"What's taking them so long?"
"Do you think they are afraid?"
"Perhaps they are heaving breakfast."
"Oh, please don't talk about eating. I barely managed to finish a single sandwich today."
"Haha, no need to be nervous, Feather. With us here, Galaxy stands no chance. This will be a free win."
One of Dream Avenue's mages thumped his own chest, trying to sound heroic. Peeking at his surroundings he hoped for a reaction from the multiple cute girls. As Nest of Flames was a guild which had a high percentage of female mages, the young men of Dream Avenue were eager to present themselves in a good light.
"Ouh!"
Suddenly the boasting mage flinched. He glanced over his shoulder to find out who dared to hit his head. A wry smile appeared on his face.
"F… Fortune. Haha…"
"You're not here to flirt, Reef. If you want to impress anyone, show it through actions. And now keep your eyes open for any signs of Galaxy!"
"Sure… Fortune! Behind you!"
Reef suddenly showed a shocked expression. Fortune almost wanted to dismiss him but when she saw everyone reacting similar, she realized Reef wasn't trying to trick her. Fortune turned around just in time to see a green beam of light shining through the mist which surrounded the town quite some distance away.
[Callida: Everyone! That's the signal! Galaxy have deployed their troops. On position! Scouts, go!]
All three guilds and even the NPCs accepted Callida's commands. Everyone became serious as they anticipated the first contact with the enemy. But just as the players were focused on one direction, more beams of light erupted. On all four entry points light could be seen, signalling that Galaxy had deployed troops on all four sides. It could be a single person or an army of thousands. Without further information it was difficult to tell.
And yet Callida wouldn't let the enemy's moves confuse her. She didn't change the original arrangements. The first beam erupted in the south, and it was there that the alliance had positioned the most troops. The terrain there was flat and most suitable for an attack with siege engines. Even if Galaxy attacked from all four sides, the south would definitely see the fiercest attacks.
At this moment the town's gates opened, and the scouts swarmed out in all directions. Scouts were mostly specialised thieves with their own ways to escape. They quickly disappeared in the mist and carefully searched for any signs of the enemies. Just as Liam had predicted, the scouts realized that their communication was cut off within the mist. Thus, if they were to discover anything they had to return to the town immediately.
For a while there was silence on the battlefield. A tense atmosphere infected everyone as they waited for the enemies to arrive. Fortunately, it didn't take that long until the situation changed. The fog in the south stirred and all the scouts came back. They hastily reported their discoveries, but it was almost irrelevant as Galaxy obviously had no desire to hide.
The metallic sound of heavy armor followed immediately behind the scouts. Slowly, the first bodies revealed themselves. They were tall men and women in dark armour. Their closed helmets gave them a menacing appearance as they marched towards the wall.
"Enemies!"
"Looks like NPCs! Damn, how many are there?!"
"It must be thousands!"
A mounting pressure hit the defenders as the army was fully revealed. Apprehensive eyes fell on the fortified siege weapons the mercenaries were pulling with them. There were eight catapults and five battering rams, posing a serious threat to the walls.
"Fire!"
Woosh!
Immediately multiple heavy stones shot through the air in beautiful arcs. The players looked towards the three towers where Dream Avenue had placed their own catapults. This time they didn't prepare Liam's favourite ballistae as those were only strong against single enemies while catapults could attack an area.
The rocks quickly travelled the distance towards the army.
"Raise your shields!"
The mercenaries proved to be greatly disciplined. They didn't panic, instead raising their shield and a few of the stronger mercenaries even showed defensive skills. However, against the rocks arriving like cannonballs this was hardly enough. Wherever soldiers and rocks collided it was never the soldier who won. The NPCs were hit with a frightening force. Their bodies were thrown backwards into their comrades. They lost large amounts of HP and about half of the soldiers died on the spot.
"Advance!"
The mercenaries proved their resilient wills. Under the lead of their commander, they forged ahead fearlessly as if the bombardment from the sky had nothing to do with them. Everyone understood that their only chance was getting their own siege weapons in position to start retaliation.
Meanwhile Callida and Liam were watching everything from one of the towers. They were analysing the strength of their enemies.
"This should be the Black Tide Mercenaries. Judging from their numbers, Galaxy paid something between 6.500 and 8.000 gold for them. Add to that another 500 gold for the siege engines. Galaxy is quite willing to splurge."
"What do you think their budget is for this war?"
"No idea. According to Sun's Knight, Dream Avenue can spend only 4000 gold coins before it starts to hurt us. Galaxy should be willing to pay at least double that."
"It has to be more than that. If they only had 8.000 gold they wouldn't spend so much on the mercenaries. We have to be careful of whatever surprises they might have."
"You're right. There are also their NPCs. Their special members. We weren't able to dig up much information about them. Galaxy keeps them a closely guarded secret. We have only managed to get a glimpse on one of them."
Liam continued to feed Callida with information. The NPC they knew about was an elven warrior in light blue armour. After Liam retraced a few of Galaxy's past moves he was quite sure that Galaxy had recruited the Guard of Leyanthra, which was a sacred place where the elves kept a relic blessed by the moon goddess.
The Guard of Leyanthra was a warrior specialized in defence who could tank part of the damage taken by allies in his surroundings. But as Galaxy was fighting an offensive war, the Guard of Leyanthra wouldn't be able to play a big role due to her slow speed.
Callida's face remained emotionless, but she was shocked inwardly. After closely interacting with Liam for a short while she was amazed by his extensive knowledge. She realized that Hotpot's success was not only based on the skills of the players. With so much information at hand, the team, and by extension Dream Avenue, would go into every situation with a huge advantage.
Her thoughts churning, Callida wondered where Bleary Mirage got all the information from. His real identity was no secret anymore, especially after Liam moved into the gaming house. Could it really be that his parents had found out so much about the game? Perhaps this was even part of the reason why they disappeared!
Suddenly Callida stopped herself. As a qualified commander she knew not to be distracted. She focused back on the war just as a message reached her. Callida frowned heavily and looked towards Liam, who wore a similar expression.
"All our thieves we sent to the north have died."
"Mhm. They couldn't even send back any messages. Galaxy must have made sure to eliminate them all. However, it's not entirely bad. Players will revive in five minutes. Galaxy has to attack before that if they want to surprise us."
"Yes. And it's not as if we are without information. It is not easy to kill all our scouts before they can report back. Either Galaxy used some large-scale spell or some really fast fighters who could chase our scouts down. But since we didn't see any commotion, it should be the latter. Could it be TwinThieves at work?"
"Unlikely. At least not without support. Speed buffs or special mercenaries. There are a few options. I don't think we can narrow it down further."
"Right. Let's position our warriors at the northern gate and tell them to be prepared for a swift attack. I will tell Earthquake to lead them."
Liam nodded in agreement and Callida quickly made the arrangements. Earthquake wore a bright grin as he finally got something to do. He was already impatient after being sent on patrol duty. He gathered three hundred of the alliance's finest warriors and moved to the north.
However, Galaxy didn't attack instantly. They were still waiting for the mercenaries in the south to attract more attention. And the hired blades did not disappoint. After another minute they were finally close enough for their own catapults to open fire.
Boom!
Large rocks crashed into wall, causing it to quake dangerously. The town wall was again separated into segments but only with 5.000.000 HP each. Thus, the damage from the catapults was quite daunting. A single rock could deal as much as 25.000 points of damage with a good hit. The players were quite frustrated as they hid from the catapult attacks, felling helpless.
"Damn, those catapults are too fierce!"
"We need to get rid of the siege weapons!"
"Where are our fire mages?!"