Chương 125: Chapter 124: Reinforcements

We moved at the same time. Lothras came at me with surprising speed as I drew Spriggan's Will to full and fired the freshly off-cooldown Verdant Arrow at him. The jade shot left a trail full of vines between us. Lothras read it instantly. He dodged the initial shot, and rather than charging through the path and eating the slow and the damage, he went around, looping right, sacrificing the direct line for clean footing. The detour cost him two seconds, and I used every one of them.

Mark of the Eagle buffed my attacks and gave me vision. Wherever he moved, whatever he did, I'd feel his direction for the next thirty seconds. I fired three rapid basics as he rounded the vine trail, each one aimed to push him further away rather than letting him straighten his approach. He blocked the first, sidestepped the second, and caught the third on his pauldron without breaking stride. The man moved through incoming fire unbothered, closing the gap with a sudden Holy Charge.

"Smite!" The overhead strike came down with killing force, golden light trailing the blade. I Quick Stepped left, and the sword cratered the stone, throwing fragments into the air. Before the dust settled, Lothras was already turning into a horizontal follow-up, his footwork carrying the momentum of the missed Smite into a second attack that came faster than the first.

"Light Arc!" I ducked the sweep and fired a point-blank Fan of Arrows at his exposed torso during the follow-through. He pulled his shield down from the overhead position and caught all of it, but the impact drove his arm back. I Leap Attacked backward, gaining altitude and distance, and Lothras used a new skill to try and match it.

"Catapult Legs!" Hey, that's mine! His sword came around in an arc. I twisted in mid-air, causing the blade to pass beneath me, and I fired a basic at his face from two meters. He tipped his head sideways, and the arrow grazed his cheek, drawing a thin line across the skin. We landed at the same time, ten meters apart, and the fight resumed without pause. I activated Mistveil, vanishing mid-stride, and Lothras stopped advancing, his shield coming up, his eyes scanning the surrounding quarry.

Rather than chasing a ghost, he started turning in a slow circle, covering every angle with his shield, waiting for me to reappear. Smart. Most players panicked when their target vanished. Lothras just became a fortress and waited. I circled behind him in three quick steps, staying silent, and broke stealth with a charged Piercing Shot aimed at the gap between his helmet and the back of his gorget. The 50% bonus damage from Mistveil empowered the hit. The arrow punched into the joint, and I saw Lothras stagger.

A genuine hit, deep enough to make his health bar plummet. He spun, sword sweeping the space behind him, but I was already gone, Quick Stepping sideways before the retaliatory swing arrived. Lothras touched the back of his neck, looked at the blood on his gauntlet, and let out a slow breath.

"Stealth," he said.

"Since when?"

"I killed a raid boss for it."

"Yeah, I saw." He adjusted his stance.

"Anything else you're hiding?"

"Guess you'll find out." He came again. Purging Flame on the blade, Oath of Steel refreshed. Three exchanges in ten seconds: he swung, I dodged, I fired, he blocked, he closed, I retreated, he followed, I fired again. Back and forth across twenty meters of quarry floor, neither of us able to land the clean hit that would tip the balance. Then I made a mistake. I Shadow Traveled backward through a patch of shade, the same escape I'd used before, and Lothras was waiting for it.

The moment I dissolved into shadow, he was already sprinting toward the spot where he thought I'd reappear, his sword behind him. I materialized, and he was there, three meters away, his blade descending. All my movement skills were on cooldown, and I had no time to swap items. I caught the sword on Spriggan's Will's limb. The impact was staggering; jade light flickered along the bow as the living wood absorbed a hit that should have shattered a lesser weapon, and the force drove me to one knee. Lothras pressed.

A second swing came while I was down, and I rolled sideways, the blade carving the stone where my head had been. I came up firing, a basic shot from close distance that he had to block with his body rather than his shield. The arrow hit his breastplate and stuck in the white plating. I used the window to swap to the Chausses of Dusk. Using my own Catapult Legs off the nearest boulder that sent me vaulting twelve meters away, and by the time I landed, Spriggan's Will was drawn to full and I had my distance back.

Lothras pulled the arrow from his chest plate and tossed it aside. His health bar was sitting somewhere around forty percent. Mine wasn't much better: the reflected Fan of Arrows, the shield-edge hit, the previous encounter, and the accumulated pressure of fighting at close range against a Paladin had taken their toll. I was below half, but not by much. Five minutes. We'd been fighting for five minutes, but it felt like an hour. He drove his sword into the ground.

