Chapter 1 The Price

Reef staggered backward, blood already seeping through his gritted teeth. With each step he took, the ground he had just trod upon seemed to explode, sending up great clouds of sand and stone. An intense flame was burning on the surface of his dark gold shield, which was covered in clear dents and even distinct cracks!

This was the price Reef paid for single-handedly blocking the full-force attack of eight people!!

The enemy's ambush wasn't sophisticated, but their judgment was vicious. First, a woman fired a shot at the Orc laborers that Fang Senyan and the others were escorting. If these fragile creatures died, Fang Senyan's mission would fail.

Moreover, the woman deliberately paused before firing, aiming at their target's weakness. She was sure that the MT (Main Tank) would try to save the Orc laborers.

Reef did exactly that, holding up his shield to block in front of the oblivious Orc laborers. But the bullet fired by the woman suddenly exploded before hitting Reef, forming a huge, sticky net that bound Reef in place!

This was the first part of their plan. MTs aren't very agile to begin with, and once restrained, it was almost impossible to evade.

So, the second part of the team's plan came into play!

The four members of their team with the strongest attacks, plus five powerhouses borrowed from the other three teams, all focused their fire on Reef!! Some of them also wielded bloody weapons that could greatly reduce the effectiveness of healing. Together, they planned to break through the enemy's strongest point! They wanted to instantly kill the MT, which would severely damage the enemy's morale, turning the battle into a complete and utter chase!

The person who devised this plan was definitely not mediocre. The plan was meticulous, interlocking ring by ring, and skillfully analyzed human psychological weaknesses. In his mind, the plan was foolproof and would not have any omissions.

And with this plan, they had already wiped out a team before, tasting great success.

But... but!!

Plans couldn't keep up with changes. The joint attack of nine powerhouses failed to kill the MT with the dark gold shield!! Even more abnormal, he didn't even show signs of being near death or using drugs!!!

"This...!!" The ambushers were caught in a brief moment of panic as their plan was disrupted. Little did they know, they were facing an incredibly freakish double MT team. When Fang Senyan realized that the other party wanted to brutally kill Reef, he coldly used the Survival Awakening skill: the protection of Survival Mark! Plus Reef's own God's Grace Aura, which could suddenly increase his health by 1500 points!

"Naive... You got lucky once and killed a substandard MT, and you thought you could use the same trick forever? You actually want to kill our Reef?"

Reef was already an MT with extremely high defense. Plus, Fang Senyan quietly helped him share the damage with the Survival Awakening skill, so in other people's eyes, it looked like he had terrifyingly withstood a joint attack from nine people and only taken a few steps back without any major problems.

Even more terrifying, Reef counterattacked in an instant. His entire body was concealed behind the dark gold shield, but he stretched out his right hand! The Nightmare Imprint on his chest also shone brightly, and a beautiful Crusader tower shield appeared.

Just as the others were puzzled, an extremely clear phantom suddenly appeared around Reef's right hand. The phantom was a broad, giant hand wearing a Paladin's golden armor, and it made a grasping motion in the air. Immediately, a contractor who had attacked Reef first let out a miserable scream. They were hiding in a concealed place, with many obstacles between them and Reef, but they were strangely flung out in a parabolic arc, flailing in the air as they were grabbed over!!!

Holy Grip!!

Reef's Holy Grip instantly pulled the enemy out of cover and exposed them to his team's firepower. In the enemy's mind, the Reef who should have died not only didn't die, but also launched a very fierce counterattack at the most critical time!!

The one who was pulled over was a magic-type contractor who used Fire Hand. He had dealt the most damage to Reef, so who else would he pull? This guy's reaction wasn't slow either. Several rays of light flashed across his body in an instant: a fiery red flame shield, an earthy yellow defense enhancement, a blue healing light, and even a prism-like sharp light...

But, before Fang Senyan and Sanzi could even make a move, Zi and Ronnie joined forces. This magic-type contractor was instantly brought to the brink of death. Then, before the team skill could be activated, he was crushed to death by the continuous damage from Holy Grip, turning into a sky full of blood-red smoke!!

