Preston had not slept for almost two days. He had reviewed every contingency again and again. He felt everything would hinge on the assault today. Being a public figure, a few close friends in-game had his cell number. He told them to call him in if there were any changes in the situation. He tried napping for a couple hours, but could not sleep at all. Instead, to not waste time, as real world ran four times faster than Royal Road, Preston decided to do his thinking there, instead of tossing and turning in bed.
“What are those? They look really cool. See those? They look like rainbows,don’t they?”
One of the wall guards squinted his eyes to focus his sight. As an archer, he had the help of <
“I recognise that one. Remember the lizardmen punitive force we had last year? Oh. Yeah. Most of you were not there,” a veteran player on the wall commented.
“That is the reward of the quest. Rainbow Fish. It is an intermediate cooking ingredient. You can only get it in large quantities once a year, apparently. For the rest, you have to try your luck fishing at a hilltop lake close to Cosare. And mind, lizardmen ambush you if you are really unlucky. Not to be done alone!”
Preston moved on to other sections of the wall. The noon breeze was blowing gently in the direction of the castle. It carried the mixed fragrance of the cooking done beyond the open field. Preston was sure the assault would at least be around afternoon, judging by how the preparations went.
’They are stocking up on food buff. I guess it is our turn to break out our supplies. Have to go all out like them.
Whispering to the appointed logistics officer to prepare every single food buff imaginable, Preston looked up. Arvel was hovering high above.
’Sup, matey!’
Arvel waved his right hand in courtesy greeting to the wizard he could barely make out in the distance between them. He could not see the Wizard’s face, but saw the hand wave in reply vaguely. Both never flew close enough to greet each other. He doubted they would ever get the chance, except when both were battling in close range.
’Might be tonight. No. Definitely tonight. I might finally get to see his mug up close.’
Continuing his air patrol route, Arvel circled as close as he dared. He did not see much. The large tents really hindered his intelligence gathering ability. The most recent report he added to Preston was the long queue in a small tent. He left Preston to gather the meaning from it. His job was to observe and report.
His opponent was turning back to land. Once more, Arvel grinned at his superior ability. Little did he know that all of that counted for nothing later.
xXx
“Alright folks! Eat your assigned food. We are starting right on the hour!”
Haskel had brought the latest intelligence that would make his last flying for probably the whole campaign. He could not believe that between seven of them, they made one debacle after another.
“Eh! It is such a waste. It is too beautiful to be eaten just like that!” One quipped.
She was holding up a bun with a wisping miniature rainbow above it. Haskel had to concur that it was a beautifully-made food. But he would stuff it down his mouth, if it made them win the battle.
“It is food. You eat it.”
Mackey,who stood tall and resolute, stated it like a fact. The man was a very good swordsman, and charismatic.
’But his brain is likely missing a small mass somewhere.’
’Probably the section under common sense.’
Anyone that knew Mackey would think the same. The knight was too literal-minded in everything he heard, said and did.
’Not that I am any better for endorsing Summer and going through with this plan. Oh, well. We were going to lose anyway.’
Mackey was to be at the point of the special assault charge with Summer, Haskel and a priest that was one of the four supposedly of equal standing in the alliance, and six others. Haskel hated the guy’s guts, but had to pick him, as he was the highest level, and had too much influence as a guild leader not to be picked. He would have preferred to pick someone with a less annoying temper. But a politician can never be choosy with what they have, sometimes. Their strength lie in using what they have as best as they can.
Summer was doing a last check before they began operating on their own. He checked on Orval. Normally, he would had preferred Tolan. But recently, he had been despondent due to his failed love. Summer could only shake his head in sympathy. He knew love once, at least he thought he knew. Summer could have picked someone else other than Orval, too. But he was the most enthusiastic of the bunch.
’At least he is not moping anymore. I do not think I can take another week of that moping. But now it is Tolan? What am I to do?’
Sighing, Summer checked the blacksmiths that were lining up too. Their role was as important as the special assault team. They had the most protection out of everyone, as they would be enveloped by the direct assault team securely. He did a last minute conferring with all of them.
“Two minutes. It is physically impossible to be any faster than that,” the elected leader summed up their circumstances. Summer nodded. It was as good as he thought it could be. They shook hands and he moved on. The catapult was the last part he needed to check.
