Nie Yan, Bladelight, Sun, and the others swept away everything in their path. They led the vanguard, closely followed by others from Asskickers United. Taking down a single arrow tower took a squad less than five minutes.
Asskickers United had come prepared. Before the players from Eternal even had a chance to do anything, they were either ambushed and killed by Thieves or blasted to smithereens by Mages.
Before long, all the arrow towers had fallen.
Most of the Eternal players were still gathered on the walls. They had no idea what was going on inside the stronghold. As the arrow towers fell to the forces of Asskickers United, their crossbows were turned on them.
"What the hell is going on? Why are our own arrow towers attacking us?"
"It's Nirvana Flame!"
"Asskickers United is already inside the stronghold!"
Mass panic erupted on the walls. The players were running around like a bunch of headless chickens. With the arrow towers firing at them, they turned into target practice dummies.
The walls only had one entrance going down. It could fit 10 people at a time. However, waiting at the bottom were the players of Asskickers United.
The Eternal players on the walls were trapped.
At this moment, the 1,000 players inside the Magic Prison Stronghold had already been wiped out. Only the 4,000 players guarding the walls remained standing. Normally, without a catapult and with the support of the arrow towers in the rear, this force could easily hold off an opposing one two to three times their size.
However, no one expected Nie Yan to employ such an odd method to bring his forces inside the Magic Prison Stronghold. It was an ambush from the inside out! All of Eternal's defenses became moot. Even their arrow towers became tools for Asskickers United to slaughter them with.
「Whoosh!」A streak of light shot out of the arrow tower and skewered four players to the wall.
"Fuck! Take back the arrow towers!"
"We can't! We're trapped on the walls!"
Another wave of bolts came falling down from the sky. The Eternal players were like wheat ready to be reaped, collapsing in droves.
Nie Yan, Sun, and the others watched over the battle from an arrow tower. After the hail of bolts, the walls which were originally filled with players became littered with piles of the dead. It looked like a rice paddy field with all the bolt shafts sticking out of the corpses.
Sun and the others were rendered speechless. This was the most one sided slaughterfest they had ever witnessed.
After three waves of bolts, of the original 4,000 players on the walls, only 1,000 survived. Another three waves later, and only a few stragglers remained standing.
The forces of Asskickers United charged the walls, sweeping through like a raging tide and killing off any and all remaining survivors.
Asskickers United took over the stronghold in a little more than 10 minutes. They faced little to no resistance at all.
"What do we do with this stronghold?" Bladelight asked. Asskickers United was based in Calore. Their influence in Kavodin was too weak. Occupying this stronghold long term simply wasn't feasible. However, if they just left like this, it would fall back into Eternal's hands.
"Since we have no use for it, let's raze it," Nie Yan said. For killing Xie Yao, he wasn't satisfied with merely slaughtering the forces in one of Eternal's strongholds. This matter wasn't settled yet.
After receiving Nie Yan's orders, Asskickers United's forces started tearing down everything. A series of explosions rang out as buried jars of black gunpowder were set off everywhere, flattening countless buildings. The whole Magic Prison Stronghold groaned loudly before collapsing into a pile of ruins.
The players from Asskickers United were still fired up. This was their most dominating performance to date. With only 109 casualties, they had killed more than 5,000 players and captured a stronghold. This battle was worthy of being recorded down in history.
"Boss, let's slaughter Eternal's main stronghold!"
"Wipe out Eternal!"
Nie Yan didn't let the victory get to his head. He felt this was enough retribution for Xie Yao's death. There was no need to completely wipe them out. Eternal's collapse benefited Asskickers United in no way. They had lost a great deal of prestige after this crushing defeat. Maintaining their status as the top dog in Kavodin was likely no longer possible. This was a fitting punishment.
Eternal was faced with two options, beg for forgiveness or ally with Alliance of Mages and Divine Protectors. By now, after going through this ordeal, the higher ups of Eternal had likely realized that alliances were unreliable. Choosing the second option would only further incite the wrath of Asskickers United, then there was nothing that could save them. If they had even a tiny bit of brain, the choice was easy to make.
"We're leaving!" Nie Yan said. He planned to see Eternal's response first.
The players from Asskickers United chanelled their Return Scrolls and teleported back to Kavodin.
