Luke keeps his tracking skills active as they approach the city, giving updates in party chat using the interface so that he's not overheard. They're keeping their distance, but have defined moved into a position that will prevent turning way without a fight.
A rough looking bunch of about twenty adventurers comes out of the gates when they're a few hundred meters away, all with the same [Montauk Guardians] Guild tag above their names when Cain turns status bars on in his interface. Best to just leave that active at this point, the little annoyances of the overlay is well with the information it provides in a new situation.
"Well, aren't you kind. You two gentlemen brought us all these pretty women at one time. Tell you what, leave your old Guilds now and we'll write you up a real sweet contract to join us. There's no need to be mean to generous lads such as yourselves." The leader of their welcoming committee, a Paladin named IR1337FoEva420 announces in a smarmy sneer.
"He needs to die just for that gamer tag." Cain sends in Group chat, making Luke laugh and Sylvia give him a confused look. He guesses she's not familiar with the slang.
Cain decides that surprise is likely the best tactic, so he selects the option to accept all player attacks on Guild members as a Guild War declaration, a little loophole that will prevent him from being flagged as an aggressor if he attacks one of their members in town. Normally Guild War declarations must be sent and accepted. But attacking a guild leader can be directly accepted by them without a formal declaration.
In the beginner valley, this just means that people let Guild Masters or their party members attack first, to avoid an actual Guild War. But Cain suspects these guys are too arrogant to notice he is the leader of the Darklight Host.
The trap set, he has Laura transform back into a Dragon and leap into the air to get a good angle to freeze the area. The shock tactic works perfectly, a startled archer fires a glancing shot off her scales the moment she appears.
[Montauk Guardians] have declared war on [Darklight Host] declaration will last 24 hours, criminal aggressor flags do not apply during a Guild War.
Cain smiles at the notification, while the welcoming committee looks stunned, not understanding what just happened. They attacked a Dragon didn't they?
Laura layers breath all over the area, and the trees behind them, covering all the hostile forces in a thick Ice Fog. Cain calls forth all his summons at that moment, into the welcoming committee, while the Vala twins split. One goes forward, One turns to rush behind them, to spread Pestilence among the group following them.
Other than the Paladin, no other healers are visible, so Cain holds off a few seconds, letting Might Of Many stack up. All of the forces in front have formed into a tight circle, to avoid being surrounded, but that will be their doom. The Plague Mages Summoned by Cain's Lesser Sorcerer ability have placed corrosive puddles under their feet, and Cain has cast Acid Rain over the area, drenching them all in damage over time effects, even before Pestilence behind to take its toll.
They've now realized their mistake, and Cain can see a few blank looks that are clearly calling for aid in the interface, but the damage is so much more than they can heal that nobody will make it in time. Even if they were standing at the gate right now it would be hopeless.
The rhythmic thumping of running boots on cobblestone streets is getting louder, the reinforcements are almost here.
"Do not attack them, just avoid getting hit or flagged as a criminal. We have this in hand." Cain informs his other group members. They could attack the ones already here without issue, they're all in combat with a party member. But anyone showing up afterwards might be a different story until they're definitely in combat. No need to cause troubles for the Elven kingdoms.
Cain is holding off on the direct attacks, letting the Paladin struggle to keep the group alive while everyone drinks healing potions as fast as they can. It's been nearly 30 seconds now, and his buff is as big as it will get, so Cain takes aim at the fighters just reaching the gate.
They've sent two Holy Clerics, which is an advanced cleric class and three Paladins as the first wave, and Cain lets loose a Lightning Arrow into the group, killing them all in a single shot. They were weaker than Cain expected, or perhaps that's normal when his summons are fighting twenty targets.
As they fall, scorched and blackened, dozens more fill the massive doorway with weapons drawn. Anyone with a Montauk Guardians membership is fair game, so Cain lets loose with multi shots of Lightning Arrows, ripping through their ranks.
