Chapter 178: Enemies on Every Side (3)

It was a situation where the giant guilds of the Luspel Empire had multiple meetings and came to the implicit conclusion to hand over the Lotus Guild's Pyro Domain to Kaimon.

However, in the end, Roy Chen couldn't agree to that decision.

'I don't know when it will be, but until at least one guild overcomes being a Great Domain and a Dukedom, and grows to the level of a Kingdom, the war composition between the two giant empires will continue.'

While the conflicting composition between the two giant empires lasted, if they were to continuously be pushed back in the fight over power, they wouldn't be able to help but continuously be at a disadvantage.

If they were to especially lose most of the central continent, which was a neutral area, it was definite that in the development aspect, the difference between the Kaimon Empire and them would continuously grow.

'If even the Lotus Guild and the Pyro Domain was to be thrown away like this, the mid-upper rank guilds of the Luspel Empire will probably lose all of their faith in the top-ranking guilds.'

That will eventually lead to a division within the empire, and if that happened, it would result in the worst situation.

'Our guild at the least needs to step forward and help Lotus.'

Roy Chen opened up a general guild meeting, and after fully explaining the current situation, he gathered the opinions of his guild members.

This was a battle with a composition where the chance of a loss was fundamentally high, no, a loss was almost certain.

There was no way that the guild members would be happy at the idea of supporting such a battle, but eventually, Roy Chen was able to succeed in persuading all of his guild members.

Of course, he didn't persuade them 100% fully with just the reason that it was for the greater good.

There were a couple reasons why Roy Chen was able to persuade his guild members.

The first was that the Valiant Guild was usually not on good terms with the other two guilds.

This was because most of the guild members of the Valiant Guild were made up of users whose goal was purely to enjoy the game, while the Oaklan Guild and the Splendor Guild were mainly formed of occupational gamers who calculated the gains and losses thoroughly as they played.

Of course, that wasn't a bad thing, but usually, the guild members of the Valiant Guild didn't like the sly practical life of Oaklan and Splendor.

The second was 'justification'.

If they were to support this battle, although there wouldn't be any substantial gain, the recognition of the Valiant Guild would go up even more within the Luspel Empire.

They would also be able to avoid the criticism towards giant guilds that was currently spreading with the community as the center.

Lastly, it was the 'fighting power' of the Lotus Guild, which was stronger than expected.

The level of the defensive fighting power built in the Pyro Domain that he learned about through Herz moved the hearts of the Valiant Guild's guild members.

They felt that even if they were to lose, it wouldn't be in vain.

If they could keep up a close battle for a decent amount of time, there would be a lot that they could even earn from a large-scale battle like this, and if that was the case, even if they were to receive a death penalty, the calculation that they felt they would be able to break even was possible.

Since they could just obtain the spoils of the war through fighting when it came to the items and the EXP that they would lose from dying.

'It could become a truly entertaining battle. Either way, the decision has been made, so there's no need to quibble over reconsiderations.'

It was also a situation where he even gave a notification to the other guilds.

Just Samuel Jin, the Guild Master of the Oaklan Guild, showed concern, but no one actively stopped the Valiant Guild.

Rather, the guilds who thought that the Valiant Guild, their rival guild, would instead receive damage by helping Lotus gave their hearty support in a welcoming atmosphere.

Like that, the elite forces of the Valiant Guild dramatically joined the Pyro Domain, and the ones that held out their hands, stating that they would help Lotus, was not just Valiant.

The users of the tons of mid-upper guilds that had lost their base in the front lines also gathered one by one at the Pyro Domain in order to help Lotus. The troops that had gathered like that was close to 10 thousand, and as the night went on, the number of people continuously increased.

* * *

Thud- Thud- Thud-.

A morning where the scorching desert sun blazed down.

A loud noise rang out across the battleground as the large-scale siege warfare that the attention of all of Kailan was on began.

Just before the battle began, the number of troops of the Allied Forces gathered on the Kaimon Empire's side was a total of 130 thousand.

The number of defending soldiers gathered at the Pyro Domain was not a small number by any means at 15 thousand, however, compared to 130 thousand soldiers, it was to the point it was truly shabby.

Stomp- Stomp-.

The image of the army of 100 thousand marching at the same pace could easily be called a grand sight, and in the desert sky, where anxiety hung, tons of filming crystals were floating in the air.

Whiiing-.

Because the nature of this battle couldn't be considered a battle between a specific guild and another, there wasn't really a limit to filming.

Because of that, even users who wanted to personally shoot videos had sent up their filming crystals.

Filming crystals were incredibly expensive, and there was a risk of it being destroyed while overdoing it and attempting to shoot in the middle of a battle.

However, this battle was worth saving it as a video even if that was considered.

The tallest guard tower of the Pyro Domain Fortress.

Ian, who stood on top of it, looked around at the approaching Kaimon Empire Army as he swallowed audibly.

"It's incredible indeed. For it to be a siege warfare at this kind of scale."

Roy Chen, who stood next to Ian, smiled as he responded.

"No kidding. As expected, we made the right choice to come. For a battle like this, setting aside the outcome, it's worth participating in."

Glancing slightly at Roy Chen, who stroked his sword that shone a white light, Ian responded shortly.

"Why set aside the outcome?"

"...?"

Ian smiled equally.

"When we're going to win."

At Ian's response that was full of spirit, Roy Chen wore a happy smile.

"Huhu, that kind of confidence is good. I will be anticipating your active participation."

Roy Chen originally didn't have much interest in Ian.

There was no way that he would have interest in someone who wasn't even visible on the ranking list when he himself was within the top 10 for the overall rankings.

