In the battle outside of Heavenly Citadel, Uruk might have been overwhelming, but he was still only one person. As time passed, many more enemies charged through. Uruk wouldn’t be able to stop everyone by himself.
Jeanny was having trouble retreating fast enough, they were constantly getting attacked by the main coalition army. If she forwent defense and focused just on retreating, they would suffer many casualties.
The defense at the wall gate should hold the enemy for some time but not for long. After reviewing the situation. Jeanny decided to use the High Lich Summoning Crystal. She lifted the crystal high before crushing it.
Streams of black smoke burst out from the crushed crystal. The smoke was as if alive. It fell to the ground, slithered around both the defenders and offenders before floating upward. The smoke dispersed slightly and revealed the high lich who invaded this headquarters months ago. Some residual black smoke swirled around him like an aura. Its skull-like face gazed down without any emotion.
The high lich started casting a spell using its skull-head staff. Coalition’s range players attacked the best they could, but the black smoke around the high lich protected it whenever attacks arrived. The attacks still hit the high lich but they were significantly weakened.
The spell formation was completed with six runes. Pillars of black fog dropped and the fog spread out. Everyone’s HP started falling after touching the fog. Many low HP players died. Ones with higher defense and HP could still survive but their defense stats were reduced substantially. Native soldiers survived due to their higher HP but their defenses were also much reduced.
At this stage, the high lich was not as overbearing as it first appeared during the coalition’s last invasion, but it was still very powerful. Its first spell had caused the coalition’s offensive to pause. Jeanny took this chance and ordered a full retreat. Letting the high lich hold the invaders.
*
“The hell…! They have two rare elites now?” Manager Steelhand said as he watched the holographic display on his platform.
“Ugh, damn! How can they have so many trump cards?” Queen Magenta added with gritted teeth.
Scarface was pondering the situation. He then said, “My people will deal with this new rare elite.”
“Huh? You have something that can be used?” Manager Steelhand said.
Scarface nodded, “Before their first rare elite showed up, I originally planned to use it to break the wall’s gate. If I use it for this second rare elite, we will have to deal with the first rare elite conventionally while trying to break the gate.”
“Leave the gate to me, we have something for that,” Manager Steelhand said.
“All right,” Scarface said as he sent a message to his team on the field.
*
On the site where the high lich had emerged, Red Death had been amongst the few that had dodged the black fog and was still on the defender’s tail. A large portion of the others was being held back by the lich’s spell.
She backstabbed and killed a player. Yellow Death was with her, he was shooting at the defenders who were running away. The defender was fully retreating now. With so few of her people on this side, Red Death could do little to cause harm.
She received a message. “We are using it? … Okay.”
She took out a red crystal and crushed it. A bright red light flashed and a large figure emerged from the light. It was a giant lion with a pair of bat wings and a snake for a tail. The crystal was a summoning crystal usable in guild battle, same as the one summoning the high lich. The one Red Death used is a reward from the second prince after completing a kingdom faction quest.
“This manticore will hold that lich. Let’s charge…!!” Red Death shouted her order.
The manticore had no problem identifying its opponent. Its lion head roared and its snake tail hissed at the lich floating in the sky. It beat its giant bat wings and its large body started to lift off. It then flew towards the high lich.
The manticore was a level 50 rare elite. It was slightly lower in level but it had no problem keeping the high lich busy. Its snake tail shot a stream of venomous spikes while its mighty lion’s maw opened wide to take a bite at the smaller lich.
A transparent bubble deflected all the venomous spikes. When the manticore’s maw chomped at the lich, it turned into a puff of smoke and appeared a distance away.
With the two rare elites tussling in the sky, the coalition main army was unhindered. They hurriedly advanced to chase after the fleeing defenders.
*
Near the wall’s gate. Uruk was still battling ferociously. The coalition pooled all the native soldiers that had managed to break through to hold him while the players rushed for the gate.
Several few players advanced first. As expected, traps were activated, they were wounded and immobilized.
“A trap only activated once. We can advance now!” Supervisor Killmonger, who was amongst them, yelled.
The others were motivated by the yell and rushed forward. But as they were getting close, the two towers at both sides of the gate lighted up. They suddenly shot a torrent of icy light. Those that were hit by the light received damages and were slowed or frozen.
“Shit! They still have such defensive structures?” Killmonger cursed.
“Look! They need time to charge between shots,” Assistant Manager Ironhand, who was an elite marksman now, said.
“You are right. Charge! Charge…! Before those towers make another shot!” Killmonger shouted. To Ironhand, he said, “Prepare to use that thing!”
Everyone rushed over, ignoring their comrades who were still in frozen status due to the towers’ beams.
The towers started to light up again. “Spread out! Spread out…!” Ironhand yelled.
Everyone spread randomly. The towers make their shot. Their linear beams could only hit a limited number of foes. Many were spared. The players advanced again.
“It took the towers six seconds to recharge between shots!” Ironhand informed everyone.
When the invaders almost reached the gate, several arrows came down from the sky. Every arrow struck accurately. Many even hit the heads which resulted in critical damage. The damage was also high. Those critical strikes almost took out the players in a single shot.
Everyone looked up and saw around ten large eagles flying up there.
“Those…”
Ironhand who could see better due to the Archer’s level 25 skill, Keen Sight, saw people riding on those eagles.
“They… They were trained native soldiers!” Ironhand uttered.
The ten Eagle Rider Hunters used their skills. Each Hunter shot an arrow which then broke into several smaller pieces of arrows. It was similar to Elite Marksman’s skill, Shower of Arrow. The rains of arrows came down on the coalition troops. The Sentinels in the troops hurriedly activated their Protection Field while putting their shields up to defend against the rain of arrows.
“F*ck! How many surprises do they have? How come they possessed flying units?” Ironhand cursed as he fired an arrow at the eagles above.
Despite his range having increased after becoming an Elite Marksman, Ironhand’s arrow became slower after traveling a certain height. The distance of ranged attacks was significantly decreased when shooting at a higher elevation. The Eagle Rider Hunters happened to fly just at the height where Ironhand’s arrow failed to reach. The Eagle Rider Hunters, on the other hand, had their attack range increased for shooting from up above. Such was the advantage of flying units. The troops below could only suffer the harassment.
“F*ck! They are only ten. We just need to bear more casualties,” Ironhand uttered. “Continue to charge! Once we get into the building. They will have to come down if they want to stop us!”
Hence, the coalition’s shock troops continued to charge ahead. Tanking through the Ice Towers’ beams and the rain of arrows from above. After many hardships, they finally arrived near the gate.
They heard some commotion from behind. They looked back and saw Jeanny’s main army was approaching. Their main army was also close at heel. If Jeanny’s army arrived first and defended this gate, with the addition of the ice towers and the eagle hunters, it would be a whole different level of difficulty in breaching this gate. Hence, they knew it was now or never.
“Use it!” Killmonger yelled.
Ironhand took out something that looked like a miniature vehicle model. He activated it and all of a sudden, a giant battering ram appeared. This was something their blacksmith had built out of a rare blueprint they got from a dungeon. This battering ram was precisely for use in an offensive guild battle.
Without further ado, the battering ram started ramming on the gate. The gate shook from the impact.
Unfortunately, Heavenly Citadel never upgraded the level of its wall gate. It was still at its starting level 1. After three hard rammings, the gate was broken to pieces.
Jeanny, who was still retreating, looked at the destroyed gate with apprehension. The attackers were free to enter their headquarters now.