“Gustav. How is everything?”
“As prepared as we can be, I guess. I have jitters thinking about what you are about to do.”
Summer winced too, when he thought about it. Thrice damned his best friend that was not here! He was probably laughing at him, somewhere along the road with Adria.
“I have to do it, though it has its risks.”
Summer covered his original emotion with a stoic facade and bravado. Not catching anything, Gustav nodded.
“I have the hay and torches ready. All catapults are measured and angled properly with the distance marked. The operators here are good with it, since they helped to figure out the maths.”
The ten catapults were separated in three different groups, according to its load. Three were calibrated for light weights, two for medium weights and five for the heavy load of the largest bundled hay. They had to tightly tie the hays to fit it into the basket hand for the last one. It was really densely-packed.
A mix of excited and determined faces nodded to Summer and Gustav. The nine, with Gustav in charge, would be handling the catapults and the load. All the hay bales had been weighed quite carefully to maximise the coverage.
Summer looked up at the sun. It was not that low yet, around the west horizon, but it was near time. He nodded to himself.
“Okay. I think we can get started in ten minutes. Tell everyone.”
xXx
‘Preston! I think they are starting,’ Wilem whispered to Preston, who was in the war room, pouring over the maps of the city, and the drawn approximation of the attacker’s side of the field.
‘Situation report!’ Preston whispered back. He ran quickly to the gatehouse for the best vantage point.
‘Er.. I think they are eating their food?’
‘Not that! Something else?’
‘They are loading bales of hay now.’
‘Thanks, Wilem. I will be there soon.’
Preston whispered to the men assigned at the center of the city. He could imagine a rain of fired hay coming at them soon.
xXx
“Don’t put too much fire onto it. Okay. That is good. Now, launch it!’
*Lever Pull* *Clank* *Swish*
Gustav loaded his next bale of hay, and launched it to the city after firing it. The hays were packed loosely, and would scatter upon impact. They deliberately did not mix anything else with the hay.
It took him a little more time than he thought to organise the purchase of hay. But Gustav always had a good eye for organising logistics. He made it happen much faster than everyone else thought possible. Buying from farmers every last straw of hay they could get their hands on, they did not spend as much as they thought to. Now the ten were launching the hay out, with 600 men and women waiting for the real plan to begin.
“Okay, everyone! Do it like in the practice! One two, Earth Coffin!”
xXx
’What the.....’
Preston was indeed right. Hays were fired to a location inside the city. But he wondered what the other side was thinking. He was prepared to handle incident of fires in the lower city area or the merchant area, that should be the target. But the hays that were set on fire were aimed smack at the city square, that had nothing of real value.
Now he was looking at something that he could finally make sense of, but it became rather scary. As a good veteran, Preston knew a good amount of information of how other classes worked in general. What he was looking at now was an application of <
Preston imagined the rows of mages that raised up the wall together in beat. It was a sixty meter long wall, almost without any gaps, sprouting every six seconds or so, moving from the side of the enemy. He saw archers massed behind the wall too, with the mages.
“Wilem! Get everyone on the wall ready! You see what is coming!”
“Sir!” Came the reply.
Preston aimed his spying glass to the other direction. The melee groups were congregating off to the far side.
’Six hundred, seven hundred... around that much.’
He finished his count quickly. The rest of the group, probably some six hundred, were still in the camp area. That made the count to be around 300 at the moving earthen wall. Preston was a little off, as the current count for the attacker was at 1594 players. Six hundred were assigned to the special assault, a mix of priests, mages, melee types, and archers, with melees making the bulk of it, especially the fast-moving types.
Ten, with Gustav in charge, were left to man the catapult, while 326 mixture of mages and archers were slowly moving into position, the earthen wall would terminate at 30 meters distance off the castle wall. Of this, sixty were solely responsible for summoning and dismissing the moving earth barrier, with Orval in charge of this job. It was a skill too little mages had, but was remedied by Adria teaching them en-masse.
The slow, heavily-armored melees, with 40 blacksmiths that were the core of the group and the rest of the melees, were relegated to the direct assault team, that now moved to the far end of the wall, where they would eventually circle to the east side of the wall, under cover of darkness.
