As the missionary came close to the ground the fight could officially begin. Liam and his friends rode on their basilisks, attacking Entragur from all sides. Fortune, Silent Acacia, and Final Fend were the first to reach the enemy with their ranged attacks.
[-591!]
[-268!]
[-221!]
Still carrying various buffs, the players all dealt considerable damage. But Fortune clearly stood out. Not only was she of the highest level but the enemy also proved less resistant to magical damage. Seeing this, Silent Acacia didn't hesitate to summon Zorn, ordering her to attack as well.
[-273!]
After a few probing attacks the real assault began. Silent Acacia placed his [Mark of Death] on the enemy while Liam and Quickstep made use of their mounts' skills to rush towards the enemy. The missionary was immediately caught in a rain of attacks. Liam unleashed his usual combo in a flash, before making room for Watchful Eye and Bloody Edge, who dealt frightening damage as well.
Focused by ten players Entragur lost close to ten thousand HP in a few seconds while only taking some stance from Radiant Shield. Wary, he instantly switched gears.
"Come to me, mist!"
The missionary let out a loud shout as he drifted backwards in an attempt to gain some distance from the players. As Liam and his friends were seated on mounts, however, they easily stuck to the boss. Yet the rapidly gathering mist caused them some apprehension. It surged towards Entragur's halberd, causing the weapon to grow quickly until it was a massive terror of multiple metres.
Entragur seemed indifferent to his weapon's new weight and began to swing it in a wide arc. His movements were incredibly swift. Additionally, there was not much room to dodge within the red dome. Everyone was careful not to leave this special battlefield as they were afraid to be targeted should they step foot outside the red dome.
Silent Acacia came up with the idea of running along the edge of the dome, jumping outside when the halberd was about to hit him.
[Stance -92]
Immediately the young man froze in shock. It took him a second to understand that the game counted his move as escaping from the fight, which had a high cost of stance. Even riding on a mount, he couldn't waste his stance like that. Thus, the only option remaining was to dodge honestly.
However, this was easier said than done. Entragur moved incredibly quickly, striking wildly like a rampaging beast. His halberd was almost a blur as it moved. Balm was just about to flash step but with the slightest delay in activation it was already too late and the halberd slammed into her back.
"Ah!"
[-3027!]
Balm shivered feeling the pain from her back and losing more than 3000 HP. Fortunately right at that moment the effect of the revitalizing potion as well as the revitalizing food kicked in, directly healing her back to full life.
The missionary let out a frustrated grunt but there was nothing he could do but to swing his halberd even more. He landed a few more hits but couldn't take his enemies down. The situation continued for a couple dozen seconds until Entragur finally calmed down. Immediately the party surrounded him again, continuing their attacks.
Cyclone kept an eye on the situation. She quickly judged that the boss wouldn't be troubling her friends for long. Thus, the mage continued focusing on the mist army, which might be the real challenge.
The defending army kept firing at the lizards close to the wall until the mist army came into range. Immediately the pattern changed. It was most important to destroy the battering rams to protect the walls. Flaming arrows and fire spells rained down on the siege weapons.
Liam's ballista had been taken over by someone else. Although they were also experienced, they couldn't match Liam. Thus, there was not much threat to the orcs pushing the battering rams for a while.
Soon, the mist army came even closer. They began to fire attacks on their own, threatening the defenders on top of the walls. With their greatly reduced numbers the players and NPCs were far from being able to unleash all their damage potential. It was difficult to get the upper hand.
Cyclone watched the scene with worry. Right now, the [Dance of the Devil] was still active, wreaking havoc among the mist army. But now that the enemy had deployed a large number of priests it was only a matter of time until the shadowy figures would be taken out.
The fight appeared to be in a delicate balance with the potential to quickly swing both ways. Thus, Cyclone didn't hesitate to gradually empty her stock of magic scrolls. All the powerful ones had already been used but if a spell could take out even ten enemies it was already good enough.
Fire, ice, poison, for a while the mist army had to endure everything. Their tanks stood at the front, protecting the rest of the army as good as possible. But even under the strong barrage of attacks the mist army continued pushing forward bravely. Soon the front line got close to the wall and only two battering rams had been destroyed.
"Focus the rams! Where are our mages?!"
"My spears deal too little damage, damn!"
"Why didn't I just stay in my comfortable smithy…"
"They are about to knock on the wall! Do something!"
The players were under huge pressure. As the battle advanced those face to the left and right of them kept falling one by one, causing a strong psychological impact.
However, the mist army was also thinned out. The battering rams were still a threat but thanks to Cyclone's scrolls Dream Avenue appeared to gain the upper hand.
"Let's go! We got this!"
"Attack faster!"
"Hmm it really looks as if we could win this war…"
"Haha, of course! Dream Avenue is the number one guild! What's a little territory war for us?!"
"Oh really…"
The player who spoke suddenly put down the spear he was holding, earning him strange glances from those around him. Low laughter came from behind his black mask. Suddenly he pulled out a scroll from his inventory and activated it without hesitation.
"Huh, what are you doing? Using your personal items for the guild? Commendable!"
"I don't know… I don't have a good feeling."
"Same! Let's stop him!"
"Stop?! HAHAHA, it's too late for that!"
Suddenly the player cackled crazily. With the activation of his scroll, a gigantic magic circle appeared on the ground outside the wall. It was as large as three segments of the wall, affecting a large group of enemies. While some players' eyes begin to shine thinking that Cyclone still had a trump card left, the blond mage herself felt her heart skip a beat.
[Cyclone: Damn, there are really spies!]
[Balm: How dare they?!]
[Bleary Mirage: Hurry up and take down the boss!]
If the spy could read the chat he might be surprised. The core members were calmer than one would expect. However, this was because Liam had warned the others of the possible danger as early as when they kicked Dot out of the guild.
Liam had been suspicious of the four assassins the whole time. During the other waves he observed closely and spotted some signs of a setup on the ground despite the mist covering it most of the time. He became increasingly sure that one of the four assassins must have sneakily activated a spell scroll which was part of a pair.
There was one scroll to set up the spell and one to trigger it. This might be more complicated than single scrolls, but the resulting spells are usually extremely potent.
Cyclone felt helpless as she watched the magic circle appear. Even the mist dwarves were surprised, thinking another big attack was about to hit them. But as copious amounts of mana surged towards the magic circle, it unleashed a gentle force which gave everyone standing within it a powerful boost in all aspects.
The battering rams gained a bonus of almost 50% HP while the damage done to them shrank greatly. The rest of the enemies got similarly strengthened.
"That's not good…"
"Damn, how could you betray the guild?!"
"Let's beat him up first!"
"Dream Avenue is our home! How can you do something like that?!"
"Home?! Haha, what a joke!"
The players were all greatly shocked. Rage-filled eyes stared at the spy. But the man only laughed brightly and suddenly disappeared, still laughing mockingly.
[Player S3lin has been kicked from the guild Dream Avenue.]
[Player S3lin has been banned from Fate of Crunaboul for the breach of an official contract.]
Two notifications appeared in front of all the players. Everyone drew sharp breaths. They couldn't understand what might be enticing enough for the spy to go so far. Now that he had been banned from Crunaboul, S3lin would lose all the strength he acquired through the game, never able to regain it.