Uniform steps echoed through the battlefield. There were no roars or any other sounds. The uniformity of a disciplined army was enough to intimidate their foes. The defenders watched with solemn faces as rows and rows of mist dwarves came out of the mines.
The dwarves marched in closed formation. Tanks stuck close to the priests, protecting them tightly. Assassins weaved in between, ready to take any opportunity to climb the walls. The flanks were protected by lizard riders on elite lizards. Behind each group of a hundred dwarves was a floating dwarf in special armor. They were powerful officers, lord tier enemies.
Additionally, there was something the players didn't recognize. At the front of the army a bunch of warriors were pulling five circular basins. Inside, there was mist so dense it almost looked like grey water.
"GO!"
A single word came from one of the dwarves in the back. The entire army began marching in unison. Each step was a hit on everyone's nerves, causing the atmosphere to become increasingly tense.
[Bleary Mirage: Get ready! This will be a wave of face-to-face fights! Change positions…]
Analyzing the enemy's composition Liam easily drew some conclusions. He began to reposition the guild members, mainly arranging for the ranged fighters to get even better protection. A short while later the mist dwarves entered their attack range. Liam instantly came to a decision.
[Bleary Mirage: Cyclone, it's time to use Silken Blessing!]
[Cyclone: On it!]
Cyclone didn't hesitate. She opened the menu of Lekraxc' spell and chose the third one, [Silken Blessing], with a terrifying cooldown of seven hours.
"I hope you're worth it…"
Cyclone murmured to herself as she glanced towards the sky. Multiple magic circles were appearing high above the entire wall. After a moment of amassing power, the magic circles produced multiple thin films of water which graciously fell towards the wall like silk curtains, caressing the soldiers' bodies.
"Wow, what's that. I feel great!"
"It's as if I suddenly became younger by a few years."
"Awesome!"
The spell delivered an all-around buff in every aspect. Strength, defense, HP, mana, nothing was missing. The players felt rejuvenated as if they were taking a walk under a gentle spring drizzle.
The spell instantly showed great effects. The attacks raining down on the dwarven army grew fiercer, slowing them down and causing the first casualties.
Meanwhile Liam directed the ballistae to take down the basins of mist. However, those proved to be quite resilient, tanking many attacks.
For a while the battle remained one-sided, but soon the mist dwarves came into attack range. Under the command of the officers the priests performed well-targeted attacks, instantly putting the defenders under great pressure.
Meanwhile the rest of the army continued their march. In the brutal battle singular performances barely stood out. Cyclone offhandedly acknowledged the fact that she reached level 46 while placing her ultimate [Raining Thunder] in the way of the enemies.
Under the rain of lightning, tens of dwarves suffered from a paralyzing effect. Lightning kept jumping between them as Cyclone's passive triggered. The damage was not weak, and a group of enemies were slowed down for a while, but not many noticed the scene.
Silver Blade's [Aura of Ranged Protection] was preventing insane amounts of damage, weakening hundreds of enemy spells. The damage was added to her passive, which rushed towards unknown heights, triggering one effect after another. Silver Blade saved it all to power up her ultimate skill and use it at a critical moment.
Braag reluctantly kept making use of his passive, spending money to increase his damage, covering the enemies in big explosions.
Similar situations happened in various parts of the battlefield. Soon the enemies covered two thirds of the distance towards the wall. Here, the defenders had placed barricades, which slowed the dwarves' advance and forced them towards the traps.
The first dwarves began to disappear into the pitfalls. Looking closely, one could see that those following behind exhibited some apprehension, but their discipline got them to advance bravely. The army courageously overcame the traps with pure numbers.
Finally, the mist dwarves made it close to the wall. They paid the heavy cost of half of their army and three of the strange mist basins but now they were ready to take revenge.
[Bleary Mirage: Pour the pitch!]
With a hissing roar flames erupted all along the wall, creating another obstacle for the mist dwarves. Another batch burned to death. Most of them were lizard riders who had taken the lead in order to attack the walls.
However, the dwarves weren't that irritated by the flames as they had already advanced far enough. They began to station the strange mist basins outside the range of the flames. As the players were still confused Liam quickly alerted everyone.
[Bleary Mirage: Watch out! Every dwarf can use the mist to reach the top of the walls! Hit them in the air so they fall down! Get ready for melee confrontation!]
Just when everyone had read through the message, the dwarves already moved. Those who pulled the mist basins went first. A cloud of mist formed below their feet and slowly dragged them into the air.
It was obvious that the normal dwarves struggled to pull off this move. However, as soon as they arrived above the mist basins the situation changed. Mist erupted like a fountain of water and lunged the dwarves high into the air. A moment later they came straight from the sky, aiming right for the wall.
"Attack!"
"Don't let them land!"
"Guys, don't only focus on the melees. Get rid of the priests!"
"Careful!"
The situation was chaotic. Many of the melee fighters threw spears at the approaching dwarves. Floating on clouds of mists the dwarves were not too fast, enabling their enemies to hit them at a rate of about three out of ten.
However, this also meant that seven dwarves made it onto the walls. Immediately the melee players were forced to let go of their spears and focus on the enemies coming face to face.
In a short time, battles erupted on top of the wall. The players' priority was protecting their ranged fighters, blocking the advance of the dwarves. Thus, they blocked the enemies with their bodies, dragging them into a brawl with limited space to move.
Thanks to Lekraxc's ongoing spell the defenders had the upper hand. But the dwarven priests still firing from a distance caused almost more damage than the dwarves reaching the wall.
Liam watched the struggle while reloading his ballista. He frowned faintly. It slowly became obvious that the guild didn't have the time to train the recruits of the second round. Some of them were still low-levelled. They could deal damage with the throwing spears but if they faced the enemy head on, they stood no chance.
[Bleary Mirage: Those below level 30, don't engage! Use the throwing spears!]
A change could immediately be seen after Bleary Mirage gave the order. It looked like the dwarves won some ground but in reality, the player's damage potential had increased.
However, more dwarves kept landing on the wall. Liam watched the development with some worry. He urged the ballistae to fire at the mist basins. Those had to be taken out quickly!
A couple more minutes passed. Finally, the last mist basin broke apart. The strange siege weapons had allowed about a fourth of the dwarven melee fighters to get on top of the walls. The rest waited below. Their eyes fell on the wall itself, preparing to break it down now that they couldn't reach the players.
Meanwhile the dwarves on top of the wall managed to conquer small parts, pushing the defenders back. The situation might look worrisome but under Liam instruction the players retreated on purpose in order to lower casualties. Now that the siege weapons were destroyed it was time to clean up.
Cyclone already knew what to do. She brought up Lekraxc's spells and a second later a large river separated the wall from the rest of the battlefield.
With the pressure from the priests temporarily gone, everyone turned towards the dwarves left on the walls. Suddenly they realized that they were trapped. About 400 warriors and two officers were surrounded by more than two thousand soldiers.
"Let's go!"
"Throw them off the wall!"
"Revenge for our brothers!"
The players roared loudly as they were caught in the heat of the battle. They stared at the dwarves with hatred, eager to cut every single one of them down.
Silent Acacia was not far from one of the lord tier enemies. Using his [Mark of Death] on them he instantly unleashed all his skills, reducing the officer's health by half. The rest was quickly dealt with by the surrounding players.
Bombarded from all sides, it didn't take that long for all the dwarves to die. However, they didn't go without a fight, taking many of their enemies down with them. For a few seconds everyone could relax, shaking off the rush of the battle and cooling their heads before the river slowly dissipated.