Preparations for the war were underway. Every single player in the citadel of Serabourg was contributing to the fight.
Blacksmiths were forging hundreds of swords and armor. Tailors were sewing leather armor and robes for the mages. Other non-combat related classes also contributed in their own way.
At the day of the battle, cooks prepared food that would raise stamina regeneration and health. Bards were singing songs to boost the stats of the fighters and other classes also helped in any way they could.
Finally an army of 6000 players was gathering outside the gates and was now marching towards the forest at the first sights of dawn.
About half of the players were of the warrior, knight or paladin class. The mages numbered over one thousand and close to 1500 rogues, archers and assassins had gathered as well. Only 300 priests had come to aid the fight, since not many players have chosen to be such a passive and benevolent class. Most wanted to either cast magic or fight in close combat.
The rest of the players that had gathered couldn’t be categorized in any of the previously mentioned classes and consisted of hidden classes, rare classes and crafting classes, since they too wanted to help in the fight and not only contribute to it with armor, weapons etc.
The average level of these players was 25-30.
The animals were overwhelmingly outnumbered, since only about 500 wolves, 350 lynxes and 200 boars participated. Their average level was 20. However the animals had a crucial factor, which the humans didn’t have. They were organized and had gotten used to fighting with each other. They had been living, hunting and working alongside each other for the past weeks and Alexander had carefully monitored their behavior and purposely mixed the different animal species into groups, so that they would get used to one another.
He had established increased sizes of groups and created a certain hierarchy. Groups of 10 had an animal sergeant. 5 sergeants were under the commands of a strong and intelligent animal lieutenant. 7 lieutenants were directly commanded by one of the animal leaders and Alexander maintained the cooperation of these three leaders and was put in charge of the shamans. The scouting group, trap-maintaining group and the young ones weren’t included in the 1050 animals that would fight.
The players had steadily approached the forest and when they were just about to enter the forest, Alexander gave the chief scout a signal. The scouts had the job of luring the players. They would then join with the trappers inside the forest.
The chief scout was a wolf, he barked at his scouts and they dashed towards the players. Jumping out of the thick bushes of the forest, they bit, clawed and rammed into the front lines of the players, but then after the initial surprise attack they ran back towards the forest to regroup.
Only one or two players had been able to react and managed to strike back at the animals that had suddenly jumped out of the bushes.
Enraged, many players stormed after the animals into the forest, while only some clever ones tried to call them back and tell them to stay together. The players had no leader and were basically a chaotic group that had thought they could easily overpower the wolves, lynxes and boars. They hadn’t expected the brilliant schemes devised to utterly destroy them.
The players that had been wounded by the luring team charged through the forest, completely oblivious to any hidden traps and tactics. The scouts had joined up with the trappers and were now dividing the players that had run after them systematically. The players blindly followed them and soon were separated from each other. They were easily taken care of by special groups led by animal sergeants that waited for them.
The main force had carefully entered the forest, they had seen the video of the previous battle and noticed the successful tactics that were used against the players. Several earth mages and warriors using a shield had been formed into a group to counter the huge projectiles.
These crossbows were now loaded and shot at the group of players to avoid any suspicion as to why they wouldn’t be used. Alexander never had any intention of using the crossbows for this final battle besides as a distraction.
Hundreds of traps had been built in the forest and leaves, bushes, sticks and dirt camouflaged them all. Now players started activating them. Boulders and logs fell down on them, crushing the bones of the players and often even killing them. Rocks were launched by small catapults after being triggered, not causing any serious injury but causing for many bruises to form and hindering the players mobility. Players fell into pitfalls and got skewered on top of spears. Players were flung from their feet and left hanging upside down or walked into snares and got their legs trapped in those horrifying traps.
Screams of agony, pain and terror filled the woods and there was utter chaos among the human players.
When the players had started activating the numerous traps, a group consisting of boars let go of ropes they had been holding in their mouths. Huge logs with sharpened branches suddenly swing down fromm above and crash into hhe players. While getting skewered on the branches, their bodies received an impact similar to a car accident. Many bones in their bodies were crushed and their then limp bodies were left hanging from the logs.
Intestines were ripped, bones were piercing the skin in many places, their limbs were left hanging in awkward positions, while the logs still swung slowly from one side to another just like on a kids swing.
