Game’s Dogma

Though the situation was gradually stabilising, Drako Yau knew clearly that it was no more than stalling for time. The swarm of monsters was still gradually marching towards the east gate. The moment the enemies reached the walls, the ravons wouldn’t matter at all even if the players managed to exterminate the flying monsters. Under the protection of the red monoeye tribe’s barrier which was immune to ranged attacks, the monsters could surely take down the gate.

That was the reason why he gave the order to kill the commanders on sight. Only by forcing one of the monster corps to retreat did they have a chance of victory, even if just a sliver.

The enemy couldn’t be called smart, but they weren’t dumb either. With how cautiously they were advancing now, a surprise attack like the one Hades used previously was out of question.

Just when things were starting to get better for the east gate, Drako Yau heard the Hades’ stuttering voice in the chat room.

‘The west… west gate has fallen…’

Turning time back to when Drako Yau was heading towards the east gate, an unforeseen mishap took place at the west gate.

The four major cities were designed to house hundreds of thousands of players. While their sizes weren’t comparable to major cities in the actual world, they were by no means small either.

While Drako Yau was rushing over to the east, the monsters beyond the west gate were still casually strolling towards the west gate. A thousand or so miles away, the purplish weirdo, Phastma Violet, sat on top of a gigantic corpse whose head was missing. Blood was gushing out from the cleanly cut wound, creating a pond of blood around it. With how massive the corpse was, the amount of blood was incomparable to humans.

He was enjoying himself to the fullest while commanding the army. After all, the action of revealing himself was already testing the limits set by the Dominator. A tint of carelessness was all that would take for him to be vanquished. As such, he had no choice but to keep a rein on himself.

Unlike others who feared the Dominator, Phantasma Violet’s way of thinking was rather unique.

‘The distance is… hmm… about right. Wolves, full speed ahead. Monoeyes, get ready.’

The monsters approaching the west gate were still several thousand metres away. All of a sudden, they abruptly raised their marching speed and also altered their formation.

They had been marching in a length rectangular formation. Albeit slow, it was a sturdy and steady formation. It was a simple yet destructive formation which could initiate charges and hold up against enemy charges.

But right now, their rectangle seemed to have been pulled apart as the wolves scattered themselves out of the tidy formation. Looking from above, they were like ink spreading across a blank canvas.

Hades was caught off guard by the sudden change. ‘What are they trying to do?’

Right when he was feeling suspicious, the wolves that had spread out started accelerating. If Hades couldn’t tell something was off by now, it would have been a disgrace for how much experience he had in games.

‘Intercept them!’

Those who had followed Hades over to defend the west gate were vastly stronger than those at the east gate, with most of them being Level 10 or above, not to mention the Underworld members. But right now, even they were hard-pressed to hold out against the enemy.

The monsters were too quick, and there were too many of them.

The west gate had a lot less monsters than the east gate, but that was just comparatively speaking. Just the wolves alone numbered over 2,000! And right now, the thousands of wolves had scattered and were skirmishing all over the place. The agile monsters were known for the speed, and that only made things worse for the players who had to run back and forth.

Meanwhile, the beastmen that were slowly marching in the back sped up silently while the wolves were gathering all the attention. This of course didn’t slip past Hades’ sharp eyes. Noticing their accelerated march, he gave his order.

‘Soulsmith, lead the hunters over to the beastmen. Roam and skirmish while retreating.’

Soulsmith and several tens of hunters skirmished around the beastmen, disrupting their march by firing shot after shot. The beastmen simply ignored them and acted as though those who were dropping like flies from the projectiles were not their brethren. They continued to advance in circles while holding tower shields, most likely to protect the frail monoeyes in the centre.

‘This won’t work, they simply don’t care. Need melee players to hold them back’, said Soulsmith. As a well-versed gamer, he directly spoke his mind to Hades.

Hades sent a message through the global channel. ‘Send some melee players over as vanguards to block the beastmen.’

Wolves were agile skirmishers, while monoeyes were mainly support troops. They provided ranged immunity and slowness debuffs, which was why they were under protection in the centre of the beastmen army.

Beastmen—they were the true main forces that had to be dealt with!

As the players advanced to surround the beastmen, Phantasma Violet showed a gleeful smile. Chuckling, he murmured to himself, ‘Hoho, it’s finally here. They’re gonna run, but don’t be hasty… Patience…’

‘And now! Head out!’

Receiving Phantasma Violet’s command, several dozens of wolves sprinted towards the west gate without anyone noticing. With a whopping 2,000 wolves running around the place, it was hardly possible to identify the dozen of tiny wolves that ran towards the gate, even more so when they weren’t running in a formation.

Soulsmith furrowed his brows at the sight of the rapidly approaching beastmen army and turned to look at Everlastor.

‘Sword, lend it to me.’

Everlastor grinned. ‘Do it!’

Soulsmith didn’t reply and dashed straight towards Everlastor. They had been building up their chemistry back in the days of War of the Daemons—and it was currently at a level unimaginable to others.

Everlastor lifted his gigantic two-handed greatsword and held it horizontally across his chest. The next moment, Soulsmith leapt and planted his feet into the flat side of the greatsword!

‘Hahhh!!!’

Everlastor’s attribute points were all dumped into Strength and Constitution—especially the former, which he invested 4 points every time he levelled up. As he roared, he swung and flicked his sword upwards, launching Soulsmith into the air like a missile.

While in the air, Soulsmith notched and fired arrow after arrow, but his targets weren’t the beastmen. He was aiming for the monoeyes in the centre of their formation. Once the monoeyes got close enough to safely cast their slowness debuff, things would get nasty…

Looking down from above, Soulsmith swept his gaze past the tower shields and had a good look at the centre of the formation. His pupils abruptly shrunk.

‘Hades!’ Soulsmith sounded rather exasperated. ‘It’s a feint! The monoeyes aren’t there!’

From afar, Phantasma Violet had witnessed Soulsmith and Everlastor’s trick of gaining vision over the beastmen army.

‘Oh? That’s an interesting way of cooperating. Humans, their creativity is truly boundless… Did they notice already? Then there’s no need to hide it anymore.’ Phantasma Violet’s eyes were full of excitement. This is what makes games fun!

At that very moment, pairs of eyes popped up from the stomach of the dozens of wolves that were sprinting towards the west gate. Hauling themselves up, the monoeyes that had been clinging onto the wolves’ bellies turned into wolf riders and headed straight for the west gate!

Monoeyes showed up one after another. They were now no more than several hundred metres away from the gate.