“Shhh... stop talking, the large coastal settlement is just up ahead. Everyone get ready,” said Ben. He pulled his hooded silk cape up to cover part of his face and then used a light scarf to cover his lower face. When he was finished disguising himself he gripped his two newly made daggers ready to stab them into anything that appeared before him.
With a silent hand motion, the small guild moved out from the protection of the trees and into a field of tall grass that separated the woods from the large coastal settlement.
The area was quiet save for the lazy rustling of the tall grass as the moist wind blew in from the sea and the cries of the seagulls that flew up high in the air looking for scraps of food to steal.
As they quickly made their way through the tall grass Dover tapped Ben's shoulder and pointed to his ear with a frown, Ben only shrugged.
The group leaped out of the tall grass into a large clearing ready to start slaughtering a few people from the demon race before escaping...
“Uhhh... is this the right place?” asked Boot.
“Shouldn't there be several thousands of werewolves here?” asked Shaker.
“And a lot of houses and resources for us to take control of!?” said Ivan.
“It should be,” said Ben, opening the event map. His face turned dark when he saw the map.
Now that they had arrived at the previously undiscovered place, the fog on the map that had covered it was now gone and was updated with new information.
“Abandoned...,” said Ben, looking at the +1 on the updated map.
Hearing this everyone looked at their map and were shocked to see that all they had been preparing for was for nothing...
“What do we do?” asked Sir Bumpalot.
Ben looked over to Dover who was scanning the area around them. There was nothing but unkempt grass.
“Dover you have any opinion on whether we should go find some other small village or set this as our base?” asked Ben.
“We're here already. The longer we wait, the more places will be snatched up by others. The fight for those places is too much for us. We should just take what we can,” said Dover.
Ben turned to the rest of the waiting guild members and said, “Alright everyone, there has been a slight change in our plans due to the current situation. Shaker, use your whip sword to mow the grass and clean up the area for us. Everyone else, we will be gathering wood to fortify our guild's new base of operations. Use whatever skill will get the job done the fastest.”
Without complaint, everyone moved out to complete their tasks. This would make the guild stronger and if the guild grew stronger then they would also be able to grow along with it.
***
The FrozenBlood guild moved with quick speed. With their current numbers, they did not fear any other guild trying to hinder their movement. They were still a bit ragged due to the hard-fought battles that ended in their defeat and the loss of all their territory and stored resources.
Even so, a new fire had been lit in the hearts of every guild member with the new plan to capture the unclaimed zone and make it theirs.
Once they completed this task they could solidify their position allowing them to strike back at those who had backstabbed them and joined the two allied guilds after they took over the [FrozenBloods] main territory.
There was no point in the [FrozenBlood] guild trying to hide their large numbers so they opted for speedy movement and a quick and concentrated attack that hit hard. Hopefully, this would be enough to knock down and take command of the demon race that controlled the area.
The guild's members moved in groups of ten each being led by people that Akira would have recognized at first glance due to the several encounters with many of them. There were people such as Ineda Badth, Hary Mandtis, Etza Prap, Imma Prap...
Even though they were ready to storm the demon race's territory, Coldman halted the advance.
A small gathering of several officers and the sub-guild leader all gathered around Coldman.
“Somethings not right... shouldn't there be a large nomadic tribe here?” asked Coldman.
They looked out onto the freshly cut grass plain and only saw a small wooden fort outpost at the center of the grassy plain. Near the sides of the fort were crude-looking farms that looked to be freshly tilled. It was late afternoon and yet they saw not one person outside.
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Igluu looked at his map and found that it had been updated.
[Territory owned by BenDover guild: +10 points]
“BenDover guild? Who are they?” asked Igluu.
None of the officers knew anything about or anyone in the guild. This situation was completely out of their expectations. The difference between fighting a human or someone from a demon race was far different from fighting a demigod guild depending on how strong the guild was.
Their grand strategy to rise from the ashes had turned into something far more complicated than before.
While they were discussing this new curiosity, Lolebl, a low-level noob lookout for the BenDover guild, was startled to see such a large force of demigods gathered at the edge of the cleared grassy plains.
“ENEMY GUILD!” shouted Lolebl, in his excitement, his voice cracked as he kept shouting.
The rest of the guild members who were just finishing up eating their late lunch were startled into action.
