I don't know how long we sat in that room, watching the rise and fall of Licu’s breath, it was so shallow. I think looking back at it we were there for maybe two or three hours, all of us just sitting there in complete silence. This injury was the end for Licu, his hopes his dreams. They were all over, while some potions could heal wounds or close them up there was no way to regrow lost limbs, and in a medieval world like this one learning a trade with only one hand was impossible, that it was his dominant hand was the real kicker. All the muscle memory he had trained up gone, he was useless as a knight now, his only real prospect at work as a farm hand or scribe, but more likely he would be forever more a burden on his family unable to earn a living by himself. I had watched him grow from a toddler into a youth man. He hadn’t told his parents yet but last month he was accepted into the officer’s academy, he had a bright future in the military ahead of him following in his father’s footsteps. That plan, his dream since a youth age now lay in ruins. As I sat there pondering these issues, a loud crash startled me out of my daydreaming. Over the last twenty minutes, the room had got a lot busier. A number of people were huddling in the room with more entering every minute. I quickly stood up and nudged Tor-ron, we stood up and made our way to one of the nurses.

“What’s going on?” I asked

The nurse quickly looked up at us a said.

“A bloody army has appeared at the walls a few hours ago, just walked up to the wall’s and asked to get let in. The city guard closed the gates and began negotiations apparently over the last hour things have gotten heated. The entire guard is on the walls, and the city militia was activated and have garrisoned the walls. We have been told to prepare the infirmary for an influx of wounded”

I found out later what happened. It seems that the Darkbreaker’s one of the largest player guilds in the game with over thirty thousand members. Had decided to head to the city of Stonedrift in order to take part in the dungeon. It seems that the leaders didn’t think that thirty thousand armed men walking into a city unannounced would be an issue. After they were denied entrance, they ended up talking to the head of the guard after two hours of waiting around the head of the guard decided to speak to them, during these two hours the city guard and militia had head to the wall set in for a defence. It seems whoever was in charge of the guild was a moron, as when they were told no, an army of unknown soldiers could not enter the city, and that by bringing an unknown force such as this one into a state land was a crime and he was hereby banished from the city-state permanently combined with the fact that any aggressive action would be considered a declaration of war. Let’s just say the guild leader was a moron as his reaction was to draw his sword and try to kill the captain of the guard… within bow reach of the city. let’s just say that he and his party were reduced to pin cushions. When the guild saw their leader cut down by a mass of arrows and saw the open gates they charged. Thirty thousand men and women rushing unprepared with no siege equipment that was garrisoned and had prepared the walls. It was a slaughter, almost a third of them were dead before they reached the gate. Which they rushed into, only to around a corner and see a portcullis blocking their path and to make it worse the rush of their allies behind them pushed them forward pushing them into the gate, when the gate was full of people a secondary portcullis dropped, sealing the exit behind them, then it went from bad to worst. Crushed in by their allies jam-packed between two metal portcullises blocking their path the hatches in the ceiling opened and the burning oil began to pour down on them. There were few survivors. Those outside the gate fated little better. With no passage forward and a crush of bodies behind them the stumbled and fell some of the trampled, but far more were killed by the rain of arrows and magic from the guard and militia on the walls. By the time they figured out what was going on and retreated the original thirty thousand had been reduced to a mere four thousand. Only around twenty-three thousand reached the walls, and only four thousand were able to retreat away from them. Had this been a normal army this would have been one of the greatest victories in warfare for thousands of years, but they were fighting players, their effectiveness at massacring the players, in the end, doomed the city. You see they never considered the players respawn, nor did the majority of NPC’s know how spawn zones worked, you see if you enter a remote temple you spawn zone changes when you enter the threshold of the temple, but in a city, it changes when you enter within one hundred meters of the walls. That meant that an hour after the fight began players started to respawn in the middle of the city. An undefended city centre as everyone with a combat class was a member of the militia and was currently manning the walls, and to make it worst the temple was the gathering point for all the healers within the city, when the bells rang all the healers or those without a home to protect them or those close to the walls left their home and took refuge in the temple. One that within an hour would be flooded by almost nineteen thousand angry players.

