Tec Mage Chapter Forty Seven: War, Attack
Another day went by without the surrounding army attacking. They were desperate not to lose their contribution points with a needless attack on the city wall.
They had been expecting the city to be in a chaos, but the reports from their spy's said that the city as a whole was standing well against a lack of resources.
The people in the city weren't happy but they at least weren't causing as much damages as the invading army expected.
That wasn't the end of the bad news for the invading army, it turned out that their well stock food had shrunk. Guards were doubled at the food stores, but each night more and more food went missing.
With each grain of rice that went missing was one less in the mouth of the army. The players had to hunt in the forest to fill the quota of the missing food.
That wasn't all, the invading army could of manage to find away around the missing food supply's, but a new development had risen.
In the protective veil of night a few hundred torches could be seen approaching the invading army. The torches never come close enough to the invading army for a fight but the noise they made kept the army up all night.
This was a hit and run tactic that Atlas and Dracken had came up with. Dracken and a team of police men had tied big branch to their backs, and on the end of each spilt of the branch was a torch. A small team appeared to be a good sized team under the cover of night.
Dracken and his team weren't their to attack but to keep the NPC up and tired with loud noises.
When ever the army sent out a couple of platoons to deal with Dracken, all Dracken and his team would have to do was put out the torches and run or hide.
After the third night, the NPC were tired. Players didn't need sleep in the game for a long time but the NPC needed rest to recharge their battery from patrolling and guarding.
After the forth night a patrolling soldier found a set of torches and branches. When brought to the higher ranked people, it was quickly deducted that there was in fact a small number of people keeping the army awake at night. With this knowledge, when the banging and noise happened at night the NPC ignored it.
That night they slept well only to find in the morning that some of the healers had been kidnapped.
It was all a trick. Dracken had purposely left the torches and branches in a easy to find place. He wanted the army to think that they were safe, and the noise was just noise to keep them awake rather an attack.
With the patrols more relaxed, Dracken sneaked in to a tent and had kidnapped the sleeping NPC healers. To keep them asleep, Dracken used potions, and with the help of the mana mouse wave. the healers were carried away.
The army didn't know what had happened. No signs of struggle could be seen and the guards hadn't seen a thing. All the kidnapped healers had been asleep and thus were all NPC. No whispers or guild chat could be sent to them or from them.
With food and men disappearing from their camp, guards were doubled. Dracken could no longer enter the camp as easy as he did before. With no easy way to enter the camp, Dracken stop the noise tactic and moved to a new tactic he had been working on.
In the city, the gnolls had added a new addition to their daily meals. Strong wooden boxes the size of a human had been carried with them. A pair of hands stuck out and free healing was given to anyone who needed it. The captured healers were being used by the gnolls.
Atlas was spending most of his day on top of the city wall, using his magic to disguise the meagre forces defending the wall.
Illusion of the eye, Intermediate Level 2
An illusion to fool the eye.
With Atlas using the magic constantly, it levelled incredible fast. When it hit intermediate the spell became more powerful and less costly. Atlas could increase the area of effect of his illusions with less mana. The power of the illusions increased as well. When Atlas first started he had to keep the army away from the wall because the closer the person was to the illusion the greater the chance they could see though it. At this point even the police force that was defending the wall started to see what Atlas had created with illusions .
The police force was firing at random with their arrows. Arrows were the greatest killer in war and the best deterrent . A well stock force always had plentiful amount of arrows.
Just then Atlas was approached by Captain Merek, the captain walked around the many fires surrounding Atlas and whispered in to Atlas ear.
"We are almost out of arrows. We can't keep the invading army away from the walls any more" Captain Merek rubbed his unshaven chin " if they see that most of our forces are just illusions then they will attack out of anger"
Atlas was just about to get the gnolls to make some more when he realised that metal, wood and feathers were needed to create an arrow.
