The silence was deafening, to save fuel, Paul instructed all of the tanks to shut down their engines and were only allowed to start them again when met with opposition. Thus he slowly dozes off to sleep once again. He started dreaming about his exploits with the Knights of Eldwood before they went full modern warfare.
“I’ll charge it head on. They can kill me but it’ll be hard, these guys are mostly low level pawns.” His voice was a bit muffled by his Eldritch Knight Helmet, the Black Armor of the suit gleaming as the sun’s ray bounced off it.
“Alright, Me and Hassan will go around. Francis and Elmer will charge head on into the Castle.”
“Yep, also John. Watch out for Divine Casters, I can see those bastards and their golden robes from here.”
“Yea, yea you too Paul. Seeing how you're going to be the one fighting them head on.”
“Heh, Kranken can do the rest if I die. Dudes got a brand spanking Hell Horse afterall.”
He tugs the reins of his armored Undead horse, it gallops, letting out a ghostly wail and starts charging straight to the gates of a massive wall defending a Castle and town. After getting close, the Archer NPCs on the wall were able to hit him but his armor was too tough to be penetrated or even scratched.
“GOOD LUCK GUYS!” He screams one last time before he ejects from the horse, slicing and dicing players and NPCs alike. Thanks to his high level and experience, he was able to quickly dispatch the ones brave enough to charge him while the rest stepped back awaiting a chance.
“Pretty nice that you guys were able to hit me. Courageous, keep that up. This game is hard but if you try and try, you’ll succeed. Don’t be afraid. C’mon! Fight me!”
It riled up some of the players to fight him, though they tried, it was ultimately for naught. It was when the last NPC grunt was slain did more powerful players ambush him. Caught off guard, he had to use his shield and tank the barrage of Divine and Fire magic. They casted Spectral Swords and Burning Tornados which forced him to duck and run, slicing the tornadoes one by one with his cursed enchanted sword as they approached him.
After tanking the ambush, he looked at his health bar and only four percent of his health was drained. He stands up and is met with four Divine Knights in full golden armor. They looked like magnificent Knights of Heaven, with helmets adorned by horns that looked like feathers, His right foot instinctively steps back.
“Well… shit.”
Knowing he's not gonna survive this, he opts to go on the defensive, wear them down and when they least expect it, fight back. The Knights didn’t give him a chance to breathe, charging him at inhuman speed even with their bulky suits of armor. Within a two seconds, the Knights were already in striking distance, one of them knows his Greatsword will reach him and swings it while running, Paul stops it with his Enchanted Claymore, the two swords clanking as they clash.
Knowing he’ll get surrounded, he casts Sword Ignite - Cursed Power. The entirety of his weapon explodes a plume of dark miasma and Oil like substance starts spilling out of the joints of his armor. This temporarily gives any opponent with Divine Stat a debuff in speed and casting speed. One of them was smart though, taking a low stance and swinging his Claymore at the Eldritch Knights’ back.
The single blow alone took 30% of his health. Panicked, he quickly looks at his back and notices the armor took the swing with a small scratch on the back. No longer playing, he quickly uses teleportation. The Divine Knights knew this strategy all too well and immediately boxed him in with their own teleport magic. With his hand free, Paul materializes his Colt Python Revolver in his inventory, and the Player Knights are shocked at the move.
“HEY! FIGHT US LIKE A MA-” BANG!
The .357 revolver round flies straight through the slit of the eye holes on the Knight’s helmet. The shot was so powerful it swung his head, falling backwards and dematerializing.
“You fucking cheater!”
“Hey man, nothing in this game says we can’t make guns.”
The three angered Knights lunge at him at full speed and inside his helmet, he makes a small smile.
Suddenly, he awakens back on his tank’s hatch. The M1A2 Abrams next to him was ablaze and impaled with large Spectral Blades. His eyes widened and immediately put himself together, the radio was a haze, players were panicking and calling support from all directions.
“TUSK ONE, DO YOU READ ME?”
“Yes sir! We’re getting hammered here!”
“What the fuck was that!”
“I-i have no idea! The entire place is suddenly air striked by Spectral Weapons!”
