Chapter 274 - 184: The War Ends

Things were looking great in Sea Zone One.

On Luo Ge’s battlefield, the situation had also started to turn in their favor.

Although the Firewood Thieves had gone to great lengths to send in a Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster, it had ultimately been a wasted effort.

With Luo Ge and the players fully prepared, the Firewood Thieves had lost their most critical advantage: the element of surprise.

Judging by the Power they had displayed outside the Dark Boundary, it was almost impossible for them to pose any further threat to Candle Island.

The Firewood Thieves and the Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster currently on the battlefield were merely clinging to life.

Luo Ge even deliberately let some Firewood Thieves in, allowing the players to farm War Contribution.

However, that was his perspective on the overall war. From an individual’s point of view, the Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster facing the players was an extremely tough opponent.

This terrifying behemoth not only had a powerful body and immense Physical Strength, but it could also use all sorts of strange Magic. It was well-equipped for both close and long-range combat, with almost no weaknesses.

In terms of Tier, it was likely the one just below Scorching Charcoal.

Therefore, with such overwhelming strength as its foundation, even though it was wounded and the players were fighting tooth and nail, the situation had reached a stalemate...

"Hm?"

Luo Ge suddenly refocused his attention.

Outside the region anchored by Candle Island, the Power that had been trying to invade suddenly receded!

The Firewood Thieves were retreating!

Their retreat was decisive, without a hint of hesitation or any prior warning. It was as if they had foreseen the outcome and immediately turned to leave.

Thinking this, Luo Ge breathed a sigh of relief but remained wary of a surprise counter-Attack.

After some more time had passed, Luo Ge was finally certain that the Firewood Thieves had indeed retreated.

He quickly began to control the power of the Spirit Candle and launch a counteroffensive.

At the same time, watching the players still locked in a fierce battle, Luo Ge diverted some of his Power to suppress the Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster.

VMMM—

A Formless Power pressed down on the Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster’s enormous body, causing its movements to become incredibly difficult.

This made it let out an enraged shriek. The tentacles beneath its giant jar-like body thrashed wildly, struggling as if in a final fit of Madness.

[Attention! The Firewood Thieves have retreated. Victory in this war has been achieved. Please clear the battlefield of the remaining Firewood Thieves!]

"We won!"

"Hell yeah, guys!"

"Tch, we won already? I barely even tried. Not very satisfying."

"Yeah, right. I saw you respawning a few times."

"Hey, quit screwing around! Let’s kill this Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster first and see what kind of loot it drops!"

Seeing that they had won, the group of players was naturally overjoyed. The pressure was off, and they started bantering with each other.

At this moment, the remaining Firewood Thieves on the battlefield seemed unaware of their fate. Or perhaps, possessing little Wisdom to begin with, they were still resisting as they always had.

But this couldn’t change the situation. Under the fearless charges of the players, Firewood Thieves died one after another, and no more of the large jar-like creatures emerged from the Dark Boundary.

The Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster in the center of the battlefield was on its last legs.

More and more players freed themselves up to focus their fire on it.

Many players who had performed Fire Ignition with the Deep Sea Worm transformed directly into their Fire Seed forms and began to engage it head-on.

Of course, although their sizes seemed comparable, they still couldn’t withstand the Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster’s Attacks and were as fragile as paper.

However, the Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster had clearly descended into a final Madness.

After it struggled to hold on for another ten-odd minutes, three sneaky players using the Explosive Bull strategy ignited an Explosive Flame directly on its wounds, completely destroying it.

Its Physical Strength depleted and its blood drained, the Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster could only let out a pained cry as it fell into the sea, its massive body gradually starting to dissolve.

Luo Ge promptly released an azure Candlefire, burning it to ashes.

[Attention! The Firewood Thieves have retreated and all enemies on the battlefield have been eliminated. Victory has been achieved in this large-scale regional war!]

[Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster has been killed. Distributing War Contribution...]

[Special drops from the Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster and Fallen Fire Knights have been added to the current exchange inventory...]

[Calculating War Contribution...]

The appearance of the game notifications made all the players let out a long sigh of relief, and they all began laughing and teasing one another.

"We finally won. I was terrified the Firewood Thieves would break through the lines and take out the Candlekeeper."

"I could understand you being worried about the Spirit Candle... but you’re worried about the Candlekeeper? He’s probably the one who inflicted most of the wounds on that Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster."

"How come the Wood-Eating Giant Sea Monster’s loot went into the exchange inventory? Sigh..."

"What, you thought you could just grab it if you were fast enough? You think you could’ve gotten it?"

"..."

In between chats, they also began to clean up the battlefield.

Although the things dropped by these Firewood Thieves were average, their sheer numbers meant that some useful items would occasionally appear.

That Unclean Wax was also pretty useful. It could be used as an item to repel mobs, which was pretty good for running through the map after resetting a dungeon.

...

The veteran players began to leave the battlefield one by one, sharing and bragging about the recent war with the players outside.

After all, some of the Low Tier players hadn’t been qualified to enter the battlefield and could only watch helplessly from the outside.

Some players were naturally very dissatisfied with this, but Luo Ge could only pretend not to notice.

To the players, this was just an in-game event. But to him, it was a war that could determine his very survival. How could he possibly let these Low Level players come in and just feed the enemy kills?

Of course, the war was over now, and it was unlikely the Firewood Thieves would launch another offensive anytime soon.