Eternal Dominion Book 2: Traction, page 16
Dragon’s Claw-
Casmir was just about to enact his plan when he received Takashi’s message offering assistance. He paused for a moment. While the help would be a great help, this was a test for him. Could he accept the help? Would accepting the help cause him to fail, or would refusing it cause him to fail? Xeal had been adamant that they should send updates whenever possible. If he didn’t want them to help each other, why would he do that? After thinking about it for a minute, he decided that the help would be useful as it could cut almost three hours off of his operations. He sent his plan over to Takashi and accepted his assistance and asked him to get as much of the supplies for it as he could. Once that was done, he had his force start. Takashi’s force could join midway through.
Caleb read through the reports he was getting. It was going like he had thought. It would take about eight hours for FAE to be able to clear out his men at this pace. FAE was sending one player after another player carrying a sack with another player inside it into town. One by one his men were attacking the sacks and being imprisoned. He fully realized this wasn’t going to be sustainable. He needed to draw this out more if he wanted to create a revolving door affect. Would FAE play the odds, and if so, at what point would they accept them? Caleb sent out his order for his men to only attack every other bag that came in. This would be more than enough to reverse this trend.
Casmir looked at the report he was just handed and frowned; it was going to be a long day. Thankfully, with the addition of Takeshi’s forces, they would still be done in 9 hours at this rate. However, he was sure that his foe was just going to reduce the percentage of sacks they attacked once they realized the issue. He felt bad, but he sent out an order to every FAE member in Dragon’s Claw, including the crafting players to assist. He also sent a message to Clara to see if she could spare any players to help. Once totaled, Casmir had 1,500 pairs of players ready to execute the plan. All he could do now was wait to see what move his foe would make now.
Caleb wanted to throw the latest report he had gotten out the window. FAE had ramped up drastically. His forces wouldn’t even last 2 hours at this rate. When he did the math, it was even worse. He had to have his men cut back to only one of every ten to reach the equilibrium which he needed. He couldn’t figure out where all the extra manpower had come from for FAE. While he didn’t have any way to check up on the other fronts, he knew similar battles had to be raging elsewhere. Thoughts like, have the other groups already failed, was he really the last one still putting up a fight, crossed his mind. Finally, he decided to cut his losses. Even he would take a 90 percent chance of success. With no cards left to play, he had to accept it was his loss. All he could do now was file the report and hope Abysses End accepted reality.
Casmir wanted to dance when he read the report that Abysses End’s forces had withdrawn. He was still cautious as he wasn’t sure this wasn’t a trap, so, just to be sure, he had one of his men take the now gagged Martelli. Oh, how nice it had been to silence that idiot when he wouldn’t stop spouting nonsense about how we would pay and how Abysses End wouldn’t forget this. It had been really annoying, especially once he had realized his forces were successfully delaying Casmir’s plans. Now they just had to make sure this wasn’t another trick and they could close this phase of this conflict. With a decoy bag on his shoulder, Casmir made his way into town and was relieved when the report that Martelli had been delivered came through. It was time to head over to the meet up.
Dragon’s Tail-
Xeal stood across from Atius as he made ready to make his move, but to his surprise, instead of trying to escape, Atius bolted towards his forces. Xeal gave chase but Atius was successful in blending into his men before Xeal could make it. This made Xeal smile as he cut a path into the already chaotic mess of players. This was going to cause problems. Luckily, he had made a plan for this.
Aalin watched from the top of her tree as Atius slipped into the chaos below to avoid Xeal. Unfortunately for Atius, she had already marked him with a tracking spell. She watched as he made his way to the center of the group before moving towards the western edge of the mass. She quickly relayed this to the players standing by on that side of the field. They readied for when he broke out and she sent the info to Xeal so he could make his way there as well. While watching all this play out, she noticed the forces closing in from all directions. This must have been the rest of Abysses End’s forces. This could cause an issue if Atius waited for their arrival before making a break for it. Aalin passed this info to all FAE forces in the area as well. All she could do now was stick to the plan and hope Xeal knew what he was doing.
Atius watched as Xeal followed him into his forces. At first, he thought Xeal must have been a fool. That soon changed into what kind of monster was he? Even with his men knowing he was the top target, they would rarely touch him. It was like the blades were moving around him and even when they did score a hit, his health didn’t drop at all. This was bad. If it wasn’t for the fact that everyone in his guild knew his appearance by heart, he was sure he would have died already. He had to escape this foe who cut down other players like he was trimming a hedge. At least the magic bombardment had ended. Though it had done a number on his force’s health, few had fallen. The real problem was that the healers had been decimated. Between the direct targeting and the overuse of their skills, none of them were still effective. It was only a matter of time before the players around him were reduced to nothing. Atius needed them to last until the reinforcements arrived. Slowly he made his way to the western edge to escape, losing sight of Xeal as he did. Once the 2,500 men coming from that direction arrived it would be time to escape.
