Sora walked down the hill, he could see players dragging themselves into groups while looking hopeless. This one wave had cleanly wipe away a majority of the main force, bringing the morale of everyone down. Sora took control of a group, becoming the main tank for the team. The group was at least happy to see Sora taking action. A lot of people looked up to him, trying to reach his height. Sora followed his own advice and kept his head held high, trying his best to remain confident.

Drazi, Blossom, and Solid Brick were the leaders of three other teams, with the last team mainly consisting of another guild that had joined forces with Sora. After the annihilation the bats caused nearly every guild had finally decided to join in with the main army. More random players were trickling in but the majority of players that wanted to fight had already rushed here, meaning the rest of the fighting force was already assembled.

LeeLee was still looking over the battlefield, she would have to take over as active commander since Sora had joined a group. Sora wanted to give a speech to raise the player morale but was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps coming from the trees. Every player there tensed up as they heard the sound. LeeLee started to give out orders, having everyone be prepared to fight. Each group spread out, so that they could keep their targets from attacking other groups. The demons finally stepped out of the trees, letting out a thunderous roar as they spotted their next prey.

Sora’s group was at the front so he attacked first, sending the entire battlefield into a frenzy. The sound of the magic cannon and artillery constantly echoed throughout the area, drowning out the sounds of players screaming and attacking. The tanks were fairing off well, the only problem was that the demons would swipe their tails every now and then, resulting in tens of deaths in an instant. If a damage dealer accidentally took aggro then they would be one hit, very few warriors could survive the damage that the boss put out. The tanks of each group were constantly bathed in a golden light as the healers continuously poured their mana into healing them.

Sora’s group was doing the best, since Sora was able to hold aggro on his target. His group stayed away from the back of the boss to avoid the tail swipe, only a few would die each time since there simply wasn’t enough room for everyone to attack unless some went behind it. The lower levels noticed this and sacrificed themselves so that the higher levels could take over on a better position. Sora was barely able to parry since he was being overwhelmed by the strength of the demon.

The rest of the groups were having trouble with aggro control, especially Blossoms group. She was constantly out aggroing her tank, resulting in the boss targeting her. She finally got tired of it and took over as the main tank, she could take a couple hits so it wasn’t a terrible idea. Solid Brick was doing surprisingly well, but still had slip ups and lost people. Drazi didn’t have many people left so his group was having difficulty doing damage, meaning people would start to run out of mana once the fight drags on for too long.

…..

“Hurry up, Trinity! We are going to miss the whole thing!”

“It’s not my fault! We had to finish the dungeon before we left.”

Sumi and her friend were rushing to the other side of the mountain, they heard the sounds of the magic cannon and artillery and felt their heart beating faster. They were excited to be a part of such a large scale battle and were rushing to make sure they were there for the end.

They had just passed by the part of the mountain that jutted out, revealing the defenses that Sora had put up as they came around. They rushed even faster with smiles, expecting to see an epic battle where the players came together to defeat the demons. When they had gotten to the top of a hill that overlooked the battlefield they became shocked.

There were barely any players left, many parts of the ground had craters with black scorches surrounding them. Some trees had hundreds of arrows pierced into their trunks, some had even been directly snapped in half or burned down. The players were struggling to hold things together, nearly using up every bit of mana they had. Three of the groups were almost wiped out already, while the other two had somehow pulled the health of their targets down below 20%.

“Th-this… hey Sumi, doesn’t it look like we are losing pretty badly?”

“... Maybe this is everyone that showed up?”

The two girls snapped out of their thoughts and ran towards the battlefield, joining in with Blossoms team. She had taken the boss on the left while Sora had the boss on the right. He was too preoccupied to pay attention to the entire battlefield and didn’t even notice the girls joining. Blossom noticed the two new recruits and already issued out some command for them. Sumi was a mage while her friend was a healer so they had relatively safe spots in the fight.

…..

A roar was heard as the boss that Sora was fighting had finally been picked off, leaving only a couple hundred players. The boss didn’t drop any loot so the team instantly moved on to the next boss, giving some help to Drazi who was in desperate need of reinforcements. The magic cannon and artillery ran out of mana to operate a while back, reducing the armies damage output drastically. The players who were operating the machines were freed from it but they had depleted all of their mana so they weren’t able to do much.

Drazi ended up dying to a tail swipe, killing off the last person from his guild. The boss was relatively low but only a hundred players remained. At this rate he would lose nearly every player he had. Blossom was able to relieve some tension as she finished off her boss, moving to the group that Solid Brick was leading.

