Ting! Ting! Ting!

In the heat of the battle at the checkpoint, the caravan’s troops secretly executing their plan. It was their final struggled to save the caravan from total annihilation.

Ten minutes ago, after every commander of each gate received the order from Gilbert, defending armies from the west and east gate secretly transferred some of their forces to the south gate armies.

With their experience and years of building teamwork, they managed to somehow made the chaotics side to overlook the changed.

A few minutes passed and the plan already set in motion.It was three in the morning, in game time, the battle of ‘Starhill Checkpoint’ reaching its climax.

******

Starhill Checkpoint

The south gate, the place where the caravan’s troops discreetly increased their number by receiving aids from the west and east team.

They were expecting for a party to come that way. A party that needed to be safely enter the ‘Starhill’ checkpoint so they could retrieved back their wagon and escape together with the caravan.

Ting! Ting! Ting!

From afar, there were four users, a drake and ten slaves goblin charging together towards the ‘Starhill Checkpoint’ together.

Thorin acted as the vanguard while Jason and James protected the party from the sides. The slaves goblin keep up with the running while shooting their arrows while Chrono and Esca positioned in the middle of the party.

Chrono turned back to his merchant identity and Esca stopped using her magic skill awhile ago, it seems she also want to hide her true ability.

“They are coming, prepare to open the path!”

“YES!”

As the troops noticed the party, they quickly open the path for the party to enter the checkpoint. Some of the troops elites rushed to the party so they could protected the party properly.

Chrono’s party quickly reach the gate as only few chaotics realized the party arrival and tried to intercept them.

The party sprinted to the checkpoint gate as the troops quickly made a compacted line of defense to prepare for the gate opening.

“OPEN THE GATE!”

The checkpoint gate opened in half and Chrono’s party swiftly enter the checkpoint without much resistance.The chaotics only realized what really happened once the gate about to close again.

“Wha? They open the gate!”

“Quick, they open the gate!”

Only few of the chaotic users quick enough to enter the checkpoint but they were swiftly obliterated by the guards inside.

*****

The first thing Chrono do soon after he entered the checkpoint was attaching Thorin with his wagon. Esca also went for her wagon to wrap things up and prepare for the escape.

As Chrono done preparing, Gilbert approached him.

“Are you sure this is the best way?”

“Yes, this is the best way I can come up with.”

“Hmm...Find, we will do your way as we have nothing to lose.”

Gilbert hesitated a bit as Chrono’s plan was quite a daring one. A standard strategy for such a situation was to defend the checkpoint and hope for the reinforcement before the raid succeed.

But as the closest mercenaries headquarters was two days away, the chance for them to hold the enemies that long was quite grimm.

Chrono’s plan was risky, but it had better chance for survival. Although his plan was better, most merchant would choose to defend the checkpoint and hope for the best instead of taking an active role escape.

Having this kind of daring plan, Gilbert wonder if Chrono should choose warrior as his profession as he surely had the mentality of the warrior.

*****

As instructed by Chrono, the caravan make a long line so they could smoothly make their escape. The line consisted of two layers where the inside occupied by merchants while the guards defending from the sides.

In five minutes, they would open the north gate and the troops outside would make the path for them.

As warriors always fought with their life on the line, the troops remained compose. On the other hand, merchant rarely set foot outside of cities already had cold sweats.

Merchant could safely gained their level inside the city wall by doing city quest, opening shops, crafting or simply by becoming middle men between players and NPC to sell and buy item.

In return, merchant class took longer time to gain a single level. Things like power leveling was unheard of for merchant.

Death penalty that could reduced a user level by five was something to be feared by merchants.On top of that, the goods on their wagon was the wealth they accumulate throughout their playtime as merchant.

Losing the wagon was something they fear more than losing their life. It took them years to gather the goods and money in their wagon, losing the wagon may cause them to quit the game altogether.

The five minutes was almost over. It felt forever as they about to take the biggest gamble in their life.Asking for no casualties was a wishful thinking, some would fall in the hand of the chaotics and give up being a merchant.

Some would survived and scream their lungs out of joy. The chance to survive was fifty-fifty. Regardless of failure or success, that time, that moment was something they would never forget in their life.

It was a situation fighting class users always experiences. But to the merchants, it was a romance of the unimaginable tale.

