Second Saga

The army had arrived in front of the Beginner’s City, standing giving off an air of intimidation. It was usually a calm city at night but the guards had marched towards to wall with the sudden crashing sound of heavy armor sounded across the city. The NPC’s would naturally be able to figure out what was happening. The young noobs were worriedly running around with their tails between their legs and seemingly forgetting they could easily just log out. Fear had taken over their sense of reason. Some had even ran into others causing a mayham. The rich kids were unable to react to the sudden change of events. But this didn’t apply to everyone, as the users who were no longer beginners could only think of the loot and experience they could gain by fighting. An event like this was not something that would happen often, thus their blood started to boil in antic.i.p.ation. It wasn’t as if they were going to just jump the wall and start fighting, only an idiot would do that. So until the city guards took action they would patiently wait and see what happened as such a small amount of users would be ma.s.sacred by an army during the night. This was nothing in comparison to the reactions of the NPC’s who were terrified and weeping on the ground. Young children were already left lost by the parents who were separated by the commotion. The NPC’s swiftly packed up their family heirlooms or all the food they could muster. If it came down to a war and the guards were over run, they would be next in line for death. Thus they prepared early and NPC’s were running towards the opposite gate in hopes to leave as early as possible.

“Oh boy I knew something like this was going to happen.”

Lila complained and angrily thought of a certain someone they had previously warned about the situation.

“Well…. instead of complaining we should think about what we are going to do from now on.”

Goliath calmly said.

“Indeed, we can fight and probably gain a few levels if we are lucky. Though the opposite is also possible and we could get killed right at the start lose game time and a level. This obviously isn’t too big of a risk but the longer we wait the more likely it is to turn bad for us.”

Hearing Lockon’s evaluation they quickly nodded their heads. While Rina, holding onto pan, stepped up and voice her opinion.

“…Shouldn’t we at least trust Hydra to come up with a solution? He did seem quite confident.”

“This is also true. The Shadow we know wouldn’t so easily lie about this.”

“Then it’s agreed we will stay and protect Pan?”

“Agreed!”

Lila and the rest raised the hands into the air announcing their agreement with a yell. But as they were cheering the wave of warriors from the Liza started to move. It started soft and quiet but as the entire army started to join in the loud thumps started to shake the earth. Without moving forward the Liza continued to stomp the ground which greatly lowered the morale of the guards. They may have been guards, however they were only a slight cut above the rest and the quartermasters would be required to escort the Lord away in case the guards could not hold.
Even the guard’s captain was unable to hide his fear as the stomps started to echo in their minds. Finally a call came out and the stomping ceased although the earth was still vibrating from the after effects of the small quake.

“Humans! Listen up. I am the Chief of the Liza clan.”

The loud roar of the Chieftain was hard across the entire city. The crying babies were shocked out of their tears the running NPC’s immediately stopped. Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened in fear.

“I am not here to invade. But that only depends on the actions of you humans! I am here for someone. Someone who came and invaded my Village and took my prey! If you hand him over, I will leave without destroying your village. If you chose to disobey, I a.s.sume you know the result.”

The quiet guards and villagers started to chatter quietly, they had no idea who the infiltrator is so how could they hand over someone like that? It wasn’t until a crazed user spoke up that everything turned for the worst!

“You! Whoever you are give yourself up! How dare you ruin the peace of this city! I, Drake will not allow this crime to go unpunished! But if you willingly had yourself over I, the magnanimous Drake, will pardon your sins!”

The shouts of a heroic user echoed throughout the city. Even though until now Drake, the lancer, was just cowering in fear and now that he saw an easy solution to the problem he took every advantage as a coward he could! But the problem was that all the NPC’s agreed with him!

“Hydra is impeccably lucky that he is not here right now. I wouldn’t want to turn into the enemy of the entire city just because of the actions of one coward.”

Goliath weakly spoke out while the rest furiously nodded in agreement. It was unanimously decided that they would pretend not to know him until the situation was resolved.

“Lord Chief of the Liza Clan I, Drake, promise you that I will find the perpetrator and hand him over as soon as I can. Please be at ease and give us some time. Quickly everyone go find him!

“Find the traitor!”
“I swear I’ll kill him first!”
“I can’t believe anyone would be so discourteous to cause problems for our city!”

The NPCs and cowardly users all ran about to look for an unknown target. Anyone looking guilty was quickly apprehended and dragged towards the city walls while begging to be let go. As they were innocent it was obvious they were tearfully trying to plead their cases but the berserk humans would not listen. Dragged before the leader of cowards, Drake, he looked at them in disdain and even hit a few in order to get the truth of the matter as quickly as possible.