People were baffled when the forces of Asskickers United suddenly reemerged in Kavodin. Little did they know that the Magic Prison Stronghold had already been transformed into a heap of rubble.
The moment Skyfire Wild Dragon, Skyfire Wing, and the others, leading a force of more than 10,000 strong, teleported over to a nearby town and were about to set off, they received word that the Magic Prison Stronghold had fallen. They stood rooted to the ground, utterly dazed. None of them expected Asskickers United to be so quick. Didn't this mean that the 5,000 players guarding the stronghold couldn't even last 20 minutes?
Eternal's forces arrived outside the Magic Prison Stronghold. The once flourishing bastion was now nothing more than broken rock and debris. The walls were collapsed and damaged beyond repair.
The Magic Prison Stronghold was no more.
None of them dared to accept the reality before their eyes. Only 20 minutes ago, this was still an intact stronghold.
Asskickerss United was like a natural disaster, sweeping through and destroying this place in a short 10 minutes.
"Asskickers United, ruthless…" Skyfire Wild Dragon took a deep breath. Right now his mind wasn't filled with anger or thoughts of revenge but rather fear and apprehension. Had Asskickers United done things the normal way, bringing a force of 20,000 and taking two to three days to siege the Magic Prison Stronghold, he wouldn't hesitate to duke it out. However, Asskickers United, with only 3,000 players, had ended the battle in a short 10 minutes. Nie Yan gave them no time to react whatsoever. One could easily imagine the outcome if Asskickers United had targeted the Keloyi Stronghold or Spirit Garrison Stronghold instead. Skyfire Wild Dragon broke out in a cold sweat.
"Asskickers United, those fucking bastards…! Let's get revenge!" Skyfire Wing's anger erupted after seeing the Magic Prison Stronghold in a state of ruin.
"Revenge? Do you want us to lose our remaining strongholds too? Do you know why Asskickers United targeted the Magic Prison Stronghold instead of the Keloyi Stronghold?" Skyfire Wild Dragon glared at Skyfire Wing.
"W-why…?"
"This is Nirvana Flame's way of warning us. If the Keloyi Stronghold were destroyed, our guild would no longer have a place in Kavodin. Asskickers United has the strength to do this, yet they only targeted one of our less important strongholds. If we still refuse to back down now and continue escalating this war, we won't be so lucky next time. Do you think we stand a chance against them?"
"Then what do we do?"
"What else can we do? We beg them for forgiveness. Nirvana Flame is waiting for us," Skyfire Wild Dragon said with a helpless expression. He really didn't want things to come down to this, but he was left with no other choice.
Before long, word of the Magic Prison Stronghold falling became public. Kavodin was in an uproar.
The players in Kavodin were wondering why Asskickers United still hadn't fought with Eternal. Could it be that they were afraid? However, suddenly news came out that the Magic Prison Stronghold had already fallen, and in the past half-hour no less!
The entire course of events was shared online. The battle only lasted 13 minutes in total. Razing a stronghold to the ground in this short amount of time was unheard of. Infiltratration, group teleportation, and a transfer gate, these three things were ingeniously combined together. This was definitely one for the history books! Of course, the strength of those 3,000 players from Asskickers United was astonishing as well.
The forums exploded with discussion. It turned out wars in Conviction could actually be fought like this!
Nie Yan made a post on the forums. It was titled, "Kill One of My Own? I'll Destroy Your Stronghold!" Below was a message to Eternal. If they didn't apologize for killing Xie Yao, Asskickers United would destroy the Keloyi Stronghold next.
This post was plastered right at the top of the forums. Everyone was waiting to see how Eternal would respond.
Would Eternal fight to the bitter end or lower their heads and apologize?
Eternal would surely lose if they continued to fight. However, they would lose a great deal of face if they apologized. This was a lose-lose situation.
At this time, Alliance of Mages and Divine Protectors started trying to pull Eternal to their side, talking about a mutual defense pact, jointly resisting Asskickers United, and so on. However, they were tactfully refused. Eternal posted a sincere apology to Asskickers United on the forums.
Skyfire Wild Dragon and the others were cowed by Nie Yan's post. If they really continued, when faced with the full might of Asskickers United, Eternal would likely be uprooted from its foundation.
After receiving Eternal's formal apology, the anger of the players from Asskickers United mollified. Since the other side had apologized and lost a stronghold, things could be called even.