At the wall outside Heavenly Citadel, Supervisor Killmonger and Assistant Manager Ironhand looked at the broken gate. “Forwarrddd…!!!” They both shouted at the same time.
They left the battering ram behind. It was a one-time-use item in a siege battle. It couldn’t be transformed back into its initial miniature size. In its current state, it had become an item type that could not be stored inside the player’s inventory bag.
The battering ram was also not in a good condition anymore. Once it appeared, the Eagle Rider Hunters above started focusing their arrows on it. But there were only ten of the eagle riders. The battering ram had high defense and high HP, their attacks were not enough to deal meaningful damage within a short time.
Everyone rushed in with a fiery spirit. They were very close to victory. As they rushed in, they didn’t notice the strange shadows on the ground.
When they came close to these shadows, these shadows shot out from the ground. Ten players got wrapped by these shadows and started losing HP. Their HP was not in a good shape after undergoing the barrage of arrows and ice beams, they lost their lives in an instant.
The others were startled to a pause after witnessing it. Was this another trap mechanism? But the shadows didn’t vanish. Usually, a trap was activated only once. These shadows stayed on top of the fallen players. Wait! Not shadows. After paying better attention. They were people in dark coats. The evening had arrived and the lack of sunlight caused poor visibility.
All ten persons had red eyes and pale faces. One of them was grinning with a smear of blood on his mouth, two sharp fangs were seen when this person grinned.
Ironhand used Inspect on them. “Blood Count? They are native soldiers!” He exclaimed.
“There were only ten. Finish them and charge in!” Killmonger declared. They didn’t have much time, they needed to rush in and break the guild core before the main defensive army arrived.
“I can’t move!” Someone suddenly said.
“Me too!” Some others said.
Ironhand looked at the soldiers who had said that and then at the blood counts at the front. “It’s their doing!” He declared. “I think it’s their eyes. Don’t look at their eyes!”
“RAARRRR…!!!” Killmonger made a loud roar. The soldiers who said they couldn’t move find themselves in control of their bodies again.
What Killmonger used was Berserker’s level 45 skill, Cry of Rage. It’s a battle cry that increased all allies’ attributes within a ten-meter radius by 30%. It also eliminated all movement restrictions and make everyone 50% more resistant against any movement restriction skills or spells they received later. This effect lasted for two minutes.
“Break through them!” Killmonger declared and took point. He used level 40 Berserker’s skill, Jump Assault.
If Jack saw it, he would recognize this move in an instant. It was the famous boss skill. Killmonger made a super jump that covered a very large distance. He arrived above one of the blood counts and made a powerful cleave. Yet, all he hit was empty air. The blood count had turned into a shadow and moved away agilely.
Killmonger was not flustered, he immediately followed up with Punishing Cyclone. All the blood counts had to move away to evade his rampaging move.
“Charge in!” Ironhand yelled. Killmonger’s two skills had cleared a path. “Priority is still entering the headquarters and destroying the guild core! Knights and Rogues hold these blood counts. The rest rush in!”
The blood counts were strong, they were very fast and their hit took out a large amount of HP, but they were too few. They couldn’t stop the tide. Despite killing a good number of players, many still passed through. The eagle rider hunters above also continued shooting their arrows and added to the enemy’s body counts, but such a small number couldn’t stop the enemy’s advance when the gate had been broken.
The first number of players reached the headquarters door and started hitting it. This door was not a proper defensive structure like the wall gate, so it was broken in just a few hits. Everyone rushed in.
*
Jeanny had those with fast movement classes go ahead and rush towards the headquarters. She had Fierce Flame took the lead for that team. But when he saw the enemy’s shock troops entering their headquarters, her heart sank.
Many of the enemy’s loose teams were still rushing towards Heavenly Citadel. They broke through from gaps created by this group of experts called the Jackal Crews. The ice towers continued shooting ice beam attacks, but the enemies were too spread out for them to be effective. Many of these loose teams started clashing with Fierce Flame’s group instead, hindering her from reaching the headquarters.
Jeanny’s main army was again clashing with the coalition’s main army, led by Red Death. After the high lich was occupied with the manticore, the attacking army marched on without a hindrance.
Everything was chaos.
If only their strategist was here, it wouldn’t have turned into such a mess, she secretly lamented.
While she was having the thought, their native cavalry units broke through from the side and hit those enemies that were still trying to enter the headquarters. Each of these cavalries carried a squire aside from their rider. The cavalry ran swiftly to the broken gate wall and the squires jumped down. They formed a wall and prevented more enemies from going in.
A squad of Bandit Archers and mages came forward and sent a volley to enemy native soldiers who were still hindering Uruk. Allowing the hero to break through their encirclement. A small number of native knights then joined the hero. With the hero close by, their attributes increased. Together with Uruk, archers, and mages, they beat back the enemy’s trained soldiers.
Inside the courtyard. With no new enemy entering, the ten blood counts and ten eagle rider hunters ignored those that had entered the headquarters and focused on slaughtering the remaining players.
Overall, Jeanny saw better coordination between the native soldiers on the battlefield. That’s odd, she thought. She never thought Tip was this good.
*
At the place where the coalition leaders were watching the holographic view of the battlefield above the platform.
“Yes! They have broken into the headquarters!” Queen Magenta exclaimed.
“Finally, I honestly thought we are going to fail again,” Fat Gregory uttered. He made an act of wiping his brow.
“Hmph, we can finally end this disgrace,” Prideful Josh added.
“It’s not done yet. Don’t let down our guard,” Scarface warned.
“Don’t worry. You people just have your troops continue holding their main army,” Manager Steelhand said. “With the numbers that are already entering their headquarters, we should have no problem to…”
He stopped talking because he received a message from Ironhand. Oddly, the message only wrote, “F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!”
What the hell? Steelhand thought. Ironhand was not the type to curse. What was the guy doing sending him a message with only cursing words? How was he supposed to interpret this profane message?
“What is it?” Steelhand sent a reply message.
“We fail… He is here,” Ironhand replied.
“Who is here?” Steelhand was getting irritated by ironhand’s cryptic messages.
“Who do you think? The demon! He is standing guard over the Guild Hall’s entrance!”
Steelhand froze from the message.
*
Jeanny could see the fight was getting more in control now. The native soldiers gave perfect support to the players and covered any weakness they unintentionally exposed. Everyone could feel the battle was slowly turning in their favor. They were pushing the enemies back.
The only thing she still worried about was the enemies that had managed to breach into their headquarters. There was only Pointy Tip inside. No way he could defend against the enemies. She had dreaded for a while to hear a notification that their guild core was under attack. She sent a few more squads to reinforce Fierce Flame’s force to break into their headquarters.
Now that the battle was more manageable, she could spare the time to send Tip a message, “how are you doing inside? Has any enemy entered our Guild Hall? We are trying to send assistance as soon as possible. And by the way, good job on controlling those native soldiers.”
Tip sent his reply, “uh… It isn’t me controlling the soldiers.”
Huh? What was this message implying? Jeanny was puzzled. Tip was supposed to be alone inside the headquarters. If it was not him operating the platform, then who did?
She also received another message from Tip, “you don’t need to worry about the enemies who had entered the building. Jack was guarding the guild hall’s entrance. With such a small number, the enemy won’t be able to get through him. You just focus on routing the enemies outside.”
“Jack is back?” Jeanny replied with elation.
“Yeah, he did. He also brings someone else back.”
Someone else? Before Jeanny could ask, that someone had intruded into their guild chat, “Have no worry, people.. Daddy is back! Now, let’s kick these intruders off our territory.”
