Exile floated above the walls of Valheim as he stared out at the forest. Two days had passed since he created the Firefly spell. In that time, he created a few others and achieved the creation of a runestone. Exile glanced at the players far below him grouping up in battle formations.
Mikari had set up a battle plan that saw the Skardian Pantheons bringing the fight to Nar’Kozz. Exile nodded to himself as the first group exited Valheim’s gate and advanced toward the forest. ‘I guess it’s my turn.’ He thought as he controlled his levitation rune to take him to a spot halfway between Valheim and the forest.
‘According to Mikari, the Deep Stalkers should attack when our people reach this area.’ Exile removed several of his new runestones from his inventory before planting them in a large square area on the ground.
He caught sight of movement in the trees as his eyes narrowed. ‘Scouts. It won’t be long til Mikari’s prediction comes true.’ Exile turned his head toward Valheim to watch the divine army as it marched toward his location. ‘I just hope the other team finds what we’re looking for.’
Exile’s eyes went to the north, but he was unable to see anything. As he floated back into the sky, he heard the familiar screeching of the Dark Stalkers. ‘Here they come.’ Exile showed a solemn expression as those hideous creatures flooded out of the forest while sounding ecstatic.
The players beneath him roared as the first wave of players rushed to meet their enemies. Exile watched as they crossed the line of the rear end of the square he had set up. Suddenly, the Deep Stalkers crashed on a black barrier that appeared, connected by the frontal runestones he had planted.
Black tendrils came out of that barrier to entangle the Stalkers and force them to hold still. Then, the first wave of players unleashed mighty spells on their helpless foes. Utter devastation was immediately unleashed on the battlefield as spells exploded everywhere.
‘Mikari was smart to do this. All our heavy hitters with spells are using my runestones as a makeshift bunker to protect themselves in the field. Meanwhile, our close combat specialists are free to cross the barrier and slaughter the trapped Stalkers.’
‘I’d better set up the other points now.’ Exile flew off to the left and right to set up more of those Dark Bunkers for the next wave of players. Once he was happy with them, he flew to the rear of the army and set up more points to be used if they had to retreat.
‘Ok, now the funnels.’ As the battle raged on, Exile flew over the Stalker army dropping runestones that would create barriers to force the enemy into a funnel formation. This prevented them from using their superior numbers to surround the bunkers so the players could freely focus on what was in front of them.
‘Everything’s going to plan so far.’ Exile hummed as he turned toward the area at the rear being used as a temporary command post. He flew down to join Mikari, and the other leaders gathered there.
“That’s quite impressive,” Noslin said as she stared at the dark bunkers and barriers. “You’ve managed to turn a completely empty area into a fortress with little time.”
“Remember, this is only the first part,” Mikari replied as he watched for the signals from the front lines that would alert him to changes in the enemy’s behaviour. “Noslin, you’re up now. You know the plan.”
“Right,” Noslin sighed as she nodded to the group of players waiting next to the command centre. “We’ll be sure to cause hell.”
Exile smiled at her as he watched her cheerfully lead her group to the right side of their army. It took a few minutes for them to reach a spot where two barriers formed an arrow shape to funnel the enemy toward two separate dark bunkers. Moments later, a tower of ice rose from that spot carrying Noslin’s team into the air.
“That’s the first sniper tower set up.” Mikari nodded as he watched a small barrage of spells fly out from the tip of that tower. “Ok, let’s set up the ones.” 𝑜𝑣𝘭.𝘯𝑡
Mikari nodded to the other leaders in charge of setting up more defensive structures with their authorities. Exile could only wait while Mikari continued to bark out orders to control the flow of battle. His time would come if the flying Stalkers made their appearance. Until then, he was best used to advance their position whenever they whittled down the enemy numbers.