Xeal continued to move through the crowd, cutting the feeble remains of health left in player after player. A few seemed to still have some fight in them, but they were rarer and rarer as time went on. He felt bad for the damage he was passing onto Gale every time he was hit, especially when he stopped to read a message from Aalin twice, but they were important as they kept him up to date with the battle. Step by step he made his way through the quickly thinning mass. At this point only around 1,500 players still stood. 14 minutes after the clash started, only around 500 players remained as the first batch of reinforcements came into view on the western side of the battlefield. Xeal watched his target make a break for it and smiled at what happened next.
Atius smiled as his reinforcements came into view as he made a break for it. He wasn’t ten feet from the last group of remaining players when it happened. Spell after spell went off, covering the reinforcements in a cloud of dust and smoke. Before he even had time to process what was going on, he felt something slam into his back and turned just in time to see Xeal smiling at him like everything was according to plan. Then he felt chains wrap around his body as Xeal threw him over his shoulder and made a break straight at the reinforcements on the western side. The smoke was so thick that Atius couldn’t tell what had happened to his forces as Xeal carried him right into the thick of it. Worse yet was when they came out on the other side with no resistance. Questions circled around Atius’s head as he tried to come to grips with what was happening.
Aalin smiled. The plan had gone off perfectly, and now it was time to withdraw. They could care less about the other 7,500 players who had just came into view of the battlefield. Only the poor bastards who were Atius’s escape route mattered. She had directed the forces in the area to litter the ground with mines that they had picked up in Dragon’s Heart. Each mine only dealt 200 damage to anyone within ten feet of it when it went off, but they also only cost 1 silver. They had used the ten minutes warning they had to send 50 players to cover the area with 3,000 mines. Once the prey was in position, several simple fire spells were all it took to set them all off. They had added a few smokescreen spells to ensure Xeal had cover from any lucky survivors, but that was unlikely. The simple reason was that each player had been hit with probably around 15 of these mines as the area of effect of the mines overlapped. She watched as Xeal’s escort joined him in leaving the area and sent out the orders to withdraw.
Amser watched as the forces that were approaching from the northern side closed in as Gale started to cry out in pain once more. Their current location was terrible for defense once those forces closed in. It was time for them to move to the second location. While it would leave them blind to the approaching threat, it would allow her to defend Gale and her herself far better. The new location was a shallow cave. It was just wide enough for seven players to stand across. With a fair bit of luck, they wouldn’t be found here. They would have better chances if Xeal could stop taking the occasional hit that was causing Gale so much pain. Still, at least it wasn’t like the initial wave that he had dealt with, and Gale was getting better at muffling her outcries. Still, it must be excruciating, especially when you never know where the pain would hit next. Shortly after they entered the cave, Amser could hear the approaching army as they passed by. Just as they got close, Gale let out another wail and Amser gripped her sword as she waited to see if any foes would come.
Karik was moving with the rest of the forces Atius had stationed to the north as they rushed into the battle that was unfolding. Karik felt like this force was over kill for a single player, but he was sure that it must have been due to some hidden force. They were almost to the designated location when he heard what sounded like a player screaming in pain. He turned towards the sound and discovered a cave. He wondered if the sound came from a player fighting a monster, or perhaps someone from his guild had been checking it and was ambushed. Either way they need to ensure it was clear, or it could be used to flank them. Karik quickly sent a message to his commander that he would be leading 50 players to check it out. As they approached the cave, they could hear the occasional cry of pain, but no sounds of a struggle. Whatever was happening seemed off to him. What were they walking into? The cave itself had enough room to allow seven players at a time to cross the opening, but that would make combat difficult. So, he had the men proceed two at a time, with him standing a few rows back. As they entered, they quickly realized this cave was shallow and in front of them was a pair of players, both women. The one in front stood ready for battle while the one behind was just sitting there wearing a blindfold as she let out the occasional cry of pain. To Karik it looked like some sort of ritual. Perhaps they came across someone in the middle of their tier up quest. The two players in front were frozen waiting for orders, but Karik was at a loss on how to proceed.
Karik stood there for a long moment to decide what to do. These men were needed at the battle. He couldn’t waste too much time here. These two women were clearly in the middle of something. Exactly what was unclear, but it seemed like a defensive position. He could see the back of the cave, so it was clear that an ambush wasn’t set up here. Still, he felt uneasy. Why was the girl in front so ready for battle? She didn’t even show fear. He could tell that if a player moved into her attack range she would attack mercilessly. Finally, he decided asking was the best course of action. Still, he needed to do so quickly.
Amser watched as players streamed in two by two, holding back a smile at the situation that was being set up for her. She had been ready to strike when they stopped for some reason. As she thought about it, this must have been a weird set up to walk in on. She wasn’t sure what she would think if she stumbled across this herself. Either way this would buy them some time. How she would use it was up to her. As she was going over all of these things in her head, one of the players a few rows back spoke up.
“Excuse me, but what is your purpose here?”