He looked back and could see that Kingsland was in panic, large smoke pillars could be seen a kilometer away.
“Anvil! Redwood! Do you read me?”
“Anvil here! It's an ambush! Fuckers hid inside the city! We’re receiving massive casualties!”
“This is Redwood! Dark Knights are charging at us! Their swords are slicing through tank armor! I repeat! Slicing through tank armor!”
“O-okay! Hannibal copies all, I want all of you to get the fuck outta there! That place is a graveyard for tanks! All on me on the outskirts!”
Before he could hear him reply, more Blades fly towards them, knowing this type of magic, he casts a Walls of Jericho, temporarily making a shield to defend his remaining tanks. Though a high level Defensive Magic, it was obviously shattering right in front of him from the barrage.
“All units! Retreat! I’ll call the main force at Treitleze and see how they’re doing!”
“Anvil Three to Hannibal! We got reports that the main force has been ambushed and is still in combat! Last I heard from the players on the ground is that they’ve encountered Divine Beasts and Event level threat bosses!”
“Then the more we should come to help them!”
“Redwood to Hannibal! We’re trapped! I need help! Our tanks won’t last from these bea-”
“Redwood! Redwood! Do you copy?! FUCK!”
“This is Anvil, should I help Redwood? They’re only a block away from us.”
“Yes please, reinforce and get anyone you can outta there!”
“Copy on all. Anvil out.”
He closes his hatch and orders the tanks to scatter even more, as fighting continues inside the city, the ground around the tank rumbles. He looked around the commander’s camera and could see that all his tanks were parked and not moving. He swings it to the front as one of the tanks turret suddenly freezes while scanning straight ahead. Zooming in, he switches it to thermal and back to normal. After a few seconds, he could faintly see flags from Flag Bearers slowly rising from the horizon.
“Uh… Tusk, are you seeing this?!”
“Holy… That must be an entire army. Hannibal, we might need to retreat even somewhere random.”
Slowly, the unknown third party appears. It was an army of Dark and Divine Knights, Elves, Humans and Half Breeds in Horses and Dragons, the gigantic army covered at least a kilometer's worth of width, drenching the horizon with their neat and orderly formation. Leading the charge was Elizabeth with three unknown assailants, one an Elf from the player Kingdom of Keyneth and another in Dark Robes, Paul couldn’t believe it. After what they did to her back at their city, he knows that she won’t let him off unless his head is rolling on the ground.
“LOAD H-E! LOAD FUCKING H-E EVERYONE AND FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!”
The battle line of main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles open fire, as soon as the first round escapes the barrel, it agros the army, making them charge at them at full speed. Far behind, Bahamut in her large form is seen falling from the sky and hitting the ground. Her size was so large the dust smoke that billowed from her crash landing could be seen hundreds of meters away, it is then followed by a blue laser beam firing from the smoke as it is met with a yellow one. It causes a shockwave that sends some of the helicopters patrolling the innards of the city to crash.
Miles away at the main force, the fighting stopped for a second as the shockwave flew over them, it was a mess. The combined forces had to make circles to maximize defense and offense while players on the ground had to summon their swords and enchanted weapons and fight the attackers in melee combat. Not giving them a breath to reload or take cover.
Back at the outskirts of Kingsland, the tanks and IFVs of Paul’s Battalion were opening fire 1.5 kilometers away, the shots were all effective, he could see the Knights and Elves being thrown and torn up around by the explosions of their HE shells. But it looked useless as more kept flooding in, their attempts looked like pebbles being thrown at a lake. Seeing the futility, he tries to call in any kind of support.
“Hannibal to all fire support! Does anyone read this?!”
“Joint Command here, do not call for fire support! All Batteries and Launchers are pointed at the main force, keep tight! We’re coming!”
“FUCK THAT! THERE’S A LARGER ARMY HERE!”
“Wait what?! Repeat that again Hannibal!”
“YES! THERE’S-”
A Drone from CENTCOM is sent to Kingsland to see if his reporting is true. After a few minutes, it arrives with his Thermal showing a giant blob. It was an army charging at a battle line of tanks, reports then came flooding in from other helicopters about the situation, forcing high command to start mobilizing every bit of guns they could.
