Book 4, Chapter 32

The Havoc

            I turned around. As I feared, a

player crowd is rus.h.i.+ng towards us.

　　    "Stop where you are!" A player running in front cried out.

　　    Oh

please. Of course I'll not listen to you.

            "Coin, Razor, Merciless! Hold

them off for a while!"

　　    "Got

it!"

            They went to the path, facing the incoming players. I asked them

because they're all fast cla.s.ses. Even if they can't defeat the players they

won't be caught at least.

　　    At

least that was my plan, until I realized I've made a really bad decision by

sending Razor out.

           Someone in the front line yelled when they saw Razor:

           "It's

the j.a.panese! They're trying to break up our city defense system! We must stop

them!!"

　　    I

tripped on my own feet when I heard that. Break the city

defense?? Then why are we taking all the effort to take the cannon all the way

here, instead of sabotaging it inside the city? Besides that cannon will get

refreshed after 24 hours. If I'm the enemy I'd do it right before a city siege

begins. Why now??

           Well I don't think they'll give us any chance to explain. And

they'll probably break the cannon by accident if they get their hands on it!

　　    Merciless

and the other two have already contacted with the players, the crowd is quickly

shrinking towards them three. Coin is running in front while Razor and

Merciless followed behind. Coin is going towards the leading player, because he's

either intentionally trying to throw hate at us, or is just plain dumb. Either

way, we should take him down.

　　    The

player grinned when he saw Coin getting close. Coin is seemingly a fragile

cla.s.s with all the cloth she's wearing, and this high leveled Warrior has all

the confidence in a head-on conflict.

　　    Coin

is wearing the same grin as the foolish Warrior. Doubt replaced the smile on

the Warrior's face, but he no longer needs to worry about it in the next moment.

　　    Coin

jumped into the air about 5 meters away from the target, and landed right on

top of the Warrior's body, submerging her dagger deep into it. She used her

self-created skill [Last Resort]. The Warrior died in a white flash before

he can even see what just happened.

　　    All

the running players stopped. Their leader just died for no reason!

           And that

moment is enough for us to gain enough distance from the city.

　　    "Zirai,

take the cannon away!"

           I picked up Yuri and tossed her onto Skyfire's back.

"Wait for us in the Lost City. Yuri knows the way!"

　　    I

don't want to make Zirai feel that she's the only one escaping. But I

believe she can understand that getting the cannon to safety is our top goal

now.

           She ordered Skyfire to retreat from the scene without hesitation. 　　

            I

can finally put my heart back into my chest when Zirai is gone. A flying dragon

can't be easily intercepted unless something really powerful shows up. 　　

            I

faced the battleground again. Razor's group is now surrounded by all the

players. I don't really want to fight them, since most players are just trying to protect

the city from "invaders". But I can't leave my team behind.

　　    "Hawk!

Get them out of there, and try to avoid killing if you can."

　　    "I'll

do it!" Hawk nodded hard.

　　    "Finally,

some real exercise." I cracked my neck. "Most

companions are still down. I'll go in myself."

            I rarely do any fighting on

my own because Lucky is always tanking, with all kinds of support around. I

won most of my fights while giving orders from safety. Now Lucky, Phiona, Loong'er,

Tank and Rosa are all gone for now. Guess no other choice.

　　    "Night

Shade, Dart. Come out!" That's my only available companions. As for

Phantom, he never left my body.

            I hopped onto Night Shade and prepared my

dragon lance.

　　    Hawk and Elfy were separated from each other. Of course Elfy can't be sitting on

Hawk's shoulder during a fight. She got a pegasus now! 　　

           Pa.s.serby

is causing most of the damage among us all at the moment. Groups of witches

and caster ladies sat on the ground and never stood up when they saw the gigantic

c.o.c.kroach. Now I know why he seldom uses his companion. He'll scare every girl

(and maybe some guys) away!

　　    Merciless

is locked inside an intense fight on another side with several people.

           We don't have time to

set up a formation or any plans now. I summoned the Phantom Knights behind me, pointed

my weapon skywards and gave the order aloud:

            "Charge!"

　　    "Leave

no one standing! "

            The ten Phantom Knights plus the temporary makes.h.i.+ft

rider (me) produced quite an impressive galloping horse formation. Our mounts are pretty

big, all with heavy spike horseshoes, after all.

　　    This

greatly affected the players' moral. In a game, players either level up on

their own or in small groups of four or five at most. You don't find a dozen

riders practicing combat horse charge together. A

game means the guilds manage their players in a casual way. They won't set up any pre-established units like cavalry regiment or swordsman squad or

something, nor ask them to constantly train as a group. I always despite those guilds

calling themselves like some kind of military units. This is a game! We play

games for fun, not listening to orders. There will be no armies in online games.

