©Novel Buddy
Zhan Long-Chapter 150: Battle at the Ice Valley
Translated by: Deception, GGP, and others
Edited by: Video, Noah, and others
Marching forward into the Icy Forest, Strawberry Matcha was no longer flying. Instead, she hugged her battle gown tightly alongside me. A row of white teeth greeted me as she chattered, “Boss, are you not cold at all?”
I threw a glance behind me to to see a row of footprints about 90 meters. Laughing, I replied to her, “Only one who does not fear a death of one thousand cuts will be the one who dares to unseat the emperor”
TL: Proverb meaning to be fearless.
“They already have an Assassin following us!”
“Ah, in a moment we’ll deal with him.”
“Okay!”
……
We continued forward for another 10 minutes. It was as if we were in another ice age; there was frost everywhere. When I raised my head, a towering cliff hung over our heads, and when I looked below the cliff, a chandelier of icicles dangled overhead. A simple gust of wind shook the extraordinarily sharp icicles, and they began to sway slightly with the wind.
Strawberry Matcha stopped suddenly. Her beautiful eyes looked at me while I looked straight back at her’s. Together, we smiled suddenly as we both came up with the same plan, “Borrow a knife to kill a person…” I whispered cruelly.
TL: Idiom meaning to rely on someone else to do the dirty work.
“Boss, you’re so mean…” Strawberry Matcha laughed while covering her mouth with her hands.
Deadpan, I said, “Did you not want to see this trick happen? Let’s go, don’t let them see the surprise. I’ll have Baby Bobo take care of this then.”
“Okay….”
……
I quietly waved my wrist and Baby Bobo starting crawling on the ground, leaving my field of vision before flying up into the air. Settling on the underside of the ice cliff, Baby Bobo waited to spring the trap.
I walked forward while opening the 360 degree view to help me locate where the Assassin was lurking.
It was almost time!
I gave a remote signal and Baby Bobo started its attack!
“Bzzt!”
Baby Bobo suddenly flew forward, his stinger shining gold. A Lv 6 [Combo] struck an icicle hanging from the roof of the cliff, “Pop pop pop pop!” Four consecutive sounds rang through the surroundings as an icicle that was at least 5 meters in diameter shook and fell!
Out in the open space, the footprints of the Assassin suddenly stopped. The Assassin swore loudly as he realized what was happening, “Damnit, shameless!”
“Bang!”
The icicles came crashing down causing snow and dust to fly everywhere along with strands of blood. The dead corpse of a Lv 48 Assassin was revealed to be impaled to death by the icicle.
“Hehe, the strategy was a success!” Strawberry Matcha cried out as she held my hand excitedly in triumph.
Walking forward, I unsheathed my sword and kicked apart the ice to get to the body of the Assassin. I expected items, and sure enough, there was a glowing white dagger; a Lv 41 Gold Tier with decent attack – I’d be able to sell this for a good price. After stashing the item into my bag, I turned to leave immediately. I didn’t want any more trouble to come chasing after us!
……
Smiling as she followed me, Strawberry was quite cheerful as she spoke, “Boss, now I finally know the reason why you are so adamant on fighting [Wrath of the Heroes]….”
“What’s the reason?” I replied.
She laughed, “Because these people are really stupid, they’re so stupid it’s almost cute. To have this kind of rival makes me happy.”
I nodded furiously, “That’s right! That’s why I’m so satisfied fighting against [Wrath of the Heroes], but not so willing to provoke members of [Vanguard]. Jian Feng Han is quite meticulous, the day he wants to kill me is the day I will lose a level.”
“Ah, I also heard that Jian Feng Han’s personality is exceptionally cautious. When he strikes, he strikes to kill, so he won’t send a small group. He would send out 10 groups of 50 people to spread out around the map to guard each and every exit. There would be no chance of survival!”
That bit of news astounded me, “Strawberry Matcha, how do you know so much about him?”
“Do you not read the archives?”
Strawberry Matcha held up a finger, “When it comes to conquering, [Vanguard] takes the spotlight. In the battle against another super guild named [Hui Huang] at the map called.. Dragon Valley. Yeah, it’s Dragon Valley. Jian Feng Han personally stood on top and conducted the battle breaking 30,000 members into 6 divisions of 5000; two groups charged in head on, two others flanked the sides to surprise them, and the last two ambushed them from the rear. In one move, they destroyed the strong 70,000 member guild. The leader of [Hui Huang] was so embarrassed by this defeat that he disbanded the guild and deleted his character thus wiping out the guild from the Guild Rankings List!”
I winced in astonishment, “Huh, Jian Feng Han is that ruthless?”
“He is!”
Strawberry Matcha nodded again, “So Boss, Zhan Long’s wings cannot fly with so little people. It is not time for us to fight against [Vanguard] at the moment, instead, let’s play around with [Wrath of the Heroes] for now. We have to establish the guild first with at least 5000 elite players before we try fighting against [Vanguard] ”
Letting out a breath of air, I sighed, “Ah…that is to be expected.”
At the same time, I looked deeply at Strawberry Matcha while holding onto her delicate shoulders, “Strawberry Matcha, you are far smarter than you appear to be; you joining Zhan Long is like God’s gift to me. Haha, wait until Zhan Long becomes an official guild, you’ll at least be a deputy chief in Zhan Long and my right hand man!”
Bowing slightly to me, Strawberry Matcha gave an authentic smile, “Thank you for your appreciation Boss. It is a great honor to be recognized by you for my devotion, guess I’ll have to give “extra” payment…”
I twitched slightly, “Let’s go, [Wrath of the Heroes] will be here any minute now!”
