Chapter 101: A Storm Brews

Buzz...

The people lingering around the outskirts of the Land of Divine Lament were already very familiar with the whirring of the Reaper Dragonflies' wings.

And yet, very rarely—indeed, since becoming heroes, hardly anyone had ever been seen riding upon them.

That was due to the nature of this magical beast. It excelled at swooping down to slaughter and bewildering its enemies, and its temperament was fierce. In battle, it was unimaginably savage; even when its body had been badly mangled, so long as it still lived and could still fly, it would keep struggling to lunge at its foe.

So it could be defeated and killed by a stronger opponent, but it would never submit to any creature outside its own kind.

Even among its own kind, there was only suppression by rank, never eternal obedience.

A level 13 Reaper Dragonfly would yield to a level 14 one, but once it grew and evolved to level 14 itself, it would immediately turn and strike at the one that had once overpowered it and forced its submission, fighting until either one died.

The reason Luo Yong had been able to successfully contract a Reaper Dragonfly was the item he had obtained: the Altered Reaper Dragonfly, king of the Land of Divine Lament, sovereign over everything here.

Cough.

However, after it became an item, its authority changed, and the power it could exert was very limited.

Still, for Luo Yong to depart in that manner and appear again—whether others wished to admit it or not—was nothing short of spectacular, if not the center of every eye.

Whoosh!

The Reaper Dragonfly flew over the sky above the Land of Divine Lament, and Luo Yong looked down at the people below with complete indifference.

Then the little dragonfly perched on his shoulder vanished without a sound.

A few keen-eyed people caught a flicker of light and shadow, but could not make out exactly what it was.

Soon, another level 15 Reaper Dragonfly flew out from the swarm, left the Land of Divine Lament, and landed before Wendy and the others of the Gale Squad.

"Wow! It really worked!"

"The captain is amazing!"

"Enough talk, I’ll go first!"

The Wild Hunter was already well prepared, familiar with the procedure. She immediately opened a contract scroll and pressed it against the Reaper Dragonfly’s head.

Whoosh!

A dazzling flash of light passed, the contract was complete, and the fierce light in the dragonfly’s eyes seemed to soften a little.

Then the Wild Hunter leaped straight onto its back.

"Haha! Here comes your big sister!"

Buzz!

A gust of wind swept by as the Reaper Dragonfly beat its wings and rose into the sky.

"Yoo-hoo! Woo—"

The Wild Hunter gave out a wolfish howl, cheering as she circled overhead. In that instant, she seemed to become the focus of everyone’s attention.

"Go see what’s going on!"

At this point, the leaders of several dominant groups could no longer remain calm and quickly sent people over to investigate.

Although they had occupied favorable ground and divided up their territories, for the moment they had little to do. They could only gather a few broken limbs and corpses as quest items, and there was no way to complete the mission in the short term.

But the scene before them was plainly anything but ordinary.

It exceeded their control.

"What a show-off. You really can’t tell from looking at her on ordinary days!"

Standing on the ground, the beautiful female members who had just been splashed with dust all raised their middle fingers at the Wild Hunter in the sky.

Nearby, the three men—Rocky, Lucky, and Simon—who had originally come to persuade them to team up and strengthen their faction all picked up their jaws from the ground.

"How are we supposed to team up with them now?"

"That newly appointed Gale Squad captain, why is she so different?"

"Haah..."

That long sigh carried the thoughts of many.

Everyone present knew that from this moment on—perhaps even a little earlier—the Gale Squad was no longer the same as before.

Those who had wanted to swallow them up, suppress them, or take advantage of them had utterly miscalculated.

If they still refused to let it go, then there would inevitably be a fierce collision between the two sides in the future.

Buzz!

Just then, another level 15 Reaper Dragonfly descended before them.

And the barbarian priest stepped forward and completed the contract.

Before long, a neat row of brand-new aircraft... cough, no, a neat row of brand-new level 15 flying mounts stood there in order.

The Gale Squad, all aboard!

Swoosh!

A fresh wind rose, and a flock of beautiful, sharp, and dazzling women took off together, circled the field three times, and then came to Luo Yong’s side.

"Captain, we’re here!"

The beauties spoke in unison.

"Good. Then continue. As for the issue of the Radiant Set, since you don’t want to decide by rock-paper-scissors, then let each of you rely on your own abilities."

Luo Yong pointed at the Reaper Dragonflies fluttering before them. Some of the creatures had noticed the situation here as well and sensed an unusual aura.

But because of the suppression of rank, they did not dare act rashly.

All of the level 15 Reaper Dragonflies were resting and slumbering. At present, the ones doing the killing were mostly level 13 dragonflies, with only a small number of level 14s.

"The Radiant Set!"