“Fire up the torches! Night battle protocols!”
Preston shouted up and down the wall for everyone to light their torches and braziers. He need not make the whole circuit, as everyone got the idea soon. The night had not fallen. But Preston was ready for anything.
’What are they going to to with that load of cut wood? I do not see any battering ram or bridges.’
While Preston was puzzling this mystery, the mages and archers reached the thirty meter distance.
xXx
“Don’t do anything yet! Save up your mana! I know you want to throw something at them. You will get your chance later. You there! Get your head down!.”
Tolan finally got his ass in gear and began to do his job. Summer had a little talk with him, and he saw how foolish he was. He was not fully recovered from his heartbreak, but he was getting there. He was not taking charge of the important job. For now, his job was keeping everyone’s head down until the crazy part began.
xXx
“What are they doing? They are just sitting there doing nothing!”
An impatient archer above the wall, that had been itching to fire at the enemy and had been denied the pleasure, was complaining.
“I don’t know. But you do not want to waste that arrow. Might be helpful later.”
The archer scowled at Arvel, who finally made his debut on the wall.
“Don’t believe me? Watch this. I call a heavenly bolt. Lightning!”
A streak of lightning shot from his outstretched finger to strike a section of the wall. It was an impressive display of basic wizardly magic. It cracked the wall in a spray of rocks. And stopped dead after destroying another layer.
“See? Triple layers. You need more arrows, son. Even I am not generous enough to fire at that wall alone. And they can still summon at least another five in a pinch. A very useful bit of defensive magic, eh?”
While they were talking, replacement walls were erected to close up the broken section. The archer nodded dumbly, and replaced his arrow in his quiver.
“Cheer up! They have to get out of there if they want to shoot at us.”
Meanwhile, behind the protective barricade, everyone was talking about how they were going to enjoy giving back to the men above real good.
xXx
‘Preston. We are through here. What are we going to do with these hays?’
Preston had just received a whisper from the leader he assigned, to douse the incoming fire. After a full two hours of bombardment, the city square was a mess. The mages assigned were not spending too much effort in dousing the fires, simply casting water-type spells.
The darkness had arrived, but he had not seen the full effort yet. This could not be it right?
‘Wet them down as thoroughly as you can. Then get back here. I need you on the reserve just in case. No more hays coming in, but precaution never hurts.’
Two full minutes without more hay after they were firing them up every thirty seconds. Preston was not inclined to believe that they had spent their whole load, and asked the hay to be wet, in case they came up with more hay suddenly. He sort of expected rocks to come next, but was disappointed when there were none.
‘Got it, boss. Coming right up!’
“Okay. I just got word from the boss. Wet them up good, and we can go back. I think we will get to see a fight after all.”
Mixed groans and cheers greeted the news.
“Don’t complain! Work those hands! Water Spout!”
“That was the last of it, Summer. We are done for the moment. How long do we have to wait?”
“Half an hour maybe? No. Make that one, just to be safe,” came the reply from Summer.
xXx
“Carvall. We are here.”
Carvall nodded to Odette. They were at the east section of the wall. They deliberately stayed way outside the range of an archer’s shot. 200 meters. Well away. Summer and Carvall agreed that this part of the plan did not rely on stealth. In fact it might be better if they saw them coming.
For now, they waited.
“Two hours,” Carvall whispered.
Everyone around him nodded, and passed the word around. Their turn would begin in two hours.
Winter was off near a campsite with Adria. They were dining, with Adria back to insisting doing all the cooking. She was making a pork meat bun using the steamer she had gotten from the camp before she left. Winter was disappointed at himself for not thinking that up.
“What is Uncle Summer doing now, you think?”
Adria had picked up the habit of calling Summer Uncle too, like what Celine cutely did often, when she failed to pronounce Daniel’s last name. Winter never really asked why she never simply called him Uncle Daniel or Uncle Dan.
“He just told me he will be starting soon.”
Winter received whispers from Summer just now. In fact, he was currently receiving them. He silently chuckled as the contents were getting more and more desperate. Summer had a major weakness, for all his charms. Now Winter could forgive him for getting embarrassing stories out of Adria.
“You Outlanders make me a little jealous. You can communicate at impossible distances mind to mind.”
