“What is it, son?” Duncan asked, turning back to me.
“The cannons, you know how to use them, right?” I asked.
Duncan looked from me to the cannon and back again. When he looked back at me again, I could tell from the grin on his face that he knew what I was thinking.
“I need three strong players on me,” Duncan yelled loudly, running for the nearest cannon with tools in hand.
I was right behind him, I wouldn’t be able to help much, but I could try to provide him and any players that came to help a little cover. The cannons were mounted to the stone, that was why he needed his tools, it was also why the Anvilton soldiers hadn’t turned the cannons on the courtyard or toward us when we were storming the ramparts.
“I like where your heads at,” said Olaf, joining Duncan in taking apart the mounting brackets.
Two more players ran over to us, they were Orcs,
“When we get this cannon free, we need your help to lift and aim it,” Duncan said, his tools never stopped working.
I saw the pair both grinning excitedly as they figured out what we were going to do.
“I need two tanks!” I yelled after taking another arrow, then two more in a short span of time. It seemed the city saw what we were up to and were intent on stopping it.
It took five minutes to free the cannon and then a few more for Olaf and the two Orcs to lift it up on to their shoulders. Two minutes to load. And finally, the loud ‘BOOM!’ of the cannon firing was followed closely by an explosion when the ordinance hit the Ogre center mass . . . and didn’t kill him. Instead, he staggered backward into the cart with the ammo and tripped. Its hands reached out to grab anything it could in a vain effort to stop from falling back into the supply room. It ended up snagging the two Dwarves that were the cannon crew, pulling them with it back into the supply room where he landed with an audible thud. Then the cart rolled backward and tipped off the edge of the walkway. Thirty-two very loud explosions followed as each round exploded, completely erasing that part of the ramparts and opening a second hole in the outer wall.
“I wonder if that was how you were supposed to beat him?” Olaf asked out loud.
“I’m sure we could have kept chipping away at him until he died then fought the Captain with him,” I said. “That was probably some kind of secret kill method.”
Siege Status
Ramparts:
N/A
Soldiers:
0/150
Officers:
0/1
Ramparts Captured!
My UI updated, flashing once then being replaced with the new siege objective.
Siege Status
Inner Gate 1:
4,500/7,500
Inner Gate 2:
4,500/7,500
Soldiers:
150/150
Officers:
2/2
Break through the Inner Gates!
“We need to get off this wall,” said Olaf, looking out at the battlefield. “The Anvilton players are coming back.”
“We can use the newly made gate,” Icyhot said, pointing to the new opening at the end of the wall. “It’s going to take a while for the battering rams to break through anyway, and this will give our people time to run back. We need the time to recover.”
I tried to take stock of how many survived. I guess we were down by at least half, maybe more. This was the costliest part of the siege so far and I had no idea how the Hammerton forces were doing below us, other than seeing two slow-moving battering rams rolling up the mountainside, they must have started as soon as the Captain died.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Rose asked, eager to move on.
“Hopefully, the healers were able to resurrect enough of us to fight the incoming players,” Olaf said, leading the way back into the supply room while several players just went over the side of the wall, landing outside where the Archers couldn’t hit us. I was happy to join them, making the small jump over the side.
Chapter 35
I discovered battering rams were very inefficient when compared to cannons. The ram could be brought back and driven forward every fifteen seconds. Each hit did 5-points of structural damage. That meant they did about 20-points of damage per minute or 1,200-points of damage per hour. It took hours for the battering rams to break down the two doors that both started with 4,500 out of 7,500 points of structural integrity.
The Anvilton aligned players tried to interfere, but it was clear they were losing steam. I only counted 52 in that first wave after clearing the ramparts, that was at least 10 to 20 less than the first time they attacked us as a large group during the first phase of the siege. An hour and a half later, they tried again . . . with just twenty-one players. They didn’t attack again after that.
Olaf sent Leafy to try and track them back to their graveyard after the second attack just to be sure they weren’t going to pop up on us again at the worst time. Leafy found the graveyard, but there were no signs of the players, and the only recent tracks Leafy was able to find were all moving toward the portal. It seemed the players outside of the city had finally given up and left the province behind. I think if I didn’t have the quests I do now, I might have left if I was in the same situation. Now, we just needed to worry about any players left inside the city. I had a sneaking suspicion that any players left inside the city would be of the deadlier variety.
“Okay, boys and girls,” Olaf shouted loudly, getting all the players’ attention. “We’ve got about five minutes until those doors crack wide open.”
“Do we know what we’ll be facing inside?” someone asked. “I mean, what kind of enemies?”
Siege Status
Inner Gate 1:
105/7,500
Inner Gate 2:
105/7,500
Soldiers:
150/150
Officers:
2/2
Breakthrough the Inner Gates!
