by Rick Scar
The deafening sound of the alarm bell shaking the air signaled the beginning of the round, and the arrival of the first wave. As Perdition approached the sentinels, they saluted by putting their right hand on their left shoulder.
“Is the commander here?” she asked and, getting a confirmation, strode into the small room. Standing around the table were a bunch of officers. The commander was listening to their reports on evacuation, a bundle of papers in hands.
“Hello, boys.” Taking the room in, she walked around the place, her blade scratching the wall. She stopped next to the commander and looked into his eyes. “We haven’t been properly introduced, have we? My name is Perdition.”
“We’ve been waiting for you, Lady Messenger.” The man put a hand on his shoulder before introducing himself and his officers. Perdition joined them in coming up with a strategy.
In the meantime, Mollie and Katharine stood invisible behind her back. All spectators were invisible to the players, and couldn’t message them so as not to distract them or help them cheat. Also, the spectators couldn’t see each other unless they were members of the same group; otherwise, the crowd would’ve been too large, blocking each other’s view of the battle.
The players were completely isolated in order to concentrate on their task and nothing else. Mollie could only hope that Perdition would find it in her to make it.
“I still can’t believe Koshie didn’t make it,” Katharine sighed. She wasn’t the only one disappointed by this fact. Many had betted on Koshie, but his luck had run its course. Perdition was the only RD member still competing, out of the four that had entered Round One.
“Other TOP clans have fared no better. That’s good.” Mollie already knew which of her rivals had made it, but she still summoned the table to make sure. Two of them were, unfortunately, from the Faceless Army: Seraph2020 and Judas. One was from The Crypt: Kiss of Darkness. And Crimson Berserker was the only surviving member of his clan.
“I agree.” Katherine nodded as she checked the countdown: twenty-one minutes left. Exchanging glances, the two decided to take a tour of the battlefield and check on their rivals.
Leaping from fortress to fortress, they witnessed all kinds of strategies in making. Some had placed their soldiers on the walls and were now giving orders. Others had split their forces between defending the perimeter and guarding the civilians. The standard defensive measures, like boiling oil, boulders, and braziers, were used everywhere. Most players had also examined their soldiers’ weapons, scrolls, and skills. Unfortunately, the audience couldn’t tell how powerful those were as they couldn’t use Identification.
As the players strengthened their defenses and took responsibility for the citizens’ lives, they kept glancing at the clock and at the walls, trying to guess how powerful the first wave would be and how soon the next one would come. What were the monsters capable of? These questions showed on the faces of most players, but there were those that looked smug, making the audience wonder what aces they had hidden up their sleeves.
This tournament had many dark horses, mostly the players from other Floors. Four Enlighteners had reached Round Three; Mollie wished them a crushing defeat.
Laying their hands on another Floor, on top of all those they already have? Too good for these truth-seekers. As Mollie remembered Kim Steyson, she shook her head and teleported to the next fortress.
Just as the announcers had said, teleportation was instant. In a flash, both Mollie and Katharine stood next to a fortress: the only one whose citizens weren’t hiding but marching out of the gate to dig pits.
“What are they doing?” Mollie stared at the crowd of civilians putting their best effort into digging a deep trench. “Making a moat?”
“Hm… Looks like it. Too shallow for a moat, though. Hey, this is Raven’s place, isn’t it?”
Checking the name in the table, both of them drawled synchronously, “Ah, that explains it.”
As they looked around for Will, they saw him coming out of the gate at the head of another group of citizens to replace the workers.
He knew better than to make plans with the officers, or to hide the civilians. No. He was using everything he had, civilians as well. The moment the countdown had begun, Will grabbed the nearest civilian and led him out of the gate to check the monsters’ reaction, wonder if they’d attack or wait until the countdown had ended.
Having made sure that the monsters wouldn’t attack before the due time, Will had all the adults brought to the square to face him.
He knew nothing about sieges but the words “moats”, “towers”, and “catapults”. That was all he remembered from History lessons. Unfortunately, it hadn’t occurred to him to read anything on the subject until he had found himself on the city wall.
That was why he had set for his people a very simple goal: dig. Dig, and dig, and dig. As quickly as they could. Those members of the audience who rooted for the famous rogue, and those who had dropped in by accident like Mollie and Katharine, had witnessed his pep talk, prompting the citizens to act.
As the girls watched Will’s plan in action, they wished they could forward it to Perdition. They realized why the moat looked so short and shallow: there was no time to dig a longer one. Will had taken the most logical step by protecting only the large, iron-riveted city gate. The moat would slow down the enemies, except the cyclops and the giant frogs.
After two minutes of observing, the duo continued their tour of the fortresses until the alarm bell rang. This rumbling sound shook the sky like thunder, and sent the first lines of enemies into motion. Like a wave, they rolled onto the forty cities, beginning the three-day siege.
***
Standing on the wall with his commander and two lieutenants, Raven could see the zombies shambling toward the wall. Following them just as slowly was a group of about two hundred monsters named Creeping Rot.
The zombies were numerous, but they were just cannon fodder. Brainless, armless, and slow, they posed no threat. They could hardly do any damage.