Each boss fell one by one, ending when there were only 300 hundred players left in the entire army. The random players made up over 200 players, creating a hard to manage army. The final scout ran through the treeline, a panicked look on his face when he saw the pathetic amount of players that were left.

“The main boss is nearly here…”

Every player had a pained expression as they heard the news, they had lost most of their fighting force and didn’t have any hope of killing off the last boss. Sora made a pained expression as he walked to the front of the crowd, being the bearer of bad news wasn’t pleasant for him.

“Retreat to the outpost if you still want to fight, that is where we will make our last stand. The boss will take awhile to get there so we could recover and wait for reinforcements if we need to… if you don’t want to fight… leave before it’s too late.”

A handful of people took his advice and left, they didn’t see a point in continuing. The rest of the group lined up behind Sora and started to make their way back to the cave. Solid Brick, First Shot, and Second Shot stayed behind to use some shots from the ballista to help soften him up a bit. Sumi’s friend had died during the last battle, she filed into the group of players and started to head back to the outpost. Sora didn’t notice her since she was fairly small, being hidden at the back of the crowd. A silent journey took place as the survivors made their way to the final battlefield. The silence was only broken by the sounds of ballista and catapults firing for a few seconds, only to become quiet once again.

…..

Sumi quietly followed the crowd, her nerves were shaken as she saw the hopelessness in Sora’s eyes. She became sadder and sadder as the fiery glint of confidence in Sora’s eyes slowly faded away. He kept his head held high but Sumi could tell it was only a facade to keep the players from falling in morale. She gave a small sigh, she had thought that Ethereal would be a person who thought he was above everyone else but he seems to care more for the people than for himself. She couldn’t help but admire him a little, she questioned if she would be able to do the same.

“Amazing isn’t he?”

Blossom had fallen to the back of the crowd, she didn’t feel like she had earned the right to walk in front and needed a moment to hang her head low. If Sora saw her moping then he would surely feel even worse about the outcome of the battle. She had seen Sumi looking at Sora and couldn’t help but chime in. Sumi was a bit confused at first, she pointed to herself to make sure Blossom was talking to her. She felt that someone who had earned the nickname of Red Devil would not be so friendly. Blossom simply nodded in confirmation.

“... He really is, I didn’t imagine him to be so down to earth. He didn’t feed false hope to the people here and told them exactly what we all already knew. He didn’t persuade them to stay and even suggested they leave if they want.”

“How about I tell you the story of how we met, it’s a little funny when I think about it.”

“Sure.”

“Hmmm, where do I begin? Me and my friend…”

Blossom told the story of asking Sora for directions to fight some wolves, she described Sora as a boring fisherman who couldn’t defend himself which made Sumi laugh a little. Her heart warmed as she heard the story of how Sora saved Blossom and LeeLee, then immediately brought them along on a hidden quest. Blossom was able to tell a lot of stories of the adventures she had with Sora and LeeLee, Sumi couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Blossom’s adventure was only something that she could dream of, she had always blended in with the masses and didn’t think it would be possible to be at the top of the gaming world.

“... then he shut everyone up by posting his own video of what really happened. Don’t you think that’s amazing? He is someone you can always rely on, which makes me feel like always trying to be there to help out too. I learn something new every time we adventure together and he doesn’t put me down because of my faults.”

“Haha, It sounds like your group is more like a family and Ethereal is the big brother that protects all his siblings.”

“Hehe… Ya, it’s where I feel most comfortable… Ah, looks like we are here, I have to go report to mister fish- Er, Ethereal. It was nice talking to you, I’ll put in a good word and see if I can get you in the guild.”

“You don’t have-”

“Nope! I’m doing it for me!”

Sumi watched as Blossom ran up to the front of the crowd, a beaming smile on her face. Sumi looked into the sky and imagined what it would be like if she really was able to join the guild, would she be able to find comfort like Blossom?

…..

Sora had walked into the cave, he stopped at the first intersection to make sure nobody got lost. Both directions would take you to the outpost but the one on the left was shorter and less complicated. Blossom and LeeLee started to lead the group while Sora stayed at the intersection, assessing the players as they walked by. At the end of the crowd a petite girl with black hair was trailing behind. Sora shook his head a bit as he looked at her, it was a little dark and he had thought he might have been making a mistake. He kept seeing what looked to be a younger version of Sumi. His heart started to beat faster and faster every time he reconfirmed his eyesight. When the nametag finally appeared his heart skipped a beat as a name accidentally passed by his lips.

“... S-Sumi?”