Chapter 49: An Unexpected Turn

“Multitalented is impressive—he lured the boss away all by himself.”

“Yeah, he really is thinking of us. At first I even thought he was trying to use us.”

“Exactly. He’s such a good guy.”

“Why are we still standing around? Hurry up and attack that boar!”

Moved by Wang Liang’s initiative in drawing the monster away, the players put their hearts into it as well.

When they had come, they had already worked out a corresponding plan for every boss. On top of that, when they had fought the Military Commandant Yin Xun earlier, they had won with ease, which made them even more confident in the feasibility of their strategy.

After Wang Liang had lured away the Wild Boar Mountain Whale, they took the initiative to leave the formation locked in battle with the lesser demons and moved to a spot not far from the battlefield.

There, the players began setting up a formation.

This time, they were arranging a proper array: the Dui-Armor Binding Silk Formation.

The array diagram for this formation was sold directly inside the game. Built on the theory of the Five Phases and the Eight Trigrams, it drew power from the Dui trigram, the basic trigram of the Eight Trigrams, and took from it the meaning of a marsh, blending in entangling things such as spider silk, aquatic weeds, hair, and lovers’ tears.

Once deployed, the Dui-Armor Binding Silk Formation could ensnare enemies and keep them from moving.

For a boar that knew nothing but charging, it was the perfect counter.

By then, all they had to do was sustain the formation and keep it from failing, and they could slowly grind the Wild Boar Mountain Whale to death.

The players were brimming with confidence about this. Even Comrade in Life and Death shouted loudly, “Everyone, move faster. When Multitalented brings the monster over, we’ll activate the Dui-Armor Binding Silk Formation right away. You few must keep the mana steady this time—never let what happened with the Pure Yang Stone Array happen again.”

At the mention of what had just happened, everyone tensed. They all knew the Pure Yang Stone Array had run into trouble earlier and nearly wiped them out completely.

If that happened again, there would be no hope of their team keeping its morale intact.

Wang Liang also noticed that the players had finally started moving. Riding his bronze warhorse, he finally felt some relief.

At last they were getting the point; otherwise, keeping the Wild Boar Mountain Whale circling like this would not be a solution.

Even if the bronze warhorse itself never had to worry about stamina, he, Wang Liang, certainly did.

In just those few short minutes of running, he had already figured out the Wild Boar Mountain Whale’s habits.

Its turning speed was a little slow, but the moment it got onto a straight stretch, its speed would increase dramatically.

What was more, its charging and sprinting abilities were numerous, and it seemed to use them for free. With a mere dip of its head, it could burst three to five hundred meters ahead, and that was often a distance Wang Liang needed to spend a while on horseback just to shake off.

So Wang Liang had to keep steering it around without pause, changing direction almost every fifty meters.

Of course, for all sorts of reasons, those changes were not always dramatic. For instance, Wang Liang did not dare meet the Wild Boar Mountain Whale head-on in a collision, because he knew that would be nothing but suicide.

He also could not lead it toward places crowded with people. Although along the road there were sometimes reckless soldiers who jumped out to block the way, Wang Liang could ignore them and charge straight through.

But leading the Wild Boar Mountain Whale into the middle of the army was not something he would ever do.

Having once served as a general, Wang Liang knew very well what would happen if something like the Wild Boar Mountain Whale crashed into a battle formation.

A camp panic would be a matter of moments, and it might even bring about the collapse of the entire formation.

So the only direction he could turn was toward Demon Ridge and Jingyang Slope.

By the time Wang Liang realized something was wrong, he was already nearing the main road junction by Demon Ridge and Jingyang Slope.

That was where the fat merchant Wang Yi had died. Wang Liang remembered clearly that the merchant, who should originally have been able to escape, had perished here.

Thinking of this, Wang Liang felt a stir of emotion, and the speed of his bronze warhorse slowed a little.

At that moment, the Wild Boar Mountain Whale behind him unleashed a skill it had not used until now: Charge and Lift.

Among its charging techniques, this was a rare one that involved movement.

The other charge skills simply required the Wild Boar Mountain Whale to accelerate and ram forward. This one, however, required it to lower its head, hook the enemy beneath the abdomen, and then lift upward.

Normally, that upward heave could send even a rhinoceros flying.

Before, dealing with a small target like Wang Liang had not required such a charge-and-lift move.

But the situation was different now. Wang Liang had run all the way to the vicinity of Demon Ridge and Jingyang Slope, and the Wild Boar Mountain Whale had no intention of letting such a perfect opportunity slip by.

It activated the skill and sent itself to the spot where Wang Liang had just been standing. Wang Liang seized the chance to adjust his direction, trying to skirt around the main road by Demon Ridge and Jingyang Slope.

Unexpectedly, this time the Wild Boar Mountain Whale did not lock onto him. Instead, it locked onto the dirt on the ground. With the collision and the lift, it sent a great spray of earth flying upward, and Wang Liang, who had just been adjusting his course and preparing to break out, was flung together with it into Demon Ridge and Jingyang Slope.

At the sight of this, all the players froze.

They did have a plan to push into Demon Ridge and Jingyang Slope, but that was meant for the bosses farther behind. As for this Wild Boar Mountain Whale, their plan had been to drag it out and fight it elsewhere.

Now that Wang Liang had been hurled inside, the whole situation had turned bad. They could not even get close to the Wild Boar Mountain Whale, let alone defeat it.

And the Dui-Armor Binding Silk Formation they had set up outside the battlefield had tied them down as well.

Even if the players wanted to rush to the Wild Boar Mountain Whale’s side and lure it back out, that would take quite a long time.

“It’s too late. Prepare to change the battle plan.”

Seeing the situation before him, Comrade in Life and Death swiftly seized control of the team from Wang Liang. As for Wang Liang, flung into Demon Ridge and Jingyang Slope, they might as well consider him dead. After all, there was no way he could take part in the attack on the Wild Boar Mountain Whale now.

Wang Liang’s own situation was also extremely poor.

He had not expected the blow that sent him flying. That single toss hurled him straight into Jingyang Slope, where he happened to smash down onto the fat merchant Wang Yi, who had died by the roadside.

At the same time, Wang Liang’s bronze warhorse came crashing down in front of him.

When mounted, that bronze warhorse was incredibly fast, but when it fell, its weight was correspondingly terrifying.

That one impact knocked away half of Wang Liang’s health at once, and the horse’s hoof happened to strike the top of his head, pressing his face against the face of the fat merchant Wang Yi.

After several days had passed, Wang Yi’s corpse had already been visited many times by wild beasts, and only half the flesh remained on his face. With one forceful push of a hand, Wang Liang actually crushed Wang Yi’s skull.

Just then, Wang Liang felt a faint tremor beneath the ground—the Wild Boar Mountain Whale that had charged out earlier was charging back again.