Chapter 202: Island Defense

One hour earlier…

Sherry stood on the portal altar of Kordas, with a portal to Rene closing behind her. As she looked back through it, she caught one final glimpse of Yorgi waving her off. Once the portal had closed, she looked around at the quiet, peaceful city nearby for a moment before opening up her guild communications interface.

There, quite a few members were discussing a message Yorgi had sent.

[Yorgi]: Hae-won claims that Aegis has a plan, but he needs you to trust him exactly, Quinn

[Quinn]: What exactly does he want? I'm still a bit busy with this raid boss.

[Yorgi]: He wants you to hand over guild leadership to Sherry.

[Trexon]: What?

[Sapphire]: Is he an idiot? Why?

[Baffo]: After what just happened with Cheryl, I don’t know if it’s a good idea to start trusting someone else with leadership.

[Yorgi]: He didn’t explain why, but he says it’s the only way

Following this message, there was a long silence, until suddenly a guild wide announcement went out.

The Guild leader has transferred leadership to the player [Sherry]. This player will now be acting on behalf of the King of Kordas.

[Trexon]: Seriously?

[Quinn]: Good luck, Sherry.

[Sherry]: I will do my best.

After Sherry wrote the message, she closed out of the guild interface and took a deep breath. From there, she walked with determination in the direction of the Kordas Barracks.

She was surprised to see the guards immediately recognize her permission. She faced no resistance what so-ever while entering the barracks, then descending to the basement level into the heavily guarded Kordas Prison.

Once inside, she navigated beyond the cells that held NPCs, until arriving at the cells intended for players. A large number of the cells were marked as occupied, but most were empty due to the imprisoned player logging out while serving their sentence. Sherry continued to walk through the dark, torch lit stony hallways lined with iron-barred prison cells until she reached nearly the end and saw one player logged in.

Garrick was in the back of his cell, still sporting the Black Lion guild tabard and doing physical exercise to take advantage of the training experience bonuses he had while imprisoned. It was clear he was in the middle of watching a livestream viewer in his peripheral vision as Sherry approached, but once he heard her footsteps he got up from his exercise and fidgeted his fingers around in front of his face to close out of the livestream viewer.

“What’s a Night Hunter doing here?” Garrick asked Sherry curiously as he eyed her satyr horns and hooves curiously.

“I’m here to make a deal.” Sherry replied while crossing her arms.

“A deal? Not interested. If Quinn wants to make any sort of deal with me, she can come down here and talk to me herself.” Garrick crossed his arms defiantly.

“I’m acting as guild leader for the Night Hunters right now, and I speak on behalf of the King. Meaning, I have the power to pardon your prison sentences.” Sherry declared, piquing Garrick’s interest.

“Hm.” He began pacing in his cell. “What sort of deal?”

“I’ll pardon you and your guild members if you sign a contract stating you will not attack or rob any players or NPCs of this island. And, you will fight to defend the island against the abyssal invasion.” Sherry replied.

“Hah.” Garrick tilted his head back and grinned. “The invasion is coming, isn’t it?” He asked, and Sherry nodded. “You guys must be pretty desperate, coming to us after what we did. But, why would we help you under those conditions? Our sentence will be served in a few weeks, and we’ll be out without that contract.” Garrick replied.

“Because what happened to you, also happened to us.” Sherry answered, causing Garrick to look back down into her eyes with a serious expression. “You got infiltrated by one of their players, and they manipulated you from the inside, turned you against your allies and used you.”

“Nah, that’s not what happened.” Garrick waved this off.

“Oh really? Where’s the Crown of the Arallian king? Who coerced you to log back in once you had it secured? Where’s all your plunder and treasures from the fall of Arallia?” Sherry asked as she stepped forward, closer to the bars. “Joltblade was wearing the necklace he stole. They are probably loaded with gold from the island falling. How much of that did they share with your guild?” Sherry asked.

Following her words, there was a long silence as Garrick shamefully looked down at his feet.

