The 1,000 WarChief troops were a mixed battalion, and none of them were pushovers.
[Tauren Warrior]
Level: 35
HP: 10,000,000
Physical Attack: 25,000
...
[Ground Smash]: Stuns enemies within a 15-yard radius.
[Troll Shaman]
Level: 34
HP: 8,000,000
Magic Attack: 23,000
[Frenzy]: Increases physical and magic damage of allies by 5,000.
...
[Ogre Mage]
Level: 35
HP: 10,000,000
...
[Centurion Omo]
Level: 35
HP: 150,000,000
Physical Attack: 28,000
...
[Armor Break Charge]: Deals 200% physical damage and reduces the target's armor by 8,000.
Every unit's skill set posed a legitimate threat to Kael. Imperator hadn't deployed many Orcs initially because their AI lacked the coordination of actual players. Now, backed into a corner, he had to rely on these 1,000 WarChief troops to work with his guild and drive Kael off.
The west gates slammed open once again, and a horde of Orcs poured out. The defending players waited until the NPC legion was fully deployed before trailing behind them, keeping a safe distance to avoid catching stray [Pierce] or [Explosive Blast] splash damage.
Using the Orcs as meat shields, the defenders closed in on Kael's clones. A synchronized volley of high-tier Dispels and Purges finally wiped the illusions out.
Still sitting by the corpses, Kael saw the incoming push through his clones' vision and jumped to his feet. If they surrounded him and chained their debuffs, he'd be dead. But instead of retreating, he charged straight toward them.
Taking down a thousand elite Orcs was no small feat. As soon as the vanguard entered his range, Kael opened fire, immediately transitioning into a flawless kite.
-87,593 (Basic Attack)
-23,345 (Explosive Blast)
-26,943 (Explosive Blast)
-24,483 (Explosive Blast)
-21,938 (Explosive Blast)
Because of the Orcs' massive hitboxes, [Explosive Blast] only clipped four or five units at a time. Combined with [Splintering Arrow], his DPS was staggering, but their bloated health pools meant they weren't dropping anytime soon.
By the time the main force reached Lorelei's corpse, the specific Orcs Kael had focused were dead, but the surrounding splash-damage targets were still sitting at half health. Kael had already repositioned, circling the perimeter of Lorelei's body.
The defenders knew their objective. They weren't here to duel Kael; they just needed him out of the way long enough to secure the rez. As soon as he backed off, a Priest started casting resurrection.
Cast Time: 10 seconds.
Kael had no intention of making it that easy. He had been holding onto [Phantom Barrage] for exactly this moment. Just as the defenders thought they were in the clear, the terrifying AoE initialized directly above them.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Almost every player caught in the blast radius was wiped out. The Orcs lost millions of HP. Kael popped his clones and resumed his perimeter kite, locking his sights specifically on the Priests.
No matter how the Orcs tried to body-block, Kael's arrows found their marks. The remaining players were trapped in a brutal catch-22. Group up behind the Orcs, and Kael would wipe them with AoE. Spread out among the NPCs, and they'd catch the splash damage from [Explosive Blast] and [Pierce]. In less than three minutes, half the Orcs were dead, and the defenders' Priests were entirely extinct.
"Damn it!"
"Motherfucker!"
"Failed again."
"Why couldn't they send more backup?"
"What the hell is the frontline doing? I thought they were steamrolling them!"
At the frontline, Imperator was grinding his teeth. This battle was turning out to be far more difficult than he had anticipated.
Before Imperator had even arrived at the vanguard, Lila's forces hadn't launched a full-scale assault. Instead, they had parked their fifty catapults and focused fire on the Point C chokepoint's walls and watchtowers.
Constrained by low-level siege tech, the catapults only had an 80-yard range—putting them right inside the defensive towers' firing arcs. They had to tank the incoming arrow fire to deal damage. Catapults dealt bonus damage to structures, but towers dealt bonus damage to siege engines. It was a brutal, mutual counter.
Initially, Lila tried to micro the catapults, pulling back low-HP engines for her field engineers to repair. She quickly realized it wasn't worth the effort. The siege engines moved too slowly. Retreating and advancing wasted precious time; it was more efficient to just brute-force the eight watchtowers. Sacrificing over a dozen catapults, she successfully leveled three towers. At this rate, the remaining watchtowers would crumble before her siege engines were wiped out.
That was when Imperator arrived. Knowing a war of attrition favored the attackers, he executed his original plan. He threw open the three chokepoint gates and ordered his remaining 7,000 players and nearly 40,000 Burning Horde units to charge.
Lila had kept her main forces in reserve specifically to counter an all-out push. Seeing the massive wave rushing out, she shifted her focus from the walls. She barked orders to her allied guild leaders, prepping the formation for a direct clash. As for the catapults? She ordered them to retreat to camp, knowing full well most of them wouldn't outrun the charge.
The battlefield numbers were stark:
· Lila's Forces: 10,000 Players + 1,000 combat-ready NPC troops.
· Imperator's Forces: 7,000 Players + 40,000 Burning Horde units (including roughly 10,000 Orc troops).
On paper, Imperator held a massive advantage. He knew Lila and Hazel were top-tier threats. He knew Crimson Bloom had a couple hundred over-leveled level 35 players, and he had even factored in the five level 45 boss pets. In his mind, as long as he steered clear of those specific hardpoints, the rest of the attacking army was just cannon fodder for his Orcs. Crush the weak links first, then overwhelm the elite players with pure numbers.
Dawnbreaker, Imperator sneered inwardly. You think you’re pinning down Lorelei's corpse, but I’m using her corpse to pin you down. Just wait until you hear your frontline has been slaughtered.
Imperator gave the command, and his massive legion surged forward to envelop Lila's forces, intending to swallow them whole.
However, the moment the two armies clashed, Imperator realized he had made three fatal miscalculations:
1. Crimson Bloom wasn't the only guild with level 35 players.
At least eight allied guilds had over a hundred level 35 members each. That meant almost a thousand high-level players were on the field.
2. The morale penalty from Kael ravaging the west village.
While the raw stats on the WarChief troops remained unchanged, their movement and attack speeds were suffering a 20% debuff.
3. He had severely underestimated their gear.
It wasn't just the level 35s—a massive chunk of the attacking force had absurdly high stats. Imperator had missed one critical detail: Gems.
A week ago, to prep for the siege on Starlight Town, Elon had quietly bottlenecked the gem market. The public couldn't buy anything decent, either in quantity or quality.
Meanwhile, Starlight Town’s players had received private invites to buy gems at dirt-cheap rates. The eight major allied guilds—The Assemblage, Crimson Bloom, Titan Guard, Petal Veil, and others—had even stationed their guild blacksmiths to punch sockets into everyone's gear for free. And the shattered gems required for the socketing process? Supplied entirely free of charge by Arbazon.
Practically overnight, the entire attacking army had socketed their gear. The average player slotted four or five standard gems, boosting their core stats by two or three hundred points. The whales bought dozens, skyrocketing their stats by over a thousand. A few mega-whales even tried to lock Elon into long-term discount contracts—which he naturally declined.
From Kael's perspective, this war was never just about destroying Grom'kar Outpost. It was about planting the World Tree. His World Tree. Who cared if he burned through millions of gems to make it happen?