The two factions had finally begun to clash. Although their numbers were about even, the chaos faction had the better position with some fortifications set in place. Their ranged players could fire from behind some cover while the order faction players were forced to endure the enemy fire.
Liam had also reached the front. With the support of tanks and healers he was fearless, fighting three enemies alone.
"Screw this!"
"Slipped through again!"
"Is this what it feels like to fight against the number one?"
Liam's enemies could constantly be heard cursing. They felt quite stifled. Their opponent's movements were erratic. It was too difficult gauging his intentions. Sometimes Liam seemed to attack but it turned out to be a faint, causing the chaos faction players to waste a skill or two. Sometimes he seemed to attack from the left only to suddenly appear at the right.
At one point, an enemy tried to win some distance by conjuring terrifying black flames to cover a large area in front.
"He used flash step."
"Finally, a moment to breath."
"Actually, I hope he won't come back…"
Just as the three players thought they were safe, they felt movement coming from behind their backs. Swords flashed in a wide arc, multiple skills were used in a second. When the surroundings exploded with holy energy, one player died and two were left heavily injured. Another warrior swooped in, finishing the fight.
The warrior couldn't help but look at Bleary Mirage with admiration. He had seen the process clearly just now. As the black flames spread, Bleary Mirage was clearly surrounded by sparks and disappeared. However, the sparks seemed to only be a distraction as Bleary Mirage swapped places with a shadow he earlier placed behind one of the enemies.
Liam only nodded lightly at the warrior. He was fully focused. The move earlier demanded a lot of concentration, even for him. The warrior hadn't seen wrongly. Liam faked a flash step only to activate [Grip of the Dark] and attack the enemies from behind. However, faking flash step was only possible with perfect timing. One had to cancel the flash step right before the actual teleportation could happen. Thus, only some sparks would appear. And the easiest way to cancel flash step was by using another skill capable of displacement like Liam's [Grip of the Dark].
Liam's fight was indeed quite amazing and would have surely created some waves online if others weren't too preoccupied to watch. Now, as the battle was raging in all directions, Liam alone didn't make a big difference. In fact, the situation didn't look great for the order faction. With the chaos faction supported by cannon beasts and some fortifications, they had a huge advantage. The order faction had already suffered more than 150 casualties. About ten people didn't have any revives left and were directly kicked from the event.
Fortunately, this group of order faction players wasn't alone. As Liam had a moment to look around, he noticed that the NPC army was finally taking position at the other side of the river. At their front stood Cyclone among a crowd of players with ranged attack capabilities. These players were too slow to secure a spot on the warships earlier and were thus eager to gather points. When another task was issued no one hesitated. They took the most dangerous position at the front and instantly began attacking the enemies across the river.
Suddenly the tables turned. The chaos faction faced attacks from two sides and found it difficult to cope. Under a shower of ice and fire even one of the cannon beasts faltered after a while.
"What should we do?"
"Ask for help!"
"Can we retreat?"
The chaos faction players were confused. However, at this time they experienced the ugly side of the chaos faction. Earlier they were delighted to get their hands on the task to engage the order faction here. Only now did they realize that the task was of suicidal nature as their commander clearly planned to sacrifice them only to buy time.
"F*ck! Can they do this?"
"Did we get tricked by an NPC?!"
However, there were also those who had long since recognized the nature of the chaos faction and weren't surprised. Instead, they had their own guesses, waiting for something. A few seconds later they realized that they had made the right bet as an additional task was issued.
[Current Task: Defend the Ashen River with your life and take down as many enemies with you as you can. Additional enemies killed will be rewarded with additional points.
Current level of completion: -
Current reward: - ]
"What, there is such a good thing!"
"Haha, friends, let's show those order cowards hell!"
"If I have to die, I will take at least ten people with me!"
Instantly the atmosphere changed. The order faction players shivered as the chaos faction looked at them like walking loot bags. Suddenly the chaos faction didn't hold back anymore, using all their long cooldown skills.
The battle entered its peak with players on both sides almost dropping like flies. Therim watched everything happening from the sky, his expression unexpectedly rather grim. He always felt that a certain threat was looming in the surroundings. However, they still had to advance. As the chaos faction's power gradually dwindled he gave a new order. The dwarven and goblin engineers appeared again. They retrieved new blueprint cores, and a translucent bridge was created above the river. The order faction indeed came prepared.
Simultaneously all kinds of defensive spells were cast, protecting the engineers and the bridge alike. Under the secure umbrella the engineers took out all kinds of materials, which were attracted by the translucent bridge, slowly forming a solid structure.
Even as the bridge was being built nothing unexpected happened. A minute later a functional stone bridge came into existence, causing all the players to marvel at the practicality of blueprint cores.
"Order faction, listen to my command! Charge!"
Therim's voice thundered through the air. He purposely spoke loud enough for the chaos faction to hear him. There were not many enemies left. Three or four hundred. When they heard Therim, they felt their stomach's sink. Their eyes wandered towards the bridge and saw the army of thousands who had started moving, roaring like an unstoppable wave. Even if a bridge was easier to defend, the disparity was too huge. None of the chaos faction players had any delusions that they would be able to stop the approaching army.
"Shadow chaos…"
Suddenly a low whisper sounded out. Although it was a whisper, it reached the ears of everyone present. The players all had chills run down their spines. They glanced at their own shadows and saw them struggling strongly. A large number of shadows managed to break free from their 'owners' and in a flash appeared next to the bridge.
However, while the shadows coming from the living beings were not few, it was nothing in comparison to the massive shadow which was caused by the cliffs, falling on the river below. A part of this shadow, with a length of more than a hundred metres, suddenly broke away from the surroundings and gathered together with the other shadows below the bridge.
Everything happened in a flash. The players barely registered what was happening when they saw the shadows congregating in one spot. The cliffs, now derived of their shadows, looked two dimensional, extremely strange.
"What's happening?!"
"Enemy attack!"
"Shields! We need more shields!"
Even the disciplined soldiers couldn't entirely suppress their panic. Especially the people standing on the bridge. They felt as if the grim reaper had targeted them. The afterlife was so close…
Only Therim was able to keep up with the changes. At this moment he finally understood where the unease came from. It turned out the enemy had prepared a magic circle below the river, making it difficult to detect even for him. He also knew whom he was facing.
"Iss'ir, Master of Shadows, you dare to appear in the Southern Wasteland?!"
Therim's let out a raging shout as his body flashed and he appeared below the bridge. Iss'ir, Master of Shadows was the name of a famous and powerful shadow demon. He was on a level with the likes of Therim and Lewriova. However, with his strength he also suffered from suppression in the Southern Wasteland which was why Therim didn't expect Iss'ir to appear here. But on the other hand, the chaos faction needed a commander and shadow demons were good at escape. It was actually quite suitable.
"Hehehe…"
An eerie laugh was the only answer Therim received as the shadow brewing below the bridge suddenly attacked. Sharp spikes of shadows shot in every direction, their speed too fast for most people to react. Therim knew that without him these shadows would create a massacre among the soldiers. He waved his staff and thousands of small golden magic circles appeared. There was almost no delay as golden arrows erupted from the magic circles, accurately crashing into the shadow spikes, cancelling each other out. Although the attacks seemed small, the ensuing shockwave was enough to cause the bridge to groan ominously and the barriers to ripple.