"I will set up the summoning platform at the backline," Jack informed Paytowin. "Try to hold them when I'm gone but don't rush in too deep."
"Don't worry, I won't make the same mistake," Paytowin replied.
"Don't go near that Hellion Panther," Peniel warned Paytowin after Jack left. "It has an ability called Consume Soul. Aside from dealing large soul damage, it also has a 5% chance to instant-kill a target with that skill."
"I don't plan to fight close, but will it affect my Brave King?" Paytowin asked.
"Techno golem has no soul. So, no, the instant-kill effect does not apply to Brave King," Peniel answered.
"What about that other guardian?" Paytowin pointed to the second guild army, the one summoned by the guild Warsong Rising. Phithion might have died but it was his aide who was controlling the army. With this army was a large icy cockatrice monster.
"That is Glacier Cockatrice, also a rare elite monster. Stay away from it as well. It has an Icy Stone Stare that can petrify a target. But that skill has limited range. As long as you don't go near or stare at its eyes, you won't get hit by the petrifying skill." Peniel explained, before adding, "Techno Golem is immune to the stare as well."
Jack had already landed at the back of the human army. His dragon form had run out when he landed. Peniel stayed near Paytowin to see the action.
Aside from a guild guardian, Warsong's guild army also had a guild hero. Their hero was a spear-wielding orc warrior.
The two guild armies were gaining the advantage because they hit from the flank which was mostly composed of fragile units like mages and healers. The human army tried to adjust to deal with this flanking attack but it caused their formation to become a mess.
Paytowin had Brave King fly down. His Techno Golem couldn't fight while in flying mode. They landed a little bit behind the fighting lines. Brave King headed to the front to battle the enemies in melee while Paytowin shot his guns from behind. Peniel used Healing Field where Brave King was, healing it as well as the human melee soldiers fighting beside it.
"I have promised Jack to hold the enemies, I intend to keep it," Paytowin uttered and used his level 50 skill, Bombardment. However, his bombardment was different from the one exhibited by Phithion. Instead of a mini UFO, it was a large aircraft that appeared.
"Did you use Advanced Seed on your Bombardment skill?" Peniel asked after seeing the huge aircraft.
"I did," Paytowin replied with a smile. "Callan gave me a few tasks to perform during the march. The Advanced Seed was the reward for those tasks."
Actually, Paytowin thought those tasks were rather simple. It was just about killing some monsters or gathering some materials. It was so simple that Paytowin thought ghost Callan was just giving these tasks as an excuse to give him things. Perhaps the divine priest wanted to help Paytowin become stronger but he was bound by rules so he couldn't just give away everything from inside the legacy orb.
Paytowin had done those tasks when the others were doing formation training under John's guidance. Since Jack had announced Paytowin as a special core member, he was not obligated to join the training.
The large aircraft now hovered above the orc guild armies. Within the guild army also some guild players. These players were now looking up in fascination.
As they were watching, scores of missiles were launched from the craft. When they were alarmed by the missiles that were now falling, another wave of missiles was launched. Not only that, there were guns mounted on the craft. These guns now opened fire, raining bullets down upon the armies below.
"What is that?!" Coca uttered when he saw the large ship above their guild army. He and the rest were moving to join their guild army to fight together.
"Is it a skill?" Purple Mist conjectured. "It just appeared out of nowhere."
"It looks similar to Technocraft's bombardment skill. Only like… a million times more powerful," Disco Rain said.
"If it is a skill, it won't last long. Let's hurry. We will locate the user and make sure he can't use this skill again for the remaining of this battle," Four Winds said.
Paytowin's bombardment skill was indeed many times more powerful than the standard version. The Advanced Seed that was used to evolve the skill, was a unique-grade seed. Furthermore, Advanced Seed was most suited to evolve tech-themed skills. Callan didn't award this seed to Paytowin randomly.
After using the Advanced Seed on the Bombardment skill, the skill's name changed to Mothership Bombardment.