Almost half the players had died or were badly wounded during those first few moments of the battle. Some were still alive after being skewered by the spears in the pits, but they couldn’t manage to get out of there alone. Many had broken or pierced through body parts and only a quarter of the starting force had no injuries.
With a roar Alexander jumped out of the tree he was hiding in and was followed by hundreds of wolf howls, lynx roars and boar grunts. The animals had all been hiding behind trees, bushes, rocks and were now coming out of their hiding places.
The players began to panic, since they now had lost most of their forces and were facing a much larger threat than previously thought. They had estimated at most 200 animals to fight against, but over a thousand animals now faced them.
Charging at the players the animals safely avoided all the traps that haven’t been activated by the players yet. Alexander could now see some of the traps due to his Awareness stat, but to be absolutely safe to not activate a trap he had waited at a place, where no traps had been placed between him and the players.
His wounds had all healed without leaving scars thanks to this being a virtual reality game, or else he would have been unable to fight for a few weeks or even months.
He had chosen to use his chakrams, since they were much more ideal to fighting many opponents than the claymore had been, even if they wouldn’t damage as much. He wielded the chakrams like knives that could not be used to stab, which in turn would allow him to whirl around and fight on all his sides, if necessary.
He ran straight at the first player and charged at him without the intention of stopping. The player was a warrior and was surprised and a little afraid of the reckless charge that Alexander was now doing. Swinging in a wide arc with his sword, the warrior tried to damage Alexander, but Alexander simply ducked under the blow and was right in front of the players face in the next second.
The warrior couldn’t protect himself now that his sword was away from his body and he couldn’t pull the sword back fast enough to block a strike.
Alexander jumped up in the last second before crashing into the warrior and using the shoulder of the warrior as leverage he flipped over the warrior. When Alexander was upside down above the warrior’s head he slit open the neck of him.
Landing after that acrobatic feat, which he was able to do due to his high agility stat, he started wildly attacking all the opponents in front of him to keep them from circling him.
Deflecting the sword coming from his right into the stomach of another player, while simultaneously ducking under a blow from his left. In the motion of ducking, he kicked the shin of the warrior that had crept up behind him and sliced the tendon located behind the knee of the player in front of him.
He had to constantly watch out for the attacks of three or four players around him, since no more could engage in direct combat with him. However there were also mages and archers present, but three special groups of intelligent animals, each under the command of one of the leaders, had the job of eliminating these ranged professions. For that purpose they were given a special sort of blowpipe that was attached to their heads, since they couldn’t hold it up. It was devised to shoot poisoned wooden iron darts that Alexander had constructed. The poison was applied by the shamans that were steadily improving and expanding their abilities at an incredible pace, since now they had something they could actively do and be an important part of the pack unlike before when they were considered weak and useless.
Even though Alexander was greatly aided by his abnormally high stats, the stats Awareness and Concentration and his real life fighting ability, the masses of players still wounded him in many places. When his wounds were becoming more severe, Alexander quickly retreated with the help of a few wolves and lynxes that he had encountered during the battle.
He climbed up a tree and evaluated the situation, while applying bandages like crazy.
The animals had adapted his fighting tactics perfectly and were ganging up on a human with two or three at once, even though they were still fewer than the humans. They also increased their winning chance by actively using traps. They lured a human into position by attacking and retreating in a clever way. All the animals had gained an incredible amount of intelligence during the time Alexander spent with the, since they were building traps, learning tactics and fighting in different ways than they were used to.
The animals fought viciously but still in a coordinated matter, while the humans were cautious of traps, terrified of such bloody combat with people dying and receiving wounds all around them and couldn’t comprehend how the animals could fight so well.
After having healed his wounds, Alexander joined the combat once again and more than three hours after the fight had begun 200 players were left. During the combat, many players had begun forming a tight defense and were holding out against the attacks of the animals.
This last group of players had formed a defensive circle with only a few archers and a handful of wizards left in the center. The animal forces were still numbering 700 survivors due to the tactics and traps that had been used. Unfortunately however three hundred of these survivors were being treated by the shamans and would need some time to be able to fight again.
The animals sometimes lunged at the tight ring of players and were steadily forcing them to back away. They were positioning these humans on a massive trap to wipe them out completely.