If the man that asked the question had been paying attention, he would have been watching for the updates in his UI. It told us clearly there were one hundred and fifty soldiers waiting for us inside, a large portion of those were likely Archers based on the way we were peppered by arrows from inside the city. It also told us there were two officers we knew nothing about. Add an unknown battle strategy, and we were in for one heck of a fight. I fully expected to die at least once . . . maybe twice.
“The only thing I know for sure is we’ll be facing Anvilton Archers. The good news is their levels are probably going to be between level 7 and 9. Most of the damage will come from the sheer volume.” Olaf answered. “I would love to stand around answering questions but the time for questions has passed, it’s time to earn our paychecks. Make sure your pools are topped off, we’re going to be setting up outside the two doors until the battering rams finish their work. As soon as that door opens, we’re going in, tanks first. Charge team with me on the left door, try to hug the wall to limit the number of arrows that stick you.”
“Cannon team with me,” Icyhot said. “We’ll be going in through the door on the right side.”
We reentered the courtyard through the hole in the wall and sprinted across the inner wall. We hugged that wall all the way to the battering ram then sprinted around it in small groups after the ram slammed into the door again. I was surprised when we weren’t shot at.
“Why aren’t they shooting?” Rose asked.
“It means they pulled their troops back, either to conserve arrows or to a better position to try a counterattack once we break through,” Micaela answered. She looked as tired and beat up as the rest of us, though her armor was in considerably better condition thanks to her ability to heal it. I hadn’t seen much of her during the fighting, I knew she was there from the occasional howl of her ax, the few times Vision appeared from the spirit plane to tackle someone that was about to stab me, or someone else, in the back. “Most milit
ary protocol insists, that once a breach is imminent, troops are to relocate to a more defensible position.”
Our position outside the gates wasn’t exactly defensible. But it was perfect for rushing inside. I hated the waiting as the damage to the structure of the door kept ticking downward. Those last few moments waiting as the battering rams slammed home against the gate seemed to take forever.
15 . . .
10 . . .
5 . . .
Siege Status
Inner Gate 1:
0/7,500
Inner Gate 2:
0/7,500
Soldiers:
150/150
Officers:
2/2
Fight the waiting soldiers!
That final punch of the battering ram opened a gap in the gate just wide enough for two people to go through side by side, or just Rose with her shields linked together.
It was good the tanks, and especially Rose, led the way inside. I heard the pinging of arrows bouncing off her shields as she marched through, each hit doing minimal damage to Rose as her shields were able to absorb most of it. But moving in first as she did, let her set the line as the other tanks filed in behind her followed by the healers, then the melee and finally the range damage dealers.
The Anvilton soldiers were set in a ‘V’ formation. Heavily armored soldiers in front with large tower shields and the second row also bearing tower shields, their nameplates read
The third row was made up of 20 soldiers with a nameplate reading
And behind them were the two Captains we had been promised for this wave though I could only see the nameplate from this distance. Which meant I couldn’t see their weapons or armor, so I had no idea what we would be facing. Then a drum sounded loudly with a rat-a-tat-tat and the soldiers started moving.
Suddenly, I felt dizzy and a little disoriented. My feet stumbled as the world tilted.
“They’ve got a Bard,” I heard Heath’s voice call out. Not a moment later I heard the strumming of a guitar behind us. The two beats were discordant to each other, one canceling the other. And just like that, the dizzy feeling vanished, and my feet felt more solid on the ground. Heath’s beat, the differences countered the other Bards. “He’s going to be hiding nearby,” Heath shouted over his guitar and the drumming and the ‘thunk’ sound the arrows were making when they hit. “I bet it’s that same bastard that infiltrated Hammerton.”
“Great, that’s just what we need,” Olaf complained. “For now, just keep that up and for goodness sake, don’t die!”
There were loud grunts and the heavy clomps of metal on stone reminding me the Anvilton soldiers were on the move. I tried to look for the Bard, but I could only guess he was somewhere back by the two officers.
“We need a hole,” Olaf shouted his hand-cannon firing into one of the Heavy Guards, denting the Dwarf’s shield but not penetrating.
It had been more than enough time since I last used it, and this seemed like the perfect time. I targeted the middle of their left side’s lines and cast my spell, ‘Boar Charge’.
Boar Charge
Level: 30
Experience: 0.47%
Spell Damage: 750-950 per second
Spell Cast Speed: 5.00 seconds channeled Cooldown: 29 minutes
Spell Mana Cost: 800
Spell Effect (Active): Summon a stampede of spectral boars that will charge a targeted area dealing damage and knocking down anyone in the area of effect.
Charm Earned Bonus (Passive): Blessing of the Boar Spirit - +10-Endurance, +10-Stamina.
The spectral swine tore through the center of the three lines that were advancing on us, the tower shields meant nothing when the attack moved from left to right and right to left and the shields were facing toward us. I watched as the damage ticked up rapidly due to how tightly they were packed together, -1,034-HP, -821-HP, -904-HP, and so on. Four of the Combat Medics died in the first three seconds of the channeled spell and nine more of the Heavy Guards joined by the end of the fifth second. There would be no prisoners but considering the constant barrage of arrows, I didn’t think we could afford to worry about that at the moment.
