Absolute Death Game

Chapter 164 - 145: Escape from Death

With a bang, Xiao Buli was finally hit once.

He had been dueling with that boss for a good while, his Mysterious Ice Slash had left the boss’s surface in ruins, and by using Fleeting Light and Shadow and Chaotic Shadow Split in alternation, he hadn’t been hit even once. However, having stayed up all night, his spiritual power had dulled just enough for a moment that he got caught by a Cross Slash that sent him flying.

Fortunately, the protection of the Ethereal Armor meant that he was merely sent flying and did not lose any health points.

Mysterious Ice Slash! Xiao Buli once again unleashed a pure white Sword Qi, moving positions while glancing at his True Yuan Points, and realized that after such a long time he had only used about half, and it was still continuously regenerating, around one point per second. This Yi Wood Xuan Yang Scripture was indeed incredibly useful.

Xiao Buli’s heart immediately settled, and he kept his distance, releasing waves of Mysterious Ice Slash. This technique, which combined the effects of Ice attributes and Inner Strength, took away hundreds of health points with each hit and its freezing effect was frequently triggered.

The Iron Blood Brotherhood guys were also busy fighting. Their combat strength was quite impressive as well, especially that muscular warrior, whose Strength was unknown, seeing he could withstand the boss’s head-on attacks without falling behind. It was thanks to his stalling that the others could focus on attacking without worry.

Under everyone’s onslaught, the boss resolutely transformed.

Muscles tore apart, armor burst open, and the three-meter-tall majestic and intimidating Demon General turned into a five-meter-tall, muscle-exposed, fierce monster.

"Old Yang, it’s your turn!" The muscular warrior shouted, and the Iron Blood Brotherhood guys suddenly began to retreat in unison. Although Xiao Buli didn’t know what they were up to, he quickly followed suit and retreated.

He looked at the Spellcaster named Yang Mushi, who seemed to have been channeling a large spell all this time. As the gemstone on his Magic Wand emitted a blue light, a cloud crackling with thunder and lightning gradually gathered in the air, right above the boss’s head.

A thunderbolt struck out of nowhere, followed by a second, then a third. Bolts of lightning fell like rain, the dazzling light was blinding, and the thunderclaps buzzed in Xiao Buli’s ears. A dozen lightning bolts struck in one breath, all falling on the transforming Demon General, turning the monster completely charred black, killing it on the spot before it could struggle.

What a powerful spell! Xiao Buli was startled. Although the boss had only a third of its health points left during its transformation, which should still have been in the thousands, it was killed in an instant. The power of this move was monstrously overwhelming.

Boom, the charred monster collapsed with a crash, and the soldiers and townspeople who had been trapped in town suddenly burst into cheers.

Just as Xiao Buli breathed a sigh of relief, a person nearby suddenly ran over shouting.

"Run, the Demon Clan army is coming!" Xiao Buli looked up in shock. It was none other than Li Jian, followed by a train of monsters, running for his life. Upon seeing the Iron Blood Brotherhood crew, he immediately ran in their direction.

"Eh, Xiao, you’re online too? Help out, quick!" The crowd rushed to fight, and fortunately, while there were many from the Demon Clan, they were only minor monsters and were quickly annihilated. Xiao Buli hadn’t even had time for pleasantries before Li Jian typed quickly, "We shouldn’t stay here long; let’s evacuate quickly!"

At that moment, an old man with white hair stepped forward from the NPC crowd.

"Esteemed Righteous Warriors, I am the mayor of Thousand Pines Town, and I have an unkind request. I hope you can help escort these refugees out of this dangerous place! If you can safely escape, I will surely repay you."

Enjoy new tales from empire

System prompt: Triggered storyline quest—Escort the Refugees. Accept? Yes/No.

Upon seeing this, Li Jian quickly typed, "Don’t accept it, there’s no way to do this quest now!"

In normal circumstances, Xiao Buli would likely agree, but this time he couldn’t just stand by, so he almost immediately chose to accept the quest.

"Damn it, what the hell are you doing?" Li Jian asked angrily.

Xiao Buli ignored him and turned to shout at the NPCs, "The Demon Clan attacking the barracks will be here soon, let’s quickly pull back to Nine Dragons City."

Upon hearing this, the NPCs nodded heads, carrying the young and leading the old, and started fleeing towards Nine Dragons City. Zhu Changfeng of the Iron Blood Brotherhood saw this and laughed, "That’s the spirit! We cannot look weak now, let’s take this quest. What do you guys think?"

The female warrior named Cao Shuai answered, "I have no objections." The others, having no other choice, also accepted the quest.

Li Jian, feeling both angry and anxious, said, "You guys can go to your deaths; I won’t follow!" and with that, he turned and ran, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Xiao Buli, however, wasn’t angry, as this was a personal decision after all.

"Since we are going to do this quest together, why not temporarily join our team?" Zhu Changfeng suggested.

