Revel led the striking force out of the Red Crow’s main stronghold in the eastern islands. Over a thousand players followed him on the backs of their mounts, taking flight from the western walls of the fortress and forming an arrow-shaped column with Revel and his trusted companions at the front.

  Hovering beside him was Gust, mounted on his gryphon. The creature was horse-sized and featured the body of a lion with the head, wings and talons of an eagle.

  But the gryphon was not the only mythological creature around. The striking force was made up of talented players riding epic-looking and fast creatures, the latter being a requirement for the assignment Crown had given them.

  Revel, on the other hand, rode a beautiful, golden, three-tailed great fox whose body crackled with yellow sparks depending on its mood. Given how frequently those golden bolts traveled through its body, it might be anxious or thirsty for battle.

  Despite not having a pair of wings, the fox hovered, dashing in the air as if there was an invisible pathway under its paws.

  The swordsman riding it unsheathed his sword and brandished it for all to see. The long, slender blade shimmered in the sunlight, highlighting all the engravings depicting his achievements along the steel.

  His long, light-brown hair swayed as the fox moved forward, cascading over his broad shoulders and brushing his cloakless black-and-gold garb.

  “He’s so cool,” Gust thought, forgetting for a second that he was the one wearing the most powerful set in the whole country. But he could not stop admiring the coolness of the Blademaster leading the charge.

  The western shore was about a kilometer and a half from the stronghold, far from the effective range of the defensive weapons deployed along the walls. As they approached, the vastness of the assaulting forces grew in their field of view.

  For Gust, it was something scary to look at, especially as they approached the anthill that was their camp. It was protected by thousands of players hovering throughout its surroundings.

  Warnings and orders were shouted over there, accompanied by whistles and the ringing of bells and other alarm devices. It was like someone had poked the anthill. Those who were walking began to run as soon as the commotion began. More and more players came out of the tents, all of them in a hurry to see what was going on.

  Many of them ran toward the makeshift fences. Others called and jumped on their mounts and rallied with the others. It didn’t take long before the magic wards were activated. The whole camp and four of the closest war galleons were now shielded by the bluish, round magical barrier.

  “Too late,” Gust heard someone say. “We should’ve come earlier.”

  Another voice soon followed. “Yeah. It took too long to rally our forces.”

  “I’m not so sure of that,” Revel said.

  Gust began to say, “What do you me—” when something took hold of the ocean.

  A watery blast took the armies by surprise. A gigantic lizard materialized in thin air at the northern edge of the camp, amidst the first line of ships.

  Gust guessed that the creature should be at least twenty meters tall as the water engulfed it from the waist down. It walked like a hunched human, clawing the air with its webbed claws.

  Its name flashed above him when inspected: Leviathan’s Herald.

  The creature crept toward Starfall’s camp, thrashing the smallest ships in its path and shoving aside the largest ones as if they were mere toys.

  Close to the beast’s name was the Leviathan’s Wrath counter, currently showing 2.11%. It slowly ticked up as it wreaked havoc.

  Further north, something flashed in the blink of an eye, coinciding with the spawning of hundreds of imps, human-sized demons, and other hellish creatures.

  As Revel’s forces drew closer to the enemy camp, Gust could discern the origin of that flash: a summoning performed by the Supreme Leader of the Alliance.

  Crown hovered high in the air with his demonic pair of wings. His huge grimoire hovered at arm’s length as his right hand was raised, pointing at the Leviathan’s Herald thrashing its way toward the enemy camp.

  His whole body was enveloped by a dark aura. His long robe and black strands of hair fluttered in the wind and at the flap of his wings. Crown was like a demon god summoning his army of darkness.

  The enemy came at him with all their might. Hundreds of players hurried with weapons drawn and spells at the ready. The first squad surrounded the summoner from the flanks and attacked at the same time. But Crown swung his bare left hand in an arc going from left to right.

  A portal opened at his left, as big as he was, and through it came the hand of some giant creature. It was red as blood, and from its palm spawned a black, curved sword the size of the smallest ships being thrown ashore by the monster on the beach.

  The blade swung in the same direction ordered by its summoner, a horizontal arc starting on the left, and ending on the right. Some of the enemies on its path were able to halt their advance. Some ordered their mounts to dive, others dismounted them completely, plummeting into the ocean below in the hope that it would soften their drop.

  It didn’t matter. The sword swung, carrying with it a wave of dark flames that burned them all. Even amidst the cacophony, Gust could hear the screams of the players struck by that blade.

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  Despite the chaos and the seriousness of the situation, one of the struck players flew like a ragdoll, hitting the hull of a war galleon, and provoking some laughter among the members of the striking force.

  “That’s our boss right there,” the knight heard someone behind him say.

  But there was a problem: the magic barrier was still up and ready for them.

  “RIGHT!” Revel yelled, waving his blade in that direction.

  Gust gasped, his heart raced, and he hastily groped the rein in time to pull it. The whole striking force turned right, facing the direction where their leader was soloing dozens of enemies.

  Those engaged in combat with the summoner ran away as soon as the striking force converged in that direction. One of them, a short-haired hunter, flipped them off a few meters from entering the magic barrier surrounding their camp.

  Except that there was no barrier anymore, and a few angry shouts hinted at what happened to them.

  “SABOTAGE ALERT! SABOTAGE ALERT!”