‘The reports are all positive. There have been no casualties because of these methods.’ Exile’s eyes narrowed as earthen walls formed a twin tower fortress with bridges between them, connecting two of the dark barricades. Other structures slowly appeared as the players used his dark bunkers to protect them while they prepared for them to eventually run out of power.
By the time his dark barriers collapsed, a fortress made of ice and stone stood on the field between Valheim and the forest. Mikari had given the leaders of each group in charge of its construction specific instructions. The whole thing was designed to be a death trap for any Stalkers that entered its area.
Spells and arrows flew out of the many empty windows facing outward while the close combat players met the Stalkers in battle in narrow corridors. ‘This is where we’ll take some casualties now.’ Exile grimaced as he watched a player misplace their footing and fall from one of the towers.
The Deep Stalkers far outnumbered the players on the field, but Mikari was waiting for something. He suddenly fired a golden arrow into the air as he studied how many of the Stalkers were left outside of the fortress.
Exile cocked an eyebrow as giant ramps appeared in various locations along the top of the fortress that led away from the forest. Players streamed down those ramps placed at the highest points as loud bangs sounded from within the structure.
“That’s the internal walls forming to trap the Stalkers and delay them as our people retreat,” Mikari said as he chuckled. “You’ll appreciate the next bit.”
Exile looked from his brother to that giant structure as the number of players on the ramps dwindled. They reformed their groups inside the fallback squares he had set up earlier. ‘What did you plan, Mikari?’ The first Stalkers started to appear at the highest points as Mikari fired another golden arrow into the air.
BOOM!
Exile’s eyes went wide as familiar flames burst out of the holes all over that structure as the Stalkers trapped inside screeched in terror! ‘Are those my failed runestones I gave Midas to sell?’ That was when he noticed several doors opening in the external walls at the base as another team of players fled the deathtrap fortress.
‘I see, it’s not just my runestones, but players with high-damage spells as well. Mikari must have designed it to make the most out of using all those things together to inflict the most damage.’ Exile chuckled in awe at his brother’s plan.
The walls began to crumble and trap the Stalkers that managed to survive. Noslin’s team fired off precise powerful spells whenever one of those creatures reared their ugly head from the rubble. It seemed to Exile that Mikari intended for every Stalker that got caught in his trap to die.
Exile looked beyond the devastation to the smaller groups of Stalkers that had remained outside of the structure. ‘It seems like they’re hesitating.’ Exile frowned as he watched those beasts turn and retreat back into the forest.
“Good, Phase One is complete. We can advance into the forest now and set up the next point. Do you remember where to plant your next runestones?” Mikari asked as he glanced at his brother.
“Yeah, but I still don’t get what they’ll achieve,” Exile replied with a frown.
“On their own? Nothing. It’s what they will create when the parts join them.” Mikari replied with a shrug. “I’m glad though. We didn’t have to trigger the fallback defences. We can use them if we’re forced to retreat once we find out what’s waiting for us in there.”
“Yeah, it’ll be a while til the army can reach the point the winged ones appeared. But I suspect there are thousands of the normal ones flooding the forest.” Exile replied with a groan.
“That’s what I think too,” Mikari replied with a sigh as he gave the orders for the commanders to march to the next checkpoint. “I’ve already given the order for the players to keep an eye out for attacks from above. These Stalkers have proven to be efficient climbers, I’d be surprised if they didn’t try to drop down among the army from above.”
Exile nodded his head slowly as he wondered how far ahead Mikari had predicted for this operation. ‘I’d never be able to control all of these things without being able to see the developments on the frontlines myself. I don’t know how he can trust that everything is playing out exactly as he imagines it would.’
Exile tried to imagine what would happen if the two of them were in opposing Pantheons. ‘I’d never win a war against him. But a one-on-one would be different.’ Exile chuckled slightly before he remembered Mikari had said something similar about his chances against Parthus.
‘In the end, I never got to test if I could take him in a duel. But I’m sure a time will come for that in the future. For now, I need to focus on wiping out Nar’Kozz.’