FB: Chapter 122 – Battle Of Mount Apex

I stared upwards at the entrenched positions of Super Guild Apex. It had been six years since the start of Exponential. Magical gunfire rained down upon my position and the positions of my fellow Mercenary Guild Members.

“Mud and blood,” Hammer Crusher muttered next to me. I just chuckled. It was the catchphrase of the Mercenary Guild when things got rough. A large explosion from a cannon blast went off a short distance away, blowing mud and debris into our foxhole.

“Well it seems like we pissed in someone’s cereal,” I replied while wiping the mud off of my face. This was shaping up to be one of our worst contracts so far. But the payout was quite a lot, which would make it all worth it once it was complete.

“You would think they would run out of MP at the rate they are firing at,” Hammer Crusher complained. I chuckled at that.

“Perhaps, but reputation cuts both ways,” I replied as another cannon blast sent up a shower of mud. I was still considered the top player in Exponential and had streamlined my build quite a bit over the years. I had given up on plans on freeing up more skill slots. I had only managed to free up one.

“If the contract wasn’t paying so well, I would say we should walk away,” Hammer Crusher complained. He had become quite grumpy over the years. While the leadership role had been passed on, he was an elder of the Mercenary Guild like me. And the contract to assault and destroy the headquarters of Super Guild Apex was our biggest contract to date.

This super guild was the main nexus for Indian players in Exponential. Rather than taking a town or city as their main base, they built a massive fortress on a mountain and got the name changed in game to Apex Mountain. This was a joint contract from the US and China, to take out their headquarters. Unfortunately, information had leaked, and Apex was ready for our assault.

I didn’t need the money, but the Mercenary Guild members wanted to take up this contract. The contract also created other opportunities I was interested in. I had agreed and taken a break from maximizing my build. It was already quite solid with all the experience I had collected. Every skill shard was cyan colored, which meant Heirloom rank. No Divine rank skills unfortunately.

“Well, no need to worry. We just needed to soften them up. Now the real horror will be unleashed,” I said, and Hammer Crusher got an evil smile at that statement.

“Your evil is truly boundless. It is like cheating,” he replied. I smiled as three beams of light soared into the sky. One was behind us while the other two formed a triangle shape with the first one around Apex Mountain. This placed us between the beam of light indicating a teleportation portal and Apex Mountain.

Groups of players began to arrive. There was a reason people built their headquarters in cities and towns, to avoid this situation and being able to leverage NPCs to help with defense. Apex wanted to create a secure bastion and cut out any espionage and create a unique area for their members. That was going to be their downfall, just like it was the first time around. Only this time I was leading the charge.

My mercenary rate wasn’t just for my presence. I was icon, a status symbol, the most important woman alive. Being such a person came with numerous headaches, but it also came with benefits. I was going to use one of those benefits to crush Apex and complete the contract.

“For Foxy!”

“Charge!”

“Kill them all!”

Hordes of players were arriving. I noted the two other light beacons, forming a triangle around Apex Mountain. They would be attacked from three directions. I took a voice amplification potion. I lifted up the massive tower shield next to me. My 96% weight reduction came in handy for easily lifting it up along with my Mega Blade.

Exiting the fox hole, I leapt up and looked at my followers rushing forward. “With me my loyal followers! Show no mercy!” I shouted out across the battlefield. Multiple cannon blasts and magical gunfire rained down on my position. I activated a consumable, creating a barrier for one second, protecting me. A small expenditure compared to what we were getting paid.

As the debris and smoke cleared, I was standing there, holding my tower shield up towards the mountain. “They can’t even scratch me! For glory! Charge!” I roared.

The players roared out as well. I began racing forward in the front as magical attacks began to rain down upon me. The tower shield cost 100 platinum and was incredibly durable. It had a 99% resistance to magical attacks and was a key item of anyone rushing forward through a magical barrage.

My fellow mercenary guild members, climbed out of their foxholes as well and began charging forward behind me, and just in front of the player wave. That would give my people a clear line of sight and time to maneuver. As for the enemy guild they now had a target rich environment behind my elite force.

I easily moved up the rocky mountain. The lower wall had already been breached in our initial assault and a path up the mountain had been blown into the cliff face, creating a path of rubble leading upwards. We weren’t about to take their switch back ramp up the side of the mountain.

A cannon blast hit my shield directly, staggering me, but I didn’t lose my footing. The shield was doing quite well. While it wouldn’t block physical attacks, it was the perfect item for countering a magical barrage. Mercenery Guild members returned long range spells up towards the fortress on the mountain. They weren’t all attack spells. There were several visual disruption spells that created smoke clouds and light bursts.

The entire area around Apex Mountain transformed into a hellscape of light and shadows as magical attacks were flying in every direction. I moved behind a boulder and glanced back. A cannon blast struck three players that were grouped togeather. The shield the front one was carrying wasn’t strong enough to block the attack. They were all vaporized. That was 10 platinum spent on taking out three nobodies.

“Forward!”

“For Foxy!”

“Look at me!”

