Second Battle: Sacrificial Ashed Grounds (4—Last Part)
"HEELP MEEE! I can't hear any Guiding Voices anymore, what's going on, what's going on!?!?"
"I can't hear any too, I need help! What is it?!"
"Goddammit, where are the rare players with Mental Power the hidden stat? Bring some already!"
"...Shit, just keep on fighting, some stuff happened at the rear. Bad stuff."
"I got it! News from those players, there are just not any sensation of being linked to them, they say that they are no longer with us! I don't understand..."
"What? This... it really isn't just being clouded by a totem or something? FUUCK! What are we gonna do without them! Huh?!"
...While there was so many players cursing in panicked voices with their faces also having gone into a panic as they all began crumbling a bit chaotically, even more so with the disappearance of The Order, Yun Beishang instead was no longer looking perplexedly at the previous ten thousand shamans that appeared at the rear on the west of the battlefield.
[Clammyok-ra Wooden Plank]: Type: Material, Grade: Mortal's Lethal(Blood Red), Properties: Its origin source is known as the only material among the range of mortals to not be able of being incinerated, fired up nor even penetrated by any power from the mortals. This type of wood, however, does have a way to be put on fire and that is; with the use of the Inextinguishable Devilish Flame.
[Yellow-Skinned Rock]: Type: Mineral, Grade: Powerful, Properties: A piece of rock whose main source had been either utterly and almost destroyed or separated into many more pieces such as the one of this piece of rock in particular. It has astounding levels of flammability and contains a strong reactions towards any powerful flame.
[Two-Faced Flower]: Type: Herb, Grade: Valuable, Properties: A tiny flower with wide white petals and a yellow colored, bright pistil. Very flammable, and has the effect of dealing Scorching Damage DoT+50 per second as well as boosting all other Fire Core Elemental-related DoT that are not of the main source by a whole 15%, but can only be triggered by a very powerful flame.
[Scarlet Wooden Plank]: Type: Material, Grade: Luxurious, Properties: A 20 centimeters wide, 1 meter long and 2 centimeters thick; this wooden plank is known for being able to resist without effort the continuous plethora of incoming Fire Core Elemental Damage without it being directed at it, it is very useful for making certain types of throwing items or ammunition and very especial weaponry but not armory.
[Opaqued Crystallized Bone], [Chilling Teeth of a Lava Monster], [Magma Gem], [Volcanic Eyes]...
After Yun Beishang took a look at, first the 20 meters tall and 50 meters 'thick' barricade and the wood that it consisted of and then to the items left around either by the incoming triggered traps' debris or that were already there before the fight even begun. Right now, he was fighting-no, killing all of the 'smaller' Demons as he swoop his old pals at them like harvesting weed.
Swish, swish, swish!
Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht...
There were many of them, and there were many players who took notice of those items on the ground, but barely any of them took the chance to get to inspect them. And whenever they did, they were suddenly aggroing all nearby Demons like fucking damn whole lot of a shit of crazy; as such, instead of inciting one's curiosity, players gave up on analyzing them.
It was the same even for those who had long range inspection skills or talents, let alone anyone else who wanted to read their information with their physical touch, nobody else was like Yun Beishang; not even others who got the extremely rare Mental Power hidden stat.
Meanwhile, there were some players that actually had the time or opportunity to look at their surroundings and from which, upon seeing Yun Beishang, they would turn slightly taken aback for as there was no Order around whatsoever. This made every single one of those player think, 'did something really happen?'.
But be it from the generals or other NPCs from the Main Kingdom Vanguard or from players way behind themselves, no one was getting news from why there was suddenly a quest for taking out The Order itself! Hell, they were even idolizing them before from both Journeyers and Inhabitants' part, just what the hell.
But as fast as it came, so did it go away. But now, as so many Inhabitants were practically deleted out of existence from the incoming tsunami-like rain of traps consisting on a mixture of any item into an arrow, bullet, boulder, javelin, spears and even bomb-like objects and so on; with a size ranging from several meters to even dozens of meters!
