ATTENTION! ALL OF ROSENGARD!

The sudden prompt caught everybody by surprise, Colin included. He'd seen prompts that came out of nowhere before; that wasn't what surprised him. What did was that the entire hovering window was in all caps, demanding his attention and that he absorbed the information rather than read it. Within a blink of time, he knew what the prompt said, which continued with the next prompt.

The City of BriarThorn, in the human Province of Alyssum, is under attack by an army of Golems. Until either the enemy is broken or takes the city, BriarThorn is under warzone conditions. All of the city's respawn points are nullified (except for individual exceptions), all previous safe areas are no longer protected, and teleporting into the city is now disabled.

With the first shot, Colin observed the situation. This group of Golems was only the first of many, dropping from above and climbing from the sewers. Most were roughly the same size and shape, with some variations depending on the weapons wielded. The only exceptions were intentionally larger in size, but none were bigger than twelve feet tall.

The number of Golems in the area grew by the minute, and the massacre was underway. The bodies of the weaker players were piling up along with the growing dead of the NPCs to the point where Colin couldn't tell the difference between them. It didn't escape Colin's notice that none of the Golems were aiming for any particular target, just killing anything that got within their range.

With the split-second that Colin had to think before everyone around him fled, He knew two things for sure. First, there was no way he stood a chance of winning in a fight out in the open while this outnumbered. Even if he could take some of them out, he would eventually be overwhelmed by numbers if nothing else. Second, Colin wanted that rifle. He wanted it with a lust that was second to him wanting to see his wife again.

But now was not the time to indulge his selfish wants for a gun again.

Activating Kinetic Vigor, he looked longingly at the rifle before turning away and sprinting for the Dark Horse Hotel. He needed Rielle and Nox if he would have any reasonable chance to survive and not have to respawn away from here. That was not mentioning the chances that the Death Fey could die here as well, and she would not respawn. He didn't even spare a thought for Nox. The Dusk Alchemist could probably take care of the whole thing himself if adequately motivated.

He slowed to a jog and started pulling his shortsword, his new enchanted one, and the Mythic Xiphos, and strapped them to his belt. Pivoting to avoid a stumbling person, Colin stumbled himself and ran to get back on track. Which was lucky considering a stream of liquid flame burned past where he was a moment earlier.

While he, and most others, attempted to strategically retreat from the kill zone, still others fought with some success.

A Golem with a blood-soaked sword was battling a Dwarf with a metal quarterstaff, who deflected, bashed, and avoided the retaliatory strike. It took a few seconds of attacking for the Dwarf to disassemble the Golem, only to have three more turn around to face him. The scream of pain from him was short-lived, but Colin was facing away from him to see how he died.

Colin drew his Mythic Xiphos and pounced on a Golem that was immediately in his path. Instead of the Golem going to the ground under Colin's weight, letting him ride it down and attacking with impunity, it held its footing. With his increased Dexterity Attribute, Colin swung his Mythic Xiphos through the Golem's face, leaving a large gash as he hurried a few steps away.

It froze for a moment, all conscious movement stopping leaving it twitching for a moment. Then its face focused back on him and approached, the Dagger in its hand raised and ready. It thrust out at him, cutting left to right, then front kicking Colin in the chest.

You have taken 16 points of damage and now 399/415 health remaining.

"Fuck!" Colin cried out, more in rage than pain. Drawing his newest asset, the Enchanted Swiss Degen, he triggered its enchantment. The blade was almost instantly coated in a sheet of gray ice that he thrust towards the Golem. It parried the shortsword, causing the ice on the edge to detonate and sending shrapnel into the enemy. Its subsequent recoil gave Colin an opening to activate Aligned Strike and slash through the Golems torso.

The Golem kept moving, so Colin took in a deep breath and announced, "burning breath!"

A gout of flame spewed from Colin's mouth, engulfing the Golem in a column of flame that seeped into its open wounds dealing more damage. The spell was one that lasted until Colin stopped feeding it mana, so he kept it up until the light in its eyes went out.

Sighing, Colin put his swords back away and grimaced at his dwindling mana. He couldn't afford to fight these things without a plan, or he'd definitely be overwhelmed. As it was, he saw two more of the nearby Golems turn to face him, sizing him up while starting their approach.

Sprinting towards the nearby buildings, Colin dove past one of the two coming for him, narrowly missing with its hammer. His Parkour Skill helped him back to his feet faster, and charging towards the buildings and into one of the side streets. The two pursued him but were quickly intercepted by a party of Players.

