It was about noon when The Guardian Elder finally saw the movement of black carapace on the horizon and bellowed for everyone in Ziege Basin to hear. It took another fifteen minutes for the ants to arrive at the entrance of the canyon.

Just as they had countless times before, the horde of Iron Ant Drones flooded into the canyon, marching toward their almost certain deaths at the hooves of the Mountain Goats, their invincible protector, and a strange figure sitting alone about 200 feet in front of them.

When those at the front started to falter, intimidated by the nigh impenetrable wall of fur, muscle, and horns before them, they were quickly trampled over by those behind them.

The initial wave of ants was like a literal wave of bodies as they were forced closer by their duty to the nest, ready to initiate a battle that had been fought the same way for generations.

Then the strange figure, Yang, equipped the Monstrous Helm.

The walls of the canyon were only 50 feet apart. With the diameter of the Monstrous Helm’s Skill being 70 feet, Yang was able to give every single approaching Drone the [FEAR] debuff. With a clear line of sight, they were all hit with the full effect.

Unable to approach her, Drones began to pile up by the hundreds as more and more tried to climb over or push aside their immobile kin, only to become slowed or paralyzed themselves.

“Fire!”

With the twang of bowstrings and flashes of magic, a wave of death fell upon the crowded ants from the canyon walls.

Fire, arrows, magic, logs, and boulders rained down as the players threw everything they had at the oncoming swarm. Many of the giant insects died in seconds, and those that didn’t were heavily wounded.

The power of the Monstrous Helm was being put to its full effect, but as powerful as it was, it couldn’t stop them all.

Leaping over the growing pile of dying Drones, Iron Ant Warriors continued the charge. Some of the weaker ones were struck by [FEAR] and fell amongst the Drones, while others were hit by the bombardment, but the majority made it through and were aiming for Yang as she stood out the most.

Suddenly, several shadows appeared from overhead. Over two dozen melee fighters jumped from their positions on the wall and fell on the ants like wolves onto sheep.

Some of the ants were quick enough to dodge, but most of them were struck by the attack from such an unexpected direction. With gravity adding to the strength of their attacks, several of the players cut down Warriors in a single blow, and those that didn’t still brutally maimed their targets. Unfortunately, this was only a small percentage of the Warriors that came for the siege, and more were leaping over the growing mound of bodies with every second.

However, it was at this moment that the main force arrived.

With the appearance of the Iron Ant Warriors, The Guardian Elder had let out a bellowing bleat, and the Mountain Goats that had been eagerly waiting for war all charged forward. As the goats started engaging the Warriors, The Guardian Elder used her powerful body to charge straight through the wall of bodies, trampling countless Drones as she pushed forward to rampage behind enemy lines.