Metal could come from broken weapons, armour and even metal pots though out the city. Wood was the same, most of the slums were made out of wood so each hut could be recycled in to the shaft of the arrow. The problem was the feathers, birds feathers were need to increase the flight path of the arrow. With out feathers the arrow would only fly a small and pitiful distance but the city had long ago used up any birds as a food source. No new feathers was coming into the city.
It wouldn't matter how good the gnolls were at making thing, if they didn't have the resources then they couldn't make the items.
Captain Merek leaned in again to whisper in Atlas ear.
"A message from a Lord Bolt offered to sell his arrows to us but the price was just to much"
"Lord Bolt hmmm" Atlas was told about Lord Bolt by Mary.
Mary, unknown to Lord Bolt were enemy's. Mary's family had been murdered on the order of Lord Bolt. Not only that, Mary had found out the Lord Bolt was just an evil man. Name a bad thing and Lord Bolt had done it.
Mary had tried to find some evidence of Lord Bolts illegal activities but the Lord had covered his tracks.
Extortion or supply and demand, Atlas couldn't make up his mind at what lord Bolt was doing. It didn't make a difference, Atlas had decided to send mana mouses to spy on his enemy as well as the other lords that defend the city wall.
There was a saying "keep your friends close but your enemy's closer" and Atlas was pretty sure that lord Bolt was an enemy.
It turned out to be justified, a mana mouse that was station in the enemy's camp watched as a person dressed in black told the attacking army about the west wall having very little defence. They had learned the truth that his forces were almost completely illusions.
The man in black was a assassin that worked for lord Bolt. The little mana mouse had followed the assassin back and witnessed the assassin reporting back to lord Bolt.
It was a shame that Atlas had no evidence he could show others, as the memory's he read from the mana mouses could only be watched by him.
But now he knew to watch everything that lord Bolt did. The question was why did lord Bolt do this.
The simply answer was for power. When the new forces took over the city, they had promised more property to lord Bolt, as well as a upgrade in title and tax free years.
Even though the attacking army didn't intend to attack the city because of their contribution points, the fact they were made fools of and their depleting food supply meant that they couldn't stand by like they planed.
An attack was planed for the morning. This time it wouldn't just be NPC soldiers attacking but players. They would focus their attack on the west side of the city wall as it looked like the least defended.
Atlas told captain Merek about the attack at dawn, and he left the wall to tell the higher ups. Not long after captain Merek returned with a summons to the royal place.
Getting a summons to royalty was something most players wanted. To increase their own relationship with powerful people meant they could get special missions and rewards.
When Atlas got to the front gate to the palace he was meet with tall and powerful built men. The guards had been told about Atlas but instead of Atlas they were told that he was called Silver Wolf
This was due to Atlas wearing a silver metal wolf helmet that covered his head completely. Atlas didn't want his possible future enemy's to know that he had fought against them. Atlas had lots of things that could be easily taken away from him if the ruler of the city choose to.
Atlas was lead to a room, where a man in silk robe sat fiddling with books.
As soon as Atlas entered, the man in silk looked up, he looked troubled and was slightly sweating.
Standing to his feet, the man in silk held out his hand
"Ahhh, my good man, you must be Silver wolf" the man in silk quickly grasped Atlas hand.
The ears on Atlas silver wolf helmet twisted as the man in silk grabbed Atlas hand.
The man in silk was shocked, it was obvious that the man in front of him was wearing a metal helmet but one that moved made it seem like it was alive.
The man in silk quickly brought his face to a smile again. He had been serving royalty for many years and so was quick to turn his surprised face back into a smile.
"Please take a seat" the man in silk pointed to a leather chair.
Atlas sat down, it wasn't long before the man in silk introduced him self.
"I'm the minster of tax but you can call me Arnold" Arnold wiped his brow with a silk cloth.
Arnold was the minster of tax but with the city under a massive blockade, no new taxes were being collected, and so he was placed under the minster of war as a clerk.
"How is the war going" asked Arnold, his eyes were filled with tears as they looked at Atlas with hope
Atlas realised that Arnold already knew how bad it was.