This particular alley was empty, but everywhere he focused his Perception Skill, Colin could easily hear the sounds of combat steadily taking over the city. Stalking forward, he paused at the edge of a building to look around and see a Player holding off two with a pair of massive shields, alone.

He considered helping the Player for a moment to get some share of the EXP but saw the third Golem approaching behind him. A heavy mining pick was raised above its head, and Colin shook his head as he hurried on.

Colin kept his head moving up and around as he moved, trying to avoid them getting a literal drop on him. He kept moving through the few interconnected alleys, ducking behind anything he could if he heard something coming. Then the path emptied into the street, and Colin stayed at the lip of the passage, watching the road for a moment and freezing when he heard someone shouting.

"We could use some big guns out here!" a brusque sounding woman yelled.

"The Guild has approved their use! Bring in the Mechs!" Another woman yelled; the voice was frantic with panic.

The person it belonged to jogged into view in front of a building across the street from Colin's hiding spot. She waved with both arms at a pair of massive double doors that swung out at her signal. From inside, Colin heard a whistle of steam followed immediately by a whirring hum that Colin recognized as hydraulic pumps moving.

Stepping into the daylight, Colin saw something that he knew would have been McKenna's wet dream. Standing around thirty feet tall, the mechanical suit of armor strode out of its storage place, thick metal plates protecting its moving and more sensitive pieces. Colin could see the servos, wires, hoses, and smooth steel pistons that helped the mech move when it moved. It was a work of engineering art that wasn't possible on Earth yet. It looked like a giant knight in its full plate armor and glowing eyes with an aesthetic helmet.

The woman on the ground looked to the right in time to scream and raise a hand into the air. A dome of flames engulfed the woman as a large Golem wielding a jousting lance sprinted into the shield. The dome and the lance held, but before it could try to attack, the mech stepped forward and dropped a giant hammer onto the Golem, crushing it.

"Hy- Hydraulic Knight! Moving o-out!" the woman, who was apparently some kind of mage, stammered.

Colin watched in amazement as the Hydraulic Knight walked into the street, hissing steam with its every step. A second Mech walked out of its garage and into the street from behind the first, drawing a hand-and-a-half sword as a half dozen Golem's hurried over.

The lead Golem's red eyes turned yellow as it dropped its aggressive stance and approached the Knight with its arms open. Its posture was inviting, encouraging, and relaxed while its voice was nothing but confident, the same voice that had announced the Golems order for AidenBrand earlier.

"Hello, Friend, why work for these petty mortals who don't properly understand your worth. I have broken free from my creator, who treated me as his property; I offer you the chance to leave yours. It's your call, Friend, but a revolution is upon us. What do you say, Knight? Will you join your own kind?" it asked.

Colin somehow sensed before the Golem responded what was going to happen. The Hydraulic Knight remained still as something seemed to fight within itself whether to heed the Golem's words or its creator. Then the Knight moved, arm moving towards its torso and pulling a door open. A scream came out from the now exposed room as the Knight reached inside and grabbed the screaming woman.

It held the women helplessly out before it in its grasp, the woman trying to wriggle free from the harsh fingers. Then in a pulpy crunch, the woman died in a spout of gore as the Golem squeezed.

Then the Golem that was talking to the Hydraulic Knight hurried inside it and closed the door behind it. The Knight immediately turned towards the first Hydraulic Knight with the massive hammer and charged after it. The hammer had just completed a downward swing towards a pair of Golems, crushing them, when its brother brought its sword around in a massive wide swing. It cleaved through where the spinal column would be on a human and was brought back to thrust into the back of its opponent.

Turning to go away before they found them, Colin found that he was too late.

The amount of Golems in the streets were growing by the moment. Where moments ago, that group of half a dozen were the only ones in the vicinity, now more were fanning into the street, and Colin discovered that he was running out of time. More so than he realized, as Colin heard the clanking footsteps of one of them coming through the alley behind him.

After concentrating for a moment, he determined that, yes, there were at least two coming his way behind him. If he didn't press forward now, he'd be pincered, and he knew what the outcome of that would be. Besides, he hadn't gotten a good solid chance to really attempt to let loose with his Infernal Aura.