And every single one of them was definitely not being used conservatively, as there were about thousands of them flying to all sides where their enemy, Main Kingdom Vanguard, was standing on fighting and killing their own kind.
Naturally, the mere knowledge of the existence of these things was already too big enough of a shock to anyone's mentality, let alone that they were coming right at the NPCs and players' bodies and they could only see it with their own eyes before hopelessly falling to those projectiles.
But even then, the situation wasn't as peril, and at once, many could tell that this was a desperate situation. And indeed, only a so desperate move would cause such even greater desperation for those who were afflicted by it.
Many could already see the Demon Race falling to their knees as even with their huge numbers of about 3-4 times more than that of the Main Kingdom Vanguard, there was still a much more faster and scary casualty rate for them and whose reasoning would be because of the fact that most Inhabitant were really using their bodies.
Be it by sacrificing themselves, changing the trajectory of one of those incoming triggered traps or by making them explode sooner than expected to either avoid any other casualty or to at least leave it in the dozens and not more; or by using up their life and all of what consists of it to deal a tremendously heartrending but powerful strike at their last.
Any time that the latter happened, players all around them would have their eyes brightened and the thought of having such notion, courage, solidarity and heart gave them a bit of a saddening change inside their very own hearts; instead. Even the fact that this was still just a game did no shit to take that away from their heads, as they saw each and every NPC soldier fight with them, shoulder to shoulder, with hopeless and grieving but also choked smiles and steeled faces.
They felt as if these NPCs were even more alive than their landlords, tenants, cousins, guys and gals on the streets and for some even their parents on New Earth, they felt only as if the soldiers made of pixels right now were but a set of flesh and soul and not just programming anymore... they felt touched.
BOOM-PAH!
But that couldn't last long, not because of they not wanting to believe it but because of the traps that would end their lives without a care, of the fact that they were even forced to join on in the frontlines to give real time to their fellow Journeyers behind to construct, build and prepare exactly what they needed the most!
"Goooo!"
"CHARGE!"
"Just a few minutes more, god dammit!"
A few squat, team leader and so on, were having such a tough time battling the Demons still. As some of them were utterly annihilated along with their comrades, and some lost either their entire teams, most of them or their team leader and so on and were forced to join in on another's and another's over and over again.
In this messy situation and success of events, New Earth humanity proved to be a hell of a race as they became quickly adapted to it. Even as they saw the feared, horrific and death god-like appearance of each trap coming up at them from the air, from the ground level and some directly going off underground, even at places that had already exploded out and thought to be safe now.
Meanwhile though, the Inhabitants seemed to be more human than them as they quickly became exhausted and had their beings so tired that they became dispirited; hopeless furthermore.
It only took 1 hour, but not only were there only 32 billion Inhabitants and 3 billion Journeyers still alive on the battlefield, but there was also the immense amount of still around 100 billion Demons that were having not a single time of resting still but seemed to get more and more incredibly well damned boosted up from nowhere.
When suddenly, a vigorous player holding a completely broken large knight's shield yelled out loudly as he stood up from previously being sit down from exhaustion and from the Weakened status...
"THERE!! I see it now! Our Guiding Voices are being totally disconnected from us thanks to that thing over there, let's go, let's gooooo!"
Step... ... ... ...step... ...step...
Without waiting for confirmation and definitely not to still be followed, the Journeyer ran at his max, but very slow indeed, speed as he attracted half of the generals still alive's eyes at once, let alone those around that were fighting or having a half a second resting moment.
"FOLLOW HIM-FOLLOW HIIIM!!" One general suddenly gazed up ahead and saw what the Journeyer just now also saw, his eyes bulged out in complete and utter hate, there was nothing to say but only screaming could be visible in his damn oldest and aged eyes as he pointed at a certain direction and from which all 'Inhabitants 'gave up' fighting to instead follow that desperate but adamant order!
STEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEP...!!!
STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP...!!