He can see that a party or Guild quest announcement has arrived and been accepted by Kone while he was busy, so Cain waits for the Druid to let him know what it says.
"Kill everything hostile and free the captured workers from the city." She summarizes for him, making Laura laugh and release Dragon breath in the city.
There's a few other Guilds who have attacked her, receiving instant declarations in return. They've all got strange names though.
[Montauk Guardians Team 2] has declared war on [Darklight Host]
[Montauk Guardians Team 3] has declared war on [Darklight Host]
[Montauk Guardians Team 4] has declared war on [Darklight Host]
Did they run out of spots and create subordinate Guilds so they could have more than the maximum 100 members? Hopefully none of them are insanely strong, since this is the closest city to the Beginner Valley. From what Cain has seen so far, level 110 is the high end for the fighters they've sent out to meet him. Ten levels is a manageable difference as far as Cain is concerned.
[Pestilence] has become a nightmare for the city. The Guilds are forming Raid teams to attack, not knowing that it's one squad, not an entire Guild attacking them. But that just increases the valid targets for the debuff to spread, and Shamans are in short supply. Druids, who can cast an area cleanse, are exceedingly rare, and only a few are in the city, but both have played dumb, not responding to messages and hiding as if they were occupied or asleep.
The Guild took over an entire quadrant of the city, and now that they're forming up to attack, they're much too close together to escape. The Shamans get everyone further apart to stop the spread of Pestilence, but not before every Healer has had their mana pool depleted, leaving many fighters injured. Darklight Host and Yellow Tusk both have plenty of healers in their Guilds, but when looking at the larger picture, over an entire city, the classes that can heal make up less than 5 percent of people with a system.
When everyone gets damaged at once, by Dragons and Pestilence Debuffs for example, there's just not enough to go around.
They've stopped trying to leave the city to attack now, so Cain is going in. Vala has returned from behind them, signaling that the scouts are all dead, and Nemu is playing a jaunty tune that is doing an incredible job of demoralizing their enemies. The Wrath Bringers and Snapping Turtles are going berserk inside the gates, the shared healing from Vala is making it difficult to take them down, and the panic from the number of wounded is keeping the Montauk Guardians from effectively focusing down a single target.
The Dread Spider Bodyguards are usually pretty quiet during a fight, but today they're doing overtime, spreading webs to keep targets in damaging spell effects, or attacking hidden enemies with Poisoned Spears, bringing them out into the open in the vain hope of healing.
While their Guild members would presumably love to, they're already low on mana and struggling. Though some members are noticeably being ignored, this must not be a tight knit Guild.
The injured members soon realize they've been betrayed and abandoned, every class capable of healing that they see has a Guild Deserter tag and is running for the far side of the city, away from the attacks.
Before today, nobody would dare. Betraying the Guild is a fate worse than death in this city, worse even than the fate they give the transfers forced into slave contracts, and many of them already beg for death.
For decades the Montauk Guardians have ruled this area with an iron fist. Capturing and forcing into lifelong servitude contracts every transfer that levels out of the Valley and appears here. The system prevents them from breaking the carefully worded contracts they're forced to sign, so the unfortunate souls can't even try to flee the city and risk their lives against Retribution and roaming monsters.
But that's all come crashing down today. The Guilds are in shambles, dozens are dead and many survivors have left the Guild and fled. AllNatty the Guild Master is in a rage, he was just awoken from a particularly enjoyable night to deal with an attack on the Guild. He doesn't know which idiot declared war on this upstart Darklight Host, but the score shown is 67-0 in their favor, and reports say that the subordinate Guilds are in the same situation.
There is no point in hiding, his rule over this city has been questioned and he will never accept that. But the thought lingers in his mind, who could be strong enough to go against an entire town? Are they not from the valley, but actually a high level Guild that was passing by and got offended by his scouts? If anyone involved in this mess survives the day, he intends to kill them himself. After forcing them to turn over everything they have, of course.
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