Of Myths and Legends (Emerilia Book 9)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Well, too damn bad! Those who are online or can get online will get the best loot for taking the eastern castle.” Esa looked to the other aides who had been listening and watching the byplay. “See that everything is ready as soon as possible.”

  Chapter 9: Counterattack

  Malsour landed on the wall of the northern castle and watched the Xelur flee toward their nearest castles. His fellow dragons and the DCA wheeled away from them as they now came under attack from the castles’ Xelur defenders.

  Malsour snorted, his eyes cold as he looked at the eastern castle.

  “Well, looks like the dragon’s out of the bag,” Steve said on the party chat.

  Malsour looked to Steve and then the others who were on the walls, looking to the Xelur and Malsour.

  “It was bound to happen sometime,” Dave said.

  “At least this way I can use my full power.” Malsour looked at a breach, commanding the wall to repair itself. The rocks moved as if they were alive, coming back together as they filled the breach.

  “Esa just passed down the order. We’re to prepare ourselves to counterattack the eastern castle as soon as possible,” Deia said.

  “Looks like we’re far from done.” Gurren sighed.

  “One thing at a time,” Lox agreed.

  “I’ll help with repairing the wall,” Malsour said.

  “And I’ll see what I can do about fixing Lox and Gurren’s armor.” Dave gave the two dwarves an unimpressed look.

  ***

  Esa was once again in the command center of the northern tower. She had reviewed the plan with all the different commanders and Dwayne had even come over to personally lead the Stone Raiders who were a part of the plan to attack the eastern castle.

  Still, she was stuck up in the command post, watching over all of it as people rushed into battles. She understood that she needed to stay behind in order to deal with anything that didn’t go according to plan. At the same time, she wished that she could be down there with everyone.

  “Well, looks like you’ve got everything in hand.”

  Esa jumped at the voice and her hand went to her sword.

  “Seems I can still creep up on people.” Josh grinned. His face turned solemn as he continued to look over the forces that were arrayed within the outer walls and castle.

  “Goddamn rogue types,” Esa muttered, also looking to the forces. “And yes, they’re ready.”

  In the distance, Dragons and DCA aerial forces were well above the eastern castle, hammering the Xelur below with every attack they had. Artillery spells and cannons activated against Xelur soul barriers. Here and there, barriers would give way as sections of the walls would explode inward or Xelur would bear the brunt of the incoming attacks.

  It was a hellish scene but neither Josh nor Esa had an ounce of pity for those within those defenses.

  “Each time that we kill some of them, the others get stronger. It’s nearly as bad as fighting necros,” Esa said in frustration.

  Josh clapped her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll get through this.”

  “I hope so.”

  Commanders yelled out their orders. The time had come.

  The sound of marching feet could be heard from the command post as players led the way, moving through the south and northern gates; Malsour, had completely sealed the eastern gate already.

  The forces marched out of the gates, moving to the east and coming together.

  Guild leaders organized their people into rectangular fighting formations, their long sides faced the eastern castles. Their lines were only three deep, with the tanks in front, ranged and DPS fighters in the second row; the third rank held ranged fighters.

  The players moved forward at a brisk pace as more and more flowed out of the gates to join on the ends of the player groups. Each of the guilds were in separate fighting formations.

  In the middle, the Stone Raiders were with other guilds, from largest to smallest, spread to the right and left side. Here and there, players moved faster forward than the other sections; the guild leaders snapped on them to stay together.

  Players worked well together but they were also greedy when confident. They were in a massive fighting force of players, the biggest player versus monster fight that had happened in Emerilia thus far. They were excited, leading them to advance in front of the others and also wanting to reach the enemy faster in order to gain more experience instead of losing it to the other players.

  While these thoughts were going on, they also wanted to win and they would do anything to keep one another alive so that they could continue fighting.

  It seemed like the two thought processes were in opposition to each other, but with players, it somehow made sense.

  Everything but experience they would help one another with.

  The Xelur must have noticed their advance as they started to fire their ranged beam attacks from the eastern castle. They smashed into Mana barriers along the length of the moving formation.

  “Looks like those Mana barriers are working well,” Esa commented.

  “Well, after seeing how useful they were to Esamael’s army at Verlun, we made some purchases and then Dave modified them a bit so that they aren’t as easy to break as he did with the ones at Verlun,” Josh said.

  The fighting heated up as the Xelur started to attack the airborne forces of the Terra Alliance as well as the approaching players.

  The dragons and DCA’s forces continued to stay high in the air, making it hard to be hit as their attacks continued to pressure the Xelur, not allowing them to devote much of their strength to attacking. Instead they had to hole up and defend themselves as artillery spells continued to blossom on their soul barriers, with Mana bombs and dragon flames tearing at the energy constructs.

  Josh and Esa stopped talking, looking down upon the forces that moved like an unstoppable juggernaut across that desolate rock and dirt.

  The no-man’s-land between castles had been hospitable when the dragons had laid claim to the Densaou Ring of Fire that spewed heat and magma into the sky.

