FB: Chapter 123 – Entrenched Assault

I appeared above the top of the second wall. The bad thing about line of sight teleportation and walls, was that I had to appear in the air to get on top of them. Since the skill had been upgraded to the Heirloom rank, I had a teleportation distance of 40 meters.

Super Guild Apex had made the wall just the right height to counter Blink. But with its increased rank and the ramp, I was able to teleport far enough into the air to reach the air above the wall.

“Blink!”

“Blink!”

Two of my teammates teleported up as well. The Hellfire Twins were mad lads. They believed that the only thing better than attacking, was attacking more and having stronger firepower.

“Hellfire Torrent!”

“Hellfire Torrent!”

They unleashed their signature skill at the defenders. They were on the receiving end of a massive wave of fire instead of me. The defenders were packed up fairly tightly on top of the wall to rotate out firing with their magical guns so they could recharge MP.

A wave of fire swept either direction along the top of the wall. I blocked two weak magical bolt attacks with my mega blade and then swung at the offending players. They sharded as I hit them with super critical attacks. Some of their items dropping, but I didn’t care. Player dropped items wouldn’t be automatically picked up. Unless the opponent could stand against me, it wasn’t worth even looking at such trash loot.

The Hellfire Twins covered my flanks as I looked around and further up the mountain. The wall I was on was quite thick. There was a narrow bridge nearby that led from the wall into the mountain. There were also two others on other sides of the mountain. That was why we had settled on a tri-pronged assault on this mountain complex. The bridge leading into the fortress was only wide enough for four people shoulder to shoulder.

Super Guild Apex would normally move items in bulk through the use of an airship to a nearby town. We had considered an aerial assault, but the cost would have been much greater and would have been more difficult. Looking back over the wall, I saw the horde of players rushing up the mountain, screaming their heads off. While I looked around I consumed some potions to top me off and increase my regeneration for what was to come.

The ramp was extended to the top of the wall, and the rest of my team arrived. Hammer Crusher split the team into two that began clearing the top of the wall. “Status on teams two and three?” I asked the communications officer.

“They have reached the wall but are struggling gaining a foothold. No losses,” he said, and I nodded at this as the battle raged around us. If they had been damaged by the wave of alchemical fire or meteor shower, I would have been quite disappointed. The horde of players would take about five minutes to get up here. We needed to keep moving.

“Formation A, three wide, we move on the fortress bridge,” I shouted out and brought my tower shield back out of my inventory.

“Earth Wall.” Our earth mage cut off the other sections of the wall as we made our way to the bridge. While we would be exposed to magical gun fire from the rear while on the narrow bridge into the fortress complex, the wall defenders were in a state of confusion and would take at least a minute to regroup. That was why I wanted to move quickly.

That was another problem with super guilds, the chain of communication. Having people stand and fire down a mountain was easy enough. But now that we were on the wall, it was hard for the much larger army to react to our speed. That was the power of a small elite team.

I took the lead as we advanced across the narrow bridge. There was a metal drawbridge at the end of the bridge right before the door that began to rise. “The chains!”

“Fire Lance!”

“Fire Lance!”

The Hellfire Twins came in clutch once again and melted the chains. Another problem with super guilds was that they might come up with great plans, but the materials used weren’t the highest quality due to penny pinching accountants. The chains melted under the powerful magical attack.

The metal drawbridge crashed back down as I continued to race forward. Firing ports opened up around the doorway as I was assaulted with another torrent of magical gunfire. They should have put cannons here, not on the wall itself. They would have been more effective. With my Luck, magical gunfire had a hard time landing a critical hit and doing damage. Another minor benefit of a Luck build, resisting magical gunfire.

Reaching the doorway, I brought up my mega blade. “Slice!” I swung down on the large doorway, at the crack between both halves between the two doors. They should have a vertically lowered solid doorway, instead of actual doors. Another minor oversite on the defenses for this fortress. We had managed to get this information ahead of time, which was why I was confident in our assault plan.

The doors shuddered and bent inwards slightly. They were still thick metal doors and Super Guild Apex had probably heavily barricaded them. “Oil!”

“Earthen Wall!” Our earth mage came in clutch once again, creating a horizontal wall above our heads, sending the boiling oil off to the side of the drawbridge we were on. I brought my mega blade back up once more.

“Slice!” I aimed for the crack between the doors once again. When my mega blade impacted the door, it burst open and the bar that had been in place to hold the doors shut was cut in two.

“Boil Blood.”

“Spikes Of Suffering.”

“Hexagram Curse.”

Those were the few skills I heard as over twenty people unleashed skills at me and the open doorway at the same time. The Hellfire Twins were ready at either side of me on the narrow bridge and activated consumables one after another. Super Null Shields and Super Force Shields sprang into existence one after another, blocking all the attacks for three seconds. In that brief moment over 5,000 platinum was consumed by high grade consumables.

