Looking at their quest display the players inside the forest were absolutely shocked by the amount of death. Which had happened in these few minutes.
Currently, the NPCs left alive were at 4467/5156 while the players were only at 921/1987. Seeing this the players felt like voicing their complaints on the quests' difficulty. They felt it was unfair that the first story quest was this difficult, with half of those who had joined it already dead.
"How the hell is this a starting quest?" A random player, hiding behind a tree complained.
"I know right, the fuck is up with this death trap?" Another player, who was lying on the ground agreed.
"Goddam NPCs tricked us." A different player added as he stood up from his sitting position.
"Yeah, we'll get back at them later." The first player said, raising his voice as he spoke.
"Yeah! Just they wait, when we grow stronger. We will then kill them all." The third added, shaking his fists around.
"Are you insane?" A fourth player asked when he heard the others.
"What, why? Why not kill them?" The third player asked as he turned around to look at the player who called him insane. He had an ugly smirk on his face when he saw the player falling silent.
"Shut up idiots!" A female player shouted as she heard them just babbling on about nonsense, when they were all in such a dire situation. But it was too late. Or rather her shout was the final nail in the coffin.
The beasts had heard the argument. Realizing that there were humans in the forest. The beasts in the marsh field had been trying to run into the forest, looking for cover from the arrows being loosed by the archers. But now they let loose a howl informing their brethren that there was another force of humans.
Seemingly wanting to ambush them.
Following the howl more beasts, who were currently no fighting, split off from the rest and charged into the forest.
"Fuck!" The female shouted as she saw the beasts rushing to them. She knew she was also at fault, but the players had irritated her so much. Causing her to accidentally shout instead of softly and sternly telling them off.
"Nooo!" A player screamed as he saw the beast rushing them. Others started running around randomly, hoping the beasts would target someone else while they could then run further away.
"Group up!" The female shouted, trying to inspire and organize the players. It was their only hope for not all dying. If they could form a formation between a few trees. Then they might just be able to take down a few beasts with them. Maybe someone would save them if they could hold out long enough.
No one headed her shout, everyone was only thinking of themselves. Not caring in the least about the other players.
While a wolfbeast was small, the players had seen how deadly they were. Agile, graceful killers were an apt name for these small monsters.
The beasts soon started another slaughter as they rushed into the woods. This time they were not being killed as they killed, seeing as the trees prevented the archers from hitting them. Many beasts followed their brethren into the forest when they saw this. They too wanted to enjoy the thrill of an easy kill.
When Carl saw that the beasts had abandoned the marshland, heading into the forest to hunt the players in there he had shouted, "Mages get ready!"
"Remember, use your strongest fire spells!" He said after he determined that a good number of beasts had split apart to kill the players in the forest.
After he shouted this, he started creating a mental image for his spell. Soon a simple fireball appeared between his hands, he had struck his staff into the ground as he was using a complex spell. Which meant he needed more control, and his staff did not offer this. His staff was meant for simple and quick spells, as it could increase their strength by a large amount. But for the stronger spells, the staff could do nothing.
A few seconds later many fireballs were sent into the forest, each exploding like a firework. This did not happen in an orderly manner. Some mages were still casting their spells, while others had long since sent theirs. Over time different spells started flying to the forest. Flaming birds, whips of fire or even lighting bolts were sent into the forest as soon as the mage casting it finished his channeling.
Carl's spell by now resembled the sun much more than a fireball. The ball was so bright that most people had to avert their eyes. The NPCs near him had to take a few steps back as they felt their skin being burnt by the ball of flame Carl was holding.
Carl felt his clothes heating up, but he kept the miniature sun between his hands. Until he absolutely had to release it. Finally, he believed his enchanted robe was about to catch fire, thus he let it loose.
A ball of blue light was thus released into the forest. It was no bigger than a soccer ball, but everyone who saw it was blinded for the next couple of seconds.
This small ball flew so fast that a cracking sound was heard as it sped away. Soon more such sounds followed as it broke through the trees in its way. Reaching the center of the forest in less than half a second.
The ball exploded as it hit the ground, sending a massive blue-flamed shock wave through the forest. Toppling trees as it spread. This shock wave moved without breaking apart for around 20 meters, after which it finally started becoming weaker. In the end, an entire radius of more than 30 meters was left scorched.
With this, the entire forest was basically set on fire. The center burning in blue flames, while further out the flames appeared more normal. Hundreds of wolfbeasts were killed by this combination attack from the mages.
Most players inside the forest had died from these series of explosions and blazing flames. Those left alive were at the outskirts of the forest, now lying on the ground. Paralyzed in surprise and fear.
