44. Battlegrounds: Lord
I ignored the other me’s as they celebrated their battleground successes. Duelist had won an unequivocal victory. [Mage] and [Archer] had been on Team Blue, with [Mage] managing to stall the timer down to zero and [Archer]’s team succeeding in destroying all of the siege equipment. [Acolyte] had scored his first win as well, although by his report that was largely due to luck, as the team had been without cohesion or coordination. Only a handful of players working together had figured out how to aim the Focusing Crystal in time to destroy three of the guard towers before the timer ran out on him.
That left me. [Lord]. And I had a problem.
I was broken.
It wasn’t the problem I had been expecting to have, PVPing as lord. I had thought that I would be in danger of getting focused down by my enemies one on one, so instead of my Charisma gear, I had dressed in medium armor. The result had seen my Vitality, Armor, and Health increase significantly, but my offensive stats were all still lacking.
Name
Hail Jeoran
Level
46
Guild
Nethersong Mavericks
Strength
48
Health
43454/43454
Dexterity
79
Mana
33123/33123
Vitality
99
Energy
1598/1598
Endurance
45
Experience
2410/46000
Intelligence
75
Age
15
Wisdom
53
Race
Human (blood of the travelers)
Charisma
173
Class
Lord
Armor
32
Rank
Earl
Attack Power
127
Titles
Dungeon Master I
Critical Damage
2.09
Serpentbane
Spell Power
12
Veteran of The Battle for North Shire
Weapon Damage Rating
B-
I took one last glance at the stats before dismissing them once more. It was all so frustrating. I was sitting in the guild hall with the other members of the Nethersong premade that had formed around me.
“What’s the matter?” Corinth asked, sitting next to me and elbowing me to pull me out of my reverie. “You look like someone pissed in your cheerios. You’re doing awesome. Especially with me at your back.”
I sighed. That was part of the issue as well.
Corinth had a unique ability, [I’ll Take a Bullet for You] which simply synergized too well with my own abilities. When he intercepted an attack meant for someone else, the damage caused by that attack was reduced by ninety percent, and his own damage dealt was increased temporarily. It made him the perfect PVP babysitter for a caster or healer. Or a [Lord].
Even more frustratingly, he had gained [Draining Touch] when my own version of that ability had been removed. He, and all of the other Travelers who had been infected with [Reaper’s Embrace] when I had suffered my setback, had had their curse progress to the next level. It was now called [Echoes of the Gray]. [Through the Valley of the Shadow] now gave him only two hundred percent experience instead of tripling it, but he could reset the on death penalty by using [Draining Touch] ten times on other Travelers. Each time he used it, the enemy target was inflicted with [Reaper’s Embrace].
He thought it was great. He’d changed his digital avatar to have fangs, pale skin, and black hair, while transmogrifying his clothes to include a cape with its collar turned up and a red bow-tie that he said made him look like a vampire.
I had spread [Reaper’s Embrace] to a fair number of Travelers, and like Corinth each of them had earned [Echoes of the Gray] when I’d been cleansed. Many of those Travelers were in turn actively spreading Reaper’s embrace on their own initiative, either to reset their death penalty, or for some other reason that likely only made sense if you had been born on Earth.
Or, in Corinth’s case, they were using it to actively heal themselves while in PVP combat. Between [I’ll Take a Bullet for You], [Draining Touch], and his natural prowess as a swordsman, he was a fiercesome protector.
“They’re going to nerf us,” I predicted. “It’s too good to be true.”
Corinth shrugged, taking a sip from his mug of cider. “Maybe. But until they do we might as well exploit it, right? We’re not breaking any rules. We’re using the mechanics as they’re intended. It’s not our fault if they’re scaled for PVE and not PVP.”
I shook my head. “[Lord] might actually be balanced if other Travelers were playing it, Corinth. Almost, at least. Right now I’m the only [Lord] I know about taking part in this battleground, but if I came across another one then there’s a chance our Auras would cancel each other out and it would come down to everything else. But as things stand, I’m simply too overpowered in this sort of setting. I barely even need to do anything but stay alive and my team wins. It’s really that simple. And that’s not even getting into my other active abilities.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Why are we wallowing in self-pity,” Jess cut in. I had met Jess during the Battles for North Shire when I’d attached myself to her small premade. She had just joined the guild hours ago. I had reached out to her to see if she had any advice, and I had learned that her guild had been having its own drama lately. When I’d extended an invite on behalf of the Mavericks she had quickly taken me up on it.
“I said that I’m going to get nerfed,” I explained. “Corinth too. We’re too overpowered out on a battleground together.”