Magic-type contractors were known for their high attack and low defense. It only took Ronnie two or three slashes to kill him. Plus, Reef's Holy Grip had considerable damage to begin with - the holy afterglow produced after the Hand of God shattered would deal 100 caster stamina x2 holy damage to the enemy, and cause a total of 300 points of holy damage in the following five seconds - equivalent to a joint attack from Zi, Ronnie, and Sanzi! How could he have survived?

They failed to kill him and were even counter-killed. How could this not make the ambushers shocked and angry? But at this time, Fang Senyan had already thrown out several bottles of curse potions. Dense, light-green mist enveloped the battlefield for several hundred square meters. Aldaris took the opportunity to cast a Mind Storm at the area where the enemies were clustered. The blazing white web of electricity skimmed low over the ground, and the withered grass on the ground stirred with a scorched aura. The crackling sound of electric currents could be heard incessantly.

Immediately, cries of surprise and angry curses rang out. Six or seven shadows scattered frantically like startled wild rabbits. Fang Senyan narrowed his eyes. He was really itching to make a move. If he went all out at this time, he might even be able to annihilate the enemy.

But, he suddenly glanced behind him. On the withered grassland in the twilight, there seemed to be nothing unusual, but Fang Senyan had long noticed that there was a small cluster of air with a strange fluctuation, like the slight distortion of scenery when a car exhaust.

Therefore, Fang Senyan suppressed the urge to act, and suddenly took a step sideways, blocking in front of Zi. He looked like a standard vice-MT, working hard to absorb damage for the team. At the same time, Ronnie's ghostly figure flashed again and again. Splatters of blood shot out in the void. He was relentlessly pursuing.

The enemy had the advantage in numbers and sniped fiercely at them. But for Ronnie at this time, who had received extra enhancements from potions and team abilities, his resistance to blows was even comparable to a berserker charging at the front line. Therefore, after taking several attacks head-on, the dark red bloody dagger in his hand suddenly flew out, circled in the void in front, and instantly a blood-soaked figure covered his throat with both hands and fell out of the air. His eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets, and it was clear that he could not live!

The ambushers continued to fight Fang Senyan and the others for less than five minutes. The more they fought, the more chilling they felt. They saw that under the care of the MT and the vice-MT, their attacks were cleverly defused. None of them had died, but their own people had fallen one after another in order to pursue powerful attacks! They had not brought an MT with them, and four people had already died! If they continued to fight, they might be completely annihilated.

"They're going to escape," Ronnie was the first to notice this. "Boss can activate the disease, and this world looks very strange. Although it wasn't mentioned, it looks like we can't activate the emergency return props. We have to wipe them out!"

Fang Senyan said calmly:

"No, you just need to intensify your attacks. This is just the beginning. There are more eyes staring at us on this damn battlefield than the poop of an Orc. It's too early to expose the team's strength now."

Everyone was already used to obeying Fang Senyan's decisions. Zi, Ronnie, and Aldaris attacked even more ruthlessly and unscrupulously! During the enemy's retreat, two people triggered the most common and useful "random teleportation" team skill after being brought to the brink of death, and were randomly teleported far away to a spot within a kilometer, but they were still killed by the continuous damage that followed!

After this battle, they did a little statistics and killed two awakened and four colonizers. Reef and the others still had a sense of unfinished business, as if they had just finished their warm-up exercises. But the harvest was good. They got a bloody piece of equipment, a cloak that could absorb 15% of the damage from contractors and reduce the chance of being critically hit by 5%.

Fang Senyan didn't pay attention to the equipment harvest, but asked Zi:

"Just now, I didn't see anyone using plot items to leave the battlefield. Is it impossible to return directly from here?"

Zi closed her eyes and sensed for a moment:

"Yes, the space-time vortex here is very strong, it's so chaotic that it's almost impossible to locate space. It's not that you can't return directly, but the failure rate of using props is terribly high!"