Winter wondered whether NPCs regarded all players as Outlanders. She seemed to have no whispering capability at all, like normal players.
“Think you can ask Freya for one?” Winter jokingly poked fun at her.
“I did. If she heard, she is not granting it,” Adria sighed.
Winter continued his whispering activity, while Adria sat primly, waiting for her dish to finish cooking. The sounds of nature accompanied the silence.
“Dinner is ready, Uncle Winter.”
“That smells delicious, Adria.”
‘Good luck, old friend,’ whispered Winter before diving into his dinner.
xXx
‘Thanks for nothing, old friend,’ Summer replied. The hour was almost up.
“Gustav. I think we can get started now. I will give the signal to Orval now.”
The six hundred players that were antsy from standing around doing nothing, began separating themselves into their groupings. Gustav nodded and waited for everyone to settle down.
‘Preston. I think I see movement.’
‘What do you see, Arvel?’
‘Not sure. It is a bit too far.’
‘Ask one of the archers to have a good look.’
‘Will do.’
“My impatient friend. Think you can stop looking down for a second and look that way?”
Arvel pointed to the side of the catapult with 600 players organized in formations. Arvel could not fully see the whole thing. But his unenhanced eyesight was enough to see a formation.
“Sure. Give me a minute.”
The previous archer, that was advised by Arvel to not waste his arrows. squinted his eyes to zoom in further. He saw lines first. Then, he saw something he thought was a joke. They were loading the catapult, yes. But not with the usual choice of ammunition.
“Eh? They are loading the catapult with...”
The archer never got to finish the sentence, as Orval passed the word to let loose. They quickly synchronised the 60m earth wall to 120m in ten seconds. Now, each mage summoned two, triple layered <
“Let loose men! Hit them hard! Fireball!”
Tolan let loose his first bit of magic. There was no more need to keep their head down. Chants of magic and bows were raised in position.
The archer was just unlucky enough to be the first casualty. It was a near thing too for Arvel, as he heard the enemy attack announcement too late. Spells and arrows hit him hard before he got the chance to duck.
“We are under attack! Duck!”
’Whoever was supposed to look down at the enemy needs to be fried! I nearly got myself killed before doing anything!’
Arvel immediately dismissed whatever thoughts he had in his head. Curiosity was for later. Drinking up his mana potion, he refilled his depleted health points quickly. He would rejoin the battle soon, and pay them back for riddling him with arrows and magic.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
’SSsshhhhhiiiiiitttt!!!!’
Summer was screaming in his head because he was frozen with terror. This was the part of the plan he was most afraid of. The first ten men had gotten into the basket and launched up to the sky! He was currently zipping quickly down the large pile of hay they had launched as a bed inside the city. Daniel’s weakness: He was scared of fast rides!
’God almighty!!!! This is stupid!
Haskel,who had agreed to the plan, was regretting it now, the moment the catapult level was pulled with him inside the basket. Mackey was spread six meters to his left beside him, whooping in glee! They were above the wall now.
“Freya! Is that even possible!”
Preston, who saw the launched players that passed above him, was truly astonished. His section of the wall was not under attack from archers and mages in close range. They were trading magic and arrows back and forth, with rare moments of the combatants actually dying. It’s the blasted earthen wall!
Preston could see the radiant figure of Arvel firing bolts of lightning, that lost to the speed of the wall sprouting back. The arrows had barely any effect against the triple-layered wall, thus they were waiting for any that were foolish enough to get their heads above the wall.
‘Arvel! Get the shamans to dissolve the wall!’
‘I did! We are just too slow! I think the whole mage corps down there know the spell!’
‘Do your best!’
Preston shouted to the archers and mages around him to attack the flying bodies. It was not helpful, as the figures were flying in near darkness, and quickly passed them before they could draw a bead. Only very few skilled or lucky archers could make such a hit under pressure. Everyone felt their morale drop instantly.
’‘This is useless!’
“Men! Half to that side! The rest to the city square!”
Their position disallowed them to shoot the live catapult ammunition. The range team down the 30m mark kept the section that could do damage there pinned with their head down right around the time the volley was launched. The attackers had twice their number of men! Preston only had only 801 at last count.
“AAAAahhhhh!!!!”
*Smack*
You landed with great impact from a great height!