I was standing in the main hall when the first player spawned. I was helping out a nurse carrying a box of health potions into the infirmary despite low casualties on the wall around one hundred injured men that had made their way to the infirmary. I saw him spawn wearing that loincloth and small dagger that you get with each respawn. At first I thought he was an unlucky sod that had caught outside during the battle, but after two seconds he drew his copper dagger and charged at the nearest priest, plunging a knife into him repeatedly, I dropped the crate I was carrying wincing as almost two thousand golds worth of potions broke onto the floor, I drew my sword in a swift motion while running towards, the player he didn’t even notice me until my blade plunged through his heart. I stood there standing bewildered by what I had just witnessed, my calm only lasted a brief moment though as I noticed the tell-tale flash of another respawn. As I span around, I saw another player standing there, he looked towards my blood-soaked sword then at the dead player below me and began reaching for his dagger. There were around two steps between us, I took two quick steps towards him, and lunged aiming at his neck, he was barely able to move just enough so the edge of the blade nicked his collarbone instead of tearing out his throat. He rushed forward trying to get within knife range, but I had already prepared a follow-up and my back-slice tore his throat open. There was another flash followed by another, and two more players spawned. I quickly back peddled realising what was happening, with my left hand I reached into my bandolier drawing two of my throwing knives and tossing them at my opponents, both hit their targets, sending them to the ground killing one but only wounding the other. I scanned the room and noticed the nurses had taken the opportunity to run, I dashed back toward the infirmary door, shouting as I ran

“ATTACK ATTACK, HOSTILE PLAYERS SPAWNING IN THE TEMPLE ATTACK”

As I dashed through the infirmary doors, I slammed them shut behind me, reaching for the large wooden plank used to barricade the door and slamming it shut behind me. The wood of the infirmary was thick and would keep out players for a few minutes at most, I thanked God that mages only spawn with one mana, meaning that it takes a few minutes before they are able to cast spells. As I ran into the room, I saw Irdu and Waruan reaching for their weapons, as I cast my eyes of Irdu quiver I saw she had not restocked with arrows yet and only had four remaining. As I scanned the room, I cursed my luck, we were within the serious injury ward all those that would have been able to help defend the door were on the other side of the temple. It was just me Waruan, Irdu to hold the door, Tor-ron had no mana, I was low on stamina and on mana, Irdu was low on arrows and Waruan still looked unsteady on his feet after the direct hit the giant zombie landed on him earlier that day.

“shit, we can’t hold here” I cursed

“WE NEED TO EVACUATE THE WOUNDED, WHERE THE NEAREST DEFENSIBLE BUILDING” I shouted out,

I looked out across the gathered faces looking at me in confusion.

“THAT ARMY WAS ONE MADE OUT OF PLAYERS, WITHIN THE NEXT TWENTY MINUTES WE ARE GOING TO HAVE THOUSANDS OF ANGRY PLAYERS STREAMING INTO THIS ROOM AFTER RESPAWNING IN THIS TEMPLE WE NEED TO MOVE NOW” I shouted out

Quickly nurses began to push beds and move around looking panicked,

“the nearest definable building is the adventure hall leading to the dungeon it’s across the market square and had some defences, there more designed to keep monsters in than people out but it will do” Waruan responded.

“Tor-ron pick up my son you're going to need to carry him across the market” Waruan commanded.

I drew my last remaining throwing dagger handing it to Irdu, she was always a better thrown than me. Tor-ron lifted the unconscious Licu onto his back and we began to move, we headed for the rear entrance, a number of nurses were pushing the wheeled hospital bed towards the doors. I saw Mike, pushing his way to the front pulling a number of potions out of his pockets before pushing the rear door open. Outside was chaos, merchants were running everywhere, the market had been in full swing, groups of players were running around attacking anyone that came with reach. The adventure’s guild was almost two hundred and thirty meters away, and we were pushing around twenty hospital beds with around thirty nurses and healers, along narrow crowded alleys between merchants’ tents, boxes and merchandise were scatted everywhere, blocking paths it was going to be slow progress. As we exited the door mike beside me stayed to my right watching the main entrance of the temple. Waruan and I pushed forward, pushing boxes out of the way trying to make the route clear for the hospital beds and the injured. We managed to make it almost fifty meters before the players noticed us. A group of seven players spotted our group and began to run toward the group expecting easy pickings, I readied my blade expecting a fight. They barely made it with twenty meters before a potion flew towards them, a potion thrown by Mike, it crashed into them spaying them with a green mist, they stumbled on a few more steps before keeling over and falling to the floor. I went back to my work pushing debris out of the road, hoping beyond hope we would make it. He made it almost another hundred meters before I heard a yell,

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“I’m out of potions” called Mikes' voice.

