Victory

Eliminating every single Defender within the mountain walls of the Dwarven Stronghold, the 4 remaining Attackers have successfully led the Elven Kingdom to absolute conquest over Ice Ridge Keep, securing a pivotal foothold between the Dwarven and Human Kingdoms, and obtaining a great tactical advantage for the remainder of the Second Trinity War of Novus.

M.V.P

1st- Eyes Thalion Ven’Thyl (4 Attacker Kills/1 Attacker Kill Assist : 15 Defender Kills/54 Defender Kill Assists)

2nd- Cullen/Ravi/Penelope (53 Defender Kill Assists)

3rdd- Crystal Mornings (4 Attacker Kill Assists : 1 Defender Kill)

Guide 13’s Siege Event has now concluded, and all Players will be returned to the Waiting Hub shortly.

“Well, I guess that’s that then.” I concluded, now alone in a private chamber filled with secret war letters and orders from the Dwarven Kingdoms—ones I unknowingly needed to discover for the Hidden Quest. Then recalling how Crystal personally led me here, I thought “I actually expected her to be luring me into another trap or something, but it looks like she really was telling the truth when she said she had a pretty good idea about what the Attackers’ Hidden Quest might be.” Reading the rest of the notifications.

Event Quest Completed Attackers Of The Three Sieges and the bonus Hidden Quest has been completed. Rewards: Add a Victory to your Event Rankings, gain a Unique Event Title, and receive Double Rewards for the upcoming Overall Rankings Results. Hidden Reward: Receive a bonus 10,000 Tokens, permanently gain a 5% Discount for the upcoming Player Shop, and be entitled to the true events of Novus’ History. You have gained the Title: [Siege Victor]. You have received 10,000 Tokens.

“Wait, huh? Tokens? A Shop?” But then without any warning, my mind was suddenly flooded with extremely vivid and overwhelming memories of this very siege, and I saw everything unfold as if I was actually there invisibly observing the events play out.

Carefully patrolling all throughout the outer stronghold, 35 or so trained and disciplined dwarven soldiers endured the freezing cold temperatures of the mountain, while 10 more soldiers could be seen guarding the inner gates. There also appeared to be 40 more soldiers either resting in the sleeping quarters deep within the mountain, or drinking and eating amongst themselves within the warmth of the banquet hall. However, alone in the private chamber Crystal showed me, a grizzled dwarven man was currently reading through the piles of letters and orders he received from the Dwarven Kingdom—notably with the same armour Crystal wore on an armour stand in the corner of the chamber. Though at the very same time, I could somehow see the hidden cliffside cave with 6 Trinity Archers and a single Sorceress huddled around the campfire for warmth, with 2 eerily familiar young elves—a Wood Elf boy and a Dark Elf girl—currently being lectured by a ruggedly handsome elven man wearing the very same armour Xander wore.

“No way, those two aren’t who I think they are, are they?” I asked myself, drawing almost all my focus onto them, “Then is that man…” but I still partially paid attention to the dwarves within the stronghold while I listened to the elves.

“Once we are separated, you two are under no circumstances allowed to engage any of the enemies alone. Only alongside each other may you do so. Do I make myself clear?” The Leader sternly asked them.

“Yes, Master.” The two young elves replied, jokingly rolling their eyes to each other.

“I know you two are eager to prove yourselves after having already learned your second Styles at your ages, but remember, you two are far from becoming Trinity Archers.” The Leader reminded them, “So just let my archers and I deal with most of the dwarven soldiers, alright? You two just focus on escorting Sorn while she locates the teleportation circle and searches for anything else the dwarves may be hiding inside their stronghold.”

“Yes, Master.” They replied again, unenthusiastically nodding their heads.

The Leader sternly glared at them after their responses, but he shook his head and let go of his concern, hesitantly deciding to trust them. Then simply whistling with his mouth, the 6 Trinity Archers immediately rose from the campfire and stood at attention, uniformly shouting “Yes, General!”

The Leader assertively addressed them, saying “You are all individuals I hand-picked myself for this daunting task, as I honestly believe you are part of the very few I can truly trust to fight by my side!” The archers cheered from his words, “And for that reason alone, I do not have much more to say to you, for I know very well what you are all capable of, and trust that you will all perfectly adapt according to what is needed of you in battle—as any great Trinity Archer should!” and they cheered once again, “However, as I have already relayed to you everything I know and have scouted beforehand of this stronghold, it should go without saying, if you come across General Silverfoot before I do, come and find me immediately!”

“Yes, General!” They all resoundingly answered.

“Good, then I believe it’s time we conquer this mountain!” The Leader declared, leading the way out of the cave, and drawing from his back a rather simple longbow made from two large horns—engraved with intricate ruins all along it.

