Chapter 163 - Crash. Bang. Kaboom.
After a few minutes…
With all the elite members of their guild present, the a.s.sasin"s guild discussed a few things for a while and then directly began taking action.
And Liam who was not too close and not too far from them quietly slipped away. While they were discussing strategy, he had also restructured his basic plan.
He also decided to keep a backup escape strategy just in case. It would be foolish of him not to plan one even after looking at the capability of the people in front of him.
Since he was quite confident that nothing was going to happen right from the get-go, he took the time and slipped away.
He dashed over, retracing his very first path, cutting between the twists, turns, and gaps of the rocks and finally reaching the place where Luna and Talon were obediently seated.
The two instantly cheered up at the sight of Liam as they hadn"t seen him in a while.
"Sorry guys, it took so long. But we are still not done. Just a couple more hours and then we can leave this place." Liam smiled and patted the two.
He then replenished their stock of food and also took another item.
"Come here, Luna."
Kyuu?
The fox padded forward, hopping and skipping. Liam caught the soft furry creature in his hand and lifted her up.
He then raised her tail, making the fox instantly become very self-conscious.
Kyuuuuu! Luna whined uncomfortably but she soon stopped, as Liam let her go.
Huh? The fox blinked a couple of times. She could tell that her tail felt different.
She repeatedly spun her body around and twisted her head trying to see if there was something new on her tail.
Liam chuckled at her comical actions and patted her head. "It"s just a ring. I gave you a present. Alright?"
Ah… Understanding his words, the fox immediately opened her mouth wide in surprise, which soon turned into a big smile and visible joy.
Master gave her a present!
"Ok. Time to get going. I will be back again, actually very soon. Luna, stay put and Talon, be ready to start flying as soon as I get back and climb onto you. Understand?"
"And in the meantime, keep your heads low and stay safe just like you have been doing."
The two pets obediently nodded, watching Liam"s figure once again disappear into the mountainous terrain.
His movements were even faster than before as he was now more familiar with the place, running around back and forth multiple times.
Liam also used mana to boost himself and did not waste too much time. He only stopped when he neared the mecha gnome valley.
He stood behind a rock to see that the guild had not yet started getting serious. They were still testing the waters by sending one or two to tango with the gnomes.
Liam also saw several friend requests popping up in his interface.
It seemed like these people were determined to contact him. They were trying very hard to get the trick he had used to tame the gnomes.
With that shortcut, their life would be much easier and they were failing, again and again, to decipher it on their own.
Liam chuckled. Of course, how could something like that be so easy?
The last time around, to obtain the treasure inside, the guild had undergone a painstaking amount of trouble.
Only after sending dozens and dozens of their members and having several of them die, they somehow managed to clean out all the gnomes in the valley, obtaining what was inside.
So if this guild wanted to replicate that success, they would have to pay an equal if not bigger price as they hadn"t done sufficient preparations for it.
Liam as well did not possess the ability to straightforwardly attack these gnomes and clear the place out. That was a suicide mission.
His plan was never based on achieving such an impossible feat.
However, he had other methods up his sleeve. The first phase of the triggered chain gnome explosion was a mere distraction.
But right now he did not need to go through all that trouble. Someone else was generously helping him, carrying out this distraction phase.
All he had to do was wait patiently…
Liam silently continued standing behind the rock and observing. A few more minutes pa.s.sed and just as he expected, the group was no closer to mapping out a strategy.
"Any time now…" He grinned and readied himself.
And the very next minute, Abraki"s loud voice thundered. "That"s enough. Attack. Move forward with full force."
Immediately, the 60 or so players hiding behind the area of detection of the gnomes, jumped forward into the battle zone.
BANG. CRASH. KABOOM.
Fire b.a.l.l.s, Frost bolts, Dark swirls, Steel arrows, a variety of attacks flew across, targeting the several gnomes.
The ranged players did the majority of the damage, with the close combat players temporarily holding back.
The healers were equally busy, ready to insta cast, bless or revive the health of the players unlucky enough to be struck by the self-destructing suicide attack of the gnomes.
But the gnomes were not pushed back so easily.
Against the might of the big guild, they held their own.
"BEEP! INTRUDERS ALERT"
"BEEP! INTRUDERS ALERT!"
"BEEP! INTRUDERS ALERT!"
Deafening and disorienting sirens rang loudly in the air as more and more mecha gnomes started pouring out.
They threw all caution to the wind and rotated their loaded barrels shooting out bullets, bombs, and bazookas.
When this did not work or if their health was about to bottom out, they threw themselves at the enemy randomly and exploded. Not just the front lines but anywhere in the formation.
Complete and utter chaos descended. It was an absolute trainwreck.
But none of the guild members looked hesitant or showed any signs of fear. They bravely continued pressing on, taking all of the hits and damages with wide open arms.
Abraki"s leaders.h.i.+p also shone through and his voice thundered amidst the disaster.
"Mages! Freeze the gnomes that are of low health!"
"a.s.sasins! Try sneaking up and dismantling them into two halves!"
"Hunters! Get your pets to draw away the low health gnomes! Get them away to the far end! Let them explode onto themselves!"
Though they were clearly being overpowered, the top elite players of the guild were nothing to scoff at and were putting a decent fight against the unrelenting gnomes.
Just the sight of the b.l.o.o.d.y battle made Liam"s blood boil. This was a small scale war! Such powerful techniques and such skillful teamwork! This was a first rate guild!
He did not yet have the power to deal with such a guild.
But Liam was not here just to watch the show.
He waited patiently and before long, along with the constant swarm of mech gnomes that were spilling out, several bigger humanoid bots also started crawling out.
The overseers!
The instant these came out, every single member of the a.s.sasin guild became speechless.
They were already struggling to deal with the small level 35 gnomes, how were they going to deal with these big Level 50 bots?
"f.u.c.k!" Several people simultaneously cursed loudly. This was definitely going to be a team wipe!
Seeing that his team"s spirit was wavering, Abraki immediately commanded. "There are just 10 of them! We are 60 in number! We can take them down! DON"T STOP!"
At this critical moment, he finally jumped into action, no longer holding anything back. "Use the gnomes explosive burst to take down the bigger bots. Use their own attack against them."
"MOVE AND EVADE"
"MOVE AND EVADE"
"KEEP MOVING"
His voice thundered loudly. At this time, he was no longer wielding his daggers.
Instead, he took out a big s.h.i.+ny s.h.i.+eld and jumped in the midst of the chaos, directly taking the hit that was aimed at one of their healers.
BANG!
Abraki was pushed back and a quarter of his health disappeared. However, the very next second another spell landed on him, topping up his health.
He nodded in approval, silently praising their healers. It was a good idea to diversify their guild and not just stick to one profession.
Just as he was about to jump into another messy node where a guild member looked like he was about to die, suddenly he saw a person appear and disappear in the corner of his eyes.
"Impossible!" Abraki"s entire body shuddered in disbelief.