Whoosh

An arrow shot by me colliding with a player I had not noticed to my right, as I looked up, I saw Irdu looking at me, and drawing another arrow,

Whoosh

Whoosh

Whoosh

Three more arrows fired in quick succession, hitting a group of players coming at us from our right. We still had another hundred meters to go and we were out of ranged weapons, I saw a player rushing toward the rear of the group and rushed off to intercept. As I ran towards him, he heard me coming and turned to face me bringing his blade to bare. I readied my sword, striking out at his stomach aiming to gut him with my superior reach, he jumped back dodging the strike, by a hair’s breadth. I saw a flash of steal fly beside me and saw my throwing dagger embed itself in my opponents’ heart. I turned around to see another player, running at me lunging at me. I stepped to the left using my blade to knock my opponents knife off course, I responded with a riposte tearing a large gash in his stomach, dropping him instantly, I took a second to glance around, Waruan was fighting with his sword and shield holding back a group of six players, Irdu had drawn her short sword and was currently engaged with a player pulling her sword out of his stomach. As I glanced over to Mike, I saw the dagger plunge into him, tearing a large gash out of his side, another player behind him stepped forward placing the finishing blow into his back. We were maybe seventy meters from the Guildhall now, the only non-players left in the market, nearly a hundred players were making their way towards us we weren’t going to make it. The next ten session was a mess of bloodshed, as I slew three more players charging me.

“CHARGE” a bellowing voice yelled out,

As I glanced over towards the noise, I saw almost thirty adventurers charge out of the guild hall, into the mass of players, they were buying us time. As the players turned to deal with the new threat we quickly hurried, killing the last few players near us before hurrying to the open door the guild house. As the last the nurses entered the guild house, a call was made.

“BACK INTO THE GUILD HOUSE” a tall rugged man beside me called out.

A quick dash was made with the last of the adventures entering into the guild just and a door slammed shut. Out of the thirty that had left the building only eight had survived, but their sacrifice had brought us time. as I looked around the main hall of the guild maybe four hundred civilians had entered in here but only thirty-two adventurers and guards remained, the rest were at the walls. A good twenty minutes away, and there were too few fighters left there was no way we could hold that long.

Just as I was thinking that a loud crash was heard, I jumped looking towards the door of the guild shaking in its hinges. I saw Sgt Hardarse standing there, he was an old Sargent almost seventy years old at this point, but he had trained almost everyone in this room and was somewhat of a living legend around here.

“Albert, Scot get your parties and start leading the civils into the dungeon it’s the only chance we have, the rest of you with me” the Sgt called out while rushing to the door.

I saw eight of the adventures rushing into the dudgeon entrance along with the guard I had given my report to earlier. The rest of us began to move towards the door, hoping that the choke point would by us a precious few minutes for the civilians to escape, I saw Tor-ron running forward with the group still carrying Licu on his back. The civilians quickly exited the main hall, and within a minute we were alone. There was constant crashing on the door, and we could see the door buckling.

I noticed the Sgt adjusting his helmet before clearing his voice

“ahem, I know you lads don’t like me, hell everyone hates their first instructor. I won't lie to you we ain't gonna survive this. But you want ‘a known what I put you ‘all through hell and back for. A day like this, a day when it mattered. What we do today is going to save the lives of all those civi's back there, so I'll tell you what’s going to happen you’re going to hold that door. Hold it long enough to make a difference or by the gods, it won't matter which heaven or hell you get sent to. I'll be sure as shit there to make your after-life’s hell for failing now, I don’t train pussy's so you better man up and hold that door.”

A cheer erupted from the gathered adventures and guards, my own voice included. It has barely died down before a loud crash emerged from the door, as the door shattered revealing a sea of players in loin cloths armed with daggers, Standing outside. The rush began, we piled forward to hold the door and stop the players getting into the guild house. the fight was a bloody violent affair, our knights stand at the door shields ready forming a shield wall to block the player's entrance into the building. Each player that came with sword reach was cut down but over time we lost people a lucky shot here, a rock that pushed a knight off balance there allowing the players to swarm the out of position knight, but we held, it took almost ten minutes before our line started to collapse, I spent most of the time at the window stabbing those that attempted to climb in. as I saw the SGT fall to a cut from the side. I knew the line was done, I quickly ran towards the gap in the line hoping to plug it, at this point there were only four knights holding the door, as I ran up to take my place saw Waruan

“Fall back” Waruan called out,

“Fall back to the tunnel”

As the other started falling back I moved up to take his side, I saw Irdu leading the way towards the tunnel

“you to Arthur,” he said

“that’s suicide you can’t hold this alone long enough for us to fall back and escape by yourself,” I said as I ducked a knife aimed at my chest.

