Chapter 432 The Kin Eaters
Faster! We're close!" Wan Yi shouted to the party of players running away from a horde of undead behind them.
"I see the capital, we made it in time, hurry!" White Ghost added.
All the players were brimming with enthusiasm, they had a goal in sight, and the infamous draugr will be useless against them. Their numbers were easily twice the numbers of the Devastators and the mercenaries, they had more legacy skills and furthermore, the undead lost a lot of numbers thanks to the Devastators fighting them. They had a better chance of killing skeletal than anyone ever had and they were certain they could do it.
"Stick to the agreement! Whoever kills skelly gets the east, the other guild will have 40% of the tax income!" Zhang Shi declared.
"Good enough for any of us, but don't backstab us the same way you did to the Devies in the undead frontier." White Ghost added.
"We don't do that here; we all have something to win now. Just keep focused, "Zhang Shi replied.
The frontline of players consisted of thousands of tanks and vanguard units. Beefy and had huge amounts of health, but they never expected what the undead skeletal had prepared for them.
As soon as they reached the city gate, they realized that the gate that Jeffery had broken was already fully restored. And the ballistae on the walls were locked and aiming at their frontline.
Before any of them could fully realize the situation, they were in, a loud and booming sound echoed through the battlefield.
"Welcome to my humble abode!"
From above one of the gate towers, the infamous bearded Draugr was standing tall, one of his hands slowly rubbing his beard.
"Oh, guests of mine, I have some gifts for you," he added then pulled a fist upward.
Immediately afterward, all the ballistae shot their bolts at the frontline. The massive weapons had great penetrative power, enough to wipe out any player that didn't ready up a defensive skill.
"Don't worry I already expected something like this, Suicide Squad, go bring the gate down."
"Right, guys, with me!"
A player wearing straps of bombs and explosives called his friends to follow. Another group of tanks charged ahead of them.
Dave noticed the incoming players and smiled.
"Something like that already happened to me in my legacy quest, I'll never get done in by something twice," He mumbled to himself.
Ballistae shot at the players, but the tanks did a great job defending the bolts, some would rather take a bolt through the chest than let a single one of the suicide squad players take a hit. If they were damaged, their bombs will blow up, creating a chain explosion.
But Dave's aim was not necessary to take down the suicide squad players, but if a bolt struck one of them it would be great.
Unbeknownst to the players who were being bombarded by the bolts, they were actually being forced to move away from the bolts as one side had a heavier and greater number of bolts than the other. Making them subconsciously move to the relatively safer side and push toward the gate, guided by Dave's scheme to a trap he had set up earlier.
The White Ghost was not named the game's greatest mastermind for nothing, he had noticed the irregularity of the bolts shooting more on one side than the other, but he couldn't understand the implication of such a tactic until it was too late. He noticed that a bit ahead of where the players were running, the ground was upturned, it didn't have any grass on it.
"STOP!" shouted White Ghost but his order came too slow for the players to register and follow.
The moment the first player of the suicide squad realized that something was wrong, an enormous pincer grabbed at his foot and dragged him down.
More pincers erupted from underground dragging the players to the unknown. Soon afterward, the sounds of muffled explosions echoed from under the dirt, rupturing the ground and creating minor tremors that fused into a small earthquake.
"Too bad I lost a few dunlords there, but if that's the best you can do, you better think twice about attacking something that belongs to me." Dave sarcastically commented.
"Damn it," Do we have more suicide squad players?" White Ghost demanded.
"No, we have some alchemist here they can make more bombs but it will take time," A player responded.
"We don't have time," White Ghost begrudgingly admitted. Dave was playing them against the clock, and they were losing.
"Now, now, if you think that's all it should take to bring me down, you better just go back. You'll only waste your lives and precious exp here."
"Shut up skelly!" A player shouted at the draugr.
"Oh, well, no need to waste time, Dragoneers, Forward!" Dave shouted.
The howls of thousands of wyverns sounded from within the capital. Qin elite soldiers and Death Knights rode on the back of wyverns, they flew high and began throwing javelins and shot arrows at the players.
"Marik, could you please send some ghosts their way?"
"As you wish," the creature replied.
"My servants, walk across the terrain of man, and show them what lies beyond death!"
Tens of thousands of undead ghosts, banshees and Shark Chariots burst out from within the walls of the city, fully surprising the players in a charge they had no time to prepare for.
"Sweet Lilith, I bet your little ones are hungry, I would say they'd love to have a taste of something…fresh," Dave added.
"Oh, wouldn't they, children, go out and play," Lilith called her creatures to action, and they obliged in a shirking glee.
"I wouldn't mind having a taste of your human form also, I bet it is much fresher than these ones," Lilith spoke suggestively toward Dave.
Dave felt shivers down his spine, not from the vampire, but without the need to turn. He knew that a certain archer was keeping an eye on him.
"Yeah… how about no, I appreciate my blood you see, and my life," Dave said smiling.
"Bummer, but I respect that, the more you horde your blood, the more appealing it is to me," the vampire spoke while licking her lips.
Dave gulped hard and turned away from the Duchess. At the frontline, the damage to the players was beginning to stack and show. They were taking a beating, but Dave never doubted that the White Ghost and the numerous masterminds of two of the game's strongest and most famous super guild didn't come up with a plan to take him down.
"Dortha, I would never ask you this in fear you might turn for the worst, but if you could lend an aid, that would be great. I want to show these people superiority that they never seen before, I want them crushed, physically, mentally and on all other levels," Dave said.
The old gentle-looking man smiled, showing a sharp row of teeth to Dave. He then rubbed the small stump under his chin and said.
"You speak right, Childe. To crush one's hope is the best way to gain the battle. Though I am currently the strongest under the Undead King, I am but one man I won't be apparent if I go to battle. But I do have an army. Wendigos CLAIM THE LIVES OF THE VILE! Come forth!" Dortha roared out.
A loud, high-pitched squealing started, seeming to come from everywhere at once. The sound was jarring, worse than the tooth-drill sound of fingernails scraping across a blackboard. It felt like spikes were being shoved into the players ears and a headache started throbbing in their temples.
A void in space was torn open and a hand the size of a bulldozer reached through the opening and clutched the edges from the other side. Long claws of discolored bone flexed out from the decaying flesh of the mangy fur-covered paw.
The creature that pulled itself through the hole in space was easily as tall as the city walls. But it was emaciated, scabrous skin with patchy fur stretched tight over stick-thin limbs. The bones of its rib cage and spine were completely exposed and it had no discernible internal organs. Antlers grew from its decaying wolf head, the sharp tines spreading up and out like grasping fingers. A stench blew across the divisions of the undead, the noxious scents of battlefields and slaughtering houses combined.
The creature howled another nails-on-chalkboard scream, pulling the spatial rip open even wider to allow more of its kind step through the gaps.
"What the hell are those?" Came blaster's voice from the party chat.
"Damn, I could never get used to these guys," Dave commented.
"These are men who turned on their brothers, these were once men who feasted upon the flesh of others, cursed to this form."
"So, cannibals," Dave said.
"The worst kind, and you know what flesh they like the most?" Dortha said smiling.
Dave raised both his brows up as he noticed the panicking look of retreating players from the wolfish giants coming their way.
"I bet they love human flesh." Dave grinned.
"Yes, the fresher, the better," Dortha's grin matched Dave's.