“Okay!”
……
We continued to march forward. But off in the distance, I could see a bottomless ravine a kilometer away. Beyond that was a mountain of ice, marking the end of the Fire Stone Valley’s mountain range. I felt a chill in my heart as I realized that meant we had no way of moving forward; we would have to face the few hundred players of [Wrath of the Heroes] that were rapidly moving in from the rear.
“Damn it…”
Pulling my sword from my sheath, I was resigned to my faith, “Will this be the day we die then?”
I had not even finished speaking when all of a sudden, the ground beneath my foot crumbled away!
“Boss, watch out!”
A hole in the ice?!
My mind momentarily went blank, but I quickly regained my senses and swung the Frost Rain Sword!”
“Keng!”
My blade struck the rocks, delaying my descent into death. Strawberry Matcha came flying over, her wings flapping heavily as her hand clung to mine. Her face was full of panic as she asked, “Boss, are you okay?”
I stopped to look around before answering. The ground around us was full of ice and snow; it looked like this area was the result of an avalanche, but the snow had managed to make the ground appear to be level.
“I’m fine, don’t worry Strawberry Matcha…”
Patting her on the shoulder, I gave her another smile, “A good idea just came to me….”
Strawberry Matcha face turned red, “Boss, you’re so evil…”
I knew it; Strawberry Matcha was smart enough to figure out my plan right away.
……
Climbing up from the snow again, I leaned against the Frost Rain Sword to take a breather. Afterwards, I opened up the system tools and drew the outlines of the rocks and sent them to Strawberry Matcha. “Remember to stay 40 yards away from them to be absolutely safe. Then bring all of the players down, hehe, let’s give [Wrath of the Heroes] a present…..”
Strawberry Matcha’s hands clasped in front of her excited face, “Boss, this is so exciting!”
“It is but remember, you have to be careful. I’m going to hide!”
“Okay, don’t worry…”
……
Sheathing my Frost Rain Sword, I went straight for the pile of snow in the back, hiding within it. A good 40 centimeters of my snow was above me head, and thankfully, my coordinates would not be shown. Luckily, I was able to come across a hole in the snow, where I could stare at the situation Strawberry Matcha would be in.
In the party chat, Strawberry Matcha whispered “Here they come Boss, there’s a lot of people! I count at least 200!”
“Uh, try to kill a few dozen, then we’ll look for a chance to leave!”
“Okay!”
The next moment, a distant cry was heard, there was no mistaking this voice. It was the Tyrant of Western Chu, Liu Ying. “It’s that wench Strawberry Matcha! With me comrades, let’s kill her!”
Piggy was confused, “Where’s Xiao Yao?”
“Who cares? Kill Strawberry Matcha first and guard the body! Xiao Yao Zi Zai will come around for sure!”
“Okay!”
……
Strawberry Matcha’s hurried voice was heard in the party chat once more, “Boss, they’re coming, I hope you did a good job of hiding!”
“Strawberry Matcha, let’s see how well you can fight now! Be careful of their long range attacks, or else you’ll be caught in the crowd control and won’t be able to move!”
“I will!”
Within my vision, Strawberry Matcha’s silver boots flew on the deep snow with snow sticking to her long legs. Behind her, a group of Berserkers, Swordsmen, Monks, and Knights started to chase her while Liu Ying led them with a snarl, “Don’t go easy on her, I doubt Xiao Yao would leave her alone!”
My heart leapt to my throat while both of my hands clasped onto the Frost Rain Sword. Strawberry Matcha had to survive this!
The result, Strawberry Matcha was smart enough to activate her flight mode; a pair of transparent wings came extending out of her back.She was in a half-flying mode but in order to keep the [Wrath of the Heroes] members on her, her greaves still left a messy line of footprints in the snow as she skimmed over it.
“Kill her!” Liu Ying roared. He was sprinting ahead of the others in a crazed state while the other players, taking inspiration from their boss, also crazily rushed forward. It was just as Strawberry Matcha had said, players from [Wrath of the Heroes] were just too easy to trick.
……
I looked over the edge of where I was hiding, clenching my fist, I prayed for Strawberry Matcha’s survival.
Tyrant of Western Chu came rushing forward with his sword. In less than 3 seconds, he was the first to fall, hopefully to his death. Two more fell with him, then another, and a few more after. In the heavy snow, no one could see what was happening and only see the “running” figure of Strawberry Matcha.”
“Not good, not good!”
After over 40 people had fallen down the ravine, Piggy’s eyes widened in realization of what just happened, “Stop! Wind Elves to the front and shoot down Strawberry Matcha! Mother f*cker, the Boss fell for a trap and fell down the ravine!”
……
“Shua shua shua…”
More than a dozen Wind Elves came soaring into the air. While many of them were Archers, some Mages were among them. These were [Wrath of the Heroes]’s elite group of players!
My heart sank at the sight of this, immediately opening up the party chat, I shouted for Strawberry Matcha, “Fly towards me, I’ll protect the both of us! Don’t bother trying to go towards the ravine anymore, you’ll be shot down into it!”
“Ah, got it Boss…”
Strawberry Matcha broke off from her original path and flew off in a random direction. Her vision was horribly handicapped by the chilling winds and snow, causing her to cry out for me, “I can’t see where I’m going…”
“F*ck!”
Without hesitation, I broke my cover and ran out from behind the snow.