Chapter 1608 1608. Chaotic Battle
The absence of the Liguritudum leader was relieving. Aldryth had heard from Arthur that Master had two eternal-grade zombie dragons by his side. If he called his country guardian, he would have three eternal-grade helpers. Aldryth could no longer call Eoranth. She didn't know for sure if the lord of dragons would come to her aid again, or if Eoranth was even still in Hydrurond. Her army would be at a serious disadvantage against those three eternal-grade beings. Hence, she was glad when she didn't see Master.
However, the fact that she didn't see any zombie troops worried Aldryth. This meant the enemy army in front of them was not Master's full force.
"They probably left the zombie army behind so they can catch up to us," Zoikod said. "Most of the zombie army are formed from low-level natives. So, their speed cannot be compared to the formal army."
"… Then we have to destroy the enemy in front of us before the zombie army catches up," Aldryth said.
Yet, the enemy just stood there beyond their reach. They had prepared a proper formation and occupied strategic positions, but this was all pointless if the enemy didn't advance. The enemy seemed to be content to just stand there and watch. Moreover, a portion of the enemy army started to go to the hills on their side and hunkered down. It was as if they were preparing a defensive position instead.
"Damn it… It doesn't seem like the enemy is willing to give us an easy win," Megan cursed.
"If they are easily defeated, we wouldn't have lost the last time," Arthur said.
Aldryth also didn't know what to do. If they continued to wait, the zombie army would catch up. If they advanced, they lost their strategic positions and went into an enemy who had the strategic advantage. If they moved away, they would also lose their strategic advantage. The enemy might continue their watch-and-wait stance until they arrived in Messephyria, but then they would be beset from two sides.
After some thought, Aldryth called for Arthur. She asked when he arrived, "Where is the Themisphere king's position at this moment?"
"Let me ask," Arthur replied.
After a while, he said, "He checked the coordinates I sent him. He said they probably need two more days before arriving here."
"Two more days… Alright, let's move away. Suppose the enemy doesn't want to engage. We will lure them until we join the Themisphere force and hit them together. Tell everyone to prepare to move!"
The orders were given. The guild leaders who had prepared their guild army summoning platform stored the platforms back. Luckily, they weren't hasty and had not yet summoned their armies before the battle started.
Once everyone was ready, the army started moving again. As they did, the enemy army also moved.
When they expected the enemy to maintain a constant distance, the distance was instead shortened rapidly.
Although they were moving again, Aldryth placed the majority of their melee soldiers at their rear, facing the enemy. These soldiers were now shouting to tell the others that the enemy was fast approaching.
Aldryth looked back and watched the enemy in surprise. "They intend to fight now?"
"It seems like they never intend on letting us go. They just want us to let go of our strategic positions," Arthur said.
"They also lost theirs," Zoikod said.
"Yes. They want to engage us on equal grounds," Arthur said. "They are confident they can beat us if both sides hold no advantage."
"How arrogant! We will prove them wrong!" Dytess exclaimed. "My queen, your words?"
"… Everyone, charge the enemy!!!" Aldryth gave her order.
The two sides charged toward one another without any particular formation. Soon, the two forces collided. The battle was completely chaotic. It was brute force against brute force.
The eight guild players with the guild army summoning platforms took positions while the army fought on the front line. These guild players summoned their guild armies. Each army summoned around 50,000 guild soldiers. This bolstered their army to almost an additional half million.
But as soon as they received the reinforcements from the guilds, the enemy army also did. Only two guilds from Hydrurond supported Liguritudum, but guilds from Liguritudum were also with the army. Eight Liguritudum guilds took out their guild army summoning platforms. These eight included the World Maker and Warriors of Solidarity. A total of ten guilds supported the Liguritudum army.
The Liguritudum guilds lost quite a lot of guild soldiers in the war in Palgrost a month ago, but they had retrained their soldiers. The average number of soldiers they summoned might not be as many as the Hydrurond guilds, but after the ten guilds summoned their guild armies, Liguritudum also received almost half a million reinforcements.
Hence, the battle power between the two sides remained equal.
However, a clear distinction in the quality of the guild soldiers became apparent when World Maker's guild soldiers clashed with the opposite guild soldiers. Aside from Everlasting Heavenly Legends, no guilds could compete with World Maker's guild soldiers.
Arthur, Megan, and Herald led the guild players as they fought against the enemy players.
Arthur was level 76. His level was among the top players who had never died. His katana moved with expert precision. His blade was almost able to take the enemy players' lives with each swing. Using the sword's heart, each of his strikes hit the enemy player's fatal parts, causing critical damage.
But even with his incredible kill rate, he still found that his comrades were decreasing faster than the enemies. As his allies fell, Arthur became stronger. This was due to the level 70 skill of his Avenging Knight special class, Avenging Spirit, which was the same as the weapon skill from Jack's God of Courage's Sword. His attributes and damage power increased every time an ally died, to a maximum of 100% damage and 200% attributes increase. This effect lasted until the end of the battle.
With this boost, he killed the enemies even faster. But still, he found his allies continued to decrease while his opponents increased. As time passed, he found that he had to fight more than ten enemies at a time.