[quote]From: Bellowed Mist To: Zealous Calm, Monochrome Angel, Falling Mercury, Rusted Feather, Minted Ice, Stole Gate Subject: Re: Orders From the King Everyone’s in position. Now.[/quote] [hider=Death]Zealous Calm raised a wooden staff over his head, a bubble of yellow magical power gathered on the end of it, and then he swung the staff and sent the bubble flying towards the Black Guild. Upon coming into contact with the building, the bubble grew to envelope the entire structure. The bubble held for only an instant before it popped, leaving the Black Guild exactly as it had been. That part of the plan done, Zealous Calm immediately moved on to the next step by slamming the end of his staff into the ground in front of him. The ground around the wizard was covered by a circle of runes and lines. With the end of his staff he finished the mark, and it burst into a column of white light. Similar columns rose into the sky to the East, South, and West of the Black Guild. The air between the beams of light cracked and seemed to crystallize as the space around the guild was surrounded by an inescapable barrier. The wizard stared at the Black Guild's obsidian spires for a moment before turning and walking towards the next glyph he had to complete. The sight of a massive bubble forming around their citadel did not go unnoticed by the Ebony Strykers. None of them needed any orders from Dark Wraith or even the Black King to realize that this was an attack on their Kingdom. Appropriately so, the massive army of the Black Guild mobilized and prepared for the coming battle. Sweepers were soon dispersed, already weakening the risen barrier at certain points to give their forces an edge on the offensive front. It would take some time, but these Sweepers had been handcrafted by Dark Wraith herself for just this occasion. --- As the crystallized walls of Zealous Calm's barrier cut through the space between Bellowed Mist and Falling Mercury, the two shared a look of reassurance. The black-haired assassin didn't walk any closer to the Black Guild than she had to when she unsheathed her dagger. The surface of the blade radiated a dark blue light, the light of the many lives it had had to consume to fuel Bellowed Mist's final ability. She held the blade with both hands as she stabbed the end into the earth. The air in an area even larger than that enclosed Zealous Calm's walls rippled when "Deep Ones Awaken" activated. Then all of the air was replaced by uncountable gallons of dark water. The Drowning status appeared for Mist momentarily before fading. This was her power, so she wouldn't die to it, but the others would not be so lucky. The assassin left her dagger behind as she continued walking towards the doors to the Black Guild. As she walked, slowly due to being underwater, she drew her second dagger and summoned her two "Deep Prey" familiars: two black-scaled sharks that circled her as she walked. A massive wave, almost as black as the Ebony Stryker halls, filled the stronghold's initial corridors with torrents of summoned water as it ripped the front doors apart. Those caught off guard were immediately given the Drowning Status, having only about three minutes to recover or be killed. Those more adapted to water environments immediately pursued after the form of Bellowed Mist. Two of them, one a Level 7 Gunner and the other a Level 5 Healer, took notice of the guardians swimming in Bellowed Mist's proximity. Unholstering two electrified knives modified for underwater combat, the Gunner with the Commando Spec launched forward at the two sharks while his Healer buddy activated Spectral Body. Soon, a heavy mist began to form beneath the water, covering the Gunner and blinding Bellowed Mist from approaching enemies. --- Falling Mercury waited until Mist unleashed her ability before setting off his own. "Stilled Sands" blew through the drowned halls of the guild, taking hold of those it met and stopping them from moving or even using their abilities to escape their slow deaths. Outside the barrier and drowned space, Mercury fell to his knees and shut his eyes as tight as he could. His ability wasn't meant to be used like this, and it was showing. The ground in front of the priest was already starting to see feel drops of blood. --- Rusted Feather leaned back against the rock he was sitting on. There wasn't really much point to him being here, it was his machines that were doing all of the hard work. One such machine stood nearby, a massive metal turret that stood at twelve feet high. Technically the turret was mobile, but it wouldn't be moving anywhere today. The glowing glyph carved into the machine's side marked one of the corners of Zealous Calm's barrier, and the turret sat embedded in the wall of crystallized air. Two other mechanized turrets marked with a magic glyph sat in locations to the East and South to complete the seal. The wall wouldn't prevent the front half of the machine from operating, and neither would it being submerged in Mist's dark water. As its creator rested on his rock, the massive turret's barrel turned to aim at the side of the Black Guild and fired its first shot. Two more shots came from the other turrets' locations, each shot smashing into the massive castle. Rusted Feather hummed merrily to himself and shielded his eyes from the sun to try and spot his fourth machine way up high in the sky. Ah, those pesky cannons. The Sweepers merely ignored their onslaught and continued their efforts to support their