First Battle: The Bloodied-Azure Sea Battle (7)

Phew~! Whistle~! Peeew!! ...BOOOOM... BOOOOM!

Bangbangbangbang! Tk-tadadadadadadadadadadada...

Even though this world wasn't at the direction of technology prevailing majorly, and in this case, over magic. The gaming world of Rising Essence was still stronger and much more solid than what New Earth was right now, relying on their magical properties alone, let alone now that Main Kingdom seemed to have started to get into not only technology but it mixed with magic itself too.

To the players, a lot of the current 11 billion playerbase had already experienced a fair amount of games themselves, things such as magic and technology combined were the most simplest to understand and comprehend; to accept. As such, from the creation of ranged classes or even some close-combat but with ranged abilities classes like the Ember Armament or Pirate Lord and their weapons such as guns, rocket launchers, grenadier launcher and their ammunition with technology and Elements of the world to even magical particles themselves wasn't weirdly seen.

Only, their manufacturing of it was rather scarce, and it was even more so now since so much items have been taken by the Journeyers to the Main Kingdom Vanguard. However, what the current playerbase of Rising Essence had should be more than enough, and it wasn't like there was no more around the world, even though the respawns of such items—even for the basic, Useless grade ones—seemed to stagnate these times.

But it should be more than fine anyway, after the event, there was sure to be changes inside the gaming world of Rising Essence. Who knows, for all they were debating—the players—, they could even go outside Main Kingdom to the rest of the Kingdoms! Now, that, would indeed be quite the damned expansion; just imagining of the possibilities of it all, too much but also too exciting as well.

In any case, from the ongoing battlefields, besides the sounds of flesh being either torn or completely smashed by either Journeyers to Demons or to Demon to Journeyers could be heard intensely without a stop...

PEW!! Whistle~!! BOOM BOOM BOOM...!!

Rockets being fired, their bodies spiraling, creating countless traces of contrail as it rotated from one point of the battlefield to another. Then, detonating upon certain impact as it created a large explosion wave of about 10m x 10m, some were smaller than that and some were up to that range.

Some rockets were sent from a person's shoulder, some even did so dual-handedly and with both their wrists supporting that amount of force and power spike at the time of aiming since Journeyers could basically never fail a shot, let alone one in the middle of a war and whose impact has a large area of effect at that.

Some others were sent from either the rear of the Main Kingdom Vanguard troops, mostly by Journeyers currently, but not by players themselves alone. As some were using their previous built outposts from the previous day's win, and were shooting up to dozens of rockets, missiles and even bombs by the minute, each of them.

In the case that some of all of that hit any of the Main Kingdom Vanguard players, thanks to the system of the game and as this wasn't just a simple event where one was forced to enter into an Alliance feature between Associations and between raids of players, the safe system for friendly fire would allow those players to simply be... 'pushed' very well to the fuck away from their previous position and only a gruesome falling from being sent from such explosion could do a little tiny bit of damage overall.

But as for the Demons themselves being hit by just one bit of that range of explosion though, they would be sent away with a DoT effect that was strangely shortened, but that was already seen since some of the Demons were even Lord grade BOSS when it came to those who openly appeared on the battlefield to fight the tons of Journeyers and few inhabitants.

It was the same for the bullets that were raining on the Demons, though it had no effect whatsoever compared to what it could do to even a full tank player with heavy as hell armor, it was still able to delete quite the immense amount of HP from the Demon army as a whole. There were fast paced fireflies that 'flied' from the outposts way behind to the Demons' bodies as their different, several types of red skin was pierced, mangled, messed with and pried open to reveal the muscle behind it depending on the amount of bullets they would tank.

And among the melee players, there were so many of them wearing swords of any length, shape and thickness that there was a dance-like situation ongoing at the frontlines along with the Hard-Dying Vanguards, Seven Sins Knights, Keepers of Light being the leaders of each Team from the players that glints of metal from all types of colors could be seen slightly under the scorching sun above the whole battlefield.

Pole arms were also at the front, but unlike most sword-wielder players, they were mostly separated and lone wolves that were taking care of some frontlining healer classes or simply going 'berserk' mode against the Demon army before swiftly dying on the battlefield but with their remains not making it as pixels took them all away; unlike Demons'.

Strangely though, even as outposts were also created by The Order and its allies, or at least it seemed so with the way that a lot of Associations seemed to follow certain similar 'commands' to other Associations, from those whom which were Baston's Guerilla Guild, Fusi's Black Lotus, Kalen's Eviscerate League  and even a ton of the most renown and incredible players recognized by all by now!

