New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 294 Setting Pawns In Place

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Killi watched on in horror, as wave after wave swallowed his once overpowering numbers up in black smoke, billowing with bones and rotten flesh.

Before his eyes, standing tall in between himself and Khalor, stood a gigantic door. The door towered fifty feet high and spanned thirty feet wide.

It had grown out of the ground, like exiting hell itself, and once the twin metal doors slid open, only death left its embrace. Dark smoke rolled out, containing what they could only describe as the apocalypse.

Wails of banshees, screeches of liches, the growling of various zombies, the rattling of bony skeletons, as well as so many more undead monsters came rushing out. In a matter of seconds, hundreds of undead had already poured out, with no visible end in sight.

Killi briefly scanned through the monsters, assessing their threat level. Reassuringly, most of the undead hovered around level twenty to level thirty.

But some higher-level ones were already escaping the door's confines, as well as some with grades higher than common. There was no way to know where this deluge of death would stop, and how strong the monsters part of it would be.

"Push through them! They are only weak monsters!" Killi shouted, trying to brace the mind of his guild members.

Many of them snapped back to their normal state of mind, while the weaker ones kept shaking in fear. The stronger guild members started slaying the undead vermin at a rapid tempo.

Once the killing began, even the weaker-minded guild members of 'Knights' started regaining their wits.

"They are only weak monsters!"

"Yeah! Kill them all!"

"Hah! What a useless spell! We'll kill that Necromancer in no time!"

Shouts of false bravado and stupid courage echoed across the guild members. It reassured Killi that they snapped back to normal, but he refused to lower his guard.

'There can't only be weaker undead in there. There is no way Khalor would use a spell that is weak to open on such an important fight.'

He hung back, ordering his ten officers and his fifty strongest players to fight defensively for now. His decision would later prove to have been the right one.

Further to the side, many smaller guilds used the cover of 'Knights' numbers to push toward the Bastion's gate. The tidal wave of undeath was currently being held back by them, leaving full access to the gate to others.

Among them, one guild, in particular, stood out. They held no banner or tabard to separate them from the others.

Their leader, a tall, undead man, with plated armor rusted green all over. Flames of bluish colour emanated from the interstices of his armour.

A large sword was in his two hands as he batted away any stray undead monster that approached him. He led a small troop of around twenty players, as they moved forth as a solid block.

The cohesion to them stood out like a sore thumb in the middle of this chaotic battlefield. The leader was a player that many would recognize if they watched the Tournament of Champions.

His name was Declan, and he was an opponent that Astaroth had defeated, to reach the finals. The one that had warned Astaroth about a guild recruiting special classes by any means possible.

He was storming the gates, keeping his men in check as they did.

"Remember, lads. We came here for a reason, and we shall not fail!"

"Aye, Sir!" the guild members replied.

Many players around this guild were fired up by their enthusiasm and shouted war cries, before redoubling their efforts to reach the Bastion's gates. Many of them got stopped before making it there, as a giant two-headed raven swept down from the skies.

On the other side of the 'Knights' guild, another strong undead was stopping the enemy's advance. A tall death knight, with a halberd spinning around him, took down players left and right.

The drake from earlier also did sweeping passes amongst the players, spitting flames when it could, and grabbing players in its claws the rest of the time. Flying alongside it, a Manticore, with its tail shooting meter-long spikes, impaling the unlucky players that got hit.

The fight in front of the gates was a massacre, both on the side of the players, slaying the low-level undead, and on the side of the undead, as the few high-level undead were crushing the player counterparts.

The massive door, standing in the middle of this all, was still spitting out the undead. Many players had already started doubting whether it would ever stop doing so.

But since they couldn't reach it, to cut it down, all they could do was fight on. Meanwhile, Khalor, standing atop the door's arch, was scanning the battlefield, looking for someone.

The intel they had on the guilds surrounding the Bastion situated Aces High at the back of the fortress. But Khalor knew that one player amongst them wouldn't be there.

He had purposefully provoked him into fighting him head-on. But he was yet to show his face.

Many ranged attacks came flying at Khalor, who was strangely unaffected by any of them. It was like an invisible wall was blocking all of them before they ever reached him.

'Where are you, you piece of shit?' Khalor impatiently thought.

His mind left the chaotic battlefield behind, as memories of torture and captivity fluttered inside his head.

Somewhere else on the battlefield, another guild was sneaking around the bastion, never fully committing to advancing. Another well-known player, Blue Peacock, helmed the guild.

Although her guild was on a smaller scale, in terms of manpower, she still held a position in the ten strongest guilds. The reason for this was the function her guild had.

Almost all the players in her guild were assassins and mercenaries outside of New Eden. Even if it had never been proven, players knew better than to try out the theory by provoking these players into action.

Their combat styles, as well as their natural capacity for stealth, made it pretty clear that they were experienced in infiltration and takedowns. That was enough confirmation for players.

And that guild was currently scoping out the surroundings of the Bastion, under the cover of all the other players running forward.

"My lady. We found an entry point," the player following Blue Peacock said.

"Finally. Tell the others. Let's get to work."

The player nodded and vanished into the sea of charging players.