Taming Master

Chapter 164: Impenetrable Fortress (1)

The military strength of the DarkRuna Guild was too incredible to believe that it was a military strength that was mobilized from one guild.

“Sollin, advance the soldiers that are comparatively lower in level to the front. Since the defense towers will most likely all be single-target attackers, we’ll press them with our numbers.”

“Yes, Master!”

The number of troops of the DarkRuna Guild that were advancing towards the Pyro Domain was a tremendous number close to 5 thousand.

The reason that was possible was fundamentally thanks to the Mark of Magellan.

Thanks to the advantage that they could use the troops of the Desert Warriors, which were neutral NPCs, however they wished, the DarkRuna Guild was able to put a lot more bases into their hands in comparison to other guilds, and from those bases, they continuously produced soldiers.

Amongst the total troops of 5 thousand, the number of users was a little less than 1 thousand, so the troops were mainly composed of soldiers.

‘Huhu, at this point, it must be blood curdling for them while they look at the troops that are advancing in like a black wave.’

Even if they were the lowest-ranking soldiers, because fundamentally, it was the central continent, it was at the point that the average level range was over 130.

It was a standard where they absolutely could not look down just because they were soldiers.

“We’re within the range. Be careful of the projectile that will come flying from the defense towers!”

Along with Ilahan’s shout, the commanders of each unit passed on the command.

And as if they were waiting for those words, from the top of the tall rampart, projectiles poured down like rain.

Swaaeek-!

“Avoid it!”

The cries of the horses could be heard from here and there.

However, despite having given them a warning beforehand, about 70% of the pouring projectiles perfectly hit the targets they were aiming at.

Bang-!

And in front of the eyes of each commander, system messages that the soldiers under their commandment died popped up one after another.

• The Vitality of the ‘Desert Warrior’ has been reduced by 67,859 after being hit by the attack of the ‘Guard Tower of the Desert’.

• As all of the Vitality of the ‘Desert Warrior’ has been exhausted, it has died.

• As all of the Vitality of the ‘Desert Warrior’ has been exhausted, it has died.

From one hit, the soldiers oxidized into a grey light and disappeared.

On top of that, even a couple users who commanded the soldiers from the front got hit by the projectiles and died.

Ilahan’s eyes widened.

‘What, what the hell? Why are there so many defense towers? There’s over a dozen of them!’

The number of ‘Guard Towers of the Desert’ that were built on the Pyro Domain was a total of 100.

The DarkRuna Guild, who expected a dozen or so defense towers at most, couldn’t help but be taken aback.

This was because from just one attack, they had lost about seventy soldiers.

Ilahan pulled together his flustered heart and let out a command again.

“The reloading time for the guard towers is long! Get close to the rampart quickly! If you get close enough, you can avoid the attacks of the tower!”

Just like Ilahan’s words, if you got close enough to the point you were right in front of the rampart instead, because the angle didn’t come out, you could avoid the attack range of the guard towers.

However, the DarkRuna Guild had to come face with another unexpected variable.

Ooh-deuk- Ooh-deu-deuk-!

“What the hell? What is this noise?”

“The ground is splitting?”

“Fall back! You can’t come over to this side, ack!”

The identity of that was the trench that they had dug out right in front of the rampart.

Hundreds of soldiers had fallen into the trench that they had covered with illusion magic and plausible camouflage.

“Come out quickly! Magicians with weight-lightening magic, cast those skills!”

However, that wasn’t the end.

Keu-keu-keung-!

The stone gate that was installed in line with the outer wall of the rampart moved as the form of a round gun port appeared.

“What the hell is that now? Avoid it!”

And a total of about ten gun ports let out a fire simultaneously.

Hwa-reu-reuk-!

That was the defense tower that was one rank higher than the guard towers, the Fire-Element Magic Tower.

“Euaaak-!”