The crazy fans rushed up the mountain. Magical gunfire greatly increased, sharding countless individuals without any protection, even through the visual cover that my Mercenary Guild had created. My men grouped up behind me, as I made another push forward as the human fodder shredded themselves in the assault.

If someone managed to survive an assault and had video proof, they could earn a spot in my Mercenary Guild or get a payout. Loads of people would make sure they didn’t have anything of value on them and join in the battle for the chance to get a payout.

I didn’t need a large guild. The entire player base was willing to join me to bring down a top super guild and drag them into the mud. It was seen as a way for the little people to strike against the rich corporations, governments, and elites. The other super guilds only looked on with both glee and trepidation that they weren’t being targeted.

“Avalanche!” One of my team members shouted out.

“Formation D!” I called out. Four other people grouped up with me and we all raised our shields above us and braced our footing. A mage formed an earthen wall in front of us.

“Brace! Cover! Brace!” Hammer Crusher shouted out. A torrent of rocks slammed into the wall. A larger boulder came over the top. A consumable was used to negate the environmental damage as we angled our shields to roll the boulder away.

“Clear!”

“Forward!” I shouted as more players rushed up the mountain to replace the ones that had just been crushed by the avalanche. An environmental trap like this might have one or two uses at the most. It had been used up, only slowing my team down.

I went around the earth wall and kept moving up the mountain as magical gunfire continued to rain downwards. Super Guild Apex was clearly using everything they had stored up in their mountain fortress, which acted as a major production hub.

They were clearing out their entire stock of reserves. I didn’t even want to think about the amount of platinum being consumed right now. The analysts would figure out an estimate after the battle. I had a feeling it would be the highest cost battle so far in Exponential.

Dust and magical effects were covering the entire mountain. Our elite team kept close for this reason, instead of spreading out like we had during the initial assault. That was when the sky above us lit up.

“Formation E, Two!” I shouted out. This was how an elite team could survive while countless other people were wiped out. We had prepared tactics and an overall strategy to handle everything Apex could throw at us.

“Sealed Earth Dome!” Our earth mage called out as we all grouped close to the mage. Two halves of the ground rose up around us, trapping us. Right before we were trapped inside, I saw bright dots directly above us.

“Meteor shower?” Hammer Crusher asked me as we all pressed up against each other.

“That and probably an alchemical fire wave down the mountain in a tandem attack. Apex is really going to fight to the bitter end,” I said, my voice sounding out quite loudly in the enclosed space.

“They are just using up all their stored up supplies so no one will get them,” Hammer Crusher replied. There was no chance to respond as the ground shook from the impact of meteors. The cost of such a large scale effect wasn’t cheap, in the tens of thousands at the very least. More if they targeted the other sides of their mountain fortress. Outside I knew it would be a complete hellscape as molten rocks rained down from the sky and a wave of alchemical fire ran down the mountain.

The dome shook heavily, and our earth mage took an MP potion. We were also being targeted by cannon fire. But there was nothing we could do at the moment. The blasts weren’t precisely targeted, since I heard other nearby explosions. Apex knew that if they could kill me, they would break the morale behind the attack.

After a minute the crashing and explosion sounds outside calmed down. “Ten seconds, formation A,” I called out loudly. “Three, two, one!”

“Earth Repulsion!” The dome around us exploded outwards. There was the smell of sulfur in the air and the entire mountain had been glassed. Dust, smoke, and a haze of heat completely blocked out any long range vision.

“Forward!” I shouted and pointed my mega sword up the mountain. We advanced up the mountain. The rabid player fans would be following behind us as more of them came through the long distance teleportation arrays that had been set up. The rabid fans nearby had all been wiped out by the massive attack, but that was what they were needed for, to draw out the strength of Apex so we could continue forward. Magical gunfire began to rain down on us, in massive quantities. Our large tower shields handled most of the fire, with what few hits managed to get through, doing very little damage. Magical gunfire only worked well when a lot of it connected at the same time.

As we continued advancing up the mountain, we would soon reach the second and final wall. The first wall, was an outer wall to mark the territory of Apex. The large amount of space between the first and second wall was to create a killing field. It was a good idea, but they hadn’t been ready for my Champion team.

You needed Champions to counter Champions in close range. The gunfire quickly began to decrease as we got close to the wall. It was forty meters high and angled outwards. I could see holes where the alchemical fire had been released from the 40 meter wall.

“Earthen Ramp!” Having a skilled earth mage was critical in these kind of assaults for defense and movement. Teleporting as a group was too risky and not everyone had that kind of skill. It was better to move as a group through the use of earthen defensive skills.

The ramp was angled parallel to the wall and only went up about halfway. “Grenades! Fire!” I heard the shout come from up on the wall.

“I am going up. Hammer Crusher, get the rest of the team up,” I ordered while consuming a feather fall potion.

“Up the ramp and make another!” Hammer Crusher shouted. We all began to race up the ramp as grenades came over the top of the wall. I put my shield away and gripped my mega blade Slice firmly in my right hand. Time to show people why I was still the god player.

“Blink!”