The biggest fight you can get in here is a street brawl involving thugs and random

hooligans. You only see trained troops in real life.

　　    I

can say that a cavalry team of 11 people charging together is the biggest

combat establishment you can find now in [Zero]. The players are all intimated

because they never seen something like this.

           "Run!!" Someone

cried.

           Too late though. Our mounts covered the distance between us quickly.

Most of the players are still packed on the city bridge outside the gate. There's

no way they can run easily.

　　    We

swept a good number of the people off the bridge like cleaning autumn leaves. Once

we're in, we'll have to rely on our weapons without the initial charging speed.

           Cleaning out a path proved to be an easy task. The

Phantom Knight's didn't even use their weapons. I told them not to kill anyone

so now they are simply grabbing and tossing them into the river like throwing

trash bags. More players rushed to the knights trying to defeat them, which

only means more players get sent down. The river below us is getting filled up quickly.

These barbarous guys never learned how to treat ladies, they are hurling girls

into the water as well!

　　    I

didn't have enough time to stop them before they rushed into a group of mages

comprised full of pretty girls. After some screaming and flying human figures, over

30 girls were sent swimming with everyone else.

　　    However,

not everything is going smooth for us. Elfy and Rose were

isolated, the other people were pushed several meters away from them, and they

can't move around in the time like this.

　　    A

dozen people noticed the easy targets and moved towards the pair. They're trying to take the advantage!　

            I

saw Elfy taking out her homing arrow she used to catch Coin the last time, which

means she realized the situation. Elfy is an Archer, and Rose is a healer. Close

combat is never their expertise. Getting surrounded by enemy group is really

bad news.

　　    "Hawk!!"

I yelled to Hawk who seems to be the closest one to me. When I caught his

attention I pointed a finger to Elfy.

            He immediately noticed what's going on

and moved. But

the attackers already reached the girls before Hawk can make it.

            Being an

Archer doesn't mean Elfy has zero damage up close. She released

her frost homing arrow she's been preparing. Poom! The foremost attacker is

turned into an ice block, those stayed too close to him are also affected.

　　    One frost arrow can only stop so many people. Someone on the other side still

lunged at the girls. Before one of the attackers can hit Rose, a white figure

appeared and slammed him away. I'm relived when I saw the figure stationed itself in front of Rose -- It's the white alpha wolf I gave Rose a long time ago, I

almost forgot it. It grew so big.

　　    The

wolf stopped the following a.s.sailants for enough time, allowing Hawk to get

into place and protect the two girls. With Hawk and the wolf tanking in front, the

beauty pair began to show their talent. Rose's healing skills can pretty much

help Hawk fight all the enemies without having to worry about losing HP. Hawk

already has high Defense and quick reflexes.

　　    Elfy

is even deadlier -- she's displaying what I would call "one shot one kill".

Though she's not actually killing people. She only uses low-damage skills, aimed

at her targets' eyes. Those attacks don't kill anyone but of course no one can

keep fighting if they have a freaking arrow locked inside their eye socket.

　　    Since

those guys are safe, I began to move towards Coin. Hawk blocked most of the

players on the bridge. There are many of them but only a small portion

can actually attack Hawk. And those still inside the city can't see what's going

on out there, they only try to push out of the gate. Now the area around the

city gate is completely locked up by the human wave. No one gets through!

　　    Me

and the Phantom Knights are trying to move to Coin (by keep throwing people

away) when we saw Coin's group coming out on their own. Coin is hopping on top

of people by using their heads as jumping platforms. And no one can catch her! Hack,

with that kind of crowd they can't even take their hands out.

　　    Razor

on the other hand, is using his ninjutsu to move underground. Only some of the

sharper players can notice him but they can't do anything either. 　　

            Merciless

is totally the opposite. I thought he's an a.s.sa.s.sin. a.s.sa.s.sin would be someone

who hides a lot and only jumps out to kill important targets. But...he's

obviously not the case. He attacks like a killer bee -- stabs someone, and

disappear. Anyone hurt by him either dies immediately or becomes seriously

wounded. That leopard of him hasn't grown up but is also attacking people just

like its master, by s.h.i.+fting here and there among the crowd while scratching

random people.

　　    Their

display distracted me too much. A Half-orc Berserker sneaked near me, slammed

his weapon on Night Shade, knocking me off horse.

　　    I

heard news before when people get hurt during a stampede when all the shoppers

went crazy inside a mall, now I'm experiencing it -- I can't get up under all

the feet! Thankfully Night Shade wasn't hurt much by the attack. He simply

bucked at that overconfident Berserker, sending him flying into river below.

　　    Then

he managed to push the people around away from me, that's when I can finally

stand up. It would be really stupid if I just died like that. Talking about too

many people in China.