How could they tell him the truth? The truth was that none of them had anything to do with the Liza clan but arguing would only allow them to be hit again! The Chief had ignored the actions until now as he enjoyed seeing simple prey being beaten by their own kin. But when he didn’t see the one he was looking for he spoke up. Drake upon hearing the first syllable of his words turned into another person and would be licking his feet if the Chief so asked.

“Little human… You are not worthy to be called by your name by the great I. Do not think I can not see through your foolish acts of bravado. Strength is of the highest pedigree to us the Liza clan. If you think by jumping up and foolishly showing your leadership, after I give you a solution, then you are nothing more than a bug.”

Drake then cowered in fear. He, who was just basking in power, was now the gaze of disgust from every user and NPC alike. He could do nothing but act the fool and hope it turned out for the better. Though the captured users and NPC’s did not agree and when freed they themselves caught Drake. As Drake was caught and tied up he screamed in protest!

“I was just trying to help the city! You can’t do this!”

Obvious voices of complaint was disregarded and he was taken away by the users into a dark alley way where no one would know what happened besides the witness’s. Upon hearing screams akin to that of a pig everyone cringed and decided to ignore it.

“Humans… I shall give you till dawn to decide.”

As the Chief walked back into the army he could easily be distinguished by his build that was at least 1.5 times larger. Then the army started to stomp the ground again as if reminding them with every vibration that their time was running out. The users and NPC’s once again quickly tried to gather anyone that looked guilty. Fights broke out and users and NPCs alike were dying like flies. It wasn’t until another person yelled out in an intimidating voiced that everyone calmed down and listened.

“You filthy Casuals. How dare you fight amongst yourselves in fear while the true enemy is before us! As fellow humans you should be working together to save YOUR city from destruction! If you do not have any sentiments in helping your fellow-man, THEN BEGONE!”

Goliath raged towards the cowardly users and NPC’s. He might not have been the highest level but at this moment he could not stand to watch as the city destroyed itself. If anyone was calm it could easily be seen that the Chief was smarter than most monsters. He actually had the humans fight amongst themselves in order to lessen the burden on this army! From the beginning all the users who were calmly watching by knew that the Liza were not going to quietly leave and acquiring one measly human!

“Are you sure that’s okay Goliath? I thought you didn’t want to stand out in this game.”

“Urgh… I could not stand back and watch such a sight.”

“Yes, I agree I will start to work up a strategy as soon as possible.”

“I will gather the remaining calm users and start organizing them into platoons.”

“I am already healing the injured and will continue to do so.”

“Good. Meet up back here when everything is finished!”

There was one special point about Hydra’s friends that he did not know. They were already Core gamers! Professionals on the field or acquiring the greatest of loot and fighting the strongest of enemies. While their life of gaming had been on a PC and [Second Saga] being the first VRMMORPG it did not change their ability to act calmly under such conditions! Goliath the usual calm and depressed tank who never got help was their leader! Their guild was famous in every single popular mmorpg! They ran through the game killing every monster that was said to be invincible! Scaling every map terrain that was said to be impossible! And it was them that actually spread the word of the nickname for Hydra ,Shadow! Thus when they approached Hydra in order to party with him it was neither because they pitied him nor because they were fans. It was because they were looking to scout him! His battle potential would allow them to start conquest in [Second Saga]! They may have been geniuses in their own right, however in the beginning of the game skill was everything and without the supplement of good gear they would naturally be over-confident at this point and laid low until they gained levels and equipment! But it wa no lie to say that their friendship was indeed real! They were all able to open up to him naturally and did not have to worry about their images from past games. Especially that Hydra was a complete and utter noob, so he had no idea about their past achievements. As Goliath was the leader naturally the smart book-worm Lockon was the strategist. While Lila’s responsibility was a field officer where she could react to any unexpected situations. It would be correct to say that Rina was the most normal out of them all! However she had the uncanny ability to calm anyone down no matter how grim the outcome may look! The only thing they were missing to their group was an invincible swordsman. They were lucky to have found their potential match so early in the beginning! Yet they were unwilling to tell Hydra due to the new friendship they acquired. It made them feel guilt every night before sleeping. Thus they would wait to tell him until they brought back their guild with their own strength. The strongest of guilds, The Shadow Lurkers!

