FB: Chapter 84 – Being Unpredictable

I didn’t wait around as the information was relayed. I used Blink to teleport to the base of the fortress wall where there was no defending Champion. I spun and puked on the enemy soldiers while running through their battle lines. There were screams from the enemy and cheers from my side. Attacks continued to rain down around me, but my forces had enough skill to avoid friendly fire.

One of the forward bunkers was being dug into with a skill. I puked all over the attacking troops, and rushed deeper into enemy lines while using a Feather Fall potion. A huge number of enemy troops surged towards me, and I used Blink to get away teleporting towards the siege equipment. I puked all over the enemy troops while tossing a fire grenade on the siege equipment.

Three enemy soldiers teleported in below me. Thorn spears were thrown upwards at me. I deployed Force Walls to counter them, using up more consumables before I used Blink again to appear high above another piece of siege equipment. I didn’t go in order but skipped one or two pieces of siege equipment as I circled the star fortress.

Half way around, I reversed directions, heading back the way I came destroying the siege equipment I had skipped over or just bypassing it entirely. The key part of a battle like this was being unpredictable. Once I was far enough around, I ran away from the battlefield and began to circle at a far distance.

Whomever the enemy commander was, I knew they were experiencing a massive headache right now. I was a combatant they couldn’t ignore and was in their rear. Running in a big circle while keeping Blink in reserve made it incredibly difficult to pin me down with whatever trap they had planned. Also, any attacks that landed did an immense amount of damage due to the absolute level difference I had over this horde. In most cases it was over 70%.

With five different forces, coordinating was incredibly difficult. They would have a shorter circle to mirror my movements while protecting their troops, but they couldn’t make a counter force obvious, otherwise I would just run away. They also couldn’t ignore me, since if I rushed in on foot towards the siege equipment, the people manning it there was no way to defend. The siege equipment was facing the wrong way to target me as well.

Even better, my antics was a huge morale boost for my soldiers on the walls of my star fortress since they could see me running around causing havoc. I also got a good view of the battle whenever I crested a hill.

The star fortress was taking a pounding, but the enemy forces were being killed in large numbers. Having an elevated position with protection made a huge difference. Occasionally grenades were tossed over the edge as well when a clump of enemies was particularly dense. People had purchased those grenades on their own in order to rack up guild contributions.

Even with the brutal massacre, ramps of corpses were forming up to the twenty meter high star fortress. The walls were breaking down from the massive number of weak attacks. My forces were running out of MP. That was the thing in these types of battles, retreat rarely happened. People fought to the bitter end.

Any regular army would have quit the field after losing 600,000 people in exchange for 10,000 people. But wave after wave rushed forward. The forward bunkers were being dug out and destroyed. While I had managed to take out a third of the siege weapons, the rest were still firing relentlessly, burning a horrendous amount of money on ammunition.

Even if the other side won, they would still be losing money. More grenades began to explode at the base of the star fortress and siege weapons were being set up. It was the right choice, but my heart still hurt. We would probably break even now instead of earning a profit.

I rushed in at another siege weapon, but then quickly turned to the side and ran towards the next one. The people working that ballista weren’t low level individuals, but really high level. It was clearly a trap. Thankfully I had all the necessary equipment attached to my mini-map so I could see that their level made no sense and they hadn’t used consumables to hide it. Or if they did the consumables had run out. Regardless, that was one piece of siege equipment I wasn’t going near.

“Dammit Foxy Blight! Come here!” one of the men shouted at me. I used Blink to move above a large formation of soldiers and puked all over them. There were screams as despair as I floated high up in the air. I then Blinked away to the next piece of siege equipment and tossed a fire grenade, burning it down.

Even with all of this, there was just an insane number of people that needed killing. The walls of the star fortress were breaking down and ramps were forming. Melee troops up top were forming up to counter the enemy forces rushing up to kill them. Magical gun fire continued to rain down in every direction, but it had slowed down. The MP potions had run out and everyone was falling into combat, even if they were moved back. That meant they couldn’t regenerate MP naturally.

The siege equipment was beginning to hit my exposed troops as defensive formations were disrupted. Even with my rampage, my forces were still struggling. Thankfully we had one last trap to play. With the forward bunkers lost and my champions having either pulled back or fallen, the massive amounts of explosives hidden underground just beyond the base of the star fortress detonated.

There was hope that the explosives would be able to be recovered and used in the canal construction. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen and we couldn’t afford to lose this battle. Corpses, dirt, and ruined stone were hurled upwards and outwards. One arm of the star fortress even collapsed due to the tremors combining with the damage already incurred, sending about 2,000 people tumbling downwards. But for the enemy forces, it was much more devastating.

They had sent everything in, seeing that we were overwhelmed and my forces were about to break. This explosion would give Kill Blade time to reorganize. I could already see people using potions to recover. The ramps that used to exist up the walls of the star fortress were now gone, except for the one collapsed pointed arm of the star fortress.

