“The early attempts to defend guild bases against the regularly scheduled raids fared poorly. Many groups rushed ahead, heedless of the risk. The raids were manageable with proper skills, equipment and numbers. Guilds that spammed invites to as many players as possible universally failed in the early base raids.”

  Excerpt from “A New Era of Siege Warfare” Albert Petain

  Year 1, Month 1, Day 8, 06:05

  Black and purple portals erupted at the edges of the zone surrounding the castle. Teeming hordes of goblins emerged from the portals and wildly charged towards the castle. The first wave was divided into detachments 200 strong on each of the four sides of the guild keep. The towers fired with metronomic precision, followed shortly by the heavy crossbows when the goblins advanced inside their range. Dozens of the little beasts fell but the flood of monsters continued flowing towards the walls. The fighters stored their crossbows and equipped the much faster firing longbows when the enemy closed within range. Several goblins paused to fire shortbows of their own, forcing people to duck behind parapets. The unlucky or the slow took nasty arrow wounds.

  Better than half of the attacking monsters made it to the walls. They hurled hooks with ropes and tried to raise ladders against the wall. Archers maintained a hail of arrows in both directions. The first defender casualties trickled in. People were targeted by several goblin archers at once ending their lives before healers could reach them. Ovarrix passed the orders to focus on the goblin archers while defenders on the wall worked to dislodge the grapples or push the ladders down. None of the little monsters reached top of the wall yet, but they were making it hard to clean them out. The clock was ticking down for the next wave.

  Torgon carefully placed his shots into the goblins, seeking ones that threatened the archers on the walls. He read reports that the people who died respawned in their homes immediately but were forced to wait through ten-minute timer before they exit into the base proper. Their notifications informed them that if their homes were destroyed before they respawned, their home space would be separated from the guild base, and they would be unable to leave their home until the event was over. Torgon gritted his teeth. They needed to kill the monsters faster and every person that dropped from the wall slowed their efforts down.

  The second wave spawned a fresh horde of goblins. These goblins were noticeably tougher. Analysis revealed the level of the foes had increased to two. The rain of arrows from the walls of the keep faltered under the increasing return fire of the monsters. Torgon took several arrow strikes and ducked down to avoid more. Sounds of clashing swords rang out when group of goblins surmounted the top of the wall. Allestor darted into the fray, engaging them directly. He struck one down and kicked another goblin back over the wall. Hundreds of goblins swarmed, yelling goblin obscenities, their numbers dropping too slowly. The clock to the third wave counted down inexorably.

  Torgon sent the word to Mark, “Open the gates, let them swarm inside to take the pressure off but close the gates about 20 seconds after the next wave spawns.”

  Mark took the orders and soon dozens of goblins streamed into a kill zone inside the keep. Arrows slammed into them and melee fighters kept them at bay, preventing them from bringing their numbers to bear. The mounted corgi archers wheeled in a circle, firing their small bows whenever they came near the roiling mass of monsters. The pressure on the walls of the keep slacked off, attention diverted to goblins mindlessly trying to force their way through the opening.

  The third wave spawned. Eight hundred level three orcs poured forth from the portals in orderly ranks. They quick-marched towards the walls, using broad shields to take cover from arrows and pausing to return fire with their crossbows. The gate slammed down, crushing goblins not nimble enough to scramble out of the way. The forces inside the keep worked to finish off the trapped goblins while the forces on the wall tried their best to deal with the better organized and equipped orcs.

  Orcs pushed a battering ram into position in front of the gate, the monsters manning it covered by a wooden framework draped with thick hides. Hyperia flung her ice shards to harass the besiegers as often as her mana allowed, but the orcs had shamans of their own. Force bolts streaked from the attacking army savaging the defenders. Arrows and magic flashed back and forth between the sides, filling the air with death.

  A large spell exploded atop the gatehouse, flinging defenders off the parapets. Orc scaling ladders slammed into place on the wall and heavily armed and armored monsters clambered atop the wall. Torgon shifted his attention and poured arrows into the growing foothold. Dusty charged into the forces, pushing deep while Ovarrix and Allestor covered her flanks. Dusty’s overwhelming strength in a diminutive frame surprised the orcs, forcing them rapidly out of position and exposing them to sword slashes from the experts at her side. The people groaning in pain on the ground received emergency healing and struggled to make their way back to the walls as the fighting raged above them.

  Dusty engaged the largest orc, ducking under his clumsy strikes and returning them with her own precise hits. She opened deep gashes in his flesh drawing an involuntary roar of pain, anger and sheer frustration. She pushed inside his guard and rammed a double strike home straight into his chest. She braced her foot on his chest and shoved him off her blade, letting his limp body tumble down the wall, knocking unlucky orcs off their scaling ladder.

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  Ovarrix and Allestor cleared the knot of orcs and shifted to shoving the ladders off the wall. They stopped this incursion, but more attacks pressed home on the other walls. A force of the youngest children broke away from the courtyard to take up defensive potions around the catapult tower. The surviving goblins with orc support dislodged the original defenders, freeing them to attack the tower. The children fell on them from behind and quickly defeated them, creating a fresh defensive perimeter.

