Shadow used cheap shot, struck his weapon in the bandit's face and he pulled it away from the gun. After that Roll immediately took the gun and continued to turn it in the direction of the other bandits. As soon as they attacked the commotion had been noticed by the other bandits nearby and they sounded out the alarm.
The other two gun were also reached by two other pairs of players. Mob and Bitter Beast were in a team. Mob summoned a spirit wolf before he took the gone and started to turn it around as the spirit wolf and Bitter Beast stood in guard.
The other pair also got to their gun and started operating it. The bandits were started coming out and began to fire at them. With half the turning already done before by the bandit, Roll was the first who managed to turn the gun turret around and began firing at the bandits. He left the bandit who was previously manning the gun to the other four who came along with him.
With Shadow and the other three attacking a single bandit, it died within a few seconds and the other two took immediately took over the gun from Roll. With the three mounted guns in the hands of the team, the first part of the plan was done.
Shadow had two more things to take care of. He first contacted Slaine who reported that with the three guns in their hands, they had a good advantage over bandits. Though the bandits started pouring out from their tents, a single one of the bolts from the guns which were the size of a harpoon were enough to fell more than one bandit, if they were in line. The bolts cause blowback, cripple and bleed effects on which ever bandit they fell on. The power of the guns was clear for everyone to see.
With the situation seemingly better for the ones that manned the guns, Shadow asked Roll to get to the other guns which were away while he had a look in the lake. He quickly put the goggles that he received from the merman prince and jumped in to take a peek at the situation underwater.
There were no bandits that he could see. His vision just under the water surface even without the goggles had a range of about 15 meters horizontally and 5 meters deep. With the goggles his vision improved by about 20 metres magically in all directions. It was enough for him to be monitor the entire regions.
"Get into the lake," he said to Grenadier as he put his head out and removed the goggles. He decided it is best to allow Grenadier to directly monitor the area. So, he handed the goggles to Grenadier.
"Don't lose or miss them. Though they are of low level, I don't have any other tool of that small size that allows me to breath underwater," he said as he put the goggle in Grenadiers hand. "Keep a look out from here. If they appear at a distance, use the frost bolts to lure them and then when a decent number come use the Wintertide skill. It is best if you could freeze a few with that skill of yours," he said as he began to move out of the lake.
"I can't handle them all. I am not good at close combat," said Grenadier frantically as he saw that Shadow was leaving him behind in the lake.
"Dude, chill out. Use frost-based skills. Their freezing effect is better when the target is in water and that slows them down. Apart from that, the bandits are already slow in water and none are even visible. So, I doubt anyone would even come close to you before I return," said Shadow as he ran towards the other mounted gun.
Roll was also halfway towards his target. They couldn't target two mounted guns as they are not close to the warehouses which they intended to take over, first. These two were quite far away and they didn't have the manpower to properly man two more mounted guns.
Apart from that, these two were at quite a distance, but Shadow had seen the guns operating beforehand and knew that these two could be used to attack two of the mounted guns claimed by them. All mounted guns couldn't be moved except for changing their direction. The bases of the mounts were firmly affixed in the ground. So, the only option that Shadow could suggest was to disrupt the system that helped change the direction of the gun that was mounted.
Roll managed to reach the mounted gun close to him first. With the commotion being made by the three mounted guns which his teammates were firing at the bandits, the entire attention was towards them.
Shadow had already informed him that the best way would be to wast a grenade. A tap wheel like lever is there on the mount which when rotated loosens the gun allowing one to rotate it in 360 degrees. Once, one is decided on the direction, he could tighten it back up. It would still allow the gun to be moved vertically. Shadow's suggestion was to turn the gun in the opposite direction and just blow the lever off with a dynamite.
As he reached the gun, Rolls immediately set to work and managed to rotate the gun in the opposite direction with ease because he had seen a bandit operate it before. After that he couldn't find out where to stick the dynamite in the mount.
"Dude, I don't know where to stick the dynamite in," he messaged Shadow.
"The lever which you rotate. Just tighten it back and put it on it. Balance the thing on the lever if you like," said Shadow who had just reached his own target.
"Don't stay there too long. There is a good chance that the bandits would come to the gun, if they notice you," he warned in another message as he started to work on his own target. He had suggested the assassin players to do this as they would be the fastest in the team. But he was worried that if they weren't fast enough in disabling the gun mount, there is a good chance that bandits might reach them and then they would be the reason for directing the bandits to those mounted guns.
He had similar experience with larger weapons in his previous life and quickly setup a dynamite to break the lever of the gun mount. He checked if the gun mount was really stuck by trying to push and kick it in other directions before, he made his way back to Grenadier.
