Faro and Mark sat together back to back with Faro watching the door well Mark kept an eye on the steps that had brought them up to where they were now. The other ten all that was left of the attack force where scattered across the room as they made final preparations for whatever was waiting for them on the other side of the stone gate.
Though they all suspected it was the fort's commander that was waiting for them on the other side. Though whether he was alone or with body guards they wouldn't know until the gates were opened and they charged through for a final time. Faro began to take stock of what equipment his men had on them figuring he needed to know what men he had left were working with.
The remaining players were all wearing the same type of red plate armor. Faro asked Mark for details on the of the strange red armor as well as the weapons they carried. Seeing as he hadn't seen the plant based equipment before and Mark was among their number so hopefully he would know and would tell Faro all their special little tricks. Mark looked over and got the stats screen for the armor the remaining ten players were wearing first.
rose's grasp- plant armor- armor type: plate mail- description: it is a set of armor with a green harness at its center with several roses spread through it at each rose are five petals of red steel that link together to form the chain mail that is the armor- special trait- always five petals : whenever a plate is too damaged it will fall off the stem of the rose holding it to the harness and a new plate will be grown to take its place keeping the roses at five red metal petals at all times.
Upon hearing the description of the armor Faro nodded a bit in wonder. As the description explained how they made it as far as they did. Though Mark wondered how they all got the same rose armor considering they should have gotten a random selection of seeds to choose from but then he remembered that it been a couple days since his first battle in game at Faria.
Which meant people had been sharing ideas on forum's and message boards probably. So once Mark realized that it made since someone else came up with the idea for the rose plate armor and it simply got shared online and these guys simply repeated the idea. Which did explain why they were different from each other in that their armor's didn't line up exactly giving strange patterns to their armors that made the surviving ten different to each other.
Though now that they had the armor figured out Faro needed to know what the weapons they had actually did besides the obvious. As several of the players remaining weapons differed wildly while from each others unlike their armor and so Mark began to go through them one by one. The one furthest to the left of Faro had a black whip and Mark told Faro its stats as it appeared before him.
Burning birch- wood whip- weapon type: whip- description: a whip made out of multiple strands of black birch wood that has been stretch outward from a wooden hilt - special trait- living oil: the multiple whip strands coming out of the hilt of the weapon are covered in a special living oil that allows the user to controll the whip easily and acts as acid when it hits undead.
Faro nodded to to the description of the whip user's special trait that gave it supernatural controll which would make its user rather effective on the battlefield. As unlike other whip users he didn't have to worry about accidently losing control of his whip and hitting allies since the weapons own ability prevents that. Mark upon seeing Faro was ready to hear about the next weapon began telling him the weapons that belonged to the player right of the whip user.
Lenten doom- flower mace- weapon type: spiked mace- description: a spiked mace made out of a several large Lenten roses wrapping around themselves to form a ball as the head and the roots to form the hilt. At its head are several sharp seeds poking out to act as spikes - special trait- spiked seeds: when the lentin doom is swung as any enemy there is a chance that a spike my break of in the enemy when this happens a Lenten rose bush will began to grow out of the enemy it is highly effective against undead as the Lenten natural healing properties cause extra danage to undead.
Faro nodded once again to another description by Mark at a players weapon the effects sounding rather effective mostly due to the fact that even if you didn't get a good hit any hit with Lentens doom could be dangerous. The fact the man had two of the things was a rather fortunate affair as it made him rather dangerous to any undead as it doubled any chance of death by spiked seeds. Faro would have to put him to the front of whatever formation they ended up taking. Mark once again seeing that Faro seemed to have processed the information moved on though this time to a set of four players and their equipment.
Phlox shield- flower shield- weapon type: tower shield- description: a large shield made out of creeping phlox flowers it's roots wrapping together to form the base and the handle that are used to grip it by - special trait- creeping link: this tower shield can link itself either with other towers shields like itself to become a strong shield wall or it can grow it's roots into the ground to become an actual physical wall. Either way this allows the tower shield user extra bracing from any series blows.
Ragwort Lance- flower spear - weapon type: - spear-description: a long spear made up of a giant daisy's root with a flower bud at it's end - special trait- exploding rot flower: whenever the flower bud tip of this spear pierces an opponent it will explode within the opponent in a shower of acidic nectar before quickly regrowing a new flower bud to pierce the next opponent.
Faro's was keeping close attention to the four as Mark explained the abilities of the shields and spear they had. Faro began making plans on how to fit them in with the previous two player discussed and liking that the four would make a decent front line. Now knowing what their equipment did he nodded his thanks and asked Mark to continue with whoever was next.
Golden flamer staffs- leaf staffs - weapon type: - staff- description: a staff made out of the roots of a bush about half way up it is thousands of leaves that growen facing downward from the staff all are a rose pink color - special trait- golden burn: when the staff is triggered by its user the pinks leafs will start to turn a gold as they are launched in whatever direction the staff is pointed and the golden leafs will burn anything they hit on contact.
