A New World, an immersive game experience

Nikki was still in shock at the method Erik had used to get them here. The last spell was a gentle one. Riding upon a vine, they had arrived from above, allowing her to take in the situation at a glance and react. But before that...

'He simply threw us into the air!'

Erik hadn't yet mastered flight. Thus, to cover the distance they needed to, he had used the trees like slingshots. Sending them flying, only to catch them with an air cushion and some leaves.

The experience, had, to be blunt, been beyond terrifying for Nikki. Erik himself had also nearly messed up more than once. After all, he had never tried this maneuver before. They could easily have died more than ten times.

Those had certainly made Nikki drench herself in sweat. The ground had come too close, too fast, too many times to count.

'They made it!' Ilmadia cheered, ignorant of the troubles they had gone through. To her, all that mattered was that the last attack had been too close for comfort. And the follow-up volley would have certainly killed her if not for Nikki's barriers.

It wouldn't last long. But it didn't need to. It had done its job already.

In Midnight Tea's desperation, they had all but given up on surviving the encounter. They had given their all to take Ilmadia out before she could finish her preparation.

This allowed them to break through all of Phoenix's defenses and send their attacks at Ilmadia—but at the cost of leaving themselves defenseless. Already, half of the Midnight Tea's players involved in this battle were dead.

And, to the despair of their surviving members, Ilmadia didn't die. She stood entirely unharmed, still preparing her spells. Or so they thought. At the precise moment, their attacks failed, she stored the crystal away. And sent a ravishing smile their way, along with half a dozen spells.

Stunned by her actions, Midnight Tea's players failed to react in time. They ate her spells directly and were killed on the spot. From there, the difference in numbers quickly led to the other Midnight Tea's players dying.

In the aftermath, Phoenix retreated. They had no reason to assault Midnight Tea's castle. It would only lead to more losses. Either in player deaths, or in expendables being used. Such as the large mana crystal.

That crystal was worth over a thousand gold. Using it when they could win by simply going on the defensive would be foolish.

Their retreat was met with confusion by both their opponent, who had now less than half their players remaining, and the viewers.

Midnight Tea soon realized Phoenix's plan. Some players rushed to prevent their retreating, only to fall because they had no backup. Others froze, unable to act since they couldn't foresee a way to reclaim their chance at victory.

The viewers, on the other hand, were pissed at not having a climactic battle ending. They had all been so, so, so curious about what Ilmadia was doing. On how large the explosion would be.

To not have anything. To be denied that.

They were pissed.

They cared not for the logic. There were the finals after this, Phoenix couldn't be spending all their resources in this match. Still! Still! They wanted to see what would have happened.

They ached to see that explosion. And if... if it could damage the reputable invincible castles.

—

"That went smoother than expected," Eldrian commented when his friends returned to their home base. He wasn't fully aware of the situation, but he knew a general outline of what had happened.

Their plans had gone off without a hitch. In the end, they hadn't even needed Ilmadia to actually cast the Super Nova spell. Which saved them over a thousand gold. At the vexation of all the viewers.

Giggling, Ilmadia noted that most players probably didn't realize that it was possible to cancel a Nova spell.

"True, though not everyone can do that," Eldrian replied. He could probably cancel the spell even after destabilizing the crystal. His control was at a level where he could restabilize the crystal.

Ilmadia wasn't quite capable of that. She could, however, leave that step to last.

With smaller crystals, there wasn't much prep, but with a large one, she had to make sure it didn't go off too soon. That would wipe out everyone around her, after all.

Temporary runes also didn't persist in a player's inventory, so she couldn't prep any crystals beforehand.

They could, of course, apply real runes. But runes and crystals didn't really mix. They worked well for the Nova spells, but only because instability was the requirement. They wouldn't 'store' well on crystals. A few accidental explosions would be the result of any such attempts.

Applying inscriptions and activating an actual spell, instead of setting a crystal off, would be far more economical. However, spells just didn't have the same output as a crystal destabilizing and exploding. At least no one in the guild knew of a spell that could do the same thing.

Eldrian, at Tier 6, having looked at Tier 7 spells, could at best craft something consuming around 1000 MP. If it was something that remained active, it could drain perhaps half that over its activation time.

Perhaps if he spent more time looking into crafting-related skills he would be able to draw more power through a craft. But his focus was currently elsewhere.

Needless to say, even a small crystal, and thus a normal Nova, had over 3000 MP behind it. The inefficiency in mana being guideless was overcome by the sheer quantity being released in one instant.

"Seems they came to us," Eldrian noted after a while of discussing the battle. He had just sensed all of the remaining Midnight Tea players.

Normally, his 'sensing' abilities—with Mageia—were limited to a few hundred meters. But for the match, Eldrian had set up a barrier at the forest edge. About two hundred meters before the plains around the castle. This was to give himself enough time to react if something unexpected happened. 𝚋ｅ𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖｅ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐

Sustaining such a massive barrier, covering several kilometers, wasn't easy. Which was why he had been meditating the entire time. Of course, meditation no longer required all his focus. So he had also been pondering some theories and also following the battle logs and messages to pass the time.

"All of them?" Elizabeth asked for confirmation, which Eldrian gave with a nod. "Alright, time to show them our real specialty!" She announced, and the players cheered.

While several had died in the fighting, their guild still had eighty players remaining. Compared to the forty-three coming to siege their castle, this fight should be simple.

"All mages outside, get inside!" Zyviss shouted, the quickest to the top of the walls. At his shout, the mages who had been preparing a literal minefield quickly got moving. Meanwhile, the guild's archers took up their posts. Though only those with the best skill and best bows.

Judith, meanwhile, gathered all the players able to keep up with her and took up a waiting position at the gate.

As soon as the first player entered the range of the archers, arrows were loosed. Not all met their mark, but Zyviss's certainly caused havoc for their opponents. Each arrow brought a different element to bear. All with deadly effects.

Worst, after weathering the arrow fire, they were suddenly met with explosions from the ground. Bodies were sent flying, activating more explosions. Which caused what little discipline the Midnight guild had remaining, to crumble.

Spells followed after. Just barely in reach, they should have been easy to block. Or, in the worst case, activate via counter spells or attacks before reaching their intended target.

Sadly, the players on the receiving side of Phoenix's attacks couldn't even do that.

And, following all this, Judith and her group rushed from the gates. Weaving between mines with expert movements, they didn't set off even a single trap.

They clashed with the remaining players amid arrow fire, erupting spells, and exploding mines. All with perfect confidence. They even used the mines to send troublesome opponents to their demise.

Seeing this display, where all forty players were killed in mere seconds, left everyone stunned.

Even the announcers didn't know what to make of this. Had Eldrian moved, they could have accepted this. But he hadn't. Only around twenty members of Phoenix had actually gone on the offensive.

Ten archers, five mages, and five warriors.

That was all it took to defeat a group of elite players numbering forty.

The one question on everyone's mind, as the reality of what just happened settled in was simple: Why hadn't they been doing this from the start?

Never, not once, had Phoenix relied on their castle to claim victory. They had always gone on the offensive. So much so, that everyone had forgotten that their true expertise was in defensive battles.

Or, in fact, that they could