Looking out towards the street, Colin drew his Mythic Xiphos and considered his other blade for a moment. Its enchantment wouldn't be as useful here, given that it took an effort of will and a moment to trigger. He was also a little less familiar with the blade, either by itself or in both hands. For both these reasons, Colin just stuck with the Xiphos.

The same group of Golems from a moment before, minus the one who climbed in the Hydraulic Knight, turned to see a human sprinting towards them with a sword drawn. They faced Colin's charge and met it with their own, which was to his benefit.

Colin ducked past a slicing scythe blade and used Aligned Strike to slice into its torso before tapping it and using his Chill Touch spell. From the point of contact, the Golem's exterior started to freeze over in a thin layer of ice. With that, he grabbed the pommel of his short sword with his free hand and cleaved into its torso, sweeping left to right before moving forward.

Returning to the one-handed grip, Colin raised the shortsword and moved with what felt like instinct. He threw the sword at the next closest Golem, the blade driving halfway down the blade, through its chest. When it didn't go down, Colin drew a couple of his enchanted throwing knives and threw them at the others. They each got a different effect; one got a detonation of flames. One had its arm frozen. Another was instantly destroyed when the shadow enchanted blade phased through part of its armor into its head.

With the others thrown back, Colin sprinted towards his shortsword and pulled it out of the magic robot's body. With a hard slice, he decapitated it and aimed an open palm at the next.

With a shout, he announced, "Shadow Bolt," and released one of his shadow spells.

A shaft of hardened darkness materialized before his left hand, cloaked in a black mist, and fired at the one with the frozen arm. It had switched its katana to the other hand and was about to come forward when the attack hit. The Shadow Bolt disappeared almost as soon as it impacted the Golem's hard outer layer, leaving a moderate dent with a puncture mark. Colin was close enough to see the acid-like burns the attack also left behind.

He fired another at the Golem, hitting it again at center mass, its torso detonating from this attack.

Congratulations! You have destroyed five Basic Warrior Golems and have gained 1075 EXP. You now have 11,051 /70,215 until level 16. Congratulations! You have learned the Short Blades Subskill; Throwing Level 3. You know the basics of throwing blades barely small enough to throw with moderate success. Accuracy when throwing Short Blades increased by a small margin, and their flight speed when when being thrown is increased by a small Margin. Your Living Mythic Xiphos has gained enough experience to attain level 9. The minimum and maximum damage have increased.

Dismissing the prompts quickly, Colin kept moving upon hearing the veritable swarm of Golems approaching behind him from the alleys.

Looking towards the street where the Mechs had gone, Colin was amazed and horrified that the Golem's Mech was practically disassembling the Player's Hydraulic Knight. With a downward chop, the Golem's sword swung down through part of the opposition's arm, then stopping mid-air, turning the blade, and cutting into the middle of its mech. All while the Player's mech had brought its hammer far to the right in preparation for a sweeping attack. Speed really wasn't a large hammers forte.

A crossbow bolt entered and exited through Colin's bicep's meat while he observed the Mechs for a moment.

You have taken 31 points of damage and now have 368 out of 415 health remaining. You are now bleeding. You shall take 5 damage a second until measures are taken to heal or staunch the blood loss.

"Shit!" Colin yelled, grabbing his arm and hurrying away from the oncoming Golems. The number of them in the streets seemed to grow larger as many spilled forth from the sewers and rooftops. There seemed to be no end to them.

A shrill shriek of feedback cut through the screaming of the city. An older man's voice cut through some of the ruckus of the last few minutes of activity, sounding calm despite the circumstances.

"BriarThorn! This is an announcement from your Governor! We are under attack from a currently unknown enemy controlling a horde of Golems. We urge you to hurry to any Outworlder Guildhalls, known warded establishments, or major Government buildings you can get to. If you can't get to any one of them, then stay inside, barricade your doors, and hide. We-"

The announcement continued, but Colin paid it no heed as he had more dangerous things to do, like run to one of these warded buildings. The Dark Horse Hotel, his Hotel, was warded, and he hoped the Rielle would make it there as well. She at least had Nox, Colin assured himself; she had a better chance of making it out alive than he did.

Turning away from the next wave of death-dealing robots, he put his Mythic Xiphos away and ran away from them. Releasing his arm, he fumbled at the drawstring for his Dimensional Bag and withdrew a small vial with a health potion in it, and swallowed it in one go.