“What does it look like?”
“That’s just it. I can tell you’re here to guard her, but why?”
“Does she look like she can defend against anything while she is in that state?”
“I mean, what task is she currently undertaking?”
“Really, you have no tact. Would you just tell any random player who asked your secrets?”
“I would if it meant avoiding a battle that I couldn’t win.”
“So, you intend to attack me. Well then, get on with it.”
“I never said that.”
“You sure implied it. Hurry up and make up your mind.”
“Do you want us to attack?”
“What I want has little to do with this situation, although it would be a nice way to blow off some steam.”
“You really have a death wish. Look, I don’t have the time to waste on this either. Tell us what you’re up to or enjoy your death penalty.”
“Ha, oh, so confident. You must have more players with you then these rejects.”
“Enough. I would have much rather avoided this situation, but you leave me little choice. Everyone, take care of these two so we can get back on task.”
Karik watched as his forces made their move and attacked the female player in front of him, only to be shocked. They were being repulsed and she was laughing. He instantly regretted being here. Not only were they being pushed back, but now they were getting in each other’s way when attacking. Then the first player fell, followed by the second. Karik knew that this cave was going to be the death of them. He needed to retreat and have the magic casters they had on hand attack from the outside. Just as Karik was about to attack, he heard a large explosion from the outside, followed a few seconds later with a slight tremor. While he was lost in thought, he didn’t notice as a sword bore down on him, and before he knew what happened, he found himself in a plain room.
Amser was having the time of her life. This is what she loved about VR games. She could just let loose and enjoy herself. The fact that it was attacking a group who she hated was a nice plus. Over, and over, her blade found its target as she let her rage skill take over. While raging, she would attack anything deemed hostile with enhanced strength while losing defensive capabilities other than the increase to her health. The only issue with this skill was it would leave her exhausted for four times as long as she used it afterwards. She knew that she would be in trouble if she had to fight again before that time was up, but if these armies were here then it was sure to be time to retreat soon. Then she felt the earth shake and knew that they had pulled that move. Sure enough, she had received a message while she was taking care of the poor bastards. She couldn’t read it right now, but it was either saying things had gone wrong or everything had gone right. Either way, it was time to leave. She shouted to Gale to go ahead and get out of here. Shortly afterwards, she had pushed Abysses End out of the cave, but she knew they would be back shortly. Still, all she needed was 30 seconds, and sure enough, at 29 seconds she could see various lights streaming right at her. She disappeared right as the first of them was about to make contact with her.
Leaena watched as Abysses End’s reinforcements arrived after the major explosion had taken care of those to the west. They all seemed at a loss of what to do. In the middle of the battlefield the few players still standing were just a mess. It was hard to tell friend from foe. The funniest part had been when everyone including FAE’s players had all cheered together when the reinforcements arrived. The looks on every player’s face when they took the time to realize they had been attacking their own was priceless. Still, the order had come to withdraw. Any more fighting here would just be a waste of time and cause more casualties then necessary. The main issue was how, if they pulled out a return scroll, it would be a dead giveaway, but so would be making a break for it. Leaena knew they only had seconds to make a decision before some players started to notice the guild emblems on her comrades. The main reason they hadn’t yet was due to the fact that they were so few that even if you noticed one you couldn’t find another to confirm its location. Now things were different. FAE made up around ten percent of this group. They had to make a break for the western side where she was sure they could escape in the smoke. Quickly, she started to make her way west. All of FAE’s players were watching her lead and started to do the same thing. Just as the first players began to make some distance, one of Abysses End’s members shouted that FAE was trying to make a break for it, opening up an all-out dash to the west.
Gagan coughed. He was alive, if just barely. He was still trying to make sense of what had just happened. One second he had been looking out at the battlefield, and then all hell had broken loose. All he could see around him was smoke as he stumbled towards where the battlefield should have been. When he stumbled out, he didn’t know what to make of what he was seeing. Players from all around were charging towards him, or were they chasing that group of around 50 that seemed to have the lead in the center. Gagan tried to make sense of it, but he was still disoriented from the shock he had just experienced. He failed to even react when they sped past him, and then the mass of players behind them followed and before he knew what had happened, he found himself in a plain room.
When Leaena entered the smoke, she just kept running while she and her forces spread out and began dropping traps. From caltrops to more mines, they set a trail of pain and misery behind them. They could hear the cursing from a player as they stepped on the caltrops, though it was quickly lost as they were most likely trampled by those behind them. The smoke was insane as you couldn’t see more than three feet in front of you and the chaos behind her was the result. Finally, she broke through the smoke and could see her escape open up along with her comrades. Once they had made it 20 feet past the smoke, Leaena turned around one last time, just as the first of their pursuers was breaking through the smoke, and tossed a single spell grenade. Where Xeal had found these she didn’t know, but he had made it clear they weren’t cheap. As it landed, a fire spell was unleashed, setting off the chain of mines they had left behind themselves in the smoke.