Faro looked at the last four as they held their staffs at the ready that group had a nervous energy to them as if they were on itchy trigger fingers and once Mark explained what their weird pink staffs did he realized they were. He figured weapons like that needed a few second to burn through a target and in a battle a few seconds is a long time. He nodded his thanks to Mark and sat there moment thinking about the men he had four heavy spear users, four heavy mid to long range attack users and two specialist. Along with himself and Mark he thought about those numbers and the best odds of victory considering that anything could be waiting for them on the otherside of the giant stone doors.
" Alright lads break time is over it's time to gather around!" Faro roared out as the 10 remaining Men gathered around him and Mark. "Alright we're going to be in formation when we go in there and the formation is going to be the spears users up front me and Mark to the flanks while the gold flamers are going to be just behind the spear users with the specialist to their sides." Faro said before looking every single one of his remaining men in the eye.
" Are your orders understood!" Faro roared out to which he got a yes sir back. " Well then lads I think out last fight of the day is beyond those stone gates so let us give a good account of ourself shall we." Faro told the men as they all got into the formation and marched up to the stone gate from the midway point of the room. The front ranks pushed the stone gate opened with their combined strength and once it was wide enough for the formation to walk through they began their march through.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Once they were on the other side they were blinded for a moment by light having to wait a moment for their eyes to adjust the sudden brightness. Then once the groups eyes fully adjusted they looked around the room they had walked into beyond the stone gate. They saw the room was actually part of a balcony and the light was coming from the sun shining down upon them. As they looked upon the room they noticed all along the walls were multiple statues of dragonfly heads built into the walls they were all twice the size of the average man.
Wondering where the commander was as they expected the commander to spring at them as soon as they walked through the gate. Instead they found no enemies waiting for them and were just wandering around the entrance way of the balcony and starting to question if the commander was even here. That's when they noticed it a being was sitting at a table at the edge of the balcony it had its back towards them. They could tell it wasn't a man as they could make out strange insect scales shining even from the opposite side of the room.
" Well it seemed you made it past my defenders, well done commander Faro." The being at the table said with a voice of a thousand buzzing wings. This caused the attack group to flinch in surprise. Faro took a step forward a strong grip on his sythe as he stated at the creature's back.
" Are you the commander of this fort?" Faro asked in a firm and even tone as he motioned for the group to be ready for a fight. The rest gathered themselves and all prepped their equipment getting ready for whatever would come next.
" Well yes I am Faro." The voice of thousands buzzing insect wings said. " Now that we've established our positions shall we get on to the battle between our subordinates." The creature stated causing Faro confusion as to what subordinates he was talking about. He was about to ask when the being at the table raised his right fist then dropped it which was a sign. In response out of the dragonfly heads that lined the walls came hundreds of flying creatures that immediately dived at Faro's attack group.
The group reacted immediately the four that had golden flamer staffs opened up filling the air with burning leafs. This kept the full tide from hitting them causing the creatures to have to maneuver around the burning leafs burning above and come to attack them from strange angles if they wanted to strike at the front ranks of Faro's attack formation.
The melee that made up Faro's front found themselves trying to not be killed by these never ending swarms that kept coming no matter how many burned in the magic leaf fire storm or were struck down by the weapons of the front ranks. The fight started to turn desperate as the enemy ranks went from hundreds to over a thousand as they were beganing to get overun Faro began to notice that these creature never stopped receiving reinforcements from the dragonfly statue heads.
As the grand melee below and the dance of burning leafs above intensified as they scorched more and more of the strange creatures attacking them. They finally saw the creatures stat screen telling them what exactly they had been fighting.
Dragfly ghoul - tier one- dark insect- flying zombie- Trait: servant hive of the first - these are the creations and servants of a being that is first of its kind you will always find more of them so long as the being they serve continues to exist- description- a creature half the size of a man they have four compound eyes and a tail that doubles their length with a sharp stinger at it's end. They have six arms each having a hand that ends with razor sharp claws. They have four insect wings that are twice the length of their body and they are known for their maneuverability.
The players now knowing they were in endless horde that were the bodyguards for the being claiming to be the fort's commander were growing nervous. They weren't sure what to do about this situation luckily Faro was even if he didn't have access to the same Intel as the players he could still observe that numbers of enemies were growing not shrinking despite how many they'd killed. " Alright lads looks like if we want out of this were going to have to go for the head. So spearmen to the sides, Mace up front with Mark and whip is in back with me the golden flamers will be in the center. Now move people we don't got all day!" Faro shouted put as the players obeyed him getting into his moving formation as they charged towards the being at the war table at the end of the balcony.