“I’m not here to insult you. Cheryl did the same thing to us. They pretend to be your friend and act like a part of your guild, but in reality they’re just trying to divide your members and control you. It sucks. So what I’m offering you, with this contract…” Sherry pulled a contract out from her inventory, written using her merchant class skills. “Is a chance to get revenge, and a chance at redemption. You were manipulated, yeah - but that doesn’t mean you guys have to stay the bad guys forever.” Sherry finished her negotiations and took a deep, anxious breath of air as she waited for Garrick to respond.

Now…

“That guy, didn’t he just say he was prepared for everything you might do?” Herilon looked mockingly at the disintegrating body of Emerill, eying a pair of high level leather boots that had dropped.

“Guess he forgot to account for my tactical berserker airstrike strategy.” Aegis smirked back at Herilon, causing him to chuckle. Aegis walked over to pick up the boots and add them to his inventory while Snowflake landed on the ground nearby and excitedly rushed over.

“I heard a bit of your plan from Yorgi, but, how’d you know it’d play out like this?” Herilon asked him curiously.

“I didn’t, to be honest.” Aegis shrugged. “I only knew that your and the Blades guilds were both stuck in a trap, and it was most likely already too late to save you guys. So, I tried to think of a way to take advantage of how bad our situation was.” Aegis replied as he climbed onto Snowflake’s saddle, and Snowflake let out an excited squawk.

“How exactly?” Herilon raised his eyebrow.

“I joined in. I jumped into the trap alongside you, and made it look like my party did as well. That way, whoever was behind this was likely going to feel confident that they’d won the battle. It was a bit of a gamble, but, given how all of those guys have been acting so far - between Emerill, Cheryl, and Joltblade, I figured they’ve been dying to monologue about how clever they were. They destroyed two islands and haven’t been able to brag about it yet, like an unscratched itch.

If I showed up with a viewership of several million, and they were certain they’d won, there was a good chance that Vagosh or whoever showed up would feel safe to brag about their plan.” Aegis shrugged. “Yorgi and Pyri were on standby with everyone else, ready to portal everyone where they needed to go once they heard Vagosh speak. I’m not exactly sure where they all ended up, but I trust my allies to be exactly where they need to be.” Aegis replied confidently.

“And, what about me?” Herilon asked while motioning to Snowflake.

“Snowflake’s smart. He was instructed to, if he could find an opportunity, pull you out of the battle. I told him to try and save the big guy with the giant sword.” Aegis smiled, causing Herilon to chuckle. “The mass petrification, though… I wasn’t expecting that. I was hoping to get you out of there alive, and have you flown here to this graveyard to help me out just in case Vagosh knew I’d resurrect from my ring of rebirth. Unfortunately, I don’t have more than enough oil to unpetrify one person, and I think I’m going to need it.” Aegis explained with a look of sympathy.

“Eh, it’s fine. I’m glad I could at least do something to help.” Herilon sighed as he looked up at the sky nearby longingly, then glancing towards his undying will buff counting down the last few seconds. “Just Sherry and Yorgi left, now. It sucks…” Herilon clenched his fists in frustration.

“Sherry and Yorgi both know what they are doing. I’ve got to get going, though. They’ll be on the move to try and destroy that 4th island stone.” Aegis explained, and Herilon nodded back.

“Yeah…” He said as Aegis grabbed Snowflake’s reins and prepared to take off into the air. “Hey, Aegis.” Herilon spoke in a serious tone, causing Aegis to give pause and look back at him. “This island… It means a lot to us. Not just Quinn. Please don’t let it fall.” Herilon said in the softest voice Aegis had ever heard from him.

Aegis wasn’t given a chance to respond, as the timer on Herilon’s undying will wore off, and his body dissipated from the game world. He was forced to log out for 24 hours, leaving Aegis alone with Snowflake. He remained in silence staring at the spot Herilon had been standing for a moment, before nudging Snowflake to take off.

Without hesitation, the great majestic gryphon wings spread wide, and he launched into the air, soaring high above the quiet village of Orm. With the wind blowing in his face, he looked ahead through the clear skies with determination.

“Alright. Sherry, you ready?” Aegis shouted loudly, directing his word to his livestream. He checked his friends list interface to see that she’d responded with a ‘Yes’ message, then quickly closed it out and took a deep breath.