The Trinity Archers cheered yet again, proclaiming “For the Elven Kingdom!” and followed their Leader out of the cave with their own unique and different bows, with the Sorceress and the two young elves following behind them.

Without hesitation, the Leader and the Trinity Archers fearlessly leaped from the cliff, quickly allowing themselves to plummet down the mountainside. The Sorceress and two elves followed suit, with the Sorceress casting magic on the three of them to greatly slow their descent. Then as the archers approached the ground, at the last moment they all fired arrows—with mana-ropes attached to their bodies—at the mountain, saving themselves from the fall and safely landing in the centre of the outer stronghold with the manifested ropes.

Though immediately noticing the elves, the dwarves instantly sounded a horn that echoed throughout the entire stronghold, alerting every dwarf inside, and causing their General to promptly rush to put on his heavy armour. Yet unconcerned about being discovered, the 6 Trinity Archers simply nodded to each other and all scattered from the centre, simultaneously engaging the separate groups of soldiers on their own and drawing all the dwarves away from the Leader—all casting and utilizing amazing Skills I’ve never even been shown before.

The Sorceress and the two elves softly landed soon after, with them simply following behind the Leader as he approached the large stone doors of the inner stronghold. Crossbow and ballista bolts were instantly fired from the narrow window slits overlooking the doors, but they were all effortlessly blocked by an impenetrable barrier the Sorceress reactively conjured up around the four of them. The Leader then did something quite unexpected, as he pressed his ear against the stone doors and gave it few strong knocks.

“The doors are much denser than I expected." He somehow concluded through the sounds of the vibrations, "Although I suppose this would be a perfect opportunity to finally use that Skill again after all this time.” then turning to the young elves and asking, “But what do you two think? Want to see a first-hand demonstration of a Skill I created and haven’t shown you two yet?”

Both the young elves jumped in excitement, eagerly nodding their heads at the idea, however the Sorceress interjected, suggesting “Or, we could simply break through the window slits and reserve your mana for the assuredly dangerous encounter with General Silverfoot, milord.”

“Aww, Lady Ilzt, why do you have to go and ruin our fun with reason?” The Dark Elf girl pouted.

With the Wood Elf boy, adding “Yeah, why can’t you ever let us just have fun without worrying so much?”

“I’m sorry you two feel that way, but if you haven’t yet realized, this is not the situation or the place to be having fun in.” She stated matter-of-factly, maintaining the barrier from the constant barrage of bolts fired in their direction, “And as for worrying, well it's simply part of my duty as a vassal of your House to ensure you two are always protected—that includes the Lord if he were ever to find himself in actual danger.”

“A duty she takes too seriously.” The boy quietly remarked to the girl, giggling with each other.

Though before the Sorceress could respond to their childish giggles, the Leader stepped in and said “Alright, alright, enough with that you two.” mentioning to the Sorceress, “I was merely teasing them with a new Skill, Sorn. But you really should lighten up a little.”

“Well I would love to, milord, but may I remind you we are currently in the beginnings of true war again. And amidst an infiltration of a dwarven stronghold deep within both enemy territories no less.” The Sorceress bluntly reminded him, with her tone becoming slightly provoking, “That of which you and you alone secretly initiated and approved of, regardless of my insistence to inform the other Council members. Even going as far as to arrogantly come so ill-prepared with so little supplies and so few soldiers. Not to mention dragging myself and your still very inexperienced proteges along with you.” She was about to rebuke him some more, but she immediately stopped when he suddenly closed his and carefully listened to something else, and instead decided to reinforce the barrier around them as a precaution.

“Do you hear something, Master?” The girl cautiously inquired, drawing her bow and nocking an arrow.

“Indeed I do...” The Leader grinned widely, “And what an amusingly strong dwarf that is.” unbelievably hearing General Silverfoot approaching the rest of his soldiers preparing for a potentially siege. “Sounds like I should use the Skill after all.”

Feeling a little envious, the boy said “Times like this make me wish I could already hear the Whispers of the Wind speak to me, like they spoke to you at my age, Fath—I mean Master.” Also drawing his bow and nocking an arrow out of caution.

“In due time.” The Leader calmly replied, still monitoring the dwarves within the inner stronghold with his incredible hearing, “For the Wind will always choose to be heard when we are truly worthy to hear its whispers.”

“Hmph, well at least you two are lucky enough to have been born in the Bloodline of the Wind.” The girl bitterly mentioned, feeling more than a little envious of them, “I’ll only ever be my commoner-self, unworthy of ever hearing the Wind like your Noble Bloodline can...”

“The Bloodline of the Wind? What’s that?” I curiously wondered.

The boy immediately regretted bringing that fact up and awkwardly pretended to stare somewhere else, but the Leader quickly distracted the girl, asking “Lia, have you ever thought yourself lesser than Zebey because you’re not a noble? As an archer or my student?”

