CHAPTER RAID
It has been three months since the battle with the world enemy. The guild Ainz Ooal Gown Mk2 has gone up and down various times. One thing that was proceeding smoothly was the construction of the base. They often proclaimed their base as a 'place where gods live'. They had seized four biomes circling the desert in which their starter castle was. This had seriously offended the top guilds, who had the backing of economic powerhouses to maintain the big bases they had. One such guild that was especially in a foul mood was the guild known as 'seraphim'.
Seraphim's guild was one of the elite guilds responsible for the elimination of the six members just before the battle with the world enemy. They had not only failed at stopping the rival guild from getting the title of god but they had given a major boost to their power. In order to stop the evil guild from spreading further in the game and to erase their past mistake, they had planned for a massive raid that would erase the failure of the past. They knew that Ains ooal gown MK2 had previously boasted a base that was undefeated in the older game and although they had significantly shrunk in the numbers, they were still a guild that had stolen a world item from another guild.
Over four thousand players had assembled for the raid. In order to hide the raid till the last second, they had bought multiple invisibility and teleportation crystals. The leader of the raid climbed on top of the mountain that was near the grand canyon that was part of the enemy territory and shouted.
"I humbly thank you all to assemble for the eradication of evil from this game. It will not be an easy battle, as all of you know the notorious reputation of the guild we are about to attack. They claim to be invincible but fear not my friend as good always prevails over evil and…. (pause for a while)... the god players with us along with the world item wielders are watching our back. "
They had got hold of twelve world items, three higher gods, and seven lesser gods. They did this vast arrangement to ensure the victory against the world god Momonga and the former world champion Touch-Me.
"Long live Seraphim and its allies" He screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Long live Seraphim"
"Long live Seraphim"
"Long live Seraphim"
"Long live Seraphim"
"Long live Seraphim"
The crowd cheered along with him. They all turned on the teleportation crystal with a destination right in front of the entrance path of the guild base. A massive blue light flashed and the biggest invasion in the history of the game had begun.
A massive canyon was in front of them. All of them rushed towards the canyon they saw massive amounts of golems rising from the rocky surface of the canyon. Some low-level undead and constructs behind the golems barged with Area of effect spells. The two groups clashed with all of their strength, but golems were a lot less in numbers. The tide of the battle leaned in the favour of raiders very soon. Golems dropped as puppets with strings cut and it decided the battle as the undead did not stand a chance against a massive amount of players. They had lost only a few players in the initial fight and the morale rose.
They ventured inside the canyon. Massive dead plant-like creatures, sandstorms, and golems attacked the players. Some suicide bombers attacked from the top and traps killed a few hundred players. Still, a lot of them continued the fight and won flawlessly with little force.
It had been over one hour since the raid started, everything went even better than they had originally proposed. They saw scenery change in front of them. The canyon gradually transformed into a desert with massive sandstorms, and the visibility dropped. Only the ones with acute perception could now see anything farther away. The speed at which they went on had dropped significantly.
" Something is moving in the right," One of them yelled.
When everybody turned their heads right, they saw massive amounts of drows with loaded bows. The drows discharged the arrows from their bows. Everybody tried to evade the arrows, but the quicksand in the area obstructed the movement greatly. A few hundred players could not move in time and fell down gradually. Now that they had discovered the archers defenseless, the archers became their primary target and completely obliterated them with extensive range magic. They advanced forward with it, and they heard a familiar tone again.
They were being targeted from all directions in this mist repeatedly, and every time it took place there were many casualties. The team leader had to make a tough decision of either to continue the raid or temporarily halt the advance to cast a grand tier spell. He sighed heavily and messaged everyone to protect the six casters who would cast the grand tier spell [ Clear winds ] to clear the mist surrounding them.
After the spell-casting was over, they saw a sandy castle in the opposite direction of their advancement.
'We must have missed it while walking in the mist.' This is what everyone thought. They changed their direction and approached the castle. The inside of the castle was nothing fancy, just a staircase going downwards. Both sides of the stairs had two statues of black color. The players who were in the front knew that they were guards. They attacked it with all they had got and took it out with no casualties.
All of them went down the stairs in line. They saw a vast blue sky and the same boring desert along with many dead bushes here and there. Many of them sighed. It had been over one-hour roaming in the previous desert, and now they were in a new desert. All of the raiders wished to get out of this base as soon as possible. They proceeded in the northern direction. Just like all of them expected, worms and mummies attacked them from all sides. They were getting through pretty easily, and when they saw a green snake-like creature from far away. It slithered its way through with full speed towards them. Only one word flashed through their minds, 'Nagas'.
Nagas were one of the powerful monsters in the game. They spat deadly venom and had one of the highest physical strength. They are immune to bludgeoning attacks and resistant to slashing and piercing thanks to their skin. It often came in a swarm, which made them even deadlier than most other monsters. But this one was single, which made the leader suspicious. Others killed him in a few minutes.
Raiders heard an explosion coming from the rear. When they turned back, what they saw made them very confused. The explosion had destroyed the staircase they got down from. The leader was feeling off from the very moment they got down, and then it tingled in his brain.
"It's a trap," He said in a lowered voice. If this was the primary way to the center of the base, then it would have been impossible to destroy the staircase as per the game rules. The only possibility that remained was that it was an elaborated trap that they had fallen into.
