Evil Mook: Crap! We’re already thirty percent down...no, fifty!
Komtur: We need to distract them from the castle!
Apparently, our raid leaders were having a hysterical fit, as they kept snapping, their voices full of emotion. I could understand them a bit — the juggernauts’ onslaught had instantly halved the castle’s durability. Under the attack, the citadel started rapidly disintegrating: stones crumbled where the beams hit, huge boulders fell off, clattering on the ground, and a thick shower of debris poured over the defenders’ heads.
Evil Mook: ATTENTION! EVERYONE! ALL RAIDS! Attack the juggernauts! Primary target is Shockdown! Everyone, [censored] everyone, attack Shockdown!
A wave of flying riders rose from the walls of Dark in a suicidal attempt to rush the Pandorum superships, distract their crews, and force them to stop focusing fire on the citadel. Everyone went on the offensive: players, pawns, NPC mercenaries who had previously manned the walls. It was clear that if juggernauts kept firing, soon there would be nothing left to defend. The depleted raid groups came in from all directions, desperately trying to break through the lines of the astral ships hurriedly changing formation and reach the juggernauts.
It was a gruesome, furious, messy scuffle as arrows and darts shrieked in the air and multicolored rays of Pikes and Thunderstrikes glimmered in the air among clouds of smoke, exploding spells, and the savage roar of dragons mixed with the squealing of dying birdies. Raid leaders yelled on Courier, demanding the impossible. For me, the battle ended quickly: once again, I was killed half-way. It meant only one thing: HotCat had been added to the list of priority targets, his every movement tracked by special target callers who immediately marked him for focused fire as soon as he was within reach. Being so dreaded was a mark of honor, of course, but I honestly would have preferred to stay obscure.
Komtur: It’s useless. They’re targeting all RLs on the list, Mook! There’s a rat somewhere...
Evil Mook: Again! Try again! The castle has a minute left to live...
As I ran from the resp point once again, I regretted giving the Maiden amulet to Mook. The raid leader was soaring somewhere high, watching the battle from under a Veil. It was important for him to watch everything from a safe place, of course — all known raid leaders were always high on the kill priority list — but I could really use the Veil!
The warriors of the third group, to which I was formally attached, got lost somewhere in the madness of the final desperate attack. Scarlet rays coming from the juggernauts continued shredding the stone of the castle keep. A powerful vibration ran through the fortress, and it trembled like a cornered beast. Just a little more, and it would fall. The Pandas didn’t even want to capture the castle — they wanted to destroy it for good.
Shadow Step! I wasn’t following the plan, but it was my last chance — reach the Pandorum ships through the Shadow Plane and use Blazing Warrior to destroy the juggernaut’s shield.
Shadow Transformation once again granted me two spectral wings. I shot up, found the massive bulk of Shockdown between the gray-black shadows, and rushed toward it. Flying through the Shadow was incredibly fast, and in a few seconds, I left behind the silhouettes of players, birdies, and ships. There it was, Pandorum’s flagship, a colossal vessel shielded by a glowing protective dome. I saw its deck the size of a football field and the lines of players standing there, seemingly frozen. I thought I even spied Phantom on the captain’s bridge, tall and gaunt...
The last thing I caught with the corner of my eye were two dark silhouettes to the right: winged shadows I didn’t get the chance to study. Just like me, they were in the Shadow Plane and could see everything happening there. It would be stupid to expect Pandorum not to post their own shadow users to defend the ships from an attack like that. I had already revealed my abilities at Atrocity and later in the Hole, and the Pandas never made the same mistake twice.
A blinding flash threw me back into the material plane. I was flying through the air, falling into the dark abyss past the fighting battleships and the four juggernauts that crossed their cannon beams on the castle. The raging surface of the sea loomed closer, black fanged cliffs sticking out of it. But they didn’t even let me crash down, focusing on me again and shooting me in freefall.
Hello, resp point! Long time, no see. Once again, I dashed out of the long corridor leading to the walls, trying to outrun other players. I ran upstairs...and realized that it was all over. The battle was lost. Scarlet beams of the Colossus cannons that kept drilling the main spire of Castle Dark emitted a bright light. Unable to withstand the pressure, the keep exploded, crashing down in a burst of fragments. In a cloud of smoke and ash, enormous stone boulders flew right at us, and I automatically closed my eyes, preparing for another death.
Interlude: Cey-Rus
IT WAS THE DEAD OF NIGHT, and stars glimmered in the skies like sparking prickles. This place had always been barren, hidden between the majestic ridges of the Northern Belt and the drax-infested ravines. A black hole of a cave gaped on the ledge beneath a precipice. This place was absolutely unapproachable — you’d never find it if you didn’t know where to look. Recently, one player had gotten lucky — or unlucky — and found his way inside. After that, many wandered through the mountains in search of that cave but to no avail. No wonder, as it appeared and disappeared in different parts of the mountain range, never staying for more than thirty minutes: a dynamic event with fluctuating coordinates you could only stumble into by chance.
Yet someone managed to find the cave
