“Kylar, check on the evacuation efforts,” Taylor Lynn commanded. He quirked his eyebrow at her but swiftly disappeared down the wooden stairs to follow the order.

Jay rapidly blasted three magical bolts from his Wrath crossbow to the bomb carrier. Each blast of swirling blue energy took a second to fire. Using the crosshairs to track the figure, two of the three shots struck their intended target.

The third one turned out to be unnecessary.

The player exploded in a furious inferno, sending plumes of smoke into the air. Several enemy Elves died, caught in the collateral damage. Taking out the targets made an effective way to stem the incoming tide of battle.

Guards and players alike followed Jay’s lead all around the battlements. Spells, arrows, and other projectiles started raining on the enemy. One particularly burly guard even threw individual javelins with frightening accuracy.

The deadly friendly fire continued propagating through the enemies, ranks in droves. The other guild had nothing prepared to counteract the current strategy, but they would win the battle on numbers alone.

The Elvish Alliance had brought extendable magic siege ladders. They attempted to bring them to bear while avoiding friendly fire. Taylor Lynn came prepared for such a tactic, waving her hand effortlessly; a gust of wind magic sent them tumbling back to the ground. A cold war began between her and the ladders, neither side willing to cede any ground.

Jay considered whether or not there was anything he could do to destroy the infuriating objects. While Taylor Lynn had it handled, her wide-scale magics were essential to other aspects of the siege. The ladders looked made of wood. Catching one inside of an explosion might be enough to deal with it. The bomb carriers across the battlefield grew thin. The ranged attackers managed their job too well.

Jay knew he could try and trap the ladders inside a swamp, but that would only disable them temporarily. Incendiary bolts likely did not burn hard enough to do real damage; they were more effective against humanoid targets.

There was one strategy that might work.

“Hey, Cuddles,” Jay spoke, turning to the strange squirrel on his shoulder. “Is there any chance that you could shoot some eye beams at those ladders?”

The magical animal made a sound that, if Jay didn’t know any better, he would have called a cackle. Jay watched in amusement as Cuddles blasted a nearby ladder. He completely forgot to keep shooting at his opponents.

The eye beams were powerful but not hot enough to set the ladders alight. However, the blasts were accurate enough to remove a ladder's structural side.

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Jay ferried the squirrel around the walls so they could blast all the ladders. Along the way, he fired magic Wrath bolts at everyone he could. When the pair destroyed all ten ladders, Jay returned to Taylor Lynn to check on the state of affairs.

“Anything amiss?” Jay asked.

Her reply came by message. She didn’t stop muttering spell incantations; chats could be sent mentally.

Everything’s fine. Shoot some traitors.

But everything wasn’t fine. Jay’s Perception noticed a group of mages hiding in the back of enemy ranks. They appeared to be doing some kind of dancing. The organized activity entirely juxtaposed the raging chaos on the battlefield.

“What’s the story with those mages?” he asked Taylor Lynn. The reply came by message again.

Who cares. They are staying out of the battle, and I see no reason to discourage them.

The entire affair still burned Jay’s nerves. The local defense force was missing something. The explosions no longer rocked the battlefield. Cuddles had foiled the ladders. What else could they do?

He looked at Taylor Lynn again, but she seemed uninterested in the strange behavior. Her arms swept across the entire field in front of them, bringing webs of lightning that accurately targeted enemy Elves.

Casey and her wolf growled in frustration while the lizard rained large boulders onto the battle. Sarah and the dozen or so remaining melee fighters looked bored.

Jay considered giving them a mission to fight their way to the enemy mages, but it wouldn’t be possible. Far too many enemies still searched for a way to scale the walls. Some were starting to utilize spikes to climb.

With no other recourse, Jay began to fire his magical bolts at the circle of dancing mages. The effect of it was immediate—but not what he sought. The magic of the bolts struck a shimmering field that drew the magic into the strange dancing.

“Uh, Taylee,” he said, but she wasn’t listening. Her ongoing task, blasting a dozen level 30 turncoats with webs of lightning, gripped her focus.

Jay activated Keen Eyes, hoping to see a gap in their defenses. His vision narrowed, but the shimmering field held no glowing sections. Passing over the area, he looked for nearby mages outside the circle. Nobody seemed to be keeping the defensive/

He looked at the group of bored melee characters. He considered sending them toward the mages. He thought physical bodies would be able to cross the barrier. The bored players’s eyes flitted around the battlefield, unsure where to focus with so many things happening. The Captain and his troops were quite effective, but the Elvish Alliance outnumbered the city defenders by at least ten to one.

Jay wrote it off. The mission’s low possibility of success couldn’t be justified.

The battle dragged on, neither side willing to give any ground. Players died on such a mass scale that Jay couldn’t keep track. Guild leaders had little access to information, such as remaining troop counts, though it would have been helpful.

As the minutes of the battle ticked by, Jay realized Kylar hadn’t returned. He quickly composed a message to check on him. The response came back immediately.

System Message: The intended recipient has died and cannot reply during siege warfare.