Second World

Jeanny was still fighting vigorously with the others defending the wall. She caught a glimpse of her mother, Nova, who was fighting in a section away from her. Her mother was also using the Dragoon class. Her Serpentine Swift Spear was even more refined than Jennifer's.

She turned to the other side and saw Mihos was back to clashing with the Manticore again after that guild guardian was forced to land. Paytowin and The Man were fighting against Sangumus and other World Ruler members. Both Sangumus and the Manticore had forced their way back from behind enemy lines. Now, they fought with the support of their allies.

Further away, the Offline Beasts were tussling with Death Associates. The two were using this battle to settle their grudge match.

Giant Steve was with the defensive units on the front line, blocking the enemy's charge. Behind them was Forest Lord. This guild guardian was not a melee type, so it didn't charge ahead. It stayed at the back and attacked from range. Each swing of its antlers discharged a wind blade that cut the enemy. It also occasionally radiated a soothing aura that healed all those nearby.

Overall, they had less pressure the hour after the chain mega spells. But now, that pressure had returned.

Jeanny thought that the plan where Dogs of War ambushed the enemy's command platform would have been enough to end this battle. They picked the time after they executed the chained mega spells because, at that time, the enemy should still be reeling from the loss.

The enemies would be less decisive if Dogs of War hit them at the time, allowing Dogs of War to either destroy or kill the user of the commanding platform before they commanded a portion of their army to return to protect them. Thus, ending the battle.

However, not only World Ruler didn't order any of their guild soldiers to return, but Dogs of War also failed to take out the command platform, even until now. It had been an hour since then. David had previously sent a message giving her an estimate of one hour.

But apparently, one hour was not enough. The players inside the protective shell, even though numbered less than one-tenth of Dogs of War's numbers, could attack them without reservation. Hence, forcing Dogs of War's members to be in a continuous defensive position. This caused their damage output to decrease.

When Jeanny contacted David again, David couldn't give an exact estimate under this condition. He informed Jeanny that it might still need another hour, or maybe even two, before they could take out the shell and get to the command platform.

Jeanny looked at the battle situation. It was clear now that the situation was slowly returning to the way before they cast the mega spells. She doubted they could last another one hour, much less two.

But there was little she could do. She had done all she could. All she could do now was continue to fight and shout motivating rallies to her comrades.

Another hour passed. The defensive line started crumbling. The enemies pushed forward and the four titanic arrow towers behind them also advanced, allowing their ranged units to cover more ground with their attacks. Fast units like Raptor riders, Centaurs, and Elite elven riders, which was a variant of cavalry, charged through weakly defended gaps and caused chaos from inside the defender's rank.

Some Raptor Riders managed to finally arrive at the bottom of the wall. They made a super jump with their powerful legs. Their jump failed to take them to the top of the wall. However, their legs with sharp claws gripped the wall and made a second jump. This second jump allowed them to reach the top of the wall.

With these raptor riders running amok on the wall, the ranged units on the wall could no longer fully support their melee comrades fighting below. They had to shift their focus to deal with these raptor riders.

Without sufficient ranged support from the wall, the defense below the wall was getting even more vulnerable. The enemy's arrow towers also moved further ahead, allowing the ranged units there to hit the defenders on the wall, further suppressing the ones on the wall from supporting their brethren down there.

'We are losing...,' Jeanny couldn't help but have this thought. Even so, she never stopped shouting encouraging yells to motivate the others. Her spear was also getting fiercer. She knew that at times like this, if she relented, all the others who followed her would also falter. She had to keep their fighting spirit on!

She looked in the direction where World Ruler's commanding center was at. She hoped David and his guild didn't let her down.

*

The shell had fallen to thirty percent, but considering they needed two hours to bring it down to this percentage, they would need close to another hour to break it. David looked in the Wicked Witches' headquarters direction which was still in heated combat. They didn't seem like they could last another hour.

Additionally, the rate by which they deplete the shell's HP was also decreasing. They had lost more than one hundred people during these two hours, causing their damage output to decrease even further.

All of them were soldiers or mercenaries who were used to firefight, so they were not flustered when enemies sent ranged attacks their way. They, who were of gunner class, stayed behind the trees and let loose their attacks from covers.

Assassins didn't have that luxury. They had to approach the shell and deal damage in melee range. Hence, most of the one hundred losses came from this class group.

They didn't have a healer, but they hit and run in such a methodical way that they could recuperate using recovery potions. They were also professionals so getting a hit on them was very difficult.

Many of the players inside the shell did fail to hit these assassin players most of the time. Ninety percent of the loss suffered by Dogs of War was caused by Ronald, the phantom gunslinger. That man's aim was inhumanly accurate. Most of his hits produced critical damage. His base damage was also very high, making his critical damage soar even further. Some of his headshots even managed to kill a player with just one bullet.

Many of them were confused by this. It was not strange if the headshots were hit with rapid shot skill. But to be instant-killed by a single shot, this rarely happened in this game world. They felt like they had returned to the real world again where one fatal hit meant the end.

Their confusion was dispelled after Serpent Boss informed them that Ronald had a special class. Serpent Boss had used Inspect when the two were chatting before the battle started. Dogs of War knew about special class. Aside from finding the information about special classes in the library, it was also because two of their members had special classes.

One was a woman soldier named Valenza. She had gotten a sniper class out of luck. Which was fitting, considering she also used to be a sniper in real life. This sniper was a second-class special class that improved the range of rifle-type guns greatly as well as boosted its damage. She was the one who had shot the two World Ruler's spellcasters who were casting mega spells earlier.

The other one was none other than Serpent Boss. He had a special class called Soldier. This was also a second-class special class. This special class improved the overall performance of a gunner class. Its first skill was Battle Ready. It was a buff skill that gave its user an increase in speed and defense against all damage as well as providing a small HP recovery. He was also immune to all movement restrictions when this skill was active.

As for Ronald's special class. He had the Sharpshooter class, another second-class special class. Its passive abilities boosted damage from all gun-type weapons even further than the gunner class, boosted the probability of critical hit, and increased the critical damage.

This class' first skill was called Headshot. This was an active skill with a short cooldown of one minute. When using this skill, if it hit any other part other than the head, then this skill was wasted. It would just be considered a normal hit. But if it hit the head, it would be a 100% chance critical hit. Additionally, the critical damage was boosted by an additional 300% with a 50% defense penetration.

The one-bullet headshot kill suffered by Dogs of War was caused by this skill.

Serpent Boss tried to draw Ronald's attention so Ronald targeted him. He was confident that even if he couldn't entirely dodge Ronald's bullets, he could at least prevent them from being a headshot. But Ronald intentionally chose to pick off the other members. Ronald was especially good at finding the weaker members of the bunch to make his kills.

David also tried to do the same. He even came out from the tree's cover while yelling at Ronald. He had the Shield Drone skill, so his drone could provide him with a cover as he advanced. But Ronald similarly ignored him, this pissed David off.

Serpent Boss sent a message to David to calm down. Ronald was just trying to rile them up so that they made a mistake. All they needed to focus on was taking down the shell. Once the shell was out, then their larger number should easily finish the enemies.

"This has been taking way too long!" Mistress stood up and yelled when the shell dropped to ten percent. She was very dissatisfied. This was supposed to be a fast and easy assault. Why did it last this long? It just made her guild look bad.

A long scythe appeared in her hand. "You bunch of fools who dare to defy us! I will show you what death is!"

She cast a spell. When it was completed, a grey phantom appeared by her side. This phantom wore a ragged hooded robe and had a void for a face. When Dogs of War looked at the void under the hood, they felt as if they were staring at death itself.