Chapter 388: Taking down a village

In between the crowd of people trying to find the coins on the street , were sparsely distributed mercenaries and nine cloud kingdom soldiers. 

The sheer density of the crowd and the frequent infighting , as well as the continuous clamour and noises , made the entire town feel like an extremely crowded fish market. It was soo bad that if someone shouted for help , it may not even traverse 5 full meters before being drowned by the sounds of the crowd.

It was the perfect cover for commiting crime. As one by one , groups of four soldiers under Rudra , dressed as common men , would bump into a soldier or mercenary as a part of the crowd and stab them with four swords at once. 

The men could not even shout for help , as they died on the spot. The soldiers committed murder in plain sight , yet the crowd busy in finding gold coins did not even bother. 

Simmilar instances occured all over the city , as enemy numbers dwindled without a fight. When the numbers dropped below a certain level though , the mercenaries started to notice , something was off. Their teammates were respawning back in the church of light of their hometowns by the hundereds. As the situation was reported , the other mercenaries started to get more vigilant. 

However , all this was already factored in by Rudra , who gave the order to rain Flame arrows onto the Village! 

Thousands of flaming arrows covered the sky in an instant , as the low levelled players were baffled at the sight . 

The arrows rained down on the village and it's houses , as the fire started to spread. Hundereds of innocent adventurers died , and many mercenaries were injured by the sudden attack. 

When a System Notification , broke everyone from their stupor. 

System notification : THE VILLAGE OF MERCURY IS UNDER ATTACK BY HAZELGROOVE KINGDOM FORCES. 

BY AGGRESSING ON ENEMY TERRITORY , THE HAZELGROOVE KINGDOM HAS DECLARED WAR ON NINECLOUDS KINGDOM . 

KILLING ENEMY'S FROM OTHER KINGDOM WILL NOW NOT INCREASE INFAMY , AND RESPAWN TIME IS INCREASED TO 24 HOURS. 

War had been declared , as thousands of cavalry of the first division , bravely charged towards the village walls. 

Panic ensued inside the village , as low levelled players lost their minds , the village was burning and there was enemy attacking and respawn time had been increased to 24 hours. 

Which meant that if they were killed , it would take 24 hours for them to log in back into the game. Hence ensued a period of madness and chaos , as stampede went rampant in the village. 

Seeing the charge of the cavalry , the soldiers shouted " ENEMY ATTACK .... CLOSE THE WALLS , DEFEND THE VILLAGE , ALL MEN TO THE WALLS! ". 

" ENEMY ATTACK ". 

" WAR! ". 

The people Manning the walls of Mercury village , quickly started to throw spears and release arrows at the charging cavalry. However , the ones who ended up dying were them and not a single cavalryman from Rudra's faction was hurt. As they were utterly backstabbed by the soldiers who had already entered the village. 

Rudra Gave them a minute by minute breakdown of tasks , where two minutes before the start of the rain of fire , the soldiers were to take cover , and gather near the entrance of the village , and take aim at the people Manning the walls. 

The moment that the fire arrow rain ended , and the village was enveloped in chaos , Rudra lead the charge of the cavalry personally , towards the village gates. Where the soldiers defending the walls redirected their efforts , only to leave their backs completely exposed to those who were already inside. 

From then on , the soldiers on the inside , slaughtered their way to the village walls , and opened it wide for the cavalry to enter. 

Thousands of Hazelgroove soldiers stormed the Mercury village gates , as the infantrymen regrouped with the main army , to now lead an all out charge against the enemies.

The village turned into a bloodbath lead by Rudra , as the weaker Nineclouds kingdom soldiers were no match for the superior Hazelgroove kingdom soldiers . 

Even the hired security , the mercenaries from the triads had a hard time to overcome the sheer numerical advantage and greater strength of the soldiers from Hazelgroove , as they were continually forced to retreat . 

The tide of the war was completely in favour of the Hazelgroove army , as the retreat path of the Ninecloud soldiers was completely blocked by the thousands of low levelled players who had retreated to the southernmost part of the village to avoid conflict. 

With the Hazelgroove army pressing , they were forced to the southside , alongwith the players , who were hostile to the soldiers . 

In desperation to retreat , the soldiers started to cut down on the weak players , as the level 10 players were not even worth a strike to kill . 

However , this outrageous act caused the weak players to retaliate in anger , as although they still fell in one strike , they did significantly reduce the speed of retreat for the Ninecloud soldiers , who were clobbered from behind by Hazelgroove army. 

The next 30 minutes was the last decent fight that the defenders of Mercury village put up , as soon their numbers dwindled to individual stragglers.

Half the village burnt down , the village chief and thousands of soldiers dead. In under 14 hours , Rudra had captured the Mercury village with less than 100 casualties on his end. 

It was a massive victory , completely unconventional , however devastatingly effective.

--------- 

( Meanwhile somewhere in China ) 

Jhonny was currently hunting down a small gang of local hoodlums involved in operating a small cartel. 

Somehow his choice of weapons had shifted from using guns to using the Assassin's dagger like he used in game. He found out that , just like In Omega , he could actually use it precisely in real life as well. 

It was confusing for him , as he did not understand how it happened , but it was as if throwing daggers was imprinted in his muscle memory .

No matter the angle , no matter the trajectory , he would always pierce his opponents neck clean. 

He walked at the pace of a normal man walking on a ramp in a fashion show , however left and right local hoodlums holding guns dropped dead after being pierced by daggers . 

As the leader of the group looked at Jhonny terrified with his hands trembling as he asked " 

Nǐ shì móguǐ ma" ( Are you the devil? ) 

To which Jhonny replied "

Wǒ shì yuēhàn ní yīngyǔ" 

( I am Jhonny English )