“It really is them, Odelia and Zebeyeyl.” Confirming my assumptions. “Which means that man is Zebeyeyl’s Father, who I believe Odelia said was named Illiveyl Fre’Nndare, and is the one who trained them to be the great Trinity Archers they are in the present.” Learning this, I quickly decided to attentively observe every little thing he did.

“Honestly, Master, never.” Odelia sincerely stated, her eyes showing she truly believed that.

“As you or anyone else shouldn’t.” Illiveyl smiled brightly, telling both of them “For you see you two, when the Great King Ven’Thyl was still alive and in his youth, it is said not once did he ever rely on or even utilize any of the three inherent powers of the Noble Bloodlines—or his own Royal Bloodline power for that matter, very much unlike his Father and their lineage before him.” He then knelt down on one knee and raised his bow at the large stone doors, “Yet he still accomplished something truly legendary with his very own ability; amazingly mastering each of the 3 Archery Styles in only 10 short years, while at the same time unthinkably developing both magic and runes to harness and combine the clashing powers within himself, and finally becoming the first Legendary Trinity Archer Class in the entire history of Novus.”

“So the Noble Bloodlines have inherent powers that commoners don’t? Well I guess that explains why I’ve heard most of them are so pretentious then.” I reasoned, “But it sounds like the Noble Bloodlines are nothing compared to the Royal one, especially if it’s true their bloodline can use any of these unknown inherent powers Illiveyl mentioned, as well as their own unknown power.” then thinking, “Looks like the missing Elven Heirs are special in more ways than one, and I can’t wait until I finally find them!”

“Master, you’re rambling about history you’ve already taught us again.” Odelia pointed out, “And this time we’re not sure what you’re trying to get at?” noticing Zebeyeyl’s cluelessness too.

“I mean do we ever get what he’s talking about?” Zebeyeyl jokingly asked, and Odelia smilingly shrugged.

The Sorceress suddenly spoke up and uttered, “Fly.” casting the magic on herself, “Levitate.” and then casted magic onto Odelia and Zebeyeyl. She then unexpectedly pulled the two upwards and flew away from the doors, explaining “To put it simply, I believe Lord Illiveyl means to say is, as the Great King Ven’Thyl never relied on such trivial things as the Noble or Royal Bloodlines, then neither should the two of you. For as you two will soon witness first-hand, the true power of a Trinity Archer goes beyond that which one's own blood can define.” Concluding, “And in the case of your Master…it’s a power that even dragons have come to fear.” and all our attention was directed onto Illiveyl.

Still knelt down on one knee with his eyes closed, the protective barrier surrounding Illiveyl slowly began to weaken from the barrage of attacks, but seemingly unworried about his predicament, he just casually took out two blackened metal arrows from his quiver and nocked both onto his bowstring. “Sounds like General Silverfoot and the dwarves have finished preparing.” He smirked excitedly, “But it would seem they haven’t prepared for an enemy like myself.” completely aware of everything the dwarves had planned inside for them.

Tightening his grip on his bow, the barrier protecting him finally shattered and disappeared, but completely unfazed by the barrage of incoming attacks, he simply opened his eyes. In a sudden fiery explosion, Illiveyl’s body erupted with an intense aura of flames engulfing his entire person, instantly incinerating any and all crossbow and ballista bolts flying in his direction. Then as he steadily began to draw his bowstring back, all the intense flames were rapidly channeled directly into his bow, igniting it and the two nocked arrows in a blazing fire, and causing all the runes along the bow to light up and glow in red.

“I can see where Odelia got her inspiration to create her Earth Piercer from, but this…this is on a whole other level.” I couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of Illiveyl masterfully controlling the flames enveloping his entire bow, as I watched him perfectly manipulate them to take the form of two dragon wings to act as the limbs of the bow.

Witnessing the immense bow take form, the dwarves overlooking the doors instantly acknowledged the danger Illiveyl posed against them and sounded another horn to warn all the dwarves inside; and acknowledging the danger too, the remaining dwarves fighting outside immediately directed all their attention to Illiveyl. However before they could even get close to him, the 6 Trinity Archers already stood in their ways—completely protecting their General from being interrupted. In the meantime, General Silverfoot swiftly reacted to the horn’s warning and ordered his men to retreat and prepare their tertiary defenses, but I could already see it was too late, as Illiveyl simply grinned and announced “Twin Flaming Dragon Piercer!”

The flaming dragon wings of the bow suddenly enlarged and burned with much more intensity, and once the two metal arrows were released from the burning bowstring, they both equally absorbed the blazing flames into themselves, both taking the form of two large flaming dragon winged arrows. And while they quickly soared towards the solid stone doors, they harmoniously spiraled together creating an incredibly beautiful spiraling trail of flames in the frigid mountain air. Then the instant the spiraling dragon winged arrows made contact with the solid stone, they easily drilled straight through the large doors like paper, igniting all the gunpowder the dwarves had prepared near the entrance.