  Now, with the vicious fighting that had been going on for weeks, the ground had been split apart, forming craters and gouges in the ground. Weapons and items that the dead left behind rested there; tombstones that marked Xelur that had died in their retreat flashed here and there. People collected the loot from these tombstones as they advanced forward. Hits lit up their Mana barrier but it did not slow or deter them.

  The players started to use ranged attacks as they got closer. The Xelur could only use their soul energy. Although they could regenerate their own energy, they couldn’t regenerate the energy that they used from others who had died.

  Attacking them like this served to burn off more of their energy to make their assault easier and the Xelur a less ferocious target.

  Their attacks reached up the large outer walls where Xelur fired down their own attacks onto the players.

  Support mages and players cast out their spells and chanted their enhancing spells.

  The fighting got more intense as the players reached past the range of the beam-like soul energy attacks. The Xelur within the wall were now able to attack with their arrows and physical weapons.

  The players continued to advance. the commanders had a hard time keeping them in check instead of letting them rush the walls.

  The distance quickly closed, and the fighting became so fierce between the two groups that the groups were torn apart, light from the intense magical attacks criss crossing from the walls were nearly blinding.

  Just one hundred meters from the wall, the strongest players among the guilds and groups who were in front of the wall unleashed their own attacks.

  In that dawn light, as the sun moved over the horizon, the brilliant light of ranged attack lit up the eastern castle’s wall.

  Each of these people were not as strong as the Grand Demon Lords but they were all hitting the same areas and had much greater control over their Mana and their spells tha
n the Xelur Grand Demon Lord. Their attack scarred and broke the wall in sections. Arrows whistled through walls as spells smashed apart rock; light based spell attacks left gouges in the walls as the real attack was thrown out.

  Grand workings that had been held in reserve were activated and shot out by Air mages. They hit the walls of the eastern castle. Some were destroyed in flashes of light that made Mana and soul barriers shiver under the power of their explosion. Shock waves of air threw out debris and dust.

  The first hit a wall.

  It was like a missile striking a battleship. An explosion of light and heat appeared where the impact had been. A section of wall was blown apart. The top section of the wall turned into flying boulders and shards of stone that peppered the inside of the eastern castle.

  The artillery of the other castles had stopped as the players’ formation had got closer.

  Now everyone watched the destruction of the eastern castle’s walls.

  Recoiling from the first attack, the second hit. The wall exploded outward again.

  To Esa, it felt as if time had slowed down, that eastern castle’s wall igniting with explosions that blew the wall in, like that attack by the Grand Demon Lord that had killed her.

  Even in the dust and rock that was thrown into the air, the clear lights of magical spells was seen, lighting up the dust from inside and cutting through that destruction, hitting stunned Xelur that were trying to fight back.

  Arrows and javelins came through the air, finding breaks in the Xelur’s armor and dropping them to the ground with ease.

  The explosions moved away from the major breaches.

  Dark mages solidified the rubble around the breaches, creating ramps.

  With a yell, the players rushed forward into that mayhem as walls continued to be torn apart. The Xelur within the eastern castle lit up the sky with their soul energy, letting out their own war cries as they raced to meet them. Knowing that there was no room for them to retreat anymore after having faced them taking back the northern castle, the Xelur fought with everything they had to meet the players.

  They came together in a flash of weapons and magic. As the forces connected, chaos reigned as people fought against one another with all they had.

  The Mana barriers that had covered the players fell apart, the lines and area too chaotic for them to keep up.

  Malsour unleashed his dragon breath, creating a path in front of him as Deia called down a rain of her fire arrows.

  The Stone Raiders formed behind them, forcing their way toward the main castle. Dwayne led the way. Steve, Gurren, Lox, and Jung Lee were beside him. Their blades tore through any that opposed them. Dave hovered in the air. With a wave of his hand, spikes would drop from the sky. A grenade would appear among the Xelur or a barrier would form around an ally.

  With a wave of his hand, five grand workings appeared.

  “What workings are those?” Esa asked.

  “I don’t know. He had a factory that builds them but he makes a lot of things he doesn’t or can’t tell us about.” Josh also leaned forward.

  The grand workings spread out at an incredible speed, activating as their power surged outward. They smashed into the ground, breaking their containment.

  All around them, it seemed as if space had been ripped open as black shadows that seemed to connect to the abyss appeared. Affinity spirits started to step out of these portals. They looked from the players to the Xelur. With screeching noises, they raced toward the Xelur.

  “He formed Affinity spirits?” Esa said in shock.

  “Looks like he took a lot more from the Six Affinities Temple than others. Looks like that is some kind of conjuring formation he’s created and then pumped it full of Dark Affinity Mana; pulling from that, the Affinity spirits are formed and can go on a rampage. Unlike the shades Loughbreck used at Verlun, these Affinity spirits can use Mana,” Josh said.