But no matter how little Will knew of sieges, he still suspected that these undead hordes had a purpose to fulfill. The devs wouldn’t have put them here for no reason.
The drekars coming into the shooting distance, under the protection of ram beetles with shield wings, were far more dangerous than the zombies. These creatures looked like Elves with bodies made of wood and leaves instead of flesh and bone; they were a horde of roughly-made Pinocchios, basically. They tensed, stretching out their wooden arms and joining their fists, then slowly brought them apart, pulling a weapon out of their bodies. Their bows would’ve been a magnificent sight had they not been aimed at his city.
“Destroy those wooden scarecrows first,” Will commanded to the man on his right.
“Archers! Light your arrows!” Lieutenant Rakamo yelled. As his voice resounded through the fortress, about one hundred and fifty men brought their arrows close to the braziers. “Shoot at their archers! Draw! Aim! Fire!”
Once the last command came, the arrows soared in a wide arch, but they were not the only death-bringers in the air. The drekars had shot their missiles enveloped in light-yellow pollen at the manned walls.
There were at least fifty more enemy archers, but Will’s soldiers had the high ground, and the strong wall to protect them. Will had no idea how battle-seasoned his subordinates were, but he hoped that they were smart enough to hide. So, he shifted his attention to the rotting mobs creeping toward the left flank. The worst part was the effect that their slimy trails had on the ground, corroding it like acid. The liquid oozing from their bodies could do quite a lot of damage to the stone walls, weakening them for the next line of attackers.
Why are they all moving in such a close group? Am I missing something? Will closely examined the surroundings for any hints, but there were none.
“Soldier,” Raven called to one archer once he had shot. “Follow me.” He ran toward the tower on his left, followed by the obedient soldier. When the two of t
hem reached their destination, Will stopped and pointed at the group. “Shoot fire at them.”
“Yes, Lord Messenger.” The young man took his bow and picked an arrow from the nearest quiver, one of many that had been placed along the wall next to the braziers.
With deft moves, he lit the arrow and shot at the creeping mobs, but the projectile melted as it hit the target.
“Holy shit!” Will exclaimed, genuinely startled. He had expected the monsters to lit up like matches, not extinguish the fire. He probably should’ve set his expectations higher; this was Round Three, after all. “Are they immune to fire? Shit.”
“My lord?” The archer held his bow at the ready, waiting for Will’s command. “What’s your next order?”
Will gave no reply as he stared through the spyglass at the group working its way to the wall. And then he noticed something strange.
Motherfuckers! How did I miss that? Their legs!
The monsters looked like melting caterpillars with several legs moving their hulky bodies forward. And since all of their legs moved in synch, there was a good chance that a single mind was managing the whole crowd. If he could only find and destroy it...
But this was easier said than done.
Raven stared, unblinking, for full two minutes, studying every single creature in the group, but this took him nowhere.
“Where, where are you hiding?” he muttered, tapping the wall with his fingers. He wished he knew what exactly to look for.
The monsters crept on and on. Foot after foot. Closer and closer. They were already clearly visible without the spyglass, but the rogue continued to peer into it.
“My lord?” The archer drew his attention again.
Will waved at him.
“Shoot... Now!” The plan he had worked out seemed, at least to him, like it’d work.
The archer sent another arrow into the creeping mass – and Will spotted some sort of a wave roll over the monsters’ backs like a breeze over a field of grass, and approach the source: a barely visible mob in the back lines.
A moment after tucking his spyglass and squinting, Raven jumped down and commanded: “Get ready to shoot like you’ve never shot before.”
“Huh?”
Chapter 251. Day One: Results
W ill wasn’t going to fight the crowd. No; he had a plan, not a fit of madness. His plan was to destroy the ringleader with Lightning Copy. If there ever was a perfect moment to use this skill, this was it.
As Will fell and rolled on the ground, he jumped up without stopping, and sprinted toward the group of Creeping Rot.
Those watching him opened their eyes wide in fear of losing him from sight; curiosity about the point of this sudden dash was written all over their faces. Within groups, opinions were shared hastily, but a sudden flash of bright light and Raven’s loud scream left everyone equally bewildered.
“Shoot! Now!”
“What happened?”
“I feel like I’ve seen this before.”
“What’s he up to?”
Questions like these flashed through everyone’s heads, but the audience was soon lost in the rapidly changing events. Raven had been running atop the wall a moment before, but now he was already amidst the monsters. And the next moment…
…the mob dispersed right before their eyes. The rotting monsters were wandering about like lost sheep. Disoriented, they were easy targets. As the archer kept shooting, Will started his massacre of hundred and eighty monsters whose levels were between fifty-seven and fifty-nine.
Flashing among the aimlessly wandering mobs, Raven landed his well-trained series of blows, working his sword and dagger in turns and combining skills to destroy one target after another. Some of his attacks would affect several enemies at once as they were within their range.
With all the rot gone, the mobs’ bodies were too weak and slow to withstand the agile rogue’s attacks. They perished in agony, and their attempts at killing the nimble player ended with squeals of annoyance.