"Bad...." Atlas was about to tell Arnold all about what was going on with the west wall when a loud whistle blew.
Arnold's head quickly span and faced the whistle, his face dropped like a stone.
Jumping to his feet, Arnold opened a cupboard and pulled out a silk robe, like the one he was wearing.
"Put this on and follow me" Arnold passed the robe to Atlas.
The robe didn't have any stats and was a purely for appearances, Atlas equipped the robe.
Arnold lead the way though the place, Atlas noticed that there was some thing wrong as the two moved though the palace.
The palace was lacking in splendour and luxury, Atlas could see the out lines of once hung paintings. Statues seemed to be hastily removed only leaving scratched wooden floor boards and the people were rushing around with what looked like silver plates packing them away.
"They are preparing to leave" thought Atlas.
Like a sinking ship, the rats were abandoning ship but some one high level had to have given the order to pack these luxurys away. No normal person could just take what they wanted to in a palace. An order must of been given from on high.
Arnold stopped out side of a giant oak double doors.
"Listen, we are about to be in the presents of the king. Bow low and don't stand until ordered, don't talk unless talked to, address the king as your highness, don't make eye contact unless talked to." said Anorld
There was many more rules when meeting the king but time was a factor.
Anorld eyes raised to the celling as he tried to remember the most important rules, he was counting the rules on his fingers when he gave up.
"When in doubt just stay quite and polite" in Arnold's big book of staying in the palace, this was rule one.
"Oh and take that helmet off" Arnold reached out to take the helmet off Atlas head.
The metal skin around the maw of the silver wolf shaped helmet sneered to show it's metal sharp teeth.
Arnold's reaching hand paused and retreated back to his sides. More sweat poured from his brow, he had came so close to losing his fingers.
"Sorry but the helmet is cursed and can't be removed" lied Atlas.
With that said, the two entered the thorn room.
The thorn room was like what any person would expect it to be like, expect instead of a thorn there was a massive table and surrounding that table were many minsters.
"Your highness" Arnold bowed deeply.
Anorld was on his knee, when he spotted that Atlas was still on his feet.
Quickly, Arnold hand shot up and dragged Atlas down to his knees.
"Are you trying to kill us" Arnold whispered.
At the head of the massive table stood a young man who was obviously the king as he wore a crown. With a flick of his hand, he gave permission to stand.
"Give your report" said a man standing beside the king.
Arnold was sweating even more than before, just as he was about to answer, the king spoke.
"Who is this" the king gestured towards Atlas. Atlas robe was just like any others who was standing at this table. It seemed that the robe was the official dress code for minsters and their lackeys.
If it wasn't for Atlas wearing his helmet then the king wouldn't even of noticed him.
"This is lieutenant silver wolf, he is defending the west wall." answered Arnold.
"Ahhh, then why not tell us what you think about the war. Better to get it straight from the source" said the king.
"Do you want to know exactly what I'm thinking" asked Atlas.
"Of course, i wouldn't ask otherwise" replied the king
"It's inevitable that the city will fall and the king will lose his kingdom" answered Atlas.
The stunned looks on the minsters faces told the whole story. They didn't expect for Atlas to tell it like it was.
Before any of them could speak up, Atlas continued.
"Most of your lords have abandoned you and taken your most powerful warriors with them. The blockade has stopped resources from entering the city, causing the city to starve" Atlas numbered the reasons.
The minsters were stunned, but it didn't end there.
"While we get weaker, the enemy are maintaining their strength. The defenders on the west wall are almost out of arrows and are fighting a desperate losing battle. It also doesn't help that Lord Bolt is trying to sell his arrows at exorbitant high prices" said Atlas.
"Now see here..." a minster with close ties to Lord Bolt tried to interrupt Atlas, but Atlas carried on.
"The people are close to losing all hope, and i suspect that without any out side support from an sizeable force, then it's inevitable that you will lose" finished Atlas.
"That's enough. You have no right to lecture his highness" called out a minster.
