The Great War Part 4

Shalene flapped her wings and flew back to her army of monsters and a message popped up on our HUD saying…

[Push Back the Demon Lord's Attack]

The monsters were a good distance away, so we had some time to prepare. We started helping each other up and healing ourselves with potions and other such things. Once we were ready to fight, something surprising happened. A massive amount of white light appeared behind us and all the players that died during the war started to respawn.

"Wait, we get to play again? YEAH!"

"Oh thank goodness, I've been dead for like 20 minutes!"

Incoherent talking filled the battlefield, and everyone just kind of stood around waiting for someone else to take the initiative and start the battle. No one wanted to be the first person to fight an unknown threat, especially since you probably wouldn't be able to respawn.

"Ah, screw it…"

A knight fully clad in damaged white armor stepped forward. He was also adorned with a ripped black cape, and he wielded a white sword that had dents and scratches on it; the sword was long, but not quite long enough to be a great sword. The knight removed his helmet, and it was Mike.

"Everyone! We need all of you! We need your strength, we need your courage, and above all else, we need your help. Whether you're from Enjuhar, Wesphuy, or anywhere else, we must fight together!"

*murmur murmur murmur*

The monsters continued to grow closer.

"There's no time to discuss things, we need you NOW!"

He raised his sword into the air, holding it up with both of his hands.

"FOR ENJUHAR… FOR WESPHUY… AND FOR ARCADIA AS A WHOLE! WE WILL PREVAIL!"

There were a few people cheering in agreement, but most of the people just remained silent or continued talking how they were before. Mike then put his helmet back on.

"LONGEVITY GUILD, STEP UP!"

All of the guild members or longevity stepped forward and prepared to charge in when something unexpected happened.

"Got room?"

Members from the top guilds in Wesphuy stepped up, offering to join the frontlines as well. More and more people began stepping up, and soon enough, the top 4 guilds on the server were all gathered together to fight. In total, there were maybe sixty people and a quarter of them were too weak and probably wouldn't be able to help much.

"Let's go."

We started running at the horde of monsters that was gradually growing closer, and once we took the lead, the rest of the players followed behind us. The high leveled tamers and magicians were slightly behind since they wouldn't have much usefulness at close range. Once we got within fighting range, the tamers sent out their monsters, and the magicians cast magic while the tanks took the brunt of the attacks. While that was happening, the swordsmen, thieves, and other speed or damage-focused classes killed most of the monsters and started forming a path to the Demon Lord. At this rate, we should reach her in a few minutes.

"Futile"

Shalene waved her hand, and two large demons that had to of been at least 20ft tall appeared before making their way to the players carving out a path through the monsters.

"Uh, guys…"

"Yeah, we see them!"

Someone then shouted from the backlines…

"We'll take care of them!"

Volleys of arrows and magical attacks swiftly flew forward, hitting the demons. While the attacks definitely did some good damage, it wasn't nearly enough to kill them; luckily the attack was more than enough to get the demon's attention and divert them from the players carving out a path.

"Tch… how frustrating…"

The Demon Lord raised her arms and chanted something. A red ball appeared in her hands, and she quickly launched it at the people in the front. Sure, there were monsters blocking her view of them, but damaging or killing them was a necessary cost to make sure the attack hit.

"Is that magic?"

"I- I don't know. I've never seen magic like that before."

"Me neither."

"WATCH OUT! IT'S GOING TO HIT!"

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

There was nowhere to run since the path being carved out was very narrow and there wasn't much room to move around. One of the tanks rushed forward and pushed through us before planting their shield in the ground.

"FORTIFY! PROTECTION! REFLECT!"

A green, then blue, then red light encompassed the tank, and he prepared for the attack to hit. Since no one seemed to know what the attack was or how to counter it, using this many skills for protection was just par for the course; plus, if the attack was of a low enough level, then the reflect skill he used would reflect the attack and hopefully carve out a large pathway for us.

"HERE IT COMES!"

The attack collided with the shield, and it immediately began to crack as the tank could barely hold his ground.

"UGH! IT'S DOING TOO MUCH DAMAGE!"

The mages in the back began using healing magic, but that could only hold out for so long.

"TRY TO REDIRECT IT!"

"WHAT… DO YOU THINK… IM TRYING… TO DO!"

With all of his strength, the tank managed to redirect the attack upwards, sending the red ball into the sky. Once the ball reached high enough, it exploded, filling the sky with a red light before some red liquid resembling blood rained down on us. We looked back at the tank, and he had vanished into particles.

"Wh- what?"

"He died!?"

A single attack had taken out one of the highest-leveled tanks on the server. Considering they specialize in protecting from attacks and having a large pool of HP, it was almost unthinkable that a single small attack could kill them.

"How did you do that? Perhaps I've underestimated you."