—————————

Meanwhile Hydra had no idea what was happening at the city at this moment. Quite frankly he didn’t think it was quite his problem. Though it was completely and entirely his fault and was 100% his problem. The only thing on his mind was that he didn’t want to fail his quest nor lose his chance at all the loot and drops! Thus Hydra, had come up with the worst plan he could think of, truly it was plan with a lot of risk and if it worked the rewards could be tremendous. However every time he thought of it he shivered. It was definitely not something he wished to do but what choice did he have? He could not rely on the guards nor the users. He could only rely on himself. But that was also impossible. And then, it came to him. The plan that could either fail horribly or work exceedingly well. Thus with hint of determination in his eyes he arrived at his destination. He then prepared himself and walked forward for his goals.

———————-

“Goliath everyone’s been gathered!”

“Good, Lock On if you would”

“No problem boss! Now everyone listen up! I have come up with one sound strategy for this to work out! It might sound easy but truthfully if anything goes wrong it will be the end of us all!”

Gulping could be heard from every user in the crowd. This crowd was by no means small. It had over 200 users averaging around level 20-30. It seemed they had a complete disadvantage in which they did. But they also had an advantage and that was the city itself. Terrain played a ma.s.sive role in wars and it required many times over the number to siege a city and come out victorious. If it was only that the users were this number and similar levels the outcome would be quite closer. The realism of the situation was in fact much different. Their levels were half that of the Liza clan and the numbers were a third. Even with the guards it would not make much of a difference as there was only 100 guards to be used. approximately 300 in totally against roughly 1000 Liza clan warriors. The stomping until now had not ceased so everyone was speaking much louder in order to hear one another but that bothered no one and thus Lockon spoke of explained his strategy.

Because the Beginner’s City was on a plains and thus had no advantage in natural terrain they had to cover the walls on all four directions. Therefore it was required to split their forces equally with an overall balanced level. There were a low amount of priests maybe reaching 20 thus four were split up into each wall 2 in middle and 1 on the outside middles. This would allow the 4 on each wall to cover the most area and in case damage occurred on the corners that two walls intersected the free priest was able to rush over to heal. The mages were also balanced equally according to type. The amount of mages was over 50 and 10 of each style. There were then spread out 12 to each wall and the extra left out in the front. Each time had at least 2 on each wall and the highest fire power of fire was left to the front. It was natural the front wall with the gate would be the area hit the hardest. Because it was still dark it was impossible it tell what siege weapons and other equipment they had but it was no use worrying about that now. There was only 5 shaman’s thus they were separated equally as well though this time the extra shaman was left towards the rear wall. This was the case because the rear wall was the farthest and be the hardest to send reinforcements too. The remaining melee cla.s.ses were split among the four walls.

“The most important part is to remain calm and no matter what weapons tactics and siege weapons they come against us with, fight with your entire being. Even if that results in your death you will be rewarded! If you find a ladder’s ropes focus entirely on them. Archer’s focus your arrows on the most dense area! Then even if you don’t hit the target you were planning chances are you will hit someone else! Mages do that exact same, and melee cla.s.ses protect the ranged cla.s.ses with your life! Shield them from anything that comes their way! Priests heal with moderation! Use mana pots as frequently as possible in order to keep up your mana levels! Finally let’s get some Loot!”

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

The army roared in with high morale. They may have been in a disadvantage but they now would not go down without a fight!

As Goliath and co worked up the strategy they were now discussing the minor details amongst the highest level users and the guard captain who had given command of the operation to Goliath. It was then that a noticeable beautiful young blonde girl came and called out to them.

“Let me fight as well!”

“No. You are not a guardsmen and are an NPC. If you die you will die for good. While the guards will as well that is their duty.”

“But what if it fails! I will die anyways!”

“We won’t fail. Now that it has come to this. We can’t afford to fail because our honor is also on the line. If you understand then leave!”

“I won’t sit and do nothing when my life was already forfeited. I was ready to die and I still am. I will fight with or without your permission.”

“Just let her you big softy, you know you can see her resolve. She’s not a weak girl.”

Lila stuck up giving a thumbs up to the young girl from behind her back. The young girl could only smile while Goliath sighed.

“Fine. what is your name and weapon girl?”

“Bow and my name is Irina!”

———————————–

The Chief had already prepared for a siege. He brought his siege weapons and ladders and ropes with them. While they may not be the most intelligent and build incredible siege weapons. A battering ram and ladders was still easy to accomplish. It was even more effective for them because of their overwhelming strength. The Chief himself knew that the humans would fight back, what he didn’t expect was them to so easily come together after inciting them to fight among themselves. It would appear a true leader has appeared amongst their ranks. But that didn’t matter, it was only a small ripple in his plans. He stood up covered and a black knight like armor that complemented his deep jade skin. His subordinates stared at him in worship. As the first light bathed them in light he spoke.