Health reduced by 80%
*Smack* *Wham* *Thud*
Daniel landed with a scream on a wet pile of hay, with the others landing too quickly. He did not think they would be so careful as to wet the hay. It actually might have helped them reduce the damage as his landing was rougher than expected. Summer was mainly lucky though not that lucky, as he landed on the thin section of the hay. Still better than some he saw that landed outside the zone and died instantly from impact. He got up, oriented himself, and began finding the assigned perching position from the intel Haskel provided him, and every archer that would land after.
’God! I might get addicted to this!’
Haskel, who activated <
Haskel smirked when he saw Baker, the annoying priest he had to pick, splatter against the wall. Instant death. His mood was already improving. He moved to the widest section of the path, that led to the square, and began raising Stone Coffins. He saw another mage, and elf, that survived the quick flight, raise her own walls quickly, to cover another open path. Haskel was initially doubtful that a player with a lower level should be put into the critical forward section. But she was ambitious, charming, and sexy as hell. So, why not?
Raising his own walls, Haskel saw Mackey and the warriors blocking the still open sections as much as they could.
Wilem had just informed Preston that the enemies were barricading themselves in. His numbers were too low to mount an assault successfully. And with every passing minute, two more volleys and additional reinforcements arrived. The three minutes it took Wilem to get organised and get himself down the square, the enemies had closed all entrances tightly, making the square a haven. With a hundred men taken from East Wall, he did not like his chances. It got worse when archers were posted on rooftops, sniping anyone that stepped out of the shadows.
“Earth Scatter!” A shaman shouted the spell to dissolve the magical wall.
“This is useless!” Another shouted back, while waiting for the cooldown, before casting again.
Fifteen minutes had passed since the first volley was fired. The attacks were intensifying. Both sides were taking more and more chances, and more casualties. But such was the madness of war.
’What am I to do! What am I to do! What else can I do!’
Preston racked up his brain for a solution. He drew a blank. The plan was ridiculously beyond measure. He had no counter for such a plan, as he had never thought of such a possibility. Now he had to do damage control and recovery.
‘Move the reserves and West and South Wall troops to the center!’
‘But...’
‘I don’t care! If we let them get away, we will lose!’
‘Done!’
Fifteen minutes later, the whole bombardment stopped. Gustav and the catapult handlers’ last act was to launch themselves into the city. Quick and dirty calculation netted Preston 600 players or so inside the city, assuming all survived. But Preston’s thought was right. Occasionally, the players landed off the hay and died. Including the last throw with the handlers in, 610 were delivered, but only 543 survived. The survival rate, starting with the highest rank, were Mages, Priests, Archers and Warriors. The heavier armors were the initial cause of most deaths, until Summer told Gustav to have all warriors unequip their heavy armor except their shields.
The defenders, with 801 players before the battle started, were spread thin between the city square defense, the northern section return fire, and guarding the eastern section from the nonexistent threat so far.
‘Leave a hundred down on east side. Get the rest down the city!’
Preston whispered to the east side’s leader.
‘Commander Preston! We failed to contain the enemy! They are scattering!’
With a foul oath which he uttered to himself, he left a command to Wilem to give chase as best as he could. Preston had not realised yet that the nightmare was not over.
‘Odette. We in position. Get ready.’
Summer whispered to Odette. She passed the message along. Every warrior that had been relaxing, was tense now, and began taking out their equipment.
‘We are ready. You can start anytime, Father.’
“Hey, they are moving. Tell Preston.”
A guard at the east wall saw the inactive bunch of warriors suddenly begin moving at a dead run.
Another one, who had begun composing a whisper message, suddenly dropped dead. The back side of his head was so riddled with arrows, that it was easier to think that it was an unusual hairstyle (Author: I imagined a shuttlecock). He did not get to sound the alarm, though the ones after him did.
Winter came up with this last bit of the plan, that made other choices of going over or through the wall quickly attractive. The bridge was out, with the gate slammed down. The moat did not provide enough space to put up a climbing ladder. Climbing up with a grappling hook was a fast way to be repelled when it was cut. It would be the best choice if they had range attackers in the group. But Odette’s section was purely melee for a reason. They were going to walk up the wall.
“Go! Go! Go! Faster! Faster!”
