"Now," Sebastian said. "Grab your hammer. We have a war to win."
[System: You have recruited a Master Craftsman.]
[Galleon has joined the Guild: Sanctuary.]
Sebastian turned to Valerie. Who was staring at him with newfound respect.
"We have the walls," Sebastian said. "And now, we have the gun.
The air in the Valley of Cinders tasted of sulfur and imminent death. It was a hostile, choking atmosphere that burned the lungs of anyone foolish enough to breathe without a filter mask. Ash fell from the bruised, purple sky like grey snow. Coating the jagged obsidian rocks in a layer of filth.
Inside the newly erected walls of Sanctuary, the heat was manageable. Pushed back by the blue hum of the Guild Barrier. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife though.
Sebastian stood on the ramparts of the Obsidian Fortress. Looking south. His rags whipped in the hot wind. His eyes—flecked with the golden light of the [Eye of the Void God]—scanning the horizon. He didn't need a scout report. He could feel the disturbance in the mana density of the zone. It was a tidal wave of signatures. A chaotic jumble of thousands of souls marching toward their doom.
"They're coming," Valerie said. Walking up beside him. She'd repaired her [Robes of the Red Lotus]. Her face was pale though. She gripped the [Staff of the Dead] tightly. Her knuckles white. "I checked the forums. It's not just the Golden Lion and the Crimson Skull. It's a coalition. They're calling it the 'Anti-Cheat Alliance'."
Sebastian let out a dry, humorless chuckle. "Anti-Cheat? Is that what they tell themselves to justify their greed?"
"They have five thousand players, Sebastian," Valerie whispered. The number hanging heavy in the air. "Five thousand. We have two players and a drunk Dwarf."
"We have a choke point," Sebastian corrected. Gesturing to the narrow pass that led into the valley. "And we have me."
He looked down into the courtyard. Galleon, the Master Craftsman, was sober for the first time in a decade. The Dwarf was shouting at a forge he'd set up. Hammering away at a piece of glowing [Star-Metal]. He was building the mounting bracket for the Mana Railgun. It wouldn't be ready for hours though. This fight would have to be won the old-fashioned way.
"They think this is a numbers game," Sebastian said. Turning back to the approaching dust cloud. "They think if they throw enough bodies at the wall, it will break. They don't understand that in this world, a single Level 50 entity can erase a kingdom of Level 10s."
"You aren't Level 50," Valerie pointed out nervously.
"No," Sebastian agreed. He opened his status panel. He was Level 11. His skills though? His skills were evolved beyond the comprehension of the current player base. "But my magic is."
Five miles south. At the edge of the lava fields.
Baron_K sat atop a summoned warhorse. Clad in a new set of golden armor that shimmered with enchantments. He looked like a king. His eyes were filled with the petty, vindictive rage of a man who'd been humiliated though. Beside him rode Bloodaxe. The leader of the Crimson Skull. A brute of a man wielding a two-handed axe made of black iron.
Behind them stretched the army.
It was a sea of steel and magic. Five thousand players. Tanks in heavy plate formed the vanguard. Their shields locked together. Behind them, regiments of archers and mages prepared their volleys. Healers stood in the rear. Ready to spam regeneration spells. It was the largest gathering of force in the server's history. Assembled for one purpose: to crush the "Glitcher" and take the Sanctuary.
"Are you sure he's still there?" Bloodaxe grunted. Spitting on the ash-covered ground. "If he logged out, we're marching into this heat for nothing."
"He's there," Baron_K sneered. "The system notification said 'Guild Established'. If the Guild Master logs out within the first 24 hours of establishment, the guild dissolves. He has to defend the core. He's trapped."
Baron_K looked at the distant, looming silhouette of the Obsidian Fortress. Greed warred with hatred in his heart. That fortress... it had appeared in seconds. It was a miracle of engineering and magic. If he could take the token. If he could claim that base. The Golden Lion would rule the server. In the real world, his stocks would soar.
"He humiliated me," Baron_K hissed. His hand tightening on the reins. "He crushed me into the dirt like a bug. Today, I return the favor. I want him alive at the end. I want to spawn-camp him until his level drops to zero."
Bloodaxe laughed. "You can have the girl. I want the loot. That dagger of his... it ignored defense. I want it."
"Attention all units!" Baron_K's voice boomed over the raid channel. Amplified by a shout skill. "The objective is the fortress! Kill the Drifter! Seize the Core! The first player to breach the gate gets 10,000 Gold!"
A roar went up from the army. 10,000 Gold. It was a life-changing amount of money in the real world. It turned fear into frenzy.
"March!"
The ground shook. Five thousand pairs of boots marched in unison. Kicking up a storm of black ash. They moved into the Valley of Cinders. Ignoring the ticking damage of the heat debuff. Their eyes fixed on the black castle waiting in the distance.
They didn't see a fortress. They saw a treasure chest waiting to be cracked open.
Back on the ramparts, Sebastian watched the army spill into the valley like a slow-moving oil slick.
"They're entering the kill zone," Sebastian noted calmly.
Valerie raised her staff. Her mana flaring. "I'll take the left flank. I can bottle-neck them with [Wall of Fire]."
"Save your mana," Sebastian ordered. He didn't draw his weapon. Didn't cast a buff. He simply stepped up onto the ledge of the rampart. "You protect Galleon. If a single rogue gets past me, burn them. The army though? The army is mine."
"Yours?" Valerie looked at him incredulously. "Sebastian, there are thousands of them. You can't just—"
Sebastian didn't let her finish. He stepped off the ledge.
[Skill: Sky Walk]
He didn't fall. He walked on the air. Descending slowly. Step by step. As if descending an invisible staircase. He walked out to the center of the obsidian bridge that spanned the lava moat. The only entrance to the fortress.