The Offensive Power alone of the elemental magic tower was weaker than the guard towers, but opponents in a wide range could be attacked at once. On top of that, there was no way that the soldiers of the DarkRuna Guild, who had fallen into the trench, could escape.

Ilahan, who watched that scene while standing a little back, was to the point he was dumbfounded.

‘What the hell is that? Was there such a tower? There wasn’t anything like that amongst the defense towers that were possible to build.’

The DarkRuna Guild had secured close to ten bases, but proper development hadn’t been established in most of them.

It was the fault that he didn’t have enough energy to pay attention to all of them.

There were one or two bases that he had even developed to a Domain-rank, but its nature was completely different from the Pyro Domain.

While the Pyro Domain had mainly developed facilities that were required for base defense, the Domains of the DarkRuna Guild, who didn’t need to worry about base defense, had mainly developed facilities that would increase their supply and demand.

‘Did I look down on them too much just because they’re a guild only in the top 100? But then, I can’t even take back the troops that I have right now…’

They had gotten too deep in to turn the heads of their horses around.

If he took back the troops he had right now and go through with retreating, their loss would be even bigger.

Ilahan shouted.

“Just get over the rampart! Do whatever it takes to enter inside and open the stone gate!”

The magicians even used mobilized their flying magic and attempted to enter through the air, but as soon as they floated in the air, they became hedgehogs and dropped to the ground.

It wasn’t that they were attacked by the catapults of the guard towers, but rather, the archer soldiers that were within the fortress had shot out arrows.

However, 5 thousand was truly an enormous number of troops, and eventually, the soldiers of the DarkRuna Guild pressed them ignorantly with their numbers and one by one, they began to get over the rampart.

It could indeed be considered a truly ignorant, human-wave strategy.

While looking at that, Ilahan let out a shout of delight internally.

‘Alright. If we can just enter inside first…!’

Ilahan also moved quickly himself and ran towards the rampart.

As expected of the title ‘Magic Swordsman’, Ilahan granted all body reinforcing skills, including a weight-lightening skill, onto him, and with wind-like speed, he began to climb up the rampart.

Clang- Cla-clang-!

There were a couple soldiers that were standing guard at the top of the rampart, but there was no way that they would be a match to Ilahan, who was within the proximity of lv 150.

Claang-!

Ice-type sword energy that shot out from Ilahan’s sword hit the lower part of the rampart hard, and using that rebound, Ilahan jumped above the rampart lightly landed above it.

“Open the fortress gate! Everybody, enter inside…!”

However, Ilahan, who shouted with a resounding voice with his sword held high, couldn’t help but become speechless in the next moment.

‘What the hell is that? Why is there another rampart in the inside?’

Within the inside of the rampart that he barely made over after losing almost a thousand soldiers, another even higher and stronger-looking rampart had appeared.

Ilahan let out a swear word without even realizing.

“Wow, motherfucker, they really play dirty!”

While he had lost an incredible number of troops of over a thousand, he hadn’t even seen a glimpse of one user of the Lotus Guild yet.

Ilahan, who was infuriated to the max, gritted his teeth.

“Alright, while it’s like this anyways, let’s get to the end of this and see who wins!”

In his original plan, there was nothing about consuming up this many troops, nor was that supposed to be allowed.

However, Ilahan, who developed an unyielding spirit along with his unknown rage, gritted his teeth as he jumped down to the inner side of the rampart.

* * *

• Everyone, now is not the time to be playing around in the chat room!

• Why’s that? Is there something wrong?

• Yeah, no kidding. I even completely finished the quest that I was doing right now and had nothing to do, so that’s why I came to the chat room to pass some time… But did something happen?

• Ha, how frustrating, these people. Go and quickly turn on YTBC right now. The DarkRuna Guild’s siege warfare has begun.

