A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 40: Getting used to battle

Chapter 40: Getting used to battle

Eldrian glanced over his shoulder wondering what caused the massive heatwave passing over him. His hair fluttering around, he saw a massive wall of flame had risen behind the wall of archers.

'That must have hurt the players.' He thought, glancing at his quest log in curiosity. Shocked he stared at the number; 141 players left.

'Well, shit... Is this what A-ranked quest represents?' He asked himself as he read the number. He had believed that the quest would be relatively easy, seeing as there were still S-ranked and epic quests above an A-ranked quest. But it seemed that his perspective had been wrong.

A-ranked quests might mean nearly impossible. Not just a little hard.

Looking around Eldrian tried to recover from the shock. He had been unproductive the first few minutes. Not able to comprehend the scale of the battle or what he was supposed to be doing.

Slowly he was getting more used to seeing the carnage. Allowing him to think with a clearer mind.

The front-line soldiers seemed to be having a hard time, but they were all holding strong. While the archers were firing relentlessly into the mass of monsters. If the fight persisted for more than 10 more minutes, Eldrian felt they would run out of arrows. Most of the archers had two quivers, and some were already more than halfway through their first.

Eldrian also saw that the mages were not casting spells, but he understood that they had just cast a massive spell. He was unaware of what exactly happened, but he felt the last spell must have taken it out of the mages.

Most of the time, prior to this moment, he had mainly heard the cries of the players from his back, and cried of battle and agony from the front. Sometimes a captain would shout something, but this was rare. Most of the time he was just listening to people calling out as they died.

Eldrian did not find it a nice thing to experience.

His eyes were not spared from this horror as he observed the chaotic battle. When a soldier was injured they would sometimes just fight to their death. But if there was a respite in the pressure placed on them, then the soldier would exit the formation stumbling to the medic center.

They would often be missing arms or legs. Some struggled to keep their innards inside them as they stumbled out of the line. It was all very unpleasant to observe.

They would sometimes receive help from the soldiers on standby. Who would help them to get to the medical center, but not always. These soldiers were surrounding the medic center, which was in the middle of the entire formation. There many magic casters were busy healing the injured, seemingly just trying to stabilize those in critical condition.

Ignoring those who would live. If a person was missing an arm or leg. They would simply cauterize it and leave the fainted patient alone after.

Eldrian found the practice to be very harsh. But he understood that they had to try and save as many people as possible. They did not have the time to be gentle.

The nobles were also here, hiding behind the medic center. Acting as if they are protecting the medic center, but Eldrian saw that they were struggling to not break down. Some of them were shaking so badly that Eldrian could see it, even though he was 20 or so meters from them.

He did not fault or find them cowardly. He understood that any person who had lived a comfortable life would be frightened of death. This situation certainly reminded you that you could die, every second of every passing moment.

Heck, it took Eldrian more than a minute or so to get out of his stupor. Where he had struggled to think clearly. This while he was not scared of death, just being shocked by what he saw.

Vivian had also been slow in getting used to it. But unlike Eldrian she had to fight the fear of death, along with the shock of seeing the true image of what a battle was.

Eldrian observed the soldier, waiting for something to change. As he observed them he sometimes saw flashes of light as the soldiers fought. He had not seen such an attack clearly, but from the glimpses, he saw he was impressed. This was not because of the use of magic by melee fighters, but due to how they used it. The speed and accuracy with which they acted.

Eldrian assumed this was what skills were. But he failed to figure out how it worked exactly. Spells were quite simple, since you could see the mage channeling it and then casting it out. But with skills, they seemed to just appear. Suddenly and deadly.

Looking around he saw it again. this time more clearly. A soldier was pushed back by a beast who lunged at him, causing him to fall over. Defenseless the soldier tried to bring his arms up, hoping to protect his life. Before the beast could deliver its killing blow, a soldier behind the fallen soldier used a flame skill.

Thrusting his weapon forward, the soldier sent out a piercing fire 'bullet'. Eldrian had no idea how to explain it. The soldier simply trusted his sword, while being a meter too far. His blade not able to reach the beast, yet a flash of light appeared. Killing the beast as soon as it did.