They charged forward the leaves from the golden staffs burning through dragfly ghouls over their heads as they moved forward. Those dragfly ghouls not burning above them were slamming into them using their wings maneuverability to get an angle to attack. They would claw at the player trying to use their tails to find gaps in their defense and pierce them. But the players left had proven their skill and gained experience in making it this far into Carthax so they proved they wuickly could handle the dragfly tricks luckily moving forward made it harder for dragfly to find a gap in the defenses as the attack force kept charging forward.
They got closer and closer to the enemy commander though as they did the dragfly ghoul swarm got thicker as the reinforcement speed seemed to increased the closer they got to threating the commander they eventually they did reached the commander despite the setback. " Alright Mark time for you to duel like your obsessed about! The rest of you were keeping this swarm off him well he kills the creepy bastard!" Faro roared out as to be over heard over the sound of the now thousands of dragfly ghouls swarming around them.
" I'm not obsessed dammit!" Mark roared back as he charged at the figure sitting at the table who still hadn't turned to face Mark just as his sword Foxes teeth would have buried itself to the hilt in his spine the being vanished turning into thousand of small dragonflys. Mark looked around rapidly trying to figure out what had just happened then he felt a burning sting in his back he spun around and finally saw the creatures that had just been sitting at the table a moment ago. He could see it in its entirety causing a stats screen for it to pop up for him to quickly read through.
Dragolous lord Flatek- tier three-dark insect type - insect champion - Trait: many are one - this being is not actually one but many as it is made up of thousands combined into one as such it can seperate into individual parts and then form back together- description- the first of its kind and as such it is both a champion and a lord to any that come to be made after this one. It is made up of thousands of dragonflys acting as one though you would not be able tell by looking at the creature as it stands twice as tall as a man and looks just like a dragfly ghoul but bigger and somehow more sophisticated.
" You should know better than turn your back on an enemy." Flatek said a mocking tone to his voice of a thousand tiny lungs speaking as one. Mark ignored the good advice and charged trying to end this battle as quickly as possible before they were overwhelmed by a swarm of dragfly ghouls. But once again Flatek deformed but instead of of reforming behind Mark as he had been expecting he instead appeared behind the mace user sticking a claw into the back of his leg before deforming once again and reforming in front of Mark. " Now where we."Flatek said his voice filled with mockery.
So it went on and on Mark trying to fight Flatek only to have him disappear and appear somewhere else mocking him and usually wounding one of the other members of the assault group. Mark knew he needed to end this and so he racked his brain for anything to help him do just that not finding anything and about to panic as several members were about to fall from the combination of the numbers of dragfly ghouls and the suprise attacks of Flatek. That's when it hit him he had a reward from a previous battle that might just help him he reached into his inventory and quickly pulled it out.
He turned to face Flatek holding Foxe's teeth in one hand and the staff called Calacra's reach in the other. He waited till Flatek got close to him once again. He charged with Foxe's teeth as he had done before and as before Flatek deformed turning into a cloud of thousand of dragonflys to reform somewhere else on the battlefield. But before Flatek could Mark turned and activated Calacra's reach which caused the claw at the head of the staff to seek out the dragon fly in the swarm that was Flatek's heart the claw stretched from the staff and grabbed a large dragonfly that was beating rapidly pulsing with a red glow and dragging it back to the staff before it crushed the dragonfly in its grips bathing Calacra's reach in the blood of Flatek's heart.
Flatek formed one last time holding his chest with all six hands. " Well played." Flatek gasped out before falling over dead. Once he fell to the ground dead the swarm of dragfly ghouls turned on each other the loss of their lord driving them mad with grief and rage as they tore each other apart. The attack force fell on their backsides exhausted and wounded but somehow alive.
Suddenly a huge blue screen appeared before all the players mark read his. You have won the battle of the siege of Carthax you will now be logged out as time dialiation for this event is now over and any longer stay would be dangerous. The MVP are the eleven elite of Faro's attack force. We thank you for playing Allyssa. Then the world went blue as Mark was forcibly ejected from the game.
" Well I got to say that was a good show by both commanders both showed their skills there. Too bad I won't get that rivalry between the two as Flatek is dead. Rivalrys always boost ratings big time." Simon said a bit depressed he couldn't use a Faro and Flatek rivalry in his advertisments.
" Not necessarily you never know considering who Flatek serves. Staying dead when you serve a god of the undead is a bit of a hard thing to do." Robert said hoping to cheer Simon up. " Besides I'm just glad everything worked out this battle was starting to drain me with all its back and forths."Robert admitted as he waited to see the fall out the siege of Carthax would have.
" True I can hope Flatek comes back stronger than ever before will really help with the advertisements. Though you are right there has to be an ending sometime." Simon admitted. "Now let's see if we needed all your expansions for Alyssa after all." Simon said excited to see how the world of wonders and the mad responded to the battle of Carthax now that there would be footage of it spreading through the world's internet.
Simon and Robert focused on multiple TV screens in his workshop watching as Allyssa and the world of wonders and the mad responded to what had happened at Carthax.