Battle for the North (Rogue Merchant Book #4): LitRPG Series by Roman Prokofiev (best beach reads of all time .txt) 📗

person deserved his reluctant respect, managing to find Pandorum’s weak point. There was barely enough ellurite for one big battle. Even with all the money in the world, they couldn’t freely move across Sphere. Today or never! Losing or retreating would completely destroy their reputation as victors, dispelling the myth about their invincibility. The alliance would splinter with some of the vassals quickly fleeing to the enemy side. Phantom understood that they had no choice but to win.

Still, he thought that it was inevitable.

“Scouts! Why are you silent?”

The first group of soldiers killed each other and moved to the resp circle inside the fortress. They were tasked with recon and investigating enemy defense. Phantom had every confidence that their opponents would try blocking the resp point — and that his warriors would be able to pierce any defense. They had the upper hand over the Russians and Americans in both numbers and skill.

However, the scouts who became the first to respawn were silent and then started reporting weird things. They found themselves in a cloud of impenetrable darkness and an antimagic zone, and everything around them was odd. They couldn’t make out anything or dispel the darkness, and those who tried leaving it immediately died from True Fire, the source of which they couldn’t identify.

Phantom frowned. They were clearly covered with Great Darkness, Abyssal Gloom, or a similar spell, epic or even legendary. It was a common trick to disorient attackers. True Sight couldn’t penetrate it, and antimagic artifacts blocked the ability to dispel. The deaths of the first group were caused by True Fire — the ability of the sword belonging to HotCat, the swindler who had blown up two juggernauts. This all looked quite strange — a massive attack was bound to reach beyond the “blind” zone and destroy the antimagic source. Was it a foolish attempt to complicate their advance? It would have made more sense to pour AOE spells over the resp point, especially since the Watchers had more than enough scrolls after looting the Atrocity warehouses.

“Prepare the strike teams!” he ordered the raid leaders.

“How many?”

“All of them! Ignore the losses.”

“It’s time to get what’s ours, guys! Let’s go, everyone!” he addressed the thousands of players on the main voice channel. “Let’s tear them apart!”

Cannons started firing, distant but closer and more powerful every second. The Panda fleet began shooting at Atrocity, shaking the dome with hundreds of hits. In turn, fiery missiles and thin beams of Pikes rained down on the ships from the bastions. The vessels of NAVY and the Northerners adopted battle formations and raised sails.

Hundreds of soldiers stood on decks, paying no attention to the armada’s suicidal attack. Split into duos, they held weapons at the ready, waiting for the command, and when it finally came, hit each other in sync to get to the resp point. As envisioned by Phantom, the fleet would attack the fortress and distract the defenders, while two thousand elites struck from the inside, taking down the Watchers’ defense in a raging wave.

Gor, who commanded the strike raid, immediately started recording a video from within the castle, filming everything happening inside. Phantom watched the broadcast in a separate window — understanding the attack’s progression was important to him.

Impenetrable darkness gave way to a grey slate as the operator changed states, trying to discern something with Darkvision or Shadow Sight but to no avail: it was only a rippling haze, blurry silhouettes scurrying through it. The attempts to use Search failed as well. The seeker’s skill showed a fuzzy picture full of bright light, like a light-struck photo. Phantom squinted, unbelieving. Those bastards had used top-class protection — a similar effect had only been observed in “true” temples and shrines visited by gods themselves. Odd. Very odd. Even Pandorum didn’t have such artifacts. An unclear suspicion stirred in his mind, but the alliance leader angrily pushed it away. Sphere was full of strange things!

Gor: Check! Has everyone changed gear? Respawn on command and scatter — melee first, then mages and archers. AOE on cooldown, after the enemy’s detected, assist me. Are you ready? One, two, three!

 

The flickering of grey shadows gave way to chaotic blurred movements illuminated by flashing lights. The voices on the channel screamed out like a thousand cats, the horrible cacophony drowning out the sounds of battle. Phantom knew that right at that moment, two thousand of his soldiers were rapidly resurrecting and attacking, spreading around the resp point in waves.

And something had already gone wrong. On top of blinding darkness, the resp point was surrounded by a strange barrier. Blazing blue missiles flew along elaborate unpredictable trajectories, buzzing like hornets. They spun around the circle so quickly that dodging them was impossible. Effortlessly, as if meeting no resistance, they ran through the reviving players, sending them back to the resp point in droves. Powerful gear, high resistance values, protective buffs — nothing could help as the blue fires one-shotted everything in their path.

Phantom saw the icons in his raid light up with an alarming red color. Someone was killing his players at such speed that his eyes couldn’t follow. Those who somehow managed to overcome the flaming barrier immediately died from the blows pouring seemingly out of nowhere. In thirty seconds, Gor’s raid lost half of its troopers, never leaving the resp point.

Gor: Stop! Everyone, back! Don’t respawn! Everyone, back! I repeat, don’t respawn! To the circle!

Phantom: What’s going on?

Gor: It’s a wipe! They’re one-shotting us with true fire! There’s no way we can make it!

 

Phantom gritted his teeth. He didn’t know this defense, either. He stopped the video, rewound it, found the frame with one of the flying fires, then zoomed it.

It was a shuriken, a seven-pointed throwing star. Forged out of blue metal and swathed in fire, it gave off a furious bright light. Several seconds later, his analysts contacted him, confirming his