Jack and Domon separated as they dealt with a Skeleton Knight each. The other three headed to the defensive wall. Nothing Jack could do now. He just hope everyone could hold out as long as possible.
Things continued to get heated up. John had to really concentrate on controlling the Squires with a complex maneuver to have them cope with the Skeleton Knights. Not to mention lots of other undead swarming them as well. He could just leave them to automated combat on their own, but by controlling them directly via the platform, he could maximize their coordination.
Bowler’s spell of Brilliant Radiance was especially useful here as it had a greater effect on undead-type creatures in addition to damaging them. This time, he remembered to warn everyone before he tossed the spell, so the others were not blinded.
Jeanny, Flame, Trinity Dawn, Giant Steven, and most of the other core members still managed to survive without dying all this time, especially the ones that had gone with Jack in the expedition. Probably because their levels were higher and also had better equipment due to the expedition profits.. But they were also very struggling to maintain the defensive wall.
With difficulty, Jack’s guildmates managed to hold the Skeleton Knights as long as possible, they even took down two in the process. But another ten Skeleton Knights appeared. As everyone felt that all hope was lost, another larger figure came out of the fog. It was a level 45 Dread Knight, a rare elite. At that moment, they know that all hope was truly lost.
In their moment of despair, a loud horn was heard from a distance. The sound cut off all the noise of battle as if a ray of sunlight pierced through a shroud of darkness. They soon heard rumblings that were getting closer and closer.
John had a better view from his platform. At this time, he saw large numbers of green marked figures, which meant allies, were moving very fast towards them.
“I will be damned,” John murmured softly.
Both the coalition and the defensive players heard the rumbling and saw the dust cloud. This dust cloud, however, was not a trick like last time. As they could see a large number of armored troops riding on steed at the head of this dust cloud.
“They arrived,” Jack said with a sigh of relief. He didn’t think it was possible for them to hold off much longer.
The Themisphere army that arrived had a number rivaling the undead horde. They separated into several squads to engage as much of the undead. Their steeds were unsummoned once they were close to the horde. They crushed into the undead without hesitation.
Most of the soldiers were level 40 basic human. Some of the elite squad were level 45 to 50 basic human. With all squad leaders being Elite Human at level 45 to 50. A company came upon the Everlasting Heavenly Legends’ defensive wall where Jack and the others were holding. They took over in routing the undead as the players disengaged and took a breather.
Jack stepped back as well, using his Formless Flowing Sword style caused him much fatigue compared to his normal fighting using battle skills. He heard a voice addressing him, “It’s you again!”
He turned to the source of the voice and saw a familiar face. It was Diego, the Knight Captain who had helped them conquer the Bandit Outpost in the past.
“Sir Diego! It seemed that our fate is tied. You are always there in our time of need. We are very much in your debt,” Jack called out with a most friendly tone.
Diego spat, “fate my ass! It’s always trouble with you every time we meet.” He didn’t stay and chat. He rushed towards the Dread Knight. The Dread Knight was a higher grade than him, but another Special Elite knight captain joined him in contending with the undead knight.
Jack looked around. No Matias. He preferred that friendly Knight-Captain compared to this grumpy one.
Everyone stayed back near the wall and drank restorative potions. The Healers also helped with their spells. They were now leaning on the wall relaxingly as they watched the fight between the Themisphere army and the undead horde. It was as if the fight had nothing to do with them anymore.
The players looked at each other.
“You rested enough?” One asked.
“Yeah. You?” The other answered.
“My HP is full again.”
“…”
“Wanna go over there?”
“Hell, yeah!”
The hot-headed ones ran forward and rejoined the fight. Some others were sparked by their excitement and followed. The others who still had some lingering trauma of hopelessness not long ago chose to stay back and just watch.
John ignored those reckless groups. He controlled the Squire soldiers to stay back. They had lost so much. Only eighteen Squires were left, while the Bandit Archers left forty-two. Some Bandit Archers lost their lives after bow-wielding skeletons started appearing amongst the horde, allowing range attacks as well. John wanted to keep these remaining numbers intact. They still needed these few to defend the headquarters later while they trained more to replenish the ranks.
Jeanny in the meantime, kept on sending orders so that those joining the fight to stay safely at the backline, to prioritize safety.
Jack was, of course, among the hot-headed one rejoining the battle. In fact, he had been the one that yelled, “Hell, yeah!” even when the question was not directed at him. The Man had followed behind him when he rushed forward. The Men of Solidarity trailing right behind their two bosses.
Domon, who at first did not see any meaning in battle other than for self-defense, also joined in. Perhaps he was urged by that desire to make his body stronger to allow him more freedom in using his martial art techniques, or perhaps he had simply felt the thrill of battle. This kind of battle where he did not need to worry about murdering a fellow human was not something that he could get in real life. Heck, these monsters were not even living, they were undead. He was free to exercise all his martial arts here.
As time passed, more and more joined in to assist the Themisphere army in routing the undead. Even the range players came down from the safety of the wall and advance forward to join the fight. The overwhelmingly desperate battle an hour ago had turned into exciting combat where they grind for exp points.
Not far away from there, the coalition was watching the event without a sound.
“How… How did they get the army to help them…?” Someone finally break the silence.
Although some amongst the coalition had managed to join the Themisphere kingdom faction, none of them had yet to become Viscount, so none of them knew about the benefit of merit points for a guild.
“They are not out of the woods yet,” Manager Steelhand said. “A disaster item is not that simple.”
“It seemed that you have made quite a research on that item,” Scarface commented.
“When we acquired that item. We immediately send all our library team to search for information about it. It is a unique item, after all, and its description was rather cryptic, so we tried to understand the item first before any attempt in using it. From our research, we know that the power of the item was closely related to the user. The disaster created will have its starting power around the user level. But the ending power, on the other hand, is way more powerful. From an estimation of what we have learned. At the end of the disaster item’s effect, we should have a rare elite boss around level 50 or more, with numerous adjutants that were not much weaker. Even the army would have difficulty going against such a force.”
“Hopefully they ended up destroying each other while leaving the headquarters intact,” Queen Magenta said with a grin. The others looked at her. “Then we can scoop up the headquarters and still complete our objective.”
“Hm… That’s not out of the realm of possibility. If that truly happens, then we must really thank that Themisphere army for interfering.”
Outside the Everlasting Heavenly Legends’ defensive wall, the battle was still raging. The Themisphere army looked to be on the winning side, but more and more undead continued to pour out of the black fog. As the fifth hour neared its end, the flack fog turned thinner.
As it dispersed, everyone saw ten large figures surrounding a smaller humanoid figure. The remaining fog appeared as if they swirled and entered into the humanoid figure standing at the center. The fog then stayed around the figure and shrouded it as if it was a coat.
Jack, who had joined the Themisphere army and infiltrated the undead horde until close enough to the black fog, was in range to use his Inspect skill.
Crypt Ogre (Rare Elite monster, undead), level 50
HP: 550,000
High Lich (Rare Elite monster, undead), level 55
HP: 560,000