“Listen up, players of Kalmoore. I know a lot of you are watching me right now.” Aegis said as he eyed his viewership climbing above 3 million. “You’re probably thinking our island is done for, but that's far from the truth. As long as I’m still alive, this island won’t go down. But, I’m going to need your help. So don’t log out and save your belongings, and don’t even think about pillaging and raiding NPC shops. Instead, I want you to get your asses to the walls of Kordas, and prepare for its defense against the abyssal invasion.

Now, you might be thinking, why would I do that? Why risk dying and losing all of your stuff? And the answer to that is, in 5 minutes from now, Sherry, the acting guild leader for the Night Hunters, will send out an island wide quest that will reward anyone 1 gold for each abyssling or reaper slain. This quest will keep track of how many of them you kill. One gold may not seem like much, but they’re only level 30, and anyone can participate. And as an added bonus…” Aegis grinned to himself mischievously,

“The top 10 players with the most abyssling and reaper kills will get a Mithral weapon of their choice, crafted and enchanted personally by me.” Aegis declared, and his viewership suddenly began to spike upwards rapidly. “So, I don’t care how you do it, what NPCs you hire as mercenaries, what pets you use, what traps you create, what poison elixirs you concoct. Class does not matter. Log your asses back in, and defend Kordas from this invasion. Kalmoore does not fall today.” Aegis shouted triumphantly.

“It’s incredible, nothing like what we saw back in Arallia!” Samathara shouted out excitedly as she looked down upon the city of Kordas from the top of the Skyport Tower. Moments ago, the streets below were devoid of any players and NPCs. The guards had already moved to their positions on the walls, while the other NPCs retreated to their homes, and most of the players had already logged out after having put their items into storage.

Now, however, Samathara watched as hundreds, then thousands of players began to log back into the game world, quickly filling the streets back up. The players were varying in level drastically, as were their classes. She watched as a farmer class player began equipping horned armor to his horses, and working with a blacksmith class player to add weaponry to one of his plows and prepare it for battle.

A guild of architect players had logged back in and were transporting large loads of lumber towards the southern gates, and within a few seconds had begun the construction of several catapults aimed towards the outside of the city.

“With only one known player being able to craft mithral weapons, the value of such items are insurmountably high. I can imagine that every single player in Kalmoore is eager try to get their hands on one of them.” Samathara spoke excitedly. “Hell, I’m pretty tempted to hop down from this tower and join them on the walls. I’m pretty strong myself.” She smirked while flexing her muscles.

“Pyri, you’re up.” Aegis said into his party interface, containing Pyri, Lina, Darkshot, and Rakkan. “Finley said he’s sending the rest of the Juggernauts to Rene. Is the 4th Juggernaut dead?” Aegis asked her while soaring through the sky on Snowflake’s back.

“Yep.” Pyri replied jovially.

“Okay. Get the White Flames back to Rene. Leave the Black Lions to defend the 4th stone. Then, open the last portals in Kordas, return to Rene and help the White Flames kill the other four juggernauts.” Aegis instructed her.

“Yes, boss.” Pyri replied jokingly.

“You’re going to be okay defending Rene from four juggernauts?”

“Pft. C’mon. That’s not a serious question, is it? I’ve got Yuki and the White flames with me.” Pyri laughed.

“You’re just leaving us here?” Garrick asked as he watched Pyri open a portal to Rene behind them. Garrick and the entire Black Lion guild were engaging with swarms of abysslings as the black mist encroached on the 4th island stone, sitting in the middle of a dense forest surrounded by pine trees. The trees at their bases were hard to see due to the mist, and their tops were crawling with abysslings - the skies above as well were swarming with reapers.

“The big boss is dead. You guys will be eligible to get Aegis’ mithral weapons too, y’know.” Pyri smirked as she motioned towards the swarms. “Top 10 kills gets the weapons.” She gave an encouraging thumbs up.

“We already killed the big one. Just hold back the babies.” Erikson replied in a condescending tone.