“Spread them out,” Olaf ordered. “Don’t let the end rejoin with the middle! Tanks, wedge in there! Ranged damage dealers, hit those Archer’s hard! Melee get the healers!”
It was like the opening shot of a foot race. I was surrounded by the other melee fighters as we barreled through the gaping hole my boars had punched into the line. I moved left to the outer edge of the approaching soldiers, the side we couldn’t afford to allow to rejoin with the middle. I stabbed the first healer I saw, and I wasn’t the only one. We were chopping through them pretty easily. I didn’t enjoy killing the healers, or any of the NPC’s if I could avoid it, but this was unavoidable.
I was about to stab into the last healer in the row when suddenly, I was on the ground after feeling something slam into my shoulder and send me skidding. As muted as the pain should have been, that still hurt. Then I saw my HP drop as a -2,121-HP floated away from my body and a ‘Dazed’ debuff took hold for five seconds. When it cleared, I noticed I was bleeding to death quickly. I looked at my shoulder where I felt the impact, there was a crossbow bolt sticking into it. I started casting ‘Beginner Heal’ on myself, focusing on the shoulder first. I needed to stop the bleed and push that bolt out before I could worry about the rest of me. Most arrows were doing between -30-HP damage to as much as -120-HP when I took a critical hit. Whoever just shot me, nearly killed me with that one bolt.
“Watch yourselves, someone over there is picking our people off,” Olaf warned loudly. “I need a tank to cover Heath, we can’t lose him or that Bard will break us.”
I couldn’t follow all the moving parts of the battle. All I could do was try to get up after I healed enough to be able to take another shot from that crossbow that just about one-shot me. Hopefully, that wouldn’t happen.
Once I was back on my feet, I was on my own, plenty of bodies around me, mostly Dwarves but there were a few players as well. I looked for the rest of the army and I saw that the other melee fighters were attacking the center of the ‘V’ formation, targeting the healers again. It seemed once the healers dropped, the Heavy Guards weren’t as dangerous. But more importantly, no one seemed to notice me.
It gave me a good opportunity to try to gather some information. What I really needed to do was find the Crossbowman or the Bard and see if there was anything I could do about either of them. I activated my ‘Stealth’. It wasn’t a powerful skill, but it should work well enough to snoop around while all the soldiers were focused on the battle. And, if I was really lucky, I would find the source of the drumming.
Stealth
Level: 36
Experience: 71.41%
Non-Combat Movement: Speed reduced by 71.00%
Chance of Being Revealed: 56.40%
Skill Stamina Cost: 2 per second
Now that I was on my own and not fighting for my life, I finally had a chance to observe the inner gate area. It was large and sparse. Nothing built into the walls going into the mountains like Hammerton. It felt very Spartan . . . very military, decidedly unimpressive. Behind the army was a large opening and the road into the city. Not even ten yards from the road was a large grand staircase leading up into the Anvil structure, another staircase mirrored it on the opposite side. The road into the city appeared to curve downward, probably down the homes and shops and eventually terminating in a Lava Forge, that was probably the only similarity between Anvilton and Hammerton. What I didn’t see was any signs of the barracks, which could be a problem. Hopefully, some members of the rebellion sh
owed up soon to show us the way down or up, assuming they were going to get involved in the fighting at all.
At the back of the small contingent of Archers, I spotted the Crossbowman, it was one of the Captains, a Dwarven woman with a nameplate that read
The drumming had been slightly drowned out by the twanging of bows firing, or was it getting softer as I got nearer the rear of the fighting? Heath’s guitar playing made it harder to locate until I moved away from the fighting. At first, I moved toward the road into the city, but it got considerably softer, not louder. I couldn’t see a drummer with the soldiers. That meant the Bard was probably hiding. From what Heath had told me, he couldn’t use ‘Stealth’ and play the instrument. It was then, as I looked from this side of the battle, I noticed the catwalks that ran along the walls above the gates and there in the center of the central wall on the highest catwalk was the drummer,
I had a feeling the name was some kind of musical reference, but I didn’t get it. I would ask Heath later, but first, I needed to kill this guy. I took a moment to look for the stairs up but there were none. It looked like the catwalks ran into doorways that probably connected to the grand stairways.
I moved as quickly as I could for the closest of the two stairways, which felt like moving through molasses with ‘Stealth’ active. At the top of the first flight was a turn back that went up into the Anvil shaped building above us. There was also another set of stairs that went back toward where all the fighting was going on. I climbed those stairs that did go into the mountain before it split into three different paths, one stairway down, one path straight ahead and one going up. I went up.
World Tree Online: The Mountain Valley War: 2nd Dive Concludes Page 61