He stood there. A lone figure in tattered grey rags. Facing a legion of gold and steel.
The army slowed. Then stopped. The sight of a single man standing against five thousand was unnerving. It felt... wrong. It felt like a trap.
"Halt!" Baron_K roared from the backlines. "He's trying to bluff us again! Archers! Volley fire! Turn him into a pincushion!"
The sky darkened as five hundred arrows arced through the smoky air. They whistled down. A rain of death aimed at the solitary figure on the bridge.
Sebastian looked up. He didn't dodge. Didn't flinch.
"Welcome to my Kingdom," he whispered.
The arrows descended. To the watching army, it looked like the end. No player, no matter how glitched, could survive a direct hit from five hundred arrows.
Sebastian raised his right foot. He didn't stomp. He gently placed it down on the obsidian bridge.
[Skill Evolution: Gravity Well -> Gravity Field -> Gravity Domain (Forbidden Tier)]
"Kneel."
VROOOOOM.
The sound wasn't loud. It was deep. It was a frequency that vibrated in the bone marrow. The air above the bridge warped violently. The five hundred arrows froze in mid-air. Fifty meters above Sebastian's head. For a split second, they hung there. Suspended in a stasis field.
Then they simply ceased to exist as projectiles.
The gravity in a 500-meter radius around Sebastian amplified by a factor of one hundred.
SNAP. CRACK. PING.
The wooden shafts of the arrows splintered instantly. The metal tips were flattened into coins. The debris was slammed into the lava moat with such force that it caused the molten rock to splash upwards.
The arrows were just the prologue though.
The vanguard of the Golden Lion guild—five hundred heavy tanks charging across the bridge—hit the invisible wall of the domain.
It wasn't a wall. It was a hammer.
"ARGH!"
"HELP!"
The screams were wet. Short. The front line collapsed instantly. It wasn't that they tripped. They were crushed. The heavy plate armor they wore, usually their greatest defense, became their coffin. Under 100x gravity, a suit of steel armor weighed tons.
CRUNCH.
Metal buckled. Helmets imploded. Breastplates caved in. Crushing ribcages into a paste of bone and organ meat. The players didn't even have time to suffocate. They were flattened against the obsidian bridge. Their bodies turning into red and blue pixels as their HP bars vanished in a single tick.
[-5,000 (Environmental Damage - Crushing)]
[-5,000 (Environmental Damage - Crushing)]
[-5,000 (Environmental Damage - Crushing)]
The system log scrolled so fast it was a blur of red text.
The players behind the vanguard tried to stop. Digging their heels into the ash. Terror replacing their greed. The momentum of the charge pushed them forward though. They were shoved into the [Gravity Domain] by their own allies.
It was a meat grinder.
Bodies piled up. Layer upon layer. Only to be compressed down into a grotesque, flat layer of gore and data. The bridge ran red with blood before the bodies dissolved into light.
"Stop! STOP!" Baron_K screamed from the rear. His face draining of color. "Pull back! What is that?! What kind of magic is that?!"
Sebastian walked forward.
He moved calmly through the field of destruction. The gravity didn't affect him. He was the singularity. He walked over the flattened remains of the vanguard. His boots not even getting stained because the pressure kept the blood pressed into the rock.
He looked at the army. Now halted in a chaotic, terrified clump on the other side of the bridge.
"Is that it?" Sebastian's voice projected across the battlefield. Amplified by the dense air. "I see five thousand of you. Why are you stopping?"
"Monster..." a mage in the front row whispered. Dropping his staff. "He's a monster."
Sebastian raised a hand. He tweaked the parameters of the Domain. He didn't just want to defend. He wanted to send a message to the entire server.
"Gravity... Inversion."
The pressure on the bridge suddenly vanished.
The debris. The dropped weapons. The few surviving players who were crawling away with shattered limbs suddenly floated. They drifted upward. Weightless. Suspended in a nightmare of zero-g.
"Now... Crush."
Sebastian clenched his fist.
The gravity slammed back down. Not at 100x. Concentrated into a single, localized point in the center of the enemy army.
BOOM.
A crater appeared in the middle of the Golden Lion formation. It was as if an invisible asteroid had struck the earth. Fifty players in the center were instantly atomized. The shockwave of the gravity implosion sent hundreds of others flying. Ragdolling through the air. Their limbs snapping like dry twigs upon impact with the hard, volcanic ground.
The army broke.
There was no order to retreat. There was only panic. It was a stampede of terror. Players trampled each other to escape the Valley. They didn't care about the gold. Didn't care about the Guild Token. They just wanted to get away from the man in rags who controlled the fundamental forces of the universe.
Baron_K turned his horse. His face twisted in fear. "Retreat! Everyone back to the ridge!"
Sebastian watched them run. He could have chased them. Could have used [Sky Walk] to fly over them and rain down fire. He didn't though. He needed to conserve mana. Maintaining a Forbidden Tier domain over such a large area burned through his reserves. Even with his infinite regeneration.
He deactivated the domain. The air settled. The screaming faded into the distance. Replaced by the bubbling of the lava.
The bridge was clear.
"Phase one complete," Sebastian muttered. Turning back toward the fortress.
As he turned though, his [Eye of the Void God] pulsed. A warning.
The main army was a distraction. A brute force sledgehammer meant to draw his attention. While he was crushing the hammer though, a needle had slipped through the cracks.
A faint, almost imperceptible ripple in the mana near the fortress walls.
"Smart," Sebastian whispered. His eyes narrowing. "While I play god, you play ghost."
He didn't rush. He walked back toward the gate with a casual stride. His mind was already weaving a new spell though. The battle wasn't over. The rats were inside the walls.