Terms of Engagement

As if on cue from a script, almost emphasizing the fact that this was a game, there came a notifications accompanied by the sounds of distant thunder and groaning earth.

[Demonic and Chaos forces are on the march]

Eight simple words that suddenly filled me with a cold and bittersweet taste of dread as I considered what was ahead.

The original estimates had been around five thousand demons and undead per outpost and now there were about five outposts worth of enemy numbers coming out to play. That was as much as thirty thousand bodies that would be facing our numbers that did not even reach five thousand.

The only thing that gave me any confidence in this endeavor was simply that the vanguard was only there to reap some levels, loots, and die before we find a way to take in the leadership demons and thus increase our numbers by turning any available remaining enemies. Supporting this was the fact that all of the demon leaders here were prone to capture and relative neutrality.

It was as if they knew resistance was futile and they simply wanted to escape this dungeon through any means available. If that meant becoming the familiars of us 'Travelers' or dying by us then they were willing to do it one way or another. We just had to prove strong enough to keep them once outside.

The pace of our march was not slow by any means but there were roughly two miles to traverse to the walled off manor in the middle of the ruined city. With all of the ruined slopes and open ground it was not long before our small army crested the hill of a ruined city block of large buildings that brought us in view of the enemy numbers.

Several miles in the distance marched several small armies that were still greater in size compared to our own. These armies were made up of only several different types of creatures, mainly chaos fiends, but each outpost carried different types of demons and finally revealed several of the greater races to us. Orion was simply an elite in his face and while one of the back outposts produced at least three thousand demons of his race behind a giant eight-armed Asura.

This super Asura stood as tall as Traytar and would probably be his mortal enemy in DPS but would still probably die from fighting such a battle junkie. The release of all that compiled damage would probably cripple any enemy Traytar faced. However, there was one other monolithic chaos fiend that was even larger than either of them.

This chaos fiend looked like the lord of the giant bone fiends, standing just a few feet shy of ten meters tall with a body that was almost half as broad in the shoulders and chest. This guy set the pace of his army because he moved with an exaggerated slowness. Unlike the Asura or Traytar, I was not so worried about their size and astounding movement speeds because I was at least faster than the bone behemoth.

If I absolutely had to, I could certainly whittle off one of its legs to cripple it for the players and skeletons to finish from a distance. However, this was only considering that I could have enough time to fight it one-on-one while facing all those other thousands in the process. Luckily, our plans were laid to recruit these monstrocities.

After roughly an hour of watching one another cross the distance at odd intervals, having our full numbers and equipment exposed to any enchanted eye, we finally came to a stop at a location roughly half a mile out from the manor. The demons, likewise, came to a stop when we did. We quickly set to work on our end, sending out Zekrom and our demons to approach the leadership demons.

They were simply to play messengers with a short list of demands or terms of treaty. Since all of them had ties with the other leadership they would be the best spokespeople for our cause. We offered them a certain measure of freedom, or at least the right to continue living, and all they had to do was become the army of our alliance.

Of course, we did not simply expect them to give in. If we did, why would we bother supplying the vanguard with soul material weaponry? They would set aside one thousand of every species present and have this roughly estimated ten thousand demons come running at us.

Depending on the damage our one hundred players unleash alongside the clean-up of the skeletons after the vanguard dies, they will be less inclined to actually fight with us. The skeletons were spread out in rows of one hundred that were a few tens deep and every NPC was equipped with a rack boasting ten chaos lances and several quivers of chaos arrows.

The vanguard was hardly even ten percent of their overall firepower and would provide only a small glimpse of their abilities. This glimpse was a scripted volley of a single chaos lance from each skeleton NPC. Even if more than half of the estimated ten thousand demons survived, they would be turned into demon paste under a single volley of much more than two thousand lances carpeting the area like a massive fuckening of cluster bombs.

While we waited on them, I surveyed the impossible high and solid earthen walls surrounding the lower floors of the once ten-story manor. Many of the marble castle's towers and such had broken off so that only five floors of structure remained, but the visible parts of the castle and even the outer walls were all overgrown with what appeared to be dark and wet wind-blown vines.

However, there were no natural sources of wind or water in this underground dungeon that I knew of, meaning the vines were moving on their own and producing fluids or mucus. The purposes of these things were unknown, but it was clear from the coverage of the manor and the downward growing vines over the walls that they were constantly growing or moving and seeking an exit.

I for the first time wondered at what an Outsider, or whatever interdimensional being this the secret raid quest I had gotten had been hinting at, actually was. Now, it gave me the idea of cordyceps. There was an obvious living and growing biological matter thriving in these otherwise barren conditions, nothing else I knew of could do something like that besides evolved cordyceps.

However, even though the original Trollbone had once hinted at the existence of a greater cordycep entity I did not think it was a hint that would apply to this situation.

This organic matter was probably just a byproduct of the gateway or whatever was behind it, allowing the encroachment and flourishing of foreign organisms. For all I knew, this could be a kind of grass that turned carbon monoxide into cyanide. What I was certain of, though, was that I could not wait to get a closer look. Or taste.

After a few minutes of patiently waiting and surveying the scene, Zekrom and the dispatched demons soon returned from playing messengers. Zekrom himself reported that the other demons were open to the gamble they had offered. If our vanguard can survive one thousand of every enemy present, they would submit.

This immediately went against our initial requirement that the vanguard dies and goes somewhere out of our way while we conduct the rest of our business. However, the had offered the secondary option that our strongest people fight their strongest people.

