324 Prologue
A man stood outside what amounted to a large town of the scale no one had tried to take on before. It was a town that supposedly could hold a population of eighty thousand people easily and because of the sheer size of the place the man knew that he was up for a huge challenge. His name was Blake and he was the leader of a small guild that decided to participate in the large town subjugation alongside the world government guild.
This was their chance to make something of themselves. Small guilds didn't have nearly as many opportunities as the larger guilds. It wasn't that they were being oppressed or anything like that, but they just didn't have the resources to take on larger dungeons or larger territories. This made the gap between the large guilds and the smaller guilds grow bigger and bigger. Now Blake's guild was going to have the opportunity to change that fact.
At first look it would seem that just helping the world government guild gain the large town territory wouldn't do much for his guild outside of gaining some notoriety, but the world government guild being in control of the large town would make it much easier for the smaller guilds to clear out the smaller towns around the area. Having the largest guild in the country owning the large town near your base would be a massive back up for all the smaller guilds. They wouldn't have to worry about other mid-size guilds or large guilds trying to take their territories since they wouldn't want to give the world government guild an excuse to retaliate.
That was what all of the small guilds that were involved in this subjugation were pinning their futures on. For that to become a reality they would have to clear this large town first and therefore they all came to the aid of the world government guild. At first the assault was scheduled for an entire month later, but after the Alliance had cleared out a large town that could hold around fifty thousand people all of the world government guilds plans had changed.
The world government guild's original plan to take on a large town of only thirty thousand person capacity became pointless. Sure they could do that but then it would look like they were weaker than the Alliance and that was something they weren't going to allow to happen. So they invited a few more small guilds to join them in their attempt to take over the territory of an even larger town. Blake was the leader of one of those small guilds and after seeing how popular the alliance had become after taking down a large town, even the smaller guild involved in the alliance, Blake decided it would be a great idea to join in the subjugation.
With everyone gathered up and prepared to go into the haze surrounding the town the leader of the expedition who seemed to be the head of the world government guild subjugation force gave a short speech. It wasn't anything uplifting or something that would ignite a spark in everyone's hearts, but instead laid a seed of greed. Everyone was ready to rush in and earn their fame. The formation was rather simple, but Blake did notice the fact that the head force was mostly compromised of the smaller guilds, with the mid guilds and world government guilds at the back preparing to follow up. If Blake wasn't blinded by his greed to hunt for fame and glory he would have realized how bad of an idea the positioning was.
The small guilds had far weaker members than the mid-sized guilds or the world government guild. Being put up front basically meant that they were cannon fodder since they would be up against creatures that would at least be in the high level seventies or higher based off of the video the independent news had showed off. In that video they had seen the alliance take on a large town and the hoard they had to push their way through was enormous and filled with several seventy or higher level zombies. The Alliance had most of its members at near level sixty or higher which was why they were able to support their stronger members so well even against enemies that were higher level.
Blake and the rest of the small guilds however weren't in the same position. They were taking on a stronger town as well which only meant things would be even more troublesome for them. Too bad their greed blinded them to such obvious issues that they would have to face. They all marched forward with excitement as they made their way into the thick haze. The haze was so heavy in the area that they couldn't even see their entire group after a few minutes of entering. At first they all frowned at this fact thinking it would become a hindrance going forward, but then something unexpected happened. The haze suddenly cleared out.
The area still had a purple hue to it but they could all see their surroundings clearly. The buildings of the town were in sight now and the place looked like it had seen better days. The town was much larger than the one the Alliance had taken on which seemed to bring a smile to some of the higher ups faces as they were already thinking the territory was within their grasp, but it didn't take very long for things to change. The quiet was suddenly disturbed by the sound of a single scream coming from the distance. Since no one was making a commotion the sound seemed to fill the entire area causing everyone to stop in their march forward.
Blake tried to look over the crowd of people in front of him in the formation to see if he could get an idea what was going on, but soon he didn't need to see to know what was coming. A wave of killing intent poured over everyone as the surroundings seemed to change. The haze had thinned out for them to see, but it also hovered around the area waiting to rush back in and cause them all problems. Blake turned to the front and could now see what had screamed in the first place. There was an odd looking haze creature that didn't seem big enough to be a boss or even a sub-boss, but it still gave of quite a large amount of power.
The creature was over a dozen feet tall and looked similar in appearance to the other smaller haze creatures. The main difference between it and its smaller brethren was the fact that its arms stretched almost all the way to the ground. In the creatures hunched over form its large claws were able to scrape across the pavement as it shuffled in their direction. At first its movements were slow which proved it was blind like the other haze creatures, but that didn't matter for long. More and more haze creatures started to shamble into the area from the buildings. It got to the point where the number of creatures greatly overtook their own.
When the creatures got close enough Blake was able to see something that final sent warning bells off in his mind. The regular haze creatures were actually level eighty-two already. That was a good twenty levels above his own. When he turned to examine one of the larger creatures he noticed it was at level eighty-five and was giving off so much killing intent that he knew that it was a creature he wouldn't be able to take on with his usual raid group let alone an entire hoard filled with the creatures.
When Blake wanted to shout out for his guild to turn back things already kicked off into a frenzy from the roar of one of the creatures that had gotten close enough to the front line. That single roar was like a signal as more of the creatures started appearing from everywhere as they surged forward in their direction. Zombies started to appear as well as they were attracted to the commotion only making things grow worse. The front line of the subjugation force was paralyzed with fear from creatures so much higher level than them rushing them down. The tanks tried to raise their shields in defense while the ranged fighters and spell caster tried to bombard the hoard with spells and projectiles, bit it was like throwing a glass of water on a house fire.
The moment the hoard clashed with the front line it crumbled within seconds. The shield walls weren't strong enough to hold the larger beast off while the tanks were easily overrun thanks to the sheer amount of powerful creatures rushing them down. It didn't even take more than a few minutes for things to break down into chaos and for the subjugation force to start to withdraw. The front line filled with small guild members were getting shredded through, but the back lines weren't doing any better. The large creatures were able to leap for large distances and many of them leaped towards the world government guild members along with the mid-sized guilds.
In the end there was chaos everywhere that caused the subjugation force to break down to the point where everyone was running for their lives. Now that the initial formation was broken down the amount of people that were dying was surging upward. Blake did everything he could to avoid running into one of the larger haze creatures as he made a mad dash alongside most of the fearful members of the subjugation force out of the haze. He had to rely more on his hearing than anything to avoid the creatures since the haze had thickened once the massacre had started.
It was a long ten minutes of running for his life as he neared the edge of the haze. At the last moment one of the larger haze creatures tried to snatch him up and tear off his head, but he used his trump card to increase his speed for a short small burst that got him out of reach just in time. The person running next to him wasn't as lucky however as the large claw pierced through his body before lifting him up into the air. Blake ran out of the haze and collapsed on the ground like several of the other survivors that had made it through hell.
When Blake turned back to look at the haze he could swear that he saw a reddish hue to it as the screams of several people still trapped inside would give him nightmares for years.