“Holy fuck… I got the same reports from the helicopters still active in your AO and we’re seeing it right now, alright. Keep tight for now, we can't move our fire support at the current moment as they’re also threatened by enemy units.”
“How long do I have to wait?!”
“About ten minutes if you can!”
“Joint Command, Roger that! I can’t say for sure we won’t be dead by then but we’ll surely try!”
“Affirmative General Paul. I’m calling in all reserve aircrafts, guns, tanks, men and everything under the Sun to aid us but I highly doubt they could reach you in time, over.”
“Copy, Godspeed to us all.”
“Do as your honor wills General, my men in those tanks are willing to fight till the end.”
He sets down the radio and could see that his attempts to nail Elizabeth were futile, his rounds hitting near her but her armor and horse makes it seem as if it's just a gust in the wind being blown. Reaching 800 Meters, he opens fire the machine guns, .50 M2 Brownings mounted on top and the coaxial 5.56mm gun starts spraying. Needless to say, not even Knights were being damaged by them.
“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck!”
At the back of his head, a feeling of needing to materialize his Eldritch Armor and get this Longsword is tainting his thoughts. He snaps back at it again and hastily orders all of the tanks to reverse. Back at the wall of Kingsland the German and Russian players defending it receive the memo. One of the Officers quickly lifts his binoculars to look at the shots being fired nearly a kilometer away. He drops it and makes a mad dash at the long wave radios, calling all who can still fight to the wall.
Some Apache helicopters were refueling when the shockwave hit, they took off and even from the walls, they already started firing their 80mm unguided high explosive Hydra rockets at the massive army. Some fire their Hellfires, trying to nail the flying Dragons which they swiftly dodged. Their shots were effective, but it's too few to really make a dent at the large force charging at them. Having nowhere to go, the Helicopters tilt forward, flying straight into the frey like a Moth to a light.
Paul could see the details of the armor of the Knights as they ever so get closer, knowing that he’s about to be 500 Meters from the main gates, he orders his tanks to stop and hold their ground.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Fuck! To all units! If you have some high level armor and weapons, wear them now! Tell your tanks to hold ground and get out and start swinging your swords!”
“Copy!”
He quickly opens his hatch and materializes his Eldritch Knight outfit, his red cape is seen flapping to the right, he aims at the Swordsaint, detaching the M2 Browning from the Commander’s mount and hip firing it at her. His shots were doing nothing at the lady, and he teleported a hundred meters from the front of her horse. Just as she was about to swing her Divine Sword, his Browning starts clicking, he looks and sees that the Ammo Box had no more rounds in them, he looks up and could see that Elizabeth was meters from him.
With a charge of adrenaline, he kicks the heavy machine gun and unsheathes his sword, blocking the woman's attempt at his life. The two swords had so much power that it sent a small shockwave, both got knocked back, but the Saint holds tightly on the reins of her horse while the Eldritch Knight rebalances himself. He immediately turns his head to catch her but her with two unknowns just blows past his tanks, leaving them unharmed.
Underneath the city hall’s underground complex, the Colonel’s engineers with the Guild Leader of Kingsland open a gigantic steel blast door, slowly revealing a corrupted Mana Core. Alana couldn’t help but stare at the object, she never saw such a large pool of Mana congregated into an orb, let alone one steaming with the miasma of the damned. Though deep underground, little shakes and rumbles occur from the heavy fighting on the surface.
“What the fuck… but… how?”
The Purple glowing orb of energy the size of a four story building had rings of thick black miasma around it, one could hear the faint wailing souls of the damned, forever trapped in its power.
“This is why we had to get humans to Pilot the last of our robots. The Mana Cores of all three player Kingdoms was corrupted by an unknown power, party or person. But they all managed to stop it, we discovered our way too late. It reached the point where it seems like the power of Hell has touched upon it.”
“Hey, Kilgore. May I remind you that an explosion of a Mana Core is comparable to a low yield Tactical Nuclear bomb. How is this thing still stable?”
“As I said, we do not know. All our guards stationed here were never harmed, nothing abnormal happened at all.”
“Exactly when did you guys find out?”
“After a Month of being transported to this world.”