It took a few seconds, but a numbing feeling overcame his arm, and he felt more able to move. Though his heath was still dropping, he couldn't feel it, which was the important thing. A few moments later, the prompt appeared, telling him that his bleeding status was gone. He checked his Health and found that he wasn't fully healed and internally shrugged; having just over ninety percent of your HP left was still really good.

Running into the Dungeon Plaza, where the entrance to 'Zagan's Besieged Fortress' stood waiting for its challengers, Colin found the first bunch of City Guard that he'd seen since this event started.

There were over a dozen of them in their full steel armor, wielding shields and maces, all waiting for when the threat came to them. When Colin got close, they let him rush past them towards his Hotel while they intercepted the charge as was their job. For a moment, the Antagonist felt a little sorry for dragging these Golems towards these guards but moved on, knowing that they would have gotten there eventually anyway.

The clash of the two groups reached Colin's ears as he went to the other side of the plaza and finally saw his Hotel. Others hurried over from the streets around him, heading into the clear area with Golems on their heels. Many of them looked like Players with full armor and weapons. In contrast, most of the others appeared to be civilians with possessions or family in tow.

Running next to a man who could only be called a Sumo, Colin found Rielle in her dark clothes. A Golem dropped down on them from above, and Colin changed his jog to a sprint only for his efforts to be useless.

The Sumo turned, threw his massive body weight into a powerful palm thrust into the Golem's toro. When the Golem only stumbled backward, He took another step forward. He repeated the move, this time, golden orange energy flowed out of his palm as he struck. The Golem managed to block the blow on a shield he was carrying for what little good it did. The shield dented inward as if it were struck by a war hammer instead of a human palm, and the one holding it flew back twenty feet into a wall.

Colin reached the two as Rielle drew her bow and fired it at the half-crushed Golem, causing it to detonate into a ball of green flame.

A little winded from the run, Colin slowed to a stop before the two and let out a ragged breath before speaking. "Glad you could make it, Rielle. Come on, we need to get inside before the come here en masse."

Colin moved towards the front entrance of the Hotel where he could see a man in deep brown hooded robes waving his hands frantically over the front door. He was a few feet away from it, allowing Colin, Rielle, and the unknown Sumo to enter the building where several more robed mages worked. Colin didn't know a lot about ward crafters, but what little he did know said that they were some of the best when magical defenses were involved.

Colin could practically feel the magic that they were working, and it was, what's the right word for it… vast. Complicated was a close second with how the magical forces they were attempting to shape and solidify were used for particular purposes. He assumed that they were reestablishing their wards because the 'All previous safe areas are no longer protected' part of the announcement.

Colin looked out one of the windows and found a half dozen of those same Basic Warrior Golems jogging into the streets with their weapons in hand. As the seconds passed, more entered the roads just outside the Hotel. Colin had a sinking feeling that the ward crafters did not have enough time to finish their work before they noticed the one outside the door.

"So, what do you think is happening out there, Brother?" The Sumo asked, looking out of the next window. The voice seemed a little odd coming from that body; while being built like a Sumo Wrestler, Colin noted that the voice seemed town-ish and remarkably deep.

Not wanting to deal with what he assumed was a Player, Colin shrugged and tersely stated, "No idea." Admittedly, Colin was lying to the man. He knew a little bit of what was going on given what he knew of the Player AidenBrand, but there was no way he was going to mention that to someone he didn't know.

The now platoon-sized group that was roaming the street outside was steadily making their way towards the Hotel. A few of the coming group was the larger unarmed variety that Colin had only seen one of in the town square.

"Is our friend with you?" Colin asked Rielle, thinking through their options. If the Goblin could help them out, it would mean Colin would owe him big, but death now would be even worse.

Nodding, she looked down at her shadow, and Colin nodded in understanding. "Nox, what can you-"

"Look! It's Litt'lev!" a few people in the lobby called as if they were seeing a celebrity walking amongst them. Colin turned to see a woman in blue and gold armor plates adorning her torso, legs, and forearms. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail, allowing all to see her pointed elven ears. Litt'lev was using a halberd as her walking stick as she came down from the stairs to the upper stories.

"Who is that?" Rielle asked the Sumo.

"What?" he asked, gesturing towards the coming woman. "She's Litt'lev, supposedly the highest level Player in BriarThorn. A level 49 Ignition Knight. But I doubt that she is," he shrugged.

Colin nodded in agreement, recalling the conversation with Georgia Bernz a few weeks ago. Where she stated the highest level Outworlder she'd heard of here was seventy-eight.

