Sumi stopped walking, she could have sworn she just heard her name being called. She looked behind her and the only person there was Sora, staring at her with his mouth slightly open from shock. She started to doubt her ears, she looked around and found out she was the only person around. She wanted to ask Sora if he called out to her but felt awkward, she would be embarrassed if she was wrong. An awkward silence filled the space between them, both of them not sure of what to do. Sora had realized his mistake and found himself in an awkward position, of course it would be weird to call her by her real name when he shouldn’t even know it. Sumi found herself alone with Sora and felt nervous, what if she had misheard him and now she was just awkwardly standing in front of him.

The awkward silence was finally broken when the sound of heavy footsteps had entered the cave, by the time Sora looked behind him the demon was already right there. He pushed Sumi away as a sickle came flying down, barely missing them both. Before Sumi could say anything else, Sora built a couple walls at the left entrance of the cave. He bolted to the right, being hit from behind by a monstrous force that rocketed him further into the cave. His health had been depleted to triple digits in one hit but Sora used the last of his gold to put up one more wall, hoping it would slow the boss down enough. Sora started to run down the passage just as the boss hit the wall, taking away just under 50% of the durability it had. Sora didn’t have much time so he ran without looking back, even if he built 100 walls it would only delay the inevitable while also blocking reinforcements from coming in.

The boss broke through the wall within seconds, Sora was luckily able to gain some distance in that short amount of time and kept himself away from the boss. A long chase started, the winding caves making it even harder on him since one dead end would be his doom. Sora concentrated the best he could to remember the correct path to take.

…..

Sumi was sitting on the ground in a stupor, a loud bang was heard a few times followed by a crumbling noise. She didn’t know what would happen next so she started to run through the cave, catching up to the group and running straight to Blossom.

“The boss is in the cave!”

“What?! Where’s Ethereal!?”

“... He blocked the passage, I don’t know what happened to him.”

“Ah, forget it, I’ll message him while we all run!”

The group made a mad sprint through the cave, luckily Sora had put signs up so everybody was able to find their way without a problem. Blossom tried to message Sora a few times but didn’t get anything back, she started to fear the worst had happened. She kept trying to contact him up until the group made it to the cavern, getting nothing in response. The outpost was empty, all of the players either joined the fight or left since all the shops had been closed during the territory defense mode. Some still lingered around in the chasm but didn’t have any interest in the event, only focusing on getting EXP from the corrupted creatures. The NPCs stood outside of their shops, each of them wearing battle gear and carefully watching the area.

The player started to form groups again, when they heard that Sora had sacrificed himself they all felt bitter. Each player here was the strongest out of the entire army, so someone sacrificing himself for them only hurt their pride. They didn’t doubt that Ethereal was the strongest amongst them but they also knew they could also hold their own. Some of the random players were hoping that Sora was killed off, this way they could earn a little more reputation for themselves. A leader of one of the smaller guilds walked to the front of the group.

“I will take control of the army since Ethereal is gone now, any problems with that?”

“I think it would be better if I take con-”

“Hey, what about me?”

“I have the highest level here, it should be me!”

“What does your level have to do with leading an army?!”

The group started to fall apart, without Sora here everyone was confident that they were the strongest. LeeLee was technically the commander right now but everyone overlooked her. Blossom was getting ticked off as she heard the other players fight over who should command. Some of the smarter players backed out of the argument when they saw Blossom’s anger showing, the dumber ones had to face the wrath of the Red Devil.

“Have you all forgotten who is already in charge?!”

“Psh, that little girl can’t lead an army, she can’t even talk-”

“ENOUGH!”

Blossom flipped out when she saw LeeLee hanging her head down, she had always been shy and Blossom had to be the one to defend her. Just when she was about to start shouting LeeLee stepped in front of her. LeeLee might have been shy but she couldn’t drag down the rest of the guild because of her faults.

“If it wasn’t for me then you would all be dead right now!”

Blossom was shocked, she had never seen LeeLee use such a loud voice before. Even the person who was criticising her had heard the commanding undertone in her voice, a lot of people forget that LeeLee is one of the strongest players in the game right now. The surprisingly aggressive tone reminded them that she was a high rank within Phoenix Rising. LeeLee would normally sit back and take the insults but Sora had entrusted her as the commander, she couldn’t show her weakness right now. She knew her importance, she had been keeping the entire army together and saved a lot of people. If it wasn’t for her orders then who’s to say the battle wouldn’t have already ended with a complete wipe.

The arguing over the commander position stopped there, everybody was on edge and felt like taking things into their own hands but who here could actually handle the responsibility of this life or death situation.

…..

Sora had been running around this cave for a full ten minutes, always staying the same distance away from the boss. His big body made it harder for him to traverse the caves so he was slowed down quite a bit. Sora was nearly at the entrance to the outpost, he had been trying to devise a plan but couldn’t come up with anything that would for sure be able to defeat this guy. The entrance was in sight, he dashed into the outpost and saw a group of players in the courtyard with the NPCs. When the boss was in sight everybody tensed up and became serious.

“Surround him, let the NPCs stand in front with me!”