Carvall raised his voice above the loud yelling and screaming above the wall. Summer, someone he knew through this campaign and respected, would be sowing mayhem above. It was finally their turn, if a little earlier by ten minutes.
The east wall originally had two hundred of a variation of archers, and mages being protected by warriors, with a small number of priests doing the healing inside the tower house. They were also the first one eliminated, when they were attacked from behind. The special assault team that had made a successful landing, a quarter of them had been specified to attack the east wall troops from behind. They managed to down around fifty players, including the priests, before the defenders reacted. Now they were firing back and fighting to regain the tower house that was overtaken, which was why they were surprised when suddenly, a horde of warriors jumped up from behind them and began cutting them down!
“Are you serious! This is just... AHRGH!!!”
Preston had no words to express his frustration. He expected that in siege battle,enemies would try to climb up the wall or go through the gate, even fill the moat. He already saw a new one, where enemies flew over the wall. And now he had another surprise coming when he looked at the east section, high from the gatehouse.
How fast could a person construct a structure in real life? Let us say ladders that are sturdy enough to have six people climb up in waves continuously. How about in MMORPG like Royal Road? Apparently, it was not that much different, as they were supposed to be made with two long planks braced in the middle, with holds for rushing feet and legs. It would be much faster, as you need not worry about physical injury, like hammering your fingers in haste to construct it. How how about stairs? Apparently much faster. Two minutes.
This was what Summer had the blacksmiths practice inside the tent. To form long blocks of wood and stack them together quickly. They would not start from scratch too, as they could store each section and materialise it later. First to be laid were thick beams of wood that crashed down to the other side of the moat. The warriors that swam across the gap were injured from catching the falling beams, but not too badly. Once the foundation was laid, the blacksmiths began laying long, thick sheets of wood. Ronald drew the idea from the lego stairs that he played with as a child with Daniel. Since there was no need to carry the whole thing up the whole stretch, it was an easy matter to materialise and lay them down in quick succession. In two minutes or so, the stairs that spanned the ten meters gap and was ten meters in height, was done. Warriors brandishing their weapons followed after.
Before dawn, Ranbell Castle had fallen.
xXx
“Any last words?”
Summer was about to execute the last person in the castle. The general. It was Preston that was cornered inside the gatehouse.
“Think we can meet later for a chat?”
Preston was interested to know how the mind that designed the seriously twisted, crazy, audacious and ridiculous plan, worked. He would be back after a full day outside the game.
“Sure. Come find me later at the celebration party. I will let you in.”
“Thanks. See you soon. My name is Preston.”
“Summer. See you soon too.”
Summer inclined his head. A very large axe crashed down on Preston’s head.
“Well, that was gratifying.”
Flicking off the bloody part out of habit, Carvall resheathed his axe.
“My large friend, I think we need a drink now. Come join me?”
“Sure. I could use a lot of drinks after these few days. But I could use a good sleep now. After?”
“Sure. Let us do that later. I will buy the whole barrel for both of us.”
Cheers were already echoing around the city from survivors of the battle. It was official. Gustav would receive the rights to the castle, with the death of the last defender. For half a year, the castle could not be retaken. Summer logged out after Carvall. Odette and her friends had logged out when the official word was out.
Winter had just received word from Summer that they had overtaken the castle. There was no more need for him to run. In fact, he requested Winter to head back to celebrate their success. Winter was not interested in joining the festivities. He waited until Adria woke up, told her that she would be alone for a couple days, and logged out to crash down in his bed. It was nigh time he slept.
xXx
As good as his word, after his lockout period, that he spent sleeping, lazing around and rethinking how he could have made a turnaround, he headed back to Ranbell to find Summer. The celebration would last the whole week in Royal Road, more than enough for everyone to enjoy.
“I cannot believe you people thought of that crazy method. Not to climb the wall, break down the gate, open it, or anything else I accounted for. But to go over the wall just like that!” Preston snapped his fingers together, implying how simple and brilliant the plan was.
The party was inside a cosy bar, as despite the name, Ranbell Castle had no castle. The whole town was named that way due to its fortifications. It took Preston a little bit of asking to find out where Summer was, but he did it.