  That was soon followed by the shouts of a high-ranking officer. “We have intruders among us! Eyes wide open. Report any suspicious player and use your fucking stealth-breaking skills.”

  A moment later, spells rained down below. Flame pillars erupted amidst a shower of lightning strikes descending from the skies and from the staves of Red Crow’s mages.

  Meanwhile, arrows flew left and right, most enveloped by some special effect. Most of them missed their target, striking the ground far away from the battlefield. But those who struck were able to deal some good damage or even drop their targets from their mounts.

  With the corner of his eye, Gust spotted the approach of Starfall’s Winged Division, and shouted a warning to Revel, flying to his left flank.

  The swordsman raised his sword once more and yelled, “CHARGE!”

  And they did. Every member of the striking force tightened their grip on the reins and pulled, or shouted a rush order to their mounts. The wind howled in Gust’s ears as they closed in on the enemy’s airborne division.

  But a blast blinded them all for a few seconds. Again, something caught his attention, coming from the right corner of his field of view. It was a red meteor descending from the skies and leaving an orange trail of flames behind.

  “That can’t be a spell, it’s too big to be from a Meteor Shower,” Gust heard someone say.

  “FALL BACK!” ordered Revel, beginning to turn his fox around.

  They followed his order, except for Gust and a third of the detachment. The knight went forth, accompanied by those he inspired. They wove through the edge of the enemy’s right flank. A few of them were killed during the maneuver, but soon they were alone, hearing the angry scolding shouts from their commanding officer.

  But Gust had to help his big boss. That meteor was Anika, somehow, and by the apocalyptic sound it was making, even Red Crow’s big idol would be pulverized by it.

  The knight’s mount screeched in pain, unable to endure the non-stop pulls of the reins, and the frequent rushing orders, but Gust had to go faster no matter what, even if that ended with him losing his mount after that much abuse.

  Crown was facing the incoming meteor, oblivious to the approach of Dante’s heir. Despite those scary flames casting its red glow on his majestic white robes, and his spotless crown reddened by the sheer power of the incoming blow, he seemed calm.

  Meanwhile, the raging battle diminished to a few sparse skirmishes.

  Gust passed by him in a flash, then raised his shield, looked at Crown, and said with all the confidence he could muster, “Leave it to me, boss!”

  Crown’s eyes widened, his mouth opened, and all Gust heard was “NO! YOU’LL RUIN MY—”

  The meteor took the whole sky as Gust faced it for the last time, before engulfing him in its flames, and zeroing his health points despite all the defensive buffs he cast to protect himself.

  So was the fate of all the players who followed him.

  ***

  The meteor’s impact engulfed all the surrounding area in a persistent flame that consumed all five nearest ships, the giant lizard, the demonic hand holding the dark blade, and hundreds of players led by a suicidal knight holding the strongest set of armor in the archipelago.

  But Crown stood proud amidst the flames raging on, begging for him to dispel the layered whitish magic barrier isolating him from that inferno. One thought disputed his attention with the recent meteor fall, the player who tried to save him from it. “Stupid, stubborn, reckless kid,” he thought.

  Gust's lack of judgment not only killed him but also enticed a third of the striking force to go with him. By one miserable whim, they had lost hundreds of valuable players in one fell swoop.

  And the one responsible for all that was hovering right in front of him, with a grin on her face.

  “Nice striking force you had there,” she said.

  “How long were you up there?” he asked.

  “Since we saw you coming, did you like it?”

  “It’s one hell of a skill.”

  “Well, you can summon interdimensional beasts as strong as bosses, my legendary class has to have something as cool as that.”

  Roars, screeches, and shouts reached their ears, catching their attention. Both looked around and waved to their approaching forces. Hundreds of players and their mounts were converging on them while fighting the opposing group.

  “Don’t come any closer!” Crown ordered his players.

  “STOP!” Anika yelled, followed by Smokey’s roar so powerful that it ceased their advance.

  First, the momentary truce halted any aggression nearby, then it spread toward the camp, and finally toward the line of cannons just recently deployed on an elevation three hundred meters east of the camp.

  “You should order a retreat. Things are gonna get ugly here if you stay,” Anika said.

  “Our friends don’t like it when we stop our battles to trashtalk. How about we solve this between you and me? I wanna know what your legendary class is capable of.”

  “Sorry. Not gonna happen. I won’t take those odds after I, alone, just fried half your striking force with one of my legendary skills.”

  “It was actually a third of them, and I also have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

  “I’m still gonna have to decline. It’s always nice to talk to you on the battlefield. Shall we resume the carnage?”

  Crown nodded, quickly summoning his grimoire and tearing out one of the twelve golden pages. It was the first time he did that since they arrived on the Storm Islands.

  The page burned in his hands, but not in red flames. Instead, a dark and violet fire burned it to a crisp, leaving a trail of silvery, shimmering ashes in its wake.

  Anika’s eyes widened, and she threw her arms forward to shield her face from the dust storm that began to emanate from the summoner’s body.

  Crown’s hair, cloak, and robes fluttered like he was in the eye of a hurricane. The power emanating from that burned page began to drag everyone away from him. Anika tried to push forward with Smokey, but the black dragon could not overcome such power.

  The storm faded in the blink of an eye, and Crown was still standing, hovering, with two upgraded pairs of demonic wings and a whole new set of armor. Anika knew that set from their previous confrontations. It was the Dark Lord’s set.

  The good news was that he could only summon it once a day.

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