"Hmph! You are not the only one who has a mega spell," Larry said from the commanding platform. He sent a message to his guild members.
They had two players who possessed the mega spell. These two now ran to the back of the line before starting their casting. Spell formation with large runic symbols started forming above them.
Larry knew it was premature. They had not truly locked down the defenders' formation yet. Wicked Witches could still force their way to get to the spellcasters. Those spellcasters couldn't move once they started casting mega spells. A mega spell took a very long time to cast, this was a weakness by design to balance its power output and range.
Of course, he didn't mind Wicked Witches forcing their way. His army was still superior on average. The forceful charge to cancel the mega spell casting would mean he was given the opportunity to shave the defender's number.
He paid attention to the 3D projection in front of him. He prepared his army to welcome the charging enemies, but those red dots maintained their formation.
"Did they not notice the mega spell castings?" He asked questioningly.
Then he heard a gunshot. One of the magic-class players who was casting the mega spell had its casting canceled. When everyone was still confused by what had happened, a second shot was heard, and the same thing happened to the second player who was casting the mega spell.
"A gunner?" Larry said and looked around.
"No, there was no visible enemy nearby. We would have seen the gunner if so," Gridhacker commented.
"Could it be… A sniper?" Larry said.
"That second-class special class? Someone outside our guilds has acquired a special class?" Gridhacker asked.
"That will explain why we didn't see the gunner. He or she must be hiding in the nearby forest. Only a sniper special class possessed that kind of range."
While the two were discussing, Mistress suddenly said to them, "Get ready, we have company."
Larry and Gridhacker noticed it as well from the radars in their God-eye monocles. There were suddenly many red dots approaching their position. These ambushers didn't show on his 3D projection because that projection only showed the enemies on which his force had direct eyesight.
"Reserve enemies?" Larry asked.
Ronald, who was laying leisurely not far from there, was resting his head on the tree trunk and watching the battle in the distance. He stood up when Mistress and the others saw the red dots on their radars. He didn't wear God-eye monocle like them, but he felt the change in the air. There were killing intents approaching. Whomever these people that came, they were his kind of people. He grinned. Perhaps he won't be so bored, after all.
The others watched Ronald come to their side. Most of World Maker's members were there, World Ruler also left a few members guarding the place. However, those with God-eye monocles could see that the enemies who were approaching had a much more number. Even so, Mistress continued to sit on her lounge chair as if there was nothing to be worried about. Larry also didn't order any of the guild forces to return to protect them.
Not long after, a large group of players appeared from the woods behind them. Many of these players were gunners. These gunners immediately fired their guns without warning.
However, none of the bullets reached World Ruler and World Maker groups. They just stood there watching. The bullets hit something invisible in the air. As that happened, a gigantic rune on the ground flared, and a giant translucent shell became visible.
The bullets had hit this originally invisible shell. Damage numbers appeared as the shell was hit. An HP bar was also seen. All those hits just now didn't reduce the HP bar by even 1%.
"A protective rune diagram?" One of the gunners who had opened fire said. This gunner was David from Dogs of War. Jeanny had hired this mercenary group to assist them in this battle.
Serpent Boss, their leader, told everyone to hold fire and walked towards the World Ruler group. He walked until he was beside the protective shell. He touched the shell, it was solid. They needed to deplete this shell's HP bar before they could get to the enemies inside.
Gridhacker lifted his staff to cast a spell. This shell protected attacks and enemies from entering, but it didn't hinder allies or their attacks. But he stopped when he saw Ronald lift a hand in front of him. The other World Maker's members who were about to attack also stopped.
One of the elite marksmans from World Ruler didn't see the need to heed the command from another guild, so he lifted his bow and let loose an arrow using Power Shot skill. The arrow passed through the protective shell as if there was no barrier and headed straight at Serpent Boss' head.
Serpent Boss simply tilted his head to the side and the speeding arrow went past him.
A gunshot was heard and the elite marksman felt a heavy impact on his head. He was sent tumbling to the ground. The shot had been from Ronald's gun.
The other World Ruler was surprised that their friend had been attacked by their ally. They lifted their weapons ready for a confrontation, but Mistress shouted for them to stay still.
Mistress then said to Ronald, "I don't appreciate you attacking my member. It's disrespectful to me."
"It is because I respect you that I don't kill that a*shole," Ronald replied. The elite marksman that was hit on the head had his HP near critical, but he survived. If Ronald wanted the man dead, he would have used the Rapid Shot skill.
The elite marksman stood up in anger but Mistress' glare caused him to swallow his pride.
Ronald walked toward Serpent Boss. He said, "Never expect to see you here."
"I have been looking for you for a long time," Serpent Boss said.
"Let me guess, I killed someone dear to you. Well, that is practically the only reason someone is looking for me, hehe. But if you want me to know that particular someone who is the reason, then you will have to give me more clues. I've simply killed too many people. Most of whom I didn't even know the names of. So, you must excuse me if I don't recall our past grievances."
"It doesn't matter whether you know or not, all I need to do is just put you down."
"Hehe, but we won't be down for long in this world. I will simply come back to life again. Wait! I think I remember now. It was that eye-patched boy, wasn't it? Who was it to you? Your friend? Your partner? Your disciple? Or could it be… your son…? Hahaha."
Serpent Boss didn't show any emotion. He just stared at Ronald with a cold face.
"Tsk, you are no fun," Ronald said. "If your face stayed like that, it will reduce my ecstasy when I kill you. Show a bit of emotion, will you?"
"This shell won't protect you for long," Serpent Boss said and turned away.
Ronald grinned. He looked at Serpent Boss' back who was walking away. Suddenly, without any warning, his two hands turned into a blur. His two revolvers were out, aiming at Serpent Boss.
The two revolvers flared with a bang. Yet, Serpent Boss was already out of the bullets' path even before Ronald squeezed the triggers.
Serpent Boss spun around. A rifle in his hand. He opened fire. The shot was done with a non-standard skill, Spread Shot. It caused the bullet to behave as if it was shot out of a shotgun. Instead of a single bullet, the shot discharged a number of pellets that hit a large area.
Ronald didn't move away, he just stood his ground, because the attack won't hit him. The pellets struck the protective shell.
Ronald was still grinning. "It is as what I've heard. You can sense killing intents."
"The same can be said for you," Serpent Boss said. He jumped backward and away. He was not that foolish to have a duel with such a disadvantageous condition. The enemy was free to attack him without any worry as long as the protective shell was in place.
"Light them up," Serpent Boss gave the order once he reached a distance he felt was comfortable.
All the gunners opened fire. Dogs of War brought around one thousand members. More than half was gunner class. The shots from them were like a rain of bullets. The shell was battered non-stop. Damage numbers appeared incessantly above the shell. And yet, the HP went down very slowly.
The rest of Dogs of War who was not a gunner was an assassin. These assassins spread out and hit the shell from all directions, helping to chip the shell's HP further.
David looked at the HP bar and made a calculation. It would take quite some time, he thought. He estimated they might need one hour to fully deplete the shell at this rate. He sent a message to Jeanny informing her.
The players inside the shell were not more than a hundred players. Mistress gave the order to retaliate once Dogs of War did their mass attacks. Gridhacker and the others also no longer stayed idle. They attacked with ranged attacks and spells at the enemies outside. With no worry of being hit back, they had a better advantage.
With the interference from the players inside the shell, Dogs of War couldn't fully focus on just delivering attacks. They had to defend and evade as well. Hence, their damage output lowered. At this rate, it would be more than an hour before they could break the shell.
