Every Death Associates member who saw the scene was agitated. One of their members had been killed. The perpetrator was right in front of them. Shouldn't they attack?
Yet, White Death had asked them to stand down, both with a hand signal and in a party chat message.
"As expected of the World Maker. Incredible skill," White Death praised. He didn't show any sign of being offended by Ronald's action.
"Heh," Ronald simply responded with a snicker.
"Let us focus on the task at hand," White Death said, trying to defuse the situation and steer it to his intended path. "We are here to defeat the guild headquarters before us. With your group's help, this operation is sure to succeed."
"Hmph. Just get this over with. I have no time for small fries," Ronald said. "Summon your guild troops and mount your attack. We will act accordingly."
"Yes. Let's not delay this any further," White Death agreed. He summoned the guild army control platform.
He looked at the projected map above the platform. He had studied the terrain around the guild headquarters before this planned attack. There is a limit to how close a guild army can be summoned inside a foreign guild territory, so it is not possible to mount an ambush by summoning the guild army right in front of the headquarters' wall gate. Still, the forestry terrain around this place allowed his guild army to stay hidden after being summoned.
White Death proceeded to summon his guild army. Although they lost quite a significant number of soldiers during the civil war, they had since diligently retrained their army. It's a good thing they hadn't used their army during the invasion, so these retrained soldiers were still intact.
13,000 guild soldiers appeared at the spot he chose. Aside from the royal mages which were the upgraded version of mages, many of the other units were also upgraded versions. There was also a special unit, Lizard Spearman. They were like the lizardman monsters that could be found around Thereath, only these lizardmen wore more complete armor and carried long spears.
White Death glanced at Ronald and Gridhacker, trying to see their impression of his guild army. The two didn't show any interest, as if it didn't worth their attention.
Scarface and Yellow Death started to command the players to mix in with the guild soldiers. They would be attacking in conjunction with the guild army. The World Maker group just stayed and waited.
Among these players were Queen Magenta and Princess Purple. After her last attempt at taking matters into her own hands by using the sleeper agents against Everlasting Heavenly Legends, she had been reprimanded by Nova. She was demoted to a regular member. She didn't accept such treatment and threatened to quit the guild. Nova didn't object. Since she had said it, it would be a shame if she didn't carry it through. She quit and left with Princess Purple and a few of her loyalists, which turned out to be fewer than she had hoped for.
Without any place to go, she had no choice but to go to Death Associates. She at first thought of joining Corporate United, but that guild seemed to have accepted defeat and was no longer willing to oppose Everlasting Heavenly Legends. Hence, Death Associates became her only choice.
After the players finished integrating into the guild army's formation, White Death gave the command to start advancing. He initially planned to send scouts to study the terrain of this guild further, but the invasion war in Themisphere had ended earlier than he expected. He knew he couldn't delay anymore. With the war over, he knew the kingdom would shift the focus on his guild. Hence, he had to begin this attack without making a thorough preparation.
Even so, he tried planning with what little he knew. In front of their target's guild headquarters was an open field. So, it was impossible to sneak until the wall gate, but there was a portion of the forest that extended closer to the headquarters than the others. He was navigating his guild army towards that part.
The World Maker group had moved away once the guild army started advancing. White Death was wondering, though. What can a hundred players group do to assist them? Although that cowboy player seemed to have inhuman skills, he was only one man. There was only so much one man could do. But then again, he was reminded of one player that had given many guilds a headache.
White Death didn't think too much about the World Maker group. If they wanted to help, that's good. If not, he didn't put too much hope on them. His members and guild army should be enough for this operation. Offline Beasts was the weakest among the guilds that possessed guild headquarters in Aurebor Dynasty, his army shouldn't have a problem defeating them.
As he monitored his army's progress on the 3D projection, he was suddenly notified of conflicts. Black dots and red dots started appearing around his army that was advancing.
"What?" He was startled by the development. He knew there should be scouts patrolling around the headquarters' perimeter. He was not fooling himself by believing that his large guild army can waltz towards the wall gate undetected. However, even if his guild army was spotted, Offline Beasts needed time to organize a response. These dots' arrangement on the map indicated the enemy had been expecting them.
'They know we are coming...?' White Death thought.
As he was pondering, earmouth came to his side. Earmouth was among the protective detail that stayed with him.
"Boss, there is a situation!" Earmouth uttered anxiously.
"Of course, there is a situation. I can see it myself on this map!" White Death responded with annoyance.
"No, I mean back at Death Hall, our headquarters," Earmouth said.
"What?" White Death turned to him.
"My spy inside Everlasting Heavenly Legends just informed me. He is currently with a large group of that guild's players and they were heading toward our headquarters. He at first thought they were just on some quest. The bounty quest against us was just issued not long ago, so he was not aware of it. They were also just traveling leisurely while killing monsters. But not long ago, they were instructed to mount up and are now riding at full speed in our headquarters' direction."
"Damn it!" White Death slammed his fist on the platform. He did not doubt that Everlasting Heavenly Legends picked up speed after he summoned their guild army here. This meant Everlasting Heavenly Legends had spies inside his guild as well. They might even be the ones who had tipped the Offline Beasts of their assault today.
He couldn't send the army back, it would be a disaster even if they managed to defend their headquarters. They needed to conquer Offline Beasts' headquarters before Everlasting Heavenly Legends conquered theirs!
He sent messages to his lieutenants on the front line. "How is the situation look?" The dots on the map showed that his guild army had clashed already. Their number still outnumbered their opponents, but he did not doubt the rest of Offline Beasts' players and guild soldiers would be coming soon. Offline Beasts might know they were coming but they didn't know where they were coming from. The ones clashing with his army here were the ones that were coincidentally stationed there.
"We are ambushed, but there are not too many of them. We are pushing them back," Yellow Death replied.
"More will come," White Death informed.
"Their skills are not that good. Our guild army is also better than theirs. With time, we will beat them even if more come."
"Unfortunately, we don't have the time," White Death said and gave him a summary of what he had just learned. "We need to break the guild core inside that guild headquarters as soon as possible. Let the other knows, I will be spreading our force so we can push faster."
White Death controlled the force and broke them into several groups that were now tried charging through from every direction. As expected, more enemy dots appeared on the map. But he didn't focus on fighting those newcomers, he just had everyone charge forward to get to the gate wall. The sooner they breached the headquarters, the sooner they can transfer their headquarters here. He couldn't be conservative about casualties anymore.
Earmouth was still standing beside White Death. White Death had been ignoring him since White Death was communicating silently with the troops at the front line. He couldn't help but get more anxious.
"What should we do? Should we send people back...?" Earmouth asked.
"Keep contact with the ones in headquarters. Tell them to inform us as soon as the enemies arrived. Tell them to try buying us as much time as they can. Once we defeated the guild here, we can immediately abandon the headquarters there."
'Buy time? Against that guild? With second-rate players remaining in the headquarters?' Earmouth thought it was a ludicrous order, but he still conveyed the order to the ones back in the headquarters.
White Death ignored Earmouth after giving his instruction, he sent a message to Gridhacker, "Sir Gridhacker. We have a situation. Our enemy is currently attacking our headquarters in Themisphere. We need to defeat this headquarters fast before they breached ours."
"You are such a hassle. I am wondering now if partnering with you is the right move," Gridhacker replied. "Just make sure your guild army reaches the wall gate. We will take care of the gate."