For a moment I thought he was channeling Radiant Edge again, but the glow was different, spreading outward through the ground rather than up through the blade. The stone beneath his feet cracked in a radial pattern, and holy energy surged through the fissures.

"Consecration: Faithful Land." The surrounding ground erupted in golden fire. The area of effect was enormous, ten meters in every direction, incomparable to the level 25 basic Paladin skill: Consecration, and I had to Leap Attack backward to avoid the spreading zone. Inside it, Lothras was healing rapidly, his health climbing with every second he stood on blessed ground, and the AoE damage blocked me out of the vicinity. This is the second time he has used an upgraded version of another skill, I thought.

I wonder what's behind that. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. He'd turned the quarry floor into a fortress. I couldn't go in, he was healing inside, and every second that passed undid the damage I'd spent five minutes building. I couldn't let it stand. I aimed an Arrowstorm at the center of the consecrated zone, then followed it with Burning Arrow shot through the same area.

The fiery attack erupted across the blessed ground, and the Arrowstorm began hammering the zone from above. Lothras raised his shield and weathered the storm, but the combination forced him to choose between standing in his healing zone and avoiding the sustained area damage raining from above. He sidestepped out of the worst of the barrage, leaving the Consecration's healing radius. I switched to the Emberwood.

"Arrow of Ash & Flames." Full charge this time. Two seconds of buildup, the amber glow blazing along the bow's limbs, and I aimed at the spot where Lothras was standing outside his own Consecration, exposed, his shield angled against the fading Arrowstorm. I released. The arrow crossed the gap, trailing fire, and struck his shield dead center.

The impact was massive; fire and force detonating against the Shield of Failed Triumph with enough power to drive Lothras backward three meters, his boots carving trenches in the stone. The Weakness to Fire debuff appeared, and the fire spread. His health bar dropped, and this time the tick damage was meaningful against the expiring buffs. Lothras looked at me, and we both knew we were nearing the end.

I had the advantage in health and power, too; despite his improvements, it was clear from our exchange that I had the upper hand. I had Spriggan's Will at full Adaptive Growth, and stats in this game were absolute. He raised his sword. I drew to full. Then we both heard it. A sound from the north, rising over the quarry walls, over the clash of the battle still raging around us. A war cry, deep and resonant, carried on the wind like thunder.

"VANGUARD!" Both of us turned. Gaul came over the northern ridge at the head of his guild. They poured down the hillside, spreading across the battlefield's flank, and the sheer mass of it changed the geography of the fight in an instant. Gaul himself was at the front, his warhammer raised. He'd brought everyone he had. Veterans and mid-level fighters alike, an entire roster emptied onto the hillside, and they hit Crimson Court with the force of an avalanche. Lothras lowered his sword.

He looked at me across the ground between us, fire still ticking on his armor, his health still in the danger zone, and something crossed his face that I couldn't quite read. Then he looked north at the Vanguard charge sweeping through the CC formation and made his decision.

"Another time, Orion."

"Another time." He turned toward Mädusa's position without another word. I watched him go. He was at twenty percent health, walking away from me, his shield at his side. I lowered my bow.

Mädusa's eyes opened for the first time since the battle started. I was close enough now to see it happen: the violet glow from her staff flickered, and the three stone constructs across the battlefield stopped simultaneously. The largest, the Level 30 Elite that had been hammering Denxy's shield, froze mid-swing. Stone cracked along its arm, and chunks began to fall away as the animating energy wavered. Lothras reached her and positioned himself at her side, shield raised toward the battlefield.

He spoke to her, words I couldn't hear from this distance, and Mädusa listened without expression. She pulled her staff from the ground. The constructs collapsed, all three of them at once, the massive stone bodies crumbling into rubble that scattered across the quarry floor. The ground shook with the impacts, and the dust cloud that rose from the wreckage hung in the air like a curtain falling on the final act.

"Fall back," Mädusa called. Her voice was clear, unhurried, and without emotion.

"Organized retreat. Rally point north." The CC force began pulling back in disciplined groups, covering each other's retreat with shield walls and ranged suppression. Whatever else Crimson Court was, no one could say they weren't organized. Even in withdrawal, they moved like a unit that had practiced this, and Lothras anchored the rear guard with Light Curtain barriers that discouraged pursuit. Alice's voice carried across the quarry.

