Chapter 08

Four Sided Back Stroke

Ratings sky rocketed on every Terroa cable channels the moment the Flash News on every basic TV channel around the world indicated that the War Of The Two Powers had officially began.

And through them, Terroa Day Today, as Panorama Corp’s exclusively owned Terroa game channel, had the highest viewing ratings of 48.9%, a world record.

RPG: Terroa’s official website also came up with an idea of a simultaneous video broadcast so as to cater and actually know the people’s reactions impromptu.

Of course, thanks to Kathleen Brew who came first on the scene since she had decided to never log out and actually sleep inside the game that day.

The first movie she had posted earned the ratings, picturing how vast the Two Powers’ forces really are.

[The war had started!]

[Hoorah! Look at those battleships!]

[That’s a large sized army they got there…]

[Check out the monster riders!]

[Dude those Cyclones are way too cool!]

After going through much preparation, flying in the dark skies, into the Valley of Buendia from the line of dark brown and greenish blue fields, the fight the whole world has been waiting for had officially started!

[That’s the Hydra!]

[Wow! It looks more dangerous than the pictures.]

Ships hit by the missiles from the Hydra warship is taking down one after another. Though there are still those excellent pilots with real abilities to maneuver their Cyclones and dodge the missiles, those that aren’t able to do so are still many and they fall, burning, towards the ground.

Even so, despite the Hydra having overwhelming superiority in terms of fire power, the defense forces of the Sylphs are still taking in a bind.

Monsters, ships, Cyclones, soldiers, NPCs, users, the battle royal was happening in real time and sparked the viewers’ excitement. They don’t care about who wins and who doesn’t, what they’re after was the amusement of seeing a movie-like war in real time. The fact that it was happening in real time means that they are seeing it live, as the war progresses.

[Where’s the infantry?]

[I want to see PVP actions!]

[The TV program is a little late than the internet.]

[It’s wiser if you open many windows on different sites so you could watch from different angles.]

[Good idea!]

[Yeah. Let’s try that.]

Some got bored of the sky fighting and so did what was said. The internet traffic clogged up, slowing down the browsing and pixelized the images of the video. It’s expected since multiple open window of live streaming can cause the other site to battle out for the connection data.

And as such, Terroa.com immediately followed the flow of the viewers’ demands and changed their site’s live video broadcast into multiple angled ones, like a CCTV screen, only, those with the [email protected] on their houses could actually enjoy its 3d experience.

They uploaded Kathleen’s videos without editing it, only improving the quality of her voice as she reported.

But then, as the sky battles of the warships became more and more dramatic, down below, the fights of the strongest players took the spotlight and turned Netizens to be glued on their seats.

Magic castings bid a glow of blue and red. Swords hitting swords lighted up orange colored sparks as the arrows kept on coming, blocking the light of the blue moonlit sky. Rage, hate, agony, excitement, and sorrow of the players filled the hearts of those watching from their chairs. Some even went as far as to buy, or cook some popcorns as if watching a movie.

“Ah! This is so exciting!”

“I wish I could join in too.”

“Should I buy the console for Terroa then?”

Home viewers all exchanged texts and calls. Phone companies became busy with the data traffic and for the first time ever since they have improved service to the [email protected] data package, they were caught in what was called The Buzz —which only those born in the early years actually understood its excitement level.

As the war progressed, in the once beautiful valley now flooded with field-wide smokes, fires, and the dead bodies of the fallen users and NPCs, the awaited battle between strong players came to be the highlight.

The first person to stand out amongst the early recorded broadcasts gained attention. TDT even cut out regularly airing programs just to show this part from one of Kathleen’s camera balls.

It was Kratos and his in-game playing style that was a combination of magic and swordsmanship —a trait of Terroa’s mainstream fighting style, Swordmage.

He trashed down two strong Swordmages from the Sylphs using his Saga, throwing them in the air and catching them again and slamming them hard towards the ground. That one massive attack caused substantial damage on them but the act alone required for Kratos to cast three different kinds of magic spells.