  Over half the orc forces and a smattering of goblins still breathed when the fourth wave triggered. The towers kept firing, but it wasn’t enough. The flood of enemies kept rising and threatened to drown the defenders in blades and blood. The fourth wave reached the walls and crested atop them. Dusty and the rest of the leadership team were forced back and Torgon dropped from his perch to join them. The five experienced warriors led a fighting retreat to the stairs and down into the courtyard. Torgon poured his mana into healing the front-line fighters while Hyperia covered their retreat with her spells. They pulled behind a line of mantlets Mark X hastily arranged to deal with the monsters streaming down the stairs.

  “There’s too many Torg. We can’t kill them fast enough.” Allestor spat on the ground, taking a brief respite from the chaos of the fighting.

  “Let them into the houses. If they get distracted trying to break everything, we might have a shot. If we don’t, we get wiped and they take them out anyway.” Hyperia gritted out while continuing to toss spells whenever her mana regenerated. “Also, after this is over, we really need to find different flavors of mana potions. I’m absolutely sick of this grape taste.”

  Torgon laughed between breaths, “I feel you on the potions. Mark, Ashford, Ed, let’s shift these barricades and let the attackers have a path to the houses. We’ll go hunting if they break away.”

  The lead scout party jumped into action, pulling the mantlets back to provide protection for the survivors and letting the monsters have a clear path to the vulnerable buildings. Large numbers of foes streamed away and attacked the structures, damaging them at a visible rate. The quick break in the action let the defense reorganize and resume attacking with renewed vigor. Houses took damage and came crashing down but the monsters did as well.

  Torgon sent a flash guild message. “The houses are now being attacked. If you respawn, watch for monsters in the area, try to regroup by the library, that’s our final stand location.”

  Ovarrix yelled out, “Torg, the kids by the catapult tower are surrounded, we can’t lose that many defenders. Dusty, Hype and I will keep with the main forces, think you and Allestor can try to break them out old man?”

  “Seriously? I’m the guild leader. Why do I get all the suicide missions.” Torgon groaned.

  “Oh, come on, you get them because you’re the guild leader. Also, it’s fun.” Allestor beamed as he picked the best route to the beleaguered knot of children at the base of the tower. “Try to keep up, it’s time to earn our salaries.”

  Torgon sighed loudly and pointed to four others nearby. “You guys are coming with us, do your best to help, who wants to live forever anyway.”

  Allestor sprinted straight into a group of orcs and assaulted them using sweeping strikes. Torgon veered to the side, flanking with his own sword swinging as they broke into the monster lines from behind. Their small group pierced the enemy line and briefly opened a gap. They joined up with the line of defenders, using rubble to limit their exposure. The gap closed far too quickly under a growing press of orc bodies, trapping them with the children at the base of the catapult tower. Torgon did his best to organize everyone for a breakout. “Everyone get ready, in a minute we’re going to slam into the lines and try to break a hole and get as many out as we can.”

  The catapult tower began to creak behind them. Damage from monsters continued to accumulate and it wouldn’t be long before it toppled. Allestor furiously fought the orc line with support from the breakout squad and the children, but they were well and truly screwed. The monsters were swarming to destroy the tower that had taken so many of them out. Allestor’s sword flashed, striking targets of opportunity and keeping the orcs back. He stabbed too deeply into an orc, briefly overextending and leaving him vulnerable. The shaft of a spear punched into his chest, knocking the breath from his body and making him stumble and fall backwards. An orc moved over him to pin him to the ground with his spear, but a streaking mass of claw and fur slammed into the monster sending his broken body spiraling into the lines.

  A massive grey furred cat relentlessly pushed the orcs back, giving Allestor the time he needed to scramble to his feet. Sir Boots, larger than a mountain lion, terrorized the orcs with tooth and claw. He caught spears in his mouth and tore them from the grasp of the orcs. His murder mittens dripped with the brownish blood of his foes. The children let out a cheer at the sight of their unexpected savior. The sheer savagery of the gigantic forest cat created space between the sides.

  Torgon jerked his head around at a popping sound. He caught the sight of his loyal golden retriever, Barkolemew, grabbing hold of a child with his mouth, then disappearing, with another popping sound from the air rushing to fill the void where they had been. The pair reappeared with the main force, then his dog blinked back and repeated the process, moving the children out one by one.

  Torgon and Allestor fought side by side with Sir Boots, thinning the orcs out and keeping them away while Barkolemew did what he did best, retrieving. Blocks of stone from the catapult tower began to fall around the trio and a horrible shattering sound made everyone jerk their heads up. Cracks spiderwebbed across the tower, growing visibly. The stone structure began to lean and then collapse towards the fighters below. They rushed to the side as the rubble rained down obscuring everyone’s vision within clouds of dust. Barkolemew successfully finished extracting the children while Allestor and Torgon made use of the dust to stealth their way back to the main forces. Sir Boots stalked away, hunting more monsters.

  The portals flared one final time, disgorging hundreds more orcs and a towering giant, then they faded away. The last wave of the siege had arrived.