Results of Engagement

Only after both sides came to their sudden stops did the outer alliance players finally start casting magic and blessings, boosting their necessary stats and general abilities as though it were rehearsed.

Realizing that they had simply handed the enemy the opportunity to rest and even strengthen themselves, the vanguard soon breaks out into a disorderly rushing mob of thousands of big bodies. They quickly covered most of a hundred yards before our vanguard started firing on its own.

The cohesion they had drilled was actually impressive as well as their strategy behind it. They had probably realized beforehand that they would need versatility for when the enemy decided tried to outpace their firing range with their superior levels and stats.

To this end, fifty of them fired at an even higher angle in the windless underground ruins so they would not only have tighter arcs but also come down a little slower. The other fifty, which was every other person in the front line's make-up, were firing dead ahead at the uneven front lines.

Luckily for all of us on the player side, there were still so many different monsters of different sized that the bigger ones ended up pushing through the smaller and even crushing them at times. At least a hundred demons died to friendly fire, but that was only about one percent of them in general. The new front line was now well over a thousand strong.

During the first few seconds of this second phase, I could tell that the guys shooting up in the air were their non-archer characters and the guys firing forward were their actual archers. Not only because of their accuracy but because of their sustained two-arrow-per-second rate of fire. As well, after the first couple seconds of this tactic, they started using proper skills.

Before arrows with different effects such as swerving, unique spinning and trails or even multiple arrows fire at once were in use, the death rates of the enemies had slowed down dramatically. Even though their shots always hit something's body, the splash damage was literally halved and the dispersal was now greater with the space between archers increased.

Even after the archers started using skills with penetrating damage that reached well beyond the front lines of the demonic vanguard, the demons' death rate only went up to as high as half of what it had been. Maybe less, closer to around three hundred or five hundred dead enemies every few seconds. Previously, they literally dropped like flies at around a thousand every few seconds.

Around the time that the first thousand demons of the second wave had died while their vanguard had gotten within a hundred yards of our vanguard, the arrows that had been shot up were not raining down as a new waterfall. The arrows struck down above and below my mental hundred-yard marker but the demons who were constantly fighting explosions and penetrating skills to move forward were all within range.

The first one to two hundred arrows that hit in the first two seconds dropped over fiver hundred demons while creating another buffer of energy to further disperse the following arrows.

A few hundred demons had actually managed to push through the inner arrows of the initial waterfall on our side, but they were soon strewn about the area in pieces from the continued assault of the actual archers. While they fell, those following behind were pummeled to the ground under the waterfall.

Seeing that the waterfall was much smaller in those first few seconds, the demons did not even think twice about rushing headlong into the steady stream of death. This was where the dispersal affects played their most important role. The arrows that followed the dispersed cloud landed straight down among the front lines of demons who had survived the cloud.

Despite the weakened waterfall itself, the dispersed arrows still covered a large area with splash damage so that when those demons met the proper waterfall a second or so later they were wiped out. Then the cloud reformed and the cycle continued. Even if some patches of a few dozen demons here and there made it out alive, the proper archers said hello.

Just a few moments into the second phase, though, all of the vanguard emptied out their second clusters of quivers and all attacks came to a brief but sudden stop. Seeing this, the five or so thousand enemies still on the board seemed to be reinvigorated by this and started running even hard.

For all of two seconds, closing in on the vanguard's fifty-yard mark before they once again started using ranged weapons. This time, though, they were throwing out their chaos lances. One second after the first volley the next volley was being drawn back and then launched, followed by the third which was followed by the first volley making contact.

These lances were much stronger and larger, allowing for a greater supply of magic into the S grade material which created not only greater impact damage but also greater splashes of magical damage. The first volley swept away the full front two lines of demons in a scattering of parts as well as a blinding cloud of gore and dust.

Behind those jumbled front lines were enemies who were blinded and dazed by the first volley, slowing and staggering forward into the seconds volley. The screen of mist and dust had just started to clear, dispersed by giant bodies to reveal a darkly painted landscape only a little less than fifty yards away from the vanguard. Now the second volley generated a slight carpeting of parts and pieces within the next smokescreen to be created.

Those first two volleys had taken out well over a thousand demons, creating a quick estimate for how many volleys would actually be needed. However, there were still clusters and gaps among the demons were some of their incredibly broad line of bodies managed to make it through.

Some people just could not help but hit the same targets to create gaps in the line of fire.

Crashing into those survivors, though, came the third volley. This helped to create even more spaces by shortening the line of fire in a dozen places, allowing for even more survivors after the third volley. However, how could the vanguard ever stop firing?

Nobody yelled at them to stop throwing lances so they kept throwing them. Four volleys, five, six, all the way up to eight before there only remained spread our mounding of different sizes of body parts and a few patches of a few hundred enemies scattered around. All around, though, existing thick pooling and smearing of smaller pieces and fluids.

Using my previous estimate based on the experience gained from our earlier fights and adding fifty, I round off the enemy number to ten thousand to come out with three million and five hundred thousand experience points. If one person somehow managed to put down damage on every enemy and get a share, they would have enough to advance at least to level one-fifty.

Was there any way that was possible? Not within skills and abilities like my Spirit or Mana Slash with thousands of MP behind it. That was just to do it with a weapon.

I could probably only do it with a single fifteen-prong hand with my current mana pool if I wanted to actually kill. Everything. But none of them were able to release such skills despite a few dozen unique throwing skills that caused heavy penetrative lances that plunged deeply before detonating.

