For the moment the warships defended themselves against the swarm of demonic birds, but it was obviously difficult for them to take down the vast number of enemies. Their proficiency laid in bombing the ground. On top of that, for the chaos faction these seemingly ferocious birds were only cannon fodder. It was not worth getting entangled with them.
Thus, the warships advanced until they crossed the river before new orders were spread:
"Activate feather fall! Adventurers! Get off!"
Mana surged through the warships as mysterious runes lit up on the bottom of their hulls. A faint white light spread between the ground and the warships. Their hulls opened and soldiers urged the adventurers to jump.
At first the players were confused but there were always some daring people. They took the lead and jumped out of the warships, rushing towards the ground. The closer they got. the lighter their bodies felt until they landed on the ground light as a feather.
With someone taking the example others lost their fear. Suddenly players could be seen jumping from the sky everywhere. Some directly jumped over the railing, some took the openings in the hull. Of course, there were also those like Radiant Shield who jumped with great reluctance, cursing all the way.
Under the urging of the sailors, it took less than five minutes for the adventurers to leave the warships, which subsequently returned to the army to free themselves of the enemy's entanglement. Meanwhile the players stared at the fortifications not far away. The chaos faction had formed a rudimentary camp at the other side of the river. There were some hastily constructed mounds for ranged attackers to hide behind and even two cannon beasts like the ones seen earlier.
"Let's go! Teach those chaos guys a lesson!"
"Hurry up! Hurry up!"
"Stick together. Don't underestimate the enemy!"
Everyone was rearing to go. Liam's friends appeared eager as well, anxious for a good fight. But Liam held them back.
[Bleary Mirage: Careful. The fortifications we see might not be all there is to it. I spotted some traps. Let's not rush at the front this time.]
Liam's friends immediately felt their chests tighten. Only now that they took a good look did they notice some unnatural spots on the ground. Actually, the traps were hastily constructed and rather obvious. Yet in the heat of the moment not many had the mind to study the surroundings. For the order faction players, it would be smart to first send out scouts but without Therim's command no one could organize so many players. Not even Hotpot.
Yet their presence still had some effect. Liam and his friends gathered the present Dream Avenue members around them, about 70 people, and advanced carefully. Others, like the members of Force of Nature, Nest of Flames, and Infinito led by Mountain Lord noticed their actions and also decided to play it safe. Even Silken, despite regarding Dream Avenue as opponents, didn't disdain learning from the competition, copying their actions. After all, killing more enemies didn't bring more points.
Due to the actions of the guilds, a ripple effect went through the order faction players. Their advance was slower than it could be and quite a few smart players spotted traps in advance. But there were still some reckless players who happily ran into them…
"Guys, over there! It's that Jackal guy! Wasn't it thanks to him that we died in the world boss fight a while ago?"
"True! That bastard proposed a fight but when we took position, we were hit by Haola's vine. And as we were already injured he arrived with a large group, outnumbering us two to one."
"Something like this happened to you? As expected of the chaos faction, only knowing how to cheat."
"Hmpf. Don't worry, guys! This time you have the support of the order faction! Let's get revenge for you!"
"Haha, thanks!"
The conversation between a trio of three friends was heard by others, who instantly burned with righteous indignation. The group of three quickly became a group of ten, focusing on a chaos faction player named xJack4lDude. The latter was surprised by the sudden attention. But as he recognizes those three in the lead, he couldn't help but laugh, informing his own group of friends. They recalled the story and laughed while looking at the order faction players, gesturing provocatively.
"That bastard!"
The small team of order faction players was instantly enraged. They were already at the front and now sped up even more, swiftly closing the distance. However, before they could reach their destined enemies a black light suddenly erupted below their feet.
"Ohoh, dodge!"
Realizing they had run into a trap the players shouted frantically. They hastily scattered but the trap didn't grant them much time. Only two people managed to escape the area before a massive eruption of dark magic hit the group, causing terrifying damage. Five people died on the spot. And not far away xJack4lDude and his friends were laughing their a*ses off.
Similar situations could be seen along the frontline. Traps exploded, causing some casualties. However, after the first wave the order faction players had naturally gotten more careful. They mostly managed to dismantle the traps beforehand. However, this slowed their speed down quite a bit. It was at that moment that a demon general among the chaos faction bellowed loudly:
"Attack!"
Instantly a wave of excitement ran through the players.
"Just what I waited for!"
"Send those order losers home!"
"Boring nerds. Let daddy show you the might of the chaos faction!"
Laughter and mocking words spread as the chaos faction began to attack. Dark arrows, flaming explosions, and summoned shadows were the first to arrive, crushing into the order faction. At the same time the two cannon beasts fired.
"Careful!"
"Get out of the way, don't get touched by the void!"
The normal attacks were still alright, but the void spheres caused panic among the players in the targeted area. After all, they had seen and heard what had happened to the NPCs touched by even a bit of void energy.
[Bleary Mirage: All ranged attackers, focus those void spheres. Destroy them while still in the sky!]
Liam felt lucky as of the Dream Avenue members present about half were ranged players, a rate higher than usual. If they all managed to land their attacks, it would be enough to destroy a void sphere. But could it be so easy?
Balm narrowed her eyes, focusing entirely on the terrifying bomb. But at that moment she noticed something strange. The void energy's most terrifying characteristic was the ability to destroy everything it touched. This ability improved with its increasing density. After passing a certain threshold even such vague concepts as space and time could be affected. Of course, light was no exception.
This created the eerie situation that if one tried to focus on the void energy it would flicker constantly, dimming and shining brightly depending on how much of the surrounding light it destroyed at any given moment. Additionally, it seemed to jump back and forth, making it extremely difficult to hit. The NPC army earlier overwhelmed the void spheres with pure numbers, but the player had to somewhat rely on luck.
"Here goes nothing…"
Balm whispered to herself as she swung her wand. She watched as her mana sphere rushed through the air. At first her attack seemed to head in the right direction, but then the void sphere suddenly flickered and Balm felt her stomach sink. Just as she thought her attack had missed, she saw that her mana sphere shrunk, clearly affected by the void energy. Although the void energy's corroding effect was powerful, it wasn't instant. Otherwise, none of the attacks would even get into range.
Under Balm's uncertain gaze her attack seemed to miss but the next moment suddenly appeared in front of the void sphere, crashing into it. There was no big explosion but the void energy rippled, clearly losing some stability, and a small part of it even broke off dispersing into violet fog.
"Damn, Balm, you hit it?"
Fortune had missed her own attack before glancing at her friend just in time to witness the whole process. Balm nodded but she didn't appear overly happy:
"Honestly, it was just luck. That stuff is really too strange. I don't know if a boss might be able to pull off something similar… that would be quite terrifying…"
"Right. It's good that we can practice early."
As the two friends talked, others still attacked. Luck seemed to be on their side as enough attacks reached the void spheres to disperse them. The dense void energy turned into drifting fog which slowly floated towards the ground, posing way less of a threat to the players as well as the world.
While a large part of the players took care of the void spheres, the rest didn't remain idle. They had carefully made their way through the traps and, braving the enemy fire, reached the chaos faction. A battle instantly broke out.