Finally, the siege had begun.

~~~~~

‘Looks like things are starting out well enough,’ Soze thought as he looked over the battlefield, firing arrows at the Warriors below.

Each of the two long alcoves were around 30 feet up the walls, and deep enough for two players to walk by each other comfortably. It had taken the builders and casters nearly 8 hours to produce long enough openings on the walls to hold all the players, but their exhausting work was producing magnificent results.

From up here it was impossible for the Drones to get them, their clawed feet unable to find enough cracks in the solid stone to get all the way up. A few of the stronger Warriors could leap up to reach them, but doing so made them easy targets for the ranged players and they were quickly shot down.

For the melee players below, the alcoves were a safe haven they could retreat to at any time. The Strength fighters could easily jump up with [LEAP], and while the Dexterity-focused players had a bit more trouble, they could still make their way up in a few seconds with a running start and a few foot holds placed along the walls.

The best part of this strategy was the ever-growing mountain of dead Drones.

Soze had gotten Alvor to speak with the Mountain Goats and tell them to not charge out immediately. It had been difficult, but The Guardian Elder was intelligent enough that while she may not understand why, she understood what he was asking and trusted him enough to make the other goats listen. Alvor had also asked The Guardian Elder to be careful of the players on the wall, so the threat of losing the high ground was also removed.

This gave them the opportunity to use the Monstrous Helm to freeze their entire frontline. They could only maintain a line of sight for a short time at the beginning of the fight, but with the pile of dead bodies making movement more difficult, the reduced effects of [FEAR] were still able to hold back the tide of Drones with ease.

Alvor had also asked The Guardian Elder to be careful of the players on the wall, so the threat of losing the high ground was also removed.

With the Drones being held back, either by the Monstrous Helm or by the corpses of other ants, the impossibly large army of ants was suddenly reduced to a few hundred Warriors. Most of the players would struggle against such an enemy, but with the Mountain Goats providing greater numbers, the players could team up and take the Warriors down one at a time.

Meanwhile, concentrating so many enemies into such a limited area raised the offensive capabilities of the builders and casters massively. The Fire Bombs, though being used far more sparingly, were able to hit even more ants with each cast, builders were able to crush multiple targets without issue, and everyone could attack without the worry of missing a target since there were so many of them.

The archers couldn’t waste their arrows on the Drone horde, but the Warriors below were easily distracted by the fighting around them and made for easy targets. And since the situation was much less chaotic without the Drones around, it was easier for some of the melee players to retrieve arrows for them.

Finally, The Guardian Elder is behind enemy lines, demolishing dozens, if not hundreds of Iron Ant Drones every second. Normally the roles would be reversed for the goats, but with the sudden increase in numbers the Drones were best left to the inexhaustible Beskyd. Normally the Warriors would also target The Guardian Elder. Still, the massive pile of corpses was also extremely noticeable and, without knowing what was causing it, was making the larger put equal priority on reaching the other side.

Overall, the plan wasn’t just working well, it was almost going better than expected.

‘Now how long can we keep it up?’

The hard part was keeping the bombardment going. The casters would need to rest eventually, and the builders didn’t have infinite ammunition. The casters were putting aside their fire magic and using earth magic to sculpt more boulders, but that was still a slow and mana-intensive process.

‘Only the builders are strong enough to retrieve the boulders and logs. They all learned Leap at my request, so I suppose a few of the braver ones could try retrieving them, but I really can’t ask non-combatants to jump into all of that.’

He had already assumed it, but the more he thought about the situation the more he was certain that they just couldn’t maintain the bombardment for too much longer. Yang, Alexx, and Zed were prepared to use the Monstrous Helm in shifts to maintain the corpse wall, but the casters couldn’t keep using fire magic, and with the builders running low on ammo they Drones would start pushing through the weakened [FEAR] and join the Warriors on the other side of the wall.

‘...There’s no point worrying about it.’ They would eventually have to face the Drones, it was only a matter of when. ‘All that’s left is the-’

“SOLDIERS INCOMING!’

Soze cursed and turned his gaze skyward. Sure enough, a force of twenty Iron Ant Soldiers was currently making its way across the canyon.

“ALL ARCHERS AT THE REA-”

*BANG*

Soze’s call to arms was quickly silenced by what sounded like a small explosion, followed by the disappearance of The Guardian Elder. The players then felt slight tremors through the stone as the enormous goat leapt from wall to wall, climbing ever higher to reach the Soldiers above.

‘Oh, right, Yang had mentioned this.’ In all honesty, Soze hadn’t forgotten about this, he simply found it hard to believe that such a massive goat could perform such a feat when she told him about it after they first returned. Even when Alexx and Zed backed her up, and when he finally saw The Guardian Elder in person, it still seemed a little too fantastical. And yet, there she was, rocketing through the air as she chased down the fragile but nimble Soldiers.

‘I suppose that takes care of them, but it will put more pressure on everyone down below.’

There were still a number of things that could go wrong, and that was even before the Guardians eventually showed up, but there was nothing else they could do. They had laid their plans and made their preparations, all that was left was to keep fighting.