“Oh,” she said. She shrugged. “Maybe. Hard to tell. Have you been reading the forums?”
“No. Why?” I asked.
“Someone leaked how your abilities work. It’s garnering some traction. Trolls mostly. Don’t pay it any attention. And try not to worry about the nerfhammer. If they’re going to adjust your super exclusive class for PVP, there’s really nothing you can do about it.”
“Wonderful,” I said, slamming my hand on the table in frustration. I sighed again. “Well, I knew it was a risk when I decided to participate.”
“Have you been talking with Hagi?” Corinth asked.
“A little bit. They’re doing well,” I said. “Except for [Acolyte]. [Acolyte] is about ready to swear off PVP forever.”
“How does that work, anyway? I mean, can you hear the background of the world now or something?” he inquired.
“It’s a chatroom, Corinth,” I said, giving him an annoyed look.
“Oh,” he was all he said, and he took another drink of his cider. “Look, Hail, try to cheer up. I know it’s probably a little frustrating to have your entire role in combat reduced to standing around and being seen by your allies, but your Aura is a gamechanger.”
“Your [Decree] ability is nothing to sneeze at either,” Jess added. “A sixty percent effectivity boost on top of a critical hit is huge, especially when everyone on our team is already somewhere between thirty to forty percent stronger than they should be.”
I sighed. “I just thought it would be different.”
The others spent the next ten minutes trying to cheer me up as we waited for the finale of the first wave of battlegrounds to commence.
The finale of the first rounds of battlegrounds took place in the empty fields to the south of the bandit camp. The Nethersong Mavericks premade that I was part of was assigned to Team Blue on the north side of the field, while Team Red was formed up against us to the south. There were no special objectives for this battle; it was a straight up contest of martial might, with five thousand facing off against five thousand.
The final Battleground before our first break is a massive open field battle!
Route the other team! Accept no surrender, offer no quarter!
You have been randomly assigned to Team Blue!
Battleground One Begins!
Victory Condition: Team Blue Eradicated, or Team Blue ahead on kills at the end of the battle
Loss Condition: Team Red Eradicated, or Team Red ahead on kills at the end of the battle
Team Blue Kills: 0
Team Red Kills: 0
Battleground begins in 05:49
Battleground ends in 1:05:49
Good Luck!
This Battleground sponsored by He-tap!
Several Travelers began shouting out, trying to get the attention of others. They were all likely the leaders of their individual pre-mades trying to get everyone into some sort of cohesion, but unfortunately I was going to one-up them.
Summoning Shadow beneath me, I activated [Noble Insight]. Fully activated it, not just skimming the surface of the information that it gave me, but really diving into the details. And just as it had before, time slowed to a crawl.
With thousands of players present, it took me minutes to examine each of them, and with each of them I issued a quest depending on their class. Melee fighters got [To the Front!], Healers got [Don’t You Die On Me!], [Archers] and [Mage] classes got [Death From Afar!]. [Noble Insight] further allowed me to see which players were already formed up in groups together, and I issued them a fourth quest, [Here Comes the Cavalry]. At the same time, I pulled up the battleground interface and began laying Zones about. Five thousand Travelers was too much for me to manage even with time effectively stopping, but anyone could see the zones. They didn’t do anything, they were simply rallying points which I could adjust on the fly.
Once I had issued my quests to everyone within line of sight, I canceled [Noble Insight] and glanced at the countdown timer. It had taken me thirty-seven seconds to issue about three thousand quests. Unfortunately, that was thirty-seven seconds in which the Travelers were subjected to a lag-spike. They were understandably a little confused, upset, or suspicious. Hopefully the quest which populated for them would soothe that injury.
Riding atop Shadow, I equipped the trinket which Aroha had gifted me during the battle against XirQuirthal the Blightmaster. It was a simple necklace with an ear on it, and it carried my voice over the battlefield without my needing to shout.
“Everyone, I am Earl Hail Jeoran. You have RNG to thank for joining the same battleground as me, as our victory is almost entirely assured. I apologize for the lag spike you just recovered from, it was the result of me using one of my abilities. Fortunately it’s not a combat ability, so you shouldn’t be lagging once the fighting actually starts.
“I hope you’ve all accepted the quest I sent you. As you have noticed, the quest is tied to your performance within the battleground, but it is not part of the battleground itself. It is uniquely mine, and your rewards for that quest will scale with how effectively you follow my lead. We have a little over four minutes before all of the hells break loose, so use this time to try to group up in the zones I have set out. Red for [To the Front], green for [Don’t Die On me], Violet for [Death From Afar], and cobalt for [Here Comes the Cavalry!]. Stay in your zones! I’ll be moving them throughout the fight. I cannot promise that you’ll survive to the end of the fight, but I promise that if you follow my leadership, we will emerge victorious!