The red ball of magic cleared out a path through the monsters straight to Shalene. Monsters began to quickly fill up the path, but all of the high-leveled players specializing in damage or speed made their way through and now nearly fifteen people were standing face to face with the Demon Lord. Mike and Josh were the only two from Longevity to make it there.

"Hmph… Such Insolence thinking you're on the same level as me."

The cinematic music that was playing earlier grew louder and a quire could now be heard.

"Why are you here, Demon Lord?"

"You don't deserve an answer, and neither shall you get one."

Shalene swung her arm and multiple large red blades that seemed to be made of the same magic from before began launching at us. We all dodged the attacks and quickly formed a circle surrounding her before we started our barrage of attacks.

Swords, axes, halberds, daggers, gauntlets, and all sorts of weapons began colliding with her, and while they didn't seem to do much damage, especially with her armor on, it was something, and as long as we could keep up the attacks and dodge hers, this would be over in no time.

"Keep it up!"

"Watch out!"

"Here comes another attack!"

Shalene swung her hands, but they were easily dodged as she received damage from all directions. She grew frustrated and used a new attack.

"ENOUGH!"

As she shouted, a thin red wave of energy pushed us all back and even knocked a few of us to the ground. She then fabricated two long daggers out of thin air. They looked magnificent; the hilt was pitch black, and the blade was blood red with some carvings down the blade. They weren't quite long enough to be called swords and looked very light but also extremely deadly.

She then used her wings to fly to some of the people knocked down onto the ground. She stabbed one with her left blade before finishing him off with a stab to the head with her right weapon, she then flew to another person who tried to dodge but swiftly met the same fate. Shalene tried her luck again and flew at another person, but they dodged and counterattacked her doing minimal damage.

The first person who died quickly respawned right where he was killed and prepared himself to fight again. Josh was using an enchanted sword up to this point and quickly swapped it out for his holy gauntlets.

"Guys, I'll keep her busy, just make sure you do some good damage."

"You got this."

"You can do this Josh."

Josh pulled out three potions. One of them boosted his defense against all types of attacks, another boosted his speed stat significantly, and the last one made it so he could survive any one fatal attack with one HP left. After drinking all three of those, he clashed his fists together, using [Shockwave]. Shalene lost her footing for a second, and Josh used this chance to rush forward and get a few good hits in. Since his gauntlets were imbued with the holy element, they did more damage than his attacks from before, but it still wouldn't be enough to kill her.

The remaining people surrounded her and began attacking her in a circle like before, but with Josh taking aggro. She must have sensed that she was in a bad spot because she quickly flew upward out of our reach.

"You fools… You can't do anything if I'm up here can y-"

"MAGIC MISSLE!"

A large beam of magic hit Shalene from the distance, causing her to fall to the ground.

"Tch, I forgot about the rest of the humans…"

She got up before we reached her, but I once again took the aggro. This time she managed to get a few good hits in with her daggers, and whatever they were imbued with were doing massive amounts of damage.

"Ah, screw it. It's now or never."

[Fury]

The damage from whatever that red element was stopped, and my defense was boosted; sadly it'll only last a minute. Anyway, I continued my barrage of attacks on her, this time not dodging any nonfatal attacks.

As we continued to fight her and do a bit of damage, the monster army was quickly being defeated, and more and more people began making their way to the Demon Lord to do more damage. Mages, archers, tamers, and many types of other classes soon made their way to the boss and began attacking her as well. Even if you were at a low level, there were ways you could help, such as casting buffs/debuffs, using poison, or other such things that will either do damage over time or help others to do more damage.

The fourteen people grew to twenty, then the group of twenty soon grew to thirty, then forty, and so on. Soon enough there was a never-ending army attacking her from everywhere imaginable. If she flew up she was blasted with magic and hit with arrows. If she killed the people in front of her some other players would take their place. While it would surely end eventually, she didn't have the forces or any good AOE attacks to deal with a situation like this, plus her HP was depleting at a greater pace and she wouldn't be able to keep it up for too much longer.

Luckily, she had one more trick up her sleeve to get out of a situation like this.

[Teleport]

"She's gone!"

"Where did she go?"

Everyone looked around before someone pointed in the distance and said…

"OVER THERE!"

Arrows, magic, and plenty of other attacks were launched but they were useless now. There was a red barrier wall in front of her, and no attacks were going through. Even though the attacks didn't work, the players continued their barrage of attacks of all different types.

Shalene ignored them and said…

"I thought I would be able to weaken or maybe destroy both of the major human nations in one fell swoop. It seems I have been proven wrong. The next time we meet… heroes… it won't end so well for you."

A portal appeared behind her, and she started walking through it. As she walked through, she said one last thing.

"You Human Scum…"

She then completely vanished, and the barrier disappeared soon after. Everyone stopped running and attacking where she previously was, and a question remained in everyone's mind.

What do we do now?