Raven was spinning like a dervish, but he still managed to steal occasional glances at the archers and the zombies. Less than a half of them had fallen into the moat; the rest had stopped at the walls as though waiting for something. Soon, he saw what they had been waiting for. The drekars (those that hadn’t yet been killed) began to shoot their arrows at the walls. Getting stuck in the stone, the arrows dropped long ivies down to the undead who used them as ropes.
Will realized that he had to do something about that. Using Without Barriers, he quickly climbed to the top of the wall.
“Great job,” Will told the archer as he ran past him. “I’ll send a few men up here to help you so you can have a rest.”
“Yes, sir!” the archer shouted to Raven’s back as he continued to shoot.
As Will reached the part of the wall right over the gate, he sent four archers to help out their friend and looked down at the swarming group of zombies in the moat.
Time to end them, Will thought and pushed a brazier toward the edge, and kicked it off. The moat had been filled with oil in advance. Once the hot coals reached the bottom of the pit, it burst into flames, engulfing hundreds of zombies at once as they stood on each other’s shoulders in an attempt to reach the pit’s edge. Melting like candlewax, they sealed up their own grave.
But there were even more zombies climbing up the walls. The devs hadn’t enabled the feature that allowed the players to monitor the number of alive soldiers; Will could only see the number of civilians. His first thought was that this was the devs’ way of making the battle feel more like a real one.
Thanks to hours of listening to Emin’s reports, talking to Nanel, and traveling with Daltaro and Rinnah, he had no problems with interacting with the soldiers. He got the answer he needed from the commander almost immediately.
The narrow path atop the wall was littered with corpses and unconscious archers that were being carried away by their comrades under the never-ceasing enemy fire. Raven frowned, considering his next step. The ivy ladders were unexpected. They couldn’t be just pushed away like ordinary ones as the ivy had rooted itself into the masonry. However small of a threat the climbing zombies posed, they still had to be eliminated.
“Get some spears up here! Hide and wait until the first enemy rears its ugly head and then attack them!” His order was immediately forwarded by the officers to the soldiers. Obeying, they hid behind the stone wall next to the archers.
There were only about thirty drekars left alive. Unlike them, the ram beetles wouldn’t attack as they were guarding the other troops. They were really bad as guards, to be honest. It played into Will’s hands, but also alerted him. As he watched the enemy archers catch fire as easily as dry grass, he glanced at the troops coming after them.
…and the sight made him remember the worst swear words.
There are so fucking many of them! I’m fucked if I don’t work out a good strategy!
His index finger started to twitch. Will curled his hand into a fist as he played out the possible scenarios in his head. His soldiers and officers were between levels eighty-seven and hundred and fifteen; the officers were viscounts, and the commander was a count. Their total number was slightly above twenty-five hundred. And they were confronted by an innumerable horde of monsters led by three counts.
If things continued like this, the garrison, so badly outnumbered, would be swept away, dooming the citizens to death and Will to defeat. He gritted his teeth at the mere thought of losing this battle. Not after all he had been through.
I can’t let this happen...
He badly needed a solution. A hint. An answer to the question of how his city could possibly survive this siege.
With his mind boiling, Will opened his eyes wide as an idea occurred to him. His heart pounded as he opened the inventory.
The way out was elegantly simple, but it required him to expose one of his strongest aces for all the enemies to see.
If his plan needed a name, he would’ve called it Chec
kmate in Three Moves. It was extremely risky. If Gods, or devs, were willing, he wouldn’t have to use it.
All or nothing. Is it how they say?
***
Raven wasn’t the only one considering using his ace card. Everyone else was of the same opinion after they had seen the first wave roll onto their cities and realized how powerful these monsters really were. Everything they had been saving for the latter stages of the tournament could stay unused if they lost. It was much like the Bloody Ifrit battle, except the prize wasn’t survival and saving the continent, but a place in the next round.
The devs had prevented them from coming up with a proper strategy by keeping the important details a secret until the last moment. Now everyone was in the same boat, unable to plan more than one step ahead.
“Use this skill now or save it for the next round? What if it turns out to be useless there?”
“What about this rare item? Save it until later, or maximize the chance of winning? What if it turns out to be more useful in the next round?”
“Attack or avoid the enemy?”
“What to do next?”
These questions crossed the mind of every player at least once. The choices they made were thrown onto the scales of Ascension’s first tournament ever, tipping them.
The first wave was over. All forty castles had survived it; little did the players know that they would soon be forced to use everything they had: luck, wits, skills, and anything else defining them as future leaders… and, most importantly, as future messengers.
By the end of the day, the castles endured seven waves. Five fortresses fell, and the bloody harvest reaped by the monsters determined the winners of day one.
Each garrison had sustained significant losses. Things would’ve been much worse if it weren’t for the Barrier scroll that the fifth wave dropped; an occasional boon from the system. Two Enlighteners had gained an advantage by already owning such scrolls, having purchased them in advance. Insanely expensive, this spell had helped them save more soldiers than other players, although they still lost many.
