Having someone take the lead makes things much easier.
The other three scholars were inspired and began shouting into the battlefield.
"Through a hundred battles in the desert, our golden armor shines!"
"An iron horse invades the icy river in my dreams!"
"The horn blares in the camp once more!"
"Wagon wheels creak, horses neigh…"
As soon as the last line was halfway shouted, Chu Ge and two other scholars turned to look. The scholar who shouted instantly realized his mistake and quickly shut his mouth.
Oh no, his level of poetic skill was exposed.
Shouting poetry with the wrong meaning is unacceptable too!
Seeing Chu Ge succeed, the scholars racked their brains, trying to recall any war-themed or frontier poetry. Regardless of effectiveness, they decided to shout anyway.
Luckily, even if they made mistakes, there was no punishment, and they didn't reduce the buffs on their allies. As long as the intent matched and was shouted with righteous spirit, the effects would apply to teammates.
Of course, the specific effects were unclear. Sometimes, the effects were obvious; for example, "Together as one" reduced damage or shared damage, and "Through a hundred battles in the desert, our golden armor shines" seemed to increase armor defense. However, other effects were more subtle, potentially impacting mental strength.
Nonetheless, these scholars were putting in the effort. They could feel that as the buffs activated, a part of their inner strength seemed to be drained, like the mental exhaustion after overthinking.
"So adding buffs for others also consumes righteous spirit?"
"That makes sense. If it could stack infinitely, that would be unbeatable."
"Hey, let's not shout hastily! Wait for the right moment!"
Chu Ge realized the issue and quickly reminded them, but it was too late. The three scholars had been shouting recklessly, leaving them pale and gasping for breath, clearly overexerted. Chu Ge was a bit helpless. Couldn't they control themselves? They drained their energy bar all at once!
Fortunately, it seemed they could regain a bit of righteous spirit after resting briefly. In any case, after all that random shouting, a mix of buffs had been applied. Now, it was up to the other players to make the best of it.
But before they could celebrate, someone shouted, "Run!" Turning around, the scholars were startled.
The Eastern Yi general had turned his horse around, wielding a cross-shaped spear, and was charging straight at them!
It was clear his target was the scholars. He must have noticed they were providing buffs to others, so he aimed to eliminate the backline first.
"Help, help, help!"
The scholars shouted while running, feeling utterly drained but forced to keep fleeing. After all, no one wanted to be skewered by the cross-shaped spear.
However, they weren't a class known for physical strength, so outrunning a four-legged warhorse was impossible. Soon enough, the general was upon them!
Meng Yuan saw this and realized there was no choice. Everyone else was too far away to reach them. As the only rogue nearby, he couldn't just ignore it. He had to step up.
"You're a hero!"
Chu Ge, running and glancing back, saw the rogue player who had been hanging around at the back finally step up to face the Eastern Yi general's warhorse. He felt a sense of respect; maybe he had misjudged him earlier.
Initially, the scholars thought this rogue was just loitering around them without engaging, assuming he was a coward. Now it seemed he wasn't cowardly at all—he was showing team awareness, protecting the backline!
The general's warhorse neighed loudly, rising on its hind legs as the general raised his cross spear to strike Meng Yuan!
It was quite a tragic scene. A lone rogue, holding a longsword, faced the towering general on horseback. If this image were frozen, it could be used as a promotional poster for the game.
The rogue seemed confident. Could his sword actually block the cross spear?
The scene was intense, and the crowd started to think, "Could this rogue actually be skilled?"
But in the next second, just as Meng Yuan looked poised to face off against the general, he threw his sword at the general's face and clumsily rolled away!
The general was momentarily stunned as the sword clanged off his heavy armor, causing no physical damage—but it did seem to slightly rattle him mentally.
The cross spear, which looked certain to strike, missed for some reason, either due to the distraction of the thrown sword or Meng Yuan's lucky roll.
"Pfft!"
A rogue player couldn't hold back and burst out laughing. Usually, such tense combat scenes should be serious, but watching Meng Yuan's awkward roll was too funny to ignore. How did someone so clumsy even pass the trial?
Meng Yuan didn't care about that, as the general now completely ignored the scholars, turning his horse to charge at him instead!
In truth, Meng Yuan only intended to distract the general since the scholars were about to get attacked. As the only nearby combat-capable player, he felt obligated to help. But he had no intention of soloing the boss for loot!
Seeing the cross spear swinging toward him again, Meng Yuan pulled out another sword, attempting a block.
"Clang!"
With a loud sound, his sword flew out of his hands, and his arms felt numb, but he managed to block another attack.
Chu Ge and the others were shocked again. This rogue seemed weak but was also brave, managing to fend off two strikes from the general! So was he skilled or not?
Clearly, the player base was diverse, with even seemingly unskilled players passing high-difficulty trials. They had some comic relief too.
Despite his awkward maneuvers, Meng Yuan's actions helped. Although he only managed to distract the general for half a minute, it was enough time for the other players to react.
"If this guy is fighting so hard, what excuse do we have not to?"
With a "whoosh," a spear flew towards the general! The general blocked it with his cross spear.
Everyone looked toward the spear's origin and saw that Zhao Haiping had thrown it.
With the power boost from the soldiers, it was a decent attack. However, with his spear thrown, Zhao Haiping only had a shield left.
Some players mimicked Zhao's spear-throwing, while others hesitated.
The next moment, seeing Zhao retrieve another spear, everyone understood.
Right, the game had said that in the "Demon Invasion" MR mode, players could continuously acquire any cold weapons, including but not limited to swords, spears, and bows.
This was a special mechanism of the mixed-reality game mode, meaning they didn't have to worry about running out of weapons. It was all about maximizing that advantage!
Thrown weapons would eventually disappear, but any damage inflicted still counted.
Realizing this, the players' panic vanished, and they began to counter-attack against the Eastern Yi invaders enthusiastically.
In fact, the players' actual stats were much stronger. They had been caught off guard, but now that they were ready, they started to turn the tide.
With the scholars' buffs in effect, not only had the players' combat abilities improved, but their morale was also boosted. Gradually, they displayed their true potential in the trial instance, and the battle began to shift in their favor!
The warrior players noticed that while the Eastern Yi soldiers appeared fierce, brandishing their short swords and shouting, they weren't as formidable as they seemed.
Especially with warriors using shields and spears, the Eastern Yi short swords weren't a real threat.
"Let's coordinate!"
Though the formation was disorganized, the players started naturally working together. Close-by warriors could have one hold the shield and the other use the spear to strike the enemy's back. Isolated players no longer fought head-on but ran in circles, luring the soldiers toward groups of allies.
With the support of the "Bravery of the Encampment" buff, the warriors held firm despite being outnumbered.
Assassins, meanwhile, observed from the sidelines, waiting to strike. The moment they spotted a weakness, they'd leap in with the "Rage of the Lone Warrior" buff, ensuring any enemy they hit was either heavily injured or killed.
Only the two shadow guards and the general remained difficult to deal with.
The shadow guards were agile, equipped with hidden weapons and unfamiliar techniques. The Eastern Yi general, with high attack power and health, was hard to confront directly.
But it didn't matter. The players weren't reckless. If this were an endlessly-repeating trial, some might stubbornly attack, but in this group activity, they knew "staying alive meant more damage."
The players finally achieved a level of effective coordination!