The only thing hinting at the use of a skill was the streak of orange fire hanging in the air. The fallen soldier stood back up. Taking his place behind a different soldier who had filled the gap, which his fall had caused.

'That looks so much more useful than spells.' Eldrian thought as he compared the two. Spells needed time to set up and use. While the skills seemed to be instant.

He knew that each had their own strength. But for solo adventuring, Eldrian felt skills would excel. While spells would get you killed. Naturally this was just his novice opinion and Eldrian did not want to make a decision from this alone.

He would first train and use both. Only choosing his path later when he knew more.

Suddenly the sky darkened, bringing Eldrian out of his thoughts, as a massive bolt of lightning appeared. Seemingly stealing all the light around it.

This bolt streaked through the air in a flash. Hitting someplace left of the center of the pack. Eldrian could not see where it landed, but turning to the source he saw William standing hunched over. Clearly drained, breathed heavily.

'Yup, each has their own strength.' Eldrian mumbled as he turned to look at the front again. He was just in time to see Old Sword jumping over the line of soldiers, heading to where the spell had landed.

'Was that attack aimed at the pack's leader?' Eldrian questioned as he saw Old Sword's action. He felt it was insane to charge into such a large amount of enemies alone.

But he felt it made some sort of sense to. Seeing as Old Sword is the strongest person knew. Turning to Vivian he saw that she was frowning, curious he asked. "Why do you look so concerned?"

"Because my dad wouldn't go out unless the enemy is really strong. Which means he will be busy for a while."

"Huh," Eldrian mumbled as he did not understand Vivian's reasoning.

"It means he won't be able to help the soldiers in maintaining the formation."

"But, shouldn't it be fine? They had been doing great so far."

To which Vivian shook her head as she glanced at William asking herself, 'What on earth could force them to use so much on one target?' She was worried, because it meant the pack was stronger than they had believed. Adding onto this worry, they only had around half an hour before the other pack would join the fight.

"I fear the pack leader might have wanted this."

Hearing the reply, Eldrian's eyes popped wide open in surprise. 'Can monsters reason so well? And so early in the game story?' He asked himself, as he felt a fear creeping into him.

"Seems like you also just realized what I meant."

"Please be wrong..."

As Eldrian asked for mercy he saw a few points of the formation that seemed to be under far heavier stress, almost breaking.

'Goddam it. Did we jinks it or was Old Sword and William played? Played by a freaking beast?'

Eldrian turned to look at William hoping to see him in top form. But he was still breathing heavily, granted he had stood up straight again by now. But he was clearly not going to be able to do much anytime soon.

"Fuck!" Eldrian shouted as he looked around. Searching for something which might help. He quickly spotted Elizabeth, the only other player he really knew. She was standing with the other players, with them seemingly following her. Eldrian started heading to her, hoping they would be willing to help.

Vivian followed after Eldrian, hoping he had a plan. She realized that they were now in what seems to be the beasts' trap. She half wanted to laugh when she realized this part. Finding it funny that both fighting parties had fallen for each other's traps. But she did not, as she found it more troubling than anything else.

Elizabeth was still in a stupor, observing the carnage which was A New World's battles. The few skirmishes she had had with her guild were nothing compared to this blood bath. She had almost vomited her lunch out.

Some of the players with her had in fact done just so. One unlucky fellow player was even vomited on, as the vomiter had been unable to turn his head away in time.

They had not even left the area, causing Eldrian to have to adjust his breathing as he approached them. The battlefield did not smell nice, but now combined with the smell of vomit, Eldrian struggled to keep his cool.

"Elizabeth!" Eldrian shouted as he approached her. Not really wanted to have to go nearer.

"Yes?" She replied robotically, slowly turned her head to look at Eldrian.

"We need to help the soldiers!"

This sentence helped many of the players wake up. They turned their heads, looking for what this guy was talking about. Those looking around soon paled, realizing that they were still in the frying pan.

"We aren't enough to cover so many areas." A guy said as he walked up to Elizabeth, standing next to her.

'Who is in charge?' Eldrian asked himself confused, before shaking his head as he realized it did not matter. He just needed to get everyone to help the NPCs before it was too late.

How and with who he managed this was not important.