Chapter 147 - Episode 147: The Invasion. (13)
Chapter 147 – Episode 147: The Invasion. (13)
Alessandro is the one who handles the Cruzm Kingdom, and right now everyone can do nothing but run away from Shazjae. For a massive monster that is taller than the empire state building, it moves pretty quickly and nobody can handle it from destroying and flattening the Cruzm Kingdom. So many players are trying to aggro it and lure it outside the city, but Shazjae keeps on rampaging and kills so many players and NPCs that are below it.
Alessandro's mind is going blank and he can only watch from the distance. Every player is busy escorting and evacuating the NPCs since that's their only objective. If they can't handle Shazjae, at least they can try to save as many people as they can. Fortunately, Kingstar and all the Aarus Empire's faction players are close to the Cruzm Kingdom, and they're on their way there.
(At the border of the Maryoca Kingdom and the Cruzm Kingdom.)
Aspen and Ivonna are running as fast as they can while looking at Shazjae flattening the capital city of Cruzm Kingdom. They both thought there would be knights guarding the border, but there are none. They wanted to ride the knights' horses, but they couldn't find any.
Both the Maryoca Kingdom and the Eynhildr Kingdom have the same distance when it comes to reaching the Cruzm Kingdom. So both of them are going to arrive at the capital city of the Cruzm Kingdom in 12 hours, and since there are no more monsters in the Alliance Kingdoms, everyone now can focus on dealing with Shazjae. From today until the end of the invasion, everyone will fight Shazjae. Not just that, thanks to the different timezone, the players that were online when the invasion started was only 20% of the players' population, but now, more and more players are online to help. Right now, there are more than 48% of players are online and on their way to the Cruzm Kingdom.
Ivonna looks at Aspen.
"How did we both manage to survive that attack?"
Aspen is humming.
"I saved your life and I saved mine. There's a skill of mine that is able to switch positions with all the players around me in 30 meters radius. It has 3 charges, so I used the first one to switch your place with mine, and then I switched mine with someone else. It was just a reflex, and I didn't think much about it when I did that. I thought by saving you, it can give us more advantage, but turns out it was useless."
Ivonna is humming with understanding.
"Still, thank you for trying to save me."
Aspen nods.
"No problem."
(At the Cruzm Kingdom.)
Kingstar has arrived. He then orders a third of the Aarus Empire's faction to evacuate the NPCs as much as they can and bring them away from the battlefield. Kingstar, Queenstar, and Boschwell with all their commanders and clan members are approaching Shazjae.
Kingstar is pointing at the tall walls.
"Rein, order all the archers and spellcaster to go up there as soon as possible, they're going to be our air support. No matter what happened, don't leave and keep shooting."
Reinhardt nods with understanding.
"I'm on it. Gunther and I will be up there in 10 minutes more or less."
Kingstar looks at Reinhardt.
"Make it 5 minutes. Go, now!"
Reinhardt and Gunther are looking at each other and then starts commanding all their division to follow them up to the walls. They're sprinting without caring what's around them since their job is to be air support, not to evacuate or help the NPCs. Boschwell is also ordering his commanders to send all the range players to the walls with Reinhardt and Gunther.
Kingstar looks at Queenstar.
"How long until Diamond and Lothiar be here? And what about Ivonna and the others?"
Ivonna looks at the time.
"Diamond and Lothair are too far from us since they're at the Kravel Kingdom at the moment, so it will take them at least a day and a half to be here. Ivonna is still alive for some reason and she's on her way here with Aspen. Most of the factionless players are already on the battlefield fighting Shazjae. Francesca and the others are on their way here with all the players. They both will be here in 12 to 13 hours."
Kingstar sighs.
"That's too long. We need everyone to be here."
The ground starts shaking and then a huge shadow is covering the sun. They all look up and a tower is flying towards them. Everyone is surprised and immediately moves to the side and takes cover. As soon as the tower hits the ground, Kingstar lifts his head and looks at the massive tower stuck on the ground upside down. He can hear so many people are screaming and crying all around him. So many NPCs are on their knees and crying while covering their children's heads.
Kingstar looks at Queenstar.
"We really need them to be here, or all these people will die…"
(At the border of the Eynhildr Kingdom and the Cruzm Kingdom.)
Michael is groaning.
"Dude, we need a mount! Why we have never thought about this! It's the most crucial thing to have in an MMORPG game like this! We were having fun that we never thought about that until now. We need to buy a mount after the invasion is done. I don't care if it's expensive, I'm rich!"
Leo is raising his eyebrow.
"Mike, even if we have them, you need to take care of them and if they died, they died permanently, that's why nobody wants to spend a lot of Gold to buy them. Also, even if we have them now, we can't bring them anywhere we want since we can't put them in our inventory since it's a living being. We have to put them on the stable or any other places to put them there safely. We already have teleportation devices all around the place anyway."
Grisell nods in agreement.
"Leo is right. Having to maintain a mount is such a pain. I mean, that's how it is in the real-life as well. We who have no experience in handling and taking care of horses or other mounts would only waste our Gold. I guess we can complain and maybe give some ideas on the mounting system to make it easier for us to use them."
Francesca is looking back at them and sighs.
"Are you guys done whining? You can rants about it with hundreds of pages then send them to the developer after the invasion is done. Right now, we need to hurry up and help our friends."
Grisell is giggling.
"Ooohh~ Mommy is pissed."
Everyone starts chuckling except for Francesca, but then the ground starts shaking.
[68% of the Alliance Kingdoms population is alive]
[67% of the Alliance Kingdoms population is alive]
[66% of the Alliance Kingdoms population is alive]
[65% of the Alliance Kingdoms population is alive]
[64% of the Alliance Kingdoms population is alive]
Everyone stops chuckling and laughing and just looking at the notification with worries. Francesca is looking at them with a serious expression.
"Are you guys done laughing?"
(Somewhere in the Maryoca Kingdom's territory.)
I'm looking at Ivonna's message. She said that Shazjae is now in the Cruzm Kingdom, and everyone is going to fight it. It will take me another 10 hours to reach the Cruzm Kingdom. So I will be able to go there in 18 hours more or less depends on my condition. Right now, I already have an Exhausted Debuff on me and I already drink dozens of [Stamina Potion] in just a few minutes. I'm thinking of taking a short nap so the debuff will be removed. In the long run, it will give me a lot of advantages from being able to run without having to worry about my stamina since the sun is going down in few hours and my [Nightfall] skill will be activated, and also be able to fight Shazjae for hours when I'm facing him later, but seeing the population of the NPCs in the Alliance Kingdoms sky falling is making me doubt my decision.
I'm looking at Ivonna and the others' messages for quite a while and think what's the best thing to do. I'm also looking at Azrael's progress. I'm stomping the ground while thinking and then take a deep breath.
"I think this is for the best. Just hold on for a bit longer, guys…"
I lay down and try to get some sleep. The quietness of my surroundings is making me anxious, but my eyes are getting heavy and then I fall asleep immediately.
I hear a heavy growling and heavy voice.
"Master! Wake up!"
"Master!"
I'm slowly opening my eyes and I see a silhouette of something standing next to me and facing me. When I can see everything clearly, I see a big silver wolf as tall as a human with white smoke or mist coming out from its body. A horn that looks like an antler on top of its head. The tail is not really a tail, but it's like a cloud of smoke. No, not just its tail, but the fur is also like a cloud of smoke.
I sit up and look at it.
"Azrael?"