“Fuck, we need to call a General here.”
One of the soldiers steps up.
“Sir, the Knights of Eldwood have a General defending the outskirts.” hearing this, Alana butts in.
“He’s tasked himself with defending the field. Should I call upon him?”
After her sentence, a German soldier comes barreling down the staircase.
“HEILIGE SCHEISSE! TAUSENDE! NEIN HUNDERTTAUSENDE KOMMEN AUF UNS ZU! MÄCHTIGE RITTER, ALLE VON IHNEN!” he was visibly panicked and out of breath, shaking and trembling.
“SPEAK ENGLISH SOLDIER!” The Colonel wasn’t having any of it and presses on the man to speak
“ZEY ARE KOMIN’!”
“What’s coming?!”
“ZA SWORD SAINT HERR!”
“Elizabeth? What the hell is that Streamer doing here? Captain, tell the surrounding forces to congregate upon this building like there’s a Sunday Mass. It’ll take God's wrath if they want to take this thing from us.”
“Yes Sir!”
“And you, I want you to get your Kapitan to defend the Commercial District. We’re still too scattered and our equipment is laying around like litter.”
“Es wird geschehen mein Herr!”
The stoic Colonel then turns to the Countess.
“Ma’am, do you still have time? I know you want to get back to your Lord, but we need you here to defend this place. Currently, you're our most valuable asset next to the Dragon God and my companion Derrick.”
“I was ordered to come and help, thus I shall fulfill that. But if I do feel the need, I will go.”
“No problem ma’am. We need all the help we could get.”
Just as they were about to head off to one of the elevators, a soldier from the Men of the Woods unholsters his sidearm and quickly shoots at the Colonel. Alana was able to catch them all and return the bullets at the player. Using wind magic to shoot it back at him.
“What the fuck?” The Captain and other Engineers rush back to the Colonel, guns up. They find Alana choking the soldier with one hand, lifting him up with her arm. The Colonel gestures to them to put their guns down.
“Why did you do that?” The Countess’ eyes were sharp as a knife and her choke on him was inches from killing him. His boots were meters from the ground as she lifted him higher with one hand.
“Y-you i-diots d-don’t know what’s ha-ppen-ing.” as he struggles for air. The Colonel comments.
“Then spill it so that we can be aware, for all I know, we just walked straight into an extremely well planned and accurate ambush to take out an extremely modern force.”
The soldier merely smiles before screaming from the top of his voice and dying. Seeing this, Alana lets go of her grip, the soldier plops to the ground lifeless.
“Well that’s a shitshow. Get some boys in the Church of this place to capture him.” says the Captain.
Back on the main building, most of the windows were reinforced by barbed wire and concrete brought by the Engineering Platoon, M2 Browning Machine guns were also planted with Russian Dshk 12.7 guarding the hallways. Tripwires and Claymores are planted on empty rooms while outside, small fighting trenches were dug to defend the front lawn.
The fighting was ever so close and everyone was hastily running around the building and fortifying. Germans, Russians, Italians, Americans, Canadian, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Australians, Indonesias, Koreans, and Chinese players were everywhere, the differing camo patterns could daze anyone trying to find order. The Chandelier on the main lobby was also lowered to prevent it from falling down on the soldiers defending the front door.
The Vampire was completely clueless on what to do, seeing the commotion as everyone does their own task. She tries asking some of the soldiers if they need help but they couldn’t entertain her as they’re too busy. Bored, she goes outside to see just how bad it is. She’s met with a red sky, attack helicopters, dogfighting dragons and tracers flying from all directions to the skies. Screaming and the rumbling of engines are also mixed into them, far away she could also see beams of lasers being fired off kilometers away.
Curious, she grows out her bat wings to take a bit of a flight. Gaining some altitude, she uses her Vampiric eyes to see past the massive army being stalled by Paul and his men and far from that, two gigantic Dragons, one in Golden Armor and another one was Bahamut with her iconic Black Armored Scales.
