ALL NOVEL 36. Haligrad Gate Massacre (Part 1) *
The man's words were cut short as Astaria's drawn sword plunged straight through the back of the player's head and out of his mouth, his last dying act being to splatter blood over the floor. She swung her blade to the right, sending the dead player's body tumbling to the side and clearing her path forward.
The players who were previously speaking in quiet voices all became silent hearing the Iron Fist officer who had walked out to meet the mysterious player start shouting back to them, only to be stopped as a blade glinted from his mouth. With the prevailing silence, the noise of the body hitting the floor sounded louder than it should, bringing attention to the blood covered maiden standing alone, her name and level on full display.
Astaria slowly walked forward towards the main group of around 50 Iron Fist members who were still a distance away with her sword leaving a trail of blood dripping from its tip. She started to speak, her head slightly lowered and her dark tone evident as her melodic voice reached the ears of everyone by the gates, keeping their intense stares focused on her.
“Do you think that you can go around threatening whoever you like just because you have numbers? Or a level advantage?”
Walking closer, Astaria could see the Iron Fist guild’s surprise start to fade as they became agitated, watching Astaria as she menacingly walked towards them.
“Do you think players will just stand around as you try to bully them into handing over their hard-earned rewards?”
As Astaria reached around 24 metres away, she stopped, slightly raising her head allowing the light of the fires to reflect off her eyes, making them appear red under the shadows of her hair. Her atmosphere visibly unnerved many of the hostile group's members as many took a nervous step back, their hands tightly gripping their weapons.
“Do you think that I won’t kill every single one of you Iron Fist trash right here after you threaten me? Leave this place right now. This is my only mercy and your last warning.”
The horrifying sight of a woman, covered head to toe in blood speaking in such a menacing tone took the confidence from many of the lower levelled and less motivated members of the Iron Fist guild, making many anxious especially seeing Astaria’s name and level.
Meanwhile, the senior members of the Iron Fist guild were more resolute, grimacing while trying to estimate the unknown threat of a Lv 24 player, while the Iron Fist’s guild leader just looked at Astaria with both greed and hate.
Astaria let some of her attention go to listening to the onlookers who remained at a distance, kept back by some of the Iron Fist members. They all seemed to become excited by the imminent clash and the rising tension as the two sides faced off, their chattering often mentioning 'The Bloody Maiden' and the forums.
She was aware that this was going to be the first major clash of the game, being between one of the well-known guilds that had come to Caelus Online from previous MMOs, and the infamous player Astaria whose name had blown up in fame from the repeated server announcements of all her impressive achievements.
She had encountered the Iron Fist guild in the past, their reputation was not great and she had thankfully never had direct issues with them. That being said, she did have direct conflict with some of the guilds they were allied to, and the group in front of her was just a small part of a much bigger problem.
Many of the onlooking players seemed to give their support to Astaria as their comments suggested they did not approve of the Iron Fist guild acting like they owned the place, restricting the other players from moving about while they pompously stood around waiting to threaten a player.
Their dislike of the Iron Fist guild seemed to grow even more after hearing Astaria’s words, agreeing that this kind of behaviour was wrong and understanding that as casual players, they would be even more infuriated if it was them since they could do nothing to resist.
Meanwhile, there also seemed to be a number of the onlooking players that supported the Iron Fist guild, disliking that Astaria was being so openly hostile to the group without even giving them a chance to talk, a few comments saying that since this was a game, it was fine to do whatever they liked.
The crowd's increased rowdiness conveying their support for The Bloody Maiden caused the leader of the Iron Fist Guild to take a few steps forward from their ranks, his player ID showing the name Iron Fist.
Iron Fist was clearly a man with either an incredible naming sense or a massive ego, deciding to name his guild after his own in game name. His appearance was a man of average height clad in heavy plate armour, with 2 axes attached to his waist. His expression was hidden by his full helmet, with only his angry eyes and clenched fists visible to Astaria as he intently focused on her.
After hearing a shout from one of the crowd mocking his guild for ganging up on one player, Astaria presumed that there was nothing Iron Fist could do other than kill her. She imagined that in his mind, if he showed weakness, his guild's reputation would plummet, and they would become the first group to become a meme in the forums.
She had seen it many times before, guilds getting mocked by the community for stupid decisions or massive fails. Gamers could be savage, and his group confronting her alone without her party had only put him in a worse position.
