Second World

During the time Jack spent training while waiting for his army to gather, Jeanny and the others had been hard at work setting up the war tools at the strategic spots John indicated. After finishing the setup, they lay and waited for the enemy to arrive.

When Jeanny and the others were doing that, Master conquered three settlements while making his way deeper into Palgrost. On the day Jack went to Vacharest, the Liguritudum army encountered the first blockade.

The Scorpios attacked first. Their ranges allowed them to hit the front-most enemies when the Cheval de Frise were still very far away.

Surprised by this ambush, the commander of the front line called for a charge, only for the charge to be forcefully stopped by the caltrops. The bolts from the Scorpios never stopped coming at them.

Due to the stop, Master flew forward to see what was wrong. He used his Demonic True Eye to see the hidden caltrops spread around the ground. He commanded the front line to stop charging and then cast one of his AOE spells to destroy these caltrops.

He then cast Barrier and flew ahead. The Scorpios were now targeting him, but he blocked the bolts using his magic shield. Those that flew past his magic shield were stopped by his Barrier. He cast a spell while being showered by the flying bolts.

A huge meteor came down and it demolished the Cheval de Frise as well as the Scorpios that were blocking their path. The Cheval de Frise might have a high defense but the Meteor Fall spell dealt increased damage against structures, such as buildings and defensive walls. The Cheval de Frise didn't have as high an HP as actual structures. Thus, they were destroyed with one hit from Master's meteor.

"Hmph! A meaningless attempt," Master scoffed.

He returned to the army and commanded them to proceed, but he received a message from Linda at that time. Their rear was ambushed.

The strategic spots John picked were choke points where a huge army had to turn into a long line formation to proceed. This caused the rear part of the army to become extremely far away from the front, especially for an army as large as the one Liguritudum was bringing.

At this rear, Jeanny and the others struck. Each guild acted as a separate force and attacked from multiple sides. The enemies were not in a proper formation and since Jeanny and the others came from different sides, the enemies didn't know which sides to defend.

All the ones who did the ambush were players. Player forces now rivaled the natives. Expert players who never died now rivaled the high-rank officers of the native army. Those who had died several times but could still afford the Amulet of Rebirth rivaled the mid-rank officers. While those who had died and returned to level 1 but trained themselves back to level 50 filled up the ranks to fight against the regular native soldiers. Those who were below level 50 were prohibited from joining the war. They would just be cannon fodders.

Due to this, even when they consisted fully of players going up against a native force, they were no longer at a disadvantage as they were in the past.

The players also carried the exploding bottles, which Jeanny had distributed before the ambush. These bottles helped the players deal extra damage to the Liguritudum soldiers.

In the fight, Jeanny showcased her improved martial art. Her Seven Spears Assaulting Heaven had advanced. She was now at stage six. She had learned how to apply mana manipulation to push her thrusting motion into superhuman speed. Each thrust resulted in six stabs that dealt increasing damage, with the sixth and final stab scoring guaranteed critical damage.

She also used the Beacon of Hope, increasing everyone's fighting capabilities in her vicinity.

Flying above her was her new companion, an eaglefolk. She befriended one during her visit to the Council of Elgo. Her companion's name was Garuda. He was a promising young combatant from the eaglefolk and a level 70 Mythical.

He wore light armor and flew around the battlefield using the two large eagle wings on his back. He was armed with a spiked club. Whenever he saw an opportunity, he swooped down with his spiked club. He smashed the unaware foe from the sky, like an eagle pouncing at its prey.

His spiked club was enchanted with the wind element. The heaviness of its strike wounded foes wearing heavy armor while the sharp winds revolving around the weapon cut foes who wore light armor.

His wings, despite looking fragile, were very durable. Aside from allowing flight, the two wings also acted like two extremely large shields that blocked any attacks coming at Garuda. They also served as melee weapons that smacked enemies who came too close.

Garuda was a melee combatant, but he also had several ranged skills at his disposal. His wings could conjure a hurricane that dealt AOE wind damage. He had the Chain Throw Weapon, which was similar to Ranger's basic skill where the weapon returned to its owner's hand after being thrown. This Chain Throw Weapon produced much more damage than the basic skill. It also bounced off the hit enemies and hit up to ten targets before returning to the owner's hand.

He could conjure Wind Armor. This skill had raging winds circulating his body. This skill increased his movement speed and deflected attacks targeting him. Heavy attacks that couldn't be deflected would still have their damage reduced.

He also had a pet red-feathered falcon that followed him around. The falcon was very swift and attacked at opportune moments. With his falcon, Garuda caused havoc amidst the enemy's ranks as he used a hit-and-run tactic from the sky.

Garuda's most impressive skill was the Divine Eagle Smash, where he smashed the ground and conjured a giant eagle image. This skill blew all the enemies in a large radius from him into the sky before they were battered by raging winds unleashed by the giant eagle image. Enemies received high wind damage during the duration of this skill. Weaker enemies were also completely incapacitated in the air for the duration, making them vulnerable to attacks from allies.

Following John's instruction, Jeanny paid attention to the time while battling. After fifteen minutes, she issued the order to retreat. Every guild retreated simultaneously upon the call. They retreated before the enemy could adapt to their assault or the enemies' reinforcement arrived.

They didn't cost much loss to the enemy but their ambush still reaped a decent number of kills. Too bad the enemy's supply carts were well guarded in the mid-section of the army. Otherwise, their ambush would cause a higher toll on the enemies.

Master arrived at the rear and observed the loss. Jeanny and the others were gone by then. The loss wasn't much. He used the Necronomicon and brought the dead back as zombies.

He could be said to not have lost any troops in the ambush, but he knew this was not the purpose of the assault just now. The enemy was trying to slow them down. It was no doubt so that the Themisphere's reinforcement could arrive before they reached the capital.

Master sneered.

"A meaningless attempt," he said again.