Second World

The native soldiers that were summoned by the four guilds numbered almost ten thousand. Effectively increasing White Death's outworlder force by fifty percent. Although they suffered heavy casualties in the first wave, the summoned guild soldiers easily replaced those lost troops. The second wave advanced with similar fervor as the first. This time, however, the summoned native soldiers served as the tip of the sword.

Arther remained at the back, surveying the situation. He just stood there not far away from where White Death and the others were. Manager Steelhand and the others noticed Arther's passivity and sent a silent message to White Death, asking about it. The Lord Marshall's action was not what White Death had told them.

White Death simply feigned ignorance and said that probably Arther was also surprised by the first wave's shocking defeat. Hence, he was observing the situation first.

This answer caused dissatisfaction among the three guilds. Many of the casualties in the first wave were their members. Those players had died pointless deaths without scoring meaningful war contribution points. White Death said that he understood their frustration. His members were also among those who died in the first wave. He told them now was not the time to complain, they needed to focus on the battle at hand.

"Should we send orders for our sleeper agents to strike?" Manager Steelhand asked.

"Not now. The report says they have imperial guards inside their headquarters. I don't know how they get those guards but the report also says these guards only spent a week there before they left," White Death answered. "This is only the first clash. Wait until the decisive battle when the Prince they come to save is in danger, then we activate our sleeper agents."

*

John had seen the guild's summoned soldiers approaching from the 3D projection above a miniature platform. He and the other six guilds' representatives in his force had these command platforms in front of them, which meant they had used their Guild Army Summoning Crystals. Yet, their summoned guild soldiers were nowhere to be seen.

John also used his binoculars to take a better look. Therribus' army was not yet joining the fight. All the native soldiers that were coming at them were the trained soldiers from the four opposing guilds.

He gave the order for the front line to change formation. The front line followed the command and turned into a vee formation as the enemies approached. The transition proceeded smoothly. The squads behind the front line moved back to allow the middle line to shift back. They had drilled many times so the squads didn't hinder one another when the formation change took place.

As the vee formation formed, the two forces started clashing on the sides while the enemy's middle section continued forward. This created a large killing zone in the triangle area before the vee formation. All the range players on the hills concentrated their attacks on this killing zone.

The summoned native soldiers clashed with the defensive line, but they couldn't break through in a short time. John had replaced the previous defensive squad with a backup defensive squad who had not used their skills. Hence, the same combination of Paladins and Sentinels' skills from before were used again to create an impenetrable wall that held the enemies.

All the while these enemies inside the killing zone were battered by range attacks. Magical spells also bombarded them from the magic classes staying behind the defensive lines. These spells were not just ordinary spells, they were the combination versions from two magic class players.

After the last battle between Everlasting Heavenly Legends with the coalition, everyone had known about the existence of combination spells. The guilds had started experimenting to find out which spells could be combined, but such experimentation was limited. John understood this was not the time to be stingy, so he shared a few of the most common combination spells, and had them practiced during the march here. This allowed his current army to increase its firepower.

The Jackal Crews members who were skilled at sneak attacks tried to disrupt John's army formation. However, they met opponents of equal caliber, members of Dogs of War. All their attempts to breach the defensive lines were foiled by the equally capable members of Dogs of War.

During the time that John sent this guild to collect intelligence, they similarly collected information about the opposing player guilds. They were not foreign to the Jackal Crews. Their two guilds had clashed several times when they carried requests from opposing sides. As mercenary guilds, such a clash was inevitable. Hence, they were familiar with each other's working methods.

The difference this time was, that Dogs of War was playing defensive. So, they occupied a better position. They just needed to guard the most likely spots the Jackal Crews might be targeting. Hence, none of Jackal Crews members managed to do anything to change their army's current situation.

Red Death was amongst the front line, her expertise allowed her to survive there despite her class was not built for direct conflict. Blackjack was next to her providing support.

"Red!" She heard a voice calling her from the opposing force. She turned to the voice.

"Blue…"

"Oh, the lovelorn dude," Blackjack uttered.

"Who are you called lovelorn, you suckup?! Are you looking for a fight?" Blue Death returned. He was a level 48 Mage Knight. His real body was further back fighting another player while his spectral projection came to the two.