“Yeah, but what if the Avatar shows up?” Garrick asked as he watched Yuki and Josephine step through the portal.

“It’ll be a good opportunity for your guild to repent.” Josephine replied coldly through the other side of the portal, her voice trailing off.

“Just delay as much as possible. Fight hard.” Pyri gave them a thumbs up.

“You can do it!” Yuki cheered encouragingly at them. Following this, the last of the White Flames went through Pyri’s portal and arrived back in Rene, closing the portal behind them to the 4th island stone.

Once in Rene, Pyri glanced around and spotted Farlion and Celestian both waiting for her arrival.

“Farlion, secure the walls with the guards of Rene, and get Clara and the other priests down here. It’s about to get really noisy in this tiny little town.” Pyri instructed the two elite NPCs. They both nodded back eagerly, rushing off to carry out her instructions. “You guys fortify as best you can. Ideally, the juggernauts will stagger their arrival as they’re coming here from different locations on the island. If we can take them out one at a time, it should be easy.” Pyri turned to the others.

“Got it.” Erikson nodded before looking towards a ranger member of his guild. “Eyes in the sky, call out the first Juggernaut you see approaching.” Erikson instructed him, and the Ranger nodded back while simultaneously sending a hawk from his shoulder high into the sky to scout the lands surrounding Rene. Following this, Pyri began opening another portal.

“Where are you going?” Yuki asked her curiously.

“Me? I’m carrying out the best part of the plan. I’ll be back in a minute.” She smiled back.

“What is this? What is happening over there?” Samathara’s jaw dropped, as did all of the other broadcasters who stood around her atop the Skyport tower. Their eyes had all landed on the Portal Altar of Kordas, where rows upon rows of soldiers wearing dark orange armor began pouring out. The soldiers had dark skin, and white hair, armed with spears and longbows.

The very front of their marching order was led by a single, heavily armored female Dark Elf named Viella, wielding a pair of daggers. The dark elves marched into the city in rows of two, and their numbers seemed endless. They continued to march forward in unison out of the portal, filling the streets of Kordas as they made their way towards the city's walls.

“The Dark Elves from the City of the White Tree, that Aegis had saved just a few weeks earlier! They’re coming to help defend the city! This is incredible!” Samathara cheered excitedly.

“Ooooh. It’s helms deep! It’s helms deep! I knew it! Aegis is telling my story!” Shinji cheered like a giddy school girl.

“Wasn’t helms deep with high elves? Not Dark elves?” Tommy replied through his voice call with Shinji.

“Shut up, you won’t take this from me.” Shinji growled back at him.

“Sorry about that, ladies and gentlemen. I’m feeling much better now!” Hae-won cheered excitedly to Aegis’ audience as she re-appeared in front of his broadcast alongside Megan. “I hope you guys were all nice to my friend here.” Hae-won motioned to a relieved Megan. “I’ll take it from here.” Hae-won grinned.

“Okay.” Megan bowed timidly before logging out of the broadcast simulation.

“So, who’s ready to see Aegis kick an invasion's ass?” Hae-won shouted to his audience of 3 million views, watching the chat log zoom by with cheers of ‘hell yeah’ and ‘lets do this’.

A portal in Rene opened, with a backdrop of glowing blue mushrooms. Pyri stepped through, followed by Ulaipu, and a small battalion of heavily armored Plashrim.

“Here’s our reinforcements.” Pyri cheered as Yuki stood waiting for her at the portal altar. Erikson, Josephine and the others had already moved to man the walls.

“Tell us where you’d like us. We owe a great debt that we are eager to repay.” Ulaipu said to Pyri.

“Hm… you know your guards the best. Find any weaknesses in our walls' defenses and shore it up. Leave the big Juggernauts to us, focus on the abysslings and reapers when they show up, I guess.” Pyri shrugged.

“Yes, ma’am.” Ulaipu saluted her before he began giving instructions to his 50 or so Plashrim soldiers. After a few moments, they fanned out throughout the city towards the walls.

“And now, we wait.” Pyri said to Yuki, and she nodded back at her.