This was a trap designed to be triggered by the hunter and not the prey. Alexander was waiting with a knife in his hand next to a rope that was secured to a tree trunk.
When the players were finally in position the animals retreated a few steps back and the players were left confused by their retreat. Alexander cut the rope and watched as a massive rain of arrows descended upon the players. These arrows weren’t your average arrows either. They were made as thick and long as a baseball bat and out of the hardest wood that they could find in the forest.
Since these arrows fell from an impressive height of 30 meters, they had enough force to pierce the armor that the warriors were wearing or at least dent it. Due to large amount of arrows all player either died or were left severely wounded.
They would be sparing no one, so the wolves that broke the players necks with a quick twist killed the wounded players quickly and proficiently. The lynxes had the job to collect the arrows and also items that the players had dropped. The boars were carefully carrying the dead bodies of their comrades to a gathering place and the shamans were hurrying around the battlefield providing first aid treatment to the injured ones and giving out pain killers.
Only after finishing those tasks could they all finally collapse due to fatigue and relax.
~We won. WE WON!~
All the animals that had participated in this battle had become reasonably strong, especially if you consider their advanced intelligence now. Even Alexander had leveled up a couple of times, especially thanks to his trapping skill that gave him more experience on a kill.
After the funerals were held for the deceased and wounds had been treated, Alexander saw that it was already nighttime. He went to find the silver wolf.
When he finally found him he was met with a gruesome sight. The silver wolf had multiple wounds on his body. He had jumped into any combat against the humans to avenge his lost son and in doing such reckless actions had received numerous wounds. He was lucky to still be alive.
“I am sorry for the many lives that were lost.”
“You. Helped! Success!”
“Not yet. When the sun rises the last part will commence.”
When the first rays of sunshine could be seen, Alexander was approaching the gates of the citadel. He didn’t hide his face and the red diamond and red name on his forehead were visible.
The guards were leaning on their spears and looked as if they were sleeping. They didn’t have an enjoyable night, since they thought about the hundreds of screams of pain and the noises of battle from the day before.
Alexander approached them without hesitation or fear even though he was clearly marked as a PKer. He greeted them with a simple:
“Good morning, gentlemen!”
This woke the guards up instantly. They shuffled around to face him and their eyes widened, jaws fell open and the spears they were holding slipped out of their grasps and fell to the ground.
Behind Alexander the entire 700 surviving animals stood. The three leaders were right behind Alexander and following them were their lieutenants.
“Close your mouths or an arrow or dagger might fly in.”
The guards quickly shut their mouths.
“You-ou You a-aren’t alow-lowed insi-i-inside.”
It seemed as if these guards were loyal and brave guards protecting this city and even though afraid and stuttering awfully, they fulfilled their duties. A smile came on Alexander’s face and this caused the guards to become more afraid than before, since the sincere smile didn’t fit the man in front of them that was rumored to be a demon that mercilessly slaughters everyone that comes into the forest.
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“Don’t worry we won’t harm you two, if you listen to us that is.”
At the end of that sentence, a emotionless look had come upon Alexander’s face and the guards had to shiver, due to the intense and cold aura they felt emanating from Alexander.
“I want you to let me and my friends here inside so we can take revenge on all the brutal and inhumane acts the travellers have committed to the animals of this forest.”
Before the guards could respond that hey couldn’t condemn the travellers to their deaths, Alexander continued to speak without ever raising his voice. He just stood there with a blank expression on his face and talked about the deaths of the travellers as if they were simply something to do before dinner.
“Don’t get me wrong, we are going to kill the travellers inside the city one way or another. The only question is to either let us go in peacefully or force us to act and also start killing you guards and other natives.
I am a benevolent and patient man, but I will also become your worst nightmare if you ever harm any of my friends like the travellers have done.”
“S-Sir we-we can’t deci-decide som-something li-i-like tha-at ou-our-ourselv-ourselves.”
“Hmm that is true. Then take these three leaders of the animals here with me to the guard captain. He should have the authority to decide over such a matter. You can show us the way, while you will stay here to guard the gate and don’t worry, they won’t bite you.”
“Ye-Yes, Sir!”
