"To your posts! Quickly!"
Hundreds of feet could be heard shuffling about the floor as the commander and his officers took control of the situation.
The cannons were readied under the control of the soldiers with their glistening square-shaped mouths facing outside.
Countless ranged fighters consisting of rangers and mages were stationed all around the wall from both the army and the mercenary association.
The remaining thousands of melee warriors were gathered on the wide main street that led to the gate while a few hundred were scattered amongst the formation on the walls to serve as protection.
And under the stress from the signal, the countless array masters from the mage's association were hurriedly drawing out shapes with various materials atop the space cleared out for them on the wide battlements.
With Sacha's permission, Roxanne and Baluu were allowed to stay around with them and were not redeployed somewhere else. The commander had even called for more people to be sent to their location for protection and Rastel enjoyed the feeling of having connections with a big shot for the first time in his life.
In this life, the only thing with a stronger influence than connections was the almighty power of money!
As soon as the elven array master was done with his work, he quickly jumped aside and handed Rastel and cylindrical shaped token made out of a material he didn't recognize.
All he knew was that the material looked like glass but was colored a dark blue so it was opaque. It was also very smooth to the touch even though the texture it had gave off a rough-looking vibe.
On the rod-shaped token, countless inscriptions seemed to have been drawn into the body of the rod which drew Rastel's curiosity.
'What do these inscriptions mean? I really wish I could study them a bit, this guy wouldn't mind teaching me right?' he looked at the inscriptions with fiery eyes.
"This is the array core. With this, you would have full control over the power of the array and access to the abilities that the array members gift you. This array core is made with a high-grade mana crystal so it should last quite a while and can unleash a few powerful attacks before getting drained." The white-haired elf explained quickly.
Rastel really had no idea about what he was talking about but just nodded. The abilities of an array sounded mystical in his eyes and he was eager to try it out and see the effects.
"Where are the members of your array?" The array master suddenly asked.
"What?" Rastel was lost.
The array master was confused and looked at him skeptically. Did the archmage bring some newbie here to control an array?
"Don't worry about it, mage. You can be on your way now." Sacha who was looking on from the side suddenly spoke up.
The array master was still doubtful but he was happy to leave. He didn't want to risk his life on the battlefront anyway.
Watching the elf leave in a hurry, Rastel turned his eyes back on the array core then looked at the diagram on the ground that the array master had spent time meticulously drawing.
The diagram had a large concentric circle as the core that was fused with five other similar but smaller circles in a hard to describe manner.
The five smaller circles surrounded the larger one and they were filled with countless inscriptions that connected them to the core of the large circle which was filled with inscriptions of its own.
Looking at the complicated diagram, Rastel already had an idea of what he was to do.
"You will need a total of five people to use the full capabilities of the array. It would be best to use people with powerful skills." Sacha suddenly spoke up by the side.
This grandmaster had just been silently observing all this time. As one of the highest combat ability on their side, he only had to wait until a threat that the town's defenses couldn't resolve appeared. So he decided to watch this summoned that had caught his interest instead.
Looking at the array on the floor, Rastel turned to look at Roxanne who was fiddling with her long shotgun.
"Hey, Roxy."
"Hmm?" she answered without looking up.
"Array." He said simply.
"Hmm…" she nodded
That was done.
He turned to Vars who promptly took a position on one of the circles immediately he agreed. he seemed eager to fight for some reason.
Baluu declined which made Rastel confused. But he gave his reason soon enough.
"I don't really have any skills that would be useful to you." He said with a low chuckle as he hefted his large club.
"All I know how to do is to hit things and to hit things hard."
Rastel was helpless at the situation as that was the truth, Baluu wouldn't contribute anything to the array.
He looked at the two empty circles that were still not filled helplessly. Who could he use to fill that space now?
A sudden shuffle of feet brought him out of his thoughts and he saw a group of people coming over. These were the people sent by the commander to come and protect them in case of danger.
Although the walls of Eadon were high, there were numerous beasts so it stands to reason that there would be some capable of flight or with outstanding climbing abilities.
These warriors were there to protect them in such cases so that the arrays, cannons, and ranged fighters could deal as much damage as possible without fear of being mauled to death by an unexpected attack.
Looking at the group, there were ten of them which was already way too much.
VIP treatment.
But to Rastel's surprise, he recognized a few of them.
There was the ice elementalist Erik, the tiger beastman Redbone, the loli assassin Black Raven and the foolish-looking cleric called Whitesoul.