These players were in a conundrum. Where if they moved the beasts would kill them. While if they did not, then the fire will get at them.
They soon committed suicide by asking the system to die. As neither of the options sounded pleasant to them. They believed there was no way they would manage to survive until the quest was completed. Thus they would rather take the more comfortable death, seeing as they did have a choice in how they would die.
By now the beasts were all forced to abandon the idea of surrounding the army. As the backside of the formation had claimed close to a fifth of the pack by now. The beasts collectively feared another trap would be lain there, waiting for them to attempt going around again.
The players who had abandoned the quest and simply run, swallowed hard as they saw that all the other players had died. They started wondering if they had made the right choice.
They all had a single thought going through their minds. Clearly, this quest was too difficult for them to complete. Far too difficult, such that they should have never tried.
At this time the soldiers holding the line starting having a hard time. This pack was still far bigger than the one they had first gone after. While the other pack was only around 3000 beasts, this pack seemed to have over 5000. More resembling a horde than a pack.
But none of the soldiers wavered, as they knew giving up meant certain death. They stayed in formation and fought, knowing they would most likely die. But in doing so, some of their friends might live.
Following their training, the front soldiers managed to hold the line. With the archers helping and the success of the two traps, the soldiers even found hope. If nothing went wrong, then they would certainly defeat this pack. It was not uncertain anymore.
If they managed to finish the pack soon enough, then many of them could be revived. So they fought on knowing the cost would be dire, but hope still alive.
Saving an entire town. With this thought they fought on, reminding themselves of the reason for fighting when they started wavering.
The manner of fighting had turned far more desperate than at the start. The soldier at the front would try to just survive. The only task for this soldier was to survive and keep the beast in front of him from going past him.
During this time those soldiers behind him will wait for an opportunity to attack the beast, forcing it to back down or killing it as it tried to kill the soldier in front of them. This did not always work out, but this was the idea of the fighting soldiers. Slowly dying and killing, trying to make the dying part slower than killing.
At the same time, the backline of archers focused on killing beasts who were about to kill a fellow soldier. While those at the front shot over the line, as they did not have a clear view of the beasts, due to standing on the ramp and not the top of the wall.
As this continued the beasts' numbers seemed to dwindle a little faster than the soldiers. But a few places in the formation seemed to be under heavy pressure. The opposite of the soldiers' plan happening in these places. With them dying faster than they killed.
The mages were all resting at this time. They had used most or all of their mana to ensure that the formation's back would be safe. While also having killed a large amount of the pack in the process.
To ensure no beasts sneaked around the formation, a few archers were watching in certain directions. With a sizable portion of them facing the forest. They would shoot single beasts quickly as the beast attempted a path different from the formation's front. When a group of beasts wanted to try this, the lookout archers would inform those around them. Together easily killing the beasts who were slowed by the marshland.
This also enforced the beasts' idea of not attempting to flank the soldiers. For the beasts, not getting a kill and dying was far worse than dying while killing someone. If they forced the issue they might have easily managed to flank the soldiers after some initial sacrifice. Since a path made out of bodies was easier to traverse than the marshland.
'It worked really well.' William thought as he prepared his spell. 'I can't believe how easy it was to manipulate the beasts, as well as the Chosen. Well except for a few.' He thought as he looked at the, just over a hundred Chosen, who were inside the formation. Standing and waiting, not really doing anything.
'I hope they will help when we need it. And not do anything while it is still going well.' William thought as he turned his focus back to the fight.
If the Chosen tried to help, they would instead just cause problems. This was because they had never worked with the soldiers. They did not know what should be focused on. But if a place was broken through, then William hoped they would buy time for the soldiers to get it back under control.
William was aiming his spell for a darker group inside the pack. This group was certainly direwolves and added onto this, there was an alpha and many, many betas in this group. In fact, there were around six such groups spread throughout the pack. He was currently aiming for the biggest one.
While his spell took long to cast, it was devastating when finally finished. Up until now, he had not cast a single spell.
This was not because he could not use lesser spells, but rather that he had to focus on the major threats. Trusting the soldiers to hold out until those threats had been handled.
His waiting had paid off as he felt certain this group was special. The group was far bigger than the others, while there were at least twice as many betas with this alpha. From what he had observed, it seemed that this alpha was intelligent. Controlling the pack via howls, making them focus on specific areas as the fight continued.
He and Old Sword had thought such a situation might appear, thus for this purpose, he was to remain on the lookout. Only using this specific spell after he had confirmed that the target was the pack leader.