’Did he go crazy? Why the hell is he attacking his own guild members?’ Victor’s lips twitched as he saw Matthew punching and kicking members of the Crimson Lion Guild, each strike lethal.

Victor perked up his ears to listen.

"Young Master, calm down, we’re not the monsters!" one of the guild members shouted at Matthew as he dodged an attack, sweat dripping from his forehead.

"Damn, he has lost his mind—just kill him!" another guild member suggested.

As Matthew was fighting the beasts, his bloodline ability got activated, and he kept tearing the beasts apart frantically with his bare hands. But after some time, he switched his target to them, and due to the influence of his bloodline, it seemed he had lost his mind and become a true berserker who could not differentiate between allies and enemies.

"Are you crazy? You want to attack the guild leader?" another person asked in an incredulous voice.

"Then do you have any idea... should we log out and abandon the quest?" asked a guild member.

"Maybe that’s the only solution... first try to create some distance and escape his attacks and drag other players instead; if that does not work, we log out," said a player who seemed to be the one in charge.

A few minutes later—

Victor stopped paying attention to them as he looked at Amber beside him.

"Looks like all the monsters are almost killed," Amber said with a tense frown as she looked at the beasts being slaughtered by the mercenaries. She knew the main force of the Black Church would be deployed soon.

’Those ten are really good; maybe I should recruit them somehow or ask Victor to do it.’ Amber’s eyes narrowed on the heirs.

"What kind of mercenaries are these? They are fighting like madmen," Captain Callum frowned as he watched the players fight with their lives on the line. This was the first time he had seen hired swords fight this fiercely, and among them he saw a few warlocks with very high potential.

He waited patiently as the number of magical beasts decreased and thought, ’It’s time to attack.’

"Attention! All troops prepare for long-range attacks!" Captain Callum shouted as soldiers with long-range skills stepped forward, and modern missile launchers were pushed forward from the ranks.

Captain Callum saw that everyone was ready to launch various kinds of attacks, raised his hand, and signaled, "On my mark... now attack!"

Whoosh Whoosh

Bang Bang

As soon as his words fell, all sorts of attacks were launched toward the Silvernum territory—arrows, spears, bullets, missiles—all flying toward the players.

Boom Boom

The players who saw the attacks closing in hastily tried to move out of their path, but some of them still perished.

"Huh?" Callum raised an eyebrow when an invisible dome appeared around the Silvernum territory, easily blocking the attacks they launched.

"What! Such a powerful barrier," Callum frowned. Honestly, he had been confident—though he knew there was some kind of barrier surrounding it, he had thought it was merely camouflage and not a defensive barrier of this magnitude.

Callum suddenly felt a deep unease and shouted, "All troops, charge forward directly and slaughter them all!"

----------- 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Woah, such a powerful forcefield, Master ❤️," Amber said with shining eyes as she looked at the barrier.

"Edward, start phase 2," Victor said calmly into the communicator.

Edward, who had been waiting for the order, had his eyes gleam. "All Mechs, prepare!"

Hearing this, the soldiers immediately rushed toward their respective Mechs, and they slowly started to come online.

Seeing this, the players who were fighting instantly became restless and looked at the Black Church NPCs rushing toward them with bloodshot eyes.

"Shit, looks like the Mechs are going to participate now."

"Why are you cursing? Isn’t it good the Mechs will aid us? Honestly, I want to see them in action."

"Are you an idiot? If they start participating in the fight, they will take our kills, and we will have less chance to kill NPCs to farm points."

"Damn, I didn’t think about this."

"Immediately charge forward before the Silvernum army takes action!"

"Yes, charge!"

The players became agitated and, without waiting for the Silvernum army, charged toward the rushing NPCs as fast as they could.

Seeing this, Edward was completely speechless. Lord Victor had warned him about this group of mercenaries—that they would rather fight to the death than take help from the Silvernum army in this battle. He had found it hard to believe, as most mercenaries were greedy, but seeing them now, he felt like pinching himself to check if he was dreaming. If every mercenary fought like this, would there even be any need for personal armies? Even the soldiers behind him were shocked.

Seeing the players rush toward them like madmen, even the Black Church army felt a chill run down their spines—it felt as though they wanted to devour flesh. They hastily launched all kinds of long-range attacks toward the tide of players, but that did not deter them; instead, it seemed to make them even more frenzied.

Bang Bang

"Shit, these NPCs are way stronger than the beasts," one of the players cursed as he saw his guildmate beside him die instantly after being hit by an arrow.

Within a few minutes, at least 80% of the players had completely perished, and even the top players were almost out of mana from fighting so long.

"Where is that guy Faceless?" Olivia said through gritted teeth as she was low on mana. She knew Faceless had only attacked once, and she did not think he was out of mana—perhaps he was waiting for the right moment.

"Looks like it’s time to test the new defense," Victor mumbled, seeing the players about to be wiped out.

"Lilith, start the attack," Victor said, looking at the black cat near his feet.

"Yes, Sir Victor. Miss Lilith will teach those bad guys a lesson," Lilith said, her eyes gleaming with a cunning light.