Following the extremely nervous guard to a huge barrack inside the city, Alexander noted that the few people on the empty streets looked at him in disgust, hate or curiosity.
A couple of players tried to attack him, but Alexander dispatched of these newbies easily. Only low-level or non-combat related players had stayed in the city and they had already received the news about the failure of the army that went into the forest. Now they saw how Alexander and three huge animals of the wolf, lynx and boar species also walked inside the city gates, so some of them too stupidly tried their luck. Every time Alexander easily dispatched one of the other players, the guard with him didn’t speak up and noticeably became paler.
Arriving at a huge stone building that was the guards barracks, the guard led them inside and up a flight of stairs. There he knocked on a lone door at the end of the corridor.
“WHAT?!”
Came the booming voice of a man from inside the room. Quickly explaining what had happened, the door opened just a moment later.
A huge man that easily surpassed two meters in height and shoulders as wide as three of Alexander’s stood in the doorway. Waving Alexander and the animal leaders to follow him inside, the man, who obviously was the guard captain didn’t seem the least bit afraid of three huge animals or the rumors about Alexander.
The guard that led them here closed the door behind them and probably quickly left to steady himself from the stress and fear he just had.
The three animal leaders decided to stand during the meeting, while Alexander sat himself on one of the chairs in front of the table of the guard captain. Alexander and the animal leaders had agreed that Alexander would be the one talking and explaining, since they didn’t want to expose yet that they could also understand human speech and talk somewhat.
“What can I help you with?”
The guard captain asked politely even though he was now watching the red stone in Alexander’s forehead with disdain.
“My name is Someone, these here are celebrin draug(silver wolf), lim gwai(fast wind=Lynx) and nemthalion(strong nose=boar). They are the leaders of their respective species in this forest. We have come to take revenge on all the thousands of innocent animals that have been slaughtered without reason outside the city walls.”
“How do you plan to take revenge, if I may ask?”
“We will simply kill every single traveller inside this citadel and not spare a single one, since they all have to pay for what they have done and there is no one that does anything against all these inhumane acts, so they all have fault in what happened.”
“I cannot permit something such as that to happen in the citadel that I am supposed to guard.”
“You don’t understand. It is simply etiquette that I tell you of our plans. We will come inside the citadel and kill them whether you allow it or not. You may simply decide to help us and spare many innocent natives or try to protect the foreign travellers, thus also signing the deaths of many of the people near the travellers.”
“How can you put such a decision on my shoulders?”
“Don’t worry about the travellers. They have the annoying habit of coming back to life and thus you wouldn’t be killing them permanently, but the natives on the other hand ….”
“…..”
“Your time is running out. Tic Toc. Tic Toc. Tick Toc. Tic Toc.”
“Ok fine, the guards will aid you and watch over you, to ensure that you don’t kill any of the natives.”
“That was the right decision to make. Oh by the way, why weren’t you surprised to know that an army of wolves, lynxes and boars had arrived at the gates?”
“Since a few days ago, rumors have appeared of that army coming into the city after the battle in the forest. Many of the natives have heeded the rumor and hid themselves inside their houses.”
Alexander thought about the potion seller, whom he had told about what would happen.
Walking out the barracks and following the leaders to the gate, Alexander stepped up to the army of animals and shouted:
“Let the hunting begin! And don’t forget to only kill the travellers.”
It was a good thing that all non-player characters knew who was a player and who was part of the game. This was built in by Unicorn to prevent the system to give out quests to other game entities, which would have been possible otherwise due to the high intelligence other creatures and people in the game possess.
For Alexander many of the NPC’s he had met, seemed more human than many he had met in Real Life.
When the countless animals rushed inside the city and started dividing up to search in groups of five, a system message was given to every player inside the walls of the citadel.
Event started
The revenge of the animals
For having brutally killed and slaughtered thousands of innocent animals, the animals now rebel against the humans that have done these atrocious acts.
To feel what the animals had to undergo, players aren’t able to form parties and have to face a party of animals alone.
The event will be over, when either the animals or the humans have been completely wiped out. City Walls cannot be breached; Log In and Log Out are prevented.
Event rewards: Depending on number of opposite forces that you kill.
If human side wins: Gain of new skill, double experience and item drops from animals for two weeks.
