New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

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As another stress-filled hour passed, the guilds outside the walls were still holding on to their attacks. Everyone manning the walls had their nerves properly racked, waiting for the first movements to happen.

It seemed that all the guilds outside were waiting on something, and every passing second made the tension thicker. Astaroth was currently standing atop the wall at the gate.

Next to him was Phoenix, who was looking at the number of players that had already accumulated here. Both of them knew there were also players hiding in the forest, around the base, ready to climb the walls away from the main fighting.

That was the problem with having a circular fortress in the middle of a forest. There was no natural barrier covering any of their directions.

If they had more players in their guild, that might not be an issue. But with their limited personnel, it certainly was.

But the guilds still stationed the largest part of the force at the front. This gave Astaroth and Khalor the largest part of the work.

But Astaroth wasn’t feeling the pressure. He was instead feeling a mix of anticipation and excitement.

If they could drive back all these guilds, they would forever cement their position as the number guild. Even if many guilds also established their ranking based on real-world factors, this wouldn’t matter.

After all, no guild ever had to face off against so many others at once before. If they succeeded, they might even gather sponsors, and be able to use that money for later important projects.

Phoenix was currently watching a player underneath them, scribbling on the inner part of the wall, slowly climbing his way over the tunnel I’die had made over the gate.

“I wonder what his scribbling will add to the base,” Astaroth said, seeing her stare at the dwarf.

“So do I. He’s almost done, so I guess we’ll know soon enough.”

Astaroth stepped to the side, dodging the occasional arrow fired from out of sight.

“That Archer is annoying and is going to be a problem when the fighting starts.”

Astaroth wasn’t worried about himself or Khalor. But other players standing on the wall might not have their reflexes or battle awareness.

If an unseen sniper started taking down their already small number of defenders from the walls, the situation could become tragic quickly.

“Athena has assured me she can fix the issue. She has been practicing something that she wants to try out during this battle. She says it can fix the sniper issues,” Phoenix stated, looking back outward.

“I hope so. Because there will be more than one sniper against us, here. I would hate to lose before we even have time to fight back.”

Phoenix giggled.

She knew Astaroth wasn’t worried about any of the officers falling in this battle. But he was much more worried about the players they had recruited, that he’d never fought with or even seen them fight.

It was hard to trust people you knew nothing about. Even if Morticia had weeded out any ill-intentioned player, trying to join their guild, that didn’t make all the people joining powerful fighters, either.

But there was also nothing they could do about it anymore. There wouldn’t be any new players joining for a while, since every direction leading to their base was closed off.

And since they had no teleporter inside the Bastion, they couldn’t have them get inside here either. Phoenix had thought about having people join and make them attack from outside the encirclement.

But that came with its own issues. They wouldn’t be able to vet a player without seeing them first.

And they couldn’t afford to have a loose-lipped spy in their midst once the fighting began. Phoenix would be directing the fight through guild chat, and having a traitor would make this impossible to win.

After all, no manoeuvre could work if the enemy knew of it in advance. Plus, since she would move players through guild chat, it would also announce any hole in their defence in it.

While Phoenix was thinking about this, an arrow flew at her head. Astaroth caught it a few inches away from her face, snapping her out of her reverie.

Phoenix clicked her tongue in frustration. She lifted her hand, a wisp of fire appearing over it.

The wisp of fire soon formed a lance, made entirely of flames. The odd thing about the flames was how condensed they were.

It was almost like the spear had an actual physical form.

Phoenix lobbed it in the direction the arrow had come from, setting that part of the forest ablaze. The flames didn’t burn long, as sudden gusts of wind and gouts of water washed over them.

The mages from the sieging guilds extinguished the fire, since it would consume a part of their forces and cut off their retreat if left unchecked.

Phoenix grunted.

“At least that archer will not bother me for a while.”

Astaroth chuckled. He could guess that a lance of flames would indeed dissuade any other surprise attack for a while. But once the battle started, it wouldn’t be enough anymore.

And seeing as there hadn’t been new players arriving for quite some time, Astaroth could guess that would be soon.

“I think they are planning to work together. There is no other reason they haven’t already started attacking.”

Phoenix nodded her head.

“They are probably holding their own meeting somewhere inside the forest, discussing how to coordinate. But even if they do, it will be a loose alliance.”

Both knew many of the guilds attacking them today. The banners they flew over their troops, or the guild tabards they wore, bellied their provenance.

Some of these were large guilds, others were just small time groups, trying to make it big here. But one thing was for sure.

The bigger guilds would take the reins. There was no doubt about it.

But Paragons would meet them in battle, whether they fought together or in a free for all. Khalor had already made sure of this.