"Of course, I'm looking for a fight! What do you think we are doing here? A tea party? Come! I'll take you on any time," Blackjack said.

Blue Death thought he was wasting time quarreling with Blackjack, so he turned to Red Death and asked, "Why do you betray our guild? It is that Storm Wind, isn't it? Where is he? Why don't I see him anywhere? I won't forgive him!"

"… You should be glad that he is not here," Red Death said.

As time went on, although the second wave of White Death's army was doing better than the first wave, they still suffer much more casualties compared to John's army. This was even under the situation where John had not utilized their guilds' trained soldiers yet.

*

Arther, who saw the battle from the back, could finally take it no longer. He had hoped this outworlder force under their umbrella could at least soften the enemy by a little. He uttered to White Death and the others, "Useless! Pull your force away. I won't be responsible if they get trampled!"

Arther then turned to his officers and yelled, "Forward! Let's show these worthless outworlders how to do a battle!" His 30,000 native soldiers moved forward in a neat formation. The ground rumbled as they advanced.

Manager Steelhand, The Real Man, and Regim were outraged by Arther's affront. This native had made them send their force to gauge the enemy while he didn't provide any support. They had lost so many members and yet Arther didn't value their sacrifice but instead treated them with such contempt. The three had the urge to change sides at this moment. However, it was just a thought. They couldn't change sides even if they wanted to. Once they were registered to take one side in the war quest, they couldn't cancel it until the war was over.

Only White Death remained impassive by the insult. His agenda lay elsewhere. The outcome of this war mattered little to him.

*

John used his binoculars and saw Arther's army movement. He also saw from his 3D projection that White Death's army started retreating. He thought that probably White Death couldn't take more losses. They had lost more than half their force, after all.

However, his side was not without casualties. He had lost around 3000 players in the last battle.

As White Death's army retreated. John rearranged his front line again. They were back to the layered line formation as Arther's army approached. The front-most squads of Paladins and Sentinels were reshuffled again, allowing the ones who had their defensive skills off cooldown to face the incoming enemies.

John noticed from his binoculars that Arther was coming using a wedge formation.

"Hm… Facing a proper military is indeed different from facing those players who attacked haphazardly," he commented. He then sent a command to the leaders in his army, having them change formation again.

The right end of his army started to move back while the left end maintained their positions. It was like the horizontal line formation rotated at one end and turned into a diagonal line. During their march here, when John saw that the army was getting used to the five basic formations, he added two more formations to drill. The two new formations were echelon left and echelon right. The one they were forming now was echelon right.

Arther saw John's formation change, but he paid it no heed. It was too late to modify his army's current formation while charging. Aside from that, in his opinion, all these tricks could be smashed with brute force.

When Arther's troops almost arrived, John instructed the use of the Enhanced Defensive Ability magic scrolls. These were the scrolls produced from the Protective Framework rune diagram that Jack had registered into the guild. They could not produce too many of the scrolls but it was enough to cover the front line. The scrolls enhanced all ally's defensive skills and spells within their area of effect. With this enhanced effect, the Sentinels and Paladins at the front line activated Protection Field and Heaven's Shield. A row of imaginary shields appeared again on the front line. There were now even some Archmages who cast Magic Wall, further reinforcing the shield wall.

The two troops collided. The enhanced wall of shields managed to hold the native army at bay. Because Arther was using wedge formation while John was using echelon right. Only the left side of Arther's wedge formation met the enemy, while the right side was too far away. They had to proceed further before they could join the fight. This effectively had John's full force dealt with only half of Arther's force in the initial clash.

The range players on the hills immediately executed all their skills to capitalize on this advantage. Arrows, bullets, and magic rained down on the native army.

However, no matter how good the coordination and plan were, if faced with overwhelming power, all would crumble. The overall situation still had John's army at the advantage in the first clash, but then one figure shot up into the air. On his back was a pair of silvery transparent wings. It was Arther Pendrake, the mythical-grade Lord Marshal.

A large image of a fiery silver winged sword shot up from his two-handed greatsword. He slashed it down as he lunged back to the ground. The gigantic silver sword image crashed onto the front line. All the ones on that spot were obliterated.

John's front line now had a large gap in its formation.