They were also surprised…... to see Vars. They hadn't seen Rastel's face before and couldn't recognize him. They eagerly went up to greet Vars to create a connection. Vars only grunted in response and didn't pay any attention to them.
Seeing the opportunity, Rastel dragged Vars away and whispered a few things in his ear. Afterward, he stood by the side while he watched Vars recruit Erik, Redbone, and Whitesoul right away.
As the leaders of their teams, Erik and Redbone were sure to be powerful and Erik's abilities as an elementalist were sure to be useful. Whitesoul was a cleric and he seemed decent so he naturally chose him over Black Raven who was an assassin.
This was going to be a frontal battle and so evasive abilities were useless. He would rather have someone who could block attacks and heal them.
Seeing Vars getting called over by the green-eyed muan and then coming over to recruit them immediately after made the players feel a sense of déjà vu.
Why does this feel so familiar?
Erik and Redbone were smart and after connecting one and two, guessed that Rastel was probably the cloaked player that was with Vars previously.
Now looking at him, they felt a sense of jealousy rise up within them.
'This guy already has connections high up that even listen to his suggestions. And he is even a low leveled noob! What have all my efforts been for? How unfair! How infuriating!'
Cursing silently in their hearts, they agreed to take a place in the array. Although they were jealous, they were also eager to take part in an array. This was a new experience for them too.
Whitesoul on the other hand was grinning stupidly to himself. He was just happy to partake and didn't think so much.
Rastel looked at these strong players and nodded in satisfaction. With these people around, he was sure he could use the array to do some damage.
But as he was turning around, his eyes matched that of Black Raven who seemed to be looking at him with malice in her eyes.
'What is up with this one?' he thought as he nervously looked away.
He glanced at her a few more times through the side of his eye and found out she was still glaring at him.
'What did I do to you!?' he screamed in his mind.
He didn't know that at this time, Black Raven was actually nursing a grudge at him for not picking her for the array.
'Everyone else got called over except me!' she thought as she glared at him furiously.
At this point, Roxanne was done adjusting her weapon from the side and stood up while hefting the elegant machine on her shoulder.
She walked over and casually stood in a spot left for her right beside Rastel and started chatting with him.
"Holy shit! Is that Roxanne!? The legendary one hit-one kill!?" Redbone suddenly cursed under his breath as he saw Roxanne with her steampunk styled dressing of high heeled black leather shoes and jacket.
The others were also surprised to see her and Erik had a particularly thoughtful look on his face after the initial shock.
Rastel's long ears twitched and then he turned to look at Roxanne with a strange face.
"They call you one hit-one kill? How amazing are you actually?" he asked in surprise.
"You really don't know this young miss? You really have your head in the clouds don't you?" she laughed melodically.
"So you really are someone amazing?"
"Of course I am! I am a ranker, don't you know?"
"How high?"
"Heh… number 36."
"Ah....." Rastel was stunned!
He looked at Roxanne all over a few times as she stood with a smug smile on her face.
Anybody ranked in the top fifty range was a legendary character. This was a real bigshot!
'She probably has a few shows and video channels dedicated to her.' A strange thought passed through his mind and he made a mental note to stal- Cough! Cough! ahem! Research about her when he had the time.
"So would you call me super expert miss now?"
"And again, what does that even mean!?"
Their discussion was halted by a loud shout from the officer in charge of their section.
"All cannons, charge up and ready to fire! Archers, draw your bows! Mages, prepare your spells! Array heads, start up the arrays!"
BOOM!!!
Large bursts of energy erupted all around as numerous arrays were activated, lighting up their surroundings. Rastel turned to look around and the sight of the activated arrays had his eyes shining!
Numerous large 6-meter tall avatars formed from swirling mana appeared on top of the walls with domineering auras. Each avatar was a representation of the array head in each array with different people ranging from mages to rangers and a few warriors in between.
"Holy shit, that looks cool." Rastel muttered under his breath.
"What are you waiting for? Let's join the party." Roxanne urged him from the side.
With a nod of his head, Rastel looked at the array core in his hand and activated it.
BOOM!
A large burst of mana filled him up and the circles under their feet glowed with bright light. The mana was then projected outward, growing taller, and quickly took shape.
Soon, another avatar appeared on the walls above Eadon. The sharp ears, playful tail, and long robe were distinct among the remaining avatars.
Rastel looked up at the large avatar that was staring out as he felt the power coursing through his body.
And smiled.