As I ran around destroying more siege equipment and disrupting their rear line, I noted Hammer Crusher had taken up position on that large ramp of rubble, single handedly holding back the fresh enemy waves that had rushed forward. He was proving that he deserved the label of S rank combatant with his unparalleled skill, holding breach at a critical moment.

I could see a number of enemy champions moving to attack him. I used Blink to teleport in behind them and tossed out a bunch of smoke grenades followed up by fire grenades, creating chaos. The moment I cleared the smoke, I quickly teleported away. That should buy some time to reinforce that position. I noted that more consumables were being distributed at the top of the star fortress when I teleported up into the air. My heart hurt from all that money that was being used up.

It was starting to get dark, and we had about 60,000 people remaining on our side to 400,000 on theirs. We had lost 25% to their 66%. Even after all those losses, most of them were crazy people not directly part of one of the five guilds. While it might seem like we were winning, we were barely holding on. About half of those 400,000 troops were completely fresh and they were elites.

I managed to finish off two thirds of the siege equipment just as it got really dark. The enemy forces started to pull back, so I pulled back as well. I teleported back to the star fortress and quickly went to the command bunker, which was looking scuffed up despite being in the center of the star fortress. Hammer Crusher was there along with Sectagon Ascendent. Storm Sword and Sunfold Illumination weren’t present along with the other champions. Those two along with the rest of my guild champions were dead.

“Foxy, it is good to see you alive,” Kill Blade greeted me.

“I got about two thirds of their siege equipment, but with them pulling back, I returned as well to get a status update,” I said.

“We lost most of our champions holding the line. Quant Z is overseeing repairs, but there is only so much we can do at the moment. We have 56,000 people left, while they have 423,000.” My estimates were close, but a bit optimistic. “Their command center is still hidden. I personally suspect there isn’t any command center. Each guild is just seeing what the others are doing and acting.” I nodded at this.

“They appear to have used up most of their strategic consumables like siege ammo. Unfortunately, we are out of strategic consumables and on the last batch of tactical consumables.” I was running low as well after four hours of heavy fighting. “They most likely pulled back so they can avoid friendly fire, regroup, and do one large push in the morning.”

“Can we hold until tomorrow afternoon when this is over?” I asked.

“Not easily. Getting a percentage win will be difficult. We are at 70% remaining and they have 35% remaining. But we are spent. We were hoping to use that explosive trap tomorrow, but we needed to clear the walls otherwise we would have been overrun,” Kill Blade said with a sigh.

“Alright, well we had our break. It is time for the night attack plan,” I said. There was no other option. I looked at Hammer Crusher and Sectagon Ascendent. “You two ready?” I asked.

“Yes, but I think I am going to be sick of battle for a while after this,” Hammer Crusher replied.

“You really are making us earn our pay,” Sectagon Ascendent added on.

“Well you are Champions. Kill Blade, the weakest guild?” I asked. While going over to the supply crates to stock up on more supplies and special supplies for this operation. More money to be used up.

“The Knights of Ni are probably the worst off. Good luck,” he replied. We all nodded. I noted they weren’t bringing their team members along. While I might be able to get out of danger, it would be rough for these two. We went down the newly made ramp of the star fortress and rushed in the direction of the Knights of Ni.

Hammer Crusher was on my right, while Sectagon Ascendent took my left flank. “Fire Stream! Fire Stream” Sectagon Ascendent unleashed the first attack as we reached the enemy lines creating a wedge of fire. I fired a flare gun into the air, lighting up the area.

“AHHH!” Hammer Crusher let out a roar and swung his chain hammer, smashing five people in a row. I rushed in and began puking on everyone, not stopping my rush through the camp. We all rushed forward. The idea was to rush through the enemy camp and to the other side.

Behind us there would be five elite teams dispatched by Kill Blade. They would move in towards the lit up enemy camp and then unleash a long range bombardment with their area of effect fire skills. While the Verdant Plains was an open battlefield, it was also flammable if the fire grew large enough.

In the previous battle, fire never caught since there were so many people rushing over the flames and the amount of blood split. Even the fire grenades I used on the siege equipment wouldn’t really spread. The fire needed to reach a critical mass to spread through the grass and even then it could be countered if people were slightly coordinated.

The entire area around the star fortress was a churned up mess of blood, dirt, rubble, and corpses. It wouldn’t easily catch on fire or burn. That was also why we didn’t use this tactic initially, otherwise we would have been cooked in the fortress. Now there was a massive stretch of destroyed ground the fire wouldn’t be able to cross.

I went up into the sky and tossed out twenty barrels of oil, goodbye twenty platinum. The barrels hit the ground and the thick oil spread about. As the fire raced forward. I raced through the rest of the camp with my two Champions reaching the far side.