Interestingly, this offer came with the rules that they were willing to face three people per leader. I immediately chose to align myself with the biggest baddie for purely personal reasons while claiming Cweeper and Hermes for myself. Both Zekrom and Orion would support whoever got stuck with facing the Asura while everybody else divvies up responsibilities.

If- no, WHEN the vanguard dies, fifteen of us will simply duel the demon and chaos leaders. After securing whoever we could, which included breaking the rules and ganking the overwhelming bosses. Under the threat of the skeletons after the vanguard's display, I did not think the lesser demons would be feeling very vengeful over the loss of their leaders.

Not long after the return of our demon elites, the separated demonic and chaos armies began sending out massive numbers of troops that equaled more than ten thousand bodies of very many sizes. Once these numbers formed a vanguard company with ten rows of one-hundred-unit rows of each type of demon or undead present, the other armies came together side-by-side with their leadership taking the midguard positions.

While the demons started circling around the eastern side of the manor from half a mile out. Little Thirteen swiftly sent the order out for our own units to march once again in anticipation of meeting them. However, a few minutes later while there was still about five hundred yards between our groups who literally called out, "Drop anchor!"

The front line vanguard immediately set down the bundles of lances or large cylinders of arrows where they stood while the skeletons stopped in place about a hundred yards behind them. Most of us only stopped a split second later so there was some jostling among the alliance ranks centered around Mr. Thirteen's troops.

With this sudden stop, the demons themselves responded by stopping in kind but still sent out their vanguard. It was clear that they were going to honor the terms of engagements we set but it was also clear from the almost leisurely speed of travel that they expected to waltz right through to the skeleton NPC army.

I bet they believed they would never even have to fight themselves.

A full minutes of expectant silence ticked slowly by, crawling out as the variously sized column of demons strutted forward. They covered tens of yards every couple of seconds but still the vanguard did not react at all except to begin aiming upward with bows in hand.

Finally, as the demon vanguard finally came within an estimated three hundred yards of our vanguard front line the outer alliance players began freely firing up into the air. Even though not all of these players were archery type characters, after a full day of drilling they could fire roughly three arrows in two seconds while the actual archery players could easily fire two arrows per second with their designated stat focuses.

Using the ancient trajectory drills, a steady stream of one or more hundred arrows per second arched up and forward for about a hundred or so yards up and forward before arcing back down. These arrows then began sailing down somewhere above and below two hundred and fifty yards away.

After a flight time of several seconds before reaching around thirty feet from the ground, the front lines of the vanguard column were only a few steps away from entering the waterfall of arrows. The first second or two worth of arrows struck down around ten yards away from the actual vanguard, but the explosions from their arrows amplified by the enchantments on their shafts and fletching stretched out for around twenty yards.

The first clustering of explosions not only stuttered the front lines but created an expanding buffer of energy. While the very front row of a hundred demons was wiped away without even being hit by the arrows themselves, the explosions created shock waves that redirected the following arrows outward.

Several hundred arrows that were now within and nearing the previous area of ten meters from the ground were now redistributed outward in every direction. This included dozens and dozens of arrows flying further forward to stretch over the vanguard front lines, those same front lines were being forcibly shoved forward from behind as the demons began piling up in shock during those following seconds from the initial arrows.

Following the dispersal of arrows came a brief two-second period in which the ceaseless stream of arrows from our vanguard continued to waterfall down. During this time, these couple hundred arrows struck down on the ground right in front of the forward shoved front lines as damages was thickly spreading out over the front few groups of different entities.

Just like before, these arrows reach the ground and its closest heights acted as a buffer that pushed the following arrows out once again in all directions. Within the next few seconds of arrows spreading out, the front few groups of demons simply ceased to exist like the original front line.

The front group had pitifully been gecko and other reptile demons that did not even have time to trigger their innate mana defenses. The following groups were bone fiends who found themselves crippled in place.

Ram-head Taurians behind those bone fiends turned into a similar dark mist cloud of ash and gore as the reptilian front lines. Next up though, were the Asura who were now breaking into a full run. Now was when Mr. Thirteen once again gave a call that caused the vanguard to ceasefire.

Even though they stopped firing arrows up into the air, there was still hundred of arrows still landing in the waterfall, dispersing from the preceding landing, and then landing once again in the wake of the dispersal. The Asura who had started running were just in time to meet the first arrows to hit the ground in that sequence.

Following those explosions that staggered their rows out in all directions after landing among them, they were thoroughly rained upon by the ensuing dispersal just like the demons that came before them. When the thousand Asura were gone, the following demons were stopped in their tracks by those final couple hundred arrows that detonated on the ground ahead of them at the end.

The demon vanguard no longer knew what to do with themselves or their lives as the arrows stopped falling. I myself was impressed to the point of being speechless. These were some incredible results.

Even if each clan brought in about five or ten craftsmen to sustain their fifty-unit party, that would only be ten to twenty people applying these synergistic enchantments to the crafts made by the other players. They had to have been working on just enchanting for most of the prep day. But they did not affect the 'waterfall' at all.

Four thousand units among the demons had been dispatched and the other near-ten-thousand vanguard had stopped in its advance. However, to match this, our vanguard had already used up most of the arrows- if not all- in one cluster of canisters. Each person only came equipped with two clusters worth of arrows and one bundle of around twenty lances.

Even if they managed to kill several thousand more demons, they would eventually be forced to enter melee confrontation from lack of supplies. Suddenly, though, I did not think that I would actually have to fight the demon bosses any time soon.

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