The first is the Levitation Spell (Tier-3), to lighten up his enemies’ weights. Then using his Gonn Race given strength and character build, he’ll throw them up to the sky with the Saga’s Tech Ability, Chain Stretch, from a few distance away. As those enemies poised to shield themselves, Kratos’s heavy attack will make them fly and thus the opening for the highlight attack.

The second skill is Bind (Tier-1) magic, at the very moment the target had reached the apex of their ascent.

Saga’s swords would act as a pendulum, the Bind magic will tie any part of their body that touched the blade and when that’s done, he will immediately use the third spell, Gravity (Tier-3), along with the chain’s retraction and pull them hard to the ground to deal the massage damage.

He’s been doing that for those intermediate players with average to early advanced equipment set. Since advanced players on his level can easily dodge or parry the attack with their experience. After all, such attacks are only possible to those who are still inexperienced on fighting quick moving S-ranked monsters.

It’s because majority of the players of Terroa only rely on their equipment’s damage output when fighting monsters rather than actually going out experiencing the fight and finding monster weaknesses themselves.

And so, with such mindset already predicted by the game’s creators, A-ranked and S-ranked monsters have been modified to test one’s mettle. This way, they have limited the game’s advanced players and actually set up a standard for players if they want to reach the top.

Appropriately, once a player actually gets experience on such levels of combat, fighting against other players becomes as easy as breathing.

Hence, Kratos’s fights really just looked like the one in the video game.

He’s been taking out players one after another., only pausing for a short while to use Manna Gems or Manna Potions to replenish his Energy.

It really felt like experiencing the action movie using the [email protected] Video Technology. It’s far more than just 3D experience, it was as if you were really there.

The sight of his rampage excited viewers, as paired with his war cries like “I am the God of War” or “None shall defy me” that filled reminded the viewers of the action scenes from the original.

The forums went active with posts and comments. It was so alive that a single post would need five pages of surfing through before actually getting reviewed.

People were fired! It was 2 in the afternoon on the countries that’s part of GMT+8 time zone. But from the opposite side of the globe, the 12 hours gap seems as hot as it was there. Yet for these people, time was not much important since the time at the scene they wanted to be right now was approaching dawn.

[Oh man, oh man! I want to play Terroa too!]

[Ships! They have spaceships taking part in a war!]

[He’s like Kratos!]

[But that guy’s actually Kratos!]

[He’s just a cosplayer who fights like Kratos!]

[Everything is possible in Terroa!]

[Yeah, you can be the person you wanted to be.]

[Even become as great as Mari Jane?]

[Yep!]

[Awesome!]

[Why can’t my game be like that cool?!]

[I’ll transfer my avatar and start over!]

[Me too!]

[I’m going too!]

As the dawn approached, the players forgot to track down time as well as the people who watched them online and in their TV sets.

TDT continued to broadcast the videos live from the scene itself.

Mages blasted their enemies with unrelenting spells and those advanced Mages even had Tier-3 magic that deals an AOE effect. Be it a single cast magic or a spell that was a product of a collaboration of two or more, it was still a sight to see since not everyone can do that.

—No video game in Earth gaming history actually done such a massive event like this.

[Look that’s Merlock!]

[What?! Merlock took the TGG’s side!]

[Damn! The Sylph’s doomed!]

[That’s one monster Mage in that battlefield!]

[No dude, he’s not alone in there!]

[Oh sick! He’s facing Darna!]

[She’s one hell of an archer man!]

The match between the two became a hot trending topic in the forums and other chat rooms. The female archer, Darna, who was known to be a respected merc had her prided arrows bouncing off as if it was nothing.

In turn, Merlock, the famous Arch Mage who never associated himself with weak characters, released a big magical attack that took care of five B-ranked players on the Sylph’s side. The Tier-3 fire spell, Crimson Overlord, was his prided ability and it has an AOE over 20m in diameter.

The casting time is normally 8 seconds, with a very massive manna consumption of 25mp. But in return, the Crimson Overlord magic spell has an added effect of “burning” whoever was the person on their AOE.