The missiles that hit the enemies exploded with explosions that covered a larger area compared to the normal Bombardment. The damage it produced was also higher. The rapid gunshot raining from above had an armor-piercing ability. It ignored thirty percent of defense.
Most of the players mixed within the guild army didn't survive the continuous bombardment. The guild soldiers also lost much HP.
Paytowin had maxed level this Mothership Bombardment skill. Normal Bombardment skill added the number of missiles when it leveled up, but Paytowin's Mothership Bombardment was different. It produced a fixed number of attacks at an interval. The level-up increased its duration. At its max level, the Mothership Bombardment lasted twenty seconds.
During those twenty seconds, it was hell for the guild armies and the players below. Their advance stopped. Allowing the human army to adjust their positions to better engage the enemy guild soldiers.
Jack, who was watching from afar, couldn't help but be amazed. His opinion that Technocraft was the coolest class in this game world was again affirmed.
Although he paid attention to the event, he wasn't idle. In his hand was the guild army summoning crystal. He first cast the Body Double spell. His three copies appeared. He sent the copies in different directions. One was heading to where the enemy guild armies were located.
He then activated the guild army summoning crystal. The mini commanding platform appeared before him. He saw the 3d map above this platform and the general layout of the battlefield.
There was no strategist like John on both sides so the battle proceeded in a direct manner. It was brute force against brute force.
Jack worked on the map and selected the place to summon their guild army. The guild army could only be summoned a certain distance away from the commanding platform. He could not just summon the army anywhere. He selected the summoning spot on the right side, nearest to where enemy guild armies were.
Multiple green dots appeared there, signifying allies.
He had checked their guild army roster during the march. After the last war, heavy investments and efforts had been placed to increase the size of the army. The coin incomes from the joint venture underneath the Valley of Tempus and the training boost from the kingdom faction greatly helped in the effort.
The Everlasting Heavenly Legends currently had almost fifteen thousand soldiers. These soldiers were comprised of 4,500 squires, 2,500 bandit archers, 1,200 imperial knights, 2,000 armored cavalries, 1,800 mages, 1,500 devout healers, 550 Eagle Rider Hunters, 500 Blood Counts, 250 Twilight Champions, 15 Ice Cannon Tanks, and 1 Brave Golem.
The total number was not as many as the joint armies between Cipher Flight and Warsong Rising, but Jack didn't hesitate as he set the two guild armies as the main target.
Jack was never good at micromanagement. That was John's specialty. Once he set the target for the guild army, he left them to act as they saw fit. Directly commanding the guild soldiers was not compulsory. The guild soldiers would automatically attack nearby hostiles. John always did it simply because he enjoyed it and the results were always better when the guild soldiers moved under his direction.
Jack changed place with one of his copies. It was now his copy who stayed behind with the platform. The platform would remain as long as the person who activated the platform stayed close, even if it was a copy. His Body Double lasted twenty-five minutes. He could join the guild army in a direct fight for that duration before he had to return to the platform again.
Jack had placed his copy near where the guild army appeared, so he was now rushing forward with them. One thing he noticed. The guild army adjusted themselves into formation. They separated into three fronts.
One front was spearheaded by the Ice Cannon Tanks followed behind by imperial knights and bandit archers. The second front charged from the flank. It was composed of armored cavalries followed by light-armored squires. Mages and devout healers supported from the back of the two charging fronts while the blood counts hid within them, waiting for opportunities for sneak attacks.
The twilight champions were with Uruk, forming the third front, shock troops that took on the enemy's strongest units. They were supported from above by the eagle rider hunters
It seemed that even without John's directives, the army could still coordinate well. Jack didn't know that John had made it a regular exercise for the guild soldiers to do war drills. Hence, each of the guild units already knew what to do even if they didn't receive specific commands.
Everlasting Heavenly Legends' army had the initiative since Cipher Flight and Warsong Rising's army were still engaging the human native army. Uruk uttered a battle cry as he delivered the first blow. The troops behind him followed his lead and crashed into the enemy's armies.
