Just as Lynn learnt the truth of the raid, the raid was still progressing as per planned. The only difference was that Jin had announced that the entire Tyr Gauntlet Mafia had disappeared from the map. There was no explanation given and the System had already cordoned off the Petal District by putting up a power barrier which an ordinary Pandaren could bypass. In terms of gaming terminology, it had become restricted for any users to go in.
Jin had also added that anyone who had attempted to trespass into the Petal District would be forcefully teleported out of the raid instance and that puzzled everyone that was in the raid. People started to create bizarre theories on the current situation. From a technical bug that had been found and Jin was repairing it in the midst of the dungeon runs to others thinking that Jin purposely increased the Raid difficulty since the Petal District was one of the few districts that were tantamount to an intersectional district that connects to the rest of the surrounding areas.
No one would have known that it was because of Jin's subjugation of the Mafia except for the major two families that were still alive. They realised that the communication between the Tyr Gauntlet and them had been cut off permanently with no possible way to restore any connections. And with the light barriers appearing over the Petal District, they could only assume that the Tyr Gauntlet Mafia had been estranged by the Demopolis Police forces or the human mercenaries which King Rex had hired.
While the Shadow Kings had influence to not just their own families but to various minor gangs as well, the situation was not looking good for them. There were humans armed with both magical and technical expertise that were able to shred the defences that they had painstakingly built to protect themselves against the Demopolis Police. To make matters worse, some were being captured alive and brought to the Demopolis Police outposts and headquarters.
However, the underworld was not to be underestimated. Even with the shock tactics done by the Pandarens, the Mafia gangsters had managed to decipher their formations and started to counter attack with overwhelming numbers. Some even use the same tricks that the Pandarens had played because of the constant exchange of information between mafias. Although fighting a few of the Pandarens would result in losses, they still knew their districts and the environment played a crucial role in securing a win. They might not win the war, but they sure know how to inflict major losses to King Rex. (Or that's what the Mafia were supposed to believe.)
And this was merely Day One of the raid where the tougher guys were still not out to play with the Pandarens. All the customers had been fighting against were merely the rank and file lackeys. But now with sufficient information in their hands, Atrocity and Eld Enclave had decided to go all out by sending their veterans to assist with the surviving minor gangs.
Although it was true that the Team Pandawan had been making strides in their effort to thwart Atrocity, they too had underestimated the sheer numbers the Mafias have, hiding behind the scenes, waiting for their Shadow Kings to give the command.
To add on, the lack of Demopolis Police in the streets and the odd looking light based barrier had caused the two remaining Shadow Kings to deduce that the Demopolis Police was concentrating their efforts to contain Tyr's Gauntlet. And as if to support that theory, Ixel, the current chief of Demopolis Police Department and all things to do with internal security, had already pre-empted this by releasing fake telecommunications so that the Mafias could be misled by the false information. (The rest of the foxes were surprised that their muscle brain Ixel was able to think this out.)
Telegrams and magical calls that requested for help had been intercepted by the Eld Enclave Mages and that prompted the Shadow Kings to be more aggressive in their fight. What they did not know was that their actions were all calculated within the parameters of the plan created by Kraft and his pals in the War Room.
The arrival of their veterans had allowed the Goblin Telecoms Team to reverify the Mafia's outposts and strongholds and update the Pandaren's map as necessary. However, most of the Pandarens who continued this particular raid in the Dungeon World had amounted to nearly a day. Even Team Pandawan who thought that they only spend hours in it, was shocked that they were immersed in this warzone for at least a day in it.
Lee An and Xue Ping had decided to return to the safehouse to check out of the raid instance safely, and to keep their progress of their current run. After which, they had a couple only dinner in the restaurant instance before beaming out from Jin's store instance. (All in all, a very satisfied couple.) The rest of the team eventually did the same an hour later and all of them noticed how different it was when compared to the Pandapolis Raid.
The intensity of the fights was less but the amount of effort to traverse from one corner to another was tiring. While they were glad that this particular raid was as advertised, they could not believe how real it was that the detective couple told them that was how soldiers lived in the war zone in their chat group. Some wondered how they could keep up on a daily basis and the detectives said that when they were stuck in that situation, all they thought was how to survive the next day.
But as usual, satisfied customers come along the other end of the spectrum. There were armchair commentators stating how boring the entire raid was, compared to the exhilarating turn of events during the Pandapolis Raid. They even stated that the longevity of this particular raid was merely to squeeze more money from the customers. Naturally, Jin did not bother with them as his ultimate goal was to get the armies from the humans. The only things he did considered were the feedback to improve the current raid and some of the opinions given by his Pandaren customers were rather interesting.
There were certain feedbacks to create a 'quick time event' within the raid so that the scattered Pandarens within the vicinity could band together and fight against the threat. In return, more Emblems or Demopolis Raid Points to be given out for those who managed to complete the quick time event. It was a neat idea and Jin did ponder on how to implement it into the current Raid but at the same time, he was thinking of the situation that they were in to the System.
"… Nevertheless, what Neil said was true. The two other Shadow Kings are bolder right now and they had ramped up the difficulty of the fights for the Pandarens." Jin remarked as he sat beside his Dungeon Maker console, twirling around waiting for a response from the System but instead, he sensed an aura all too familiar emerging right beside him.
"And to make things even sweeter, my scouts reported that the Human Cities had already embarked from their cities. They are riding to us as we speak and should be expecting them within another day or two." Kraft opened his digital tablet and Jin could see blips moving towards Demopolis.
"You think they would make a coordinated effort to attack us?" Jin questioned but Kraft shook his shoulders.
"Wait and see." The fox said and he smirked seeing the blips ever moving slowly towards his brother's precious city before disappearing once again.