However, during the process of deciding to take part in this battle, he looked at a lot of Ian's combat videos, and he realized that Ian was a much more amazing person than he expected.

'It would be difficult to find someone with a better heading ability in a large-scale battle like this than this man right now at least.'

He didn't think that he was lacking compared to Ian when it came to one-to-one fighting power, but the leadership that he showed in the siege warfare against the DarkRuna Guild was definitely at a level that was higher than his.

Ian nodded his head as he replied.

"Thank you for giving me the full commanding authority. You will not be disappointed."

After Ian looked at the great army of Kaimon that grew closer and closer once, he turned his head to look behind him.

And in that spot, Kaizar was there.

"Kaizar."

"Why do you call me?"

"Just like I told you before, I would like if you took care of the armoured mounted troops."

Kaizar obediently nodded his head.

"Leave it to me. I'll properly massacre the Kaimon guys."

Kaizar instead grinned, even showing enthusiasm.

To be honest, there was Ian's painful expense.

'Hoo... Exactly how much money did I have to spend in order to buy that Ferghana horse or whatever.'

In order to make Kaizar do what he wanted him to do, he bought the most expensive horse with the best stats amongst the horses that were up in the auction house and gave it as a tribute.

And the flattery of asking him to lead 500 of the most elite cavalrymen with an exceptional steed was enough to move Kaizar.

"Thanks, Kaizar. I'll put my faith in you, retainer."

"Huhu."

Kaizar went down the guard tower while whisking his hands.

Roy Chen, who smirked while looking at the strange master-servant relationship, opened his mouth towards Ian.

"Then I will also move to my spot."

Ian slightly bowed his head.

"Thank you. I look forward to your kind cooperation, Roy Chen."

"It's a pleasure."

Like that, Ian, who had entrusted certain roles to the leading figures that were on top of the guard tower, turned his gaze towards the front again.

'It won't be easy, but I need to manage each and every troop as perfectly as possible. Since this battle is one where one person has to handle ten in order for us to win.'

However, just then, an interesting scene captured Ian's gaze.

'What's that?'

There were what looked to be about hundreds of shadows floating in the air behind the advancing Allied Forces of the Kaimon Empire.

Ian focused intently and looked at them more carefully.

'What the hell, by any chance, are they Griffins?'

He saw archers that held bows riding on top of flying objects that had an outer appearance which looked similar to an eagle.

At first Ian was taken aback, as he thought that over hundreds of Griffins would appear, but as they grew closer, he was able to find out that wasn't the case.

'Whew, I was really flustered. It would have been a serious issue if they were Griffins.'

As they were a type of troops that he was seeing for the first time, he had no information, but Ian felt even more moved by interest.

"An air battle, huh..."

Ian summoned Pin.

"Pin, Summon!"

Kku-ruk- Kku-ru-ruk-!

Pin, who was summoned, energetically cried out as he rubbed his head towards Ian, and with proficient dexterity, he got on Pin's back.

"I'm not the least bit scared of fake Griffins, etc."

Ian petted Pin as he opened his mouth again.

"Pin."

Kku-ru-ruk-!

"Let's go!"

Kku-ruk- Kku-ruk-!

At Ian's command, Pin flapped his wings with energy as he ran out of the guard tower.

And the gazes of all the people standing in the battleground were gathered onto Ian.

"Woow, it's Ian!"

"It's a Griffin!"

The great army of Kaimon had now reached right in front of Ian, who floated above in the fortress sky, and the rampart.

Ian pulled out a scroll from his inventory.

That was a magic scroll that allowed one to effectively deliver commands to allies for a certain time in large-scale battles.

As expected, it was an expensive item, but Ian ripped that scroll without hesitation.

• You have used the magic scroll item, the 'Dignity of the Commander'.

• For the next '02:59:59′, you can send messages to all allies. (You can designate the command messenger through the on/off ability.)

"Ahem!"

Ian, who cleared his throat, invoked the dignity of the Trinity.

• Everyone, including the Lotus Guild members and to the many Luspel Empire users who have come to help our Pyro Domain.

As Ian began to open his mouth, the Pyro Domain, which was a little noisy, became so quiet it was as still as death.

As he did so, the footsteps of the Kaimon Empire Army that grew closer and closer to the domain began to be heard more loudly.

Ian's words continued.

• Before the siege warfare begins, there is something I want to say.

Du-du-du-du-.

As if they had started running now, the sound of footsteps coming from outside the rampart became louder, and Ian opened his mouth again.

• We are not here in order to lose today.

Ian's words struck home for a lot of them.

This was because, of course for the users who came to help them, but even for the users of the Lotus Guild, there was almost no one who thought that they could win this battle.

• I have never even started a battle that I thought that I would lose, and I have never lost in a battle that I thought that I would win.

Ian's words strangely touched their hearts.

Ian raised his spear that was shining brightly from the reflection of the sun and threw in another final word.

• We will win.

A moment of silence occurred and as if it was a promise made, resonant cheers rang out through the whole fortress at the same time.

"Waaaa!"

"Ian, you're so cool!"

"So handsome!"

Flap- Flap-!

Ian, who flew up to an even higher point, pointed his spear towards the front as he let out his first command.

• Archer unit, all members...!

Chuk- Chu-chuk-!

It was an Archer unit mostly made up of the soldiers that were trained in the Lotus Domain, but quite a lot of users were placed with them, and they also followed Ian's command and pulled their bowstrings.

• Attack!

Shyook- Shyoo-shyoo-shyoo-shyook-.

With the start of the arrows that covered the sky of the fortress and turned it black, the most intense and gruesome battle of Kailan history began.