The army stood on top of the wall. In their vision was a large plain leading to the dark maw that was the mine. Grey mist surged out of the mines, rolling towards the wall. It slowly covered the tools and weapons on the floor which were the remains of previous struggles against the mist dwarves. As more and more mist appeared even the sky seemed to take on a grey hue.
An unsettling atmosphere spread. The townsfolk who were forced to take arms without going through the training of a soldier chatted nervously finding it difficult to endure.
The soldiers tried to calm them down, but it only had limited effect.
But while the NPCs were nervous, the same couldn't be said about the players. Although similar feelings spread at first those were soon suppressed by the excitement of participating in such a grand event. The general guild chat was filled with boastings.
[Sun's Knight: The team dealing the most damage will be honoured in the guild hall!]
[Glorious Hotpot: Well, who could that be...]
[Sun's Knight: The members of Hotpot lead their own teams.]
[Demolish Me: Nice! We got a chance!]
[Imbadu: Out of the way, amateurs! We, the Five Favoured Fools, will show you how it's done!]
[ImperialTeacher: Representing the recruits of the second round I will strive for this honour!]
[Mega Rave: Hey, who decided you would represent us?]
[ImperialTeacher: No one. But I didn't see any rejections either.]
[Mega Rave: I reject!]
[ImperialTeacher: Ok, let's do it like this. Whoever deals the most damage will officially represent the second round recruits in the future!]
[Mega Rave: Deal!]
[Green Leaf: Friends, the newcomers think they can steal the limelight from us OG members! Don't let them have their ways!]
[Varge: I wish I would have joined the game earlier. I'm too low level...]
[Radiant Shield: No need to hang your head low, warrior! This war will grant all of us a wealth of EXP!]
With Radiant Shield's appearance in the chat the atmosphere increased by another level. The tank couldn't help but encourage Varge and indirectly the other low-levelled members. He felt that someone who had been recruited despite their low level would surely have a lot of potential, especially since most of them had been pointed out by Bleary Mirage.
As the excitement reached its peak the last few seconds ticked down. Soon the timer reached zero and a deafening bell sound announced the start of the war.
Notifications appeared in front of the players, detailing the rules. There was nothing surprising among those as Liam had prepared his friends in advance.
The most important rules were, first, the enemies would appear in twelve waves. Second, after each wave all the dead players would be revived, with up to three chances per player. Third, NPCs would be knocked down before they died. If they could be rescued while knocked down, they could be revived, otherwise they would die completely.
The players were given some time to memorize the rules before the text slowly broke apart. One letter after another was like a picture falling from the wall and disappearing as it hit the ground.
Cyclone rose her brows sceptically:
"Is C having fun here?"
Unfortunately, no one answered her as at that moment the mist began to stir. The first enemies crawled out of the mines in the distance.
A large creature took the lead. It was a lizard-like monster with four legs and small, unusable wings. Covered in black scales and with unintelligent eyes it looked like a deformed dragon.
"Get ready!"
Instantly orders were re-laid among the army. The sound of bows being drawn disturbed the ominous atmosphere. More enemies appeared. They were similar monsters serving as tanky cannon fodder to exhaust the defenders.
The sound of chaotic steps rang out as the lizards began to advance. A short while later the first row was already in range. The general waited for a second more before bellowing with all his might:
"FIRE!"
The sound of the bowstrings signalled the start of the war. Hundreds of arrows darkened the sky as they flew in a wide arc. The ground on the other hand lit up with colourful light as the mages began to attack with fire, ice, dark, holy... everything they got.
As a town founded by a famous mage the citizens of Greypine Town had more mages than usual. Caolah Greypine was a benevolent woman. Everyone with some potential could learn at least a spell or two from her. This fact was now greatly benefitting the defending forces as the mages rained down spells on their enemies.
Knowing this Liam and his friends decided to invest a lot of rare resources into the central tower. Thanks to that it now granted boosts like reduced cast time, reduced cooldown, and increased mana regeneration.
All the powerful mages thus took position on top of the central tower. Of course, Cyclone was also among them. She wore an excited grin. Her spells might not be conductive for PvP but they could show their might in large scale fights like these.
However, the first spell she used was her newest one which she got as a reward for winning the tournament with Hotpot.
"Zappy! I choose you!"
Cyclone didn't care about the strange looks of others. She waved her wand and pointed at an empty spot. A magic circle appeared and lightning shot out of it forming a figure floating about one meter in the air.
It was a small lightning spirit the size of a human's upper body. It had the form of an upside-down cone with two arms and a round head.
Fortune was standing not far away. She used normal attacks to conserve mana, watching Cyclone curiously.
"Is this a new skill? What does it do?"
Cyclone didn't have the leisure to explain, sending the information in the chat.
[Small Lightning Spirit (rank 1)
Cost: 120 Mana
Effect: Summon a small spirit of lightning. The spirit will attack once every two seconds and can't be attacked by normal attacks. All its attack deal 60% (MDMG) lightning damage. The spirit remains until its HP are depleted.
Cooldown: 16 seconds]
Fortune processed the information for a moment before exclaiming in surprise:
"Damn, that's quite overpowered right now! Nothing will hit that spirit up here!"
"I know!"
Cyclone answered with a confident grin as she looked at her spirit who just performed its first attack. Raising its small arms the spirit pointed towards the enemies and shot a bolt of lightning.
[-1568!]
The bolt of lightning was inconspicuous in the rain of attacks, but its damage was not weak. It had to be known that the lizards, despite being level 33, were walking meat shields with most of their stats geared towards defence. Even their movement speed was slow. The weakest NPCs struggled to deal more than three hundred points of damage.
Of course, Cyclone was strengthened by many buffs from food and potions, but this didn't diminish her accomplishment.
Under the combined efforts of NPCs and players the first row of enemies soon began to fall slowly. However, their numbers seemed endless and new ones continued to come out of the mines. Forging ahead with pure numbers the lizards slowly advanced through the battlefield.
Liam stood on another tower, operating one of the ballistae. The terrifying war machine could kill a lizard with a single shot, but Liam only fired at a low frequency, held back by the need to reload.
Suddenly the veteran frowned. He noticed a few shadows darting between the lizards, using the mist as cover. The first mist dwarves had arrived!
[Bleary Mirage: Careful! Focus the mist dwarves!]
His order instantly brought movement into the guild. However, the mist dwarves were difficult to spot, wasting precious seconds just by hiding, effectively slowing the guild's damage output.
Liam frowned. He let go of the ballista and rushed towards the edge of the tower. A crate was placed there providing short throwing spears. Those were almost exclusively placed for Liam as other than him the tower was reserved for ranged fighters.
Grabbing one of the spears Liam instantly felt as if his vision grew sharper and the muscles in his arm were made for throwing things. This was the effect of the spear itself and also the tower's bonus on attack range.
With this Liam squinted his eyes and stared at the advancing enemies. Suddenly he spotted another shadow pressing their body close to one of the lizards. Liam fixed his gaze and pulled his arm back. Suddenly his entire body snapped like the string of a bow, throwing the spear like a human-shaped ballista.
The projectile raised through the air. The mist dwarf was given no chance to dodge. The spear pierced deeply into their shoulder.
[-3224!]
Liam was quite satisfied with his damage. The spear's damage was calculated as 90% of one's physical damage but with various boosts the difference could be made up for.
The mist dwarf who was hit gritted their teeth. Part of their body turned into mist, causing the spear to fall to the ground. They gave up their position and tried to run towards the wall. Btu after only a few steps a new spear arrived, reaching their stomach with uncanny accuracy. Again receiving more than three thousand points of damage the mist dwarf lost their life on the spot.