A line-up of 13 Masters was a formidable force.
Nie Yan thought back to the Lava Titan in the Kiln Fire Woods. The memory of the incident still remained fresh in his mind. It had slaughtered untold numbers of players, leaving mountains of corpses in its wake. If Asskickers United produced some more Masters, they could probably try challenging it.
After making their preparations, they got on their flying mounts and set off.
The 13 flying mounts soared through the skies.
Nie Yan glanced around him. For a Master not to have a high rank flying mount was a shameful thing. So, during this short time, Bladelight and the others had all gotten themselves some suitable partners.
Nie Yan had the Rank 7 Darkwing Dragon. It was definitely the strongest among the flying mounts here. Next were two Rank 6 flying mounts, both of which had only recently hatched. One was Xie Yao's Phoenix, while the other was Smoke Stub's Azure Dragon.
The Azure Dragon received its name from the azure scales on its body, which glistened brilliantly under the sunlight.
Apart from these two, the rest were all Rank 5 flying mounts like Royal Griffons and Wyverns.
Masters were strong to begin with. They naturally had ways of obtaining high rank flying mounts.
"I still have a dragon egg in my personal storage. If any of you are interested, I can give it to you to hatch." Nie Yan shared the dragon egg's info. Hatching it would require the completion of a high difficulty quest. He estimated only Masters could take it on. That was why he hadn't brought it up before.
Everyone examined the dragon egg.
"It looks like the quest is more suitable for a Warrior."
"Bladelight, do you want it?" Smoke Stub asked.
Bladelight shook his head. "I'm working on a quest that'll reward me a Rank 6 flying mount. I don't need this dragon egg. Give it to someone else."
Among the Warriors, Bladelight didn't want it, and Smoke Stub already had his Azure Dragon. Only Lei Su was left.
"Lei Su can have it then," Nie Yan said.
No one had any qualms about Nie Yan's decision.
"R-really? Is that fine?" Lei Su asked in a daze. He was still a newbie in Asskickers United.
"I've added you to the dragon egg's withdrawal permissions. You can go collect it when we're back in town," Nie Yan said. Even though Lei Su was a new member, he already treated Lei Su as one of his own.
"Thanks," Lei Su said in a grateful tone. He could feel the trust Nie Yan and the others had in him.
13 flying mounts flew through the sky. The Darkwing Dragon, Phoenix, and Azure Dragon at the lead were especially eye catching. They cast immense shadows on the ground. Players interrupted during their levelling all raised their heads to look, following Nie Yan and the others as they disappeared over the horizon.
Before long, all the major powers knew about the movement of Nie Yan's group. However, none of them dared to do anything. With no Masters of their own, it was pointless to send any players; lest they were eager for a one-sided bloodbath.
"Everyone, spread out and search. If you discover the Kong King, report it in voice chat," Nie Yan said.
"Understood!"
The 13 of them split up in different directions and started scanning the ground below for traces of the Kong King. Since they were in a great open plain, the target would be fairly easy to spot.
「I discovered the Kong King,」Black Hell said several minutes later.「But it seems like some people beat us to the punch.」
「What are the coordinates?」
「3829.2385.2880.」
「Alright, we'll head over right away.」
Everyone gathered at the coordinates Black Hell provided.
Nie Yan gazed up ahead. In the far distance stood an enormous beast with countless small dots surrounding it.
This was the monster the NPCs in Okoron mentioned, a Kong King. It was an enormous beast the size of a small hill. A group of about 1,000 players had surrounded it.
Nie Yan was surprised. The Abernathy Great Grasslands, as an unregulated border zone, was a fairly desolate place. For there to be a thousand-man expedition team here of all places was definitely strange.
Since he was so far away, Nie Yan couldn't clearly see the appearances of these players. All he could tell was that three people were taking on the Kong King's attacks as it smashed down with its enormous fists.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Nie Yan could even hear the sounds from such a great distance.
The three figures danced around the Kong King's body, nimbly evading its attacks.
"These guys are pretty skilled," Black Hell remarked. He usually maintained his silence, only occasionally giving a word or two. However, no one would ever overlook his existence. Ever since Nie Yan fulfilled his side of the promise and destroyed Dark Heroes, Black Hell stuck with Asskickers United. He was an enigma to most guild members. However, they still highly revered him.