  Both creature types could only last for as long as they had energy and the Affinity Spirits used it faster than the Shades, but their attacks were much stronger. The Affinity spirits blitz attacks killed or weakened a ton of the Xelur and took a lot of pressure off of the Players.

  “Dwayne is halfway through the castle,” one of the aides called out.

  “Come on, get us that eastern castle.” Josh looked at the fight. Players were fighting Xelur all over the place. Dark Affinity spirits rampaged through the ranks of Xelur, not caring about injuries— only caring to attack the Xelur.

  Dragons and DCA came in from overhead, their attacks accurate enough to pressure the Xelur and not put the players into danger.

  “We’re at the capture point and we’re taking it!” Dwayne yelled out over a private chat. It was clear that he was fighting.

  A bar appeared in Josh and Esa’s view, showing that they were capturing the castle from the inside.

  The Xelur now pushed inward to the castle, leaving the walls that were on the southern side to try to push the players out.

  It was too late. Esa checked the feed from Aleph automatons and those that were live streaming from inside the castle.

  There were already barriers and defenses in place. It was a violent and chaotic fight but the Stone Raiders had made a castle within the castle over top the capture point. Area heals were going on constantly as tanks fought back the Xelur. Soul energy attacks broke the walls that had been formed around the capture point. Arrows and Mana bolts destroyed the inside of the castle and the tower above to try to kill the Xelur that attacked them from all sides.

  It seemed like a valiant last stand as Stone Raiders yelled out to one another, attacking with all they had. Heal spells flew around; magic crossed the air in streams of destruction, colliding with shields, tearing up the ground, and sending people to the ground with injuries.

  Tanks placed themselves in front of the ones with weaker defense, taking on all the damage possible in order to let them live and continue their attacks.

  Xelur weapons smashed against Stone Raiders, who were hunkered down, not giving in to their impulses to race out and end the Xelur, playing the objective.

  The Xelur pressure was so strong that the Stone Raiders within the castle had been cut off from those outside.

  Now the other players, hearing their fellow players trapped within on their final stand, pushed themselves to the limit, melding reactions with tactics that they had worked on and perfected. They had built their characters, come to understand themselves on a level that they could now react and draw them out. They took enhancing potions and applied gear that would improve their lethality as they pushed their builds, used their stats and played. For now they were not players; they were not people of Earth: they were their avatar; they were Emerilians. This was their world and they would win.

  This was the thought of every player. Instead of fear and anger, their faces showed joy as they came together. Even experience was pushed aside as parties reorganized, bringing their most powerful offense into play.

  The Xelur that had been holding the players back were shocked as the players pushed back, more vicious and deadly than before.

  These players had come together to work with their parties, with their guilds. This was what they lived for!

  Esa and Josh watched as the players surged forward, burning through resources that entire kingdoms would weep if they would see it.

  They didn’t care. To them, saving up these resources and gaining them was a challenge. To put them on display like this—they were excited beyond all reason.

  Here they weren’t bankers, mothers, and fathers; they weren’t students, or wealthy business owners, teachers or computer programmers; they came from all walks of life, all different backgrounds.

  Here they were gamers, they were living the world of Emerilia even as they died. They would yell and swear and curse, but before they did, those moments that would be forever remembered and would bring them back to the game time and again

  They were mages, warriors, fighters: they were people of Emerilia.<
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  “They broke through to Dwayne’s group!” someone yelled out in the command center.

  The Xelur that had been fighting from the balconies and corridors that led into the capture point underneath the tower were now getting hit from behind as players swarmed through the castle.

  The Stone Raiders attacked back at the Xelur, suppressing them. As more of the Xelur were killed off, the capture speed increased, moving from a turtle’s pace until it seemed to be sprinting upward as the first players reached the group of Stone Raiders within the inner castle.

  A prompt appeared in everyone’s view, across the entire battlefield.

  Castle Conquest

  The Terra Alliance has captured a contested castle!

  Rewards:

  2,000 Conquest points

  Castle Conquest

  You currently control (5/8) Castles

  Earning: (5) conquest points per minute

  Bonus: For controlling five of the Castles, you earn an additional (1) conquest point(s) per minute.

  Total points: 15,781

  Rights: Administrative (Can spend conquest points to upgrade Castle infrastructure and repair castles. Can also delete Castle infrastructure.)

  Eastern Castle 1

  Status: Under Control by Terra Alliance

  Earn: 1 conquest point per minute

  Evolution: 1 (Second evolution 0%) Can increase evolution to Level 2 by paying (100,000) Conquest points.

  Upgrades: None

  Durability: 12,548/60,000

  Esa dismissed it and continued to look at the eastern castle as players, their minions, and the Affinity spirits surged forth, sweeping away the Xelur. A mix of emotions rose in her chest. She let out a shaky breath, her body weak as she tried to take in what she had seen.

  It took another hour or so for the players to finish off any remaining Xelur in the castle. Once they had cleaned them all out of the castle and surrounding area, the Xelur southern castle started to fire at them.