Second World

The Aurebor army slowly detached themselves. The elven soldiers were very experienced in forest warfare. Their tactical retreat let them slip into the thickets. In a few seconds since the retreat horn was sounded, most of the elven soldiers had gone out of sight.

The Themisphere army chose to be prudent and not chase too far. Otherwise, they might fall into an ambush.

The Verremor army was more daring even after suffering the first ambush. The orc soldiers rushed after the fleeing elves and ended up getting a few arrows in return. Kima had to forcefully hold these soldiers back using her war table.

In the sky, the eldritch beholder cast teleportation and moved away from her three attackers. Quetzalcoatl didn't chase after her. Both their summoning period was nearing its end.

Makubwa was panting by the side. His HP had dropped to below half. He had drunk several recovery potions throughout the fight to lessen the speed by which his HP fell. Even with all the defensive buffs, he still lost this much. This was already because he spent most of his time in evasion mode. Otherwise, his HP would have dropped to zero a long time ago.

Isabelle was in a better condition since she mostly stayed at a safe distance and played support, but she was not without wounds. Her HP was just a bit over 60%.

"It seems that we have to postpone our fight to another time," the beholder said.

Quetzalcoatl glanced down at the armies below before saying, "Most likely it will be when we storm your capital. You should have stayed sealed. The price of your freedom can very well be your life."

The beholder laughed maniacally. "Hahaha. You lots were unable to kill me the last time and had to resort to sealing me. What makes you think you can now?"

"We are much stronger than then," Quetzalcoatl answered

"You are also much more alone than then," The Beholder returned. A large void appeared behind her. She entered the void and disappeared.

"Hmph," Quetzalcoatl grunted once his opponent vanished. He could sense his time was also ending. Before he left, he turned to Makubwa and Isabelle and said, "You didn't need to involve yourselves in the fight, but thanks anyway."

He then vanished with a flash of light.

Makubwa and Isabelle heaved a relieved breath after the fight was over. It was too taxing to fight an opponent who was much more powerful. The two flew back down. The armies down there had stopped fighting and were regrouping.

"Blizzard, Purple, I want a report. Find out how many people we lost," Four Winds commanded.

The two women nodded and went to check the players. For the natives, the war table had accurate data.

After spending some time regrouping and reorganizing their formations, they had a rough idea of the result of the battle. On Verremor's side, they lost around 500,000 troops. A majority of these casualties were from the first half of the battle. Their casualty rate decreased sharply once the Themisphere army arrived. Their native troops now numbered 900,000.

On the players' side, they lost around half the number. A few were even from the players fleeing the scene due to the chaos and fear from the enemy's initial ambush. Four Winds told his members to list out these cowards and made sure they were blacklisted from any future campaign. The surviving 400,000 players reorganized themselves with the native army.

From the Themisphere army's side. They only lost around 100,000 troops in the battle. Their army was still 1,400,000-strong.

As for the Aurebor army, they lost a great deal once the Themisphere army joined the battle. It took Mistress too long to swallow her pride. She had seen her army losing for some time, but only after Lead Designer reluctantly sent his suggestion that Mistress give the retreat order. If she hadn't let pride rule her judgment, perhaps she could have saved more soldiers. As it did, they lost almost one million troops.

The Aurebor army retreated with 1,900,000 soldiers.

Aurebor players also suffered significant losses. Their 300,000 number was reduced to 100,000 when the retreat happened. Many of the losses were also players who fled when they saw the situation turn after the Themisphere army arrived.

After finishing reorganizing, the Verremor and Themisphere army resumed their march. Their target was Aurebor's capital, Lorethion.

*

Mistress and her army retreated to Lorethion after being defeated. They decided to mount a defensive battle at the capital where they had support from the capital walls and where their country guardian didn't have a time limit.

She teleported back to the palace when her army was still on its way back. She went to the throne room and used the Monarch System to check her army status.

Not long after, her advisor informed her of a guest arriving. This guest didn't wait until Mistress gave the permission, he barged into the throne room. This guest was Master. Several guards followed because Master forced his way in without permission

Mistress waved for the guards to move back.

At this time, the battle at Messephyria had also ended. She had heard about the loss of the Liguritudum army. Master's loss was even more severe than her loss from the battle at the border.

Master was initially riding his steed at full speed toward Hydrurond, but he received the news of their loss while he was still on the way. He figured it was useless to proceed now. He instructed Linda to get the remaining army back to Liguritudum. He then changed course and rode to Aurebor instead.

Aurebor had also recently gone into a war status so he couldn't teleport in from outside the country. But since he was already halfway through the border region, it didn't take him long to enter Aurebor's territory. Once he entered Aurebor, he used the nearest settlement's zone portal to teleport to Lorethion. 

Since Master had just lost a war, his expression was not pretty.

"What are you doing here?" Mistress asked crudely. She was also not in a good mood.

"Let go of this country," Master said to her. "We will pool all our resources in Liguritudum."