allies. Possibly being a trap to bait them out, the Sweepers rationalized that if the walls did fall, these Orange Guild fools would be met with the power of five armies twice fold brimming within the massive Guild's walls. --- Monochrome Angel held onto the metal arm of the strange flying machine Feather had created, and the shinobi Stole Gate stood beside him. Gate's purpose was as backup in case any of the others needed help or were killed. She would take their place or kill whoever interfered with the mission. The contraption they stood upon was little more than a platform kept aloft by a propeller on the top, but below it held an arsenal of deadly missiles. Once Zealous Calm and Mist had used their abilities, for Mercury's was impossible to see the effects of, the many missiles were released at Rusted Feather's distant command to fall and splash into the drowned air far below. Below the water, it was hard to see, but the surface of the dark ocean surged as the bombs exploded. Monochrome Angel waited until the last of the explosions was done before he let go of the flying contraption and fell like a stone towards the Black Guild. He slipped through the top of the ocean with a splash and the Drowning status instantly started sapping away at his health. As he sank and got closer to the drowning Ebony Strykers below, the damage from his own Drowning was canceled out by a sudden surge of healing. All of the many players dying from Mist's ability were restoring Angel's health faster than the dark waters could will him dead. A second later, he didn't even need the healing from the other players' pain. [url=http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/268/3/e/burden_by_shilin-d80heuc.jpg]Two deathly wings of black smoke and skeletons[/url] appeared on the necromancer's back. A pale green inferno began to rip through the watery halld of the Black Guild with flames that ignored the black water and burned regardless. Angel swam inside the building through a window, inextinguishable flames following. He passed player after player on his way to the guild's heart, and each one met a not-quick-enough end from the combination of the suffocating water, green burning flames, Angel's life-draining wings. --- The sound of a powerful blast made Rusted Feather jump up from where he'd been sitting back. He shot Minted Ice an annoyed look, one which the red-haired female sniper shot right back his way. His abilities made is way too easy for him to sit back and do nothing while his machines and turrets took care of his work. Ice didn't like that. She didn't want to give the boy any time to rest while they were finally striking at the Black witches home, and the blast from her massive sniper rifle was the best way to keep Feather from having a moment's peace. Casting "Slip Shot", "Bombardier", and "Hydra Slayer" on her next shot, Minted Ice's gun exploded once again. The bullet vanished as soon as it left the barrel, only reappearing a moment before it hit its target, which was conveniently located on the other side of Zealous Calm's barrier. When the bullet hit, it exploded like a bomb going off, instantly killing the poor Ebony Stryker that had been unable to do anything to resist the violent death. Where the initial target's head had been, two more bullets appeared, flying towards the next two closest targets and again leaving nothing but corpses. The increasing spread of bullets only stopped their killing spree when there were no more targets within range. Minted Ice reloaded and fired again, this time at a new group of helpless Strykers trapped and drowning on the other side of the wall. It was like shooting fish in a barrel, if one had an extreme hatred for fish. --- By the time he'd reached the guild's center it was doubtful if Monochrome Angel really needed to use his ability to end the lives of the many Strykers trapped within this killing ground. Nonetheless, a sickening green light streamed in and out of every crack and empty space of the Black Guild. The slow and steady damage that affected each and every person unfortunate to be inside the guild became exponential, and Angel felt each and every single life snuff out one after another. The green glow pulled the executed souls to him, and the necromancer gathered them into a compressed ball of deathly power. He didn't need to fill any quota of kills to use his power like Mist did, but how strong the ability would be depended on how many souls he had access to. Monochrome Angel could feel the energy build as more and more Strykers died. He doubted he'd ever held as much power as he did in that moment.[/hider]&[hider=Destruction]If fifty was a lot. Despite slaughtering their way to the center of the city, they met with surprisingly little resistance. Hardly even the strongest players keeping guard; most weren't even Ebony Strykers. In fact, many seemed to be low level players, looking to set up camping spots in the city when they were suddenly overwhelmed by the Orange Guild's attack. This was partially due to most of the Ebony Strykers being at school, but partially due to another gambit. Namely, drawing some of the Orange Guild's strongest to the Black City while the Mayhem Riders did what they did best; ride out to another territory to wage war. Additionally, there was the matter of keeping the Orange Guild's strike team in the Black City. They wanted to destroy them so badly, they would get what they would like. The Sweepers, and by extension the Erasers, were