"Our walls!"
"So much damage…"
"Damn, take them down!"
The soldiers were shaken by the heavy blow. Anger bloomed in their hearts. For a moment all attacks were directed completely towards the ogres. As the ugly monsters were close to the walls even some melee skills could reach them. In no time at all four ogres lost their lives. The fifth one managed to land one more hit before it was also sent to the afterlife.
But there was no time to celebrate yet. As long as the reflective barrier stood the army had to make every second count. Each mist dwarf they killed reduced the potential danger.
The seconds ticked by and the barrier slowly fizzled out. During that time the group of mist dwarves had been reduced by half, mostly due to their own reflected spells. The defenders were excited feeling a lot less pressure.
Greatly motivated the army of NPCs and players took the upper hand. The mist dwarves were taken out little by little. Soon, it looked like they successfully survived the wave.
Yet Liam frowned slightly. His senses picked up something strange. The mana was behaving weirdly. With so many mages casting spells it should be chaotically surging to the wall from all sides. However, there was almost nothing coming from the front.
Liam's eyes focused on the mines. He seemed to notice a stir in the fog. But it didn't come from the mines directly but from the mountains above them. Instantly he knew what was happening. The mist dwarves were preparing their own trump card!
Liam felt his stomach sink. The mist dwarves had a cannon-like siege weapon which needed time to be deployed. And now was the point where it was the most vulnerable. They had to stop it!
Possible options ran through Liam's mind. At that range there weren't many spells that could hit the dwarven cannon. Dream Avenue had one spell scroll with a powerful single target spell, they had Lekraxc's most powerful spell with a long cooldown, and they had their own magical cannon.
Liam knew they couldn't delay for too long. He instantly came to a decision. Out of these options the magical cannon was actually the weakest, but it was enough to do the job. So magical cannon it is!
[Bleary Mirage: Cyclone, Balm, Fortune! One of you take over the magical cannon and target that spot in the mountain where the mana gathers!]
The three women were surprised upon suddenly reading this message. They looked at each other, asking with puzzled expressions:
"Do you know what Mirage is talking about?"
"I didn't notice anything…"
"Girls, he sounded urgent. What should we do?"
"Let's do it like this: Whoever makes out the target first does the job!"
"Ok."
Cyclone and Fortune quickly accepted Balm's suggestion. They fell silent honing their senses to feel the mana above the battlefield. It was difficult to make anything out from their position, which was right in the centre of the chaos.
However, Fortune's class was closely aligned with pure mana. Due to her experience, she was the first to feel something.
[Bleary Mirage: Hurry up! They are about to finish!]
Instantly Fortune's chest tightened. Without saying anything more she rushed behind the magical crystal which was the heart of the magical cannon and placed her hand on it. Closing her eyes her vision changed, and she suddenly got a bird's eyes view of the battlefield.
There was no time to enjoy the fascinating view. Fortune quickly made out the location where she felt the congregation of mana. She aimed, confirmed, and fired!
A gentle force pushed Fortune away from the magic crystal. Golden runes lit up on top of the tower. There was no need to gather mana as it had already been stored beforehand. Now it rushed into the crystal, causing it to erupt with a bright orange light. A ray of light erupted and shot straight into the sky like a beacon of destruction, visible from miles away.
"What's this?"
"Did they fire the cannon?"
"But there are only a few enemies remaining…"
The rest of the players were confused. They watched the ray of light shoot into the sky, chasing away the grey hue and illuminating the battlefield like the morning sun.
A moment later the clouds above the mountain gave way. The mist was violently blown to the side. Everyone could see a flat plateau. Mist dwarves were running around, using staffs to engrave intricate patterns on what looked like a tall barrel inlaid with magic crystals, supported by eight wheels.
However, the scene only appeared for a blink as a orange ray of light with a radius of multiple meters broke out of the sky and slammed into the ground.
An incredible explosion erupted. Rays of light shot in all directions like laser beams, piercing the mountain and destroying trees. The mist dwarves didn't have any time to react. Touched by the light their bodies were instantly burned into ashes. The magical cannon didn't fare any better.
When the magical attack ended the scene was one of devastation. The ground was burnt black and littered with cracks. But suddenly the players noticed something. They stared towards the mountains in shock where a mist dwarf was floating in the air surrounded by a barrier with a few cracks.
From the distance they couldn't see much apart from his black armor. But everyone felt as if a pair of eyes was piercing their bodies sending chills down their spines. While the players shivered the mist gathered on top of the mountain and blocked everyone's view.
"My legs have gone weak…"
"Who was that guy?"
"It must've been the boss, right?"
"Someone could actually survive that blast? How strong must he be?"
The player dreaded the potential boss. Even the core members felt apprehension. But now was no the time to worry. Cyclone and Balm urged everyone to continue their attacks. The number of dwarves dwindled. It looked like they would be forced to retreat at any moment. Just as everyone was ready to celebrate the end of another wave, movement came from the mines.
There was actually another group of enemies! It was a mix of orcs and lizard riders. Their job was to break through the wall after the dwarven cannon did its job. Luckily Dream Avenue had already taken care of that problem.
Although the new group managed to reach the wall, they couldn't cause much damage. The defenders kept up their attacks and soon only a bit more than a hundred enemies remained, who finally started escaping.
The army didn't waste resources on taking these few lizards down. As the pressure fell off exhaustion spread to everyone. People dropped on their butts or supported themselves on their knees, breathing deeply.
"Finally, the wave is over."
"Two more to go…"
"Ogres, a cannon, lizard rider. I feel like they went all in on destroying the wall this round. Who knows what's coming next."
"Don't forget those crazy kamikaze attacks!"
"You're right. They actually got my friend Twinkling Plat. She has no revives left…"
"Oh. My condolences."
"Thank you. Let's spend a minute in silence in her honour."
Radiant Shield stood not far away from the players. He was glad that they could still joke around. However, their words revealed the situation. In this wave Dream Avenue has lost its first players.
Although the dwarves were focused on the walls, they still caused a considerable number of casualties. In total the NPCs had lost 1200 people, with 950 of them being soldiers. And this was already after the players did their best to get the NPCs who had been knocked down to safety.
Meanwhile Dream Avenue also lost about 250 players. Out of those, 30 had no revives left. They will now be missing in the upcoming waves.
In contrast to that, the damage to the walls was not even that bad considering that this was what the enemies had focused on. In total the wall lost about 7,5 million HP. The segment which was damaged the most took 2,5 million points of damage. Almost the entire repair efforts went to this segment so it wouldn't be a severe weak point in the wall.
Next Liam ordered the construction of more traps although his friends were sceptical. The traps didn't play any role in the last wave. The ogres completely ignored them. The kamikaze dwarves flew above them. And the priests stopped too far away from the wall. Only the lizards were slowed down a bit.
But Liam insisted. The last wave took a longer time, and the NPCs managed to gather more resources than expected. Instead of letting those go to waste there was no harm in building traps. Everyone busied themselves until the timer hit zero. The time came for the eleventh wave.
"Number eleven!"
"Keep it up, guys! We're almost done!"
"For Dream Avenue!"
Encouraging shouts spread as the army gathered on top of the wall, waiting for the enemies to arrive. But as the mist dwarves came out of the mines the players gradually fell silent.