Chapter 1002: The Grinder Formation
The viewers watching the live stream were just as stunned. Everyone had assumed the Renegade Alliance was desperately trying to break through and reach Dragon City, but what they were seeing now was beyond anything they had imagined.
"What the hell is the Renegade Alliance doing? Have they lost their minds?"
"I knew it... there was no way it would be that simple!"
"Haha! That’s the Druid God for you!"
"They’re actually going to...?"
"Just keep watching. He’s definitely planning something."
The chat exploded, messages flooding the screen faster than anyone could read them.
Only moments earlier, Ethan had spoken a single command through the guild channel.
"Reform. Grinder."
Just two words, yet they struck every Renegade Alliance member like a bolt of lightning.
"Boss..."
Even Leo and the others couldn’t hide their surprise, but their movements never slowed. If anything, they reacted even faster. Absolute obedience had always been one of the Renegade Alliance’s defining traits. Once Ethan gave an order, nobody hesitated or questioned it. They simply acted.
The wedge formation that had been driving through the battlefield like the tip of a spear transformed almost instantly. Within seconds, the entire army shifted into a massive rotating circle. Four hundred thousand players moved as one. Viewed from above, the formation looked exactly like an enormous grinding wheel slowly turning across the battlefield.
Ethan laughed. "Why are you all looking at me like that? Did you really think we were just going to tuck our tails between our legs and run? There are still plenty of enemies waiting for us ahead, so why not have a little fun first? Let’s wipe out these 9.6 million bastards before we continue."
His voice grew louder with every word. "It’s time to show the world what the Renegade Alliance is really made of. You’ve all spent two years trapped in the Northern Frontier Region. Tell me honestly... didn’t it feel like living inside a cage?"
His words lit a fire inside every player’s chest.
Yeah.
To hell with it. If they were going to fight, then they’d fight without regrets. Death in Ethereal wasn’t permanent anyway. At worst, they’d experience that brief moment of fear before respawning. Compared to everything they’d endured over the past two years, that hardly mattered.
"KILL THEM!"
"CRUSH THEM!"
"I did the math! We only need sixteen kills each and we’ll wipe them all out!"
"Will you shut up with the math already?"
𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Despite the entire world watching the battle, the Renegade Alliance’s guild chat remained strangely relaxed, filled with jokes and playful banter instead of fear.
Ethan smiled before speaking again.
"Wrong."
His voice cut cleanly through the laughter. "I don’t just want them gone. I want them crushed. I want every single person standing in our way completely destroyed. And after that..." He paused, letting the weight of his words settle. "We’re taking Dragon City. We’ll become the first guild in all of Dragonspire to march into Dragon City. I want every one of you to become legends. I want the whole world to hear the name Renegade Alliance... and remember this day."
This time, nobody replied.
Until now, most of them had simply assumed Ethan wanted to blow off some steam before retreating. If they failed, they would just respawn back in the Northern Frontier Region. Life would go on. They would return to earning money, supporting their families, and living comfortably. Sure, Dragon City offered greater opportunities, but none of them were struggling anymore. They had stable lives and more than enough to enjoy a little luxury now and then.
But Ethan’s words changed everything.
If anyone else had stood there making those promises, they would have dismissed him as a delusional fool. But this was Ethan. The Druid God. The man who had never once made an empty promise.
Ever since the day he first appeared, he had done nothing but create miracles. He had become the first player in the world to kill a monster in the Starter Zone. The first to defeat a Starter Zone boss. The first to leave the Starter Zone, crushing an entire enemy guild along the way. The first to lead a hopelessly outnumbered force and hunt down more than seven thousand enemy players—a feat no one had ever repeated. The first player to reach a capital city. The undisputed holder of the world’s number one level ranking. The man who had unlocked the Energy Pool system and triggered the release of countless new game systems. The best-equipped player in the entire world, clad from head to toe in Divine-tier equipment.
Now that same man was saying he intended to use four hundred thousand players to annihilate an army of 9.6 million, while reinforcements continued pouring in behind them.
To everyone else, it sounded impossible. But impossible was exactly where Ethan seemed to thrive.
"ROOOOOAR!"
The battlefield shook as four hundred thousand voices erupted in perfect unison. The thunderous roar rolled across the plains like an earthquake.
Already unnerved by the monstrous rotating formation cutting through their ranks, countless coalition players instinctively flinched. They had already discovered that charging the spinning formation head-on was no different from throwing themselves into a meat grinder. Now, as they met the burning determination in the Renegade Alliance’s eyes, many felt their courage crumble. Some nearly dropped their weapons. Some wanted to run. But with endless waves of allies pushing forward from behind, there was nowhere to retreat.
The grinding wheel continued to turn.
And wherever it passed...
Lives disappeared.
The transformed Renegade Alliance moved with terrifying precision, every member acting as though they were part of a single enormous machine. The massive rotating disk swept left, then right. Wherever it rolled, enemy players fell like wheat before a harvest.
"Spread out!"
"Stop charging them!"
"Pull the ranged classes back!"
"Quit shoving! You’re making it worse!"
Panicked orders rang out throughout the coalition army.
The screams were picked up clearly by the live broadcast, and only then did viewers realize something they had completely overlooked. The Renegade Alliance had somehow carved its way straight into the heart of the coalition’s formation.
Anyone experienced with large-scale warfare immediately understood the significance. The center of an army was where the ranged attackers and healers stayed. It was supposed to be the safest place on the battlefield. Ranged classes needed uninterrupted casting time. Healers were almost defenseless in direct combat. Now those vulnerable players were trapped directly in front of the Renegade Alliance’s spinning formation. No wonder the kill count was climbing so absurdly fast.
One of the commentators couldn’t hide his excitement. "The Druid God is an incredible strategist!"
His co-host blinked. "What makes you say that?"
"Think about it. If they’d used this formation from the beginning, all four hundred thousand players would’ve been packed tightly together. One massive area-of-effect spell would have devastated them. But they survived that huge wave of magic earlier without taking any damage. They used some kind of item we’ve never seen before. It granted complete magic immunity. There’s no way something that powerful isn’t a limited-use consumable, so they couldn’t rely on it forever."
"Oh... that actually makes sense."
The two commentators continued analyzing the battle. "After breaking through, instead of escaping, they immediately targeted the coalition’s backline. That means this was Ethan’s plan from the very beginning. The Druid God must have identified the ranged classes as the greatest threat. Once they were neutralized, the coalition’s overwhelming numbers became far less effective. And honestly, this formation is incredible. I never imagined battlefield formations from ancient warfare could actually be adapted to a game like this."
His partner nodded before frowning. "Even so... can it really withstand more than nine million players?"
"It might. If the coalition can’t find a way to break the formation apart, they could actually be worn down little by little."
The commentator suddenly froze. "Wait... I just found something."
He quickly pulled up another recording. "Take a look at this."
A picture-in-picture window appeared on the stream. It showed an older recording from the Southern Frontier Region. Around twenty players were practicing together in an open field. The formation they used was identical to the enormous grinding formation currently tearing through the battlefield. The twenty players rotated around one another with remarkable coordination before seamlessly shifting into the exact spearhead formation the Renegade Alliance had used earlier. They demonstrated several more formations afterward, though those transitions were noticeably rougher and lacked the fluid precision displayed in today’s battle.
"Hold on..."
One of the commentators suddenly leaned closer to the screen, eyes widening in recognition as he pointed at one of the figures in the recording.
"I know that guy!"