Finley stood in the courtyard of the ruined temple, glaring angrily at Aegis’ livestream, then Samathara’s in his livestream viewer, before frustratedly closing them out and turning towards the Avatar of Jealousy.

“The forces of light are mocking you. They think you will be easily defeated.” Finley said to her.

“Allow me to consume their flesh. Feed me their darkest desires. I will destroy them all, and devour the light of this land.” Jealousy hissed back at him.

“That’s the spirit. Come, the 4th island stone is this way.” Finley replied as he cast his wings of Darkness spell with a wag of his fingers, causing the black misty wings to form on his back. Once they’d appeared, he leapt into the air and began flapping them. Jealousy did the same with her wings, and together the two began soaring off away from the temple, towards the northern end of the island.

“It’s getting really noisy outside.” Cheryl commented as she remained standing off with Darkshot, Lina and Rakkan. Beside her stood Joltblade and Quiver, and behind her an eager Zekor, whispering commentary to his livestream broadcasting.

“Man, I really just want to log out and relax for a bit. Can you guys not make this so complicated?” Quiver groaned. “We just need to have a quick chat with the King.”

“I knew you shot me on purpose.” Darkshot answered him with a nasty look.

“Nah, I swear, total accident. I really am just a bit clumsy.” Quiver replied, followed by a yawn.

“You really want to do this dance again, Rune Knight? This time, I’m the one with the healer. You guys don’t stand a chance in a three vs three fight.” Joltblade said while eying Rakkan and his echoes.

“Yeah. True. As it is, we would lose a three on three.” Rakkan nodded back in agreement, before briefly glancing towards Lina, and she gave a knowing nod back at him.

“They’re planning something.” Quiver commented as he watched this exchange. Following his words, he pulled out his longbow while Joltblade pulled out his Mithral swords, and Cheryl pulled out her shield and scepter.

“Yorgi, now!” Lina shouted suddenly, followed by a fast forward dashing moment. Her words caught them off guard, as did the blue glowing light that appeared behind them. Cheryl, Joltblade and Quiver glanced backwards to see Yorgi, his invisibility spell fading. He was finishing the cast of a portal spell directly behind Cheryl.

The moment that Cheryl and the others saw it, Lina had already reached her and body checked Cheryl in an attempt to push her through the portal.

She was quick enough to turn around and brace the attack, preventing her from stumbling backwards, though.

“Oh, so now you can block hits without falling backwards?” Darkshot commented mockingly as she saw it.

“That’s your plan?” Joltblade asked mockingly as he drew out his lightning shurikens and sent them at Yorgi. Before any could connect, though, Rakkan sent his Rune knights forward to intercept the shurikens and knock them away from Yorgi using his new mithral weapons. Simultaneously, Quiver fired several arrows at Yorgi which were all carefully shot down by obsidian tipped arrows fired by Darkshot.

Rakkan and Darkshot succeeded in protecting Yorgi, so that he was able to maintain it. Meanwhile, Lina shadowstepped behind Cheryl, grabbed her by the collar of her armor, and angrily jerked her forward through the portal against her will, the two stumbling through the blue gateway together.

The moment they had, Yorgi closed the portal behind them.

“Good, go, get out of here.” Rakkan shouted to Yorgi who nodded back, fearfully eying a lightning shuriken soaring through the throne room towards him which was just barely intercepted by one of Rakkan’s echoes.

“Great.” Cheryl sighed as she and Lina rolled off the top of an unfamiliar portal altar, landing on a paved stone floor in a dimly lit chamber. The walls were high, with a few windows allowing sunlight in, but for the most part it was very dark. “Where the hell are we?” Cheryl groaned as she stood upright and dusted herself off, Lina doing the same a few meters away.

“In one of the Blades of Kalmoore fortresses, far away from Kordas. Here, you won’t be able to heal your companions.” Lina answered her.

“You sure you want to be the one to fight me one on one?” Cheryl raised her eyebrows at Lina. “I’m a cleric, you know.” A smile slowly began growing on her face.

“Oh I know.” Lina lowered her head and began glaring at Cheryl, her eyes filling with rage. “I want to be the one to kill you.”