Liam watched as the team of five rushed across the battlefield. Since the ugly enemy was alone, there was no risk of being blocked. Just as Silver Blade's team came close to the red dome did a crowd of lizard riders come out of the mines climbing through the destruction the tall monster left in its wake.
Riding on Edok, Silver Blade crossed the red barrier, instantly checking the enemy's status.
[Poisonous Depths Ogre
Rank: Boss
Level: 40
HP: 80.000/80.000]
Everyone in the small team drew sharp breaths. This was definitely the most powerful boss they encountered in the territory war so far. Luckily Liam had prepared them, explaining how to deal with it.
"Gaahh!"
Noticing the players the ogre let out a strange sound. It sounded somewhat as if it tried to speak but had some liquid stuck in its throat. Next, the ogre turned its head away and continued moving towards the wall.
The group of five knew that the ogre would pay them little attention even if they secured its aggro. The ugly creature's priority was tearing down the wall. It was a living siege weapon. Thus, the players immediately brought out suitable skills.
Silver Blade initiated the fight by using [Aura of the Sloth]. The ogre indeed proved susceptible to the skill, its movements immediately slowing down greatly.
Meanwhile the three mages threw out quick attacks before Settler and Fortune started to cast skills. Cyclone continued her normal attacks for a bit to avoid ineffectively layering their skills. The mages' attacks dealt about 1450 points on average, which was a lot but fell short compared to the ogre's HP pool.
The monster continued to walk slowly, trampling everything in its way. Silver Blade attempted to somehow block the ogre's path with her body, but it had no use. After a few seconds Settler was the first to finish his cast. The temperature in the surroundings dropped as a terrifying cold breeze spread. It dealt constant damage while slowing the boss down even further.
The ogre's movements came to a crawl. Silver Blade could even see the lizard riders outside of the red dome overtaking them. They would reach the wall before the ogre if it continued like this.
The boss seemed to realize this as well, appearing enraged. Suddenly the ogre turned towards the players, sweeping the steel beam in his hands in a wide arc. However, its movements were way too sluggish to pose any danger. Even Fortune could easily evade the attack without interrupting her cast.
Growling angrily at the players the ogre turned back towards the wall. Fortune's eyes lit up. Her [Arcane Bolt] had finished casting. From such a close distance there was no way she wouldn't land all 10 projectiles!
And this was indeed the case. Fortune caused a devastating 23.000 points of damage to the boss, single-handedly taking more than a fourth of its HP. The ogre wanted to retaliate but suddenly found himself caught in a cage of lightning. He was immediately paralyzed.
While Silver Blade's team continued to bully the boss the war around them was already in full swing. The defending army rained down hell on the lizard riders, trying to keep them away from the wall.
Not much later more lizards arrived together with two battering rams, quickly followed by a division of mist dwarves. The army had to split their focus, and more enemies came closer to the wall. Even the ogre wasn't that far away anymore.
Eventually the boss reached the back of a group of lizard riders. It didn't care at all, pushing its massive body through the crowd. The lizard riders couldn't enter the red dome and were pushed towards their comrades.
A few steps more and the ogre had reached the wall. Along the way it had started to emit poisonous gas from its pores, filling its surroundings with poison. Silver Blade's team took continuous damage and needed Balm to heal against it. Even with the powerful healer and two kinds of revitalizing effects the players still reached their limits. Especially Settler came close to dying once.
Finally, the ogre reached the wall with more than 20.000HP left. The red dome engulfed a large area, pushing away enemies and allies alike. Its round face with deep wrinkles took on an expression which might reveal excitement. It raised the steel beam high, ready to tear down the wall and wreak havoc among the puny humans.
However, Dream Avenue was already prepared.
[Bleary Mirage: Switch!]
On Liam's order Settler jumped out of the red dome. He didn't move far, afraid of attracting attention. But with the enemies so densely clustered it was not surprising that multiple eyes immediately fell on him. Settler had no choice but to use his [Seal of Ice] skill on himself, which temporarily kept him safe.