"I have every right, didn't his highness him self give me permission to talk." answered Atlas.
The king raised his hand and the minster fell quite. The kings face looked stern, he of course knew all of this but was at a lose to what to do.
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"What do you suggest i do then" asked the king.
With only a small hesitation Atlas answered.
"Collect as much gold as you can and flee the kingdom"
A small gasp escaped from the minsters, they couldn't believe that some one had told the king to leave his own kingdom, like he was the invading force.
"It's too late to grasp victory in this event and when the attacking army does take over, they will most certainly kill the king to stop any future rebellions." explain Atlas.
The kings face had gone red with anger at what Atlas had said. He knew that if the invading force did take over the kingdom then he would most likely be put to death, after all it was something he would do if he was in their place.
"Go into exile and tell no one where you will go, live your life in peace and quite, for if even a single person knows of your existence then...."
"ENOUGH"
Atlas was stop by a sudden out burst from the king.
Arnold, with the proper amount of pleading and grovelling was able to stay, but Atlas was removed.
Within moments, Atlas was thrown out of the palace into the streets. It was a miracle that Atlas wasn't beheaded.
When Atlas returned back to the city wall, he had only bad news for the police force.
With bad news came even more bad news. The arrows were completely gone and thus so was any way to keep the invading army away.
Without the threat of arrows, the invading army would with out a doubt invade. Arrows in war was the biggest killer, and with the invading army knowing that the west city wall defenders were mostly illusions, they would take advantage.
Atlas sat on the edge of the city wall, facing the city. He was at a lost, the arrows was a necessity but there was no reasonable way to get them. As he pondered on what he had to do, the thought of giving up entered his mind.
In his opinion, the city was lost already. There was no point in trying to defend a place that would fall to the enemy's hands. That would cause massive lose of life, for no reason.
As Atlas was thinking, he spotted a merchant counting his coins. The man was so into his money that he wasn't looking where he was going and fell. His coins spilled to the floor and rolled in different directions.
This brought a small smile to Atlas lips. It was a funny sight watching the man dive for his coins, and an even more funny when a crowd of children came out of nowhere and scrambled for the lose coins, causing the merchant to franticly pick up as many coins as he could.
The coins was soon picked up and the people had left. This small little event had brought a smile onto Atlas face and temporally made Atlas forget the war.
Atlas pulled a single copper coin out and rolled it around in his hand. Atlas had a wonderful idea, picking him self up Atlas went to put his new plan in motion.
Mean while the attacking army had made it's move. The forces had lined up and started to move forwards. This time, the advancing players weren't as worried about losing there contribution points as they were told that the defenders were mostly illusions.
On the wall the police force was panicking, they weren't trained for this and didn't want to start killing, but they especially didn't want to die.
With no arrows to push back the invading army, they soon were at the city wall. Ladders were pushed against the wall and the army started to climb.
"Get ready, for plan teary eyes" called out captain Merek.
The other members of the police force placed sacks on the side of the wall.
"NOW" shouted captain Merek.
As one, the police force sliced open their sacks and emptied their sacks.
White dust fell from the wall and into the eyes of the climbing attackers.
The screams were instant, the people effected by the dust fell from the ladders on to others.
The white powder was lime dust, lime dust was used in cement. Atlas had bought the sacks from the Architect guild and now they were being used to protect the city wall.
Lime dust would cause blindness if not treated, this was so that the police force didn't have to kill. The effected people could receive some healing magic to restore their sight and it would also make the remainder healers busy with healing their eyes.
The pain from the lime dust would only strongly effect NPC while players still made their way up the ladders.
Just as some of the players reached the top of the wall, Atlas turned up. A blue transparent ball of blue light appeared above him and then whizzed off , hitting the players directly off the city wall.
Atlas was using magic missile, a weak little magic that any basic magic user could use. Unlike most mage's that used magic missile, Atlas had stuck with it and levelled it up.
