knocked back.

The Darkwing Dragon’s vice-like claws gripped down on the Vermillion Garuda.

“SQUAAAK!” The Vermillion Garuda screamed in agony as it struggled to escape.

PSFHT! PSFHT! PSFHT! Blood and guts rained down from the sky. The Darkwing Dragon tore the Vermillion Garuda apart. Letting its mangled corpse drop from the sky, it turned around and pounced toward the Silverwing Dragon.

“No! Stone Splitter! Damn you, Nirvana Flame! You’ll pay for this!” Soaring Angel’s eyes burned with hatred. However, there was no time to hesitate. He had Silverwing Dragon drop into freefall to avoid the attack.

The Darkwing Dragon’s claws came slashing down, ripping open a deep wound across the Silverwing Dragon’s back.

PSFHT! The Silverwing Dragon’s blood splashed on the Darkwing Dragon.

The Darkwing Dragon moved in for the killing blow. The Angel Corps players in the surroundings, none of whom had a flying mount above Rank 6, reacted instantly. They posed zero threat to the Darkwing Dragon, but they didn’t need to. Their only goal was to slow it down enough to let Soaring Angel escape with his Silverwing Dragon still alive. Like a cardboard wall, they were torn through by the Darkwing Dragon’s claws. However, they successfully gave Soaring Angel the precious few seconds he so desperately needed.

Nie Yan quickly switched to his backup plan. He ordered his Spectre Dragon to finish off the Silverwing Dragon, but several Rank 7 flying mounts came flying over from the side and intercepted it.

Angel Corps’ troops were just about to turn the tables on Asskickers United, when they suddenly suffered an attack from the Darkwing Dragon. The Silverwing Dragon fled with serious injuries while they lost a Vermillion Garuda and several Rank 6 flying mounts. What little morale they’d built up was instantly destroyed. Even the Silverwing Dragon couldn’t stand up to a single attack from the Darkwing Dragon. If Stone Splitter hadn’t sacrificed his Vermillion Garuda, it would’ve already been dead. Just who could stop the Darkwing Dragon?

At this moment, Bladelight and Smoke Stub’s forces arrived. Several Rank 7 flying mounts led the charge as they slaughtered their way into Angel Corps’ ranks. The enemy was quickly routed.

After taking care of the dozen Rank 6 flying mounts blocking his way, Nie Yan searched around. The Silverwing Dragon was nowhere to be seen. Soaring Angel had fled pretty quickly!

When the casualties of Asskickers United finally broke through 2,000, Angel Corps had already lost in excess of 8,000 flying mounts.

Even though the Silverwing Dragon had escaped with its life, it had suffered heavy injuries. If Soaring Angel wanted to gather his troops back together, it wouldn’t be easy. Plus, he would constantly have to watch out for Nie Yan’s ambush. If he were the slightest bit careless, he could very well die at the hands of the Darkwing Dragon.

…

Back in the Clemenci Stronghold, Cao Xu was monitoring the progress of the battle through live video feeds. He’d just seen the brief encounter between Nie Yan and Soaring Angel that left the latter with a heavily injured Silverwing Dragon.

Cao Xu couldn’t help but wring his wrist. Thinking back to everything that happened over these past few years, it was like Nirvana Flame was his destined enemy. With his first appearance, Nirvana Flame had wrecked his plans in the Viridian Empire by crushing Victorious Return and the several other guilds under his control. This had forced him to pull out his assets in the Viridian Empire and shift his focus to the Satreen Empire. However, it seemed like that bastard still wasn’t satisfied and wanted to completely force him into a dead end!

The Century Financial Group’s main business was in virtual reality. Nirvana Flame single handedly caused their market share to shrink by close to 60% and made them miss out on the best opportunity to expand. Cao Xu had invested an enormous amount of money into Conviction, but was yet to see any return. If he pulled out of the game now, the consequences would be extremely dire. If this information were to leak out, it would be a fatal blow to the company. As a publicly traded company, their market value would evaporate into nothing.

Under this kind of situation, Cao Xu could only steel his nerves and press forward. Staring at Nie Yan’s figure through the video, he coldly chuckled. “Don’t get so full of yourself! Even if we lose, we’ll take you down with us! Have a taste of our newest aerial weapon!” He passed down the order in the voice chat,「Use the airships! Blast them to oblivion!」

Nie Yan stood on the Darkwing Dragon’s head. He disposed of the Angel Corps flying mounts in the vicinity while looking for traces of Soaring Angel. Only after killing Soaring Angel would he feel reassured. The enemy had to be eliminated at the roots. He would not allow Soaring Angel the opportunity to mount a comeback!

The Darkwing Dragon crushed two more Rank 6 flying mounts to death. Nie Yan’s kill count reached 76, six of which were Rank 7 while the rest were Rank 6.

Angel Corps’ defeat was already set in stone. Nie Yan was just about to have his troops sweep through the remainder of the enemy’s forces, when several loud explosions rang out. Looking towards the source of the sound, he spotted several plumes of black smoke rising up in the air from Fallen Angel’s side. His face paled. What was that!?