The gate was shaking with the reverberating impacts from the battering ram. Fortunately, the stone was much more solid, and most players could remain on their feet effortlessly. For the moment, the wood held.

The killbox saved the day. From the protected position, defenders could easily rain damage on the ram carriers. This easy defense did nothing to stem the flow of new enemies taking up the mantle. Nor did the massive enemy deaths cause any pile-up on the battlefield. The bodies atomized even more quickly than a traditional PvP death, which Jay wrote off as a siege mechanic. The only saving grace would come from the serious experience he assumed the killbox must be farming.

The collection of enemies across the street initiated their attack. The first volley of arrows managed nothing against the players atop the outer wall. Jay felt a rising sense of pride as he watched players ducking for cover. The second volley eliminated the first guild member, so he forced himself to focus, turning his attacks to those with a higher altitude.

The enemies standing on roofs were crowded, so they had minimal room to dodge. It was also a blessing that only a few buildings were close enough to allow proper positioning for opposing forces. He started firing into the crowd, running into the same problem his guild had at the front gate. The tides of enemies were endless.

Every player he eliminated from the roof was replaced by someone climbing from neighboring streets. Jay assumed they had placed ladders behind the buildings. The whole guild was fortunate that the enemy was content to assault the gate. There weren’t enough guild members to defend the entire wall. The lack of siege weapons beyond a battering ram was also quite fortunate.

The enemies below the buildings seemed oddly put together, and Jay noticed the first thing in the battle that seemed amiss. None of the traps set by the people with a Trapmaking skill had triggered. He focused his eyes, trying to see through the slew of people. The idea that the enemy forces missed every single trap was unbelievable. His inspection revealed the truth. They hadn’t dodged every trap; somehow, the traps had been disabled.

Jay’s first reaction was to shoot off a message to his lieutenants, asking if they had seen the traps being disabled. He knew Taylor Lynn was out front, so if they had been disarming the traps, she should have noticed. His shots into the crowd hit many players, but he could see healing in broad areas of effect. His potshots were accomplishing very little. Dealing with such clusters of enemies would take a more focused approach.

The focused approach took the form of swamp traps. Jay focused on sending as many of them as possible with his limited mp. He fired traps all over the enemy forces. There were so many of them that people were starting to use hammers against the outer wall. There was no way the hammers would break through the wall—the process would take all night. Nonetheless, the enemies were endless. However, the threat was enough to pull some defenders away from attacking players near the battering ram.

Jay fired a quick message into chat, letting people know to focus their attacks on the battering ram. It was the only real threat, at least until the gate fell.

The ballistae facing the rear was useless since the enemy was not attacking there. That operator had the right idea already. Jay watched Kylar, manning the rear guard ballista, join up on the wall by the gate. Jay chuckled to himself as the other player started throwing knives into the massive crowd of people. He tossed them like he would at fish in a barrel, though it seemed to deal minor damage.

Jay watched another defender on the wall fall to the enemies across the street. He growled in frustration.

“Should we still focus our attacks on the rooftops?” Lurian asked, landing a solid blast on a Mage across the street. “The battering ram is a threat, but those people manage to take some of us out. We’re safe here, but every lost fighter costs the guild. We’re short-handed as it is.”

Jay wasn’t sure. He felt himself bouncing around in the chaos of the battle. There was no focus on an individual area. He watched his allies. His attention pulled away to the rooftop snipers killing his forces. The horde of enemies below required watching, too. Truthfully, he felt overwhelmed.

“I’m not sure,” he admitted, blasting a swamp trap into the people bearing the ram. Unaffected, they sank in and continued slamming away. “They’re both causing big problems. I want to stop the battering ram, but they seem capable of infinite replacements.”

A message from Taylor Lynn came through, confirming his suspicions. Within the horde were people dismantling and cleaning up any traps. The traps were one of the few advantages, but the enemy had been just as prepared. Jay was disappointed, but he knew the rival faction would make their preparations.

“I’ll watch the ram; you watch the rooftops,” Lurian suggested. “We can both call out if we see anything change.”

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Jay nodded, glad to have a singular focus for a little while. When he found a rhythm, the pattern of firing crossbows calmed him. The Resentment weapon could only be used sparingly since it fired actual bolts. However, he was able to use Vital Points to ensure that each blast would count. The critical hits dealt four times the damage, often enough to drop an average enemy combatant.

“Nice!” Claire called from a nearby circle, voice bubbly, as he slammed a bolt from Resentment into the chest of an enemy healer. The Cleric, who wore little in the way of armor, dropped immediately. “Keep doing that, and we might get through them in a hundred hours or so.”

Jay grinned, pausing to reload his second crossbow. He saved Rapid Fire for later, assuming the battle would be a protracted one. “Keep your eyes on the enemy and not on me.”

