Ray charged in screaming like a damn lunatic, raising his spear and gathering mana. His spear was glowing crimson as he gathered mana and unleashed it in a terrifying wave of destruction. The crimson crescent of mana sent from his spear went flying forward with deadly intent, clashing into the wall of ogres assaulting the guildhouse. Bodies were cut in half, limbs were sent flying, blood spraying in all directions. Ray kept screaming and swinging, sending another slash flying into the mass of bodies, not caring whether it was friend or foe.
"Where are you! Come out you damn snake! I'll slaughter you!" screamed Ray as he let loose another slash of crimson. His body was shaking at this point as he wrung all of his mana into the slashes. There was crimson lightning arcing from his hands down the spear. Ronia and Herald caught up with Ray while I was bringing up the rear.
Ronia grabbed Ray's shoulder and shook him. "Calm down you moron! You're going to kill yourself with the amount of mana your channeling! Do you want to die?!" She whacked him over the head as she said the last line. I finally caught up and saw that Ray had paused for a second, heaving and gasping for breath with the crimson mana still arcing down his spear. His eyes cleared up a bit and he looked less like a person who escaped an insane asylum and more like a regular person.
There were over 23 dead ogres from his massive strikes, with 3 long gouges in the ground. Fortunately not one human had been hit by his attacks, but there had been several close calls. I saw a few ogres heading our way with their clubs raised and nostrils flaring in anger. They didn't seem too happy after we slaughtered so many of them. I pointed this out while raising my sword and channelling some mana.
"Uhh, guys? Now's not the time to have a mental breakdown. Y'see we are kind of in the middle of a warzone so if you don't mind paying more attention and trying to NOT DIE? that would be much appreciated" I grunted as I swung my sword and launched 2 ice shards at the ogre nearest to me. The sword swing was blocked by his club but the ice shards pierced into his chest and forehead. The ogre roared in agony as it raised its club but an arrow pierced its throat and it fell backwards while gurgling.
"Yeah, your right." said Ronia as she nocked another arrow. She looked at Ray who was taking several deep breaths.
"You alright now? Don't run off like a lunatic next time or I'll kill you myself."
Ray chuckled weakly as he gripped his spear so tight his knuckles turned white. He looked back at the direction of the ogres, searching for something as he answered her. "Yeah, yeah I just had some bad memories dredge up after hearing about the corrupted mage. Hearing that there was one right at the guildhouse made me go a bit bonkers with bloodlust." He sliced his spear at another ogre that charged us with a vicious strike. The ogre was cut straight in half. I didn't know Ray was so damn powerful. That's the power of a level 70 person at the very least and Ray isn't even near level 50 from what I know.
Ray kept building crimson mana but to a lesser extent this time. It was less insane and more controlled. I finished off an ogre together with Ronia and finally took stock of the situation.
There were over a hundred corpses of ogres surrounding the guildhouse with more ogres swarming it. There were adventurers who were forming a perimeter and fending off the endless onslaught. There were dozens of injured people, with healers constantly healing in the medic station and the frontlines. There were also dozens of dead adventurers sprawled across the battlefield in various states of disarray.
I looked over and saw the guild master fighting on the frontlines quite literally punching shit to death. Every strike from his fists sent shockwaves, while creating a massive crater in whatever it was he punched. Sometimes the entire upper portion of the monster would just blow away in a spray of red. He yelled with his booming voice. "Keep it up lads! We'll just need to hold a little longer and reinforcements will arrive from the guild teleportation array! Just a little longer!" Another one of his fists swung, impacting an ogre and causing another loud boom to echo across the battlefield.
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The adventurers roared in assent as they redoubled their efforts. They may not have lost their spirits but the situation was grim nonetheless. We ran forwards, cutting through the ogres. I sent a mental order to my undead to converge and assault the horde here. Once that was taken care of I focused back on my front, slashing at anything that came near.
After what felt like hours of fighting we finally cleaved our way through the crowd of monsters and made it to the line of adventurers. I shot an ice spear straight at an ogre's chest, impaling it to the ground. It was still struggling and alive but we ran forwards past the line of defence. Herald was out of breath and was sporting several new wounds and dozens of dents in his armour from where ogres slammed their clubs or fists into him. We caught our breath and head towards the guild master with hurried steps. We got to where he was and started fighting the ogres near him. I started speaking while channelling mana behind Herald.
"Hey old man. We found out something rather important. We know where the monsters are coming from." I said as I fired an ice spear at an ogre near Ronia's left. She fired several arrows into its chest and neck to finish it off. The guild master crushed the skull of an ogre, blood splurting from his fist and looked at me briefly and then answered me.
"Yeah it's from that damn corrupted mage whos controlling them. Everyone knows that. Do you have any new information other than that?" His voice held a tone that made you want to hide under a rock and hope he didn't crush you.
I shook that feeling off as I looked for another ogre nearby. I answered "Yeah, I do as a matter of fact. The monsters are being summoned from those damn crystals, but here's the thing. The crystals are in the sewers. Our party found a fe-" I was cut off as a dozen ogres roared loudly, charging straight at the guild master. He lifted his fists in front of him and swung with a left jab, this time using mana. The fist was so fast I barely saw it move other than a blur. There was a massive boom that rocked the place.
I tried to stay steady on my feet as did several other adventurers and even some monsters. When I looked back at where he struck I was flabbergasted. There was nothing left where he struck. There was a trench dug into the ground from his strike, the trench filled to the brim with ogre chunks and blood. It was disgusting but I had seen far worse in the game when I played it. I was one of those people who turned gore to realistic and had gotten a bit too used to it. It was terrifying at the beginning but I got used to it after a while so no biggie.
Back to the action. The guild master breathed deeply as he looked back at me with his face giving me a look that meant I should cut the crap. I didn't dare look away and just stared right back at him. He sighed after a few seconds and ran his hand through what hair he had left.
"This whole shitshow is a lot worse than I thought. Didn't the city guards clear out the sewers 2 weeks ago? These ogres and goblins have been appearing for over 3 months now. Looks like I'll need to have a serious chat with the guard captain when this is over." I almost felt bad for the guard captain of Namph. He was going to stop existing when the guild master got his hands on him.
The guild master struck at another goblin nearby, sending me out of my daze. I quickly checked my mana and saw it was 3/4's full and readied a lightning spell I had used once before. This kind of crowd seemed perfect for a lightning spell regardless of how little my mana cap was at the moment, I was going to use this spell to dish out some serious pain.
While channelling mana I heard a voice coming from behind the crowd of ogres. It was the type of voice that grated on your nerves. Like nails on a chalkboard. That type of voice. I looked over and saw there was a hooded figure in a black robe with green lines decorating it. I had a good idea of who this bastard was and would bet my money on ear bleeder here being the corrupted mage behind this entire invasion on Namph.
"This is taking far longer than I anticipated. You are causing more trouble than you should Grangar. You should just piss off and die. You'll be a lot more help that way."
The guild master who I now knew was called Grangar, looked towards ear bleeder and ground out his next few words.
"I'll make you pay for the blood of the citizens you have spilt with your own blood. I''m going to leave nothing behind when I'm done with you!"
With that the guild master charged towards the corrupted mage. It seemed that there was going to be quite a show with the 2 of them duking it out. I looked on in anticipation of a good fight, fighting on autopilot while most of my attention was on the guild master. This was going to be great.