Event: The Blackwind Brotherhood Defense will begin shortly. The rules for Attackers and Defenders are as follows:
[ATTACKER RULES]
Victory Conditions (achieve one):
- Breach the Blackwind Brotherhood's main hall and capture the objective.
- Annihilate all defending NPCs and players until their respawns are depleted.
Points & Rewards:
Points:
- Kill a normal NPC: 1 point
- Kill an Elite NPC: 2 points
- Kill a Captain NPC: 5 points
- Kill a Boss NPC: 10 points
- Kill a defending player: 3 points
- Kill the player "Ullr": 20 points
Victory Bonus: 50 points for all surviving participants.
Prizes:
- Points may be exchanged for prizes after the event.
- The top 100 players on the leaderboard will receive additional rewards.
Other Rules:
- Upon death, players who choose to "Release Spirit" will be eliminated from the event and respawn at their designated town.
- Players can be resurrected by other players or special NPC abilities.
- Personal consumables (potions, scrolls) are disabled. Event-specific supplies can be acquired from a logistics NPC based on performance and cannot be taken out of the event zone.
- Kills do not generate Infamy score. Death carries no penalty other than elimination.
- Attack mode is locked to Faction vs. Faction. Friendly fire is disabled.
.....
[DEFENDER RULES]
Victory Conditions (achieve one):
- Annihilate all attacking NPCs and players.
- Survive for two hours.
Points & Rewards:
Points:
- Kill a normal NPC: 2 points
- Kill an Elite NPC: 4 points
- Kill a Boss NPC: 10 points
- Kill the Archon: 20 points
- Kill an attacking player: 6 points
Victory Bonus: 100 points for all surviving participants.
Prizes:
- Points may be exchanged for prizes after the event.
- The top 10 players on the leaderboard will receive additional rewards.
.....
Other Rules:
- Players have 2 respawns (3 lives total). After the third death, releasing spirit will result in elimination from the event.
- Players can be resurrected by other players or special NPC abilities.
- Personal consumables (potions, scrolls) are disabled. Event-specific supplies can be acquired from a logistics NPC based on performance and cannot be taken out of the event zone.
- Kills do not generate Infamy score. Death carries no penalty other than elimination.
- Attack mode is locked to Faction vs. Faction. Friendly fire is disabled.
.....
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
The rules were mostly symmetrical, with two key differences: attackers had only one life, while defenders had three. And defender points were worth double. Given that the attacking players outnumbered the defenders a hundred to one, nobody complained about the discrepancy.
As the final moments ticked away, a hush fell over both sides. Below, the attacking players pressed against the now-vanished barrier, a massive horde coiled to strike. Above, Kael and Lila’s guild stood on the outer wall of the fortress, weapons ready.
[The Blackwind Brotherhood Defense] is beginning in: 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
With a collective roar, the sea of over ten thousand players surged forward, crashing up the mountainside like a tidal wave. The first few bandit mobs at the base were simply trampled underfoot, unable to even get a second attack off before being vaporized by the stampede.
However, once the players began to spread out into the mountain’s treacherous terrain, the advance stalled.
“What the fuck, these mobs are tough!”
“Heals! Get me some heals, now!”
“Shit, I’m down!”
Just as Kael had predicted, the level fifteen and sixteen players stood little chance against the level twenty bandits. While the players had overwhelming numbers, the bandits fought in coordinated packs of five. A moment of carelessness was all it took for a player to get focused down and wiped. The unluckier ones ran into ten-man squadrons and were instantly crushed by a catapult boulder before they even knew what hit them.
From their vantage point on the fortress wall, Lila’s guild members watched the chaos below.
“Yeah! Go bandits!”
“Whoa! That Bandit Captain has some serious moves! He just one-comboed that priest in the backline!”
“Why can’t we go out there? I wanna fight, too!”
It wasn't that they didn’t want to join the fray; they were restricted by the system to a fifteen-yard radius outside the main gate, a measure likely intended to protect the vastly outnumbered defenders. In reality, it was probably protecting the attackers. If a monster like Kael were let loose on the field, the player horde might never even reach the fortress gates.
Kael himself stood atop a twenty-yard-high watchtower, his expression grim. This early advantage meant nothing. His eyes were fixed on the disciplined ranks of Crown-aligned NPCs at the base of the mountain. The soldiers were beginning to spread out but showed no sign of advancing yet.
In their center, ten soldiers supported a massive bell slung on a heavy wooden frame. In front of it, four men carried a palanquin on which sat a man in ornate robes. His ID floated above his head in brilliant gold text:
[The Archon]
Beside him stood a group of twenty female players. Any observer would have immediately recognized them as a single guild.
One of them, a level 16 player named Lexi, grumbled impatiently. “The GL told us to wait for the buff, but it's been thirty minutes. When do we get to do something?”
A girl next to her, Anna, replied soothingly, “Chill out, Lexi. Just follow Lila's orders. We'll move when it's time.”
“But look at how many players have already gone up!” Lexi complained. “Why are we stuck here?”
“Hmph,” sneered another girl named Julie. “Look at the kill feed. Lots of people are going up, and lots of them are dying. You really think our gear and level can handle those bandits right now? You wanna go? Go alone. We’re not wiping with you.”
Lexi pouted. “I was just saying, it’s not like I was really going to go…”
Just as their boredom reached its peak, the great bell beside them stirred.
DONG
A deep, resonant toll washed over the battlefield. A strange power surged through their bodies. Though they stood right next to the source, the sound wasn't deafening. It was empowering. The soundwave traveled unimpeded, reaching the ears of every single attacker on the mountain.
“The buff is up,” Julie announced.
“Whoa, this is insane!” Lexi gasped, her eyes wide as she looked at her stats.
[Voice of the Sunfire Bell]:
Health +1000
Physical Attack +500
Magic Attack +400
Physical Defense +300
Magic Defense +300
Skill Effectiveness +5%
For the average player, it was like having their core stats nearly doubled.
“Julie, can we go now?” Lexi was practically bouncing with anticipation.
Julie nodded. “Just got the go-ahead from the GL. Wait a sec.” Thirty seconds later, Julie stood up and addressed her teammates from the [Crimson Bloom] guild. “Alright, let’s move out!”
The Crown NPCs advanced with them.
Julie led her team up the mountain. The slopes were already littered with corpses, both players and bandits. For some reason, none of them had despawned yet, likely a feature of the event that would clear them only at the end.
Before long, they encountered a ten-man bandit squadron.
“Everyone, watch out for the ballista!” Julie shouted. “Tanks, up front with me! We’re almost in range.”
-2817
A heavy iron bolt slammed into Julie, instantly chunking her health.
+272
+385
+395
+356
Four consecutive heals weren't enough to top her off.
“Engage!” Julie charged forward without waiting for her health bar to fill, her guildmates right behind her.
The twenty of them split into five teams. On paper, their four-on-two advantage seemed huge, but the reality was far grimmer.
The greatest pressure fell on Julie. She was tanking the main target: a level 22 Bandit Captain.
The Captain leaped down from a rock outcropping, his greatsword raised high. “Sundering Blow!”
-3106
Julie’s health bar vanished.
She was dead.