Suddenly and be it as it may, the sounds of simply an uncountable amount of footsteps began as every single Inhabitant totally ignored the Demons and Journeyers, which let the latter ones with only the option to follow them right away. On the other hand, the Demons saw this and without needing much more, there was only a single notion; STOP THEM.
Clank! Clank! Clank! SWIIISHH~!!!
Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht... Pfruiyl! Pfruiyl! Pfruiyl! Pfruiyl!...
Inhabitants took the side where most Demons were still fighting just now, and with their bodies they once more covered the whole rest of the Main Kingdom Vanguard as the rows and columns of people marching towards 'that' certain direction were also marching at their full capacity there but were being constantly mangled and instantly killed off by the seemingly panicky but definitely anxious Demons instead.
Since those weren't protecting themselves at all, and seemed even robotic as even when they were dismembered, they still held onto their marching and speed with a blank face but strong willed eyes. No one from the Demon Race talked though, not even their allies, but from the countenances, everyone could easily guess that it was indeed because of that fact that it was now truly important to get 'there'!
"BRWAAAAAARRRRR...!"
"GRWOOAAAAAAAAHHL!!"
"Keep on marching... keep on marching...!"
STEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEPSTEP...
And, on the other side, Yun Beishang was simply looking with his arms down and his old pals hovering around him with their tips pointing skywards and their bodies remaining still to his left and right with their handles at his upper arms' level. He took a quick and whimsical glance at where basically everyone was heading to and snorted in total derision with his head jolting backwards in the same manner.
[Communications Device/Disrupt Device(Tweaked)]: Type: Demon Race Structure, Grade: Spiritual, Durability: 1,000,000,000. A structure whose entire mainframe has been modified, changed, evolved and extended out from its principal utilities as it is now capable of directly blocking any type of sensing from even godly beings but only for a short amount of 3 days. It is now also fused with the interconnection between its child structures, acting as the mother structure instead, every time a soul perishes and body becomes lifeless, it will power up this device even when already destroyed as it would send this restored power towards an unknown place on Main Kingdom. It carries a strong will of hope but also of sorrow.
'A bit nostalgic, eh.' Yun Beishang thought, as he saw once again the name 'Communication Device', though it was not the Basic Communication Device he and many other found out long go at the Somber Tree region long ago. Even then, it was obviously connected, since the description of it exposed it to be like the mother of a mother-child type of item or set of items.
And as for the powering up for every time a being dies, basically, it couldn't be more fitting. No wonder there were many of those all around before at the first battle 'scenarios' that made any other think instead of it like a disruption device for the sake of taking the advantage of having the Guiding Voices blown away from themselves.
However, it was now different, as there was even no sight at all of their own link with their beloved Guiding Voices at all. No link, no disruption, it was as if they've been completely gone thorough this entire ordeal. But that would be not more! As they could finally have them back, as long as they destroyed this thing, they would receive once again their blessings and comforting, loving words even.
"A-TTAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!" An entirely bombastic, calling order went out at this moment, as 1 fairly not that aged general drew his sword and pointed it to the sky before charging head on first towards the 'totem', right behind the player from before with the tattered knight's shield that was more than broken.
STEPSTEPSTEPSTEP-STOMP STOMP STOMP-...
Pfruiyl! Bvreee-Vwlsht Bvreee-Vwlsht.
But suddenly, the player that was far up ahead was instantly taken down by a Heavenly grade Demon BOSS of a 6.7 meters height as he used his long pike to bury it at the Journeyer without effort, before then making a 'V' motion with it with the spot it was buried first as the lower angle of the 'V'.
"Uugh-... kawl." Instantly dying, the Journeyer only saw his general come right from behind with a surprised face and with some fear even, fear of being incapable of leading the charge and not of dying though. At once, from seeing just this, the Journeyer send a few messages to all of his colleagues before dying for the second time and forcibly being sent out to stay at the base of operations at last.