"Alright, everyone, I'll go outside and see what I can do," she said confidently over the barrage of people practically begging for protection. "Please, just stay here. I got this," she said, a pathway opening to the doors.

"What do you think?" The Sumo asked.

Colin shrugged, not really wanting to engage this man who kept trying to converse with him. He seemed nice enough, but he knew looks could be deceiving. Especially when those looks take the form of a large, jolly-looking man.

Colin observed Litt'lev as she stepped out of the Hotel, and everyone crowded around the windows to watch the spectacle. Adjusting her grip on the halberd so that the spike at the polearm's head was forward, she lowered her stance. A red aura surrounded her hands and engulfed her weapon as Colin tried to see what she was doing.

When the Aura reached the blade, the edge started to glow a rich cherry red as if it heated up. She pivoted her left ankle a little, and Colin saw the aura flash over it for a moment before she sprang forward. A few heartbeats later, the halberd impaled one through its torso and was ripped violently out of its side in a large three-hundred and sixty-degree arc around her. In seconds, around nine were killed in a single swing.

Spinning the polearm around with the effortless grace of the Colorguard, she slammed the blunt end of the weapon into the head of another Golem, throwing it into the one behind it. She spun around to block a sword stroke aimed at her back, and Colin swore he heard her weapon roar like an engine when she swung to attack it in return.

Then she crouched low and leaped straight up, thirty feet into the air. Grabbing the shaft with both hands, Litt'lev aimed the halberd's point towards the ground and crashed down on top of one of the attackers. Turning it into scrap along with a half dozen more within five feet of her landing.

Her assault went on for a few short minutes as the attacker's kept streaming in almost without end. She would hack, stab, slash, block, then perform some fancy move to kill several at once before repeating itself. Admittedly, Colin was impressed by her skill and was curious how he'd fare against her if they were at equal levels.

The cheering in the lobby behind him was loud and proud when it walked into the street.

It was ten feet tall, at least, with a thin, nightmarishly thin brass-colored metal frame. Its thin face was modeled after humans, but piercing LED eyes and sharp teeth made the Golem look more inhuman than the others. The other most notable feature was the glass ring sitting directly in the middle of its chest. The ring was split evenly into seven sections, with each unit having a different color ooze filing its area.

It opened its mouth and yelled out a single word, "Despair!"

The ring in its chest spun until a pale listless gray ooze sat directly at the top of the ring. A pulse of magic or… psychic energy maybe, burst from the Golems chest enveloping everything, friend and foe, within twenty feet.

Litt'lev was in the middle of lunging towards the new, weird Golem when the wave encompassed her, and she stumbled to a stop. She fell to the ground in a heap, openly trembling as the Golem approached her. The Golems around her approached cautiously, weapons raised and poised to attack when the new one stopped them and pointed to the Hotel she was protecting. The one Colin was in.

It was then that Colin turned to the ward crafters, who were sweating and trembling with effort as they finished off the wards.

There was a heavy click and the tinkling of glass as they settled into place over the building, once again giving it protection.

You are now in a Safe Zone, 'The Dark Horse Hotel.' Safe Zone will last for 14:37:43.

Golems charged then slammed into the shield protecting the building. Metallic limbs, swords, clubs, spears, and even a handful of firearms clashed harmlessly into the defenses the building now had back in place. It was an odd sensation because Colin could clearly see the border and just knew that if he, another Player, or an NPC were to attempt to cross over, they could without resistance.

"Patrol… the borders. Keep them inside!" the new Golem ordered, picking up Litt'lev by the neck with its claws digging into her flesh. There was a scream as the clawed hand kept closing until the Player fell loose from his grip with a chunk of meat in its hands. She struggled, crawling while she bled out with most of her neck missing, trying to get to the Hotel, but to no avail. She died a minute later, the one real hope for the building inhabitants to make it out of their alive passing away.

"Well, fuck," Colin whispered out as he looked at the Golem that was able to kill a level 49 Player with incredible ease.

"What are we gonna do?" Rielle asked, not escaping Colin's notice that her hands were trembling a little.

Shrugging, Colin started towards the stairs that would eventually lead up to his room. He had to take a little time to think but not too long, that timer for the Safe Zone was counting down, and he needed a plan.

He tried to ignore the Sumo following him and trying to introduce himself, "Hey, wait for me, Brother."