"Just what hole did these people crawl out from? Logically speaking, ordinary players shouldn't be able to deal any damage to a Kong King. Aren't they just wasting their time?" Undying Scoundrel muttered.
"Not necessarily. Conviction has also sorts of special items. I've seen an item before called the Armour Break Scroll. It allows all the players in a team to deal true damage within a short timeframe. This kind of insane burst damage is especially useful for dealing with Lords," Lustboy said.
"Lustboy is right. If a team is determined enough to want to deal with a Lord, as long as the leader is clever enough, they'll always think of a way," Bladelight said. He frequently led expedition teams in hunting bosses. So, he was speaking from a place of experience.
"Let's go down and take a look," Nie Yan said.
Nie Yan's group landed in an area 1,000 meters away from the Kong King. If they came any closer, the other side might think they were trying to snatch the boss away.
The 13 of them headed over to a distant hill. The battle was already reaching its climax.
The Kong King howled and roared. However, it appeared to be bound by something. It couldn't charge out of a 10-meter wide space. There were 16 Great Mages standing in a circle around it. They had their staffs raised in the air and were chanting out incantations. They were locking the Kong King down in a mysterious magic formation! Two Warriors and one Paladin were standing in front of the Kong King, hacking and slashing away at it.
"Damn, this boss really is tanky. We've only shaved away 12% of its health after such a long time. At this rate, it'll take us forever to kill it!" the Paladin gloomily cursed. She raised her sword and struck the Kong King in the waist with a Holy Smite, dealing 700 damage.
A shower of spells rained down on the Kong King, dealing 50–60 damage each. Though the damage was minimal, with at least 700 Mages attacking together, it quickly stacked up.
"Thankfully we have this Sanction Magic Formation, or else the 1,600 of us would be nowhere near enough to deal with this monster. It really has high defense," the Fighter remarked. Letting out a grunt, he leaped into the air and struck the Ape King with a Shield Bash, forcing it to stagger back.
The expedition team looked quite coordinated. They were clearly skilled. While they were focused on dealing with the boss, one of the players said in the voice chat,「Boss! We have company. A group of 10 or so players are making their way towards us. They're about a thousand meters northeast of us.」
「Did you recognize any of them?」asked a female Paladin. She was clad in silver white armour with her hair tied behind the back of her head. She appeared cool and relaxed with a tall and curvaceous figure. The leader of this group was actually this beauty.
「Yeah, Asskickers United's Nirvana Flame!」came the response. He had spotted the Darkwing Dragon earlier.
「It's him!?」Netherluna knitted her brows. This definitely wasn't good news. If it was anyone else, they could easily handle the situation. However, since it was Nirvana Flame, that made things a lot more difficult.
Their group belonged to Dark Recital. Netherluna was their guild leader. They were only a small guild with around 2,000 players. Among them Netherluna and several dozen other pillars of the guild belonged to the Dark Retical gaming organization. This organization had a bit of fame domestically.
「Nirvana Flame is the new lord of the Abernathy Great Grasslands. If we want to stay here, we can't afford to offend him.」the Paladin tanking the Kong King chimed in. Clad in silver ashen armour, he had the appearance of a man in his mid twenties with a sturdy build. He was the vice guild leader, Canon.
Netherluna pondered for a moment. She had no choice but to admit that Canon's words were reasonable. They really couldn't afford to offend Nirvana Flame.
「Even though Nirvana Flame is the lord of the Abernathy Great Grasslands, with so many NPC tribes along with the several dozen small guilds operating here, controlling the entire territory won't be that simple. As long as we don't stand out too much, we'll be fine,」Netherluna said.
「What if he tries to snatch the Kong King away from us? Are we supposed to give up on it just like that?」the Warrior tanking at the front asked.
「If Nirvana Flame really wants to steal this Kong King away from us, there's nothing we can do. However, based on the way he acts, he probably won't try to directly take it away. After all, he wouldn't want bad rumours spreading around, right?」Netherluna's lips curved into a crafty smile.