With the tactic of tiny hits Atlas aimed his magic missile at the most delicate areas. Before any of the players could take a proper step on the city wall, they were pushed off.
Rising his hand, Atlas called out "Plan, helping hand"
The police force quickly lifted and pushed the giant metal armour over the side of the wall.
The giant metal armour fell to the floor, missing the attacking forces. Some climbing players laughed as the armour fell totally missing everyone.
"Its fine" thought Atlas, he wasn't out to kill but only to defend.
The giant armour wasn't there to kill by falling on people, if Atlas wanted to do that, then simple rocks would do.
"It's time" raising his hand and grasping his ghost like necklace, Atlas called out.
"Calling the fallen"
These were the words to call forth the ghost that were bound to the necklace. The air swirled and blue smoke swirled to form ghosts, Atlas had to drink a mana potion, as the ghost now numbered 15 and each one took a sizeable amount to summon.
"Yo, chief" Nelious the leader of the ghost saluted Atlas.
"You know what to do" Atlas pointed to the fallen armour.
With a big grin, Nelious, with the rest of the ghosts melded in to the city wall and travelled down to the armour.
Each ghost melded into one of the armours and possessed a single collection of armour.
Some of the attacking army was prodding the crumpled armour and only when the armour started to move did they call out in fright.
Slowly the crumpled armour stood up.
The soldiers that had been prodding the armour backed off in fear. Each one knew what they were looking at but none of them could mutter a single word.
Just then a single soldier screamed in a high pitched tone.
"GOLEM....."
Golems were feared at the best of times, these walking fortresses were incredible hard to take down, and a group of 15 made the soldiers almost wet them selfs.
Little did the attacking army know that these weren't actual golems but spirits using there possession skill.
Each spirit controlled golem was twice as tall as a normal person and as thick as a tree.
A brave soldier swang his sword at one of the spirit puppet golems only to feel his hands go numb when the colliding sword hit the metal golem.
Straightening up the golem puppets started to make their move. Each one moved slowly but steadily as they pushed people to the side and attacked the ladders that were the only point of accesses to the city wall.
Players fell from the sky as their footing was robbed by the golem puppets.
The attacking army panicked, as the golems effortlessly controlled the situation. Soon the players started to attack, they realised that the golems were slow. They might have amazing defence and strength but they were no faster than a man walking at a brisk pace.
The golems were soon surrounded by players and NPC. The golems didn't have health but they did have durability. With each slice of the attacking army, the golems durability fell.
Dents and tears appeared on the golems, with visible damage appearing on the golems, the morale of the NPC increased.
"Just keep attacking" ordered a player.
With greater morale the attacking army fiercely attacked the golems.
Suddenly, screams rang out from the NPC. A large group of NPC were huddled together as metal pieces peppered them into submission.
All along the attacking army was pockets of NPC in the same situation..
With less people attacking the golems, the golems fought back. The spirits that were controlling the golems were told about the players and how to distinguish between the people of the land.
A giant golem hand reached out to an unsuspecting player. Slowly the hand closed over the player and crushed him. A pillar of light flew out of the golem hand as a player was killed.
On the wall new items had appeared. Round earth balls on short stilts were firing metal pieces at high speed into the crowed of NPC.
This was Atlas new invention. With no arrows left, Atlas had made a new item that fired copper coins.
In the earth orb was a spiral pattern, and on the out side of the spiral pattern, fixed at regular postilions were small mana gems with the spell magnetic force. Each gem was connected by a very thin piece of Mithril metal.
Coins were fed using a long tube at the top of the earth orb. Gravity would pull down on the coin and then the magnetic force spell would take over.
As the coin would pass though the spiral pattern, they would build up in speed each time they passed by a gem. Copper wasn't a magnetic metal but the magnetic field of copper and the skill still pushed the copper coin around the spiral pattern faster and faster finally exiting the earth orb at a great speed.
Each coin would exit at a incredible speed only to be followed up by another coin almost immediately.