The leader of the raid was the first one to realize it. If emotions could have changed in the game, then his face would have paled right away. He felt like the surrounding atmosphere was getting heavier. The color of the ceiling of the cave turned from sky blue to brown like mud. Red lights flickered all around the ceiling of the cave. The red lights fell down one by one. There were hundreds of golems that were hanging on the ceiling that rained on the raiders. The shrubs near them elongated and bound many players. The first ones who were attacked were the ones in the back, mainly supports, healers, and magic casters. Golems dealt heavy amounts of bludgeoning damage when they swung their fists.
"Shit, Shit" Leader Screamed.
He knew immediately that falling in this trap will have heavy casualties, and even those who will survive will have their morale down and might choose to drop out of the raid. He took out his most powerful halberd and stroked the elongated vines of the shrub with all his strength, but the result shocked him. Shrubs inside the game are weak against slashing damage, but these didn't seem so. He stroked it multiple times and counted in his mind. Leaders' eyes widened in shock as it took six hits to just cut one of the elongated vines from these shrubs and they didn't seem to stop growing more of them, trapping more players. He asked the caster he freed to cast [Discern Enemy] on the shrubs.
'But why? ' The caster asked.
'Just do it ' He replied.
The caster looked towards another shrub and cast the spell. A blue circle appears before his finger, showing the activation of the spell.
' Leader, they are showing up as undead' The caster said in an amused expression.
"huh," The leader said. His mind was having a hard time with what he just heard. These shrubs looking things were pretty common in deserts and canyons in the game, and some of them trapped the players. He made sure that he correctly heard him by asking him to cast the spell one more time and the reply he got was the same. He opened up his inventory and put back his halberd. The leader of the raid swiftly scanned his inventory to find the hammer he reserved for that undead blasphemy. Although the hammer merely had nine data crystals, three less than the halberd, it was stronger against the undead.
The leader bolted towards another group of casters who were bounded by these shrubs. Before he could swing his hammer, a message flashed before his eyes.
"DOMAIN OF THE UNDEAD has been activated. "
He was one of the players who spent actual money to know about any new spells, classes, or skills discovered inside the game, but he never heard about this skill. Then he felt something grabbing him on both his knees, trying to pull him downwards. When he looked down, he saw skeleton hands covered in black mist pop out of sand holding his knees. It seemed like something that came straight out of a horror movie. He swung his hammer with all his strength, but the hands didn't seem to budge from the spot. He looked around and saw many of them were struggling to get rid of the hands. When he looked towards the angels summoned by the god titleholders including him, the angels covered in black lines running throughout their bodies, covered in dark grey mist and standing still without moving as something had bound them.
Their HP was dropping from taking Necrotic damage from the grey mist. His mind was in overdrive just keep up with the things happening around him. I have to free up Hygieia if we want to get out of this hellhole. He thought. Hygieia was the higher god of healing and a player who helped them in planning the raid. He was the trump card as getting a cleric to become a god was incredibly difficult in the current system where there were only two ways, both involving taking the final blow. His eyes scanned the battlefield like an eagle trying to find its prey, but he wasn't able to find him. Where the hell is he? He was getting furious.
He took out a message scroll and used it. A GUI appeared asking who he wanted to connect to and a list name below it. When he navigated through the list to find him, he saw his name was being shown with a black cross showing that he was already dead and somebody has looted his corpse. His eyes went wide as dying in the raid was common, but the looting of the corpse meant a player has killed him.
Although everything seemed to go against him, he hadn't lost his faith yet. He just had to round all the remaining gods and WCI wielders and escape from the place. Then they could raid the base again sometime later with better preparation and avoiding traps like these. He quickly navigated the list once again to find them, but his GUI disappeared and his vision went a little red at the edges. He took a critical hit. His eyes darted around to spot the archer but at the moment he felt something on the back and then the borders just darkened, showing another critical hit.
When he looked backward, he saw a silver head insect with full plate silver armor with a symbol of the vile guild marked with red color. Strange red colors floated around him stating ' Touch-Me if you can'. If eye data in the game was broadcasted, then his eyes would widen in shock and horror at the same time. The creature standing in front of him was the world champion with his paladin armor. Stat wise he was a lot stronger, but he had taken two critical hits just now and his HP was running low. If he didn't fight seriously, he might die and lose his god title to him altogether.
He took deep breaths and both the fighters took their stances. He had a hammer, and the paladin had a shield along with a sword in one hand and a backup one as well in the back. The paladin dashed towards him; he swung his hammer with his right arm to keep the enemy at a distance, and the paladin jumped backward. The next action paladin took completely dumbfounded him as he threw the shield towards him. He just smacked it away with his hand and he saw the paladin was just behind the shield. He swung the hammer again, aimed towards the paladin, but as it connected with the body instead of recoil, the hammer went inside the body.
Slowly, the body of the paladin faded away. He heard 'twin spatial slash' from his right and saw two strikes land on his neck, dropping his HP to 10. When looked towards the right, he saw the paladin dual-wielding the swords.
[Radiant Speed]
[Flow Acceleration]
He quickly cast but before he could run, a kick connected in his leg, and then a sword was thrust into his neck. His vision turned dark red, and a message flashed before his eyes.
'Touch-Me assassinated you'.
'Your higher god title will be transferred to him'.
"Nooooooo" he screamed at the top of his lungs. This was the second time his dreams of getting rid of evil from the game were crushed. What he didn't expect was the disbanding of seraphim as many people left the guild as they saw the leader making even more rash decisions.