Seeing this dying 'man' in front of him, the general only felt a conviction; that of fighting this Demon off with his uttermost strength and courage before dying even if that meant that he could not be the one to bring the glory to his side!
"HAAAAAAHH!!" With a furious growl, the not so old general held his sword up to the right side of his forehead with both hands and charged at the tall as fuck Demon with a furious face contorted by it, the Demon in question however, only grinned before casually sweeping his long pike at the general. It was clearly capable of halving that general's body at once.
CLANK~!!
"... ... ... ... ..."
As if in slow motion, the general saw a sword that resembled a sun but with the color of steel and ordinariness suddenly block the blow of the Demon before he could even get to close his eyes in hopelessness to the imminent death of his. At once, the general glanced to his left, where Baston was standing on with tons of blood all around his forehead and face as he looked at the general in the same slow motion manner as before.
Kick! Pah-whoosh! CLANK!!
Kicking the general away with the general himself not even knowing it was happening, Baston immediately used his shield to block the fist from the now enraged Demon as he was only forced back 3 steps with his feet never lifting and only being dragged backwards instead on the dirt.
Lifting his head as the fist was seemingly attached to his shield with the appearance of a shield, Baston turned his head towards the incoming but dumbfounded crowd of the Main Kingdom Vanguard while at the same time, the Demon was bringing his long pike upwards with his free right hand once more to now attack Baston instead; this tiny ant that seemed way too bulky as his brothers and sisters.
"EVERYONE, KEEP ON MOVING!! I want to destroy this thing as much as you want, go aheaaad!!!" With Baston's voice having gone gone a few volumes up and with his emotional state, it managed to awake everyone else as their feet responded before their brain could even give a command to accept such an order.
"YEAAAH! Baston!!"
"GOOOOO!"
"Fuck-destroy these bastards! Kill them all!"
"Back up Baston, follow him!!"
"Destrooooooy!!"
Whoosh!...CLINK~~~! Swish, PAK!
But then, just as Baston was directing his shield to block the sweeping down long pike coming right at him, another whole new Heavenly grade Demon BOSS appeared right where he was standing, as the new Heavenly grade Demon had made no noise as he came up directly from the ground even though dirt flew around in an instant.
But then, once more, a shadow of a sword's blade glimmering showed up to stop the hands of the even taller Demon from clapping Baston to death, or almost to death at the very least.
"Raoundozia..." Baston's pupils shrunk a bit, thankfulness escaping in the form of a small sigh in relief from his mouth in an equally small 'o', when Raoundozia said back in a calm tone. "Don't thank me just yet... let's pave a way first."
Baston, as asked, said nothing and instead just nodded before turning around to raise his shield, which then emitted a 7 meters wide and 10 meters tall shield made of sun energy towards the incoming thrusting long pike... it was the beginning of a Heavenly grade BOSSes raid, which Yun Beishang would observe with a bit of boredom but by noticing every little detail.
Not only of those battles that had now just escalated immensely even as the fight has been going on for an entire hour; one with their people dying nonstop as they all marched towards one point in particular but that was still far ahead, after all, to encompass a distance where tens of billions had to run for with all their speed and still not be that close... it was damn long alright.
And on the other, it was on the very 'frontlines' of such a thing, where Journeyers and Inhabitants were now fighting together for real this time against Heavenly grade BOSSes with most of them being Demons and some of them being their allies.
'I wonder... what would have had this become... were it not for me in the killing off of Harlofk? Hmm...' Yun Beishang thought to himself as he glanced at all those Heavenly grade BOSSes. It must be known that before in the first event, only a few thousands were seen and that was already enough to obliterate the entire 10 billion Journeyers in a slow manner, but every day though.
And now, there was more or less a quantity of hundreds for the rest of the distance needed from the current location where the Main Kingdom Vanguard remaining forces were at to where the 'totem' was located. As for the totem, it looked like a tower and a defensive one with obscure and 'villain vibes' design on it, with a dark grey-blue color all over and with some dull white and grey spots here and there.
...