The six thousands or so requested reinforcements arrived, greeted by Gustav. They traveled as fast as they could, arriving in four days instead of five. They were still three and half days too late. Summer’s official position was over. with his fee paid, on top of a nice bonus, in the form of shared loot from the fallen defenders.
As they made the long journey, they were not keen to go back so soon. Instead, they joined the celebrations. Any excuse to celebrate was found. A lot spent their time grinding and questing too around the territory, now that the NPCs were back. Gustav and Haskel spent their time tinkering with the special lord menu, that allowed them to manipulate a lot of things. Like tax rate.
Carvall and Odette were arm wrestling surrounded by the loud cheers of players on one side. Mendell was also inside, sampling specialty food and drinks. His comrades that had left before the fun were not paid the rest of the contract.
“Well, yes. It was a genuine moment of pure madness from me. I was desperate, you see. You guys were winning and I’d be damned if I let you guys stand smug there over the wall pissing on us!” Summer always got more colorful the more excited he was. And this time, he was especially excited.
With a loud exclamation of dismay and a crashing sound, the crowd parted quickly. The table was no match for the combined strength of Carvall and Odette. They would need a stronger table to have a proper match.
Aloine was perched beside Summer, making him the most envied man around the establishment. Penelope Water was always attracted to power. Right now, Summer was the most powerful player due to his success. It did not take long for her to work her way to his graces. Summer took it as an interesting experience to be fawned upon someone much younger than himself (after promising to not do anything untoward to Julianne), and took in in stride. Aloine was not interested in the older player per se, but what the man represented. Power and advancement. That had always been the method she chose, and was taught, to climb up atop the world. In Royal Road, where she was supposed to be the Queen, she was already trodden by an NPC. Therefore, she had to have the most powerful man of the hour.
“I am in awe here at your process, Summer. Pray tell, what possessed you aside from desperation. It cannot be all, isnt it?”
Preston pressed for more answers. He could not accept desperation or madness as an answer. There should be a logic to everything. Summer’s reply however, made as much sense as it was the plan concocted.
“My new friend, sometimes you need a madman to overcome a genius.”
xXx
Odette, who was sufficiently disgusted, finally chose to logout and sleep. Again. She was not sure whether she should be more disgusted at this father that let Aloine fawn over him, or at her, for even attaching herself to someone she knew was at least twice her age!
Though everyone said differently, Julianne knew that her Uncle was the one that came up with the plan. It had the signature of crazy that was not typical of her father.
Dreaming of the next time she would get the chance to fly over the wall, she slept well. They could not fit her, Rock and several other overly large players in the basket. Little did she know that when she woke up, the chance to experience it would be gone.
She would wake up disappointed, sadly.
xXx
Unicorn Corporation always had a perfect record with their game. It had no bugs. But they were forced to make corrections for the first time.
Winter’s mad idea, that was later dubbed the “Superman” method, would not be seeing anymore repeat performance. Three days, real life time after Ranbell Castle, six other territories were attacked quickly, with the exact same method, or variations of it.
The basics remained the same. Throw hays, throw the men, get them over the wall. It negated the advantage walls had completely. Out of the six, only one managed to successfully repel the attempt, by attacking the catapults first and deforesting the entire section of their territory as much as they could, while waiting for the reinforcements to come and save them. Even then, it was bloody, as the “Stairway to Heaven” tactic was still an option, though not as dangerous without the combination of catapults.
Unicorn could not remove the usage of stairs tactic, as it was ingrained within their main system of shape manipulation as an inventory and basic crafting skill. They had already altered the coding that allowed the catapult to be loaded with anything considered ‘alive’. The announcement shocked the whole world, and made a lot of players determined to find ways to replicate the feat.
<<<<< Previous ChapterNext Chapter >>>>>
==========================================================================================================================================================
Author's Note:
1. Credit to -The Slacker- for the diligent PR
2. Special Credit to Veresliosi and Vim1inc for bouncing stuff around. Not to forget Ramzicmain that joined us.
3. Do let me know of mistakes you find. Try as me and my PR to spot them, we might miss some.
4. As promised folks, chapter 19. This is the only chapter release this week.
5. I am going on holiday from 8th August onward up to around 20th. Thus, expect my chapter to hit only 21 next week.
6. Do let me know what you think, everyone.
7. Enjoy!