Yet, the outposts they built weren't even an eight from what any other Association were making of them, there weren't even many people back there. Anytime a Journeyer would look back to those certain outposts behind, they would only see one person presiding over it and looking at the frontlines with some stern, bored, calm or simply enjoying expression from the show in front of them.

And also, even though The Order and other such Associations that players had already started to believe were in cahoots with one another were valiantly fighting it off at the frontlines, they weren't using any kind of strongly affecting skills like the ones they've shown either in the Team vs Team nor the Association vs Associations segments of the first ever Global Tournament.

Let alone that, they were even barely using their own Hidden Classes to fight the Demon army, only entering into action when a huge ton of them or several BOSSes of several different grades were targeting them. For those Associations who didn't had any Hidden Classes, which was practically almost all of them, they wouldn't even use siege, mass-murdering nor expansive poisonous fog, mist or the like.

What these Associations were using to fight overall; was merely their own people's strategies, fighting capabilities, teamwork and sole willpower to maintain their mental well being to the carnage they were witnessing upfront. Yun Beishang's Order did seemed to become much more acclimatized to war at the second day though, even as the second day was quite the fast-paced and bloody day though.

Because, even as Associations like the Gold and Silver Guild and the Sharpened Vanguard Hall used their whole resources at their disposal to get rid of any frontline and incoming batch of Demons, it was The Order itself who got first at the winning of their entire perimeter territory's conquering as they then led the few other Associations into their own side of the Azure-Drake Forest to take a tiniest, unremarkable piece of the boundless forests before taking the portal to the next battlefield.

When it occurred, there wasn't a showy 'global announcement', there wasn't any kind of warning or announcement at all, not even Guiding Voices talking their sweet whispers to some players and so on.

It was the fact that even though the other Associations did their damn very best to annihilate any enemy frontline in time record, much more faster and effective than The Order and their temporary allies, they were actually being constantly slowed and dragged down by some random Heavenly grade BOSSes that popped out from nowhere.

Some of those Heavenly grade BOSSes appeared from the distance and charged, stomped and crushed those Journeyers happily taking care of a ton of Demons already. Because, compared to before their First Class Advancements, the LV110 players were ten times more effective at battling strong enemies with their own specifics, something that was obvious the day since the first battle was started.

As such, the players were feeling great over the annihilation, from their part, against the Demon Race that was no longer the players being swatted away and oneshoted by it with every single casual swing and sweep of their limbs, let alone of their huge weapons from all kinds. The feeling of their flesh being teared by their steel, or churned and destroyed by their magical skills and explosions; it all turned the Journeyers into... ah, Warmongers.

But as they were then surprised by a fully fledged Heavenly BOSS, they were all sent to the very heaven themselves even as they returned about an hour later and the BOSS was still there, only to be massacred once again in the same way they were months ago. No mercy, no fucking mercy included from these 'hidden' BOSSes that would appear on any side.

Naturally, as it was close to the evening and as they could already imagine what kind of wonders were The Order and others doing in other battlefields, with some of them even experiencing it first handedly, it was noticed that 'those' Association allies of The Order would constantly avoid certain large but completely flat terrain on the battlefield.

Soon, the crisis were adverted, barely, and their time in taking out these Heavenly BOSSes was no longer limited to 2-3 hours each. Because even as some of these BOSSes had extra, impossible and non-enjoyable large AOE skills, there were so many millions of players around that even the hundreds of thousands of 'MISS' weren't a problem anymore even as the Heavenly grade BOSSes were LV110 and not all were LV120.

But even then, the feats that The Order and company were making, even atop the other Associations that seemed not involved with The Order, was making all other Associations anxious. Because, The Order, they were... taking so much credit!

At first, when The Order took their people into the Azure-Drake Forest with no questions asked, as even those smaller Associations were instead following other stronger and bigger Associations to make a mess over all—now—their perimeter territory were also silently evangelized into following The Order to their every command even as the Maidens and Ladies yelling their orders out unnecessarily were followed by most of them.

Unnecessarily though, since there was a more than obvious feature to not need to yell so loud, but nobody dared to pinpoint such a thing. Why? Oh well, a nice little and silent Tongqiu was following right behind The Order as they moved. It was strange, because even as they were barely around 100, they were still the leaders of the immense charge that took place across all over the perimeter of the Azure-Drake Forest.

With the Ladies and Maidens massacring 'evil' to the utmost at the front like a spearhead, the Guerilla Guild, Knights of Raoundozia, Black Lotus, Forgotten Flask were close to them with the latter of them all in charge of healing the tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of players so that they wouldn't die.

There was many who tried to resurrect their allies only to have them being sent back to the base of operations and then come back with still only one resurrection left from the huge portal. Even then, many still hoped to find the correct skill that would elevate their felled comrades and grant them a cheating advantage.