“Ugh, what a mess…” Peeling back her senses, a bright golden beam of light strikes near the main gate, a turret of a Leopard 2A7 is seen flying hundreds of feet above the skies and landing on top of a house. Many of the players living in Kingsland were quickly evacuated but it was so hastily that the roads were basically littered with unusable cars and piles of rubble when the initial attack began. Below her, the Colonel boards a Humvee, taking him to the South entrance where many of the civilians used to leave the city.
Alana goes back down to the ground and stands in front of the main doors of the city hall with her Ancient Longsword out. Embedded on the ground and ready to fight. Back in the outskirts, some artillery was able to go through but many Knights had passed by Paul’s tank battalion and he already had a 70% lost rate. Just as he was about to retreat back to the main gate, a slash appeared out of nowhere, ripping his cape apart and scratching the back of his armor.
He looks back and sees no one is behind him, his brain switches to Vampire and Ninja fighting as only they could pull off such a stealth attack. The Knights that were trying to attack him backed off and continued to the main gates where the Joint soldiers were doing their best trying to stop them. Some even throw Incendiary grenades and douse the surroundings of the entrance with Diesel and setting it alight to burn the invaders.
Paul stopped moving, trying to figure out where this person would strike next, looking around while his tank was struck by a golden Spear, completely destroying it. The cook off of the ammo and engine was immense, throwing him and the Knights trying to get around the tank like a toy. Now dazed, he looks at his M1A2 Abrams, a burning wreck. He wants to scream but knows that there’s a bigger problem at hand. He stands up once again, this time ready to cast some high level magic when a woman’s voice came out of nowhere,
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“Show yourself!”
“Like I’d ever. Boomers like you need to learn a thing or two about dirty fighting.”
“Boomers? Wait, you're one of us. You came from our world!” he starts looking around, trying to find this woman and slice her up.
“How else would we know your weaknesses? You're reliant on technology and how most of you don’t know the metal of this world can resist even your biggest calibers of bullets.”
“Bullshit, why the hell are you helping them?! We just want to go home!”
“Oh I know, we were watching your big club meeting. United Nations, really? You guys really had to go there? Can’t you make a better name?”
“That’s not for me to decide kiddo. Now show yourself!”
“Ehhh… still got a lot of energy after all that? Okay, I might as well see how tough you people are. I’ve heard a lot about the Ancient Eldritch Knights, bringers of Death, their oath was not to the Devil Lord, but to Death itself. Let’s see if you fakes can hold up to the real thing.”
She reveals herself on top of the carcass of his tank, wearing a red robe lined with gold and silver, she then reveals her hands. Looking at those sharp red nails, Paul knows she’s about to use the Vampire’s signature claws, not giving in, he charges at her and they parry, she blocks all of his attempts to hit her chest or head, and in return, he blocks her attempts to kill him with the broadside of his sword. Though not visible on the outside, he’s having a hard time keeping up with her strikes.
Every parry she performed felt like a Sedan hitting his sword’s fuller. Not backing down, he grips tighter and steps his foot down, making the armored shoes dig and he performs another swing to block her claws, a small shockwave is sent, sending her back a bit.
“Huh, a burst of Combustion and Cursed Magic, interesting one human.”
“Don’t call me human when you yourself is one, I’ll drag your sweet ass back to our world and get you in jail for attempted murder bitch.”
“AHAHAHAH! Don’t make me laugh. As if I’ll ever return to our puny world. Can’t you see? The power, the wealth, the glory. All of it is here, why would any simpleton want to return.”
Her voice was sharp, deep and beautiful. In regard to Paul’s more crass but young voice, he wasn’t gonna hold back.
“And what does all that mean when in the end, you're not gonna die?”
“Huh?”
“Why do you think Vampires go mad or become crazy?” He traces back to his heartfelt conversations with Alana. The sadness and despair that one could feel from being isolated, stuck in time while the world continues to move.
“Hmph. Entertain me mortal.” Her posture was demeaning, though just as tall as him, she felt more higher than he is, wrapping one of her arms around her chest, and the other one, annoyingly gesturing for him to talk.
“Don’t call me mortal when you have the soul of one. A Vampire once told me, What good is there to come from not dying and damn did I agree with her.”
“Ehhh… that’s sweet and all, but not like you, I’ll continue on forever, as you can see, not even the Sun affects me.”