“Hard to resist,” Claire said, winking at him. Fortunately, the rest of the guild ignored their flirting.

The ballista facing the front gate started to fire into the rooftops, despite the damage caused to the city. That was Ken, though he didn’t have an angle to the battering ram. With someone helping reload, they sent as many bolts as possible into the clumps of elevated enemies. This temporarily had a magnificent effect. Each blast killed three or four enemies and knocked even more from the roof. Unfortunately, after the third bolt struck true, the enemy caught on.

The rooftops started firing on Ken and his helper. Jay couldn’t do anything to stop them, although he fired as many attacks as possible into the crowd using his Wrath crossbow. Each shot hit an enemy, even at this distance, but it didn’t matter. Dozens of enemies fired on Ken, and someone got lucky.

Ken was the first of Jay’s friends, instead of a nameless guild member, to be eliminated from the siege. Jay could imagine the frustrated look on the other player’s face. He had no idea if Ken would be able to respawn, but he knew Ken’s sister would be hearing a plethora of complaints later. Since Jenny made it farther in the siege, Ken would want to hear all the details.

“Over there,” Lurian said unexpectedly.

“Over where?” Jay asked, turning toward him. “I didn’t see where you pointed. What is it?”

Lurian pointed using one of his guns while the other fired a shot into the battering ram. He had missed. “Over there. See that sniper? He’s looking for healers. Even though he looks like a normal bowman, his range goes much further. I’ve been watching him. Maria almost died.”

Although Carlos had left with Lester, Maria had actually stayed, even though she never made it onto the Mercura Island trip as planned. Jay refocused on trying to hit the sniper, utilizing Vital Points, his Keen Eye vision, and staring as hard as he could. He fired a stream of shots, but each went wide. Several of them landed on the building where the sniper stood. It should have been an easy shot since the figure was alone, but the sniper’s range was much longer. Jay couldn’t get the right shot.

Jay let out another growl in frustration as the sniper sunk another arrow into Maria. Another healer, whose name Jay didn’t know, was helping add to her self-targeted healing. They were able to keep her up, but Jay was sure they were burning through mp resources like mad.

“What do we do about him?” Jay asked, looking to Lurian or Claire for answers.

“You took the rooftops,” Lurian said, firing a rapid volley into the battering ram cluster. “Kinda busy. Figure it out.”

“Keep trying,” Claire said. “You’ll hit him eventually. Maybe try to lock him down with a trap since those have a wider effect?”

Though it was rude, Jay couldn’t fault Lurian. A lot was going on in the battle, and everyone took on more than they could manage. Claire’s idea wasn’t bad, but landing a trap wouldn’t help. The problem wasn’t the sniper’s movements but the sheer distance.

Jay wasn’t out of options, so he took the chance before the enemy player could kill Maria. He activated his flight ability, growing the wings from his back, and took off into the air. He could hear both Lurian and Claire calling after him, shouting about his misinterpretation of their suggestions.

As much as he could, Jay remained below the height of the walls, just using the wings to unlock movement as a crow. Once he reached the wall, his wings took him into the air and over the wall. Remaining as low as possible, he took a position on a building directly across from the sniper.

He was entirely outside of the fort now.

Enemy forces had noticed, peeling away from the mass before the wall to come after him. First, they would need to reach him. After that, they’d still need to scale the building to get to him. He wasn’t worried about it, but he kept them in the corner of his eye.

Instead, Jay focused his attention on the sniper across the street. His first shot with Resentment went low, even with his active abilities. It slammed uselessly into the wooden building below his target. Now close enough to tell, Jay recognized the enemy as a Lizardman. His muscles were huge, implying a character highly focused on strength. Scaly green musculature rippled as the enemy pulled back on a longbow as if it were nothing.

The longbow sniper turned on Jay and fired.

For a moment, he considered protecting himself with the shell. He reacted appropriately, keeping his cool, and air dodged to the side. This time, he fired both crossbows at the enemy. Both crossbow bolts struck true, Resentment and Wrath working in concert, and the Lizardman evaporated into sparks. He received a notification of a substantial chunk of experience.

His objective completed, Jay looked to the fort’s keep. He needed to return before someone found a way to take him out. As far as he knew, the enemy couldn’t fly, but there was no reason to stay longer.

Meanwhile, Red Player’s Society members fought on, trying to protect their gates, and the enemy took advantage of their singular focus. Jay noticed it first since the player managing the ballista nearby paid no attention. The players who Jay had thought were charging him had a different goal. They placed magical detonation charges at the base of the wall.

A giant explosion reverberated with an intense crack. The outer stone wall began to crumble from the force of the blast, and the enemy breached through the created gap.

They didn’t need the front gate.