However, nothing was achieved, so only one reasoning was left; the Hidden Classes! But, even as they implored to see this happen on the forums and even as there was a plethora of people that just wanted to see if they could do exactly that, cheat the system, The Order never did anything to revive an ally as they all died their deaths and nothing else.

As for The Order, their way in moving through the battlefields; the entire massive battlefield as a whole, was to directly bombard with everything they got from point A to point B. Leaving the rests and the still lingering few groups to the weaker Associations, be it the still big but nowhere as comparable like those of the incredible players or the smallest Associations that followed The Order at the last minute.

The Order and the strongest Associations following it were like a spearhead while the remaining Associations were all arrows that were shot at the very last to kill off the remnant of their still alive enemies on their soon-to-be territory of their Main Kingdom Vanguard. Every step that The Order took forwards was done so by killing at least ten or a dozen Demons by each of their Maidens, let alone the Ladies with Hidden Classes.

If that wasn't enough to bring about a great source of confidence in The Order as they advanced in both; merit with the Main Kingdom Vanguard army and in the hearts of the players, then the fact that even more incredible people directly joined their League was. Among them, them, Snow Fallen For Sorrow and her followers that she allowed to have interactions with her!

This unknown, enigmatic as Tongqiu and incredible female Journeyer that was venerated by all but known to none, as she even appeared once at the Global Tournament before swiftly disappearing just as The Order did in the Team vs Team segment. She also... seemed to be close with that Tongqiu? Ahh, and now it made sense, as she united with The Order and possibly for him along with her own people!

To which, Yun Beishang knew one very well of, at least from a brief encounter and from which he would be exchanging messages through the game daily, Leaf on Fire!

With his sister's people added onto his Order, they naturally couldn't compare to his Maidens, but the truth of the situation was. Though they weren't taking direct confrontation in this battle, they were being trained... at the KATARINA-1 by his own people already! Indeed, because the people that Yun Yun brought from New Earth were none other than these people!

When Yun Beishang became in the known of this, he was quite surprised, who would've thought? But in any case, that was a time for when he was back at the KATARINA-1 mothership and not as of right away in the middle of a war.

But if one thing had to really be known, was that the speed and efficiency of the going all-out Order and its allies towards the still not done other battlefields was to delight to. Multiple people, some players who got their third death in the battle already and casual spectators, were all looking at the entire battlefield's camera angle as they saw a bunch of dots on the ground move from right to left, from one smaller battlefield to another with the span of just a few minutes that ranged from 7 minutes to a quarter of an hour.

With the extensive amount of players, having buffs and synergies that allowed not only their damage output and tankiness but also their Movement Speed and Action Speed to degrees that even Yun Beishang was astounded to see. At first, he only thought that it may be possible to end it with quite a lot of even his own people being fully 'banished' from the battle, but it ended up with them actually surprising and astonishing him instead.

If this wasn't a damn grow up, development and evolution, what was it? Clearly, this was Yona's masterplan for starters as a gift to him for the baby girl in her tummy; kinda.

In any case, it was as such that the second day that was gone by just like that, with not a single member of The Order falling, and with Yun Beishang not even needing to get his hands dirty when even 6 Heavenly grade BOSSes faced up the charging Order and it allies in an already preemptive and well prepared manner.

His people; women and lovers really... needed not of him to deal with the small fries. This turned Yun Beishang into a warm and relaxed mood as he moved along behind The Order, his Movement Speed and other stats naturally being boosted the hell outta the tens of thousands of magical classes at the same time just like the rest.

If anything, this was a scenic route that Yun Beishang wouldn't mind doing. However, he knew that this was still taxing for them, so he took the matter of dealing with Heavenly grade BOSSes into his own hands after a dozen smaller battlefields or so. Stunning the shit outta everyone but also confusing them, why would Tongqiu not use these skills that weren't seen even in the Global Tournament to directly kill off all of the Demon Race in each battlefield already? Not a single friendly fire would exist for that matter...

As the second day only had a few hours before the Journeyer section of the Main Kingdom Vanguard army could have their well deserved rest, the last few battlefields were finished up by several other Associations as they were sent to the utmost left wing from the whole massive battlefield of the Azure-Drake Forest's perimeter.

Because, previously, some smartasses tried to take some nearby battlefields to those where The Order would quickly pass by soon, ending up completely wasting their chances and being ordered to simply take the tiny bit of territory inside the Azure-Drake Forest and then could only log off as their chances for more teleportations was damn gone.

By the time that The Order was finishing up another battlefield as their ally Associations were catching up to them after clearing up the rest and having helped take the territory inside the Azure-Drake Forest; the huge portal up above glinted in alarm once, giving all the Journeyers the signal to retreat!

...