“I know, tell me I love her and tell my son I’m sorry, now go” he responded

As I glanced at me, I could tell this wasn’t a request, he knew what needs to be done and knew he was the only one left he could trust to do it.

“I’ll tell them” I responded, stepping back and letting Waruan step forward, holding the Door by himself, as I started running back, I heard a murmur I never caught what he said but I will always believe it to be

“thank you, my friend,”

I ran towards the tunnel, just as I rounded the corner I glanced back, I saw Waruan standing there having dropped his sword, using both hands to use his shield to push back the tide of players. It was the last time I ever saw him.

It took me five minutes of running before I caught up with the group there were seven of us now. As Irdu saw me she just looked at me they say the eyes are the window to the soul and in that Minute I truly understood it, I could speak or look her in the eyes, I just shook my head, as I glanced back up at her eyes I saw such sadness such pain her face remained calm, but you could see in her eyes pure sadness one that I will never know. We continued running through the dungeon following the tracks of the civilians for another thirty minutes before we found the rear of the convey, over the run four of the other adventures had stopped in a narrow passage that you could only fit through single-handedly, saying that they would hold the players here as long as they could. I recognised the area the back of the group was in a large chamber, a large bottomless gap spanned the seventy or so meters of the chamber, the only way accords were a thin meter wide stone arch that extended across the bridge. In the next chamber across the bridge was the boss room that we had fought a giant zombie in. it took another five minutes before the ends of the convoy reached the other side. The other guards that had gone before us were waiting for us.

“Dead end” one of guard’s quip.

“Don't suppose you know which stone opens that hidden door you reported”

“no sorry” I responded.

“I suppose this is it then” he responded.

“looks like it”

“Dam I always hoped to die surrounded by beautiful women” he joked

Tor-ron joined us walking with us as moved towards the centre of the bridge. We saw the tide of players running towards the other side of the bridge. We readied our weapons, it was at this point I remembered the barrel of alchemical fire in my inventory, quickly opening my bag of holding I pulled it out.

“if we can get this to the other side, we might make it,” I said

As we looked at the horde of players on the bridge I knew that want happening,

“Arrh Fuck it” I heard Irdu muttered before I knew it she snatched the small barrel from my hands and had begun running at the changing players. As she reached the first players she leapt, lifting her body above them, placing one foot on the head of a player before pushing off heading deeper in the group. She managed to make it almost two-thirds of the way across before she slipped falling into the mass of players.

“HIT IT WITH FIRE” I shouted towards them. As the wizard to my right began a chant, I saw Tor-ron to my left look at me before chatting

F̸͎̺̙̎l̶͎̥͉̻̙̋̇̀̓̈́̽̄̚y̴̯͔̾̈̓̏͌̔͘

As he lifted into the air beside me, a number of players looked towards him, he sped forward towards the barrel, as I saw what he was doing I ran forward hoping by some miracle to save him. By the time he got within ten meters of the barrel, seven daggers had collided with him thrown by the players. I just about reach the middle of the bridge, where the fastest plays had reached. I saw Tor-ron drop like a stone, falling towards the bridge before colliding with it with a sickening thud. In that brief second, I thought it was all over,

"L̵̥͖͕̫̎ȉ̷̗̱͇͕g̷̭͍̘̩̈́h̸̠̲́t̴̗̣̬͂i̴͚͗͊̀n̴͇͍͖͗͝g̴̛̣͂̈́́ ̴͇̹̋͠B̶̛̤͘͝ó̸͕̊̔l̸͇̓̓͝t̵͍͕̀̈"

BOOM

The shock wave shocks the area, as I looked up I saw the ceiling collapse above me, but before rubble collided with me the bridge gave way under my feet. We had done it the civilians were safe. The bridge was gone and so was I as I fell into the abyss below.