boyutpedia Chapter 23 Encounter with the White Eagle Empire Squad
Chapter 23 Encounter with the White Eagle Empire Squad
The moment the teleportation matrix was activated, Lu Yan's vision was completely engulfed by the white light.
A sharp, high-frequency whistling sound filled my eardrums, lasting for about three seconds, before all my senses returned simultaneously.
Beneath my feet lay hard, black rock, and above me stretched a sky shrouded in blood-red clouds. The air was dry, carrying the metallic stench of rust.
The terrain of the front-line secret realm is completely different from that of ordinary secret realms.
As far as the eye could see, there was an endless wasteland, with deep, bottomless ravines cracked in the ground. In the distance, several strangely shaped black spires stood, their tips shimmering with different colors of light.
The system panel pops up automatically.
[Frontline Secret Realm Battlefield]
[The rules are as follows: Each faction competes for control points, and each control tower continuously generates points after being captured. The faction with the highest final score gains priority access to explore the S-rank secret realm "Eden" for the next year.]
[Death Penalty: Fallen Awakened players will be permanently banished from this round of the Frontline Dungeon and cannot be resurrected. Equipment will not be lost.]
[Currently participating countries: 7]
Current number of participants: 2184
More than two thousand people.
Lu Yan put away the panel and looked around—the teleportation point of the Huaxia faction was a semi-circular stronghold surrounded by fortifications, with a red faction flag flying overhead.
The outpost was packed with people.
The squads were arranged according to their organizational structure, with a wide variety of equipment. Some wore relatively complete dark gold armor, while others clearly still had a few pieces of bronze-level transitional equipment on their bodies. But every face showed the same thing—tight.
Lu Yan roughly counted, and there were at least three hundred people.
"This is quite a spectacle..." Zhao Leiguang looked around and muttered to himself, "I've participated in two Frontline Secret Realm trials before. Last time, only 120 people from China came. What's going on this time—"
"The news about the equipment rankings has spread. This time, our Huaxia team's win rate on the forums has jumped from 20% to 50%." Xiao Qianyu opened her tactical tablet and brought up the faction communication channel. "The higher-ups have mobilized all the teams they can this time, and quite a few civilian guilds have also come. In previous years, we were outnumbered and had inferior equipment, but this year at least we're not at a disadvantage in terms of numbers."
The communication channel was filled with reports of team numbers and coordinates. The various squads were rapidly assembling and assigning directions.
Xiao Qianyu opened the map of the secret realm.
A panoramic view covering tens of square kilometers unfolded on the light screen. Twelve control towers were distributed across various areas of the wasteland, numbered from A to L, and each tower's status bar displayed a gray "unoccupied" marker.
But gray is being swallowed up by other colors.
A blue dot appeared next to Tower B—that was the Nordic Alliance team. White cursors flashed near Towers E and F; the White Eagle Empire had arrived. Further away, towards Towers G and H, teams from Japan and Korea were also moving towards their target.
"The closest one is Tower C." Xiao Qianyu marked a point on the map. "It's 1.2 kilometers away from our teleportation point as the crow flies. It's in a valley, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Let's take this one first and establish a foothold."
"Walk."
The first squad of eight men quickly left the stronghold and marched rapidly along the edge of the rift valley in the wasteland.
I ran 1.2 kilometers at full speed in less than four minutes.
Tower C stands in the center of a valley surrounded by cliffs on three sides. The tower is entirely black and about three stories high. There is a glowing control zone around the base of the tower. If you stand in the control zone for sixty seconds without enemy interference, the control tower will change color.
But they weren't the only ones in the valley.
Another squad is rapidly approaching from the opposite entrance.
Six people. All dressed in white armor, with a winged eagle emblem embroidered on their left chests. Their equipment gleamed with a dark gold and epic luster from head to toe. Lu Yan recognized the weapon hanging at the waist of the tall, blond man in the middle of the group—the [Gabriel's Sigh], which had been relegated to third place.
White Eagle Empire, the second-ranked squad.
The two teams entered the valley almost simultaneously and stopped on the east and west sides of Tower C.
The air was silent for two seconds.
The blond man leading the White Eagle Squad spoke first, in English, which was then automatically translated into Chinese by the translator.
"Oh? People from China?" He looked the first squad up and down, his gaze lingering on Lu Yan for a moment—a guy holding a scepter, clearly without any combat class characteristics, standing out conspicuously among the combat team.
The blond man smiled.
"Gentlemen, I have a suggestion for you," he said in a tone that was polite to the point of being condescending. "We'll take this spot. You can go look around elsewhere to save each other's time and energy."
His teammates behind him laughed. A tall, thin man carrying a staff added insult to injury: "Don't get me wrong, we're not looking down on you. It's just that... we don't want to exhaust ourselves in the first round fighting a battle with no suspense."
"Yeah, it's more worthwhile to save our energy for dealing with those Scandinavians." Another White Eagles member with a shield shrugged. "You guys aren't worth it."
Zhao Leiguang's face turned a deep purplish-red.
He turned to look at Xiao Qianyu, who returned his gaze.
Zhao Leiguang stopped talking nonsense.
With both shields on his upper arms and his center of gravity lowered, everyone heard a crisp metallic clanging sound—the sound of the [Earth Pulse] set being activated.
Lu Yan took half a step back, and lightly touched the ground with the tip of the Eternal Scepter.
All auras activated.
The God of War's blessing extends to the entire team. All six friendly buffs of the Eternal Scepter are active simultaneously.
On the attribute panels of each member of the first squad, the numbers skyrocketed.
Zhao Lei gave the other side no time to react.
He unleashed [Savage Charge].
That scene—which was later played millions of times on global forums—was a Protection Paladin, supposedly heavily armored, crashing into the very center of the White Eagle Squad's formation from thirty meters away at a speed completely defying the laws of physics.
The White Eagle tank, holding a shield, instinctively raised its shield to block.
Can't stop!
Zhao Leiguang's charge carried the additional effects of [War Stomp]. The moment of contact, the ground within a ten-meter radius of him exploded, and all six White Eagle team members were stunned.
The blond team leader's expression changed.
He is the captain of the second-ranked squad, and the equipment he wears is a masterpiece crafted with the full resources of the White Eagle Empire. His shield tank is recognized by the White Eagle as one of the top three defenders.
The defender was knocked eight meters away by a charge.
"How is that possible—"
Lin Chuxue had already raised her staff.
Ice and fire elements poured forth from the tip of the staff, without cooldown or interruption. The spell storm precisely covered the White Eagle team members scattered by Zhao Leiguang. The tall, thin mage had just recovered from the dizziness and hadn't even had time to raise his staff when three ice spikes and a ball of lava fire were already hitting his face.
His shield lasted for 0.4 seconds.
Wen Yue knelt behind a rock at the edge of the valley, the World-Destroying Thunderclap resting on her shoulder. She didn't rush to fire, but calmly waited two seconds, until the White Eagle healer attempted to retreat and create distance—
A high-explosive grenade landed precisely one meter from the healer's feet.
A ball of orange-red fire rose from the valley.
From the moment Zhao Leiguang launched his charge to the moment the White Eagle Squad's formation was completely torn apart, no more than twelve seconds elapsed.
The blond leader got up from the ground, his face covered in dust, still holding the [Gabriel's Sigh] in his hand, but his four teammates were scattered haphazardly across the valley, their health bars all struggling below the warning line.
He looked at the Chinese team opposite him, and at the young man standing in the back row who was doing nothing but leaning on a scepter.
"The one in the back row with the scepter is an Aura Master. Kill him, and everyone else will crumble!"