Two groups of people, one with five members and the other with four.
The leader of the smaller group was furious:
"A dead man fears nothing! You bunch of scumbags! It was just a trash Bronze-tier bracer, and you had to kick us out of the party and kill Jian Zhi Cang Tian to loot his gear?"
Upon hearing his question, the leader of the opposing group, a bald, burly man with a glowing red name, flicked his giant sword, which emitted a white mist, and said.
"Tch~, Heng Dao. With your trash gear, you call a Bronze-tier bracer trash? You're mistaken about one thing though. Killing him wasn't the main reason; I've had my eyes on his Silver-tier greatsword for a long time. I only had a chance because he was red-named!"
Heng Dao's face flushed crimson with anger:
"He became red-named because he killed the most people when we were fighting for territory at the leveling spot. Otherwise, how could we have reached level four so quickly?"
"Haha, they're so stupid. He killed the most, but it was us who left them with low health so he could finish them off, all to make him red-named and loot him, haha..."
From the group of five, a mage winked at his teammates and chatted with them unrestrainedly, laughing heartily.
It was as if Heng Dao and his companions were invisible.
Heng Dao was momentarily speechless: "You... you guys..."
Chu Tian understood everything upon hearing this. It was a dispute over equipment that led to internal conflict. How coincidental that he had just seen this person, Ren Si Niao Chao Tian, on the leaderboard and now encountered him here.
No... what was the name of the person who was killed? Jian Zhi Cang Tian?
Looking at the corpse on the ground, Chu Tian's eyes turned instantly cold.
"What 'you'? Hurry up and scram! A bunch of trash. Did you really think we wanted to team up with you? You were slowing down our leveling speed!"
"Exactly, exactly! Don't force us to take you all down. At most, we'll have one or two more red-names, which just means we can't return to town for a day or two."
The others on the opposite side spat out these words at Heng Dao and his group.
Heng Dao was a priest and had no ability to lead this battle. He turned to look at his teammates.
"Heng Dao, let's retreat. We can't beat them!" his mage companion said.
Another sharpshooter immediately chimed in:
"Yeah, Jian Zhi also messaged us to leave quickly. Forget the gear, we can get it later. If we all die here, they'll definitely guard our corpses, and we won't be able to do corpse runs."
Heng Dao's gaze shifted to another paladin.
The paladin didn't hesitate, stepping forward to stand with Heng Dao, drawing his greatsword.
Heng Dao nodded at him, then looked again at a rogue at the very back of the group. The rogue didn't meet his gaze, took two steps back, and vanished into stealth.
"Ding... System prompt: 'Ye Luo' has exited the party."
Hearing the system notification, Heng Dao let out a wry smile. People's hearts were truly unfathomable. When disaster struck, everyone fled.
The sharpshooter and mage in the party also successively quit the group and retreated towards the level four zone.
Heng Dao looked at the paladin beside him: "Xiao Liu, in the end, it's just the three of us left. Let's go accompany Lei Zi. We can always start over!"
"There's nothing to say. Let's do it. We never backed down in real life, so why should we fear dying once in the game? Bring out your best, maybe we can take down two of them." The paladin said with a smile.
Just as the two were preparing for a desperate struggle, a sudden change occurred on the opposing side.
"Bad, there's a thief..."
It had to be said that Ren Si Niao Chao Tian had some skill. Even though Chu Tian's level surpassed his, he was still detected within two meters. The opponent must have an item that increased perception. If not, then he was truly a master, but Chu Tian hadn't heard of him in his previous life.
Before Ren Si Niao Chao Tian could even finish his sentence, Chu Tian lunged forward.
He pounced on the rogue behind him, whose figure was gradually fading, knocking him down and interrupting his stealth.
Rake!
The rogue was stunned for five seconds and began to bleed.
Chu Tian dropped the stunned rogue and flipped over, launching a Shred at the mage next to the rogue.
-243! One-hit kill!
He snatched a helmet dropped by the mage and then went straight for the other shield warrior. In less than two seconds, Ren Si Niao Chao Tian's team was down one dead and one stunned! The rogue was basically doomed, as their team had no priest. Even if they did, it was unlikely any priest would have healing skills at this point.
The bleeding debuff from Rake lasted for 18 seconds, with him losing about one-sixth of his health per second.
It had to be said that their team had good composure, instantly changing their formation. The remaining warlock, hiding behind the shield warrior, summoned two imps with a wave of his hand. Then, the warlock began to chant the skill, Rain of Fire, while the imps also started casting Firebolts.
Ren Si Niao Chao Tian rushed out to intercept Chu Tian.
Chu Tian glanced at him with a hint of disdain. If he wanted to kill Ren Si Niao Chao Tian, it would only take one Shred. However, he wanted to kill him last. And killing him once, how could that avenge his brothers? He didn't have the time to chase him down to level zero. So, he would toy with him! A sinister smile flickered across Chu Tian's lips. He would first eliminate the yellow and white-named players, then kill this red-named one. This way, he wouldn't be afraid of his teammates risking their lives to pick up gear, and thus preserve most of the loot.
Ren Si Niao Chao Tian held a greatsword emitting a silvery-white glow, presumably the one looted from Jian Zhi Cang Tian. He jumped high and, as he descended, swung his sword down at Chu Tian.
As the greatsword whistled towards him, already within Chu Tian's reach. The cheetah's body suddenly shrank. Its body, originally 1.5 meters long, arched its back, its four hooves brought together. Its entire body seemed to fold in half, its chest pressed tightly against its abdomen.
Chu Tian didn't know his attack power, but he assumed it wouldn't be enough to break his defense. However, he didn't want to reveal too much. In Tian Dao, ranged attacks had automatic tracking. One could only dodge by rolling when the skill was about to hit, or by using obstacles to make the spell hit the ground or the obstacle. For melee attacks, one could dodge using flexible body movements. Martial arts masters, fighters, and those who had engaged in prolonged combat in reality had a natural advantage here.
An attack coming head-on like this was like a toddler playing with a big knife in front of Chu Tian, who had been hunted for years in his previous life. However, being able to perform such a difficult maneuver was thanks to the flexibility of the cheetah's body.
Ren Si Niao Chao Tian's sword missed, and he was stunned. What was that posture? He dodged that? By the time he reacted and turned around, Chu Tian was less than three meters away from the shield warrior. He chased with his sword. But he wasn't overly worried; this shield warrior was the best-geared in their team. The previous rogue and mage were instantly killed by Chu Tian's sneak attack, but he didn't believe Chu Tian could one-hit kill a shield warrior. If he engaged the shield warrior head-on, a shield bash would cause knockback. The warlock's Rain of Fire skill was almost finished chanting, and then it would be Chu Tian's death.
Whoosh, whoosh... Two Firebolts cast by the imps, as Chu Tian was still two meters away from the shield warrior, crossed towards him, arriving in an instant. In a critical moment, Chu Tian pushed off the ground with his hind legs, suddenly accelerating, the "wheel rolling" technique reappearing!
Boom, boom. Two Firebolts exploded behind Chu Tian, creating two loud roars.
"Not good, Xiao Liu, let's go help!" Heng Dao shouted.