great at one thing that made them powerful; repairs. But before they could begin the repair, they needed to stop the destruction. Or end it quickly. That's where one more Sweeper came in, unaffiliated with the Ebony Strykers. He looked nervous, a mere level 4 Wizard. But orders were orders, and even with the System Admins overseeing the battle, he knew what was at risk here. He simply hoped that this plan works out as well as the Erasers told him it would. The Wizard shot off a Magic Blast at the Black Castle. Under normal circumstances, this would be a useless attack. But somehow, the Magic Blast managed to get past the barrier around the Black Castle, hitting the building itself. Where against any logic, the Black Castle began to fall. One shot was able to knock out a large section of the wall, and the rest started to fall to the ground. Those caught inside where crushed, and what few defenders of the Ebony Strykers saw their guild hall tumble. There was mixed feelings. Anger, despair, and for the wizard who did the need, fear. The destruction of the guild hall was certainly suddenly and blatant, and more importantly, obviously amiss. A single wizard attacking the guild hall, bringing it down in one blow? Who would have such a power, and who benefits? But that certainly seemed to be the goal of the Orange Guild. The Wizard logged out of the game shortly after the guild hall began to fall, with what few of the Ebony Strykers either attempting to escape their lost hall, or mounting a last stand against their attackers. And rolling towards the Black City was another force. Bearing the banner of the Ivory Masks, Bullet Hell had come to join the battle. --- No one had expected the Ebony Strykers to be willing to destroy their own guild to deny the Marauders their victory in bringing it crashing down. It was an unprecedented move on the enemy's part. The Marauder closest to where the impossible attack came from was Zealous Calm, and as soon as he saw the player responsible, he activated the glyph of flame drawn onto the ground nearby. The enemy wizard was swallowed by a pillar of fire that erupted from the ground beneath his feet. It was too late though, and whatever the other wizard had done brought the Black Castle crashing down. Stole Gate was the first to see the new arrivals coming towards the Black Guild. She didn't recognize the player, so they were likely with the Strykers. Minted Ice got the message from Stole Gate and turned her rifle around to spot the person at the head of the new approaching force. Ice sent back to Gate that the player was named Bullet Hell, and Stole Gate sent the player a message asking for her purpose. Either way, the shinobi drew her blade and prepared to make contact. The person most surprised by the sudden destruction of the Black Guild was without a doubt Monochrome Angel, both due to the fact that he was inside the guild as if fell all around and then on top of him, and that he had been moments away from bringing down the structure himself. "Damn Killstealers!" The necromancer was ready to kill whoever had denied him the glory of being the one to bring down the Black Guild. Falling Mercury was more relieved when the Guild fell than surprised or excited. He'd barely been able to hold so many enemies from moving, and the strain from using the stop had nearly killed him a dozen times over. As soon as the last Stryker inside the guild died, he cut off "Stilled Sands". The healing that had kept his own ability from killing him suddenly went from barely sustaining the life drain to rapidly restoring Mercury to full health. The young-looking priest stood up from where he'd collapsed to the ground and wiped the blood from around his eyes and mouth. The mission was complete, but he didn't expect he'd be allowed to rest. Bellowed Mist walked out of the still-submerged ruins of the Black Guild. The two sharks that followed stained the water around them red. They had obviously gotten to feed before all the Strykers had gone and died. Apparently there had been two Strykers that had thought attacking her had been a good idea. They'd been quickly proven wrong. The black-haired assassin walked back to where her other dagger was plunged into the earth. Rusted Feather was barely paying attention, so his turrets continued to fire on the Black Guild even after it was nothing but a pile of rocks. It took Minted Ice hurling a rock at his face to make him switch the machines to standby mode. --- [b]"I'm here to finish a job."[/b] The White King did not arrive alone. Surrounding the Black City were the rest of her guild, or at least those she could gather at a moment's notice. They all came within War Machines, heavy ordinances that would rival Arms Slave's own. [b]"And we will be taking the honor of wiping this city off the map."[/b] Without another word, the White Guild's war machines began to bombard the Black City. Without their defenders, their walls and buildings began to fall. The White Guild showed no intentions of looting or waiting for the Orange Guild to clear out. They simply continued to tear down the remains of the Black Guild, and slowly but surely, more of the White Guild members began to show up, until there was a little under a hundred of them gathered near the Black City. [b]"Return to you king and tell him that you've done your part. The... New Ivory Masks will show what they can do now that we don't have that fool of a bruiser at the crown."