“Make sure the gates are locked! Bring all the stored arrows we bought up onto the wall! Dover and Sir Bumpalot take your groups of melee fighters and protect the gates from any enemy that breaks through. Everyone else up onto the wall and get ready to repel the enemy guild!” shouted Ben while he ran to the fort's wooden wall.
When Ivana reached the top of the wooden walls she started casting her ice wall skill to overlap it with the fort's wall further strengthening their weak wooden fort. She was forced to drink her expensive potions like water to recover all the energy she was expending to complete the task before the enemy could launch an attack.
Boot stood next to Ben with his bow in hand, while Semore and Doot stood nearby ready to fight along with several other ranged guild mates.
Shaker held her whip at the ready while she paced back and forth on top of the fort's wall facing the enemy. She was here to help Ben and a few other melee guild members with fending off anyone that tried to jump or climb up the wall.
“Which guild is it?” asked Ben as he tried to squint and see the enemy from afar.
“It's the [FrozenBlood] guild,” said Boot, who had the best long-range vision.
Ben stood there lost in thought. There was no other way to get out of this situation. They would have to fight since the other side would not give up so easily.
Meanwhile out at the edge of the grassy plain.
“It looks like the fort's occupants have taken notice of us!” said Igluu, seeing the ice walls starting to cover the fort's wooden walls.
“Is that all they have to defend the fort?” asked Coldman.
“...”
“Listen up everyone! We outnumber them by a considerably large number! Don't hold back your attacks, let us go in quick and hit them hard! The faster we take them down the faster we can start on our path back to victory. Show them no mercy for our blood is frozen!”
“For FrozenBlood!” shouted the guild members.
As one the buff meathead melee demigods charged forward valiantly, while the ranged demigods started casting their skills aiming at the fort.
The ranged attacks flew well above the charging demigod's heads and slammed into the thick ice covering the wooden walls.
Crack! Smash!
Large chunks of ice exploded out with sharp shrapnel fragments that were deadly enough to kill anyone standing in front of it.
Several other skills created large spiderweb cracks in the wall while a few fireballs slammed into it and melted through a large portion of the wall before being extinguished.
Ivana was forced to repeatedly cast her ice skills to patch the damaged ice wall, desperately trying to keep it up for as long as she could.
The fort's ranged defenders were no slouches and returned a smaller focused counterattack. They chose to try and target demigods that they believed to be in charge of the many small groups rushing forward. Those that were hit were turned into light particles in mere seconds, some of these people were officers but the majority of the people they targeted were just low-level grunts. Even so, they were able to cause them a bit of trouble by killing over a dozen people in quick succession.
Bam!
Even under the intense hail of arrows and deadly skills several of the melee fighters were able to reach the ice wall and launched their strongest attacks smashing through the protective ice wall before they were targeted by the defenders and turned into thousands of light particles in seconds after being torn to shreds by the attacks.
The second wave of fighters reached the walls before a new ice wall could be fully formed.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
With a new wave of attacks, a small gap was opened in the wall. The melee fighters did not bother trying to attack the gate which was far more sturdy and chose to focus on a section of a side wall.
Dover and Sir Bumpalot rushed to the gap in the wall along with the other melee fighters.
Crash!
Sir Bumpalot slammed his shield into the armored face of a Frozenblood fighter that was trying to push through the hole dazing him and allowing him to be pierced and smashed by several spears, swords, and maces.
The hole continued to widen as a large rainbow of skills flew back and forth causing the defenders to have to spread out to block the attackers from entering.
The BenDover guild members on the wall made sure to rain down skills at the small gap that had turned into a deadly kill zone.
The Frozenblood guild members were being torn to shreds but in these few short engagements, the melee defenders led by Dover were wiped out on the third major push through the hole in the wall.
The only melee defenders were now on the walls trying to protect the ranged attackers who were now being sniped by the Frozenblood guild members.
Another twenty minutes of fierce fighting passed before the last of the defending [BenDover] guild members were killed.
With the [BenDover] guild completely wiped out, the conquest map once again changed to show the territory's new owner.
[Territory owned by Frozenblood guild: +5 points]
***
Far to the south oblivious to the struggles of the North, Varbu and Prince Gobbers were in full swing setting up and building Kodria's new settlement.
Every few days they were receiving large deliveries of stone to build the walls of the settlement and the buildings inside.
It was only a matter of time before the settlement would become a secondary stronghold of Kodria's dukedom.