However, it was after the eighth volley that the head priest NPC himself called out, "MELEE," with a booming telepathic lance that brought tears to my eyes even from behind. Ahead of the skeleton NPC, though, everything suddenly stopped what it was doing and clutched their heads.

The players suffered less than the demons, but only to the point that they recovered about a second earlier despite having also dropped all weapons. When they took up arms, though, it was once again a lance that they took with them as they all ran forward into the massacre. The head priest had brainwashed them into suicide bomber.

Thanks to their muscle memories and the psionic pain in their heads, few of the vanguard players stopped to consider their actions. Even for those few who did stop and realize the error of their ways, it was too late. They had already divided naturally into groups targeting the closest clusters of demons and gotten within ten or fifteen yards of the closest enemy.

Rushing foolishly into battle. Their closest comrades rammed their seven-foot lances into the demons from ahead of them before they even had time to turn and run. The lances struck home with a variety of magical and physical skills throughout the groups, further enhancing the reactions of the naturally conductive lances.

Clustered together as they were, one hundred condensed explosions soon took place scattered over a few seconds and only in about a dozen places. The overall power of these explosions of various magic energies and skills were further spread out by the extra detonations they incurred.

By the end of it, only a few dozen entities remained at all. Most of them were demons, but some of them happened to be the few tank classes that had been unlucky enough to be wearing the best armor they could make in their time. This handful of players were left facing a little over a dozen scattered demons.

Those poor souls were soon marked as crippled and defenseless by the fact that they generally had even less health and energy than the demons. After both sides had recovered from the disorienting or immobilizing effects of the lances, the humans who were mostly left on the ground in critical condition were quickly swarmed by the remaining enemies.

Luckily, all of them had died so they only got half of the loot while the thousand skeletons up front with bows fired what should have been a life darkening heralding of the hell they would face in a group of thousands but was now wasted.

The rectangle that stretched for a hundred yards from left to right around the remaining demons less than eighty yards away from the undead NPC blinded both sides off the battlefield. Within the few seconds that the storm of a thousand arrows blew gore and dust clouds for tens of yards in every direction, the skeletons all spread out in a single line while all the alliance players began taking a certain number of steps back for every row of players before using Flash Step.

By the time our alliance had reorganized in a slightly spread out fashion and the dust cloud was cleared, the skeleton NPC had all spread out into a single line just like our vanguard. Then, in full view of the demon commanders and their remaining troops held in reserve, the NPC all disappeared and reappeared in less than half a second sixty yards from their front line position.

Our stance was clear, if they chose to attack en masse even after our agreements, there would be no survival. If we ever decided to dishonor our agreements, there would be no survival.

"Zekrom," I say softly to my familiar from my position ahead of our front lines after having not taken any steps back. Zekrom himself flashed over, appearing just behind and beside me to my right. "Bring me over."

Without even saying a word, Zekrom slightly crouched to place a hand behind my back and took a step forward before using his own flash movement. We appeared roughly a hundred yards away from where the demon commanders had gathered and simply waited.

Not for them to speak, but for me to recover from the effects of being flashed. If not for the unique make-up and design of my body, Zekrom's Strength and his flash technique's speed could have liquefied a normal player in their armor.

If THAT person was not using the flash technique then THAT person needed to fear anything with overwhelming strength and a flash technique. For me, it was simply like being knocked out for a moment and coming to a split second later with a concussion.

Everything was suddenly moving even as I supported my weight with Zekrom's hand and closing my eyes. However, by the time the sounds of movement came from the demon commanders I was recovered enough to stand upright, channel mana into my voice, and call out, "Quick Question."

One thousand MP vanished with every word, turning my voice into a sense-suppressing sonic attack that crossed the remaining distance near instantly and washing over the commanders and their troops. Everything winced with every syllable and several of the lesser demons like the rat-faces and geckos were even bleeding from the sides of their heads. The present undead making up the remaining front lines, though, were resonated by the sound waves and simply crumbled away into dust.

[Leveled Up x7]

[All starts raised by 7]

[Reached Level: 100]

[+10 Free Stat Points]

[Acquired Unique Title: 33rd Hundred Leveler]

[+10000XP]

[33rd Hundred Leveler: For being the 33rd player to reach level 100, you are hereby recognized with this honorable Title. As any rightful pioneer should, please enjoy the granted benefits of +100 MP/HP as well as +10% damage to all skills. +1000 Imperial Reputation]

[Acquired Unique Title: 1st Vocalist]

[+10000XP]

[1st Vocalist Massacre: After having performed for and almost literally melted the faces of thousands of enemies with your voice, you are hereby recognized by the Title of 1st Vocalist Massacre. For having done this without any actual skill or talent, +1 Random Sonic Skill, +10% effects to all sonic skills, and +10 to Willpower. +1000 Imperial Reputation]

[Acquired Skill: Sound Barrier]

[Sound Barrier Uninitiated: Use mana to give any channeled sound you make explosions force, extending outward into a sheer wall of disassembling resonance that acts as a physical buffer against physical and magical attacks. Costs 500 MP to cast and 50 per second to sustain. Magic-type attacks worth more than 500 MP will consume the difference in your MP while sustaining. Causes (10)% degradation to weapons/armor/HP and 2sec of Daze within (30)yds. At higher levels, can achieve even greater distances and effects. 10sec Cooldown. To Initiate, sustain and block ten attacks of any kind with greater values than 500 MP]

Holy shit, what the hell was this?! I just wanted to cut the bastards off before they said anything, not possibly ignite the war! At least the benefits were good.

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