[/b] Bullet Hell looked down at the city up in flames and sinking into the ground. Only for a short while however. Than she went to address the rest of her guild about what they were going to do next. [b]"Once this city is razed into the foundation, start the new construction. More of those Ebony Strykers will be arriving in due time. Deal with them as you must."[/b] --- Stole Gate resheathed her sword, as the "New" Ivory Masks at the very least didn't appear to be looking for a fight. She replied again with a message, this time telling Bullet Hell that they did not with to retreat and that the Masks would be permitted to stay so long as they did not interfere with the Marauders. Though there were only seven Marauders present and many times more of the Masks' forces, Stole Gate felt no reason or need to veil the fact that she saw the Masks as no threat. Zealous Calm and Bellowed Mist must have been thinking the same thing at that moment, because the crystal barrier cracked and fell apart only seconds after Mist's drowned space shrank and disappeared. "Hey bum, tower, make, now," Minted Ice jabbed Rusted Feather in the gut with the end of her rifle, prodding him into action. The commando waved his hand in annoyance but did as she told him to. A metal spire rose out of the pile of ruble that was the Black Guild, rising high into the air. An orb of metal and glass unfolded on the top of the tower, and all down the sides of the tower long turret barrels fell down to point directly out from the side of the tower. It was Feather's most impressive machine, the immobile turret "Dragonfly Autocannon". Feather whistled at his creation. Yeah, that was one sexy mech. The commando squinted at something clinging to the side of his machine. "Hey Ice, scope over the side of Dragonfly and see what it is that's stuck to her side." The sniper did as he asked and replied, "You seem to have dragged Angel out from under the rubble. I have full confidence that you didn't mean to, so you get no credit for assisting him." Feather stopped listening to his cold companion. Aw yeah, Angel totally owed him now! That would come in handy at some point, at the very least to get the scary necromancer to leave him alone for a while. Angel clung to the side of Dragonfly as it rose into the air. He wasn't hurt too bad for having a building collapse on top of him, but damn it, he'd wanted to destroy the Black Guild! Someone was going to pay. --- Bullet Hell didn't respond to the message given to her. She simply joined her Ivory Masks in the destruction, wielding her weapon; the Experimental Mirv. But before she joined in the destruction, someone came up to her. A level 9 character, Dosh King, now under the guild of Ivory Masks. [b]"Now hold on... Let's all get along now. After all, we all can learn something from each other, can't we?"[/b] Dosh King and Bullet Hell strode through the destruction. They both had been given protective barriers to help them deal with the resulting splash damage, with Dosh King looking around, picking up fallen items, and generally seeming like he's taking a tour of the ruined city. He came up to the new constructed creation, the "Dragonfly Autocannon". [b]"Rather impressive... Very impressive..."[/b] Dosh King touched the side of the building, taking in the knowledge of it's creation. [b]"You know what would be great? If there were more of these things. Just imagine..."[/b] The Dosh King looked dreamily into the air, though Bullet Hell simply gave him a stern glare. He shrugged his shoulders and walked back to Bullet Hell's side. [b]"Fine fine. So plan Boulder City was done a bit quicker than it needed to be. Nothing we can't profit from. I can't say everyone will be happy, but you know, shit happens. Now, I trust that you and your people will be sticking around here for a little while longer?"[/b] Bullet Hell nodded her head and went back to tearing down parts of the Black City. Dosh King smirked and began to walk off to his own part of the city himself. There he began to cast his own spell in the ruins: Forgery. --- The seven Marauders regrouped atop Dragonfly Autocannon's head. Angel still had his wings out, and given how much his killing aura was leaking out, it was doubtful he'd be willing to dismiss them anytime soon. Ice and Gate lay on the edge of the tower, watching the movement of Masks below and whispering to one another. Knowing the two sisters, they were discussing the most efficient way to kill the maximum number of targets in the least amount of time. Zealous Calm floated up to join the others, supporting a tired Mercury next to him. Bellowed Mist nodded to the wizard and the priest, the two people beside herself that had been invaluable in the attack. Rusted Feather was just sitting on the edge of his glorious construct, content to lord over the tiny white ants below. He stood up once the last of his companions decided to join the group atop Dragonfly's head. "How about we help out these new Masks with destroying Blackie's territory?" Stole Gate quickly sent a message of apology to Bullet Hell, though whether she managed to send it just before or just after Dragonfly started firing is up for debate. She shared a look with Ice, and the two of them just sighed at Feather for not bothering to wait or ask the others' opinions before just blasting away while there were other non-Stryker players below. Still, all said and done, the mission's goal had been met, and then some. The Black Guild had fallen, and the rest of the city would soon be made to match.[/hider]