The firing rate resemble that of a automatic weapon and all it needed was coins as the ammo and a source of mana to start the firing rate.
When Atlas made the first earth orb he named it Coin Toss.
Coin Toss
The power of speed and metal has been combined to form a rail gun.
The inventor had a sense of humour when naming this invention.
While the user of Coin Toss will be lucky to use it, anyone being hit with it, will feel like the most unlucky person in the world
Coin Toss was considered a siege weapon, when Atlas first used Coin Toss, he had used sharpened coins that had been flattened and the edges sharpened.
When he had tested it, the coins had embedded them self in to a near by wall. The piecing damage was incredible but not for Atlas.
If he was to use the sharpen coins then with out a doubt it would cause massive amounts of death, This was something Atlas wanted to avoid.
So normal coins were used to attack with Coin Toss.
The wonderful part was the ammo. With copper coins used as ammo, there was no chance of running out of ammo. A single silver coin could get 100 copper coins and a single gold coin could be exchange for 10,000 copper coins.
With the sets of Coin Toss firing into the attacking army and the spirit controlled golems killing players, the attacking army soon retreated.
With players dying from the golems and the NPC receiving pain from the falling lime dust and the peppering of high powered coins, the attacking army had little choice but to retreat.
With the army retreating back to their camp, the police force cheered out.
"WE DID IT, WE WON"
The police members that were operating Coin Toss fired wildly in the air.
Defending the city wall with such a low number of people was a miracle in its self but what was truly amazing was the low cost of life. The only NPC that were killed was by mistake, some soldiers from the attacking army had fell and died.
Thanks to the lime dust, golems and Coin Toss, no further loss of life was felt from the defending police force.
The retreating attacking army was in disarray and their morale was at a all time low.
"Don't worry, we hardly lost any people, we can recoup and try again latter" said a surviving player.
A slow murmur come from the soldiers mouth, they didn't feel the same way.
When they were half way back to their camp, they spotted a man clad in shadows standing in the fringe of the forest.
"Who is that" asked a player but before anyone could answer, the shadow melded back in to the shadows and disappeared.
Looking at each other, player and NPC couldn't believe what they had seen.
"Was that a mage, the shadows seemed to be part of him" asked a NPC.
Again, before anyone could answer, a small rumbling occurred. steadily it grew until the floor started to shake and rocks wobbled and fell.
"Earthquake?" a player started to yell.
Instead of a earthquake it was some thing very different.
Clouds of dust was pouring out of the thick forest, birds took to flight and the trees bent to one side.
Out of the thick forest a stampede was rushing towards the attacking army's camp.
The shadow man was none other than Dracken, he had spent some of his time capturing big wild animals, like ox's and other herbivorous. With his elemental control over earth, he kept them in a cave.
Now he had realised them all at the same time and started a stampede. He was using the wild animals to his advantage.
There was nothing that the attacking army could do, if they stepped in to protect their camp, then they would lose a lot of NPC.
Charging animals ripped though the camp with their mighty legs. Tents, camp fires and supply's, it didn't matter as the weight of the beast totally destroyed the camp.
The attacking army just stood there as they watched the destruction. A cold sweat rolled down their necks as they thought what might of happen if they were in the camp.
Because of their training, the NPC soldiers stayed in there ranks. In their minds, each soldiers didn't want to fight against a force this flexible and weird.
The only way that they could keep their calm was because there was still their own forces on the east, north and south sides.
The attack on the west side of the city was a complete bust. The attacking force hadn't won anything but lost their camp.
All of this was broadcast, people were amazed that you could defend in such away.
Hardly any lose of life and a weaker side managed to defend against a greater sized force.
Many things were pointed out, such as the golems and the coin firing mechanism. It was later pointed out that all the new thing that had been made was introduced by the person in the silver wolf helmet.
After that day Atlas altar ego gain many names. Silver wolf, Sliver Lupus, defender of Ledern, were some of the names that people on the forms said but the one that stood out the most was Tec Mage.
End Of Chapter Forty Seven.