• Ah, the siege warfare? Well that, it was about time for them to attack bases, since the Kaimon Empire Army had completely entered towards the east. I also heard that they were going to broadcast that, but I thought it would be no fun, so I’m not watching it. From what I’ve seen, the defending camp was a scrappy guild that is even after the top 100. It’s obvious that they’re probably suffering to the point of disappearance by the DarkRuna guys.

• Person above, let’s get this straight. How is a guild in the top 100 a scrappy guild? When the top 100 means they’re in the top 0.1%.

• I’m just saying. Compared to the number 1 guild, isn’t it correct to be calling them scrappy?

• That’s true, but…

• Ha, these people, I’m telling you, forget the small talk and just turn on the channel first. That guild in the top 100 is fighting the DarkRuna Guild in a close match. The siege warfare is no joke right now. If you don’t watch this right now, you’ll regret it.

• Huh? Really? How does that make sense?

• The name of that guild in the top 100 is the Lotus Guild, and they made their base almost into some sort of fort practically. Seriously, there’s no other universal defense.

• Hul, the defending guild was the Lotus Guild?

• What’s wrong? Do you know of the Lotus Guild?

• It’s the guild of Ian, the number 1 ranking Summoner. Ah, if I knew that was the case, I would have watched the broadcast from the beginning! I’m off to go watch it, then.

• Ooh, I should go and watch it. Would it have a similar feel to a defense game?

Of course, as word spread not only through the official community, but by several other routes as well, the ratings of the YTBC channel began to continuously go up.

Firstly, because of the title that it was the siege warfare of the number 1 guild, the DarkRuna Guild, there was a basic interest leaning towards them, and as the information that the Lotus Guild that they were facing was the guild of Ian also spread, that interest amplified even more.

It was to the point that users that wanted to watch the battles of Ian, who had recently gained a lot of popularity, even halted the quests they were doing and logged off the game in order to watch the broadcast.

And Reporters Hines and Lucia, who could be considered the faces of the broadcasting station for the YTBC channel, were broadcasting the siege warfare.

• Hines, currently, the main force users of the Lotus Guild have yet to move from within the fortress yet, and what do you think the reason for that is?

• That I think is because the fighting power of the users of Lotus are fundamentally much lower than the users of DarkRuna. The average level of the DarkRuna Guild’s attack unit is over 140, but from what I know, there aren’t even five users that are over lv 140 in the Lotus Guild. On top of that, they even lack in numbers just with their absolute users. I think that they will attack after making the DarkRuna Guild climb over the defensive walls and drain their strength as much as possible.

• Ah-ha, I see.

• The DarkRuna Guild will probably be incredibly infuriated right now.

• Why’s that?

• Since it will feel like they’re being toyed with by a guild with a much weaker fighting power, that is. Since they have yet to even see the Lotus users, and they’re constantly just fighting with the defense towers.

• That is also true. However, it seems that the DarkRuna Guild is definitely strong. Since amongst that many towers, over half have been demolished already.

• Agreed.

• The full-fledged fight hasn’t even started yet, but it’s already exciting.

Just like the two people’s conversation, the battle began to take on an even more exciting aspect.

• It looks like the second rampart will be broken through soon now! Are the Lotus Guild users planning on giving them the second line of defense just like that as well?

• Oh, the troops of the Lotus Guild that were within the fortress have begun to move.

• I see, it looks like the full-fledged battle will begin now!

• The DarkRuna Guild did lose over half their troops, but most of them were soldiers and Desert Warriors, while most of their users are alive and well. I wonder much of a good fight the Lotus Guild will be able to put up with them as their opponents…!

In the real-time chat room of the YTBC channel, comments were popping up without rest, and arguments over the result of the siege warfare continued.

However, most were still predicting the victory of the DarkRuna Guild.

However, just then, in the sky of the Pyro Domain, the resounding roar of a Griffin rang out.

Kyaaooh-!

And on the back of that Griffin, one man, who had an English longbow on his back and a staff in one hand while dressed in an interesting attire, looked down at the battleground.