If animal side wins: Humans can’t attack or harm animals for two months.
Alexander pulled out his claymore and then him and each of the leaders went their separate ways, since they all were able to fight against any player in single combat, which was now guaranteed due to the event, which even all the animals had received.
The guard captain had decided to follow Alexander, who was grateful for that since he couldn’t differentiate between players and NPC’s. The guard captain had to point out every player and Alexander easily killed him or her with his giant claymore, which he could now wield at astonishing speeds.
He cut of or smashed in the head, cut through their shoulders, stabbed their stomachs or used the claymore in other ways to kill the players. Sometimes he only had to use his fists, to cave in their windpipe with a well-aimed punch or break their necks. With his inflated stats and knowledge of basic human anatomy he had no problems killing the players, which had at first tried to mix under the NPC’s to surprise him, but then tried to openly attack him after seeing that the guar captain pointed the players out to him. Now they just tried to flee, but Alexander caught many of the players that were fleeing even though he was carrying such a huge sword.
Luckily he had left the loot in the forest, since he would need more bags to carry so much and it would only slow him down.
Meeting many groups of wolves and other animals that also hunted down and mercilessly killed every player they found, after many hours they had finally managed to force the last players inside the citadel into a huge market square, which the animals now surrounded to not let any player escape.
Thankfully they had received the help of the guards and other natives of the Citadel, who closed the doors of the houses to not let any players inside or drove out players out of public places such as libraries, guild houses, the training hall, the mage quarters or the castle grounds.
The animals had only received minor injuries, since they were now the ones to gang up on a single human instead of the other way around and because the players weren’t yet at high levels.
Killing of the last of the players, Alexander finally felt some form of happiness after having witnessed the brutal and unnecessary acts that had been committed by the humans a couple of months in game time ago.
The guard captain watched how a smile was now on Alexander’s face. He shivered. Alexander was currently covered in blood and some of the blood splatters were on his face even, but Alexander didn’t even seem to notice.
The guard captain had followed this red-eyed human the entire six hours hunting other players and watched him mercilessly and methodically kills his own people without a hint of emotion on his face. For clarification: NPC’s thought of players as travellers foreigners and of them being one people.
Now he knew why rumors called him a demon.
Event complete
The revenge of the animals
The animal side had won decisively and thus gains an additional reward.
Humans can’t attack or harm animals of the forest surrounding the Citadel of Serabourg for ten weeks.
You have leveled upYou have leveled up
After looting the players with the help of the animals, Alexander and them left the citadel behind them and once again entered the forest.
When they had arrived at the clearing, which had become their camp during the time they spent preparing everything for the final battle, the silver wolf approached him.
“Thank. Human!”
Quest complete
The alliance of the animals
You have managed to fully carry out the revenge of the animals and have earned peace for them for the time being.
Relationship to animals of forest around Serabourg citadel changed to friends.
Learned a new skill
Fame +120
You have leveled upYou have leveled upYou have leveled upYou have leveled upYou have leveled up
He had managed to level up to level 41 with all the battles and the quest experience he had.
You have learned the skill Taming
Taming
Allows you to tame and control creatures, who will follow you and help to fight.
Suddenly a system message popped up:
The Taming skill isn’t inside the limit of learnable skills, but since it was rewarded through a quest, you will have still learned it, but are only able to level it, once it is inside the limit of learnable skills.
So he had finally reached the maximum amount of 10 skills outside of the class skills for players under level 100.
The wolf had waited patiently, while Alexander was examining the rewards and the other system messages. Now he simply said:
“Wait!”
Half an hour later, the silver wolf had returned and walked up to Alexander who had his eyes closed and was using the skill Soul-Sense, since he had gotten bored of waiting around without doing anything after only five minutes.
The silver wolf had a piece of stone in his mouth and now let it drop into the hands of Alexander. It seemed to be a very old stone slab, which had weird markings on it. After a couple of minutes of intently looking at these slashes and scratches from up close, Alexander leaned back a bit and realized that it were in fact some sort of runes. They looked like this:
http%3a%2f%2fs13.postimg.org%2fo4pyuaghz%2fUntitled_1.jpg [http://s13.postimg.org/o4pyuaghz/Untitled_1.jpg]
~WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THIS?!~