            But at least this can prove a big advantage when we go on

a war against j.a.pan.

　　    That

aside, I still need to get out of here. I climbed on Night Shade to get a

better view of the whole battlefield. The Phantom Knights have completely

blocked the city gate according to my order. Ten level 850 monsters are more

than enough to do that at the current stage.

　　    Coin's

group has reached a safe distance. So I came to help them and now I'm the only

one trapped inside!

           Dang it.

　　    I

also noticed some riders, unable to move an inch just like me. Most of them are NPC

city defenders. They already came to solve the mess but they can't get around

the crowd either. Their job doesn't allow them to do anything to innocent

players.

　　    I

went all the way into the crowd by using the momentum of our charging skills. Now

I'm stuck! The good thing is no one is attacking me for now. To be precise, no

one CAN attack me.

　　    Night

Shade tried as hard as he can to squeeze through while I used my lance to pick

people and throw them behind us. But the tiny s.p.a.ce I clear out each time is

instantly filled up by someone else. We can only advance like a snail! 　　

           In

the end I'm even considering if I should fly away using my wing blade. I'm not

sure about that idea, cause that's will make myself an obvious target. Besides I

don't really want to show my true abilities in front of so many people.

　　    I

lowered my head and spoke to Night Shade: "Any good idea?"

　　    He

looked around a bit.

           "Hold tight." 　　

           "Huh?"

           He suddenly jumped high into the air before I can understand what he meant. It's

no joke to jump among such a dense crowd, he crushed a good number of people

when he lands, and jumped again before they have the time to scream in pain. Now

we're also hopping inside the crowd to move around, kinda like what Coin did

just now. A little bit more violently, though.

            We reached the edge of the crowd

after some dozens of jumps. Usually Night Shade would have achieved that by three or

four good jumps, but he can't do that when he's using human bodies as stepping

stones.

　　    When

I finally got away, Hawk also called everyone else to retreat. The city gate is

no longer blocked, allowing a huge wave of players to rush outside. That looks

even more impressive than last time when we attracted those NPC riders into

chasing us.

　　    But

this time they don't have horses so we shook them off easily.

           We slowed down

when we no longer have any pursuers in sight.

　　    "Ziri!"

Hawk approached me.

　　    "Um?"

            "You

see Big Pot?" 　　

            "Big

Pot?" I looked around. "He's not here? Didn't he run with us?"

　　    "I

don't know, that's why I'm asking!" 　　

            "Violet?"

I called her over to us. She was the one fighting along Big Pot.

　　     "What's

wrong?"

　　    "Did

you see Big Pot?" 　　

           "He's...not with you guys?" She gave us a blank stare.

　　    "Me?

I went inside to help Coin. Isn't Big Pot outside with the others?"

　　    "He

wasn't. I saw him charging in behind you on his boar."

　　    "What??

Big Pot went after Ziri?" Hawk waved his arms around dramatically. "What

was he thinking??"

　　    "Do

we go back for him?" Violet asked.

　　    I

spoke before Hawk: "No. If he can get away he already did, and if he can't,

he should be dead by now. Either killed by someone or stomped to death by the people."

            I'm

speaking the truth. I would have ended up like that if Night Shade wasn't there

to help. Big Pot's boar isn't as agile as Night Shade so I'm not sure he can

make it.

　　    "I

agree." Hawk nodded. We shouldn't risk everyone's level to save Big Pot.

"Well, we can always help him get a level back later."

　　    We

waited for a while longer to leave combat status and teleported to the Lost

City.

            (Once involved in any kind of conflict, a player can no longer use

teleport or city recall skills/items for a while. But this rule only applies to

attackers. Pa.s.sive victims can still try to teleport as long as they have

enough time to prepare it.) 　　

           Zirai

and Yuri are already waiting for us there. Zirai spoke to Yuri :"See, told

you they'll come out of the station. Why did you think they would come in

through the city gate?"

　　    Then she

walked to us. "How was everything?"

　　    I

checked our team. Everyone is carrying some injuries.

            "Basically all good. It

didn't look cool but we made it."

　　    "Oh

my G.o.d my G.o.d my G.o.d! I did it!"

            Before I can tell them about the missing

Big Pot, he stumbled out of the teleport station and fell in front of our feet.

　　    "What

happened to you?" I looked down.

           "Did you know I went after you?"

He

managed to stand up, that's when I saw a lot of footprints covering

his entire face. "That was too close!"

　　    Hawk

spoke: "Violet told us. So where exactly did you go? No one saw you."

           "Take

a guess. Man that was really unlucky. Those people trapped me on the bridge. I

saw Ziri went past me on his horse and tried to call him, then he knocked

people into the water, me included!"