Simultaneously Melodious Edelweiss rushed on top of the wall.
"Sorry! Please…"
"Sorry, I need to get through…"
"Sorry."
The poor woman had to make her way through the dense crowd, apologising while keeping up her [Song of Vengeance]. The ultimate skill had stored a lot of power as her allies took damage continuously.
Watching the scene from the top of a tower Liam felt a vein on his forehead pop.
[Bleary Mirage: Make way for Edelweiss!!! Damn it! Jump off the wall if you have to!!!]
Everyone shivered realizing that Bleary Mirage was genuinely angry. Those who stood between Melodious Edelweiss and the ogre felt their stomachs turn. They hastily tried to get away and one player actually jumped off the wall.
Melodious Edelweiss felt embarrassed seeing this but she didn't stop running and finally reached the boss.
However, she was one step too late. The ogre managed to land an attack on the wall. The entire structure trembled terribly. Some soldiers lost their footing as a terrifying force rushed through the wall. The segment hit by the ogre lost 1,5million HP from a single hit.
"F*ck!"
Fortune cursed loudly. Standing behind the ogre she experienced its might first-hand. Now she blamed herself for not managing to take the ogre down before it reached the wall.
Melodious Edelweiss almost stumbled. She felt some guilt as well. But she quickly balanced her steps, determined not to allow the ogre to attack a second time.
Finally, she reached the red dome. As soon as she it, entered Melodious Edelweiss ended her [Song of Vengeance], directing it towards the ogre. A violent sound invoked images of a vengeful army in the troll's mind, delivering a terrible hit with more than 30.000 points of damage. The ogre had no way to survive and fell on the spot.
The tall creature let out a cry as it fell backwards. Silver Blade's group scrambled to get out of the way. When the fat monster crashed into the ground it caused the earth to tremble.
"Finally, it's dead!"
Cyclone let out a sigh of relief. But the group was not out of danger yet. With the ogre's death the red dome disappeared as well, and the group was caught in the middle of the enemy forces.
Without hesitation Cyclone choose to activate one of Lekraxc's skills. A surging river appeared, flowing along the wall. It carried all the lizard riders away but had no effect on the players.
"That's actually quite nice!"
Cyclone had a grin on her face as she jumped around in the river, looking at the wall through a blue filter. Silver Blade watched as Settler broke out of his ice prison, warning her friends:
"No time to play. Let's go, we need to reach a door."
"Ok, ok."
"Let's go."
The group of five fell into a light jog along the wall and reached one of the doors a few seconds later. They entered the wall making it back to safety. Unfortunately, there was no one there to welcome them as the army was still on the walls. The wave had not ended yet!
When Silver Blade's group returned to the top of the wall, they received some cheers but there was not much time as the duration of the surging river spell ended. The blue waves disappeared and revealed the enemies behind.
Rows of mist dwarves waited to continue the fight. As soon as the river disappeared assassins rushed forward, and the priests used their spells.
There was not much sophistry in the following battle. It was a pure showing of strength. The defenders had the upper hand, but the mounting casualties still caused Liam some worry. He decided to set a higher priority on rescuing downed NPCs even if it slowed down the elimination of their enemies somewhat.
After ten minutes it was finally time for the dwarves to retreat. Observing the scene after the battle many soldiers couldn't help but feel some dread. There were noticeably less people left on top of the wall. The casualties among the NPCs came out at a total of 750 dead soldiers, leaving only 3250 NPCs ready to fight.
The situation among the players was better but the first people had used up all their revives. Obviously, most of them were of low level although they had made a lot of progress during the guild war.
While Liam improved from initially being level 44 to now being level 46, close to 47, others like Varge for example started with level 15 and were now already level 23. Obviously, the territory war was a great way to strengthen the low-levelled members.