[Commander of the Silver Legion, Twin-Bladed Knight Balford, has fallen.]
[All related plot quests for Twin-Bladed Knight Balford will be permanently deleted.]
[Silver Legion, Morale -50, on the verge of collapse.]
These were the system prompts received by all players who participated in this legion battle and those who remained in the Silver Fortress of the Roman Empire.
While not everyone was mourning, they certainly weren't celebrating.
Conversely, on Britannia's side, both players who participated in the charge and those who stayed in the rear received information that filled them with mixed emotions.
[A player from your faction has successfully slain the enemy faction's commander, Twin-Bladed Knight Balford.]
[Knights of the Round Table, Morale +50, soaring morale.]
The joy, naturally, referred to the slaying of the Twin-Bladed Knight and the advancement of the main quest.
The sadness, of course, was due to the fact that they hadn't gained even a shred of contribution to the Twin-Bladed Knight's kill. Not only were the treasure drops unrelated to them, but the final main quest settlement regarding the Twin-Bladed Knight would only yield the most basic score.
However, let alone them, even Arthur, who witnessed the entire process, felt somewhat incredulous at this moment.
He could sense that Balford, who had successfully retreated into the infantry formation, was far from heavily wounded or weakened; his vitality was still very strong. It was only due to the sudden appearance of the monster and the petrification ability, like a demonic curse, that ultimately led to his death.
And all of this was clearly directly related to Cheng Tian.
However, Arthur immediately suppressed the thought of "Holy Grail Knight summoning demons" and instead focused on deepening his communication with the Sword in the Stone.
One could see that the sword, which had originally maintained its steel color, now displayed a faint golden hue.
As the only entity that participated in the attack on Balford in this battle, he naturally shared a portion of the military achievements. However, as a plot NPC, Arthur's growth method was clearly different from that of players.
The weapons and armor of Arthur, Lancelot, and Percival were all enchanted by the Archmage Merlin, and their effect was "to continuously grow by accumulating kills."
In the game, this was reflected by characters upgrading by earning higher scores and using special treasures. With each level increase, the character's appearance would undergo slight changes, which would primarily revolve around their weapons and armor — with the sole exception of Percival, whose hair would also fall out once his equipment reinforcement reached a certain level.
He became the first playable character in gaming history to embody the phrase, "I've gone bald, and I've gotten stronger" through physical changes.
Arthur's Sword in the Stone, having absorbed whatever it was that emanated from Balford's death—whether it was soul or experience points—had turned a faint golden color. Not only was its durability fully restored, but its legion-level amplification had also advanced further, with an increase roughly equivalent to 0.5 times a "Dragon King Warrior Equipment Reinforcement."
On Cheng Tian's side, he controlled the Red Minotaur, hugging the silver-painted treasure chest dropped by the Twin-Bladed Knight, and began to attempt a breakthrough, swinging his great axe with one hand.
In fact, Balford was still alive when his head was severed and sent flying. But once the petrification status was completely lifted, as a human, he was as dead as could be due to decapitation.
The strengths and weaknesses of humanoid BOSSes were fully demonstrated in this brief but decisive engagement.
Building-type BOSSes like the Ten Commandments of Mara and the Sun God could generally only be killed by emptying their health bars. However, Balford, as a human and a living being, even with a digitized panel for his body and a still-healthy health bar, would die if decapitated or stabbed through the heart.
As the petrification status was completely lifted, Balford's headless body, left after being decapitated by the Red Bull, fell and began to gush blood like a fountain, spraying high into the air. As his body completely collapsed, the treasure chest also dropped out.
As a Champion template unit, Balford's dropped treasure chest actually qualified for "team sharing." Unfortunately, in this battle, Cheng Tian took down all of his health, so the treasure chest was naturally successfully monopolized by him.
Moreover, not only was it monopolized, but the final drops would also be amplified as an additional reward for his "solo"Subjugation of the Twin-Bladed Knight.
Incidentally, in faction-versus-faction instances, players killing enemies and enemy players have basic drop protection rules, similar to games like "Legend," which reserve pickup rights for drops for a certain period. Only after this time expires do they become ownerless.
The main purpose of this rule was actually to prevent certain ill-intentioned players from deliberately harming their own NPCs, then picking up the drops when their NPCs were killed by the enemy, and fleeing immediately. It also aligns with the underlying logic of Heaven's Chosen Space—
Correct effort will always yield corresponding rewards.
Therefore, whether it was Balford's dropped treasure chest or the valuable treasures shaken out by the Red Tremor, they were all under protection. Only Cheng Tian and his servants and summoned creatures could touch and transport them. Even if players from the Silver Prince faction were envious, they could only stare at Cheng Tian's treasure chest.
At this moment, the Silver Legion was actually in a state of polarization. Some showed extreme killing intent and desire to attack, while others chose the exact opposite, fleeing on the spot.
The soldiers who showed strong killing intent were Balford's personal guards. They had received considerable benefits under him, essentially having sold their lives to Balford. These benefits were mostly snatched from other soldiers.
Now that he was dead, no matter who took over the Silver Legion next, the best outcome for these soldiers, who were already branded as "Twin-Bladed Knight loyalists," would be to surrender a large amount of benefits and be completely marginalized. The worst outcome would be to lose their lives. So, all they could do was attempt one last desperate struggle.
As for those who had an ordinary relationship with Balford, the vast majority chose to flee on the spot.
There were some players mixed in with the infantry who still seemed unwilling, launching attacks at the very conspicuous Crimson Tyrannosaurus, the two Minotaur demons who had completed the petrified decapitation, and Arthur, who wielded the golden Sword in the Stone.
But the players from the Knights of the Round Table, almost all of them with a tragic sense of "not having gained military merit," began to vent their anger on the Roman soldiers of the opposing faction.
As for Cheng Mouren, whose mana bar was completely depleted, he had already left the core of the battle and retreated to the edge, looking at the "crazy chaotic steps" mode he had entered, with the chaotic step value changing N times per second, and helplessly clicked his tongue.