“Let it begin.”

———————————

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

The two armies roared at one another as the Liza clan charged at them. It was a frightening sight that even veteran soldiers would p.i.s.s their pants at. But under the leadership of Goliath none of the soldiers retreated in fear and even yelled back. The war swiftly started and as Lockon had thought they came with ladders and battering ram. He didn’t waste any time and called out.

“Focus on the ram and ladders! If they can not break the gate nor take control of the walls no matter their number, they can not enter!”

“AH!”

The users cheered. Ma.s.sive amounts of runes covered the skies all in differing colours seemingly like a rainbow. But the destruction soon came afterwards was not like that of the calm beautiful image of a rainbow. The hundreds or Liza were bombarded as they protected the ladders and ram unfazed by the a.s.sault of magic.

“Release the arrows!”

Lila called out and as she did the sounds of countless bows going off and arrows covered the sky. Irina included let an arrow fly but to no avail the arrows didn’t even less damage to the Liza.

“Don’t rush! They are simply stronger and will take longer to go down! But as time goes on we will be victorious!!”

Goliath encouraged the army as morale was dropping. The users who were discouraged were soon revitalized and kept at their attacks.

“Lockon! The Liza clan are starting to throw rocks to disrupt our writing!”

“Archers! Focus the Liza with the rocks while the mages switch an all out on the siege weapons!”

“Okay! Archer’s focus all arrows on the Liza with rocks!”

The army bombarded the Liza with magic. The Liza responded with rocks! Archers focused and let their arrows fly. The human melee cla.s.ses shielded the ranged with their bodies. It was a war in a game but no one acted as if it was fake. Every single person was fighting with their lives on the line. The battering ram continuously slammed against the gate and with every new charge the gate was weakened. In [Second Saga] the gate had a health bar, thus it was easy to tell when it would be completely destroyed and it didn’t take too long for the gate to already reach 50%. As time went on the war was turning into the Liza’s favour. While the Liza climbing the ladder had been slain and their numbers were lessening it was not a big difference in their formation. Thus Lockon approached the captain of the guardsmen.

“Do you have oil!?”

“oil? What’s that?”

“I mean do you have any [Fire water]?”

“Uh yes! It’s in the guards room by the gate!”

“Goliath! Grab a few people and get the [Fire water] from the guards room!”

“Okay you three follow me now!”

Goliath rushed at the command of his strategist. When a war happened it wasn’t the leader of the army that won it. He only supplemented and encouraged the soldiers. The true reason was behind the scenes was the strategist. Therefore he had no qualms when Lockon called out for him.

The Beginner’s City was surrounded by Liza members. The walls were continuously trying to be scaled and the rocks were slowing diminishing the user’s health. The situation was looking grim. It would only be possible to turn it around if they could destroy the batter ram which would allow them to focus more heavily on the climbing Liza. Goliath rushed back with the [Fire water] and asked.

“Is this enough?”

“It’s going to have to work.”

“Ummm… I’m running out of mana here!”

“Quickly throw it down we don’t have time to waste anymore!”

“Right throw the [Fire water] on the Ram!”

“Yessir!”

The three who brought [Fire water] responded and with Goliath they threw the jars at the battering ram soaking it in a thick translucent liquid. Goliath then pointed towards the ram and commanded.

“Fire mage’s cast your most advance spell onto the ram!”

Another line of runes appeared in the air covering the sky. But this time the sky turned red and the heatwave coming off the runes was felt. When they all were completed a fireb.a.l.l.s flew towards the battering ram igniting it while the Liza carrying it were screaming while one fire running around recklessly. The remaining Liza fled the area and the ram was erupted in flames engulfing the area not allowing a single Liza to near it.

“YAAAAAA!”

The army screamed as they accomplished one of their missions. But it was only one and it was at that moment that the Chieftain yelled out!

“Climb! Take over that wall it is ours!”

Everyone one faced the direction that the Chief was calling out to and indeed the wall was infested with Liza warriors. They were slashing and killing the users and NPC’s like flies. More of the Liza were flooding in and everyone could only helplessly watch. When wall was taken over it would be impossible to gain an advantage with numbers. Only pure strength could be relied on when taking control of the walls. But just as all hope had been lost a single window appeared. It wasn’t like a window normally, no this window did not appear in front of the users and even the NPC’s could view it. It was giant window that hovered above the city. This would was died in a red colour. Everyone stopped even the Liza and read the window that appeared.

“Oh… my….G.o.d…. that technique is truly fearsome….”

Everyone else was shocked and only Lila was able to voice her opinion. Even though the group of friends knew what was going on.  It was simply to unimaginable to think of.