3

2

1

As the five minutes time over, the north gate slowly raised.The Merchants gripped their mounted pet as they were ready to sprint. Without waiting for the gate to fully open, Gilbert raised his voice.

“LET’S GO!”

The outside troops start doing their job and make a path while the personal guards positioned themselves accordingly.

The caravan sprint their way towards the ‘ Egil City’ on the north path.They sprint as fast as possible while maintaining their formation. Getting panic and trying to cut the que would worsen the situation.

5 a.m in game time, The caravan started to made their escape. Although it was foreshadowed by the troops as they regrouping at the north gate, it was still quite a shock for the chaotics as they would never imagined for the caravan to make such a daring move.

****

“Hyah! Hyah!”

10 kilometers away from the ‘Egil City’. Chrono expected for an easier time in escaping as the ‘Blood Brothers’ members supposed to line up on the path and protected the caravan from the shadow.

The caravan escape may caught the chaotics by surprised. But after sometime the chaotics begun to regroup and start to attack again.

The escaped slowed down the troops getting busier and some chaotics managed to slip the troops and attack the personal guards. Feeling something was wrong, Chrono private messaged Jurek.

“Hey, what happen? You guys supposed to protect us at the north path.”

“North path? Ah yes, we are going to the north path guys!”

“Hey, don't tell me you guys didn’t know the plan?!”

“........We are going to the north path!”

“(Oh my god, they had no idea)”

*****

Five kilometers away from ‘Egil City’. Ten minutes ago the caravan start to lose its first merchant. It was on the tail side of the caravan, the chaotics slip through the troops and managed to kill the guards with poisoned attack.

The merchant and its pet butchered swiftly after and the wagon fall into the chaotics hand. The caravan had no choice but to keep moving.

Since earlier Thorin had running around carrying Chrono, fought with the chaotics and now carrying the wagon alone. It start to show the signs of fatigued.

His slaves doing a good job covering Jason, James and goblin Kai fought protecting their wagon. Overall they were doing great.

Instead of his own wagon, Chrono was worried about Esca more as she had no guards to protect her and the pet she was using to pull her wagons seems weak. The fact that she was positioned at the caravan’s tail doesn’t help either.

BOOM!

Chrono turned his head as he heard the loud sound. “( Did we lose another wagon?)”. He thought, but the scream that came next made him somewhat knew on whose wagon that the caravan losing.

“Kyaahh!”

“(Esca!)”

Without much thought, Chrono handed over Thorin’s pedal to goblin Ai. He charged towards the sound soon after his feet reach the ground.

“Hey kid, wait!”. Jason shout as he noticed Chrono, but instead of following Chrono, he and James maintaining their positioned to protect the caravan.

Chrono ran against the caravan movement as he maneuvered himself to slip past the guards and chaotic users in front of him. In the heat of the moment, Chrono released a smoke bomb and quickly took out his ‘One ring’ from his finger and wear his skull mask.

By the time he finished his ‘transformation’, Chrono already arrived at the scene. The wagon was upside down, one of the tyre badly damaged. The result of long distance magic bombardment.

Like the previous case, the wagon was quickly surrounded by the chaotic player. Esca was alone beside her wagon. Trembling in fear, she closed her eyes while holding her staff.

“P-Please, don’t hurt me.”

No less than fifteen chaotic player in front of him and most likely everyone of them was higher level than him. Regardless, he charged in without any hesitation.

He took out six explosive grenades from the portal while he jumped to the middle of the enemies. Then, while in midair, he threw the grenades to his enemies around him.

“Esca! Cast your barrier!”

“Huh?!”

BOOM!

With six highly potent explosives, the explosion made all of the chaotic users surrounding the wagon were knocked unconscious.

It was true Esca casting speed was unmatched, but suddenly came out of nowhere and giving command after throwing bombs was too abrupt for Esca to comprehended.

‘Shadow Ghost’

Chrono managed to escape the explosions by a hair with his reflexes. It was his luck the skill just finished its cool down recently. As for Esca, she managed to escape death with ‘Cheat Death’ skill.

*snif*

“Hey we don’t have time to cry!”