The resulting explosion immediately caused the punctured doors to be blown wide open, sending large chunks of stone and debris flying in all directions, destroying the entire frontal structure of the stronghold, and crushing any and all dwarves nearby. However adding more to the absolute destruction of the attack, the spiraling twin arrows continued to fly down the long hallway of the inner stronghold, setting everything in its vicinity aflame and instantly killing any dwarf unfortunately to be in its path—only stopping when it finally reached the banquet hall deep in the stronghold and exploded further.

“Holy shit, I need to learn that!” I exclaimed to myself, seeing Odelia feel the same way.

“That was absolutely amazing, Master!” Odelia shouted from above, in complete amazement of her Master, “You have to teach us that!”

“I’ve always heard Father was quite unique for being an elf with such a high affinity for Fire, but being able to witness a fraction of his true power first-hand is…” Zebeyeyl almost became lost for words, “He truly is incredible, isn’t he, Lady Ilzt?”

“That he surely is, my young lord.” Lady Ilzt nodded in happy agreement, “But enough of us idling you two, we have an important task to accomplish!” quickly dragging them along as she flew straight through the enormous hole in the doors.

Though suddenly leaping into the air, General Silverfoot who was mostly unscathed by the devastating attack, angrily shouted in Dwarvish “You shall not pass!” But as he was about to strike them down with his warhammer, a hastened arrow unexpectedly struck him right in his armoured chest, knocking him out of their way and sending him crashing into the nearest dwarven statue. Without a second thought, Lady Ilzt continued to fly deeper and deeper into the stronghold, whilst Odelia and Zebeyeyl readily shot arrows and protected her from the surviving dwarves chasing right after them.

“Don’t tell me that was honestly enough to take out a member from the famed Silverfoot Clan, or was it?” Illiveyl spoke aloud in Dwarvish, stepping through the broken stone doors, “And here I thought someone from one of the five Great Dwarven Clans would actually be worth my effort!”

“War between the Kingdoms must truly be upon us again if even the feeble elves have so brazenly come this far north to attack dwarven lands.” General Silverfoot coldly responded, rising from the rubbles of the destroyed statue—appearing to be mostly unscathed again. “And for your kingdom to have sent so few to conquer my great stronghold, how much more arrogant can you elves be?”

“Think of us what you may, but know that this stronghold is no longer yours to guard, General Silverfoot.” Illiveyl stated, calmly nocking another arrow to his bow.

“It would seem you know of me, but I don’t believe I’ve heard of you before...” General Silverfoot curiously examined Illiveyl from afar.

“Is that so? Well then you may just call me Illiveyl.” Introducing himself with a little courteous bow, and adding “Although you might know me better as the most hated elf in the Dwarven Kingdom.” Finally drawing an emerald-jewelled longsword from his waist.

“The most hated elf?” General Silverfoot repeated, then quickly recognizing him, “Ah, I see who you are now...” picking himself up from the ground and cracking his neck with angried expression on his face, “A rugged-looking Wood Elf, who mockingly wears the symbol of a dragon on his armours, who’s affinity for Fire matches that of us dwarves, who always carries with him a sword jewelled in emeralds, and who most heinously wields a dreadful bow of dragon horns.”

“So you have heard of me, haha...” Illiveyl chuckled, happy to be known.

“Of course I have!” General Silverfoot angrily gripped his warhammer and shouted, “You’re the infamous Wood Elf Noble who boasts he has slain countless of our revered dragons throughout the lands of Novus! The despicable Dragonslaying Archer, Illiveyl Fre’Nndare!”

“Well I don’t know about despicable, but I do like the sound of being called the Dragonslaying Archer.” Illiveyl provokingly smirked, “Though I would rather prefer Dragonslayer Illiveyl—just rolls off the tongue, don’t you think?”

General Silverfoot grumbled in annoyance, “I’ve had enough of your brazen arrogance, elf!” pointing his warhammer towards Illiveyl, “And now that I know who you are and the heinous acts you have committed, know you will not be surviving this day!” proclaiming, “I will avenge our ancestors!”

“That’s some claim for one who does not even share the Blood-Kinship of the Dragons.” Illiveyl knowingly mentioned, surprising General Silverfoot with his knowledge, “But still, I can acknowledge the incredible strength you clearly possess. So please, do still try to entertain me a little, General.”

There was a brief moment of silence, but that was quickly interrupted as they simultaneously attacked at once; General Silverfoot smashed his warhammer against the ground, and Illiveyl fired the arrow he had densely compacted with mana beforehand. In an instant, the stone floor beneath their feet shattered into countless jagged spikes, and the arrow exploded into a rippling shockwave between the two—both marking the start of their even duel.