“For Thedum, and RNG!” I shouted.
To my surprise, I received an almost thunderous “For Thedum, and RNG!” in echo to my battle-cry. I could only smile as the Travelers, usually so incohesive and chaotic, struggled to order themselves according to the pattern I had set for them.
The basic setup was a double chevron, with one layer for Melee, followed by a gap with pockets of healer and cavalry units (or at least the premades that I was using for that purpose), with range in a secondary chevron in back. I stood in the hollow that was created by the Travelers, and atop Shadow I had a good view of the oncoming battle.
A few of the other leaders began barking orders of their own once I finished the speech, but none of them contradicted me. Rather, they set about making my vision into a reality, barking orders at their followers and the strangers surrounding them alike. We didn’t finish forming up by the time the countdown finished and the enemy crested the hill.
Many of Team Red paused when they came into sight of us, likely surprised by our coordination. My enchanted trinket wouldn’t have reached that far, so they hadn’t heard our preparations, although I suspect they may have gotten hit by the lag spike. Whether they paused to take in the sight of a somewhat organized army or simply barreled on heedlessly, it was clear from the onset that they lacked any formal leadership.
Their front runners didn’t even make it to our lines, as our ranged bombarded them out in midfield with spell and arrow. It wasn’t until a more dense line approached with the support of healers and tanks to shield from the oncoming damage that they even reached us, only for my allies to neatly and systematically strike them down. They pressed against our lines, and I shifted about the cobalt zones to areas of weakness as they occurred, reinforcing them and strengthening them beyond what they had been before thanks to the cohesion and teamwork of those groups that were already used to working together.
We killed a thousand of them just in the first ten minutes, losing only fifty in the same amount of time. Affected by my [Noble Aura] and [Mandate of Heaven], two auras which increased the stats of my allies based on a range determined by my Charisma, my allies were far stronger than they usually were. Where [Noble Aura] gave a flat twenty percent increase in all base stats, [Mandate of Heaven] increased Attack Power, Healing, and Spell Damage by an amount equal to fifty percent of my Charisma. Both of these together were significant, and, honestly, a bit unfair.
Even when the leaders of the enemy team realized where the linchpin in their enemy’s strategy lay, they couldn’t do anything about it except try charge me. They formed a wedge of their most skilled players and tried to strike at what they saw as a weak point, but I had seen them forming up and adjusted the Zones to reinforce their target, calling out orders as I could to the premade leaders who had become my lieutenants.
The wedge pushed into our lines, but we broke their momentum just before they reached me. I wasn’t safe atop Shadow, so I dismounted and took cover the best that I could as their missiles targeted me.
I was buffeted by healing and damage spells alike, for I had never been alone throughout the fight. My allies had long seen the importance of keeping me alive, and many of them were jumping in front of oncoming damage in order to shield me from death. I did not retreat, knowing how demoralizing it was to see the leader of a battle turn heel and run, but instead drew [Blade of Eclipse] and imbued it with [Arcane Weapon] to add to my own defense against the tidal wave of magic.
Corinth was there, suddenly; his cape flapping behind him as he intercepted as much of the damage aimed at me as he could. He stood aside others, tank Travelers who eagerly soaked the damage targeted at me or held off the few rogues or other melee Travelers who managed to make it through the killing field.
Then, abruptly, the enemy wedge fell apart, crushed and enveloped by my own forces. This was the last straw; the rest of the enemy broke and fled. We chased the routed Team Red for the final thirty minutes of the battleground; we got most of them, but were unable to find the last few dozen holdouts. The battleground closed without much fanfare before the hunt concluded.
Congratulations!
Team Red Wins!
The second battleground (Siege #1) has completed!
Your record of participation (cumulative):
Player Kills
21
Deaths:
0
Flag Captures
0
Zone Control Seconds
2457
PK assists
6421
Capture Assists
2
Relic Control Points
8424
Buildings Destroyed (Assist)
3
Damage Done
1.485*10^7
Healing Done
3.451*10^5
Overall Rating:
S+
You have earned scalable rewards according to your rank!
You may select to receive your rewards now, or participate in further battlegrounds to earn even greater rewards!
Make your selection now
Claim Reward
Save participation reward for later
Somewhat disgusted with how easy the battle had been, I chose to save the reward for later and closed out of the battleground. I was returned to the
There was to be a break between battlegrounds number five and number six, so I was planning to use the opportunity to rest. I met with the Hagis, and rather than answering their questions about how things went I informed the system that I wanted to be recombined, forcing me to into sleep.