Though he asked Grenadier to handle the bandits and that it was easier to hold them back, he knew that he was sugarcoating the situation. Water or any other fluid would distort the distances that one sees an opponent at. Underwater, an object is usually three-quarters the distance that it is actually at. For close combat, it isn't that much of an issue, but for mages who used their spells from a distance, one has a good chance of missing their targets.
Shadow knew that though it is hard to get used to the life like feeling of the game, many would find it much harder to fight underwater, especially the classes which attack from a distance. It would be especially hard for mages to hit their targets.
He was sure that by now, Grenadier Mage had seen some bandits coming towards him in the water and he was much surer that he would have missed a few shots and riled up because of that. As Shadow was running towards him, he saw a section of the pool suddenly getting frozen. It was clear that it was the effect of using wintertide in water.
"Wintertide? I didn't think that they were that close to him," thought Shadow as soon as he looked at the lake.
"Roll, are you done with the gun?" he messaged Roll.
"Done. I screwed up the first time. Got it correctly after that. Just done checking it," he replied.
"OK. Get to Grenadier's location. I think he is going to need some support," said Shadow.
As he reached the location, he dived into the water and saw that there were five bandits stuck in the frozen chunk of water created by the use of Wintertide skill. Grenadier Mage was using the Frost Bolt skill at the other bandits in an attempt to stop them down. He was able to get better shots as they were closer to him.
"What is the status at the guns?" he messaged Slaine.
"Lot of bandits. But the guns are quite helpful. A couple of healing potions were taken, but under control. I guess, it is a bit better than I expected. The dead bandits here number in hundreds. Good thing. Roll and you got a good view on how to operate it and took the bandit down before they started coming in such numbers. Now they are moving around the camp, they went away from te location actually," he replied in the team chat.
Slaine thought it best to put the situation in the team chat as the bandits that were running towards them stopped their advance and were circling around the lake away from the location with the three guns. They would have seemed to be running away and just hiding behind the tents, if Slaine didn't notice them take a detour to escape the area. Though they had guns which are very effective, the bolts aren't unlimited and he wanted them to stop shooting. So, he warned in the taem chat.
"Might be a chance that they are regrouping and come back in larger numbers. I am sure that a big bandit camp like this has more warehouses and probably similar mounted guns that they could move around," said Shadow. "Start to try and break the warehouse door. With the gun and dynamites, it would quick." he continued as he swam towards Grenadier in the pool.
"Wow. You are faring better than I expected," said Shadow as he reached Grenadier Mage. "The bandits at the top moved back. So, more might come through the lake or they might take more time and come in greater numbers. Either way, you get out the pool and cover from the ground."
"No. I am just getting the hang of this. It is hard to get practice underwater and I just am able to do it properly," said Grenadier Mage.
"Dude, I asked you to do it because frost spells are great at slowing down. I know that you are able to shoot now as they are closer than before but once, they come close enough to initiate a physical fight, you lose. Don't forget, mages need to keep a certain distance when facing large numbers," said Shadow.
It was common thing for Shadow to occasionally train a few promising candidates at the workshop in his past life. In situations new to the player, most tend to get a bit over excited and they move closer to the opponents to get a better shot, especially since better shot at a vital point causes more damage and effects on the monster. So, he had a habit of repeating a few dialogues as he had to monitor them.
"Yeah, I know but I would hardly get another chance. Give me a few seconds," said Grenadier. "By the way. You have been playing games before? I thought you to be some real-life expert who doesn't have experience with gaming."
"You honestly want practice, give me my goggles and get above ground. It is harder to hit underwater targets from the top," said Shadow holding his hand out. "Let me take them out, I am faster and it will be simpler. Just want you up in case they need help, it is the best position for you to be most effective," replied Shadow trying to avoid talk about the question about gaming that he was asked.
"You played a lot of games before?" asked Grenadier again. Merlin and the others wanted to know as much about him as possible, even though they didn't make it obvious. So, they at least wanted to get as much insights into his real-life as they could. But that was the thing which Balthazar wanted to avoid.
"College. Long time," he replied in a tart manner taking the goggles off Grenadier. "And I have been friends with enough shooters and snipers to know that it is always better and easier to maintain distance."
"Hmm. Well good thing is that you have at least a good knowledge on how to play??" he asked in slightly low voice that was almost inaudible.
"Yes. I can play these games and was always good at them," said Shadow as he felt it slightly wounding to his pride. "I just had to go into the other field due to some personal reasons. Else, I would have made a pretty good player," he said wading towards a bandit who had come close.