"Let them go! Hold positions! Don't overextend!" King's Glade halted at the quarry's edge, battered but standing. Gaul's charge slowed as the CC force retreated rather than engaged, and the Paladin pulled up at the northern terrace, his warhammer resting on his shoulder. The Battle of the Quarry was over. I found Alice and Gaul near the center, standing among the rubble of Mädusa's collapsed constructs. Denxy was there too, sitting on a slab of stone with his Mythril shield across his knees.

Gaul was an elite warrior, and Alice was a notch above him, and the rest, but Denxy was the one who had impressed me the most.

"That was some serious tank-work," I said, and I meant it. I knew Stone was King's Glade's chief Guardian, but even he wouldn't have done a much better job down here.

"Thanks!" he grinned.

"Shield's at 4%, though."

"Orion," Alice acknowledged me.

"Who were you dueling with up there?"

"Lothras, one of CC's ace players."

"The Paladin from the Tidemark group?"

"That's him, yeah."

"Who won?" I contemplated for a bit.

"Nobody. Vanguard's arrival ended it early."

"Convenient," she said, Gaul planted his warhammer and looked around the quarry. Collapsed constructs, scattered equipment, scorch marks and trap remnants across every terrace. The gouge where Lothras's Radiant Edge had carved through the stone was still smoking.

"Hell of a fight," he said.

"It was," Alice agreed. She turned to face him directly.

"You said you wouldn't get involved."

"I did." The Paladin met her gaze.

"Then I thought about it."

"What changed your mind?" Gaul was quiet for a moment, and when he spoke, the jovial guild leader was gone, replaced by someone who'd weighed a hard decision and committed to it.

"One of my scouts reported a hundred CC players converging on Dukestar. I told myself it wasn't my problem." He paused.

"But then I realized it was. See, we had a healthy rivalry here in Serendine. Vanguard and King's Glade's 2nd division were more or less equal in strength, and the game was fun this way." He looked at Alice.

"Of course, I have no delusions. Phantom could march down here with the rest of KG and make our lives miserable. But he won't. If Crimson Court takes Serendine from you, they will. That's not speculation; that's how Skull operates. He takes a county, he chokes everyone else out, and by the time you realize what's happening, your members are quitting or joining him to survive. I watched it happen in Knighthood, and I'm not watching it happen here." Alice listened without interrupting.

"I've got sixty players in Serendine," Gaul continued.

"About forty more across the other counties. Half of them are under level 19. They're not ready for a guild war, and I know that. But today showed me something," he glanced at Denxy.

"King's Glade held a hundred CC players off, your players are reliable and your Commander knows how to fight a battle she's supposed to lose." Denxy looked up from his shield.

"That she does," he said.

"Indeed," Gaul nodded.

"And I'd rather have someone like that at my back than a bunch of cutthroats and bullies." Alice extended her hand.

"Thank you, Gaul. Vanguard has KG's gratitude." Gaul shook it.

"We share intelligence, coordinate patrols, and if Crimson Court hits either guild, the other responds. We could even call it an alliance."

"An alliance," Alice confirmed.

"One condition," Gaul added, releasing her hand.

"When the Crimson Court problem subsides, I want to keep this alliance. I know Vanguard is not comparable to King's Glade, but we are no pushovers, either. I want a seat at the table, as an equal."

"You mean an official treaty?" Alice raised her eyebrows.

"It would cement Vanguard's position," Gaul nodded. Alice bit her lips as she was contemplating the offer. I knew it wasn't easy to just agree to the terms; King's Glade was 'allying down' in a sense, and a weaker partner could mean a potential problem for their reputation in the future. But I also knew that Gaul was no slouch, and even though Vanguard didn't have the numbers yet, that could change in the future. And judging by their leader, it would be foolish not to keep them as friends.

"I'll talk to Phantom. But I think he'll agree."

"Thank you, Commander." A ghost of a smile crossed Alice's face.

"Thank you, Gaul." I nodded involuntarily. Their alliance was the right move. Crimson Court had a hundred players in Serendine and a Vice-Guild Leader who could summon Elites. If Alice hadn't agreed, it would have shown Phantom two things. The first was that his Vice-Guild Leader was too stubborn to see potential value in smaller assets. And that any time a problem arose, he would have to march up here to fix it, because as good as Alice was, she couldn't hold long against overwhelming numbers alone.

I didn't know King's Glade's guild leader, but I knew what it meant to be the one who called the shots. And I knew he was going to be thrilled with the results.