Again, the area where Darna was standing became a red dyed ground and she jumped and used an ability to quickly escape. It was just at the right time as the spot where she stood exploded like a mini volcano.

She was safe but it took out three players from her allies added that a few debris scattered randomly and hit her back side.

Raising her head once more, she felt the ground she was lying began to take the same color and she did the same movement, but this time, pulled an arrow and directly shot the Mage instead.

The arrow flew and made a bright line on the bluish dimly lit battlefield.

And seemingly positive that he could parry the arrow with his barrier, Merlock did not budge as he continued to wait for the spell to take effect. But then, as soon as the arrow made contact with the barrier, a split second instinct told him to dodge as the arrows pierced through his anti-arrow barrier defenses.

The attack made him stagger as it grazed through his left shoulder, hitting another Sylph in the back. That Sylph guild member’s back were dyed in black and he fell down dead immediately on the ground.

The viewers immediately knew that it was not an ordinary Poison Arrow because it pierced through the barrier. As such, the camera caught sight of a smiling Darna as they all saw a weird aura emanating from her body.

[Darna’s a MOD weilder!]

[Holy moly!]

[Blue aura! That’s a special Mod!]

[Man, remind me not to mess with her in the future.]

Exclaims and reactions exploded, comments flowed in on the forum threads. The look on Merlock’s face couldn’t be much more surprised than what it is now.

His eyes widened and he froze on his feet for a few moments, watching as the archer with the blue aura pulled another arrow as if to finish him off. At that, he finally got a move and his face was filled with anger as he screamed.

“Don’t be too cocky!”

His shout was as loud and was filled with rage that the enhanced audio along with the [email protected] video quality surprised the viewers back on their homes.

At that, Merlock changed his equipment to a white staff with gems and gold and mythril, as bright as any golden tome, as long as a sword, but twice as powerful as any magical talisman and artifact. The moment the staff materialized in a nanosecond on his right hand, his body was immediately engulfed with a blue aura, expanded like an exploding star, seeping from his legs to his shoulders, extended like a steam in a sauna bath.

Merlock stamped the ground with the staff’s other end as Darna released the arrow. The two abilities clash and an impact dome made up of electrical sparks and external currents extended up to twenty meters from the point of collision before exploding and cancelling each other out.

Then, Merlock raised his left hand, open palm, and the ground beneath Darna’s feet became dyed red in an instant.

Her mouth moved, “Oh shit!” her expression grim, and she started running.

She jumped and pulled an arrow, the land exploded and Darna got blown off as soon as her arrow flew. The arrow traversed and though Merlock was prepared for it, his reaction was slow and the arrow grazed his neck.

The sight of that great action in just a few moments made the viewers stand since its quality was so good, thanks to the [email protected] that they felt they were also part of the on going battle.

Around them, other renowned players had their own fights. A Witch from the Tekz Race who used hammer when she’s out of manna was fighting a Swordmage in a CQC. Their fight was one of the rare sights in Terroa since a PVP of two melee fighters were actually rare that it can be compared to a dragon.

Then there were also a high speed fight between two S-ranked Archers. Dodging while firing arrows, these two exchanged fires and did acrobatic movements as if they were filming a Hollywood movie.

All of these filled the TV screens and the [email protected] users on their homes were smiling in excitement and even ignored nature’s calling.

It’s because every detail of this war was as exciting and as thrilling as any roller coaster ride, or any other man made videos, or any action movie Hollywood had ever seen.

At that, on one of the Kathleen Brew’s cameras came her beautiful face with a grim expression.

The sight of her in such a reaction baffled all the viewers, but more importantly, the sight behind her and her words made them think that what the direction of this war was going now is towards more chaos.

[Oh my gad! Ladies and gentlemen, if you are seeing this, please stay tuned and don’t change your channel, no, don’t stand where you’re sitting! Don’t even go to the bathroom! Hold your breath, because right at this moment, a third party had emerged from the Southeast Side of the battle! Out of nowhere, a warship with the logo of the notorious Dark Guild, Masked Organization, had started attacking players!]

