The merchant, who was at the caravan's head, was Dylan. John had asked him to follow along after renting the caravans because they needed an authentic merchant for their disguise. Dylan had been grumbling non-stop after John explained what those caravans were going to be used for after seeing players entering them.
He was sure by the end of the days, these caravans would be full of scrapes if they were not fully broken. Any damages inflicted upon the caravans would incur a penalty when it was time for him to return it. John had assured him that the guild would help pay for the penalty.
He grumbled that it was not just about the monetary penalty, his reputation in the faction would suffer as well. John lectured him about the need for one to sacrifice for the good of many. Jack joined in and lectured him about the importance of their current mission. How they would need to win this war if players were still to have their freedom in this country.
Dylan decided to just shut up rather than let himself become even more upset by arguing with the two.
After successfully approaching the army and receiving John's cue, Dylan immediately jumped off the caravan and ran a few distances away before using the Town Return Scroll. He was not a fighter. He didn't wish to get entangled in the fighting once it started.
As soon as Dylan fled, John sent a message to the ones inside the caravans. The caravans that Dylan had rented were the largest in size. Many players could fit inside as long as they didn't mind getting cramped. John had forced as many as possible into the caravans. Each caravan held thirty players. Once they received John's cue, they happily rushed out. They felt like chickens cooped up on a crowded farm. They would rather face horrible monsters than continued inside there.
All the players inside the caravan were melee classes with high HP. They would be the first ones to make direct contact with the enemy and they needed to last as long as possible and disrupt the enemies from assuming any defensive formation.
While they caused disruption with their ambush, the hidden ranged players took action. Gunners and Elite Marksmans were stationed on the hill, taking advantage of their high position. While magic users and middle-ranged class like the Hidden Weapon Specialists hid in the woods. The remaining melee players also hid in the woods and rushed out once they saw their comrades burst out of the caravans.
When the tarps were destroyed and the existence of the siege weapons revealed, John who stood on the hills shouted, "The information is real! Charge…!!!"
Jack, who was waiting behind the hill, gave his command once he heard John's shout. His regiment rushed out with their mounts. The ranged players parted way to let them pass. They rode at high speed down the hill.
Due to the elongated form of the army escorting the siege weapons, Jack spread his regiment into five battalions so they could hit more targets. Jack placed Captain Salem, Miller, Bailey, and Uvira to lead the other four battalions.
With the convoyed army still dazed by the ambush, Jack's regiment punched through and went directly to the siege weapons in the center and started hacking them. The siege weapons had HP bars and their HPs were rather high. It took a lot of punishment to destroy one machine.
Most of the melee players went and jammed the middle section of the army. The siege weapons were positioned at the back half of the army while the first half was all soldiers. The army expected an attack to come from the front, little did they expect they would be ambushed like this. With the melee players blocking the middle section, the front half had a difficult time going to the rescue.
However, the players knew this was only temporary. They lost in terms of firepower. Once the enemy troops regained their composure, the situation could turn around abruptly.
Jack summoned Arlcard and the Ice Demon Fiend. He sent these two rare elites to aid the melee players in the middle section to hold the native troops while they wreaked havoc on the back half. He also summoned his wolves, Therras, and Spirit Weapon to aid him in destroying the siege weapons.
Jack understood the urgency of time. They needed to destroy all the siege weapons before the front half of this army convoy broke through the players' blockage. So, he went all out immediately.
He activated Storm Breaker's Overlimit and used Lightning God Barrage. The siege weapon was too large and spaced a distance from one another, so he just concentrated all twenty lightning balls onto the nearest siege weapon. After the lightning explosion dissipated, Jack found that his divine skill didn't take out even twenty percent of the siege weapon's HP.
"Shit!" He uttered. 'This is going to be a problem.'
The siege weapons had very high defense and HP. Luckily, its big size allowed many melees to land their attacks at the same time. Still, it took a while to destroy one. There were ten ballistae, five trebuchets, seven catapults, three battering rams, and two archer towers. Jack shuddered when he thought about what could happen if all these siege weapons were delivered to Therribus' army. Fort Garadhor might not even last a day.
After almost four minutes, they managed to destroy the five siege weapons they first targeted, which were three ballistae and two catapults. They hurriedly went over to the next ones.
However, things were not as easy as before anymore. The enemy soldiers had protectively crowded around the siege weapons. The element of surprise was gone already. Although the ranged players still pelted the siege weapons from afar, the soldiers used protection ability on the siege weapons as well as shield spells to block the range attacks. The amount that managed to get through was not enough to provide any meaningful damage. To make it worse, there were soldiers with mechanic abilities. These mechanics could repair the siege weapons and recover their HPs. Sort of like healers to the siege weapons.
Luckily, each of Jack's battalions was filled with capable natives. The enemy soldiers here were slightly weaker than the ones that formed Therribus' besieging army around fort Garadhor. This allowed them to still overpower the enemy and clear a path to the next batch of siege weapons. They hurriedly worked on destroying these machines while fighting off the surrounding enemy soldiers.
"Jack!" Jack heard his name called. He turned and saw it was Grace.
"There are weak points to the machine!" Grace yelled. "I saw an arrow hit the sling. The damage it caused is higher compared to when an arrow hit its main body."
"Really?" Jack uttered as he looked at the siege weapons before him. It was a trebuchet. The sling Grace mentioned was positioned slightly higher.
Jack used his supreme dragon transformation and flew up. He then hit the sling and the beam that the sling was tied to. The damage was indeed different between the sling and the beam despite him using the same standard attacks.
He immediately shouted instructions for those with nimbler moves to climb up and hit multiple different parts, trying to find if there were any other weak points. Red Death was the first to jump up and started stabbing at multiple different parts. Jack then relayed the information about these weak points to the players who he positioned near his battalions' leaders. These players informed those leaders of the weak points. This shortened the time it took them to destroy the siege weapons by a bit.
When they were on the way to the third batch of the siege weapons, he sent a mental command for Therras to activate its supersonic mode. With this mode, Therras charged into the enemy ranks and wreaked havoc. His spirit weapon rushed behind. With Therras aid, the spirit weapon managed to arrive at the next siege weapon before the others. Jack then commanded it to use its finishing mode.
While the energy core of the spirit weapon was ready to explode, Jack used the soul breath of his supreme dragon form. Therras ran away with supersonic speed before the combined explosion happened. The combined explosion only managed to take out around one-sixth of the siege weapon's HP, but the explosion was very large. Thus' the defending soldiers around it were cleared out. This allowed Jack's battalion to encircle this next siege weapon with ease.
Yet, they received more and more resistance. As more siege weapons were destroyed. The defending soldiers who initially guarded the destroyed machines now joined the defenders of the remaining machines. Thus, the pressure on Jack's regiment became more. Their advance slowed.
"Traitors to the crown prince, face your punishment!" Jack suddenly heard a yell and saw an officer with a mage garb floating in the air. He was holding a staff that was crackling with lightning as spell formation formed. Lightning shot out from his staff and hit several of Jack's soldiers.
It was the Chain Lightning spell. The damage was very high. Jack used Inspect and found this mage officer to be a level 63 rare elite. When Jack saw this officer's eyes turn to him, he immediately cast Magic Wall. The magic wall formed just as a spear of thick lightning shot out from the officer's staff. Jack's magic wall was destroyed in one hit, the residual energy continued and struck Jack.
Jack felt his body convulse as he slammed to the ground due to the impact. He lost around 30% of his life. Even with the increased HP and defense of supreme dragon form, added by his high lightning resistance, he still lost so much HP. This mage officer was no joke.
He then saw this mage officer's staff crackled with lightning again as another spell formation was formed.
