New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

While Phoenix explained her plan, Declan’s ex-battlefield engineer offered a bit of his expertise, polishing some details of her plan, which Phoenix appreciated. It took her five minutes to explain it, and that left them ten to implement it.

As soon as she finished, the concerned players went into action right away. They had a great deal of work to do and would need every second at their disposal.

Astaroth loved Phoenix’s new plan, as it would allow him to shine the most. Aside from him, all the melee players were also thrilled.

Generally put, Phoenix wanted to form a new inner wall surrounding the tree palace, and the newly reconstructed buildings, leaving a large space between the outer wall and the new inner one.

But she also asked the druids to speed up the growth of nature in between the two walls, to make the thickest jungle they could. The more trees and shrubbery there were, the easier it would be for the enemy to get lost.

She also asked them to block out as much of the sky with the newly formed trees as they could, accentuating the disorienting effect.

Morticia had butted in at that moment, getting a dagger-filled look from Phoenix. But when the woman explained why she interrupted, Phoenix smiled widely.

Morticia offered her help on the disorientation part. She had a spell to do that already, and it could be used in many ways.

If used on one person, it would have maximum effect, but she said she could also cast it as a veil over a large area. When Phoenix asked her if she could manage the whole Bastion, Morticia smiled and said it was the best time to test her limits.

For once, Phoenix appreciated the woman’s gutsy attitude. Now was indeed the best time to push their limits.

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With this going on, a player like Astaroth, or Khalor, would be like fish in water. With their high damage, they wouldn’t even need to retreat.

Aside from those two, many players were also very excited to play this way. Even some of the ranged players wanted to join in.

But Phoenix wanted most of them to be high in the tree branches. Having as many of the ranged players there would allow them to not only give the positions of the enemies but also rain hell on them from above.

As the timer ticked out, the new inner wall was completed, and nature’s growth had been sped up between the two barriers of stone. Looking at it from inside the protected zone, it almost looked like a much smaller fortress, with a thick jungle all around.

Normally, a castle or fortress would clear out as much of the natural hiding spots around their encampment, to keep enemies from sneaking up to the walls.

But that was not what Phoenix wanted. She wanted to have her enemies looking for them as much as possible.

This way, they, as defenders, would have the utmost advantage. The dwarven player that was previously under Declan walked over to Phoenix.

“Missus, this plan of yours is beautiful. It reminds me of an old war that was fought when I was still a child. The rebels were using exactly the tactics you are using now.”

“Did this war end well for them?”

“Oh, they lost eventually. But not before costing the world so many men, their names were feared. For every one of them we killed, they killed fifty of us, until we switched to more devastating weapons that killed many innocents.”

“Then let’s see if we can beat that ratio!” Phoenix exclaimed, smiling.

If the man wasn’t aware that she only wanted to protect their fortress, he would have thought her a madwoman, for talking about death so casually.

But then, there was also the fact that they were in a game, and death wasn’t permanent. But then again, being on the side that was winning was all he cared about.

The dwarf grinned before leaving. He wanted to try something of his own.

Since they were going full guerilla, he wanted to make as many traps as he could while he still had time. He wasn’t much of a fighter, even though he could manage on the battlefield.

He was always more of a supporting person, building structures, de-mining fields, and making sure encampments were easy to defend. So setting traps was the best use of his skills.

Over the ten minutes left on the barrier, he could only set up a few, but he would not stop until he got caught. Soon, the timer ended.

With the barrier fizzling out of existence, the fighting outside came to a stop. The ten big guilds did not know how long this would last, and now that the barrier dropped, they needed to get their ducks in a row.

Letting most of the small guilds finally escape, the top ten guilds brought all their troops to the gate and hole in the wall. The fact that no one tried stopping their advance put them on high alert, but they welcomed the first real advance they had in the last hour.

Reaching the gate, Killi noticed it was left open. This raised his level of uneasiness another notch. But even after entering the stone bowl, where many of his members had been torn to pieces, something was off.

First, no one was here to defend it anymore. Second, the previously empty circle of stone was now filled to the brim with trees, shrubs, and climbing plants.

It was like they had left the zone to nature for hundreds of years. But it made no sense.

The players that had been here previously seemed even more confused than him, since the sight had changed so much.

The other guilds that had entered through the hole in the eastern wall faced similar terrain. The few guilds that remained on the southern front climbed the walls, reaching the crest, before staring at the jungle in front of them.

They received attacks from the tree overhead and had to either quickly jump into the fortress or jump back out. The same thought popped into every guild leader’s mind.

‘This is a trap.’