The camera focused on the sight of a band of players with varying armors and costumes, and with a few of them emitting auras in different lights. Orange, blue, green, those lights were all danger signals to all the players, and those close by have began to retreat.

They killed and attacked players of both sides. It was a clear warning that they came just to enjoy the killing of the war.

But then somewhere close by, another ship appeared in the area near Kathleen Brew.

Above the forest, a transparent bird-shape began to take shape. Its edges began to emit electric sparks, the body started to give an intimidating presence, and until the whole ship began to take form, the logo of a white mask with red eyes and a wicked crescent smile shone with a bright silver design on the ship’s side.

Then, in the next moment, another group of people came clad in the same fashion of armors and clothing of those from the Masked Org.

[Oh my gad! This is unbelievable! The Masked Org. had conducted a flank attack! But wait…wait…ladies and gentlemen, oh my…it seems that the Masked Organization is somewhat trying to target those players with the same auras as they are! They are targeting the players who wielded…Kyaaaa…]

Kathleen did not finish her report as a massive AOE magic spell was cast near her location.

It was a magic spell that was only seen in Terroa until now. The magic spell had the same radial effect as the Crimson Overlord but instead of fire, it froze the area of its effect. Everything in its AOE had turned into ice statues and although there are those players that still had life on their eyes, some of them immediately died.

On the camera that took third person images behind Kathleen, she was thrown aback from a large white ship that passed just a few tens if meters above her.

The white ship surprised her so much that she lost her balance and fell on her behind.

And with everything like that, even the viewers in their houses almost jumped on their seats because of excitement as they read the name written on the side of that flying ship, Archangel. It hovered close to the now stiffed Kathleen and the ship began to descend near the edge of the battlefield.

The Sky Wyvern where Kathleen stood, kept distant from the white and orange ship. The floating box with majestic wings designed for atmospheric flight kept on lowering until a glassed area in the middle of the belly of the ship leveled with her sight.

In there, standing at the front of the command bridge, with a sword in hand, stabbed towards the floor as if a cane, was a man in a brightly themed armor with his helmet held on his side.

[This is breathtakingly unbelievable! It’s Thorn of the newly established guild, Tower of Sol! They have come to join in on the War Of The Two Powers!]

The people near the edge where Kathleen was taking the command over her camera balls all raised their head to see the Archangel’s descent. Even the members of the Masked Organization froze on the sight of it.

The ship, as seen from 400 meters away, was as big and as menacing as what the stories told.

Archangel, the legendary battleship-class that led the Terran defense in the War of the Braves, 50 years ago, according to Terroa’s storyline. The files on the game’s history logs stated that it was one of the four surviving warship since that great war that had the original design and concept of the real Terrans.

It was different from the user designs that only need the appearance, wanted specs (total number of installed weapons, number of boosters and the places for it to be installed —for speed specifications, defensive specs, and other(s)…), type of the hull (either its a frigate, a cruiser, or a battleship), its special function(s) (space, atmospheric, amphibian, or all of it), and of course the materials and the name of the ship itself. Archangel is, in general, an item which is a reward from an S-rank quest that has something to do with the game’s history.

As told by old NPCs and written in the files, it has both the capability of being used in the atmosphere and in space…

…is a special cruiser hull that had a speed of normal frigates (near 167.9kph or 90knots in amphibian mode, Mach 2 as a Wind Rider, and 1495km/minute in space) but had the armaments of a medium armed battleship.

…is a ship that held a secret that made the Terrans won the almost impossible to be won war at that time.

…is a ship equipped with the Mega Particle Cannon from the age of the Unknown Technology.

With its reputation alone, it was enough to actually make the members of the Masked Organization tremble from fear. That’s because they knew that the people who had announced their war against them was the ones who won the Archangel from that S-ranked quest.

And as they cower and slowly stood their grounds with their masked allies, a bright light came from the base of the white colored ship and at the next moment, along with the silence that came with their arrival a voice rang from the ship’s loudspeakers.

“FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM!!!”

It was a loud cry. And from the blast of light that hailed from the base of the ship came the light armored players along with their magic spells cast out on such frightening speeds.