“Blink!”

I teleported past all the effects as they were countered by the consumable shields to the ceiling of the underground chamber. The intelligence pictures we had gotten of the Apex Mountain beforehand made it easy to know the dimensions of the room and the best place to teleport to. “Vomitatis!” I spun my head as the Heirloom skill was unleashed across the entire entry room.

“Ahhh!” The players screamed as they tried to adjust my rapid assault. A player in motion was worth at least ten standing around not knowing what to do.

“Hellfire Torrent!”

“Hellfire Torrent!”

The Hellfire Twins filled up the ground of the room with burning flames. The group that had been placed here was good, but they weren’t the true Champions of Super Guild Apex. They were high level players, but below the rank of Champion.

I floated to the ground as the flames disappeared, using some more consumables. My team advanced into the entry room. “Split up into sub-teams, clear the fortress, secure all valuables,” I ordered. Our large team of 30 players broke into 12 smaller teams of various sizes.

I stayed behind in the entry hall with the communication officer as everyone raced into the fortress. “The other two assault teams have secured a position on the top of the wall, but they cannot enter the fortress.” I nodded at this. That was something we had covered in our planning, so I knew what I wanted them to do.

“Order them around the wall to our position. They can enter from our position instead,” I ordered. The communications officer relayed my orders. It was more important to keep our assault teams in motion. We couldn’t afford to swamped by the horde of rabid fans that was rapidly approaching. While they had provided cover at the start, it was better to avoid getting dragged down in the chaos now that we were inside the fortress. The Apex members on the second wall were still fighting, since most of them didn’t have escape items.

That was one of the strengths of a super guild, way too many people. None of them rushed across the narrow bridge since they saw me standing in the entry room. That was why I had stayed behind, to guarantee a fallback point and to manage the battle as well.

Fighting indoors was a massive headache with my fighting style. A mega blade needed lots of room to work with and the chance of traps was too high. With my low Perception stat, it was better and safer to stay back and not take unnecessary risks.

It didn’t take long for both of the other assault teams to arrive and the communications officer let them know the locations my team had dispersed to in the mountain complex. After giving me a nod they raced into the mountain fortress as their communication officers stayed behind to coordinate with the individual teams.

One of the communication officers got out a map and began placing markers on it to better figure out where everyone was and to send messages to teams about alternate routes they could take to bypass particularly stubborn locations to flank the entrenched positions.

The horde of players had reached the second wall and were climbing up it, fighting the remaining players from the Super Guild Apex that were outside. I went to the drawbridge and swung my mega blade a couple of times, causing it to break apart and leave a gap. There were entrances higher up on the mountain or the players could try and brute force their way inside.

I didn’t care as long as my position wasn’t swamped by my rabid fans. “Alchemical workshop secured,” one of the communications officers reported. That was one of our targets.

“Storage has been emptied.” They probably handed everything out already.

“Vault location has been emptied.” That was expected and prepared for.

“Gun manufacturing has been captured.” A pleasant bonus.

I nodded along as the information was reported. It was expected. Consumables and basic goods were easily moved in bulk. Super Guild Apex knew we were attacking and moved out the easily transportable goods. But those weren’t the target. We were after the high value manufacturing equipment that couldn’t be put into a person’s inventory.

It basically made assaulting a place like this worthwhile so a guild couldn’t just have a mobile manufacturing complex. Super Guild Apex would reclaim this place, that was never in doubt, but losing all their expensive manufacturing equipment was a massive blow. A greater blow than all the consumables used up or the players killed in the battle.

Manufacturing equipment was incredibly durable as well, making it incredibly annoying and costly to destroy. “Signal our airship, have all guild members converge on extraction plan alpha,” I ordered. The communications officers relayed my command and we set off.

The passages through the mountain complex were clear and had sustained damage. We made our way towards the summit, where there was an airship port that had been built to move goods in and out this complex.

We converged with several other teams, many of which were hauling along hastily disassembled pieces of manufacturing equipment. They had to carry each piece as a team, due to how heavy they were with both hands. Another way to make moving manufacturing equipment incredibly tedious and time consuming. Like solid chunks of gold was the common comparison due to their weight and value.

Climbing up the stairs was slow going. I moved ahead and secured the airship landing. Our guild airship had landed and over sixty players were holding a perimeter. The horde of players had reached the top of the mountain, but my guild members didn’t hesitate to point them at other entrances. They would be able to loot everything we hadn’t taken.

After we left, there would be nothing left behind but a completely trashed base. It was a good set up and a lot had been invested, but it was still a serious blow to Super Guild Apex. I scanned the sky and spotted three airships in the distance, coming down out of cloud cover.

Annoying but not unexpected. Someone was looking to take out our escape route and to fish for benefits as well.