“Heh, something else will affect you when I’m done figuring out your weakness.”
The two go back at it, fighting, Paul this time showed no signs of fright, standing stronger while still obviously lacking in speed. Their fighting got so bad that the Knights trying to get around the two powerful foes started getting affected, thrown, scratched, and sliced. Suddenly, a green flare is fired from the main gate, it could be seen miles away, following the light was hundreds of attack helicopters, AH-64D Apaches, Mi-28N Havocs, Z-10s, Eurocopter Tigers and AH-1Z Cobras sporting of different Guild Logos and Flags, united in charing into the enemy army.
Blackhawks and Mi-8s with speakers started blaring “The Final Countdown” by Europe as what’s left of the main force arrived, the tanks, APCs and IFVs were battered, damaged and obviously battle hardened. The charismatic Colonel that was in charge of taking over Kingsland fires his M9 Beretta sidearm and screams “CHAARRRGEE!” from the top of his voice. Slowly but surely the powerful combined army of Divine and Dark Knights started getting stalled, valiantly, the players put up a fight even though being outnumbered 2/4.
The two stopped fighting as gunshots, explosions and shells started to land. Paul notices the Vampire girth her teeth, being the cheeky man he is, casts Ignite on himself. The spell turns the air around him into combustibles, exploding his surroundings, though the Vampire catches into it, she was too near and too late. Her ornate Red and Gold robe is blown clean off revealing an extremely attractive woman with deathly white skin and long hair.
“Oh… oh damn.” As if to tease her, he makes a pop sound with his mouth, whistling at her sight.
“Gah! You stupid man!” Now angered, she just teleports behind him. Knowing her strategy, he was able to block it but her scratches this time were hitting like a train not a car, kicking him a good few meters. Noticing the sudden change in power, he knows he’s doing damage to her, just not physical yet. As he was about to teleport himself, the Vampire once again teleports behind him, this time kicking him to the ground with immense force.
His head plops and kisses the grass on the ground, he couldn’t be happier wearing the Devilish Helmet of his Eldritch Knight set. Quickly turning around with his sword in a horizontal position to block her claws, he was instead met with a one handed Longsword. His senses kick in and block it before it is thrusted straight into his chestplate. Even more worried now, he teleports and quickly turns around blocking the Vampires slice.
“HAH-HAH!” He makes a small comment to even annoy the Vampire more.
A few kilometers out from the main battlefield, Bahamut was in her largest size ever, if she was to lay down, even ten hills wasn’t enough to cover her. What she was fighting was another Dragon God, not from the game Dark World but of this unknown planet. This gigantic Red Dragon was adorned with Golden Knight-like armor. He spoke with the voice of a mighty and powerful King, a man who if heard, shall be followed. Compared to her, an ice cold Queen with a taste for Strength and abundant with Wisdom. The two’s fight was earth shattering, one scratch or dodge changed the land drastically as their massive legs crushed the tall trees. Far away, one could see the silhouette of the two giants behind the mountains, creeping and letting out roars that could distort the sound waves and daze flying birds.
The two’s fire breath was on equal terms, every attempt each of the two made was met with just as equal force.
“Grrrrr… Great Dark One, Dragon of the Void, Bahamut, why does one stand against another?!”
“I never liked Red Dragons, Always sleeping inside Volcanoes and Lava caves. Hear me, the Ancient Red of Geraldia, Augustus, I shall not allow you to stomp and burn those men in Kingsland, let alone the ones riding around in metal boxes.”
“Can you not see? We cannot fight in full power, as if we do, both sides will be equally dead. Just join our cause, it is for the protection of this world. Everything here is in danger because of the invaders from another world!”
“Then why invite me? I also came from that world, if you want to get to them, you’ll have to get through me. Just as my Master said.”
“Master?! What sort of disgusting joke is this?!”
The two once again locked eyes, Bahamut opened her wings, taking flight, Augustus followed, they reached heights above Ten thousand feet where the two battled even more. Taking swings at one another by flying dangerously close to one's wing or tail to cut or disable them, Bahamut again uses her Dragon’s Breath, this time in less power and only reaching Augustus. “COME!” She screams, the giant dragon stares down the other.