At the mention of this, all the squad members showed excited expressions.

In this other world, equipment sets were divided into five ranks: green, blue, purple, orange, and red.

Ordinary weapons and gear, on the other hand, were divided into white quality, blue quality, and gold quality.

The Barbarian Bone Staff that the barbarian priest had previously obtained was gold quality.

Its level was not high and its power was merely average, but at this stage it counted as a fairly good piece of equipment.

Still, compared with a set, it fell far short.

And the Radiant Set, among blue-grade sets, could be considered excellent.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

A crowd immediately mounted their level 15 Reaper Dragonflies and began capturing the level 13 ones.

The other squads that witnessed all this did not know what to say.

"Did we just miss something?" Rocky said.

"A squad with an average level of 9, and they’ve already been equipped with level 15 flying mounts!" Lucky said.

"And they even have Radiant Sets across the board!" Simon said.

The three of them had been huddled together since earlier, apparently discussing something.

"That can’t be right. How many Reaper Dragonflies would they have to catch to outfit a whole set? Even if they had the time, the other squads wouldn’t agree to it!" Rocky said.

"No need. One or two each is enough," Lucky said with a sigh.

"Why?" Simon asked, staring at a figure in the distant sky.

"Think about it: the Gale Squad has a general store in the High Ridge Camp, and in that shop they have those top-tier equipment summoning scrolls—" Lucky said.

"Ah! So that’s it! As long as each of them has one piece of the Radiant Set, they can summon a complete set!" Rocky cried out.

"Oh my god!" Simon exclaimed as well, then suddenly remembered another problem. "Even so, blue-grade gear starts at level 20. They still can’t equip it!"

"Better than having nothing," came the reply.

"From now on, every member of the Gale Squad will start out with a Radiant Set!"

"Same squad, same captain—how can the difference between people be so vast?"

As they spoke, the three of them shook their heads.

And at that moment, Luo Yong saw a figure flying toward him at tremendous speed.

"Flight magic? Levitation?"

Luo Yong could also take off from the ground, but that required multiple layers of anti-gravity magic. It was costly and not especially effective.

Yet this person flying toward him was relying on a single spell, moving with effortless ease, skirting around the Land of Divine Lament and flying over everyone’s heads.

"You’re the new captain of the Gale Squad?"

The newcomer was a man of ordinary build and even more ordinary appearance. His level probably was not very high, yet when he looked at Luo Yong, there was a faint, superior air in his gaze.

And in terms of altitude, he was standing a little higher than Luo Yong.

"And who might you be?"

Luo Yong was not used to looking up at people, so he secretly cast a gravity spell.

Increasing it little by little.

From one times gravity all the way up to ten times.

"I’m Orlan of the Fearless Legion. Our captain wants to see you. He’s over there—come with me."

"And who exactly is your captain?" Luo Yong asked emotionlessly.

"Our captain is Handsome, the so-called Son of Wind, a great wind mage!" Orlan replied.

"Why does he want to see me?" Luo Yong continued.

"He wants to see you, of course, because... hey, hey, hey? Why am I falling? Damn it!"

Orlan cried out in alarm, his body swaying violently in midair, listing drunkenly as though he might plunge headfirst to the ground at any moment.

"What’s going on? Ah! I can’t control myself..."

After struggling for a while, he still dropped downward, as though he had been knocked from the mortal world.

But halfway down, his spell rebounded and lifted him back up.

Then he bobbed and swayed like a roly-poly toy, increasingly out of control.

All the while, he gritted his teeth and strained desperately to steady himself.

"Our... our cap-captain... he... he wants to see you. Go quickly, don’t keep him waiting. If you make him angry, you won’t have anything pleasant coming your way!"

Orlan was not stupid. He guessed that Luo Yong might have tampered with him, so he immediately cast a spell, descended to the ground, and shouted up at him.

"I’m busy. Whoever wants to see me can come here themselves," Luo Yong said coolly.

"You punk, don’t get arrogant. Don’t think that just because you’ve got a Reaper Dragonfly you’re something special. I’m telling you, before true power, you’re nothing—"

Standing there, Orlan cursed loudly with his head raised, not even seeming to notice his neck hurting.

"Oh?"

Luo Yong gave him an emotionless glance, and the Reaper Dragonfly beneath him turned around to face him, looking down coldly. Within its compound eyes, an unusual gleam began to flicker.

"Ah! You just wait!"

Though Orlan was all bluster, he still knew very well that this level 15 magical beast was far beyond ordinary heroes.

At the same level, in one-on-one combat, a human hero would basically be crushed.

With his own meager skills, going over there would be no different from throwing his life away.

So he cursed furiously a few more times, skimmed along the ground, and only after detouring a great distance did he return to his own group.