System prompt: Player Zhu Changfeng invites you to join their team. Accept? Yes/No.

Xiao Buli hesitated briefly before choosing to accept. Although the company had strict rules about not fraternizing with other guilds’ members, at this point he couldn’t worry about that anymore.

And so, they embarked on their way.

The NPCs were of all kinds, including soldiers, townspeople of various professions, and women and children with no combat ability. Hence, their pace was slow. Xiao Buli watched anxiously but still insisted on staying at the back of the group, in case the Demon Clan’s pursuers caught up.

The Iron Blood Brotherhood guys saw this but did not want to seem weak and joined him at the rear of the group, which somewhat surprised Xiao Buli. These guys were quite righteous after all.

Apart from them, some NPC soldiers volunteered to stay behind, about twenty or thirty of them, but the combat strength of these NPC soldiers wasn’t much better than that of ordinary bandits, so one couldn’t rely too heavily on them. Xiao Buli had them stay on either side of the column, maintaining order among the refugees.

They’d walked for less than five minutes when the Demon Clan’s soldiers caught up with them. Fortunately, it was only a small detachment. Everyone worked together and quickly dealt with these pursuers, but everyone knew that more would inevitably come sooner or later.

Indeed, in less than ten minutes another wave of pursuers caught up. This time it was five Demon Clan Beast Tamers with a group of fifteen Saber-Toothed Wolves. Their combat strength was clearly much stronger than the first wave’s.

The difficulty of the battle increased this time, especially since everyone’s powerful abilities had mostly been used up. It was somewhat difficult to deal with these monsters using only ordinary skills, but after a fight, they ultimately emerged victorious.

However, the refugee column was still far from a safe area, which caused Xiao Buli to feel anxious. Nevertheless, he still wasn’t planning to give up unless it came to the last moment; he really didn’t want to give up the lives of these NPCs.

But Zhu Changfeng said to him, "Based on my judgment, the next wave of pursuers should catch up to us in about fifteen minutes. I estimate it will be the last wave, and there might be a BOSS leading them. Xiao Brother, you know that if the Demon Clan catches up to us again, we might not be able to hold them off. I’m giving you a heads up that if we really can’t hold them back, we’ll have to retreat."

Xiao Buli nodded. He naturally understood this; even he couldn’t justify risking his life for the NPCs.

"I understand that," he said.

After walking a short while, a man suddenly ran over from the front of the column—it was Li Jian.

Xiao Buli was surprised. "Li Brother, didn’t you leave?"

"Hmph, running away and abandoning comrades isn’t my style. This time, I’m willing to risk my life in you gentlemen’s company. But let me be clear, if later on we can’t win the fight, I’ll still run."

Although he said that, Xiao Buli was quite glad.

Strangely enough, they walked for a full fifteen minutes, and the Demon Clan didn’t catch up. It seemed that the previous Beast Tamers were the last wave of monsters. The refugees reached the Golden Dragon Legion’s station without seeing any sign of the Demon Clan.

Then the town mayor came over.

"You should be safe here. Thank you all, Righteous Warriors, for your assistance. Here’s a little token of gratitude. I hope you won’t disdain it."

System notice: Quest ’Escort Refugees’ completed. Your Prestige in Thousand Pines Town has increased by 500 points, your Prestige in the Golden Dragon Legion has increased by 500 points, you have earned 50 Merit Points and quest rewards of 70 silver coins.

It turned out to be a merit quest, which surprised Xiao Buli a bit. But the fact that they had completed it so easily was almost unbelievable to him.

"Why didn’t a third wave of monsters catch up?" Xiao Buli asked, puzzled.

Zhu Changfeng didn’t seem to care much. "Heh, maybe I miscalculated."

In his heart, Xiao Buli felt it wasn’t so simple. He had made the same prediction as Zhu Changfeng before but just hadn’t voiced it.

Regardless, it was a good thing—the refugees were safe, at least.

Zhu Changfeng added, "Oh, that’s right, Xiao Brother, I forgot to thank you. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have had such an easy time dealing with that BOSS."

Xiao Buli responded lightly, "It’s nothing; I was just protecting myself," His so-called self-protection actually involved keeping those NPC soldiers and townsfolk safe.

The burly warrior laughed, "Don’t be so modest. With your abilities, if you wanted to leave, who could’ve stopped you? You’re being too humble."

Clearly, he didn’t count the NPCs and thought Xiao Buli stayed specifically to help them.

"Here are a few pieces of equipment that the BOSS dropped. You can pick one," he said, listing several pieces of equipment.

Xiao Buli thought these guys were quite tactful. He looked over the equipment; the Attributes were pretty decent, but there was nothing he particularly needed.

After thinking for a moment, he said, "Don’t worry about the equipment. Could you provide me some information instead?"

"No problem, ask whatever you want." Xiao Buli glanced at Li Jian beside him.

"This game, how did you get it?" (