Before the smokescreen as the result of the after effect of the explosion disappear, Chrono summoned the portal and took Esca’s wagon to his secret warehouse.He then took out his disguising mask and handed it over to Esca.

“Here, disguise as one of the chaotic with this mask.”

*snif* “O-Okay”

As Chrono eyes were already red, he just need to changed his mask. A lot of chaotic users had their mask on, if he just wear mask other than the ‘smiling mask’ and ‘skull mask’ he could easily blend in with the chaotics.

“(Let’s see...I think I will use this ‘zorro mask’.)”

While blending in with the chaotic players, Chrono and Esca continue travel the north path. Even with Esca’s ‘Speed enchantment’, their speed was considerably slow as they were on foot and Esca had her -50% speed merchant class penalty.

******

Three kilometers away from ‘Egil City’. The caravan had received considerable amount of damaged. After Esca, the caravan had lose three more merchant and their wagon.

The chaotic players attack had never been more intense. The troops casualties increased every minutes and the guards start losing their focus through numerous attacks.

Sprinting while pulling the heavy wagon took a lot of stamina from the pets. Merchants who doesn’t have stronger pet were lagging behind as their pet started to losing speed.

The path that suddenly turned uphill worsen the situation. Finally, the caravan were split into two as the stronger pet kept on maintaining their speed while the weaker pet get tired and losing speed.

*HUFF* *HUFF*

“GRaargh!”

If it was only eighteen kilometers sprint, Thorin could easily ran with his full speed while pulling two wagon to boot. But the fight with chaotic users earlier had greatly affect his stamina.As the caravan split into half, Thorin was at the top. But it was the top of the weaker group.

His breathing get heavy. His bloodvein pop out every inch of his muscle as he push himself harder. He can’t stand losing his master respect and he can’t stand he was grouped together with the weak group.

The strong group was there, only ten steps away. But he can’t bring himself to reach it. Why did he even do this kind of thing.Why did he even obey some human.

Where was his pride? Why did he pushed himself so hard just to pull one big chunk of metal? It all started because one damn omelette. After he think about it, he doesn’t had to get all sentimental just because of one dish.

One dish and he should serves his master for another eight life? Bullshit! Should he gave up? Must he gave up?

“GUYS, HERE, THE ROPE.”

“Eh,What for?”

After goblin Kai handed over the rope he found in the wagon, he tied the rope to the wagon before he pulled it beside Thorin.

As goblin Kai pulled together with Thorin, The drake burden lessen and he finally found room to breath.

Thorin and goblin Kai eyes met. He looked with the eyes full of meaning and goblin Kai answer with his resolute voice.

“DO NOT GIVE UP!”

As the words struck him like thunder, his eyes was gleaming with water. He was glad, as he about to give up he found comrade. And it was a comrade who has the same fate as him.

“Hyaah!”

“Haaah!”

“AAAaaaaa!”

While Thorin engulfed in his emotion, he felt the weight of the wagon had decreased more and more. He look around and saw the other slaves had followed goblin Kai and joining him pulling the wagon.

“We shall not losing master wagon.”

“The fate of his wagon was on us!”

“Yes, he depend on us!”

“ROOAAR!”

As Thorin and the slaves combining their strength, their speed increases. In a moment, they managed to get into the strong team.

Watching from the sides, Jason and James were in awe.They can’t help but be impressed although they knew…

“But guys….I don’t think your master mind if the we loose the wagon because that guy was insanely rich and I don’t there are anything valuable in there…”

Jason was ignored

“We shall not losing master wagon.”

“The fate of his wagon was on us!”

“Yes, he depend on us!”

“ROOAAR!”

“........hey,guys….”

James was ignored

“We shall not losing master wagon.”

“The fate of his wagon was on us!”

“Yes, he depend on us!”

“ROOAAR!”

“Hey!”

Finally both Jason and James were ignored.

******

Luckily the attacks from chaotic users has decreased significantly since the path turned uphill.Even the weaker group didn’t lose any merchant.

As everyone thought it was almost over, there were crush again by the sight in front of them. They can’t be more wrong. Lesser users attacking them before just means their forces were somewhere else.

Their last hope to escape was taken right in front of them. As what lies in front of them was nothing but a sea of enemies.

One kilometers away from ‘Egil City’.

No proof read yet, I will proofread it later, sorry.