“As expected of Shadow…”

For once they all nodded in agreement. Although a stampede was coming it did not mean the end of the war. Their wall was still captured and they had to defend themselves.

“Users above 40, follow me! We’re taking back the wall!”

While everyone was still dumbfounded by the message Goliath took advantage to stage a surprise attack and regain the wall.
——————————

Meanwhile Hydra was now in a terrifying situation. He felt it might be possible to work. Thus while stealthed he had gather all the bread he had which was close to 270 and thrown one on top of the sleeping piglets. While the piglets were sleeping their heads was. .h.i.t was a ‘plop’ and as if already knowing exactly what it was they woke up and turned red. However they could not see any target around them. Therefore their raged only increased, and because throwing bread was not considered an attack Hydra was able to stay under the effects of bread. Truthfully Hydra, had no idea whether or not this would work. It all came down to whether or not throwing bread would negate the stealth, and luckily it did not. But that luck only lasted until he unstealthed himself. When he did the 200+ piglets all in unison stared at Hydra. He was so unbelievable shocked at their killing glare he almost unconsciously logged out. The piglets all started in a slow trod. But that trod changed soon after and before it was even able to turn into a full out charge Hydra was already running for his life. His destination: The Beginner’s City!

He ran, and he cried at the same time. The window soon popped up and he was hoping it was going to work, but he didn’t realize the true terrifying power of bread. It was simple unimaginable to see such a small thing because an absolute nuclear warhead in a video game. Thus Hydra was now running for his life while the Piglets were chasing after him! With the buff they were not exceedingly fast and although Hydra had a good 5 minute distance between them as he saw the City that designation had already shrunk to a negligible amount.

————————————

As Lila was commanding the archers to shoot towards the Liza, even if the damage was small it was able to distract them for the upcoming warriors led by Goliath. They rammed with all their might at the Liza and some even rammed them off the wall onto the ground with the result turning them into particles. Lockon still had to focus on the other walls and ladders even though the Liza was focusing the area they succeeded it was still possible for others to emerge. Rina was stuttering as she wrote her heels on the bodies of the injured and she saw more wounds and continued to heal again.

As the window had come up and was still hovering above them they had yet to notice the arrival of the [Super Stampede] but that didn’t take long as a earthquake was soon felt. The Liza stopped invading and turned to see what was approaching. It only took one warrior to call out for everyone to notice what was there.

“It’s the stampede!”

As a Liza warrior turned around the first thing it saw was Hydra jumping onto his face and into the crowd of Liza and where Hydra went, so did the piglets! Thus the undisputed weakest monster in the game stampeded into monsters over 10 times their health. But did that matter? No as the piglet’s only concern was the utter and entire annihilation of the target for their enragement. Everything in their path with their bonus stats was completely flattened. All the humans looked on with fear. It was even worse for the Liza, as they were being destroyed at an alarming rate. As Hydra jumped into the crowd he soon disappeared used the giant bodies of the Liza to hide himself from the view of the Piglets without knowing where their target was the stampede went in every direction. The hundreds of Liza were all turned into particles in a matter of minutes. The ones on top of the walls were quickly dealt with as they had no remaining Liza to climb the ladders.

“Retreat!”

The Chief was the first to run off and as he did all the Liza were retreating as well. But as the crowded Liza started to disperse, the Piglets found their target again. Hydra with no hope of escaping knew it and he struck a pose with his back facing the gate he rose his fists in the air and accepted his death. But before he died a message popped up in front of him.

Hydra at this point didn’t care about the skill he had just learnt. His death was only a matter of seconds away after all. Who could be happy at learning a skill at this time. It was just then that it all ended for him!

Rina and co at this point stared at Hydra, laughing unable to control themselves. It was truly a magnificent way to go. He had the attention of the entire city watch him die and he was even the reason they all lived. He would definitely become a hero after that.

End of Volume 1
(In case anyone was confused from last chapter Pan means Bread in j.a.panese!)
Hey guys! I hope you liked the ending of book 1 How was it?  It was a fast ride right?  I wrote in 5 days 40,000 words hoo boy thats a little much!  So tomorrow I am definitely taking off and without a doubt my pace will slow down~  That’s alright though I’ll continue to release.  Thank you for reading my story as we go deeper and deeper into the plot more and more things start to appear let’s hope it all works out!  If you want to support me I do have a donation b.u.t.ton on my site~   The site is new and quite frankly its not something I’m very good at so I the last few hours making it up which is why this chapter came out so late!  Anyways Merry Christmas you casuals and don’t go throwing bread at anyone!