Hardening his resolve, he called out to Astaria, clearly trying to suppress the anger in his tone,
"Tough words for someone alone. Hand over the drops and we can forget your bad attitude, then you can pass through these here gates unharmed."
Astaria let out a dry chuckle, swinging her blade to the side to get the blood off as she gave her reply.
"Oh, no no, little boy. you don't quite seem to understand. It's a shame really. I hope for all your sakes you kept the pain reduction at max."
Once again enraged, Iron Fist shouted out to his guild, his patience having vanished.
“Mages, Archers, attack, everyone else, get ready!”
Astaria who was watching the Iron Fist guild felt a flutter of excitement in her heart as she saw them all draw their weapons while their mages started casting.
In the past, Astaria had spent a lot of time in the various PvP practice areas outside many cities, perfecting her abilities while fighting other players. On many occasions she had often practised fighting multiple players at once, often ensuring her opponents were skilled parties or guilds, ensuring that she could handle any sort of situation she might find herself in.
Her love for PvP never faded over the years since it was not only a thrilling challenge, but also a chance to improve her own abilities and skill. Some have called her a battle junkie in the past, but Astaria never considered herself in that way.
To her, it was the chance for a challenge that got her excited, an occurrence that occasionally happened to her elsewhere like when negotiating tough business deals or trying to mediate disputes between guilds. And like those situations, the guild facing her was her next challenge.
With her spirit now flaring with motivation, Astaria spent no time hesitating and summoned her staff in her left hand, much to the surprise of many who were looking at her and did not know her class.
Astaria swiftly moved to cast [Lightning], first targeting one of the officers who was taking command of the casters. Thanks to [Casting], her attack was released before anyone sent an attack at her, the bolt of lightning killing him instantly due to her high WIS attribute of 140. The officer's sudden death caused some of the Iron Fist guild's magic users to become temporarily confused as the orders he was giving were suddenly stopped midway through.
The casters who all received their initial instructions continued to channel their spells, with fireballs and orbs of darkness starting to appear amongst the guild's ranks all aiming towards Astaria.
With practised moves, Astaria capitalised on her casting speed and targeted the guild's clustered left side with [Residual Burst], making her move before the first wave of attacks was launched. The burst of lightning directly struck an unsuspecting player and instantly killed him, while the impact of the attack knocked down 7 other guild members who were standing close together and killed 3 more.
With her skills used to make the first strike, Astaria immediately used her evasion to move forward to the left, closing the distance between her and the enemy guild while narrowly avoiding 2 Lightning spells and a couple of arrows that hit the ground where she was standing moments prior.
Anticipating the next wave of spells and accounting for the cooldown on her evasion skill, Astaria planted her staff in the ground and used it to propel herself and gain additional speed as she lunged further forward, easily evading the side of the fireballs and dark spheres.
Now out of danger of the larger attacks, Astaria cast her [Mana Barrier] skill some of the mages started to cast their Mana Arrows. One mana arrow managed to graze her leg before her barrier formed, causing her to lightly frown as the rest of the smaller projectiles that were flying towards her bounced off her barrier, only lowering her MP by a tiny amount.
Swiftly analysing the state of the enemies after her initial attack with a momentary glance, Astaria noticed that the archers of the guild were no longer attacking. It was likely they were suffering from the same issue as Ben with their accuracy and did not want to hit their fellow members in front of them, so she decided to deal with them last.
With her remaining choices narrowed down, she chose to target the centre of the guild's formation which was the most prepared. She cast her [Fireball] directly into the large central group, watching as her attack instantly kills 3 more players, knocking down and damaging 2 more. The guild's retaliation came in the form of another [Lightning] that was blocked by her barrier, something she completely ignored as her eyes observed their formation like a hawk to find an opening.
With their formation now in mild disarray, the Iron Fist guild players panicked seeing their guildmates dropping dead from single attacks, creating the opening Astaria was looking for. Her smile widened as she used her evasion skill to close the remaining distance to the Iron Fist guild, before instantly vanishing from view using teleportation which was now within the range she needed.
Hearing the shouts of surprise from the guild members who were watching Astaria, the other panicking members looked up to see that the menacing player had vanished from sight.
Astaria’s disappearance started to make the guild’s panic increase; however, their attention instantly turned to the right side of their formation where the sound of screams accompanied by exploding ice rang out through the area.