The group formed a semicircle to welcome the boss into, his body was big enough for every melee class to fit around, while the archers and mages stood in the back. Sora used [Purge With Silver] to deal damage to the boss, it was corrupted so it took 400% damage from the attack. Sora was able to lock aggro but the damage he was taking nearly killed him with every attack. The healers had to constantly keep their spells on him or else he would fall. The boss would sometimes attack with his offhand, killing off players at random.

The NPCs wouldn’t die, their health dropped to 1 before they used a scroll to teleport out. All three of the NPCs were gone within the first five minutes of the fight, only bringing the boss down to 70% health before they left. The number of random players that died only totaled 20 but now that the NPCs were gone, their death toll would start to go up.

The only skill the boss would use happened at every 10% interval, he would roar and fear everyone for a couple seconds. Every time it was used Sora was just a second away from death. It didn’t take long for the players to be reduced to only 50, with the boss still having 49% health. Most of the players were only healers, with only a handful of damage dealers. Blossom died from two offhand attacks, the healers couldn’t focus on anybody other than Sora so she had to tank the second hit with barely any health. LeeLee was the next to fall, she died in one hit and didn’t even have a chance to use the curses she applied to her dagger. He was the only person left from his guild other than two people who fell shortly after LeeLee.

The boss was only at 42% health when his last guild member fell, Sora had finally given up hope since the healers would run out of mana soon. Just as Sora felt all hope disappear a wolf’s howl was heard, echoing through the cavern. A horde of warriors riding wolves rushed into the cavern, surrounding the boss once again. Each of the warriors was level 45, dealing damage comparable to Sora. He saw the chieftain of Wind Wolf Village leading the pack, riding a pure black wolf that let out a savage snarl as it attacked the demon. With the addition of the wolf riders, the boss’s health started to fall at a steady pace once again.

[Wind Wolf Village has sent reinforcements.]

Sora was confused at first, he couldn’t remember anything like this happening in his last life. The notification had more information on it but he was too busy to read it right now. The remaining players were even more confused, a bunch of wolf riders just randomly joined the battle. They weren’t sure about what was happening but were happy since the battle had tipped in their favor. The wolves were savage, attacking alongside with the warriors mounted on them. The wolf riders were able to deal more damage than when he still had 300 players fighting the boss, resulting in the boss’s health bar becoming empty in only 20 more minutes.

[Level Up]

-Faction Announcement-

Frost Peak Mountain has been successfully defended thanks to the brave warriors of The Eastern Legion. All players killed in battle will be revived. Long live The Eastern Legion!

Top Contributors

Sister Blossom - 29,112 Ethereal - 28,457 Solid Brick - 27,139

…

Blossom was able to achieve higher points thanks to the fact that she was fighting the entire time, Sora and LeeLee still earned points for commanding but dealing damage, tanking, and healing helped obtain much more. Solid Brick had surprisingly obtained the third place, being the black horse of the event. The remaining players started to cheer, nearly crying from the excitement. The spawn points burst with light as the players that died in the battle started to resurrect, each one being confused at first before bursting out with joy. Sora could only fall to his knees and let out a long sigh as the battle officially ended, even forgetting to grab the loot that dropped. His territory was more important to him so when he finally secured it he had forgotten about everything else. Some of the more risky players started to huddle up around Sora, some of them hugging him, shaking him, giving him a thumbs up. Even the players that didn’t like Sora could appreciate the narrow victory. Sora finally had a moment to read up on why the wolf riders had come to help them as the players were celebrating.

[Wind Wolf Village has sent reinforcements]

Those who own a territory being attacked by a demon invasion will receive reinforcements from factions with the ‘Family’ reputation. The faction requires time to mobilize their forces, resulting in faster help the closer you are or no help if you are too far away. If a faction has the ‘Loathed’ reputation, they will instead send hunters to attack your territory in a Faction vs. Faction battle.

Sora knew about the hunters during a Faction War but didn’t have any idea that reinforcement would come during a demon invasion. The chances of a territory being attacked are slim to none since players would usually fight on a battlefield to stop any damage to their territory. It also required a family reputation which people only achieved if the rewards were worthwhile, along with time for the faction to travel. If the Wind Wolf Village didn’t have fast mounts then everyone would have probably been wiped before they arrived.

Sora looked at the loot and only saw rare equipment with a single lucky coin. He took the coin and let everyone else take whatever they wanted. The wolf riders started to head back to their village after they helped, some players thanked them even though they were just NPCs. Sora looked around to find Sumi, she was off to the side still taking a break from the stressful fight. Sora walked up to her with steady steps but a racing heart, to him this was his biggest reward. Sumi became startled when she saw Sora walking towards her, she jumped up to her feet as he stood in front of her.

“Trinity, would you like to join Phoenix Rising?”

“Are you sure? I’m only a casual gamer, you even had to save me back there… By the way, I could have sworn I heard you say my real name back th-”

“Yes I am sure, please join!”

“... Alright, I’ll join then.”

Sora tried to hide his excitement but a smile still appeared on his face, a song of triumph played in his mind. Sumi was confused, she kept asking herself if they had maybe met somewhere before and tried to figure out why he was so happy that she joined. She pushed the thoughts away as guild request popped up.

[Trinity has joined the guild.]