AllNatty starts scanning through the chat logs looking for clues as to what they're up against. The answer seems to be a lot of demons, bears, Turtles and a pair of Dragons with a few hunters and Druids near the gates.
It's the Dragons that truly concern him. In his mind that means Dragon Riders, not Hunters are with the Druids outside. That's a second advancement class, not usually available until level 200, assuming you started as an advanced class and didn't try to upgrade at level 100 so you could build up the basic requirements. Though the Dragons might be Druids themselves, some scaly Beastkin can transform into Dragon types. If they can fly they've got a lot of points into their transformation though, so they're not going to be pushovers.
He looks to see who started this whole mess and sees the declaration was made by that idiot Eva, formally known as IR1337FOEVA420, the head of his rookie capture team. Or former head, as the Guild log shows his death. Checking deeper, he finds that those idiots attacked a Guild Master who had auto accept War Declarations turned on.
They should know better, but now it's up to him to save his Guild and Town from being annihilated.
He's no slouch in combat, being level 137, mostly because he often makes his members carry him through dungeons even even he's asleep, steadily grinding more levels to maintain his power.
After decades of ruling Montauk, or Exit City as most people call it, there's no way he can back down now. His Guild has forced hundreds of transfers into slave contracts, if they think there's a chance the Guild will fall they will rebel. If every member of the guild dies without anyone to transfer the contract to the system will nullify their contracts and the conditions imposed upon them.
The biggest threat seems to be the Dragons, which means killing the Dragon Riders, if that's what they are. A class ability lets them resurrect their mounts as if they were Summoned Beasts.
Next up will be to find the Demon Specialist warlock that is calling forth all the Wrath Bringers. That's not going to be easy either, as surely the warlock will call his pets back to defend him. The smaller demons are not a huge threat, though they've helped kill a lot of his Guild members, but the big ones have to go. They have the strength to breach buildings, smashing in walls of Guild Houses to let the others loose inside.
[Montauk Guardians Team 4] has disbanded
Oh no, AllNatty realizes he's spent too long planning, one of the subordinate Guilds has been entirely eliminated. But their Guild House is just down the block from his own residence, so the team that finished them off should still be there.
He rushes outside, gathering his personal Bodyguards as he goes, and heads for the Team 4 house. There's Wrath Bringers outside, and the sound of destruction inside. What are they doing? Are they taking time to loot the place as they go?
The pure arrogance of such an act startles the Tyrant. Even he loots after the battle is done.
Moments later a woman who the system identifies as an Epic Demon appears, followed by two snake like lesser demons dragging large sacks. That must be the Warlock, using a Demon transformation. The system interface shows her to be significantly below his level, 20 levels or more, so the enraged Guild Master orders his pair of Bodyguards forward.
"Kill the Warlock and recover our treasures. You can split it between you if the Warlock dies." He announces and the two Berserkers cheer. The Berserker class, as many others do, has the option to advance into a new skill tree without changing class names, gaining huge damage buffs and an aura that demoralizes enemies. Mostly only transfers that never got a unique skill that unlocked an advanced class will choose that option though.
Confident in their abilities both charge into combat, being met with the Axes and shields of the Wrath Bringers. That's something off about these Demons, they're much stronger than their level says they should be. But the Bodyguards don't have time to warn their Guild Master before he's charged the smiling Warlock with the huge two handed sword.
That in itself should have warned them they'd made a mistake. Two handed melee weapon for a spell Caster? Unheard of.
Vala easily meets the arrogant fighter in combat and smiles. He's got some decent self healing, but it's no match for Pestilence. Plus, he's slower than she is. What exactly did he think an Epic Demon was capable of? Alone, Vala is no weaker than any dungeon boss her level, and she receives even more damage reduction, durability and damage done from the fact she's Cain's Companion.
Now, a dungeon boss in the late 90s level range is no match for the level 137 Guild Master alone, but with her speed and Pestilence, Vala has him fully occupied and the Lesser Demons are just about in position.
Vala wasn't traveling in a small group, the summons were split between the twins, and went searching door to door for hiding Guild Members. Once the battle started, they began coming back out. Lesser Demon Army tripled their numbers, leaving each twin with a dozen Wrath Bringers and thirty Lamia, plus a clone of Kone and accompanying Turtles and Bears under their command. The rest of the summons, plus Nemu have stayed back with Cain on defense.
Except Laura that is. The Dragon and her sister, as she has decided her clone should be called, are randomly laying Dragon Breath all over the city, terrifying the locals, and convincing many of the captured transfers to risk everything to attack any Guild Members caught in the fog. Almost all of the healers are dead or have defected and fled now, and the fog only damages hostile targets. To everyone else, it's just cold and hard to see.
[Montauk Guardians Team 1] has been disbanded
AllNatty howls in rage, that's two of his sub Guilds that have been totally annihilated already.
The anguished gesture actually saves his life, as it gives him the chance to see the incoming axe of a Wrath Bringer. He's about to berate his Bodyguards for losing aggro, but noticed that they're being overwhelmed. Not only are they facing two Wrath Bringers and a couple Lamia, there are ten or more huge demons here now and dozens of the snake women.
He tries to flee, to get somewhere he can rally his forces, but the spinning blade wielded by Vala has got him in the back foot with nowhere to go. An axe slams into his back, knocking him to his knees and with a sharp pain in his head, the world goes dark.
Vala looks down on her kill, impressed that even with the effects of Pestilence he could still hold his own until the Wrath Bringers showed up. In honor of his efforts, she cleanly removes his head and mounts it to the decorative gold gate of a nearby Guild House. There, that should just everyone know that he was worthy of recognition.
The city seems to be in an uproar now, they're fighting everywhere they go, but Vala steadily leads her force onwards, killing any enemy Guild member she finds. The city doesn't seem to have guards, only members of the sub Guilds. Even those are getting hard to find. There are bodies everywhere, people in slave collars fighting not just Guild members, but random citizens for reasons unknown to the inquisitive Demon. Perhaps the oppressed are eliminating the informants and allies of the Guild that enslaved them?
Not really her problem, none of those people are flagged as at war with her.
Outside the gates, Cain has captured a number of the fleeing former Guild members. They're still combatants until their deserter tag wears off, though they can freely fight against their former Guild now as well.
"Tell me, what was going on in this city? Answer or we'll raze it to the ground and kill everything that moves." Cain demands of the captured group in a cold voice.
At this point they're terrified. The gentle looking Felian with him is a savage. So fast that they couldn't even try to flee once they were seen. The furry monsters simply grabbed them, tied them up and brought them here.
"Guild Master AllNatty rules this place with an iron fist. He captures every transfer that is transported into the city and forces them into a contract. It's a tricky thing that uses the system rules and an enchanted collar to prevent them from leaving the city. If they do, the system triggers the collar and it kills them." A War Cleric informs him.
"If you do well enough, and convince the Guild that you're loyal and trustworthy, they'll make you a Guild Member and remove the collar so you can do dungeons outside. But the contract still has all your loot drop in the Guild Bank, so you'll never advance except in level. Only Officers can remove items from their sub Guilds bank." A Holy Cleric agrees.
"So they thought you two were trustworthy to do their dirty work?" Cain asks the loaded question.
"No sir, just to heal in dungeons. Please don't kill me." The Clerics beg in unison while a captured Paladin looks at them in disgust. Most of these transfers look like they weren't against the system, they only fled because they didn't want to be on the losing side and expected the Guild to be annihilated.
Cain sees a handful who look repentant among them and orders the Snapping Turtles to drag them away.
"Kill the rest."
