There are many like it, but this one is mine

"So, you're telling me that every single one of your Guild members are Skirmishers, and that they all use Sword-Bows?"

Around me swarmed a dozen Sword-Bow wielding female players.

"That's right," replied the swordslady, whose name I just learned is "Rui"

"And they're all females!?!?!"

With the entrance of Rui and the "Sisterhood of the Sword-Bow", I finally had a moment to catch my breath.

"That... wasn't planned," Rui explained, "At first it was just our Guildmaster who called together a few of her female friends, including me. She introduced your weapon to us, and then we introduced them to our friends, who also happened to be females. And then we met a few female players who just made the switch from other classes to the Skirmisher class. Many of our members are like that, by the way. For example I was a Martial Artist who switched to Skirmisher. By the time we realized that all our members are female, we decided to just go with the flow."

*Well, I guess stranger things have happened. A guild based around a class isn't odd, nor is a gender-locked guild.*

"Do I know your Guildmaster?" I asked

"She says she partied with you before," Rui paused to shoot a harpy, "If I'm not wrong she should have been the first one to copy your Sword-Bow."

*The first one? If remember correctly, her name is Penelope,* I thought to myself, *But I don't remember partying with someone with that name... Penelope..... Wait.... PEneloPE...*

"PEPE!?!??!" I exclaimed.

Rui nodded.

Who knew that kid would become the Guildmaster of a 50 member guild?

*Well, I know she's not actually a kid. But still...*

Pepe had used the Royal Road character creation system to change her appearance into that of a kid. And on that note I realized another (sort-of, to me) important thing.

It's probably a forgotten plot point by now, but I feel a certain amount of discomfort around attractive females. But even though Rui had an attractive avatar, I felt no discomfort around her (although there were a few attractive guildmates around).

This is probably because her avatar was also modified. Her shoulder length jet-black hair seemed too dark to be natural, and her almond shaped blue eyes didn't seem to fit the rest of her features (though the pairing might exist, it was pretty uncommon). Her name and accent suggested a Chinese origin, but her height and skin tone was that of a Caucasian, without a hint of the yellow tinge I find on my own skin (Notrem is from a Chinese heritage, mind blown? [I did mention that the VR capsule was sized for Asians]).

Her Sword-Bow, like a few of the other guild members, was in the form of a broadsword. Other than the shape itself, the biggest difference is that the bowstring is at the side of the weapon rather than the back, and a hole can be seen near the base of the blade for the arrow to be slotted through. Instinctively, I realized that this was more of a sword than a bow, and should probably be called "Bow-Sword" instead.

"When Pepe introduced the Sword-Bow to us, she also told us about you," said Rui, "so when I saw your name I decided to gather up the guildmates in the area and come up here to help. Good thing too, things look pretty bad."

"Yeah..." I didn't have the heart to tell her that they were probably making things worse, "At any rate, just killing the Harpies won't work. For every one that we kill, more of them fly in!"

Even though my [Stubbornness] kept my stamina and mana levels up, I would eventually run out of ammo, and so would everyone else.

"That may be true, but it's all that we can do right now!" Milia spoke up after an unusually long silence on her part, "A powerful mage might be able to set up a barrier, but there shouldn't be anyone like that in a low-level town like Rhesta."

"She's right," Rui said, "All we can do right now is to keep killing them."

"If that's the case, I'm going to call for some backup."

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[Kenobi] :Alright, gathered up some players, and the guards will be bringing some ammo. We're coming up now!

[Splay Mark] :There are a few mages with barrier spells. They say they'll do what they can, but don't get your hopes up.

[Notrem] :That's good, it doesn't look like we can kill them all. Best we can do is probably keep them away until help arrives.

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Shortly after that, they climbed up the castle with several players in tow, five of them are the"barrier" mages that Splay Mark mentioned. The strongest one is a level 50 Enchanter. The other four are regular mages between level 30 and 45.

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Town guards brought ammo by the barrels, which were quickly sold or donated by craftsmen. Since Rhesta was primarily a crafting town, these were plentiful.

The morale of the people atop the castle instantly improved, as there was now hope to stop the attack.

The plan was this: Since it's impossible for each mage to cover the entire castle, we would instead designate zones for four of the mages, with the last one (the weakest) being the backup who will plug up any holes. The Enchanter will take the area directly above us, while the other three will cover the remaining area equally.

The barrier spells will take a few minutes to set up, and the rest of the players will hold them back until it is up. Once that is done, it is just a matter of holding the fort until help arrived. Several players have already sent word to friends in nearby cities, including Rui to sent a PM to Pepe. Hopefully they will arrive quickly enough to save Rhesta.

"OOOOhh! It's forming!" shouted a player as glowing shapes appeared in the air.

As the mages cast their respective spells, the barriers began to grow.

Directly above us, a translucent pink-colored barrier was forming in the shape of a contact lens (or Captain America's shield). It started out as a small dot, largely ignored by the Harpies. But as it got bigger and bigger, the Harpies that tried to dive through it realized that it was rock solid, and had to find their way around it to attack from the sides.

However, three more barriers were forming around the castle. On one side was a barrier of fire, where the flames grew from the ground up, slowly getting taller and taller until it met the Enchanter's barrier.

On another side was a barrier of lightning. Sparks ran randomly as though on the surface of an imaginary wall, prepared to shock anything that comes in contact.

On the last side was a barrier of wind. This one couldn't be seen, but the Harpies that tried to pass through the area would be pushed back by the violent air currents.

Occasionally a Harpy would force its way through the Wind, Lightning, or Fire barriers, but these were easy to take care of, and even the melee units could reach them.

And the good news is the barrier formed by the Enchanter remained entirely undamaged. As long as the four (not counting the backup) mages kept chugging mana pots, it seemed that we could hold the fort until help arrives.

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Half a VR day has passed since the barrier has been put up and all seems well, if not slightly hopeless.

It just dawned on us that even the quickest team of allies would take at least a day before reaching Rhesta. The mages were getting tired, and even though the duke of Rhesta was paying for them, there simply wasn't enough mana pots to last long enough. Not to mention that the alchemists in the city were working with a limited supply of herbs.

Majority of the citizens of Rhesta have taken refuge in the castle, with the remaining few hiding in their houses.

We'll likely survive until nightfall, but after that the strength of the demons will increase (because of said nightfall), and the mages won't be able to hold out.

The most we can do is pray for a miracle.

[Voltanis] :Flap thy Wing, [Hræsvelgr]!:

With that, a bright beacon was lit at the center of Rhesta, shooting into the sky.

http%3a%2f%2faccessableart.files.wordpress.com...beacon.jpg [http://accessableart.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/the_beacon.jpg]

WARNING!

An ally has cast a city-wide offensive spell!

It is recommended for you to take cover to avoid collateral damage.

Time remaining until impact:

1:00

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Author's note:

Hello again!

Finally, a chapter that is out within a week!

Was supposed to be out yesterday, but turns out I didn't click the "submit" button. (Face palm)

And I swear, this chapter felt longer as I was typing it. But turns out it was pretty short.

Oh well, at least I got it done quickly :/

As usual, any and all comments and criticisms are welcome!

Happy Valentines Day!